Mushfiqur hopes for a better tomorrow

Mushfiqur Rahim, the Bangladesh captain, has been the team's mouthpiece for much of their slump, turning up after pretty much every defeat to sum up how badly they have done, defending a selection or two, and appealing to the fans to stay with the team. He has used the word "alarming" a number of times and expressed exasperation at the dropped catches. Even more worryingly, he has been frank on a few occasions about being a bit lost in trying to find out a way to improve his team.

After yet another insipid performance, one wondered just what else could he say.

Against India, Bangladesh made 40 runs more than they did in the last game (98 all out against West Indies). Anamul Haque made 44, Mahmudullah returned to some form with an unbeaten 33 and Mashrafe Mortaza finished his quota of overs without getting injured. But to post 138 for 7 against India's batting line-up was never enough. The team's senior batsmen Mushfiqur, Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal once again failed to contribute significantly. It has been six games now that the No 3 batting position has hardly put a dent to the team's score.

Bangladesh are virtually out of their home World T20 tournament but Mushfiqur, as he has done since the Sri Lanka ODI series, hoped for a better tomorrow.

"We wanted to start well, but we didn't do it in these two games," Mushfiqur said. "There was a bit of improvement today, but we still have lots of areas to work on. We are playing against top teams, we need to play smarter cricket. Hopefully we will come up with good plans tonight and do better in the next two matches."

Given the lack of good starts from the openers and the continued struggle of the middle-order, Mushfiqur said that there is going to be a shuffling of the batting order in the next match. "Our plan was for Shakib to play at three, and myself at four," he said. "But because Nasir [Hossain] and [Mahmudullah] Riyad were not in good form and Sabbir is a new guy, we didn't want to risk Shakib going in very early and expose the middle and lower-order. Shakib plays his shots and could get out early too. The same could have happened with me. But we are going to think about it again."

On March 26, the BCB president had said the team could undergo changes after the World T20. He didn't elaborate on which areas, but Mushfiqur has made it clear that he won't be leaving the job of captain.

"No one wants to leave the captaincy at a bad time, leaving your responsibility," he said. "I enjoy captaincy, it is a big honour. If we do well, nobody thinks of us. But when we do badly, you have to work and come back to good form. The change is up to the administrators. If they make 20 changes and it helps the team, it is going to be good for the team."


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Dhoni credits team environment for success

Cullinan: Bangladesh more confident, but not good enough

The World T20 is increasingly shaping up like the Champions Trophy did as far as India are concerned. They had travelled to England in 2013 amid IPL controversy and won the ODI tournament with an unbeaten campaign. They have travelled to Bangladesh amid controversy again and have become the first side to qualify for the semi-finals, by winning three games out of three.

It is often India's Man of the Match who meets the press after a victory, but because of clamour from some sections of the media at home that MS Dhoni had been avoiding reporters, the captain walked in to take questions but answered only those related to the World T20. He declined to answer whether he had offered to resign as captain, as some reports had suggested.

Dhoni was asked how his side had managed to perform so well in both the Champions Trophy and the World T20 with such grave off-field issues in the background. The captain put it down to the environment within the squad.

"A good dressing-room atmosphere and having belief in yourself and enjoying each other's success," he said. "A lot of things happen around cricket but you have to be focused when you are representing your country. That is one thing that this team has done really well.

"And of course accepting the challenges, enjoying the challenges, trying to prove that you are one of the best when it comes to international cricketers. Once you are in as a batsman you want to take the team through, if you are bowling well on that particular day you want to take wickets for the team, if you are a part-timer the same things applies. It is all about the dressing-room atmosphere and we have kept it really nice."

India haven't had a good time in World T20s since winning the inaugural one in 2007, and this is the first time they have made the semis since that tournament. When asked if the team had talked about reaching this stage in the build-up, Dhoni said they had not thought about anything but had only come in with the knowledge that they would be playing in familiar conditions.

"We do not really discuss all that because one of the facts is you are supposed to play well. That is what the criteria is. If the consideration was just getting into the semi-finals, then what do you do once you reach the semi-finals? You should be happy and just stay there and say okay, we have reached the semi-finals, we don't really want to play it.

"I feel what we did was, we came in with nothing really in mind. Knew the conditions quite well. We play in the subcontinent quite a few games, especially the IPL, so we had the right kind of exposure. We knew the kind of problems we could face when it comes to bowling and batting and we had to work on that. So again we were concentrating on the process irrespective of what format we are playing. I feel it is always the process that is very important. Once you know the problem area, you can work on it and in a tournament like this it is very important you do not expose yourself, your weak link, to the opposition too much."


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KP plans 5,000-mile T20 commute (if he's lucky)

Kevin Pietersen plans to play simultaneously in two Twenty20 competitions in England and the Caribbean as he becomes the ultimate jet-set commuter in his attempts to keep his career alive after his exclusion from the England side.

The age of the itinerant T20 cricketer has been upon us for a few years, but Pietersen has taken it a stage further by seeking to play in England's relaunched NatWest Blast tournament and the Caribbean Premier League at the same time.

‏@KP24 - the Twitter handle which has now carries Pietersen's pronouncements, official and unofficial, on life, the universe and everything - promised: "I will be fulfilling ALL my @surreycricket commitments and just flying into the Caribbean to honour this opportunity."

It remains to be seen, though, if this regular 4000-miles-plus commute has a beneficial effect on his ability to hit a cricket ball in the area to which it is intended, especially as his regular diet of in-flight meals would not be countenanced by the England cookbook. Just think, some people can become disorientated by a daily commute from Paddington to East Croydon.

And, at least if the Kia Oval and the Caribbean are more than 4,000 miles apart that is nothing compared to the distance between England and Pietersen when it came to a meeting of minds.

If Pietersen is fortunate when the draft is finalised in a bar owned by Chris Gayle in Jamaica on Thursday, he will at least have a direct flight. As he indulged in a spot of repartee on Twitter with Gayle about whether they would be team-mates or opponents, it was a decent bet that he had not considered the possibility that he might yet be signed by Guyana Amazon Warriors: now that would add a few hours to the journey time.

Surrey, who are heavily promoting their T20 campaign around Pietersen's involvement, were quick to confirm that his ambitious plans have their full blessing.

Richard Gould, the chief executive, said: "Kevin is available for all our T20 fixtures once he gets back from the IPL in late May or early June. There are a couple of windows within our T20 season which coincides with the CPL where he can go out for the CPL, play some games there and still be available for all our games. We thought it was a good grown-up decision.

Everybody knows that grown-ups like flying. Children grow up wanting to be engine drivers.

His journey will be nearly three times as long as the match - although that distinction might lessen if over-rates keep sinking.

Pietersen initially chose Surrey - and the NatWest Blast - ahead of the CPL as he rebuilt his career following England's unparalleled decision to terminate his contract so publically after their 5-0 whitewash in Australia.

He first broached the possibility of playing both tournaments, according to Gould, "two or three weeks ago." He held discussions with Surrey's new head coach, Graham Ford, an early mentor in South Africa, and their director of cricket Alec Stewart.

Although factual enough, that is slightly misleading. He will play in the CPL on a "secondment clause" in his Surrey contract which allows a temporary change or relocation of position and duties. The clause was in there for a reason. It remains unconfirmed whether Surrey will also benefit from the arrangement.

"He is contracted for all the T20 fixtures," Gould said. "His contract allows him to play championship cricket and 50-overs cricket subject to his availability and we will see how that goes during the season."

The CPL is scheduled to run from July 5 to August 10. In that time, Surrey play their final five group matches in the space of a fortnight - all of which Pietersen has vowed to play.

They have a home match against Glamorgan on Friday, July 11, the day after CPL launches (pads strapped on at Heathrow?), further matches on the Wednesday and Friday of the following week and then two games in 24 hours - a derby against Middlesex on Thursday, July 24, and a short trip to Canterbury (a mere bagatelle for a hardened traveller like Pietersen) to play Kent the following day.

Before all this, Pietersen has agreed to captain the Delhi Daredevils in the upcoming Indian Premier League.

It would be difficult to travel further afield to ply his trade. The Times recorded the discovery of a new planet far beyond Pluto today - temporarily answering to the name of 2012 VP113 - but nobody is entirely sure whether the Inner Oort Cloud has yet to catch on to Twenty20.

