IPL Match 8 CSK V DD

Chennai Super Kings 177 for 7 (Raina 56, Dhoni 32, Unadkat 3-32) beat Delhi Daredevils 84 (Ashwin 2-3, Jadeja 2-18, I Pandey 2-23) by 93 runs

Chennai Super Kings crushed Delhi Daredevils by 93 runs in a thoroughly one-sided game in Abu Dhabi. Super Kings started steadily after choosing to bat, but Suresh Raina's busy fifty in the middle and a late surge catapulted them to 177. 

Their quicks tied Daredevils down with accurate swing bowling, and electric catching from Raina and Faf du Plessis made it harder. The middle order sank without a fight, and by the halfway stage of the chase, the match was as good as over. By the 16th over, Super Kings had wrapped up their biggest win in terms of runs.

Brendon McCullum had said that with such a powerful line-up, Super Kings would go hard right from the start. But they stuck to their tested approach of starting steady, keeping wickets in hand and exploding at the death. Super Kings were 34 for 1 after the end of the Powerplay and 65 for 1 after ten overs. They took 58 off the last four overs with swift contributions from MS Dhoni, du Plessis and Mithun Manhas.

Daredevils lost the services of Nathan Coulter-Nile three deliveries into the match, the fast bowler hobbling off after hurting his leg while sliding to stop the ball. 

To his credit, Dinesh Karthik still managed to keep Jaydev Unadkat and Mohammed Shami for the final four without suffering too much damage in the middle overs but led by Dhoni, Super Kings had too much firepower in store. Dhoni blitzed 32 off 15, almost smacking Unadkat flush on the head before the bowler somehow scrambled to avoid a fearsome straight hit.

Raina ensured Super Kings did not stall before the late assault. He did not rely too much on the boundaries but when the chance came, he did hit a few, taking the part-time offspin of M Vijay for three fours in an over.

Raina was also to start Daredevils' downfall. Ishwar Pandey and Ben Hilfenhaus were probing with their outswingers, and when Mayank Agarwal tried to break free with an attempted chip over cover, Raina made ground to snap up the mishit.

With Pandey bowling a disciplined full spell on the trot and Mohit Sharma providing no release, Vijay and Manoj Tiwary stuck to Agarwal's approach. Both fell to spectacular, running takes by du Plessis at mid-off.

Daredevils were 17 for 3 in the fifth over, and were going nowhere from there. Everything that Super Kings tried worked even as Karthik hung around in vain. Dwayne Smith trotted in for his first ball in the ninth over and caught JP Duminy plumb in front. Hilfenhaus had Ross Taylor caught behind as just reward for his away swing.

At 50 for 5 in the tenth over and Coulter-Nile unavailable, Daredevils needed a miracle from the last batting pair of Karthik and Jimmy Neesham. Instead, R Ashwin hit his Tamil Nadu team-mate's middle stump with his first ball in the 13th over, and along with Ravindra Jadeja, ran through whatever remained of the Daredevils line-up. 

IPL Match 7 KXIP V RR

Kings XI Punjab 193 for 3 (Maxwell 89, Miller 51*, Pujara 40*) beat Rajasthan Royals 191 for 5 (Samson 52, Watson 50) by 7 wickets

Lightning has struck twice. After they made mockery of a 200-plus chase in their first match, Kings XI Punjab captain George Bailey said this was not going to happen every day, and that his bowlers needed to turn up. The bowlers failed to turn up again, but Glenn Maxwell and David Miller made light of another massive chase. 

The numbers there were staggering: between them Maxwell and Miller smashed 140 off 64 balls, smoked 12 sixes and reverse-hit and caressed eight fours. What made it better was that this came against the best defenders in the IPL: this was the first time Rajasthan Royals lost after posting 190 or more.

Kings XI had got off to a sluggish start, their promotion of Wriddhiman Saha had backfired, and the asking rate was 10.5, to be maintained over 17 overs, when Maxwell walked. 

The ask would cross two a ball as soon as in the 10th over, and a struggling - by T20 standards - Cheteshwar Pujara would make it more difficult for Kings XI. Maxwell, though, turned it into a 'me' v 'them', farmed the strike to the tune of 45 balls to Pujara's 23 in the partnership between them, and ran away with the game with 89 off 45.

The innings was full of incredible hitting, preying on one considerably shorter side boundary and the short straight ones. He began by going after Kane Richardson in the fifth over, moments after Richardson had failed to latch onto an incredibly difficult return catch to his right. 

The first ball of the next over he smacked Pravin Tambe over square leg, and then eliminated - for the time being - the other big threat, James Faulkner. It began with the first ball of the over again as he flicked a low full toss for six, but he stunned Faulkner with the fifth ball of that seventh over. Faulkner had every reason to believe he had done Maxwell in with a slower bouncer, but from almost halfway down the pitch Faulkner adjusted and upper-cut him for six.

Tambe and Rajat Bhatia pulled things back with their non-turning legrollers, and not much pace to work with. The asking rate shot past 12, and Bhatia began the 11th over with fielders deep on the leg side, and three men behind and around point in the circle. This is when Maxwell in the Mirror made his appearance.

Two reverse-sweeps either side of short third man and one reverse-flick over cover later, Maxwell had gone well past his fifty, and had also brought the asking rate back under control. 

The next over from Dhawal Kulkarni had a similarly strong leg-side field, and Maxwell produced his touch play again. One upper-cut, one flick, and two gentle pushes past the man at cover brought him 16 runs. And when Maxwell manhandled Bhatia for two sixes in the next over, time had come for Royals to go back to the big guns.

On came Richardson, too much elevation got Maxwell, another century was missed, and Rajasthan were breathing again. They had little clue they were about to jump from the frying pan into the fire, the fire of Miller's 51 off 19. 

Miller came in with 66 required off 36, which became 60 off 30 with a canny Stuart Binny over, and three quiet deliveries from Tambe compounded it even further, but now Miller began to pick his deliveries to hit. Even though Tambe bowled the next ball short, Miller smashed him over long-off for six. Pujara sort of took care of the next over with a four and three, and now Kings XI needed 37 from the last three.

