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The round started without high-profile players such as Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Amir, Nasir Jamshed, and Yasir Shah , who had all been released to play in the Bangladesh Premier League. National Bank of Pakistan, who drew with Water and Power Development Authority, continued to top Pool B with 33 points, while United Bank Limited lead Pool A with 32 points. FATA, though, are yet to break their duck this season, with two losses and three draws in five matches.Azhar Ali, Pakistan’s ODI captain made his first hundred of the season, setting up SNGPL’s innings-and-119-run win against Port Quasim Authority after a shouldering some heavy workload in international cricket in the last three months. Azhar struck 15 fours, shaking off the rust accumulated during the England series.Fawad Khan, the FATA captain, gave his team something to cheer about as he struck a century before lunch on the first day against Lahore Whites, a rare feat in the competition. Fawad played 46 first-class games for Abbottabad before joining FATA in 2013. However, he made his debut for FATA only this year. He had also played one match for North West Frontier Province.Mohammad Amir-less Sui Southern Gas Corporation managed to salvage a draw after being asked to follow on by United Bank Limted, who posted 514 on the back of five half-centuries. Sui Southern Gas were bowled out for 244 in the first innings but showed more fight in the second dig, opener Babar Azam showing the way with 90. The side is placed third in the Pool A table, with one win and four draws. Amir, who had been released to play for Chittagong Vikings in the BPL, is likely to miss at least two more rounds.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsColin Munro smashed one four and seven sixes in his unbeaten 14-ball 50•Getty Images

An abject Sri Lanka collapse full of witless batting, a clinical performance by New Zealand’s seamers, and a fast start from Martin Guptill, all featured in Sri Lanka’s final heavy defeat of the tour. Their embarrassment was enhanced a little here for having come in front of an Auckland crowd of over 17,000, and by Colin Munro, who bludgeoned the second-fastest half-century in T20s to close out a match that had never really been in doubt for New Zealand. He was unbeaten on 50 from 14 balls, having hit seven sixes and a four. Sri Lanka’s 142 for 8 on a flat track, and on one of the smallest grounds in the world, was gunned down with nine wickets and ten full overs to spare.Seduced by the short boundaries, Sri Lanka’s batsmen aimed slog after slog at the straight fence, and fell predictably, and in quick succession. New Zealand put zippy balls just short of a length – a clear bowling plan, given the ground’s odd dimensions – and the visitors just failed to adapt. Grant Elliott was the most accurate bowler, and took 4 for 22 from his full quota, but so intent did Sri Lanka’s batsmen seem on holing out, almost anyone could have taken those wickets.Angelo Mathews played a familiar lone hand, sporting a familiar look of frustration at his teammates’ incompetence. His 81 not out from 49 balls comprised well over half of Sri Lanka’s score. He was the only batsman to attempt to build an innings, instead of bash one.It’s not often that a batsman hitting 63 from 25 balls in a modest T20 chase will be outshone, but a rapid Guptill was made to look almost pedestrian by Munro. Having arrived at 89 for 1 in the seventh over, Munro blasted his second ball, off Thisara Perera, into the stands beyond wide long on, then savaged the legspin of Vandersay. Kane Williamson gave Munro the strike in the first ball of the eighth over, and he sent the ball hurtling over the deep midwicket boundary three times in four balls. That over cost 27. Having already been at the end of Guptill’s brutality, Vandersay had earlier bowled an over that conceded 20. His two overs went for 41. None of Sri Lanka’s four bowlers had an economy rate of less than 11.Munro wrapped up the victory with a four and two more sixes in Dushmantha Chameera’s third over. He reached fifty and moved New Zealand to their target with his last six, over deep midwicket. His 14-ball half-century is only slower than Yuvraj Singh’s 12-ball fifty against England, in the 2007 World T20.Sri Lanka’s spectacular nosedive began in the second over. Danushka Gunathilaka had earlier made room to scythe Adam Milne through the offside, but aimed an ungainly heave across the line soon after. The ball passed some distance from the bat and splayed his stumps.At the other end, Dilshan was playing his own ugly innings, mistiming and top-edging slogs, and missing attempted scoops over the shoulder. But he survived longer than two incoming batsmen, which is to say, until the 10th over. Before Dilshan was out reverse-sweeping, for 28 from 26 balls, Dinesh Chandimal and Shehan Jayasuriya had both been caught attempting expansive strokes for 2 and 3 respectively.Milinda Siriwardana – who has usually been an intelligent reprieve from Sri Lanka’s batting madness this tour – could not resist a slog himself as he was out first ball. He was caught just outside the circle at long on. With the score at 66 for 5 in the 11th over, Mathews might have expected a little help for rebuilding from Kithuruwan Vithanage and Thisara. They were both caught at the straight boundary for single figure scores, off Elliott’s bowling.Mathews had moved his innings into gear with two straight sixes off the spin of Mitchell Santner, but largely respected the quicks until the back end of the innings. Even then, he picked the hittable deliveries intelligently. He launched Trent Boult down the ground in the 15th over, then when Boult return to close out the innings, Mathews made room and slapped him through the offside twice. By far the largest partnership of the innings was Mathews’ 39-run stand with no. 10 batsman Vandersay.