"I'm delighted to be involved in this year's Caribbean Premier League," Pietersen said. "As soon as I was approached, I knew it was something I wanted to take part in. I have fantastic memories of playing T20 cricket in the Caribbean -- especially when we won the 2010 ICC World T20 tournament -- so I can't wait to play in front of the magnificent Caribbean fans who create a truly unique and thrilling atmosphere."

Pietersen's rejection by England has encouraged such open displays of affection. The love is spread upon all-comers. It remains to be seen whether it will be spread too thinly. If he pulls it off, there will be a few people envious of his air miles.


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Australia fail to walk the talk

Croft: Faulkner woke a sleeping giant

This is not the first Australian team to put down a few catches. Nor is it the first one to struggle against spin. Australian teams, however, do not usually lose a Twenty20 when they need 66 from 51 with eight wickets in hand. Having done that, they then don't end up losing a close game where they have had a go at the opposition with typical pre-match banter. That too in a world tournament.

Against both Pakistan and West Indies, Australia were arguably in winning positions, more so against the former. When it came to the decisive stages of both matches, however, their personnel let them down. Against Pakistan, it was the batsmen who choked, collapsing from a strong position. Against West Indies, it was the bowlers who lost their lines and lengths under pressure from Darren Sammy and Dwayne Bravo. With 42 needed off the final three overs, and 31 off the last two, there would have had to be equal, if not more, pressure on the batting side specially in a must-win situation for both teams. The way Mitchell Starc crumbled in the penultimate over certainly did not exert any pressure on the West Indies pair.

George Bailey, however, did not think their bowling tonight was the major cause for pushing Australia to the brink of an exit from the tournament. The Australia captain said that the side had not cut it in all three disciplines.

"Your mind tends to track back to the most recent thing, the bowling. But once again I don't think we batted particularly well," Bailey said. "All of the top six probably played pretty ordinary shots or shots at inappropriate times, so I think [the fact] that we scraped to 178 was pleasing given that we didn't bat particularly well.

"And again we probably let ourselves down in the field with some chances and that comes back to bite harder in T20 than in any other format; the repercussions are so immediate. I am sure there are things we would like to do differently in bowling and the guys would like to have their overs again and do something different. But you cannot lay the blame just on the bowlers. All three disciplines were not up to the standards that we set."

Bailey did not think there were any issues with the balance of the team combination, and said it wasn't that Australia had suffered heavy defeats.

"We have lost two games, but it's not like we have been knocked over for 120 in each game," he said. "We haven't batted very well, and we have scored a 180 and whatever we scored the other night. It's not a glaring weakness. It's the same with bowling and I'd say the same about our fielding. We have just lost two close games in a tournament where you cannot afford to do that."

You can say that as much as it was about Australia succumbing at the climax, it was also about Pakistan and West Indies doing the exact opposite. They thrived at the death and outplayed Australia. That is what is glaring about these two losses. Australia knew they could not afford to go down, they had their chances, but they failed to take them. The West Indies loss will hurt them more, for what James Faulkner said before the game, and for how West Indies responded to it - by winning a sharp contest and with their in-your-face celebrations targeted at the Australians.

"Talk is cheap," Sammy said. "Cricket is a game of action, you can talk all you want, but it is the action that matters. West Indies acted today."

The Australians talk a lot, of course, but it is only rarely that they fail to walk it. Bailey and his men will be smarting, but unfortunately for them, their chances of hitting back in this tournament are all but over.


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USACA chief Darren Beazley resigns

USA Cricket Association chief executive Darren Beazley has resigned after just 14 months in the role. USACA announced in a press release on Tuesday that Beazley was stepping down in order to return to his native Australia where he will take up a position as the chief executive of Swimming Western Australia.

Beazley's initial contract was for three years, but his tenure was six months shorter than his predecessor Don Lockerbie, who lasted 20 months before being fired in November 2010 for reasons USACA has never stated.

"I wish all involved with US cricket the very best for the future and look forward to watching the progress of the sport in the coming years at all levels," Beazley said.

Sources have indicated that the lack of support from the USACA board of directors to implement sweeping governance changes to USACA's administrative structure played a role in his seeking to leave USACA and return to Australia. Beazley went on a nationwide tour in October 2013 along with ICC global development manager Tim Anderson to campaign for support to back recommendations from an independent governance review by TSE Consulting.

Key recommendations from the review were to reduce the size of the current USACA board, cut their power in half and give that 50% to independent directors. There were also recommendations for establishing term limits for board members, redefine membership categories and introduce athlete representation on the board.

However, a decision was taken at USACA's AGM in November to postpone any move to implement the changes. Instead, a governance implementation committee was announced with any changes being delayed until at least the summer of 2014.

Beazley's resignation also comes in the wake of damning financial data made public last month that USACA was more than $3 million in debt at the end of the 2012 tax year. The returns showed a 47% decline in membership revenue from 2011 as member leagues revolted after the controversial 2012 USACA elections in which 32 out of 47 member leagues were disenfranchised.

USACA is also under increasing pressure from the American Cricket Federationn (ACF), which was formed in the wake of the 2012 election. Many member leagues have defected for the ACF including the largest league in America, New York's Commonwealth Cricket League.

Beazley had strong ties with Anderson and ICC top brass in Dubai but his departure may be the last straw for USACA in a series of administrative missteps. USA now faces the very real threat of a third administrative suspension by the ICC in the last decade.


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England discover map through uncharted waters

Having tossed away opportunities in the field with reckless abandon and slumping into negative territory at the start of their chase, England found the courage to make amends

Crowe: Hales innings best of the tournament

It wasn't quite the shot heard around the world but Alex Hales' bludgeoned six high over midwicket to seal victory for England against Sri Lanka should reverberate round the World T20. How a team that had seemed stricken by bad form and low confidence at the halfway point managed to perform such a volte face, pulling off their highest run chase with six wickets and four balls in hand, is a question only the T20 gods can answer.

Just when it appeared England had lost their way irretrievably after stumbling in circles for months, they discovered a map to guide them safely, resplendently through unchartered waters. T20 is about the outsized, the extraordinary, the odds-defying and the synapse-shredding. Hales provided plenty of that in his soaring crescendo of an innings but, like his partner Eoin Morgan during a record third-wicket stand, the calmness inside was just as important.

Sri Lanka had accepted England's generous largesse and gambolled their way to another new high score on the ground. England had dropped four simple chances in the field and missed a run-out too. Shoulders had slumped, eyes appeared hollow. Few had high expectations of the team's World T20 chances but this had the look of a tired farce. Indignation at an early decision not to award a catch that looked to have been clearly taken was gradually eroded by dismay at each successive, basic error.

What to do? Perhaps, during the ten minutes the teams were off the pitch at the interval, Ashley Giles and Stuart Broad merely passed around a photocopy of the serenity prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

Michael Lumb's supreme effort to remove Mahela Jayawardene first ball had gone unrewarded. England's poor catching had gifted an advantage graciously received by a formidable opponent. So inauspicious was the start of their reply that they effectively moved into negative territory after the first over, a double-wicket maiden. None of these things could be changed but Hales and Morgan showed the courage required to make amends.

The required rate rose above 12 an over even before the halfway stage. In the tenth, Morgan hit the first six of the innings. The crowd's response to a steady, if initially unthreatening, flow of boundaries was a mixture of curiosity and wonder; as the tempo increased and outrageous possibility coalesced around the two batsmen in the middle, the cheering became more fevered. By the end, as Hales finished off Sri Lanka with a barrage of sixes, the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury was rapturously receiving the 2014 tournament's first centurion.

Hales, who had previously been dismissed on 99 and 94 in T20 internationals, punched the air and removed his helmet upon reaching three figures, the first England player to do so. He finished the job in the next over, raising his hands aloft as the ball sailed towards the stands again. He may never crack first-class cricket but he is first-class at T20.

Victory not only changed the complexion of the group and revived England's chances of reaching the semi-finals but it allowed them to make some significant gains after the slow regression of recent times. At the last World T20, Sri Lanka ended their participation at the Super 8 stage, with Lasith Malinga filleting them for a five-wicket haul. On this occasion, he was blunted and Ravi Bopara, who had talked of his plans to deflect Malinga's yorker, demonstrated the extent of England's learning by twice doing just that to pick up consecutive fours at the start of the 18th over.

