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Rutashubanyuma · Mar 30, 2011

Semi-final, Colombo

Sri Lanka defeat New Zealand to set up first all-subcontinent final

• New Zealand 217, Sri Lanka 220-5
• Sri Lanka won by five wickets

Mike Selvey in Colombo
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 March 2011 21.16 BST <li class="history">Article history

Thilan Samaraweera, left, celebrates scoring Sri Lanka's winning run in the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/REUTERS For the first time the World Cup final will be contested between two teams from the subcontinent. In the end it was Sri Lanka, looking forward now to their second successive final, who hauled themselves across the line by five wickets against a New Zealand side who fought tooth and claw to the end but in the final analysis failed, in their innings, to give their bowlers enough leeway to defend.
The end when it came was clinical in its brutality. Chasing 218 to win, Sri Lanka, at one point 160 for one and cruising even more easily than they had been against England on the same pitch, contrived, to stunned silence in the Premadasa, to lose four wickets for 25 runs. The tension was there. New Zealand upped their game. In the quarter-final they had induced such tremors in the South African ranks that the opposition simply folded. Could history be repeating itself?
Thilan Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews, the latter with a runner after he was injured during the Black Caps innings, gradually pulled things closer until 14 were needed in four overs. It was the second over of the batting power play, left as late as is possible. The field was in. Tim Southee, massively improved in pace under the tutelage of Alan Donald, tore in. Mathews just swung his bat and deposited the first ball over wide long‑on for six and the third back over the bowler's head to the straight boundary.
Samaraweera thought he had sealed the job at the start of the following over from the left-armer Andy McKay, lacerating the ball through extra cover. But the celebratory fireworks had started prematurely and Aleem Dar had called dead ball. Instead, four balls later Samaraweera steered the same bowler to third man to spark a party in the stands and a lap of honour from the players.
New Zealand once more have shown themselves to be warriors, a country of small population but indomitable spirit, a country of small population but indomitable spirit. It would have taken something remarkable from them to have beaten Sri Lanka but it will rankle, perhaps haunt them, now and in the future that six times they have made the last four of a World Cup without taking it one step further. They should be applauded, though, for making the most of what they have, not criticised for not making even more. One day, perhaps.
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will fancy their chances against whichever wins the match in Mohali between India and Pakistan, although the manner of their victory in the Premadasa was achieved while exposing a certain vulnerability in the middle and lower order: one more wicket for New Zealand and there would have been some nails bitten.
Until the Kiwis intervened to spoil the party, it had been a match heading inevitably in one direction only. Southee had succeeded where England had not, in forcing a catch from Upal Tharanga (brilliantly taken by an airborne Jesse Ryder, words one might think would never be seen together in context) but not before he had made a brisk 30, from 31 balls, of an opening stand of 40.
All it did, though, was bring together Tillakaratne Dilshan, along with Tharanga a centurion in the 10-wicket defeat of England, and the brilliant Kumar Sangakkara, providing a contrast in styles, technique and approach. Dilshan was more circumspect here, a right-hander who, as with, say, Virender Sehwag, likes to stay legside of the ball in order to free his arms and plunder the offside. The Sri Lanka captain on the other hand, a left-hander, is surgical, slicing and dicing, death for the bowler by a thousand cuts. His driving is precise, spatially aware.
Together the pair added 120 for the second wicket with scarcely an alarm, and, although Daniel Vettori had managed to claw back the run rate, the runs had started to flow again: an easy victory looked certain. Whereupon Dilshan, on 73 (93 balls, 10 fours and a six), drove loosely at Southee and Ryder, at backward point took his second catch.
Vettori then had Mahela Jayawardene lbw, confirmed on review, and when Sangakkara, having made 54 (79 balls with seven fours and a six), upper‑cut McKay to third man, it left two new batsmen at the crease and collapse a possibility. Chamara Silva chopped Southee on to give him a third wicket but Samaraweera and Mathews saw Sri Lanka home.
As with England, New Zealand, having won the toss and knowing the Premadasa history, would have thought there was an initiative to be gained by batting first. Instead the Kiwis were never allowed to gain momentum as Sangakkara switched his bowlers shrewdly. None of the three power players in the Black Caps ranks top four – Brendon McCullum, Ryder and Ross Taylor – were allowed to get away, although Taylor's stand of 77 for the fourth wicket with Scott Styris was the largest of the innings.
Styris was to go on to top score with 57 from 77 balls before he was lbw to Muttiah Muralitharan with what was his final international delivery in Sri Lanka. A combination of Lasith Malinga's malevolent yorkers and the illegible spin of Ashanta Mendis ensured the demise of the innings.

