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An unbeaten half-century from Jeevantha Kulatunga fashioned Basnahira‘s 34-run win against Ruhuna at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Basnahira’s top-order was solid, after Ruhuna put them in to bat. While Kulatunga, batting at No. 3, struck 69 off 47 with six fours and four sixes, the other batsmen in the top four contributed well to carry Basnahira to 166 for 3. The Ruhuna chase, apart from a short burst from opener Mahela Udawatte, lacked momentum. The batsmen failed to build on starts, and a mini-collapse halfway through the innings meant they stumbled from 74 for 3 to 78 for 6, putting Basnahira firmly in charge. Chathura Peiris and Tillakaratne Dilshan did most of the damage for Basnahira, claiming three wickets each in tight spells, as Ruhuna folded for 132 in the 19th over. The win puts Basnahira at the top of the points table.After three losses, Combined Provinces turned out an improved performance, to beat Wayamba comprehensively in the second game of the day. Chasing 156, Combined Provinces eased past their target with seven wickets and nine balls to spare. The chase was built around a rapid 52 from Ashan Priyanjan, and cameos of 33 apiece from Dhanushka Gunathilleke and Jeevan Mendis. Earlier, after choosing to bat, Wayamba’s line-up failed to build on starts – the only sizeable contribution was 41 from Chamara Silva. Chaminda Vidanapathirana, Ajantha Mendis and Sachith Pathirana combined to keep Wayamba to 155 for 7, claiming two wickets each while conceding just over a run a ball.

Fast bowler Graeme McCarter’s dream figures of 5 for 8 in 10 overs helped Ireland Under-19s decimate Canada Under-19s in Limavady, and take them to the top of the table in the Under-19 World Cup Qualifiers. Canada were shot out for 37 with half of their quota of 50 overs to spare, before Ireland made heavy weather of the paltry target, eventually chasing it down with five wickets and 37 overs in hand. Ireland’s new-ball pair of McCarter and Shane Getkate ripped through the Canada line-up, claiming nine wickets between them. Ireland’s top order were poor in the chase, several of them edging through to the keeper as Manny Aulakh and Jobanjot Singh bowled impressive spells with hardly any runs to defend.

A spirited fightback from Namibia Under-19s’ middle and lower order got them back into the game from what looked like a hopeless position, but they eventually fell eight runs short of Nepal Under-19s’ total of 217, at the Drummond Cricket Club. At 43 for 5 after 17 overs, Namibia were reeling but Merwe Erasmus and Christopher Coombe began a recovery with a 78-run partnership. Coombe’s 30 runs, though, took 76 balls, and when he fell in the 39th over Namibia needed 97 from 67 balls. Shalako Groenewald nearly got them there, with his boundary-filled 44 off 35 but he was dismissed by seamer Krishna Karki, who then got rid of Erasmus for 63 two balls later.A few late hits from the tailenders weren’t enough to get Namibia past Nepal’s total, which had been built on the back of a 79-run opening stand and a half-century from Naresh Budayair. Nepal had built a solid foundation for a big total but were pegged back by Coombe, who took six wickets. Their 217 was enough in the end though.

Scotland Under-19s picked up their fifth win of the tournament, beating Afghanistan Under-19s by 33 runs at New Strabane Park. Scotland went about building their total of 218 steadily, with Freddie Coleman and Peter Ross crafting careful half-centuries before the lower order scrambled together some quick runs at the end. Sayed Shirzad made it hard for the batsmen to get away and finished with 4 for 33. His efforts were wasted by Afghanistan’s top order, who slipped to 41 for 5 inside 12 overs of their reply. Afsar Khan’s 84 lent the innings some respectability but Scotland were always on top and bowled Afghanistan out in 47.5 overs.

United States of America Under-19s crushed Kenya Under-19s by 130 runs at the Bready Cricket Club. Kenya’s batting collapsed for just 108, with Duncan Allan getting 46 and only two other players reaching double digits. The wickets were spread around among the USA bowlers, with Salman Ahmad’s figures of 3 for 14 the most impressive. USA had reached their total of 238 for 9 thanks to Greg Sewdial’s 68 and healthy contributions from the rest of the top order.

