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Sri Lanka 245 (Jayasuriya 55, Atapattu 47, Clarke 5-35) beat Australia 244 for 5 (Hayden 93, Ponting 69, Vaas 3-48) by one run
Scorecard

Chaminda Vaas: sensational spell won the game for Sri Lanka

Chaminda Vaas grabbed three wickets, and kept his cool during anerve-jangling final over, as Sri Lanka snatched a thrilling one-run victoryagainst Australia at Dambulla. Needing just eight to win from the last six balls with five wickets in hand, Australia looked set for victory, but Vaas conceded only six runs to level the series at 1-1.For most of the afternoon, it had seemed as if Sri Lanka would pay for aspectacular late batting collapse. Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden added148 for the second wicket, and Australia were cruising – but the dismissal ofPonting precipitated a slump from 148 for 1 to 192 for 5.Andrew Symonds – the beneficiary of a bizarre and sportingrecall, after being adjudged lbw by Peter Manuel on 10 – and Michael Bevan carried Australia to the brink of victory, adding 52 in 58balls, but could not finish the job because of Vaas’s heroics.Sri Lanka’s top order had batted their team into a commanding positionin the morning with partnerships of 121 for the first wicket – between Sanath Jayasuriya (55) and Marvan Atapattu (47) – and 70 for the third between Mahela Jaywardene (38) and Kumar Sangakkara (39). But some reckless batting by the middle and lower order against Michael Clarke’s innocuous-looking left-arm spin squandered the initiative as the last sevenwickets fell for just 29. Sri Lanka, gliding along at 192 for 2 at one stage, were bowled out with one ball remaining.Nevertheless, the target was competitive on a dry, worn surface – the same pitch that was used on Friday – that offered plenty of assistance for Sri Lanka’s six spinners. Ironically, though, it was Vaas who grabbed the first wicket as Clarke, promoted from the middle order to counter the spinners, shelled the third ball of the innings straight to Upul Chandana at backward point (0 for 1).Ponting and Hayden took a couple of overs to settle. However, in the fifthover, Ponting cut loose, pulling a short one from Vaas over square leg for six, and then cracking a square cut to the point fence. Thereafter, Australia started to tick along smoothly with both batsmen mixing sharp singles and twos with calculated aggression.Atapattu rotated his bowlers with increasing desperation. Seven had been used by the 22nd over, and not one of them looked remotely threatening. Even Muttiah Muralitharan, who might have expected to be a major handful on this pitch, was unable to conjure up a breakthrough.But Sri Lanka finally broke through in the 32nd over as Ponting top-edged asweep to be caught at deep square leg. Vaas was recalled for a second spell, and he deceived Damien Martyn with a slower ball to put Sri Lanka right back inthe match (170 for 3).Australia started the final ten overs needing a modest 56 to win, but suffered amassive blow when Hayden miscued a lofted drive to be caught at wide long-off.In the same over, Dharmasena won an lbw decision against Symonds that was later overruled following discussions between Gilchrist, the non-striker, the umpires and Atapattu – after it became clear that Symonds had edged the ball on to his pads.Although Vaas clung on to a tumbling caught-and-bowled chance off Gilchristin the next over to leave Australia 192 for 5, Atapattu’s sportsmanship looked to have cost Sri Lanka victory as Symonds and Bevan steadily chipped away at the target. When Bevan smashed Muralitharan for six over midwicketin the 49th over, it looked all over.

Ricky Ponting’s allround brilliance went in vain

But Vaas conceded just two singles off his first two balls, and then followedup with consecutive dot-balls to leave Australia needing six off two. Symonds could only scamper a single and Bevan was unable to hit a six off the last ball.Atapattu had started the day well, winning what appeared a crucial tossand then leading from the front with the bat. While Jayasuriya was unusuallynervy at the start, labouring for 32 balls before hitting his firstboundary, Atapattu played fluently, puncturing the infield with high-elboweddrives and clips.Both Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee struggled to find rhythm early on, though Gillespie was unlucky to not claim an early lbw against Jayasuriya, when he had made just 10. The arrival of Symonds into the attack finally shook Jayasuriya out of his slumber. His second ball, a medium-pacer, was clubbed over cover and his fourth delivery, an offbreak, was smashed over midwicket. Jayasuriya sprinted to his fifty, the 55th of his one-day career, as Atapattu settled back into a supporting role.It was Ponting who came to his side’s aid. Athletically flinging himself to his left at midwicket, he then broke the stumps at the non-striker’s end with a diving underarm flick. Atapattu had scored 47 from 68 balls. Next over, Symonds trapped Jayasuriya lbw with an offbreak that crept along the floor.The run rate slowed as Jayawardene and Sangakkara, who had added 121together in the first game, played themselves in. The spinners, Symonds and BradHogg, troubled both batsmen, and strokeplay was never easy on apitch that grew increasingly slow. But Jayawardene, who survived a run-out chance on 4 when Symonds’s throwmissed the stumps, settled – and runs started to flow. Sangakkara, who managed just a single boundary in his 58-ball 39, allowed his partner to take theinitiative as 70 were added in 98 balls.Ponting’s decision to replace Lee with Clarke paid dividends as Jayawardene wascaught at cover trying to loft over the infield (192 for 3). Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan then added 24 in 29 balls before the innings lurched into freefall – the last seven wickets fell for 29 courtesy of a rash of ambitiousstrokes. Luckily for Sri Lanka, Australia fluffed their final lines as well in the late-afternoon sunshine.

