Scorecard

A day before the Indian team for the tour of Bangladesh was to be selected, Yuvraj Singh hammered a stylish 70 to win Punjab a berth in the final of the domestic Twenty20 championships, where they will take on Tamil Nadu (see points table). After failing to fire in each of Punjab’s first three matches in this tournament, where he made 0, 25 and 12, Yuvraj came to the party in fine style against Orissa, going after the bowling with characteristic freedom and aggression, giving full expression to his range of strokes.Being put in to bat, Punjab’s strong batting line-up put up the first 200-plus score of the tournament. Ravneet Ricky, who has been scoring consistently, made 25 at the top of the order, but it was Yuvraj and Dinesh Mongia (43) who did the serious damage. Early on in his innings, Yuvraj was content just looking to hit fours, and his powerful pulling on a good batting surface meant that the fielders had plenty of work to do retrieving the ball from the boundaries. In addition to his eight fours, Yuvraj launched four sixes, one of which ended up on the roof of the stands over midwicket. Yuvraj’s 39-ball 70 took Punjab to 201.Orissa had little chance of chasing down the target and ended on 130 for 7 from 20 overs, falling well short of the target before them. One of the talking points, after Yuvraj’s innings, was the bowling of Harbhajan Singh, who managed 1 for 15 from two overs. Although Twenty20 is hardly a stage to judge a bowler, the outing at least gave Harbhajan a chance to get some overs under his belt in a competitive situation.”You need to play a lot more in Twenty20 to get an idea of what to do and what not to do,” Harbhajan said soon after the game ended. He also felt that Twenty20 was the sort of game where raw strength and power, rather than skill, would help batsmen succeed. He called the format a “fun game”, although who was having fun under the scorching Mumbai sun, with no spectators at the ground, was not immediately clear. “You need bowlers who can be effective in this game if you want to win,” said Harbhajan, while adding, “The challenge of playing Twenty20 at the domestic level is less. Bowling to the world’s best batsmen is not so easy.”And it has not been an easy few months for Harbhajan. Although he has enjoyed the support of his captain and the selectors, the wickets are not coming as easily as they used to and the bowler who gave the ball a rip and bamboozled the Australians to the tune of 32 wickets from three Tests back in 2001, seems a distant, faded memory. Harbhajan, today, is an offspinner who bowls flat rather flighted, restrictive rather than hungry for wickets. In his last 50 ODIs he does not even average one wicket a game, with just one five-wicket haul. Each of his 48 scalps has come at an price of 38.43 runs. These are not the numbers of a champion offspinner leading an attack.When the selectors and the team management sit down to pick the team for Bangladesh, Ramesh Powar will be the first spinner they agree on. If Dravid bats for Harbhajan, as he has in the past, then there’s a chance he’ll keep his place, albeit under careful scrutiny, with a clear brief to bowl for wickets. The one thing going in Harbhajan’s favour is that Powar is a naturally attacking bowler, and this might make space for a bowler who is restrictive. Also, just as Anil Kumble’s career – at least in Tests – was boosted massively by the competition for a place that Harbhajan brought, and he was forced to become a more versatile bowler, this might be the chance for Harbhajan to take his game to the next level. Whether that opportunity will be afforded to him, depends on the thinking of the selectors, the captain and Ravi Shastri, the cricket manager.Three of the selectors – Dilip Vengsarkar, Bhupinder Singh and Ranjib Biswal – have plenty of time to talk about the decisions they would take tomorrow as they watched a match of no consequence, between Karnataka and Railways. Rahul Dravid, under the weather, didn’t play, and Railways knocked off the 163 runs they needed to register a facile win.

