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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Rain ruined the deciding ODI between New Zealand and Sri Lanka as the match was abandoned without a ball being bowled. The two sides were tied 2-2 after the first four games of the five match series.New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl but the game couldn’t get underway owing to incessant showers. Both teams were at full strength with Sri Lanka naming an unchanged side after their 189-run win at Eden Park. New Zealand recalled Danierl Vettori, James Franklin and Nathan Astle. Billy Bowden was to officiate in his 100th ODI.However, the climax turned into a damp squib and the two sides shared the trophy in a well-contested series. New Zealand will now head to Australia to compete in a tri-series against the host nation and England. Their first game will be against Australia this Sunday in Hobart.

Scans have revealed that Australia T20 captain Aaron Finch suffered a “moderate grade” injury to his left hamstring during the second T20 against India. Cricket Australia’s physio Alex Kountouris said having Finch fit for the World T20, where Australia play their first game on March 18, is the target.Finch had picked up the injury while running between the wickets at the MCG, during a 48-ball 74. Kountouris said: “Aaron had scans on his injured left hamstring that confirmed a moderate grade hamstring injury. This is not a recurrence of the previous hamstring injury that required surgery in April 2015.”Although this current injury doesn’t require surgery there is a period of rehabilitation required before he can resume playing.”We are aiming to have Aaron fit for the ICC World T20 in India but will have better idea about his fitness for that tournament in the coming weeks once we see how he responds to treatment and a rehabilitation program.”Meanwhile, batsman Usman Khawaja has been added to the ODI squad for the series in New Zealand, which begins on February 3, to cover for Finch’s absence.

Sri Lanka Board President’s XI 298 for 9 dec and 77 for 8 (Hoggard 5-25) lead England XI 134 (Bopara 47) by 241 runs
Live scorecard

Matthew Hoggard demonstrated his imperturbability in the face of a bowling crisis, while Ravi Bopara rose to the occasion with both bat and – less expectedly – the new ball, as England’s cricketers turned their fortunes upside down on a frenetic second day at the Nondescripts Cricket Club in Colombo.At the tea break, England were bracing themselves for embarrassment. Their batting had imploded for 134, less than half the 298 for 9 on which their opponents had declared overnight, and to make matters worse, they had been reduced to a solitary fit fast bowler in Hoggard. With Steve Harmison already receiving treatment for a back spasm, James Anderson reported soreness in his left ankle while warming up in the innings break and took no further part in the day.And so Hoggard did what he has done so often in the course of his 64-Test career, and hoisted the entire burden of the attack onto his own perpetually stooped shoulders. First, he inflicted Upul Tharanga’s first failure in three innings by bowling him for 5, then he bagged three further wickets in four balls – Tillakaratne Dilshan edged low to Owais Shah at slip, Jehan Mubarak was trapped lbw for a second-ball duck, and Chamara Kapugedera fended his first delivery to Paul Collingwood in the gully.In between whiles, Bopara, maintaining a brisk line and length, picked up a bonus wicket as Malinda Warnapura played across the line to a straight one. Hoggard then wrapped up a fine spell by removing the attritional young keeper, Kaushal Silva, with a thin nick to the keeper, and finished with the superb figures of 9-3-25-5.Only the opener, Mahela Udawatte, showed any measure of control. He had negotiated his way to 45 from 83 deliveries before Bopara, who had earlier completed the run-out of de Silva, found the thinnest of edges through to Matt Prior. He was the eighth man out, and with Lokuarachchi in hospital, England needed just one more breakthrough to wrap up the innings, but Welegedera and Amerasinghe made it through to the close.It was entertaining cricket, but it wasn’t quite what England had had in mind when Michael Vaughan and Alastair Cook had walked out to open their innings at the start of play. This was meant to be a day in which the top-order gained valuable time in the middle ahead of next week’s first Test at Kandy. Instead Vaughan fell for a duck, losing his off stump to a beauty from the left-armer Sujeewa de Silva, to set the tone for a day of batting collapses.Ian Bell was the next to go, after a chaotic 16-ball innings in which he was dropped at slip on 1 and caught at square leg on 3 off a no-ball. de Silva made it third time lucky when he grazed the inside edge of a loose defensive stroke, before his fellow left-armer, Chanaka Welagedera, inflicted another failure on the out-of-form Kevin Pietersen. He was pinned lbw for 1.Cook looked in fluent form for his 35, until he missed a sweep at Kaushal Lokuarachchi and was given out lbw, but Owais Shah at No. 5 looked anything but. With Bopara enhancing his claims for a Test spot with every passing minute, Shah required 34 balls and more than an hour at the crease before he recorded his first run, and was eventually bowled through the gate for 26 as he drove without conviction at Ishara Amerasinghe.The pair had at least added an important 54 for the fifth wicket, but Bopara was the one to make his opportunity count. He survived one life on 17 when Lokuarachchi dropped a tough caught-and-bowled chance – so tough, in fact, that he was forced to leave the field with a broken finger. He picked off four fours in the course of his innings, including a pair of pulls off de Silva, and a half-century was there for the taking until he drove uppishly to short cover with only the tail for company.England’s tail, once again, did not cover itself in glory. Prior managed 10 from 27 balls before edging Kapugedera to first slip, while the remainder didn’t manage a single run between them. Hoggard and Anderson were both bowled for ducks, and Harmison didn’t come out to bat. The last four wickets fell for 11 runs in 20 balls and Muttiah Muralitharan will be licking his lips.

