Ravichandran Ashwin (30 not out) and Ravindra Jadeja (24 not out) played sensibly in the end to help India beat Sri Lanka by 4 wickets in the second ODI as they opened their account in the tri-series at the WACA in Perth.

Chasing 234-run target, India lost Virat Kohli (77), MS Dhoni (4) and Suresh Raina (24) in quick succession to put pressure on themselves in the final 15 overs of the match.

India were still 53 runs behind the modest target when top-scorer Kohli ran himself out trying to steal a cheeky single off the last ball of 36th over after hitting previous ball for a massive six.

Ashwin and Jadeja added unbeaten 53-run stand for the seventh wicket to steer India to an important victory with 19 balls to spare.

Ashwin hit three boundaries in his brilliant unbeaten 38-ball 30 whereas Jadeja hit a four in his sensible 28-ball 24 innings.

Kohli ran himself out trying to steal a cheeky single off the last ball of 36th over after hitting previous ball for a massive six. Kohli hit a six and eight boundaries in his 94 balls sensible knock before one wrong decision ended his innings.

Dhoni top-edged Dhamika Prasad delivery as Lasith Malinga took a sharp running catch at mid-on soon after Angelo Mathews dismissed Suresh Raina in the previous over.

Raina played an aggressive 24 runs knock off 27 balls and hit three boundaries as he tried to steady India run chase with Kohli after losing Rohit Sharma (10).

Dilshan took a brilliant catch at point to dismiss Sharma off Thisara Perera’s ball to reduce India to 122/3 in 25.5 overs.

Sharma added 33-run for the third wicket with Kohli, with the later scoring his 19th ODI fifty off 66 balls with the help of seven boundaries.

Sachin Tendulkar, who was playing well and looked destine for 100th ton, was bowled by Angelo Mathews for 48.

The master blaster played a sensible knock of 48 off 63 balls, which included five hits to the fence, before Mathews got better of him in the 19th over.

Tendulkar added valuable 75-run for the second wicket with Virat Kohli to revive India run chase after they lost Virender Sehwag (10) early.

Chasing a modest 234-run target, India lost opener Sehwag in the third over to be reduced to 14/1 in 2.3 overs.

Sehwag started in a typical aggressive style as he hit two fours in his short 8-ball stay on the crease before Kulasekara took a running catch at the third man area off the bowling of Lasith Malinga.

Asked to field first, Ravichandran Ashwin (3-32) and Zaheer Khan (2-44) led a fine bowling display by India as they restricted Sri Lanka to 233/8 on Wednesday.

Ashwin dismissed three crucial Sri Lankan middle-order batsmen as the Islanders failed to increase their tempo in the entire match and set a modest 234-run target for the Indians. Ashwin finished his ten overs spell with impressive figure of 3 for 32 runs.

Zaheer started Indian attack on the right note as he took two early wickets after Sri Lanka decided to bat at the bouncy WACA pitch.

Dinesh Chandimal was the top scorer for Sri Lanka with a steady 81-ball 64. The right-hander slammed four boundaries in his innings and added valuable 52-run stand for the fourth wicket with skipper Mahela Jayawardene (23).

Sri Lanka lost Chandimal, Thisara Perera (7) and Jayawardene in quick succession to spinner Ashwin as India controlled the proceeding in the match.

Half-centurion Chandimal was stumped by India keeper Dhoni off Ashwin as the right-hander tried to attack the spinner to increase the scoring rate.

Ashwin struck again to dismiss Perera and reduced Sri Lanka to 172/5 in 39.4 overs soon after he got rid of Lanka skipper Jayawardene and put a halt to the decent partnership between Jayawardene and Dinesh Chandimal.

Jayawardene hit two fours in his 34-ball knock as he put on a 52-run stand for the fourth wicket.

Ravindra Jadeja struck to dismiss Dilshan to reduce Sri Lanka to 100/3 in 24.3 overs soon after Zaheer Khan gave India second breakthrough after dismissing Kumar Sangakkara (26).

Dilshan failed to complete his fifty after playing a patient innings of 48 in 79 balls, which included seven boundaries.

Sangakkara was caught behind the wicket after Indian skipper MS Dhoni dived to his left to pouch a fine catch. Sri Lanka lost their second wicket at the score of 74.

Sri Lanka crossed their 100-run mark in 23.4 overs. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara added 62 runs for the second wicket.

Sri Lanka were 46 for 1 after the mandatory powerplay of 10 overs as their first 50 runs came in 63 balls. Zaheer Khan gave India first breakthrough after he dismissed Lankan opener Upul Tharanga in the second.

Earlier, Sri Lanka lost their first wicket at the score of 12 after skipper Mahela Jayawardene elected to bat against India in the second one-dayer. Tharanga edged Zaheer Khan’s delivery straight into the hands of Sachin Tendulkar at first slip.

Virender Sehwag, who had been rested from the first game in order to play Rohit Sharma, returned to the final XI. Sehwag replaced Gautam Gambhir who has been rested for the second ODI.

Veteran pacer Zaheer Khan, who missed out the opening match like Sehwag, also made his way back into the team as he replaced injured Rahul Sharma.

The Sri Lankans went with five fast bowlers – Dhammika Prasad, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thisara Perera and Angelo Matthews – on a pitch which already has cracks.

In Australia, the two teams have clashed five times and India have an advantage of 2-1 over their southern neighbours, with two matches finishing with no result.

Teams:

Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Angelo Matthews, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lasith Malinga, Dinesh Chandimal, Thisara Perera, Lahiru Thirimanne, Upul Tharanga, Dhammika Prasad and Nuwan Kulasekara.

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan.

