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Murali Vijay, who managed just 25 opening against South Africa on the same ground three days earlier, made the most this time•Getty Images

It was deja vu again for Bengal as Tamil Nadu stormed to their second successive Vijay Hazare Trophy title, with a thumping win at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera. Having been outgunned by the same opposition last year in Agartala, Bengal were hoping for a change in fortunes in their third successive final. But with Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik and last year’s tormentor Abhinav Mukund taking full toll of a below-par bowling display, Bengal’s hopes had dimmed even before they went about the chase.With brisk scoring dominating the Tamil Nadu run-feast, captain Karthik looked to have made the right decision, opting to bat. The display of might was reminiscent of South Africa’s dominance in the third ODI against India at the same venue three days earlier, when they piled up 365 for 2.Opener Srikkanth Aniruddha kick-started the innings with a quick 52, putting on 85 with Vijay, who made the most this time with a steady approach after managing just 25 against South Africa. He took the baton from Aniruddha and opened up once he had gone past his half-century. At the receiving end were the slower bowlers Soumya Pakre and Manoj Tiwary. But after clubbing Pakre for a six and a four off the first two deliveries of the 34th over and bringing up his century in the process, he miscued the third to hand Tiwary a difficult catch.If Bengal thought the storm was over, they were put under the cosh by Mukund, who had scored a match-winning 118 in the previous final, and Karthik. Mukund hit 75 off 71 balls, including five fours and two sixes, but Karthik proved to be the show-stealer. He was merciless in his approach, toying with the Bengal bowlers and smashing 11 fours and three sixes en route to a 47-ball 88. The hurricane had taken them 14 runs ahead of South Africa’s score.Bengal began confidently as well, with opener Shreevats Goswami and Sourav Ganguly adding 120 for the second wicket. Both scored fine half-centuries as Bengal looked set for a real contest. However, the platform was squandered, as the pressure of scoring quickly weighed heavy on the middle order. Yo Mahesh flourished during the period, picking up three wickets to set them back further. Chandrasekar Ganapathy, too, managed a three-wicket haul and there was also some stellar fielding on display, with Rajagopal Satish pulling off four catches. Anustup Majumdar managed a fighting 66 lower down the order, but the enormity of the task meant Bengal’s wait for silverware would continue longer.Bengal captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla blamed poor bowling and fielding for the loss. “When they made 379, the match was as good as over,” Shukla told the . “A score of around 335 to 340 could have still been chased on such a batting beauty. It baffles me how we keep losing in the title round everytime.”I’m really upset in the manner we bowled and fielded. Our two strike bowlers, Ranadeb Bose and Ashok Dinda, couldn’t provide us with the breakthroughs. Also, the batting Powerplay cost us dear.”

India have been dealt a jolt ahead of the one-day series with news that Zaheer Khan has been ruled out with a muscle strain in his leg. The Indian board named Sreesanth as his replacement.Zaheer, who did not take the field on day five of the Kolkata Test, pulled up with what appeared a painful right knee after bowling one over during the afternoon session on day four yesterday, and did not return to bowl on the final day as India attempted to square the series.Prior to walking off the field yesterday, Zaheer had stepped off on a couple of occasions for treatment.Zaheer, 31, made his international comeback for the Tests against Sri Lanka late last year having recovered from the injury he sustained during the 2009 IPL. He featured in the tri-series in Bangladesh last month as well as the two Tests there. Zaheer’s fitness will undoubtedly be monitored closely considering the third season of the IPL is a few weeks away.

