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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:08

India’s win-loss ratio of 0.625 at home

Kasun Rajitha, Dushmantha Chameera and Dasun Shanaka – Sri Lanka’s lanky seam-bowling labour force – came upon a thoroughly surprising green Pune deck, and wound up delivering their team a surprisingly thorough victory. The three quicks took eight wickets for 59 between them, to blow India away for 101. Sri Lanka’s inexperienced batsmen were rarely at ease in pursuit, but did well enough to get to the target with five wickets in hand and two overs to spare.Chameera had provided glimpses at his penetrative potential during the recent tour of New Zealand, but Rajitha and Shanaka had gone unheralded until today. If Binura Fernando – the left-arm quick – had not injured a hamstring ahead of this match, Rajitha might not even have debuted. Instead, he claimed two wickets in a tone-setting first over and finished with 3 for 29. Shanaka is in the team largely for his batting, but bowled magic deliveries through the middle overs, uprooting Suresh Raina’s leg stump with an in-dipper, and bouncing MS Dhoni second ball. He took 3 for 16.Fresh from Australian run-gluts, India’s route to defeat was paved with over-ambition. Even after the pitch had proved itself spicy, big shots continued to be attempted. Edges kept being collected. Wickets continued to tumble. The biggest stand of their innings was between R Ashwin and Ashish Nehra, who put on 28 for the eighth wicket. Without Ashwin’s 31 not out, their total might have been closer to 80.Sri Lanka’s innings appeared to be heading in the same direction at 23 for 2 in the fifth over, but Dinesh Chandimal and Chamara Kapugedera combined for 39 tension-relieving runs. Three late wickets fell, but the target was so small, even this scratchy batting performance was more than good enough. The victory puts Sri Lanka back on top of the ICC T20 rankings.It was Rajitha who first put the fire in a young Sri Lanka team. Barely heard of before he took five wickets in a tour match against the Indians in August last year, he delivered an immaculate first international over, seaming the ball sharply away from right-handers, and generating fine pace and carry. His first wicket came second ball. The length delivery stopped a little on Rohit Sharma, who hit aerially down the ground. Chameera moved across from mid-off to help a stick-thin fast-bowling brother out, diving feet off the ground to pouch that catch. Clearly excited by that scalp, Rajitha ended the over with a seaming short ball at Ajinkya Rahane, whose leading edge carried to an advancing cover.He had a catch dropped off Raina’s inside edge in between, but Rajitha soon had a third wicket, in the fifth over. Then Shanaka took over, bowling slower, but just as accurately. The Raina-Dhoni double blow in his first over put India at 51 for 5. It also doubled Shanaka’s wicket-tally in all T20s. He had played in 26 matches before this, and was called upon to bowl in less than a quarter of those games.Chameera troubled the middle order with raw pace until Ashwin picked India off the floor with a sensible approach and excellent timing. He smoked Chameera through the leg side for four first ball, but largely awaited the bad deliveries to play his big shots. In the end, Ashwin just ran out of partners – Nehra succumbing to Chameera’s pace and Jasprit Bumrah running himself out, in the 19th over.Nehra dismissed Sri Lanka’s openers, who were also guilty of attempting too many boundaries while the ball was still zipping around. Chandimal and Kapugedera were streaky but smart, looking for singles and twos, with the required rate always under a run-a-ball. Chandimal top-scored with 35, Kapugedera hit 25.MS Dhoni banked on spin through the middle overs, and the slow bowlers did remove Kapugedara, Chandimal and, later, Shanaka. But Sri Lanka had stacked their side with allrounders again, and batted deep. Milinda Siriwardana was on hand to apply the finish, hitting 21 not out from 14. Ashwin was the best of India’s bowlers as well, picking up 2 for 13 from his three overs.

It’s becoming a familiar, sorry tale. Simon Jones has suffered yet another injury setback – this time it’s his calf. He has hardly played this season with his knee injury and, after 11 overs at Colwyn Bay, has broken down againHe won’t play any further part in Glamorgan’s Championship game against Northamptonshire and will miss the Pro40 with Somerset on Sunday.Jones was out for most of last season following a knee operation, and the same knee flared up again this year. His contract is up at the end of the season, but Glamorgan are keen to retain him.The latest match was only his third Championship match since mid-May, when he suffered another knee problem. His comeback for Glamorgan during the 2006 season, following his aborted return on England’s tour of India, lasted four matches before he broke down against Ireland in the C&G Trophy.