Source: Times of India

Twenty-eight years on from the match that transformed the history of world cricket, India recaptured the crown that Kapil Dev and his men first lifted at Lord’s in 1983, and this time they did so in their very own back yard. An iron-willed 97 from Gautam Gambhir was matched for intensity by the finest captain’s innings since Ricky Ponting in Johannesburg eight years ago, as MS Dhoni trumped a poetic century from Mahela Jayawardene to pull off the highest run-chase ever achieved in a World Cup final.

Against a triumphant backdrop at the Wankhede Stadium, victory was sealed by six wickets with 10 balls to spare, as Dhoni – who had promoted himself to No. 5 to heap extra lashings of responsibility onto his own shoulders – rushed through the gears as the victory target drew nearer. With 15 required from 17 balls, he flicked Sri Lanka’s only true threat, Lasith Malinga, through midwicket for consecutive boundaries, before smoking Nuwan Kulasekara over long-on to finish on 91 not out from 79 balls, and spark the most delirious scenes of celebration ever seen on the subcontinent.

However, the final margin did little justice to the tussle that had preceded it. Even the toss ended up being disputed, as Kumar Sangakkara’s initial call was drowned out by the crowd, but it was the ebb and flow of Zaheer Khan’s day that epitomised the fluctuations of a compelling contest. Zaheer opened his account with three consecutive maidens and the scalp of Upul Tharanga in a peerless spell of 5-3-6-1, only to be clobbered for 17 and 18 runs in his ninth and tenth overs, as Sri Lanka monstered 63 runs in the batting Powerplay to post an imposing 274 for 6.

And India’s day got much worse before the team’s fortunes began to inch upwards. Virender Sehwag had hit a boundary from the first ball of six of India’s previous eight innings in the tournament, but this time Malinga’s slingers dealt him a second-ball duck, as he skidded a full delivery into his back pad. And then Sachin Tendulkar, for whom the script had seemingly been written, was drawn into a loose drive by a fast Malinga outswinger, having set the stadium on standby for instant history with 18 sumptuously accumulated runs from his first 12 deliveries.

At 31 for 2 in the seventh over, India were struggling to keep their toehold in the contest, and it was all too much for a faithless few in the crowd who turned their backs and set off for home. But Gambhir and Virat Kohli epitomise a generation that does not easily accept defeat, and their third-wicket stand of 83 laid the foundations for an epic turnaround. The prospect of a seam-friendly surface, allied to the grievous loss of Angelo Mathews to a thigh strain, had tempted Sri Lanka into four key changes to the team that had triumphed over New Zealand in Colombo, and with Muttiah Muralitharan lacking bite in the final wicketless appearance of his 19-year career, Malinga alone could not carry the day.

The hard-hitting of Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera had been instrumental in hoisting Sri Lanka’s total to such heights, but in their primary role as front-line seamers they lacked menace and were all too easy to squeeze as 119 runs came from their combined allocation of 17.2 overs. The newcomer to the squad, Suraj Randiv, caused a moment of alarm with his high-kicking offspin when Gambhir, on 30, was dropped by a diving Kulasekara at long-off, but as the innings progressed, his lack of guile proved costly. The decision to omit both Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath, whose combined efforts had been so effective against England and New Zealand, is one that will haunt Sri Lanka for years to come.

But this was a victory that still had to be grasped, and India found the men who were willing to do so. The 22-year-old Kohli, who was greeted with a stern word of encouragement as he replaced the outgoing Tendulkar, showed all the mettle for the big occasion as he eased along to 35 from 49 balls before falling to an outstanding return catch by Tillakaratne Dilshan, who dived full-length across the crease to intercept a leading edge. But it was Gambhir and Dhoni to whom the ultimate duty fell. Their 109-run stand was the highest by an Indian pairing in three World Cup final appearances, and even when Gambhir gave away the chance for an unforgettable century with a tired charge and slash at Perera, the result was no longer in doubt.

Gambhir struck nine fours in a 122-ball statement of indomitability, and both he and Dhoni required treatment for stiff backs as the sapping Mumbai heat took its toll. Dhoni at one stage looked so immobile that a precautionary retirement seemed the only logical response, but after some harsh work from the physio he resumed his stance and responded with another trademark filleting of the extra cover boundary, an area in which he scored six of his eight fours – three of which helped to blunt Murali’s attacking instincts.

Both teams contained numerous veterans of World Cup final defeat, with no fewer than five Indians still remaining from the team that lost to Australia back in 2003, and as a consequence this was a match thick with performances that spoke of the wisdom of experience. Though each of the previous five centurions in finals had gone on to lift the trophy, as well as seven of the nine teams that had had the chance to bat first, Jayawardene had the misfortune to become an exception to both rules. His stunning 103 not out from 88 balls was proof that finesse has as much of a place at this level as brutality, but ultimately it was not enough to deny India their destiny.

Four years ago at Sabina Park, Jayawardene produced a supreme century against New Zealand to carry his side to their second World Cup final, but this was an innings of even more exquisite application. He came to the crease with his side under the cosh at 60 for 2 in the 17th over, having been throttled by Zaheer’s supreme new-ball spell. But he responded with a tempo that scarcely wavered from a run a ball, until with Kulasekera for company, he opened his shoulders to power through to his hundred from 84 balls.

For an occasion of this magnitude, cool heads were the order of the day, and though his final figures did not show it, no-one was cooler in the opening exchanges than Zaheer. On his watch, Sri Lanka were limited to 31 for 1 in their mandatory Powerplay, their lowest ten-over score of the tournament, and the hapless Tharanga was restricted to two runs from 20 balls before snicking to Sehwag at slip, whose sharp low take epitomised a fielding effort that was rarely less than totally committed. Then, when he returned in the 37th over, Zaheer deceived Chamara Kapugedera with a beautiful slower ball that was driven to short cover, on route to equalling Shahid Afridi as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, with 21.

