Rajasthan stutter to 140

Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals, IPL, Kimberley

Bulletin by Shwe Wai

20 overs Rajasthan Royals 140 for 7 (Smith 30, Jadeja 27, Muralitharan 2-22) v Chennai Super Kings
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

	Naman Ojha became Albie Morkel's third first-over victim in three matches

Chennai Super Kings were disciplined, varied, led well, and thus effective in keeping the Rajasthan Royals batsmen down to a total they would fancy themselves to chase. The key moment came in the third quarter of the innings, when Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja looked to open up, hitting Shadab Jakati for a six each in one over, but Chennai accounted for both of them in the next two overs.

Ever since Albie Morkel struck in his first over - for the third time in three matches now, Rajasthan struggled for momentum. Chennai rotated their bowlers around smartly, using seven of them in first 10 overs, who gave away only five boundaries. Swapnil Asnodkar played his best innings of the tournament, pulling two boundaries and one six over point, yet he was nowhere near as destructive as last year. Graeme Smith played a similarly restrained innings as Rajasthan meandered towards the end of the innings.

The two added 53 in 50 balls, but there was no sense of restlessness because of the slow run-rate. But the unease became obvious with Smith after Asnodkar, who scored 26 off 25, missed while trying to sweep an overspun delivery from Muttiah Muralitharan. Five overs later Smith went to sweep Murali and was stumped, for 30 off 33, a kind of innings where he would think he wasted deliveries without capitalising on the slow platform.

From 75 for 3 in 13 overs, both Jadeja and Yusuf got stuck into Jakati. But Dhoni made two smart moves after that - he brought in L Balaji from the other end, and let Jakati continue despite that over. Balaji, helped by a superb diving-in-front catch by Suresh Raina at point, accounted for Jadeja, and Jakati got Yusuf who went for a repeat of the six in the next over. Again this dismissal was made possible by smart work from Jacob Oram at the long-on boundary.

PCB issues legal notice to ICC for World Cup exclusion

Pakistan cricket

Bulletin by Shwe Wai

	Ijaz Butt, chairman of the PCB, has said that the ICC's decision to strip Pakistan of its rights to host the 2011 World Cup was "legally flawed...unfair, and discriminatory."

In the first official response to the ICC's decision to exclude Pakistan from hosting the 2011 World Cup, the Pakistan board has issued a legal notice to cricket's governing body, calling the decision to do so discriminatory and "legally flawed."

The ICC decided at a recent board meeting in Dubai to take away Pakistan's share, as one of four co-hosts, of the World Cup matches. The move came after terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team during their February-March tour, which was itself the first major bilateral contest in Pakistan since October 2007. A number of teams since then had refused to visit in the wake of an unsettled and increasingly violent domestic backdrop. The meeting also said that international cricket was unlikely to return to Pakistan till 2011.

Ijaz Butt, chairman of PCB, had hitherto maintained a stony silence on the decision, to the ire of much of the population here. But at a press conference at the board's HQ in Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, flanked by senior officials and legal advisors, he said that the manner in which the ICC decision was taken was "legally flawed...unfair and discriminatory" and that Pakistan intended to fight for its right as co-host.

The notice has been sent through its legal advisors Mark Gay, of DLA Piper, and Tafazzul Rizvi, the PCB's legal consultant. "We are most concerned about the manner in which the ICC took this decision," Butt said. "There was no notice prior to the meeting that a decision of this nature would be taken. There was no proper security assessment of Pakistan nor of the other Co-Hosts of the 2011 Tournament. We believe that more could and should have been done to review the actual situation to deal with the matter on a non-discriminatory basis. We will push for the matter to be expedited."

In particular, Pakistan's gripe, Butt clarified, was that the status of the 2011 World Cup was not on the original agenda of the ICC Board meeting on April 17 and 18 (when the decision was made). The implication is that Pakistan wasn't given a fair opportunity to defend its case as a co-host.

"This issue was not on the agenda," Butt said. "There was a discussion of the Sri Lankan attacks on the agenda and this topic came up. They never gave us notice and it was not on the agenda. We want to revoke the decision full stop."

Tenacious Punjab win tense game

Deccan Chargers v Kings XI Punjab, XI, IPL, Kimberley

Bulletin by Shwe Wai

Kings XI Punjab 169 for 7 (Jayawardene 43) beat Deccan Chargers 168 for 5 (Symonds 60*) by three wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

A powerful start from the top four, followed by nerveless hands from Mahela Jayawardene and Brett Lee stole the thunder from Andrew Symonds' first IPL game, setting up Kings XI Punjab's win over the Deccan Chargers at the Kimberley Oval. The win won't take Punjab into the top four but they will hope it is an end to their poor run of three losses in the last four games. This was the game of the two returning Australians, Symonds and Lee, and though both starred, only one prevailed as the match went down to the final over.

Full report to follow

20 overs Deccan Chargers 168 for 5 (Symonds 60*) v Kings XI Punjab

	Andrew Symonds' 36-ball 60 helped Deccan Chargers overcome a mid-innings wobble to take them to a formidable score of 168

Andrew Symonds' power-hitting a day after landing in South Africa took Deccan Chargers to 168 against Kings XI Punjab in the first IPL game to be played at the de Beers Oval in Kimberley. He hit four sixes in his unbeaten 36-ball 60 and added 97 at more than 10 an over with Venugopal Rao, who made a 25-ball 32.

Symonds came in with Deccan reasonably placed at 70 for 3 in the tenth over, but Brett Lee struck immediately after the strategy break: he nearly ran Rohit Sharma out before bowling one down leg side that Rohit edged to a diving Kumar Sangakkara to put Deccan at 73 for 4.

Symonds tried to break the shackles - he was helped by Yuvraj Singh who missed a caught-and-bowled chance - and along with Venugopal sought to battle the slow pitch and muscle the boundaries. Venugopal hit Yuvraj for a six over extra cover and Symonds picked a short ball by Piyush Chawla for a six over midwicket. Deccan went past 100 in the 15th over after which Symonds began attacking in earnest. Irfan Pathan went for 13 runs and Sreesanth for 20 - including consecutive sixes over long-on and long-off -as Symonds reached his fifty off 29 balls. Venugopal then ruined Wilkin Mota's figures with a six and an edged four off his final over which went for 17, ten more than his first three.

Deccan owed their quick start - 44 in the first five overs - to Adam Gilchrist, T Suman and several misfields by Punjab. Gilchrist hit Pathan for two fours in his first over and then pulled Sreesanth's first ball for a six over deep backward square leg. But in his eagerness to get on top of Sreesanth, he inside-edged the next two balls and fell to the fourth, flicking one just short of a length to Ramesh Powar at fine leg

Suman came in and attacked right from the start, lofting Pathan to long-off for two, picking him off the pads for a six and also getting runs off edges. After Herschelle Gibbs fell, cutting Chawla to Mahela Jayawardene at backward point, Suman and Rohit began building on the quick start. They rotated the strike and picked boundaries off shorter deliveries - Chawla was hit for a six to long-off by Suman and lofted for a four to wide midwicket by Rohit in an over that cost 12 runs.