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Kumar Sangakkara has said that Sri Lanka have every chance of making it an all-subcontinental final in the World Cup if “we keep our heads down and make sure we cover all the bases we have to cover”.One team from the subcontinent has made every final since 1992, and with India taking on Pakistan in the other semi-final, that trend will continue. But if Sri Lanka can beat New Zealand in the other semi-final in Colombo on March 29, it will mark the first final to feature two Asian teams.”We’ve shown everyone what a good side we are and to do that we got to play good cricket.” Sangakkara said. “Psychological advantages and all of that comes second place when it comes to playing proper cricket and good performance on the field. On Asian pitches fitness counts a lot, that’s one of the major factors you got to reckon playing in this heat.”One of the things that have worked for Sri Lanka is their spin department headed by Muthiah Muralitharan, who is playing his last World Cup before retiring from one-day cricket. The team sacrificed the pace of Nuwan Kulasekara and went with three frontline spinners against England, and the combination turned out to be the correct one.”Playing three spinners proved successful.” Sangakkara said. “All the bowlers bowled well to get wickets. We made the decision in the last minute to play three spinners. Today the wicket had dried out very nicely so it made the decision very much easier.”Spin is our strength but at the same time we had some wonderful fast bowlers coming through over the last two years like Lasith Malinga, Kulasekara, Dilhara Fernando, all these guys have a part to play depending on the opposition and the wickets. We try and keep ourselves unpredictable as a bowling side in this kind of tournament. We got the variety in our attack to do that.”Sangakkara also praised his openers, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga, who both made centuries as Sri Lanka chased 230 without losing a wicket. “It requires special performance to win big games and in that aspect Dilshan and Tharanga combined to give that little spark of inspiration. They were absolutely magnificent and ruthless.”They were cramping up a bit and they could have thrown it away at that time but it shows how hungry they were to do well and finish it off when they had that opportunity.”Dilshan opened the bowling as well and Sangakkara said it was a deliberate strategy to target the England captain. “He [Dilshan] bowls very well to left-handers and sometimes makes the new ball turn. With Andrew Strauss being a left-hander and not having a great history against spin our first option was to throw the ball to Dilshan and see whether he can do something for us. He did and on the field he’s been the best in this whole tournament and his batting was just unbelievable. Today he showed as the guy who shouldered most of the responsibilities from start to finish”Sangakkara stated that his side needed to improve their fielding after three easy catches were put down off Eoin Morgan, who went on to score a fifty.”We got brush up on our fielding and make sure that we don’t give the opposition that many chances especially one batsman and one of their key players,” Sangakkara said. “Except for the three catches the rest of the fielding was pretty good. Missing catches you can’t do anything about. If you miss a catch you should not let your body language go negative but stay positive and look for the next opportunity and keep charging in and stay in the game.”Sangakkara also said that Muralitharan would be okay for the semi-final clash against New Zealand. “He’s pulled up stiff. He’s had a tough couple of weeks and hopefully we’ll have him 100% for our next game.”

The hosts of the 2011 World Cup will enjoy home advantage during the quarter-final and semi-final stage, the ICC has confirmed. Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh will play at home if they reach the quarter-finals, the venues for which are Mirpur (staging the first and the third game), Ahmedabad (second) and Colombo (fourth), as well as the semis. However, while the draw for the quarter-final in terms of who plays whom from each group has been decided – A1 v B4, A2 v B3, A3 v B2 and A4 v B1 – the sequence of these games will only be revealed at the end of the Group stage once the final positions of the concerned teams has been determined.For the semi-finals, to be held in Colombo and Mohali, will involve the winners of A1 v B4 playing the winners of A3 v B2, and the winners of the A2 v B3 quarter final versus the winners of the A4 v B1 match.”I can confirm that the three host countries will play the knock-out rounds on their own grounds,” Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, told reporters on the eve of the opening game of the tournament.India are top of the pecking order in terms of home advantage. An ICC spokesperson said, “The seeding is done prior to the event and has nothing to do with where they finish in the group. Therefore, India takes precedence over Sri Lanka while Sri Lanka takes precedence over Bangladesh.”As the immediate permutations stand, assuming all three hosts qualify for the last eight, it is possible that Sri Lanka from Group A could meet either India or Bangladesh in the quarter-final. In case they are drawn to meet India, the quarter-final will be held in Ahmedabad. In case their opponent is Bangladesh, the quarter-final will be held in Colombo. Should they qualify for the last eight, Bangladesh’s best chance of playing one of the two quarter-finals scheduled for Mirpur, is to be drawn against any Group A team other than Sri Lanka. If India make it to the semi-finals, it will play in Mohali even if its opponent is Sri Lanka, who will have to forfeit its March 29 semi-final in Colombo.Sharad Pawar, the ICC president, is the chairman of the 2011 World Cup’s organising committee, while Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, is the tournament director. The 43-day event comprises 49 games spread over three countries and 13 venues and will be a week shorter than the 2007 edition in the West Indies.The ten Full Member countries and four Associates have been divided into two groups of seven each, with the top four from each group qualifying for the quarter-finals. Group A includes Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya. Group B comprises India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Dan Harris made light work of the modest target•Getty Images

