As Shahid Afridi conceded the match from Habib Bank Limited’s (HBL) dressing-room balcony, the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) team, post the handshakes with the umpires and the departing batsmen, formed a huddle in the middle. No wild celebrations, no hugs, no team officials running onto the field to congratulate the team. It was for a good two minutes or so that Mohammad Hafeez, SNGPL’s captain, spoke to his young team on a job well done. It was only after the verdict that there was a roar from the middle and plenty joined in at the boundary line.With the prize ceremony out of the way, Hafeez was quick to point out that the success was all a team-effort. There was no Afridi, Danish Kaneria, Hasan Raza or Abdur Rehman, They did have Hafeez and Misbah-ul-Haq, who may have won them the final but according to Hafeez, the team owed much to the young guns that had carried them to the final after a convincing loss in the first match of the season.”We started really badly,” Hafeez told Cricinfo. “Losing our first match of the season [to PIA] was not the ideal of starts to the season. However, our young boys lifted their spirits from then onwards and here we are.”It has been a total team effort. Our batsmen scored runs when it was required. Our bowlers took wickets where it was necessary. We all backed each other and stood up for one another. We were short on big names [Misbah was away on international duty] but the likes of Umar Akmal and Khurram Shehzad made it possible for the team to reach the final.”SNGPL impressive first-innings effort laid the foundations of the draw. Put into bat in overcast conditions, the team was guided past the 250-mark thanks to Hafeez and Misbah but then Adnan Akmal, the young wicketkeeper, scored a resilient 55 to enable his side to reach 351.”Adnan played a very, very useful knock. It was a prime example of our players delivering when it was of the utmost importance. We were five down for under 250 and without Adnan’s effort, taking such a big first-innings lead would not have been possible.”Satisfied with his own performance – he scored 69 in the first innings after three consecutive centuries during the last three matches – Hafeez was quick to praise Misbah, the Man of the Final.”The return of Misbah made all the difference. He made a useful contribution in the first-innings and carried us to a decent score. However, second innings we were in a bit of a stutter at 14 for 3. What followed was simply amazing and to keep scoring runs the way he is doing is simply amazing.”Obviously I would have loved to add a fourth consecutive century to my name, but winning the league with such a young team is something. I am more thrilled holding this trophy then having four centuries to my name.”

A fractured arm has ruled Brian Lara out of the rest of Trinidad and Tobago’s season. Lara was struck by a rising delivery from fast bowler Lionel Baker on the opening day of T&T’s third-round Carib Beer Series match on Friday against the Leeward Islands and x-rays have shown a bone fracture in his left arm just above the wrist.Lara, who retired from international cricket last April, had his arm placed in a cast and sling.Omar Khan, T&T’s manager, told CMC Sport that Lara would be out of action for approximately eight weeks. “The cast will be on for six weeks before it is removed and then he has to do physiotherapy for a further two weeks, so Brian will be out for about two months in terms of his participation in the Carib Beer Series,” he said.After a century and an unbeaten half-century in a winning effort against Guyana two weeks ago, Lara played through T&T’s further games despite a lingering shoulder injury. He was hit on the arm a few balls after driving Baker for four.”He [Lara] is very disappointed, in fact tears came to his eyes when the doctor came back and revealed that the x-rays revealed the broken bone. It was really disappointing for him,” Khan said.”He really did look forward to competing in this game especially the kind of treatment he has been getting in St Maarten, there has been a tremendous feeling for T&T team and for Brian Lara in particular to be in St Maarten here to play cricket. The people of St Maarten had given him a rousing welcome and he looked forward to participating.”Lara made himself available for T&T this season but said he would step down once the international players returned from their tour of South Africa, to give younger players a chance to develop. With T&T having taken a lead in the Carib Beer Series points table thanks to Lara’s early success with the bat, Khan said the 38-year-old’s absence was a major loss.”It’s a big blow for the team because as you know he has been the mainstay of our batting and he has really come back and led from the front. But that’s how things go, there is nothing to do about it except to be positive [and] the other guys will now get an opportunity to showcase their talent.”

