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ScorecardNamibia completed an eight-wicket victory over Kenya in Windhoek. Kenya batted first and the openers put up a partnership of 47 runs before Craig Williams bowled Tanmay Mishra. Alex Obanda and Maurice Ouma kept the innings flowing, with Ouma eventually falling for 40. Rakep Patel weighed in with a rapid 58 off 27 balls to propel Kenya to a commanding 190 for 5.Namibia’s innings started in similar fashion, with the openers putting on 36. Once Pikky ya France fell for 18, Raymond van Schoor and Louis van der Westhuizen stole the show with a 124-run stand which effectively took the game away form Kenya. van Schoor would finish not out on 67, while van der Westhuizen scored a quick fire 66 off 39 balls. Williams’ 21 off 11 helped Namibia finish off the match with just three balls to spare.

Match facts

May 17, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Rahul Dravid: Man for all occasions•BCCI

Big Picture

It is that time of the year again. Exactly a year ago, the BCCI suspended five Indian domestic players for alleged corruption. Three more, all from the same franchise, have been suspended a year later, and this time, a Test cricketer is allegedly involved. Rajasthan Royals will barely have had time to let the revelations sink in. They had a day’s gap between their penultimate league game in Mumbai and their last one in Hyderabad, and were travelling when the news was being broken to the outside world.The statements from Delhi police, shocking and disturbing as they are, don’t take anything away from Rahul Dravid and Royals, who have done exceedingly well this season to make the playoffs ahead of fancied sides such as Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders. They now need to pick themselves up to face Sunrisers Hyderabad, who are also coming off a defeat to Mumbai Indians.While Royals have lost nothing at home this season, they have won only two of seven away matches. The playoffs won’t be in Jaipur. This is their last chance to try and finish in the top two so that they get two shots at making the final. A win may not take their minds completely off what has happened but nevertheless, a win is still a win.Sunrisers are among the three sides in contention for the final playoff spot and are also the best placed among them, though their net run-rate at the moment is lower than Royal Challengers and Kings XI Punjab. After a scarcely believable assault from Kieron Pollard, they are back at their home ground, where their bowlers have tied down visiting sides this season. Sunrisers have another match to go against Knight Riders on Sunday, but considering their run-rate, would not want to leave it for then.

Form guide

Sunrisers Hyderabad: LWLWW (most recent first)
Rajasthan Royals: LWWWW

In the spotlight

Rahul Dravid came back after a year away from the game to lead Royals again. He’s made runs, he’s dropped himself down the order when needed, he’s shown rare anger at an umpire’s decision, and he’s led his side to the playoffs. Domestic players such as Sanju Samson and Stuart Binny have flowered under his watch. No captain will like to see three of his players suspended for the reasons they have been going into the business end of the season. It is a professional world, and each man is out for himself, but in Dravid, Royals have just the man to guide them, on and off the field, through these developments.
He’s charged in like he wants to take a wicket every ball, and he’s still gone for just 5.73 an over. Dale Steyn has shown that genuine speed and real class can have a place in the world of Twenty20. Pollard’s fury of hitting was sandwiched between two overs from Steyn which were too good to be slogged away. Whether you like T20 or not, four overs of Steyn are worth watching anytime.

Stats and trivia

• Royals have won two of the three games they have played in Hyderabad
• Sunrisers have conceded just 6.68 runs per over at home, easily the best figures this season

Quotes

“Batting-wise we have been controlling the innings really well. Partnerships have been amazing with Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane and we know that everyone is going to chip in at some stage and on one day it is going to be our day. I think bowling-wise we are certainly bowling better towards the end of our innings as well.”

Sunrisers Hyderabad legspinner Amit Mishra, who equaled Lasith Malinga as the leading wicket-taker in the IPL, said that variation was the key to a spinner’s success in Twenty20 cricket.”I keep varying the pace, use the googly more often, bowl topspin, flipper, etc,” Mishra told the IPL site, after his side’s five-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab. “Like that the batsman will not be at ease knowing what’s coming his way. The idea is to keep him guessing.”Mishra also praised young legspinner Karan Sharma, who picked up the important wickets of Kings XI Punjab captain, Adam Gilchrist and batsman Paul Valthaty.”He’s a good bowler and has a lot of potential,” Mishra said. “The good thing is that we’re bowling well in tandem. We talk a lot to each other about our bowling.”Sunrisers’ five-wicket win took them to the top of the points table but Kings XI Punjab, currently on sixth place, need to win more consistently to keep themselves in contention for the playoffs. Kings XI are the only team in the IPL whose batsmen are yet to score a fifty and David Hussey admitted this was a worry for the side.”We’re just not taking responsibility of our wickets,” Hussey said. “When you’re four down with four overs to go, you think you’ll post a big score but we keep getting out in poor ways. We’ve really got to learn and rectify that problem straight away, or it’s going to be a very long tournament for us.”Hussey also said that he believed Adam Gilchrist showed some form against Sunrisers and could lead the batting in future games.