The Redbacks have proven why they are the team to beat in this year’s Big Bash with a nine-wicket demolition of Tasmania in their top-of-the-table clash at Bellerive.South Australia dominated right from outset despite losing the toss and having to bowl first. Tasmania were, in reality, the architects of their own downfall, drowning in a flurry of rash strokes to be all out for just 110 without even batting the 20 overs.Both openers gifted catches to infielders inside the first five overs while the captain George Bailey chopped on for just 1. Three soon became four when the dangerous Travis Birt, who looked to be flowing on 15, fell to a sensational one-handed catch by Aaron O’Brien at cover with the total on just 40.The innings was summed up when Rhett Lockyear was stumped after slipping over attempting to sweep and the Tigers never recovered.The spin bowlers of South Australia once again strangled their opponents, with find-of-the-summer Nathan Lyon netting 3 for 14 from four high quality overs, to take Man-of-the match honours. Originally from the ACT, Lyon was plucked from the ground-staff at the Adelaide Oval to play in a Redbacks trial game. The off spinner is now the leading wicket-taker in this year’s Big Bash. English-import Adil Rashid also took 3 for 20 after opening the bowling. He has been a handy acquisition who has fitted into the Redbacks’ game-plan perfectly.The runchase was clinical despite the loss of skipper Michael Klinger to a peach from Ben Hilfenhaus. The Test bowler found some swing in the opening over, squaring-up Klinger with a late moving outswinger, from a good length, which scratched the outside edge.But apart from that success Tasmania had little else to smile about as Dan Harris (66 not out) continued his great form to race to the target inside 12 overs with the help of Kieron Pollard’s replacement, Aiden Blizzard (36 not out). Harris was clinical striking seven boundaries and three sixes, including one off James Faulkner to seal the win.Again the Tigers didn’t help their cause by dropping Blizzard twice and Harris once in consecutive overs to confirm their fate.South Australia are now top of table with their fourth straight victory. They can host the final and book another trip to the Champions League with a win on Friday night against the struggling Bushrangers. Tasmania will need to recoup quickly as they host Western Australia on Thursday.

The Indian board’s list of 12 players retained by their IPL franchises for the next two seasons is good news for those players because they can negotiate the value of their contracts with their respective teams. Yet the retention process appears to undermine one of the fundamental principles of the IPL so far – a common salary cap, and consequently a level playing field for the franchises – and also the BCCI’s declared intention of a more transparent league.The retention process allows teams to hold on to those players it deems crucial to their immediate future; these players are ruled out from the open auction to be held at some point before the next season. In return, the franchise’s spending budget at the auction – a maximum of $9 million – will be cut for each player retained: $1.8 million from the cap for one player, $3.1 for two, $4 million for three and $4.5 million for the maximum of four players.Unlike previous seasons, however, these figures do not correlate to salaries – and do not count towards the salary cap. Indeed, there is no salary cap at all. So the Chennai Super Kings, who retained four players, could hypothetically pay India captain MS Dhoni $3 million, and the other retained players $1 million each, making it a total of $6 million, but still only deduct $4.5 million from their auction pool. Likewise, Delhi Daredevils, who retained only Virender Sehwag, could pay him more or less than $1.8 million, without worrying about the impact on their ability to spend money on other players. The franchises do not have to make these contracts public either.The process has given the franchises more flexibility, and the players the ability to negotiate their salaries without having to accept a winning auction bid as the value of their contract. Yet it seems to end the salary cap, a concept borrowed from American sport and touted by the IPL’s former chairman, Lalit Modi, as a crucial part of its ethos. It is also being pushed by those seeking to reform European football, where the open system perpetuates the success of the big clubs. The cap effectively allowed the “smaller” franchise owners – Kolkata and Punjab, for example, to compete against the large business houses owning the Mumbai and Bangalore franchises.The first auction, in 2008, had a salary cap of $5 million; the second in 2009 had a cap of $2 million. By the time of the third auction the cap had been replaced by a maximum signing amount of $750,000, with multiple bids heading into a secret tie-breaker. Two players – Shane Bond and Kieron Pollard – breached that figure; the final fee for each was never disclosed, known only to Modi and the bidders.There is a similarity between the player-retention process followed in 2010 and the principle of icon players in the first auction – five players who were assigned to their “home” franchises and kept out of open bidding. Yet there’s one difference – the salary of each icon player was calculated at a premium of 10 per cent above the highest price that franchise paid at the auction. Under the present system, such information is not disclosed.That franchises don’t have to disclose the amounts they are paying to this select group of players also creates a lack of transparency for a league that has been accused of not being transparent enough. In one of the first interviews after his appointment, IPL chairman Chirayu Amin said it would “maintain full transparency”. By keeping the salaries of 12 coveted players secret, that promise would seem to be at risk.

