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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Andrew Symonds and several other Deccan batsmen got out to poor shots (file photo)•Associated Press

Kolkata Knight Riders showed more character than perhaps the first two seasons put together to survive early blows by veterans Chaminda Vaas and Adam Gilchrist at the start of each innings. First Angelo Mathews and Owais Shah added 130 runs from 31 for 4 to put up a fighting total. Their effort was going in vain with Gilchrist rushing towards the target, but their bowlers picked up their game to take regular wickets and allow Deccan Chargers only 51 runs in the last nine overs. Kolkata scored 58 in their last four.It was as much Deccan throwing it away as Kolkata pulling it back. Gilchrist, who had been dropped twice on his way to fifty, started the turnaround by pulling Brad Hodge straight to deep square leg. In the next over Herschelle Gibbs holed out to long-off. Two overs later Andrew Symonds went to slog the first delivery he faced from Ishant Sharma and top-edged. Two more overs later Rohit Sharma was fooled by a Mathews slower bouncer, and 99 for 1 had become 128 for 5. All that with the required run-rate never going too much past eight per over.Kolkata were there to accept the gifts with aggressive field placings and good bowling changes. If bowling Hodge was an inspired move, return spells for Karthik, Langeveldt and Ishant were positive decisions by a captain who knew only wickets could win him the match. The diving saves returned, Ganguly looked charged and Kolkata somehow looked like the team that was going to win even with the required rate reaching the improbable only in the last over.Thirty-four off 22 balls with only Indian domestic batsmen and the tail to follow was always going to be a tight finish, and Mathews, Laxmi Shukla, Langeveldt and Ishant completed the choke for Deccan with a good mix of yorkers, bouncers and slower ones.If they had a target that wasn’t blown away by the Gilchrist start, it was only thanks to Mathews himself and Shah. Vaas had dutifully adopted the essence of the previous IPL – first-ball wickets, and gone on to make it a double-wicket maiden. A double-strike followed soon, and memories of Kolkata’s horror 2009 came rushing back. Mathews and Shah, however, averted a one-sided start to the tournament with a partnership that seamlessly went from sensible to sizzling.One cute paddle over fine leg excepting, Mathews employed strong hitting down the ground. Shah, on the other hand, employed the pick-up shot, almost a sweep of the fast bowlers, to good effect, hitting Symonds, Vaas and Jaskaran for sixes.The tournament began with the class of Vaas. He started on target, swinging the ball late, and Manoj Tiwary fell over playing the first ball, and lobbed it straight to midwicket. Captain Sourav Ganguly edged to first slip in that double-wicket maiden, and Cheteshwar Pujara and Brad Hodge too departed after a 31-run stand.Pragyan Ojha and Symonds initially managed to keep Mathews and Shah in check. In eight overs between them, their accurate and smart mid-innings bowling went for 45 runs despite expensive last overs that went for 21.That was just the momentum the stumbling innings needed, taking Kolkata to 103 for 4 after 16 overs. During that period, Mathews had moved from starting with a top-edged six to attacking youngster Jaskaran Singh in a calculated manner.Shah, who had been quiet until then, went after the returning Vaas, hitting him for a six and four. Mathews followed it up and launched his countryman over long-off, and 2-1-4-2 became 3-1-22-2.With the score reading 121 for 4 after 17 overs, Gilchrist made two bold moves. T Suman bowled the 18th over, and was punished by Mathews, who reached his fifty in that over. He carried the momentum into the 19th over, hurting RP Singh too with straight, powerful hitting. Jaskaran, preferred to Vaas for the last over, bowled three yorkers and a good slower delivery, but still went for 10. It left the Kolkata bowlers with a target to bowl at.The up-and-down match, with at least four swings in fortunes, and featuring good old-fashioned swing bowling, orthodox and unorthodox hitting, was a much-needed and much-denied relief from a rather unwatchable opening ceremony – featuring faded stars and a fading tribute band – that delayed the toss by 27 minutes.