Zimbabwe’s route back to Test cricket may not have been finalised just yet, but their coach Robin Brown feels the day his side play a Test match again may not be as far away as people imagine.Despite putting up some late resistance, Zimbabwe were ultimately beaten comfortably, by an innings, in a four-day match against the Patron’s XI in Karachi. However Brown, who took over from Kevin Curran as coach in September last year, believes there are enough positives to draw on not just from this match, but other results in recent months.”Obviously, we’re very disappointed at not scoring enough runs and the result,” he said after the match. “Every match is a learning curve for us and is an opportunity to learn about different situations and experiences in matches, how to handle them, how to adapt. I’m happy with the way the guys performed.”Zimbabwe voluntarily suspended themselves from Test cricket in 2006 following concerns that their side wasn’t competitive enough at the top level, but according to the Future Tours Programme (FTP) they are due to host India for two Tests and three ODIs in May. Though the ICC has to take a decision on their status before they can play Tests again, Brown felt progress had been made.”We’ve had some good results in South Africa before this and we take positives from here as well. Test cricket is much harder of course, but we are getting useful experience and I don’t think we are too far away from competing on the Test stage,” he said.Brown was also confident that once Zimbabwe become a Test nation again, there is enough talent domestically for them to once again become a competitive side. “There is the depth of talent there. Schools cricket is very strong, the academies are up again and the U-19 sides are doing well. Guys in the team today have progressed from U-19 cricket.”Now when guys in the team go back to play first-class cricket in Zimbabwe, standards will definitely improve. Cricket will not die in Zimbabwe but it will improve.”

Scorecard

Abbas Ali smashed an unbeaten 64 as the Delhi Giants easily chased down the Mumbai Champs’ 115 at the Tau Devi Lal stadium in Panchkula. There was more bad news for the Champs as Brian Lara, who captained them in the first edition, was ruled out of the tournament after failing to recover from a left-arm fracture.After they had posted a modest total, the Champs’ hopes were raised as they took two early wickets, including the big one of captain Marvan Atapattu. Ali, though, was unconcerned by the loss of wickets as he plundered 16 runs off a Tino Best over, the highlight of which was a huge six over long-off. Ali, who was the third-highest scorer in the inaugural edition of the ICL last year, put on a 41-run stand with Avishka Gunawardene for the third wicket.Left-arm spinner Avinash Yadav broke the partnership with his first ball, foxing Gunawardene with an arm ball. Former Australian fast bowler Michael Kasprowicz, playing his first ICL game, struck another blow in the next over by getting Abhinav Bali to edge through to the wicketkeeper. However, there were no further alarms for the Giants as Nic Pothas, the former South African wicketkeeper, and Ali guided them to a six-wicket win.Earlier, the Champs, after opting to bat, turned in an unconvincing batting performance with several of their batsmen getting starts but not scoring at the rate demanded by the Twenty20 game. After the openers put on a brisk 41-run stand, former South African allrounder Dale Benkenstein struck, getting Saman Jayantha to hole out to Shane Bond at long-off.Only 20 runs came off the next five overs and even captain Nathan Astle was unable to force the pace. With the runs drying up, the pressure told and Kiran Powar and Shreyas Khanolkar fell in quick succession. Astle lifted a couple of sixes off T Sudhindra but the Giants gave away only seven runs in the final two overs. Ali then backed up the good work of the bowlers to ensure the Giants opened their campaign with a comfortable victory.