Rutashubanyuma · Mar 30, 2011

Semi-final: New Zealand 217, Sri Lanka 220-5

Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan kills off New Zealand with magic ball

• Murali gains Kiwi wicket with final ODI ball on home soil
• Spinner boosts Sri Lanka hopes of a second World Cup victory

David Hopps in Colombo
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 March 2011 21.46 BST <li class="history">Article history

Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan is carried in triumph after the World Cup semi-final win against New Zealand. Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images Muttiah Muralitharan's triumphant lap of honour on his farewell game on home soil neatly coincided with Sri Lanka's qualification for the World Cup final, but it was a close-run thing. Firecrackers crackled around the Premadasa Stadium, but New Zealand managed to delay the party until only 13 balls of the semi-final were remaining.
For much of the night it seemed that Sri Lanka had so enjoyed their quarter‑final win against England that they planned to reenact it. They restricted New Zealand to 217 – 12 runs below England's much‑criticised 229 for six on the same pitch three days earlier – and Tillakaratne Dilshan again starred with the bat before nerves briefly afflicted an out-of-form middle order.
As long as the Murali story holds sway, however, Sri Lanka will believe that a second World Cup win is within their capabilities. He took a wicket with his last ball in Test cricket to become the first bowler to reach 800 wickets; against New Zealand, the last ball of his ODI career on home soil again brought a wicket when he had Scott Styris lbw.
It took his total victims in one-day internationals to 534 – 53 of them in World Cups. With the final in Mumbai left, he needs three more wickets to equal the Australian Glenn McGrath's World Cup record.
Kumar Sangakkara accepted that Murali's farewell occasions have now taken on the feeling of a lucky charm. "Things always seem to happen like this for him. In some ways it is no surprise because he works so hard and he is such a great team man. He talks a lot in the dressing room, so he always predicting but we haven't had a prediction for the final yet."
Daniel Vettori stands down as New Zealand's captain having been unable to stem New Zealand's record of six losing World Cup semi-finals. "Our top order laid a great platform but we just came up short in the last 10 overs and we were about 20 runs short," he said. "Starting an innings against this Sri Lanka bowling line-up on this type of slow wicket is incredibly tough. Our whole game plan was to try to get them three down as soon as possible. We just didn't break the Dilshan‑Sangakkara partnership quick enough."
Nevertheless, the manner of Sri Lanka's victory emphasised their biggest fear: that their middle-order batting will not easily withstand the pressure if it is called upon for a major role. It was called upon for a minor role here and froze with stage fright. From 169 for four, with only 49 needed in 13.4 overs, Thilan Samaraweera and Chamara Silva looked bereft of form or confidence as they added only seven from the next 31 balls. A thigh strain for Angelo Mathews, who batted with a runner and who finally relieved the tension with a straight six, is another worry.
Sangakkara did his utmost to shoulder the blame and take the pressure off his fifth-wicket pair, but it did not really wash. "I always said the middle-order would deliver and they did so today under very tense circumstances. I always said they would deliver. I should have seen the job through and it was me getting out that put pressure on the middle order."

