Rohit and Gambhir script emphatic win

India 159 for 1 (Rohit 80, Gambhir 52*) beat Pakistan 158 for 6 (Misbah 37*, Younis 32, Ishant 1-11) by nine wickets

Rohit Sharma never looked out of place as an opener © Associated Press

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Player/Officials: Ahmed Shehzad | Gautam Gambhir | Misbah-ul-Haq | Rohit Sharma | Yasir Arafat

Matches: India v Pakistan at The Oval

Series/Tournaments: ICC World Twenty20 Warm-up Matches

Teams: India | Pakistan

Finally India and Pakistan played out a one-sided Twenty20 game. Filling in for Virender Sehwag as opener, Rohit Sharma continued to give India a combination dilemma and made the chase seem like an afternoon walk in a London park. A target of 159, with extra bowlers available by the virtue of this being a 13-a-side game, was by no means an easy one, but Gautam Gambhir and Rohit managed with the ease that belies the tension an India-Pakistan match brings.

Nothing about this encounter suggested it was a warm-up game. The sell-out crowd, and the intensity in the first innings was something even the final of the actual tournament will be proud of. But in the second innings, Pakistan went into the experiment mode. They went in with an interesting strategy, interchanging the usual roles between Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir. Gul, who usually bowls in the last 10 overs, opened the bowling, and Tanvir came on to bowl in the 10th over - none of the moves worked.

Nothing about Rohit's innings suggested that he was a makeshift opener. Although Gambhir kickstarted things with three boundaries in the first three overs, including one off Gul's first ball, it was Rohit who took the match away from Pakistan. He got going with a heave over mid-on in the third over, but the slogs were conspicuous by absence in the rest of his innings.

Yasir Arafat, who bowled three overs at the top of the innings, went for a six in his second and two boundaries in his third. The 17-year-old prodigy Mohammad Aamer produced good pace in his first over, but he too was pulled for four by Rohit. By the end of the seventh over, when Pakistan threw the final roll of the dice - the spinners - India had already reached 65.

The batsmen played out Saeed Ajmal's first over quietly, but in Shahid Afridi's first over Gautam Gambhir joined the party, with a short-arm-pull over midwicket. Tanvir, in his first over, was hit for perhaps the shot of the day, a yorker flicked to fine leg. By the time captain Younis Khan called the spinners back, Rohit was in the mood for some fun, hitting Ajmal inside-out and pulling Afridi over midwicket. When he got out for a 53-ball 80, India needed only 19 runs in four overs.

Lack of discipline and a few big hits from MS Dhoni and Gambhir meant the game ended in the next over. Quite fittingly, Pakistan finished the match with a wide.

It wasn't as facile when the old sparring partners started off for the first time since last year's Asia Cup in Karachi. They wasted little time in going for punches and counter-punches during a frenetically-paced first innings. A wicket in the first over didn't deter Ahmed Shehzad and Kamran Akmal from counterattacking spectacularly with a 25-ball 43-run stand. They stumbled just as sensationally, losing the next three wickets on the same score before the two coolest heads in the team, Younis and Misbah-ul-Haq, rebuilt and took Pakistan to what seemed a fighting total.

Praveen Kumar and Shehzad set the agenda early. Praveen followed two bouncers with an outswinger to clean up Shahzaib Hasan. Akmal then crashed the first ball after the wicket through the covers for four. In the next over, Shehzad hit RP Singh for three boundaries, an over during which he was also dropped by Harbhajan Singh at short midwicket.

Dhoni quickly called on the raw pace of Ishant Sharma and the effect was immediate. First Suresh Raina ran out Akmal through superb work at cover, and Shehzad top-edged a pull in the same over. The panic set in when a promoted Shahid Afridi went boom first ball he faced from Irfan and managed just an outside edge to Dhoni - 45 for 1 had become 45 for 4.

Shoaib Malik counterattacked, but fell soon. Either side of Malik's dismissal, no boundary was hit for 42 balls until Misbah made room and lofted Ojha to wide long-on in the 13th over. By the time Younis fell for a run-a-ball 32, the two had been added 50 in 45 balls. Arafat and Misbah provided the final impetus, scoring 29 in the last two overs, but it proved to be way below-par on the night.