Morgan played his first significant knock in more than a year, passing fifty for the first time since England's failed World T20 defence in Sri Lanka two years ago. These two teams have met at each of the last two tournaments and the winner has gone on to the final. England will exceed expectations if they make the knockouts but, having beaten the No. 1-ranked side, may now feel that circumstances favour them for a Dhaka rally.

For almost the entirety of Sri Lanka's innings, it seemed as if England's malaise would continue. They have talked stoically about pulling through but looked most likely to be rolling out of Chittagong on a gurney after a wretched performance in the field. "Whatever it is, it's not catching," as Richie Benaud used to say. England feel like they have been trying to catch a break for weeks but they did not show any proficiency at the skill during Sri Lanka's innings, tossing away opportunities with reckless abandon.

Ironically, the most difficult take of the night was the spark for what followed, as England disintegrated in the wake of Jayawardene's non-dismissal quicker than you could said "foreshortening". There was irony, too, in Jayawardene's drop of Hales. Jayawardene was the chief beneficiary of England's litany of mistakes but by the end his isolated gaffe had proved to be more costly. Wisdom in T20 can be as simple as knowing what you can and can't affect. Taking catches is a good place to start.


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Hales 'buzzing' after England's first T20 ton

Gardner: Scintillating display by Hales

Alex Hales had no doubt that his match-winning hundred against Sri Lanka, the first time an England batsman had reached three figures in a T20 international, was the most important contribution of his international career to date. Hales' stunning innings led England to their highest chase in the format to reignite a smouldering World T20 campaign.

"It's an amazing feeling. It still hasn't sunk in what's happened," Hales said afterwards, looking remarkably cool despite having just launched an enormous six to win the match with four balls to spare. Twice out in the 90s previously, Hales broke the three-figure barrier by clearing the boundary off Nuwan Kulasekara's penultimate over, from which 16 runs came in total to bring England's target of 190 within reach.

"I always had the confidence I would get the chance again," he said. "Hundreds don't come around very often in the short format so I'm buzzing I got it today and in a huge fixture for our country."

After a shambolic performance in the field, when England dropped four catches and missed a run-out, they flopped out of the blocks at the start of the chase, Kulasekara removing Michael Lumb and Moeen Ali in a double-wicket maiden. Hales and Eoin Morgan, slowly at first and then with increasing assurance, rebuilt the innings and by the time their 152-run partnership was broken, the pendulum was beginning to swing England's way.

"It wasn't an ideal start but we saw by the way they batted it was an excellent wicket and the way Morgy came in straight away and took the game back to them made my job a lot easier," Hales said. "We had plans to stay in the game as long as we could, get a partnership and reassess at the halfway stage. It paid off."

Morgan and Jos Buttler fell in the same over but Ravi Bopara deftly glided his first two balls from Lasith Malinga for four to keep England up with the asking rate. Although they had needed to score two runs a ball for around half the innings, Hales said that he began to feel the victory was possible "with six or seven overs left".

"We needed about 12 an over so we always knew it would be a tough ask," he said. "But Morgy played brilliantly and then Ravi came in against the danger man Malinga and hit the first two balls for four. It was brilliant to see."

The win, against the No. 1-ranked side and one of the favourites for the competition, pushes England back into contention into what is turning into a close-fought group. A difficult winter in Australia has been followed by stop-start limited-overs form, a young and experimental squad disrupted by injuries while uncertainty remains about the currently vacant head coach's position. Reaching the knockout stages in Bangladesh would an unexpected, and welcome, success

"It would be massive for us, we are underdogs in this tournament, playing in the subcontinent historically we haven't gone too well," Hales said. "This win will help us build momentum for the next two games, we've still got to play Holland and SA. I think if we perform to the best of our ability we'll get two wins."

Hales was dropped by Mahela Jayawardene on 55, small change after England donated four similar straightforward misses during the Sri Lanka innings but ultimately of great importance. Two overs later, Hales targeted Ajantha Mendis repeatedly through the leg side, hitting three sixes in an over that cost 25. In 2014, Hales had previously made 125 runs in seven innings for England; he almost equalled that in one dramatic fusillade here. A celebratory glass of wine has been well earned.

"It hasn't been a great winter personally, I probably didn't do as well in the Big Bash as I'd have liked," Hales said. "But I've still felt confident, I've been hitting the ball well in the nets and felt a big score was close. I'm pleased it came today in a winning side."


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BCCI points to IPL players' plight

The Supreme Court's googly, as it were, to the BCCI in the form of three proposals has thrown the board into a state of "uncertainty", with the mooted suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals causing the most concern. While there has been no indication of a coordinated meeting of senior officials, it is understood that the board's response to the court on Friday will be to point out that suspending two IPL teams will most affect the players.

It is also expected to oppose the proposal of an "outsider" to head the BCCI - the court suggested the name of Sunil Gavaskar - by pointing to the number of former players in the board hierarchy.

"No one anticipated the court's proposal to suspend the two teams," a senior board official said. "The court has given the BCCI very little time to respond. I don't think the BCCI members can meet for certain in one place before tomorrow morning, so the only way is to set up a teleconference."

The biggest setback for the IPL, he said, was not BCCI president N Srinivasan's status or possible replacement but a curtailed IPL with fewer teams. The BCCI's arguments in court on Friday are therefore likely to centre on its belief that it would be "virtually impossible" to conduct the IPL with just six teams. That, it is felt, would affect logistics and, more importantly, the players.

"It would be really difficult to redraw plans, especially considering that the tournament is supposed to start within three weeks. The logistical and financial problems can, however, be solved, but what can be done about the players? It would be unfair on almost all of the 50-odd players from these two teams to be deprived, for no fault of theirs, of the opportunity to play the tournament and earn their livelihood," the board member said.

A six-team IPL, with its existing home-and-away format followed by four games in the knockout stage, will bring the number of matches down to 34 from 60. That will have a knock-on effect on broadcasters and sponsors, and the BCCI's concern will be how to compensate them, given that the long-term contracts are based on 60-match seasons. Neither PepsiCo India, the league's title sponsors, nor Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd, parent company of host broadcaster Max, were willing to comment.

On the issue of an interim or replacement president, the board is likely to seek a change in the court's stated criterion - a "seasoned or respected cricketer" - to one more aligned to its own eligibility rules. "For Gavaskar to be appointed as the board chief, as per the Supreme Court directive, we will require an amendment to the BCCI constitution. We may request the court to appoint a candidate who fulfills the eligibility criteria set for the post of the president [by the constitution]."

The BCCI's rules state that anyone acceding to the president's post must have been a past or present office-bearer and vice-president, and have attended at least two BCCI AGMs.

In any case, the board has not accepted that Srinivasan will be ousted; rather, they feel he is best placed to decide on his future. "It is tough call," an official said. "It all depends on Srinivasan now: if he wants to go himself or if he wants to stick to his decision of telling the court that he is willing to step aside pending a time-bound probe. The BCCI on its own cannot force Srinivasan to resign. But we will have to wait for the judges to take a final decision tomorrow."


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Wine, pizza keep Steyn pumped up

Dale Steyn is as light-hearted off the field as he is intense with ball in hand. For a man whose furrowed brow at the top of his mark can make batsmen involuntarily feel for the ball outside off, he is endearingly goofy in person, laughing at himself, deflecting praise and letting his thoughts tumble out. He even uses the word "rad".

Steyn is also the leading bowler among the teams to have entered the World T20 at the Super 10 stage, with six wickets from two games. Asked about his feat on Monday, when he won the match with seven runs needed off the final over against New Zealand - the lowest number defended in T20s and only the third time it had been done- he said: "I didn't think I could win it but we did, so bonus!"

Contrast that with the fire in Steyn's eyes as he collected the final delivery of the match, broke the wicket at the non-striker's end and propelled his wiry frame on a giddy victory dance looking like the world's angriest policeman.

It is perhaps no wonder that such a fidgety, high-energy player does not like being confined to a hotel for long periods. Players are generally not allowed out for security reasons - though on Wednesday he tweeted a video of himself and Paddy Upton skateboarding along a closed road and waving at grinning locals. You can imagine Steyn donning a disguise to sneak past the guards and post pictures of his adventure on Instagram, if he had to.

But while Steyn is an outdoors type whose fitness levels can encompass takeaway pizza or the odd McFlurry, he revealed that some of the players have a slightly more refined way of passing the time in Bangladesh.