Virender Sehwag has reiterated his stand that Bangladesh are not good enough to take 20 wickets against India.It was another grim press conference where he initially refused to entertain any questions on his statement on Bangladesh’s bowling, but eventually Sehwag decided to answer. “Next question,” was his reply when the topic was first raised by a journalist. Finally he answered, albeit in monosyllables, when the issue was repeatedly brought up.Asked whether he felt Bangladesh could now take 20 Indian wickets, Sehwag’s answer came pat: “No. They can’t. They still didn’t get 20 wickets.”Bangladesh took eight second-innings wickets, an 18 overall, before India declared their second innings. The next question was whether the declaration was done so that Bangladesh did not take 20 wickets. “I had to declare because I wanted to win the game,” Sehwag said before he let out a smile.Sehwag was also asked his thoughts on Bangladesh’s performance and he said, “They didn’t bat well. They bowled well in the first innings because the conditions helped them. We batted well in the second innings and scored over 400 runs.”The talk moved to India’s performance and about Ishant Sharma’s bowling before it returned once again to the same issue. “You don’t have a good record against Bangladesh. You said you wanted to score some runs this time. Are you satisfied with your batting in this Test?””Yes, I am,” was Sehwag’s short answer.”He batted well,” was his response when asked about Mushfiqur Rahim’s innings today. Just before he came to the press conference, Sehwag was booed as he walked up to talk to Ravi Shastri in the post-match ceremony. “You are very popular here, aren’t you,” Shastri asked.”Yes, Indian cricketers are popular here in Bangladesh,” replied Sehwag.

Group B

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Ashok Thakur took six wickets for Himachal Pradesh•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Karnataka continued their domination of the league phase with a resounding victory over Saurashtra. Set 241 to win, they knocked off the runs in 52.2 overs to finish on 28 points, 10 clear of the second-placed Uttar Pradesh. It was half-centuries from their young batsmen, G Satish and Manish Pandey, that steered Karnataka to their fourth win of the season. Captain Robin Uthappa gave the chase a cracking start, slamming nine fours in a 36-ball 47, after which Satish and Pandey took over. Satish dropped anchor while Pandey was more adventurous during their 126-run stand that nearly took Karnataka to the finish line. It ends a dismal season for Saurashtra, who end with a paltry seven points after reaching the semi-finals in the previous two seasons.
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Expectedly, the game between Delhi and Bengal petered out to a dull draw. After Delhi’s first innings came to an end at 378 – Puneet Bisht remaining unbeaten on 128 – Bengal helped themselves to some batting practice. The Bengal openers piled on 187, with Arindam Das going on to a breezy century but his partner Rohan Banerjee was run out on 77. Das also retired hurt after the run out, and Bengal extended their score to 223 before the game was called off. Delhi made it to the quarter-finals by one point, where they will take on a strong Tamil Nadu.
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Baroda completed a straightforward win over Maharashtra, but will be ruing their inability to chase down 101 without losing a wicket. Had they managed that, they would have made the quarter-finals ahead of Delhi but the loss of the bonus point means they finish in fourth place. Baroda only took 25 overs on the day to reach the target, thanks largely to Kedar Devdhar’s unbeaten half-century. There was a bit of a hiccup for Baroda when legspinner Digambhar Waghmare struck twice in an over, but Maharashtra had little else to celebrate on a day when they were relegated to the Plate League.

