Tillakaratne Dilshan (74) and Virat Kohli (70) guided Royal Challengers Bangalore to clinch a stunning two wickets victory over South Australia Redbacks in the pulsating encounters of Champions League Twenty20.

The hero of the match was Arun Karthik who hit a colossal six on the last ball to seal the victory for the Challengers. Royal Challengers Bangalore will now face New South Wales in the semis at Bangalore.

Pacer Shaun Tait gave South Australia huge breakthrough towards the end as he removed Virat Kohli in their Champions League Twenty20 match against Royal Challengers at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

In the end, Redbacks bowlers have made a come back as they scalped three quick wickets in the span of 25 runs.

Virat Kohli, who made quick-fire 70 off 36 balls, also added valuable second wicket 100 runs stand with Tillakaratne Dilshan to lead Royal Challengers run chase.

Kohli raced to his fifty in 28 balls with the help of five sixes and two fours while Dilshan reached to his half century in 31 balls.

Redbacks’ Daniel Christian dismissed Chris Gayle to give Royal Challengers huge blow. Gayle smacked three huge sixes in his 26 runs innings that came in 15 balls.

Chasing mammoth 215, RCB’s Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chris Gayle started aggressively as Indian outfit raced to fifty in 4.4 overs.

Earlier, electing to bat, the Australian outfit made a mockery of the hapless RCB bowlers to post the highest total in the tournament. The Redbacks have four points and need a victory to take the top slot.

The last six overs produced 92 runs with Sreenath Aravind being hit for 69 runs in his four over spell. The manner in which the left-arm seamer was hit all over the park may seriously dent his chances of making it to the playing XI against England.

For the Australian side, the “Doctor was on call” as Harris (a qualified medical practitioner) was the star of the innings.

The right hander took charge from the word go with his audacious strokes that stunned the RCB bowlers. His magnificent innings was laced with 17 hits to the fence and two sixes one of which was the one which helped him reach his maiden T20 ton.

Ferguson was equally brilliant at the other end, scoring a 43-ball 70, studded with four boundaries and three sixes.

After losing skipper Michael Klinger (7), Harris joined hands with Ferguson as the second wicket pair stitched a belligerent century partnership of 114 runs coming off only 75 balls.

Harris showed no respect to RCB’s left arm seamer Dirk Nannes, hitting him for four consecutive boundaries taking 18 runs in the process. He was particularly severe on Aravind, creaming 28 runs in two overs.

For RCB, Syed Mohammad and Rajoo Bhatkal claimed a wicket apiece.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: TM Dilshan, CH Gayle, MA Agarwal, V Kohli, SS Tiwary, KB Arun Karthik, DL Vettori, RR Bhatkal, J Syed Mohammad, DP Nannes, S Aravind

South Australia Redbacks: M Klinger, DJ Harris, TLW Cooper, CJ Ferguson, CJ Borgas, DT Christian, TP Ludeman, AW O’Brien, NM Lyon, KW Richardson, SW Tait

Source: Times of India

Chasing a modest target of 126 runs against Kochi, Bangalore achieved a 9-wicket win with 41 balls to spare with the help of quickfire knocks from Chris Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore restricted Kochi Tusker Kerala to a modest 125 for nine to take command in the Indian Premier League match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here today.

Expecting the wicket to assist spin, Kochi skipper Mahela Jayawardene opted to bat upon winning the toss but his batsmen committed hara kiri after Michael Klinger (24) and Brendon McCullum (22) had provided them a reasonably good start of 43 runs.

Having started on a positive note with 41 for no loss in five overs, the Tuskers suddenly plummeted to 73 for four in 10.1 overs to hand the advantage to the Bangalore outfit, who are seeking to score their fifth successive win.

McCullum, who threatened to cut lose, was the first to depart, chipping Daniel Vettori to substitute Arun Karthik, fielding in place of an injured Cheteswar Pujara.

