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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outShikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma played key roles in India’s win•Associated Press

In a contest of ordinary batting line-ups, India had the extra bit of quality to successfully chase an under-par West Indies total. West Indies seemed to lack enterprise and skill to handle India’s bowling, but their bowlers and fielders were spirited in the defence, dragging India down. The top order faltered after a quick start, but Rohit Sharma and captain Suresh Raina steadied India from 104 for 4.It was a slow and low track all right, fast becoming the norm in the West Indies now, but wasn’t treacherous enough to justify either West Indies’ total or the struggle India went through before getting there. The only batsmen that seemed at ease were Marlon Samuels, Raina and eventually Rohit. Samuels’ half-century injected some life in West Indies’ limp innings after early wickets and an extra-cautious Ramnaresh Sarwan had left them crawling to 74 for 3 in 25 overs.Raina did much the same for India with a busy effort, but it was Rohit who was the most interesting study. There were two Rohits on display. The first came out, saw Devendra Bishoo spin one across him, and started slogging at everything. That Rohit refused to work hard, and looked to slog his way out. That Rohit batted alongside Shikhar Dhawan, who scored his maiden half-century in unconvincing manner and looked liked he could get out any moment.West Indies’ brightest phase came when legspinners Bishoo and Anthony Martin kept a tight leash on the scoring, with Darren Sammy and the alert fielders providing the support cast. For 13.2 overs India didn’t get a single boundary. The edginess was apparent. S Badrinath played 11 straight dots before edging Bishoo to make it 61 for 3. Rohit’s ways rubbed off on Dhawan, who started trying to hit every ball for four, finding either an edge or a fielder. His wicket, through a slog sweep that gave Martin his maiden wicket, was a freight train coming.Rohit, though, was over the self-destructive period by then. And also a critical moment in the 24th over when a close lbw shout was ruled in his favour. He played Bishoo for the turn, and the straighter one kissed his back pad before hitting the bat. And it was right in front. The umpire couldn’t really be faulted for not being completely sure it had hit the pad first, but West Indies could claim that the DRS would have got them their man.Those early hiccups negotiated, the other Rohit was the one batting in a sweat-drenched shirt, running hard, looking to convert ones into twos, scoring his first 30 runs without a boundary. Raina came in and nudged a couple of boundaries to calm things further. Rohit’s first boundary was a treat: an inside-out chip for six off Sammy. He added 80 in 14.3 overs with Raina without looking hurried at all. Raina perished looking to finish the game in the batting Powerplay, and a physically struggling Rohit would have had to dig much deeper had Martin held on to a simple return catch from Yusuf Pathan at 189 for 5.Another half-centurion in the match, Sarwan, got off to a much better start than Rohit did, but played himself into a shell, during the other critical passage of play in the game. West Indies had got off to a start similar to India’s, losing two wickets after a quickish opening, but Sarwan’s 63-ball stand with Kirk Edwards featured 38 dots. Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh – who went for 108 in their 30 overs for five wickets – bowled well, but not least because the batsmen allowed them to. Neither of the two batsmen looked to drop and run a quick single, nor was a single fielder put under pressure. Harbhajan reaped the rewards as Edwards top-edged a straighter one.Samuels, though, brought in the urgency, attacking Yusuf, becoming the first batsman to have a strike-rate of over 50. After a spell of 12 overs for 56, at 130 for 3, they asked for the Batting Powerplay. Forty-three came off the five-over block, but West Indies also lost Sarwan to a tickle down the leg side. The real blows came after the Powerplay as Raina snuck a short delivery through Samuels’ legs, and Harbhajan did Bravo in with a doosra that dipped and kicked. The rest could add only 23 to the 191 for 6 in the 45th over, providing India with a seemingly easy chase. As it turned out, it took a dehydrated, cramping-up, and a slightly fortunate Rohit to pull it off.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsZaheer Khan caused problems at the top, removing Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina to trigger the Chennai slide•Associated Press