Group A

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In a tame draw at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, C Ganapathy made his second century in two games to power Tamil Nadu to a massive 785 against Hyderabad. There was no respite for the home side’s bowlers after Tamil Nadu resumed on 594 for 6, with Ganapathy receiving solid support from tailenders R Ashwin and R Jesuraj. Hyderabad’s Abhinav Kumar helped himself to one of the easiest centuries of the season, blasting the part-timers – S Badrinath, Abhinav Mukund, S Anirudha and Dinesh Karthik – Tamil Nadu used for the 27 overs that remained. Tamil Nadu finish on top of the table and now face Delhi in the quarter-finals, while Hyderabad were relegated to the Plate League for the first time.
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In one of the most exciting matches of the round, Himachal Pradesh came within two wickets of pulling off a dramatic victory over Orissa. Overnight batsman Vinit Indulkar made 28 more before being dismissed on 165 and in No. 10 Vikramjeet Malik’s company helped stretched HP’s second innings score to 486. That left Orissa needing 296 to win, but thoughts of victory were quickly abandoned after their top order folded to the pace of Ashok Thakur. From 11 for 3 it was a question of escaping with a draw, and first-innings hero Halhadar Das nearly saved them by resisting for more than three hours for a 47. However, he was the eighth man out with 15 deliveries remaining; the tailenders didn’t look to play safe after that, thrashing 16 runs in those deliveries, but managed to stave off defeat.
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Gujarat’s plucky chase of Mumbai’s huge first-innings total fizzled on the third day, with their lower order folding meekly. Once they were bowled out for 502, giving Mumbai the first-innings points, the match rambled towards a draw. Both Mumbai openers, Sahil Kukreja and Sushant Marathe, raced to 80s but fell short of reaching a century in the inconsequential second innings. Despite not having the most convincing of seasons, Mumbai are through to the quarter-finals where they clash with Harayana.
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With little to play for after Punjab took the first-innings lead on the third day, Railways crawled to 230 for 4 off 86 overs in their second innings on Friday before the match was called off. Sanjay Bangar took nearly six hours to reach an unbeaten 115, his 12th first-class century. His strike-rate of 43.72 was the quickest of the Railways batsmen. The other Railways player to make a contribution was Harshad Rawle, who laboured to 40 off 138 deliveries.Group A

Group B

Kemar Roach’s Test career consists of a pair of defeats to Bangladesh, but his confidence clearly remains undiminished. After his first day’s play as a member of a full-strength West Indian squad, Roach spoke openly of exploiting Ricky Ponting’s weaknesses, his desire to claim the final five Australian wickets for under 30 runs on Friday and his unflinching belief that the tourists can win the Gabba Test.Anyone expecting West Indies to meekly surrender to the Australians this series clearly hadn’t counted on the 21-year-old Bajan quick. In 16 overs of lively pace bowling, Roach terrorised Ponting – striking him a painful blow to the groin, rapping him on the pads with a delivery that, if sent for review, would have resulted in a wicket – before eventually dismissing the Australian captain with the ball of the day. And all at a top speed touching 150 kmh.Such was his determination, few would have bet against Ponting converting his half-century into triple figures. Eight boundaries and a six had cannoned off his blade in the first session but Roach responded with a brisk and disciplined spell after lunch to rein him in. Then came the moment: a fuller, straighter delivery that drew Ponting into a push around his off stump. The ball flew off the edge and came to rest in the gloves of Denesh Ramdin, drawing West Indies back into the contest and providing Roach with a career highlight.Asked about his dismissal of Ponting, the third highest run-scorer in Test history, Roach appeared decidedly unfazed. “We all know what Ricky’s weakness is and I tried to exploit that,” he said. “Today it worked.”The hubris didn’t stop there. Pressed on what total he expected Australia to be dismissed for, Roach hardly needed a calculator. “Right now they’re 322, so I would say 350 at the most they will score.” Quizzed further about whether West Indies had a chance of winning the match, he momentarily bristled. “Of course,” Roach continued. “We’re always confident. We didn’t just come here to play cricket, we came here to win.”Roach’s supreme confidence will prove a welcome addition to a West Indian bowling unit struggling to come to terms with the absence of Fidel Edwards and, as of Thursday, contending with a left hip injury to Jerome Taylor. Taylor did not take the second new ball in the final session, but is expected to play a full part in the match.If not for several missed opportunities in the field, West Indies’ bowlers might well have claimed more than five wickets on the day. Roach, perhaps unsurprisingly, was confident those sins will be corrected on Friday. “I’m pretty satisifed,” he said. “The guys put in a lot of work and had a pretty good day. We had some chances, but we pulled through nicely and to claim five wickets was good.”It’s very important [to claim an early wicket] because [Marcus North and Brad Haddin] are the last pair of recognised batsmen. Once we get that wicket we can try to get the guys out in the next hour or so and get our guys in batting.”

