All posts by csb10.top

Daniel Vettori is keen to put his 100th Test celebrations behind him early on Saturday and switch his focus to beating Australia. Vettori will become the second New Zealander to reach the milestone after Stephen Fleming – he will do it at his home ground in Hamilton – but finishing the home summer on a high is the captain’s No. 1 priority.”It’s exciting but it’s almost got to the stage where I just want to get it out of the way,” Vettori said. “It’s a big Test for us, the last Test of the summer, and fortunately it’s my 100th and it’s in front of family and friends. But the bigger issue is about us trying to win and it’s going to take a monumental effort from where we were at the Basin to turn it around here.”Even so, Vettori will take some time to savour the achievement, which is being brought up at the venue where he made his first-class debut 14 years ago as a 17-year-old. Vettori’s parents will be at the ground on Saturday and his brother-in-law has set up a Facebook page to mark the 100th Test.”We actually played together before I met his sister so he obviously didn’t hold it against me,” Vettori said. “Those sorts of people have been a huge support in my life and I’m pleased that I can play it in Hamilton and a lot of friends and family can make an easy trip to the ground.”Few teams around the world are more reliant on one player than New Zealand are on Vettori and his opposing captain Ricky Ponting paid tribute to the man who will become the 50th to appear in 100 Tests. Ponting first faced Vettori in the 1997-98 Test series in Australia and was impressed at how Vettori had developed into an allrounder.”He’s always been a very good bowler and a very good competitor,” Ponting said. “The last couple of years he’s really brought his batting on and become a high-class allrounder at international level. For someone to play 100 Test matches I think is a great feat.”I know when I brought up that milestone it was one of the things I was most proud of in my career, to have the longevity and stay in the game that long. Once he finishes he’ll be one of the great servants of New Zealand cricket for sure.”

Partnership of the dayAfter whittling away eight wickets to atone for their morning mauling, England believed they had snatched the ascendancy by the close of the first day. But if Alastair Cook thought his work in the field was done, he was sorely mistaken. By employing a peculiar split field that invited the batsmen to make their own mistakes, he allowed Naeem and Shafiul Islam to cruise along at the tempo of their choosing. In Naeem’s case, he opted for slow and steady, nudging along to 59 not out from 172 balls, while the young gun Shafiul blazed with impunity at the other end. Of his 11 fours, two were edges through an under-manned slip cordon, and most of the rest were belted through the covers to bring up his maiden Test fifty from just 47 balls.Shot of the dayIn six Tests and 11 previous innings, Rubel Hossain had mustered 13 runs at 2.16, with a top-score of 4 not out and no boundaries to his name. His arrival at the crease at 388 for 9 prompted England to believe, finally, that the end of Bangladesh’s innings was nigh. Not so fast. Having opened his account with a thick edge through the slips, Rubel decided that his eye was now in, and followed that up with an exquisite full-faced cover-drive off Steven Finn, to double his career-best and bring up the 400. As if to prove the stroke was no fluke, he repeated it in Finn’s next over, en route to an invaluable 17.Stodge of the dayJonathan Trott is not the most free-flowing batsman in world cricket, least of all when he’s stuck in one of his introspective moods. That was the case when he came out to open the innings for the first time in Test cricket, with 20 minutes to go until lunch. He duly poked his way to 0 not out from 13 balls, but then found that, upon the resumption, his mindset had already been established. It wasn’t until his 33rd delivery that he finally got off the mark, with a frantic scrambled single that rivalled one of Kevin Pietersen’s Red Bull runs. By the close, he was the glue that was both holding England’s innings together, and arguably preventing them from making much headway.Stat of the dayKevin Pietersen’s travails on this trip have been well documented, but at least today he reached a landmark of note. On 45, he became the quickest batsman in terms of days to reach 5000 Test runs, and at 29 years and 267 days, he became the fourth-youngest Englishman after David Gower, Michael Atherton and Colin Cowdrey to reach the mark. (Although, in a testament to the number of matches that England churn through these days, he was only the 16th quickest in terms of matches). Sadly, he didn’t have long to enjoy the moment. Before he could notch up his 5001st run, he had fallen to a left-arm spinner – Shakib Al Hasan on this occasion – for the sixth consecutive international innings.Show-off of the dayTowards the end of the second session, the eardrums of everyone in Mirpur Stadium were shattered as a low-flying MIG zipped across the neighbourhood, and began performing dramatic high-velocity handstands against the city skyline. It’s not the sort of thing that tends to take place in a built-up area, let alone an area populated by 14 million people, but it’s fair to say it was one of the more eye-catching spectacles of a sluggish afternoon. With Bangladesh’s Liberation Day Parade set to take place on March 26, there might be more such aerial gymnastics to come.

