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The final of the ICC Champions Trophy was washed out on Sunday night after aheavy thunderstorm interrupted play shortly after the start of the secondinnings.Within minutes the outfield was awash with water, and play could not beresumed before the official cut-off time of 8.38pm.Although it was a huge disappointment for the 30,000 spectators that had crammedinto the stadium, the match will at least be played from scratch on Monday.Nevertheless, it was a terrific shame as the match looked set for anintriguing finale after Sri Lanka scored 244 in the first innings.India probably held the initiative with their strong batting line-up, buthad Sri Lanka bowled and fielded like they had against the Australians, the match would have been very close.In the afternoon, Sri Lanka started confidently after winning the toss, with Marvan Atapattu (34) and Sanath Jayasuriya (74) adding 65 in 77 balls for the first wicket.Atapattu, looking confident after his half-century against Australia, tookthe lead, driving through the covers on the up with a classical high elbowand square-cutting precisely.Javagal Srinath, who arrived in Colombo during the middle of the night andbowled like a man suffering from jet-lag, conceded 36 runs in his openingfive-over burst.At the other end, Zaheer Khan was once again impressive, bowling with paceand accuracy on another slow-paced Premadasa pitch.Jayasuriya was more circumspect than his right-handed partner, clearlydetermined to continue his prolific run and ensure that Sri Lanka posted acompetitive score.But Harbhajan Singh, who was introduced in the 13th over of the innings,starting with a wicket maiden, checked Sri Lanka’s progress. Atapattu, having failed to score for the previous four deliveries, tried to sweep in front of square and was brilliantly caught on the second attempt by Ajit Agarkar at short mid-wicket.Harbhajan carried on economically, encouraging the early introduction of Virender Sehwag, who also bowled tightly as Jayasuriya and Sangakkara looked to consolidate on their quick start.When Sourav Ganguly turned to Sachin Tendulkar, Jayasuriya briefly brokefree of the spinners’ shackles with two leg-side boundaries. As the left-hander moved past fifty for the 51st time in his career, Sri Lanka started to gather momentum.After 30 overs, the hosts were 148 for one, looking set for a score in excess of275. But Agarkar’s second spell accounted for Jayasuriya as Harbhajangrabbed a brilliant catch, running backwards at mid-off, and ending a 90-runpartnership from 107 balls.Aravinda de Silva, who announced on Friday that this would be his last gameon Sri Lankan soil, then walked to the wicket to a standing ovation. But he failed to provide the capacity crowd with the fitting finale that they craved. Twice dropped on eight, he was eventually caught behind, having scored just 18. Nevertheless, the crowd rose to salute their hero, as de Silva waved his batto all corners of the stadium and bid goodbye.Meanwhile Sangakkara, who had started fluently with two boundaries, groundto a halt, eventually limping to his seventh one-day fifty before reverse-sweeping a catch to short fine-leg, almost in desperation. Between the 30th and 40th over Sri Lanka scored just 40 runs.Mahela Jayawardene, who has hardly batted in this tournament, tried tokick-start the innings but found it difficult to time the soft white ball. When he pummelled a return catch back to a leaping Sachin Tendulkar, Sri Lanka were212 for five and India had firmly grasped the initiative.Russel Arnold and Chaminda Vaas made some use of the final four overs, scoring 42 from 26 balls to ensure that Sri Lanka got to a competitive total.Earlier, India had made three changes to the side that defeated South Africain the first semi-final, bringing in fast bowlers Srinath and Agarkar inplace of the injured Ashish Nehra and an out-of-form Anil Kumble.Left-hander Dinesh Mongia replaced V.V.S. Laxman and, surprisingly, opened the innings in place of skipper Ganguly. Sri Lanka had made one change, recalling pace bowler Dilhara Fernando with leg-spinner Upul Chandana the player to stand down.

A 74 from No 8 Chandrasekhar Atram helped Vidarbha pile on 484 runs in their first innings against Services at Nagpur. Despite being faced with the daunting total, an unfazed Services made 117-1 in reply. Middle-order bat Jasvir Singh, who made 73 not out, and opener PMS Reddy, who made a painstaking 39, will resume battle when play resumes on the third day.In the opening day of another plate group encounter at Margao, a century from middle-order bat Timir Chanda (134, 233 b, 16 fours, two sixes) helped Tripura post 241-6 against Goa. For the hosts left-arm quick, Sandeep Dahad, claimed 3-36.