Chris Gayle indulged himself after his bowlers restricted Chennai Super Kings to a below-par 128 to ensure Royal Challengers Bangalore will finish top of the points table. The result also secured their berth in this year’s Champions League.Chennai were always facing inevitable defeat once their top order crumbled six overs into the game. Tottering at 22 for 4, MS Dhoni consolidated initially before looting quick runs in the end, but 128 wasn’t going to test Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Especially with Gayle unleashing hell.Gayle left his mark on the chase and it was violent. A six flew over third man, another disappeared over cow corner, a third, off Suresh Raina, landed in the upper tier of the long-on stands and a fierce straight drive rammed into Albie Morkel’s shin. A limping Morkel continued bowling after receiving some treatment but Gayle promptly dispatched a short delivery over the deep midwicket boundary. But while Gayle thrilled the home crowd, it was the bowlers who won the game for Bangalore.The first couple of overs set the tone: Zaheer Khan nearly yorked M Vijay and beat Michael Hussey with couple of outswingers, and S Aravind hit a nagging line and length to handcuff Chennai. The breakthrough came in the third over when Hussey dragged an away-going delivery on to his stumps. It was a sign of things to come. Vijay hung his bat out against Aravind, Suresh Raina top edged a pull off Zaheer and when S Badrinath lifted Daniel Vettori to long-off Chennai were wobbling at 22 for 4 from 5.4 overs.It was left to Dhoni to play the lone ranger but every time he tried to switch to attacking mode, a wicket fell, forcing him to revert to caution. He added 26 runs with Wriddhiman Saha from 6.4 overs and Chennai reached 60 for 4 in 12 overs. Saha swung Gayle for a six over midwicket in the next over to suggest a possible change in the mindset but he fell, trying to repeat the shot off Virat Kohli in the 14th over.Dhoni was on a run-a-ball 19 at that stage and soon swung Gayle for his second six to hint at a revival, but Dwayne Bravo was trapped by an arm-ball from Vettori, forcing Dhoni to slow down again. He went quiet for a couple of overs and it was only in the final over, bowled by Abhimanyu Mithun, that Dhoni really displayed his brand of violence. He pulled a six and a four before he smote one over the midwicket boundary to finish off in style. It was far from enough though.

ScorecardSurrey’s batsmen endured a day to forget as they lost 12 wickets to end 208 behind Middlesex at Lord’s. With Tom Maynard, who made an unbeaten 98, the one outstanding exception, batsmen came and left with a shrug. Surrey’s first innings folded in 56.3 overs and they were two down in the follow-on as Chris Adams and Rory Hamilton-Brown’s youthful side had their first really disappointing outing of the season.Given the number of poor dismissals, singling out any one batsman seems unfair. In Surrey’s first innings Michael Brown pushed at a wide Steven Finn delivery for 9, but that was better than Steve Davies, who faced three balls before slashing Corey Collymore to third slip. Zander de Bruyn wasted his good form by trying to squeeze a cut that was never on in Collymore’s next over to make it 19 for 4 but none of the dismissals were as frustrating as Hamilton-Brown’s.Surrey needed a captain’s innings to better even Neil Dexter’s hundred the day before. As ever, Hamilton-Brown was bullish in the face of crisis and struck four crisp boundaries before he’d made 20. But having reached 47 off 57 deliveries he gave it all away. A straight ball from Steven Crook deserved a straight bat. Instead he tried to whip it through midwicket and fell lbw. He is an immensely gifted player but has some way still to develop and whether captaincy is helping that is questionable.All the while Maynard was building an impressive follow-up to his century against Glamorgan. With a rugby-player’s frame he swatted Collymore into the grand stand and pushed an uppish drive that rocketed to the cover rope a ball later. As wickets fell to an array of careless shots at the other end, he progressed past fifty and registered his 1000th first-class run by lifting a towering six back over Dexter’s head.With Tim Linley for company at No. 10 he pushed a single off the first ball of Ollie Rayner’s 13th over to reach 98 but ruefully watched on as Linley and Jade Dernbach edged successive deliveries to slip to leave Surrey 242 behind and following on, and Maynard deserted on 98.There was enough time before the day was out for Finn to impress from the Pavilion End again. Brown completed his bad afternoon by edging routinely to Rayner for a duck before de Bruyn fended low to gully, unable to control a delivery that spat from a length. Like Brown, it was de Bruyn’s second dismissal in the day, but at least the bowler was to blame this time. It meant each of Surrey’s top four batsmen had collected ducks in the day and Middlesex could look forward to joining Lord’s ‘street-style’ wedding party on Friday with victory in sight.

