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Sri Lanka’s full membership status of the ICC is not threatened by theongoing cricket board crisis according to a report in the Daily Mirrortoday.There had been speculation that Sri Lanka’s ICC status had been jeopardisedby the Sports Ministers decision to dissolve the Board of Control forCricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) and appoint an Interim Committee.Mark Harrison, however, stated yesterday that: “I can confirm that Sri Lankahas not been suspended by the ICC. The governance of Sri Lankan cricket is adomestic matter.”Nevertheless, Harmission admitted that the ICC is seeking legal advice, mostprobably with regard to the status of Thilanga Sumithapala, the head of thedissolved cricket board, who still remains an Executive Director of the ICC.According to the Articles and Memorandum of Association Executive Director’scan only be removed from the board if they resign or are removed by the bodythat appointed them, in this case the BCCSL, which is no longer functioning.Harrison said: “The situation is currently under legal consideration and theICC is unable to comment any further.”

Queensland moved within 98 runs of hosting next week’s Pura Cup final following another wicket-filled day’s action at the Gabba – leaving the fate of 10,000 meat pies in the balance.Queensland officials have already ordered 10,000 of the pies in anticipation of hosting the five-day final and with the Bulls on the verge of an outright win, they aren’t cancelling the order.At stumps on the second day of a bizarre match, Queensland was 1-66 with first-time captain Martin Love (34) and rookie opener Daniel Payne (16) negotiating 24 crucial overs.Queensland returned to a difficult wicket at 6-64 and was mopped up for 107 with Will Carr claiming a career-best 6-46 and Mathew Inness (4-31) combining tocollect all ten wickets.The Bulls, aware they could miss out on playing in the Pura Cup final without winning outright, did an excellent job in restricting the Bushrangers to 122 in their second innings.But scoring 164 runs on a mind-testing strip which had claimed 30 wickets for 377 runs in less than two days was going to be a hard task.Alarm bells sounded when Queensland lost inexperienced opener Brendan Nash (11) with 17 runs on the board.While Payne battled nerves and the early venom of Carr and Inness, Love calmly took control of the situation and at stumps had steered the Bulls into a position where they could sleep a lot sounder.The wicket has played a part in so many wickets tumbling in two days, but poor shot-making has contributed as well on a deck that has been extremely difficult to master.Take Darren Berry (41), who injured his hand batting, and Jonathon Moss (38) out of the equation and Victoria’s second innings tally was 43.Former Test speedster Michael Kasprowicz exploited the pitch early in Victoria’s second innings and looked very dangerous while an impressive Ashley Noffkestepped in to mop up the tailenders.Kasprowicz’s reward was 3-37 off 16 tight overs while Noffke claimed the last four wickets for his 4-29.Noffke, who removed Berry and Carr for a golden duck with successive deliveries, was denied a shot at a hat-trick with Victoria running out of batsmen.If Queensland go on with job tomorrow they will host their third successive Pura Cup, having won both previously.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsRoss Taylor made 72 off 62•Associated Press

It had already caused a washout and a no-result. It was highly probable that the rain which has been following this series would soon force a result under the Duckworth-Lewis method. That is what happened tonight when the second ODI of the five-match series was decided in favour of the hosts 22.5 overs into Sri Lanka’s chase. New Zealand, who have now lost eight of their previous nine ODIs, had reason to feel a touch aggrieved, having taken Tillakaratne Dilshan’s wicket a few overs back to break a growing partnership with Mahela Jayawardene. Sri Lanka were still 133 runs adrift of the target of 251, but in the final count, they had stayed comfortably ahead of the D/L mark of 104.It meant New Zealand’s highest ODI score against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, achieved on the back of a late charge by Ross Taylor, was in vain. In the first ODI played under the latest revised conditions, which allow only four fielders outside the inner