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A potential match between New Zealand and another Full Member team in USA this summer appears more likely to happen in Florida rather than New York after plans to revitalise Floyd Bennett Field have not panned out so far. USA Cricket Association President Gladstone Dainty told ESPNcricinfo in February that a plan had been put in place to install a turf wicket and make other upgrades to the Brooklyn facility so that an international fixture could be staged there in August, but that timeline has been pushed back.”We’re really trying to do something in September,” Dainty told ESPNcricinfo. “Now where? We really wanted it to be in the New York-New Jersey area. I don’t know if it can happen, but we’re still working on it. Right now I’m more sure that we’re going do something than I am that it’s going to be New York or New Jersey.””We actually had an inspection [at Floyd Bennett Field] done by a top cricket official or referee. We are awaiting his report. The initial assessment is that it’s a great location. It will be a great facility but it needs work. We all know that so it depends on how fast we can get that work done.”Multiple sources confirmed over the weekend that ICC Global Development Manager Tim Anderson and ICC Match Referee Jeff Crowe were both recently in New York to meet with USACA officials and have a look at Floyd Bennett Field. A matting wicket is currently used for club matches there and the overall condition of the field is poor, making it unrealistic that it could be revamped by the end of the summer. Obtaining permits to use the ground could also be another obstacle to overcome.Dainty did say though that using New York as a venue did not necessarily hinge on a turf wicket being installed at Floyd Bennett Field. It could depend on the ability of Cricket Holdings America’s members to convince two Full Member boards that playing on an artificial pitch either at Floyd Bennett Field or elsewhere in New York would create more attention and exposure than playing in Florida on a natural turf wicket.”What we’re more concerned about is what type of match it will be,” Dainty said. “I don’t think we can get an official match because I don’t think New York or New Jersey has a facility. So do we do New York or New Jersey and have a match or do we go to Florida where you can have an official match? So those are decisions we have to make.”

Stumps
Scorecard
Graham Onions took 5 for 53 to give Durham control on his comeback from injury•PA Photos

England seamer Graham Onions, out of action since January last year with a serious back injury, celebrated his return to first class cricket with 5 for 53 as Yorkshire were dispatched for 147 by Durham on the second day of their County Championship clash at Headingley Carnegie.Yorkshire trailed by 178 after the first innings, but the visitors declined to enforce the follow-on after tea and were 64 for 3 with an overall lead of 242 when bad light ended play. It was the first time that Onions has taken five or more wickets in an innings since his 7 for 38 against Warwickshire in June 2009, and the fourth occasion on which he has bagged five or more against Yorkshire.Onions was also well supported by his opening partner, Callum Thorp, who claimed three for 33, while Ian Blackwell got plenty of turn from the pitch and gave away just 12 runs in 18 overs during which he dismissed Adil Rashid with a classic left-armer’s delivery.Yorkshire lost their last eight wickets for 49 runs in 31 overs and only 20-year-old opener, Joe Root, in his first home Championship appearance, showed any sort of form, making 45 off 103 balls with five boundaries before being fifth out at 113.Resuming on 326 for 9, Durham had added only a single by the time last man, Onions, holed out to Andrew Gale at mid-off to give Ryan Sidebottom 4 for 72 and leave Liam Plunkett unbeaten on 66 from 123 deliveries with eight fours.Yorkshire could hardly have made a worse start to their reply as Adam Lyth pulled Onions’ second-ball loosener straight into the hands of Ben Stokes at square leg and Root and Anthony McGrath were given a difficult time by Onions and Thorp, despite Onions sending down several no-balls before dropping into the right rhythm.Just when the pair appeared to be getting on top, McGrath shouldered arms to Thorp and was lbw for 15, but Root and skipper Gale prevented any further early damage to take Yorkshire in to lunch on 93 for 2.Soon after the interval, however, Gale attempted to blast Onions over long-on and top-edged a simple catch to Blackwell. From that moment on, Yorkshire were completely outplayed and there was never any sign of a recovery, with Gerard Brophy, coming in at No. 6 and surviving 74 balls for 19 with just one boundary before being left high and dry.Jonny Bairstow fell lbw to Onions without scoring and the bowler made it three wickets for six runs in 11 deliveries by having Root splendidly caught one-handed by wicketkeeper Michael Richardson flinging himself to his right.The carnage continued as Rashid edged Blackwell to Michael Di Venuto at slip to be followed back in the next over by Richard Pyrah who was lbw to Thorp off the first ball he had faced. Sidebottom was bowled by Thorp and Steve Patterson could not avoid gloving a snorter from Onions to Richardson, with last man Moin Ashraf then holding out gamely until playing Scott Borthwick off bat and pad into the hands of Stokes.There was slight consolation for Yorkshire when Durham lost both openers in consecutive overs, Di Venuto edging Sidebottom to first slip where Pyrah plucked up a neat catch and Will Smith falling lbw to Ashraf. In worsening light, Stokes edged Patterson into his stumps to make it 57 for 3, but seven runs later the light became too bad to continue and the day’s last 10.1 overs were lost.