What a wake-up call! Two Jamaican fast bowlers are learning some of the finer points of their craft from an Australian at India’s pace academy. It’s like the ladies at the breakfast shed travelling to Moscow to get certification from a Moroccan on how to make a decent callaloo.This is the reality of West Indies cricket. It doesn’t really matter whether the Stanford 20/20 is staged again next year, the year after that or ever again. It makes no fundamental difference to the state of the game in the region whether the money-spinning Super Stars showdown with South Africa comes off any time in the foreseeable future.Ken Gordon and Dinanath Ramnarine can sign off on MOUs, agreements and procedural protocols till they run out of ink and the situation will remain the same. Former players can fall out with administrators, and vice-versa, and all we will have at the end of the day is more bacchanal to sir into the mix.The fact that Jermaine Lawson and Andrew Richardson are benefiting from the tutelage of Dennis Lillee in Chennai is not in itself reason for alarm. No one in the Caribbean should be so swell-headed as to believe that it is a step down to learn from others about fast bowling, especially from someone so accomplished as Lillee, a man generally accepted to be one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time.Nor should we be holding our noses at our players seeking to brush up on their technique by journeying to India, a country that, before the advent of Kapil Dev almost 30 years ago, seemed to consider fast or medium-fast bowlers as the human equivalent of sandpaper.What this reality reinforces, however, is that other nations are well advanced in their recognition of the need to implement effective systems, along with importing the necessary expertise, to literally get up to speed with the requirements of the modern game.The likes of S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan and RP Singh may be a poor imitation of the fearsome Holding, Roberts, Croft and Garner, but the point is that Indian cricket is progressing significantly in one aspect of the game that they previously ignored altogether. And, of course, we don’t need any reminding of who won the decisive final Test just over two months ago on a “result” pitch at Sabina Park.To suggest that bringing an end to two years of bitter disputes between the West Indies Board and the Players’ Association with some words on sheets of paper, or trumpeting that the glitz, the money and the organisational efficiency of the Stanford Twenty20 have put our cricket back on track are utter foolishness.Just in case anyone forgot, West Indies were at the bottom of the ladder among established Test-playing nations before all of these threats and stand-offs began. The confrontational climate certainly would not have helped the situation, but the fractious arguments didn’t trigger the decline.Ironically, it was just as WIPA was starting to rumble that Brian Lara captained the regional side to a remarkable Champions’ Trophy triumph in London almost exactly two years ago. Now, in his third stint at the helm, Lara leads the Caribbean squad on a three-month journey through Asia that I expect will underline why we should be one of the favourites to lift the World Cup in our own backyard next year, although a potential downside is that we will also again realise how far behind we are in the longer version of the game.Put aside the embarrassment of having to qualify for a competition in which we are defending champions, and the upcoming schedule offers real possibilities to solidify a limited-over squad that performed so impressively against the Indians in the Caribbean earlier this year. A potential 18 one-day internationals, from Kuala Lumpur next Tuesday to Karachi on December 16, represent an ideal proving ground to not only fine-tune skills and tactics, but, more importantly in the context of the West Indian psyche, to build momentum and confidence in the countdown to the World Cup.Yet along with all of that fast-paced action, there is a three-Test series in Pakistan where we will get a true appreciation of how far we have to go to get back to being consistently competitive in what is still the ultimate proving ground in cricket. Even in the heyday of the pace quartets and the great batsmen, the West Indies struggled to win in Pakistan, so expecting a series win, or even a draw now seems decidedly unrealistic.But, more important than the actual results will be how these talented but still inconsistent cricketers play the longer version of the game. There is no question that the talent is there, however it is the attention span that remains the greatest challenge to captain, coach and the individual players themselves. The shorter the game, the better we are. Bowl with discipline, bat brilliantly, field spectacularly, we can do all of that. But sustaining that effort for session after session, day after day remains an elusive quality collectively.Given the current trends in our cricket, this is more than likely to be an Asian adventure of mixed returns, underlining why, for all of the God-given ability, we probably need to take more of our players away from their comfort zones-to Chennai or elsewhere-to re-learn the disciplines that once seemed to come so naturally.