circle in non-Powerplay overs, New Zealand had batted the old-fashioned way, preserving wickets for a final push.That wasn’t the way Sri Lanka approached the chase. Clouds had been around since shortly after the match started under bright conditions, and rain had already caused almost an hour’s delay seven overs into the chase. Jayawardene said Sri Lanka’s plan had been to do enough to stay ahead of the par score.Upul Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara fell attempting aggressive strokes but Jayawardene and Dilshan weathered sharp spells from Trent Boult and Tim Southee to put on what turned out to be a match-winning 59-run stand. With the ball coming on better on a slow pitch after the rain interruption, both batsmen ensured Sri Lanka had enough momentum to remain ahead of the requirement. Jayawardene, especially, was in fine touch, and played attractive shots either side of the wicket.BJ Watling and Rob Nicol had been anything but attractive earlier but had provided Taylor the base to set Sri Lanka a decent target. Had Taylor not fallen early in the 46th over on 72 off 62 to a sharp catch by Angelo Mathews – after being put down three deliveries before by Tharanga – New Zealand could have added a few more late runs. Taylor had found his range at the death after being denied in the batting Powerplay by a succession of short deliveries from Lasith Malinga.The batting Powerplay produced only 31 runs but after that, Taylor targetted the medium-pace and good lengths of Thisara Perera and Nuwan Kulasekara to swing sixes over his favoured midwicket region. With only four men in the deep instead of five earlier, there were more gaps available and it was difficult for Jayawardene to plug areas such as deep midwicket.New Zealand had made a slow start. Missing the injured Brendon McCullum, they managed just three boundaries in the first Powerplay. They also lost just one wicket, that of Tom Latham, but Nicol and Watling were not finding it easy to score against a varied Sri Lanka attack on a pitch dried out by a couple of sunny days following incessant rain.Nicol and Watling were given some breathing space as Jayawardene brought on the allrounders Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera after the first Powerplay, which yielded just 28.The spinners, Rangana Herath and Jeevan Mendis, presented a different challenge on the helpful surface. Watling attacked the spinners after a few overs, slogging and pulling both for fours through the leg side. While Nicol edged Perera behind four runs shy of a fifty, Nicol carried on to his half-century but fell just before the start of the batting Powerplay when Jayawardene took a diving catch at midwicket.Taylor and James Franklin could not capitalise on the Powerplay, but with the latter supporting him, Taylor ensured Sri Lanka had a substantial target. The rain, however, had other plans.

Nasser Hussain had always maintained that it would be tough, but few could have anticipated such a gruelling day’s cricket. When the sun burnt off the morning cloud cover in Galle, England were forced to endure a day of withering heat as Sri Lanka’s batsmen carefully constructed the foundations of a large first innings score.

Sri Lanka were grateful for winning a crucial toss and began tentatively under cloud cover this morning. Until tea they tempered their natural flamboyance and patiently grafted for their runs. Then, as the rays of the sun took their toll, they started to turn the screw in the final session to finish the day on 221 for two.They did so thanks to the return to form of Marvan Atapattu, whose top score in Sri Lanka’s wretched tour of South Africa was just 20, and Aravinda de Silva, who scored his first half-century in 12 months and 12 Test innings.The 30-year-old Atapattu, who has scored three Test Match double centuries in his career, displayed unflappable concentration in his undefeated six-hour innings and finished the day on 85 from 286 balls. He started doggedly, scoring just three runs from his first 40 balls and taking 160 balls to reach his half-century, but as the day progressed his fluency returned.Sri Lanka were forced to work hard because off Hussain’s frugality and some tight bowling in trying conditions. Hussain had warned before the Test Match, “we have to have control,” and true to his word he refused to give Sri Lanka easy runs. The fast bowlers plodded away for much of the day with only one slip