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Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, believes Ishant Sharma was provoked by Andrew Symonds into the reaction that earned the young bowler an ICC reprimand and fine. Dhoni also said the Australians had turned this kind of incident into an art form and that India would need to catch up.”It’s an art and they are good at it, but the Indians will learn soon,” Dhoni said after India’s comprehensive seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in Hobart that booked them a place in the finals against Australia, which start on Sunday.Ishant was fined 15% of his game fee by Jeff Crowe, the match referee, for sending Symonds off with words after dismissing him in Sunday’s game at the SCG. Though the Indian team management accepted Crowe’s verdict, they also asked him to speak to the Australians about their provocative behaviour in the field. They even cited as evidence specific instances in the previous two CB Series clashes between the teams.Dhoni, who wasn’t in close proximity to either Ishant or Symonds when the incident occurred, felt Ishant had every right to do what he did, adding it was Symonds who started it. Television cameras showed Dhoni pacifying Ishant after the umpire Daryl Harper had cautioned him about the bowler.”It’s (provocation) been going on for a long time,” Dhoni said. “We have to be careful about it and if they provoke us we need to mind what we say. Ishant just reacted to what Symonds said.”Dhoni, who had double the reason to celebrate today’s win – his side’s entry into the finals was confirmed as well as him completing 100 ODI catches – defended a series that has never been too far from reaching boiling point. “Cricket can never be friendly. As long as the rivalry never crosses the line it’s fine.”Dhoni himself avoided an ICC rap after he was found wearing gloves that weren’t within the regulations. The pair of white ones he sported came with a loop-like webbing that had been reinforced at the edges.Law 40.2 states that “if the wicketkeeper wears gloves, they shall have no webbing between the fingers except joining index finger and thumb, where webbing may be inserted as a means of support…”Dhoni said he had obeyed the laws and didn’t want any further controversy. “It was close to the line of ‘if the gloves were legal or illegal’. In the 100 catches I’ve taken only three or four might have been caught in the webbing. Otherwise, the rest I’ve claimed out of my glovework and my skill.”

When the itinerary was drawn up, April 15 was marked out as a special date. Had the results gone according to the seedings, it would have been India against Pakistan in front of a full house at the Kensington Oval, with a semi-final place on the line. As it is, with both having slumped so meekly in the first round, it becomes a big clash of a different kind, with both Bangladesh and Ireland desperate not to finish bottom of the Super Eights table.Bangladesh have already supplied the Indians with return tickets and put a serious dent in South Africa’s World Cup ambitions, while Ireland’s victory over Pakistan at Sabina Park was one of those “I was there” days to savour. But both have found life a lot tougher at the top, with Australia and New Zealand handing out heavy defeats and a reminder that the consistency which separates the best sides from the rest doesn’t come overnight.With the Kensington Oval pitch assisting the quicker bowlers in the morning, the toss will be vital. Both Ireland and Bangladesh were out of depth against the new ball on a surface where the ball reared up from a good length, and neither will want to be in a similar position on Sunday. The likes of Glenn McGrath, Shaun Tait and Sajid Mahmood may not be in opposition, but even Mashrafe Mortaza and Boyd Rankin will fancy theirchances of doing serious damage if they bowl first.After the drubbings meted out by New Zealand and Australia, the Irish are desperate to lift the mood. “It’s not nice to be beaten like this,” said Adrian Birrell, the Ireland coach, after the Australia game. “But we’ve got to focus on the next game. It [the Bangladesh game] was the biggest fixture. We’re still a good side and we’ve got two more games to show that.”After the manner in which they dismissed South Africa, and pushed England to the finish, Bangladesh will surely start favourites, though some of the senior players will have disturbing memories of the last World Cup where they lost to unfancied Canada.That was another team, in another time, but Habibul Bashar, the captain, certainly won’t be taking anything for granted. “We’ve seen Ireland’s games on TV,” he said. “They’re not a bad team at all. They have some good batsmen and their pacers are fine.”