Vanuatu Under-19s are still winless in the competition, after they received a trouncing by 118 runs from Papua New Guinea Under-19s at the Bready Cricket Club No. 2 Ground. Vanuatu leaked 70 runs in the last ten overs to let PNG get to 245, and then collapsed for 127. Lega Siaka, Christopher Kent and Dogodo Bau all got into the forties for PNG, though none pushed on to get a half-century. Norman Vanua was PNG’s most successful bowler, taking 3 for 15.

The world is changing but there’s no reason Test cricket won’t survive another 2000 matches, India’s captain MS Dhoni has said. Dhoni was speaking on the eve of the Lord’s Test between England and India, which has the distinction of being the 2000th Test, as well as the 100th between the countries and the first of what is expected to be a closely fought series.The milestone comes at a time when Test cricket is under threat from the shorter forms of the game – Twenty20, the newest format, and the revival in popularity of the ODI following the World Cup earlier this year. Asked whether he thought Test cricket would survive another 2000 matches, Dhoni offered a nuanced response. “What’s important is to see where it’s going and there’s no reason why we should doubt it because wherever I’ve gone I’ve seen a good response on the field. Of course you’ll have games where there won’t be a full house compared to some of the ODIs or the T20 format but yes, people are still following Test cricket.”The challenge, as he pointed out, also comes from the changes in contemporary lifestyles. “The world has changed. It means you have to go to your job, with the privatisation and everything that is happening, the bosses want you to spend more time at your desk and look less at the television so all of these things play a big role in it. But there’s no good reason why Test cricket can’t survive or won’t survive for the next 2000 games.”MS Dhoni believes Test cricket can survive modern lifestyle•AFP

The figure lent an already-special match an extra sheen, he said. “You can look at the number and feel good about it, because 2000 is a big number which means the game has survived for a long time, and 100 between India and England means we have a long-term relation with the English side. It’s a special game – playing at Lord’s is always special – but overall, rather than thinking too much about the numbers, we can just look at the number and be proud. You can’t play 100 games against one nation but when you have left cricket you can look back and say you played in the 100th Test between India and England, and 2000 when it comes to the history. We can be proud we are playing but at the same time we need to stick to the basics and enjoy the game.”His counterpart Andrew Strauss, while appreciating the occasion, spoke of the importance of the bottom-line. “It helps in hyping up the series, although I don’t think this series needs any hyping because India versus England is two very good sides with some high quality players. The recipe is there for it to be a very entertaining series. The wider context is not something we are focusing on. In any Test series every side is hoping to get a fast start, get ahead and then earn the right over four Tests to win the series. All that other stuff is not for us to concentrate on and will look after itself.”