Match facts

Friday, April 16
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Kings XI Punjab will need more lesser-known players to do what Paul Valthaty did•AFP

Big picture

It is a clash between two sides that have exchanged captains from last season. Both had disappointing starts to this edition, but followed them up with morale-boosting wins. Both have relatively unknown batsmen as their highest run-getters. It is hard not to draw parallels between Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab, yet a little scratching beneath the surface reveals very different back stories.Deccan look well-balanced, and seem dependent on their bowling strength. They spent $2.83mn on bowlers in the auction, and in their last game, the seamers were the key according to captain Kumar Sangakkara. With Dale Steyn leading their attack, Ishant Sharma looking sharper than he has in a long time, and Manpreet Gony and Rusty Theron also in the squad, the pace and bounce on the pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium might make home advantage a key for Deccan. That’s something no-one would have said on Thursday afternoon, before which the franchise had never won in 10 attempts at this venue.Punjab’s victory against Chennai Super Kings also came about due to the fruition of a plan; except theirs – to hope young Indian players will carry them – seems a more risky one than Deccan’s. What Paul Valthaty did in Mohali will be talked about possibly for the length of the tournament. But the question is, how many times can someone pull off a Valthaty? Given Punjab’s lack of depth, Deccan will start this particular match as favourites, despite not being the strongest side in the tournament.

Team talk

David Hussey, Punjab’s most expensive buy at the auction, is expected to come in, but it will be interesting to see who makes way for him. Excluding either Ryan Mclaren or Ryan Harris will weaken an already frail-looking bowling attack, while Shaun Marsh has been prolific for Punjab in past seasons.Deccan may continue to leave out the $1.1mn-worth Cameron White, given the form JP Duminy showed in the last match, and Dan Christian’s all-round abilities. They will need to think of a way to move those two up the order. Manpreet Gony will probably continue to play in place of Pragyan Ojha – the second-highest wicket-taker in IPLs – on a track that is expected to favour the seamers.Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team selector.

In the spotlight

JP Duminy played a cameo against Bangalore, but is capable of getting bigger scores in the Twenty20 format. In the second season of the IPL, in 2009, he got five fifties for Mumbai Indians, and in the Champions League Twenty20 later the same year, he was the leading run-getter, scoring 224 runs including an incredible 99 not out for Cape Cobras. With Sangakkara due to go back to Sri Lanka in the first week of May, Duminy may also be an option for captaincy.Thank’s to Valthaty’s brilliance against Chennai, Dinesh Karthik’s 21 not out off 11 balls went unnoticed. However, as the most experienced Indian player in the entire squad, Karthik will be a crucial player for Punjab. At Delhi Daredevils, his steady contributions – he scored more than 250 runs in each of the last two seasons – were often eclipsed in a star-laden batting line-up. For Punjab, though, he could be the pivot around which the middle order revolves.