Sachin Tendulkar only managed 19 at the Junction Oval on Thursday but Australian fans will be given a permanent reminder of his class when he makes a donation to the Bradman Museum © Getty Images

Sachin Tendulkar will make a donation to the new Bradman Museum in Adelaide as a way of paying tribute to his batting idol. Tendulkar is planning to hand over the pullover he wore while scoring his 30th Test century, the innings that took him past Don Bradman’s record of 29 Test hundreds.The museum is being built at Adelaide Oval and Tendulkar is set to make the donation during the Adelaide Test in January. “I want to do this in memory of Don Bradman, who I admired as a cricketer,” Tendulkar told the .He reached the milestone at Headingley in 2002 when he made 193, but Tendulkar said comparisons between himself and Bradman were not justified. Tendulkar averages 55.06 from 142 Test appearances, compared with Bradman’s mark of 99.94 from 52 matches.”Statistically, I have passed Don Bradman but I can’t be compared with him,” Tendulkar said. “You can only dream of scoring a hundred every three innings.”However, Sunil Gavaskar believed Tendulkar was being overly modest. Gavaskar said: “For all Bradman’s achievements, Tendulkar is the closest thing to batting perfection I’ve seen, in terms of technique and temperament.”Tendulkar’s pullover will be joined at the new museum by the shirt Sourav Ganguly was wearing when he led India to a superb come-from-behind win against Australia in the 2000-01 Test at Kolkata. India were 274 runs behind when they were asked to follow on in that match, before VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid set up a surprise 171-run victory.

Chad Keegan, the 28-year-old fast bowler, has not been offered a contract by Middlesex for 2008.Plagued by injuries through his seven seasons at the club, Keegan was more accustomed to one-day cricket (133 wickets at 23.86) than the Championship (140 at 34.90). He never properly recovered from the surgery he underwent in 2005, followed by a complete remodelling of his action, and with injuries and fitness concerns shadowing every season, his opportunities at the club became increasingly limited.”Chad has been a wonderful player for Middlesex and a great bloke to have in and around the dressing room,” John Emburey, Middlesex’s director of cricket said. “Chad’s injury problems have curtailed his playing career and we are terribly sorry to see him leave us after seven years, in which he has had a huge influence on the club, both on and off the field.”We wish him every success in his future career.”

A tailender no more: Chaminda Vaas cracked an agricultural 90 © Getty Images

Batsman of the day
Mahela Jayawardene may have been Sri Lanka’s stand-out performer, butthe most fluent batsman of the day was his partner Chaminda Vaas. He’smore than just a tailender these days – earlier this year he picked uphis maiden Test hundred against Bangladesh. He deserved a secondcentury today, as he flogged England into submission with a successionof thumps, drives and swishes. They were agricultural but hugelyeffective, but in the end the allure of three figures proved too much.Mind you, Michael Vaughan did his utmost to drop the steeplingtop-edge that eventually did for Vaas. The bowler, Matthew Hoggard,didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.Drop of the day
He’s at it again. Matt Prior’s third clanger of the match came atprecisely the right moment to destroy what remained of England’sdwindling resolve. Jayawardene had only added five runs to hisovernight 149, when he edged low to Prior’s right, off the lucklessRyan Sidebottom. He got both mitts to the chance but couldn’t clingon, and a furious Sidebottom stalked down to fine leg in anunderstandable huff. That was the fifth chance that Prior has spilledoff his bowling in six Tests, and the missed victims – Jaffer,Tendulkar, Laxman, Dilshan and Jayawardene – are not exactly the typeof players who squander such lifelines.Fielder of the day
If England were slipshod, Sri Lanka were electric when their turn cameto field. Doubtless they were gagging for a run-about after two dayscooped up in the pavilion, but the stand-out performer wasTillakaratne Dilshan. Yesterday he was himself run out for 84; todayhe put the skids under England’s innings with a superb swoop and shyfrom the covers, to dismiss Ian Bell at the non-striker’s end. It wasa crass bit of calling from Bell’s partner Alastair Cook, but suddenlyEngland’s innings was reminiscent of the last time Bell was run out ina Test … on that fateful day at Adelaide last winter.Crass dismissal of the day
It’s hard to quantity the various depths that England plumbed in theirday’s work, but two men were more culpable than their colleagues.First there was Michael Vaughan, who set the tone for England’sinnings with arguably the most stone-cold lbw of the year. He’dwatched from the non-strikers’ end as Vaas zipped hisoffcutters past Cook’s prodding edge, but then – when he finally goton strike – he decided to offer no stroke to a ball that started afraction outside off stump, and sure enough snaked back in to rap thepads.