Group A
Lahore Lions cruised to victory against Peshawar Panthers at the National Stadium, winning by seven wickets after a strong bowling performance. Fast bowlers Aizaz Cheema and Imran Ali were the stars, taking four wickets each to limit Peshawar to 117. Peshawar had been tottering at 49 for 5 at one stage, but Sajjad Ahmed chipped in with 30 and Mohammad Idrees contributed 30 to take them past 100 and a score of some respectability. However, Lahore opener Nasir Jamshed raced away in the reply and helped add 58 for the opening wicket in almost no time. Salman Butt then guided his team with an unbeaten 47 to seal victory with more than seven openers to spare.Group B
Rawalpindi Rams began their tournament on a winning note, beating Karachi Zebras by 11 runs at the National Stadium in Karachi. Tahir Mughal top scored with 58, striking five fours and three sixes amid support from Umar Amin (37) to take Rawalpindi to 174. Offspinner Haaris Ayaz bagged three for 20, but, despite an encouraging response from the top order, Karachi fell short, finishing on 163 for 6. Opener Khurram Manzoor stroked 53 and was assisted by Babar Rahman (26) and Faisal Iqbal (22) but two-wicket bursts from Raza Hasan and Hammad Azam kept Karachi in check and prevented them from scaling a competitive score.Group D
Hyderabad Hawks slipped to their second consecutive defeat in the RBS Twenty20 Cup, losing to Lahore Eagles by 46 runs at the National Stadium in Karachi. Opener Imran Farhat, who is a part-time legspinner at the international level, was the star, taking five wickets to seal a comprehensive victory for Lahore. Lal Kumar was Hyderabad’s top scorer with 38, but in a chase of 159, there was little support from the others. The trouble began early with the first three wickets falling for 28, and despite a 54-run stand for the fourth wicket between Kumar and Aqeel Anjum (25), Farhat’s leg-spin proved too much to handle. Lahore’s batting effort had been boosted by a late surge from Jahangir Mirza, who made 38 in 24, and useful contributions from the top and middle orders, including a 29-ball 32 from Aamer Sajjad.

ScorecardBrad Knowles scared South Australia with 4 for 32, but South Australia sneaked to victory•Getty Images

South Australia were given a huge fright by Western Australia before they escaped with a two-wicket victory at the WACA. Needing only 94 and starting the final day at 1 for 6, the Redbacks relied on two tail-enders to get them home in a nail-biting chase that regularly threatened to go wrong.Western Australia began the morning seemingly without hope, but Brad Knowles’ 4 for 32 kept them excited as the visitors slipped to 5 for 53 and kept losing wickets before Tim Ludeman (12) helped decide the contest with Jake Haberfield. Ludeman and Gary Putland were together at 7 for 76 and Ludeman briefly decided attack was the best option. He hooked a six and slashed a four in consecutive Knowles deliveries to cut the target, but there was still a twist when Putland edged Steve Magoffin behind with three to win.Haberfield ran a bye and then pushed a two over the bowler Michael Hogan’s head to secure the result. The victory lifted South Australia to outright third on the Shield table with 16 points while the Warriors are fourth on 12.After James Smith went late on the third evening, the Redbacks lost Michael Klinger shortly after the resumption as he became Hogan’s seventh victim of the game. Knowles then stepped in to be on a hat-trick after picking up Cameron Borgas (7) and Daniel Harris (17) as the visitors slipped to 4 for 39.Fourteen runs later Knowles struck again to remove Tom Cooper and half the side was gone with 41 still needed. Aaron O’Brien and Dan Christian, the last of the capable batsmen, put on 15 before O’Brien was caught behind off Magoffin and the Warriors roared hopefully again in the next over when Christian became Knowles’ fourth victim.