In addition to Mortaza and the impressive Syed Rasel, Bangladesh can also call on their trio of left-arm spinners, and Trent Johnston, the Irish captain, had no doubt that they would be the main threat as his side sought a first win in the Super Eights.”They pose a different challenge,” he said. “One of the areas where we need to play better is [against] spin bowling. We’ve been squeezed by the spinners in the middle and after watching Bangladesh beating South Afica, we know they have good spinners. We’ll do our best to counter them.”Ireland are likely to be boosted by the return of Andrè Botha, whose accurate medium-pace and middle-order batting have been sorely missed in the last two encounters. As for Bangladesh, there are unlikely to be any changes, though a few more runs from Bashar – he has just 61 from six innings – would be most welcome.”I’m not putting any pressure on the players,” said Bashar when asked how important this match was for his side. “We’ve already had a very good World Cup. We’ll just go out there and enjoy it. Two games remain and we want to go home in a good mood.”

Martin Love will set a Queensland record on Friday when he plays his 10th domestic first-class final in the Pura Cup decider against Victoria at the Gabba. Love will overtake Stuart Law, the former captain who led the state to their first victory in 1994-95, and the No. 3 is a crucial member for the Bulls as they appear in their eighth consecutive final.”It’s pretty amazing to think I am about to play in my 10th – it certainly doesn’t seem that many,” Love said. “I’ve been very fortunate to play in a great era of Queensland Cricket alongside wonderful players and I certainly don’t take an achievement like this for granted.”Love, who needs 206 runs to match Law’s state record of 9920 runs, made his first-class debut against New South Wales in the 1992-93 final and has been part of four Sheffield Shield-Pura Cup victories. He is also the only Queensland player to post three centuries in deciders and was named alongside the Australia one-day players Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson in the 12-man squad to face the Bushrangers.Daniel Doran, the legspinner in his first season, has recovered from a finger injury suffered in the match against Victoria two weeks ago and will play in the five-day final. Nathan Hauritz, Nathan Rimmington and Craig Philipson have been dropped from the squad that lost to Tasmania.Mick Lewis, who has two five-wicket hauls in finals, returns for Victoria after they named a 13-man squad that includes the fast bowlers Shane Harwood, Gerard Denton and Dirk Nannes. The Bushrangers have also added the wicketkeeper Adam Crosthwaite while Grant Lindsay has been cut from the outfit that beat Western Australia on March 13.”Our bowlers have stood up all season and we need another big effort,” Lewis said. “We need to take 20 wickets to win the final, and I know we’ve got the guys who’ll charge in all day and create chances.”Victoria Jason Arnberger, Lloyd Mash, Brad Hodge, Nick Jewell, David Hussey, Cameron White (capt), Jon Moss, Nathan Pilon (wk), Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Dirk Nannes, Mick Lewis, Shane Harwood, Gerard Denton.Queensland Jimmy Maher (capt), Lachlan Stevens, Martin Love, Clinton Perren, Shane Watson, James Hopes, Brendan Nash, Chris Hartley (wk), Andy Bichel, Ashley Noffke, Daniel Doran, Mitchell Johnson.

Gloucestershire have become the second county in a week to be accused of ball-tampering, after it was alleged that their fast bowler, Steve Kirby, scraped the match ball on the surface of a concrete car-park during their seven-wicket victory over Glamorgan at the weekend.On Friday, Surrey were penalised with five penalty runs and threatened with further sanctions from the ECB, after it was found that the quarter-seam had been lifted during Nottinghamshire’s lengthy innings. Now it is Gloucestershire in the hot seat, after the umpires at Sophia Gardens, Nigel Cowley and John Hampshire, included these new allegations in their report.The alleged incident occurred on Sunday, the third day of the match, when Kirby went to retrieve the ball from the car-park after David Hemp had struck a six. Soon afterwards, John Derrick, Glamorgan’s coach, strode onto the pitch to complain about the alteration of the ball’s condition, although the umpires were unable to determine whether the scuffing had been caused by anything other than the initial bounce of the ball.Gloucestershire’s captain, Chris Taylor, was satisfied that nothing untoward had taken place, but his opposite number, Robert Croft, was supportive of his coach. “I know [his] integrity and the way he has conducted himself since taking over at Glamorgan,” said Croft. “For him to do that he obviously saw something that incensed him.”In an ill-tempered match, Kirby and Alex Wharf were both spoken to by the umpires for separate incidents, as Glamorgan slumped to their third consecutive defeat – their worst start to a county season since 1922.