Sri Lanka coach Marvan Atapattu said Lasith Malinga’s lack of penetration, and the bowlers’ failure to execute plans has paved their path to decline, though the plans themselves remain robust.Sri Lanka had run hot in the first six months of 2014, winning all of their limited-overs tournaments, including an Asia Cup, a World T20 and an ODI series in England. However, they have been much poorer since January this year, losing bilateral series against New Zealand and now Pakistan, in addition to losing a quarter-final at the World Cup.

‘Shehzad played exceptionally’ – Azhar

Pakistan captain Azhar Ali lauded the consistency of his batsmen, as they chased down 252 with ease, to win their first ODI series in Sri Lanka since 2006. Pakistan’s top order has made runs all through the series. On Wednesday, Ahmed Shehzad hit 95 and Mohammad Hafeez scored 70.
“Shehzad played exceptionally,” Azhar said. “He played very positively and put the bad balls away. When Hafeez came, he played a crucial knock as they were putting a lot of pressure on us. He played like a senior player would play. We had a 100-run stand between them.”
Pakistan’s batsmen have also scored quickly throughout the series, notching run rates higher than six in each of the last two innings. “Once you have confidence that all the batsmen are in good form, you suddenly have a leverage to play fluently and take a few risks as well.”
The victory had been set up by Pakistan’s bowling, which has consistently been menacing through the tour. “When we got wickets we knew they lack a little bit of experience after Mathews – they didn’t have a lot of in form batsmen,” Azhar said. “When the wickets did come we knew that we can keep them to about 250 or 260.”

The team’s strategy has been brought into question through their limited-overs forays in 2015, as they have persisted with a substantial number of allrounders instead of fielding specialist bowlers. In this series, Pakistan’s bowlers have claimed 33 wickets to the Sri Lanka attack’s 15. Malinga, meanwhile, averages 37.50 this year.”I don’t think there’s a hell of a lot of issues with our planning and what we want to do with the ball,” Atapattu said. “Executing under pressure is something that concerns us. Plus we have played on good wickets. We’ve played on really good tracks starting in January this year when we started playing New Zealand in New Zealand.”We got six wickets in Kandy, but we haven’t got the wickets quite regularly as you would expect from Lasith Malinga. That’s something that we have missed. That’s one of the reasons we’ve lost the series.”Sri Lanka hit 252 for 9 batting first in the fourth ODI, but the ease with which Pakistan chased this total down suggested the target was at least 20 runs light. Atapattu said the absence of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara had left a considerable void in the side, but urged the young batsmen to begin converting their chances.”A lot of the batsmen getting starts and not going on to get a big score on basically flat wickets is disappointing. Most of them got starts and we needed a big one off one of them to get a big score or chase a big score. We got one when Kusal Perera got a 50 off 17 balls in Kandy. We haven’t had that frequently, and that is something people have to be responsible at the top of the order.”The exit of the two senior players has not just impacted the team’s batting, Atapattu said. “Missing two knowledgeable experienced players like that is going to be a bit difficult at the start, but life goes on. The young players have to take responsibility. Their capabilities and their thinking only surfaces when players like Mahela and Sanga leave. It’s a learning curve in terms of tactics and so on, but they are the ones who have to take Sri Lankan cricket forward. “Fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep bowled only 2.2 overs on Wednesday, before leaving the field with a hamstring complaint. He will be assessed before the team can decides on whether to draft another player into the squad, Atapattu said.

