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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIn a thrilling final, Usman Salahuddin hit a four off the last ball to give Lahore Eagles a one-wicket win against Khan Research Laboratories at the National Stadium in Karachi. Lahore needed three to win off the last ball and seamer Mohammad Irfan pitched short. Salahuddin pulled it away to the midwicket boundary and took his side to the title.With seventeen required off the last seven balls, KRL were favourites, but Lahore’s No. 11 Emmad Ali hit the first ball he faced to long-off for four and then cleared the same boundary off the second ball of the final over. Emmad turned the strike back to Salahuddin, who was not out on 50, and he only managed two off the next two balls. But he held his nerve to take the required runs off the last ball.Lahore’s chase was looking on course, as they reached 200 for 2, with Hamza Paracha batting on 109. Parcha fell in the 39th over and the wickets kept falling as Lahore tried to keep up with the required rate. Mohammad Irfan took four wickets in his five-over spell between overs 41 and 50, giving him five for the match, and the required rate had gone up to 10.66 with three overs remaining. Left-arm spinner Mohammad Asif hit two fours in the 48th over before falling to Irfan, and then Emmad and Salahuddin did the job in the last two overs.Paracha set the base for Lahore’s chase with a measured innings and he was given company by first Mohammad Hamza, who made 24, Rana Adnan, who made 36, and then Salahuddin.KRL’s innings had got off to a slow start, and they found themselves 80 for 3 after 20 overs. Bazid Khan and Ali Naqvi concentrated on ones and twos, hitting only one boundary between overs 19 and 31. Naqvi got boundaries of each of the next overs and then smashed spinner Kashif Nizami for consecutive boundaries through the covers in the 34th over. There was another lull in the scoring before Bazid Khan took on legspinner Saad Nasim in the 40th over, smashing him over long-on for six to reach his half-century and then hitting him for a four to long-on off the next ball.Bazid was out two overs later, hitting Asif into the hands of long-off, but Naqvi, who had already got his half-century, kicked on. Naqvi smashed three boundaries in the 45th over, got to his century with a six in the 47th, and got a four and a six off the first two balls of the 48th, before becoming Nasim’s second wicket off the last ball of that over. Nasim went on to take three more wickets in the last over of the innings to fnish with figures of 5 for 55, but KRL had taken 90 runs of the last ten overs. Their total of 281, though, didn’t prove enough in the end.

The Sussex offspinner Ollie Rayner has joined Middlesex on loan for the start of the 2011 domestic season. Rayner, 25, will join the squad when he returns from the MCC tour of Namibia in early March, and will take a full part in the club’s pre-season preparations.”Ollie will be a welcome addition to Middlesex’s cricket staff for the start of the 2011 season,” said the club’s Director of Cricket, Angus Fraser. “He is a talented young cricketer with an excellent work ethic who is improving with each season.”Rayner will be available for selection for the first four rounds of the County Championship, as well as five CB40 matches. The loan agreement will then be reviewed in mid-May prior to England’s international commitments.The departure of Shaun Udal left Middlesex needing to strengthen its spin bowling resources, and Rayner fitted the bill, having taken 18 first-class wickets at 22 in 2010. He is capable with the bat – he averaged 32 in 2010 – and is an excellent fielder, especially at slip.

Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel must remember Kolkata 2010 the same way the United States remembers Vietnam. That’s where they thought they had a chance to defeat an opposition that looked beatable, and that’s where they misjudged badly. They were wounded from all fronts, their morale was broken and in the end, they lost the battle.After their victory in Nagpur a week earlier, South Africa had an ideal opportunity to win the series in the subcontinent. That never happened. They collapsed to 296 on a turning track at Eden Gardens and conceded a massive 643/6 to lose by an innings and 57 runs. Dale Steyn bowled thirty overs and Morne Morkel 26, both conceding 115 runs apiece. Virender Sehwag, in particular, treated the pair as though they were nothing more than cheap rag dolls. Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman followed, although in less manic fashion, and then MS Dhoni joined the party. Steyn and Morkel were left hurting. On Thursday, at SuperSport Park in Centurion, they exacted a carefully planned revenge.”It’s the most important thing not to forget your aggression,” Morkel said after the first day when a mixture of that attacking instinct and ingenious strategy helped South Africa seize the advantage.The match was being billed as a contest between South Africa’s bowlers and India’s batsmen, in particular the openers on both sides, and it did not disappoint. Steyn versus Sehwag was considered the heavyweight fight but it lasted just three balls. The first two were regulation Steyn balls, shaping away outside off and Sehwag dutifully left them. In his next over, Steyn began with a similar delivery, moving away just a touch. Sehwag could not resist.He didn’t care that Hashim Amla was positioned at short third-man for in case he gave in to the temptation. The urge to hit on the up was too tempting and Sehwag went for it. In doing so, he scooped it off the outside edge to Amla giving South Africa immediate reward, even though they were prepared to wait. “We knew we would have to stay calm and patient and that he would give it away,” Morkel said.The middleweight clash lasted a few more rounds. Morkel was unrelenting as he banged in short balls by the half-dozen to Gautam Gambhir, but mixed them up well. He topped 151 kph at times and sent the ball whizzing around Gambhir’s ears in the first over. In the second over he bowled to Gambhir the real crux of the strategy emerged. Two short balls, followed up by a fuller one, and then another. When Morkel, elegant as a giraffe, reached down to save four off his own bowling from the second fuller ball, it was as though he was prophesising his own victory.He almost had his man in the next over when a nasty bouncer took something on the way through to Mark Boucher. Umpire Steve Davis thought it shaved something other than the glove. Morkel did not relent and gave Gambhir no scoring opportunities as the pattern of short, short, full continued. Gambhir survived Morkel’s first spell but just as he was relaxing, Morkel returned from the other end and continued the same trend. Two more short balls, and then Gambhir perished to the follow-up. He was too late on the full ball and the outside edge was comfortably taken by Paul Harris at first slip.The way Steyn and Morkel varied their lengths was crucial to their success. “They weren’t sure whether to go forward or back,” Morkel said. Steyn used the seam movement in exemplary fashion, particularly as he got the ball to go away from Rahul Dravid and in to Gambhir. Morkel’s height allowed him to extract the spongy bounce but he managed to mix the short balls with a range of deliveries that landed on a good length and ones that were full enough to tease the batsmen’s toes. It was that assortment that got Dravid out as he was hit on the pads by a delivery that stayed lower than expected.Steyn came out spitting venom after tea. The over he bowled to Tendulkar immediately after the break covered an entire spectrum. It contained a delivery that moved away, one that straightened, one that moved in, a bouncer and an over-pitched ball. In the next over, Steyn left Laxman aghast by getting right through him and pegging back his middle stump. He also got rid of Tendulkar, who was looking strong in the battle against Lonwabo Tsotsobe, with a ball that straightened.South Africa’s opening bowlers, who have been labelled the most fearsome in world cricket, out-thought the Indians with their follow-up balls. The straighter or fuller deliveries were proving to be the wicket-taking ones but they didn’t forget that the ball India have always been vulnerable against on tour was the short one.The pair has always been revered because of their styles complementing each other and Morkel said they aimed to exploit the variety to their advantage. “Myself and Dale are different bowlers. I’m six foot five but he is a bit shorter. I need to use my strength which is my bounce. I don’t get a lot of swing and shape off the wicket, but Dale does.”While they were dismantling the Indian line-up, some luck also went their way. Suresh Raina, who was considered a target for short balls, ended up edging a length delivery from Jacques Kallis to third slip. After his dismissal a recovery seemed imminent. Even the South African bowlers expected it. “They have a quality top six or seven and we were lucky that Harbhajan was run out today,” Morkel said. Harbhajan appeared confident before he was caught short of his crease by an underarm throw from Mark Boucher.South Africa will be aware that is still plenty of movement left in the pitch, but an Indian attack without Zaheer Khan is a far less scary prospect than one with him. Morkel has some advice for his batsmen when they get they turn out tomorrow. “You need to leave well. It nips about but it’s a touch slow.” First, South Africa have one more wicket to claim but they must sense that the end is close with a debutant and a captain struggling for form at the crease. Then the revenge will be complete.