Chris Tremlett (five for 68) and Shaun Udal (four for 25) made it a poor first day for Lancashire at The Rose Bowl. The visitors were dismissed for just 183, with an innings of 66 from Alec Swann the only substantial contribution from the visitors.Hampshire welcomed back Adi Aymes for his first Championship match since his injury at Canterbury in April.Winning the toss at the Rose Bowl is not always an advantage, but Lancashire would have felt they had made the correct decision to bat when they reach 99-1 shortly after lunch. Alec Swann looked comfortable on the slowish wicket that had a certain amount of uneven bounce, but certainly not on a par with the much critisised wicket against India.Mark Chilton fell early being yorked by Tremlett, but after sharing a 78 run partnership the innings took on a different shape after David Byas was well caught in the slips off Alan Mullally.Three batsmen fell without scoring, two to the guile of Shaun Udal, and one more to Tremlett. A patient 22 from Stuart Law, and a end of innings flurry from former Durham all-rounder John Wood took the Lancastrians to a modest 183.It was never going to be easy coming in late in the day, and the Lancashire bowlers gave their all to try and fight back into the match. Giles White was first to go when Wood uprooted his middle stump, and then John Francis attempted to pull the speedy Anderson, and was adjudged to have been caught behind. Will Kendall meanwhile held the bowlers at bay his 80 ball stay had produced 18 runs, but it’s value was at that stage of the game was not the runs, but the patience.

An inspired century from skipper Will Kendall allowed the Hawks to leapfrog the Crusaders in the Norwich Union League Division Two basement battle, as he led the home side to a 24-run victory.However, at a precarious 6-3, it looked like another day of gloom for Hampshire as Jason Laney (0) was followed by a careless run-out which saw Neil Johnson also removed without scoring. And when James Adams attempted pull ended up knocking his middle stump out, the crowd must have been thinking is was going to be another of those days.But they had not considered Kendall’s heroics, mixing his natural correct posture with some tremendous hits as reached his first-ever limited overs century and stretched it to an undefeated 110 (118 balls, 10 fours and a six) when the overs ran out.He, alongside Shaun Udal, who was promoted up the order when John Francis (33) drilled the ball back to bowler Thos Hunt, added a blistering 103 for the fifth wicket as Udal smashed 58 from 55 balls including two monsterous sixes and three fours.From looking down the barrel at an early finish, Hampshire had recovered to record 241-7 in their 45 overs.Middlesex’s reply also faltered early on with Simon Cook and Robin Weston back in the pavilion with just 12 on the board. However, Ben Hutton, the grandson of famous England cricketing legend Len, was solely responsible for getting the innings back on track.His 63 (99 balls) was the mainstay of the innings, but his dismissal, shortly after stand-in captain Owais Shah’s looked like securing the end of the challenge.Ed Joyce, in great form at present was joined by James Dalrymple and they recorded an 89-run stand which looked like taking the visitors close.But when the latter charged Udal and was bowled and Joyce run-out backing up in quick succession, the rate was beyond the Crusaders, giving Hampshire a much needed victory, which moves them to seventh in the table – a place ahead of the beaten opponents.

The two most exciting and beguiling cricketers of their time, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, are on opposite sides for the first time in five years.Yet the West Indies and India start the Cable & Wireless series today battling each other to escape the lower reaches of the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) ratings.Lara, the brilliant West Indian returning after a three-month layoff through injury, and Tendulkar, the little Indian maestro, share a host of records, 46 Tests hundreds and averages in excess of 50. But the ICC places their teams ahead only of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.Tendulkar, whose average of 58.57 from 91 Tests places him among the all-time batting elite, needs only another two centuries to surpass the legendary Australia Don Bradman’s incredible 29 in 52 Tests (from which he averaged just .06 short of an even 100) and nudge closer to the overall record of 34 by another great Indian, Sunil Gavaskar.Millions of his adoring countrymen will be following his progress, fully expecting him to feast on the inexperienced West Indies bowling.The West Indies rely on Lara, the flamboyant left-hander from Trinidad, to reply in kind.They have not always been able to depend on him as India has Tendulkar, for his form tends to fluctuate with his moods. But when he puts his mind to it, as he did in compiling Test cricket’s highest individual score, 375, against England in Antigua eight years ago and more recently in three Tests in Sri Lanka last December when he compiled 688 runs at 114.66, not even Tendulkar is as devastating.He dislocated and fractured his elbow in an on-field collision in a subsequent One-Day International, an injury that required two months to properly heal.Since then his match cricket has been confined to an innings of 71 against a touring amateur club team from Surrey in Port-of-Spain two weeks ago. But he reports no discomfort batting in the nets.Captains Carl Hooper of the West Indies and Saurav Ganguly of India are adamant that there are 22 players on the field, not just two, and that the series will surely be decided by more than the anticipated face-off between Lara and Tendulkar.The numbers strongly favour India, even given their appalling record overseas where they have not won a series since they overcame Sri Lanka 1-0 in Sri Lanka eight years ago and the West Indies’ resilience at home where they have fallen only twice in the past 28 years.Apart from Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ganguly and opener Shiv Das are Indian batsmen who average over 40. Lara is the only West Indian in that league.While the veteran leg-spinner Anil Kumble has 316 wickets to his name and fast bowler Javagal Srinath 219, the West Indies are so short of experience the spearhead of their attack, Merv Dillon, has just 76.