And yet, the speed with which his figures were vandalised was astounding. Though each of Jayawardene’s 13 fours was a classy stroke in its own right, none was better than the last of them, an inside-out cover-drive to one of Zaheer’s trademark outswinging yorkers, as he premeditated the late movement and filleted the ring of fielders on the off-side. The outright acceleration came from the other end, however, where Kulasekera made 32 from 30 balls before his sacrificial run-out led to a pat of gratitude from Jayawardene as they parted. And then, by the time Perera, who made 22 from nine balls, had sealed his onslaught with a dismissive thump for six over midwicket, the decibel levels in the Wankhede had plummeted.

But run by run, over by over, minute by minute, India picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, and turned the screw on Sri Lanka with a determination that a lesser group of men could not have begun to muster, amid the sure knowledge that several billion countrymen were investing all their hopes in their actions. And though he himself played just a walk-on part in the wider drama, it was Tendulkar who was chaired from the field as the celebrations began in earnest. “He’s carried the burden of our nation for 21 years,” said the youngster Kohli. “It was time to carry him on our shoulders today.”

Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo

It all looks perfect when someone sketches it on the blackboard, below the big bold ‘Game Theory’ title:

You two blokes try and hit a few in the first ten; then everyone take a deep breath, settle down, no risks, doesn’t matter if the runs don’t come, we keep wickets in hand, then we take the power play and in the last ten, our batting depth kicks in and we smash the ball out of the park, add 100-and-plenty…

Guptill and Brendan McCullum seemed to have got the first bit right. A couple of balls from Malinga in the first over, pitched a bit short, failed to come up more than waist high. Righto, said Guptill; taking a nice stride into the ball, he cracked the Lankan quick for a four off the fifth ball, and then with Brendan McCullum, moved the score along to 29/0 at the end of six.

A minor victory was won along the way. Realizing that the wicket (the same one used in the quarters against England, dehydrated and devoid of live) had nothing in it for his premier bowler, Kumar Sangakkara had taken Malinga off after just the one over.

And then McCullum, whose World Cup has been particularly undistinguished, attempted a repeat of the slog sweep he had pulled off against Herath an over earlier; this time, the ball was fuller and quicker, it went through the shot and onto the stumps.

In came Ross Taylor, wielding his bat in gentle pacifist arcs, while at the other end Guptill lost his initial rapture. Anchors were dropped at either end – this would be the ‘consolidation phase’ spelt out on the blackboard – and the Sri Lankan bowlers, never shy to refuse such invitations, went about running out the clock on the Kiwi innings.

The Kiwis progressed, if you can call it that, from 20/0 after 5 to 38/1 in ten; 60/1 in 15 and, in bizarre fashion, added another 14 to go to 74/2 in 20 (Another way to look at it is, 43 dot balls in the first 10 overs; 58 at the end of 15; 77 not scored off after 20). The Lankan bowling, with Kumar rotating his spinners around, was good – but the Premadasa is a large ground, the field mostly stayed back, there was space especially in the V but neither batsman seemed inclined to work the ball around and make the spinners think.

Sub-continental batsmen have this down to a fine art. They play spinners with soft hands, guiding the ball around the park, picking up easy singles, forcing the bowlers to change their lines and then cashing in on mistakes. Unable to do that, Jesse Ryder swung harder and harder. A thumping drive at Muralitharan in the 19th over was stopped at short extra cover; next ball, Ryder swung even harder to a ball that was tossed up a fraction more; it bit, bounced, found the thin edge.

Kumar brought Malinga back in the 21st over looking for some reverse, and the bowler obliged with the kind of over that is scary even through the filter of the television screen – fast, swinging viciously through the air, and homing in always to the base of the stumps, one such being too good for Guptill.

At the 25 over mark, the Kiwis were 93/3. In other words, neither had they put runs on the board, nor conserved wickets. Significantly, with 25 more overs to bowl, Kumar had at his disposal seven from Malinga, and 5 each of Herath, Mendis and Murali – in other words, 22 overs.

Just when the game was beginning to look one-sided, Scott Styris turned the clock back. The 35-year-old had gone through six previous innings to scrape together a grand total of 85 runs, never looking convincing. Here, he played as if he were coming off sequential hundreds: cover driving and then straight driving Malinga in the 26th with such ease, Kumar pulled his quick off the firing line.

The Ryder-Ross Taylor partnership was, finally, the Kiwis getting a foot in the door, and slowly nudging it open. They took singles, they found the boundaries just often enough to force the Lankans back on their heels, and they stitched together a 7-run partnership at a healthy 4.7 (Styris, the more energetic of the two, contributed 47 to Taylor’s 25) that took the Kiwis to 161/3 at the end of 39.

Taylor’s wicket off the first ball of the 40th over seemed one of those blessings in thin disguise – though he had resisted the Lankan bowlers, his 36 in 54 deliveries was weighing down one end of the innings – his dismissal meant that the heavy hitters could come in and – remember the blackboard – start the planned acceleration.

The batting power play was taken in the 42nd over; the plan seemed to be working just a treat when Kane Williamson, who had hinted at class with a lovely pick-up clip off Malinga over midwicket, showed his mates how it is done, even against a bowler of Murali’s class. In the 43rd, he first waltzed out delightfully and played a controlled chip over the head of midwicket. Reading the ace spinner with ease, he waited back in his crease for the next ball, predictably bowled quicker and dragged down, and slapped it square for back to back boundaries.

21 runs came off the first two PP overs and the force seemed to be with the Kiwis even when Williamson, in an excess of exuberance, walked across the stumps and got nailed in front by a Malinga yorker he tried to flick on the on. A wristy flick for six by Nathan McCullum off Murali in the next over saw the offie, bowling his final spell on home soil, go for 12. 45 overs gone, Kiwis 204/5 and seemingly headed for a 245-255 score that could have proved challenging.