A disciplined bowling effort put defending champions Jamaica in sight of victory against Windward Islands in Spanish Town. Buoyed by a lead of 154, the Jamaica bowlers dismissed the Windwards for 251 in their second innings, with Dave Bernard jnr, Nikita Miller, and Odean Brown picking up two wickets apiece. Rawl Lewis led the way for Windwards though, with a purposeful, unbeaten 63, and found steady support in the lower order from Lyndon James and Kenroy Peters. Jamaica put down three catchces, but succeeded in limiting the Windwards to 110 for 4 at lunch. Jamaica made further inroads after the break to leave the visitors wobbling at 130 for 7. However, Lewis and James then shared the best stand of the innings of 53 for the eighth wicket. Peters joined Lewis and frustrated Jamaica further with a 45-run stand. Lewis enjoyed himself towards the end of the innings with a couple of lofty hits that fetched six fours and three sixes as well as getting to his fifty, before Nelon Pascal was run out to bring the innings to a close. Jamaica, chasing a meagre 98 for victory, reached 20 for 2 in their second innings, when rain and bad light brought a premature end to the day’s play.The Leeward Islands failed to capitalise on a 114-run second-wicket partnership between Montcin Hodge and Runako Morton to hand Barbados a lifeline in Kingston. The Leewards ended the day on 186 for 6, just 193 ahead and with Barbados having capable batsmen like Dale Richards and Ryan Hinds in their lineup, an intriguing finish might be on the cards tomorrow. Resuming on 20 for no loss, Kieran Powell returned early but Hodge and Morton took Leewards to 94 by lunch. Even as Hodge was caught behind off Pedro Collins soon after reaching his fifty, Morton powered on. There was no further assistance in the offing and Morton made the most of two reprieves to smash eight fours en route to an unbeaten 78. On what appears to be a sluggish pitch, Morton holds Leewards’ fortunes and would do well to atleast secure the first-innings points.Persistent rain throughout the day forced the third day’s play between Trinidad & Tobago and Combined Campuses & Colleges in Montego Bay to be abandoned.

Brad Haddin remains unconvinced of the umpire review system’s merits and would prefer the on-field officials to either have sole control or hand over all decisions to technology to eliminate “grey areas”. As the man standing behind the stumps, Haddin has the best view in the Australian team but has not yet been persuaded by what he has seen.Nor is he keen to take the responsibility of using his vantage point to advise the captain Ricky Ponting, who wasted both of Australia’s reviews early in West Indies’ second innings in Adelaide on unsuccessful caught-behind decisions, which are difficult to prove on replay. Ponting remains optimistic that the system can improve the game, West Indies’ captain Chris Gayle is against it, and Haddin has yet to be sold on the idea.”I wasn’t a great fan of it to start with, I think it’s designed to take the real howlers out of the game,” Haddin said. “Personally I am happy with either all the power the umpire has or giving everything to technology and referring all decisions. It’s still a bit of a grey area at the moment and we’ll have to see how it goes over the coming months.”As a keeper you do have the best view but I don’t want that pressure of getting the wrong or right one. It’s a funny one because we thought we had a couple of obvious ones in Adelaide that got turned down, but the bottom line is we are still taking 20 wickets a Test match without the referral system. I am not a great believer in it.”Ponting asked the umpires for their thoughts on the review system after Adelaide and in the nets at the WACA on Monday he and Billy Bowden had a long discussion. Bowden was flown to Perth to officiate in the third Test after Mark Benson went home to England following the first day in Adelaide. Benson said his decision to withdraw from the Test was entirely due to health reasons and denied reports that it was due to his dissatisfaction with the review system.