10:30 – Ford gets the voteThe seven-man committee, after listening to both candidates, decided to recommend Graham Ford’s name to the BCCI working committee which will ratify the appointment. That is expected to be a formality, and Ford is now almost certain to take charge for the one-day series against his compatriots in Ireland later this month.9:30pm – Ford gets his chanceThe media weren’t allowed onto the first floor where the meeting was being held, but it was believed that Emburey had finished his presentation, leaving the floor to Ford, reportedly the players’ choice for the job.8:30pm – Embers goes firstJohn Emburey is first to make his presentation in front of the seven-member committee after the meeting starts half an hour late.8:20pm – Sunil Gavaskar arrives from GoaTwenty minutes after the others went upstairs, Sunil Gavaskar arrives after having attended a personal function in Goa. As with the others, he’s mobbed by waiting media. Before he goes into the elevator, Gavaskar asks: “Is nobody at the [Afro-Asia Cup] match?”8:00pm – Pawar makes his entranceAs the clock struck eight, Sharad Pawar came down from his suite to the first-floor banquet hall where the meeting is being held. Dressed in white as always, he was surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards.7:41pm – The stop-gap manRavi Shastri, who coached India in Bangladesh, turns up with Srinivas Venkataraghavan. Again, there’s a frenzied response from the assembled media. Shastri asks one if he wants to come in. “Into the elevator?” asks the mediaperson. “No, only into the elevator,” quips Shastri before the door slides shut.7:35pm – The coach-maker arrivesNiranjan Shah, the board secretary, arrives, accompanied by Ratnakar Shetty, the chief executive, N Srinivasan, the treasurer, and MP Pandove. As they’re mobbed by TV cameras, Pandove turns around and tells a cameraman: “He’s only the secretary, not the coach!” The reply is a classic. “But he’s the coach-maker.”7:20pm – Touching glovesBoth men, dressed in suits and carrying laptops, entered the elevator to proceed to the meeting. Despite a posse of photographers clicking away, Ford and Emburey were seen chatting amiably as they proceeded to make the presentations that would decide who would succeed Greg Chappell as Indian coach.6:30pm – The saga beginsAnd finally the day of reckoning for the future Indian coach arrived. On a warm yet cloudy Saturday evening, with the Asia XI taking on the Africa XI in the second one-dayer at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, the action, at least as far as the media was concerned, shifted to the Park Sheraton Hotel and Towers. Sharad Pawar, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, arrived shortly after 5pm and checked into his suite. It’s believed – and there has been no information officially disseminated to the media so far – that Graham Ford and John Emburey, the two men vying for the coach’s job, would have to make their presentations either in Pawar’s suite or in the Elliot banquet hall.The rest of the committee were yet to reach the hotel. BCCI officials also on the committee were at the MA Chidambaram Stadium watching the match, and were only expected to arrive closer to 8pm, when it was believed that the meetings would begin. Sunil Gavaskar, the most influential of the three former Indian cricketers in the seven-man committee, had already excused himself from commentary duties with ESPN, who are broadcasting the Afro-Asia Cup. It has been reported that Gavaskar was in Goa, attending to a family function, but he was expected to be present at the meetings that will decide between Ford and Emburey.Ravi Shastri, another former cricketer on the panel who is on contract with ESPN, had asked his employers to be excused and would make it to the Park Sheraton in time for the discussions. At half-past six, however, only Pawar was present at the venue, and his presence was hard to miss given the elaborate police protection all round the hotel. Right from cars parked outside, with cops inside ready and on the go, to policemen in uniform keeping watch outside the hotel and in the foyer where the elevators to Pawar’s room were located, khaki was everywhere.When the same committee met in Bangalore and announced the short-list of Ford and Emburey, the media were kept out of the Hotel Grand Ashok, ostensibly on “security grounds”, and as yet, a similar measure had not been taken in Chennai.