and the spinners were well protected too. Andrew Caddick, nearly jettisoned in favour of seven batsmen, proved the thriftiest of the bowlers, conceding a mere 13 runs from his 16 overs.But, Sri Lanka were wise to England’s plans. They knew that Hussain views defense as a form of attack and spoke before the game about the need for patience. Should they bat for two days England would be drained, Muttiah Muralitharan could be fully fit, and the pitch would be like a dustbowl. So far, it is all going to plan.Speaking after the game Dav Whatmore said: “That was a good opening day to the series for us. It was more like a traditional day of Test cricket with the batsmen having to work hard for their runs. Having lost just two wickets we end up on top, but we are keen to go on. We don’t want to have bat again on this pitch, which will be very hard to bat on in a couple of days.”We spoke before the match a bit a out the need for patience, given the natural flair of our batsmen, and focused on the need for the batsmen, having made a start, to go on and get the maximum from it.”Heavy overnight rain last night left moisture in the air this morning. The steamy conditions appeared ideal for swing bowlers, but England’s fast bowlers could not bend it off the straight and narrow.Even so they accounted for Sanath Jayasuriya in just the fifth over of the innings. The dynamic left-hander laced three boundaries in his breezy 14, but then picked out Craig White in the gully with his favourite forcing stroke.Kumar Sangakkara and Marvan Atapattu then added 92 runs for the second wicket. Sangakkara made 58 of them in a free flowing innings to record his third Test half-century and his second in successive innings after scoring a valiant 98 in Centurion, South Africa.Sangakkara had used his feet impressively to the spin of Ashley Giles and Robert Croft, but in the 44th over of the innings he came down the wicket, misjudged a delivery from Croft and drove straight to Craig White at extra cover.The proved to be the last England succes as Aravinda de Silva provided the perfect foil for the steadfast Atapattu. The pair added 111 till the close, though they both though enjoyed some fortune.When Atapattu had made 46 he gloved a ball from Ashley Giles that lifted tantalisingly close to the outstretched hand of Marcus Trescothick at silly point. Aravinda De Silva survived a chance when he was dropped on 20 by Thorpe in the gully and then was close to being run out when on 48.Aravinda de Silva was particularly bullish in the evening session. He pulled Craig White in characteristic style, lofted Croft for successive boundaries and cut Caddick imperiously as the day drew to a close, much to the annoyance of the Somerset fast bowler, who perversely felt the need to give De Silva a sarcastic hand clap for his efforts.Duncan Fletcher admitted afterwards that it was a good toss to win: “I think it was a very good toss to win on a pitch that was very flat on the first day. I don’t know how it will hold up on the fourth or fifth day.”Despite only taking two wickets in the day, Fletcher was impressed with the performance of the bowlers: “It would be nice if they were four down, but I think you have to compliment the bowlers for their discipline on a flat wicket. It is difficult to bowl here especially in that humidity and you have to appreciate that in England we do not play on wickets like that.”

Australia’s Test offspinner Nathan Lyon will captain South Australia in their opening Sheffield Shield match of the season in the absence of the new skipper Johan Botha. Lyon and the state’s new opener Phillip Hughes have been named as joint vice-captains for the coming season under Botha, who will miss the first match as he is in Sri Lanka as part of South Africa’s squad for the World Twenty20.South Australia take on Queensland at the Gabba in a match starting on Monday, and it will not only be an opportunity for Lyon to test his leadership but also for Hughes to make his mark in his first game as a Redbacks player having switched from New South Wales. The uncapped allrounder Sam Miller is expected to make his debut and the fast bowler Daniel Worrall has also been named and could debut.They were chosen in the squad ahead of the better-known duo of Kane Richardson and Peter George, who are both fit but had their pre-season form deemed inferior to that of Miller and Worrall.”Miller has been a really interesting one because he