VB Chandrasekhar, the former India opener, has been axed as Tamil Nadu coach less than a year after taking charge. Chandrasekhar took over in July, but a disappointing run of results has led to his sacking.Tamil Nadu are traditionally one of the stronger sides on the domestic circuit, but finished seventh in their group in the league phase of the Ranji Trophy and failed to progress from the zonal stage of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Tamil Nadu still have one tournament before the season closes, the Syed Mustaq Ali Twenty20 competition.This was Chandrasekhar’s first stint as coach of a state side. He played most of his cricket with Tamil Nadu and scored 4999 runs from 81 first-class matches in a 13-year career which ended in 1998. He has also served on the national and state selection panels.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsLions successfully chased Knights’ 143 by four wickets to extend their lead at the top of the table. Knights elected to bat, with the openers starting promisingly with a 44-run stand. Once Loots Bosman was dismissed, Dean Elgar came in to continue building on their efforts, but was also dismissed at the halfway stage with the score on 72. Once Rilee Rossouw was out with an attacking 76 off 47 balls, the innings began to lose momentum, with the final seven wickets falling for the addition of 31 runs. Knights eventually reached a defendable 143 for 8 at the completion of their quota of overs.Lions failed to establish a platform from which to launch as Gulam Bodi and Chris Morris fell cheaply. Opener Quinton de Kock and Alviro Petersen combined for 32 runs for the third wicket, before de Kock was bowled by Elgar. Contributions from Petersen (36), Sohail Tanvir (18), and a decisive 31 off 17 balls from Jean Symes, though,led Lions to a four-wicket victory over the Knights with five balls to spare.
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details Titans won a nail-biter against Cape Cobras to move up to third place on the table. Titans were put in to bat, and the openers started strongly, posting 40 after 4.2 overs, before Jacques Rudolph fell for 35. Titans lost two further wickets quickly to be 64 for 3, but Henry Davids and Farhaan Behardien put up a 92-run stand that ensured they finished at a competitive 178 for 4 after their 20 overs. Behardien top-scored with an unbeaten 68, with Davids scoring 55. Azhar Mahmood had the best figures of 3 for 34.Cape Cobras suffered an early blow, with Richard Levi being bowled by Roelof van der Merwe with the score on 24. Contributions from Dane Vilas (32) and Azhar Mahmood (27) helped steady the innings, and once both were dismissed, Owais Shah and Justin Ontong took over to navigate the chase. They kept the prospects of victory alive with their attacking innings of 61 and 31 respectively, but fell seven short of the target at the completion of 20.

ScorecardShahriar Nafees played a responsible knock for Khulna Royal Bengals yet again•Bangladesh Cricket Board

Khulna Royal Bengals claimed their first victory in five games, beating Duronto Rajshahi by eight wickets. Chasing 139 to win, the Royal Bengals, led by Shahriah Nafees’ 71, sauntered to victory in 19.2 overs.Nafees, like in the previous two wins by his team, was the key contributor in the victory. He struck eleven boundaries in his 52-ball knock, finishing the match with a six off Ben Edmondson with five runs required for victory. He guided the chase with two partnerships; he added 63 for the second wicket with Travis Birt, who made 23 off 26 balls with two fours and a six, and followed this up with a 54-run stand in 6.4 overs with Jehan Mubarak, who remained unbeaten till the end for a 27-ball 30.Earlier, Rajshahi had recovered to post a fighting total after they had slipped to 64 for 6 in the 11th over. Mukhtar Ali and Sean Ervine added 42 for the seventh wicket, and Mukhtar remained unbeaten on 41 to lead them to 138. Mukhtar hammered four boundaries and two sixes during his 30-ball innings.For the Royal Bengals, Krishmar Santokie took three wickets while left-arm spinner Sanjamul Islam and legspinner Noor Hossain picked up two each.Both teams played with different captains today; Lou Vincent led the Royal Bengals despite Nafees being in the playing eleven, and Tamim captained Rajshahi in place of Chamara Kapugedera.