Rutashubanyuma · Mar 30, 2011

India and Pakistan prepare for cricket semi-final showdown

Excitement is at fever pitch and security tight in neighbouring countries but team captains talk of 'sport, not war'

Saeed Shah in Chandigarh and Jason Burke in New Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 March 2011 22.06 BST <li class="history">Article history

Pakistan supporters cheer during a group match against Australia. The country is at fever pitch as a World Cup final beckons. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP From the Khunjerab Pass to Kolkata, from the Himalayas to the tip of Tamil Nadu, the Indian subcontinent is in a frenzy. Offices are shutting and hospitals are postponing elective operations.
For the tens of thousands of people crammed into Mohali stadium near the Indian city of Chandigarh, the two prime ministers in the stands and the hundreds of millions watching on television, Wednesday's one-day cricket match between India and Pakistan is about greater things than winning a place in the final of the World Cup.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India's hugely popular captain, tried to damp down the massive expectations on his team as they prepared for the semi-final.
"Somebody has to lose this game, irrespective of political talking," Dhoni said. "At the end one team will have lost and one will be going into the final. That's part and parcel of sport. Every sport."
Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan captain and candidate for player of the tournament, also tried to calm tensions. "We have not come to fight a war. We have come to play a cricket match."
Not everyone was so sanguine.
Samir Chinoy, 33, an industrialist from the Pakistani port city Karachi, said he had travelled to Chandigarh for "a historic game that you can only dream of".
"It's a great opportunity for the two countries to mend fences, to show there are no differences between the people. The governments should learn from the average citizen," he said.
Much attention will be focused on Sachin Tendulkar, idolised across India, who could today become the first player to make a hundred centuries in international cricket.
Others, including former England captain Michael Vaughan, believe he is saving that milestone for the final, in Tendulkar's home city of Mumbai.
India have not won the cricket World Cup since 1983, and hopes for success are high. The behaviour of the crowd, especially if India lose against Pakistan, will be closely watched. The two states were separated bloodily at independence nearly 64 years ago and have fought three wars since.
"Normally, in any game, the focus is on the 22 people playing. But this time, the focus will be on the spectators," said Mazher Hussain, an Indian peace activist who arranged for a group of Pakistanis to come for the match.
There are hopes – as well as widespread scepticism – that the match can bring a breakthrough in relations between Pakistan and India, sunk in a glacial chill since Pakistan-based terrorists attacked India's commercial capital of Mumbai in 2008.
Yousaf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, accepted an invitation from his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, to watch the match. The planned dinner after the game will be the highest-level contact between the neighbours since the Mumbai attack.
India has deployed 48,000 police and paramilitaries and placed thousands more soldiers on alert. Local media reported anti-aircraft guns were being placed in strategic locations in Chandigarh.
However, the World Cup, held in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, has so far been free of any major incidents.
Thousands of Pakistanis were supposed to pour across the border for the five-hour, 150-mile road trip across the western Indian state of Punjab to Chandigarh. Only a few hundred were able to get tickets and visas. Mohammad Farooq, a porter on the Pakistani side of the border said he had not seen "one ordinary person go over, a common man" crossing. "They're all big people."
"Of course it will be a battle in the field, but not a war off the field I hope," said Azar Malik, 55, as he took five members of his family across the border from Pakistan.
Only half the 28,000 seats in the Mohali stadium have been made available for the public. The rest are to be distributed to India's ubiquitous and numerous VIPs.
In Chandigarh, one man was reported to have offered to sell his liver to make enough money to buy a ticket from touts. In Pakistan, desperate fans were buying seats for at least 25 times face value.Fortune-telling parrots, astrologers, saints, mullahs and priests have all been consulted and invoked by fans on both sides. But all hoped for a peaceful ending.
Mohammad Bashir Bozai, originally from the vast southern metropolis of Karachi, had flown from Chicago to be at the game. With his face painted in the green and white of Pakistan and carrying a huge national flag, he hugged a man dressed in Indian colours, declaring that he would be happy whoever won.
"I came with no ticket, this lady saw me outside the stadium and just handed me a ticket. Everything comes from God," said Bozai, 55.
Few sports teams have gone into a match under such scrutiny – not for their prowess with the bat and ball but with the mobile phone and the brown envelope.
Unwelcome advice