Wasim Akram has proposed setting up a fast-bowling fund as a way of continuing to contribute to Pakistan’s fast-bowling future. Akram, along with Aaqib Javed and Mudassar Nazar, is currently overseeing a PCB-organised camp for the country’s most promising fast bowlers and opening batsmen at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.The experience has already spurred him to consider broadening his role in the future. A more regular, involved position was all but ruled out given his media and business commitments, but he is keen to make some kind of contribution.”It’s too early to say right now about a permanent role as it depends on my timings,” Akram told Cricinfo. “I have media commitments and I’m away from Pakistan a lot. But I think whenever I have time, a week or two off, I could come back and help out.”But my idea really is to set up a kind of fund, a Wasim Akram fast-bowling fund. Depending on how much time I can give, instead of payments, the money can go into this fund. From this, we can then send, say two bowlers and cover their costs at the academy in Pakistan or an academy in Australia to hone their fast-bowling talent. I have given the idea to the chairman and he liked it, so it could be a regular thing.”Akram, regarded by many to be the best left-arm fast bowler ever and one of the best outright, has often offered informal, impromptu help to Indian and Pakistani fast bowlers, since he retired from the game in 2003. Often it has had telling effect, but this is his first official involvement of any kind and it came about on his own prompting.”It just came up like that,” he said. “I think this much I owe to Pakistan cricket that when I have time and I am in the country, I can work with some younger bowlers, give them some advice, some help, pass on some things I learnt.”

Ebony Rainford-Brent, one of England’s standby players for the Ashes trip, says the team are heading Down Under with more aggression after being shocked by the pace of the game’s development. England have been training at Loughborough over the winter, and will come out with a plan to be really positive.”We’re looking a lot more aggressive, a lot more attacking,” she told Surrey Cricket. “Australia and the Kiwis are really aggressive, they’ll bowl bouncers and hit over the top. The women’s game is coming on really quickly and I think that was a bit of a wake-up call for us as well.”We had to put our foot down and get more aggressive. We’re all really fired up. The girls are bowling well, really on top of it. The girls are feeling good, the coaches are feeling good. We’re ready to get off the bowling machines and get onto the grass.”Rainford-Brent would love to join them in February if she gets the call-up as she is fighting fit at the moment. She has been playing as a batsman because of a serious back injury, but it has not affected her recently, and she feels strong. In fact, the problem has had an unexpected benefit: improved batting as she has been concentrating hard on that discipline.”The winter’s been really good. I’ve not been bowling, so I’ve had long words with the coaches what I need to achieve as a batter. I think I’m coming on and understanding my game. I’ve not had any problems at all [with my back]. I’ve been doing loads of gym work. I’ve not had any problems, feeling really strong.”But whether she’s part of the action or not, she can sense a real momentum with England at the moment. “Hopefully we will have a good series and hopefully retain the Ashes. We want to hold on to that. We need to hit the ground running. We really want it. It’s the first time we can feel we’ve got the upper hand. If we win out there it would be an amazing win.”Meanwhile, the women’s squad has had a boost with the news that British fashion designer Paul Costelloe will supply their official formal wear. For formal occasions a suit with white trim and the ECB logo embroidered onto the left breast pocket will be complemented by a white cotton shirt. For more casual occasions, navy blue linen trousers have been chosen to be worn with a navy and white striped top.A white linen jacket completes the look. England women’s captain Charlotte Edwards commented: “It’s fantastic. The whole look gives us an identity as a team and both outfits are of really high quality.”

Pakistan allrounder Abdul Razzaq has joined Worcestershire for the remainder of the 2007 season as a replacement for Phil Jaques and Doug Bollinger who have returned to Australia for the A-team tour of Pakistan.Razzaq had announced his retirement from international cricket as a protest against his omission from Pakistan’s Twenty20 World Championship squad. He arrived in Worcester on Sunday and would join the squad for training before travelling to Canterbury for the Championship match against Kent starting on Tuesday.”It has been very difficult to find quality replacement overseas players because of the forthcoming Twenty20 World Championships and Abdul’s availability has come at just the right time,” Worcestershire chief executive Mark Newton said. “He has scored over 6500 runs and taken nearly 350 wickets at international level and will certainly give us the quality and experience we need during the last few weeks of the season, particularly in the Natwest Pro40 competition. We have received clearance from the Pakistan Cricket Board but still need to complete the registration procedures with the ECB.”