wasn’t in our original state squad, he was in the emerging Redbacks squad,” South Australia’s coach Darren Berry said. “When we were up in Darwin, Miller was playing the off-season up there so myself and Jeff Vaughan went and watched him play and we were so impressed with what we saw, we invited him to join us for what was the last month of preparation.”We took him to Brisbane [for pre-season matches] and he was the standout player against quality opposition. It’s a great story. He’s jumped ahead of a lot of people and that’s what we’re about; we will reward performance and people doing the right things. Worrall is a nippy fast-bowler with a bit of an old fashioned, angled approach to the wicket. He’s a very aggressive type of player. Throughout the pre-season he’s been a standout bowler in the group.”South Australia are aiming to turn their four-day form around after a miserable 2011-12 season, in which they didn’t win a Sheffield Shield match and finished on the bottom of the table. They won’t find it easy against the reigning champions Queensland, who have named Usman Khawaja and Nathan Hauritz in their 12-man squad after the pair moved from New South Wales in the off-season.There was no room for the emerging batsman Chris Lynn, who impressed during his first couple of seasons with Queensland but had a disappointing summer in 2011-12 and averaged 19.69 from eight Sheffield Shield appearances. Also gone from the 12 that defeated Tasmania in the Shield final are the fast bowlers Ryan Harris (shoulder injury) and Steve Magoffin (moved to England) and the batsman Alex Kemp.Queensland squad Wade Townsend, Andrew Robinson, Usman Khawaja, Peter Forrest, Joe Burns, James Hopes (capt), Chris Hartley (wk), Nathan Hauritz, Ben Cutting, Cameron Boyce, Luke Feldman, Alister McDermott.South Australia squad Phillip Hughes, Michael Klinger, Callum Ferguson, Travis Head, Tom Cooper, Sam Miller, Tim Ludeman (wk), Joe Mennie, Chadd Sayers, Nathan Lyon (capt), Daniel Worrall, Gary Putland.

Players, and their team preferences in bold

Dwayne Bravo – Trinidad & Tobago/Chennai Super Kings
Kevon Cooper – Trinidad & Tobago/Rajasthan Royals
Kieron Pollard – Trinidad & Tobago/Mumbai Indians
Faf du Plessis – Titans/Chennai Super Kings
Albie Morkel – Titans/Chennai Super Kings
Chris Morris – Highveld Lions/Chennai Super Kings
Nathan Coulter-Nile – Perth Scorchers/Mumbai Indians
Michael Hussey – Perth Scorchers/Chennai Super Kings
Mitchell Johnson – Brisbane Heat/Mumbai Indians
Shane Watson – Brisbane Heat/Rajasthan Royals
Thisara Perera – Brisbane Heat/Sunrisers Hyderabad
Kumar Sangakkara – Sunrisers Hyderabad/Kandurata Maroons

Sachin Tendulkar, who has retired from the IPL, and Rahul Dravid, who has indicated the upcoming Champions League would be his last tournament, have been named in the Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals squads for the Twenty20 event. A Faisalabad Wolves squad has also been announced, in an indication of the Pakistan side’s probable participation in the qualifying stage of the league, after political tensions between India and Pakistan had cast doubts over whether they would be allowed to come over.Kumar Sangakkara is the only player who hasn’t preferred his IPL franchise for the tournament among the 12 wanted by two sides, and has decided to play for his home side Kandurata Maroons. Explaining the process for deciding which teams these players would represent, Dean Kino, a CLT20 governing council member and director of legal and business affairs, said: “Players who were named by more than one team were asked to select which team they were going to play for. Teams were then allowed to replace any player that withdrew from their squad and elected to play for another side.”CLT20 regulations state that when a player elects to play for their ‘away’ team, that team must pay the ‘home’ team $150,000 compensation per player. A ‘home’ team is classified as a team from the country a player is eligible to represent in international cricket.”This payment is applicable for 10 of the 12 players that were eligible for more than one team. The exceptions are Kumar Sangakkara, who will be representing Kandurata Maroons, which is classified as his home team, and Thisara Perera, who qualified for Brisbane Heat and Sunrisers Hyderabad, neither of which is classified as his home team.”Lasith Malinga has not been named in the Mumbai Indians squad as he wanted to be with his wife and family, as they expect their second child late in September.Group A includes Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Lions, Perth Scorchers and Qualifier 1 while Group B has Chennai Super Kings, Brisbane Heat, Titans, Trinidad & Tobago and Qualifier 2. Otago Volts, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Faisalabad Wolves and Kandurata Maroons will play the qualifiers beginning on September 17 in Hyderabad, with the top two sides advancing to the main draw starting September 21 in Jaipur and to be played across Ranchi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Delhi.Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Dinesh Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ambati Rayudu, Aditya Tare, Rishi Dhawan, Abu Nechim, Akshar Patel, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn MaxwellChennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, M Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Imtiaz Ahmed, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohit Sharma, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel, Jason Holder, Faf du Plessis, Chris MorrisRajasthan Royals: Rahul Dravid, Ajinkya Rahane, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Ashok Menaria, Dishant Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik, Rahul Shukla, Pravin Tambe, Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Brad Hodge, James Faulkner, Kevon Cooper, Shaun TaitBrisbane Heat: Joe Burns, Daniel Christian, Ben Cutting, Peter Forrest, Dom Michael, Chris Hartley, Nathan Hauritz, James Hopes, Matthew Gale, Chris Lynn, Alister McDermott, Cameron Gannon, Alex Kemp, Kemar Roach, Chris SabburgPerth Scorchers: Ashton Agar, Michael Beer, Jason Behrendorff, Ashton Turner, Liam Davis, Brad Hogg, Burt Cockley, Simon Katich, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Joel Paris, Alfonso Thomas, Tom Triffitt, Adam Voges, Sam WhitemanTitans: Jacques Rudolph, Henry Davids, AB de Villiers, Farhaan Behardien, Heino Kuhn, David Wiese, Eden Links, Ethy Mbhalati, Rowan Richards, Mangaliso Mosehle, CJ de Villiers, Graeme van Buuren, Morne Morkel, Roelof van der Merwe, Marchant de LangeHighveld Lions: Temba Bavuma, Gulam Bodi, Quinton De Kock, Neil McKenzie, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Ethan O’Reilly, Hardus Viljoen, Rassie van der Dussen, Alviro Petersen, Aaron Phangiso, Dwaine Pretorius, Jean Symes, Imran Tahir, Sohail Tanvir, Thami TsolekileTrinidad & Tobago: Denesh Ramdin, Rayad Emrit, Jason Mohammed, Nicolas Pooran, Sunil Narine, Evin Lewis, Samuel Badree, Navin Stewart, Shannon Gabriel, Yannick Ottley, Adrian Barath, Sherwin Ganga, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Darren BravoFaisalabad Wolves: Misbah-ul-Haq, Asif Ali, Ali Waqas, Khurram Shehzad, Mohammad Salman, Waqas Maqsood, Samiullah Khan, Asad Ali, Saeed Ajmal, Ehsan Adil, Hasan Mahmood, Jahandad Khan, Farrukh Shehzad, Imran Khalid, Ammar MahmoodOtago Volts: Nick Beard, Michael Bracewell, Neil Broom, Iain Butler, Mark Craig, Derek de Boorder, Jacob Duffy, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, James McMillan, Jimmy Neesham, Aaron Redmond, Hamish Rutherford, Ryan ten Doeschate, Neil WagnerSunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, Cameron White, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Darren Sammy, Biplab Samantray, Thisara Perera, Karan Sharma, Hanuma Vihari, Ashish Reddy, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Anand Rajan, TBCKandurata Maroons: Lahiru Thirimanne, Nuwan Kulasekara, Upul Tharanga, Thilina Kandamby, Kumar Sangakkara, Shehan Jayasuriya, Chamara Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Dhammika Prasad, Ajantha Mendis, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Lahiru Jayaratne, Dhananjaya De Silva, Suraj Randiv

Bangladesh Under-19 squad

Joyraj Sheik, Sadman Islam, Najmul Hossain, Munim Shahriar, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehedy Hasan (capt), Rahatul Ferdous, Mohammad Saifuddin, Jashimuddin (wk), Abu Sayeem (wk), Abu Haider Rony, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Rifat Pradhan, Jubair Hossain

