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Match facts

May 10, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)A top-two finish slipping through Royal Challengers Bangalore’s fingers?•BCCI

Big Picture

When Royal Challengers Bangalore left the comforts of home about a fortnight ago, they had won six games out of eight, were at the top end of the points table and were considered a shoo-in for the playoffs. In the four matches since, they have lost three times. As a result, they’ve dropped to the crowded middle of the table and have a growing list of doubters. Delhi is the second-to-last stop on their road trip, before they head to the newest venue on the IPL map, Ranchi, and then it’s back home for two games to finish the league stage. They will want to score points in their final two matches on the road, not just to shore up their chances of a playoff spot but to boost their confidence ahead of those big games, none of which will be at the Chinnaswamy.What should worry Royal Challengers, more than their failure to win away games this season, is their response to David Miller’s assault in their previous match. Arguably Miller’s 38-ball hundred was one of the finest innings in an IPL chase, but Royal Challengers seemed to lose focus soon after the onslaught began, even before their total of 190 seemed to be seriously under threat. Virat Kohli dropped one, their bowlers fed him length balls regularly, AB de Villiers misfielded …They’ll have to deal with many more such pressure situations going into the final stretch of the tournament, and they’ll be hoping to cope a lot better than they did on Monday.Delhi Daredevils are out of the race for the playoffs. For them, it’s all about finishing a disappointing campaign on a relative high, and spoiling a few parties on the way.

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bangalore: LWLLW (most recent first)
Delhi Daredevils: LLWWL

Players to watch

Virat Kohli is being groomed for the Indian captaincy. This tournament is his first stint in charge of a senior team, and if this was a yardstick to judge where his leadership skills stand at the moment, he has probably been found wanting in handling the mental side of things until now. He had that ugly spat with India team-mate Gautam Gambhir early in the tournament, he let the Wankhede crowd get to him, he dropped that key catch – was there a touch of complacency as the expert fielder lined up with Miller’s skier? – in the Kings XI game and was then seen arguing with umpire about a questionable no-ball in the midst of onslaught. Like his team, Kohli, too, faces the bigger pressure tests as this tournament progresses. He’ll need to keep a tight rein on his emotions if he’s to come out on top in them.Mahela Jayawardene has 259 runs at 21.58 in 12 games, with a strike rate of 105.71. As much as his team has not been able to get away in this tournament, neither has Jayawardene. Will he continue to play, or become the latest captain to drop himself? With Daredevils out of contention and Sri Lanka eager to bring some of their out-of-form players home early from the IPL, to allow them to prepare better for the Champions Trophy, Jayawardene cannot be blamed if his focus has shifted a bit already.

Stats and Trivia

• Royal Challengers and Daredevils have faced off 10 times in the IPL, with Daredevils winning 5 times, Royal Challengers winning 4 times, and 1 tie (their previous encounter this year, in which Royal Challengers won the Super Over). However, Daredevils last beat Royal Challengers in IPL 2010
• Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli have the second-highest partnership in T20 cricket – an unbeaten 204 – and it came against Daredevils, in Delhi, last year

Quotes

“Twenty20 cricket is about one big score, one big partnership. We have not done that consistently.”

ScorecardJames Taylor fell three runs short of back-to-back hundreds•Getty Images