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Success will cheer up Pakistan - Younis

Since the Lahore attacks, Pakistan have only played a low-key ODI series against Australia in 

Pakistan's captain, Younis Khan, is ready to turn England into his team's home away from home, and views success in the World Twenty20 as the best way to make his troubled nation smile again.

Since the atrocities outside the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in March, in which eight security and transport personnel were killed in a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus, Pakistan's cricketers have been forced into exile. They were barred from competing in the IPL, and their only action since the attack was a low-key ODI series against Australia in the UAE.

Now, however, they are on the world stage in a big way, lining up alongside England and Netherlands in the group stage of a competition that, but for a moment's aberration from Misbah-ul-Haq against India in September 2007, they might well have won at the first attempt.

"It is special to be back on the world stage," Younis told reporters at Lord's. "Especially in Twenty20s, and especially in England. We are suffering from not playing regularly, and no-one is coming to Pakistan, but all the time in the last few months I have been talking to the boys, and telling them to do well [in this tournament]. There are a lot of media here, and [if we succeed] we'll be well on our way to our mission, so to speak. It's very important for us."

There has been much talk in recent weeks about overkill of the Twenty20 format, and burn-out of the game's star players, but such issues couldn't be less of a problem for Pakistan, who are desperate to get stuck into some meaningful cricket. "If you don't play regularly, you don't have that match fitness," said Younis. "But the beauty of international cricket is that it is changing all the time in different conditions, so we feel fresh and will do well in England, in'shallah."

Younis admitted his team's security for this tournament had been stepped up from previous visits to England, but added that such a situation had become common-place for Pakistan. Of greater importance was the opportunity that the visit provides his young players, especially with the prospect of a return to England next summer to play a Test series against Australia.

"Playing in England is everyone's dream," said Younis. "I have been over here for county cricket [with Yorkshire], and my first Test at Lord's was fantastic for me. Playing cricket in Pakistan would be better, but we have problems as everyone knows. England is the home of cricket, it will be good for our youngsters to learn to play in any conditions. Sometimes here it rains, sometimes it's hot, sometimes it's cold."

With that in mind, Younis said that his team's tactics would revolve around a more patient game that has sometimes been witnessed in Twenty20 cricket. "I have a couple of plans," he said. "T20 looks short, but it's not - 120 balls is enough. If you bat normally but with energy, especially in the middle order where you need good running between the wickets, [a score of] 180-190 is very easy.

"In English conditions the new ball does seam, so you need someone like Salman Butt who can play for 20 overs. But in the middle order, we have big hitters like Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq, he's a top Twenty20 batsman. So we are not lacking in players."

Afridi's power-hitting game might have been designed with Twenty20 cricket in mind, but Younis was careful not to expect him to shred the opposition every innings. "Afridi was one of best players of the last tournament," he said. "As a captain I have a few good players, but the main thing is everyone respects him. He'll come in and though it's not possible to hit every ball for six, the expectation is there. He's always done a good job for me, and he'll do good for Pakistan."

Reflecting on the near-miss in 2007, Younis admitted that there had been a few players in tears at the end of the final in Johannesburg. When five runs were needed for victory, Misbah mistimed an attempted scoop over fine leg and lobbed a simple chance to Sreesanth on the edge of the circle. But he remained confident that his team could achieve at least a top-four finish this time, and maybe even go one better than two years ago.

"The finishing touches were not there in 2007," said Younis. "But it was fantastic to be a part of that team in the final. Some guys were crying at the end, but in T20 everything can change. My confidence is that I'll take this trophy to Pakistan, but if the plan works ins'hallah it'll be an achievement for us to finish in the top four.

"We have a lot of followers all the time in England, and a lot of cities here have Pakistanis and Indians," he said. "That's the main reason I'm happy to be in England. Our fans are fantastic back home, they are lovers of T20, and now it's dependent on us to prove ourselves. If we play good cricket it will be good for our nation. These days the whole nation is depressed, and only cricket [can lift it]. If we play good and win something, they will cheer. To finish in the top four, my nation will come again and start cheering."

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Ponting warns England against half-fit Flintoff

Australia in England 2009

Ricky Ponting with the World Twenty20 trophy at a press conference, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, May 29, 2009
Ricky Ponting: refreshed after sitting out the IPL © Getty Images

Australia's captain Ricky Ponting believes that England will be taking a massive gamble if they risk playing a half-fit Andrew Flintoff in the Ashes later this summer, and offered a veiled criticism of the decisions of both Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen to take part in the recently concluded Indian Premier League in South Africa.