One of the most important benefits from India’s scrappy World Cup semi-final victory over Pakistan – apart from the sound and sight of a hundred firecrackers going out around the PCA stadium on a Mohali night and the adoration of millions – is their team’s sense of being in what captain MS Dhoni equated to a good spell.Dhoni said the format of the World Cup had helped the Indians get to a stage just before the final where off-field distractions and on-field pressures could both be handled. “The format really helped us. We have had quite a few close games where we were tested. Some of the youngsters were tested. They were at the crease at a time when a big performance was needed from them. Slowly they are getting into the groove.”Dhoni said India’s performances in the knockouts had given the team a greater sense of comfort going into the final, with regard to the pressures of the event. He compared the last week of the World Cup to a bowler bowling at more than 150kph. “Once you do that you don’t think whether you are bowling 155 or 160. So I think after the semis, the final won’t feel much different. The feeling (of the importance of a game) has been static for a while and hopefully that will really help us.”In the semi-final, Dhoni said the Indians had read the wicket incorrectly in deciding to opt for a 3-1 attack, replacing offspinner R Ashwin with left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra. It was driven, he said, by India’s part-time options as well as Pakistani batsmen generally being at ease against spin. “We can manoeuvre with the part-timers. We thought on a normal Mohali pitch, you don’t see assistance to spinners. The ball doesn’t turn big time. Here the ball was stopping.India have developed a familiarity with that winning feeling in two knockout games this World Cup•Getty Images

“I felt it was better to go with safer option, but we went with a safe option and misread the wicket.”The Indians, Dhoni said, had paced their innings against Pakistan well, particularly when compared to how they had handled the World Cup’s middle and end overs prior to this game. The track, he said, became slower at the halfway stage, and with the Pakistanis bowling tight and India losing Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh off consecutive deliveries, it had become difficult to rotate the strike. “Their spinners bowled really well, even Mohammad Hafeez was able to capitalise.” The innings calculation had then been tempered down. “After losing two wickets in the middle overs it is important to bat 50 overs in big games, you shouldn’t look to score 300-320. If the wicket is behaving in a different way, re-adjust your target.”Dhoni said he had thought India’s total of 260 was “a good score not a safe score” and India’s immediate target had been to “not give away runs with the new ball.”All that Dhoni was willing to comment on about the first-ever all-Asian World Cup final to be held on April 2 was to praise the Sri Lankans for their progress through the tournament. India he said, “have also really been tested more often than not and it will be a really good game. It’s not about what your rating is but how good you are on the day. You have to be at your best.”

Ricky Ponting has accepted that he crossed the line with his dressing-room reaction to being run out against Zimbabwe in Ahmedabad on Monday, but is keen to put the incident behind him. Ponting was reprimanded by the ICC for breaking the Code of Conduct when he threw his groin protector at his kit bag and it bounced up to damage a television, and he said he wished he could take his actions back.”I think there’s a limit [to how much] you can let off steam in a dressing room,” Ponting said. “It is a pretty sacred sort of place, an international cricket team dressing room, but there’s a line that you can’t overstep and when some equipment is damaged in the change room then I accept the responsibility for that happening the other day, albeit by total accident and with no malice involved in it whatsoever. What’s happened has happened. I’d like to be able to take it back but I can’t. Now we’ve just got to move on.”The TV incident emerged on the morning after Australia’s 91-run victory, but the initial reports in local newspapers incorrectly suggested that an angry Ponting had smashed the set with his bat. Given that Ponting was not even fined for the level one offence, it was not surprising that by Thursday in Nagpur, all he wanted to do was concentrate on the next day’s match against New Zealand.”It was hit by my box that I’d thrown down into my cricket kit,” he said. “[There was] some small damage to the TV set; I went and reported it to the team manager straight away, and let him know what had happened. They replaced the television set there and then.”Some of the stories I’ve been hearing the last couple of days have been a little bit different than what the list of events actually were. Hopefully by the end of today we can put this all behind us and start worrying about a big game of cricket that’s going to take place tomorrow.”The Ahmedabad game was Ponting’s 40th World Cup match, making him the most-capped player in the tournament’s history. Ponting is yet to lose a World Cup game as captain. If Australia do win against New Zealand in Nagpur it will be Ponting’s 24th victory as a World Cup captain.