Richardson and Faulkner had one each left. Royals went to Kulkarni for the third. They could have gone to Binny, who had cut off all pace, and had conceded just four in his only over. They could have kept Kulkarni back for later, and given him a slightly softer scenario if Faulkner had bowled the 18th and got the asking rate even higher. But these decisions have to be made fast, and Kulkarni it was. 

Kulkarni's idea was right: he was going full, he was going low, but Miller was murderous. Kulkarni didn't miss his yorkers by much, but Miller hit him for four merciless sixes to end the contest then and there.

Bailey will be pleased he has been proven wrong that such chases don't come about every day, but he will want more from his bowlers and fielders. The bowling was listless, they dropped two catches too, and Sanju Samson and Shane Watson feasted on them. 

Mitchell Johnson, the leader of the attack, looked dull again, bowling just the one bouncer, with which incidentally he hit the batsman. Looking back, they will think that they had triumphed in not letting them score big fifties, but Bailey is right, these chases don't happen every day. Except when Maxwell and Miller are at their best. 

IPL 2014 Match 6 KKR v DD

Delhi Daredevils 167 for 6 (Karthik 56, Duminy 52*) beat v Kolkata Knight Riders 166 for 5 (Uthappa 55, Pandey 48) by 4 wickets

The burning question for Delhi Daredevils was their mettle under pressure. They were on a losing streak that was now at seven matches across two seasons. They still had to contend with their biggest influence - Kevin Pietersen - being restricted to the bench. They had to best one of the wilier attacks in the IPL, which believed - at 167 - it had enough to defend. 

However, fifties from stand-in captain Dinesh Karthik and new recruit JP Duminy took them home in an emphatic flurry.

The Daredevils captain was on the receiving end of a snorter from Albie Morkel in the last match, but today he was at his busy best. He nudged those singles and twos, his footwork against spin was precise and more importantly he held the chase together until Duminy arrived at No. 5 and took Morne Morkel for 21 runs in the 18th over to shift the balance.

Sunil Narine was Knight Riders' go-to man again, gamely delivering a 19th over that allowed only six runs to leave the equation at run-a-ball. 

The pressure shifted to Piyush Chawla who beat Jimmy Neesham with a legbreak that didn't turn, and then snapped him up with a seam-up delivery. Duminy hared across to the other end so that he was on strike, and belted another quick delivery over square leg to take the honours with three balls to spare. 

A big target requires some risks at the top and contributes to the wickets without much doing from the bowlers. M Vijay was one such casualty when his search for a non-existent single resulted in his run-out. 

Ross Taylor could not get going for a second game in a row and was undone by a gorgeous offcutter from Jacques Kallis. But Daredevils would not have minded thanks to Mayank Agarwal punching 26 off 14 to ensure the powerplay fetched 49 runs.

Karthik and Duminy got together with 107 needed off 13 overs and began milking the spinners. Narine was kept back until the 11th over, by which time Karthik had a measure of the situation. His strike-rate spent only two balls under 100 as he trusted in his nurdles on either side of the wicket to keep the score ticking. 

Chawla's first over highlighted Karthik's range against spin when he carted a six over square leg and then cut a four through point. A languid six over extra cover brought up his fifty and was probably the shot of the match.

Duminy was at his innovative best as well. His first boundary was a scoop over the keeper. But the starkest trait that came across was his skills in finishing a game. He lost Karthik in the 15th over, Manoj Tiwary could only last six balls and Knight Riders scented a turnaround with 40 needed off the final four overs.

It was then that Duminy exploded. Morne Morkel had set up Knight Riders' victory on Wednesday with a brutal first spell. His pace and lift was just as troublesome to deal with today as he claimed two wickets, but in the crunch he almost seemed to play into Duminy's hands. A length ball, a short one and a full toss were blitzed for four, six and six.

Daredevils dug into their box of quicks and picked out Nathan Coulter-Nile and Jaydev Unadkat. It seemed an unwise tactic on a slowish pitch, but Dubai Sports City's famed ring of fire enhanced the threat. Under lights the pitch gained an extra oomph and Mohammed Shami exploited it in the first over to hand Jacques Kallis his ninth duck and mark him as the batsman with the most ducks in the tournament.

Gautam Gambhir was still searching for his first runs this season and was almost relieved when he lined up a short ball on leg stump and settled into a flick. Only there was a leg gully in place and the Kolkata captain joined Kallis on nine ducks. 

With Knight Riders' engine room malfunctioning, the powerplay fetched only 31 runs and forebodingly the pitch reverted to it's natural sluggish state as Unadkat's variations and Shahbaz Nadeem's left-arm darts kept the scoring under check.

Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa hung in there, telling themselves the release was around the corner. Neesham appeared on cue and was belted for 13 in the seventh over. 

Pandey followed suit with struck two of his five fours in that over and was on course to orchestrate a second recovery for Knight Riders in as many matches. His charge though was flummoxed by an arm ball from Nadeem that clattered into off stump.

Uthappa survived a scare when he was on 7 when Taylor spilled him at short midwicket. He had held the pull shot back during that stroke and decided the tactic would not proffer much success. He belted Shahbaz Nadeem over long-off for the first six of the match and then swung Duminy for consecutive fours in the 16th over to race towards his fifty.

He was out soon after but cameos from Shakib Al Hasan and Suryakumar Yadav set up a total that visibly energised the Knight Riders' dug-out at the innings-break. But Daredevils just wanted it more. 

IPL 2014 Match 5 RCB V MI

Royal Challengers Bangalore 116 for 3 (Parthiv 57*, de Villiers 45*) beat Mumbai Indians 115 for 9 (Chahal 2-17, Starc 2-21) by seven wickets

Mumbai Indians slumped to their second defeat in as many matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have now won two out of two. The defending champions struggled at the start, scratched around in the middle and crumbled at the death on a somewhat difficult surface seeing its first IPL match. 

For their opponents, it was the bowling again that set up the win, although their batsmen, minus the recovering Chris Gayle again, did not find it easy.

Mumbai's problems began at the top as Michael Hussey and Aditya Tare failed to make good after being dropped on 1. Mitchell Starc and Albie Morkel found swing and seam to go with some pace and bounce, and the Mumbai openers were tied down. Tare was beaten several times for pace, especially on the short ball.