Sourav Ganguly will remain suspended from international cricket, but his ban has been reduced from six matches to four. Justice Albie Sachs, an independent arbitrator, ruled on Thursday that Ganguly’s original punishment for slow over-rates was “too severe”. Ganguly has already missed two one-dayers, so he will sit out the next two matches – the opening ties of the Indian Oil Cup – before returning to India’s squad at the start of August.The Indian board had appealed unsuccessfully to the ICC Disputes Resolution Committee about the ban imposed during the one-day series against Pakistan in April, saying that they were unhappy with the process used to deal with Ganguly’s first appeal.But the ICC said in a statement that Sachs had said the ban was correct. However, Sachs had “formed the view that […] the penalty imposed was too severe in the circumstances”, a view which relates to the fact that the Indian side was only five overs behind the rate.Ehsan Mani, the president of the ICC, said he was pleased the issue had been resolved at last. “Justice Sachs has dealt with all the issues raised by the BCCI in full and highlighted the fact that the process and application of the rules was appropriate.”

Scorecard

In a well-contested game, more of sentimental significance than anything else, the Indians scored 254 for 6 and beat the Prime Minister’s XI by one run in a thrilling encounter in Canberra. Hemang Badani scored a century while no other Indian topped 33, and Cade Brown, captain of the Australian Capital Territory, liked what he saw of the Indian bowlers and struck 80 runs.Steve Waugh led the PM XI on to the field, and Shaun Tait and Damien Wright opened the bowling against Sanjay Bangar and Parthiv Patel. After providing his team a solid start, Patel (19) fell to Cleary (36 for 1). A 60-run partnership ensued, and Bangar chose to knuckle down, while Badani rotated the strike, unafraid to attempt the big hits. After scoring a slow-poke 33, Bangar was dismissed, and in came Rohan Gavaskar. A while later, he was on his way back for 26, the first of McDonald’s three wickets. But with figures of 3 for 70 in nine overs at the end of the innings, it’s not clear who the victim was.Both Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid got off to starts, but fell before reaching 20, and Ajit Agarkar’s limp with the bat extended to exhibition matches as well, as he fell for 5 (230 for 8). Meanwhile, Badani kept his end up, and got partnerships going with the top order; 54 with Gavaskar, and 42 with Dravid.Badani upped the rate towards the end as he rushed towards his century. His innings ended on the very last ball of the innings, giving McDonald his third wicket.The PM XI began briskly, as the openers scored at over five an over. Amit Bhandari, bowling for the first time on tour, dismissed Matthew Bradley for 12 (38 for 1). Ashish Nehra then had David Hussey caught behind, and the score read 59 for 2. But that brought Brown to the wicket, and with Marcus North, he put on 84 in quick time. After scoring 74 with seven boundaries, North was taken out by Bangar, who was given an extended run by Dravid.Then, like so many times during his last series, all eyes turned yet again to the man striding out. Steve Waugh hit one boundary and got out for seven. Christopher Hartley, with a century in his only first-class innings, came out to bat, and nearly took the game away from India. Scampering for runs, he partnered Brown and hit four boundaries, and the two put on 38. But just as victory was around the corner, Nehra struck again, ridding Brown for 80 (213 for 5).With 42 runs needed off 33 balls and a new man at the crease, the task seemed more daunting than ever. But Hartley kept going at the ever-shrinking target, until the last over came about, and eight runs were required. Bhandari conceded only six, and claimed McDonald’s wicket, leaving Hartley stranded on 45 off 43, as the Indians held on to victory by the slender thread of a single run.