There have been some close finishes between Mashonaland Eagles and Mountaineers in recent times, and Mountaineers’ five-wicket win at Harare Sports Club on Thursday was another keenly-contested match. The momentum swung both ways until the penultimate over, when a burst of strokes from Prosper Utseya saw Mountaineers home with six balls to spare. Nick Compton’s superb century had given Eagles the opportunity for a big score, but the lower middle order gave him precious little support and when Eagles bowled they could not halt the determined Mountaineers from recording another win.Both teams were strengthened by the return of a few of the players that had been on national duty in Bangladesh and Eagles decided to bat on winning the toss in warm, dry, partly cloudy conditions. Tendai Chatara bowled a good opening spell that prevented the big-hitting Cephas Zhuwao from taking charge, and soon had him slashing a catch to the keeper for 6.Eagles’ total of 222, though, was composed almost entirely of the two partnerships that came next, with Compton playing the major part in both. First he added 98 in 19 overs with Simba Gupo, and then 73 in 11 overs with Forster Mutizwa, and while he was at the crease his team looked likely to build a very challenging total.He found the pull shot particularly profitable early in his innings, and settled into orthodox accumulation as the bowlers realised a short-pitched attack would not work. The score passed 100 in the 18th over as Gupo contributed a composed 35 before he was out to a brilliant leaping one-handed catch by Timycen Maruma at long-on.Mutizwa then came in and gave Compton good support in his 29, and the total had reached 183 for 2 in the 33rd over when Compton, who had just reached his hundred, departed to a top-edged sweep. The innings unravelled from that point and in the last seven overs seven wickets fell for 39 runs, with Shingi Masakadza being the main beneficiary, taking four of them for 32 runs in his five overs.Tino Mawoyo and Jonathan Beukes began the Mountaineers innings with great determination against steadily bowling that gave nothing away, Chad Keegan being the tightest of all. The batsmen had to rely on keeping the scores moving with ones and twos, but they did at least keep their wickets intact.They were not parted until the 21st over when Mawoyo, on 43, hit a low return catch to Tino Mutombodzi with the score at 101. The scoring rate slowly began to climb, and with ten overs to go 75 runs were needed – but with eight wickets still in hand, Greg Smith having gone for 13.A critical moment occurred when Beukes, on 61, was dropped off a hard low chance to the fielder on the square-leg boundary. Maruma was threatening to take control when he sliced a hard catch into the covers for 25, quickly followed by Mark Vermeulen for 2.But the balance shifted again as Beukes kept accumulating while Masakadza lashed out with much success. With three overs remaining 17 were needed, and for the first time the required rate was below six an over. At this point Beukes, with a fine 86 off 102 balls, hit a return catch to Innocent Chinyoka and the match was wide open again.Utseya scooped a vital boundary over the keeper, off Douglas Hondo, and then swung another four wide of mid-on, and the 12 required runs were completed from the penultimate over. Mountaineers had won with a final burst and an over to spare, Utseya scoring 11 off five balls and Masakadza 27 off 18. The home side had bowled well and Chinyoka had three wickets to his credit, but the Mountaineers had just enough in the tank to get home.The other match of the day, between Mid West Rhinos and Southern Rocks at Kwekwe, was abandoned without a ball bowled due to rainy weather.

Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, has sustained a fracture to the fourth finger of his left hand that could put him out of the upcoming home Test series against India. Smith sustained the injury when he was hit by a Shoaib Akhtar bouncer in the first ODI against Pakistan last month and has aggravated it by playing in the last two ODIs of the same series and the two-Test series in the UAE.”It is the same hand that was injured during the ODI series against Pakistan three weeks ago,” South Africa’s team manager Mohammed Moosajee said. “It was aggravated by the continuous wear and tear involved with fielding and batting and flared up while he was fielding during the current Test match.” Smith was unable to bat in South Africa’s second innings in the second Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.The injury has put Smith’s participation in the first Test against India, which starts in Centurion on December 16, in doubt. The fracture is a non-displaced one but Smith has a history with hand injuries having suffered four separate injuries to his hands in the last two-and-a-half years.Moosajee said the team doctor had advised Smith three weeks rest but because of his history, the team management was not sure when he would be fit again. “It will be a race against time to get him fit for the Test series against India,” Moosajee said. “In our experiences with Graeme, there have been times we said he would need a six-week lay-off and he was ready in four, and other times we said three weeks and it took him longer.”Smith broke his right middle finger during the 2010 Indian Premier League, while a fractured little finger on his left hand kept him out of the ODI series in India in February. Mitchell Johnson broke his right hand twice during South Africa’s home and away series against Australia in 2008-09.

Trevor Barsby, the Queensland coach, has slammed Australia’s selectors for their treatment of the allrounder James Hopes, who has been left out of next week’s one-day series against Sri Lanka. A 15-man squad was chosen but surprisingly there was no room for Hopes, who has not missed any of Australia’s past 15 ODIs but will instead line up for the Bulls.This year has also been one of Hopes’ best on the international scene; he has won two Man-of-the-Match awards since February, having never claimed that honour in his first 71 one-day internationals. Despite his record, Hopes has reportedly been told by the selectors they are looking to take only two allrounders, Shane Watson and Steven Smith, to next year’s World Cup.”I’m not sure what is going on,” Barsby said on Wednesday. “I hope this decision just means they wanted to give James some [domestic] cricket after the Indian series. I would be disgusted if, after having done everything that has been asked of him in the Australian side – whether that be opening the batting, opening the bowling, closing out the innings at No. 6 or 7 or bowling at the death – that they would even think of discarding him like this.”It’s not the sort of treatment you expect of a player who does whatever job was asked of him, and does it by executing his skill to the very best of his ability. You won’t hear the bloke himself complain, that’s not his way. He just gets on with things and puts the team first. But I can say without a shadow of doubt that he remains one of the best players in the country in the limited-overs arena and hopefully the selectors continue to acknowledge that.”Hopes has played 84 ODIs since his debut in 2005 and has a decent collection of 1326 runs at 25.01 and 67 wickets at 35.58, but he is often the first man dropped if the selectors want a different balance. At 32, next year will probably be his final chance to play in a World Cup after he was overlooked in 2007.

Sachin Tendulkar has repeated his reservation against the use of the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), saying that the technology it uses is not totally accurate. “If we know that it is foolproof … you have to find something that is close to 100 per cent,” he was quoted as saying by .The use of UDRS at the 2011 World Cup has been approved in principle but it is yet to be used in India given the opposition of several Indian players, including Tendulkar and captain MS Dhoni, and the BCCI’s apathy. However, some officials of the BCCI and ICC will travel to Australia to watch the system being used during the upcoming Ashes series.Though impressed with the costly Hot Spot technology, Tendulkar said that he was still not convinced that the overall system was foolproof. “You cannot expect overnight results that can give you 100 per cent, it is quite good but we need to be convinced.”India were part of the first trial of the UDRS during their tour of Sri Lanka in 2008. They struggled with their referrals, getting only one of them right, while Sri Lanka successfully challenged 11 decisions. “There were occasions in the past where we were not convinced at all,” Tendulkar said. “I thought the lines were not correct and that’s my personal opinion.”The team has been reluctant to use the technology since, though Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan have expressed their support for the reviews recently.The ICC has maintained that studies have proved the system increases the percentage of correct decision-making from 92% to around 97%.