Even as Hussey departed, swinging Morkel to backward square leg, Varun Aaron's speed and accurate back-of-a-length deliveries kept up the squeeze on Mumbai. Tare's struggle ended when he connected a short ball only to top-edge it.

Then came the decisive spell of the game. Young legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal tossed it up liberally, and lured Rohit Sharma into a half-hearted loft to long-off. Chahal stuck to his approach, and earned another big wicket of Kieron Pollard in his next over, the batsman trying to launch a six but only going as far as long-on, where Sachin Rana jumped to collect a sharp catch.

Ambati Rayudu and Corey Anderson pushed Mumbai past 100 but they never looked in control as no Royal Challengers bowler provided them any release. Ashok Dinda went for just 14 in his four overs. Mumbai were to collapse from 101 for 4 to 115 for 9 in the last four overs, batsman after batsman slogging and holing out in the deep.

Royal Challengers were to be reduced to 17 for 3 in the chase. Nic Maddinson could not keep out an inswinging Lasith Malinga yorker. Zaheer Khan then nipped out Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh in the space of three deliveries. 

AB de Villiers was the new batsman in. He had Parthiv Patel for company, but with only Albie Morkel, Sachin Rana and the bowlers to follow, Royal Challengers needed the pair in the middle to do the bulk of the job.

Which was exactly what de Villiers and Parthiv did, putting on an unbeaten 99 run-partnership that brought up the win in the 18th over. They had their nervy moments, but hung around to steer their side home. 

Parthiv seemed to have thin-edged Malinga to the keeper with 41 needed off the last seven overs, but Mumbai did not even appeal. It might have made a difference, it may not have, but in the end, Mumbai just did not have enough runs to push Royal Challengers. 

IPL 2014 Match 4 SRH V RR

Hyderabad 135 for 6 (Rahane 59, Binny 48*) beat Rajasthan 133 for 6 (Dhawan 38) by four wickets

Hyderabad will be sick of the sight of Australia allrounder James Faulkner. Last year, he took five-wickets hauls in two encounters against Hyderabad, and though this time he didn't make an impact with the ball, he secured a final-over victory by coolly cracking his first two balls for boundaries. It completed a day where 205 was easily hunted down in the afternoon by Punjab, but Rajasthan huffed and puffed to overhaul 133.

After Glenn Maxwell and Co. had cruised past Chennai's huge score in the first game of the day, Rajasthan captain Shane Watson had, half-jokingly, said at the toss that he would be happy to chase anything below 200. His team was given a score substantially below 200, but the pursuit was anything but smooth as Hyderabad lived up to their reputation of being tenacious defenders.

Rajasthan sprung a surprise by sending Abhishek Nayar opening, and he began by coaxing the first ball from Dale Steyn through cover for four. That was among the few controlled shots from Rajasthan in the Powerplay as Steyn, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma had the ball swerving around under lights. Nayar was dismissed third ball while Sanju Samson barely middled a ball in his troubled stay before chipping a catch to mid-off in the fourth over.

That brought together the key pair of Watson and Ajinkya Rahane. Bhuvneshwar bowled an outstanding sixth over, beating the bat three times, twice with the ball leaving the batsman and once cutting in. Perhaps it was that pressure that helped Ishant dismiss Watson - who had a strike-rate of 227.77 against him - for the first time in the IPL, leaving Rajasthan at 31 for 3.

Rahane played and missed, had plenty of inside edges and outside edges, was dropped early at first slip, was struck on the helmet by Ishant, but he stuck it out through the difficult phase and kept Rajasthan in the game with a half-century. Even that landmark came through an outside edge to the third-man boundary.

Stuart Binny, the only other Rajasthan batsman to reach double figures, took on the weak link, Darren Sammy, early on but with the asking-rate never too high, he made sure he tucked the ball around to keep the score moving - he had only one dot ball in the final 14 he faced. He found the googlies from the legspinners, Amit Mishra and Karn Sharma, hard to read but his combative 77-run stand with Rahane kept the game tight.

Rahane finally fell in the 16th over, and Rajasthan's finisher Brad Hodge flailed against spin before perishing for an eight-ball 1. Mishra got both those big scalps, and Hyderabad were sensing a win. Steyn removed Rajat Bhatia, but with eight needed in the final over, Faulkner finished off the game with three deliveries to spare.

Hyderabad's fancied batting, with a top three reading Shikhar Dhawan, Aaron Finch and David Warner, also had a tough time of it. Though Dhawan and Warner hit 30s, neither could really get going, scoring only at around a run-a-ball. Cameos from KL Rahul and Venugopal Rao took them to 133, though the line-up filled with big-hitters managed only two sixes all innings. Their team mentor, VVS Laxman, felt the total was 20-25 short, but the bowlers made Rajasthan scrap for the win. 

IPL 2014 Match 3 CSK V KXIP

Punjab 206 for 4 (Maxwell 95, Miller 54*) beat Chennai 205 for 4 (McCullum 67, Smith 66) by six wickets

A successful chase of a target in excess of 200 is normally furious, full of power and towering shots. Glenn Maxwell and David Miller did it differently for Punjab. They hit only five sixes - three of those after the 15th over, by which time Punjab were firm favourites - and turned the game during a 115-run stand that was driven by Maxwell's surgical placement and Miller's calm supporting act. Chennai were overtaken with seven balls to spare.

There were only four notable performers in the game and all of them were overseas players. Maxwell and Miller's clinical middle-order partnership came after Chennai's new openers batted as though powered by rocket-fuel. Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith also scored half-centuries and ransacked 123 in 12.4 overs, but their fierce partnership was not the best batting effort on a scorching Abu Dhabi afternoon. 

Chasing 205, Punjab had slipped to 52 for 3 in 5.1 overs. Three Indian batsmen had been dismissed - Virender Sehwag, Cheteshwar Pujara and Akshar Patel - and the game hinged on how Maxwell, Miller and George Bailey would fare. Not one to waste time, Maxwell countered R Ashwin's wide-outside-leg line from round the wicket by reverse-swatting his first ball to the point boundary. 

That set the tone for an innings filled not only by such unorthodoxy - there were several more reverse swats pulls - but also with textbook drives and perfectly-timed pushes between mid-off and cover.