Prime numbers

• Deccan Chargers lost their first four encounters against Kings XI Punjab, but have won the last two. All six matches were at different venues.
• In the 24 matches Dale Steyn and Praveen Kumar played in together for Royal Challengers Bangalore, Praveen Kumar took more wickets – 24 compared to Steyn’s 21 – and had a better bowling average. The two will face each other on Saturday.
  

  The chatter

  “Darren [Lehman] has been working with the groundsmen; he’s seen what our strengths are in the bowling, and one of the advantages of playing at home is being able to prepare wickets that suit us.”

Match Facts

March 26, Colombo
Start time 2.30pm (0900 GMT)Graeme Swann’s expertise will be invaluable for England as they seek to stifle a talented Sri Lankan batting order•Getty Images

The Big Picture

Fifteen years ago this month, England and Sri Lanka met at the same quarter-final stage of the 1996 World Cup, only for an epoch-changing contest to pan out in front of an astounded crowd in Faisalabad. With his remarkable 82 from 44 balls, Sanath Jayasuriya not only ignited Sri Lanka’s charge towards their maiden global title, he signalled the end of England as a force in one-day cricket, as they failed to reach the last four of the World Cup for the first time in the tournament’s history.Since that match, the fortunes and expectations associated with the two teams have been flipped on their head. Sri Lanka went on to crush Australia in the 1996 final in Lahore, and have since contested a semi-final in 2003 and another final four years later in Barbados. England, on the other hand, have found a range of ignominious means to bomb out at the earliest opportunity – a trait they came perilously close to emulating this time around as well, following their embarrassments at the hands of Ireland and Bangladesh.But regardless of their numerous scares along the way, England are back in the knockouts for the first time in four World Cups, and given the excitement they have served up in the past month, their Colombo encounter once again has the makings of a humdinger. It is doubtless being greedy to expect their seventh consecutive contest to go down to the wire, but the one and only constant in England’s skittish campaign has been their ability to raise their game against more fancied opposition. And make no mistake, Sri Lanka on home soil present a formidable challenge – arguably the toughest assignment that any of the quarter-finalists could have landed.Four years ago in the Caribbean, the Sri Lankans were by some distance the best of the rest – the only team worthy of facing Ricky Ponting’s invincible Australians in the final. That they failed to bring home the spoils was no disgrace whatsoever, but while Ponting and his colleagues have since been vanquished at long last, Sri Lanka are arguably a stronger outfit than ever before. Eight of the 11 men who played in that final remain in their squad today, but crucially, sentiment has played next to no part in that fact. Two legends in Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas have been put out to pasture, leaving the stage clear for the likes of Ajantha Mendis and Angelo Mathews to bid for their own indelible mark on the tournament’s history.To judge by the narrative of their campaign to date, England will relish their underdog status – for it is a peculiar fact that of the eight quarter-finalists, they are the only side to boast an unbeaten record in matches against their fellow qualifiers. They salvaged a tie against India before out-muscling South Africa and West Indies in a pair of Chennai thrillers, and their never-say-die spirit will doubtless prove invaluable at some stage of a high-octane encounter.But can sheer tenacity prevail against a team so brimful with talented campaigners? Sri Lanka’s top-order triumvirate of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara is second only to India in terms of scorecard menace, while the breadth and variety of their attack is hard to rival – Lasith Malinga’s slingers and Muttiah Muralitharan’s enduring class epitomise the two extremes of a line-up that has men for all seasons and conditions. “It’s going to be a significant challenge for us,” remarked Andrew Strauss, never a man to cares to overstate the case.At least England have had a chance to put down some roots in the course of an itinerant campaign. They’ve had nine days of down-time since their decisive victory in Chennai, and the past week has been spent in the pleasant environs of Colombo, where they will remain in the event of progressing to the semi-final. Nevertheless, the sad news of Michael Yardy’s early departure to the UK once again speaks of a squad that is clinging on at the end of a draining winter, rather than clicking through its gears as the grandest prize draws closer. How many more “last big efforts” have they got in them?