Facing the media at Trent Bridge following the Australian squad's arrival in England on Thursday morning, Ponting spoke of how "relaxed and rejuvenated" he felt after opting out of the IPL and taking a four-week break from the game, and suggested that in hindsight England's star players might have been better off following his example.

Instead, Flintoff is facing an anxious race against the clock after requiring surgery on a knee injury sustained while playing for the Chennai Super Kings at the IPL, while Pietersen, who captained Bangalore Royal Challengers in the opening rounds, last week missed his first international cricket for two years when he decided to rest an Achilles injury during the ODI series against West Indies.

Flintoff and Pietersen each fetched US$1.55 million at this year's IPL auction, and with that sort of outlay, Ponting said he understood why they decided to take part in the tournament. "There was obviously a great incentive for those guys to go and play with the amount of money they went for and I guess they were always coming back from the IPL early for the Test matches.

"But for us it was a great opportunity to step away from cricket for a few weeks and make sure we're in the best shape we could be in," he added. "For me it was pretty simple, it was about how long our summer was and how much cricket we played. It was a good opportunity for me to have a couple of weeks off cricket and make sure that when I got here for the start of this tournament I was in the best physical and mental shape I could be."

Ponting's men arrived in the country with considerably less fanfare than their predecessors in 2005, which is understandable given the retirement of big names such as Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. But the youthful verve of a squad made up largely of the team that beat South Africa on home soil in March will, in Ponting's estimation, have a significant advantage over their wearier English opponents.

And no-one seems wearier right now than Flintoff, who was England's main man in the 2005 triumph, but was at the helm 18 months later when Australia recaptured the Ashes with a 5-0 whitewash Down Under. After recently undergoing knee surgery, he was withdrawn from the World Twenty20 squad earlier this week, and now has little more than a month in which to prove his fitness, starting with a County Championship fixture for Lancashire at Liverpool on June 17.

"That's going to be the great decision the England selectors are going to have to make come the first Test," said Ponting. "Flintoff is obviously very important to their make-up and set-up. Maybe, as we saw in 2007, if he's not 100% fit then maybe that sort of impact he can have around the team is not there.

"From 2005 to 2007 we saw two completely different players and that had a lot to do with the level of fitness that he had under his belt going into each series. That's where they're going to have a tough decision to make.

"I don't know where Pietersen's at at the moment, I'm not sure how bad his problem is, but they could face something similar there as well."

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Henry revels in Barca success

Champions League

Thursday 28th May 2009

Thierry Henry feels he made the right decision staying at Barcelona following a disappointing first season with the club.

The France international recovered from a knee injury to play in the Champions League Final last night, and achieved one of his career goals by winning the European title as the Catalan club secured a 2-0 triumph over Manchester United.

"I didn't arrive at Barcelona just to win the Champions League but to win everything," he said.

"The coach (Pep Guardiola) wanted me to stay. He was the man that convinced me to stay."

Henry played against Barcelona in the Champions League Final three years ago with Arsenal but was on the losing side.

He was a doubt for this week's showdown with United but recovered from a ligament injury to his right knee that had kept him out since early May.

Henry is not just celebrating a European title but a treble as Barcelona are the first team in Spain to win the Primera Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League in the same season.

"This is incredible," he said. "I had wanted to win the Champions League for a long time.

"It´s something that I was missing. It´s a special feeling because to win a treble in modern football is not easy and yet we have done it.

"No Spanish team has achieved what we have, to win a treble, and I think everyone will remember this Barca side.

"I´m delighted because I always wanted to make history at this club and we've done just that.

"Now we will celebrate."

Henry is also relieved that he was able to overcome his injury in time.

"For me it´s wonderful to have been able to make it to the final and play," he said.

"It's not easy to come back after several weeks out of action but just like Andres Iniesta, we were determined to play."

Henry insisted that nothing came easy for Barcelona this season.

The Spanish champions went into the final without four regular defenders, with central duo Rafa Marquez and Gabriel Milito out injured and backs Eric Abidal and Dani Alves both suspended.