As England continue preparations for the one-day series against India, with their opening warm-up fixture against the A side in Delhi on Sunday, in a nearby part of the city the chastened national side will be attempting to regain some pride in the final one-day international against Pakistan.Rather than the series against Pakistan, crammed between England’s two visits, being an opportunity to rebuild confidence after the Test series loss before Christmas, it has laid bare the major issues within the India team. This time, returning to coloured clothes has not given them anywhere to hide.England, though, at least publicly, are not about to start any gloating at their opponent’s expense. Despite an impressive 2012 in one-day cricket, where they rose to No. 1 in the world, their recent record in India does not give them any grounds for presumption ahead of this series. In 2005-06 they lost 6-1, and in both 2008 and 2011 it was 5-0. India may look ripe for the taking this time, but England are playing up the home team’s strength.”I don’t think it is a good time to play India. I don’t think it is ever a good time to play India,” Eoin Morgan said. “We know how successful they have been in the past and they are the World Cup champions at the moment.”They might be going through a bad patch but they are very, very dangerous cricketers and they have guys who can turn the game on its head in a matter of minutes.”Morgan knows all about turning a game around in an instant. It was his straight six off Ashok Dinda which gave England a last-ball victory in the second Twenty20 in Mumbai that earned them a share of the series.It was yet another example of Morgan’s coolness in the heat of battle and he will have a vital role to play in the upcoming series. After a difficult time at the start of 2012, on a forgettable tour of the UAE facing Pakistan, the home summer reaffirmed his status as a premier middle-order batsman for England in the limited-overs game with 298 runs at 74.50 in 11 matches against West Indies, Australia and South Africa.The one-day batting line-up he will be part of looks very different to the Twenty20 unit on display a couple of weeks ago. Kevin Pietersen is back after reversing his one-day retirement of last June and is likely to bat at No. 3 behind the opening pair of captain Alastair Cook and Ian Bell who forged a successful combination during the English season. Joe Root and Jos Buttler could be competing for one middle-order spot.England only arrived back in India two days ago and there are just a couple of warm-up matches for them to prepare, but Morgan is confident that the players will be ready with all the squad, except for Chris Woakes, having spent time in India late last year.”The majority of our preparation has already been done pre-Christmas,” he said. “Many of us have been here since the October 24 or 25 and some of the guys who weren’t spent three weeks here before Christmas too. Over the next few days we’ll just be doing top-ups in different areas of our games. We are prepared.”The match against India A will also be the first chance for Ashley Giles, England’s new one-day coach, to assess the bowling options at his disposal in the absence of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann. Steven Finn and Tim Bresnan are the most experienced figures, supported by Woakes, Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker with James Tredwell and Danny Briggs as the frontline spinners.It remains uncertain, though, how much play they will be able to get in. The cold mornings have left Delhi shrouded in fog while the light fades early and there are no floodlights at the Palam Cricket Ground.

If Mitchell Johnson was a horses-for-courses selection against South Africa at the WACA, Jackson Bird must be a dead cert for Boxing Day at the MCG. An accurate seamer whose game revolves around making the batsmen play, Bird has had remarkable success in his only two first-class appearances at the MCG. To be fair, there’s hardly a venue within Australia where his record is not outstanding.At 26, Bird has a chance of becoming Australia’s 431st Test cricketer on Boxing Day against Sri Lanka. He is effectively competing with Johnson for the final place in Australia’s attack, a spot that has opened up due to the side injury suffered by Ben Hilfenhaus at Bellerive Oval. Bird might not be a like-for-like replacement for Hilfenhaus but he would offer the selectors a degree of reliability, which on Melbourne’s drop-in pitches is no bad thing.”Ben is more of a swing bowler where I tend to hit the wicket a little bit more,” Bird said in Melbourne on Wednesday. “I certainly don’t bowl as fast as Mitchell Johnson does. Mitch is a great bowler and I suppose whoever gets the nod between me and him will hopefully do a good job.”The MCG is a great place to play. There’s always a little bit in the wicket for the fast bowlers. I definitely do enjoy playing here … My game works on being patient and trying to bowl the same ball every time and challenging the defence.”It’s a method that has served Bird wonderfully well in his short first-class career. Last summer was his first season of state cricket, a career that was kick-started by his move from New South Wales to Tasmania. He topped the Sheffield Shield wicket tally with 53 victims and was named the tournament’s Player of the Year, and this season he is again the leading wicket-taker so far.In his 17 first-class matches, Bird has collected 87 wickets at an average of 19.72, and at the MCG his record is 14 victims at the astounding average of 12.07 from two games. In his first match at the venue, Bird collected five wickets in each innings, including the key Victorian trio of Chris Rogers, David Hussey and Cameron White in both innings. Johnson has managed only one five-wicket haul in his eight first-class appearances in Melbourne.Of course, statistics aren’t everything, but the ability to maintain such a strong record over a season and a half has impressed John Inverarity and his selection panel. Bird was picked for the Australia A tour of England earlier this year but was overlooked for the Australia A game against South Africa in November. However, Bird revealed the selectors had assured him at the time he would be firmly in contention for a Test call-up if injuries affected the frontline bowlers.”I’ve been in communication with the selectors for the last couple of Test matches,” Bird said. “When Ben went down I thought I might be a chance. Luckily enough I got the call … I had pretty good communications with John Inverarity during that period when [the Australia A side] got selected so I wasn’t too disappointed when I missed out. I thought it might be a good thing that they were saving me for the Test match.”Even if the call-up doesn’t turn into a Test debut, it has certainly justified Bird’s decision to head south from Sydney in an effort to break in to first-class cricket. It is not as if Bird was plucked from nowhere – in 2006 he was part of the Australia Under-19 World Cup squad that also featured David Warner, Matthew Wade, Usman Khawaja, Moises Henriques, Aaron Finch, Jon Holland and Ben Cutting – but he knew that his chances in New South Wales would be slim.”I moved down there in the first place just for an opportunity,” Bird said. “I always thought I was good enough to play first-class cricket but in New South Wales there were a lot of good fast bowlers going around like Pat Cummins and Trent Copeland, who were making their debuts for New South Wales and Australia. I was 24 by that time and once Tassie offered me a contract I thought it might be my last chance to play first-class cricket so I jumped at the opportunity.”Australia’s selectors are glad he made the move as well.

