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Plate Group Points Table
ScorecardDeepak Mangaraj ripped apart the top order with his medium pace, while S Sehgal tore into middle order and Sanjay Satpathy, the offspinner, spun out the tail as Orissa shot out Vidarbha for a paltry 87 to register a stunning victory on the final day at Nagpur. Earlier, half-centuries from Subit Biswal and Pravanjan Mullick allowed Orissa to declare their second innings after gaining a 261-run lead. by 5 wickets
ScorecardSyed Abbas Ali’s breezy 93 not out and 50 from Nikhil Patwardhan steered Madhya Pradesh to an outright victory over Jharkhand at Indore. Shahbaz Nadeem, the 16-year old left-arm spinner, struck twice to push MP to a wobbling 120 for 5 when Abbas Ali, the captain, decided to impose himself on the proceedings carting three sixes and eleven fours in a 79-balls knock.ScorecardA good allround performance from Shadab Jakati got Goa close to an improbable victory but in the end they had to settle for two points as Tripura hung on to draw the game at Margoa. Jakati reached his maiden hundred and Swapnil Asnodkar his double-century as Goa declared after stretching their lead, overnight on 7, to 119. Jakati and Robin D’Souza, the right-arm medium pacer, grabbed two wickets apiece to leave Tripura tottering at 96 for 5 in the 47th over.
ScorecardKerala earned two points from a drawn game as Rajasthan, having resumed at 23 for 0, batted out the final day at Jaipur. Anshu Jain hit 71 as he added 68 runs with Dishant Yagnik to lift Rajasthan to 231.
ScorecardHalf-centuries from Sajjad and Arshad Bhatt saw Jammu & Kashmir bat out a draw to give Assam two points in the Plate match at Guwahati. J&K, overnight on 12 for 0, settled for some batting practice on the final day.

In an action-packed first week of the Indian Premier League most of the reaction has been positive, but James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, has spoken out about the problems already facing the competition. Sutherland, who remains unconvinced that Twenty20 is good for the game, has questioned the sustainability of the lucrative six-week tournament.”It’s all very well to have a whole lot of hype around a competition,” Sutherland told . “In order for it to be sustainable it needs to have its own virtual cycle that keeps all the parties happy.”It’s nice to pay the players well and get big money from television rights and sponsorships, but ultimately you’ve got to provide a return for the owners or in this case the franchises. As I understand it, the franchisees are starting to ask questions already.”Sutherland said a lot of tickets to games had been given away and there were also other promotional costs. “It’s going to be a long six weeks for the franchisees if they struggle to sell tickets,” he said. “I think in Hyderabad for the first game they only had a third of the ground full.”Sutherland said the IPL “would have to be” under financial pressure. “You look at the number [cost] for the franchises, somewhere between $70 million and $100 million and they pay the players on top of that,” he said. “Explain it to me how they get their return.”Australia’s international contingent at the event will head back to Brisbane next week for a pre-series camp for the West Indies tour. The players are due to arrive in Queensland on May 4 and will spend almost a week fine-tuning, although no practice matches have been scheduled by the coach Tim Nielsen.The chances of Australia’s one-day players appearing in next year’s version of the IPL are virtually non-existent as the postponed trip to Pakistan will be held at the same time. “There’s absolutely no possibility of a window that compromises the Future Tours Programme and our international commitment,” Sutherland said.”It’s just simply there was no other window, no alternative. We had long and challenging meetings with Pakistan trying to get them to understand we’ve got a very busy schedule coming up and the only window available to us was the ones that we announced.”

Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lankan fast bowler, has said he would like to bowl faster than he did on his last tour to Australia. “I have more pace now than last time we played here. I think maybe I can get around 140kph now,” Malinga told AFP. “I want more pace.”All fast bowlers like to do the bouncer and everything. I am the same. We are going to be very attacking.”Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, said Malinga had improved in the three years since Sri Lanka’s previous tour of Australia. Malinga made his Test debut in that tour and took 10 wickets at 26.40 in the two Tests.”He [Malinga] has learned to adjust to different conditions and batsmen,” Jayawardene said. “Now he’s got the ability to control his aggression, which is a good thing. He is one of our attacking options [but] we don’t want to put a lot of pressure on the young guys.”Asked about the recent rise in on-field verbal attacks, Jayawardene said it was important not to lose one’s cool. “You need to be aggressive but you should not go overboard. When you lose your composure, that’s when they [Australia] come back at you very strongly. It’s the seniors’ responsibility to guide the guys through periods in difficult situations.”