Maxwell's placement was impeccable. Most of his airborne shots were into gaps in the outfield, but two were not and Chennai failed to catch them. On 37, Maxwell reverse-swept Ravindra Jadeja but the top edge was fluffed by Ashish Nehra at short third man, and on 77 the substitute Samuel Badree put down a chance at deep square leg. 

Miller also had a let-off - on 17, two balls after Maxwell's first reprieve - but it was a much tougher chance that Faf du Plesiss put down at short cover.

Around the time Maxwell passed fifty off his 25th delivery, Miller had scored only a run-a-ball 21. He wasn't struggling, though. He was playing an excellent second fiddle, turning the strike over and ensuring the pressure didn't mount though the asking-rate was approaching two a ball.

Punjab needed 113 off 60 balls and took 23 runs off the next two overs. The 13th over from spinner Pawan Negi was the turning point, when Maxell found the legside boundary three times and the cover boundary once to take 22 runs off it. 

The equation had been hacked to 68 off 42 balls, and Chennai suffered a crippling blow in the next over when Dwayne Bravo dived to try and catch a Maxwell reverse-pull - in vain - and went off the field to nurse an injured right shoulder. MS Dhoni had lost a key death bowler. 

After Maxwell was bowled for 95, Miller stepped up, carting Ravindra Jadeja for two consecutive sixes in the 17th over to ensure Punjab did not trip close to victory. 

While Chennai were left to rue their poor catching and bowling, they were buoyed by how seamlessly their new openers settled in. In seasons past, the Chennai method has been for the openers to bat within themselves in the first half of the innings, setting up a platform for the power-hitters to launch from. But McCullum and Smith are the power-hitters.

Smith played second fiddle - hitting his first six off his 24th delivery in the 10th over - as McCullum ran riot before and after Bailey dropped him on 22. McCullum did not discriminate, treating the less-known Parvinder Awana and the reputed Mitchell Johnson with the same aggression. The ball disappeared into the stands between deep square leg and long-on frequently as Chennai brought up their best Powerplay score in seven seasons - 70 for 0 in six overs.

McCullum got to 50 off 30 balls, Chennai reached 100 off 9.3 overs and Smith brought up his half-century off 37 deliveries. McCullum did slow down after his half-century, scoring only 14 off his next 15 balls before his dismissal, and Chennai lost a bit of momentum during this period. Dhoni remedied that soon enough, and when he walked off for 26 off 11 balls, Chennai were favourites. But nobody told Maxwell and Miller. 

IPL 2014 Match 2 RCB V DD

Bangalore 146 for 2 (Yuvraj 52*, Kohli 49*) beat Delhi 145 for 4 (Duminy 67*, Taylor 43*) by eight wickets

The Yuvraj Singh-Virat Kohli partnership didn't have a happy ending in the World T20 final, but less than two weeks after that night in Mirpur, their association in Sharjah followed a different script. 

Swapping India's blue for Bangalore's red, the pair made easy work of Delhi's 145, helping Bangalore stroll to a eight-wicket win. 

Yuvraj was circumspect to begin with but later on brought out his power game to not only outscore Kohli but help Bangalore march to the target with plenty to spare.

The bedrock of the chase was Kohli, who benefited from two let-offs in his 20s to remain unbeaten on 49. The pair added 84 in just 7.5 overs, nullifying the unbeaten 110-run association between Delhi's JP Duminy and Ross Taylor that helped Delhi recover from a wobbly 35 for 4.

Bangalore were never under serious pressure during the chase, especially after opener Parthiv Patel gave the innings a push with a positive 35, in the absence of Chris Gayle to injury. He charged down the track to the seamers, forcing the ball down the ground and pulling a six, off the left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, out of the ground. After he was bowled in the ninth over, Bangalore were at a comfortable 62 for 2, giving Yuvraj the platform to play himself into form, with the security of Kohli at the other end.

Yuvraj didn't look secure initially, taking his eyes off a short ball and hooking a boundary to fine leg. He found his groove with a flat six over long-on off the legspinner Rahul Sharma and some wayward bowling by Nadeem gave Yuvraj the chance to pepper the leg-side boundaries with his favourite slogs.

Delhi needed wickets but when the chances came their way, they fluffed them. Jimmy Neesham fluffed the simplest of catches at short fine leg when Kohli was on 23, and when the batsman had added one more, he was put down by Mayank Agarwal at deep cover. Against arguably the best chaser in the world, regulation drops will come back to hurt. It was clearly Bangalore's night as Yuvraj and Kohli closed out the chase with more blows over the boundary. Yuvraj managed his first Indian T20 fifty in 20 innings and the smile was back on his face.

Delhi found it tough on a two-paced Sharjah pitch, struggling to get the run rate above five in the first ten overs. The loss of early wickets slowed them down. Agarwal fell top-edging a pull to square leg as the frustration to score began to build, and Delhi were pegged back further when Dinesh Karthik and Manoj Tiwary fell for 0 and 1 respectively.

The strategic timeout didn't change Delhi's fortunes as M Vijay, who had made a start with 18, was bamboozled by the legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal. Vijay was playing for the turn but the ball straightened and shaved the off stump. At 35 for 4 in the eighth over, Delhi desperately needed a big partnership at a good clip to compensate for the sluggish scoring in the first half.

It was a scratchy innings from Taylor as he cursed himself when he played and missed, in an effort to push the scoring. Chahal got it to turn and grip and the googlies were a handful for Taylor. The boundaries had dried up for seven overs before Taylor broke the shackles with a flick to fine leg off Ashok Dinda.

The momentum in the latter half was provided by Duminy, who unlike Taylor found the middle of the bat regularly. He lofted Yuvraj for a six to the sightscreen before scooping Dinda to the same area. Dinda was ineffective at the death yet again as he leaked 51 off his four overs. Delhi took 30 off the last two overs and 63 off the last five but in the end, 145 wasn't enough.

IPL 2014 Match 1 KKR V MI

Kolkata 163 for 5 (Kallis 72, Pandey 64, Malinga 4-23) beat Mumbai 122 for 7 (Narine 4-20) by 41 runs

On a green Abu Dhabi pitch that had plenty of bounce, Kolkata cruised to a big win over defending champions Mumbai in the opening game of the season.