When you’re not much over five feet tall, being overlooked comes with the territory.Certainly James Taylor could be forgiven for feeling that way. Despite making a decent fist of his baptism in Test cricket – the 147 he added with Kevin Pietersen on debut at Headingley was England’s highest fifth-wicket stand against South Africa since they were readmitted into Test cricket – he was dropped just one game later and then omitted from the senior squads to tour India or New Zealand. To rub salt in the wound, he was then omitted from the 30-man performance squad named by the ECB at the start of this summer.Not only were the England management unconvinced by his ability outside off stump, but there were rumours that one of Taylor’s England colleagues in that Headingley Test made no attempt to conceal his own surprise at the batsman’s early elevation to Test cricket. It wasn’t easy being JT in that dressing room.But Taylor – who, to be fair, claims to be five foot six (but much in the way that Father Ted used to claim the money was “resting in his account”) – continues to make a persuasive case for a recall. Following a century in his previous innings against Derbyshire he came within three runs of recording another here and produced the most solid batting of a day on which 11 wickets fell.While some might explain away a first-class career average of 47.71 by stating that many of those runs were made in Division Two of the Championship, his record for England Lions is excellent – he averages 61.60 in first-class cricket for them and 38.20 in List A cricket – and, if his technique is unusual, his record suggests it is also highly effective.While the watching national selector, Geoff Miller, cannot have been totally assured of Taylor’s ability on the off side – two third of his runs came on the leg side and he was beaten outside off on several occasions – he can only have been impressed by the application shown by the diminutive 23-year-old.On a day on which several batsmen played a large part in their own downfall, Taylor fought hard and produced a number of pleasing strokes to fully justify his place in the England Lions team to play New Zealand at his previous club, Leicestershire, that was announced during the day’s play.”I’ve had some good chats with Geoff Miller,” Taylor said afterwards. “I know it’s down to me to score runs and it will be nice to go back to Grace Road and do well against an international attack. My game can definitely work at Test level. Sachin Tendulkar is the same height as me. Just look at my record: I’ve scored hundreds against very decent attacks.”I felt very comfortable when I played Test cricket; the only problem was the experience was a bit brief. I know I didn’t express myself as much as I would have liked, but that was dictated by the match situation which dictated that someone had to dig in.”This was another day for digging in. While Taylor did take Ben Stokes for three successive fours at one stage – two pulls and a drive – he was generally content to accumulate and played a supporting role to the fluent Steven Mullaney in a fifth-wicket stand of 111. Mullaney contributed 80; Taylor just 24.

Broad calms injury worries

Stuart Broad was forced to leave the field after bowling just three overs in Nottinghamshire’s County Championship match against Durham. Broad edged the ball into his groin while batting earlier in the day and later felt some tightness in the area when he started to bowl.

His first over cost 12 and, after two more, he left the pitch as a precaution and will be assessed before the second day’s play before any decision is made about his participation in the rest of this game. He later tweeted: “Got hit in the groin while batting. Nothing major will be bowling 1st thing 2moro.”

When Taylor eventually fell, pushing at an arm ball well outside off stump, he became Gareth Breese’s first Championship wicket since September 2008 and only his second since 2006. Breese, playing ahead of Keaton Jennings, has played only five Championship games in six seasons, which perhaps says more about Durham’s confidence in Scott Borthwick’s leg-spin than it does anything else.While Taylor reckoned Nottinghamshire’s final total was “about par”, Durham will be disappointed to have allowed them to score so many. They put down five chances in all, with Stokes, usually so reliable, missing four of varying degrees of difficulty. Will Smith put down the other.Most of the misses proved expensive. Ed Cowan, who went on to score 40, was reprieved on 4, Mullaney was missed on 6 and Stuart Broad, who made 46, survived chances on 1 and 7. A crude calculation would suggest the drops cost Durham 157 runs.Graham Onions, as reliable as ever, was the unfortunate bowler on several occasions, but Mark Wood – preferred to Callum Thorp – was just as impressive. Decidedly brisk, he beat Taylor with successive deliveries on off stump and dismissed Mullaney, flashing outside off stump to the first ball of a spell, and Chris Read, beaten for pace and bounce as he attempted to drive. In Stokes, who also bowled with good pace, and Wood, Durham possess a pair of outstandingly talented young allrounders.Earlier Alex Hales left a straight one, Cowan’s pleasing innings ended when he uncharacteristically failed to move his feet to a drive and edged to gully, before Michael Lumb was struck on the foot by a yorker and Samit Patel guided the ball before lunch – a long hop – to point as obligingly as a coach providing catching practice.While Mullaney batted with pleasing fluency – he drove Breese for sixes from successive balls at one stage – and Broad thrashed about with characteristic abandon – he, too, struck two sixes and, at one stage, four fours in six deliveries – Nottinghamshire could have done with a little more of Taylor’s determination if they were to have built a match-defining position.

