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Match facts

Sunday, May 25, 2008
Start time 20:00 (local time), 14:30 (GMT)

	Will Kumar Sangakkara break the record for the fastest IPL fifty? (file photo) © Getty Images

The Big Picture

Kings XI Punjab will play their second dead match in two days when they take on the Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata. Sealing a spot in the semi-finals did not stop Punjab from putting on a convincing performance against the Deccan Chargers and they will want to match the consistent form of their fellow semi-finalists, the Rajasthan Royals. Their previous two games went down to the last over and Punjab will look to avoid that this time round.For Kolkata, it is the final game of the season and they will want to end on a positive note, giving the Eden Gardens spectators something to cheer about. In their last four games, Kolkata haven’t scored more than 149, and only one of their batsmen has managed a half-century – Salman Butt against the Chennai Super Kings.When the two sides played in Mohali, Kolkata fell nine runs short despite a 73-ball 71 from David Hussey.

Tournament position

Kolkata Knight Riders: P13, W5, L7, NRR -0.167
Kings XI Punjab: P12, W9, L3, NRR +0.431

Form (last five matches, most recent first)

Kolkata Knight Riders: LLLWW
Kings XI Punjab: WWWWL

Watch out for …

Kumar Sangakkara trying to break the record for the fastest IPL fifty, currently held by Yusuf Pathan – off 21 balls. Sangakkara has twice got to the landmark in 23 balls and he will be keen to improve on it.

What Kolkata’s attack does to counter Luke Pomersbach, who has been dismissed only once in the tournament.

Team news

Shoaib Akhtar missed out the last match because of an injured ankle and it is unlikely Kolkata will bring him back for a game that holds no significance for them. So Umar Gul should get his sixth game. Kolkata’s biggest headache has been the opening pair – they have used eight batsmen in the positions so far – and they may drop Mohammad Hafeez, who has averaged a little over nine from eight games, and get Sourav Ganguly to open along with Butt. After their game against Rajasthan, John Buchanan, the Kolkata coach, indicated that younger players would be given chances so Iqbal Abdulla, who went for 22 runs in his only game, may get another outing along with Tatenda Taibu.Kolkata Knight Riders (probable): 1 Salman Butt, 2 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 3 David Hussey, 4 Debabrata Das, 5 Tatenda Taibu, 6 Laxmi Shukla, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk) (wk), 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda.Punjab’s batting has been virtually invincible – they haven’t used more than six batsmen in their last five wins – but they may decide to rest their leading run-scorer Shaun Marsh for their next game, against Rajasthan, which will be a dress-rehearsal for the semi-final or final. In that case, James Hopes will return to open with Sangakkara. Their bowling has been mediocre and Irfan Pathan may be brought back in place of Gagandeep Singh, who went for 11 an over in the previous game.Kings XI Punjab (probable): 1 James Hopes, 2 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 3 Yuvraj Singh (capt), 4 Luke Pomersbach, 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Piyush Chawla, 7 Tanmay Srivastava, 8 Ramesh Powar, 9 Irfan Pathan, 10 VRV Singh, 11 Sreesanth.

Stats and trivia

Kolkata’s best partnership, in terms of runs, came against Punjab when Hussey and Wriddhiman Saha added 104 for the sixth wicket.

Ishant Sharma, the costliest bowler in IPL at US$950,000, has taken only seven wickets in 12 matches with best figures of 1 for 17.

Pomersbach’s average is equal to his aggregate of 151.