Mosaddek Hossain and Abu Haider are two of the more experienced Under-19 faces in the Bangladesh U-19 squad that will play a triangular series against Pakistan and hosts England next month. The rest of the squad comprises players that have been drafted in after the U-19 World Cup in Australia last year.Batting allrounder Mehedy Hasan will lead the team*. He takes over from Mosaddek, who led the side when it took on the Sri Lanka U-19s in April, when they drew the two Youth Tests and lost the one-day series 2-3.Left-arm pace bowler Haider took nine wickets in an ACC Cup match against Qatar U-19s last year, but was wicketless in the two matches of the World Cup in Australia. He is the only player with first-class experience in the team, while wicketkeeper Jashimuddin played a single BPL match for Sylhet Royals this season.”This is a well-trained squad of players, and we hope they perform well in England,” Nazmul Abedin, the acting national manager of BCB’s game development, said. “It will be an interesting time for them and I hope they do well. Of them, Mehedy Hasan is a promising batting allrounder and Mosaddek Hossain has been doing well too. Legspinner Jubair Ahmed did well against the Sri Lanka U-19s recently.”The junior-team selectors have included two left-arm quicks in Mustafizur Rahman and Mehedi Hasan, while Rifat Pradhan is the other seamer alongside Haider.Richard McInnes, the National Cricket Academy’s head coach, will coach the team in England, with Zafrul Ehsan as his assistant.The tri-nation tournament begins on August 5, with Bangladesh taking on Pakistan in Loughborough.*12.32GMT This news has been updated with the announcement of the team’s captain

Ricky Ponting believes Australia’s new coach Darren Lehmann will bring calm to the squad and instil the players with confidence after they appeared “too scared” under Mickey Arthur. Lehmann has now spent three days in charge of the squad after the surprise sacking of Arthur on Monday and he has less than two weeks to prepare the Australians for the first Investec Ashes Test, which begins at Trent Bridge on July 10.The first opportunity for the batsmen under Lehmann’s mentorship will come in Taunton on Thursday, when the Australians bat against Somerset in their ongoing tour match, and men like Phillip Hughes and Shane Watson will be desperate for big runs after struggling on the previous Test tour of India. Writing in the on Thursday, Ponting said it appeared as an outside observer that the pressure on the players had become too great under Arthur.”The bottom line for me is that maybe the players had been put under too much pressure by the previous regime and that pressure needs to be released now,” Ponting wrote. “It’s hard to judge from afar but they seem to have been too scared to play the way they can. It’s not a question of trying to live up to the great names of Australia’s past, it’s a question of the current group playing as well as they can.”Ponting played under Arthur for a year before his Test retirement in December and he has now spent seven months away from international cricket, watching as the Australians struggled in India and the Champions Trophy. He said that if a change of coach had to be made then there was no point waiting until after the series, and he believed that Lehmann would bring a sense of fun to the group.”‘Boof’ has had a lot of success as a coach and even though I have never played under him I know exactly what he’ll be like around the Australia team,” Ponting wrote. “He will bring calmness to the group, make sure they try to have fun and enjoy the experience of playing for Australia. Above all, he will instil confidence into the young guys in the team who seem to be lacking it at the moment.”Will this decision affect the outcome of the Ashes? Well, only time will tell. Australia could have won the first Test under Mickey Arthur and equally they could win it under Darren Lehmann. What I do know is that they need to be aggressive and take England on now. They will under Boof.”Ponting said it was his belief that Arthur’s axing was the result mostly of Australia’s on-field struggles over the past few months, although the off-field turmoil – the homework saga in India and David Warner’s punch at Joe Root in England – had not helped. Ponting said he did not believe there was anything more Arthur could have done to prevent the Warner incident occurring, and he said the players needed to take some responsibility for the on-field failures as well.”Everybody involved has to take responsibility for this and that includes the players,” Ponting said. “There is only so much the coach can do. Once the players step over that line it is down to them and our displays clearly haven’t been up to scratch.”