"It's been so difficult. We have a wine club, we meet every now and then and have one or two glasses of vino," he said, without divulging who was most likely to become a sommelier as a second career. "We've got a movie club, we have a big team room at the hotel, so we get in there, whether playing poker or watching movies or things like that. We're not really allowed to leave the hotel much. There's a Pizza Hut across the road. I've never eaten so much pizza in my life."

He also chuckled at the suggestion he is now the team's "Special One", after Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, having prevented South Africa from suffering a second group defeat. That title should naturally go to the coach, Russell Domingo, he said.

Still, the importance of that win was not lost on Steyn, speaking ahead of South Africa's third Group 1 match, against Netherlands. He chose to emphasise the contribution of others, in particular his bowling partner Morne Morkel, who conceded 14 off the penultimate over but managed two dots from his last three balls. In T20, those are the margins between getting your aeroplane tickets home and the chance to taste another Shiraz or two before the trip is over.

"The mood in the camp could have been completely different if we'd lost that game," he said, "I think it would have been tickets for us. In this tournament it is kind of tickets if you don't win all your games. It's difficult, the little one percenters. If you go back to the game, Morne went for a lot of runs, which is an odd thing but it happens. People might criticise him but, his last three balls, he bowled three death yorkers and the last one went for four. If he had gone for two and one in those previous balls it would have been down to three or four off the last over and that would have been almost impossible.

"The little one percenters really count in this game. Just those little things, he might have walked away from the game feeling hard done by from not getting what he wanted but he finished off exactly how he was supposed to and ultimately we won the game."

Steyn suggested South Africa are in a "win-everything" situation, although it is still possible for a team to go through on four points. Sri Lanka have set the pace with two wins already and Steyn had some sympathy with the Netherlands, after they were gutted for 39 on Monday evening. "If you're not facing those type of guys all the time it can be quite difficult," he said, referring to the challenge of playing mystery spin or Lasith Malinga's sui generis yorkers. As Netherlands will find out, Steyn is also in a bracket all of his own.


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Shrubsole, Gunn steamroll India Women

England Women 98 for 5 (Taylor 28, Dabir 2-21) beat India Women 95 for 9 (Raj 57, Shrubsole 3-6, Gunn 3-15) by five wickets
Scorecard

India's campaign in the Women's World T20 slipped further off course as they suffered a heavy five-wicket loss to England in Sylhet. Anya Shrubsole and Jenny Gunn wrecked the batting line-up, which if not for Mithali Raj's half-century might have presented a grimmer sight than the eventual 98 for 9.

The two England seamers were remarkably effective, accounting for six batsmen and costing only 21 runs from their full quota. The fielders backed them up too, with Lydia Greenway picking up a sharp catch and effecting a difficult run-out early on. Shrubsole was judged Player of the Match for figures of 4-1-6-3.

India seemed to have exhausted their stock of good luck after winning the toss as they slumped to 31 for 5 in the ninth over, with all those dismissed failing to reach double-figures. At the other end, the captain Raj struck a doughty 56-ball 57, including eight fours to keep her side afloat. Her dismissal in the 17th over ended all hopes for late acceleration, but India managed to last the 20 overs.

Seamer Soniya Dabir orchestrated a minor top-order stutter during England's chase, but England knew they had enough time to overhaul the target. Opener Sarah Taylor had afforded her side some momentum at the top with a 29-ball 28 and Greenway came in at No. 4 to hold one end up. There was a bit of excitement at the back end when Natalie Sciver was run-out off a direct hit, but by that time England only had 11 more runs left to pocket their first victory of the tournament.


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66-Test Prince announces retirement

Former South African middle-order batsman Ashwell Prince has announced his retirement from the game.

Prince, who last played internationally in the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka in 2011 and will turn 37 in May, will play his last match in South Africa for the Warriors against the Cobras starting on March 27. He will end his career at Lancashire over the South African winter, where he is a registered as a Kolpak player.

"I am looking forward to a new phase in my life and am very grateful for the opportunities that cricket has afforded me," Prince said. "I am thankful that I have had a wonderful career from a sport that I love and thank everyone that has been involved in any way over the past 19 years of my career."

Prince played 66 Tests for South Africa between 2002 and 2011, scored 3665 runs at an average of 41.64, which included 11 hundreds and 11 fifties. Of those, he has in the past listed his 101 against England at Lord's in July 2008 and the 150 he made against Australia in Cape Town the following year among his favourites. Prince also played 52 ODIs and a single T20.

His choice of top centuries tells the story of Prince's time as an international cricketer, where he carved a reputation for being a bridge over troubled water and batting South Africa to safety. From the first match he played, against Australia at the Wanderers in 2002, Prince was the calm in the storm. He top-scored with 49 as South Africa were bowled out for 159 and went on to lose by an innings.

Prince's first hundred came against Zimbabwe at Centurion in 2005 and was swiftly followed by centuries against West Indies in Antigua and Australia in Sydney. By then, Prince had established his spot in the side. He went on to score Test centuries against nine of the ten Test playing countries with Sri Lanka the exception and was part of the team who began the remarkable run of South Africa being unbeaten in Test series on the road since 2006.

He played a key role in the country's first post-readmission series win over England in England in 2008 with a century at Lord's to set up the fighting draw which inspired South Africa for the rest of their tour. Prince was also in the squad that beat Australia Down Under in 2008-09 but was ruled out with a broken thumb.

JP Duminy replaced him and scored a fifty on debut and a century in the following match and Prince found himself unable to get his place back. He was left out of the first two Tests of the return series but recalled for the third, because of an injury to Graeme Smith. Prince was also asked to open the batting and captain in that match. After initially accepting the latter, he turned it down when he was informed of the former, which was not his regular batting position. With defiance as a motivator, Prince scored 150 and South Africa won the match.

Prince would play 18 more Tests for South Africa, without getting into triple-figures and pressure on him to produce mounted. When South Africa lost a fourth consecutive match at Kingsmead, to Sri Lanka, Prince was the casualty. He was dropped for the New Year's Test the following week and did not play for the country again.

Although his international career ended, Prince continued to excel domestically. In the winter after his axing he played as an overseas professional for Lancashire and was their only player to top 1,000 runs in the season. The following year Prince signed a two-year Kolpak deal with Lancashire, which he will complete this year.

He has also been a regular member of the Warriors franchise in South Africa and currently lies sixth in the ongoing first-class competition run charts. The team paid tribute to him at a dinner on Tuesday night. Prince's future plans include starting a football academy in his city of his birth, Port Elizabeth, where he said there are not enough opportunities for young children interested in pursuing football as a career. Prince currently lives in Cape Town with his wife and two young sons.


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Bopara intent on clearing the ropes

England go into their second match of the Super 10s in a position where defeat could effectively spell the end of their World T20 campaign after little more than a week in Bangladesh. They face Sri Lanka, ranked No. 1 in the format and on the back of two wins from two; England, meanwhile, have won two of their last eight T20s. The good news is that Ravi Bopara has been dreaming of hitting sixes.

Bopara may eventually command a place in the order higher than his current station at No.6 - it would likely have been seven had Joe Root not suffered a broken thumb in the Caribbean - but he has gamely adapted to the role of a gun-slinging six-shooter coming in below Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler. He knows that the pressure to start clearing the ropes is almost immediate, even against as fiendish a late-innings bowler as Lasith Malinga.

"Obviously you have to hit sixes in T20 cricket to push the run-rates up. I can only speak for myself but I do need to practise hitting the balls over the ropes," he said. "I'm going to face roughly between 10-20 balls, at most, batting at number six, so I really need to be ready to hit a six after my third or fourth ball."

What about needing to hit a six off the first ball? Off Malinga? Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka's captain, almost creased up at the idea, saying he had never seen it done. "I can't hit a six against Malinga," he said.

Bopara has only been dismissed by Malinga twice in 13 encounters, both on England's tour of Sri Lanka in 2007, although that is not necessarily proof of mastery. Just hitting Malinga is what some batsmen dream of - ask Netherlands - and Bopara said that his match strategy may involve resorting to something a little smarter.

"I have been lying in my bed at times and thought: why don't I just hit the first ball for six?" he said. "Because more often than not, the bowler just wants to land it on a length and hopefully get a dot. So it's probably the best ball to hit out of the park. Yeah, I have thought about it.