Richard Bates, the former England women’s coach, will take over the reins of the New South Wales Breakers following Lisa Keightley’s promotion to the Australian job. Bates resigned from his England post earlier this year with the plan of moving his family to Australia and the exit of Keightley has allowed a smooth transition.The Breakers have won nine of the 11 national league titles and Bates will be in charge of continuing the dominant run. “He has an excellent record as coach of the English women’s side and we believe that his experience and knowledge will be an important factor in the on-going success of the Breakers,” David Gilbert, the Cricket New South Wales chief executive, said.Bates, a former Nottinghamshire offspinner, worked with England for four years and was in charge when they defeated Australia in the Ashes. He is familiar with Sydney after spending the 2002-03 season with the UTS Balmain club and is excited by the southern hemisphere challenge. “There is undoubted talent in the Breakers squad,” he said, “and it seems there is a good mix of experienced international cricketers with some exciting young players coming through the ranks.”

Sir John Anderson, the chairman of New Zealand Cricket, has downplayed suggestions in today’s that he could be the man to run the International Cricket Council when chief executive Malcolm Speed steps down next year.Anderson, who is chief executive of the recently sold National Bank of New Zealand, has been asked to also run its buyer, the ANZ Bank’s New Zealand operation.That may be reason enough alone for the SMH report to be regarded as speculation only. According to the report, Speed said that at the end of his three-year term it had always been his intention to return to Australia and work in sport again. At one stage he had been suggested as a possible head of the Australian Football League. Earlier, Speed was chief executive of Basketball Australia.But Anderson said Speed’s contract with the ICC was recently extended by 12 months and wasn’t due to be completed until 2005. Anderson, who played a key role in the ICC’s rewrite of its constitution, said in an interview in Wellington’s Dominion Post today that he was committed to making the integration between the two banks work and that might involve staying around for four or five years to make the takeover work. “I’m committed to make this integration work,” Anderson said.

Cricket Kenya has confirmed that it will host A-team tours by India and Sri Lanka in August.India arrive early in the month to play two three-day games against the national side, and then Sri Lanka join them to take part in a triangular one-day series in which each side plays the others twice with a final in Nairobi on August 23.The deal is a boost to the Kenyan board whose media deal with Nimbus means they need to attract overseas sides to play in the country. It will also assist the board’s attempts to secure lucrative local sponsorship deals.The series will be followed by a Twenty20 tournament which will act as a warm-up ahead of the Twenty20 World Championships in September. Bangladesh are understood to be one of the participating countries, although negotiations continue about which other side will make up the numbers.

Andrew Leipus, India’s former physiotherapist, has said playing Twenty20 cricket will help improve players’ fitness as it is an intense game which requires them to practice harder. “It will be very challenging how they cope up with new demands,” Leipus, who was in Mumbai for a fitness camp for youngsters, told , a Mumbai-based tabloid. “There will be less recovery time and the demand for physical fitness will be more.”Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead a young Indian side to the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa next month.Leipus, who worked with the national side from 1999 to 2004, also stressed the importance of having good trainers at the domestic level. “You need qualified support staff,” he said. “There is a general notion here [in India] that former players can do everything. But it’s not so. You need to have good trainers. There are so many good trainers here but it is sad that the board turns a blind eye.”The reason why many players had recurring injuries, Leipus said, was because there was no trained person to assist them to recover completely from the injury. “There is no proper network and coordination. Injury issues should be rightly addressed at all levels. Even the players are so anxious to play because of the fear of losing their spot, sponsors, and many other things.”Leipus said the players found it difficult to cope when they moved from the domestic to the international level, and wanted the juniors to get as much knowledge of international standards from the national players as they could, to help them later on.