Scorecard

Wednesday night send-offs for former Australian batsmen are becoming something of a feature for the Redbacks this season. But it was always going to require something magical for the departing Matthew Elliott to follow up Darren Lehmann’s fairytale farewell century in November when they enjoyed a record stand.The stage was set – Elliott is the leading runscorer in the competition this year and was Player of the Year last year – but instead he made 15 and promptly declared his final partnership with Lehmann “the standout of the season”. This knock was in a losing cause as South Australia’s batsmen went all-out to chase the 278 they needed from 25 overs for two bonus points against table-toppers Tasmania who ruled them out of finals contention and sealed a home final at Bellerive with a crushing 121-run victory with barely any need for lights.Tim Paine defied a two-paced pitch as he caressed his way to his highest one-day score of 115 to give the visitors a weighty total. His careful innings, just his second one-day century, was well-timed although he was lucky to evade substitute Paul Rofe’s grasping hands when on 97 he went aerial over long-on off Ryan Harris. As it was, the ball went over Rofe’s head for four to bring up the milestone.The experiment to have the nagging Paine as opener worked well – “Painey was awesome, we’ve been crying out for someone to do that,” smiled his captain Daniel Marsh – and he and Dighton put on 90, somehow finding width from the otherwise-tight lines of the bowlers in a no-frills stand. Dighton made 44 before holing out at long-on off Dan Cullen then the innings ticked along until Travis Birt and Brendan Geeves upped the tempo with Paine adding 97 from the last ten overs.Tasmania’s bowlers then did a fine job and their campaign continues to look healthy. Xavier Doherty was the stand-out with three cheap wickets, while Ben Hilfenhaus recovered from an early attack by the clean-hitting Daniel Harris. Brendan Drew troubled the batsmen using the pitch well to seam it away and the bowlers continued to apply the pressure.Elliott announced earlier this week that it was time for the younger players to step up. But after his anti-climactic early departure, top-edging off Ben Hilfenhaus in front of just over 1000 spectators, Harris, Mark Cosgrove, Daniel Christian and Callum Ferguson all fell in quick succession.Nathan Adcock had his own personal battle in his first state appearance since being dropped from the Pura Cup, but after impressing with three wickets he edged Doherty to first slip for 2 as the slide continued (6 for 85). While the final four wickets nearly doubled the score, the damage was long done.Tasmania and Victoria will now compete for the title.

Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, RP Singh and VRV Singh have been passed fit for the upcoming Test series against South Africa, which starts on March 26 in Chennai.The fitness tests took place over the last few days at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, and were held under the supervision of Paul Chapman, the physical conditioning coach, and Paul Close, the physiotherapist. Each of the six players declared fit underwent a medical examination, bleep test, body strengthening and fielding practice.Among the players declared fit, only Dravid and RP had injury niggles. Dravid had suffered a finger injury during the Test series in Australia while RP had missed the CB Series due to a hamstring injury he picked up mid-way through the fourth Test in Adelaide. Dravid told Cricinfo that his injury had healed, while RP said he would return to action in the Deodhar Trophy from March 14. The other players also underwent the routine Tests, as according to the new rules of the Indian board, the players who have been out of action for a month need to prove their fitness at the NCA ahead of any series.Pankaj Singh, meanwhile, looks doubtful for the South Africa series, having been advised three weeks’ rest to recover from a hip strain. Pankaj had been selected in the Test squad for Australia but only featured in the tour games.The findings of the tests were sent by the NCA to the BCCI.India’s concerns, though, would be over the members of the side that were in Australia for both the Tests and ODIs, with Sachin Tendulkar, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, and Yuvraj Singh advised rest for two to three weeks by John Gloster, the outgoing Indian team physio.The selection of India’s squad for the first two Tests against South Africa has already been postponed from March 9 to March 17, with chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar wanting the players who returned immediately after the Test series in Australia to take part in the Deodhar Trophy, which commences on March 14.