 The biggest difference was the impact made by the teams' overseas players: Lasith Malinga was the only one who delivered for Mumbai, but for Kolkata Jacques Kallis set up the innings with a 72, Morne Morkel squeezed the chase with a burst of 2-0-2-0 at the start of the innings, and Sunil Narine scalped four as he became the quickest bowler to 50 wickets in the tournament.

Kolkata, on choosing to bat, began poorly with their captain Gautam Gambhir scratching around for a eight-ball duck that was ended by a pinpoint Malinga yorker. Manish Pandey, whose most famous feat remains his breakthrough century in the 2009 season, grabbed his chance at No. 3, and put on a 131-run stand with Kallis .

It was slow going early on, with only four fours and a six in the first 10 overs. Kallis has regularly faced questions over the pacing of his innings in Twenty20s, and when he was 34 off 31 in the 14th over, the murmurs were at their loudest, especially as Kolkata had a bunch of hitters waiting for their chance.

 On the next delivery, Malinga put down a sitter off Kallis at short fine leg. It prompted a series of big hits from Kallis, who hit two sixes and a four off Pragyan Ojha in the next over on his way to ransacking 37 off his next 13 deliveries.

Pandey, who hasn't quite lived up to the Twenty20 reputation earned by that out-of-the-blue knock, also quickened his pace after getting to his half-century, even slugging a Malinga slower one for six.

 After a couple of seasons in which he has struggled to hold down a spot in the XI, this innings should give him a bit of a run in the side. 

After his dismissal, Malinga struck twice in his final over, before Suryakumar Yadav played a couple of innovative strokes to lift Kolkata to 163.

The last time Morkel played an official T20, he was taken for 50 runs in three overs.

 He was up against Michael Hussey, the highest run-getter of the previous season. Morkel exploited the bounce in the wicket to drain out any momentum in the chase, and Hussey had one of his worst outings as he pottered around for 13-ball 3 before falling to Narine.

Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma, two of the stalwarts of Mumbai over the years, tried to up the scoring but against an attack that didn't give away much on a surface where the ball wasn't quite coming on, the asking rate kept on increasing. 

They put on 61 off 45 deliveries, but when Rohit perished to a tumbling Kallis catch off Morkel in the 16th over, the game was virtually over.

Mumbai needed 63 off 28, but their big-hitting allrounders, Kieron Pollard and Corey Anderson, had a horrid time against the guile of Narine, who ended with figures of 4 for 20 to ensure a big win for Kolkata.

ICC World T20 Final SL V IND

Sri Lanka 134 for 4 (Sangakkara 52*, Jayawardene 24) beat India 130 for 4 (Kohli 77) by 6 wickets

Winning world events is an ugly business. Even aspiring to win is. Ask Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. Before tonight they had reached finals four times, wanting to win, ending up with bigger heartbreaks. On a night that these two champion players finally got that monkey off their backs - in their last Twenty20 international match - another champion player played a poignant, cagey innings that cost his side the final. 

Yuvraj Singh, India's limited-overs talisman for so long, came in at 64 for 2 in the 11th over, scored 11 off 21, denied the unstoppable Virat Kohli the strike, and that spell of play resulted in the lowest target in a World Twenty20 final and the second-lowest score for the loss of only four wickets.

Title matches consume the vanquished. This final may have put down one of the all-time limited-overs greats, but just ask Jayawardene and Sangakkara, the redemption didn't come easy. India defended the small total admirably, preying on the Sri Lankan nerves, fielding everything down, spinning a web around the batsmen, but the two champions somehow had enough in them to put their side over the line. 

Under palpable pressure, against a shrewd limited-overs captain, Jayawardene settled the early nerves with a run-a-ball 24, and Sangakkara saw the chase through with an ice-cool unbeaten 52 off 35.

Big finals are a cruel business, though, and history will remember Yuvraj's knock as much as it will Sangakkara's. He has won India matches from nowhere on innumerable occasions, he has buried sides with his cameos, he has turned around games in 10 balls, which is why he was still part of the team in the final. 

MS Dhoni had trusted his match-winner, he sent him in ahead of Suresh Raina and himself. Kohli, now the leading run-scorer in any World Twenty20, had just begun to put behind him a slow start against disciplined Sri Lankan bowling. He had even been dropped by opposition captain Lasith Malinga on 11. He was in a mood to make them pay.

Sri Lanka, though, kept their wits, and gave Yuvraj nothing to score off. That too after Kohli had laced the otherwise frugal Nuwan Kulasekara for six, four and six in the 16th over to make it 111 for 2. That over featured another slip in the fielding when the fielder at cow corner was lobbed after misjudging a catch. Normally you would expect teams to fall apart at these times, but Sri Lanka produced four superb overs. Yuvraj faced two dots from Sachithra Senanayake, who gave him no pace or room to work with.

Malinga bowled the next over, and was happy with a single to Kohli first ball. Then came a yorker outside off. The dugout began to become edgy by now. They badly needed Yuvraj to come off now, and make up for 9 off 17 that it had become by now. You can't even begin to imagine what it would have been like being Kohli there, the best batsman of the tournament, but now without the strike to make the difference. 

When Kohli got the strike fourth ball, Malinga again produced a low wide one that he couldn't get under, and went on to ball another dot to Yuvraj before the over ended. That dot was a yorker wide outside off, which went past very near Yuvraj's outside edge, and that Sangakkara didn't appeal loudly for it said all you needed to know about Yuvraj's innings.

When Yuvraj finally hit a full toss down the throat of long-off, you felt a little sad for the batsman who could have put these in the stands blindfolded and with one arm tied behind his back. This time, though, Sri Lanka's plan had come off, bowling full and wide, just inside the tram lines, stifling India. Kohli and Dhoni tried their best, but were second-best to the execution by Malinga and Kulasekara. Kohli faced only eight balls in the last four overs, only 19 came off them, and if this had not been a final and if this had not been Sri Lanka, it was game over right there.

	An all-time limited-overs great, caught in the headlights © ICC Enlarge

Sri Lanka, though, were entering unchartered territory. The fear of winning does strange things. They looked for the easy route. Kusal Perera tried to smash, managed to smash one out of the first six, and went out to the seventh. 

