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Every now and then the Indian batting is tested in difficult one-day conditions, and they usually tend to come up short, though not as spectacularly as against New Zealand in the opening match of the tri-series. Last year, they batted first on a damp pitch in Guwahati and were sliced to 27 for 5 by Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger before Praveen Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja partially revived India with half-centuries. There was no lower-order rescue on Monday, and India slid to the lowest total in ODIs this year.There wasn’t the exaggerated movement which worked so well for India in the Asia Cup final, but the bounce and slowness of the track proved too much. MS Dhoni explained that while the pacy short ball has troubled some of the Indian batsmen, it was not what they were up against in Dambulla.”This is completely different bounce, it is very spongy, bowlers are bowling 125-126 and the keeper is standing where he usually does for Shoaib Akhtar,” Dhoni said. “You can’t really drive off the backfoot, the only option is to cut and pull, and if the bowler doesn’t give room, it is very difficult to score.”There were no magic deliveries from New Zealand to warrant such a limp display. All Daryl Tuffey and Kyle Mills did was keep the ball a touch short and maintain tight lines, which was enough to coax India’s batsmen to give the New Zealand slip cordon a thorough workout. Rohit Sharma opened the face to steer to slip, Suresh Raina attempted a cover drive away from his body to edge to slip, Yuvraj Singh fished outside off to nick it to slip.”Players in the subcontinent generally don’t like the ball anywhere above the waist,” Scott Styris said. “Not because they are scared but because it is different compared to the usual subcontinental wicket. This has lot more bounce and we learnt that during the practice sessions. We really wanted to put some short balls in there.”Styris had played a big role in New Zealand recovering from a top-order collapse, his 190-run partnership with Ross Taylor effectively putting the match beyond India. Dhoni was unhappy about the mistakes in the field that allowed New Zealand to reach such a commanding total. “There were a couple of missed chances, Styris missed stumping [when he was on 16], Ross Taylor’s dropped catch [on 45 by Suresh Raina], still if we had got both of them they still would have got at least 200 which the way they bowled would have been very difficult to chase.”New Zealand packed their side with quick bowlers, a strategy which worked well for them, but India were left with only two quick bowlers for much of the innings after Abhimanyu Mithun’s heat stroke. While the new-ball bowlers, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra, took 7 for 90 between them, India’s spinners were caned for 161 runs in 26 overs. “We had four fast bowlers and they had three. That was the difference,” Styris said. “We knew that they didn’t have reserves.”

Scorecard
Veteran seamer and Hampshire captain Dominic Cork held his nerve in a last-ball finish in Canterbury to clinch a tense two-run win over Clydesdale Bank 40 Group C rivals Kent.Chasing Hampshire’s par-for-the-course 40-over total of 238 for 7 on a tricky St Lawrence pitch, Kent needed 13 off Cork’s final over of the game with six wickets still intact. Home opener Joe Denly chipped a single from the first ball to reach a 107-ball century – the first by a Kent player in this year’s competition – but it was Cork who kept his cool.Former Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood clubbed a boundary off the next ball, then a two and a single to rotate the strike but Denly, having dug out one sublime yorker, was unable to reach the ropes again – allowing the Royals to bag their third win of the CB40 campaign.Kent’s pursuit had been based around a fine second-wicket stand of 136 in 24.1 overs between Denly (102 not out) and acting captain Martin van Jaarsveld. But once the South African went for 73, Kent’s run-chase began to unravel as Geraint Jones and Darren Stevens went cheaply, leaving Denly and Mahmood with too much to do at the death.Hampshire, who were invited to bat first after losing the toss, found it heavy going early on as both their left-handed openers Jimmy Adams and Michael Lumb struggled for their timing on a slow pitch. Though Kent helped their cause by leaking four wides in the first four overs from Stevens and Mahmood, the Royals were struggling to hit boundaries and the pair only reached the ropes five times in the opening 13 overs.The partnership ended with 48 on the board when Jimmy Adams (20) skied James Tredwell’s fourth ball to long-off, where Amjad Khan took a fine catch on the run. Without ever finding his best form, Lumb reached a 54-ball 50 with five fours only to toss away his wicket to the very next delivery, stumped giving Tredwell the charge.Despite Tredwell’s return of three for 40, Hampshire increased the tempo late in the innings with cameo knocks from Neil McKenzie (40) and former Kent batsman Michael Carberry (46). Rookie seam bowler Matt Coles returned for a second stint at the Nackington Road End and profited in the dash for late runs as Carberry, McKenzie and Sean Ervine (13) all holed out to give him flattering figures of three for 59.