Quotes

“Motivation should come from within. If I am not able to talk and get it from my players, which I indeed could not do at the IPL, I should be under review.”
“My team told me that they have yet to meet a better human being than me. This is a huge compliment.”
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County champions Surrey hold an almighty lead going in to day four in their Division One clash with Leicestershire at The Oval. The visitors lost their last five wickets for 58 runs with Tim Murtagh picking up three. Darren Maddy remained unbeaten on 127. Surrey then got off to an explosive start. By stumps they were 335 for four off 63 overs. Adam Hollioake had stuck 18 fours and three sixes in his 152-ball 146 and Ali Brown 89. Both remained undefeated with Surrey 468 in front.Warwickshire require another 297 runs for victory against Sussex at Hove. Sussex were finally dismissed for 341 in their second innings after Mark Davis and Keith Innes both batted sensibly with the former scoring 66. With seven wickets in hand Warwickshire will have it all to do on the final day if they are to wrap up victory.Yorkshire’s woes continued as they suffered yet another defeat. The already relegated penniless club were thrashed by Kent by eight wickets. Following on in the second innings the home side failed to make any significant start and lost wickets at regular intervals. Richard Blakey top scored with 94. Robert Key guided his side home with an unbeaten 33 and wicket-keeper Paul Nixon was there too at the end as the visitors rounded off a good season with a win.The Division Two title is in the balance at Chelmsford. Essex require another 210 runs while Nottinghamshire need to take eight wickets. The increasingly impressive Will Jefferson found the boundary 15 times and remains at the crease on 71 while Australian Mark Waugh ran diligently between the wickets. The visitors were bowled out for 280 with Bilal Shafayat hitting a well-deserved 70 to resist the Essex attack while the last three wickets put on a vital 131.Derbyshire were indebted to their middle order, which grew from strength to strength as the day progressed in their match against Worcestershire at New Road. Resuming on 98 for two, there were half-centuries from Steve Selwood, Jason Kerr and Nathan Dumelow. David Leatherdale took four for 50 as the home side bowled Derbyshire out for 391. Chasing 373 for victory Kevin Dean shook the visitors with an early wicket but Steven Peters kept his cool to remain undefeated on 23. At the close of play the home side were 30 for one.Darren Thomas claimed the last Northamptonshire wicket at Cardiff before Glamorgan began show again what a good pitch it is. Glamorgan lead by 388 after ending the day on 470 for five. Matthew Maynard was in awesome form as he scored 151 at more than a run a ball. In an innings which spammed just over three and a half hours, he hit 19 fours and two sixes and shared a 252 run stand for the second wicket with Darren Hemp, who also scored a hundred. Maynard was stumped by Torbin Bailey off Rob White, whilst Hemp was bowled by the same bowler for 108. Michael Powell (82 not out), Adrian Dale (50) and Robert Croft (47 not out) also found the batsman-friendly pitch easy going.Gloucestershire beat Durham by ten wickets at Bristol. Ian Fisher took four of the nine Durham wickets that fell on the third day for the addition of 198 runs. Michael Gough was the top scorer with 78, but the target of 170 posed no problems for Gloucestershire. Craig Spearman led them home with 114 not out.

The Tasmanian Selectors have today announced the Cascade Tasmanian Tigers team to play the New South Wales Blues in the Pura Cup match from Friday, 22nd November to Monday, 25th November 2002 at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart.CASCADE TASMANIAN TIGERS

Jamie COX (Captain)
Sean CLINGELEFFER
Michael DIGHTON
Michael Di VENUTO
Xavier DOHERTY
Adam GRIFFITH
Shane JURGENSEN
Scott KREMERSKOTHEN
Daniel MARSH
Scott MASON
Shane WATSON
Damien WRIGHT

The 12th man will be announced on the morning of the match.As Ricky Ponting is playing a Test Match in Adelaide he is replaced by Scott Mason. David Saker has been omitted and replaced by Adam Griffith who has played in One Day Matches earlier in the season.

Yorkshire will travel to the home of their rivals Lancashire on Thursday for the disciplinary hearing at Old Trafford which will decide their fate in the Twenty20 competition. They face being booted out of the competition, or having to replay a crucial group match against Nottinghamshire when they fielded the ineligible Azeem Rafiq, or even another course of action.The hearing will be chaired by Judge Edward Slinger, with James Pickup QC and Simon Schanschieff also sitting. The ECB will issue a statement after Thursday’s hearing.Stewart Regan, Yorkshire’s chief executive, has already accepted responsibility for the club omitting to have registered Rafiq, a former England Under-15 captain who does not have a British passport.Yorkshire’s Twenty20 Cup quarter-final away to Durham on Monday was called off just minutes before the start after the ECB ruled they’d failed to register Rafiq as a first-class player. Rafiq is understood to have been eligible to play for Yorkshire at every level below the first team – but he bowled two overs against Nottinghamshire.The county’s registration error could end up costing the county a chance of winning £2.5 million on offer to the inaugural Champions League winners later this year, in a tournament featuring leading domestic Twenty20 sides from around the world.