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)

Sri Lanka WWWLW
England WLWLT

Watch out for…

It was on England’s tour of Sri Lanka in 2007-08 that Graeme Swann first showcased the skills and mindset that have since propelled him to the upper echelons of the international game. It was his first England tour since his ill-fated debut in South Africa seven years earlier, and with seven wickets at 22.28 in his four games, his determination to grasp his second chance was tangible. That refusal to surrender has driven England’s sketchy challenge throughout this World Cup, even in Chittagong when a dew-sodden ball drove him to distraction. He was immense in both Chennai victories, and his touch of class will be invaluable against such potent opposition.After 492 international appearances, 1343 wickets and almost 63,000 deliveries in a 19-year career, Muttiah Muralitharan is now a maximum of three matches and 180 balls from bidding farewell to the global stage. And in the event of an England win on Saturday, it will all end precisely where it began against Australia in August 1992, at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Murali, however, will not care a jot for such elegant symmetry – even as he approaches his 40th year, he remains as fiercely competitive and enthusiastic as ever. And, as his four-wicket haul against New Zealand last week demonstrated, his wiles cannot be trifled with, least of all by an England team whose collective performance against spin has been leaden-footed in the tournament to date.

Team news

After a difficult tournament, Yardy was never likely to feature in this showdown, though his departure has been an understandable disruption to England’s preparations, with Adil Rashid – his nominated replacement – still finding his way to Sri Lanka from the Caribbean. Tim Bresnan’s troublesome calf has flared up once again, though he came through a fitness test without any visible concerns and has been passed fit for selection. Jade Dernbach, the surprise replacement for Ajmal Shahzad, has been preparing all week as if he is going to play, although James Anderson’s big-match experience ought to earn him a recall following a fortnight out of the firing line. The identity of Strauss’s opening partner has been confirmed within the squad, with Ian Bell believed to be the chosen man.England (possible) 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Ian Bell, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Ravi Bopara, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Matt Prior (wk), 7 Luke Wright, 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Tredwell, 11 James Anderson.Fewer dilemmas for Sri Lanka to consider, especially now that Murali has been declared “100% fit” by his captain Kumar Sangakkara after struggling through the New Zealand victory with a hamstring strain. Sangakkara also acknowledged the potential weakness of Sri Lanka’s untested middle order, but backed Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, angelo Mathews and Chamara Kapugedera as “the best players we have to do that job”. One of the Chamaras – Silva and Kapu – seems set to miss out.Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Chamara Kapugedera, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Ajantha Mendis..

The pitch is flat, as they generally tend to be at the Premadasa, although the threat of thunderstorms adds an extra factor to the team’s preparations. Afternoon showers on the eve of the game caused the entire outfield to be covered in tarpaulins, which may just sweat a bit more moisture to the surface for the seamers.

Stats and trivia

• England and Sri Lanka have faced each other on eight previous occasions in World Cup history, and though England eased to victory in each of the first five of those encounters from 1979 to 1992, they have lost two of the last three – including a thrilling two-run margin in Antigua four years ago.
• The overall head-to-head for the two teams could scarcely be tighter. In 44 contests, England have won 23 and Sri Lanka 21. However, Sri Lanka have won eight of their last 12 encounters, dating back to 2006.
• England did, however, achieve a notable success on their last one-day tour of Sri Lanka in October 2007 – Swann’s aforementioned comeback tour. Despite losing the first game of a five-match series, they bounced back to win each of the next three for a well-deserved 3-2 victory.

Quotes

“It’s not difficult for us to focus our minds on this game of cricket. It is a massive game. If we lose we’re on the plane home; if we win we’re in the semi-finals.”
Andrew Strauss believes England’s off-field distractions will be of no consequence.“It’s do-or-die for all the teams when you get to the quarter-finals. That incentive is going to be there, and both sides will feel that intensity and that pressure equally.”Kumar Sangakkara prepares for his team’s biggest match of the tournament to date.