ScorecardRoelof van der Merwe’s all-round performance lifted Titans to a three-wicket win against Lions•AFP

The Titans chased the third-highest target of the MTN40 to beat the Lions by three wickets in the first leg of their semi-final in Centurion. They successfully went in search of 300, finishing with eight balls to spare, thanks to a Roelof van der Merwe assault. That inflicted a fourth consecutive loss on the Lions, despite the return of captain Alviro Petersen and Paul Harris.Neither of the two national caps made a major difference on the field. However, young Jonathan Vandiar, playing only his third match of the season in this format, was in a bullish mood. He smacked the second ball of the third over back over Albie Morkel’s for a six, and the bruising had begun.Vandiar’s fireworks ultimately included 13 fours and three sixes as he reached his highest limited-overs score, 130, off 108 balls. Forty of his runs came off a riled-up Andre Nel. Vandiar shared in a 100-run second-wicket stand with Richard Cameron, who made 45 off 37. The Lions had a middle-order wobble when van der Merwe removed Chris Morris and Neil McKenzie cheaply in consecutive overs. However, they were already well set for a meaty total, and Zander de Bruyn’s unbeaten 53 added the spice to lift them to 299.Last week, the Titans put on 310 for 4 against the Lions, so they wouldn’t have been too intimidated by the tall target. What might have scared them was Ethan O’Reilly’s opening spell. He struck with his third ball, an inswinger that trapped Henry Davids leg before. O’Reilly then removed the Titans captain Jacques Rudolph in his fourth over, getting him caught at backward point for 11.Gulam Bodi – who reached 3500 List A runs during his 41 – kept the Titans in the hunt. However, he fell to a stunning catch by Petersen in the covers off Werner Coetsee. Even with Bodi at the crease, the required run-rate had climbed to nearly 10 an over. Faf du Plessis and van der Merwe eased the pressure with a fourth-wicket partnership of 119 that came in only 12 overs. Both played an array of dazzling shots, particularly pulls and drives, with special punishment reserved for former team-mate Harris, who leaked 36 runs in his first four overs.de Bruyn removed du Plessis for 61, as the in-form man inside-edged onto his stumps. In the next over, van der Merwe’s aggressive knock, that included seven sixes, ended in tame fashion when he was caught on the square-leg boundary by Friedel de Wet for 93 off 51 balls. He had almost managed to resurrect the Titans from the dead. Morkel tried the resuscitation technique as well. His 24 off 17 included two sixes off Werner Coetsee, both of which just cleared the long-on rope. Three deliveries later, O’Reilly had him trapped lbw for his third wicket.Ironically, it was O’Reilly’s last over, which saw him getting smashed all around like a rag doll for 19 runs that killed off the match. Seventeen of those spewed from the bat of David Wiese, who was the Titans’ savior in the end. He denied the Lions any revenge over their provincial rivals, who beat them by 96 runs at the same venue in a pool match last week. The second leg of the tie takes place on Wednesday at the Wanderers.

Stuart Broad, the England allrounder, has said he will keep his emotions under control on the tour of Australia, in what is expected to be a heated atmosphere in front of big crowds during the Ashes. Broad has had his share of troubles on the field with regard to discipline. Most recently, in August against Pakistan, he was fined by the match referee for hurling the ball at the batsman Zulqarnain Haider out of frustration.”I know the lines that are there and not to cross them,” Broad told . “I did cross that once this summer and got punished for it, but I’ve learnt from my mistakes and hopefully this winter all will go to plan.”Broad, who will be on his first Test tour of Australia, sought inspiration from his father’s exploits – Chris Broad scored three centuries – in 1986-87 when England last won an Ashes series in Australia. He’s picked up 97 wickets in 32 Tests so far and said he’ll remain aggressive while ensuring he stays calm. “I’m a passionate player when I pull that England shirt on; it’s a very special and proud moment for you,” he said.”There’s a fine line to it. I don’t want to lose any of that passion for the game; as a bowler I need to have that real desire to get the batsman out and be in their face and be aggressive.”You have got to try to make the batsman feel a bit uncomfortable to get him out.”It’s just important to try to keep a cool head and stay logical rather than emotional. But then again you have to keep that balance between not becoming too logical because you need to have that passion in order to play to 100% in the game.”The key to England’s success in Australia, Broad said, was for the batsmen to score big with a strong bowling line-up to back them. “Runs on the board is the key,” he said. “We’ve got a bowling attack with a lovely balance to it – two tall bowlers [Broad and Steven Finn], a fantastic spinner [Graeme Swann] and James Anderson who can swing the ball.”We all know that scoreboard pressure creates wickets. So if we go and get 400 in the first innings – which is what we target every time – it puts huge pressure on the Australians. Big first-innings totals are something we need to produce.”A worry for England over the past few months has been the form of Kevin Pietersen, who averaged 27.75 in the four Tests against Pakistan. Pietersen has not scored a Test century since March 2009 and was dropped for the ODI series against Pakistan. He then went to South Africa to play some first-class cricket in preparation for the Ashes, but has, so far, failed to impress. “The Ashes is set up perfectly for him to fire back into form,” Broad said. “He’s a big-game player and I have no doubt that he’ll step up and perform for us in Australia.”