But the strength of Pep Guardiola´s side is such that numerous other players were able to contribute.

"I think this game is a mirror of a season." he said. "It doesn´t matter which player plays, it is the team as a whole that has done the job.

"Our strength was doing what we have done all season, which is to keep possession, play touch football and recover balls.

"We executed our plan of attack, as usual.

"I don´t know if we won the tactical battle, but Manchester United also played attacking football.

"The whole team played well.

"We had several players injured and suspended but those who came out to play did a great job.

"I knew before the game that I had never lost in Rome. Rome for me is a great city."

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West Indies labour in huge chase

England v West Indies, 3rd ODI, Edgbaston

25 overs West Indies 110 for 4 (Chanderpaul 32*, Ramdin 6*) need 219 more runs to beat England 328 for 7 (Prior 87)

Matt Prior continued his fine form with a career-best 87 to put England on course for a huge total  

England moved closer to a series win as West Indies laboured to 110 for 4 at the half-way point of their huge run chase at Edgbaston. Stuart Broad and James Anderson continued their impressive form with an early wicket each, while Runako Morton was run out in a hopeless mix-up with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and West Indies' problems deepened when Dwayne Bravo was trapped lbw after a sparky 26.

If they were to have any realistic hope of chasing down 329, West Indies needed a big innings from their captain, but after two early boundaries Chris Gayle fell in the third over when he spooned an attempted pull to mid-on. After a brief shower, Ramnaresh Sarwan opened his account with consecutive fours off Broad only to fall in the next over when he miscued a drive to cover where Andrew Strauss held a smart one-handed catch jumping to his left. With two key players gone, Chanderpaul just tried to make sure that no more damage was done as he and Morton played cautiously.

Broad gave Chanderpaul a real working over from around the wicket, beating him three times in two overs with the line that has caused problems all tour. Broad may have had the wicket for his effort if Strauss hadn't had the one slip stood very wide when the edge was found and flew to third man.

Tim Bresnan helped maintain the pressure created by the opening pair and Morton was itching to try and break the shackles, but a breakdown in communication cost him his wicket. After pushing the ball into the covers he raced back for a second only to see Chanderpaul planted firmly in his crease and Morton had no chance to get back.

Bravo finally brought some spark to the innings with a punchy start to his knock, getting off the mark with a straight six off Dimitri Mascarenhas followed by an effortless flick through square leg. In Mascarenhas' next over Bravo launched him over wide long-off for another six, but England missed a chance to dismiss him when Matt Prior failed to gather a stumping chance in Graeme Swann's first over. But it didn't prove costly as Bresnan trapped him leg before on the back foot in the next over to confirm that this match is only heading one way.

England 328 for 7 (Prior 87, Shah 75, Strauss 52, Taylor 3-59) v West Indies

Two days ago the England bowlers excelled to set up a winning position at Bristol; this time it was the turn of the batsmen to put their side in sight of a series win at Edgbaston. Matt Prior hit a career-best 87 and added 149 in 20 overs with Owais Shah, to build on the solid base provided by Ravi Bopara and Andrew Strauss, as England amassed an imposing 328 for 7, the highest ODI total at the ground.

It was another depressingly poor show from West Indies who couldn't maintain any consistency with the ball, gave away free-hits and often fielded with little conviction. England, though, were again on top of their game as they paced the innings impressively, compiling 81 off the first two Powerplays then making use of the batting option by adding 55 in five overs as Prior and Shah made the most of the fielding restrictions. Some clean late striking meant England took 98 off the last 10 overs and it will take a huge effort for a dispirited team to chase down the target.

Bopara and Strauss began watchfully to judge how much assistance the pitch offered after all the recent rain, but it soon became clear that it was a pretty lifeless surface. Ravi Rampaul struggled with his line to gift England some early momentum, although Jerome Taylor was a more threatening prospect. Bopara found the early boundaries, but Strauss got into his stride with consecutive fours off Rampaul - a strong cut and a well-timed pull - as the bowler continued to serve up a poor mixture.

Fidel Edwards, recalled after surprisingly missing the Bristol game, was introduced for the tenth over and nearly removed Strauss, on 16 at the time, with his third ball, but Kieron Pollard spilled a tough chance at point. He'd made good ground to reach the ball, but couldn't hold on as his elbows hit the ground.

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