Michael Vaughan fatally padded up to Chaminda Vaas © Getty Images

Crass dismissal of the day no. 2
England’s cricket in this series can best be summed up as naïve, andalas, Ravi Bopara epitomised that in the manner of his departure.England had only been back on the field for three balls after lunchwhen he lobbed an awful whip across the line straight to mid-on. Thecatcher, incidentally, was the debutant Chanaka Welegedara, who canhardly have hoped for a tamer introduction to Test cricket. Two dayswith his feet up in the dressing room, then a lollipop of a catch tosettle the nerves.Delivery of the day
Kevin Pietersen has faced some snorters in his lifetime, but few havebeen as blisteringly quick, accurate or unexpected as the exocet thatLasith Malinga unleashed before lunch. It skimmed off the deck like atennis ball out of the surf, fizzed at Pietersen’s face, and brushedhis glove as he whipped his body out of line in a movement reminiscentof Robin Smith against the West Indian quicks. Up went the finger, asPietersen froze at the crease, transfixed by the venom of thedelivery. Subcontinental wickets aren’t meant to provide bounce likethat, but it’s thrilling when they do.Contest of the day
Seeing as the English weren’t providing any opposition, the SriLankans decided to play among themselves. After the rain-break theyre-emerged 20 minutes early for a warm-up, most of which time wasspent playing bowls with a set of spare cricket balls. Muralitharan,as you might imagine, produced some wicked spin to land his attemptson a sixpence. He’s a pretty handy allrounder, it would appear.Hold-up of the day
So far in this series we’ve been held up by bees, dogs and an awfullot of rain, but “cultural experience stops play” is a new one, I’msure. Play was all set to resume after lunch, but down on theconcourse in front of the indoor nets, a frenzy of Kandyan drummersand dancers were bongoing away to themselves, quite oblivious to theumpires’ gesticulations. Eventually they got the message and troopedoff, a touch disconsolately. And with good reason too. No-one has yetasked the Barmy Army to shut up.

Mithali Raj will spearhead India’s World Cup campaign as she continues in the captaincy role for the tournament in South Africa which starts in March.The eight teams will face each other in a round-robin basis ahead of the semi-final stages. Australia are the favourites, while India, New Zealand and England are expected to make the semi-finals at least. India have never won the World Cup, although they made the semi-finals of the last tournament where they lost to the eventual winners, the hosts New Zealand.India squad
Mithali Raj (captain), Jaya Sharma, Hemalata Kala, Neetu David, Nooshin Al Khadeer, Amita Sharma, Deepa Marathe, Rumali Dhar, Arundhati Kirkire, Anju Jain, Jhulan Goswami, Anjum Chopra, Karuna Jain, Reema Malhotra.

Considering that Orissa had already conceded a slender two-run first-innings lead to Punjab, the final day’s play in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final at Mohali was merely academic, an exercise to determine a result rather than chalk in the name of the semi-finalist.Chasing 463 was always a remote proposition, and Punjab’s Navdeep Singh merely expedited the Orissa collapse. Taking 5-36 off 12.1 overs, Navdeep broke the back of the lower middle order, and Orissa’s last five wickets fell for the addition of just 17 runs.There were some knocks of note in Orissa’s innings, though. Opener Biswa Mohapatra struck 44 off just 29 balls, with eight boundaries, while Rashmi Ranjan Parida made 40 off 58 balls. As in the first innings, the highest scorer was Pravanjan Mullick, who made 72 off 115 balls before falling as the final wicket of the innings.Notching up a win by 243 runs, Punjab thus advanced through to the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy. Orissa, however, can only rue their toothless bowling in Punjab’s second innings, when the team scored 460 without any of the batsmen reaching three figures.

