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Match facts

Sunday, May 22, Kolkata
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Sachin Tendulkar will want to improve his strike-rate•AFP

Big Picture

Both the teams have got good news even before they start playing their last game. Kings XI Punjab, two points behind them, were the only side that could prevent them from progressing to the play-offs, and they lost to Deccan Chargers to clear the way. That doesn’t make this game inconsequential, though. The two teams ahead of them are ahead by just one and two points respectively with one game to play. So Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians will be playing to make it to the elusive top two, for those sides get a second chance even if they lose their first qualifier.If Chennai Super Kings (18 points) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (17 points) in the preceding game, the winner here will directly make it to the top two. If Bangalore win, though, Kolkata and Mumbai (both at 16 points) will look for a win big enough to take them past Chennai’s net run-rate. There is all to play for on the final Sunday of the long and winding IPL.

Form guide (most recent first)

Kolkata Knight Riders: WLWLW (third in points table)
Mumbai Indians LLLWW (fourth in points table)

Team talk

Now is the time that teams will want to stop experimenting with their combinations. Kolkata, though, will have to wait on Jacques Kallis’ fitness, who didn’t bat in their win over Pune Warriors on May 19.Mumbai haven’t quite been experimenting too much, and despite three straight losses will feel comfortable with their XI. Except they need a suitable opening partner for Sachin Tendulkar. How they will hope that Davy Jacobs is fit.Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team Selector.

In the spotlight

Deserving owner of the orange cap at one point in the tournament, Sachin Tendulkar has failed to score at more than a run a ball in his last five efforts. His strike-rate over the season has been 107.33. He will want to set the record straight in the final stages of the tournament.Shakib Al Hasan has been used sparingly by Kolkata, but whenever he’s been called on he has made an impact. Nine wickets in five matches is a strike-rate of a wicket every two overs – priceless. Will he be part of their plans in this crucial final stage of the tournament?

Prime numbers

• Yusuf Pathan has yet to score to a half-century in his nine innings. That doesn’t make him a failure, though. Used as an impact batsman, Yusuf has scored 221 runs off 150 balls.
• Among bowlers with a minimum of 10 wickets this year, Lasith Malinga’s strike-rate of a wicket every 11.3 deliveries is the best
  

  The chatter

  “We want to go out there and look to win the next game as they we would have a very bright chance of moving into the second spot in the table, so that’s what we will focus on.”

South Africa expect to be back to full strength for their final group match against Bangladesh on Saturday. AB de Villiers, Imran Tahir and Dale Steyn have recovered from their respective injuries and will undergo fitness tests on Friday to confirm their availability.”We will have a fully fit 15-man squad to choose from,” Mohammed Mossajee, the team manager, said in Dhaka. “It’s been a busy couple of days managing everyone but they’re all fine now.”de Villiers strained a muscle in his left thigh during the match against India in Nagpur five days ago and was rested for the game against Ireland on Tuesday. Moosajee said his rehabilitation was “progressing well,” and he should be able to take to the field on Saturday. There is no update on his stiff back, which has prevented him from wicketkeeping in the last three matches he played. South Africa used Morne van Wyk behind the stumps and it’s likely that he will continue in that role with de Villiers returning as a specialist batsman.Legspinner Tahir fractured his left thumb while taking a catch of his own bowling against England two weeks ago. Although the injury was not on his bowling hand, he was advised ten days rest and the selection committee decided to enforce the period immediately after the diagnosis was made. They could have risked playing Tahir against India and left him out of the matches against Ireland and Bangladesh.”Strictly speaking, ten days would be tomorrow, so there is no reason why he shouldn’t be considered for the Bangladesh match,” Moosajee said. Tahir’s fitness test will also include fielding drills and batting in the nets to ensure that he is not in any danger of aggravating the injury.Steyn sustained a small niggle on his side while bowling against Ireland. He completed four overs in his first spell, before he felt some discomfort and was taken off as a precaution after that. “It has turned out not to be as serious as we initially thought,” Moosajee said. “He has had some physiotherapy and should be fit.”Injuries haven’t been the only concern in the South African camp, with illness also affecting some of their players. A few of them, like Colin Ingram who made his World Cup debut against Ireland, picked up stomach bugs over the past week. Moosajee said all of them had recovered.