Melbourne and Sydney will each host two teams in next summer’s new Big Bash League, and the Ryobi Cup will be pruned to squeeze the revamped Twenty20 competition into the calendar. Cricket Australia’s board decided on Tuesday that Etihad Stadium in Melbourne’s Docklands and Sydney’s Homebush Stadium would join the six major Test grounds in headquartering Twenty20 teams, with Geelong’s bid rejected.However, although the limited-overs competition will suffer with the introduction of the Big Bash League, the board has for the time being kept its hands off the Sheffield Shield. The first-class tournament involves every team playing each other twice, culminating in a five-day final, and after Australia’s Ashes failure it would have been a controversial move to cut any rounds or the decider from the Shield.But if the Twenty20 competition expands beyond eight teams after next summer, something will have to give. Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland said for the time being the full Shield schedule was safe, and there were other options if more calendar time was required to play all three competitions.”It may well be that the Big Bash does expand and there are various options for us that can be considered as part of that process,” Sutherland said. “There’s absolutely no reason why the cricket season has to go for five and a half months or whatever it is. It can go for longer. We can play first-class matches in September in northern Australia or other parts of Australia if we want to extend the programme and ensure a full programme of one-day cricket or Shield cricket. There’s a huge range of possibilities.”For now, the Ryobi Cup has been trimmed to eight rounds plus a final, instead of the existing ten. That will provide scope for the eight-team Big Bash League, which Cricket Australia could have used to grow the game in Victoria’s major regional city of Geelong. However, a lack of floodlights at Geelong’s Skilled Stadium, together with the desire to push into Melbourne’s western suburbs, quashed that bid.”They were all very close calls,” said Mike McKenna, the Cricket Australia marketing manager in charge of the Big Bash League. “In terms of a lot of the measurements the venues were very even. The difference for us was the size of the market that we’re going to be serving with two teams in Melbourne, the growth of those markets, particularly the very strong growth predicted in the west of Melbourne, and the team that will play out of Etihad Stadium will be serving that audience.”In New South Wales, the Kogarah Oval and Sydney Showgrounds were overlooked as the board opted for teams at the SCG and the ANZ Stadium at Homebush. The eight city-based teams will reveal their names and colours in the coming weeks, while private backers will also be sought for two new sides, with the existing state cricket associations each set to take charge of only one outfit.The other major step will involve the distribution of players among the teams, and despite initially considering a national draft, Cricket Australia now believes free agency is a more likely scenario. Teams will be keen to secure their homegrown stars, but there is unlikely to be an IPL-style system in place where a handful of marquee talents are automatically tied to their local city.And fans will be disappointed if they expect to see stars like Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson in the Big Bash League. There are no plans to introduce a window free of international cricket during which the tournament could be played, and next summer Australia are likely to be playing Test cricket during much of the time when the Twenty20 competition is run, in December and January.”As we map out the Future Tours Programme … it’s pretty clear to me that there’s unlikely to be really clear windows for Australian players to play the full period of the Big Bash League,” Sutherland said. “There may be opportunities through the Big Bash League for them to play a week or two, or maybe the finals, but to my mind, looking at the schedule into the future, I think it’s probably unlikely at this stage.”