Victoria 494 and 2 for 194 dec (Elliott 102*,Moss 79*) beat Tasmania 7 for 249 decl (Dighton 50,Warne 2-49) and 221 (Dighton 54, Warne 4-51) by 218 runs
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Victoria beat Tasmania by 218 runs in their Pura Cup match at the MCG today. Victoria needed only three overs after tea to take the last three wickets and dismiss Tasmania for 221. Shane Warne had Xavier Doherty stumped for 2 to end the game and he finished the second innings with figures of 4 for 51.Warne took six wickets in the match and is expected to be named tomorrow for the Tests against Sri Lanka. Michael Dighton top-scored for Tasmania with a breezy 54 from 41 balls before he was stumped off Warne.Tasmania were set a near impossible victory target of 440 from 75 overs and were never in the hunt throughout the last innings. Daniel Marsh was the only other batsman who passed 30 and enlivened the innings with an energetic 48. His innings included eight fours and a six.Victoria declared their second innings before lunch at 2 for 194, with Matthew Elliott and Jon Moss unbeaten on 102 and 79 respectively. Elliott top scored in the first innings with 166 and became the first Victorian batsman to score six Pura Cup centuries in a season. Elliott is also only 235 runs away for the most runs scored by a Victorian in a season.

Talented Calmore Sports all-rounder James Hibberd, 21, is preparing to take the first tentative step on the road towards becoming a professional cricketer with Kent.Hibberd, who won the Southern Electric Premier League’s prestigious Young Cricketer award last summer, has been invited to Canterbury for pre-season training, starting later this month.”Simon Willis, Kent’s new Director of Cricket, wants me at the squad training sessions starting on March 24, after which there’s the opportunity of playing some more Second XI games.”I’m really looking forward to it,” Hibberd said.The Sholing-based right-hand all-rounder, who made his Southern League debut as a raw 16-year old, initially caught Kent’s eye when he was playing for the Hampshire Board side in the ECB 38-County Cup.”I played in Kent’s triumphant Second XI Trophy final team last season, ironically against Hampshire 2nds at the Rose Bowl last September, finishing with 2-17 off six overs.”Hibberd, whose father Dave was on the MCC Groundstaff at Lord’s and played regularly for Hampshire 2nd XI in his prime, was on a hat-trick after removing Alex Morris and Laurie Prittipaul in successive deliveries.He enjoyed an oustanding 2002 season for Calmore, scoring 466 runs and taking 31 wickets, while also playing regular Minor Counties Championship cricket for Wiltshire.”I’ve done a lot of work in the gym preparing myself for what is certain to be pretty strenuous pre-season training – something I’ve not previously experienced.”And I knocked local football on the head this winter, simply to ensure I didn’t pick up any injuries,” he added.

