Pakistan stars miss deadline for Indian Premier League

Pakistan players under contract with Indian Premier League clubs must go through the auction process if they are to play in the 2010 season.

That is despite belatedly securing clearance from both governments.

Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Gul, Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir have secured visas, but IPL chief Lalit Modi says they missed the 7 December deadline.

As a result, three franchises have already replaced Pakistan players with alternatives from South Africa.

Bangalore Royal Challengers have secured South Africa's Roelof van der Merwe in place of Misbah, Charl Langeveldt has replaced Gul at Kolkata Knight Riders while Rajasthan Royals - who have both Akmal and Tanvir on their books - have brought in Johan Botha.

In the inaugural IPL season of 2008, 11 Pakistan players took part, but they were banned from the 2009 competition after the Mumbai terrorist attacks, although the competition was moved to South Africa.

Pakistan won the ICC World Twenty20 this year, and under normal circumstances their players would be in high demand, but relations between the neighbouring countries remains strained.

It remains to be seen whether star all-rounder Shahid Afridi, spinner Saeed Ajmal and new pace sensation Mohammad Aamer will be in the market for the IPL auction. None of them have signed contracts with franchises.

Graeme Swann & Stuart Broad set up England victory bid

England will need to take just four wickets on the final day in Durban to win the second Test and seal a first victory in the city since 1964.

A remarkable burst from Graeme Swann (3-22) and Stuart Broad (3-18), which saw four wickets fall for seven runs, reduced South Africa to 50-6.

The hosts were 76-6, still 156 behind, when bad light and rain ended play.

England had earlier declared on 575-9, 232 ahead, with Ian Bell making 141 from 227 balls and Matt Prior 60.

As South Africa then reached a fairly comfortable 27-0 from their first nine overs in their second innings on a wicket with a reputation for going flat, the draw looked the likeliest result by a long way.

But Swann removed Ashwell Prince with his second ball, thanks to a sharp catch from Bell at silly point, and clean bowled Hashim Amla on the stroke of tea.

Bell, whose place has been under intense scrutiny, reached his ninth Test century and first since July 2008 with a lofted on-drive for four off Paul Harris, but the run-up to lunch was otherwise a dull passage of play, with neither Bell nor Broad showing much adventure.

Thankfully, that all changed after lunch as Broad muscled Harris onto the grass banks for six in an over costing 15, before edging Duminy to slip.

Swann wasted no time playing himself in, pulling Makhaya Ntini for a huge six in making 22 from 14 balls, and Bell added two post-lunch boundaries before finally chasing a wide one from Dale Steyn. The declaration followed 10 balls later.

Wednesday, which should provide at least two full sessions of clear weather should they be needed, is likely to see Centurion man of the match Swann take centre stage once again.

It has been quite a 12 months for the Nottinghamshire man, who on Tuesday became the first English spinner to take 50 wickets in a calendar year.

Paul Collingwood, meanwhile, dislocated a finger in the warm-up on Tuesday and is unlikely to play any further part in the match. However an X-ray has confirmed there is no fracture and he may be available for the third Test in Cape Town from 3 January.

India v Sri Lanka 5th ODI – Match Abandoned because of Dangerous Pitch

What a shame on Indian cricket Board and DDCA, the final ODI between India and Sri Lanka is called off after 23.3 overs of play. The pitch behaved very differently right from the start. There are only two occasions where Sri Lankan batsmen were hit on their body parts. On a Kotla pitch where the bounce varied from shin to shoulder in as short a spell as three deliveries.

In the 24^th over, suddenly one ball of debutant Sudeep Tyagi took off and almost got passed over M.S.Dhoni head. And at that stage Sri Lankan players decided that enough is enough and they don’t want to take any risk with some important series coming up.

The pitch at Kotla was also criticized in Champions League 2020 where even scoring 120 runs in 20 overs looks impossible on this wicket, however curator has prepared a fresh pitch for the ODI but it behaved more differently than early stripes.

Full of action, the 23.3 overs featured a wicket first ball; a dropped catch first ball of the second over; blows on the elbow, shoulder, fingers; frenzied running; thick edges flying past third man; and wickets for Zaheer Khan, Tyagi and Harbhajan Singh. Dhoni, coming back from a two-match ban, was stupendous behind the stumps, getting his legs together for the shooters and reacting well to the lifters. Not one bye was conceded.