Batsmen had to be able to show they could handle New Zealand conditions before they could be regarded as world-class.TelstraClear Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming’s pre-second National Bank Test comment today was an obvious barb in the direction of the much-vaunted Indian batsmen as they try to knock New Zealand off their perch as the third-ranked nation on the International Cricket Council’s Test Championship ladder.India folded twice for 161 and 121 runs in the first Test at the Basin Reserve when the game finished in less than three days. Only Rahul Dravid in the first innings and Sachin Tendulkar in the second lived up to anything like their formidable reputations.Fleming commented on the changed nature of Test pitches in New Zealand.Fleming has been a strong advocate for the removal of the low, slow Test pitches that were so long associated with New Zealand.With the introduction of portable pitches for Tests at rugby-playing grounds in Christchurch and Auckland, and the revitalised pitches of Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin, bounce had become much more common in New Zealand.And Fleming welcomed that because it brought New Zealand more in line with Australia and South Africa, the two countries ahead of it on the ICC ladder.He made no apologies for the visiting teams having to cope with the greater bounce in New Zealand.”The challenge is for the players to get better. You say you’ve got some of the best batsmen in the world but if you can’t play on all types of wickets then are you the best batsmen in the world?” he asked.Fleming said that if a particular style was developed in New Zealand then it was up to teams coming here to adjust. It was a requirement of New Zealand’s players also to get better in the conditions.”Look, we’re not experts at playing on a green, seaming wicket – no-one is, so we don’t doctor wickets that way,” he said.But for a player to be regarded as a world-class player he would have to show his stuff in New Zealand.”We know when we go to India, we have to adjust to slower turning wickets and that’s just as big a challenge, moreso in some instances, than playing on a good bouncy wicket.”So it’s all about adapting and that is the challenge of playing away from home – making that adaptation and putting pressure on the opposition.”These are our home conditions, nothing untoward has gone on. We do want bounce, I love to see bounce. I don’t hide that fact,” he said.The problem this year was that due to the wet spring and early summer it has been fresh bounce rather than good, solid bounce, as Fleming put it.”If it gets sunlight on it, then it will be great,” he said.And therein lies the requirement for this match to satisfy the requirements of both sides and to make it a genuine five-day contest.

A record number of tickets have been sold for Tuesday’s NatWest Series match between England and South Africa at Edgbaston. A grand total of 20,260 tickets have been snapped up for the day-night game – the most ever at the ground. It beats the next highest of 19,223 for the England v Pakistan match in 2001, and the 18,319 for England against New Zealand in 1994.Dennis Amiss, Warwickshire’s chief executive, said: “We are delighted that Edgbaston is sold out for the one-day international on Tuesday. It promises to be a great encounter and the atmosphere at a packed Edgbaston is always memorable. We hope that this success will be mirrored for the Test match later in the month and I am sure that all those who buy tickets for that will witness a fantastic sporting encounter.”Stuart Robertson, who has recently been appointed head of marketing at Warwickshire, added: “Edgbaston is second only to Lord’s in terms of capacity and it will be great to see the ground full to the rafters during the NatWest Series match. Although we are not yet sold out for the npower Test match, we expect to see some huge crowds for that match as well. With big crowds at the recent Twenty20 matches cricket in the West Midlands is very much alive and kicking.”The Test match between England and South Africa takes place from July 24 to 28, and although tickets are available for all five days, they are selling out fast. They can be purchased by calling 0121 446 5506. Discounts are available for groups, schools and families, information about which can be found on that number.For further information, call Warwickshire’s marketing department on 0121 446 4777.

Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh discuss tactics ahead of the final © AFP