Australia’s final practice match, against India A, before the first Test in Chennai has brought a general assumption to public notice: that in the spin department, Michael Clarke does not have the pedigree that was available to Alastair Cook during England’s historic series win in India three months ago.Spinners Xavier Doherty, Nathan Lyon and the teenager Ashton Agar went for 244 runs in the 49 overs they bowled to the India A batsmen at the Guru Nanak Ground. It was a large chunk of India A’s first-day total of 338 for 4.In comparison, the quicks Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle and Moises Henriques’ conceded 86 runs in 41 overs. Despite being the stronger half of the Australians’ bowling unit, they did not opt for the second new ball when it was due. The focus was on working on the old ball to keep it reversing, a strategy they hope will help them take 20 wickets in every Test.Doherty said the Australians had come to India after studying how Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann had bowled at a quicker pace than the Indians spinners, slightly higher than 90kph. “It’s not always going to work,” he said. “A bowler like Nathan [Lyon], he’s not going to bowl that fast. That’s not his game and he’s not going to change his game just because it worked for someone else.”Doherty, the quickest of the spinners today – “it comes naturally to me, all the way through my career I’ve been faster than the average spinner” – was also the most successful, taking three of the four wickets to fall, and the most economical.Australia’s spinners, he said, had struggled in several departments – finding the lengths and the pace at which to bowl on slow turners, and when attacked by the India A batsmen. Doherty said there was a little more ‘skid’ in his bowling, when compared to that of the two taller spinners. He said he found his rhythm in his final spell, and hopefully that would “bode well for a Test selection at some stage, but I’m not so sure… we’ve got plenty more work to do, training sessions, two more days to go.”Rohit Sharma, who scored 77 for India A, was more sangfroid about his assessment of Australia’s slow bowlers and said they had attacked too much. “Their fielders were closing in – we could take our chances and score those runs quickly. It’s a different ball game when it comes to a Test match, they were trying a few things so we took advantage of that … I am not saying that they are not good bowlers. You cannot underestimate anybody.”Rohit came in at No. 3 and was involved in two partnerships, 128 with the centurion Gautam Gambhir for the second wicket and 71 with Manoj Tiwary for the third. Siddle and Starc had conceded only 12 runs in the first 10 overs and Rohit said they had “bowled tight lines” on a pitch with low bounce and a slow outfield. “In the middle we saw them bowling reverse and … in a four-over period, it was doing a lot. That period was very crucial and we didn’t give any wickets.”He said India A would take a call after the first five or six overs of the second day whether to declare early.

ScorecardFile photo: Ajit Agarkar scored his first Ranji century in three years•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Centuries from Aditya Tare and Ajit Agarkar helped Mumbai take a large, confident step towards a sizeable first-innings total in their Ranji Trophy semi-final against Services. On a slow, sluggish day of cricket, interrupted by bad light and a spot of rain, Mumbai had reached 380 for 6 when play was suspended as the light worsened.Tare was batting on 108, his second century for Mumbai this season, while Agarkar’s 113 not out was his first Ranji century since the 2009-2010 season against Himachal Pradesh.The unbroken 211-run seventh-wicket partnership between Tare and Agarkar has given Mumbai an iron-fisted control of the semi-final and Services all the grief they would not have wanted after a promising first day. They lost their strike bowler and leading wicket-taker of the season, Suraj Yadav, who had to go off the field due to a twisted ankle after bowling four overs in the morning just shortly after the introduction of the new ball. Off the 65 overs of play that happened today, Mumbai scored 181 runs without losing a wicket.Tare’s was the slower of the two centuries, uncharacteristic when it comes to his batting, but typical of his performances for Mumbai this season. He has opened the batting in five matches, batted at No. 3 and 4, and No. 7 once, before being slotted into the conventional No. 6 slot meant for the wicketkeeper. The value of his contributions, said Agarkar, is what has enabled Mumbai to play five bowlers. Tare is better known for flamboyant shot-making but on Thursday, collected the runs with a quality well-known in the old Mumbai school of batting – accumulate when available, don’t throw your wicket away and don’t get ahead of yourself. Tare showed patience to wear down the bowlers, and did not try to force pace with dazzling but dangerous improvisation.Agarkar thinks Tare’s batting has been exceptional this season, and the performance in Palam, was a sign that he had “adapted to a demanding situation.” In keeping with his better-known side, he pulled out a reverse sweep against left-arm spinner Avishek Sinha to take Mumbai past 300, and got to his century by guiding a yorker-length ball from Nakul Verma to third man for four.At the other end Agarkar moved at a quicker clip, but played without risk, offering occasional entertainment with attractive strokes around the ground. Shadab Nazar was punched off the backfoot through covers, Nishan Singh was driven straight down the ground and the spinner Sinha punished similarly. This was his fourth first-class century and his second Ranji century for Mumbai. His first two first-class centuries have come in unusual surroundings – in Peshawar for India A on a 1997-98 tour and the second at a Lord’s Test for India in 2002 – before he scored two more for Mumbai. He was asked to name his favourite shot of the day among his fourteen boundaries at Palam and Agarkar said, dead-pan, “the single to get to a hundred.”Despite their sturdy performance in the field on day one, Services found the second line in their bowling attack significantly weaker from the discipline of their three medium-pacers. When they began to resort to part-time options as the long second session dragged on, Mumbai accelerated, scoring 23 in the last five overs before tea. In the final 15-over second session curtailed by bad light, Mumbai scored 59. Start of play was delayed by 45 minutes due to bad light, then truncated after 9.5 overs due to the combination of bad light and a light drizzle. The very long second session produced 97 off 40.1 overs.Mumbai now have the collective gleam in their eye: the wicket, Agarkar said, had required the batsmen to grind, slow but holding steady. “We’ve got enough batting to survive on a difficult wicket and surviving today was important. It’s a six day match and we want as many runs as we can get.”The Services camp will be nursing hurting calves and some pride this evening, but said they could only do the one thing they knew best: fight. “We’ve got this chance after so long, we won’t let it go.” While the weather and the wicket promise many a slow session of cricket, a tussle underneath the surface will always be on. It is what Ranji Trophy semi-finals should ideally be about.