After winning the toss M.S.Dhoni put Sri Lanka into bat, Zaheer Khan give India a perfect start removing last match centurion Upal Tharanga for first ball duck. Then after few overs he removed dangerous Dilshan.

Match was looking well in the bag for the Indians with visitors on 83/5 in the 24^th over but with so much uneven bounce on the wickets, both team captains decided it is dangerous to take any chance on playing the game on such unfit pitch. But despite of such dangerous pitch all the wickets fell during Sri Lankan innings was of a very good ball or with the help of some superb fielding from Suresh Raina.

All the players went off the field around 11:40 AM, but it took 1 hour 10 of debate before they officially abandoned the game.

So a very sad end to such wonderful ODI series between India and Sri Lanka. Let’s hope that BCCI and DDCA will learn from this and will take some hard decision in improving the pitch as well as cricket facility around the India.

Match Summary (Match Abandoned)

Sri Lanka– 83/5 in 23.3 Overs

S.Jayasurya- 31 T.Dilshan– 20

Z.Khan – 8-1-31-2 S.Tyagi- 6.3-1-15-1

India wins the series by 3-1 and now they will travel to Bangladesh for a triangular series between Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. Also they will play two test matches against Bangladesh.

Andrew Strauss unworried by Alastair Cook's form

England captain Andrew Strauss is not worried about the form of fellow opener Alastair Cook in the run-up to Boxing Day's second Test against South Africa.

Cook, who celebrates his 25th birthday on Christmas Day, scored 15 and 12 in the drawn first Test at Centurion.

But Strauss said: "I am happy with the way he is playing and happy with some of the adjustments he has made.

"There are times when cricket is tough but I know Alastair has the character and temperament to come through it."

Strauss added: "I have been through it and just about every member of our batting unit has been through it at one stage or another."What it boils down to is how much you are willing to guts it out and I know that Alastair will do that. I'm not overly concerned by the way he is playing or anything like that.

"I think he is playing nicely and it's just one Test match. I think it is always wrong to judge people on the basis of two innings because you can get a couple of good balls and unfortunately that is the way the game is."

England have to decide the make-up of their team for the match in Durban.

They only played four specialist bowlers in the opening draw at Centurion, with specialist extra batsman Ian Bell contributing just seven runs in his two innings.

"We're very mindful of picking the right side for the conditions here," said Strauss.

"Sometimes you're looking into the crystal ball a little bit, because you're not entirely sure how the wicket is going to play and what conditions will be later on in the match."

4th ODI: India beat Sri Lanka by 7 wickets, seal series

Virat Kohli maiden ODI century (107 runs of 114 balls) and Gautam Gambhir seventh ODI century (150* runs of 137 balls) helped India to comprehensively chase down 316 runs with ease and seal the series here at Eden Garden. India were reduced to 23/2 in chase of 316 runs in the fourth over but youngster Virat Kohli grabbed the opportunity with both hands along with Gautam Gambhir and scripted a historic win by 7 wickets.

It was one of the most comprehensive successful run chase by the Indians in their ODI history with such an ease. The duo put on record 224 runs of just 214 balls for the third wicket to inject a fresh life into the chase after reduced to 23/2. In the end India reach the target with 11 balls to spare. With this win now India will go into Delhi with Karbon Mobile Cup already in their bag.

Mind you India chased down this mammoth total without two of their star players (M.S.Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh). When both Gambhir and Kohli joined together India was in deep trouble with two of their most experienced players already back in the pavilion and two already not in the team.

Right from the start Kohli was looking for boundaries and that helped Gambhir at other end to calm down. Both batsmen played cleverly and whenever they got the lose ball they have converted it into boundary ball and on good deliveries they have kept rotating the strikes which kept required run rate in check.

Both batsmen reached their centuries in consecutive deliveries. However in trying to finish of the game Virat Kohli holed out to long-on, but Gambhir made sure there were no further mishaps, scoring 47 off the 70 remaining runs. Dinesh Karthik played his part with unbeaten 19 runs of 22 balls.

