Seamers set up India's thumping title win

India 268 for 6 (Karthik 66) beat Sri Lanka 187 (Kapugedera 55*, Nehra 4-40) by 81 runs

India's under-fire seam attack came good when it mattered, setting up fourth win in seven tournament finals for MS Dhoni's side, a statistic that makes a mockery of India's abysmal record in finals. The conditions did support them as they were bowling under the lights in Dambulla, but it was a huge improvement from two nights ago: all three of Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra bowled tight lines, all three got movement both ways, extra bounce, and consequently wickets.

Sri Lanka could have restricted India to about 30 fewer than the 268 had they fielded as well as they usually do and had they attacked a bit more. India could have got about 30 more had Dinesh Karthik, the best of the batsmen on the day, and Dhoni not gifted wickets to Thilina Kandamby's erroneous part-time legbreaks. All that, however, ceased to matter by the time India's three medium-pacers were done with their first spells, the collated figures of which read 19-2-61-5.

Nehra proved to be the deadliest of three, repeatedly making the ball land on the seam, also regaining his special ability of getting swing with back-of-a-length deliveries. Two of his four wickets were Sri Lanka's best batsmen, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. The third was one of the smarter ones, Angelo Mathews.

The man who is used to make impact, though, was removed by Praveen in the first over. Tillakaratne Dilshan took one sighter, and went after the next. It was a bouncer wide outside off stump, and the pull went only as far as mid-on. Zaheer and Praveen then worked hard for the next wicket, troubling the two left-hand batsmen, Sangakkara and Upul Tharanga, with consistent movement.

The wicket eventually came through a forgettable choice from Tharanga. Earlier in the same over Zaheer had hit Sangakkara twice in the thigh area with sharp inward movement. Still Tharanga chose to leave one alone without even covering the stumps. The top of off was hit.

Jayawardene and Sangakkara would have been relieved to see Zaheer (5-1-17-1) off, but it was short-lived. With his second ball, Nehra nearly got Jayawardene lbw, the ball swinging in. In his second over, he got extra bounce and away movement, getting that edge. At 49 for 3 in the 14th over, Sri Lanka were under extreme pressure. Which could perhaps explain Mathews' loose shot two balls later, edging a short and wide delivery.

Nehra's swing continued and Sangakkara tried to do something with the only delivery that looked too short. It bounced too high and Sangakkara was gone in the 16th over, which made it three wickets for eight runs since Nehra's introduction. Praveen played his part from the other end, bowling nine overs of steady away swing from left-hand batsmen for 29 runs.

Nehra produced perhaps his best deliveries for Chamara Kapugedera, getting vicious swing from back of a length, hitting him repeatedly in the thigh-rib region. In his fifth over, Nehra provided some respite, giving Kandamby both width and the angle down the leg side.

It was too late and too little for Kandamby, two of whose best innings have come in losing causes from desperate positions against India. That job of raising hope was left to Kapugedera and Nuwan Kulasekara, who added 35 in the batting Powerplay taken in the 36th over. It brought the defeat margin down to two figures, but couldn't mask the one-sided nature of the contest.

The first half of the match was more even, and it went this way and that. After Gautam Gambhir wasted a decent start and two lives behind the wicket with a lazy run-out, Karthik wrested the initiative through three punched boundaries in the eight over, bowled by Farveez Maharoof.

Maharoof was to endure an ordinary day, being slow in the outfield, dropping a half chance from Karthik, and failing with the bat too. Along with Maharoof, Kandamby's tardiness in the outfield hurt Sri Lanka bad. His drop of Gambhir may not have hurt them hugely, but his reluctance to dive and slowness in acting did.

Kandamby made up though, with a nice juicy full toss and a long hop wide outside off. The first one somehow seduced Karthik into finding deep square leg's lap, and the second got Dhoni to hit straight to point. That brought India down to 167 for 4 in the 33rd over, and Sri Lanka were one wicket away from the long Indian tail.

Sangakkara, though, surprisingly chose his lucky part-timers over peppering Suresh Raina and Rohit with bouncers. When Lasith Malinga was eventually brought back in the 39th over, India were nearing 200. In his second over, Malinga showed why he should have been bowling as soon as Raina came out. Five awkwardly played short balls were followed by a deadly yorker that caught him on the crease.

Having seen a lower-order collapse lose them the previous match, India were circumspect, Kulasekara was accurate, and only 55 came in the last 10 overs. In the final equation, though, that didn't matter.