Group B

Sialkot took charge of their game against Karachi Blues in the top-of-the-table clash at the National Stadium. Karachi’s No. 3 Asad Shafique top scored with 85, but none of the others below him in the order made it past 20. That meant they slipped to 216 all out, after being 108 for 3 at one stage, handing Sialkot a 100-run first-innings cushion. Sialkot opener Kamran Younis, who made a first-innings century, was the only batsman to fall before stumps in the second innings, after slamming seven fours in a 31-ball 42 to put them 197 ahead.At the Sports Stadium in Sargodha, the match between Abbottabad and Faisalabad remained evenly poised. Ammar Mahmood’s half-century and an unbeaten 45 form Zeeshan Asif took Faisalabad to 173 for 4, still trailing by 166 runs. The Abbottabad tail had used up more than 21 overs in compiling 46 runs for the final four wickets earlier in the day. Zahoor Khan added the scalp of Junaid Khan to his four on Tuesday to complete his fifth five-wicket haul.The two cellar-dwellers of the group, Hyderabad and Quetta, were locked in a tense battle for the first-innings lead in Mirpur Khas. Hanif-ur-Rehman’s brisk 123 seemed to have put Hyderabad in control, steering them to 201 for 3 in reply to Quetta’s 280. However, Hyderabad lost two wickets, including that of Hanif, on that score, and two more for the addition of 60 runs, leaving them 12 short at stumps. Quick bowler Arun Lal was the most effective of the Quetta bowlers, taking four of the first five wickets to fall.Lahore Ravi’s fast bowler Junaid Zia followed up the good work of their batsmen to leave Islamabad in big trouble at the Lahore City Cricket Association ground. Overnight batsmen, Sohail Ahmed and Mohammad Asim, piled on the misery for Islamabad: Sohail going on to his century while Asim fell for 73. Eighteen-year-old offspinner Kamran Hussain took four wickets on the day to keep Lahore to 448. During the reply, the Islamabad batsmen were clueless against Zia as they slumped to 140 for 9. Zia finished the day with 6 for 48.Babar Naeem’s century strengthened Rawalpindi’s position against Multan at the Multan Cricket Stadium. Resuming from 54 for 2, Rawalpindi seemed to have wasted the chance of taking a massive first-innings lead by slipping to 156 for 6, 48 ahead of Multan. However, Babar stitched together a 108-run partnership with Yasim Murtaza (51*) for the seventh wicket to give Rawalpindi a substantial lead. They finished the day with a 217-run cushion, with two wickets in hand.

Group A

It was a riveting contest between Karachi Whites and Sui Southern Gas Corporation at the Southend Club Cricket Stadium. SSGC pocked the points for the first-innings lead after bowling out Karachi for 253, a 40-run advantage. However, Karachi fought back to level the game by snaring four SSGC wickets in the 18 overs before stumps. SSGC are now 103 ahead with six wickets in hand. Earlier, fast bowlers Sohail Khan and Rajesh Ramesh had reduced Karachi to 90 for 5 before Karachi clawed their way past 200 through wicketkeeper Afsar Nawaz’s 61.Khan Research Laboratories will be the happier team after a day of collapses in their game against Pakistan Customs in Rawalpindi. KRL fluffed their lines in the first-innings, losing their final six wickets for 61 to concede a 21-run lead despite having bowled out Customs for 197. Twenty-three-year-old Zeeshan Nadir was the pick of the Customs bowlers, bagging 5 for 58. KRL bounced back in the final session, though, with new-ball bowlers Mohammad Irfan and Jaffar Nazir reducing Customs to 43 for 6. A seventh-wicket association of 51 runs saved Customs some embarrassment, but at 121 for 9 KRL are frontrunners to take the game.The wickets continued to tumble at the Gaddafi Stadium, where Habib Bank Limited fragile batting lost them the buffer gained by bowling out Lahore Shalimar for 149. In the morning, Lahore imploded spectacularly – losing eight wickets for 32 runs from 79 for 1, including four on 111. Left-arm medium-pacer Kamran Hussain brought about that collapse, capturing seven wickets for 25. Remarkably, six of his victims were bowled. Saad Nasim (34) however guided Lahore past HBL’s first-innings score of 141, making most of the runs in a 38-run final-wicket stand. Things got worse for HBL as their batting folded against the pace of Mohammad Naved; his six wickets reducing HBL to 186 for 9, an overall lead of 178.Legspinner Yasir Shah’s six wickets gave Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited the first-innings lead against National Bank of Pakistan at the Iqbal Stadium. NBP started well, their openers putting on 95 but soon slipped to 111 for 4. Only two other batsmen made it into double figures, and despite Wasim Khan’s unbeaten 53 NBP folded for 202, conceding a 57-run lead. SNGPL’s openers took their side safely to 19 before stumps.Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited are poised to overtake Pakistan International Airlines’ first-innings total of 273 at the Diamond Club ground. Inam-ul-Haq’s 81 provided solidity at the top of the order; he forged two substantial partnerships, one of 67 runs with Shahid Yousuf for the third wicket and the other of 60 runs with captain Imran Nazir for the fourth. The biggest stand of the day came after his dismissal – an unbroken 83 for the fifth between Nazir and Haris Sohail which took ZTBL to 251 for 4.