Scorecard

Bangladesh, the favourites, sealed their place in the final with a 59-run victory against Hong Kong at Johor Bahru. The result owed much to the guile of little 16-year old left-arm spinner Champa Chakma who took 3 for 16 with a variety of top-spinners, in-cutters and googlies that had all who faced her floundering.Bangladesh’s batting remains, by and large, bright and breezy and there’s always the feeling that a wicket could fall the moment they play an attacking shot. Singles aren’t fancied in case, thus the false economy of a hard hit is chosen. To generate power the players swing the bat hard; inevitably, more shots than not go in the air.Salma Khatun and Panna Ghosh are alone in being able to drive on the off on the front foot along the ground and look a class apart from their team-mates. Their partnership of 37 in a little over 10 overs for the fourth wicket did much to steady Bangladesh after they’d lost two wickets in two balls in the eighth over.When Khatun was out, flat-batting firmly to a terrific diving catch at cover by Samantha McIlwraith, Bangladesh were just about getting their noses in front. Three more wickets fell for 10 however, and Hong Kong were back in the game.Had Panna Ghosh been held at long-on when on 28 (one of three chances she offered) and two run-out chances taken, Bangladesh would have been struggling. Her partnership with the bustling Tithi Rani Sarker at the end of the innings ran Hong Kong ragged. Twenty runs were put on in the last four overs and Bangladesh managed to reach their pre-match target of 100.They thought it would be enough. One obstacle remained however, Hong Kong’s captain Neisha Pratt. Until she was out, Bangladesh couldn’t rest. Pratt came in at 4 so as to better negotiate the perceived spin-treat of Bangladesh and when she took guard with her team at 14 for 2, the innings rested on her shoulders. Ghosh’s pace was negotiated safely and one could sense that Pratt was just playing herself in, looking to build a platform for her side’s victory.Chakma’s second delivery fizzed past the edge, Pratt was out of her crease and the bails were whipped off. Even Bangladesh’s manager screamed with joy.If Chakma was too good for Pratt, she was way too good for the rest. Barely nudging four foot and from a part of Bangladesh (the Chittagong Hills) that didn’t know of cricket until the 21st century, Chakma possesses a repertoire of which Monty Panesar would be proud.The ball that did for Renee Montgomery would have foxed anyone and had even the umpire from her end, S. Chandrasekaran admiring it. He said after the match’s conclusion, “Through the air it looked like it was going to the off, and the batsman shaped to drive, on pitching it just darts in and takes leg-stump. She has one that bounces, one that moves away and one that moves in, there’s one that gets quicker off the pitch…..” Spinners took six of the Hong Kong wickets to fall.Chakma is pretty good and so is Hong Kong’s left-arm prodigy thirteen year-old Chan Sau Har. She gets prodigious bat-beating turn herself and has major star-quality. It wasn’t her or Hong Kong’s day today. Bangladesh were just too good.”It’s a learning curve for both teams,” said Hong Kong’s coach Lal Jayasinghe. “The gap between Bangladesh and the other Test-playing countries of Asia is like the gap between us and them, but take the best young players from both teams and give them every chance to improve, within a few years they’ll be a match for the rest.”Hong Kong captain Neisha Pratt said: “There are many positives we can draw from this tournament. Our young players really got stuck in and showed a lot of character especially in the bowling department.”Clearly our batting has been disappointing and we’ll be working hard on this area. We’ve now seen the level of competition in Asian women’s cricket and, with a lot of hard work from the squad and continuing provision of resources Hong Kong can be confident of competing successfully at this and higher levels moving forward.”Bangladesh will meet Nepal in the final on July 18 after they defeated China in the other semi final.