Jayawardene brought sanity to the proceedings with a tickle here, a nudge there, and with the required run rate in grasp it began to become a stroll, until R Ashwin, the bowler of the tournament, produced a top edge from Tillakaratne Dilshan, which was caught excellently by Kohli at the square-leg boundary. 

Two men who didn't deserve to be on the losing side were keeping India alive.

Jayawardene and Sangakkara added a run-a-ball 24 then. Jayawardene began to toy around with the fields. Cricket lovers all around the world now began to dream of a fairy-tale finish. What could be better than these two stalwarts, much Arjuna and Aravinda 18 years ago, being there in the end? This, though, would take more sweat and tears yet. 

Jayawardene toe-ended a sweep off part-timer Suresh Raina, and Ashwin produced a diving catch at midwicket. Soon Dhoni took a sensational low catch to send Lahiru Thirimanne back. Dhoni's team has never lost a world final, it was now sensing the kill at 78 for 4 in the 13th over.

This was tense stuff. Wouldn't the dugout have revisited that familiar sick feeling of coming so close and finishing second-best? They tried the desperate now. Not having the emotional strength left to take this to the deep bitter end, they sent in the big-hitter Thisara Perera ahead of Angelo Mathews. They were banking on the fact that India would soon have to bowl spinners that would bring the ball in.

Sangakkara had been going smoothly at one end, but it was the other end that was causing the trouble. The risk was taken. You couldn't change it even if you wanted to with Perera scoring just two off the first six, and with 47 still required off the last six overs. This was the moment, though. 

Mishra, two overs for four runs till now, was bowling to two left-hand batsmen. The first ball Perera got from Mishra, he shimmied down a touch and let out an almighty swing. As it flew into the night sky and over long-on, relief came back into the camp. The cool Sangakkara then guided Mishra past fine leg, and this was now turning the Sri Lanka way.

In the next over, Sangakkara played probably the shot of the match. India had relied on Ashwin's accuracy through the day and had got themselves an extra fielder by not placing a fine leg at all. This time, though, Sangakkara moved inside the line of one, took it at middle, and closed the face at the exact moment to tickle it through that fine leg for four. 

Now some luck appeared too. You couldn't fault Sangakkara for wondering where the hell this luck had been when Gilchrist, Gambhir, Afridi and Samuels broke his heart. This night, though, was for him to rejoice. All those defeats will hurt a little less now. 

2nd ICC World T20 semi final

India 176 for 4 (Kohli 72*, Hendricks 2-31) beat South Africa172 for 4 (du Plessis 58*, Ashwin 3-22) by six wickets

It has been 14 years, five Champions Trophies, five World Cups and four World T20s since South Africa last won a knockout match at an ICC event and that has not changed. Neither has the fact that India have not lost a semi-final under MS Dhoni's captaincy. They marched into an all sub-continent final with a clinically cold-blooded chase against a South African team that put in one of their better performances in a crunch match but were still not good enough.

South Africa had never lost a T20 match after posting a 170-plus score before today and they would have thought they were halfway to breaking the hoodoo with that total. They were not overawed by India's spinners, apart from R Ashwin, their captain Faf du Plessis put runs on the board, he was supported by JP Duminy, with whom he shared the biggest partnership of the match, and they had big overs at the end.

But India matched them man for man and then outplayed them through one of them. The tournament's top run-scorer, Virat Kohli, went after the runs ruthlessly. He paced the chase perfectly, put on 56 runs with Yuvraj Singh, brought up his third half-century in four innings and then ushered India over the line with five balls to spare. 

If India had reservations about how they would fare chasing a higher target than the most they have been presented with so far in this tournament -138 - the start they got would have put those to bed. Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane raced to 33 after three overs, against some questionable South African strategies.

Faf du Plessis eased India into the task by using JP Duminy and Albie Morkel as his new-ball bowlers. India's comfort against offspin and the lack of a threat, despite his ability to take pace off the ball, Morkel posed allowed India's openers to settle. Dale Steyn bowled the third over, by which time Rohit had seen enough to upper-cut a short ball over the boundary.

South Africa continued to juggle their bowling with the relatively new left-armer Beuran Hendricks used before Wayne Parnell. Hendricks got the first wicket when Rohit launched him high but the shot had no distance on it and du Plessis took the catch running in from mid-off.

India would not have minded losing a man in the Powerplay because they posted 56 in the six-over period; the most they have ever put on against South Africa when the fielding restrictions are in operation. That was an early sign of how India were going to edge ahead of South Africa in every department. South Africa had scored 44 for 2 in their Powerplay, not a statistic worth mentioning except that it was the most runs scored against India in that period in this tournament.

Kohli and Rahane played Imran Tahir, the joint highest wicket-taker at this event, with the respect someone of that stature deserves. They milked him without hitting out and went through the next three overs content without boundaries. With a rising required run-rate, Rahane was the man to take the risk. He swung at a Parnell bouncer and was caught at deep mid-wicket by AB de Villiers.

With Kohli still out there, India did not have much to worry about. His response to losing his partner was lofting Duminy over long-on to start the second half of the Indian innings. Yuvraj Singh could not get the South Africans away with similar ease but played his part in rotating strike and leaving Kohli to do the big-hitting.

Du Plessis kept Steyn back until the last six overs, when India required sixty. Yuvraj had also found his groove by then and when Steyn pitched one up, Yuvraj met it with a pick-up over mid-off. Yuvraj was victim to another de Villiers catch, this time at long-off but for as long as Kohli remained, South Africa would have been uneasy.

That would have turned into despair when Parnell bowled the 17th over. India needed a big over, a 17-run over like South Africa had in their innings, and they got it. The runs came streakily - a six off a Suresh Raina top-edge, a four off an edge that went through third man and another off an inside-edge. India only needed 23 off the last three overs, Steyn was blunted and MS Dhoni even had enough time to block the final ball of the 19th over to allow Kohli to hit the winning runs.

South Africa could only dream of such luxury. They lacked it all tournament, with tense finishes underlining their campaign, and they lacked it again in the semi. 

Their innings started with the wicket of Quinton de Kock at the end of the first over and Hashim Amla and du Plessis had to start by rebuilding. Amla had some fortune early on, with an edge off Mohit Sharma flying through the vacant slip cordon, and was out as he found his touch. R Ashwin got one to turn in from outside legstump to peg back off and stun Amla.