Craig Kieswetter has warned Matt Prior he faces a fight to hang on to his gloves, declaring it is his ambition to become England’s first-choice wicketkeeper “in all forms of the game”. Kieswetter showcased his ability at last year’s World Twenty20 in the West Indies, most notably smashing a match-winning 63 off 49 balls in a seven-wicket defeat of Australia in the final, but has since fallen out of contention for national honours.”In that World Twenty20 side most of us were probably in the best form of our careers, certainly I was,” he told . “In the final we just said, ‘We might as well try and win this properly.’ They [Australia] had four quicks so there was nowhere to hide. KP [Kevin Pietersen] and I thought, ‘We might as well have a crack.’ We were a bit lucky. But we played some rather good shots too.”Four months on from his swashbuckling efforts, Kieswetter found himself being dropped following a slump in form. And, although he backed the decision, he admits returning to county cricket with his tail between his legs was a hard pill to swallow.”It was really disappointing,” he said. “I was part of the side that won a World Cup. But realistically, when I look at the way I played back in England against Australia and Bangladesh, it was a warranted decision. International cricket is a cut-throat business. It was a tough year. Coming back to your county after being dropped is one of the hardest transitions a player has to go through. That showed in my performances for a while.”I’m lucky in that coming back to Somerset, they see the players as a family and if you’re struggling you don’t have to fight it yourself. Brian Rose, Andy Hurry and Marcus [Trescothick] were a massive help to me.”Naturally a very attacking batsman, Kieswetter has spent the last year rebuilding and, with seven first-class hundreds, an improving average and a hugely encouraging England Lions tour of the West Indies now behind him, he is ready to resume his challenge of becoming England’s main man behind the stumps.”It is my ambition to become England’s wicketkeeper in all forms of the game,” he said. “Obviously Matt Prior’s got the gloves at the moment but it’s my duty to push him as hard as possible.”Over the winter, I was fortunate enough to work really hard with Thorpey [former England batsman Graham Thorpe] at the ECB academy in Australia and then in the West Indies. I made a few improvements that seem to be paying off. There were a few technical points but it was more about being able to settle into the platform of four-day cricket; that mentality of being able to bat for a long time and make big scores.”Thorpe believes the youngster is a player with the brightest of futures, saying: “Craig is a genuinely talented player with lots of shots. You don’t want to kill that flair. But it’s about rounding out his game, being able to score all round the pitch. People remember him from the Twenty20, but I think there’s a lot more in him than that, as a player. He had a taste of it. I suppose he didn’t seem like a complete player – we never are – but for him it’s about converting those starts and really pushing on.”With England’s ODI and 20-over squads set to be announced this week, Kieswetter is eyeing a recall – though if he is selected it is likely to be as an opener.”Opening, you have to control yourself emotionally,” he said. “The adrenaline is pumping. All the great one-day opening batsman can rein that feeling in. I’ve spoken about it with Marcus, how you hit a boundary and there’s a massive cheer, and then another one and you just want more.”

Scorecard
Given the anxiety surrounding the future of Old Trafford as aggrieved neighbour Albert Gubay continues on his mission to scupper Lancashire’s critical redevelopment plans, there is the potential for this season to be one of considerable irony if what had looked like a team in transition can maintain its early-season form.The Court of Appeal’s decision to give Gubay’s Derwent Holdings another crack at forcing a judicial review into Lancashire’s plans imposes another delay before work can properly begin on the £32 million project, jeopardising their hopes of being ready for the 2013 Ashes. The consequences for their financial future of not being ready do not bear thinking about, according to the county, in which case Lancashire’s temporary exile from their traditional headquarters -caused by the rotation of the square – might in a worst case scenario become permanent.And while club grounds can be idyllic, particularly when the sun shines, they are not suited to the demands of modern professional cricket. Lancashire quite like the idea of visitors to Aigburth suffering a degree of culture shock when the confront the Victorian pavilion but even they might tire of it as a long-term home.On this occasion, moreover, it felt far from idyllic as a chill wind whipped across the Mersey estuary, blowing away some early morning rain but obliging spectators to swath themselves with several layers even when the clouds parted and the sun peeped through.Not that the Lancashire players noticed, you would imagine. The 252nd Roses match – the first on this ground – is going their way so far after Yorkshire subsided to 141 all out.Conditions favoured the bowlers but it was a pretty miserable effort from the white rose nonetheless, although in the absence of Anthony McGrath, Gerard Brophy, Richard Pyrah and Tim Bresnan, all injured, as well as Ajmal Shahzad and Jonny Bairstow, away with England Lions, there were mitigating circumstances.Indeed, they are so stretched that they have had to ask Simon Guy, who they released in 2009 and is playing currently for Marske in the North Yorks-South Durham League, to come back as emergency wicketkeeper. Guy, 32, last played a first-class match in July, 2007, although he is familiar with most of the faces he encountered on his return. Five of his Yorkshire team-mates – as well as four on the Lancashire side – played in the Second XI Trophy final at Scarborough in 2009 that marked his final Yorkshire appearance.Even so, Yorkshire should have done rather better, having been 95 for 2. The pitch was slow and difficult to score runs on and with the ball swinging for Jimmy Anderson and Glen Chapple, the loss of only two wickets in the first 48 overs was a good effort.But it was at that point that Joe Sayers was out to a brilliant, diving catch by Steven Croft at point, rewarding Anderson with his only wicket when he probably deserved more for a penetrating couple of spells.Sayers is no dasher in anyone’s book, sometimes taking the virtues of caution a little too far but his defiance of temptation was exactly what was called for this time. With the ball seaming and swinging, beating the bat often and at times keeping disconcertingly low, Sayers ground his way to 53 in a little over three hours but once he had gone Yorkshire’s collective resolve drained away.The last eight wickets fell for 46 runs as Yorkshire, who had been fortunate to lose only Adam Lyth and Joe Root before lunch. Lyth, having cracked the first ball of the match through the covers for four, perished leg before to the first ball of Chapple’s second over at the pavilion end, Root falling in similar fashion to the last ball of Farveez Maharoof’s first over at the river end.Andrew Gale, the Yorkshire captain, should have been stumped on two when he took a liberty with Gary Keedy and threatened to take advantage but the left-arm spinner, finding turn at the pavilion end on day one, ultimately bowled him round his legs. Keedy soon struck again when Gary Balance popped a catch to silly point.Guy was bowled by Maharoof, whose ambition to persuade the Sri Lankan selectors of his worth can only benefit Lancashire, before Keedy held a return catch driven by Adil Rashid. Two more for Maharoof and another for Keedy, both men ending with four wickets, wrapped things up quickly. Yorkshire’s scoring rate had been under two runs per over.Lancashire lost Stephen Moore in the fifth over of their reply but negotiated the remaining 11 without serious alarms, which perhaps indicated a slight easing of the conditions but also highlighted how well Lancashire had bowled as a unit, so well that Saj Mahmood and Simon Kerrigan, both left out – in the latter’s case despite a match-winning five for seven in his last appearance, against Warwickshire – were scarcely missed.