Sri Lanka talk tough before Asia Cup final v India

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara warned that his team would "hit the ground running" against India in Thursday's Asia Cup final at Dambulla.
"A final is a final," he told reporters on Wednesday. "Winning an Asia Cup especially at home would be a special thing.
"It's going to really inspire us and we are going to hit the ground running and really try and win it."
India's captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, meawhile, insisted his team was not under any added pressure despite being beaten by the hosts by seven wickets in their final pool match.
"As a cricketer you see it as just another game," he said. "There is no point thinking it as a final. We are playing against Sri Lanka, that's it."
Dhoni demanded more consistency from his bowlers.
"I think they have done decently for us in patches," he said.
"It will be really good to win a few games where you put 240 or 260 on the board and win.
"You can't all the time expect your batsmen to score 280 or more and make you win the game.
"It will be good if we can do that. But then again our strength has been batting. We are a side that relies more on our batting than our bowling."
Sri Lanka, who had never batted under lights in their previous two matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh, invited India to bat first earlier this week.
"It was another step towards challenging ourselves to get a bit better and a bit tougher," said Sangakkara, whose are aiming for a hat-trick of Asia Cup wins after winning in 2006 and 2008.
Teams
India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Kartik, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Ashok Dinda, Pragyan Ojha.
Sri Lanka (from): Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralidaran, Farveez Maharoof, Thilina Kandamby, Chanaka Welagedera, Rangana Herath, Suraj Randiv.

Nash and Chanderpaul script Windies fightback

West Indies finally claimed ownership of an entire day's play and it came via a defiant double-century partnership between the two most patient batsmen in the line-up, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brendan Nash. The pair hit counter-attacking centuries to negate the aggression of the seamers and blunt out anything the slower bowlers dished out on what continued to be an unresponsive surface. West Indies breezed past the follow-on mark and redressed the balance after two days of toil in the field.

What was impressive from West Indies' point of view was the willingness to stick it out for as long as possible. South Africa had them on a leash on a slow morning, but the hosts didn't allow the pressure of two hours of attritional cricket to get to their heads and try anything silly. In that sense, West Indies were lucky that Nash and Chanderpaul were around to guide them. They may not match each other stance for stance or stroke for stroke, but in terms of temperament, they're on par. Their understanding of each other's game was evident in the way they kept pushing the scoring with singles and twos.

There was greater freedom of expression in the batting once Nash walked in after lunch. The batsmen were prepared to reach out to deliveries wide of the off stump and also exploit the wide gaps on the on side if the bowlers dropped it short. Before lunch, Chanderpaul looked circumspect outside his off stump against Morne Morkel. When Dale Steyn banged one in short, Chanderpaul took his eyes off and copped a blow on the grill.

After initially exercising caution outside his off stump, Chanderpaul started reaching out to the fuller ones shaping away, opening the face of the bat to glide it through the off side. Paul Harris hardly got any turn or bounce and Chanderpaul swept him powerfully behind square leg to bring up his fifty. There was a backward short leg in place for the spinner, but he was unemployed through the day.

Chanderpaul was also lucky to have a like-minded partner in Nash, back in his familiar No.5 position. He began by swatting Jacques Kallis past midwicket and didn't appear to be too bothered about the packed off-side field, which included two slips and two gullys. Morkel was guilty of giving width and Nash obliged by spanking fours past backward point off the front foot. Apart from a couple of edges to slip, some of which went for four, it was a neat innings.

The docile surface had no demons in it to worry the batsmen and Chanderpaul exploited that by regularly shuffling across the stumps to either flick the full-pitched balls or pull the short deliveries. Nash too wasn't afraid to swat away the short deliveries and that seemed to wind up an exasperated Steyn, who had a few words to say to him.

Nash's strength was primarily on the off side. Morkel was ineffective against him as Nash brought out the horizontal bat shots to steer the ball past gully. When he bowled it even shorter, Nash slashed over third man. Harris came round the wicket but Nash rocked back and cut him for fours in front of square.

He raced towards his century with a slash over slip off Steyn and biffed one past midwicket to reach three figures for the second time in his career, watched by his family in the stands. He had added 220 with Chanderpaul before AB de Villiers sent him back with a sharp bit of fielding, effecting a direct hit from gully.

Chanderpaul too progressed towards his century by milking the spinners, even employing the slog sweep. He reached his 22nd century with a square drive to point, and at the fag end of the day, brought up his 150. Dwayne Bravo played a quiet little supporting act after Nash's fall, adding an unbeaten 53 with Chanderpaul.

The pace of cricket was in contrast to the morning session, when only 40 runs were scored. Though South Africa didn't run through the top order as they would have hoped, they succeeded in applying pressure with their probing line outside off stump, backed by intelligent field placements. Boundary balls were few and far between as the seamers kept shaping the ball away with an expectant slip cordon and close catchers like silly mid-off waiting for a mistake.

Soon after reaching his fifty, Chris Gayle was out dragging a full ball from Morkel on to his stumps without any foot movement. The patient Narsingh Deonarine steered towards point at the stroke of lunch to bring up a workmanlike fifty. Having spent enough time getting his eye in, Deonarine pressed the pedal after lunch against the slower pace of Kallis. A few whiplashes over the off side gave the innings much-needed impetus but he soon caused his own downfall when, cramped for room trying to cut Steyn from round the wicket, he chopped it onto his stumps. It was similar to Gayle's dismissal, but in this instance it was more a wrong choice of shot.