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Dale Steyn picked up for 5 for 29 to reach 200 Test wickets in just his 39th match•AFP

South Africa ended the third day at the Queen’s Park Oval in a position of total dominance thanks to the fearsome bowling combination of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, who combined to skittle West Indies for just 102 in their first innings.After Morkel’s opening burst left the hosts’ top order in tatters, Steyn ripped through the middle and lower order to take 5 for 29 and become the fourth fastest bowler to reach 200 Test wickets behind Clarrie Grimmett, Dennis Lillee and Waqar Younis. Graeme Smith gave his bowlers a rest after their hard work, choosing not to enforce the follow-on, and by the close he had found the form that had eluded him on the tour thus far to take South Africa to 155 for 2 with an unbeaten 79, a lead of 405.Morkel bowled with great effort to extract life from a slow, low pitch and bully the top order from the crease in the morning session, reducing West Indies to 12 for 3 as Travis Dowlin, Brendan Nash and Chris Gayle were removed with back-of-a-length deliveries.Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Narsingh Deonarine rallied briefly with a 59-run fourth-wicket stand, but Steyn then tore through the middle order, reverse-swinging the ball at high pace as six wickets fell for just four runs in 28 deliveries. Denesh Ramdin showed some pluck as he took West Indies’ score past 100 in a 27-run partnership with No. 11 Nelon Pascal, but Jacques Kallis then returned for a second spell and wrapped up the innings with the wicket of the tailender.South Africa were in control of the game within the first hour, as Morkel bowled with discipline and patience and found pace and alarming bounce off a placid pitch. Dowlin had stern questions asked of his technique against the short ball, and the whereabouts of his off stump, before he lost patience and pushed at one that he should have left.Morkel made it two wickets in two balls when he had Brendan Nash caught behind off the glove with the first delivery of his next over. Umpire Steve Davis didn’t think he had got anything on it, but the South Africans were convinced and asked for a referral, upon which Davis’s decision was overturned. With the first ball of his next over Morkel got the wicket that South Africa really wanted, as Chris Gayle went to pull a back-of-a-length delivery that wasn’t quite short enough for the shot and the resulting inside edge cannoned into his stumps to put West Indies in serious trouble at 12 for 3.With Morkel and Steyn taken off after their opening spells, Chanderpaul and Deonarine began to settle and took a particular liking to Paul Harris, who bowled six unsuccessful overs for 25 runs. They managed to weather another short burst from the opening pair before lunch, but when they returned, refreshed after the break, West Indies’ capitulation was quick in coming. The partnership was broken as Steyn went round the wicket and sent down a brutal bouncer at Chanderpaul, who gloved an easy looping catch to Mark Boucher.Dwayne Bravo, too, was bounced out shortly afterwards, although in his case it was a lack of bounce that contributed to the dismissal. Morkel dug one in halfway down and Bravo, expecting the ball to rear up at him, crouched and turned his head away but the ball kept low and flicked the glove on its way through.In a sustained assault of fast bowling of the highest standard, Deonarine was next, shouldering arms to a delivery that reversed in to him from around the wicket to have his stumps splayed. Shane Shillingford fell to the very next ball as Steyn continued to find devilishly late movement at high pace and the batsman was struck on the pad right in front of the wicket.Ramdin managed to survive the hat-trick ball – though it was wide of off stump and he flashed wildly at it – but three balls later Steyn reached the 200-wicket milestone by beating Sulieman Benn for both pace and movement to rattle his stumps.His fifth wicket came just two balls later, as Ravi Rampaul – like Deonarine before him – failed to pick up the reverse swing as Steyn came round the wicket and he left a ball that clattered into his off stump. With that, West Indies were 75 for 9 and Steyn’s four overs since the lunch break had yielded five wickets, for the cost of just four runs.When Ramdin took three boundaries off his 14th over, Steyn was pulled out of the attack, but the fightback was a brief one as Kallis nipped Nelon Pascal out in the second over of his spell. Deciding against the follow-on, Smith and Alviro Petersen put on 56 without much discomfort despite the fact that the pitch was beginning to exhibit huge variations in bounce.After Petersen was trapped in front of his stumps by Benn for 22, Hashim Amla suffered his second failure of the game, driving Shillingford uppishly into the hands of a diving Deonarine in the covers to reduce South Africa to 79 for 2.But Smith fought to a half-century off 78 balls and Kallis was also in belligerent mood, his first boundary a massive six over long-on off Shillingford. He took South Africa’s lead past 400 with a savage pull off Pascal before fading light forced the players from the field.