Rahul Dravid, the India batsman, has called the ICC’s move to hand out first-ever suspensions to three Pakistan cricketers for “irregular behaviour” under the Anti-Corruption Code a positive step but wanted the inquiry against the trio to be taken to its “logical conclusion”. The spot fixing controversy, Dravid told ESPNcricinfo, “is cricket’s biggest chance to clean itself”.”The last thing we need is for the events of this week to be swept under the carpet. No guilt must be attached until the investigations are complete, and everyone deserves a fair chance to defend themselves. But the process must be thorough and comprehensive.”Dravid said that he wanted the investigation of the anti-corruption unit to be completed before the matter moved on to, “a proper inquiry carried out by investigators with the law of the land behind them.” He said the most necessary outcome of the entire episode, “which has been a horrible scar on cricket, cricketers and fans,” would be “swift and strong punishment to anyone found guilty.”In the past, Dravid said, “people once judged guilty turned up after a few months just because time had passed. It was as if everyone had forgotten what days like these feel like for the majority of honest players in the game”.Dravid recommended a complete inquiry with adequate penalties, since it would send out the right message – “that the consequences of getting in contact with the businesses of illegal betting and fraud are extremely severe, whether it is life bans or extended bans on any future livelihood in cricket.”Dravid said he was not fond of the security measures currently in place but every player had to accept it. “No one wants to be under watch all the time – I hate that there are cops and security on our floor in every hotel the team lives in, but that is what the game requires, that is what we must live with.”The ICC’s anti-corruption code is not, he said, merely about “the right rules being laid down but also ensuring that people who break those rules pay the penalties and face the consequences”.

Sussex’s bid for a third successive 40-over league title gained momentum as they eased to a six-wicket win over Surrey at Guildford. An unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 113 in 14.5 overs between skipper Mike Yardy and Andrew Hodd saw Sussex home with 10 balls to spare and took them a point above their rivals and into second place in Clydesdale Bank 40 Group A, although Surrey do have a game in hand.Michael Comber and Adam Wheater, both aged 20, were the Essex heroes as the home side beat Northamptonshire by five wickets in their clash at Southend. They came together with Essex struggling on 100 for 5 in the 22nd over in reply to a total of 215 for 6. But both displayed a cool head on young shoulders to see their side home with nine balls to spare.Jon Lewis smashed 20 off the last over of the game from Tim Murtagh to seal a remarkable three-wicket victory for Gloucestershire over Middlesex . Owais Shah (111) and John Simpson (82) led Middlesex to an imposing 299 for 8 but Gloucestershire were kept in the hunt by Steve Snell (95) and Chris Taylor (85), who plundered 158 in 18 overs for the fifth wicket.Kent recorded their third win of the Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign in emphatic style with an eight-wicket drubbing of Leicestershire with more than 13 overs in hand. Having won the toss and elected to bat, Leicestershire made a stunning start to reach 41 without loss after four overs, only to be dismissed for 148 in 30.1 overs.Tom Smith produced a sparkling all-round performance and Steven Croft weighed in with a career-best 93 not out to help Lancashire seal an eight-wicket victory over Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay. Smith followed up figures of three for 49 with a fine half-century as Lancashire registered their fourth win in the tournament by chasing down 212 to win. Croft’s effort from 90 balls hastened Lancashire’s victory charge as they won with 16 balls to spare.Opening batsmen Michael Lumb and Jimmy Adams led Hampshire to a resounding six-wicket win over Durham at the Rose Bowl with 31 balls to spare. Lumb signalled his return to form after a poor first half to the season by making 75, while Adams top-scored with 86. Chasing Durham’s 205 for 8 from their 40 overs, a total which never looked like being enough, Hampshire got home in the 35th over.A century from Jacques Rudolph set Yorkshire on their way to an eight-run victory over Derbyshire at Chesterfield to keep them top of Group B in the Clydesdale Bank 40. The South African scored 105, sharing a second-wicket stand of 144 in 22 overs with Adam Lyth, who made 91, as Yorkshire made 276 for 6 from their 40 overs. Chesney Hughes hit 54 and Wayne Madsen 65 from 57 balls but, despite a late charge from Graham Wagg (27) in his first game since late April, the Falcons came up short on 268 for 8.Powerful half-centuries from David Hussey and Chris Read set Nottinghamshire on their way to a comfortable 75-run victory over Scotland . After coming together in the 24th over with the score at 116 for 4, the pair put on 89 for the fifth wicket with Hussey smashing 80 from 67 balls, including two sixes and six fours, before being caught on the midwicket boundary. Read also hit two maximums and six boundaries in his 69 not out from 50 balls as the hosts finished on 260 for 5, having added 115 in the last 10 overs.Somerset limped to their seventh Clydesdale Bank 40 win in seven games by beating the Unicorns by three wickets at Exmouth. Marcus Trescothick’s side shook off the loss of their skipper to a second ball duck to chase down their target of 167 with two overs to spare. A second-wicket stand of 67 in 14 overs between Nick Compton (64) and Craig Kieswetter (30) broke the back of the semi-professional team’s resistance. The result was rarely in doubt after the Unicorns made just 166 for 9.