Pakistan's cricketers will play tonight with a warning from their country's interior minister, Rehman Malik, ringing in their ears.
On Monday, Malik said that though he was "sure the team has very clean members", a corruption scandal exposed by the News of the World last year meant he could take "no risks".
The comments by Malik, who spoke of keeping a "close watch" on players with "strict surveillance", provoked an outraged reaction in Pakistan.
The minister tried to undo the damage his remarks had done, calling Shahid Afridi, the Pakistani captain, to apologise.
Malik said on Twitter that "a section of press has twisted my statement out of context, and wrongly projected my words".
Another tweet said: "My only intention was and is that Pak cricket team play and perform their best. The support and prayers of the whole nation r with them."
According to some estimates, more than £650m has been bet on the tournament, most of it illegally.

Rutashubanyuma · Mar 30, 2011

India and Pakistan prepare for cricket semi-final showdown

Excitement is at fever pitch and security tight in neighbouring countries but team captains talk of 'sport, not war'

Saeed Shah in Chandigarh and Jason Burke in New Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 March 2011 22.06 BST <li class="history">Article history

Pakistan supporters cheer during a group match against Australia. The country is at fever pitch as a World Cup final beckons. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP From the Khunjerab Pass to Kolkata, from the Himalayas to the tip of Tamil Nadu, the Indian subcontinent is in a frenzy. Offices are shutting and hospitals are postponing elective operations.
For the tens of thousands of people crammed into Mohali stadium near the Indian city of Chandigarh, the two prime ministers in the stands and the hundreds of millions watching on television, Wednesday's one-day cricket match between India and Pakistan is about greater things than winning a place in the final of the World Cup.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India's hugely popular captain, tried to damp down the massive expectations on his team as they prepared for the semi-final.
"Somebody has to lose this game, irrespective of political talking," Dhoni said. "At the end one team will have lost and one will be going into the final. That's part and parcel of sport. Every sport."
Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan captain and candidate for player of the tournament, also tried to calm tensions. "We have not come to fight a war. We have come to play a cricket match."
Not everyone was so sanguine.
Samir Chinoy, 33, an industrialist from the Pakistani port city Karachi, said he had travelled to Chandigarh for "a historic game that you can only dream of".
"It's a great opportunity for the two countries to mend fences, to show there are no differences between the people. The governments should learn from the average citizen," he said.
Much attention will be focused on Sachin Tendulkar, idolised across India, who could today become the first player to make a hundred centuries in international cricket.
Others, including former England captain Michael Vaughan, believe he is saving that milestone for the final, in Tendulkar's home city of Mumbai.
India have not won the cricket World Cup since 1983, and hopes for success are high. The behaviour of the crowd, especially if India lose against Pakistan, will be closely watched. The two states were separated bloodily at independence nearly 64 years ago and have fought three wars since.
"Normally, in any game, the focus is on the 22 people playing. But this time, the focus will be on the spectators," said Mazher Hussain, an Indian peace activist who arranged for a group of Pakistanis to come for the match.
There are hopes as well as widespread scepticism that the match can bring a breakthrough in relations between Pakistan and India, sunk in a glacial chill since Pakistan-based terrorists attacked India's commercial capital of Mumbai in 2008.
Yousaf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, accepted an invitation from his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, to watch the match. The planned dinner after the game will be the highest-level contact between the neighbours since the Mumbai attack.
India has deployed 48,000 police and paramilitaries and placed thousands more soldiers on alert. Local media reported anti-aircraft guns were being placed in strategic locations in Chandigarh.
However, the World Cup, held in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, has so far been free of any major incidents.
Thousands of Pakistanis were supposed to pour across the border for the five-hour, 150-mile road trip across the western Indian state of Punjab to Chandigarh. Only a few hundred were able to get tickets and visas. Mohammad Farooq, a porter on the Pakistani side of the border said he had not seen "one ordinary person go over, a common man" crossing. "They're all big people."
"Of course it will be a battle in the field, but not a war off the field I hope," said Azar Malik, 55, as he took five members of his family across the border from Pakistan.
Only half the 28,000 seats in the Mohali stadium have been made available for the public. The rest are to be distributed to India's ubiquitous and numerous VIPs.
In Chandigarh, one man was reported to have offered to sell his liver to make enough money to buy a ticket from touts. In Pakistan, desperate fans were buying seats for at least 25 times face value.Fortune-telling parrots, astrologers, saints, mullahs and priests have all been consulted and invoked by fans on both sides. But all hoped for a peaceful ending.
Mohammad Bashir Bozai, originally from the vast southern metropolis of Karachi, had flown from Chicago to be at the game. With his face painted in the green and white of Pakistan and carrying a huge national flag, he hugged a man dressed in Indian colours, declaring that he would be happy whoever won.
"I came with no ticket, this lady saw me outside the stadium and just handed me a ticket. Everything comes from God," said Bozai, 55.
Few sports teams have gone into a match under such scrutiny not for their prowess with the bat and ball but with the mobile phone and the brown envelope.
Unwelcome advice