Wapda, Allied Bank Limited and Pak PWD were the only teams to secure maximum points as fickle weather disrupted the opening round matches of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship which finished on Tuesday.As many as nine matches were badly disrupted in various parts of Punjab and Peshawar on the fourth and final day.The Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to play the premier first-class competition at this time of the year, when the northern areas of the country are in the grip of rain, poor visibility caused by fog, is nothing short of poor planning.In recent seasons first-class tournaments usually started in early October and the bulk of matches were completed before the impending uncertain weather intervened.It is a forgone conclusion that there will be hardly outright results in the matches outside Karachi, the remaining rounds.The second round four-day ties begin Friday under the following schedule:Group-I: Faisalabad v National Bank at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad; Wapda v Lahore Blues at Gymkhana Ground, Okara; Sargodha v Servis Industries at Sports Stadium, Sargodha.Group-II: Karachi Whites v Pak PWD at National Stadium, Karachi; Bahawalpur v Allied Bank at Bahawalpur Stadium, Bahawalpur; Multan v Dadu at Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan.Group-III: Sheikhupura v Habib Bank at Sheikhupura Stadium, Sheikhupura; Sialkot v Pakistan Customs at Saga Ground, Sialkot; Lahore Whites v Gujranwala at LCCA Ground, Lahore.Group-IV: KRL v ZTBL at KRL Stadium, Rawalpindi; Rawalpindi v Karachi Blues at Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi; Peshawar v PIA at Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar.

WORCESTER, England – The legend of Sir Donald Bradman hovers aboveAustralia’s opening match of the Ashes tour against Worcestershire atpicturesque New Road.Under the steady gaze and ringing bells of Worcester Cathedral, theAustralian one-day team takes the field tonight (AEST) at the traditionalfirst port of call for Ashes sides in England.If the forecast rain stays away, Australia’s batsmen will attempt to emulateBradman’s habit of re-introducing himself to English crowds each summer witha double-hundred against the Midlands club.The quaint white clubhouse perched just above New Road’s lush outfield ishome to a wonderful black and white photograph of Bradman playing a coverdrive on April 30, 1938.There’s a capacity crowd of 14,000, the imperial old cathedral dominates thebackground, and Bradman is on his way to 258 – his third score of more than200 against Worcester.Five of Australia’s Test batsmen – Matthew Hayden, Mark Waugh, captain SteveWaugh, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist – are in the limited overs squad andlike in Bradman’s day, the match is sold out.It’s the perfect setting for them to start the tour on a run-filled note.”This is a great place for us to come and play cricket, it’s still the No.1tour to be on for an Australian player,” said Steve Waugh.”Coming back to England we feel comfortable here, a lot of us have played alot of cricket here and we just love playing in England.”The crowds are the best to play in front of, the tradition of places likeLord’s and some of the other grounds have just got a good feeling aboutthem.”Even being here for only a few days, it just feels like this is the rightplace to play cricket.”Waugh will not reveal the Australian starting XI until just before playbegins.Meanwhile, Worcestershire’s Queensland import Andy Bichel has withdrawn fromthe match, preferring to rest himself for the club’s bid to move out of thesecond division of the county championship.”The decision was up to him really and he just basically felt – and I agreewith him – that he’s better resting up and saving himself for a game thatmeans points for the county,” said Worcestershire coach and formerAustralian player Tom Moody.Bichel is a strong chance of being rushed into Australia’s Test squad duringthe Ashes if one of the chosen fast bowlers is injured.That is every chance of happening given the recent problems of JasonGillespie (foot) and Brett Lee (elbow).

Tottenham Hotspur are now among the clubs most keen on signing a “spectacular” Champions League forward, but it could take a huge bid to tempt his club into a sale.

Spurs eyeing new forward with Semenyo set to join Man City

Tottenham are looking to sign a new forward in the upcoming transfer window, with AFC Bournemouth star Antoine Semenyo being identified as a target, but it now appears as though the Ghanaian could be heading to a rival Premier League club.

Indeed, Manchester City have seemingly won the race for Semenyo, as a move to the Etihad Stadium would provide him with the platform to compete for major trophies.

Consequently, Spurs will presumably have to move on to alternative targets, and it was recently revealed that Man City ace Savinho has now emerged as a serious option.