Victoria have secured the services of Pakistani allrounder Sohail Tanvir for this summer’s Twenty20 domestic tournament. Tanvir, who last year turned out for South Australia in the event, has recently recovered from a back injury that has severely disrupted his 2009 season.Tanvir’s unorthodox, wrong-footed bowling action has proven successful in Twenty20 tournaments the world over. Tanvir, a left-armer, was among Pakistan’s leading players at the inaugural World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa, and topped the wicket-taking list in the first Indian Premier League while representing the Rajasthan Royals.Victoria have been searching for a second overseas player since Muttiah Muralitharan’s withdrawal to play for Sri Lanka in matches against Bangladesh. Tanvir will join the West Indies allrounder Dwayne Bravo on the Bushrangers’ books this season.Tanvir has endured a difficult 2009 season, not least on account of the back injury that led to him losing his regular place in Pakistan’s limited-overs line-up. He was turned away at London’s Heathrow airport for not obtaining the appropriate visa after being offered a contract by Surrey, and will be unable to play in the 2010 IPL, after Lalit Modi announced Pakistan players would not be invited to participate.Meanwhile, New South Wales are in talks with at least one member of the current West Indian touring squad for the Twenty20 tournament. The reigning Champions League victors last year recruited New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum for the final in controversial circumstances, and are understood to have set their sights on an allrounder.

One-day international cricket in India is an anomaly. While the world – including players like Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar – seems sated with the 50-over game, especially with meaningless seven-match bilateral series, the upcoming contest between India and Australia is likely to be received well by the home audience. Three-odd commercials squeezed in after each over works well for the broadcasters, international cricket in smaller centres works well for the public there.Over the next three weeks, though, we will know if times are changing in India as they are in the rest of the world. The Champions League Twenty20, with its largely thin crowds, will have just finished when the two top-ranked teams start their series – only ODIs, no Tests nor Twenty20s. Three Australian players, representing New South Wales in the Champions League, will reach Vadodara on Saturday afternoon, having finished their final late Friday night and travelled about 1100 km north-west, and start a match at 9.00 am on Sunday. That could have been the fate of three more Australians, had Victoria won their semi-final, or of a couple of Indians had one of the IPL teams made it that far.It’s not just the players, of course, who are threatened by fatigue. Will cricket’s biggest and most consistent market show signs it has had enough? Will the seemingly insatiable public turn its back on a calendar fast becoming a blur? If so, it will never have been more justified in its reaction given the manner in which one tournament now merges seamlessly into another without a thought for the importance some of them deserve.It’s a disturbing backdrop to a series that is effectively a tussle for top spot on the ICC rankings – especially when the two sides have spent the last two years playing hard, exciting cricket while building up a keen rivalry. When Australia came to India for four Tests last year there was both time and previous for the fans to slowly build up to the series. Then again the Indian cricket fan is a confounding creature: Mohali and Nagpur drew abysmal crowds and Delhi’s public turned up only when it was clear they would be witnessing Anil Kumble’s farewell. Perhaps the build-up doesn’t matter here, but it could be tempting fate to start a seven-match contest 33 hours after the Champions League ends.Surely, though, this will not mirror the drab series Australia went through in England. Surely, once the matches start, sub-plots will emerge. Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle will bowl bouncers to Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli. Harbhajan Singh, up against his favourite opponents, will look for redemption after a poor personal Champions Trophy – itself an aberration for a bowler much improved after Anil Kumble’s retirement. Ishant Sharma, who tormented Ricky Ponting enough to find a mention in his book as one of the more exciting contests he has been through, will now be targeted and will have to show what stuff he is made of. He is struggling in the shorter versions, he is low on confidence, and he doesn’t have a bowling coach.Shaun Marsh, after that blockbuster IPL and the subsequent injury, will get a decent run in national colours•Getty Images