Match facts

Sunday, April 17
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Rajasthan need to find a way to shackle Kolkata’s batting•AFP

Big picture

Last Monday, little more than a third of Eden Gardens was filled for Kolkata Knight Riders’ first home game. Nothing, though, gets the fans behind an IPL team like a few wins, and the combination of two straightforward victories for Kolkata, reduced ticket prices and the Sunday evening start should draw a bigger crowd for the match against Rajasthan Royals on Sunday.The two teams faced off in Jaipur on Friday, an encounter which Kolkata dominated through the solid, keep-it-simple batting of Jacques Kallis and captain Gautam Gambhir. The two put on an unbroken 152 for the second wicket, the second-largest partnership in IPLs. Kolkata’s strongest suit is their batting; they have the luxury of Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan in the middle order in case their experienced players at the top flop.Rajasthan need to figure out a way to shackle the batting might of Kolkata, perhaps by including Shaun Tait who will provide a cutting edge to their attack. They also need to work out where to play Shane Watson after their decision to use him in the middle order on Friday didn’t quite work out. Shane Warne admitted that the biggest hitters in his side, Watson and Ross Taylor, didn’t get enough overs in the middle to decisively influence the game. With Ashok Menaria showing he has the ability to muscle the spinners, and Taylor also lurking in the middle order, perhaps Rajasthan will be tempted to push Watson to the opener’s slot or No. 3 to give him more time in the middle.

Team talk

Johan Botha picked up a finger injury on Friday, which prevented him from taking the new ball. It’s still not clear whether it is serious enough to rule him out of Sunday’s match, but even if it does heal he might find himself benched as Rajasthan could pick Tait instead, to provide more of a wicket-taking threat.With their new arrivals, Brett Lee and Shakib, turning in acceptable performances on Friday, Ryan ten Doeschate is likely to remain sidelined. Kolkata won’t experiment much with their line-up, except perhaps to include Bengal allrounder Laxmi Shukla in place of Delhi’s Rajat Bhatia.Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team selector.

