Australia, Afghanistan and Bangladesh post wins.

Australia bowled New Zealand out for 83 to win their first World Twenty20 warm-up in Colombo by 56 runs. New Zealand's chase was constantly punctured by wickets and only three batsmen managed to score in double figures. The rot started at the beginning of the innings, when three wickets had fallen for eight runs by the third over. The only resistance came during a 31-run stand for the fourth wicket between captain Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson. At 59 for 7, when the last specialist batsman Williamson was dismissed by Brad Hogg, the contest was over. Hogg took the wickets of Williamson, Taylor and James Franklin, and Shane Watson also bowled economically, taking 2 for 7 in three overs.Bangladesh registered a comfortable five-wicket victory against Zimbabwe, achieving the target of 135 with ten balls to spare. Led by opener Mohammad Ashraful's 38, the chase was structured around two big partnerships of 52 and 50. There was a hiccup when Bangladesh lost three wickets for five runs to slip to 85 for 5, but Mahmudullah and Ziaur Rahman saw them through. Three Zimbabwe bowlers - seamer Brian Vitori, offspinner Prosper Utseya and left-arm spinner Ray Price - proved expensive, going for 10, 13.50 and 9.25 runs per over.

A solid batting performance by Afghanistan helped them defeat Sri Lanka A by 51 runs in Colombo. Their innings was built around a 109-run partnership off 58 balls between opener Mohammad Shahzad and Asghar Stanikzai, which nullified the advantage Sri Lanka A had gained by taking two wickets in the first over without a run on the board. Both Shahzad and Stanikzai, however, were dismissed in the 11th over for 48 and 50 respectively. Mohammad Nabi then scored 51 off 24 balls with five sixes, as he had stands of 30 and 56 with Shafiqullah and Gulbodin Naib to help his team cross the 200-run mark.

Seamer Nuwan Pradeep, who gave Sri Lanka A a positive start with two wickets in the first over, proved expensive, going for 10.75 runs per over. Their best bowler was legspinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi, who took 3 for 16 in his four overs.


Sri Lanka A began the chase of 209 well, their openers put on 30 off 22 balls before Shehan Jayasuriya fell to Mohammad Nabi. From 50 for 1, they lost three wickets for seven runs, which included two batsmen stumped off legspinner Samiullah Shenwari. Sri Lanka A lost wickets regularly thereafter and only Kosala Kulasekara stuck around to give them some hope, scored 63 off 38 balls. Kulasekara's wicket in the 17th over signaled the end of the contest. Daulat Zadran took 3 for 22 while all four other bowlers also took wickets.

Dhoni, Irfan perform in warm-up win;

India 146 for 5 (Dhoni 55*) beat Sri Lanka 120 (Irfan 5-25) by 26 runs.

A 78-run recovery stand and a belligerent finish from MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma paved the way for India's 26-run win over Sri Lanka in a warm up match on a P Sara surface with plenty of bounce.

Sri Lanka's seamers reduced India to 51 for 4 after 8.3 overs, with Gautam Gambhir having retired hurt, but Dhoni and Rohit first steadied the innings, before reaping 62 runs from the last four wayward overs to reach 146 for 5. Sri Lanka never had their chase on track, losing wickets throughout their innings as the required rate ballooned. However, they were effectively without their best Twenty20 batsman, Mahela Jayawardene, who only came in to bat in the 19th over, having had time in the middle against West Indies in Sri Lanka's first warm up match.

At the end of the 16th over in the first innings, India were only on 84 and Dhoni had scored 14 from 28 balls. However, with three boundaries behind square off Nuwan Kulasekara in the 17th, Dhoni launched the salvo India had carefully built towards. Lasith Malinga's abysmal run against India continued in the 18th and 20th overs - both of which cost 17 - as Rohit and Dhoni employed aerial square-drives to flay Malinga's wide yorkers over backward point. Rohit was dismissed attempting that stroke in the last over, but with the helicopter shot whirring nicely, Dhoni launched a six to finish the innings and propelled India to a formidable total on a difficult track. 