And then it all went west. A swipe at Malinga saw McCullum edge behind, and signal the start of a procession – from 204-5 to 217 all out. It was batting of the most atrocious – the plan may have been for the heavy hitters to throw the bat around, but the canny Lankan bowlers knew when to hold the ball back, when to throw it wide, when to arrow it into the stumps. Bowling tight against batsmen looking to attack them is the USP of the Lankan bowlers, and those skills were in full view here as the Kiwis crashed and burned.

The report thus far might give the impression that it was all about what the Kiwis did, or did not do: they batted slow, then batted fast, then collapsed. Not so – the Lankans turned in a signature performance with the ball and in the field. That they were not challenged is hardly their fault – without exception they stuck to their disciplines, and if one of them began to get tap, there was always another bowler, of another type, to come along and read the riot act. The Lankans are easily the best fielding side in the sub-continent; if they didn’t as a unit hit their usual high standards, they didn’t fluff any the way they had in the last game, and Dilshan had an outstanding day out, fielding either square on the off, or straight within the circle and produce some magnificent saves.

Low though the wicket was playing, 218 was never going to test the strong Sri Lankan batting on home turf. The Kiwis’ best hope of making a fight of it was to bowl with discipline at the start, keep the Lankan openers from breaking free, and put the game in holding pattern till the ball got older and softer, the spinners came into their own, and pressure began to build.

Instead, they came out and bowled rubbish – the seamers in particular operating as if they had a sign on their backs reading ‘Keep the pitch clean – deposit trash outside the boundary.’

Tim Southee was the main culprit, bowling both sides of the wicket and hitting the short length too often. On a pitch where such deliveries sat up and begged, Dilshan pulled with intent and power. Southee dropped shorter, Dilshan hit harder. (When Oram in the 24th over dropped short and Dilshan contemptuously pulled him over square leg to get to 45 off 66, four of his five boundaries and his lone six had all come on the on side, off short balls).

Lanka was 59/1 after 12. Southee had bowled 4 of those, and contributed 27; it didn’t help that Nathan McCullum, given the new ball (why, against spin-happy Lankans?), was equally ineffective (4-0-18-0). Such bowling, in defense of a small total, took the pressure right off the Lankans.

The only wicket to fall was Tharanga, who got a rank bad ball from Southee – short, wide of off – and smashed it towards the point boundary, only for Jesse Ryder to defy both his weight and the laws of gravity, fling himself to his left at point and pull off the sort of catch you watch endlessly on replay, and still don’t believe can be attempted.

Dilshan and Sangakkara then set about shepherding the chase. Though the Kiwis sporadically slowed things down with the odd good over (courtesy Vettori and McKay in particular), their normally razor sharp fielding cracked under the pressure, mistakes proliferated, the support bowlers were cannon fodder to a pair of batsmen reveling in the form of their lives. And as the target got huge chunks chipped off it, the short ball epidemic began affecting even the likes of Vettori himself.

The course of the chase was best mapped through Kiwi bowling coach Allan Donald’s expressions. Early on, he was on the boundary, talking to the bowler who had just finished an over, gesticulating, exhorting. By the halfway mark, he was reduced to shaking his head in undisguised disgust.

Just when it seemed as if the imperious Dilshan, and the silken Sangakkara, would race to the target with humiliating ease, the game turned. The catalysts always existed – the slow pitch made trickier as the ball gets softer and makes the batsman wait on his shots, to name just one.

From a cruise at 160/1, Dilshan gave Southee his second wicket, and Ryder his second catch, in a dismissal that mirrored that of his opening partner – slapping a short ball outside off straight to point, overhitting the ball in his eagerness. In came Mahela and out he went, playing down the wrong line and being nailed plumb by Vettori. Sangakkara, till then epitomizing calm assurance, played a wild upper cut at a short ball outside off from McKay and found third man – and suddenly, Lanka had slid to 164/4; the Kiwis began buzzing around in the field in a manner reminiscent of the closing stages of their game against South Africa, and Lanka’s untested middle order faced music not to their liking.

Barring the implosion against Pakistan, the Dilshan-Tharanga-Sangakkara combine had managed all along to hide the big secret: a middle order as shaky as badly set souffle. Thilan Samaraweera proved to have a bat made exclusively of edges; Chamara Silva needed 10 deliveries to get off the mark with an edge down to third man, and all things seemed possible as the Kiwi bowlers finally discovered their mojo (and Donald his smile).

Followed a remarkable passage of play, featuring full blown panic by the Lankans, and an energetic, committed display by a Kiwi unit suddenly realizing that the finals berth they had fallen short of so many times before was a possibility after all. Dilshan fell to the 4th ball of the 32nd over; the score then was 161/2. From then, till the 41st over, SL progressed to 176/4 – a total of 15 runs in 50 deliveries.

Chamara Silva broke the spell in the 42nd over, first piercing the seemingly impenetrable field with a cover drive off Ryder, then nudging the next ball down to the third man fence. And off the first ball of the next over, he fell, swinging hard at a Southee delivery to get an inner edge back onto his stumps.

By then it was pure nerves. Samaraweera slog-swept Ryder for four; the Kiwis fielded badly and threw worse to give four, all-run, in the next over. 22 to get, five overs to get them in, and the batting power play was mandatorily taken – not that it made much difference to the Kiwis, who ever since Sangakkara’s departure had been keeping six men inside the ring anyway.

McKay, till then supremely economical, let one fly down the leg side for a wide plus four. Next ball, McKay got his radar back and angled one past Mathews’ outer edge. It seemed to touch something; the umpire turned down the appeal for caught behind and was upheld on the review (There is no snickometer, no hot spot – that leaves the decision to the third umpire’s naked eye, and unless the ball was biting a chunk out of the bat, he wasn’t going to see anything his on field colleague didn’t).