by 340 runs
ScorecardKane Richardson and Joe Burns put on sterling performances on debut to ensure their sides were on equal footing after the first day. Richardson, who was Man of the Match in the Ryobi One Day Cup against Queensland last week, took a wicket in each of his first three overs to carve up the Queenland top order.Burns’ maiden innings came sooner than he may have expected with the score on 3 for 11 in the eighth over. He combined with the experienced James Hopes to post a fourth-wicket partnership of 149. Hopes clipped a ball back onto his stumps after lunch to depart eight runs short of a century but Burns was unmoved and batted through the rest of the innings. He enjoyed a 52-run stand with another debutant, Jason Floros, and shared an eighth-wicket stand of 51 with Chris Swan, whose run-a-ball 37 took Queensland past the 300 mark.Richardson removed Swan to claim his fourth wicket of the innings, with Christian taking the catch at second slip. Christian then added a run-out to his two wickets to end the Queensland innings.South Australia will resume on 7 without loss on day two.

After the Ranji Trophy semi-final between Baroda and Karnataka ended in one-and-a-half days on a sharp turner, the track for the final has expectedly attracted attention from various quarters. The BCCI even sent its curator Sudhir Naik to inspect the surface at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara, the venue for Tuesday’s final between Baroda and Rajasthan.Naik’s visit followed Karnataka’s complaint to the match referee about the dry pitch at the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara, where thirty-three wickets tumbled before tea on the second day of the semi-final, resulting in a shock exit for the visitors. But Naik allayed all concerns, saying the Moti Bagh track was a good wicket. “It is the right choice for the final, and will assist both the pacers as well as spinners,” he told the .The captains of both the teams in the final agreed with Naik’s assessment. “I think there should be some help there for the seamers,” Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the Rajasthan captain, said. “It looks a fine surface, but in a five-day game the pitch can change its nature as the game goes on.” The Baroda captain Pinal Shah said the wicket would take some turn as the game progressed.Both captains would hope their reading of the pitch turns out to be correct, as their bowling attacks will be accordingly calibrated. Rajasthan are banking on their seam trio of Pankaj Singh, Deepak Chahar and Sumit Mathur, while Baroda could go in with two specialist spinners in Bhargav Bhatt and Aditya Waghmode, as well as Swapnil Singh, a batting allrounder who bowls left-arm spin.The wicket is devoid of grass and looks good for batting. “It is a typical red soil wicket. It should break up a bit and turn from the third day onwards,” Aakash Chopra, the Rajasthan opener, said. Amit Asawa, the Rajasthan coach, said he did not see the game lasting beyond four days.Swing is usually a major factor at Moti Bagh, a stadium that has no stands and lies in the sprawling Lakshmi Vilas Palace complex amid scores of trees. The wind blows vigorously at the ground, and the ball nips around in the morning session. “The first session is always the key at Moti Bagh,” Pinal said. However, if one can survive till lunch, the lush outfield and true bounce provides good value for shots.”It does not seam much here, but another thing you have to take into account is the amount of dew,” Mukesh Narula, the Baroda coach, said. “For the last week or so, there has not been much dew here, and there was none at the Reliance Stadium. But it’s winter now and if the dew comes, it will definitely have an impact.” There are a lot of variables for the teams to ponder over, but given how the wicket looks, another finish inside two days is unlikely.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA composed half-century from Aftab Alam has put Habib Bank Limited firmly in control of their Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Division One final against Pakistan International Airlines at the National Stadium in Karachi. Alam began aggressively after HBL were set 235 for victory, flicking Shan Masood’s first delivery to the deep midwicket fence, then cutting and driving Aizaz Cheema for consecutive boundaries a few overs later. The loss of first-innings centurion Imran Farhat, caught and bowled by Kamran Sajid, forced HBL to shut shop, and only 17 runs came from the next 20.2 overs.The dismissal of Khaqan Arsal, who made nine painstaking runs from 61 deliveries, seemed to stir Alam from his stupor, and he unfurled two glorious drives either side of the wicket in the same Anwar Ali over. HBL sent out Fahad Masood as a nightwatchman, who had batted with assurance in the first innings to make a half-century down the order, and he ensured there would be no more hiccups, adding 43 with Alam as they whittled their target down to 134 by the close of play.A fighting knock from Faisal Iqbal, who made 84, helped extend PIA’s overnight lead from 147 to 235. Iqbal found a willing ally in Najaf Shah, and the pair added 76 for the ninth wicket to take PIA past 300 and the lead past 200. Fahad Masood eventually dislodged Iqbal, getting him to edge a fuller delivery to the keeper, and then wrapped the PIA innings by bowling Cheema for 14.