The recovery had come after Gautam Gambhir had been struck on the wrist by Malinga in the first over, and though he retired hurt as a precautionary measure, Gambhir did not sustain anything worse than a bruise. Kulasekara removed Suresh Raina and Virender Sehwag, but was expensive again, having also bled runs in Sri Lanka's first practice match.

India's collapse called for caution early in Dhoni and Rohit's association, and the pair were content to accumulate, as a disciplined Sri Lanka attack allowed few chances for risk-free hitting. With Ajantha Mendis and Akila Dananjaya rested - perhaps to give India as little exposure to the pair as possible, should the teams meet in the knockout stages - Rangana Herath fired in three overs for eight runs, having earlier picked up the scalp of Yuvraj Singh with a doosra.

Sri Lanka's seamers continued to exploit the bounce in the surface, but unlike the top-order batsmen, Dhoni and Rohit were not tempted to attack the short ball until the late charge came. 


In reply, Dilshan Munaweera missed a straight one from Irfan Pathan to begin Sri Lanka's own top-order decline, before Tillakaratne Dilshan and Angelo Mathews also departed before the Powerplay overs were through. Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne played at firefighting, attempting the same recovery-then-explosion that Dhoni and Rohit had provided, but neither could make their expansive strokes stick when the time for acceleration came.

Jeevan Mendis offered Sri Lanka some hope with a busy 26, but tight bowling from India's seamers ensured Sri Lanka had too much to do in the final few overs. Five Sri Lanka wickets fell in a heap in the last two overs, as they attempted their belated surge.

Sangakkara wins big in ICC awards;

Kumar Sangakkara has won three awards, including the prestigious Cricketer of the Year and Test Cricketer of the Year at the annual ICC awards ceremony in Colombo. Sangakkara also won the People's Choice prize, an honour he had received last year as well.

For Cricketer and Test Cricketer of the Year, Sangakkara was chosen ahead of South Africa's Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander, and Australia captain Michael Clarke.

He was prolific in both Tests and ODIs during the 12-month voting period ending in early August: in 14 Tests, he compiled 1,444 runs at an average of 60.16, including five centuries and five half-centuries, highlighted by a match-saving 211 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi; in 37 ODIs, he scored 1457 runs with three hundreds, and also completed 39 catches and three stumpings as a wicketkeeper.

"This is an amazing honour and I've seen the people who have won it before me and the nominees too, to be named alongside them is wonderful," Sangakkara said after receiving the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for Cricketer of the Year from ICC president Alan Isaac. "I admire them greatly and even more so when I looked up at their records on the screen this evening. It's great to be amongst them but now to receive this honour this evening, is simply fantastic."

Previous winners of the Cricketer of the Year award include Rahul Dravid (2004), Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis (joint winners in 2005), Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008), Mitchell Johnson (2009), Sachin Tendulkar (2010) and Jonathan Trott (2011).

West Indies legend Brian Lara presented Sangakkara with the Test Cricketer award. "I'm continuing to ensure I am consistent and I need to keep raising the bar each year and keep trying harder and harder to ensure I keep playing good Test cricket," Sangakkara said. "It's a constant battle but I have the support of a great team that helps me to do the best I can."

Sangakkara missed out though on a third major gong when Virat Kohli was named ODI Cricketer of the Year, an award Sangakkara had won in 2011.

Sunil Narine was adjudged the Emerging Cricketer of the year at the ICC Awards in Colombo

Sunil Narine was adjudged the Emerging Cricketer of the year at the ICC Awards in Colombo.

The Most Open T20 WORLD CUP so Far;

The most open World Twenty20 so far

No home advantage, no points for familiarity with the conditions, no guesses for who could win it;
There was a time when the subcontinent was mystery, assigned dark and exotic shades. It was the land of the unknown, rendered even more so by inventive prose. You got the feeling that visiting teams were waiting for the unexpected, that, peculiarly, they expected it, and were almost ready to succumb to it. Either they weren't aware of how to combat the conditions or, more likely, they were just unwilling to. A tour to this part of the world brought out the best in cricket writers, rarely in cricketers.A couple of days ago I saw two giant New Zealanders, they of the land that had seemed beyond the unknown to us, understand the subcontinent like it was their own. And it struck me that the mystique had gone. Jacob Oram and James Franklin seemed so at ease that they might have been bowling at Eden Park, indeed that the Feroz Shah Kotla might have been as familiar to them as Eden Park was. The world had shrunk and India was now the playground of the cricket world. Two New Zealanders had beaten India playing an Indian game.