India’s batsmen’s lack of positivity cost them the Kolkata ODI against Pakistan, former India captain Sourav Ganguly believes. Also MS Dhoni’s approach with the bat in the match – which India lost by a whopping 85 runs, and with it the series – wasn’t right, Ganguly said in a newspaper column.”The Pakistan spinners were exemplary, but what surprised me was the lack of intent to attack on part of the Indian batting,” Ganguly wrote. “They should have played more positively. They came with the mindset that 250 is not a big score, so bat 50 overs and win.”Though the Pakistan bowlers bowled better in this game than they have done [at any other time] in the series, it is important to play every ball on merit and the Indians just went into their shell. They looked like a batting unit short on confidence.”Pakistan had appeared set for a huge total in the match, after a 141-run opening stand, but India’s bowlers managed to limit them to 250. Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag made an edgy start but managed to survive, going at about four an over in the first 10. However, just like the previous game, a wicket opened the floodgates and the team was reduced to 95 for 5 in 26 overs.And, unlike in the first ODI, in Chennai, Dhoni was unable to script a batting recovery. While he remained unbeaten on 54, his runs came at a strike rate of 60.67 and he ran out of partners as India were bowled out with two overs to spare.It’s time, Ganguly said, Dhoni moved up the order. “Dhoni continued to bat lower down; he was the man in form and in such situations [with the team struggling] it’s important that the man in form or the captain stands up. He played superbly in Chennai and I still don’t understand the reason why he has to bat at 29 for 5 or 70 for 4, rather than going in at 40 for 1. It really baffles me, somebody so gifted under-using his talent.”The final stand between Dhoni and Ishant Sharma lasted eight overs and the captain farmed the strike, but he did not look like launching a last-ditch, final assault at any stage. He blocked out deliveries and seemed to be coaxing Ishant to play with the utmost care. That was not what was required at that point, Ganguly said: “His approach with Ishant for company wasn’t right. He should have taken on the Pakistan bowling, as it didn’t [make a difference] if India lost in 40th over.”

Scorecard
New South Wales scrambled to victory over Queensland on the final morning of the Sheffield Shield match in Canberra, guided most of the way by Brad Haddin.Resuming at 4 for 48, the Blues lost another three wickets in the pursuit of 98 to win, those of Steve O’Keefe and Haddin falling with 10 runs still required. But Sean Abbott struck a pair of clean blows to ensure the Blues took all six points, Haddin claiming the match award after his first innings of 73 and four catches in the match.