Klinger joined McCullum back in the hut, playing all over a Chris Gayle delivery to have his stumps rattled. Much was expected of Jayawardene, but the captain was snaffled behind the wicket by AB de Villiers off the canny Vettori.

Parthiv Patel made things worse by having himself run out by an acrobatic de Villiers.

Last match hero Brad Hodge and Ravindra Jadeja, however, managed to steady the rocking ship briefly with a 16-run partnership. But RCB, clad in pastel green to support environment issues, had the match under their command by the 15th over, leaving the Tuskers struggling for oxygen at 95 for five.

The Tuskers just could not get off the rack and eventually settled for a modest total in their allotted 20 overs.

Source: NDTV Cricket

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

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

These two have binged on each other since July 2008, but what promises to be the one for the road went Sri Lanka’s way, ending their run of losses in big home matches. On the tournament’s best batting track, though not quite a flat belter, Tillakaratne Dilshan’s risk-free yet urgent century and Kumar Sangakkara’s delightful half-century set a target never reached under Dambulla lights. When Virender Sehwag left his team-mates – who’d scored 288 runs between them before the start of the final – with 262 to get, it was all but over. The flame flickered for longer than expected, but not nearly long enough.

Umpiring decisions and manic appealing dominated the chase but couldn’t alter the expected result. Dinesh Karthik was given out caught off the thigh pad. Virender Sehwag’s plumb lbw was not given, but he ran himself out off the same ball. Yuvraj Singh got away with a caught-behind before opening his account but was given out, 26 runs later, off one he didn’t seem to have edged. MS Dhoni survived a close lbw call when on 12 but ran out of partners as the asking rate mounted.

The start of the match was much more serene. In fact, off the fourth ball of the game, Praveen Kumar hardly appealed when he had Mahela Jayawardene caught right in front. Jayawardene, promoted because of his technical prowess, put together the best opening stand of the tournament – 121, an association that also set up the highest team total. The way Dilshan and Jayawardene batted, without taking any undue risks, it was easy to see why the previous best of 79 too belonged to them. The ball may not have swung wildly, but the batsmen were tested by the early movement that Praveen and Munaf Patel extracted.

Neither batsman tried expansive shots. In his first three overs, Praveen went too far down the leg side, looking for that magic outswinger, and went for fours through midwicket and fine leg. It wasn’t as easy to hit Munaf off his shortish length, around off and with slight seam movement either side. They didn’t try to do that; instead they played out Munaf’s first four overs for 13, yet the score at the end of those overs read 47 for 0.

Dilshan targeted Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma. Nehra’s second ball and Ishant’s first were punched away for fours. Both the shots were hit along the ground, and involved more enterprise than risk. By the time Ishant’s second over yielded six, four and four, Dilshan had moved to 43 off 30, and Sri Lanka to 74 after 12 overs.

Dilshan had assumed total control by then. The punch shot through the off side, with his front foot out of the way, caused the main damage. One of those, off Nehra, brought up his fifty in the 16th over. Nehra’s figures then read 4-0-31-0.

Forget the fifth bowler, Dhoni must have started worrying about how to finish the quotas of specialist bowlers, all quicks. Dilshan’s pace didn’t make the task any easier. Barring one spell near his century, when he spent 38 balls between his 12th and 13th boundaries, the longest Dilshan went without a four was 16 balls.

During that quiet period Sri Lanka lost Jayawardene and Upul Tharanga against the run of play, but Kumar Sangakkara made sure the team didn’t fall behind. In the time that Dilshan went from 92 to 100 and Sangakkara hared from 11 to 32, taking Sri Lanka to 194 in the 37th over. Dilshan then threatened more punishment on India, but holed out to long leg.

Sangakkara made up for it and, even with wickets falling at the other end, drive followed elegant drive. The superb acceleration – from 19 off 29 to 70 off 59 – was interrupted by a slower ball from Munaf in the 45th over, but Sri Lanka had reached 261 for 6. Munaf’s last three overs went for 14 runs and two wickets, but a target of 300 meant India would need more than just Sehwag.

