A buttered-finger India paid a heavy price for a sloppy fielding display to allow Sri Lanka to clinch the first Twenty20 international with a comfortable 29-run run victory and take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series in Nagpur on Wednesday.

The visitors first rattled up an imposing 215 for five riding on captain Kumar Sangakkara’s blistering 37-ball 78 before restricting the hosts to 186 for nine in a high-scoring contest.

The Indians dropped as many as five catches, missed a couple of run out chances and were generally pathetic with the ground fielding to allow the islanders to pile up a huge total on a good batting track at the VCA stadium in Jamtha.

Apart from Sangakkara’s assault, Chamara Kapudegera (47 off 20 balls), Tillakaratne Dilshan (34) and Sanath Jayasuriya (26) were the other notable scorers for the Sri Lankans.

The home team had a daunting task at hand to chase down the total but only Gautam Gambhir (55) could manage a substantial score.

The two teams will now travel to Mohali for the second Twenty20 international on Saturday.

Required to score at a stiff asking rate of 10.80, the Indians needed an explosive start by their crack opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Gambhir.

Source : Hindustan Times

JOHANNESBURG – The Pakistan Cricket Board is planning to bid for the 2014 Twenty 20 World Cup, and the board chairman Ijaz Butt has already begun lobbying for it in South Africa where the ICC Champions Trophy is going on.

“The next two Twenty20 World Cups have been already been allotted. We would bid to host the 2014 event in Pakistan and hopefully by that time the conditions to host international events would be ideal in our country,” The News quoted him, as saying.

“These coming few days are very important for the Pakistan cricket. I am planning to attend some crucial meetings with the other board counterparts in an effort to muster up their support,” he added.

Butt, however, said that the main purpose of his South African visit is to lobby for the return of international cricket to Pakistan.

The ICC board meets in a few days time to decide on the Future Tour Programme (FTP).

“The meeting that would be attended by Chief Operating Officers of the boards is very important from Pakistani prospective. We want to get maximum representation for the country in the fresh FTP, Butt said.

Butt also said that India and Pakistan would play four series in the coming eight years.

“The ICC has given guarantee for the series that would be organised after every two years. They have also accepted that the series could be organised at neutral venues till the time the situation improves in Pakistan.”

“This series has the potential of revenue generation and is one of the main attractions for the sponsors,” he added.

Bested in the Twenty20 World Cup, revenge-thirsty India would come down hard on West Indies in the forthcoming ODI series, believes home side captain Chris Gayle.

West Indies not only beat India in the Super Eight stage of the Twenty20 World Cup but also laid bare their frailty against rising deliveries which was exploited well by England.

Gayle believes the side under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, however depleted, would seek to settle score in the four-match ODI series starting here on Friday.

“We have a big game on Friday against India. We’re all looking forward to it,” Gayle said.

“India is always a good One Day team and they will be looking to beat us based on their Twenty20 disappointment,” he added.

Gayle said even though India would be without star batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, the bunch is still good enough to make life miserable for the hosts.

“Sehwag and Tendulkar are two world class players but they still have quality players to step up and they have a lot of experience in one day cricket.

“They still have quality players in Yuvraj (Singh), Harbhajan Singh, (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni, (Ishant) Sharma and a lot of guys to give us a lot of trouble,” Gayle said.

The Indian team under Mahendra Singh Dhoni was reluctant to play against Pakistan in the Twenty20 World Cup and it showed in their attitude, alleged flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

Even though the arch-rivals did not meet in the main tournament, they featured in a sold-out warm up match and Afridi alleged Dhoni and his men did not look keen to play Pakistan even though they claimed so.

“I was a bit disappointed. It didn’t appear to me by the attitude of the Indian players that they want to play against us,” Afridi told ‘Geo TV’ after his arriving home on Wednesday morning.

“On the face, they said they would like to see cricket between the two countries but I think in their hearts they thought otherwise. Their attitude and behaviour while playing against us showed this,” Afridi said.

Pakistan captain Younis Khan said their World Twenty20 title was a ‘gift’ to their strife-torn nation.
The talented Pakistani team, which entered the tournament as underdogs, made a mockery of the favourites tag as they beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the final at the Lord’s in London.

Pakistan off late have been a pariah for the top cricketing nations which refused to tour the bomb ravaged country because of obvious security concerns. Pakistani players were starved of cricket for almost a year, before Sri Lanka toured in March. But an ambushed terror attack on the islanders in Lahore led to the World Cup hosting rights being taken away from the country.

The win on Sunday was balm to the grieving people of strife-torn Pakistan.

“This is a gift to my nation,” said a smiling Pakistan captain, Younis.

“This win could not have come at a more opportune time for Pakistani people. Even if I do not achieve something great from here on in my career, I will have no qualms. I will be a happy man forever,” Younis said in an emotional speech.