And so, as the World Twenty20 begins across the Palk Strait, I wonder if knowledge of local conditions is a qualification anymore; whether slow bowlers who take the pace off the ball speak only in our accents. Wristy players with exotic shots now hail from Ireland, mystery spinners from Trinidad, and even those from Dunedin and Hobart are increasingly at home in Pallekele and Visakhapatnam.

And so this is as open a World T20 as any you will see. You could argue, and you would argue fairly, that the smaller a match the more open it is anyway, but in earlier editions the format was still unfamiliar and there were times when the slow, low pitches of the subcontinent could negate teams like New Zealand, South Africa and England. Not anymore. The IPL is now five years old, the Big Bash has gathered steam, there is excitement around England's T20, and little leagues have sprung up in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. As cuisines go global, so does short-form cricket.
The groups don't matter anymore, and the rankings still have insufficient data to make for fair and informed assessments. As Australia have shown, the number ten ranking can be made to look both correct and ridiculous in the space of two days. Look at their matches against Pakistan. In the 2010 World Twenty20 semi-final they got 80 in six overs; recently they struggled to make that many in 20 overs, and a couple of days later they bowled Pakistan out for 74. Any of those days could have been a final, so predictions will be foolhardy.
To me, this World Twenty20 will be a search for the joy in West Indies cricket. Anyone can win it but West Indies will bring more smiles to faces.

PCB officials to skip ICC awards over Ajmal snub;

PCB officials to skip ICC awards over Ajmal snub;
The PCB has decided to not send its senior board officials to the ICC awards ceremony in Colombo on Saturday, as a protest over the exclusion of offspinner Saeed Ajmal from shortlists for two of the top awards. The Pakistan board, though, said it has, "decided not to [fully] boycott the awards ceremony and as a token send some squad members to the event".

Ajmal is the No. 1 ranked bowler in both one-dayers and T20Is, and the top-ranked spinner in Tests, but has been overlooked for the Cricketer of the Year and Test Cricketer of the Year nominations.

A meeting of senior officials was held at the PCB headquarters, headed by PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf, 

to decide whether to go for further 'robust protest'. The board said it will take up the issue at the upcoming ICC chief executives committee meeting. "The ICC's process of the short-listing needs to be reviewed and there should be a mechanism to correct errors," the PCB said in a press release.

The PCB earlier had lodged a written protest with the ICC after Ajmal was left off the awards shortlist last week and ICC refused to reconsider Ajmal's case, saying that the voting results are final and binding on everyone.

Ajmal was in the longlist this year but missed out when an independent 32-member jury that included former Pakistan captain Aamer Sohail and Pakistan journalist Majid Bhatti nominated Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara, South Africa fast bowler Vernon Philander, Australia captain Michael Clarke and South Africa opener Hashim Amla for Test Cricketer of the Year.

The 34-year-old Ajmal, took 72 Test wickets between August 4, 2011 and August 6, 2012 - the qualifying period for the award. That haul included 24 at 14.70 against England, the then No. 1 side in the world, helping Pakistan sweep them 3-0 in January.

The omission, according to the PCB "is an injustice to the talent and achievements" of Ajmal. "The PCB has strongly registered its protest with the ICC already and has conveyed them the sentiments of the people of Pakistan and fans and legends of cricket on this issue," the release said.

The Pakistan board also said it wanted changes to the process. "The matter will be raised in the upcoming CEC meeting of the ICC and a review of the process would be sought to avoid any such incidents in future. Corrective measures would be suggested.

"The PCB will impress upon this issue at other forums of cricketing community and all necessary input will be sought to devise a mechanism which is performance based and is acceptable to a wider segment of cricket fans."