Relieved to be still standing, Mathews – injured, and with Jayawardene running for him – greeted Southee in the 47th over with a heave over long on for six, followed by a lofted straight drive for four. The two counter-punches put the Kiwis on the mat; it was just a matter of finishing it off. At which one umpire forgot how many balls there were in an over, at the other end the other umpire called dead ball thanks to premature fireworks even as Samaraweera hit what he thought were the winning runs…It was all very messy, but in the end, Samaraweera sealed it. Perhaps it was appropriate that the winning run was an outer edge that neatly bisected the keeper and slip.

Sri Lanka is in the final, with the bonus of having gotten a good scare that should wake them right up to the hidden danger, just in time for remedial action. The Kiwis are out of the tournament, yet again at the semi finals stage – and have a long flight back home to rue the seven deliveries they failed to play out in their own innings, and consider what may have been.

PostScript: A wicket (Pragyan Ojha) with the last ball he bowled in Test cricket. A wicket (Scott Styris) with his last ball in ODIs on home soil.

Channeling PG Wodehouse, I’d like to be included in the list of ’100 people who asked, Who writes his scripts?’

Source: Prem Panicker, Yahoo Cricket

Sri Lanka openers Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan delivered a one-day batting masterclass to set up a World Cup semi-final with New Zealand.

Tharanga and man of the match Dilshan made light of England’s 229 for six by completing a 10-wicket triumph in 39.3 overs at Colombo’s R Premadasa Stadium, where they will return to for Tuesday’s last-four game.

Dilshan finished on 108 from 115 balls, featuring 10 fours and two sixes, before Tharanga completed victory with his 12th four to go to 102 from 122 deliveries, including one maximum.

The first-wicket pair, who shared a 282-run alliance in the group victory over Zimbabwe, occasionally lived dangerously but prospered from an attacking approach at odds with England’s conservative effort, forced on them by Sri Lanka’s tight bowling.

Only Jonathan Trott came to terms with an attack boasting three spinners and he could afford few risks after England slipped to 31 for two.

Trott continued his outstanding winter form, taking his World Cup run-tally to 422 – the most in the competition, with 86 from 115 deliveries. The number three batsman negotiated searing afternoon heat, sharing a steady half-century stand with Ravi Bopara and a swift one with Eoin Morgan.

Morgan’s alliance with Trott was the only period during which England scored freely. Their first 100 runs occupied 28 overs in contrast to 19 for Sri Lanka. While England’s second came from a little more than 18, Tharanga and Dilshan had little difficulty in bettering that.

England were unfortunate that several outstanding deliveries, notably from Graeme Swann, were not rewarded and the chances Sri Lanka offered were not regulation. The hosts, however, could only blame themselves for the lives they gifted England.

Dublin-born Morgan enjoyed the luck of the Irish, reprieved four times including three drops, en route to 50 from 55 balls. His departure early in the batting powerplay cost England momentum and they fell short of the score they had threatened.

Andrew Strauss earlier won a seemingly important toss and announced an unchanged side – meaning Tim Bresnan had overcome a calf injury – and Kumar Sangakkara revealed one alteration with Rangana Herath playing in place of seamer Nuwan Kulasekara.

Ian Bell, promoted to open in place of Matt Prior, neatly clipped Lasith Malinga off his pads for four in the first over to reach 3,000 ODI runs and did the bulk of the early scoring as Strauss struggled against the lack of pace.

Strauss’ laboured innings ended when he misjudged an attempted pull off part-time spinner Dilshan to be bowled for five from 19 deliveries.

Bell followed in the next over, chipping Angelo Mathews to midwicket on 25, as England only managed 32 from the first 10 overs.

Bopara and Trott negotiated the immediately-taken bowling powerplay despite optimistic stumping appeals against both off Ajantha Mendis.

Herath failed with an lbw review against Bopara, who along with Trott eked out runs without finding the boundary. Their half-century alliance came from 83 balls.

They successfully negotiated Muttiah Muralitharan for four overs until Bopara, on 31, attempted to sweep only to be trapped in front by a full delivery, despite a hapless review.

Morgan struck England’s first boundary for 17 overs, chipping Malinga over cover, and a flurry of fours followed including Trott’s first – from his 65th ball – which made him the competition’s leading scorer.

Morgan was gifted his first life on 16 when Thilan Samaraweera put down a sitter off Mendis, coming in from the cover boundary. The left-hander soon reached 2,000 ODI runs and his fifty-partnership with Trott came from just 48 balls.

Sri Lanka surprisingly opted not to review a leg before appeal when Malinga struck Morgan in front on 29 – replays showed it was out – and he was soon put down twice in three balls off the exasperated Muralitharan by Mathews on the cover boundary and Herath at point.

Morgan’s luck ran out in the 43rd over – the first of the batting powerplay – when Mathews, coming off the cover rope, held on off Malinga. Swann, sent in as a pinch-hitter, lasted just one ball before he was trapped in front by Mendis attempting to reverse-sweep.

With the five overs of fielding restrictions only yielding 23 runs, Trott was held on the square-leg boundary off Muralitharan who struggled with his injured hamstring in the penultimate over. Prior’s unbeaten 22 at better than a run a ball was a welcome late shot in the arm for England.

Tharanga made an early statement of intent, lifting Swann – who opened the bowling alongside Bresnan – down the ground for six, but Dilshan rode his luck against the swinging new ball. Tharanga survived on 32 going for a similar shot off James Tredwell when Chris Tremlett pulled out of a tricky catch at long-off.

Having delayed taking the bowling powerplay, Tredwell and Luke Wright briefly stemmed the runs until Dilshan smashed the former for a maximum over long-off, reopening the floodgates.

Dilshan and Tharanga reached 50 in quick succession before the latter survived tough caught and bowled chances against Tremlett on 58 and 60.