Two years, eight months, and two days have passed since that moment, one destined to have a special place in the cricket histories of both India and Australia. On March 15, 2001, Harbhajan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar completed the most improbable comeback in Test history, riding the crest of a wave created by VVS Laxman’s imperious 281, and Rahul Dravid’s flint-hard 180. Tomorrow, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden will revisit the scene of cricket’s biggest heist, hoping to leave the Eden Gardens with those Ides of March just a distant, aberrant memory.Logic will tell you that Australia are the favourites, but there’s something about Kolkata and a 100,000-strong crowd that is the exemplar of sporting fanaticism that can intimidate even the most confident side. India started the TVS Cup well enough, beating Australia with a measure of comfort in Gwalior, but subsequent drubbings at Mumbai and Bangalore means that they go into a home final occupying the underdog’s kennel.It shouldn’t bother them. The Titan Cup in 1996 had followed a similar script with South Africa utterly dominant in the group stages, only for India – Australia were the odd men out – to romp home in the final. With the toss and the varied conditions under lights making one-day cricket such a lottery, only a fool would stake his gold on the basis of previous form, given that the best team doesn’t always prevail as in Test cricket.India will be in a much better frame of mind after that 145-run thumping of New Zealand. Tendulkar orchestrated matters, and the other batsmen played along sweetly to ensure that there would be no danger of the hosts missing their party. A similar effort will be needed against an Australian bowling attack that has made considerable strides in three weeks, with Nathan Bracken and Brad Williams to the fore.They will most likely make the one change, bringing in Harbhajan Singh for Murali Kartik, sure to be disheartened after narrowly missing out on the tour to Australia. On the pitch where he earned the Turbanator nickname, Harbhajan would do well to prove that his bowling is a work in progress, rather than an abandoned project as has appeared the case in recent months.There is another opportunity for Ajit Agarkar to add substance to his new-ball ambitions, while Zaheer Khan must perform to salvage an iota of comfort from an otherwise dreadful home season. Rest assured, Gilchrist and Hayden will be locking their sights the moment he walks to his bowling mark.Ponting’s big-hitting century at Bangalore ironed out the last crease in Australia’s own batting, though Hayden has still to bat like the colossus we know he can be. The bowlers they have faced so far haven’t been accurate, or good enough, to exploit their tentativeness against high-quality spin. Medium-pace is rare steak and a few kegs of beer for those boys, so unless Harbhajan and Kumble step up in a big way, it could be yet another trophy in the cabinet for an Australian team that seems to win games as easily as Mike Tyson won bouts way back in his heyday. Perhaps it’s time for India to do a James “Buster” Douglas …Probable teams
India 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 4 VVS Laxman, 5 Rahul Dravid (wk), 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mohammad Kaif, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Anil Kumble, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Zaheer Khan.Australia 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Michael Bevan, 7 Michael Clarke, 8 Ian Harvey, 9 Andrew Bichel, 10 Brad Williams, 11 Nathan Bracken.Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo in India.

When Anil Kumble trapped Mohammad Rafique in front on the first day at Dhaka, he went past Kapil Dev to become India’s leading wicket-taker in Test cricket. The milestone came 14 years, four months and one day after he bowled his first ball in Tests – against England at Old Trafford in 1990 – and in the intervening period, there have been plenty of highs, and a few lows, in his career.The most striking aspect of his career has been Kumble’s contribution to Indian victories, mostly at home, but more recently in overseas wins as well. The table below shows just wide the gulf between him and the rest is – Kumble has 199 wickets in Indian wins, 101 more than BS Chandrasekhar, who is in second place, and more than Chandra and Bishan Bedi put together.

	Matches won	Wkts in matches won	Matches won at home	Wkts in home wins
Kumble	28	199	23	165
Chandrasekhar	14	98	9	56
Bedi	17	97	9	65
Harbhajan	15	94	11	83
Kapil	24	90	20	74
Prasanna	15	81	8	39
Srinath	17	68	13	52

When Kumble started off, he was largely a one-trick pony, firing in his deliveries tirelessly and with unerring accuracy. He was lethal on uneven surfaces, but wasn’t quite as effective on good tracks. However, of late, he has added more strings to his bow: he turns the legbreak much more than he used to, and he bowls at a much slower pace. That may have resulted in a slight compromise on the economy rate – it has gone up from 2.46 before December 2003 to 3.23 in the last 12 months – but it has also made him a more complete bowler. The difference shows in his stats – he has been taking more wickets in the first innings, and in overseas matches.Of the 78 wickets he has taken in his last 13 Tests (since the Australian tour of 2003-04), 50 of them have come in the first innings. That by itself might not be surprising, since India haven’t always bowled twice in these matches, but Kumble’s average and strike-rate are better in the first innings too. He has taken eight five-fors during this period, six of them in the first innings.

Kumble since Australian tour	Wickets	Average	Strike-rate
1st innings	50	27.74	51.80
2nd innings	28	27.96	54.80

Kumble before Australian tour	Wickets	Average	Strike-rate
1st innings	196	31.38	76.51
2nd innings	162	24.39	59.46

Kumble’s first 200 wickets took him 47 Tests, but since then he has been accumulating them at a much faster rate – 236 more in just 44 games (including the ongoing Dhaka Test). Kumble’s first 100 wickets came quickly enough, in 21 Tests, but his next 100 took 26 more, which spoilt his numbers somewhat. Kapil, on the other hand, took plenty of time to go from 200 to 400.

Bowler	First 100 in …	100 – 200 in …	200 – 300 in …	300 – 400 in …
Kumble	21 Tests	26 Tests	19 Tests	19 Tests
Kapil	25	25	33	32