“It will remain a memorable moment for me all throughout my career. Only Imran Khan won a World Cup for us in 1992 and now we have been able to achieve this.”

Younis, who was reluctant to accept captaincy after Pakistan’s ODI World Cup debacle in the Caribbean, said he was forced to take on the reins because of the love of his people.

“I took on the captaincy because everyone in the streets wanted me to become the captain. Anyone I spoke to told me to take over the captaincy. I had to in the end.”

“I am not a good captain, I know, but sometimes I can be a brave captain,” Younis said when asked about his leadership in the tournament.

“Sometimes certain decisions appear silly if they don’t click and then sometimes they work.”

Younis, who replaced Shoaib Malik as the captain in January after Sri Lanka thrashed them in the ODI series, said that nobody gave them a chance when they came to England.

“It worked in our favour that nobody was talking about us. We had less pressure compared to other teams.”

“It was fantastic the way my team came together. The team specially played well in big matches. We had depth in the team and credit goes to the boys for this victory. Abdul Razzaq joined us and the momentum was going in our favour.”

“Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Kamran Akmal all played their part in the final. We wanted to restrict Sri Lanka around 150, then we though we had a chance. We needed a good start and we got that in the final.”

England’s women added the World Twenty20 title to their World Cup crown with a convincing six-wicket win over New Zealand at Lord’s in London on Sunday.

England fast bowler Katherine Brunt took three wickets for just six runs as New Zealand were dismissed for a 85 and the hosts reached their modest victory target of 86 for the loss of four wickets with three overs to spare.

It was the second time this year that England had defeated New Zealand in the climax of a major tournament after their four-wicket win in the 50-over World Cup final in Sydney in March.

Claire Taylor hit the winning boundary off Nicola Browne to finish on 39 not out after making an unbeaten 76 in Friday’s eight-wicket semifinal win over Australia at the Oval.

New Zealand:

S Bates st S Taylor b Marsh 1, L Doolan c S Taylor b Brunt 14, A Watkins b Brunt 2, A Satterthwaite c C Taylor b Shaw 19, R Priest c and b Brunt 0, N Browne b Shaw 1, S McGlashan c Greenway b Gunn 9, S Tsukigawa c S Taylor b Gunn 5, S Devine run out (Greenway) 10, K Pulford c Taylor b Edwards 14, S Ruck not out 0

Extras (b-1, lb-4, w-4, nb-1) 10

Total (all out, 20 overs) 85

FoW: 1-2, 2-10, 3-23, 4-23, 5-31, 6-48, 7-58, 8-62, 9-84. Bowling: Marsh 4-0-16-1, Brunt 4-2-6-3, Shaw 4-0-17-2, Colvin 4-0-16-0, Gunn 3-0-19-2, Edwards 1-0-6-1

England: S Taylor c Priest b Pulford 23, C Edwards b Ruck 9, C Taylor 39no, B Morgan c McGlashan b Browne 6, L Greenway b Devine 3, J Gunn 2no Extras (lb-1, w-3) 4

Total (for 4 wkts; 17 overs) 86

Bowling: Devine 3-0-12-1, Ruck  4-0-17-1,  Pulford  4-0-20-1,  Bates-2-0-8-0, Browne 3-0-18-1, Doolan 1-0-10-0

After Tillakaratne Dilshan had set the tempo with a 57-ball 96, Angelo Mathews (3 for 16) and Muttiah Muralitharan (3 for 29) ensured Sri Lanka kept up the momentum as the islanders set up an all-Asian final with Pakistan, beating the West Indies by 57 runs on Friday.

Earlier, Dilshan treated the Oval to a spectacular batting display, carrying his bat through as Sri Lanka posted 158 for five in the second semifinal of the ICC WorldT20.

Given their penchant for chasing, the West Indies put Sri Lanka in. Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya took some time to get set, but once that happened, runs began to flow.

The ‘Dilscoops’ flew around with one of them going for an audacious six. Jayasuriya looked scratchy during his 37-ball 24 but thanks to Dilshan’s superbly timed shots, Sri Lanka reached fifty off 47 balls.

Disaster struck as some rank bad batting saw Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene fall in the space of six balls (77/3 in 11.3 overs).

Unmindful of the happenings at the other end, Dilshan began expanding his repertoire of strokes. Soon after taking Sri Lanka past the 100-run mark, he chose Dwayne Bravo for some preferential treating, hitting him for three consecutive boundaries to take his score past 80.

Needing a six off the innings’ final delivery to post the first century of this WT20, Dilshan managed just two but he had the satisfaction of putting up the tournament’s highest score.

Brief scores:

Sri Lanka (158 for 5 in 20 overs): T Dilshan 96*, S. Jayasuriya 24, Taylor 1-31; Bravo 2-32 beat West Indies (101 in 17.4 overs): C Gayle 63*, Mathews 3-16, Muralitharan 3-29 by 57 runs.