Michael Clarke’s record breaking form has seen him become the No. 1-ranked batsman in world cricket. Clarke’s double centuries in Brisbane and Adelaide against South Africa have been rewarded with a return to the top of the ICC rankings.It is the third time Clarke has officially been recognised as the best batsman in the world. Two centuries in the 2009 Ashes series saw him rise to No. 1 in August 2009 and he went back to the top of the rankings following 329 not out and 210 against India in January. Two further double centuries – the most in a calendar year by anyone – and he is leading the pack once more, having begun 2012 in a lowly 20th place.Clarke could also be holding the Test Championship mace if Australia beat South Africa in Perth to win the series. South Africa need only a draw to maintain their No. 1 status.But Clarke’s stint as No. 1 batsman could be shortlived if Kumar Sangakarra can turn around his lean form against New Zealand. Sangakarra is second in the rankings, having previously usurped Shivnarine Chanderpaul – now third after a double century and 150 against Bangladesh. Fellow West Indian Marlon Samuels has broken into the top 20 for the first time, reward for his best year in Test cricket and his career-best 260 in West Indies’ win over Bangladesh in the second Test.Kevin Pietersen is back in the top 10 after arguably his best innings, 186 against India in Mumbai. In seventh position he is one place below England captain Alastair Cook, whose centuries in the first two Tests in India have pushed him up a place.In the bowling rankings, Graeme Swann, now sixth, has also jumped back above James Anderson, 10th, to become the highest-rated England bowler following his eight-wickets at the Wankhede.

Alastair Cook praised the role of England’s recalled bowlers, Jade Dernbach and James Tredwell, in helping level the one-day series against South Africa. The pair shared five wickets, with Dernbach talking three and Tredwell two, as the visitors were bowled out for 211 to set up a four-wicket victory.At the toss Cook said the aim was to “freshen up” the attack with the inclusion of Dernbach ahead of Tim Bresnan who has struggled to make an impact this season with the growing suspicion he is not quite the same bowler as before his elbow surgery at the end of the last year. England were already without Stuart Broad who was rested for this series and Dernbach was preferred ahead of allrounder Chris Woakes.He responded with 3 for 44 including the vital wicket of Hashim Amla, bowled off an inside edge, but his most impressive moment came against Dean Elgar when he confounded the left hander with a superbly disguised slower ball that took off stump. Throughout the innings Dernbach used his variations cleverly rather than overdoing the slower deliveries as he has occasionally in the past.”He was really good. He’s a wicket-taker, and he came in and got them at crucial times,” Cook said. “All our bowlers did well, but especially him. He took two important wickets before the batting Powerplay.”The difference here was we kept taking wickets at just about the right times. We never allowed them to get away from us, and that way we were able to keep them to 211.”Tredwell, meanwhile, again proved an able deputy to Graeme Swann who has been rested for the remainder of the series ahead of the Twenty20 matches later this month. Earlier in the season Tredwell slotted in for Swann against Australia at Old Trafford with 2 for 23 and this time claimed 2 for 49 including the innings-changing scalp of AB de Villiers.”Tredwell is just a really, really good performer,” Cook said. “He knows his game really well; he’s a great man to have around, and it’s nice to have that strength in depth. He hasn’t played that much for England. But every time he has, he’s never let us down. He does it week in, week out for Kent – and every time he’s played for England, he’s done it too.”Cook also said that it was always the management’s intention to give Swann the final three matches off and that it was not an immediate response to any increasing concern about his troublesome elbow where he is contending with floating bone fragments.”We were always going to rest Swanny for the last three games. We planned to rest him, quite simply. He was fit to play, but it was a decision Andy and I made before the series started. With the amount of cricket we have coming up, we have to look at the bigger picture – and it’s really nice as a captain to have someone as solid and as good at James Tredwell to come in.”