Sehwag hit six scorching boundaries in the first six overs. Off the last ball of the sixth over, Nuwan Kulasekara had him plumb in front, but umpire Asoka de Silva seemed the only one to disagree. Sehwag got greedy and sought a leg-bye that didn’t exist. Chamara Kapugedera was not only alert, he also hit direct.

Thisara Perera, now Sri Lanka’s India specialist, and Suraj Randiv, who got nice drift and dip, kept the wicket flow going in the middle.

Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Dhoni tried to buck the trend of India’s hopes disappearing with Sehwag, but Sri Lanka were at them all the time. Kohli’s uncharacteristic hoick showed the pressure the required rate exerted, Raina’s cameo involved too many risks and ended prematurely from India’s point of view, and Dhoni’s 67 were too late and too few.

Source: CricInfo

Tillakaratne Dilshan produced a terrific all round show as Sri Lanka crushed Bangladesh by 126 runs to virtually qualify for the final of the Asia Cup cricket tournament here on Friday.

After scoring an intimidating 312 for four, the hosts bowled out Bangladesh for a mere 186 and collected a bonus point to take their points tally to nine from two matches at the Rangiri Dambulla International stadium.

Dilshan first scored a fiery 71 while opening the innings and then capped the successful day with a three-wicket haul.

India, who play Pakistan in a crucial match on Saturday, have five points from their six-wicket win over Bangladesh earlier in the week.

Pakistan, who lost their opener to Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh (two defeats) are yet to open their account.

Bangladesh were hopelessly outclassed in all departments of the game. The bowling was far from international standard, reflecting that the team had not improved much since breaking into the ICC league in 1999.

The batting too lacked depth with batsmen casting away their wickets after getting their eye in.

Tamim Iqbal top scored with 51 (52b, 5×4, 1×6) while Junaid Siddique made a gutsy 35-ball 38 before being superbly caught by a diving Nuwan Kulasekara at square leg off Muthiah Muralitharan (2/38).

The rest of the batsmen lacked the wherewithal to challenge the Lankan dominance.

Earlier, half centuries by Dislhan, Upul Tharanag (54) and Kumar Sangakkara (52) and a brisk 73-run partnership between Angelo Mathews (42 not out) and Chamara Kapugedara (37 not out) for the unbroken fifth wicket put Lanka in total command.

Opting to bat on ‘Victory Day’ in front of a boisterous home crowd, Sri Lanka galloped to 111 for no loss with Dilshan and Tharanga punishing the profligate Bangladesh new-ball attack led by Mashrafe Mortaza.

Mortaza conceded as many as 26 runs in two overs to set the tone for the Lankan rampage.

Bangladesh earned the breakthrough in the 16th over when Dilshan offered a feeble return catch to Shakib Al Hasan, the ball lobbing of the leading edge as he shaped to work the left arm spinner to square.

The flamboyant opener smashed 11 boundaries and a six during his 51-ball tenure at the square.

It was to the visitors’ fortune that Tharanga offered his wicket on a platter to Mahmudullah in the 27th over. Dancing down the wicket to hit the off spinner, Tharanga completely missed the line of the ball to be stranded way down the crease.

Mushfiqur Rahim made no mistake with the offering, whipping off the bails after initially appealing for a down the leg catch behind the wicket.

Thereafter, it was Sri Lanka all the way as Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene picked runs with effortless ease, picking the gaps in the field with precision and converting ones into twos.

The elegant twosome had posted 69 runs for the third wicket in 66 balls when Jayawardene (43), venturing to hit Shafiul Islam through the vacant on-side, holed out to Shakib Al Hasan at covers.

Shafiul Islam, easily Bangladesh’s best bowler of the day, was to account for Sangakkara as well, having the Lankan captain caught at the point by Shakib Al Hasan.

But Angelo Mathews and Chamara Kapugedara ensured that Lanka finished on a high with a breezy partnership which took the wind out of the Bangladesh sail.