In the spotlight

Just as he did for his previous team Royal Challengers Bangalore, Jacques Kallis is providing stability at the top of the order and proving that he can be relied on to bowl a full quota of overs. In a tournament where the fielding standard has been pretty low, his safe hands in the outfield are a bonus. He has been Man of the Match in one game, and a plausible contender for the award in the other two Kolkata have played.As usual, Rajasthan have put their faith in a clutch of low-profile Indians; in the game against Kolkata on Friday they had six players without international experience. Of those, Ashok Menaria looks the brightest prospect; he was India’s Under-19 captain in the 2010 World Cup, smashed centuries in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the Ranji Trophy this season, and his naturally aggressive game is well suited to the Twenty20 format. He can also fire in some flat left-arm spin to provide cover in case any of the frontline bowlers have an off day.

Prime numbers

• Gautam Gambhir has the second-highest winning percentage (61.11%) among IPL captains, just behind a surprisingly successful leader Yuvraj Singh (61.29%)
• Yusuf Pathan has hit the second-highest number of sixes in IPL history, with 62

The chatter

“Rahul Dravid is hitting the ball very well and he gives us a lot of stability at the top. Siddharth Trivedi bowled well too and got a couple of nicks. Abhishek Raut was once again sensational in the field, saving at least 10-15 runs. Ross Taylor hit the ball beautifully and showed he’s in good touch.”
“We’re not here to compete. We’re here to win. We’ve got some world class players and once we’re there, we want to finish on a high note.”

ScorecardDerbyshire’s bowlers were put to the sword as Leicestershire posted their biggest total for nearly two years to take a stranglehold on the Championship game at Grace Road.An unbeaten sixth-wicket partnership of 168 between Wayne White and Jigar Naik lifted Leicestershire to an imposing 507 for 5 before they declared with a lead of 202.White made 83 not out and Naik finished unbeaten on 77 and it left Derbyshire to battle through the final eight overs of the day, with openers Wesley Durston and Wayne Madsen surviving to reach 17 without loss leaving Derbyshire 185 runs behind.After starting the day on 201 for 2, Leicestershire added 306 runs for the loss of three wickets with James Taylor also scoring a half-century after Will Jefferson took his overnight 117 to 133 before being bowled by Jonathan Clare. Jefferson faced 253 balls and hit 16 fours and a six.Taylor, watched by National Selector Geoff Miller, was also on course for a century but missed out by eight runs. The England Lions star was caught at slip as he drove at a widish delivery from Mark Turner. It was a disappointing end to the innings for the 21-year-old who was playing in his 50th first-class match.In that time he has scored eight centuries put another 14 half centuries to press his claims for a call-up to the full England squad. Taylor shared stands of 77 with Jefferson and 97 with Jacques Du Toit and his 92 off 148 balls included 14 boundaries.When he was fifth out at 339 with Leicestershire only 34 runs ahead, Derbyshire were back in the game again. But White and Naik regained the initiative and their partnership spread over 48 overs to put the home side in control.White’s innings began in unusual fashion with his first scoring strike an all-run five when he edged spinner Azeem Rafiq to the vacant third man area. Tim Groenewald chased from extra cover but was unable to prevent the runs as the ball pulled up just short of the boundary.White’s 83 also contained two sixes and seven fours while Naik hit six fours and a six. At tea Leicestershire led by 107 but the sixth-wicket pair went on the attack after the break scoring another 95 in 22 overs.Paul Dixey, who has joined Leicestershire after being released by Kent, had to be called up from a Second XI game in Birmingham to replace Tom New as wicket-keeper. New suffered a broken big toe during the pre-game warm-up sessions.

In a quarter-final where expectation, anxiety and the ultimatum of a result threaten to dominate proceedings, India captain MS Dhoni said it would eventually be a contest between teams of extremely high skill. The India v Australia quarter-final at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera on Thursday will depend on which of the two teams could find their ‘Iron Men’. Dhoni said while mental strength and intensity were vital, “you have to rely on skill because ultimately it has to reflect on the field. It is the skill that really helps you give your best on the field.”India’s skillfulness will depend on what its spinners can do against the Australian batting but Dhoni as good as ruled out India opting to throw all their three spinners into the mix, saying it would be “very tough” for the Indians to play three specialist slow bowlers on a wicket that is expected to offer some semblance of slow turn under a baking Gujarat sun.Over the last decade India v Australia has become the most bitterly contested rivalry in cricket, the two teams going eyeball-to-eyeball across all formats of the game. Memories of Australia’s thunderous victory over the Indians in the 2003 final, the last time the two nations played each other in a World Cup, Dhoni said would have no bearing on the Ahmedabad quarter-final. While he did say circumstances were different from the 2003 squad, five members of that team – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra – are still a part of the squad, a good portion of them even featuring in the XI tomorrow.MS Dhoni says India aren’t likely to field all three specialist spinners on a pitch likely to offer slow turn•AFP