England’s captain, Michael Vaughan, continued his poor recent form when he fell for a sixth-ball duck in his first match of the season for Yorkshire against the students of Bradford and Leeds UCCE.Vaughan managed only 123 runs at 20.50 during England’s recent series victory in New Zealand, but any hopes of starting the home summer with a bang vanished when he was caught behind off the bowling of the left-arm new-ball bowler Harry Gurney.Gurney, 21, has played just one first-class match for his native Leicestershire, against Northamptonshire last September. One consolation for Vaughan was that, although his dismissal was embarrassing, it won’t count against him in the official averages as this fixture does not have first-class status.Vaughan’s duck came a day after he said he wanted to stop opening for the England Test side and drop down to No. 3 in a swop with Andrew Strauss. By the close of the first day, his Yorkshire team-mates had made light of his failure, reaching 384 for 6 thanks to a century from Jacques Rudolph.Yorkshire’s first Championship match isn’t until April 23, when Hampshire come to Headingley for a First Division clash. England’s three-Test home series against New Zealand, meanwhile, starts on May 15 at Lord’s..

Herschelle Gibbs has been found guilty of breaching Cricket South Africa’s Rules of Conduct during a domestic game in Cape Town. The reprimand came less than a week after Gibbs was arrested for alleged drunken driving.Clause 1.4 of the rules states that players shall not use crude or abusive language nor make offensive gestures.Gibbs appeared before Cricket South Africa’s disciplinary commissioner Michael Kuper after match referee Barry Lambson complained against his conduct for an incident that occurred during the Pro20 match between the Dolphins and Cobra on Match 26 at Newlands.”Gibbs was severely reprimanded for his actions when he appeared in Johannesburg today,” a statement from the board read.Gibbs is currently out on bail for R500 for the drunken driving charge and is scheduled to appear in court on June 27.

Match facts

Thursday, April 24, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

They have one of the strongest batting line-ups in the tournament but the Deccan Chargers are still to win a game. Sitting at the bottom of the points table, despite being one of the biggest spenders at the auction, they are running out of time to find their winning combination. Their two defeats have been big and convincing – by five wickets against the Kolkata Knight Riders and by nine wickets against the Delhi Daredevils. Rajasthan, meanwhile, were frugal at the auction but they managed to work out their plan after an initial nine-wicket loss to Delhi. They come in to this game having beaten the Kings XI Punjab by six wickets in Jaipur and will now be looking to push their way up the table.For most viewers it will be the first time they get to see Adam Gilchrist face Shane Warne. Gilchrist’s Twenty20 average is just 22.11 from 28 games and he will be eager to improve on that. But will he be able to read Warne’s flipper?

Watch out for …

Andrew Symonds and Gilchrist – two of international cricket’s most explosive batsmen – finally catching fire after an anti-climactic start. For Australia Symonds has shown, apart from his run-scoring abilities, he can take wickets at crucial intervals with his medium-pace and offspin and it will be interesting to see if he can stop the in-form Shane Watson.Rohit Sharma saved some face for Deccan in their previous game with a 36-ball 66. If he gets going and finds support from Symonds or Shahid Afridi, Deccan can hope to set or chase down a target with relative ease. Deccan’s young left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha could be a handy bowling change if things get out of control; he picked up 2 for 18 against Kolkata, including the wicket of Sourav Ganguly, who was beaten in flight.

Team news

Hyderabad’s aggressive opener Ravi Teja, their leading run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy last season, may replace Venugopal Rao in the Deccan side. Afridi could be promoted to No. 3 for quick runs if Deccan bat first.Deccan Chargers (probable)Adam Gilchrist (wk), Ravi Teja, Shahid Afridi, VVS Laxman (capt), Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, Sanjay Bangar, Arjun Yadav, Chaminda Vaas, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha.Graeme Smith has joined the Rajasthan squad after domestic duties and he could be played over Darren Lehmann, who has 18 from two games. They have also fiddled with their opening combination in both matches but, after Mohammad Kaif scored only five against Punjab, Yusuf Pathan could return as opener alongside Kamran Akmal.Rajasthan (probable)Yusuf Pathan, Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Kaif, Shane Watson, Graeme Smith, Ravindra Jadeja, Pankaj Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Shane Warne (capt), Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.

Stats and trivia

Rohit averages 46 from 16 Twenty20 games, with a highest of 101 not out and a strike-rate of 147.85.Pathan has struck 15 fours and five sixes in the 59 deliveries he has faced in Twenty20 games, which means a boundary every three balls.