“There are new rules?” Chris Gayle asked genuinely, but in a playful tone, leaning back on one of the bottom-row seats below the dressing room at the SWALEC stadium in Cardiff. Wait, Gayle, one of the most senior players in cricket, is not aware of the new ODI rules that were rolled out at the start of 2013: not more than four fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle at any stage of the innings, bowlers being permitted two bouncers in an over and the Powerplays to be completed by the 40th over. You wondered if he was toying with you just like he does with the bowlers when batting. “I have the book but I havent’ read it as yet,” Gayle confessed with a chuckle on a sunny Friday.Unlike the India captain MS Dhoni, who said earlier in the week that the new ODI rules posed a big challenge, Gayle was more flexible. “They are trying to bring more excitement to the 50-over game based on what is happening in Twenty20. You just have to cope with it. It will take some time to make the necessary adjustment and once you adapt, hopefully the fans will gravitate back to the one-day format,” Gayle said.It is this relaxed attitude that makes Gayle such an instant attraction. You do not need to know him. If you can make him smile, Gayle will open up warmly. Spotting some grey hair in his thin beard, this reporter asked him if he was thinking too much. “Like a bird,” Gayle burst out laughing. “That is a good sign or bad sign, I don’t know. I hope it is for a good cause.”Yet, Gayle has always been a thinking batsman. He is never expansive in his thoughts, but he is clear about his own game. Importantly, he understands his goals and has never taken his position in the West Indies team for granted. For instance, he admitted he had not performed consistently in the last few ODI series he played for West Indies. After his 125 at home in Jamaica in the second ODI of the series against New Zealand, Gayle has not been able to score a fifty in his last 11 ODI matches across three series. “Get some runs. Get some runs. I need some runs for West Indies. The last couple of games I haven’t done well for my team. Hopefully this tournament can be turning point for me,” Gayle said.At the same time, he wasn’t putting too much pressure on himself. “Once the mental aspect is ready, the entire body will be ready,” Gayle said, after his first training session for the Champions Trophy. He joined the squad only on Friday morning, as he had to attend to opening an academy for kids in London the day before.Despite his lean form for West Indies in recent times, Gayle is coming into the Champions Trophy on another high in the IPL, where he finished as the tournament’s second-highest run-maker, including a record-breaking 175 not out. Dwayne Bravo, who was appointed West Indies ODI captain , called Gayle the “most dangerous batsman”. “I’ll take that any day,” Gayle said of the compliment, as long as he could live up to the expectations of his team. “Everybody is looking forward to great things. I am trying to keep it simple and I am going to try my best out there and give the team what is required of me and hopefully that will pay off.”Does it then add pressure that fans always expect him to score a boundary off every ball? “Even when I scored 175 in the IPL, people were looking forward to 200. In a Twenty20 game the expectations from the fans is huge. We just have to take it in our stride and take it one step at a time and try and put your best foot forward every time. It is important to entertain the fan but what is more important is what the team requires at the particular moment and you have to make the necessary adjustment.”His main responsibility would be to provide the team with a good start this tournament. “Trying to give the team a good start especially in these conditions is going to be key for us. Bat as many overs as possible, try and be there for long. I know once I am there, runs will come.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Can’t quite smack these for sixes•BCCI