Tim Southee’s fitness remains uncertain on the eve of New Zealand’s second Test against Sri Lanka, at the P Sara Oval in Colombo. Ross Taylor, the New Zealand captain, was hopeful Southee had recovered well enough from a groin strain he picked up in the first Test, to take the field on Sunday, but said team management would assess the fast bowler and make the final decision before the toss.Southee was New Zealand’s best player in Galle, producing a terrific spell of swing bowling to take 4 for 46 in the first innings, as he and Trent Boult reduced Sri Lanka’s top order to 50 for 5. He was also New Zealand’s best bowler in the two-Test series against India in September. Southee did not take the field during Sri Lanka’s chase of 92 in the first Test.”Tim has been on a lot of rehab in the last few days, had a good training yesterday for a full session,” Taylor said. “He had a good bowl out and did some fitness and pulled through that well. Don’t know how he will pull up again tomorrow. I guess with injuries in this part of the world we’ll have the final assessment in the morning.”In the Test match in Bangalore he bowled very well and led the attack. It’s a young attack and he is leading that attack very well. We gave ourselves a chance in Galle, but we didn’t capitalise on it as much as we would have liked.”Taylor said legspinner Todd Astle is in the reckoning for a debut in Colombo, and will play if Southee is not deemed fit. Astle began his first-class career as an opening batsman, and may be considered even if Southee does play, in which case he will likely replace a batsman.”He’s not far off being a genuine allrounder,” Taylor said of Astle. “He’s fitted into the group very well and he’s got a good work ethic and he is trying hard. He comes into the reckoning with the wicket here and different bounce.”Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath may have vanquished the visitors inside three days in the first Test, but Taylor said his side had also prepared for the threat posed by the remainder of Sri Lanka’s attack. Herath took 11 wickets in Sri Lanka’s ten-wicket win, but the hosts’ new-ball bowlers also troubled New Zealand’s batsmen in Galle, taking early wickets in each innings. Sri Lanka’s second spinner Suraj Randiv created pressure with discipline, but finished with only two wickets in the match.New Zealand have used the extra two days in training, and Taylor said they had formulated batting plans they believe will prevent a record-equalling sixth consecutive loss for New Zealand.”We can’t just focus on Herath, there are other quality bowlers we got to play well against,” Taylor said. “If we just play Herath well and the other guys bowl well we can still be bowled out very cheaply.”It’s important for batsmen to know their plans and trust their plans and take that out to the middle. You have to be in right frame of mind to not only defend well but to try and find the scoring options.”

James Taylor, the Nottinghamshire batsman, has been called up for the second Test against South Africa at Headingley after Ravi Bopara was ruled out because of what the ECB said were ‘personal issues’.The first match at The Oval marked Bopara’s return to the Test line-up after nearly a year out of the team but he struggled, making 0 and 22. He was due to play in Essex’s CB40 match against Worcestershire on Sunday but also withdrew from that that and this latest development brings a halt to another attempt to establish himself in the Test line up.Taylor, who played one ODI against Ireland last year, will enter the match in good form after making a century against Sussex in the current round of Championship matches, although before that innings he had a lean season in four-day cricket with one half-century in nine matches. However, he had scored a century for England Lions against the West Indians earlier this season.Taylor was preferred ahead of Jonny Bairstow, who played the three Tests against West Indies in place of an injured Bopara, and Somerset’s Nick Compton, the lead run-scorer in the Championship.Speaking after the second day against Sussex, before news of his call up, he said: “My ultimate ambition has always been to play Test cricket and my plan at the start of the season was to try to establish myself here and win games for Nottinghamshire, to keep knocking at the door and hope that when an opportunity did arise with England I would have enough runs behind me that they couldn’t not pick me.”I always expected to score runs because I know I can but it has been good to play against first division bowling attacks and on difficult wickets. I feel good about the way things are going at the moment.”Taylor is the only change to the 13-man squad after the innings-and-12-run defeat in the opening Test at The Oval, although question marks remain over the make up of the bowling attack after England took just two wickets in 189 overs. Steven Finn and Graham Onions, who both played Championship cricket this week, are the other options should the selectors decide on a change.The most vulnerable of the pace bowlers appears to be Tim Bresnan, although he would bring local knowledge on his home ground and can bowl long spells. Stuart Broad was below his best at The Oval but it is unlikely that England will considering leaving him out, after showing faith in him during previous slips in form.Finn took six wickets against Durham at Chester-le-Street while, by the start of the third day, Onions had four. Both played against West Indies at Edgbaston when England rotated their pace attack and Finn showed excellent form against Australia in the one-day series.Geoff Miller, the national selector, said: “We were outplayed during the first Test last week but it is important that this squad regroups and focuses on preparing for the second Test. This is a talented squad with plenty of international experience and they will be determined to improve on the performance during the first Test.”We have made one change to the squad with James Taylor replacing Ravi Bopara, who is unavailable for selection due to personal reasons. James has been part of the England Performance Programme for a number of years and has performed consistently for England Lions and now has an opportunity to step up and experience the Test environment.”Squad Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, James Taylor, Matt Prior, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Graham Onions