ScorecardIt was not the six- and four-hitting that Twenty20 cricket isnormally associated with. In fact there were only 15 fours in the firstinnings, and no sixes at all, as Karnataka scrambled to 142 for 7 at the Wankhede Stadium. Andthat proved to be too few as Punjab’s batsmen used all the freedomthey were given and won with one ball to spare. Ravneet Ricky, one of the fewbatsmen to approach this match without panic, cracked a superb unbeaten76, and ensured that his team made it just in time.After choosing to bat the going was tough for Karnataka. Much depended on the bighitting of Robin Uthappa, and when that proved a non-starter as he dragged Gagandeep Singh back onto his stumps, Karnataka had to battle hard for each run. Devraj Patil, the young wicketkeeper opening the batting, was fluent and effective, and he managed to keep one end running smoothly with 31. There was a lot of frantic running, mostly of the unnecessary andslightly panicked kind, and only one steady hand from C Raghu (32) andsome enthusiastic hitting from B Akhil (33) pushed Karnataka towardsrespectability.It was clear that the batsmen were not accustomed to playing Twenty20cricket, and perhaps attempting to do too much in the 120 balls affordedto them. The attitude of trying to pinch runs off every possibleopportunity was admirable, but some fairly adventurous attempts atimprovisation meant that Karnataka lost too many wickets too quickly. Hadthe fielding been of a higher standard – if the stumps were hit more often- Karnataka would not even have made it to 142.When the chase began it was a touch less frenetic than the first half.Punjab’s batsmen, knowing what they needed to achieve, did not try and hitevery ball out of the park. Ricky, opening the batting, dug in andclearly made up his mind to bat as normally as possible, while thosearound him went on an all-out attack.Karan Goyal steered one outside off to gully and Yuvraj Singh was atthe crease early. He seemed quite content blocking what he had to, in theknowledge that he could take on the bowler if and when needed, and clearthe field. A lazy clip off the legs for a boundary, followed by a checkeddrive that was no more than a punch which easily cleared mid-off were capped by a huge six off Sunil Joshi over midwicket. When Yuvraj, on 25, speared a catch up in the air off Raghu, and was well caught by Manish Pandey at long-off, Karnataka knew they had a big wicket.Dinesh Mongia, probably the most experienced Twenty20 cricketer of thislot, thanks to his experiences in county cricket, then took charge of the proceedings. He, like Yuvraj, was not overly stressed at playing out a fewdot balls, and instead concentrated on making it count when he went for thebig hit. And two such hits easily cleared the fence – one off Joshi andanother an audacious walk down the pitch to Akhil that ended up in the standsover midwicket. Just when it appeared that Mongia had done the job, he losthis wicket, for a crucial 35, ballooning a catch to short fine-leg tryingto play a cute scoop off Akhil.Fortunately for Punjab they had one batsman, in Ricky, who batted longenough. For the best part he just played normalcricket shots, only once trying something unusual, when the pressure wasreally on at the end, chipping a ball over the keeper’s head for a four.In the end, Ricky was the difference between the two sides, and he crashedone from Akhil through midwicket to rattle up the winning runs. Ricky wasunbeaten on 76 off only 50 balls, with 8 fours and 2 sixes.

Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson have been ruled out of the Twenty20 International against England tonight at the SCG due to illness and injury. Lee is suffering from a chest infection while Johnson, who partnered Andrew Symonds in hitting balls from a driving range in a public relations exercise on Monday, has a stomach strain.Shane Harwood, the Victoria bowler, and James Hopes, the allrounder who has played nine ODIs and two Twenty20 games, have been called into the squad. Alex Kountouris, the team physiotherapist, said Lee’s illness had developed over the past 24 hours.”He will be assessed by a doctor later today,” Kountouris said. “Mitchell has a minor abdominal strain which occurred late yesterday and as a precautionary measure we have decided it best for him not to play.” Both players will be monitored over the next couple of days in the lead-up to the first game of the tri-series against England at the MCG on Friday.Australia (from) Adam Gilchrist (wk), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Cameron White, Brad Hogg, James Hopes, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nathan Bracken, Shane Harwood.England (from) Michael Vaughan (capt), Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Ed Joyce, Jamie Dalrymple, Paul Nixon, Chris Read, Liam Plunkett, Sajid Mahmood, Jon Lewis, Chris Tremlett, James Anderson, Monty Panesar.