Ashwin's first over and the two lbw appeals Ravindra Jadeja had off JP Duminy's failed attempts to sweep may have hinted at a raging turner but the surface was not that hostile. Duminy and du Plessis worked Raina and Jadeja around and dealt with Amit Mishra effectively. Du Plessis was particularly forceful, chipping Mishra over cover and slapping Raina for a one-handed six before bringing up his fifty with a lob over point.

He was eventually also bowled by Ashwin, with the ball coming off his body to hit the stumps. That brought de Villiers to the crease in the 14th over, leaving him with little time to make an impact. De Villiers scored just 10 but David Miller provided the late surge. South Africa took 38 runs off the last three overs of their innings but it was not enough. 

1st semi ICC WORLD T20

Sri Lanka 160-6 (20 overs) beat West Indies 80-4 (13.5 overs) by 27 runs (D/L)

Sri Lanka reached the World Twenty20 final after a thunderstorm ended their semi-final against defending champions West Indies in Mirpur.

Lahiru Thirimanne made 44 and Angelo Mathews 40 from 23 balls as Sri Lanka posted 160-6 after winning the toss.

In reply, West Indies lost openers Chris Gayle and Dwayne Smith to captain Lasith Malinga in the fifth over.

Dwayne Bravo fell for 30 and after hail flooded the outfield, Sri Lanka won by 27 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis method.

Did you know?

West Indies' defeat means no side have retained the World Twenty20 title since its inception in 2007

Sri Lanka will meet India or South Africa, who play in Mirpur on Friday, in the final at the same venue on Sunday.

Victory for Sri Lanka on Thursday went some way to atoning for their defeat by West Indies in the 2012 final.

Twice runners-up, they now have a chance of capturing the World T20 for the first time and giving Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara the perfect send-off in their final games before T20 international retirement.

"We back ourselves chasing 160. We've done it before in the tournament and it was not an impossible task," said West Indies captain Darren Sammy.

"We didn't get a fair chance of defending the title. But I see that as the gods smiling on Mahela and Kumar. They've done so much for Sri Lankan cricket."

Having won 10 of their last 12 T20s batting first, Sri Lanka made an impressive start with the bat, Kusal Perera and Tillakaratne Dilshan striking spinner Samuel Badree over long-off for six as 32 came from the opening three overs.

However, Perera chopped on to Krishmar Santokie, the first of three wickets to fall for eight runs as Jayawardene was run out without facing a ball and Sangakkara offered Badree a tame return catch.

How's stat?!

Seven of the last eight matches in the tournament have now been won by the side batting first

Dilshan was run out for 39 by a direct hit from Lendl Simmons after being sent back by Thirimanne, who, having cut seamer Andre Russell for six, was caught at backward point attempting a similar stroke.

Mathews struck three fours and two sixes to carry Sri Lanka to a competitive total, but Smith casually flicked the first two balls of the Windies reply from seamer Nuwan Kulasekara for a leg-side four and six.

However, Gayle, who had earlier left the field after being struck on the ankle, managed only three from 13 balls before playing on to Malinga, and another cutter accounted for Smith, bowled though the gate.

Bravo was superbly caught by Jayawardene diving forward at deep mid-wicket moments shortly before rain and hail arrived.

Sammy, yet to face a ball, was left with no chance of playing another match-winning innings in a tournament in which he boasts a strike-rate of 224.

Malinga said: "Our bowlers did a great job in the first six overs - that's why we were ahead." 

19th & 20th Matches Super 10's AUS V BAN & PAK V WI

Australia 158 for 3 (Finch 71, Warner 48) beat Bangladesh 153 for 5 (Shakib 66, Mushfiqur 47) by seven wickets

If the destructive power brought to bear by Aaron Finch and David Warner allowed Australia to evade the ignominy of their worst-ever global tournament display, then it also underlined why the sometime favourites will fly home with an especially bitter memory of the 2014 World Twenty20.

Finch and Warner alone possess enough pyrotechnics to dominate a match - as Bangladesh discovered in a chase that consigned the hosts to the ignominy of failing to win a single fixture in the main draw. So for the Australians to be leaving the tournament at such an early stage will be the cause of some introspection by the captain George Bailey, the coach Darren Lehmann and the selectors. To avoid going home without winning any of four games was the most modest of rewards.

It remains to be seen whether Bailey will continue as the specialist T20 captain, having guided Australia through two tournament campaigns for diminishing returns. He ended Australia's tournament with a hollow-feeling six as Finch and Warner swung lustily but intelligently, but looked nonplussed at times in the field as Bangladesh wriggled to a higher total than a more ruthless and balanced Australian combination might have conceded.

Smart Stats Shakib Al Hasan's 66 in this match was the first fifty by a Bangladesh batsman in this World T20 and the third-highest individual score for Bangladesh in any World T20. The highest also belongs to Shakib - a 54-ball 84 against Pakistan in the last World T20. Shakib, with 752 runs at 22.78, is now the top run scorer for Bangladesh in T20Is. Shakib and Tamim Iqbal were the joint-top run scorers for Bangladesh before this match, both having scored 686 runs from 35 innings. The 112-run partnership between Shakib and Mushfiqur Rahim is the highest for Bangladesh in the World T20 for any wicket and only the fourth hundred partnership in T20Is by a Bangladesh pair. Tamim and Mahmudullah added an unbeaten 132 runs for the second wicket against West Indies in a T20I in 2012, which is their highest partnership. Aaron Finch's 45-ball 71 is his fifth fifty in T20Is and Australia's second-highest score in this World T20. He fell just three runs short of Glenn Maxwell's 74 against Pakistan, which is their highest in this World T20. Australia's openers added 98 runs - their second-highest partnership in this World T20. The 118-run partnership between Finch and Maxwell against Pakistan is their highest. Shakib gave away 36 runs from his three overs in this match. His economy of 12.0 in this match is his worst in T20Is. Shakib's economy in this match equalled the second-worst by a Bangladesh spinner to have bowled three or more overs in a T20I.

Equally glum were Brad Hodge and Brad Hogg, the two most venerable members of Australia's squad, left out for the final match and unlikely to figure in future assignments. 