 
 
I have been lying in my bed at times and thought: why don't I just hit the first ball for six? Ravi Bopara
 

"It is tough to hit someone like Malinga out of the park consistently, which is why he's probably the best in the world. The best way to approach Malinga is to try to deflect him, past the gaps behind point, hopefully get bat on it behind square, that sort of stuff. That is the best way to approach him, because he does have a very, very good slower ball and if you're looking to have a big swing at him, that slower ball can do you as well. Personally, I'd try to deflect him."

England's sketchy recent form with the bat comprises several factors, not least being injury-enforced changes to personnel. Michael Lumb and Alex Hales, one of the most successful opening partnerships in the game, have only twice produced significant stands since August - 111 at Chester-le-Street and 98 at Bridgetown - and both times England have won.

Eoin Morgan, meanwhile, appears to have struggled with the extra demands being made of him as England's marquee short-form player. His average dipped below 30 for the first time since his second T20 international innings, earlier this month and a careworn 12 from 15 balls on Saturday maintained the slump. He seems more at ease in the finisher role he performed at the start of his career and tellingly averages 19.00 at No. 4 compared to 45.84 at No. 5.

With Moeen Ali showing an apparent flair for batting at three against New Zealand (soft dismissal notwithstanding), perhaps Bopara, who showed his affinity for this part of the world by finishing as top-scorer in last year's Dhaka Premier League, could provide a solution.

"I'd love to bat a little higher, but that's not my decision," he said. "The conditions in the Dhaka Premier League were slightly different. We didn't play any of the games in the night. They were slightly drier and lower wickets, but in terms of batting up the order, yes, I'd love to bat higher up but that's not my decision, and that's probably not my role in the team."

Stuart Broad talked before England's opening game about the need for continuity of selection and players to know their roles. Bopara seems to know his and, following a nomadic international career that has involved more comebacks and reinventions than the line-up of The Fall, it may serve current purposes to keep things that way. Hit sixes, win the match, nothing more complicated than that.

"It is a must-win game for us. I don't think we know the mathematical side of it - we have to win. Winning against Sri Lanka would be a big thing for us, a big confidence boost and that's how we're looking at it."


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Du Plessis backs batting combination

Crowe: Duminy excellent under pressure

So this is how South Africa want their T20 line-up to work. Start slowly, build calmly and then have a full go at the end, like they did today against New Zealand.

That is the reason they insist on keeping Hashim Amla, who is too often labeled 'not a T20 player,' at the top of the order, and why they do not want to promote AB de Villiers into it. They see Amla as having the right measure of conservatism and class to kick things off and de Villiers, along with David Miler and Albie Morkel, as having the creativity to close things off.

When it works, even when not exactly according to plan, it results in totals like today which South Africa will back themselves to defend. Despite the squeaky-bum ending, the score would have left most teams comfortable and was a nod to what South Africa are aiming for with the combinations they have in operation now.

South Africa have divided the innings up into segments, starting with the powerplay. Faf Du Plessis said in Chittagong they've decided "45 seems to be the par score so I wanted to get close to that and not more than two wickets down." South Africa were 42 for 3 in the first six overs, a little short and an extra man down but they were there and thereabouts, especially because the man they want to survive the opening exchanges, Amla, was still there.

"Hashim's role is to bat with someone. If someone else on the other side keeps scoring boundaries, Hashim can be the structure and the solidness through the batting line-up," du Plessis explained. "If we look at our top five, it's made up of guys who, apart from Hashim, naturally play aggressively so he fits into that game plan. It's his role to manoeuvre the rest of the innings."

Amla is not required to go at a strike rate of much more than 100, which is where he hovered throughout his innings today. He is not required to take risks either which is what has earned him so much criticism from those feel he is not fit for this format. It's worth remembering Amla occupied the top spot on the ODI batting rankings not long ago and du Plessis is confident Amla can change tack if he needs to. "If there is a day where those guys don't score runs then Hashim knows that he has to play a little bit quicker."

Today was not that day because JP Duminy was on the other end, timing the ball and finding the boundary. All Amla had to do was "stay with JP for a period of time to make sure that our hitters at the back didn't come in when there were too many balls left." In other words, Amla has to keep things going for as long as possible in the second-third of the innings because only after that, should the rest be needed.

South Africa do not subscribe to the theory that the most destructive hitters need to face the most balls. They don't want de Villiers, Miller and Morkel batting when the majority of overs are still to be bowled. Perhaps that is because, as Miller and Morkel showed, they are only up for a quick boom-boom before the bust. Perhaps they only do that because they don't have any time to settle but the chicken-egg debate is not one South Africa are aiming to solve.

They've decided what comes first and it's not the men they have labeled finishers. "We need to make sure we have Miller and Morkel coming in towards the end of the innings not when they have to still worry about rotating the strike but where they can just play their natural game," du Plessis said.

The big-hitters don't always come off but they have the best chance to if Amla and then Duminy allow them the freedom to, as they did today "JP controlled the innings beautifully. He took risks when it was needed and made sure the strike was rotated," du Plessis said. "As a blueprint of a T20 innings, that's one of the better ones you will see."

It was textbook because Duminy was circumspect to start and upped his tempo later without getting carried away. "In a perfect world, you always want that freedom to express yourself but with freedom comes a little bit of responsibility," Duminy said. "We are finding the right mix. If we can perfect that, we stand a good chance of producing results in these kinds of tournaments."

Duminy has found the balance and it resulted in two top-scores for the team in two matches. More importantly for him, it gave South Africa's bowlers something to work with, which is what the batsmen are there for, after all. "I'm glad that it gave us a chance to defend because at one stage we didn't think we'd get to 170," Duminy said. "I'm pretty happy with the innings but if Dale and the rest of the bowlers didn't produce something it wouldn't have meant anything." That it did will give South Africa confidence what they are doing with their batting line-up could work.


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Netherlands crash to lowest T20I total

A feast of cricket's guilty pleasures

The World T20 has been simmering during its qualifying round, but the big boys have descended and Bangladesh have almost made the Super 10. It's about to boil over

The Shoaib Malik question

No one can give a satisfactory answer about why he's in the side and what has happened to his supposed utility. Maybe the answer has to do with his captaincy stint

'It burnt to be told I didn't have the heart to play as a bowler'

Former fast bowler Dean Headley recalls good and bad days with England, his heritage, and the time he bounced Allan Donald and lived to tell the tale

The most sixes, and most successive fifties

Also, twin hundreds in South Africa, T20's leading run scorer and wicket-taker, and more on innings hoggers

Cricket-mad Nepal faces infrastructure challenges

Cricket's popularity is growing in Nepal but the country faces problems of infrastructure and the lack of a first-class competition


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Bowlers, Paliwal take North Zone into final

North Zone 265 for 7 (Paliwal 107*, Gurkeerat 77, Vinay Kumar 3-57) beat South Zone 165 (Nair 51*, Harbhajan 3-35, Rasool 3-15) by 100 runs
Scorecard

An unbeaten century from Rajat Paliwal and a strong bowling performance led by Harbhajan Singh and Parvez Rasool helped North Zone march into the final of the Deodhar Trophy with a 100-run win over South Zone.

Put in to bat, North Zone lost Gautam Gambhir early and were struggling at 63 for 4, before Paliwal and Gurkeerat Singh Mann added a 151-run stand to set the base for a challenging score. After Gurkeerat was out for 77, Paliwal stepped up the run-scoring, reaching his third List A hundred to propel North Zone to 265 for 7.

In reply, B Aparajith and Robin Uthappa gave South Zone a safe, sedate start, adding 72 for the first wicket. However, Rishi Dhawan and Ishant Sharma combined to dismiss the South Zone top order, as Aparajith, Uthappa and KL Rahul fell within three overs. The middle order, too, failed to push the chase along as Dinesh Karthik, Sanju Samson and Manish Pandey were out cheaply, falling to the spin pair of Harbhajan and Rasool. That left Karun Nair with a tough target and the tail-end, and the batsman responded with a fighting fifty off 57 balls, including two sixes. His innings, however, was too late in the day for South Zone, who were out for 165 in the 37th over.