After two comprehensive wins in three days – including one over old rivals England – the swagger and the supreme confidence is back for the Australians. Their start to the tournament was an absolute shocker, but now they’ve put the favourites’ tag back on themselves. Stuart Clark was full of beans and extremely confident of his team’s chances to go all the way in yet another World Cup.”We’re starting to get into a bit of a rhythm,” he said on the eve of their game against Pakistan. “We’re enjoying it and the guys’ skills are slowly getting better.”Australia are now in pretty good shape, but only four days back they were one defeat away from elimination when they took on England at Cape Town. The result was a comprehensive eight-wicket win. “Any win over England is a good win,” Clark said, looking back at that result. “There was talk of humiliation in the papers [before the game]. I don’t feel humiliated today.”Looking ahead to the Pakistan game, Clark was confident Australia would handle that challenge. “I don’t think the Australian cricket team fears anyone. They [Pakistan] are a very good team with very good players, so we’re looking forward to the game.”Clark’s own bowling has stood up very well to the Twenty20 challenge: in three matches, he has outstanding figures of 5 for 59 from 12 overs. Not surprisingly, he was happy with his form: “It’s been a new challenge. I hadn’t played much Twenty20 cricket. The wicket’s been a bit different to what I was expecting. I’ve had to adapt. But I’m pretty happy with how I’m going.”It’s more like bowling at the death of a one-day game – slower balls, a few yorkers, there’s no magical secret to it. Nathan Bracken and Shaun Tait showed it during the World Cup – it doesn’t matter what skill you have but if you do it well you’re pretty hard to get away.”Clark also reckoned playing the county season in England helped him get the variations right. “It’s one of the reasons I went to England – to work on a few different things. It seems to be going alright at the moment.”About the format itself, Clark admitted there wasn’t much in it for the bowlers, but they still had the opportunity to make a difference. “It’s a game designed for batsmen, but the bowlers can make a difference if they have two or three really good overs. If you pick up a couple of wickets or don’t go for many, you can change the outcome of the game. It’s not all just batters, there’s room for bowlers – not too much, but just a little bit.”Clark was emphatic that Twenty20 should never take the place of one-day internationals entirely. “I’d hate to see 50-over cricket replaced because of what it’s done for the game,” he said. “Even if the World Cup [in the Caribbean] went on for a week too long, it’s still the pinnacle of one-day cricket and world cricket.”This tournament is different – it’s a bit new, it’s fresh, but there’s definitely place for it in the cricket world. It’s a thriving game and will become more and more popular the more it’s played – whether it’s international, domestic or some of these new leagues that Cricket Australia is putting together.”The issue of the bowl-out drew a laugh from him, but he was fairly guarded in his opinion of the tie-breaker: “I haven’t actually been involved in one. We had a mock one in one of the practice matches, and I’ll reserve my judgment till I actually have to go into one.”

County Championship
Two-up, two-down is the right balance for two leagues of nine teams. So, 2005 was a good season to get promoted back to the top flight as Lancashire, Yorkshire and Durham managed, but not such a great time to go the other way like Glamorgan, Surrey and Gloucestershire. The points system remains the same, but there should be some attacking cricket in the second division with just two promotion spots up for grabs, although safety in division one is now even more attainable with high-scoring draws.C&G Trophy
This is an interesting one. Previously the premier one-day tournament has been a knock-out format, under various sponsors, and dubbed the ‘FA Cup of cricket’. Now it has been changed into a league format, with two groups, leading straight to a Lord’s final. Each group – tagged North and South – consists of 10 teams. Scotland join nine counties in the north while Ireland take their place with the south. Each team plays each other once and the top team in each group progresses to Lord’s on August 26. But the changes appear to not have really been thought through. The idea was to give more 50-over cricket, the international standard, to county sides before the Natwest Series starts, therefore giving players a chance to hone skills and press claims for selection. However, because there are no quarter or semi-finals there will be a lot of dead matches with many teams out of the running for the final early on. In a busy season, counties could see these games as a chance to rest players therefore defeating the object of high-standard 50-over matches. C&G are not thrilled about the changes, apparently: they have already pulled their sponsorship for next season.Twenty20
This is quickly becoming the lifeblood of the domestic game and will again form the major entertainment in mid-summer. However, it will have to compete with the football World Cup so the attraction of Twenty20 will be given a eral – and tough – test. The group matches will be played from June 27 to July 11, with the quarter-finals two weeks later and Finals Day at Trent Bridge, the inaugural venue in 2003, on August 12.Pro40
If in doubt, stick ‘Pro’ somewhere near a one-day tournament and people will come flocking through the gates. Well, maybe not, but the ECB haven’t been able to find a new sponsor for the re-jigged, and in many ways downgraded, National League. It has been shunted to the back third of the season, following the C&G and Twenty20, and reduced to a 40-over contest where each team plays the others once. There are still two divisions with promotion and relegation and like the Championship this has been amended to two-up, two-down. However, a play-off between the seventh-placed team in Division One and the third-placed team in Division Two has been added and will provide the finale to the county season on September 24.Now, if you understand all that, you are ready for the 2006 season.