Tawanda Mupariwa, Zimbabwe’s fast-medium bowler, will miss the fourth ODI against Pakistan in Faisalabad on Wednesday (January 30) after spraining his left ankle during a training session.Mupariwa bagged a career-best 4 for 46 in the third ODI in Multan, his first outing of the series, including the wicket of Younis Khan off his first delivery. He fell over after stepping on the boundary rope while attempting a catch during practice today. Mupariwa was immediately put under the supervision of Amato Machikicho, the team’s physio, with further checks scheduled for tomorrow.Christopher Mpofu, dropped from the side after giving away 72 runs in his ten overs in the series opener, will replace Mupariwa. Zimbabwe have decided against making any other changes to the side that lost by 37 runs in Multan.The tourists are already without Prosper Utseya, their captain, who failed to recover from the ankle injury he aggravated while batting in Hyderabad. Hamilton Masakadza will lead the side tomorrow with Utseya set to undergo an assessment just before the final ODI in Sheikhupura onSaturday.

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

Incisive new-ball spells in helpful conditions by Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth ensured several trends continued – Kings XI Punjab maintained their momentum with a fourth successive win while the Kolkata Knight Riders slumped to their fourth straight defeat. Both innings were characterised by late bursts. Punjab hit 21 off their final over which put the match just beyond the reach of Kolkata, who scored 75 off overs 15 to 19, but still fell nine short after a sluggish start.After Sreesanth removed Sourav Ganguly, slashing to Pathan at third man, Pathan struck twice in one over to leave Kolkata reeling. Pathan has always been a dangerous bowler when he gets the ball swinging back into the right-hand batsman and Mohammad Hafeez and Brad Hodge fell in the space of five balls. Sreesanth added Debradata Das to make it 29 for 4 after five overs, the most wickets to fall in that space of time in the tournament, and when VRV Singh bowled Laxmi Ratan Shukla at 50 for 5, Kolkata seemed to be heading for a massive defeat. David Hussey and young Wriddhiman Saha, however, had other ideas.The pair started slowly, playing out a couple of overs before Hussey took Gagandeep Singh, who had bowled two very tidy overs, for 17 runs, including a massive six over long-on. There was another quiet over before the pair really turned it on. The big hits were complemented by agile running between the wickets and they brought the equation down to 55 off 18 deliveries. James Hopes, back after missing three games, served up several full tosses which were promptly deposited into the crowd and when Gagandeep was taken for 18 in the penultimate over, the equation had come down to 19 off the last six balls, after Hussey was dismissed for a 46-ball 71.Pathan kept his nerve and sent down a mix of yorkers and low full tosses and despite some big swings only four runs came off the first three balls. There was no fairytale ending for Kolkata.After Punjab chose to bat, several of their batsmen failed to capitalise on their starts – three of their top five got into double digits but didn’t make it to 20. Hopes, coming in for Ramnaresh Sarwan, carved a few powerful boundaries square on the offside before top-edging Ashok Dinda to mid-on. Yuvraj Singh looked imperious, as in the previous game, plundering 14 off an Hafeez over before over-balancing to be stumped and Mahela Jayawardene lofted a huge six over midwicket before miscuing a bouncer from Umar Gul to mid-on.Shaun Marsh, fresh from his match-winning IPL debut against Deccan Chargers, kept his composure at the other end to make a pleasing 40. There were some crisp drives in his knock, with one through the covers off Dinda early on standing out. He was stumped, missing a flighted delivery from Hussey, as Kolkata started to gain the upper hand. When Karan Goel was run out a couple of overs later, Punjab had slid to 106 for 5 from 82 to 1.Kumar Sangakkara, who retired on 10 with a side strain, returned to lead the fightback with Pathan. He again demonstrated the importance of timing and placement in Twenty20 before departing for 28, bowled by Gul, who at US$150,000 is providing competition to Shane Watson for being the bargain buy of the IPL. Pathan remained unbeaten on 24, but the acceleration at the end was provided by Piyush Chawla, who hit three fours and a six off Ishant Sharma’s final over.It has been a stunning resurgence from Punjab, who after being bottom of the table after two games are now tied for top spot. Kolkata, though, have gone in the opposite direction, dropping from table-toppers to four points behind the teams in the semi-final places.