ScorecardLeicestershire finally broke Worcestershire’s Gareth Andrew-inspired resistance to claim their fourth County Championship win of the season by seven wickets with a day to spare at New Road. Al-rounder Andrew made 79 – the highest score of the match – as the home side reached 315 in their second innings and then took 2 for 24 before Leicestershire cruised to their target of 182.The closing phase was the most comfortable as Paul Nixon completed his fifth half-century of the Division Two season and gave his county a significant boost in a competitive promotion race.At the start of the third day Leicestershire’s first objective was to break a century stand by Daryl Mitchell and James Cameron. The fifth-wicket pair eventually put on 138 before falling in quick succession to Nadeem Malik. Mitchell (77) stepped in front when the former Worcestershire seamer cut one into his pads and Cameron was half-forward when he tickled a catch behind the wicket after posting a career-best 75.Frustratingly for Leicestershire, this was not a passport to an early wrap-up. Andrew saw to that with another example of how his batting has improved since moving to Worcestershire in 2008. At the start of this season the former Somerset player had scored three half-centuries in his career. Now he has doubled the tally – and all at the expense of Leicestershire.At Grace Road in May he made 53 in a comfortable victory and in this match he was top scorer in both innings, starting with an undefeated 53 when Worcestershire collapsed for 175 on the opening day.An uncomplicated left hander who knows how to dispatch a loose ball, he saw his side to the highest total of the game with two sixes off Malik before he was last out. In an error of judgment, he offered no stroke when a ball from Jigar Naik clipped the off bail.Andrew made three-quarters of the 106 runs added in his time in the middle. James Benning dismissed Ben Cox and Richard Jones within three overs but Matt Mason – eventually caught in the deep off Claude Henderson – and last man Jack Shantry faced 42 balls between them.Having worked so hard to get back into contention, Worcestershire let things slip again as Leicestershire’s openers, Will Jefferson and Paul Nixon, punished some erratic new-ball bowling in a stand of 61. Jefferson (32) looked in good form until Phil Jaques held a diving catch in the gully. Jacques du Toit, who did not field in the morning because of a damaged finger, was next to go, lbw for 11 as Andrew claimed his second success.Nixon, dropped twice off Mason in making 55, was caught behind off Shantry after hitting 10 boundaries but James Taylor, unbeaten with 43, and Benning saw the job through.

Scorecard
Leicestershire kept their slim hopes of a Clydesdale Bank 40 semi-final place alive with a comprehensive seven-wicket win over an out-of-sorts Durham at the Riverside. Needing 190 to win after Durham had performed poorly with the bat, the Foxes took just 26 overs to claim their second success of this year’s 40-over competition.Victory was largely the result of some dynamic hitting from openers Jacques Du Toit and Andrew McDonald, who plundered 14 boundaries from the opening eight overs in Leicestershire’s reply. The score had raced to 122 for 2 by the time they both departed and, even at that stage, the result was not in doubt.McDonald made 46 before holing out to Dale Benkenstein at deep midwicket, while Du Toit scored 64 in just 37 balls and hammered two huge leg-side sixes off the same over from Neil Killeen.The South African looked like winning the game himself as he hammered Killeen and Mitch Claydon to all corners of the ground, but his assault ended when he was caught by Ben Harmison on the boundary rope. That gave England hopeful Liam Plunkett his first wicket of the afternoon, and a second followed when Joshua Cobb edged behind.Paul Nixon and James Taylor saw Leicestershire home though, and ensured Durhamremained five points behind leaders Warwickshire in Group C. The writing was on the wall from a very early stage of a one-paced Durham batting effort that never really got going until it was much too late. The hosts made just 114 runs off the first 30 overs, and while they rallied from that point onwards, the damage had already been done.Sam Cliff claimed three early wickets to prevent Durham’s batsmen generating any momentum, luring Phil Mustard into a clubbed catch to mid-on, tempting Michael Di Venuto into a drive that was edged to slip and forcing Benkenstein into a mistimed shot that Du Toit juggled but managed to cling on to at midwicket.Ben Stokes also went cheaply – the 19-year-old’s fine run of form ended when he was trapped lbw for 4 – and when Ben Harmison departed two runs short of a half-century after providing Du Toit with his second catch of the afternoon, Durham were reeling at 110 for 5.They mounted a recovery, largely thanks to the efforts of Gareth Breese and Gordon Muchall, both of whom posted scores in the 40s at almost a run-a-ball. Breese scored six boundaries before lobbing a catch to Matthew Boyce in the deep, while Muchall displayed commendable composure before he became Matthew Hoggard’s only victim in the final over of Durham’s innings.