Deonarine and Gayle would have punished themselves for not converting their fifties. Nash and Chanderpaul ensured they didn't make the same mistake.

Pakistan eliminated in cliffhanger

India 271 for 7 (Gambhir 83, Dhoni 56) beat Pakistan 267 (Butt 74, Kamran 51, Praveen 3-53) by three wickets 

The Asia Cup's marquee clash was a cliffhanger. The contest between India and Pakistan simmered tantalisingly, with one team edging ahead at several junctures only to be pulled back by timely strikes from the other. The ebb and flow went on until the match reached flashpoint during India's chase. Tempers flared, nerves frayed, batsmen resorted to the desperate, bowlers lost their radar and fielders fumbled as margins for error became non-existent. And Pakistan, fighting to stay alive in the Asia Cup, watched Harbhajan Singh, fuelled by adrenalin and his love for a scrap, heave the penultimate ball of the match from Mohammad Aamer over the midwicket boundary to trigger explosive celebrations in the Indian dressing room.

Pakistan, after the emotion subsides, will identify a period during their batting, when they let a critical advantage slip, as a factor that contributed significantly to their exit. Their top three - Salman Butt, Imran Farhat and Shoaib Malik - had built a platform from where a total of 300 was probable, but a collapse eroded their position from 144 for 1 to 159 for 4. A regular fall of wickets thereafter, and especially the loss of Shahid Afridi and Adbul Razzaq before the batting Powerplay was underway, gave rise to the possibility of a total less than 250. It needed a counterattack from Kamran Akmal to lift Pakistan to 267, a score well short of what they were on course for. It was the ninth consecutive ODI in which Pakistan had failed to last 50 overs.

This tensest of finishes - India needing three off two balls with tailenders batting - seemed improbable when Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni put on an exhibition of clinical accumulation during their partnership of 98, which left only 89 to get off the last 15 overs with eight wickets in hand. They ran hard, pierced gaps, and muscled pressure-relieving boundaries whenever the asking-rate crept over six an over. India were in control even after Gambhir's dismissal - bowled trying to cut a straighter one from Saeed Ajmal - with Dhoni, who had clouted a Shoaib Akhtar free-hit over midwicket for six to reach a half-century, taking charge.

India's advantage began to shrink between overs 38 and 41. Pakistan had 76 runs to defend at the start of this period and conceded only 15 in four overs. Rohit Sharma was then trapped by a Shahid Afridi flipper, but it was Dhoni's freak dismissal, in the 43rd over bowled by Malik, that made Pakistan the latest favourites. Malik drifted a friendly full toss down leg side, Dhoni reached away from his body and tried to paddle it fine. He was early on the shot and the ball ricocheted on to the stumps off the back of the bat. India now needed 58 off 46 with two brand new batsmen in the middle.

Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja nudged and pushed until 50 were needed off the last six overs and decided it was time to take the batting Powerplay. Afridi brought back Shoaib Akhtar, who was economical in his first spell but expensive in his second, for the fielding restrictions and he bowled an exemplary over, troubling both batsmen with quick short-of-a-length deliveries. Raina and Jadeja managed only one off him.

Jadeja was castled by Ajmal off the first ball off the 46th over and Raina was then joined by Harbhajan. Raina had struggled to make contact with Shoaib's bouncers and so he targeted Ajmal, cutting the ball to the boundary before heaving it over midwicket. That 13-run over narrowed the gap between runs required and balls remaining significantly and Ajmal hobbled off the field shortly after.

Pakistan had held the edge since Dhoni's dismissal but their grasp on the contest weakened when Harbhajan lofted Shoaib over long-on with impeccable timing, reducing the equation to 30 off 22. Shoaib, however, mixed slower balls with sharp bouncers to concede only three of the next four balls. In the 48th over, Aamer's direction failed him and he delivered two wides, but the batsmen managed only singles off the first four legal deliveries. Then Raina went deep into his crease to convert a yorker into a full ball and swung it powerfully through midwicket, finding the gap between two boundary riders.

Raina took on a Shoaib in the 49th, pulling a short ball - this one didn't rise as much - for six to slash the equation to 10 off 11 balls. Shoaib, however, once again finished strongly, beating Harbhajan with consecutive bouncers off the final two deliveries. He followed up those fiery deliveries with an equally fiery verbal volley. It riled Harbhajan who responded before Billy Doctrove intervened.

With India needing seven runs off the final over, Raina took a single off the first ball, giving Harbhajan the strike. Raina tried to get it back immediately by stealing a bye but his desperate dive was beaten by Kamran Akmal's throw. Akmal was pumped, after having dropped Sharma earlier, and having a confrontational tête-à-tête with Gambhir over an appeal for a catch.

Praveen Kumar, India's No. 9, scored three off his first two balls and gave Harbhajan the strike for the penultimate delivery. Aamer ran in and pitched on a length, Harbhajan wound up, swung hard, and began to raise his hands in triumph as the ball cleared the ropes. And then he roared, and roared, and looked for Shoaib.