Scorecard

Aimee Mason picked a perfect time to post her maiden one-day hundred before she floored Australia with the ball as New Zealand levelled the five-match Rose Bowl series at 1-1. Mason’s previous high in 57 matches was 71, but she comfortably extended her career best with 102 and went within an over of carrying her bat in Darwin.The performance was the only New Zealand score above Sara McGlashan’s 28 and it was responsible for the challenging total of 209. After hitting 13 fours and a six from her 128 balls, Mason then captured the wickets of Shelley Nitschke (24), Kate Blackwell and Sarah Edwards to gain figures of 3 for 15 off ten overs and give Australia some severe headaches.Karen Rolton, the captain, tried to steer her side back into contention, but when she departed for 27 Australia were in serious trouble at 6 for 134 and they fell 35 runs short. Sarah Tsukigawa was on a hat-trick after removing Sarah Andrews and Clea Smith – consecutive wides stopped her adding a third victim in a row – and she ended with 3 for 27.Australia’s main bright spot was the performance of Ellyse Perry, who at 16 years and 261 days became the country’s youngest debutant in a national cricket team. Perry bowled eight overs for 37, picking up the wickets of Maria Fahey and McGlashan, chipped in with the run out of Rowan Milburn and scored 19 before she was last out.”I was a little nervous before I came on to bowl,” Perry told . “It was good to get my first wicket because it gave me more confidence with my bowling and helped me to get through it. It was very exciting and great fun.”

Nathan Bracken has bowled himself back into contention for the first Ashes Test with a solid performance in the Champions Trophy. Bracken has seven wickets in the tournament – second only to Glenn McGrath for Australia – and has thrown his name into the mix for the third Ashes fast-bowling place, which many believed was down to Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark.Bracken took 2 for 36 in the semi-final against New Zealand including the vital wicket of Stephen Fleming and earned praise from Ricky Ponting. “I’m sure his name will come up,” Ponting told . “We all know the ball is going to swing a bit in Brisbane, and he took his best Test figures in that game up there last year. He’s bowling well. He certainly hasn’t been pigeon-holed as a one-day player.”The former fast bowler Geoff Lawson said Bracken had shown enough at the Champions Trophy to suggest Johnson was not the only left-armer who could offer Australia variety. “Johnson is supposedly an express quick, but he’s been bowling at around 135kph. He’s not quick,” Lawson said in . “Bracken was bowling at 125-130kph and getting it to swing considerably. I thought Bracken bowled very well and should definitely be in the mix for the Test.”The first Ashes Test will start on November 23 at the Gabba, the only ground where Bracken has played two Tests. Last year at Brisbane, Bracken claimed 4 for 48 including the key wickets of Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. In 2003-04 he dismissed Virender Sehwag in each innings of the Gabba Test.Ian Chappell has also pushed for the selectors to consider Bracken.