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Patchy India lose to Sri Lanka by 22 runs

Sri Lanka Women 128 for 8 (Atapattu 43, Yadav 2-20) beat India Women 106 for 9 (Pandey 22, Prabodhani 2-9) by 22 runs
Scorecard

A poor batting performance from India Women saw them lose their opening game of the World Twenty20 against Sri Lanka Women by 22 runs, after their bowlers did well to restrict the opposition to 128.

India lost Smriti Mandhana in the second over and were always struggling for impetus in their innings. Like Sri Lanka, only three of their top six batsmen managed to score at more than a run-a-ball but the difference between the sides was that India's run-scoring in the latter stages of their innings slumped due to wickets. Mithali Raj did not have a great start in her new role at the top of the order, scoring 16 off 23 balls. Jhulan Goswami promoted to No 4 also failed to add any momentum to the innings and by the halfway stage, India were 57 for 3 with the required run rate over 7.

Sri Lanka struck in successive overs between the 16th and 19th, putting an end to any hopes India had of a late flourish. Udeshika Prabodhani was the pick of the bowlers with miserly figures of 2 for 9 in her four overs.

Earlier, India's bowlers did well to stifle partnerships as Sri Lanka were restricted to 128. The most substantial stands of their innings were 29 and 31 for the third and fourth wickets respectively and opener Chamari Atapattu was involved in both. Her 44-ball 43 anchored the early part of Sri Lanka's innings and the side was given a push at the end by Eshani Lokusuriyage, who hit 34 off 29 balls.


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South Africa openers set up thumping win

South Africa Women 163 for 0 (van Niekerk 90*, Lee 67*) beat Pakistan Women 119 for 9 (Dar 32, Abidi 28, Kapp 3-16) by 44 runs
Scorecard

South Africa Women's openers Dane van Niekerk and Lizelle Lee shared an unbroken 163-run opening stand, setting Pakistan Women a target that eventually proved well out of their reach.

Pakistan Women failed to strike even once after putting South Africa in to bat as Lee and van Niekerk put behind a quiet opening to push up the scoring rate in the second half of the innings. Lee was unbeaten on 67 off 55 balls with eight fours and a six, while her partner van Niekerk ended on 90 off 66 balls with 13 fours and a six.

In reply, a 48-run partnership for the third wicket between Nain Abidi and Nida Dar rallied Pakistan's innings after two early setbacks. Both batsmen were dismissed in successive overs, however, and their wickets allowed South Africa to stifle the scoring, effectively denying Pakistan any impetus. Marizanne Kapp took 3 for 16 and was well aided by fellow fast bowler Shabnim Ismail (2-20) and legspinner Suné Luus (2-18).


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West Indies shackled by swing and spin

West Indies have often started slowly before, but this time their big-hitters weren't allowed to open out when the innings prospered

In Twenty20 cricket, West Indies are often known to start slowly with the bat and look to preserve wickets, banking on their big hitters to make up with rapid scoring later in the innings. Against India, their openers began slowly yet again, but this time it might not have been entirely out of choice. India bowled beautifully with the new ball. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, in particular, swung the ball both ways and will wonder how he ended up with no wickets.

Against this sort of bowling, the openers struggled to put bat to ball. Bhuvneshwar had Dwayne Smith tied down for 15 deliveries, conceding just one run. Chris Gayle faced three deliveries from the medium-pacer, taking just a single. That is 18 deliveries within the Powerplay that brought West Indies three runs, which included a wide.

Having just watched impressive young batsmen like Umar Akmal and Glenn Maxwell enliven the Sunday afternoon, the Mirpur crowd had been waiting to see how Gayle and Smith, established T20 stars, would go about attacking the Indian bowlers. Instead, they got to see a struggle.

West Indies' run rate didn't go up by all that much even after Bhuvneshwar went out of the attack. It didn't help them that Gayle was run out just when he was starting to warm up, having hit Mohammed Shami and Amit Mishra for sixes over wide-ish long on.

But those two blows were all West Indies could muster, and you sensed that previous successes with a go-slow strategy at the start may have been at the back of the batsmen's minds. There was no attempt to go after the Indian bowlers, and even Suresh Raina managed to get through two quiet overs.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy gave credit to Bhuvneshwar for bowling 16 dot balls in the Powerplay overs. He did say, though, that West Indies would need to play the spinners with much more authority.

"I think credit must go to the opening bowler," Sammy said. "Kumar swung the ball both ways and bowled in good areas. He kept two of the most dangerous batsmen in world cricket quiet. There is no need to panic for us, it is just one wrong.

"We have three more games left, and we back ourselves to win them. I think we just didn't respond well enough to their spinners. We have a strong feeling that we will meet again, and we are looking forward to that."

India wouldn't have dreamt up a start like this but Suresh Raina did say in the pre-match press conference that West Indies bank more on hitting sixes rather than rotating the strike. This probably is an off-shoot of their usual strategy to start slowly and look for big hits in the later overs. This happened in the 2012 World T20 as well, both in the semi-final against Australia and the final against Sri Lanka.

In the semi-final, Gayle exploded after starting slowly in the first 10 overs while in the final, Marlon Samuels played one of the greatest innings in this format to bail them out. On both occasions, one batsman made it big while others contributed with rapid runs in the end overs.

That didn't happen today. They lost too many wickets in the middle overs, so they never got any momentum going. Their start, thanks to Bhuvneshwar, was even slower than it normally would have been.

Lendl Simmons and Sunil Narine hit three sixes in the last over while Andre Russell hit one in the 18th over. West Indies' average RPO in the first six overs is 6.95, but it was exactly 4.00 in this game. They came close to matching their average RPO of the last five overs in this game, but fell short of a competitive total.

What all of this showed was wickets in hand usually helps for a final push. Today West Indies neither had wickets, nor the runs at the start.


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Panesar begins season with five

Durham 248 (Jennings 64, Panesar 5-63, Hogg 4-35) v MCC
Scorecard

Monty Panesar begins the new season with more questions to answer over his future but he opened a new campaign with another reminder that on the field is his most comfortable environment.

His five wickets ensured the MCC enjoyed the first day of the new season - another pink ball day-night affair in the middle east. Panesar removed three of the top six as county champions Durham posted a moderate total having won the toss.

They were propped up by Keaton Jennings and Scott Borthwick who both made half-centuries. While they were together, Durham were comfortable at 87 for 1 but Borthwick's dismissal to Panesar for 50 ended the only meaningful partnership of the day.

Borthwick, restored to the top order after playing as a legspinning lower-order batsman for both England and England Lions over the winter played a feast-or-famine innings of 11 boundaries. His partner was more circumspect taking 177 balls for his top-score of 64.

But bother batsman fell to Panesar who went on to dismiss Gordon Muchall and Paul Coughlin cheaply. When last man Chris Rushworth was caught behind for a dashing 29, Panesar completed his five-for.

Ollie Rayner also enjoyed conditions with 10 overs that conceded only 18 runs but it was quick bowler Kyle Hogg who also got among the wickets with four scalps.


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Mishra, Kumar head bowlers improvement

As always, it was the most criticised component coming into the tournament. And not as always, India's bowling has clicked so well in their first two World T20 matches, they have even been able to let a misfiring batsman get some practice in the middle.

As surprises go, it could not have come more pleasantly for the Indians. Three of the frontline bowlers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra and R Ashwin, have gone at less than a run a ball against two dangerous opponents in Pakistan and West Indies.

The conditions have been a huge help to the spinners, of course. But they have also stuck to their strengths - Ashwin using his carrom balls and bowling largely fuller lengths and tight lines, barring overdoing it into the pads at times.

Mishra has been a revelation. When you use so much flight in a T20, you often get carted for six, but Mishra has used it the old-fashioned way - to get wickets. There has been turn available, but Mishra has made the most of it by fooling batsmen in the air.

About an hour earlier, even Saeed Ajmal was finding it hard against Australia and Glenn Maxwell and before that, Pakistan had roughed up Brad Hogg. What were the Indian slow bowlers doing differently? Darren Sammy said they had been able to, and also been allowed to, settle down enough to bowl what they wanted to.

"They bowl wicket to wicket," Sammy said. "Normally if you let a spinner settle he will get his line and length and pace and variation at which he wants to bowl. In both games they have settled into a nice rhythm. They controlled the pace of the innings from there."

That they did so against a side that boasted explosive batsmen of the calibre of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels was what pleased MS Dhoni.