Pakistan's cricketers will play tonight with a warning from their country's interior minister, Rehman Malik, ringing in their ears.
On Monday, Malik said that though he was "sure the team has very clean members", a corruption scandal exposed by the News of the World last year meant he could take "no risks".
The comments by Malik, who spoke of keeping a "close watch" on players with "strict surveillance", provoked an outraged reaction in Pakistan.
The minister tried to undo the damage his remarks had done, calling Shahid Afridi, the Pakistani captain, to apologise.
Malik said on Twitter that "a section of press has twisted my statement out of context, and wrongly projected my words".
Another tweet said: "My only intention was and is that Pak cricket team play and perform their best. The support and prayers of the whole nation r with them."
According to some estimates, more than £650m has been bet on the tournament, most of it illegally.

Rutashubanyuma · Mar 30, 2011

India v Pakistan: Our focus is on the game, says captain MS Dhoni

• 'We are not getting involved' in media hype, says Dhoni
• India captain claims recent 'form has not been a worry'

Press Asscoiation
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 March 2011 11.48 BST <li class="history">Article history

India's captain MS Dhoni wants his side to focus on the game, not the hype, for tomorrow's World Cup semi-final with Pakistan. Photograph: Vivek Prakash/Reuters India's captain, MS Dhoni, has ordered his players to ignore the hype surrounding tomorrow's World Cup clash with Pakistan and focus on securing a place in the final.
The last-four encounter between the sub-continent rivals has attracted huge interest in the region and will be attended by the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and his Pakistan counterpart, Yousuf Raza Gilani. The pressure on the tournament co-hosts to see off their greatest rivals is immense but Dhoni is determined not to let it derail his preparations.
He said: "We know the kind of media hype India-Pakistan matches generate. We are not getting involved in all this. We need to know what we are expected to do and focus on that. All this is part of cricket and we have to accept it. But the key is not to get involved.
"We will have the biggest distinguished guests to see the match, we have to be at our best. We all know it's a big tournament, we have prepared a lot for it and its better to take it one game at a time. We are playing the semi-finals but the most important thing is how we prepare ourselves. I think you need to prepare in the same way and that's what we have been doing for the past few days."
Dhoni has under performed with the bat in the tournament so far but is adamant his struggles are not related to the added responsibility of being captain. He added: "It is only a cricketing aspect, nothing to do with form. I have been batting quite well. Sometimes the situations are not great to play flamboyant cricket. In the Bangladesh match, such a situation was there but I didn't get to bat.
"If you are batting at five, six or seven you don't get to bat much if the top order scores. I think the last game [against Australia] was ideal but it [the ball] went straight to a fielder. It does not go your way always. Form has not been a worry."
Pakistan's strength arguably lies in their bowling and Dhoni admitted India's powerful top-order need to be wary. "I think they are a very good bowling attack, they have got bowlers who can bowl quick and at the same time their spinners have been doing really well and they have got part-timers who can contribute," he said. "They have a couple of bowling all-rounders with [Abdul] Razzaq and [Shahid] Afridi, that gives them the liberty of playing with more than five bowlers."

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