Both Hodge and Hogg might have been utilised differently in the team, something that Shane Warne certainly felt preferable, suggesting on commentary that the former could have been used at No. 3 throughout.

Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim had prospered through the middle overs against a fairly monotone collection of medium pace and above, while Glenn Maxwell's spin was not in the class of that in the armoury of Hogg and James Muirhead, also left out of this match, or numerous others sitting at home, including the Test spinner Nathan Lyon.

The omission of both specialist spin bowlers chosen for the tournament seemed a kind of concession that Australia's slow bowling plans had been awry, with the use of five seamers a rare curiosity in a tournament where all the most accomplished teams have relied on quality exhibitions of flight, dip and turn. 

Mitchell Starc looked underdone, as he has appeared all tournament, while Doug Bollinger huffed and puffed to little effect.

The best of the pacemen was the third string Nathan Coulter-Nile, who gained some new ball swing for a pair of early wickets, before maintaining his economy for the remainder of a spell that strangely went uncompleted. 

Instead, Shakib and Mushfiqur accumulated soundly against bowling that did not offer much in the way of a threat, while speckled with five wides and two no balls.

Granted 153 to defend, Bangladesh bounced onto the field in expectation, but soon found themselves being smashed around Mirpur by Warner and Finch. 

This was the kind of display many had expected to see earlier in the tournament, when Pakistan, West Indies and India all escaped unharmed from their encounters with Australia's opening pair.

Warner skied an early half-chance that fell short and essayed one other reverse hoick but otherwise clattered the ball in sensible areas. 

Both he and Finch sat on the back foot to the spinners and capitalised on any shortness of length, before climbing out to swing sixes when the bowlers tried to compensate.

By the time Sohag Gazi coaxed a thick edge behind from Finch the match was well on the way to being over. Kumar Dharmasena did not see the deflection and shook his head, leading to a sequence of verbal conflict between Warner and Mushfiqur. Warner's departure the following over drew a send-off from Al-Amin Hossain, but like Australia's eventual victory, it was sound and fury signifying nothing. 


West Indies 166 for 6 (Bravo 46, Sammy 42*) beat Pakistan 82 (Badree 3-10, Narine 3-16) by 84 runs

West Indies scored 84 runs in their first 15 overs. They nearly doubled their total after that, smashing 82 off the last 30 balls of the innings. No Full Member team had ever conceded so many in the last five overs of a Twenty20 game.

It remained to be seen which part of West Indies' innings, the first three-quarters or the final quarter, would make a bigger impact on the result as Pakistan began their chase, in a knockout game to determine who would take on Sri Lanka in the first semi-final on Thursday. In the end, West Indies could have declared after 15 overs and still won.

The timing of the assault by Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy - they put on 71 in 32 balls, having come together at 81 for 5 in the 14th over - was a knockout blow to Pakistan. You could tell by the way Sammy pumped his fists after pounding Saeed Ajmal for a straight six in the 19th over. It wasn't arrogance or bravado. It was adrenaline.

It surged through the entire West Indies team, and some of it was still coursing through Krishmar Santokie's blood when he pinged Ahmed Shehzad's front toe plumb in front of middle stump with an inswinging yorker, first ball of the chase.

Shehzad, an unbeaten centurion in his previous game, was out for a duck. Pakistan never recovered. They were yet to take a run off the bat when Kamran Akmal faced up to Samuel Badree for the start of the second over, and two more dot balls provoked a scoop straight into wide mid-off's hands.

The pressure, in Badree's next two overs, got to Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik as well. Both were stumped, one foxed by a googly, one getting nowhere near the pitch of a legbreak. Pakistan were 13 for 4, and slipping to a painful defeat.

It had started so well for Pakistan. Their bowlers were on target, their fielders were buzzing, and West Indies were barely switched on. As usual, they weren't rotating the strike.

Before this match, singles and twos - they hadn't yet taken a three - had constituted 32% of West Indies' runs in the tournament. Their percentage wasn't just the lowest among all the Super 10 sides, but an outlier as well. Eight of the teams had scored 40% or more of their runs by actually running them.

The Powerplay brought West Indies the first three of their tournament, and four singles. Not all of their 24 dot balls, though, were the result of hitting to fielders. Some of them came via Sohail Tanvir's awkward angle across the right-handers, exaggerated by some late away-swing.

Having been beaten three times in a row - the last two balls of the second over and the fourth ball of the fourth, when he came back on strike - Dwayne Smith tried to run the ball to third man and only managed an edge to the keeper.

By then, West Indies had already lost Chris Gayle, who came hesitantly down the pitch and thrust a hesitant bat at an offbreak from Mohammad Hafeez. After that stumping, Hafeez's T20 record against Gayle looked like this: six balls, one run, three wickets.

At some points, it appeared as though West Indies were better off not taking the singles. Lendl Simmons, who kept the innings going in the early stages with a 29-ball 31, was out twice to the same ball. He wasn't given when he was struck on the back pad trying to cut a skidder from Shahid Afridi, but the third umpire had an easier decision to make when Umar Gul's direct hit caught him short as he tried to sneak a leg bye.

Gul nearly had another run-out when Bravo cut Afridi straight to him and took off for a quick single. His throw just missed the stumps at the bowlers' end. Either side of that, West Indies had lost Marlon Samuels and Ramdin. West Indies were five down, Pakistan were on top, and their spinners were rushing through the overs.

West Indies took 23 from the 16th and 17th overs, but their run rate had only just gone above six an over. Pakistan were still in control. When Bravo hit the first two balls of the 18th over for six, though, something seemed to change. Gul had sent down two poor balls - length and back-of-a-length - and followed up with a wide as he tried to compensate with the yorker. That over went for 21.

Even Ajmal was rattled. The pair in the middle was powerful and seemingly irresistible, but Ajmal, trying to hurry them by bowling quicker and flatter, completely lost his length. Bravo smashed him for two big sixes, and Sammy hit him over his head for another before drilling one surgically between extra cover and the sweeper for four.

Four years ago in Gros Islet, Michael Hussey had taken 23 runs off five balls from Ajmal to send Pakistan hurtling out of the 2010 World T20. This over cost Ajmal one more run, and sealed Pakistan's fate in the same way.