"I am really happy to see how the spinners are bowling," Dhoni said. "Yes, there is a bit of help for them but at the same time you have to execute your plans well, especially in this format. You have got some of the big hitters in the opposition that you will have to carefully plan for and innovate at times. So I was really happy that our spinners so far, along with the part-timers and the fast bowlers, have done really well."

With the limelight on the spinners, Bhuvneshwar has quietly gone about his job at the start of the innings. For a while now, the swing had more or less gone missing for him, and Bhuvneshwar without much movement in the air is not even half the bowler with it. But he has been making it dart around in Dhaka and the way he toyed with Dwayne Smith is not a sight one usually sees in T20s, where batsmen usually fall on their own because they play too many shots. In this case, to put bat to ball against Bhuvneshwar was proving difficult for Smith, as he took several away before bringing the odd one back in. A spell of 3-0-3-0 in a T20 is pure gold for a captain.

Sammy praised Bhuvneshwar when asked about West Indies' crawl of a start. "I think credit must go to the opening bowlers," Sammy said. "Kumar swung the ball both in and out and he bowled good areas. We know they were bowling to the two most dangerous openers in this format of the game. They kept them quiet."

Bhuvneshwar was unfortunate not to pick up a wicket, because he seemed to be on the verge of breaking through almost every ball. His role is to make good use of the new ball, Dhoni said, and that is exactly what he did, bowling some big away swingers.

"Make sure he does not give too many loose deliveries," Dhoni said. "The batsmen have to go after him to play the big shot. That will be like a winner for him and today there was a bit of help and he made sure he was bowling in the right areas. That is how he will contribute throughout. Especially in this game I thought he bowled brilliantly. His length was very crucial and he was able to swing the ball."


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Kusal salvo hides seniors' foibles

Sri Lanka's august senior batsmen made 23 collectively, but a 23-year-old's belligerence ensured his team triumphed nonetheless

When a team has three players of the calibre of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan approaching the twilight of their careers, there are bound to be fears about the future. That august trio have nearly 4000 T20I runs between them; against South Africa they made 14, 9 and 0 respectively. That those failures did not extinguish Sri Lanka's chances of victory was largely down to a 23-year-old named Kusal Perera.

If you have heard Kusal's name mentioned without that of Sanath Jayasuriya in close proximity you probably weren't listening hard enough. With his low, southpaw stance and flashing blade, particularly in a wristy ability to clip the ball off his pads, Kusal has an uncanny likeness for the man who is now Sri Lanka's chairman of selectors. Jayasuriya built his reputation with a series of dashing assaults as opener during the 1996 World Cup and Sri Lanka will believe that Kusal can have a similar catalytic effect at this tournament.

T20 continues to push back the limits of the possible in cricket, as anyone who has seen the scorecard from Friday's afternoon match in Sylhet - let alone the shots played by Netherlands' batsmen - would know. This was a more sedate affair, despite the tension at the end, but still it showed how the world has changed, from Kusal's early assault to Albie Morkel's brief dalliance with seeing South Africa home.

Coming into this match, after 11 innings, Perera's T20 strike rate was a touch under 130 - coincidentally, almost the same as Jayasuriya's when he retired (eventually) in 2011. Jayasuriya may have been ahead of his time as a batsman, but that does not mean time won't eventually catch up. Of players to face 500 balls in T20 internationals (Jayasuriya faced 487 despite being indelibly linked to the expansion of one-day cricket a decade or so before) 14 currently score at above 130 per 100 balls, led by Yuvraj Singh at 152.72. Kusal seems likely to join them.

The beefy silhouettes of Chris Gayle, Shane Watson and Aaron Finch tower over the World T20 but power comes in different guises. Kusal and, during South Africa's innings, Quinton de Kock showed that you've got to look out for the little guys as well.

The opening over of the match contained most of the ingredients used to spruik the tournament as a non-stop feast for the senses. Dale Steyn, a man who has razed small towns with a 145kph swinging ball, was slapped for two fours and a six - flicked over deep midwicket from outside off - by Kusal, three impudent blows that mocked the senior man.

Steyn bowled wides on both sides, perhaps a little peeved at being buttonholed like this so early on, having only passed a fitness test on the morning of the game. Then Kusal took a single. Dilshan, also coming back from recent injury, is perhaps at the age where he hopes for a little time to limber up before he gets going. Instead he got ripper that clattered through him and into the top of off. Zing went the bails - they really do look good from the stands - and Steyn's figures read 1-0-17-1 (2w)

 
 
"I think he's got a bright future ahead. For many years to come he'll be a dangerous player to bowl to" AB de Villiers on Kusal Perera
 

While South Africa worked out what to do with Kusal, they attempted to mitigate the damage he was causing by keeping him off strike. Having faced 16 of the first 24 balls, hitting three fours and two sixes, he was given only 24 of the next 57. Steyn came back - Steyn always comes back - and tested him against the short ball, a top edge landing safely between the bowler and mid-on. Irman Tahir worked further on his patience by pushing his top-spin through wider and Kusal succumbed.

"I think he's got a bright future ahead. I'm not sure how old he is, but for many years to come he'll be a dangerous player to bowl to," South Africa's stand-in captain, AB de Villiers, said afterwards. "I thought he played really well, put us under pressure from the word go, probably caught Dale by surprise with the first couple of balls, going after him. I don't think Dale expected that but he recovered really well after."

The short ball had hinted at a vulnerability and Sri Lanka reported afterwards that Kusal had suffered a blow to the head which required hospital treatment for concussion. But, just as he did last month during a T20 against Bangladesh on the same ground, Kusal had laid the platform for victory. Sri Lanka have played plenty of cricket in this country over the last few weeks and navigated their way around the terrain a little better than South Africa.

Spin proved a little more influential than had been expected, with Sachithra Senanayake and Tahir the most successful bowlers, as pace on the ball merely seemed to help it off the bat. Sri Lanka's seamers, having been able to size up the pitch from the dressing room, shortened their lengths accordingly - with the exception of Lasith Malinga who dealt with another punkish assault from de Kock with a low-slung yorker and proved himself just too difficult to put away until the final ball, with the match already won.

Ahead of the game, Sri Lanka's captain, Dinesh Chandimal, was under orders not to talk about the impending retirements of Sangakkara and Jayawardene. Afterwards, thanks to Kusal, nobody was.


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'We lost momentum at the death' - de Villiers

'Conceded 15 runs too many' - de Villiers

With five overs to go in their opening match at the World T20, South Africa were 115 for 3, needing another 51 runs to win. At the same stage of their innings, Sri Lanka had been 117 for 4. That South Africa failed to get over the line owed something to Sri Lanka's wicket-taking ability and something to a familiar failing of nerve by the chasing side.

Sachithra Senanayake had delivered a tight spell and he capped it by having the set batsman, JP Duminy, caught on the boundary in the 16th over. The lurking threat of Lasith Malinga, who still had two overs to bowl, was perhaps the reason that Albie Morkel tried - and failed - to hit a third consecutive six over long-on against Ajantha Mendis in the 17th. Although the required rate continued to hover around ten an over, South Africa were now five down and the incoming batsman would find he had been left with too much to do.

AB de Villiers, captaining the side in place of the injured Faf du Plessis, said that the plan had been to make sure that no more than eight runs were required off the final over, knowing that Malinga would bowl it. They were left needing 15 and Imran Tahir's six off the last ball perhaps made the result seem closer than it had been.

"There were two areas where we lost the game," de Villiers said. "They certainly got 15 too many, we were very poor in the field. They ran twos on way too many occasions. Too many extras and we've been guilty of that in the past, so something we have to work on and have to get right if we're going to do well in this tournament.

"Then we lost wickets at bad times, I got out at a bad time. When it gets close like that and it's a crunch game, you lose wickets at the wrong time and you lose the game. We lost our momentum towards the end, we needed to get it down to no more than eight off Malinga's last over because he's a really good death bowler, we couldn't do that. Unfortunately we were just not good enough on the day, I thought we were nowhere near 100 percent and that's the disappointing part. I don't mind losing games if we play at 100 percent but we just weren't good enough today."

South Africa have been reluctant to move de Villiers up the order, despite calls for him to be given more time to affect the course of matches, but the dismissal of Quinton de Kock, a left-hander, meant JP Duminy was preferred. De Villiers reiterated the view that his skills were more required in the middle overs.