Dale Steyn has said that the notion he is coming towards the end of his international career due to his recent run of injuries is “absolutely ridiculous” and added he is desperate to help lead the recovery of South Africa’s fortunes.With Steyn being ruled out of the final Test against England in Centurion, due to the shoulder injury he sustained in the opening match of the series in Durban, it means he will have missed six of South Africa’s last eight Tests.Amid the problems swirling around South African cricket – including the doubts over AB de Villiers’ future – the long-term prognosis for Steyn has been questioned but he has no intention of packing it in.”It’s absolute rubbish,” Steyn told . “I played 48 Tests in a row, didn’t miss a single one, and now suddenly I’m an injury liability at the age of 32? It’s ridiculous. Injuries can happen to anybody but I’m still one of the fittest players in the squad and I have many, many overs left in me.””The Test team is going through some huge changes and I want to help lead the way as one of the senior players. This is no time to turn your back and walk away, that’s the last thing on my mind.”Steyn said that he retains ambitions in all three formats of the game but for now his immediate aim is to regain fitness for the World T20, which he concedes may be his last global limited-overs event, and that he will not be rushing back for the ODIs against England if not fully ready.”I’d love to be involved in the ODI series against England but I’m not going to rush back from injury, like I did in India, and make it worse. I’m desperately keen to be fit and play in the T20 World Cup in India in March. It might be my last World Cup so I’d like to help win the bloody thing.”