Source: NDTV Cricket

Who’d a thunk it? Zimbabwe finished the league stage at the top of the table, winning comprehensively all their 50-over matches, and losing the one that was truncated to 26. Even in the first quarter of the final league match, a dead rubber, Sri Lanka seemed to have run away with the game, having scored 122 for no loss thanks largely to a rollicking start from Tillakaratne Dilshan. Zimbabwe’s army of spinners – accurate, aggressive, aided by good fielding – then came into action, and Sri Lanka managed only 114 in the rest of the piece. The chase hardly ever looked difficult, and once again Brendan Taylor was at the centre of it, scoring only his second ODI hundred and overhauling his personal best.

Zimbabwe refused to experiment and bat first in a tournament where all matches have been won by sides chasing, but they played around with the ball, persisting with the medium-pacers in the earlier stages of the innings. Resting one of their four spinners, they got the seamers to bowl 13 out of the first 15 overs, and Dilshan smacked them around to give Sri Lanka their best start of the tournament. Out of form coming into the tri-series, Dilshan continued his improvement with every innings, and was free-flowing in his 66-ball 78.

With Greg Lamb and Andy Blignaut out with minor niggles, the first 13 overs from the medium-pacers went for 89 runs. Dilshan got 54 of those – eight fours and a six in them. With the introduction of Ray Price in the 12th over came some control, but by that time Upul Tharanga had opened up too, having hit three fours in a Chamu Chibhabha over, the 10th of the innings. Dilshan was not going to settle for a boring middle-over accumulation either: he hit another four and six before falling prey to his own aggression in the 21st over.

Prosper Utseya, who got Dilshan stumped, followed up with Dinesh Chandimal’s wicket in the 25th over, and Zimbabwe had started clawing back. Soon Hamilton Masakadza came to bowl for the first time in the tournament. Soon he was showing off his vest with “just married” written on it, having accepted an easy return catch off his third ball. Three wickets had gone for 33 runs, and Sri Lanka were forced into consolidation, a spell during which Tharanga reached his fifty, but also a spell during which Zimbabwe kept the field up and didn’t allow easy singles.

Tharanga eventually played a shot of frustration, getting too close to a Graeme Cremer delivery and holing out to long-off. Jeevan Mendis looked to innovate, but pulled one to midwicket off Cremer. Thilan Samaraweera ran off a misfield, and Sri Lanka had lost another set of three wickets for 18 runs.

The match was now entering the crucial phase, the batting Powerplay, with Sri Lanka six down for 217 after 44 overs. Thissara Perera and Lahiru Thirimanne, the last recognised pair, had batted themselves in and were looking to undo Zimbabwe’s hard work. In the first over of the Powerplay, though, Mpofu removed them both. Perera missed a straight delivery and Thirimanne chipped to cover-point. More special celebrations came out, the rocking-baby this time, for Tatenda Taibu who recently had a second son.

Masakadza didn’t give his newly wed much more to cheer about. After his first failure in the tournament, though, Taylor got a good helping hand from Chibhabha, who put behind an ordinary show with the ball and a slow, edgy start. With not much swing available, Thilan Thushara and Dilhara Fernando tried to test the openers with short deliveries. It worked to begin with: Masakadza gloved one down the leg side in the fifth over, and Zimbabwe had scored only 16 in the first six. However, chasing a modest total, they could afford to give the bowlers a few overs and wait for the loose deliveries.

Sure enough, the loose deliveries started arriving. Immediately after Chibhabha top-edged Thushara for four in the seventh over, five wides followed. In the next over, Fernando over-pitched, and was off-driven by Taylor. In the ninth over, Thushara over-pitched on the pads, and Chibhabha flicked him over fine leg for six.

With literally risk-free cricket, Zimbabwe had reached 42 in nine overs. With the introduction of Thissara Perera, though, the batsmen started taking calculated risks. His two overs went for five boundaries, four of them in the air, and with 80 runs on the board after 15 overs, Zimbabwe could afford to milk the bowling. The next 17 overs got Zimbabwe just 72 runs, but the period didn’t draw any panic. During the spell both the batsmen reached their fifties, and Chibhabha’s mixed day was sure to give Zimbabwe a selection headache before the final.