A journey that began for a 25-year-old Richard Hayward looking for some employment in the English winter in 1979 reaches a new level when he takes up the position of Canterbury’s coaching director next month.The former English county professional with Hampshire and Somerset, has been living in Nelson where he was the first full-time professional coaching director appointed by a district association four years ago.It was a bold move by the Nelson association, always a front-runner in advancing cricket in its own region, and now the stage has been reached where most district associations should be employing full-time coaching co-ordinators as the result of a drive for increased coaching for districts and clubs by New Zealand Cricket (NZC).But Hayward is moving into the next phase of cutting edge cricket with Canterbury.”I’m really looking forward to it. It is a new challenge and something different.”It is a step-up from what I have been doing and with Canterbury Cricket doing some very exciting things, with their new building and their four-lane indoor training facility, it is a good time to be involved,” he said.Hayward’s role will be to look after coaches at all levels of the game, from junior schools with their MILO programmes through to clubs, with the new initiatives that will see all clubs have some coaching available to them through NZC’s efforts.From a broad-based role in Nelson, the job will be much more specific in Christchurch and he will not be so hands-on with teams.In Nelson he was dealing with all representative teams from Form One through to the Nelson senior side.Not surprisingly, given it is his trade, Hayward believes coaching development deserves a higher priority.”Coaching education has taken a back seat to player development. But if you can’t get coaches, you are not going to develop players.”One of my aims in Canterbury will be to get good quality coaches, and lots of them,” he said.Hayward is motivated solely by the desire that young players should enjoy their game sufficiently to want to be involved in it for a lifetime.”I am putting something back because I want people to get the same enjoyment out of cricket that I got.”And I do worry that kids are not enjoying the game as much as I did,” he said.The lack of players mingling after games, whether due to drink-driving regulations or because longer hours of work result in players having to get home quickly after games, is a real concern to him.”It is the responsibility of coaches to encourage mingling between sides. The most enjoyable part of cricket is meeting people.”And I know that Richard Reid, as chief executive, is looking to improve the enjoyment for clubs down there,” he said from Nelson.”We’ve got to make cricket more enjoyable, and we have to keep some of the older people in the game for longer,” he said.Having players retire at 30 was not good. It affected the quality of club cricket, and then districts cricket.The coaching side of the game started when Hayward was 25 and just starting to play professionally in England. He was looking for a job in the winter, and an uncle in Nelson happened to mention to Nelson cricket identity Jock Sutherland that he had a nephew seeking some work.”Billy Ibadulla had just finished coaching in Nelson and they were looking for someone. Jock Sutherland rang me and over a couple of phone calls we sorted things out. I was an English Level II coach by that stage.”I came out six years in a row. Then I bought a shop in Nelson and did some summer coaching and when Nelson appointed a full-time coach four years ago I jumped at the chance.”It was a bit of a financial punt for Nelson at the time, they were the first district association in New Zealand to do it,” he said.But since the news was relayed yesterday that Hayward was leaving the Nelson area, he has had nothing but goodwill and support for his decision.The only problem is that because Sutherland, his mentor, has been in England, he hasn’t been able to let him know.That apart, Hayward says he is “raring” to go in his new role.

Sri Lanka’s cricketers departed on Thursday morning for the United ArabEmirates confident of reclaiming Sharjah’s desert crown from a full strengthPakistan side in the bi-annual triangular.Waqar Younis’s Pakistan powered to a an easy victory in November and SriLankan coach Dav Whatmore is therefore looking for a special show of character from the Sri Lankan players.”Against Pakistan I want to feel a real positive intent,” said Whatmore. “Asfar as I am concerned, I glad that we are going to be playing a fullstrength Pakistani side – bring them on, that’s what I say.””I am interested to see how we go. This doesn’t mean that we have to win – Iam looking at the performance and want us to meet them head on.”With nine straight wins in Test cricket under their belt, Whatmore senses anew inner strength within the side: “Success is about creating the rightmindset and I believe that the most important reason for our recent successhas been an increase in mental toughness.”Sharjah will mark a major change in the Sri Lankan’s one-day strategy, withKumar Sangakkara sliding up the order into the openers berth, a positionWhatmore believes he is ideally suited to.”Sanga’s promotion represents a significant change in our approach toone-day cricket – a change that I believe will improve it, although we alsohave the option of reverting back at any stage,” he said.”The thinking behind it is that when playing in England, and on somesurfaces in Australia and South Africa, we cannot afford to lose to manywickets in the first fifteen overs. The degree to which we take risks needsto be reduced.”Sanga has been batting at six and seven in the order, positions that haven’t really agreed with his style because he finds it difficult to manoeuvrethe ball into the gaps right from the start.”But he has shown that he has the necessary skills for playing against thenew ball: he has a good, solid temperament, strong self belief, an organisedtechnique, has the ability to bat for long periods and is no slouch whenwell set.”Sangakkara’s promotion opens up a space at number six – a slot that Whatmoredescribes as the “hardest position in the order” – for either TillakaratneDilshan or Romesh Kaluwitharana.”Traditionally, the younger batsmen have not been given much of a chancebatting in the lower middle order – this could be an excellent opportunityfor Dilshan,” said Whatmore.Sri Lanka will play a warm-up game on Friday against the United ArabEmirates before taking on Pakistan in the first game on Monday.An injury ravaged New Zealand side, fresh from their dramatic seriesleveling Test win against England, are the third team in the tournament.