Needing 11 for victory in their second innings, Jamaica completed a ten-wicket win over Leeward Islands at Warner Park in Basseterre. Beginning day four on 132 for 5 after being made to follow on, Leeward was rocked early, losing two wickets without adding a run to their overnight score. Tonito Willett briefly steadied the innings before being run out for 60. The only other resistance came from Jacques Taylor, who remained 47 not out as the innings folded on 209. David Bernard, who had ripped through the Leeward top order on day three, finished with five wickets, while legspinner Odean Brown snagged three. Jamaica opener Danza Hyatt knocked off the required target with three boundaries. Jamaica took 12 points from the game to remain at the top of the table after four games.Trinidad & Tobago captain Daren Ganga crafted a match-winning 134 not out to hand Windward Islands a 51-run defeat at the Arnos Vale Ground in Kingstown. T&T had resumed effectively on 95 for 4, with Ganga on 62. The middle and lower order produced a couple of useful cameos, which in combination with Ganga’s sublime knock took T&T to 255 for 9, before they declared with two sessions left to play. Chasing 224 for victory, Windward were dismissed for 172 with medium-pacer Rayad Emrit (4 for 40) and legspinner Yannic Cariah (3 for 15) doing most of the damage. The only resistance was from first innings’ centurion Andre Fletcher, who scored 67. After Fletcher was dismissed, Windward lost their last five for 22 runs. With 12 points from the game, T&T leapfrogged England Lions to take the second spot on the points table.Defending stoutly after a mini-collapse, Barbados played out a draw against hosts Guyana at Providence Stadium. Guyana resumed their second innings on 90 for 4, but did not make much progress as wickets tumbled in the morning session courtesy the pace trio of Kevin Stoute (4 for 47), Pedro Collins (2 for 41) and Jason Holder (2 for 14). Guyana declared on 163 for 9 with two sessions left and a 291-run lead. In reply, Barbados went from 16 for no loss to 49 for 4 before Stoute (24*) and Roston Chase (18*) played out the rest of the day at less than two runs per over to ensure a draw. Guyana took six points from the match for securing the first-innings lead, while Barbados got three.Ending the day on 204 for 7, Combined Campuses and Colleges hung on for a draw against England Lions at the Three Ws Oval in Barbados. Earlier in the day, England Lions lost wickets in a hurry as they looked for quick runs. Overnight centurion Craig Kieswetter (103) was dismissed after adding just one run to his score, while Jimmy Adams made 72 before holing out. England Lions declared on 256 for 7, the wickets shared between spinners Nkruma Bonner (4 for 27) and Kavesh Kantasingh (3 for 79). Set 302 for victory, most of the CCC batsmen got into double figures but could not carry on – barring Bonner with 72 – as the team scraped through to a draw with three wickets to spare. They took three points form the match, while England Lions earned six for taking the first-innings lead.

Matthew Bell, the former New Zealand opening batsman, has announced his retirement from all forms of the game, after struggling with injuries over the past two seasons.”It’s a decision that’s been coming for a while now,” Bell said. “But it’s time for me to get on with the next phase of my life and to let some of the younger guys have the same chances that I’ve had. Retirement is a bit of an emotional thing but it was important to me to call time on it at the right time for the right reasons.”Bell, who made his Test debut against India in 1998 in Wellington, played 18 Tests for New Zealand scoring 729 runs at an average of 24.30. Following a poor Test series against Australia in 2001, he was dropped from the Test side only to be recalled seven years later in 2008 for the series against Bangladesh at home.He scored a century against Bangladesh in the first Test at Dunedin but played only four Tests after that, with his last Test against England in Napier in March 2008. Bell also played seven ODIs for New Zealand between 1998 and 2001.Bell represented Wellington at the first-class level in New Zealand for 14 seasons from 1997-98 and captained them for eight seasons. He scored 20 first-class centuries and is the only New Zealand batsman to twice score 1000 first-class runs in a domestic season and is the leading run-scorer for Wellington with 6565 runs.