Australia are hopeful that Ricky Ponting will fly to South Africa by Sunday, ahead of Australia’s opening ICC World Twenty20 match against Zimbabwe on Wednesday. However, even if he meets that time-frame – and that is no certainty – he will miss both Australia’s warm-up games against South Africa and New Zealand on Sunday.Adam Gilchrist, the acting captain in Ponting’s absence, was unsure when Ponting would arrive but was confident he would play some part in the two-week event. “We’re just waiting to see with Ricky,” Gilchrist told the Australian after the squad arrived in South Africa.”We’re not 100% sure when [he’ll fly out]. We’ll be in touch with him day by day and he’ll let us know what’s going on then. I wouldn’t think that he’s going to miss the whole tournament. I’m pretty sure he’ll be here at some stage.”Ponting did not leave Australia with the rest of the squad on Monday due to “private family reasons”. Gilchrist said Stuart Clark, who also remained at home to care for his ill son, was expected to join the group “in the next day or so”. Uncertainty remained over Shane Watson’s part in the tournament after he stayed in Brisbane to have a minor hamstring problem monitored.

Scorecard

Ashley Noffke blasted his second first-class century and Chris Simpson scored his first as Queensland continued to embarrass the reigning champions Tasmania at the Gabba. The pair extended the Bulls’ lead to 386 and although Michael Di Venuto helped the Tigers whittle it back to 185 at stumps the visitors have an uphill battle to avoid defeat on the final day.After a quiet second day when the Bulls eked out 223, Noffke and Simpson belted 155 from the first session alone. Noffke was the major danger with six fours and three sixes, and the Bulls declared the moment he reached 100 from 125 balls. It continued a devastating match for Noffke, who collected 5 for 33 on the first day as Tasmania crumbled for 158.Simpson’s effort was equally impressive and he remained unbeaten on 107 as the partnership expanded to 203. Queensland declared at 6 for 544 before Noffke immediately reminded the Tigers he is not really a batsman.Showing no signs of fatigue from his energetic innings, Noffke had Tim Paine caught at slip first ball and followed that two deliveries later with the dismissal of Michael Dighton. Travis Birt (72) and Di Venuto steadied and at the close Tasmania were 3 for 201 with Di Venuto on 95 and George Bailey on 24.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Yuvraj Singh’s electrifying 70 led the batting charge and Sreesanthdelivered the telling blows with the ball as India produced a magnificentperformance to beat Australia by 15 runs and set up a dreamall-subcontinent final against Pakistan at the ICC World Twenty20. Formuch of their pursuit of 189, Australia were well in contention, withMatthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds muscling balls to the rope, but Indiakept their nerve superbly to clinch another famous victory.Thousands of Indian flags were waved with abandon as Kingsmead came toresemble Little India, but Australia were still marginal favourites with41 needed from the final four overs. Symonds was still there,having biffed his way to 43 from 25 balls, but the moment Irfan Pathanpegged back his off stump with a delivery that evaded the attempted cut,the momentum shifted decisively towards India.Harbhajan Singh conceded just three runs in the next over, yorking MichaelClarke in the process, and Rudra Pratap Singh then returned to bowl anoutstanding over, having gone for plenty in his opening spell. When theinexperienced Joginder Sharma was handed the ball for the final over, 22were needed. Michael Hussey, the master finisher, was on strike, but therewas to be no comeback here. A miscue induced by Sharma’s lack of pacelanded up in Yuvraj Singh’s hands at deep midwicket, and Brett Lee wasthen cleaned up by a yorker as the Indian players started impromptuvictory jigs on the field.Australia were left to reflect on a middle-order meltdown, and anastonishing second half of the Indian innings where Yuvraj, Robin Uthappaand Mahendra Singh Dhoni drove, flicked and bludgeoned 128 runs. Uthappaadded 84 with Yuvraj in just 39 balls, and Dhoni provided the finalflourishes as India ensured that Australia would have a TableMountain-like target to scale.Yuvraj, who had missed the South Africa game after his 12-ballhalf-century against England, carried on in six-hitting vein, pullingStuart Clark, the top wicket-taker in the competition, for a huge one overmidwicket. Adam Gilchrist responded by bringing back Brett Lee, but Yuvrajresponded with a sensational pick-up short over square leg for six, takingIndia to 60 for 2 at the halfway stage, marginally better than the 57 for3 they had against South Africa.Virender Sehwag had gone cheaply, edging Mitchell Johnson behind, andGautam Gambhir’s bright 24-run cameo ended with a stunning catch in theoutfield, but that merely set the stage for dazzling strokeplay thatripped up whatever plans the Australians may have had.Symonds came on and was straight away flicked for four, before both Yuvrajand Uthappa pulled him for sixes in a 19-run over. Neither NathanBracken’s slower variations nor Clark’s steadiness could stem the tide, asYuvraj played sumptuous shots over cover.Another massive pull for six off Clark took him to 50 from just 20 balls,in an over that went for 21, and the return of Johnson provedjust as expensive, with Uthappa slamming a straight six and poweringanother over midwicket. Australia were wobbling, but respite came in theshape of a nonchalant direct hit from Symonds after Yuvraj had turned downUthappa for a single.Dhoni, usually a watchful starter, was into his stride right away, carvingSymonds down the ground, and with Yuvraj carrying on merrily, Gilchristturned to his final bowling option, Clarke. The first ball was heaved forsix over midwicket, but Yuvraj didn’t quite time the next one, and Husseyran in to take the catch.Australia came out prepared to swing, and RP Singh, who had sent SouthAfrica tumbling out of the tournament on Thursday, found the best openingpair in the business a different proposition. Gilchrist repeatedly flickedhim over midwicket, once for six, and also lofted one straight down to thesightscreen.Hayden struggled against Sreesanth, whose eccentricities shouldn’t obscurejust how beautifully he bowled. There was pace and swing as Haydenrepeatedly swished at air, but it was Gilchrist that departed first,castled by a wonderful delivery that swung back in. That was the signalfor Hayden to move through the gears, and Sharma was the first to feel theimpact, taken for two huge sixes over midwicket as 18 came from the over.