From the highs of a Test series win against England to the crushing lows of the player strike and subsequent home losses to Bangladesh, it has been an emotion-filled 12 months for West Indies fans. The team’s 2009 finishes with next week’s third Test in Perth and all the pain, all the disenchantment, could be forgotten if Chris Gayle’s men walk away with a 1-1 draw.They can’t beat Australia in the series, they can’t regain the Frank Worrell Trophy, but they can restore much-needed pride after beginning the tour with a three-day loss at the Gabba. It was a result that many onlookers felt proved the series would be a flop, and even prompted the former Australia captain Kim Hughes to suggest West Indies be cut from the Test cricket family.The redemption process began at Adelaide Oval, where Australia escaped with a draw but not without realising the eighth-ranked West Indies remain a threat. For most of the final day, the tourists were the only team with a realistic chance of victory and that has buoyed Gayle’s side heading into the match at the WACA, where Australia have lost their past two Tests.”We definitely can win in Perth,” Gayle said. “There’s no two ways about it. The way that we went about this game showed we have the capability of winning. It’s up to us to have the same sort of determination to go out there and put up the same sort of fight we did in this game. Having said that, it’s going to be tougher, I think the wicket there should be an even better one.”The fight that his team displayed in Adelaide should, for the time being at least, answer any questions about the squad’s commitment to the five-day game. Questions have been raised about the state of West Indies cricket for several years and came to a head during the argument between the players and the board this year.That conflict led to a substandard side being named for the home series against Bangladesh, although the one positive was that it gave Test experience to men like Kemar Roach and Travis Dowlin, who kept their places for this tour. A mixture of older and newer faces was brought together under Gayle and he was thrilled with how the group gelled, and forced Australia onto the defensive in Adelaide.”I have to commend the fellows, the way we actually went about it, the effort was really, really good,” Gayle said. “Kemar Roach kept running in, Bravo, Sammy, all the rest of the bowlers actually chipped in. It was really brilliant. And Benn in the first innings picking up his first five-wicket haul was very good, so there’s a lot of positives to come out of this game.”Since we got back in Australia as a group things have progressed really well and we’re all looking out for each other. We just need a couple of wins under our belt to change things and take a bit of pressure off us.”Gayle led by example, carrying his bat for 165 in a Man-of-the-Match performance, and the only criticism came when he decided to bat on for half an hour on the final morning. It meant Australia would have to rewrite the record books for the highest fourth-innings chase in an Adelaide Test, but Gayle said he didn’t regret his decision even though his bowlers ran out of time.”We wanted to put ourselves in a position where we definitely know we can’t lose the game,” he said. “You have to take into consideration it’s a small ground. But at the same time we didn’t have nothing to lose. So we decided to bat about six overs and then we’d declare.” Closing their innings overnight may not have changed the outcome, but their fighting attitude has enhanced the way West Indies will be viewed for the rest of their tour.

The MCC has signed a three-year deal with Abu Dhabi Cricket Club which could see the club play high-profile matches in the emirate.Announcing the deal, MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw said playing first-class matches outside England, possibly using them to trial using a pink ball, was just one option being considered.”We’re determined to organise some three or four-day cricket under lights using a pink ball and this is a good opportunity,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “It’s one of many options, and at an embryonic stage, but we think it would be good for the development of the game. Ideally we would like to hold a [trial] at Lord’s but we have certain restrictions using the lights, so there is the possibility of scheduling the match overseas.”An ECB spokesman said the board was unaware of any such plans.”[The deal] is a first for MCC in the Middle East region and gives us a tremendous opportunity to help develop cricketers throughout the region and closer to home,” Bradshaw said. “Aspiring professionals from the MCC Universities and MCC Young Cricketers will specifically benefit from this joint venture as it will give them vital experience of playing and training abroad, helping them to make the transition to the first-class game.”The agreement will mean the Zayed ground will be renamed the Zayed MCC Cricket Academy.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Dwayne Bravo bowled a superb final over and finished with 3 for 24•Global Cricket Ventures-BCCI

