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Scorecard
Gujarat Cricket Association XI eased to an innings victory over Kenya at the Gymkhana Club Ground in Nairobi. Gujarat’s victory centered around a ten-wicket match haul from offspinner Mohnish Parmar and four centuries from their batsmen.After opting to field, Parmar helped Gujarat skittle out the hosts for 221. Collins Obuya top scored with 78 but in vain. Gujarat’s batsmen responded in ruthless fashion with opener Jay Desai making 129, Pratharesh Parmar scoring an unbeaten double-century, captain Niraj Patel starring with 171 and Bhargav Merai cashing in with an unbeaten 109. Gujarat amassed 704 before declaring and leaving Kenya with a mammoth task.Collins Obuya bettered his first-innings effort with a century and was supported this time by his brother David, who chipped in with 57. But Kenya ended up losing their last seven wickets for 55 runs, Mohnish Parmar grabbing 5 for 74, to complete a winless tour for the hosts.

ScorecardKent wrapped up their Friends Provident t20 home fixtures and moved off the foot of the South Group table with a comfortable six-wicket win over Glamorgan in Canterbury with five balls to spare.The Spitfires posted a fifth win of the campaign courtesy of an unbeaten stand of 43 between Geraint Jones (22) and top-scorer Azhar Mahmood, who hit 30 from 29 balls to take the man-of-the-match honours.Pursuing the Dragons’ modest total of 126 at an asking rate of 6.4 an over, Kent made a poor start when James Hockley (nought) dabbed at a Robert Croft arm-ball to edge to the keeper.Joe Denly and Martin van Jaarsveld both enjoyed a life in adding 43 for the second wicket but Van Jaarsveld’s good fortune expired two balls after giving his first chance when he top-edged a sweep to short fine-leg. Denly, who was dropped on 18, went on to reach 36 from 38 balls with four boundaries, before he too fell to the wiles of Croft.Beaten in the flight as he advanced to drive, Croft turned one through the gate to peg back off-stump and finish with 3 for 19. Left-arm spinner Dean Cosker, having seen two catches go down, deservedly picked up the scalp of in-form Darren Stevens (10) who missed an attempted lofted drive to be stumped by Mark Wallace.Kent promoted Mahmood to bat at number four and though he might have gone for two when James Harris downed a difficult diving chance at deep cover, the ploy ultimately worked as the former Pakistan Test all-rounder teamed up with Jones to see Kent home.With 20 needed off 18 balls, the duo crucially took 12 off Jamie Dalrymple’s third over, the 18th of the innings, seven came off the next from Shaun Tait leaving Jones to win it with a crisp off-driven boundary un the final over from Jim Allenby.Glamorgan’s low-key total of 126 for 6 contained only 10 fours and one six as their top order struggled for timing on a tinder dry pitch being used for the third time which helped both Kent spinners Malinga Bandara and Van Jaarsveld.The Dragons posted 48 for the first wicket through Mark Cosgrove, their top-scorer with 36 from 33 balls and with half their boundaries, and Allenby, who went for 17 in the eighth over after clipping a full toss from Ashley Shaw straight to deep mid-wicket.Bandara’s introduction at The Pavilion End swung the balance Kent’s way with an excellent four-over stint of three for 15. The Sri Lankan had Wallace (nought) caught off a top-edged reverse sweep then Tom Maynard (nought) off a miscued slog sweep at long-on.In his next over Cosgrove, who got under way with two edged boundaries to third man, eventually ran out of luck when his lofted off-drive was superbly held on the run by a diving Denly. Kent’s sharp fielding also led to a couple of run outs in the final two overs as Ben Wright (27) and Gareth Rees (nought) were undone by direct hits from Mahmood, following through, and Alex Blake from long-off.

The BCCI has called the ten IPL franchises for a meeting on June 24 in Mumbai, ending a brief communication lull. The significance is that the franchises will finally get the opportunity to get acquainted with Chirayu Amin, the league’s interim chairman, after the BCCI suspended Lalit Modi on April 26.The letter, a copy of which is with Cricinfo, was sent on June 8 and addressed to “the owners of the franchises” by N Srinivasan, the board secretary. Without elaborating the agenda, the brief communiqué read:”BCCI President, Shri. Shashank Manohar and Interim Chairman IPL, Shri. Chirayu Amin desire to meet the owners of the IPL franchise to discuss matters pertaining to the IPL.” Also attending the meeting are Ratnakar Shetty, the board’s administrative officer and Sundar Raman, the IPL’s chief operating officer.Even as the BCCI top brass got immersed trying to sort the IPL mess after Modi’s suspension, the franchises, especially the original eight, were anxiously waiting to hear from the board about the way forward.At the moment, most franchises Cricinfo spoke to are keen to understand what Amin and co. have in mind regarding the player auction, how many players each team can retain and the total number of matches from IPL 4 after the addition of two more teams.”Most would expect a road map, what is going to happen here on,” a top official from one of the franchises, who did not want to be named, told Cricinfo. “We don’t even know what will happen.” But, according to him, invariably most franchises would read their demands from the same sheet.”Player auction, central revenues, the retention of players, the sponsorship avenues – these would top my list and I reckon most others would want to know the same,” the official said. Central revenues comprise the monies that come from the broadcasting revenues, the title sponsorship, and other avenues like the the MRF blimp. Till last year, each team received 10% of the central sponsorship, with 20% going to the IPL. “We are worried if that will change for the third season,” another franchise official said.Another important issue likely to be discussed is if the number of matches scheduled to be played from IPL 4 needs to be reviewed. A total of 94 matches were slotted originally, an excessive workload – critics have pointed out – which could endanger the players’ fitness and add to the stress. In fact, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, a member of the IPL governing council, voiced concerns about the relentless schedule and the IPL workload, after India were knocked out of the ICC World Twenty20 in the Super Eights for the second year in a row.Interestingly the matter is already being discussed by the board officials internally. According to a top BCCI official, the IPL governing council will study a proposal which recommends the teams being split in two groups, with a total of 68 matches. It is understood that the IPL governing council will meet in Mumbai on June 25, the day after meeting the franchises.

Kieron Pollard has put his domestic Twenty20 future ahead of his WestIndies career by turning down a place on the one-day leg of theA-team tour to England in favour of his deal with Somerset for theFriends Provident t20.Pollard, the hard-hitting allrounder, is due to link up with thecounty shortly but was offered a place on the West Indies A tour whichincludes a triangular series with England Lions and India A inJune. However, Cricinfo understands he declined that opportunitybecause he isn’t on a WICB retainer contract and doesn’t feel anobligation to deny himself a lucrative spell with Somerset where themoney on offer is substantially more than what he would earn with the Ateam.”We are not impressed,” a West Indies source told Cricinfo. “We had alot of talks with him to try and persuade him otherwise and spell outhis pathway for the future, but he wanted to play for Somersetinstead. We were trying to help his cricket develop by giving himan A tour, but he didn’t want to take up the offer.”Pollard is not among the 35 players contracted by the WICB and theplayers association, WIPA, has defended his move saying it would beunfair to deny him the chance to take up his county deal.”He signed his contract with Somerset a long time before the squad wasannounced and he isn’t contracted with the West Indies board,” DinanthRamnarine, the WIPA president, told Cricinfo. “If he was he probablywouldn’t have had a choice, but it would almost be restraint of tradeto stop him going to Somerset.”Pollard was one of the big-money signings at last year’s IPL auction, when he joined Mumbai Indians for more than $750,000, having impressed at the Champions League Twenty20 for Trinidad and Tobago, when he smashed 54 off 18 balls against New South Wales. But his international numbers are struggling to justify the hype with a Twenty20 international average of 12.66 and ODI figure of 19.92.In the recent World Twenty20, Pollard averaged a paltry 9.40 before managingto lift that to a more respectable 26.80 in the recent one-day series against South Africa.The clash between West Indies A duty and his Somerset stint isn’t thefirst time Pollard’s Twenty20 career has been at loggerheads with hisinternational duties. There was talk of him suing the WICB for loss ofearnings after he was called up to face Zimbabwe making him to miss Mumbai’s opening IPL match in March.However, Cricinfo understands that the legal threat has now beendropped although the increasing tensions between player and board seemunlikely to disappear any time soon.

Kent 355 for 6 v Essex
Scorecard
Geraint Jones scored his first Championship century of the season as Kent took full advantage of a friendly pitch after winning the toss to compile a total of 355 for 6 on the opening day of their duel at Chelmsford. The former England wicketkeeper laced his innings with a series of fluentdrives while gathering 21 fours en route to a total of 135 from 177 deliveries.Coming in after Joe Denly was caught behind off Chris Wright in the second over of the morning, Jones quickly asserted his authority. While he found the gaps with ease to race to 36 as the 50 was raised in the14th over, Robert Key struggled to get the ball off the square at the otherend.The Kent captain laboured through 42 deliveries for 7 before David Masters had him caught in the gully with the total on 53. But Essex had to wait a further 35 overs for their next success as Jones and Martin van Jaarsveld put together a partnership of 137, their progress being helped by bowling that was often lacking in line and length.Van Jaarsveld did not perform with his usual fluency, but still lookedsecure until Ryan ten Doeschate had him caught down on the leg side by James Foster. Jones then shared in a half-century partnership with 20-year-old Sam Northeast before he edged a drive in off-spinner Tom Westley’s second over to Alistair Cook at slip.Northeast, however, continued to impress with aggressive strokes either side of the wicket as he moved to his half-century, containing eight fours, from 70 deliveries. He picked up another couple of boundaries on his way to 65 before he fell victim to a brilliant piece of stumping by Foster to provide left-arm spinner, Tim Phillips, with success.Meanwhile, Danish Kaneria, making his first Essex appearance of the season, did not enjoy the best of luck. The Pakistan legspinner beat the bat on several occasions before claiming his first success in his 23rd over.After having Darren Stevens dropped by a diving Cook at slip, he produced agoogly in the same over to bowl James Hockley.Stevens continued to endure several anxious moments against Kaneria, butbattled through to the close to reach 57 that contained seven fours and a six. Essex employed six bowlers in their attempts to make inroads into the innings, each of them picking up a wicket.Kaneria’s solitary success has so far come at a cost of 92 runs from 27 overs.

Match facts

Thursday, April 22
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)MS Dhoni showed again in Dharamsala that he’s one of the best finishers in the game•Indian Premier League

Big Picture

All the headlines over the past couple of weeks have been dealing with the off-field shenanigans of administrators and franchise owners, but in the same period Deccan Chargers have, almost without notice, knitted together five wins to finish the league, against all odds, in second spot. The middle-order trio of T Suman, Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds has been crucial to the turnaround, made all the more remarkable as it came on the back of five consecutive morale-sapping defeats. After the final-over choke against Rajasthan Royals, they have shown much more composure in similar situations thereafter to pull off some crucial victories. Deccan have also overcome the disadvantage of having no real home games, or the comfort of a partisan crowd backing them.Deccan’s bowling isn’t their strongest suit, though, and they are up against one of the strongest batting outfits in the tournament, Chennai Super Kings. While it was expected that Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni would plaster the bowling, the surprise package has been the form of M Vijay at the top of the order. Add to that the solidity of S Badrinath, the threatening presence of Matthew Hayden, and the hitting of Albie Morkel and Justin Kemp and the scale of the challenge facing Adam Gilchrist’s bowlers becomes evident. One thing the Deccan coach, Darren Lehmann, will remind his team of is the inconsistency of their opponents who have alternated between victory and defeat in their past five matches. Like Deccan, Chennai’s bowling attack is also not among the more potent ones in the tournament, which means there could be a run-fest at the DY Patil when the two sides face off.

Form guide (most recent first)

Deccan Chargers WWWWW
Chennai Super Kings WLWLW

Team talk

Chennai’s overseas players haven’t been as influential as the foreign recruits in most of the other teams. Doug Bollinger is one who has consistently delivered, but Dhoni will mostly have to pick the out-of-form Matthew Hayden and Albie Morkel. Justin Kemp could also be needed to give the side options, especially with all the Indian fast bowlers struggling.Chennai: (probable) Matthew Hayden, M Vijay, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), S Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Justin Kemp, R Ashwin, Doug Bollinger, Shadab Jakati, L Balaji/Sudeep Tyagi
Deccan have to ponder whether to retain Chaminda Vaas or to bring back Ryan Harris, both of whom have performed well in the tournament. Mitchell Marsh hasn’t had too much of an impact in the last few matches, which means Dwayne Smith could be brought back.Deccan: (probable) Adam Gilchrist (capt & wk), Mohnish Mishra, T Suman, Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, Mitchell Marsh/Dwayne Smith, Ryan Harris/Chaminda Vaas, RP Singh, Rahul Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Harmeet Singh

Previously…

Deccan 4 Chennai 2
Deccan have won both matches between the sides this IPL with ease: They piled on 190 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium to cruise to a 31-run victory, before trumping by six wickets in Nagpur.

In the spotlight

Adam Gilchrist has had a forgettable tournament so far, but he’s one of the game’s great big-match players. Last season, he stopped the in-form Delhi Daredevils in the semi-finals with a breathtaking onslaught on their spearhead, Dirk Nannes. Can he repeat that performance again?Chennai’s fast bowlers Bollinger has rapidly won over the Chennai crowd with his enthusiasm and tight bowling. He has had little support from the other quicks, though, with Albie and the quartet of Indian medium-pacers all proving expensive.MS Dhoni flopped when he pushed himself to No. 3 against Delhi but in the game against Kings XI Punjab, he showed off the massive hitting that made him popular during his early days in international cricket. How he and Raina perform will have a big impact of the sort of total Chennai will get.

Prime numbers and trivia

• Deccan (39) and Chennai (32) have conceded the most sixes in the league phase while bowling at the death (last six overs)
• Tyagi has had a horror tournament – an average of 159 combined with an economy rate of 10.04. That economy rate though is better than several competitors to the local fast-bowling slot, like Manpreet Gony and Joginder Sharma
• The match features the three highest run-getters in the IPL: Raina, Gilchrist and Rohit

Chatter

“T20 is a lottery, but we couldn’t use that excuse anymore, so we planned every tiny aspect of the game right from what kind of shots to play after losing a wicket to how wide or slow to bowl to a batsman in the slog overs.”

ScorecardSteven Finn ended with 14 wickets in the match, but Middlesex face a tough chase•PA Photos

England’s newest pace prospect Steven Finn took a stunning career-best 9for 37 to spearhead Middlesex’s spirited fightback against Worcestershire in theDivision Two game at New Road. The 21-year-old, who made his Test debut against Bangladesh at Chittagong in March, was again in brutal form to hoist his staggering match haul to 14 for 106.Finn’s performance eclipsed a fine display of pace bowling by Worcestershire’sRichard Jones, who claimed 6 for 37 to dismiss Middlesex for 126 off 49.2overs in reply to the hosts’ 287. New Road skipper Vikram Solanki chose not to enforce the follow-on, but rapidly found Finn far too hot to handle.He sliced through Worcestershire’s shell-shocked line-up to demolish them for119 and leave Middlesex a victory target of 281. By the close of a dramatic wicket-tumbling second day they were 12 for 1, with England captain Andrew Strauss unbeaten on 10.Earlier, the visitors had found themselves in all sorts of bother against Jones, who was handed a place in the England performance programme during the winter when he attended a training camp in South Africa.The benefits paid off handsomely as Jones confidently improved on his previousbest figures of 6 for 100 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston last September. He soon set to work on Middlesex who slumped to 47 for five after resuming on 12 for 1 in reply to Worcestershire’s 287.Former Under-19 international Jones, who removed Strauss the previous evening for a single, struck with his fifth delivery to bowl night-watchman Iain O’Brien. Scott Newman soon followed when he became debutant seamer Alan Richardson’s first victim for Worcestershire following his move from Middlesex.Jones then struck again by tempting Dawid Malan into leaving a straight delivery which resulted in him being cleaned bowled. Worse was to follow for the shaky visitors when a mix-up led to Adam London being smartly run out by Alexei Kervezee.Sam Robson, who top-scored with 32, was splendidly caught and bowled by Chris Whelan to leave Middlesex stumbling on 91 for 6 off 36 overs at lunch. Their troubles continued shortly after the interval when John Simpson was trapped lbw by Jones before Richardson had Shaun Udal snapped up by Kervezee at short leg.Impressive Jones then polished off Middlesex 12 runs short of their follow-on target by ripping out Tim Murtagh and Finn, who quickly started to unsettle Worcestershire when they began building on their 161 first-innings lead.Firstly, he accounted for Daryl Mitchell and then removed Solanki and Moeen Ali in successive deliveries. Phil Jaques and Kervezee steadied matters, however, with a 55-run partnership spanning 14 overs. It ended when Australian Jaques fell to O’Brien for 41.Lethal Finn returned to oust Ben Smith and Kervezee to complete the firs 10-wicket match haul of his career before adding Ben Scott, Jones, Whelan and Gareth Andrew to his memorable collection.

Queensland 106 (Coulter-Nile 3-11) and 6 for 209 (Lynn 116*, Magoffin 3-15) lead Western Australia 286 by 29 runs
ScorecardChris Lynn has capped a strong season with a first-class century at 19•Getty Images

Queensland’s preparations for next week’s final couldn’t have gone much worse as they were forced to fight against Western Australia. The Bulls, who began the day at 5 for 62, were knocked over for 106 and were battling at 6 for 209 after following on, just 29 runs ahead.At the start of the game the locals were hoping to overtake Victoria to host the final, but the only movement from this match looks like being from Western Australia, who will lift from the bottom with an outright win. Steve Magoffin made sure there would not be a significant recovery from the Bulls in the second innings with 3 for 15 off 16 overs.Chris Lynn, the 19-year-old in his second game, showed his promise with a chanceless 116 but only three other batsmen reached double figures. Lynn brought up his century with a six to show his spirit and only Andrew Symonds, Jimmy Maher and Martin Love have reached three figures for Queensland at a younger age. The Bulls are missing Lee Carseldine, who has a broken toe, and should regain James Hopes for the decider, but they will need a sudden reversal to trouble Victoria.Ben Edmondson gained three wickets to end the first innings, matching the hauls of Magoffin and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Craig Philipson’s 30 from the opening day was Queensland’s highest score and they ended up losing 9 for 55 to tumble from 1 for 51.

Ganesh Satish continued his extraordinary run of form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, while Rahul Dravid stamped his class at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara, as Karnataka made short work of Haryana to enter the semi-finals. The Karnataka attack began the dominance after winning the toss, as Vinay Kumar ran amok in the early overs removing the top three by his fifth over. With the support cast rising to the occasion, Haryana could never launch a recovery and found themselves in shambles at 89 for 6 in the 23rd over.Their final score of 224 was, under the circumstances, a considerable improvement and they had Sachin Rana’s exemplary innings to thank for it. With scant support from the other end – Dhruv Singh’s 33 was the second highest score of the innings – Rana took charge of batting through the innings, while keeping the scoreboard ticking along. After striking six fours and two sixes in his 91-ball 80 that pushed the score past 200, he became Vinay’s fourth wicket. Raju Bhatkal contributed 3 for 21 in a miserly spell that maintained the shackles imposed by Vinay, through the middle overs.The chase began on a bad note when Robin Uthappa succumbed for an early duck, before Manish Pandey went hard at the bowling in a frenetic cameo that ended at 30 off 19 balls. Meanwhile, Satish got his eye in and set his sights on extending his lead at the top of the tournament batting honours list. At the other end, Dravid was in sublime touch, managing to outpace his rampaging and in-form partner, without playing a single shot in anger. Their association heaped misery on Haryana to the tune of 119 runs in 16 overs and ended the match as a contest well before the winning runs were struck. Though Haryana managed to send both batsmen in the 70s, the target was reached with more than 12 overs to spare.Madhya Pradesh and Orissa had enjoyed a run of four consecutive wins coming into the knockout phase of the tournament, but the former proved the better team, winning the quarter-final by five wickets in Ahmedabad. Naman Ojha starred with an unbeaten 109 and was supported well by the middle order as MP reached their target of 231 with more than three overs to spare. Monish Mishra hit three sixes in his 47, and added 85 for the second wicket with Ojha. The others chipped in with useful contributions, with Ojha dropping anchor to steer his side into the semi-finals.MP’s bowlers had earlier restricted Orissa, with Amarjeet Singh and Ankit Sharma bagging three wickets each. The Orissa batsmen had reason to be disappointed, as most of their batsmen got starts but the highest score they could muster was 44, by Niranjan Behera.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Yusuf Pathan made his second century of the match to orchestrate a stunning chase•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Yusuf Pathan’s herculean, but fortuitous, unbeaten 210 helped West Zone achieve the biggest chase in first-class history, running down the target of 536 with three wickets in hand to win the Duleep Trophy final. It surpassed the previous highest first-class chase of 513 for 9 between Central Province and Southern Province in the 2003-04 Sri Lankan domestic season. South Zone had only themselves to blame because they dropped Yusuf five times – three were sitters – and it all came down to which team could hold its nerve better under pressure.At the start of the final day, Yusuf was unbeaten on 84 with his team needing 157 with four wickets in hand. He began the day with a boundary off the first ball, driving the seamer C Ganapathy over extra cover. Yusuf did the same to Alfred Absolem in the next over as he sped towards his century. He reached three figures for the second time in the match in signature style, cutting Ganapathy to the deep backward point boundary.A resolute Pinal Shah blunted the South Zone attack on the final morning while Yusuf continued to flay the bowling, aided by a runner after cramping up, and the butter fingers of the fielders. Shah’s role was simple – all he had to do was defend and give Yusuf support. He plodded to six off 40 deliveries and he remained on that score for the next 31.South were desperate for a breakthrough but when the opportunity arrived, they let it slip, literally. Their first blunder came when Ganapathy dropped Yusuf off his own bowling, fumbling on his follow through. He was on 102 then. It was Yusuf’s third reprieve, having been let off on 15 and 65 on Friday.The bowler who suffered the most due to the let-offs was Aushik Srinivas, the left-arm spinner from Tamil Nadu playing his first Duleep final. Having been let down twice on the fourth day, there was more agony on the fifth as Srinivas watched KB Pawan grass a sitter at backward point. Yusuf, on 125, sliced it to Pawan’s left and poor Srinivas looked on helplessly as the fielder grabbed at the ball too early.Yusuf continued to gamble by taking on the bowling, carting the ball over the infield if it was pitched up and cutting if there was width. Shah fell for 16, spooning a catch back to the spinner Rohan Prem, but he had done his job, supporting Yusuf in an invaluable stand of 105 for the seventh wicket.Prem, however, was at the receiving end of a Yusuf onslaught. The batsman smashed him for five fours and three sixes to blaze towards the target. Yusuf had started cramping up, and called for a runner – his brother Irfan Pathan – when on 144. West were 80 short of the target then and it was at that stage when Yusuf really slaughtered Prem, bringing up his 150 with a boundary past cover.South committed another blunder when CM Gautham, keeping in place of Dinesh Karthik, let go another sitter with Yusuf on 170, this time off Ganapathy an over before lunch. South had one last chance when 22 runs were needed, Ramesh Powar would have been caught yards short if there was a direct hit from point, but the throw sailed wide. Powar has worked hard on his batting this season, and it showed during his confident 28-ball 18.Yusuf decided to settle the match in a jiffy after Powar’s run-out opportunity, slamming two consecutive sixes off Prem to bring up his double-century. The final flourish was, fittingly, reserved for Yusuf, who smashed S Aravind over long-on to seal the record chase. It was a classic follow-up to the Ranji final recently, which also went down to the wire in Mysore, attended by thousands. Had the local authorities persisted with their decision to keep the public away from this game, over security issues, this Duleep final would only have been witnessed by policemen in the stands.