In five overs of high-quality fast bowling, easily the best cricket seen in this IPL, Mitchell Johnson and Lasith Malinga pushed Chris Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan into a corner with accurate, fast and hostile short-pitched bowling. The batsmen had been severely restricted; Dhawan Kulkarni and Harbhajan Singh then came on to pin them and consign Royal Challengers Bangalore, the table leaders, to a 58-run defeat.In Royal Challengers’ previous match, Gayle had scored 175 and added 167 runs with Dilshan to encourage superlatives that would have you believe it was impossible to bowl to Gayle. Nobody informed Johnson and Malinga, though. This was a similar pitch to the one in Bangalore where Gayle caused the mayhem. The outfield was similarly small, top edges flew for sixes here too, but unlike the opposition then, Johnson and Malinga had the pace, and they were prepared to bounce Gayle.Gayle likes to bide his time, is unhurried, and plays percentage cricket, seemingly at will. He wasn’t allowed to do any of that. He did play a flat pull early in the chase when Johnson bowled one into the ribs, managing to smack it to deep midwicket for six. Johnson didn’t back off. He placed a deep midwicket, and went back to bouncing Gayle some more. Now he began to get the ball higher.And Malinga, he has never been hit for a six by Gayle in the IPL. He wasn’t about to today. However, Malinga’s first over was dedicated to making life difficult for countryman Tillakaratne Dilshan. One swing-and-miss followed another as Malinga kept swinging the away from Dilshan. At 10 for 0 after two overs, the openers were shaken. Stirring was to begin soon.First came the shot you will rarely ever see Gayle play: the ramp. Johnson got one to bounce disconcertingly towards the throat, and Gayle tried to clear slips with an open face. This one bounced extra, caught the glove, and the lob just about evaded the slips. Dilshan immediately took a single to send Gayle back to face the chin music. Johnson continued with two more bouncers, Gayle pulled at both, but in a different postal code. Beaten by the bounce on both occasions.In the next over, Malinga hit him on the left shoulder, the rear shoulder. This was no slower bouncer, Malinga bowled it like he meant to. He followed it up with a superb yorker. Thankfully Mumbai didn’t back off, as T20 generally encourages teams to do. Johnson got a third over. He beat Gayle with a left-armer’s outswinger. Gayle was caught on the crease, expecting a bouncer. This was more Suresh Raina than Gayle. He was well and truly out of his comfort zone.Gayle did get two fours off mis-hits in that fifth over, but still he was only 17 off 16, and Dilshan 13 off 14. This was a rude shock for Royal Challengers. On came Kulkarni, a lesser bowler of lesser pace playing his first game of the season, but the task for Royal Challengers wasn’t much lesser. Bowling on a pitch he knows as well as the back of his hand, Kulkarni got bounce and away movement, Dilshan went after it, and Johnson completed a special catch at third man. You couldn’t keep Johnson out of action.In the next over, Rohit Sharma introduced Harbhajan Singh, who teased Gayle with flight and slow pace. Gayle slog-swept, got a thick edge, and it took the best of Ambati Rayudu – who had been run out earlier when a bowler inadvertently knocked his bat out of the crease – to take the catch at cow corner. It kicked off wild celebrations, and Harbhajan pulled out an improvised version of Gangnam-style.Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers were too stunned, and followed shortish and wide deliveries and guided them to the keeper. Kulkarni had helped kill the game in the eighth over of the chase. To be fair to Gayle, though, he has been tested before, and he endures those spells even if it means he has to wait for 10 overs. Tonight, though, Mumbai had got the strategy and execution right. They didn’t want to give Gayle that freedom, which usually comes with batting first. And they also put on 194 on the board, which meant the pressure of asking rate accumulated with every bouncer that beat him.The 194 came thanks to a calculated assault by Sachin Tendulkar at the top of the game, followed by Dwayne Smith’s second consecutive half-century, and the hitting by Dinesh Karthik and Kieron Pollard towards the end. Tendulkar cleared the infield well during the Powerplay overs; he tried just that as opposed to going for big sixes in his 13-ball 23. Smith then hit the big sixes. Karthik was industrious in his 43 off 33, and Pollard hit even bigger sixes when he hit 34 off 16.Put together, they set the perfect platform for the fast bowlers, who in turn had evidently grown a leg.