Graham Manou has been sacked as South Australia’s captain and they will look to the batsman Michael Klinger to lead the revival. In 2009-10 the Redbacks made the final of the Twenty20 competition, which qualified them for the Champions League, but finished last in the Sheffield Shield and FR Cup to signal an off-season of change.The wicketkeeper Manou’s two-summer reign is over following a mix of poor form, tactical mistakes and a nagging knee injury. The state’s overhaul has also involved cutting Mark Cosgrove and Dan Cullen from the squad, while they have signed the fringe Victorian pair of Aiden Blizzard and Rob Cassell.Klinger’s appointment is a surprise considering he was not part of the Twenty20 outfit last season and the Champions League will be the immediate priority. A cautious batsman, Klinger has been outstanding in the past two summers and has won back-to-back state player of the year awards. He scored 886 runs at 63.28 in 2009-10 to follow his 1203 first-class runs in 2008-09.Callum Ferguson, who has appeared in 25 ODIs, has been appointed vice-captain and is currently recovering from a knee reconstruction. “We have expressed the need for change within our culture,” Jamie Cox, South Australia’s director of cricket, said. “These two men are both enormously respected throughout the cricket community for the way they prepare and play the game and I know they will develop into a very strong leadership team.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Kieron Pollard starred with bat and on the field as Mumbai shut Delhi out of the match•Indian Premier League