"With Sri Lanka's spinners, we felt it was important to keep that right-left combination at the crease, so when Quinton de Kock got out we thought it was the best option for us to send JP in, to keep them guessing," de Villiers said. "That's why if Hash got out, I would have gone in, just to keep them on their toes. But we feel it's important with the good spinners."

As it transpired, Amla struggled for fluency and after eight overs South Africa were 47 for 1, with the pressure beginning to rise. Duminy tucked into Thisara Perera and Mendis to help add 28 more by the halfway stage and, with de Villiers alongside him, South Africa appeared to be edging back into the contest, only for both to fall trying to force the pace. De Villiers said going after Mendis had been premeditated but his dismissal of Albie effectively ended the chase.

"It was touch and go. It could have been a six but that's the game, that's the nature of Twenty20 cricket again," de Villiers said. "One inch further and it's a six, that's how it goes. He didn't hit it in the middle - I think it comes down to execution. I think he knows he probably could have hit it better. That's how it goes sometimes, you can't blame one player. I thought we batted quite well for most of the night and unfortunately got out with that fifty-fifty chance going to hand and not over the boundary."

Losing to Sri Lanka, ranked the No. 1 side in the format, need not be terminal for South Africa's semi-final chances and they can take some encouragement from a narrow defeat. Dale Steyn recovered from his first over being hit for 17 to bowl with familiar precision and hostility on his return from injury, while de Kock and Duminy hinted at what the batting may be able to produce. Sri Lanka had raced out of the blocks thanks to Kusal Perera's sparkling innings but de Villiers said Imran Tahir "turned the game around for us" with his 3 for 26.

De Villiers was also hopeful that Faf du Plessis would return to take charge of South Africa's second game, against New Zealand on Monday.


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Raj braces for opener challenge

Mithali Raj has been carrying India's batting for years and the veteran batsman and captain has set herself a new challenge going into the Women's World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. Having batted at No 3 or 4 for most of her career, Raj will open India's innings in the tournament, practising the strategy that the side's best batsman should get the most deliveries in limited-overs formats. While it is an opportunity for her to provide impetus to the team upfront in a world event, Raj also sees it as something of a personal challenge, an attempt to prosper in a format which hasn't exactly been her preferred one.

"I have worked hard on this and would like to give the team good starts," Raj said. "Opening is challenging. I want to challenge myself. Initially when T20 started I never really liked it. But I have come prepared, and have worked mentally very hard to get attuned to this format. I want to rate myself as a T20 player. I want to prove that to myself. I have tried it against Sri Lanka and it has worked."

Raj made 42 and 53 at the top of the order in the warm-up matches against Ireland and New Zealand but she knows too much cannot be read into those scores. And while she may be coming in at the start of the fielding restrictions, she is unlikely to abandon her favoured cover drive for a switch-hit anytime soon.

"My form has been good but I am not getting complacent," she said. "There is a big difference between the warm-ups and the main event. I will play to my strengths. I won't adapt to the extent where you have to make a 360-degree change."

Raj's promotion means the middle order will be marshaled by the capable duo of one-day opener Poonam Raut and vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur, and the captain was pleased that both had hit some form in the practice matches.

"It is good to see them get some runs. It is good that there are a couple of players ready to take responsibility in the middle order," Raj said. "I know that they are always there after me in case I fail to give the start the team wants."

Barring a few of her players striking form, Raj refused to attach any more importance to the warm-ups.

"I don't consider the warm-ups as benchmarks," she said. "They were of course helpful for the girls to get used to the surroundings and the atmosphere. We have two-three new spinners, and it was also a chance for me to gauge them."

The tournament is being staged in the subcontinent, in conditions that India can ideally claim familiarity with. Raj did not think this was the case, at least going by the surfaces she had witnessed for the practice games, which she felt were hard and not quite turners.

At the last world event they played in - the Women's World Cup 2013 in India - the hosts crashed out of the first round with losses to England and Sri Lanka. India find themselves with the same teams at the World T20, in Group B which also has West Indies and Bangladesh. Raj admitted the team faced the pressure of playing a World Cup, but she intended to go in with a clear mind regardless of last year's results.

"We won't carry the past here, that is for sure. (But) irrespective of where the World Cup is played, the pressure is always there," Raj said. "No matter how many world events you have played in, it is always going into a fresh one. Don't think it decreases because you are away from home. The event itself carries huge pressure. Everyone expects you to do well."

India will begin their campaign against Sri Lanka on March 24 in Sylhet.


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Broad aggrieved over lightning call

Average decision-making from umpires - Broad

Stuart Broad did his best to hide his anger after a decision by the umpires on when to take the players off in England's World T20 opener led to defeat against New Zealand via the Duckworth-Lewis method.

With Broad bowling to Brendon McCullum and lightning visible in the sky, the umpires waited until the arrival of rain before calling a halt, crucially allowing proceedings to reach the five-over mark required to constitute a game.

Broad said England could "feel aggrieved" to have lost and suggested the players should have come off the field at the first sign of lightning in the interests of safety. He criticised the decision-making by Aleem Dar and Paul Reiffel, the on-field umpires, but stopped short of saying England would lodge an official complaint.

"To be as polite as I possibly can be I think it was distinctly average decision-making keeping us on after the first lightning strike at the start of the fifth over, keeping us on throughout that," Broad said. "That over has obviously given us a loss.

"I asked the umpires for a bit of clarity on the decision-making at the end of the game and they said they didn't see the lightning and didn't think it was a threat. You can guarantee from our team we felt like it was a threat and with a batsman pulling away from a delivery after 4.2 overs I think the batsman saw it as well.

"At the end of the day it's a game of cricket so I wouldn't be putting the crowd and players' safety under threat."

McCullum pulled away as a flash of lightning lit up the sky with Broad running in to deliver the fifth ball of the fifth over. At that point, New Zealand were level on D/L, although two more deliveries needed to be bowled before it could come into effect. Broad's fifth ball was a dot but McCullum thumped the next for six. After 5.2 overs, with rain falling, Dar and Reiffel decided to call a halt.

Broad and McCullum were to be seen in apparently amicable discussion as the teams went off at the start of a heavy downpour. Broad said there were "four or five" lightning strikes while the players were out in the middle and that he and McCullum, the New Zealand captain, had discussed leading the players off themselves. "It's not sour grapes because I think both sides were uncomfortable being out there in such heavy lightning being around," he said.

The initial rainfall lasted around 20 minutes before appearing to blow over. But, with the umpires due to make an inspection, further rain arrived, causing the match to be abandoned at around 11pm local time.

"I think you should have an umpire in here for some clarity to be honest," Broad said. "There are some questions that need asking to the ICC. I mean it's all very well wanting to finish a game so you can tick a box, etc, but players' health and safety and actually crowd safety is very important and that to me felt like very threatening lightning."

New Zealand bowler Kyle Mills said that the right decision had been made to take the players off, although he felt the timing was a matter for debate. He said that McCullum, who hit 16 off six balls, had "summed up the situation pretty well" to make sure his team were ahead of the D/L par score.

"If Stuart was on the other end of it, he would be more than happy with the decision," Mills said. "In cricket you win some and you lose some, the umpires are trying to make the decisions to the best of their ability. They want to get a full game of cricket on, a judgement call as they see it, and it just so happened that we got another over in the game."

Two of England's previous World T20 campaigns have featured similar defeats. In the Caribbean four years ago, England lost to West Indies after rain reduced their target to 60 in fives overs and then their second match in the first group stage, against Ireland, was washed out. They squeezed through on net run rate before embarking on a five-match unbeaten run to the title. In 2009, when England hosted the tournament, they were effectively knocked out after losing another rain-affected game against West Indies at The Oval.

New Zealand had been set a target of 173 to win after England made the highest total on the ground in the tournament so far, despite no one scoring more than Moeen Ali's 36. Defeat leaves England possibly needing to win all three of their remaining games to reach the semi-finals. They are not in action again until Thursday, when they will take on Sri Lanka, who beat South Africa in the afternoon game on Saturday.

"Nothing we can do about it now, we just have to win our next three games, simple as that," Broad said. "The way we played tonight there's every possibility we can do that. We're still lacking that one player to go on and get a big 60 or 70 but we've got some guys firing and that's a good thing.

"The World Cup we won in 2010 we lost on D/L in the first game, scraped through against Ireland then we won our next five games to win the competition. We have to have the belief that can happen again."


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