Amidst the raging furore generated in Bengal over the exclusion of Sourav Ganguly from the IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders, have extended their hand to the former Indian captain, saying that they would be open to have him on board in some capacity. Ganguly, who was the franchise’s icon player for the first three years, has not yet made a public comment about his decision.”I hope that we can get together and have some involvement in the game with him,” Joy Bhattacharjya, Kolkata’s team director, said on Time Out, ESPNcricinfo’s fortnightly audio show hosted by Harsha Bhogle.Bhattacharjya’s comment echo similar sentiments expressed by his CEO Venky Mysore, who after the weekend player auction in Bangalore, had indicated that he would be more than happy to have Ganguly back. “It’s something he will have to think about,” Mysore said. “If he is interested and inclined to take up such a role, I couldn’t be happier”Ganguly had expressed incredulity at finding no buyers from amongst the ten teams in the two-day auction. “I don’t know what happened,” he told the local media in Kolkata. “It’s up to the teams to decide on the players but I didn’t expect to go unsold. It’s hard to believe that I don’t figure among the 100-odd cricketers”Even before the auction, Ganguly had raised eyebrows when he doubled his base price to $400,000. At the time, officials from a number of franchises expressed surprise, and were sceptical that he would find any takers.Bhattacharjya said it was unfair to single out Kolkata for not retaining Ganguly. “You’re looking to have players who’ll play three years. It’s never about picking a single player because there are nine other teams that have the same opportunity to pick these players in an open auction. Whatever thought process we had, obviously there is such huge admiration and there’s so much riding. Other teams also had similar thoughts on what’s happened in the auction.”Ganguly’s was the ninth name to come out of the draw, but he failed to attract a bid. He also did not feature on the list of 27 names that were resubmitted for auction at the request of the franchises on Sunday.

The Bombay High Court has stayed until January 10, 2011 the proceedings of the BCCI’s disciplinary committee that is investigating charges against former IPL chairman Lalit Modi. Modi had filed a case claiming that the committee was improperly appointed, and Justice S.J. Kathawala, the vacation judge, held that prima facie there was an argument for halting the hearings.Modi’s lawyers contended that according to the BCCI’s constitution, the board is required to appoint three members to the disciplinary committee at its annual general meeting (AGM) every year. However, at the AGM held on September 29, 2010, the BCCI failed to appoint any members to the committee, thereby stripping it of its existence.When the board realised its error, it held a special general meeting (SGM) on December 11 where it appointed the same three members – Arun Jaitley, Chirayu Amin and Jyotiraditya Scindia – to the committee. At the time, the BCCI secretary N Srinivasan told that the reappointment of the committee was “a minor thing”.Modi’s lawyers countered in Court that this too violates the BCCI’s constitution and bye-laws, as the AGM is the only venue to appoint the committee. They argued that the board needs to first amend its constitution and bye-laws to allow for the appointment of a new committee at an SGM.In light of the judge’s ruling, the next set of disciplinary committee hearings scheduled for December 27 and 28 in New Delhi have been cancelled, according to a statement sent to ESPNcricinfo by Modi’s attorney, Mehmood Abdi.Modi has repeatedly challenged the composition of the committee, particularly objecting to the presence of current IPL chairman Chirayu Amin and BCCI vice-president Arun Jaitley on the grounds of bias against him. His case was rejected by the Bombay High Court but the Supreme Court told the board and Modi in October to come to a compromise on the issue. However, the two sides have failed to do so and the case is still pending.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Prasanna Jayawardene battled valiantly for his 58 but was unable to get Sri Lanka to the follow-on target•AFP