Kieron Pollard finally lived up to his bumper signing with a brutal innings that undermined what, for the most part, had been a spirited performance from Delhi’s bowlers, and confirmed Mumbai’s place in the final four. His 13-ball 45, laced with five sixes, powered Mumbai to a challenging score to which Delhi, despite their power-packed line-up, failed to measure up. The 39-run defeat leaves Delhi tied with at least three other teams on 12 points from 12 games, leaving no margin for error from now in their aim to reach the semi-final.On a track that was aiding movement, spin and bounce, Delhi, who had kept Mumbai on a leash for much of their innings, faltered badly at the death. And when David Warner and Virender Sehwag had blazed away in their chase, they squandered the early edge despite reprieves offered by Mumbai’s fielders.In what proved to be the match-turning event, Gautam Gambhir bestowed medium-pacer Andrew McDonald with the responsibility of bowling the last over of Mumbai’s innings. Facing him was Pollard, who had looked adept against pace but lacked conviction against the spin of Sarabjit Ladda, whom he had edged and miscued in his previous over. Mumbai, despite their acceleration, could still have ended with a below-par total but McDonald doled out two full tosses and a short delivery that were dismissed for sixes in an over that fetched 25, taking Mumbai’s tally in the last five to 75.Warner had redressed the damage somewhat, by putting Delhi’s chase on course at the start. He targeted Zaheer Khan in the second over, taking his right foot out of the way and hammering two fours and six and followed by smacking Dilhara Fernando for consecutive fours before being undone by his go-to ball, the split-finger slower delivery.The same delivery almost accounted for Sehwag, who was dropped by Ali Murtaza, and when Gambhir was let off by Pollard in the sixth over, it appeared Mumbai would struggle to defend their target. The pair had begun the IPL on a high, playing crucial roles in enabling Delhi take an early lead in the tournament, but their performances had tapered off thereafter. The track had slowed down but that had little to do with their dismissals, which happened in quick succession. Gambhir spooned a catch back to Harbhajan Singh, and an attempt at an impossible second run ended Sehwag’s stay in the eighth over.Delhi had raced to 69 at the end of the Powerplay, their highest this IPL, but lost five wickets for 22 runs in 31 balls to drift out of contention thereafter. Murtaza made up for his lapse in the field by snaring AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik with arm balls, and Pollard, who had helped run Sehwag out, added one more, getting rid of Paul Collingwood.The capitulation did little justice to what had been a largely disciplined effort from Delhi’s bowlers. Tight lines and mostly accurate lengths, backed up by some movement and bounce, ensured the big shots were kept at bay for most of Mumbai’s innings.There were only two intended boundaries struck in the Powerplay, as Tendulkar opted for a game of steady building and leaving enough ammunition in store for the late surge. Tendulkar looked busy during his innings, driving Amit Mishra inside out and attempting to late-cut and paddle McDonald. Despite the steady progress, the boundaries were cut off, and he was caught at extra cover. Mumbai, at the halfway stage in their innings, had limped to 66 for 2, their slowest start in the tournament.Ambati Rayudu and Saurabh Tiwary, Mumbai’s finds this tournament, showed more desperation, breaking a 28-ball boundary drought. Tiwary was more aggressive, smoking two sixes and a four before being deceived by a slower delivery from Pradeep Sangwan to be bowled.But the much-needed release came in the 16th over, as JP Duminy scored three consecutive fours off Mishra, and Pollard mixed craftiness with power, mistiming a ball for six and scooping Ashish Nehra over the ropes behind fine leg. Aiming for the blockhole, Delhi’s bowlers often erred, gifting full tosses that were treated aptly by Pollard, and his assault on McDonald more than compensated for Mumbai’s travails for much of the innings.

The BCCI president Shashank Manohar’s strong objection to the controversial clauses in the tender process on Sunday, the day the two new owners for the fourth IPL season were to be unveiled, is believed to be the prime reason for the auction being be postponed to March 21. Reportedly, Manohar made it clear that the IPL, despite its unprecedented success, was merely a BCCI sub-committee with the board president in charge.Speaking to the , Niranjan Shah, the vice-chairman of the IPL governing council, said, “The [BCCI] president felt a few clauses were too stiff and he wanted some modifications. Since the president’s approval is necessary for going ahead with the process and naming the winning bids, the entire process was cancelled and we asked for fresh tenders, which will now be opened on March 21.”The tournament has been launched under the BCCI banner and the committee, which runs the tournament and sets the rules and regulations for the franchises, is formed by the cricket board. The BCCI is the final authority in all cricket-related matters in the country. It is mandatory to have the BCCI president’s approval before the IPL committee decides on anything.”Unlike the first season, the bidders for the new franchises had to establish that their net worth was $1 billion. An advance guarantee of $100 million as well as a rolling bank guarantee for the sum of the winning bid had to be provided as well. The clauses had forced some big names, including the MCC and Muthoot Group, to back out from the bidding process, leaving just two serious bidders – the Adani Group and Videocon – in the race.Manohar wanted more parties to be involved in the process and proposed that the tender clauses be scrapped altogether. The bids were not opened and were returned to the bidders. Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, had no option but to drop the contentious clauses in the invitation to tenders, though the floor price to bid for a franchise – $225 million – was retained.The re-tendering process is believed to have irked the bidders as well. A consortium comprising the Videocon group, led by Venugopal Dhoot, Panchshil Realty’s founder chairman Atul Chordia and the Bollywood couple of Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, may opt out of the bidding process the second time, having been keen on purchasing a franchise in Pune.”We had a very good consortium between me, Saif, Kareena and Videocon,” Chordia told the . “Our mood is off now, I don’t think it will happen now. For the last eight days, we have worked so hard on it – things like branding, merchandising, paper work.””When the BCCI have an efficient team with eminent lawyers and businessmen, why did they put stringent conditions in place and then take a U-turn? There were three legitimate bids. I just can’t understand the motive behind this.”They just cancelled the bid without giving any reason. We were completely legitimate, we had completed all the paper-work, we had fulfilled all the conditions. If they didn’t want a stringent tender, why did they float one in the first place? The manner in which it was done was not at all sporting.”Chordia proposed that instead of rebidding, the IPL should have cancelled the tenders if they didn’t want to open them. “The minimum valuation was $225 million, which is about Rs 1,100 crore. So we had definitely put at least Rs 1,100 crore. We must have spent more than Rs 10 crore to get everything organised.”