Sachin Tendulkar leads the nominations for the seventh ICC awards as the only cricketer to have been short-listed in all the three major categories. India opener Virender Sehwag, South Africa’s middle-order batsman Hashim Amla and England offspinner Graeme Swann are the other names in the marquee Cricketer of the Year short-list. Swann was a late inclusion to the initial long-list after the ICC overlooked him when they first released the list of contenders for the awards. The awards will be handed out at a ceremony in Bangalore on October 6.Amla and Sehwag were also nominated for the Test cricketer of the Year award, along with South Africa seamer Dale Steyn. Two Australians – seamer Ryan Harris and allrounder Shane Watson – and South Africa’s middle-order batsman AB de Villiers completed the short-list for the ODI award, along with Tendulkar.Tendulkar was in prolific form during the assessment period – August 24 2009 to August 10 2010 – scoring 1064 runs in 10 Tests, and 914 runs in 17 ODIs, including the first double-century in the history of the format.Sehwag’s inclusion in the Test category came as no surprise after a year during which he topped the run-charts, apart from scoring his runs at an exceptional strike-rate of 97.34.Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain who was the top ODI run-scorer during the assessment period, did not make the cut despite being on both the ODI and Player of the Year short-lists. de Villiers, who topped the ODI averages among players who scored above 700 runs, had four centuries in the 12-month period – second only to Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan, who scored five.Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene won two Twenty20 nominations for his knocks against Zimbabwe and West Indies in the World Twenty20, while Brendon McCullum and Michael Hussey were also short-listed for batting performances. South Africa seamer Ryan McLaren was the only bowler to figure in the list of five.This year’s awards include nine individual prizes and three team awards. For the first time, a “people’s choice award” that will be decided by online fan votes has been included. The short-lists were nominated by an independent 25-person academy comprising a host of former players, members of the media, and representatives of the elite panel of umpires and match referees.

The short-lists

Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla, Virender Sehwag, Graeme Swann and Sachin Tendulkar
Test Player of the Year: Hashim Amla, Virender Sehwag, Dale Steyn and Sachin Tendulkar
ODI Player of the Year: Ryan Harris, Sachin Tendulkar , AB de Villiers, Shane Watson
Emerging Player of the Year: Umar Akmal, Steven Finn, Angelo Mathews and Tim Paine
Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year: Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands), Trent Johnson (Ireland), Kevin O’Brien (Ireland) and Mohammed Shahzad (Afghanistan)Twenty20 International Performance of the Year: Michael Hussey 60* v Pakistan, Mahela Jayawardene 100 v Zimbabwe, Mahela Jayawardene 98* v West Indies, Ryan McLaren 5-19 v West Indies and Brendon McCullum 116* v Australia.Women’s Cricketer of the Year: Katherine Brunt (England), Shelley Nitschke (Australia), Ellyse Perry (Australia) and Stafanie Taylor (West Indies)Umpire of the Year: Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Tony Hill and Simon TaufelSpirit of Cricket: India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe

Members of the voting academy

Former players: Ian Healy, Moin Khan, Athar Ali Khan, Shaun Pollock, Bob Willis, Sidath Wettimuny, Kris Srikkanth, Ian Bishop, Jeremy Coney, Mpumelelo Mbangwa and Roland LefebvreMedia: Jim Maxwell (Australia), Osman Samiuddin (Pakistan), Sayeed Uzzaman (Bangladesh), Neil Manthorp (South Africa), Mike Selvey (England), Ranil Abeynaike (Sri Lanka), Sharda Ugra (India), Fazeer Mohammed (West India), Richard Boock (New Zealand), Enock Muchinjo (Zimbabwe) and Ian Callender (Associate Representative) Elite panel of ICC referees representative: Roshan MahanamaElite panel of ICC umpires representative: Rudi KoertzenChairman of ICC cricket committee: Clive Lloyd

Ricky Ponting hopes the two-Test series in India next month will be a step towards Australia reclaiming the No. 1 Test ranking. Australia are presently fourth in the ratings, 14 points behind top-ranked India, and a 2-0 win for the visitors will narrow the gap to four.”It’s an important tour for all of us,” Pointing said before his side’s departure to India. “I don’t expect miracles, but I expect a very high level of performance over the next few weeks. If we happen to play the cricket I know we are capable of in India, and we can win that series, that will do great things for us to get back up near the No. 1 ranking.”Australia and India have been neck-and-neck in Test cricket over the past decade: India won seven matches, including two away, while Australia prevailed in six. Their last tour to India was one of the more one-sided contests, which the hosts won 2-0. In the build-up to this tour, there have been suggestions that it wasn’t ideal preparation ahead of the Ashes that begin later in the year. Ponting, however, dismissed those claims.”There’s been a bit of talk the last few weeks about our preparation into what we’ve got later in the summer, and I definitely couldn’t be happier with it, playing Test cricket at this time of year. I think it will be great to be challenged by a very good team and by the conditions. I think it will be great for us when November (and the Ashes) comes around.”Ponting also called upon the ICC to act quickly on the spot-fixing allegations that have marred Pakistan’s ongoing tour of England. “The events of the last couple of weeks have had a big impact I’m sure around the world on the way that the game is viewed, but that’s completely out of our hands. The ICC needs to be doing whatever it can to get on top of these things as quickly as possible.”Three Pakistan players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif – were provisionally suspended by the ICC after the spot-fixing controversy broke during the Lord’s Test. Yesterday, the ICC launched an investigation into the third ODI at The Oval, after receiving information from newspaper prior to the game on Friday, alleging bookies were aware of certain scoring patterns that occurred during the match. Ponting lauded the ICC’s moves to curb the menace, and said there was little players could do except play honest cricket.”They’ve done a pretty good job over the last few weeks already and with this latest allegation, hopefully they will get to the bottom of this pretty quick as well,” Ponting said. “There’s nothing we [players] can do about that. As an Australian cricket team, all we can do is play the best brand of cricket day in and day out.”I think if we all do the right things on the field, hopefully there will be something positive coming back on the newspaper pages about the game of cricket, which is what we will try and achieve.”

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has permitted the recruitment of foreign players for the country’s domestic Twenty20 competition – the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League. Teams will be allowed to include up to five overseas players in their squads, two of whom will be allowed to feature in the playing XI.The tournament’s inaugural version was held last year over a period of a week and involved 12 of Dhaka’s best clubs. Abahani Limited won the title, beating Gazi Tank in a tense, well-attended final. Seven out of 34 matches were telecast live and there was an attempt to introduce some glitz with cheerleaders, DJs, live performances and SMS quiz competitions. The winners took home a cheque of Tk 200,000 (US$2890).The inclusion of foreign players is a step towards enhancing the tournament’s profile. These players are required to be current first-class cricketers and need to be cleared by their respective cricket boards to participate in the competition.