What Dhoni, however, took great care to detail was the difference between the team he had led in the 2008 CB series against Australia and the World Cup squad. In that comparison, the 2011 squad did not exactly come out shining. “The team set-up was very different. Irfan [Pathan] was really doing well for us both with the bat and the ball which meant we were close to playing with five bowlers and with the options of part-timers.” He said the 2008 campaign was, “a bit easy because you had plenty of options and all the bowlers were doing well.” The fielding side, he said, had, “new” players who were “fresh and able to throw themselves at the ball which meant we were able to save those 15-20 runs which count at the end of the day.”In the last decade, an India-Australia match, Dhoni said, had begun to mean that “the players are most intense on the field. They want to give the best, the whole world is keeping an eye on the contest between the players. That is also the reason why we are seeing more intensity and people (are) wanting to perform in these big games … you want your key players to perform and being intense really helps you perform at your best.”He would not be drawn into making a statement about whether Thursday’s game, was as Australian coach Tim Nielsen thought, “a mini-final”. “It’s an important game for us, the first knockout game we would be playing. I won’t give it a category of a pre-final or a pre-whatever game. It is an important game where you have to win irrespective of what opposition you are playing.” He then said emphatically, “That’s it for me and the side.”It was one of Dhoni’s more mystifying media conferences at this World Cup, set off by a few questions about the team’s relationship with the vast scrum of Indian media. His response to the first question was, “The less exposure the less the controversy: so it is best to keep it to the minimum.” By the time he was asked a third question about the ‘breakdown’ between the team and the media, Dhoni said he preferred to speak about the game and some of his responses went from his usually lucid to downright cryptic.When he was asked about his own batting form, Dhoni spoke about being “quite satisfied with the effort” but he went on to speak of a generic lower order. “It is important that everybody has a role and a responsibility in the side… we have batted really well especially the top order, which means more often than not, the lower order is getting to bat when they are looking to accelerate or as the scorecards suggest, more often or not, we have lost quite a few wickets and again, we are looking to bat for whatever number of overs are left.” He did steered clear of his own recent batting record, with two 50s in his last 21 ODIs from July 2010 and said India’s concern now was on the pace at which runs were scored, “We have not really capitalised on the slog overs or on the second Powerplay. Hopefully in the coming games, we will be able to accumulate more runs.”Dhoni had a different explanation when speaking of Yusuf Pathan’s performance at the World Cup. “That’s the game Yusuf plays. Over few months or years, you find him changing his innings a lot… What is important is what helps you become a part of the Indian cricket team, till you are not a permanent part, it’s always good to stick to it. Once you’re a part of the playing XI, you can look to change your instinct a bit. The more games you play, the more experience you get and you start batting according to the demands of the game.”

ScorecardWestern Australia took control of their match against Queensland at the WACA in Perth, on the back of a commanding, unbeaten century by Marcus Harris. Beginning the day on 6 not out, Harris played a cautious but effective innings, going to stumps on 133 not out. He strung together a solid 87-run opening partnership with Wes Robinson, before Luke Feldman had Robinson run out.While Harris dropped anchor at one end, no one could build an innings at the other, the second top scorer being Adam Voges with 38 not out. This was the second consecutive day of unusually slow cricket, the innings’ run-rate standing at 2.31 at stumps. James Hopes was the only bowler to make any impression, following up his respectable show with the bat with two wickets.Harris and Voges hope to carry on and pile up a big first innings lead on day three, to put Western Australia in an unassailable position in the match.