Shaun Marsh, after that blockbuster IPL and the subsequent injury, will get a decent run in national colours, an opportunity rightfully his after Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist retired. Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh will make their comebacks, and that is as good a reason as any to watch the games. Shane Watson again is on the verge of realising his true potential at international level. At some time during the series, Sachin Tendulkar will finish 20 years in international cricket. Amid all that, what fun it would be if the unheralded players – Doug Bollinger, Ben Hilfenhaus, Jon Holland, Sudeep Tyagi – prove to be the difference.It helps that there are no favourites going into the series. India’s batting looks much better with Sehwag and Yuvraj back, and the familiar lower pitches on offer. The fast bowling, in Zaheer Khan’s absence, will be scrutinised again; the fielding will remain the area that Australia will look to capitalise on.Michael Clarke’s absence will mean Ponting and Michael Hussey will have extra responsibility in the middle order. That apart, Australia will seek a continuation of their ODI turnaround after the losses to South Africa home and away. They have now beaten Pakistan and England in bilateral series and have defended their Champions Trophy undefeated, winning 14 out of their last 17 matches. But the conditions will test them and the Indian batsmen will be the toughest to contain among their recent opposition.Both teams, in different ways, are in transitional phases. Both teams can claim to have been the best ODI team over the past two years. If they can sufficiently engage the crowds over the next three weeks, despite the overdose of cricket that precedes it, a fresh debate on the feasibility of ODIs will need to be started.

JP Duminy has said that Graeme Smith’s absence would be felt during the Cape Cobras’ Champions League Twenty20 campaign, but it would also give others a chance to display their skills. Like his captain Andrew Puttick, Duminy believed the team’s sense of self belief was a strength, and if they get their basics right, they can overcome their inexperience in Indian conditions.”It will be tough to replace a guy like Graeme, but I feel we have enough depth in our ranks to seriously challenge our opponents,” Duminy said. “I think we have a very good skipper in Andrew Puttick who has good experience in the intricacies of the Twenty20 format. We just need to focus on our strengths and a good start will go a long way in boosting our chances in the Champions League.”Duminy said that facing different teams and conditions would hurry the Cobras’ learning. “It will be a new experience for me in terms of playing in India where we will be playing in front of a different sort of crowd,” he said. “While playing for the Mumbai Indians (in the IPL) I had a chance to interact with players from different parts of the world. But here I will be playing with the guys I have known for years. Whether it is for South Africa or Mumbai or for Cobras my aim is to help the team winning.”It is a big tournament for me, especially considering that the third edition of the IPL is going to be held in India. I hope to build a sound platform for the IPL by getting to know the subcontinental conditions through the Champions League.”In Smith’s absence, Duminy is a key player for the Cobras in all three departments. But Duminy felt that was no added pressure on him and that he wasn’t worried about expectations. “Here I have to adapt quickly to the subcontinental conditions as they differ from what we get in South Africa. I really feel confident about the tournament and our chances in the Champions League.”The Cobras will play their first game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on October 8, after two warm-ups in the city. “They (Bangalore) are a good side and that they had finished runners-up in the IPL shows their strength,” Duminy said. “They also have some very good players in their ranks like [Rahul] Dravid, [Anil] Kumble etc, but the Cobras are right up to the challenge.”

Andrew Strauss, the England captain, has expressed his reservation over the decision by counties to scrap the 50-over game in the domestic circuit.The counties, on August 27, voted 13-5 in favour of a 40-over format to be played next season. It is believed the shortened game retains popularity among members and is easier to sell than the 50-over format, but Strauss was of the view that domestic cricket should remain consistent with the format followed at the international level.”My personal view is that domestic cricket should mirror international cricket, so in that respect playing 40-over cricket is not ideal,” Strauss said ahead of England’s series against Australia. The format, however, will retain the same Powerplay and fielding restrictions as the ODI version. Following the move, the ECB is also expected to ask the ICC to review the 50-over format for ODIs.Strauss admitted that the transition to a 40-over game was not a big one, but questioned the decision made by the counties, particularly because international cricket still retained the longer version. “Forty-over cricket is not radically different from 50-over cricket but it just seems sensible to me that if your domestic season is a way of preparing players for international cricket you should be playing the same game,” he said.Strauss echoed the views of team-mate Paul Collingwood, who had said that domestic players must have a taste of what they will experience at the international level. “Forty-over cricket is what the public want in England, so it’s been pushed in that direction,” Collingwood had said. “But from the players’ point of view, you want to come into an international game with a full range of experiences you’re likely to encounter.”Hopefully, it won’t be a massive jump because there are similarities between the two, but we’ll have to wait and see next time players come into the international game.”