The ICC has rejected Salman Butt’s reply to the spot-fixing charges against him, and asked Butt to file a fresh response. “He must file a fresh reply by later today [December 17] or he could lose his right of defence against the allegations levelled against him,” Aftab Gul, Butt’s former lawyer, told , according to a report in the . It was not clear whether Butt had filed his revised reply within the deadline.Gul also said he was no longer representing Butt. “As far as I know now Aitzaz Ahsan is handling his case,” he told .An ICC code of conduct tribunal will hear the case against Butt and seamers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif from Januarty 6-11 in Doha. The trio were suspended by the ICC pending an investigation into allegations by the tabloid that they arranged for deliberate and planned no-balls to be bowled in Pakistan’s fourth Test at Lord’s against England. Since then, Butt and Amir have had their appeals against suspensions dismissed by the ICC in a hearing in Dubai, while Asif chose not to appeal.The evidence gathered by NOTW was meanwhile passed on to Scotland Yard and the ICC’s anti-corruption unit, who subsequently launched their own investigations and gathered more evidence. The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service is considering whether the evidence passed on to them by police is enough to warrant criminal prosecution against the players.

Ricky Ponting has fallen out of the world’s top 20 batsmen for the first time since 2001 following his double failure in Adelaide as Australia were crushed by an innings-and-71 runs in the second Ashes Test. The man who removed him for a first-innings golden duck, James Anderson, has risen to a career-best No. 3 in the bowling rankings while Graeme Swann has closed the gap on Dale Steyn at No. 1.Ponting didn’t survive the opening over in Adelaide, when he was caught at slip first ball, and could only manage 9 in the second innings before he was removed by Swann. It meant he had only 70 runs in four innings for the series, 51 of those in the second innings in Brisbane as the match was drawn.Anderson overtook Zaheer Khan to secure third spot following his match figures of 6 for 143. He began the match in stunning style by removing Ponting and Michael Clarke as Australia slumped to 3 for 2 and then, on the final morning, found himself on a hat-trick after claiming Brad Haddin and Ryan Harris.Swann, meanwhile, bounced back from a disappointing performance in Brisbane by playing a key role in England’s innings-and-71-run victory. He took two important wickets in the first innings, but came into his own second time around as he bagged five on a wearing pitch.He is now just 14 points behind Steyn at the top of the table and, if he performs well in Perth and Melbourne, has a chance to finish the year as the leading bowler in the world. However, Steyn will be looking to consolidate his position when he leads South Africa’s attack against India in the Test series that starts on December 16After conceding 620 runs it’s not surprising that Australia’s bowlers slipped, with Doug Bollinger sliding four places to No. 13 and Peter Siddle, who hasn’t claimed a wicket since his Brisbane hat-trick, slipping three to No. 17.England also made significant gains on the batting front, with Jonathan Trott continuing his rise after securing a career-best position last week and moving further up to sixth place, while Alastair Cook’s mighty form has seen him climb to No. 13 and he now has the most points of his career. Kevin Pietersen is also marching back up the ladder after ending his lean run with a career-best 227.The one bright spot for Australia has been Mike Hussey’s form and he gained ten places following his match double of 93 and 52 in Adelaide. Michael Clarke’s second-innings 80 has prevented him from slipping down the list.For the full rankings click here