Graham Onions has been withdrawn from England’s two-Test series in Bangladesh, and will fly home on Friday after failing to recover from a back injury.Onions arrived in Bangladesh last week as a specialist seamer for the Test series, but has been unable to train properly since suffering the injury while the squad was still in Dhaka. Yesterday, he was officially ruled out of contention for the first Test in Chittagong, but with no signs of his condition easing the decision was taken to send him home.”Unfortunately I will be going home,” said Onions. “If I’m being totally honest, I’m not exactly 100% sure what the problem is because I had an MRI scan and nothing came up on that. Hopefully it’s just a case of having five to seven days complete rest to get myself ready, but when you are on a tour, you only have two weeks to make an impression. Unfortunately I have run out of time, so the best thing for me is to get myself home and get myself ready for the English summer.”I got off a long-haul flight and just wanted to try and get myself as well-prepared as I possibly could for the first day of the Test, even the warm-up game, but unfortunately two days in, I felt a bit of a niggle [in the nets]. Now I’m travelling home and I’m very disappointed.””Of course it’s frustrating. Whenever you come on tour – and especially because this is just my second tour – you are always looking to make an impression. Obviously with me coming in and looking to make that impression, I want to play and this is very disappointing. But I’ve just got to forward positively to the English summer now.”England captain Alastair Cook said it was a blow but is confident the squad have the depth to cover. “I’m desperately disappointed for him,” he said. “He was a huge part of our plans and he still is, obviously, because of the way he bowled in South Africa, where he was unlucky not to take more wickets than he did.”He bowled really well there, and I was expecting him come to these conditions and bowl well here as well. But these things happen, and luckily we’ve got the strength in depth in our seam-bowling unit to be able to cope.”Cook was nevertheless confident of a quick recovery for Onions, and looked forward to having him fit again in time for the return series against Bangladesh, which gets underway in May.”The MRI scan didn’t show too much structural damage so it does look like a short-term thing,” he said. “But these matches come so quickly, and he hasn’t had any proper bowling on this tour, so we couldn’t see how, physically, he could be ready. If he was fit, he wouldn’t be match-fit to play in the next Test match, so there’s obviously no point in him being here.”England are, however, more confident of the progress of Stuart Broad’s recovery from his own back spasm, which he suffered midway through the second ODI in Dhaka last week. He came through unscathed from a tough nets session on Wednesday, and is ready to undergo a final assessment from the team’s medical staff.”We are very positive from yesterday,” said Cook. “He bowled really well in the nets, for 10 or 12 overs in two spells, which was a very encouraging sign. Today is the second part of that process of a fitness test. We’ll see how he is this morning, how he bowls, and obviously if he comes through that, it’s excellent news for us.”

Group A

Something had to give when the two undefeated teams in the group met. And predictably, the top-of-the-table thriller at the Rashid Latif Cricket Academy Ground witnessed Multan Tigers edge out Karachi Dolphins by one wicket. Batting first, Karachi Dolphins stuttered from the onset with forties from opener Adnan Baig and wicketkeeper Javed Mansoor propping them up to 164. Left-arm spinner Faisal Elahi picked up 4 for 33, while left-arm fast bowler Rizwan Haider assisted with three wickets. Multan fared no better with Mohammad Sami and Rumman Raees derailing the chase early on. Kashif Naved and Rizwan played their parts with brave thirties, but it was left to the last-wicket pair of captain Abdur Rauf and Zulfiqar Babar to see them home in the 44th over.A classy hundred from opener Sharjeel Khan handed Hyderabad Hawks a four-wicket win against Quetta Bears at the Niaz Stadium. Captain Tamiur Ali led from the front with a well-compiled 81 after Quetta chose to bat, and was given able support by Sabir Hussain (53). The two put on 106 for the third wicket, but a disciplined bowling effort from Hyderabad kept them down to 243. An opening stand of 117 during the chase did not augur well for Quetta, as Sharjeel clubbed 13 fours and two sixes. Even as they had a few hiccups in the middle, Shahid Qambrani, who remained unbeaten on 55, eventually saw Hyderabad through with more then two overs to spare.