However, the Lilywhites are also considering options from further afield, with a report from TEAMtalk revealing they are now among the clubs most keen on signing Juventus star Kenan Yildiz, alongside Chelsea, while Arsenal have also expressed an interest.

Yildiz is Tottenham’s ‘dream’ attacking target, having emerged as one of football’s ‘most exciting breakout talents’, but it could take a huge bid to tempt the Italian club into sanctioning a sale, with a £88m price tag recently being touted.

The report also provides an update on the Turk’s future at Juventus, with it stating the Serie A side’s new sporting director, Marco Ottolini, is expected to open talks over a new contract, and there is an awareness the 20-year-old would prefer to remain in Turin.

"Spectacular" Yildiz could be solid Semenyo alternative

It is disappointing that Tottenham have seemingly missed out on Semenyo, as the Ghana international has already proven himself in England, scoring eight goals in 16 Premier League outings this term, while also providing three assists.

However, the Juventus star has proven that he could be a solid alternative, having put in some top performances this season, weighing in with five goals and four assists in 15 Serie A matches.

Related Tottenham officials sent to club as Spurs eye Hazard-like 'magician' after Semenyo snub

Spurs are craving a new left-winger.

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Scout Jacek Kulig has also waxed lyrical about the Germany-born starlet, lauding him for his ability to make “spectacular solo runs”, which have been on display since making his breakthrough at Juventus.

Yildiz would be Tottenham’s record signing at £88m, but there is every indication he could be an exciting long-term addition to Thomas Frank’s squad.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
RP Singh rattled Delhi with four wickets after Parthiv Patel’s hundred•PTI