The Cape Cobras made a successful start in their defence of the MTN Domestic Championship (previously the Standard Bank Cup), with two wins in their first two matches of South Africa’s premier domestic one-day competition.The Cobras beat the Warriors at Newlands, Cape Town on Friday. Batting first, the captain Justin Kemp made 68 to boost the Cobras to 221 before a four-wicket haul from Charl Langeveldt, ably supported by 3 for 51 from Tyron Henderson, sent the Warriors crashing to a 90-run defeat. Andrew Puttick, the Cobras’ wicketkeeper, had a field day behind the stumps, pouching five catches.In Bloemfontein two days later, the Cobras picked up their second victory against the Eagles, in a match reduced from 45-overs a side to 20. Langeveldt was again among the wickets as the Eagles were restricted to 125 for 5. The chase was anchored by Puttick, who opened the batting and finished unbeaten on 64 as his side completed a seven-wicket win.In the opening game of the tournament on Wednesday in Bloemfontein, the Eagles, fresh from claiming the SuperSport Series, triumphed over the Warriors. Dillon du Preez, the leading wicket-taker in the SuperSport Series, grabbed four wickets while his new-ball partner Victor Mpitsang chipped in with three. Left-hander Arno Jacobs made an even 50 as the Warriors were rolled over for 148, a score that was hunted down by the Eagles with five wickets and 11 overs to spare.The Titans sailed to a six-wicket win over the Dolphins in Durban on Friday. A disciplined bowling performance from the Titans restricted the Dolphins to 164. Ahmed Amla scored an unbeaten 60 off 98 balls, while Paul Harris was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 25 from his nine overs. Titans’ keeper-batsman Heino Kuhn top scored with 51, and useful contributions from Gulam Bodi (34) and Francois du Plessis (44) sealed the win.The Dolphins bounced back from that loss with a win against the Lions on Sunday in Durban. The Dolphins opted to field and did well to bowl out the Lions for 166 in 41.4 overs. The Dolphins didn’t cruise during the chase, but eventually scampered home with three wickets in hand, having been 69 for 4 and subsequently 138 for 6.The Lions‘ campaign had got off to a winning start on Friday in Johannesburg. A high-scoring encounter against the Eagles was won with only an over remaining. Morne Van Wyk’s 128, and useful 40s from Boeta Dippenaar and Dean Elgar guided the Eagles to a challenging 271 for 6 off 45 overs. However, a wonderfully-paced run-a-ball chase, powered by the Lions’ top three, left the Eagles on the losing side.Stephen Cook and Alviro Petersen set the platform with a 128-run opening stand. Both openers were run out – Petersen for 95 – but Neil McKenzie all but stayed till the winning runs were hit. McKenzie, who made it to the Test team for Bangladesh ahead of Herschelle Gibbs, made a 70-ball 87, before falling on the brink of victory in the 44th over. Roger Telemachus struck twice in the penultimate over, but Justin Ontong’s six off the last ball won it with an over to spare.Zimbabwe, featuring in this year’s competition, failed in their match against the Warriors in Bulawayo on Sunday. Tatenda Taibu made 52 as the hosts posted 213 for 9, which was not to be enough as the Warriors chased it down to earn their first points in the tournament from their third game. Juan Theron took four wickets while Jacobs top-scored with 68 as the Warriors coasted to a six-wicket win.

India’s Varun Chakravarthy has strengthened his reign at the top of the ICC T20I bowling rankings, while Tilak Varma has climbed two places up to fourth in the batting list, after the first three T20Is of the ongoing series against South Africa. Despite scoring just 69 runs across three innings, Abhishek Sharma continues to lead the batting charts.Chakravarthy has been India’s best bowler in the series so far, taking six wickets at an average of 9.83 and an economy of 5.36. Tilak Varma, on the other hand, made a valiant 34-ball 62 in the second T20I, when no other batter crossed 30. His more tempered knock in the next match, 26* off 34, guided India to victory in a small chase.Quinton de Kock’s 90 in the second match helped him jump 14 spots, up to the 53rd spot among batters. Aiden Markram’s 69, when South Africa folded for just 117 in the third match, helped him climb eight places up to the 29th spot.

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Arshdeep Singh – Player of the Match for his spell of 2 for 13 in Dharamshala – moved four spots up to 16th. Marco Jansen shifted 14 spots up to 25th, while Lungi Ngidi moved 11 spots up to 44th.There were also gains for a few New Zealand players in Test rankings: Devon Conway’s 60 and 28 in the second Test against West Indies helped him move seven places up, to 34th. Mitchell Hay’s 61 on debut – also the highest score in the match – landed him in the joint-78th spot.Jacob Duffy’s 5 for 38, in the second innings of the same Test, pushed him up by 15 spots to a career-best 48th in the bowling list.