Strauss finally took the bowling powerplay in the 29th over and Sri Lanka’s openers responded by upping the ante further with 40 coming from it.

Dilshan was relentless, sweeping Swann for six to the longest boundary on the ground and cutting the spinner for four to register his hundred. Dilshan, batting with a runner due to cramp, then reigned himself in to allow Tharanga to follow him to a century with a cover-driven four off Tremlett.

Source: ECB

Sri Lanka’s old-guard combined to ease to a 112-run victory over New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium. Kumar Sangakkara made his first ODI century since June 2008, supported by a controversial 66 from Mahela Jayawardene to haul Sri Lanka up to 265 before Muttiah Muralitharan spun New Zealand to defeat with 4 for 25.

Coming into the tournament as one of the favourites, Sri Lanka have not quite convinced so far and but for their three most experienced players might have struggled again. Instead the finish was the kind of one-sided result that has epitomised Group A.

New Zealand, though, will rue their misfortune when Jayawardene was reprieved at a critical moment. Sri Lanka had lost both openers and were struggling to get on top of the New Zealand slow bowlers when, in the 24th over, Jayawardene chipped a return catch to Nathan McCullum.

It went low to McCullum’s right and the bowler dived full-length to scoop the ball centimetres off the turf. The batsman stood his ground and the decision was sent upstairs. Side-on replays seemed to clearly show McCullum’s fingers under the ball but a front-on shot, as it so often does, created doubt that the third umpire, Amiesh Saheba, ruled on. Before then Jayawardene had scrambled for 50 deliveries to make 26 but silkily added a further 40 at a run a ball and Sri Lanka never looked back.

Sangakkara helped himself to a century that he’s been waiting 64 matches for. Looking typically unhurried, he was content to work the ball around early on before unfurling some of the stylish strokes that are his hallmark as the innings went on. One six, eased down the ground off Scott Styris, told of a batsman in total control. The verbal exchanges that Jayawardene got involved with after his escape only served to fire him up and he was soon exhibiting the fluent form that had deserted him since his century against Canada in Sri Lanka’s opening game.

The pair added 145 and the importance of the stand was demonstrated by what followed. Sangakkara rushed to his century with four boundaries in six deliveries but was out soon after for 111. Following his dismissal Sri Lanka lost five wickets for 55 in the final 8.2 overs. That they even got so many was almost entirely down to Angelo Mathews, who swatted 41 from 35 balls to thwart New Zealand’s fightback.

In the end, the collapse was irrelevant but in the knockout stages, opposition teams will know beneath Sri Lanka’s top order is a soft underbelly waiting to be exposed. New Zealand would have backed themselves to make a better fist of chasing but – despite dew, on a ground that will host the World Cup final, hampering the Sri Lanka spinners – Muralitharan and Mendis choked them into submission.

The early work was done by the quicks when Brendon McCullum was given out by the TV umpire after Jayawardene, of all people, claimed a low catch off Mathews. Unlike the first time, though, the right decision had been made and McCullum was on his was for 14. After Guptill fell for 13, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor threatened to make a match of it but the spinners took over.

Mendis’ mystery may have faded with exposure but his variations proved too much for Ryder who nibbed a carrom-ball behind for a 23-ball 19. Muralitharan’s introduction had been delayed after he picked up an injury while batting. Despite hobbling around, he was still devastating when he finally got into the attack in the 18th over.

A doosra took care of Kane Williamson for 5 before he landed the killer blow by spinning one back into Taylor’s pads. Despite a big stride and a review, Taylor was rightly given out for 33 and his team never looked like competing. Scott Styris chipped a return catch to Muralitharan, who belied his injury to spring up and snaffle the chance, and Nathan McCullum and James Franklin soon followed. Between them Mendis and Muralitharan took six wickets for 59 in 14 overs.

Unlike the frenzied excitement in Group B, the qualifiers in Group A are already settled. Sri Lanka are guaranteed to finish second whatever happens between Australia and Pakistan, which might well leave them in line for a contest against the World Cup mysterybox, England, in the quarter finals.

Sahil Dutta is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

Tillakaratne Dilshan smashed 144 before taking 4-4 to help Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe by 139 runs and reach the World Cup quarter-finals on Thursday.

Together with fellow opener Upul Tharanga, who hit a career-best 133, Dilshan put on a new World Cup opening stand of 282 to guide Sri Lanka to an imposing 327-6 before a packed 30,000 crowd at Pallekele stadium.

Zimbabwe made a fighting reply with Brendon Taylor (80) and Regis Chakabva (35) through a solid 116-run start before the innings fell apart, as they lost their last their last nine wickets for just 63 runs.

Dilshan, who bettered his previous best of 4-29 against India at Dambulla in 2005, also became the 11th all-rounder, and the second Sri Lankan behind Sanath Jayasuriya, to score a hundred and take four wickets in an ODI.

The result meant Sri Lanka, with seven points from five matches in Group A, become the first side to enter the last eight.

New Zealand, with six points from four matches, Pakistan (six from four) and defending champions Australia (five from three) are virtually certain of filling the three other qualifying places from the group.

“Dilshan has that magic touch with bat, ball and on the field,” said Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara, who also praised Muttiah Muralitharan who took 3-34 on his last appearance in his home town of Kandy.

“Murali is a champion, and that’s why he is rated the best in the world. When the tough times come, he stands up.”

Man of the match Dilshan said: “This is the best match of my career. I think everyone’s performing well, we are in a good position.”

Sri Lanka owed their total to Dilshan and Tharanga who set the ball rolling after they were put into bat on a batting-friendly pitch, just failing to beat the world record first wicket stand of 286 runs.

Tharanga, who also featured in a that stand, with Jayasuriya against England at Leeds in 2006, hit his 10th one-day hundred, while Dilshan notched his ninth, and second in the World Cup.

Their stand was also the fourth highest partnership for any wicket in ODI history.