The Australian team management has filed a report with the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit after a player was approached by a man suspected of links to illegal bookmaking. Cricinfo has learned the approach was made in the bar of the team’s London hotel, the Royal Kensington Garden, following Australia’s Ashes defeat at Lord’s in July.The player alerted senior officials immediately and, following ICC protocol, team manager Steve Bernard filed a report with the ACSU. The matter is currently under investigation. The player is not suspected of wrongdoing, and has been praised by a senior ICC official for his prompt reporting of the approach in line with the ACSU’s player education programme.Sources within the ICC and the Australian team, when contacted by Cricinfo, described the approach as “concerning” and part of a worrying resurgence in the presence of illegal bookmakers around major events. Sir Paul Condon, the chairman of the ACSU, told ICC meetings in Dubai and London over the past year that Twenty20 cricket posed the greatest corruption threat to the game since the dark days of Sharjah in the 1990s; a notion supported by recent media and anecdotal reports.Cricinfo understands the ACSU is investigating additional approaches made to players by illegal bookmakers, or conduits acting on their behalf, during the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in England earlier this summer. One source said the ACSU was “well advanced” in several lines of inquiry, at least one of which also involved approaches made to players at a team hotel.Senior officials are concerned that illegal bookmakers, emboldened by the new betting possibilities opened up by the Twenty20 game, are becoming increasingly prevalent around match venues and team hotels. After the inception of the ACSU in 2000 – in direct response to the match-fixing scandals involving international captains Hansie Cronje, Mohammed Azharuddin and Salim Malik – barriers were established to block bookmakers and their intermediaries from direct contact with players. But the approach to an Australian player during an Ashes series, coupled with those allegedly made to other international cricketers at the World Twenty20, have raised concerns that a new wave of corrupting influences is attempting to infiltrate the game.”This shows that our education programme is working,” an ICC spokesman told the . “The player who was approached reported it straight away. We have the policies in place to try to ensure that we never go back to the times we were at a decade or so ago.” The spokesman was also quoted by as saying that the ACSU “was content that all the World Twenty20 matches were clean”.A report in the Sunday Telegraph earlier this week, quoting an anonymous ICC source, warned that cricket was under renewed threat from illegal bookmakers. “Those in charge in the ICC understand that Twenty20 cricket has the danger of going back to the bad old days,” the source said.The report suggested that the apparent resurgence in contact from illegal bookmakers was in part attributable to the second IPL, a tournament at which the ACSU was not in operation, due to its $1.2 million operational bill. Lalit Modi, the IPL’s commissioner, told Cricinfo last month the ACSU would be involved in future IPL tournaments, and an agreement in principle has been reached for the unit to police the Champions League Twenty20, scheduled to be played in India this October. “They have expanded their services and going ahead, all the tournaments, including Champions League and the IPL would have the presence of ICC’s anti-corruption unit,” Modi said, in a move welcomed by the ICC’s chief executive Haroon Lorgat.Lorgat last week announced there was “absolutely no substance” to reports that Pakistan players had been approached by illegal bookmakers at their team hotel in Colombo during the recent series against Sri Lanka. The matter was investigated by the ACSU.”The ICC and its members have a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and rightly so because the integrity of our sport with its spirit is one of its greatest assets,” Lorgat said. “On that basis it is entirely appropriate that any suggestions in relation to that subject are always reported to and properly investigated by the ACSU. I am pleased those investigations have indicated nothing untoward has taken place on this occasion but it is a reminder that all of us – players, officials and supporters – must maintain our vigilance to ensure we remain on top of the issue of corruption.”