Brad Hodge didn’t last long, heaving one to short fine leg, but the adventof Symonds changed the complexion of the game. Both men heaved Pathan forsixes in an over, and Dhoni’s gamble to give Sehwag an over, after he hadtweaked his hamstring while batting, backfired. Hayden heaved a six to getto 50 from 40 balls, and another loft down the ground saw 20 come from theover.When Symonds then clattered Harbhajan over midwicket for six more, the DJstarted to play Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of my Head, areflection perhaps on how the match was moving inexorably towardsAustralia. It was clear that India needed a hero, and they found one inthe swing bowler with the long stare and the quirky mannerisms.Sreesanth came round the wicket and send Hayden’s off stump for a walk toend the 66-run partnership, and though Symonds continued to swing to thebitter end, the rest of his mates weren’t up to the task. Sreesanthfinished with sensational figures of 2 for 12, but the no-name Sharma’slast-over best summed up what was a tremendous team effort.Australia will have to wait to get their hands on this trophy, but forIndia and Pakistan, who exited the World Cup in such humiliatingcircumstances just six months ago, Monday afternoon at the Wanderers can’tcome soon enough. It will surprise no one if the DJ decides to kick offthe festivities with .

The Trinidad board have announced plans to install floodlights at the National Cricket Centre by next year April.”We have got approval from the ministry of Public Utilities and lights will be installed soon at the ground,” Forbes Persaud, the board’s chief executive, told CMC Sports. “They have already erected the posts to accommodate the lights and I am sure as soon as the elections are over, things will be put in place to have the lights installed at Balmain.”There are also plans to erect a multi-purpose pavilion at the ground with a seating capacity of 3000.Persaud added that the board had been able to acquire 17 acres of state land, south of the NCC and construction work will begin there. He said a huge car park, as well as other recreational facilities, are planned for the area.”We also intend to assist the national senior team in every way possible -so that they could continue their winning ways,” Persaud said. “On Monday, myself and Deryck Murray [president] will meet with the management of the national senior team, Omar Khan, Daren Ganga and David Williams to discuss what is the best possible approach to take, as far as planning for the retention of the Carib Beer title in concerned.”