Dilshan, 34, smashed one six and 16 boundaries during his attractive 131-ball knock, cutting loose as early as in the second over, hitting paceman Tinashe Panyangara for three boundaries and a six.

The 26-year-old left-hander Tharanga, whose previous best of 120 came against England at Lord’s in 2006, hit 17 boundaries during his 141-ball innings, as both the openers batted without trouble.

Dilshan reached his hundred with a quick single towards cover off Elton Chigumbura, taking 95 balls to reach the three-figure as a capacity 30,000 gave him a standing ovation.

In the 33rd over, Tharanga hit Tinashe Panyangara for another boundary to create a new World Cup record for the first wicket, beating the 194 set by Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar and Wajahatullah Wasti, against New Zealand at Manchester in 1999.

Tharanga soon joined Dilshan as century maker when he drove Raymond Price towards extra-cover to reach his first World Cup hundred.

Tharanga was the first to go, miscuing a drive off paceman Christopher Mpofu in the 45th over, while Dilshan fell to a lofted shot off spinner Prosper Utseya in the next.

Mpofu then chipped in with wickets of Mahela Jayawardene (nine), Angelo Mathews (nought) and Chamara Silva (four) to finish with 4-64 in an otherwise hapless Zimbabwean bowling show.

Sri Lanka now face New Zealand in their last match in Mumbai on March 18 which will decide where they finish in the group.

Zimbabwe, with two points from four matches, can still make it to the quarters (on better net run-rate) if they win their last two matches, the first of which is against Pakistan on Monday and the next against Kenya on March 20.

Source: Yahoo Cricket

A sell-out 35,000 crowd in Colombo was left disappointed after heavy rain robbed them of a potentially thrilling match between co-hosts Sri Lanka and defending champions Australia on Saturday.

The Group A clash between the 1996 winners and winners of the past three World Cups was shaping up well until heavy rain, coupled with thunderstorms, forced the teams from the field. The match was later abandoned.

The no-result gives both teams one point each, leaving Pakistan at the top of Group A with six points from three matches. Australia have five points from three matches and Sri Lanka have five points from four.

Sri Lanka, who chose to bat after winning the toss, were recovering from a poor start, at 146-3 before heavy rain put a halt to action after 32.5 overs.

Kumar Sangakkara (73) and Thilan Samaraweera (34) were at the crease when play stopped, having added 71 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket stand.

With pools of water standing on the pitch, umpires Ian Gould and Tony Hill called off the match at the R. Premadasa stadium.

“It’s a shame. It looked like it was going to be a terrific game. Sangakkara was controlling the match for them,” said Australian skipper Ricky Ponting.

“It would have been a tough wicket to bat on second. With their spinners it would have been a tough run chase.”

Sri Lanka, playing with three spinners in Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath, lost openers Tillakaratne Dilshan (four) and Upul Tharanga (six) by the seventh over.

Dilshan, who hit paceman Shaun Tait for a boundary off the first ball he faced, was out later in the same over, edging to slip where Cameron White held a simple catch.

Tait’s fellow new-ball bowler Brett Lee made it 31-2 when he had Tharanga caught stunningly off a searing drive in the covers by Steve Smith.

Mahela Jayawardne (23) helped Sangakkara add 44 for the third wicket, before he was run out, beaten by a sharp Smith throw from the covers at the non-striker’s end, trying to take a sharp single.

Sri Lanka next meet Zimbabwe at Pallekele on March 10, while Australia return to India where they play Kenya three days later.

Source: Yahoo Cricket

Sri Lankan slingshot Lasith Malinga became the first man to claim two World Cup hat-tricks on Tuesday with a sensational six-wicket destruction of Kenya.

The 27-year-old, who famously took four wickets in four balls against South Africa in the 2007 tournament, finished with 6-38 as Kenya were bowled out for 142, struggling under a barrage of yorkers and trademark Malinga toe-crushers.

Malinga had Tanmay Mishra lbw with the final ball of the 42nd over and then clean-bowled Peter Ongondo and Shem Ngoche with the first two of the 44th to complete his hat-trick.

Malinga, who had earlier dismissed opener Seren Waters and top-scorer Collins Obuya, missed the chance for another four in four when he unleashed a wide past Elijah Otieno.

But he was not to be denied, clean-bowling the hapless number 11 with another unplayable delivery for a fourth wicket in six balls.

His hat-trick was the second of this World Cup following West Indies seamer Kemar Roach’s achievement against the Netherlands on Monday.

Kenya, who went into the Group A game at the R. Premasada stadium in Colombo with the tournament’s worst record, were 8-2 at one stage before brothers Collins (52) and David Obuya (51) put on 94 for the third wicket.

But their last seven wickets went for the addition of just 22 runs to leave the home side with a straightforward target.

Sri Lanka, the 1996 champions, lost to 1992 winners Pakistan by just 11 runs in their last outing, and went into the game widely expected to heap more misery on a Kenyan side reportedly split by internal strife.

Sri Lanka had a World Cup score to settle having slumped to a shock 53-run defeat against the Africans in Nairobi in 2003, a result that helped the Kenyans go all the way to the semi-finals.

Kenya lost by 10 wickets to New Zealand in their Group A opener after being bowled out for 69 and then suffered a 205-run mauling at the hands of Pakistan.

In their two games before Tuesday, they had made just 181 runs, were without a point and had the worst run rate.

Meanwhile, Roach, whose hat-trick on Monday in the 215-run win over the Netherlands was the sixth in World Cup history, said his side have nothing to fear ahead of Friday’s showdown against Bangladesh in Dhaka.

The game could be crucial in deciding the fourth team from Group B to make the quarter-finals with India, England and South African expected to snatch the other three berths.