After demolishing Bangladesh with a brilliant spell of fast bowling and capturing four wickets, Shane Bond told the media that he was not too happy with his rhythm.”I look up at guys like Glenn McGrath and Shaun Pollock as world class, and that is where I’d like to get to. I’ll have to work hard to reach that level around the World Cup time.”Bond reckoned that it swung a lot today unlike the game against Australia, with the humid conditions in Colombo.”It is a bit of a shame that we didn’t have such conditions against Australia.”The winning captain Stephen Fleming said that today’s win against Bangladesh was only convincing statistically, and he was not too happy with the tentative batting.Fleming pinpointed the problem with New Zealand one-day cricket as the lack of ability to convert the starts to big scores.”Starting with me, we are reluctant to kick on and get the big score. We have been flirting with partnerships and getting partnerships of 60s and 70s. We are creating a lot of pressure for guys down the order,” said Fleming.Fleming was quick to add that the successful teams in the tournament have had someone getting a hundred up the order and making big scores to help chase or set big targets.Talking about their performance in the ICC Champions Trophy, Fleming said, “We are disappointed with the Australian game, and were not really there in that game. We have finished on a much better note; the bowling and catching were very good today.”Fleming said that the team had put in a lot of hard work in the last eight days, keeping in mind the tour to Sri Lanka coming up next year.”We have been working out a few things, playing spinners, and different types of practice and getting used to the conditions. So when we come back here, we will be more prepared.”The New Zealand skipper is a disappointed man that they could not defend the trophy they won in Kenya. He made no excuses though.”Each individual tournament has its own character. It was a tough game against Australia first up. You always want to compete whether it is a series or a World Cup. We wanted to play well here, and we didn’t do it this time.”New Zealand had some success against the all-conquering Aussies last summer, and Fleming explained the recipe for success against the Australians.”You’ve got to absorb pressure. If you don’t absorb pressure, you are not going to be there in the ball game.”They have the ability to apply pressure in batting and bowling. You’ve got to be on song from ball one. If you go behind in any game, it is very hard to catch up with them. The key to success against them is to be in the game and competing.”It was indeed quite disappointing to see the Bangladesh batsman taking a few steps back against the likes of Mills and Oram. Bangladesh fly out to South Africa tomorrow and are to play two Tests and three ODIs. Fleming reckons that the Bangladeshis have some work to do to stay in the game with the South Africans.”They don’t get much exposure to quicker and bouncier pitches. They have to look at it as a real learning experience. If they get spooked up, they are not going to learn anything.””They have to show a lot more steel and face up to the South Africans, not an easy task, but you got to learn that way at the highest level,” Fleming added.It was a disappointed Bangladesh captain Khaled Mashud who addressed the media. After the Kiwis had dealt the knockout punch, there was nothing much for the skipper to say.”We have a tough tour of South Africa coming up. It is going to be seaming tracks and the boys would have learnt something from here.”Talking about his sore right shoulder, Mashud said, “I had an injection three weeks back and had one right after the game.”

Former captain Salim Malik said Wednesday that he was ready to meetICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) chief Sir Paul Condon if called. Condonand his two associates are scheduled to visit Pakistan between May 25and 27.Malik, banned for life by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on therecommendation of Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum’s judicial commission,said he came about Condon’s visit through newspapers.However said he has not receive any official intimation from the PCBto appear before the ACU. “Nevertheless, if I am called, I willdefinitely appear,” Malik said.

ScorecardJohn Hastings picked up a career-best 5 for 30•Getty Images

John Hastings made the perfect comeback to first-class cricket with a career-best five-wicket haul that helped Victoria crush Western Australia by 10 wickets at the WACA. The Victorians needed only one session on the third day to wrap up their victory as the Western Australia batting order again collapsed, all out for 200 to add to their disappointing first-innings effort of 175.In his first outing at first-class level since December 2010 Hastings, who missed all of last summer with a shoulder injury, picked up 5 for 30 and was not surprisingly named Man of the Match after grabbing two wickets in Western Australia’s first innings and scoring 39. Hastings picked up the important wicket of Mitchell Marsh early in the day, caught at point for 40.Shaun Marsh followed soon afterwards when he was trapped lbw by Hastings for 30 and it was only through some late hitting from Nathan Coulter-Nile (45 off 30 balls) that the Warriors avoided an innings defeat. They were dismissed with the scores level, leaving Victoria one run to win, and the opener Chris Rogers clipped a boundary off his pads off Mitchell Johnson from the first ball of the second innings to confirm the result.