After drawing comparisons with Sachin Tendulkar for his masterly knockagainst New Zealand, Virender Shewag today disclosed that the battingmaestro had sent him a congratulatory message for his match-winninginnings yesterday.”Sachin has sent a message asking me to ‘keep it up’,” a beamingShewag said.Shewag, who opened the Indian innings with captain Sourav Ganguly inthe absence of Tendulkar, smashed a 69-ball 100, to guide India to acomprehensive seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in the last leaguematch of triangular one-day series for a place in Sunday’s finalagainst Sri Lanka.The innings drew comparisons with Tendulkar for the sheer contemptShewag showed for the bowling while blasting 19 fours and a six, allof which were brilliant shots.The effort however was not enough to earn Shewag a place in the 16-member squad for the Test series against Sri Lanka announcedyesterday. “I have to perform better to get into the Test side,” wasall Shewag had to say about his exclusion.A middle-order batsman, Shewag said he was comfortable opening theinnings too. “I will bat in any position that the team wants me to,”he said.Shewag’s maiden century was the seventh fastest in limited overscricket. However, he said he was not going for the records and was noteven aware of Mohammad Azharuddin’s 62-ball hundred which is thefastest by any Indian. “I just kept playing my shots,” he said.Yuvraj Singh, who produced a similar match-winning knock against SriLanka the day before, said playing one’s natural game was the key tosuccess in one-day matches.”We didn’t put any pressure on ourselves and just played our shots,”Yuvraj said. The left-handed all-rounder, who made a sensational debutagainst Australia in the ICC Knock-out tournament in Nairobi lastyear, has also been left out of the Test squad.Yuvraj said he was not disappointed with the decision and was workingon his bowling too to develop into a genuine all-rounder. He had agood outing in this tournament with the ball too and felt if he wasable to contribute handsomely with the bat and the ball while being anoutstanding fielder, the selectors could not ignore him for the Testsfor long.After winning three successive pressure games, a relieved Indian teamteam took a deserving break today, ahead of the final on Sunday.”From the way we have won the last three matches, I can say we hope towin,” team manager AN Mate said.A group of underpriveleged children from a charitable institution inRatmalana, a suburb of Colombo, visited the Indian team today.

The Central Zone Cooch Behar Under-19 Trophy match between Uttar Pradeshand Railways at the Kamala Club ground in Kanpur ended in a draw on Mondaywith Railways gaining 5 points out of the match since they took the firstinnings lead. Uttar Pradesh had to be satisfied with three.Railways who started their second innings on the final day got to score 152runs in 81 overs, while losing 7 wickets in the bargain. Manoj Srivastava(42) was the top scorer for Railways while the top order chipped in withsome sedate performances.Earlier on the second day Railways managed to take a slender 6 run lead,when the bundled out UP for 179 in their first innings. Apart from theopeners Faizan Khan (42) and A Kapoor (56), who added 86 in 37.5 overs,none of the others stayed long enough to forge significant partnerships.Raza Ali with 3 for 26 was the pick of the Railways’ bowlers.Railways who elected to bat on the opening day, were reduced to 185 after afine 84 run second wicket partnership between Surinder Singh (46) and MSSrivastava (43) which took the score to 101 in 39.2 overs. N Choudhary (3for 46) was the best bowler for UP.