The ICC has announced the final squads for the six-team ICC World Cricket League Division 3 tournament, which will be played from January 22 to 29, 2011 in Hong Kong.Teams from Denmark, Italy, USA, Oman and Papua New Guinea will join hosts Hong Kong for the tournament. The top two sides will win promotion to Division 2, which will be staged in the United Arab Emirates in April 2011.The matches will be hosted at three grounds in Hong Kong – Kowloon CC, Hong Kong CC and Mission Road.The teams will arrive in Hong Kong on January 20 and have one day to practice before the matches start.Denmark: Michael Pedersen (capt), Aftab Ahmed, Rizwan Mahmood, Raja Javed, Martin Pedersen, Jacob Larsen, Bashir Shah, Troels Thøgersen, Bobby Chawla, Yasir Iqbal, Frederik Klokker, Carsten Pedersen, David Borchersen, Naveed MugfalHong Kong: Najeeb Amar (capt), Nadeem Ahmed, Irfan Ahmed, Waqas Barkat, Tabarak Dar, Khalid Butt, Asif Khan, Courtney Kruger; Roy Lansam, Mark Chapman, Nizakat Mohammad, Moner Muhammad, Adil Mehmood, Mohammad Aizaz KhanItaly: Alessandro Bonora (capt), Roshendra Abewickrama, Din Alaud, Damian Crowley, Gayashan Munasinghe, Dilan Fernando, Thushara Kurukulasuriya, Damian Fernando, Andrew Northcote, Hayden Patrizi, Peter Petricola, Michael Raso, Hemantha Jayasena, Vincenzo PennazzaOman: Hemal Mehta (capt), Qais bin Khalid al Said, Sufyan Mehmood, Sultan Ahmed, Hemin Pratap Desai, Vaibhav Wategaonkar, Jatinder Singh, Deep Trivedi, Rajeshkumar Ranpura, Awal Khan, Syed Amir Ali, Adnan Ilyas, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Khalid RasheedPapua New Guinea: Rarua Dikana Boge (capt), Chris Amini, Assadollah Vala, Kila Pala, Loa Nou, Pipi Raho, Mahuru Dai, Raymond Haoda Jnr, Chris Kent, Jack Vare-Kevera, Tony Ura, Kapena Arua, Hitolo Areni, Jason KilaUSA: Steve Massiah (capt), Muhammed Ghous, Lennox Cush, Usman Shuja, Rashard Marshall, Sushil Nadkarni, Ritesh Kadu, Orlando Baker, Carl Wright, Aditya Thyagarajan, Kevin Darlington, Durale Forrest, Asif Mehmood Khan, Ryan Corns