Dolphins 115 for 5 beat Eagles 114 by five wickets
ScorecardDean Elgar’s career-best bowling performance failed to stop the Dolphins from dawdling into the Standard Bank Pro20 final with a five-wicket win over the Eagles in Durban.Left-arm spinner Dean Elgar took 3 for 10, but the Dolphins were able to scrape together 115 for 5 in 18.3 overs to surpass the Eagles’ skinflint total of 114. The Eagles, whose top score was Boeta Dippenaar’s 30, succumbed to three run-outs and lost five wickets for 14 runs before being dismissed with the last ball of their innings.The Dolphins began their reply steadily in the shape of an opening stand of 49 between Imraan Khan (9) and Grant Rowley (48). Elgar, who separated the openers by running out Khan, struck again to trap Rowley in front and remove Morne van Vuuren (0) with consecutive deliveries as the Dolphins slipped to 87 for 3 in the 13th over.Then Elgar bowled Hashim Amla (34) to reduce them to 97 for 5 in the 15th over. But there were no further jitters as Jon Kent (8 not out) and Pierre de Bruyn (10 not out) put the Dolphins through to the final where they will play the winners of the other semi-final, between the Cobras and the Titans in Cape Town on Sunday, next Friday.

Kyle Mills and Ross Taylor joined the burgeoning ranks of New Zealand cricketers headed for the IPL last night, when they were snapped up by Mohali and Bangalore for US$150,000 and US$100,000 respectively in the second round of auctioning in Mumbai. With Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum already signed up, the competition is increasingly likely to conflict with New Zealand’s preparations for their tour of England in May.New Zealand’s first scheduled fixture of the England tour is on April 27, against MCC at Arundel, followed by a pair of three-day games against Kent (April 28-30) and Essex (May 2-5). The IPL, however, will be in full swing during those matches, and New Zealand Cricket are in discussions with their players’ representatives to allow dispensation for the five affected men to arrive in time for the final warm-up fixture against England Lions, which starts on May 8, a week before the Lord’s Test.”It’s a New Zealand Cricket decision and we have to abide by that, no matter which way it goes,” said Vettori. “They have asked us our views, and they have asked the team’s views. Obviously with five of us involved, it’ll set a different precedent than it would have with three, but we will work through it with Justin [Vaughan, the CEO] and whatever decision he comes to, we will abide by it.”There’s little doubt, however, where Vettori’s preferences lie. Having been signed up by the Delhi Daredevils franchise for a hefty US$625,000, he is understandably eager to play as many of the matches as possible. Realistically he and his team-mates could play in the first five or six rounds of the IPL, which begins on April 18, before joining the New Zealand squad in England in early May.Vettori’s argument is that New Zealand very rarely play warm-up matches on Test tours these days, and so it will make little difference to their preparations for England. What is more, if the senior players do sit out the early fixtures, it will provide an opportunity for younger players to be given invaluable experience of English conditions.”I’m not really worried about how it looks. I’m worried about how it affects the team and the dynamic,” said Vettori. “I know it’ll be a huge opportunity for some young guys to be assimilated into a New Zealand side. Like I’ve said a couple of times, we go away on most tours and don’t have any warm-up games. I don’t think we can say that we all need to turn up all on the same day because that’s the way it’s supposed to be, because we don’t do it on any other tour.”The junior guys are comfortable either way,” he added. “They’re comfortable if we turn up late and they’re equally happy if the whole team turns up together. I don’t think the preparation side is an aspect, it’s whether it fits for the team and the guys can handle it. If they can’t, then we have to sit back and say maybe it’s not the right thing. But if they can, then that’s the way cricket is probably moving.”Mills, who learned of his IPL acquisition from his wife, Diana, who had been tracking the auction online, believed that the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best cricketers in the world was more than adequate compensation for missing the early part of the England tour.Mills’ Mohali franchise is coached by Tom Moody, who has huge experience of county cricket with Worcestershire, and also includes regular England foes, such as Brett Lee and Kumar Sangakkara.” This will be a massive opportunity to pick Brett Lee’s brains for three or four weeks on how to bowl in England,” said Mills. “He was very effective against the Poms in England and in the Ashes last year, so I’ll be picking up a few tips on how to get the Poms out. In terms of a cricketing education, the players I’ll be playing with and against will be of huge benefit to me.”As to their possible late arrival, Mills was sure the players would adapt quickly. “That’s the nature of international cricket over these past five years,” he said. “You’re playing 11 months of the year, always chopping and changing from Twenty20s to one-dayers to Test cricket. I played a domestic one-dayer three days out from the last Test in Hamilton. So that’s the nature of professional cricket these days, we’ve all got to adapt quickly. We’ve all got experience of England before, so the transition shouldn’t be too hard.”