A post-lunch fightback was not enough to prevent West Indies from asking Sri Lanka to bat again on the fourth day in Galle, as the hosts were dismissed agonisingly close to the follow-on target of 381. Some positive batting from the Sri Lanka openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana, however, ensured West Indies would have to battle hard to go 1-0 up in the series, as they closed out the day’s play on 89 for no loss, having chiseled the deficit down to 113.A mini-collapse following the wicket of Dammika Prasad ensured that Sri Lanka would have to bat again, despite the best efforts of Prasanna Jayawardene and Prasad himself, as their 72-run partnership propelled the hosts to within three runs of avoiding the follow-on. Prasanna Jayawardene battled valiantly for his 58, while Prasad rode his luck for 47 at the other end, edging the fast men through the slips on several occasions as well as mistiming sweeps off the spinner, only for the ball to fall metres in front of the fine-leg fieldsman. He also entertained with two sweetly struck sixes over midwicket, using his feet against Shane Shillingford to loft him over cow corner and hanging back to wallop a slower ball from Darren Sammy over the same area.Prasanna Jayawardene, too, chipped in with regular boundaries and accumulated sensibly. He made use of some odd field placements by Sammy who, for the first time in the innings, had relaxed the field while the fast bowlers were in operation, even turning down the second new ball and opting instead to attack with spin.The ploy paid off eventually, however, as Prasad holed out to long-off attempting to clear the boundary one too many times, with his side only 14 runs short of making West Indies bat again. Ajantha Mendis came and went, and No.11 Thilan Thushara drove Kemar Roach down the ground to get Sri Lanka within one strike of the follow-on score. Prasanna Jayawardene, however, could not get the hosts over the line, top-edging an aggressive sweep off Shillingford to leave his team short, and Sammy with the option of enforcing the follow-on. He did so with little hesitation.West Indies had consolidated their position of advantage, striking thrice in the morning session to remove the overnight pair of Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera as well as Angelo Mathews; that left Sri Lanka going in to lunch at 262 for six. Shillingford continued to torment Mahela Jayawardene, as he had yesterday, almost having him caught at leg slip, only to have Dwayne Bravo spill the tough chance. He was out wafting airily to Roach next over, however, having made 59.Thilan Samaraweera started nervously against the pace of Roach, but soon found his feet to progress to a half-century. He was the victim of a terrible stroke of misfortune soon after, when he was caught backing up too far as a straight drive from Mathews clipped Dwayne Bravo’s outstretched boot on its way to the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Sri Lanka were left in the lurch when Mathews fell just before lunch, and despite Prasad and Prasanna Jayawardene’s partnership, the follow-on target proved too challenging for the hosts.The Sri Lankan openers came out fighting after their side batted again, as they raced to 31 in seven overs before tea and continued to defy West Indies following the break. Dilshan was typically free flowing, slashing and pulling with little restraint to force the field back, and used the crease well to negotiate the spin of Shillingford, once even dancing down the track to slam him back over his head for four. Paranavitana, too, was positive in intent, driving and cutting to the square fence early in his innings, before settling into a steady routine of singles and twos to the sweepers once gaps began to appear in the field. Only 22 overs were possible in Sri Lanka’s second innings before evening showers stopped play, and the inclement weather was steady enough to wash out the remaining overs.Weather permitting, West Indies have 98 overs to take ten Sri Lankan wickets tomorrow and have a chance of notching up a historic win. But the hosts’ impressive start and the intervention of the weather have made a draw the most likely outcome heading into the final day.

The Crown Prosecution Service has been handed a second file of evidence relating to claims that Pakistan’s cricketers accepted bribes to engage in spot-fixing during the fourth Test against England at Lord’s in August.Scotland Yard said that evidence that there was a conspiracy to defraud bookmakers will be considered by the CPS, although the investigation remains ongoing.Detectives interviewed four players under caution, three of whom – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – are currently suspended from international cricket by the ICC.Mazhar Majeed, a businessman and players’ agent, was also arrested as part of the investigation, and stands accused of accepting £150,000 to fix the actions of several players during the Lord’s Test.A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “The Metropolitan Police has today delivered a second file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in connection with the investigation of alleged offences in relation to the fourth Test at Lord’s Cricket Ground on 26 August. The file will now be subject to CPS consideration.”The ICC’s code of conduct commission rejected appeals by Butt and Amir against their suspensions last Sunday, while Asif had withdrawn his appeal. The next stage will be a hearing by the anti-corruption tribunal into details of the fixing case.