Group B

Manish Pandey’s second century of the season helped Karnataka set Himachal Pradesh 286 to chase in the last innings•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Haryana completed their upset of Group B table-toppers Uttar Pradesh at the Mohan Meakins Cricket Stadium in Ghaziabad, winning by nine wickets in the end. UP started the day in trouble at 68 for 3, still needing 37 to make Haryana bat again. By the time they crossed that mark, their captain Mohammad Kaif had become Chennai Super Kings and Haryana seamer Joginder Sharma’s fourth victim. UP opener Tanmay Srivastava battled to get to 60, but when he fell, two more wickets fell quickly and then Joginder came back to take two more wickets and UP were out for 174. Joginder’s six scalps took him to the top of the wicket-takers list for the season with 22 in four matches. Haryana made short work of the 71-run target, getting there in 20 overs. The win takes them to within three points of UP, and they have played one fewer game.The match between Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh in Dharmasala could go down to the wire as the hosts need another 133 to win with five wickets in hand, going in to the last day. Karnataka had a chance to end the low-scoring affair on the third day, having Himachal stuttering at 52 for 5 in their chase of 286. But wicketkeeper Manvinder Bisla and captain Paras Dogra put together an unbeaten 101-run partnership to keep Himachal’s hopes alive. The target crossed the 250-run mark almost solely due to the efforts of Manish Pandey, who scored 112 of Karnataka’s 230 second-innings runs. Himachal seamer Mohinderraj Sharma finished with nine wickets in the match after his figures of 4 for 52 in Karnataka’s second innings. Karnataka still hold the edge going into the final day, but will need to break the partnership between Bisla and Dogra early.Punjab are within touching distance of three points, but will look to convert it to six as they reduced Orissa to 216 for 7 at the East Coast Railway Sports Association in Bhubaneswar. Orissa still need 184 runs to avoid the follow-on and if Punjab take their three remaining first-innings wickets early on Saturday morning, the hosts could be under pressure. It could have been worse for Orissa as they were 87 for 4 at one stage, after Chennai Super Kings and Punjab fast bowler Manpreet Gony and legspinner Sarabjit Ladda had taken two wickets each. Biplab Samantray helped stop a collapse with his 33 and then wicketkeeper Surobjit Sahoo scored 43 to take Orissa past 200. Gony and Ladda finished the day with three wickets apiece.

Group A

Mumbai are ten points clear of their nearest rivals at the top of the Group A table after they beat Gujarat by an innings and 167 runs at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium in Valsad. Gujarat lost eighteen wickets on the third day, first collapsing from their overnight score of 121 for 2 to 162 all out and then getting bowled out for 215 in their second innings. Ajit Agarkar, the former India fast bowler, struck the first blow of the morning, dismissing Niraj Patel for 61. Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel, who will join the India squad for the fourth and fifth ODIs against New Zealand, followed for 33 and the rest of Gujarat’s scorecard made sorry reading. Five of their last six bastsmen were out for ducks as Agarkar helped himself to figures of 4 for 35. Gujarat didn’t fare much better in their second attempt. There were a couple of starts for Niraj and opener Rikin Chauhan, and Sunny Patel got 58, but Gujarat couldn’t take the game to a fourth day. Mumbai left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah, who was only needed to bowl three overs in Gujarat’s first innings, took 5 for 58 in their second.Delhi seamer Pawan Suyal took a hat-trick to give Delhi the edge in their match against Assam at the Roshanara Club Ground. Suyal dismissed Dhiraj Goswami with the delivery before lunch and then came out and got Assam’s last two wickets in his first two balls after the break. It was a day of two halves for the visitors. In the first 42 overs of the third day, they lost eight wickets to crash to 239 all out from their overnight score of 118 for 2, allowing Delhi to enforce the follow-on. But in the next 56, they reached 183 for 3 in their second innings to give themselves a chance of saving the game. They are now just 50 runs behind Delhi and with Dheeraj Jadhav, who also got a half-century in their first innings, still at the wicket on 69, will hope to bat till around tea tomorrow.It was slow going as Saurashtra scored 177 runs in 91 overs against Railways on the third day at the Khandheri Cricket Stadium in Rajkot. They did, however, manage to avoid the follow-on as they reached 284 for 6 by stumps, but Railways will still fancy themselves to take three points from the match, as Saurashtra need another 131 to overhaul their first innings total. Saurashtra wicketkeeper Sagar Jogiyani scored 113 – his second first-class century – and Shitanshu Kotak had a strike rate of 28.40 during his 50. Railways seamer Jai P Yadav, who has played 12 ODIs for India, took 4 for 66.After two days of rain, the India Cement Limited Guru Nanak College Ground in Chennai finally saw some cricket as Bengal bowled 41 overs on the third day. Tamil Nadu elected to bat and were 126 for 4 at stumps. Opener Abhinav Mukund failed to capitalise on a start and was out to Ashok Dinda, who took three wickets. With neither team likely to pick up points, barring a dramatic last day, Subramaniam Badrinath may take the opportunity to reclaim his position at the top of the run charts. He is batting on 33 and needs another 23 to overtake Mumbai’s Wasim Jaffer. Sourav Ganguly is in the Bengal side and will be hoping that he gets a knock on Saturday.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Harbhajan Singh made his career-best score of 69•AFP