India captain MS Dhoni has said Irfan Pathan showing signs of form during the first ODI against Sri Lanka was a big advantage for his team, and would help lend balance to the XI.”One good positive was Irfan Pathan doing well,” Dhoni said after the match. “Without [Ravindra] Jadeja or Yuvraj [Singh], it is difficult to make the side balanced in both departments, so this was important.”Irfan, whose patchy form with the ball has seen him in and out of the team recently, was a last-minute addition to the squad for the Sri Lanka tour, after Vinay Kumar was ruled out with injury last week. Here, opening the bowling with Zaheer Khan, he got the ball to swing both ways and struck with his second ball, getting rid of Tillakaratne Dilshan lbw. At the end of his first spell, his figures read 6-1-20-1, and India already had a firm grip on the scoring rate.India’s bowling in the end overs, however, Dhoni said, still needed to be better. “It was a good learning experience for the younger bowlers. Zak [Zaheer] was good. [But] The death bowling for us needs to improve.”In the chase of 315, Sri Lanka had come into the final 10 overs needing 112 runs, before centurion Kumar Sangakkara and No. 8 Thisara Perera – with 44 off 28 balls – knocked off quick runs to give Sri Lanka hope. Though Sri Lanka eventually fell 21 short, they had scored just over 100 runs in 11 overs, after being 191 for 6 in 39th.Leaving it too late in the chase, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said, was his team’s mistake. “We’ve got some big-hitters at the end, but we left too much for them to do. Too many mistakes, against a quality side like India.”It was important for us to set up a platform and [so] Sanga [Sangakkara] was trying to build an innings. [But] We never had momentum going into the last 10 overs. We’ll try to refocus and come back strong.”Earlier, Dhoni had won a rare toss and, he said, he was pleased to do so since the conditions were against Sri Lanka in the chase. “This was one game where I felt the toss would be crucial,” he said. “In the second innings, there was variable bounce and it was a little difficult to bat on.”

Andre Russell, the West Indies quick, has said opening the bowling for his team suits him. Russell set up West Indies’ huge win in the first ODI against New Zealand in Kingston, striking with his first ball and carving up the visitors’ top order with a three-wicket opening spell.”I am very comfortable using the new ball,” Russell said after the match. “I look forward to the opportunity. But we have a good balance in the team, anyone can start the attack; we have several options when it comes to the new ball. So it is all about what the team requires at that time.”To bowl first at Sabina Park, I knew I would get assistance from whatever moisture was in the surface. I decided to run in with purpose, hit the deck hard and look for wickets. Before the match we said wickets with the new ball would be vital and my focus was on getting it right from the very start.”Russell, who returned to pick up another wicket and complete the fourth four-wicket haul of his 23-match ODI career, is coming off a short injury lay-off. He had hurt his shoulder during West Indies’ first one-dayer against England in mid-June, and missed the rest of that series. He did not play the Twenty20 series against New Zealand in Florida either.He was happy to hit stride right away, Russell said. “It was good to come back into the team after I missed the Twenty20 series in Florida and make an impression right away.”After I came back from England I came here, did my homework, spent some time with my family, regrouped and got ready for this series. I came out today and wanted to do it for my home crowd. I will have another rethink and come back ready for business on Saturday.”