The shock discovery of the day was that Parthiv Patel had gone 158 List A matches without a hundred, but in his 159th, the Vijay Hazare Trophy final, he produced that first in style to give Gujarat their maiden title. A collapse after Parthiv’s wicket had left the issue open in giving Delhi a manageable target of 274, but veteran RP Singh, playing his first match in the knockout stages, settled the matter with an opening burst of 4 for 23, which included a first-ball wicket of Rishabh Pant and later those of Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir.Delhi continued to trust their bowlers, and perhaps were wary of the dew in the first day-night match of the tournament, when they asked Gujarat to bat. What they got was some indifferent bowling and fielding in the face of good batting for a majority of Gujarat’s innings. When they came out to bat, the ball did a bit under the lights, which RP took full advantage of.At the top of the order, Parthiv, with a game more rounded than just square hitting when he played international cricket, has been the threat throughout with his big hitting. But in the final, he looked intent on playing the longer innings. In the earlier exchanges Gujarat targeted the lesser-experienced Navdeep Saini* and Suboth Bhati while giving Ishant Sharma due respect.They lost Priyank Panchal and Bhargav Merai early, but even from 44 for 2 in the 10th over they kept attacking. Rujul Bhatt, who after Axar Patel has been Gujarat’s best player of the tournament, danced down and slogged Bhati over midwicket for a six while Parthiv repeatedly kept tucking away runs off his hips, which he used to struggle to do in international cricket.Parthiv and Bhatt added 149 for the third wicket, the highest for the third wicket in this tournament. Parthiv hit 10 fours, mainly through cuts and flicks off the hips. Bhatt hit four fours and a six in his 60 off 74 runs, which took his tournament tally to 338, which is the highest for Gujarat and the ninth-highest overall. They were helped along by two sets of four overthrows, various fumbles and a few clumsy dives.To add to this, Delhi will look back at two crucial moments. Bhati came on to bowl in the 11th over, bowled beautifully in the channel outside off first ball, drew the edge from Parthiv, who was on 21, but agonisingly saw it go waist high where the first slip should have been. Immediately he looked back complainingly at Ishant at mid-on, and immediately the slip came in, but the pocked-sized horse had now bolted. Bhatt just rubbed it in by hitting a six and two fours in Bhati’s first thiree overs. Manan Sharma later dropped a hard-hit return offering. Parthiv was on 67 then.Delhi’s two main slow bowlers have been Manan and Pawan negi, both left-arm spinners. Gambhir chose to hold them back as the two left-hand batsmen batted. Two offspinners introduced before these two – Nitish Rana and Milind Kumar – went for 71 in their 14 overs. In his second over Negi bowled Parthiv through the gate. This came close on the heels of Bhatt’s wicket, which gave Delhi some momentum. From 193 for 2 in the 37th over, it was Chirag Gandhi’s 44 off 39 and left-arm seamer Rush Kalaria’s lusty blows that took a fumbling innings to 273.Delhi came back into the chase with some hope, but RP squashed it immediately. With a generous sprinkling of grey in his beard, RP might look older than his 30, but the ball is still coming out all right from his hand. The first ball he bowled came out with the seam upright, moved in a little, and hit the top of off and middle of left-hand wicketkeeper batsman Pant. Kalaria maintained the pressure at the other end, and Dhawan eventually charged at RP to give a soft catch to cover.The only blip on Gujarat’s night arrived when Bhatt dropped Unmukt Chand off the bowling of Kalaria, but he made up for it soon enough when he accepted a low offering from Gambhir at first slip. The catch wasn’t 100% clean, but a soft signal of out from the on-field umpires sealed the decision in RP’s favour. Before signing off his first spell of 7-2-23-4, RP trapped Milind Kumar lbw with slight swing back in, and could have had a fifth next ball but for an inside edge from Rana.As wickets continued to fall, the only man capable of a miraculous comeback was Chand. He played attractive shots in his 33 off 48, but once he played Jasprit Bumrah on the contest was officially over. All Negi’s half-century managed to was push the score past 100. Bumrah went on to celebrate the win with an aggressive spell of 9.3-1-28-5, which included Ishant bowled by a perfect yorker after he had been peppered by bouncers and then made to wait for five minutes for the helmet to come in for the short leg.*05.00GMT, December 29: The report had erroneously mentioned Nitin Saini. This has been corrected.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan captain, is the latest international star to have been approached by the Indian Cricket League (ICL).Inzamam, who announced his retirement from one-day cricket after Pakistan’sfailed World Cup campaign, confirmed that ICL officials had contacted him. “They have been in touch with me and I am considering their offer,” Inzamam told Cricinfo. “If the terms are right, I will play.”The parallel league has stirred the cricket world, evoking visions of aKerry Packer-style circuit. The players it has targeted so far, however, are those who have retired from international cricket in one form or another. Brian Lara has already signed on, while Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Stephen Fleming have also expressed an interest.The PCB announced recently that centrallycontracted players would be unable to join the league but kept the door open for ex-internationals or players not contracted.Nasim Ashraf, PCB chairman, told that any player joining the leaguewould be ruled out of future internationals. “Our position on the breakaway Indian league is clear and firm. Since it [league] is not approved by the ICC any player joining it will not be considered for future selection. No current player will be allowed to sign the league and all cricket boards of the world have this same stance.”Inzamam said he believed the league would ultimately benefit Indiancricket itself. “What harm is there if it means that more people willwatch cricket, come to the grounds and watch stars in action? It furthersthe profile of cricket.”Inzamam did acknowledge that ultimately the choice will come down to financialbenefits to the player. “Players who are out of favour, or not international cricketers, or who are nearing the end of their careers will rightly see this as an opportunity to benefit financially and I don’t see anything wrong with that.”For younger players too, there are rewards. Playing alongside playerssuch as Lara or McGrath can only be a good thing for your development as ayoung player.”Inzamam’s own international future is currently uncertain. Though he hasleft one-day cricket, he wants to carry on playing Test cricket “for as longas I feel I am performing.” Noises coming from the board in recentmonths suggest Inzamam may not be a part of Pakistan’s next Test squadagainst South Africa but the selectors have publicly said he will becalled to the probables camp for the series in September and October.Inzamam is currently Pakistan’s second-highest run-scorer in Tests, just 19 runs behind Javed Miandad and he plans to fight for his place. “I want to pass 10,000 Test runs and I believe I am capable of doing that, given the opportunity.”He has limited opportunities to prove his form and fitness to selectors,however. Pakistan’s domestic season is not due to start till December.Reports linked him to some county sides earlier in the season but thoseplans have fallen through. Until the season starts, Inzamam will play clubcricket for Lahore Gymkhana.