It was not the one-way traffic that was expected, but India were well on top after the second day in Ahmedabad. In an hour either side of the lunch break, New Zealand’s spinners ripped through the Indian middle-order, before struggling to wipe out the tail.The fans had turned up hoping to see crowd-pleasing batsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni, but it was Harbhajan Singh who kept them cheering by making his highest Test score, and eighth Test half-century, to push India towards 500. New Zealand lost two early wickets in their reply after which key batsmen, Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor, safely played out the final hour.The New Zealand spinners had plenty of work to do on the first day, and there was even more responsibility on them today after debutant fast bowler Hamish Bennett picked up a groin injury that prevented him from taking the field. Vettori bowled unchanged almost until lunch, giving away only 13 runs, but it was the other slow bowlers who got the morning breakthroughs.India had jogged to 383 for 4, adding 54 leisurely runs with few alarms, when Jeetan Patel struck. Tendulkar fell punching a length ball back to Patel at waist height, and his serene march towards a record-equalling 11th 50-plus score in successive Tests was cut short.If that seemed a bonus, given that New Zealand had been tidy but nonthreatening all morning, they had more to celebrate soon. Suresh Raina had already edged several deliveries in a short stay when he went hard at the ball but succeeded only in hitting it to McCullum at short extra cover, giving Kane Williamson his first Test wicket. Then, in the final over before the break, Laxman was caught plumb in front as Patel got the ball to sneak past his bat to trap him lbw. Laxman was unhappy with decision, but a jubilant New Zealand went into lunch savouring their best session of the game.A swift end to the Indian innings looked imminent after Vettori’s double-strike early in the post-lunch session: MS Dhoni inside-edged to forward short leg for 10, and Zaheer Khan was bowled for 1 by an arm ball to leave India at 412 for 8.Harbhajan, though, began to attack soon after Zaheer’s dismissal, clobbering Patel onto the roof beyond long-on and then slogging him to cow corner for four. His spin partner, Pragyan Ojha, supported him with a dour innings that barely had any forceful strokes. His dogged 73-minute stay came to an end when he padded up to an arm ball from Patel.By then, Ojha had done his job, which was to support Harbhajan. There was a brief lull after Harbhajan’s initial assault, but the big shots reappeared soon after. The tireless Vettori was thumped through extra cover, and in his next over Harbhajan skipped beyond leg stump and hammered Vettori over mid-off first for four and then for six.Harbhajan was more circumspect against the quick bowlers, though there was a blast past mid-off off Jesse Ryder to move past his previous Test best of 66. He has spoken of his ambition to make a Test century, but it wasn’t to be today as he bottom-edged a late cut to the keeper on 69.Still, he had helped set New Zealand’s misfiring batting a huge challenge. McCullum, playing as a specialist batsman, was opening for the first time since 2004 and he started with a flurry of boundaries – two off Sreesanth from his first four deliveries, and two more off Zaheer in the fifth over. But Tim McIntosh departed for without scoring, a short ball from Zaheer stayed low and McIntosh gloved it through to the keeper while attempting to duck. BJ Watling began brightly but was bowled off his first ball against spin in India – playing down the wrong line against Ojha.New Zealand were 27 for 2, before McCullum and Taylor made sure there was no more damage. There were some close calls – a massive lbw shout against Taylor who was hit just outside off, and a McCullum edge just wide of slip among them – but the senior batsmen largely reined in their natural aggressive instincts to remain unbeaten till stumps.It was a far better day for New Zealand than the first day, though the advantage provided by centuries from Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid, and the belligerent hitting from Harbhajan, meant the visitors are still second-best after two days.

Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive, believes that the country’s domestic Twenty20 winners will be invited to next year’s Champions League Twenty20, despite their struggle to compete in the first two editions of the event.”I would be confident that a New Zealand team is still a very cemented part of the Champions League,” Vaughan told the . “Obviously the tournament organisers have the ability to review that, but my understanding is that the number of teams would remain the same, if not expand.”Central Districts Stags, the current New Zealand Twenty20 champions, failed to win a single game from four matches in the ongoing Champions League in South Africa, crashing to a 74-run defeat to Sri Lanka’s Wayamba in their last group encounter. Otago lost both their games in the inaugural edition of the tournament last year.Central Districts were competitive in two of their matches though, against Victoria and South Africa’s Warriors, taking both games to the final over. “Obviously, the final match was disappointing, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they were pretty competitive in a couple of their games,” Vaughan said. “I don’t think you can draw conclusions on the basis of one poor performance by the Stags.”There were some mitigating factors as well. Central Districts lost Ross Taylor to IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore, and were missing the injured duo of Graham Napier and Jacob Oram.NZC has decided to allow two overseas players per team in the domestic Twenty20 event, the HRV Cup, which will be played in December, and Vaughan said the decision could brighten New Zealand’s chances next year, depending on whether the overseas players were available to play for the New Zealand franchise that qualifies.Central Districts did benefit gain financially from the event though. The team took home US$400,000 – US$200,000 as their share of the prize money and another US$200,000 as compensation from Bangalore for the right to have Ross Taylor play for them. Under the NZC agreement, Central Districts gets two-sevenths of the money, with the rest divided equally among the other five major associations.

ScorecardAndrew Gale’s outstanding hundred built a big lead for Yorkshire•PA Photos

Nottinghamshire’s County Championship aspirations took a hammer blow after being bowled out by challengers Yorkshire in their first innings for 59 – their lowest total in 22 years. England seamer Ajmal Shahzad picked up the first two wickets on his way to 4 for 21 while Oliver Hannon-Dalby ripped out the tail with 4 for 18 as Nottinghamshire collapsed in just 33.2 overs.Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale then hit an unbeaten 147 not out to deepen their misery as the visitors racked up 260 for 8 in reply, giving them a lead of 201 and putting them right back in the race for their first Championship pennant since 2001.Andre Adams added to his career-best season haul of 58 wickets with 4 for 82 but Nottinghamshire already face a massive challenge to rescue anything from the game and stay ahead of second-placed Somerset.With heavy overnight rain leaving the pitch looking extremely green, it was an easy decision for Gale to insert Nottinghamshire after winning the toss and Trent Bridge once again proved to be a seam bowler’s paradise. Shahzad struck in the opening over as makeshift opener Paul Franks chased a ball outside off and edged to third slip, while Alex Hales also hung his bat out six overs later to offer Adil Rashid an excellent diving catch at fourth slip.Academy bowler Moin Ashraf, making his Championship debut at 18, showed excellent control to claim two notable scalps in removing Adam Voges and Samit Patel in consecutive overs. Hannon-Dalby then had Ali Brown, Chris Read and Steven Mullaney lbw in the space of seven balls either side of lunch, with Shahzad returning to dismiss top-scorer Mark Wagh for 22 and the tail subsiding swiftly.Needing to pick up early wickets to stay in the game, Nottinghamshire instead offered up easy runs, with Darren Pattinson particularly culpable. He was hauled off after three overs for 19 and his replacement Adams struck twice in two balls, Jacques Rudolph and Adam Lyth edging to gully and second slip respectively.But Gale rode his luck in the early stages before punishing width with increasing confidence to post his third century of the season from just 85 balls, slowing down in the final session.He was the only batsman to truly master the conditions all day, dominating a partnership of 111 for the fourth wicket with Jonathan Bairstow (36), who was the third of Adams’ victims, with Franks picking up three and Patel one.