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

A typically clinical bowling performance overcame a less distinguished fielding effort as Australia dismantled a star-studded World XI, winning the first of the three Super Series matches by 93 runs under lights, and a roof, at the Telstra Dome while it rained on the rest of Melbourne. Ricky Ponting’s men chose to bat, put 255 on the board, and then made it seem more like 355 with canny bowling.Kumar Sangakkara must have wondered if he was back in Colombo batting for Nondescripts Cricket Club as he ploughed a lone furrow, stitching together a stylish, yet occasionally streaky, half-century while all around him faltered and fell. The target of 256 appeared on the lower side, even accounting for a sluggish outfield, but Glenn McGrath showed why he is still the most lethal thing with a new ball in hand.Virender Sehwag found that you cannot pull McGrath off a length and get away with it, hitting straight to Michael Hussey at midwicket. Jacques Kallis was audacious enough to come down the pitch and hit McGrath over cover, but was soon trapped in front by one that swung in late. Then Brian Lara – a big draw in this team – drove Nathan Bracken straight to short cover. Rahul Dravid battled to steady the ship, but 50 for 3 became 75 for 4 when he mis-hit a pull off Brett Lee, who bowled with pace and bounce in his second spell.Kevin Pietersen, who tormented the Australians all through the Ashes summer, came upon a bowler who he had not taken apart, and was trapped in front by one that Shane Watson got to jag back in. Soon after Watson should also have had Andrew Flintoff, who pulled straight to Lee at deep backward square-leg, but the catch was floored. Watson barely had time to bemoan his luck before inducing another false shot – this time from Sangakkara who cut towards point – only to see Ponting, juggle, fumble and somehow manage to hold on to the ball.If the road ahead looked difficult at 101 for 6, it became next to impossible when Shahid Afridi, the Supersub, was trapped in front for 2 by a flat, quick offbreak from Andrew Symonds. Watson then capped off an excellent display on the field by swooping in from deep backward square-leg, picking the ball up one-handed and throwing the stumps down from outside the thirty-yard circle to find Shaun Pollock short of his crease.Flintoff, like Sangakkara had earlier on, battled on, but without support there was never any real chance of launching an assault on 256 from 118 for 8. Sangakkara’s 65 included some fine strokes as he uninhibitedly took the aerial route whenever offered width outside off, and flicked and drove wristily through the on-side when the ball was full and straight. But it was nowhere near enough. Flintoff kept the crowd interested with 38, but when he holed out to long-on with the score on 150, giving Watson his third wicket, the game was over.Australia’s batting could well have gone the World XI way, with wickets falling at regular intervals after a fine start. Adam Gilchrist and Simon Katich, opening the batting, put on 80, thanks mainly to Gilchrist, who went after the bowling while Katich was content biding his time. Gilchristhad rattled up 45 off just 48 balls before being cleaned up by a full one from Kallis that came in just a touch. Ponting said hello to Flintoff with a cracking pulled six, but played one shot too many and perished on 23, trying to come down the pitch and loft Pollock out of the ground.

Then Muttiah Muralitharan applied the famous Kandy choke. Big spinning offbreaks garnished with the odd fizzing doosra proved too much to digest for Damien Martyn, who tamely chipped to mid-on, and Katich (68) who closed the face of the bat early and popped back a return catch. What Murali began Daniel Vettori ended. The hallmark of quality finger spin is accuracy, and Vettori held the ball virtually on a string, varying his pace, trajectory and angle of delivery like an old master.Vettori accounted for Symonds, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey and Watson, but not before Symonds and Hussey had compiled invaluable 30s. When the Australian innings ended on 255, thanks to a late flurry from Lee, Vettori would have believed his 4 for 31 had put the World XI on track to victory. Then again, this is Australia, and dominating half the game is often not enough to ensure victory.

AustraliaAdam Gilchrist b Kallis 45 (80 for 1)
Ricky Ponting c Lara b Pollock 23 (128 for 2)
Damien Martyn c Lara b Muralitharan 0 (128 for 3)
Simon Katich c & b Muralitharan 58 (142 for 4)
Michael Clarke c & b Vettori 6 (154 for 5)
Andrew Symonds c Flintoff b Vettori 36 (206 for 6)
Shane Watson c Lara b Vettori 8 (223 for 7)
Michael Hussey c Pietersen b Vettori 33 (231 for 8)
World XI
Virender Sehwag c Hussey b McGrath 6 (18 for 1)
Jacques Kallis lbw b McGrath 8 (45 for 2)
Brian Lara c Symonds b Bracken 0 (50 for 3)
Rahul Dravid c Ponting b Lee 4 (75 for 4)
Kevin Pietersen lbw b Watson 2 (82 for 5)
Kumar Sangakkara c Ponting b Watson 65 (101 for 6)
Shahid Afridi lbw b Symonds 2 (104 for 7)
Shaun Pollock run out (Watson) 5 (118 for 8)
Andrew Flintoff c McGrath b Watson 38 (150 for 9)
Daniel Vettori c Ponting b Lee 15 (162 for 10)