Quotes

“His Telugu is good, especially for someone who has stayed all his life in Mumbai.”
Venugopal Rao on how Rohit Sharma has adjusted to Hyderabad
“Don’t say that my team is weak and please don’t write us off. This team may lack some experience but all of them are enthusiastic young cricketers and learning a lot from the senior players in the team.”
Warne is optimistic about Rajasthan’s chances in the IPL.

Vernon Philander has been ruled out of the Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests against England as he recovers from torn ankle ligaments, and will aim to play in the third Test in Johannesburg in mid-January. Philander suffered the injury while playing football during a warm-up session on November 12, two days before the Bangalore Test against India. He missed the rest of the series and was diagnosed as needing between six to eight weeks of recovery.The recovery period ends around December 24, two days before the Boxing Day Test, but without any game time in that period, the South Africa team management have confirmed Philander will not play the first two Tests. “He will be out for the first two Tests and is doubtful for the third. Depending on the recovery, we might squeeze him in for the third,” Mohammed Moosajee, South Africa’s team manager said.Philander is not the only injury concern South Africa face in their two-week turnaround between the India tour and the England series. Dale Steyn suffered a groin injury during the Mohali Test, sat out the next three matches and will have a fitness test within the next week to determine his availability for the first Test against England.”The usual rehab period for a groin strain is 7-10 days but if you rush, you go back to square one,” Moosajee explained. “Dale is back in Cape Town, he is busy with the franchise physiotherapist and will have a fitness test a week from now to ascertain availability for Boxing Day.”Should Steyn recover in time, South Africa will have to choose between Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott to complete their three-pronged attack, unless they plan to go into the first match with four seamers. If both Philander and Steyn are out, and they still want four seamers, Marchant de Lange may also get a game.De Lange is the only one of the national squad’s fast bowlers who is likely to play in the first round of domestic first-class matches, which start on December 17. The rest, who all played in India, will have time off ahead of the England series. Some of South Africa’s batsman and slower bowlers will also play in the domestic competition, as they look to regain form and confidence. Russell Domingo said Stiaan van Zyl, Temba Bavuma, Simon Harmer and Dane Piedt are likely to participate in those matches. Van Zyl and Bavuma are competing for the Test opener’s job while Harmer and Piedt are in a tussle for the specialist spinner’s spot.The other place in contention is the wicketkeeper’s role, after Dane Vilas, on his first tour as the first-choice gloveman, struggled. Quinton de Kock could be recalled, although Domingo said in India that dropping Vilas after such a short time might be “harsh”. He has since also played down suggestions of big shifts in the Test squad.”There might be one or two changes,” Domingo said. “If you lose, you automatically think you have to change everything and everything is broken, but might just be one or two things that need to be changed, or one or two players are not on top of their game. I’d hate us to panic and make irrational decisions because we’ve got quality players.”South Africa are expected to name their squad for the first two Tests against England later on Thursday or on Friday.

The WICB’s contracted players for 2015-16

Jason Holder, Kraigg Brathwaite, Rajendra Chandrika, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin, Devendra Bishoo, Shannon Gabriel, Jermaine Blackwood, Jerome Taylor, Sheldon Cottrell, Shai Hope, Shane Dowrich, Leon Johnson, Kemar Roach
In: Devendra Bishoo, Shannon Gabriel, Sheldon Cottrell, Jermaine Blackwood, Rajendra Chandrika, Shai Hope, Shane Dowrich, Leon Johnson
Out: Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, Sulieman Benn, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo

West Indies’ Twenty20 captain Darren Sammy has not been contracted by the WICB for 2015-2016, along with allrounder Andre Russell and spinner Sulieman Benn. Chris Gayle, who had previously turned down West Indies contracts more than once, including last year, is not on the list of centrally contracted players which was increased from 12 to 15. Sunil Narine, who had also turned down a contract last year and is currently suspended from bowling in internationals due to an illegal action, also does not feature on the list.The other two to miss out from the list issued for 2014-15 are Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the out-of-favour Dwayne Bravo.The contracts, issued for the period from October 1, 2015, to September 30, 2016, include several batsmen who have debuted for West Indies in Test cricket over the past year and a half, including Jermaine Blackwood, Leon Johnson, Shane Dowrich, Shai Hope and Rajendra Chandrika. Legspinner Devendra Bishoo was also added, as well as fast bowlers Shannon Gabriel and Sheldon Cottrell.Sammy had turned out for West Indies in the T20s against Sri Lanka as recently as November last year, though he was left out for the preceding ODI series on that tour. Globetrotting T20 specialist Russell had played both the ODIs and T20s on that tour. Left-arm spinner Benn last represented West Indies during their home Test series against England in April 2015.