Earlier Sri Lankan captain won the toss and elected to bat first. Riding on the well made century from the opener Upul Tharanga (118 runs of 128 balls) Sri Lanka posted a mammoth total of 315/6 on the board. Kumar Sangakara (60 runs of 72 balls) was another player who have done bulk of the scoring for his team. Other players also chipped in with cameos that helped Sri LankaEden Garden, Kolkata. in the end to post a highest total at

Gautam Gambhir was declared Player of the Match for his superb unbeaten 150 runs of just 137 balls however he showed an excellent gesture by handing over his Man of the Match award to Virat Kohli for his maiden ton.

Mohammad Yousuf retained captain for Australia

Pakistan have left out Younis Khan from a 16-man squad for the three-Test series against Australia, beginning in late December. Younis had not informed the selection committee or board of his availability for the series, having relinquished the captaincy and his place in the side after an ODI series loss to New Zealand last month.

Mohammad Yousuf, captain in Younis' place, will continue to lead the team in Australia. Yousuf's brief captaincy experience, incidentally, includes two Tests as leader on the 2004-05 tour to Australia; Pakistan lost both Tests though they were markedly improved from the side that lost the first Test at Perth by 491 runs under Inzamam-ul-Haq. Yousuf also scored a fine hundred in the Melbourne Test as captain.

"Younis wanted to rest but he didn't play in the domestic cricket since the one-day series against New Zealand," chief selector Iqbal Qasim told reporters. "He didn't give his availability to us and therefore we did not select him." Younis stepped away from the game after claiming he had "lost command" of the side, following months of strained relationships with a number of senior players.

Younis was Pakistan's leading run-getter on their last tour to Australia, the start of a period in which he established himself as one of Pakistan's most reliable batsman at one-down. Alongside Yousuf and Inzamam, he formed a formidable middle order, but Inzamam's retirement and Yousuf's time away with the ICL has weakened the batting considerably; a perpetually unreliable opening pair has added to the kind of woes seen in the current series with New Zealand, where only the Akmal brothers have had any consistent success.

Yousuf will also lead the ODI side in Australia, with Shahid Afridi as his deputy.

Squad:
Mohammad Yousuf (capt), Salman Butt, Khurrum Manzoor, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Fawad Alam, Faisal Iqbal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Danish Kaneria, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Abdur Rauf, Umar Akmal.

Pakistan vs Australia 2009 / 2010 - Fixtures and Schedules

Pakistan tours Australia at the end of December 2009 for 3 tests, 5 ODIs and 1 T20 match. The tour starts from December 26 2010 and will end on February 5 2010. The first test between them is the boxing day test match. The tour starts immediately after Australia's test series against West Indies.

Here are the complete fixtures and schedules of Aus Vs Pak 2010:

Date	Match Details	Time (GMT)	Time (IST)	Venue	Ground	City
Dec 26 Sat – Dec 30 Wed	Australia v Pakistan, 1st Test	00:01	05:31	26/12/2009 00:01	Melbourne Cricket Ground	Melbourne
Jan 03 Sun – Jan 07 Thu	Australia v Pakistan, 2nd Test	00:01	05:31	03/01/2010 00:01	Sydney Cricket Ground	Sydney
Jan 14 Thu – Jan 18 Mon	Australia v Pakistan, 3rd Test	00:01	05:31	14/01/2010 00:01	Bellerive Oval	Hobart
Jan 22 – Fri	Australia v Pakistan, 1st ODI	03:15	08:45	22/01/2010 03:15	Brisbane Cricket Ground	Brisbane
Jan 24 – Sun	Australia v Pakistan, 2nd ODI	03:15	08:45	24/01/2010 03:15	Sydney Cricket Ground	Sydney
Jan 26 – Tue	Australia v Pakistan, 3rd ODI	03:15	08:45	26/01/2010 03:15	Adelaide	Adelaide
Jan 29 – Fri	Australia v Pakistan, 4th ODI	04:30	10:00	29/01/2010 04:30	W.A.C.A.	Perth
Jan 31 – Sun	Australia v Pakistan, 5th ODI	04:30	10:00	31/01/2010 04:30	W.A.C.A.	Perth
Feb 05 – Fri	Australia v Pakistan, Only T20I	08:35	14:05	05/02/2010 08:35	Melbourne Cricket Ground	Melbourne