Even after Chibhabha’s dismissal, Taylor made sure Zimbabwe stayed ahead of the rate, without taking undue risks. There was the odd late-cut past short third man, there was the odd long hop pulled over midwicket, and lots of ones and twos. Coolly, Taylor and Taibu finished off their first win over Sri Lanka in seven years, with 13 balls to spare.

Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo

“Frankly today we were rubbish,” said Zimbabwe’s new coach Alan Butcher. And he was right. It was a one-way street in Bulawayo. Only Hamilton Masakadza turned up for Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka attacked from every corner, with spin and seam, to strangle and harass the hosts who just about managed to get past 100. Only Masakadza managed to successfully combine aggressive intent with the required skill that the rain-reduced 26-over game demanded of the batsmen. It was Sri Lanka, led by Ajantha Mendis, who called all the shots and Tillakaratne Dilshan ensured they earned a bonus point and took the top spot with a breezy knock.

Mendis bamboozled with his mystery against a team he’s had much success with – 18 wickets from six games before this. Suraj Randiv troubled with his accuracy and Jeevan Mendis, the debutant leg-spinning allrounder, picked up a couple of wickets. Not that the seamers didn’t sparkle.

Nuwan Kulasekara turned in an asphyxiating spell with the new ball with figures that read 3-0-7-0 and Dilhara Fernando, as ever, extracted bounce from short of a length to produce an equally tight spell. And it was Fernando who started the demolition job by removing Brendon Taylor.

The nature of Taylor’s dismissal set the tone for Zimbabwe today: He stumbled out to the leg side, almost like a tailender, to a short-of-length delivery and had a lame fatal poke at it. It highlighted the urge to attack that the reduced game demanded of the hosts, but also perfectly caught the confusion in the mind of the way to go about it.

Zimbabwe also faltered in their strategy. Why was Greg Lamb, a batsman with a strike rate of about 41, sent in at No.3 in a 26-over game? The pitch wasn’t so bad that they needed to stitch one end up. Lamb crawled to a 19-ball 10 which was neither here nor there and only piled pressure on Masakadza.

Craig Ervine’s struggles against spin further hurt Zimbabwe. He could only eke out three runs from 18 deliveries of spin from the combination of Ajantha Mendis and Randiv. He couldn’t pick Ajantha Mendis’ variations and couldn’t break free against Randiv’s accuracy. Ajantha Mendis swallowed both Lamb and Ervine and Randiv lured Charles Coventry to hole out to the deep. And more trouble lay around the corner for Zimbabwe as they lost Elton Chigumbura , inside-edging a short delivery from Jeevan Mendis on to his stumps.

Watching all the damage unfold was Masakadza. It was he who hit the first boundary with a disdainful pull in the fourth over against Fernando. It was he who hit the first six in an over where he threatened to turn things around for Zimbabwe. He went after Thissara Perera in the eighth over, thrashing him for a four past mid-off and unfurling an imperiously-pulled six to loot 17 runs. However, he too slowed down after that frenetic over. It took him a further 38 deliveries to hit his next boundary, the self-restraint no doubt caused by the alarming rate at which the wickets fell. In the end, he was the ninth wicket to fall when he top-edged a bouncer from Fernando and Zimbabwe soon crashed out for 118.

Zimbabwe needed a great start if they were to pull off an unlikely heist. However, Chris Mpofu went for 14 runs in the third over as Upul Tharanga pinged the point boundary for three fours and Sri Lanka seized all momentum. Though Tharanga was run out later, Tillakaratne Dilshan, who had played a watchful, but a good knock against India in the previous game, hastened the end with an aggressive innings. He lofted Prosper Utseya for a six and a four, slog-swept Lamb to the ropes and cut Chigumbura for more boundaries. The chase was over in a blink.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at Cricinfo