They’ve tried nine times but Deccan Chargers have not won in Hyderabad yet. This latest defeat, by a three-run margin to Trinidad & Tobago, had serious consequences – it made the 2009 champions the only IPL team to crash out in the first round of the Champions League after losing both Group A matches. T&T, on the other hand, are unexpected toppers and will carry forward two points to the second round from beating fellow qualifiers Somerset.Neither team took decisive control of the game at any stage: both outfits were haphazard but T&T lifted at pivotal moments to prevail in a tense finish. Their batsmen entertained, playing a shot a minute, but didn’t stay long enough to cause significant damage – scoring only 149 on a terrific batting surface. Their bowlers took early wickets but wilted under Adam Gilchrist’s flashing bat and, when they fought back, Venugopal Rao threatened to snatch victory from them. With only eight runs to defend in the final over, Daren Ganga gave Dwayne Bravo the responsibility and T&T’s most experienced player delivered.The whole match had a feeling of unpredictability to it; performances were neither clinical nor efficient. Deccan aided T&T’s start by bowling poor lines and conceding an inexcusable number of extras. The batsmen attacked, disregarding the quality of deliveries. Edges flew for fours, balls were scooped into helmets, overthrows went to the boundary and dropped catches resulted in wickets. There was a freaky lbw, a fluke stumping and a batsman was struck on the neck by a bouncer. In the midst of the chaos, William Perkins top-scored with 38, Keiron Pollard blasted 31 off 14 balls, and fiery Fidel Edwards finished with 3 for 32.Edwards was charged up for this contest and not merely because he was a Barbadian playing against local rivals; he had been barred against Somerset for bowling two beamers. He had words for T&T’s openers and then sent down a fast, if not always well-directed, first over. Perkins tried to flick one of those speedy deliveries but the leading edge bounced just once before going over the point boundary. The first delivery Edwards aimed at middle stump brought him a wicket – Lendl Simmons played across and was lbw.RP Singh then bowled a shocker. He had drifted down leg often in his first over and bowled a hat-trick of front-foot no-balls in his second. Darren Bravo missed the first two free-hits but pulled the third over midwicket for four. RP then delivered a wide outside off stump but the worst was yet to come. An overthrow off the last ball cost Deccan five leg byes and Gilchrist’s disgust was plain to see.T&T raced to 49 for 1 after five overs and Gilchrist brought a fourth bowler into the attack. Darren Bravo welcomed T Suman with a leg-glanced boundary but then smacked one straight back to him. A ball later Andrew Symonds’ direct hit caught Daren Ganga short at the bowler’s end. Perkins, though, batted without restraint, pulling Pragyan Ojha to the midwicket fence, lofting Symonds over cover, and playing a scoop on to the grill of his helmet, before moving across his stumps and falling lbw to Edwards.They were 92 for 4 after 13 – the run-rate was alright but the wickets weren’t – when Dwayne Bravo cut hard to Suman at point. The catch was spilled but Suman recovered and ran out Bravo. The dismissal brought Pollard into play and he tore into the spinners. Ojha disappeared to the long-off and midwicket boundaries and Suman watched two full balls sail over his head. Edwards suffered too – Pollard pulling him for a flat six – before recovering to uproot the leg stump.T&T’s innings lost steam thereafter. Ramdin had fallen to a lucky stumping off Symonds, when Gilchrist failed to collect, but the ball bounced off his gloves on to the stumps. The tailenders could not cope with the death bowling – Dave Mohammed took an RP Singh bouncer on his neck – and they settled for 149.Determined to end the home-ground jinx, Gilchrist kick-started the chase with an uppercut for six and an edge for four to take 11 off the first over. T&T fought back by striking regularly and at 30 for 3, with Symonds run out, Deccan’s chase was coming apart. Their captain, however, continued to charge – driving, hooking and playing his devastating pick-up shot over midwicket with success. Gilchrist raced to 50 off 31 balls and Ganga, realising his spinners were having little effect on this pitch, turned to Lendl Simmons. He struck immediately when Gilchrist pulled to deep midwicket and Pollard ran to his left to intercept the speeding ball.Gilchrist’s dismissal was followed by Rohit Sharma’s and, with 64 needed off 47, T&T were back on top. Rao redressed the balance by clearing the straight boundary twice and hitting fours whenever the pressure started to mount. Deccan needed only 13 off 13 balls when Rao edged Rampaul to Denesh Ramdin. The match once again swung T&T’s way, for the final time, and Bravo’s final over ended Deccan’s run in the tournament.