It looked like being one of those sleepy subcontinental Tests, where the side batting first runs up a big score and the other team tries to match their total.And the first two days on a docile pitch at Colombo’s R Premadasa (formerly Khetterama) Stadium followed that template. India made 537 for 8, with centuries from Sidhu (his eighth in Tests), Tendulkar (12th) and Azharuddin (18th). India declared shortly before the end of the second day, and Tendulkar promised his bowlers would “attack for three days”. They claimed a wicket in the last over. It went to Nilesh Kulkarni, 24, a left-arm spinner from Bombay, who became only the 12th bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in Tests. But his dream start was to turn into a nightmare: he sent down 419 more balls without taking another wicket, and conceded 195 runs.Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama, team-mates with Colombo’s Bloomfield club, batted throughout the third day (the 12th instance in Testhistory) and on through the fourth. No pair had survived two full days’ play before, although Garry Sobers and Frank Worrell almost managed it against England at Bridgetown in 1959-60: they also batted through two days, but an hour was lost to rain on the second of them.Jayasuriya had reached 326, Sri Lanka’s first Test triple-century, by the fourth-day close. He was within sight of Brian Lara’s Test-record 375, and in anticipation of a new mark the gates were thrown open on the final day. Over 30,000 crowded in, but many were still trying to find a perch when Jayasuriya, two balls after losing his partner for 225, was surprised by one that bounced from offspinner Chauhan and popped a simple catch to Ganguly at silly point. The Indian fielders all ran to congratulate the batsman, and clapped him off the field. Jayasuriya had made 340, from 578 balls in 799 minutes, with 36 fours and two sixes. He banished once and for all any notion that he is only a one-day hitter. Only three higher scores have been made in Tests – Lara’s 375, Garry Sobers’s 365 not out, and Len Hutton’s 364.Jayasuriya’s first task had been to ensure that Sri Lanka avoided the follow-on. “I was happy to go all that way,” he said. “I wasn’t going after the record – at least not until the end of the fourth day, when someone told me I was only 50 short. I felt a great pressure on me when I came out to bat [on the fifth morning], and obviously I am disappointed now – but at least my country has made a great achievement.”His partnership with Mahanama, who scored his first Test double-century, set several more records. They eventually put on 576 in 753 minutes, the longest stand in Test history and only one run shy of the highest in first-class cricket (577 by Vijay Hazare and Gul Mahomed in India in 1946-47). They cruised past the previous-highest Test partnership, the 467 of Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones at Wellington in 1990-91. This record was taken with some relish, as the suffering bowlers on that occasion were Sri Lanka’s.The record breaking did not stop when the epic partnership was ended. Aravinda de Silva showed little sign that he had been padded up for the best part of 13 hours, compiling a neat 12th Test century of his own, while skipper Ranatunga made 86, becoming the first Sri Lankan to pass 4000 Test runs during his innings. Mahela Jayawardene, 19, also chipped in on his debut.England’s 903 for 7 at The Oval in 1938, the highest Test total, was the next big target: eventually that too was surpassed. A score of 1000 seemed a possibility, but as there was no chance of a result a halt was called with seven of the last 20 overs bowled. Sri Lanka’s 952 for 6 is the third-highest total in all first-class cricket, exceeded only by Victoria’s two four-figure totals in Australia in the 1920s.Ona dead pitch India stuck well enough to their task, at least on the third and fourth days. Not surprisingly, the bowlers and fielders wilted on the final day as Sri Lanka piled on the runs with all prospect of a result long gone. Opening bowler Kuruvilla, who picked up a leg injury, was spared much of the punishment, but Chauhan, on his return to Test cricket after doubts about his bowling action, and Kumble both conceded over 200 runs.Tendulkar said the pitch was “unfit for Test cricket”, adding: “If we had lost the toss and batted second, we could also have played a massive innings. We only lost wickets because we took chances and looked for runs.”

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Half-centuries from Lisa Sthalekar and Melissa Bulow steered Australia to a comfortable six-wicket win against England at the IIT Chemplast Ground in Chennai. Sarah Taylor had struck 101 to boost England to 268 for 8 but Australia reached their target with 20 balls to spare.After being asked to bat, Sarah provided the ideal start. England lost Laura Newton for 38 but Sarah added 119 runs for the second wicket with Claire Taylor. Sarah struck her century off 111 balls and hit 15 fours. Claire’s 54 took just 56 balls but her dismissal led to a steady fall of wickets.”My 41 against New Zealand helped me get into a rhythm. I tried to hit fours and take as many singles as possible,” said Sarah after her maiden ODI century. “What I have concentrated on is the mental aspect of batting when practicing at the nets. The wickets in India are different from those in England in the manner that the ball comes on a little more and the pitches are harder.”All of England’s middle-order batsmen got into double figures but no one made it count. Beth Morgan struck 23 off 20 balls at the death to push England to 268 when at one stage they looked set for much more.”We were probably lucky that England didn’t get to 300,” said Karen Rolton, the Australian captain, echoing that sentiment. “On this ground the game can really change any time. It looked like we would go down to the last over but some good hitting by Cathryn Fitzpatrick right at the end meant that we got home with three overs to spare.”Australia started off well, with it’s top-order making nuggety contributions with Bulow and Sthalekar scoring 52 and 77 respectively. The openers, Bulow and Shelley Nitschke, added 80 in quick time before both fell on the same score. Rolton joined Sthalekar for a 71-run stand for the third wicket before Kate Blackwell and Sthalekar added 75 for the fourth.Australia now face India on Saturday in what is effectively a semi-final. The winner of that game will play New Zealand in the final on March 5.