Group B

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) tiptoed ahead of KRL into first place on the points table with a convincing seven-wicket win against whipping boys Sui Southern Gas Corporation (SSGC) at the Gaddafi Stadium. The win was largely set up by the bowlers, who did extremely well to clean up SSGC for 111 by the 38th over. There was to be no repeat of the four ducks during SSGC’s innings, as the NBP openers made a rousing start, putting on 84 in quick time. Though they lost three wickets on the way, victory was complete by only the 15th over.The two Alis – Azhar and Yasir – were the standout performers for Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) as they overcame Karachi Zebras by six wickets at the Khan Research Laboratory Ground. Right-arm fast bowler Yasir starred with the ball, picking up 3 for 42, as Karachi finished on 170 for 7 in the 28-overs-a-side game. But it was the opener Azhar who shone brighter as his quickfire 85 off 83 balls went a long way in securing the chase. He smashed eight fours and a six and KRL eventually sealed the win with nine balls to go.The match between Habib Bank Limited and Lahore Eagles at the Diamond Club Ground was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Both teams got two points each.

Group C

Undefeated Sialkot Stallions continued their winning ways, galloping to a three-wicket win against Islamabad Leopards at the Jinnah Stadium. Left-arm spinner Nayyer Abbas was the wrecker-in-chief after Islamabad were invited to bat. He took 4 for 30 to pin down the opposition to 200. Even though right-arm fast bowler Shehzad Azam wreaked havoc early on in the Sialkot chase, calming knocks from the Maliks – Shehzad (50) and Adeel (47) – swung the advantage their way. The 103-run partnership for the fifth wicket dimmed Islamabad’s hopes and Bilwal Bhatti (23 for 10 balls) ensured a quick end by the 37th over.Rawalpindi Rams improved their chances of a semi-final berth with a thumping 108-run win against Faisalabad Wolves in Sargodha. Put in by Fasialabad, Rawalpindi notched up 305 for 9, thanks to composed half-centuries by Naved Malik and Babar Naeem and some late-order fireworks. Opener Mohammad Shahid lent a solid hand during the reply with 52, but once Zeeshan Asif departed for 64, the Faisalabad innings went downhill, as they capitulated for 197 in the 43rd over.Lahore Lions finally got their maiden win when they beat fellow-strugglers Abbottabad Rhinos at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. Being put in, Lahore could manage just 228, with Rana Adnan top scoring with 55 of 84 balls. But it was a spirited performance from the bowlers next up, that had Abbottabad on the backfoot from the start. With just two meaningful contributions from Ghulam Mohammad (45) and Mohammad Kashif (34), the target proved too big an ask and they collapsed 68 runs short.

Group D

A strong performance from Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited’s top three batsman secured a comfortable nine-wicket victory against Pakistan Customs in Multan. Chasing 232 to win, opener Ali Waqas scored 50 before he was dismissed with the score on 85. His partner Naeemuddin made an unbeaten 103, while Misbah-ul-Haq cracked 75 off 72 balls, to secure victory in the 42nd over. Earlier, SNGPL new-ball bowler Samiullah Khan had taken 3 for 25 to help dismiss Pakistan Customs for 231 in the 50th over. Jibran Khan and Ramiz Azin made fifties but there was little coming from any of the other batsmen.Water and Power Development Authority completed a four-wicket victory in Bahawalpur thanks largely to their bowlers, who dismissed Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited for only 210. Atif Ashraf scored 66 off 78 balls for ZTBL but the WAPDA bowlers worked their way through the batting order without allowing partnerships to develop. Kashif Raza took 1 for 25 from 8.5 overs while Umaid Asif and Imranullah Aslam took two each. There were no substantial innings from WAPDA’s batsmen either but several useful contributions, along with Jahangir Mirza’s 56, were enough to reach the target in the 37th over. Ali Azmat finished the chase in a hurry, smacking 33 off 14 balls with seven fours.