Peter Nevill, Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa will make their Twenty20 international debuts at the World T20 in India, while Steven Smith will replace Aaron Finch as captain after Australia’s selectors dramatically shuffled the deck in a final effort to seek a winning combination.Finch was still chosen in the squad despite his removal as leader, but other recent T20 choices like Matthew Wade, Cameron Boyce and Nathan Lyon were not so fortunate as the panel chaired by Rod Marsh sought to find the right balance to claim a tournament Australia have never won.In order to take his place in the squad, Finch will have to prove his recovery from a hamstring injury, likewise with Nathan Coulter-Nile (shoulder) and James Faulkner (hamstring). They will be led by Smith, in a move Marsh said had been made to provide much-needed continuity to the T20 team.”Aaron Finch has done a very good job captaining Australia in T20 cricket,” Marsh said. “He will have benefited enormously from the leadership opportunity and will remain a highly-respected leader within the Australian squad.”However since he became T20 captain, there has been a broader leadership transition in Test and one-day international cricket with Michael Clarke retiring and Steve Smith assuming the captaincy in Test and one-day cricket.”We think now is the right time for Steve to lead Australia in all three forms of the game as it offers us important continuity, not only ahead of the World T20, but beyond that tournament as well.”The selection of Nevill will be welcomed by the likes of Brad Haddin, who had criticised the selectors for not choosing the best gloveman for the T20 team when Wade’s modest place in the batting order indicated that runs were not a major factor in his inclusion. Cameron Bancroft’s inclusion for the last T20 against India at the SCG now appears to have been a one-off experiment.”We feel our batting depth in this squad is sufficient enough that we can have a specialist wicket-keeper in the squad,” Marsh said. “We want Australia’s best wicket-keeper playing in this tournament and we consider Peter Nevill to be the best in the country right now.”Boyce and Lyon both have reason to feel miffed at their omissions, particularly as Agar had not figured in Australia’s limited overs team since last year’s tour of England. By contrast, Boyce has been the most consistently chosen T20 spin bowler since late 2014, and eight wickets at 19.00 with an economy rate of 6.60 from seven games is a strong return.Lyon, meanwhile, bowled one over in a T20 for Australia against India last month, the smallest possible sample size. Zampa was chosen for the Chappell-Hadlee series in New Zealand as a way for the selectors to view him at international level, and his two skilful displays were enough to earn him a berth.”Given the conditions we are likely to face in India, we wanted to have a number of different spinning options available to us,” Marsh said. “Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell give us plenty of flexibility in the slow-bowling department which is incredibly important in this format.”The inclusions of Nevill, Agar, Zampa and Coulter-Nile bring to 23 the number of players the selectors have included in various T20 squads over the past three weeks. After the two Tests in New Zealand, Australia have a three-match T20 series in South Africa before travelling to India for the ICC event.Australia also named the Southern Stars squad for the Women’s World T20 to be played concurrently. “We’ve got a number of options covered with our bowling attack as well as several batters who can produce the attacking game-style we want to play,” chairman of selectors Shawn Flegler said.The Southern Stars fly to New Zealand on February 18 for an ODI and T20 series ahead of their trip to India. Men’s squad: Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, James Faulkner, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Nevill (wk), Andrew Tye, Shane Watson, Adam Zampa Women’s squad: Meg Lanning (capt), Alex Blackwell, Kristen Beams, Lauren Cheatle, Sarah Coyte, Rene Farrell, Holly Ferling, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy (wk) Jess Jonassen, Beth Mooney, Erin Osborne, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Elyse Villani.