“We take a lot of confidence into the game against Bangladesh,” said Roach, who finished with a career-best 6-27 against the Dutch, celebrating a hat-trick when he sent back Pieter Seelaar, Bernard Loots and Berend Westdijk.

“We’ll go there on a high. Bangladesh are an improving team but we are better than them.”

West Indies and Bangladesh have two points from a win and defeat apiece.

Source: Yahoo Cricket

Pakistan notched up a close victory over Sri Lanka in their second ICC Cricket World Cup encounter in Colombo on Saturday.

Skipper Afridi snapped up four wickets, picking his 300th ODI wicket in the process, as Sri Lanka crumbled in the face of a stiff target. Shoaib Akhtar was lethal as well, getting the crucial wicket of Mahela Jaywardene with a reverse-swinging peach.

Chamara Silva (57) and skipper Kumar Sangakkara (49) were the only batsmen who offered some resistance for Sri Lanka in an otherwise weak reply.

Pakistan’s batting revolved around Misbah (83 not out off 81 balls) and Younus (72 off 76 balls), who put on 108 in about 20 overs to lend stability to the innings.

Rangana Herath claimed two wickets while Muttiah Muralitharan bowled a miserly spell of one for 34 in 10 overs, but Sri Lanka failed to effect breakthroughs as Pakistan cruised to a competitive total.

Batting first after winning the toss Pakistan were off to a solid start racing to 65 in 10 overs after losing Ahmed Shehzad (13) early on.

Mohammed Hafeez and Kamran Akmal added 48 in 7.2 overs but a bizarre run-out ended Hafeez’s innings prematurely at 32.

Kamran (39) could not put the mix-up behind him and threw away his wicket by charging down the pitch to spinner Herath only to be stumped by Kumara Sangakkara.

Younus Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq kept the score board ticking by rotating the strike and took Pakistan past 150 after 29 overs.

Younus reached his second successive half-century of the tournament off 56 balls and Misbah followed suit a few overs later – with the Test captain’s half-century coming off 65 balls with just a solitary boundary.

The third-wicket stand accumulated 100 at a healthy rate, but Herath broke the partnership eight runs later by having Younus caught at short fine-leg.

Having reached 224 for four in 43 overs, Pakistan opted for the batting powerplay but Muralitharan gave only two in his final two overs and sent back Umar Akmal for 10.

In all Pakistan managed only 36 in the final powerplay and lost captain Shahid Afridi for 12-ball 16 in the penultimate over of the innings.

Abdul Razak was holed out to the last ball of the innings but had added 10 with Misbah who was unbeaten on 83.

Source: ESPNSTAR Cricket

For the many who slammed the ICC’s decision to expel Associates from the next World Cup, this was a bad day. After Kenya were embarrassed by a modest New Zealand team, Canada desperately needed to showcase why minnow teams belong on the global stage. Instead they were overwhelmed by 210 runs against Sri Lanka, who opened their World Cup campaign as emphatically as their co-hosts India did on Saturday.

Mahela Jayawardene stroked his way to the fastest World Cup hundred by a Sri Lankan, sharing a 176-run stand with his captain Kumar Sangakkara before the home side’s pace bowlers rushed through a hapless Canadian line-up to deliver a crushing victory.

After India’s fervoured opening at Mirpur proceedings at Hambantota felt much more leisurely and with a combination of sightscreen problems and a few injuries, it took the visitors four hours to get through their fielding effort. For the first 20 overs of Sri Lanka’s innings the scoring rate was almost as sluggish – despite a 59-ball half-century for Tillakaratne Dilshan – as Canada demonstrated the ideal model for Associate cricked. Disciplined dobbers combined with swift fielding and a slowish track to keep Sri Lanka in check.

It was only when Jayawardene arrived that Sri Lanka’s campaign really kicked into gear. He was in total control, threading the spinners through the finest gaps and caressing boundaries at will. Sangakkara was not quite as fluent, needing 47 deliveries to find his first boundary. He survived two moments of alarm with when he was dropped on 12 by by 16-year-old Nitish Kumar, on as a substitute, and again on 48 by the rotund legspinner Balaji Rao.

Jayawardene barely mistimed a ball but twice survived reviews from Canada captain Ashish Bagai, who was convinced he was out caught behind. On both occasions the appeal was spontaneous and exuberant but the UDRS – without Snicko, and shorn of HotSpot – unsurprisingly revealed nothing.

There was no route back for Canada as the pair cashed in against a tiring attack. It’s becoming one of cricket’s more quirky stats that Sangakkara can’t seem to reach three figures in ODI cricket anymore. His last century was in June 2008 and has now gone 60 matches without a hundred, despite scoring heavily over the period.

He had the ideal opportunity today, but inexplicably popped a gentle return catch to John Davison when eight runs short. By this stage the only trouble for Jayawardene was the heat and he looked exhausted as he crawled the single to bring up his record-breaking century.

While victory was always going to be beyond them, a competitive showing with the bat would have lifted the spirits of a dank World Cup day but Canada’s top order folded against a sparky new-ball pairing. The hulking Thislan Perera proved too quick for John Davison and Zubin Sukari before returning later to snare Bagai. The looming threat of rain forced Sangakkara to swap seam for spin to rush to to 20 overs – the minimum needed to constitute a match – but once that threat cleared Sri Lanka’s job was as good as done.

At 40, Davison has had plenty of experience but appears to be trading off the World Cup century he made eight years ago. In the build-up Canada were keen to point to the clutch of youngsters who had come through their Under-19s side but come the day Kumar and Hiral Patel – their two bright batting talents – were left out. After today’s showing both can expect to make their senior World Cup debuts soon.

Rizwan Cheema offered a glimpse of the big-hitting that gave England a fright but by that stage that game was meandering towards the inevitable. After two matches and two crushing defeats, the Associates are doing the ICC’s case no harm at all.

Sahil Dutta is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo