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Match facts

May 10, 2009
Start time 12.30pm (10.30GMT, 16.00 IST)

Big Picture

Sachin Tendulkar’s form with the bat has dipped lately, and his last five innings have only fetched 63•AFP

One team is looking to push its way up the points table after making an extremely slow start to IPL 2009; the other team is desperately trying to arrest a slide which has pushed them all the way down to seventh place. Neither Bangalore nor Mumbai have emerged as favourites to lift the trophy after three weeks of action, but neither is out of the reckoning for a top four berth. Only one point separates them, and with just four matches left for each after this one, the margin of error for both teams – and especially the side which loses on Sunday – is minimal.Going into the match, Bangalore are the slight favourites on recent form. Though they were drubbed in their last game by Rajasthan, Bangalore have been impressive in the last couple of weeks, winning three in a row. Anil Kumble’s captaincy has worked wonders, Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa have had big knocks at the top of the order, and Kumble has led the bowling attack with aplomb.Mumbai’s fortunes, on the other hand, have nosedived after an impressive start and they are in danger of earning the underachiever’s tag in IPL 2009. A team which boasts Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, JP Duminy, Dwayne Bravo, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga should be doing much better than three wins out of eight, but the big names have mostly misfired, and even Malinga has cooled off after an electrifying start to the tournament. And the fact that they’ve already won their two games against Kolkata, the punching bags of the IPL, doesn’t help their cause.

Form guide (completed matches, most recent first)

Royal Challengers Bangalore: LWWWL
The batting has lifted in the last few games, but they’re still prone to collapsing – as they showed against Rajasthan – thus putting far too pressure on the bowlers.Mumbai Indians: LLLWL
The batting has been patchy, with only JP Duminy among the runs consistently. Even he hasn’t always scored at the rate his team would like him to.

Watch out for

Tendulkar v Kumble: The two senior-most Indian players will also be leading their teams, and if Tendulkar sees off the new ball, it could be an interesting tussle between him and Kumble in the middle of the innings.

Team news

Bangalore will not have the services of Nathan Bracken, who is among the Australians who’ve been asked to rest ahead of a busy season. The bowlers have done a fair job, though, and Bangalore might be more keen to make a change at the top of their batting order. Wasim Jaffer has looked out of sorts so far, and could be replaced by Sreevats Goswami.Royal Challengers Bangalore: (probable) 1 Jacques Kallis, 2 Sreevats Goswami, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Rahul Dravid, 5 Virat Kohli, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Roelof van der Merwe, 8 Dillon du Preez, 9 Pravin Kumar, 10 Vinay Kumar, 11 Anil Kumble (capt).The move to push Tendulkar down the order failed spectacularly on Friday, and it’s likely he will move back to the top of the order. With Luke Ronchi failing too, Sanath Jayasuriya could partner him again.Mumbai Indians: (probable) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 3 Pinal Shah (wk), 4 JP Duminy, 5 Dwayne Bravo, 6 Abhishek Nayar, 7 Ajinkya Rahane, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Rohan Raje, 10 Dhawal Kulkarni, 11 Lasith Malinga.

Stats and trivia

• In his last five innings Tendulkar has scored 63 runs. In his first three innings he scored 163.
• In his last three games, Malinga has conceded 78 runs from 67 balls and taken two wickets. In the first five, he conceded 80 runs from 110 balls and took 11 wickets.
• Bangalore have taken 21 wickets during the middle overs (from seven to 14), conceding 23.52 runs per wicket. Mumbai have taken 14 wickets at 30.85 during this period.

Head-to-head record

The two teams met a week back in Johannesburg, and Bangalore swept that one convincingly, restricting Mumbai to 149 and winning with plenty to spare as Kallis and Uthappa added an undefeated 126 for the second wicket.

Ricky Ponting’s men have been unable to win back the No. 1 one-day international ranking but he believes they can still finish the tour on a high. South Africa claimed the series with a 61-run win in Port Elizabeth on Monday and in doing so confirmed their position at the top of the rankings table.But Australia can make the scoreline a little less lopsided and will fly out with a 3-2 loss if they fight back to win the final ODI in Johannesburg on Friday. It will require a turnaround in form after South Africa’s strong performances but Australia are keen to regain some momentum before heading to the UAE to take on Pakistan.”We weren’t able to do well this time, and the South Africans outplayed us in the last three games in all facets of the game, so they deserve to be where they are,” Ponting said after the Port Elizabeth loss. “We’d like to finish the tour on a high, so hopefully there’ll be a bit of character in the team when the guys pitch up on Friday.”Ponting took a risk by sending South Africa in on Monday but the bowlers struggled to make inroads into the top order. Herschelle Gibbs’ 21st ODI century and an attacking 84 from AB de Villiers left Australia chasing 318 and despite a promising opening stand between Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke Australia fell well short.”Herschelle obviously played beautifully, he played a sensational innings,” Ponting said. “I thought de Villiers was also outstanding. We needed someone at the top to go on and make a big hundred, but we didn’t really have that.”Gibbs finished with 110 and it was his first century since coming back into the side during the one-day series in Australia, following his month-long stay in alcohol rehabilitation. He showed encouraging signs with a 64 at the SCG and in Port Elizabeth finally made use of one of his many starts.”I feel I have been boiling for some time, probably since the third ODI at Sydney,” Gibbs said. “I have probably wanted it too badly which is why it did not come sooner. I knew if I got through the first 15 to 20 overs that I could go all the way. It was an excellent pitch.”South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith said Gibbs had played a sensational innings and it was pleasing to see him cash in on his starts. The teams now head to the Wanderers, the venue of the famous 438 match of three years ago, for the series finale.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentaryShivnarine Chanderpaul hit 46 off 30 balls after taking 26 off an over from Steve Harmison, but the end to the match meant it was largely forgotten•Getty Images

An amazing miscalculation from West Indies coach John Dyson handed England an extraordinary victory in the opening one-day international, at the Providence Stadium in Guyana, when he misread the Duckworth-Lewis chart and called his batsmen in when they were two behind the required target.With the light fading Stuart Broad trapped Denesh Ramdin leg-before to tip the D/L target in England’s favour, with West Indies needing 27 from 22 balls, yet Dyson insisted his not-out batsmen walk off after reading the sheet in front of him. Andrew Strauss knew his team were ahead, but Dyson needed convincing and went to see the match referee before the result was confirmed. It overshadowed what had been an excellent match and left Dyson with serious questions to answer.”When it came down to that last wicket I didn’t go across the column,” Dyson told . “I went down the wrong column. It’s my responsibility, that’s it. I’ve apologised to the team, that’s all I can do. It was a bad mistake.”It was another occasion when cricket didn’t do itself many favours, but West Indies only have themselves to blame as they became preoccupied by the light for a few overs before actually walking off. Kieron Pollard clearly wasn’t pleased with conditions before pulling James Anderson to deep square-leg where Steve Harmison, who had spilled a seemingly crucial catch moments earlier at long-on off Pollard, clung on, but West Indies were still a fraction ahead.That changed when Ramdin fell to the second ball of the 46th over and the next batsman hadn’t even taken guard before the light was offered and the players trooped off. Dyson was convinced his team had won, but after frantically waving his clipboard around, he went to see the umpires and soon received the bad news. It brought back memories of Shaun Pollock’s misunderstanding of the D/L method during the 2003 World Cup which cost South Africa a place in the Super Sixes.”Yes, it was a miscalculation,” the captain Chris Gayle said. “He [Dyson] was actually looking in the wrong column because the last wicket changed the equation. There’s no reason to point any finger. I’m not going to kill him.”Strauss said the D/L target was on the scoreboard “but you can never be sure it’s right”. “I had a paper brought out to me and when the last wicket fell it looked as though we were a run in front of them but those tables are quite hard to decipher,” Strauss said. “West Indies obviously thought they had won, otherwise they wouldn’t have walked off.”The game itself had swayed one way then the other, but West Indies appeared to have claimed a vital advantage after a scintillating Powerplay attack from home-town hero Shivnarine Chanderpaul. He slammed 26 off Harmison’s seventh over which turned the chase completely in their favour as England’s lack of confidence started to seep through once again.His assault was breathtaking; he cut Harmison square, audaciously swept him over fine leg for six then took four consecutive off-side boundaries between point and mid-off with increasing force. After the first four of those boundaries he’d managed more runs off his own bat than England did in their entire batting Powerplay that yielded a measly 17.With the adrenalin pumping he couldn’t stop playing shots and picked out Strauss at square leg in the next over as he swept Broad. It gave England renewed hope, which increased when Anderson had Dwayne Bravo well caught at backward point, but Pollard was playing the best innings off his international career before his lack of experience came through as he tried to play for the light.The scenes of celebration on the England balcony when the result was confirmed suggested they’d won a much bigger prize, but this was their first international success of the winter and they weren’t really too bothered about the circumstances. They produced some solid cricket throughout the day, firstly to post a competitive 270 on a sluggish surface with half-centuries from Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood, who suffered a migraine during his innings, and then to keep West Indies’ reply under control under Chanderpaul cut loose.Shah, who responded after a disappointing Test series, reached his half-century from 67 balls and Collingwood took 58. With the stand progressing well England were well placed to launch on 190 for 3 after 37 overs, but a rain interruption came at a bad time for England and they struggled to find the same momentum after the break until Matt Prior provided some late impetus.Broad snared Gayle early which boosted spirits and although Ramnaresh Sarwan and Lendl Simmons built a stand of 125 it took them 27 overs with the asking rate climbing all the day. Collingwood continued his impressive match when he had Sarwan caught at midwicket and Simmons was then victim to the increasing pressure when he lofted Gareth Batty to deep midwicket.Two days ago Chanderpaul was given Guyana’s third-highest national honour, the Cacique Crown of Honour, and he was greeted by a huge cheer as soon as he came out to bat. He creamed his first ball over mid-on and marshalled Pollard during their fourth-wicket stand. After some dressing-room discussions they opted for the Powerplay in the 39th over and Pollard signalled the intent by straight driving Broad for six. That was nothing compared to what Chanderpaul produced, but everything was overshadowed by the finish and the simple mistake of looking at the wrong row of numbers.

Times have been tough for the Australian team this season, but RickyPonting’s men received a new measure on how bad things can be after seeingpeople at their “absolute lowest” in areas affected by the Victorianbushfires. Almost 200 people have died in the blazes that destroyed entiretowns last weekend and Ponting said some of the players were concernedabout what they might see during the visit to Whittlesea, north ofMelbourne, on Wednesday.”I must admit it was fairly confronting for all of us,” Ponting said.”Once we got there, you could see we did make a small difference. We didlift a few spirits. A lot of the families and school teachers did come tous and say it’s the first time they have seen smiles on the kids’ facesfor quite a while.”We saw people at their absolute lowest, a whole community and a couple ofcommunities at their absolute lowest. We were talking to people who hadbeen back up the mountain for the first time and never wanted to go backagain. It’s a place a lot of people have lived for a lot of their livesand they don’t want to go and face what’s there.”Ponting said the Australian cricket community, which has helped raise morethan A$9.5 million through the Commonwealth Bank appeal, should be proudof their efforts. “It was a devastating thing for all the peopleinvolved,” he said. “We know it’s only a tiny difference, but it appearedfrom the outside that everybody we rubbed shoulders with really enjoyed usbeing up there.”The Australians were impressed by the community spirit shown by the firevictims and Ponting hoped they could draw on the experience. “Some of thestories we were hearing, people driving a caravan a couple of hours sopeople could sleep in it, that sort of stuff,” he said. “The sharing andselflessness that is up there at the moment is something to behold, seeinghow strong and how much spirit people have.”

Thirteen out of the 27 Pakistan players offered central contracts last month by the PCB have so far signed up. Though there is a delay, the rest are expected to sign up soon.Some players, including category A seniors Shoaib Akhtar and former captain Shoaib Malik, have already signed the contracts. It is understood, however, that a delay in the formation of the central contracts review committee, has held up the rest of the contracts.The board formed a four-man committee, including chief selector Abdul Qadir, junior selector Mohammad Ilyas, chairman Ijaz Butt and former director general Javed Miandad, to review the contracts, particularly in terms of younger players they might want to put on a retainership.But the resignation of Miandad and the absence of terms of reference of the committee have stalled its working. Now, some senior players, it is believed, want to work out small details with Butt before putting pen to paper.”The rest of the contracts will be signed soon. We don’t forsee any real problems with it,” a board official told Cricinfo.

Lancashire have announced that they have frozen ticket prices for all domestic matches at Old Trafford in 2009.The news, coming less than a fortnight after Sussex slashed prices for their tour match against the Australians, reflects the realisation that the current recession is likely to impact severely on attendances.”In these testing economic times, we want all sports fans to be able to watch exciting and competitive domestic cricket without loosening the purse strings, this is why we have decided to freeze prices,” explained commercial manager Geoff Durbin.Capacity at Old Trafford will be reduced from 16,000 to 12,000 this season as a result of the construction of a new conference and events centre. In the coming weeks, the section of the stadium from the right-hand side of the pavilion around to and including the old scoreboard will be demolished.

Brett Lee will miss the tour to South Africa while Australia hope to have Andrew Symonds back during the one-day international campaign over the next six weeks. Symonds had knee surgery on Wednesday while Lee is expected to have an operation on his left foot and ankle on Saturday.Lee will miss up to 10 weeks, ruling him out of the South Africa trip which starts in February, and could come back during the Indian Premier League in April. Now, 32, Lee has set his sights on regaining his spot for the Ashes.”He doesn’t have any intention of going to South Africa,” Lee’s manager Neil Maxwell told AAP. “He’ll be getting everything right, just clearing up that floating bone in the ankle and letting the hot spot in his foot heal.”Lee and Symonds limped out of the second Test defeat to South Africa on Tuesday, which led to Australia’s first series loss in 16 years. Symonds felt pain in his knee during the opening match in Perth and is recovering from arthroscopic surgery.”Although there were some minor signs of wearing, the main problem was loose fragments of cartilage that were jamming in the joint, which were removed,” the team doctor Trefor James said. “We will monitor Andrew’s progress in the coming weeks, but are hopeful he will become available for selection at some point during the series against South Africa or New Zealand.”Ben Hilfenhaus and Andrew McDonald have replaced Lee and Symonds in the squad for Saturday’s third Test in Sydney. If Australia lose the game they will drop from No. 1 on the ICC’s rankings.

Daniel Flynn could be promoted to No. 3 when New Zealand face West Indies in Dunedin on Thursday. He has spent the early days of his Test career in the middle order, but his tight technique could be a solution for New Zealand’s top-order woes.During the recent series against Australia, Jesse Ryder took the position at first drop but his more expansive style didn’t produce a substantial innings. If Flynn is promoted up the order he will be behind a new opening pair with Tim McIntosh set to win his first cap alongside Jamie How.Selector Glenn Turner said Daniel Vettori and new coach Andy Moles will make the final decision on the batting order, but he has been heavily involved in the planning.”We had a lot of discussion about this,” Turner told . “We’re obviously conscious of seeing off the new ball and trying to protect our middle-lower order and it’s a question of whether or not we think he [Flynn] can do the job better than Jesse.”[Ryder] is a natural stroke player and as a consequence is a little bit looser whereas you find someone like Daniel Flynn is more compact,” he added. “He’s shown that he’s quite a gutsy player and he’s shown that he can be quite organised and compact.”Ideally we’d like to have a number three who has been there for a while, who is solid and so on. We don’t have that luxury at the moment so we’re having to do the best we can and giving the opportunity to the players that are best equipped to handle it.”Although Flynn has yet to pass fifty in his seven Tests he has shown the ability to fight out tough situations. On his debut at Lord’s he batted for a long time to help secure a draw before suffering a nasty blow in the mouth in the following match at Old Trafford where he lost a tooth.

The Indian board appears to be heading for a confrontation with the ICC over the one-Test ban on Gautam Gambhir. While the BCCI has rejected the decision of the appeals commissioner, Justice Albie Sachs, to uphold the ban, and issued a strongly worded protest, the ICC has said the “matter is closed”.”The ICC Code of Conduct is a robust and independent process designed to achieve a fair and proper outcome,” Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chief executive, said. “Although we have received an objection letter from the BCCI, there is nothing more that we can do as the appeal commissioner’s decision is a final and binding decision.”The BCCI, in a statement, said the order “seems to have been pre-decided” as it had been passed without affording the player an opportunity of personal hearing and legal representation, without acceding to his request for certain documents/recordings to be given to him and also denying him an extension of time.The selectors have, however, called up Tamil Nadu’s M Vijay as a replacement for Gambhir for the fourth Test against Australia, which begins on Thursday. Gambhir has been the leading run-getter in the series so far, with 463 runs in three Tests including a century and a double-century.In its letter to the ICC, written by board secretary N Srinivasan, the BCCI said the order was void as being in violation of the mandatory provisions of the rules and/or the principles of natural justice. However, the ICC Code of Conduct – for players and officials for matches other than the World Cup, Champions Trophy and Under-19 World Cup – says the “decision of the appeals commissioner shall be final and binding”. It gives the commissioner absolute authority in such situations, including the right to decide whether oral representations should be permitted.”Oral representations (either in person or by telephone conference as determined in the discretion of the appeals commissioner) should be permitted unless there are good reasons for relying on written submissions only”, the rules state. “Where it is available, he shall view video tape of the incident which is the subject matter of the appeal.”

Earlier, the ICC rules – which were changed in 2007 – provided for a dispute resolution committee to handle such protests, a provision that BCCI utilised in 2005 when a six-ODI ban on Sourav Ganguly, the then India captain, for slow over-rates during an ODI series against Pakistan was reduced to a four-match penalty. Ironically, in that case, it was Justice Sachs who overturned the adjudicator’s decision to uphold the ban by Chris Broad, the then match referee.Gambhir was banned for one Test by Broad after he pleaded guilty to a charge of not conducting play “within the spirit of the game as well as within the laws of cricket” during the third Test against Australia in Delhi, a Level 2 offence under the ICC Code of Conduct. The incident that led to the ban occurred in the 51st over of India’s first innings on the first day, when Gambhir, who had verbal altercations with Shane Watson, appeared to elbow the bowler during a run. He was told of his ban before the third day’s play after which he filed an appeal.When making his decision, Broad took into account Gambhir’s previous fine for running into Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi during an ODI in Kanpur last year. He had been fined 65% of the match fee after he was found guilty of a Level 2 charge of inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players as well as a Level 1 charge of not conducting himself within the spirit of the game.Justice Sachs, Cricket South Africa’s representative on the ICC Code of Conduct Commission, is a senior judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Scorecard

England clung on for a thrilling one-run victory against Trinidad and Tobago in their final warm-up match before Saturday’s US$20million match against the Stanford Superstars. England were reduced to 11 fit players by a stomach bug sweeping the camp, but Kevin Pietersen sparkled with the bat before a patched-up attack did just enough to hold off a fine challenge from T&T. Steve Harmison kept them below the 10 needed from the final over, but there were concerns over Andrew Flintoff after he left the field before the end.If there was any thought that T&T would suffer a hangover from their success against Middlesex they were ill-founded and they once again put on a fine display. It was the perfect pressure-test for England ahead of the dart at millions and for a while during the closing overs it looked as though they would fail.Misfields started to appear from England and Ian Bell dropped a high catch at long-on, but Flintoff performed his usual end-of-innings party trick before Harmison – who had earlier bowled the first maiden of the tournament – stepped up for the final over. He targeted yorkers and was largely on target, yet could do little about an audacious dab-sweep from Samuel Badree which left T&T needed four off two balls. A tie would have led to a Super Over contest – a one-over aside duel to decide the result – but Harmison conceded just two singles as Ravi Rampaul was run out off the last ball.Four England players didn’t even make it to the ground, meaning Alastair Cook and Ravi Boapra were handed unexpected chances along with the already announced recalls for Graeme Swann and Harmison. It made team selection easy, but left them with an unbalanced side. England used the opportunity to experiment ahead of the main event at the weekend, promoting Samit Patel to No.3 then throwing him the new ball in a repeat of T&T’s tactics. Both were neither a major success or complete failure and at least Pietersen knows what is at his disposal and was able to witness his troops under some pressure.Pietersen himself had stood out with his class during a 30-ball 44, after Daren Ganga missed a tough catch to remove him 8, as England put their foot down in the second half of their innings. Pietersen’s effort was the most commanding innings of the week to date and showed how quality can overcome tricky conditions.Given the trend of the previous matches their 141 looked more than par, especially on a pitch with increasing uneven bounce, where some deliveries climbed alarmingly from a ridge on a good length. It was a well-paced innings, anchored by Bell’s sensible 37 from 41 balls before Pietersen provided the late impetus with three huge sixes between midwicket and long-on.T&T, though, weren’t going to die wondering. Justin Guillen was unlucky to be given out caught off his forearm, as umpire Asad Rauf decided against using the referral system. Lendl Simmons and the fearless Darren Bravo took on England’s attack, as Flintoff conceded three fours off his first three balls, before both fell in the space of three deliveries.Paul Collingwood showed the value of taking the pace off the ball during his economical four-over spell, which appeared to have given England some breathing space. Swann’s performance didn’t exactly cement his place for the big game, and Collingwood’s value as a bowler could put pressure on him.However, any hope England may have had of a comfortable finish vanished. Denesh Ramdin began to perform a repeat of his match-winning innings against Middlesex as he launched a late dart at the target. He crunched Harmison for a mighty six over long-on, only to fall later in the same over as he tried to chip over short fine-leg. He had got T&T close, although there was a little too much for the tail to do. England held on, but if they thought this was pressure wait until there’s life-changing money at stake in three days time.