Scorecard
Virat Kohli’s dismissal was the turning point of the day•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The teams in the Durand Cup football semi-finals at the neighbouring Ambedkar Stadium would know exactly what Delhi and Bengal went through at the Ferozshah Kotla on Wednesday. Day three of their Ranji Trophy Super League match was a game of two halves. The first belonged to Virat Kohli and Delhi, the second to Bengal, who felt an immovable object suddenly shift an inch, and then didn’t stop pushing.At stumps, Delhi were 328 for 6, still trailing Bengal’s first innings total of 473 – and precious points – by 145 runs. They have two old school types at the wicket, Rajat Bhatia, who has played first-class cricket with the focus and enthusiasm of an Energiser bunny, and Sumit Narwal, the bowler who saved them much face yesterday. What Bengal have now is the belief that they can turn Delhi’s innate swagger into a fall.Kohli certainly swaggered in making 173, scoring more than half of Delhi’s runs in an innings stamped with the authority and superiority of a player who belongs to another, higher, class of cricket. His departure led to a middle order meltdown, four wickets falling for 34 runs, not only because he was the entertainment of the day, but also the centre piece of two top order century stands. For nearly four hours, Bengal laboured and absorbed the punches because they knew that Kohli’s wicket would turn the match into a far more even contest than he had allowed it to be.It took them a while, but they could have had him much sooner. Iresh Saxena grassed a simple chance at mid-wicket, to Ranadeb Bose’s utter misery, when Kohli was on 74. Given a reprieve, Kohli showed even more disdain. He mopped up the remaining 26 runs he needed for his hundred from 35 balls, leaping across the threshold with the help of three boundaries between 87 and 101. Bengal had tried to keep things tight and the runs down to a minimum. Given that their side had unravelled Bengal in the first session on Tuesday, Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli were happy to score at a reasonable trickle, and keep coach Manoj Prabhakar relaxed. Dhawan’s departure for 42 didn’t have much of an impact just before lunch, as the comfort of captain Mithun Manhas’ company ensured that Kohli was ready to move in to a higher gear.The moment arrived well into the afternoon, with the sudden surprise of a run-out. Always, an event of extremes, run-outs can either be street-corner slapstick or a thunderous demonstration of speed or athleticism. In this case, it needed a combination of anticipation and good fortune, and Bengal both deserved the luck, and rode it well. The run-rate had moved to just over four an over, and Manhas guided one past a wide second slip and gully. Kohli shot out for the single. It was a fair call, Kohli expecting the gully fielder to cut off the angle at best. Arindam Das, the fielder at second slip, suddenly streaked into the frame, snatched the ball as it bobbed up into his hand, and hurled it towards the stumps. Kohli had his head down and was sprinting for the finish, but before he crossed the line, the bails leapt in to the air.It was, as Bengal’s bowler of the day Ashok Dinda said, the moment his team had worked for, the one idea they had hung all their hats on: “We said if Virat goes, the rest would struggle. Even after the dropped the catch we said, ‘we just have to get Virat’ and we are in the game.” And so they were. Bose swung one into Gaurav Chabra’s toes just before tea, and convinced the umpire that it was good enough for a leg before. After the break, Manhas attempted a Kohli-esque slash at one so wide from Dinda that it asked for punishment, but received a wicket. Punit Bisht tried to extravagantly turn Dinda over square and Abhishek Chowdhary at short leg pulled off a reflex catch.Bhatia watched stone-faced at the other end and knew what had to be done because he’s done it dozens of time. Along with the sturdy Narwal, the Delhi innings limped along during the last hour of the day’s play. Bengal delayed taking the new ball in the hope that the old one, which was keeping low, would help them snake in another lbw, but all the twists were done for the day. They will now have a fairly new ball tomorrow and no prima donna of Kohli’s capabilities involved in the contest anymore. The last day’s play and the tussle for points promises to be a blinking contest between Bengal and the overnight batsmen. The day of two halves will melt into a session that will seal the deal.

Kenya will host United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a four-match ODI series in the coastal city of Mombasa beginning this Sunday.Kenya are hoping to visit UAE early next year for a series of warm-up one-day fixtures to prepare for the World Cup which begins in February next year in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The UAE team arrives in Mombasa on Friday ahead of the first match on Sunday at Mombasa Sports Club and will be led by Mohammed Tauqir during the eight-day tour.The teams last met in the ICC World Twent20 qualifying tournament earlier this year when UAE sprung a surprise to win by 15 runs.UAE squad Mohammed Tauqir (captain), Arshad Ali, Saqib Ali, Amjad Javed, Ahmed Raza, Shadeep Silva, Amjad Ali, Salman Farooq, Qasim Zubair, Shoaib Sarwar, Arfan Haider, Tahir Javaid Butt, Swapnil Patil, Rohan Mustafa