It was not, Stephen Fleming conceded, quite as heartbreaking as losing a series off the last ball of a match, but it still wasn’t that great a way to go down. Lance Klusener has made something of a habit of wrenching games away from New Zealand and he did it again on Saturday, crashing Shayne O’Connor through midwicket for four to give South Africa victory by three wickets in the sixth and final Standard Bank one-day international at Newlands.On Wednesday Klusener hammered 41 off 21 balls to beat New Zealand at Kingsmead. On Saturday he was positively sluggish by contrast, taking 41 balls for his 59. But then again, his timing could not have been more perfect as New Zealand were again left to curse the sight of him.Fleming said afterwards that plans had been mooted to contain Klusener in such circumstances, but, he acknowledged, they simply hadn’t worked. And New Zealand, he added, weren’t the only team still to come up with a foolproof method of stifling the left-hander.The victory gave South Africa a 5-0 victory in the series, but, as South Africa’s Shaun Pollock conceded, the gap between the two sides wasn’t quite that wide, particularly in the last three matches. As Fleming noted: “You could point out in most games the moments when one player has taken the game away from us and that was the difference at the end of the day.”At Newlands New Zealand probably produced their best cricket of the series, built around a 150-run partnership between Chris Cairns and Roger Twose. Cairns hit the ball every bit as well, if not better, than Klusener for his 84 off 72 balls and Twose finally nailed down the one-day century that had eluded him in 74 previous matches.Cairns’ straight hitting was awesome in its timing and on most days it was an innings good enough to have won a match. Twose’s century, too, was well crafted and welcomed by its fashioner, but as he noted ruefully: “It just doesn’t mean as much if you don’t win the game.”The pair lifted New Zealand out of a mire at 39 for three, but after both had gone the tourists did not kick on well enough, particularly in the last five overs as they added only 19 and lost four wickets.Still, 256 for nine looked a decent enough score and seemed even better when Shayne O’Connor ripped out the first three South African wickets for just 30, the mini-collapse starting when Daryll Cullinan again failed clearly out of position as an opener.When Gary Kirsten was deceived and caught and bowled by Chris Harris at 65, South Africa were wobbling badly, but Jonty Rhodes and Mark Boucher put the innings back together again with a partnership of 106 for the fifth wicket.Even so, New Zealand still had a grip on the match with South Africa needing 71 off the last 10 overs and, more pertinently, 49 off the last five.That, however, was the signal for Klusener to bring the big gun out of his holster. He needed someone to stay with him, however, and the support came from Shafiek Abrahams playing in his first ODI.Abrahams made only 16, but he passed the strike back to Klusener at every opportunity and with the short straight boundaries at Newlands beckoning, Klusener went over them four times. It was studied hitting, but all of it still left South Africa needing seven off the last two balls. No problem. He hit the first two fours of his innings and South Africa were home and dry, if a little sweaty.The tour now turns itself towards the three-Test series, with South Africa able to take a few days off to celebrate while New Zealand bid farewell to their one-day specialists and welcome the Test match reinforcements.Fleming says that it will be easier now for the tourists to make the switch from the one-day game to the serious stuff, given that they will all welcome a change of pace. They have two warmup matches before the first Test in Bloemfontein. How well Fleming can regroup his warriors remains to be seen.