The new cricketing and educational facility, developed and funded by the non-profit Sport for Life! foundation, the UK government and international cricketing authorities has been opened at the Mirpur International Cricket Stadium in Pakistan.The Pakistan government is supporting the venture, which will provide sport, education and healthy lifestyle training to disadvantaged children aged between 10 and 16 years who are failing to reach their potential. The centre will also have a state-of-the-art IT suite where the children will be able to have additional lessons in various subjects, as well as cricket coaching provided in association with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).As well as providing exciting new education facilities the centres will give young people, who may otherwise be vulnerable to negative influences, a set of positive role models.The project is supported by some of Pakistan’s greatest cricketing role models, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan, as well as the PCB, the ECB and the ICC.Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram said, “Cricket plays a key role in Pakistani society. Sport for Life! Pakistan gives us the opportunity to expand that role and help many children in the country who could be making more of their lives. Mirpur is a tremendous facility and Sport for Life! Pakistan will ensure that it fulfills its purpose as a centre for community activity as well to host world class cricket matches.”Lord Richard Newby, UK Director of Sport for Life! Inc, said the initiative had the potential to fundamentally change the lives of many children both in Kashmir and across Pakistan. “We are immensely grateful to our sponsors for getting us to this point,” Newby said. “We will now be looking for additional resources both internationally and domestically, to enable the project to develop and expand.”Sport for Life! plans to develop more centres in Rawalpindi and other parts of Pakistan. The foundation will continue to sustain the initiative through a combination of internal and external, private, public and philanthropic donations.

Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has declared himself fit for India’s first Super Eights match in Barbados, after missing the previous game against South Africa due to a groin injury.”I am fit and feeling strong. I am looking forward to the big games,” Gambhir said after a nets session at the Three Ws Oval in Barbados. “These are really important matches and I am looking forward to playing a big role in that.”India failed to make the semi-finals in the World Twenty20 in England last year, where they were exposed by short-pitched bowling. However, Gambhir felt India were better prepared this time, despite expectations of a fast, bouncy surface at the Kensington Oval.”We haven’t played on this wicket so we don’t know how it will play. Obviously, we have heard from people that it has got a lot more bounce in it than at St Lucia,” Gambhir said. “You cannot go into the match with set ideas just because the wicket is sluggish or fast. Sometimes it works the other way when a guy goes and turns the match around in six overs.”India won both their group games convincingly and Gambhir credited the varied bowling attack for setting them up.”We cannot plan for what the opposition has strategised for us. We will go with our own strengths,” he said. “We have a good quality set of bowlers who can dismiss the opposition. We also have a set of spinners who are really good. I personally think that a quality spinner is an asset and the quality will show irrespective of what the surface is.”Our bowling unit has performed well. Zaheer (Khan), Harbhajan (Singh) and Ashish (Nehra) have done really well. They look to dismiss the opposition. That is the only way of how you can restrict the teams. By getting wickets it gives us the momentum and sets up the match for us.”India could be facing Australia in the Super Eights and Gambhir tipped them to play aggressively in order to reverse their poor record in the World Twenty20.”Australia haven’t done well in the T20s. The first time they lost in the semis and the next year they did not qualify,” he said. “So you can expect Australia to come back really strong. They have got some quality players in their side who can change the course of the match.”India play their first Super Eights match on May 7.

Cheteshwar Pujara, the Saurashtra batsman, will lead India’s 16-member A squad for the tour of England. The team will play a one-day tri-series also involving England Lions and West Indies A.The team features some of the Indian domestic players who impressed in the recently concluded IPL, including Manish Pandey, Saurabh Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan and Jaydev Unadkat. Wriddhiman Saha, the wicketkeeper who made his Test debut against South Africa recently, will be Pujara’s deputy. Karnataka fast bowler Abhimanyu Mithun, the leading wicket-taker in the Ranji season, was also included.However, there was no place for the opener Robin Uthappa, who failed to make the squad for the tri-series in Zimbabwe as well. Uthappa scored 374 runs in 16 games at a strike-rate of 171.55 for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, and also hit the most sixes, 27, in the tournament.The tour begins on June 5 with a three-day game against Yorkshire. India play two one-day games against West Indies A, before heading to Glasgow for two one-dayers against Scotland. They return to England for the remainder of the tri-series, with the final scheduled for July 8.Squad: Cheteshwar Pujara (capt), Wriddhiman Saha (vice-capt/wk), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Saurabh Tiwary, Iqbal Abdulla, Sudeep Tyagi, Dhaval Kulkarni, Abhimanyu Mithun, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Jaskaran Singh, Bipul Sharma, Jayadev Unadkat

Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule have both denied they were involved in a failed bid for an IPL franchise in March. According to the , the Pawar family allegedly owns roughly 16% in City Corporation, a Pune-based construction company that bid Rs 1,176 crores (US$261.1m) for a franchise in March. City Corp ultimately lost out to Sahara’s Rs 1,703 crore-bid (US$370m) for the Pune franchise.The paper claims Pawar, his wife and Sule together own 3.36 million shares of out of a total of 20.7 million shares. The shares are split between two companies – Lap Finance and Consultancy Pvt Ltd and Namratta Film Enterprises Pvt Ltd – both of which are wholly owned by the former BCCI president, his wife Pratibha and Sule.While acknowledging the bid, Sule said it was made by City Corporation’s managing director, Aniruddha Deshpande, in his personal capacity, and that the company board had passed a resolution stating it would have nothing to do with the bid. “Nobody supported it,” she said. “The board meeting was on March 17, and the resolution was probably passed on March 19.”Pawar subsequently told the same thing. He also said he did not disclose his family’s stake six weeks ago, when the issue of conflicts of interest was first raised, because “there was no necessity felt for doing so.” In addition, the Union agriculture minister disparaged the notion that he had influenced the bidding process. “I was somebody in that organisation. Had I used any influence, do you think it [City Corp] would have lost the bid?”Suspended IPL-chairman Lalit Modi chimed in via Twitter, saying City Corporation was only used to determine whether Deshpande qualified under the personal net worth criteria. According to Modi, it was “clearly stated in their bid documents that they will set up a Newco if they were successful bidders in the IPL auction.”Deshpande confirmed the bid document was submitted in City Corporation’s name, saying the company had allowed him to use the name only for the purpose of bidding. But he said the bid would have been financed by a “different consortium, comprising Akruti, (a Mumbai-based construction firm), Maharashtra Cricket Association, etc.” He also insisted the Pawar family had nothing to do with the bid, saying “They are not involved. I am the managing director. There is no control,” he said.Back in April, Sule had initially refuted the allegation that her husband had a stake in Multi-Screen Media, which owns the broadcasting rights to the IPL. Subsequently, she admitted that her husband did own 10% in the firm via a Power of Attorney from his father.She also told that if her father was interested in the IPL, he could have simply bought a franchise in 2008. “Remember Mr Pawar was the BCCI President when IPL started and if he wanted, he could easily have got a team in the first season itself, and that too much cheaper than some are paying now. It was just that we were not interested in it.”

Saurabh Tiwary, who is currently touring England with the India A squad, was “quite dazed” when he found he was selected for the Asia Cup.”A dream, that of playing for India, is about to come true. I realise I’ve been selected in place of Yuvraj Singh, so the pressure will be more,” Tiwary told the . “I’m confident of being able to perform and (thereby) reducing the pressure.”Tiwary became the second player from Jharkhand, after India captain MS Dhoni, to break into the national side and the JSCA president, Amitabh Choudhary, was pleased that he made it. “Saurabh had been disappointed at being overlooked for the tri-series in Zimbabwe, even though many seniors had been rested. But, then, it’s good that he’s made it when the team is almost at full strength. It’s so much the better,” Choudhary said. “It’s a matter of pride that a state which isn’t even 10 years old has two players in the India team.”Tiwary served notice in the 2009 Ranji Trophy, where he scored three centuries in five games at an average of 98.83 for Jharkhand in the Plate League. During the third season of the IPL he emerged as the poster-boy of Mumbai Indians’ side’s young and dynamic middle-order, hitting 419 runs with three fifties as his team made the finals of the tournament.