Scorecard
England and Wales Cricket Board pitch inspector David Hughes will take no action despite 15 wickets falling on the opening day of the County Championship tussle between Second Division promotion hopefuls Gloucestershire and Glamorgan at Cheltenham. Inserted beneath cloudy skies, Glamorgan suffered a spectacular collapse to 104 for 7 and were indebted to Mark Wallace and Robert Croft, who raised 105 for the eighth wicket to save their side from further embarrassment.Gloucestershire’s much-vaunted seam attack reasserted their authority to dismiss their Welsh neighbours for 216, a total considered to be around 50 below par on a green-tinged pitch. But when they came to bat, the home side fared little better, reaching the close on 145 for 5 to leave the contest evenly balanced. Overseas star James Franklin is unbeaten on 22 and much will depend on him when Gloucestershire resume their first innings 71 behind.Alex Gidman’s decision to insert Glamorgan on a green-tinged College Ground pitch was fully justified as Gloucestershire bowled the Welsh side out inside 53 overs. Convinced that the Tiflex ball would swing beneath low cloud cover, Gloucestershire’s captain saw his seam bowlers rip through the Welsh top order during the morning session.Openers Gareth Rees and Mark Cosgrove added 35 in eight overs, only for New Zealand Test allrounder Franklin to make in-roads, claiming two victims in as many overs from the College Lawn end. Rees aimed a loose drive at a ball which pitched outside off stump and was heldby Gidman at first slip, while Tom Maynard was pinned lbw, hit on the back pad by an in-swinging delivery.Typically forthright in his approach, Australian Cosgrove advanced to 41 with no apparent problems before surrendering his wicket cheaply, driving Gemaal Hussain straight to Jon Lewis at mid-off. His demise sparked a spectacular collapse, four batsmen succumbing inside ninecalamitous overs as the visitors lurched from 74 for 2 to 89 for 6 in the face of a swinging ball.Experienced campaigner Lewis got in on the act, trapping Ben Wright on the front foot for 17, while England A paceman Steve Kirby took two wickets in as many overs shortly before lunch to further undermine Welsh ambition.Jim Allenby played on, having scored just three, skipper Jamie Dalrymple walked in front of a delivery which came back into him and, when James Harris edged Hussain to slip in the first over after lunch, the visitors were 104 for 7 and deep in trouble.That was the cue for Wallace and Croft to launch a spirited recovery, the eighth wicket pair adding 105 in 19 overs to save face. Wallace, in particular, carried the fight to Gloucestershire’s bowlers, twice hoisting Kirby over square leg for six on his way to an enterprising 72 from 83 balls. He struck eight fours and four maximums in all before edging a delivery of full length fromHussain to second slip, having successfully doubled his team’s score.Croft made 44 from 63 balls and departed soon afterwards, held at first slip to give the impressive Hussain figures of 4 for 57. Jon Batty and Will Porterfield lent the reply solid foundations in an opening stand of 55 in 14 overs, but both departed in quick succession, the former trapped lbw by Allenby and the other caught at the wicket off Harris.Allenby then accounted for Gidman, pinned on the front foot and Gloucestershire’s earlier authority was in doubt when Hamish Marshall, having scored 34, pulled a Dean Cosker long-hop to deep midwicket and Chris Taylor lost his off stump to a Huw Waters leg cutter.

Ashes tickets go on sale to England supporters from Tuesday after more than 160,000 were sold to Australian fans last week. Members of the Australian Cricket Family received a head start for the series beginning on November 25, but there are still spots available for the public release.Four years ago approximately 42,000 English supporters, including 20,000 from the Barmy Army, attended the contests, which ended in a 5-0 victory for Australia. There is no chance of a repeat of the record-breaking crowds at the end of the year.”We’re not expecting the same extraordinary numbers,” Cricket Australia’s public affairs general manager Peter Young said. England held the Ashes after a 16-year drought when they arrived last time and there was huge excitement from their supporters at the prospect of retaining the urn.”That series was one out of the box, probably an all-time record,” Young said. “The UK-Australia exchange rate is also very different this time, making it more expensive for UK visitors.”The Barmy Army has been allocated a block of seats at each venue and one of their supporters will be the trumpeter Bill Cooper, who was banned from playing his instrument on the previous tour. “He is coming into venues on an agreed basis to work within our guidelines,” Young said.He said Cooper would provide entertainment but fans nearby would not be subjected to all-day tunes. Cooper, who does like to watch cricket, will be the only one blowing any sort of trumpet as vuvuzelas are not allowed.General sales are available for the Tests at the Gabba and Adelaide Oval on Tuesday, the SCG on Wednesday and the MCG and the WACA on Thursday. Cricket Australia has warned that scalpers are already offering seats at inflated prices and that those tickets can be cancelled at the admission gates.