A good finish could be in prospect tomorrow for the match between the CFX Academy and Matabeleland. At the close on the third day, the Academy were 189 runs ahead of the visitors with three wickets in hand. Andre Hoffman (70) and Gavin Ewing (four wickets with his off-breaks) were the individualswho will take most personal pleasure from the day’s play.Matabeleland resumed at 323 for eight, 26 runs ahead of the Academy, and overnight batsmen Wisdom Siziba and Colin Williams looked to have positive purpose. A useful stand was developing when a foolish run-out led to the dismissal of Williams for 13. In the next over Siziba’s 400-minute, 330-ball marathon came to an end as he was trapped lbw to Andre Hoffman for 76; Matabeleland totalled 339, a lead of 42. Hoffman, the eighth bowler used and only reluctantly owing to back trouble, took three wickets for 10 runs, and debutant Tom Benade three for 62.Matabeleland soon dismissed Conan Brewer, bowled for 3 by a full-length ball from Townshend. Thereafter Neeten Chouhan and Visi Sibanda made steady progress, although Chouhan was fortunate to survive a low chance at slip as soon as Keith Dabengwa came on to bowl, with the pitch taking spin. He celebrated, uncharacteristically, with two successive fours, and in factplayed with much more freedom than he has previously shown at first-class level during his brief innings of 22, before he hit Ewing low to cover.Andre Hoffman, with the confidence of a first-innings century, on-drove his first ball for four, and immediately carried on from where he left off the previous day. The batsmen settled in confidently for the afternoon session, although Hoffman was dropped at midwicket by Colin Williams, an easy catch to the Matabeleland captain. Williams has done little with the bat in histhree matches, does not bowl and has been fallible in the field; he is in the side only for his captaincy and experience, which are highly rated, but may not be enough to keep him his place.Sibanda (31) was less fortunate; also against Gavin Ewing, he tried to loft the ball wide of mid-on, only for Dabengwa to take a superb leaping catch to his left. Hoffman, in fine form, continued to drive with power, but on the stroke of tea pulled a short ball from Strydom straight to deepishmidwicket, where Williams partly atoned for his earlier lapse by holding the catch; out for 70.After tea Innocent Chinyoka and Glenn Goosen played some extravagant strokes, attacking perhaps not wisely but too well, as Chinyoka (17) was soon bowled swinging at Ewing. Ewing earned himself another wicket when hewon an lbw decision against Piet Rinke (14), playing across the line.This brought the aggressive Glen Barrett to the crease. He began a little uncertainly against the spinners, and it was Goosen who struck first, swinging Ewing over midwicket for six. Then Barrett found his touch,hitting Dabengwa straight for six – has any other batsmen hit at least one six in each of his first four first-class innings?The second new ball quietened him down somewhat, apart from a slash over cover that almost brought a six; at times he looked quite tentative against none too threatening bowling. Finally an uppish defensive stroke enabled Strydom to pick up a low return catch to dismiss him for 17.Goosen, having survived two spells of risky strokeplay, settled down for the close, finishing with 35, partnered by Tom Benade (4), and the total 231 for seven.

As the cricket cliché goes, there’s never a good time to be injured. But some moments are especially unfortunate, as Victoria’s spinner Jon Holland is now discovering, having hurt his shoulder when he was working his way towards the fringes of national selection. His state team-mate John Hastings could tell him all about it.Hastings had just started to establish himself in Australia’s ODI and Twenty20 sides last year when he returned from the tour of Sri Lanka and suffered a serious injury at state training. Diving for a one-handed catch, Hastings felt a stabbing pain and his season was over, a shoulder reconstruction ruling him out of all cricket for nearly a year.Tours of South Africa, West Indies, England and the UAE were out of the question, as was any hope of him being part of Australia’s World T20 squad, and the injury to Hastings, a bowling allrounder, allowed batting allrounder Daniel Christian some breathing space to settle in to the side. Hastings also missed a full Sheffield Shield campaign, having been the competition’s second leading wicket taker two years earlier when he collected 36 victims at 26.13.But finally, Hastings is back, and he is looking on the bright side. The time away from the game gave him plenty of opportunity to work in the gym, and he believes his extra strength work has helped him gain a little bit of pace with his bowling. Whatever the case, he has certainly thrived on his return, having picked up 13 wickets in Victoria’s first two Shield games of this season – his first outings at first-class level in nearly two years.”The timing of it wasn’t great,” Hastings told ESPNcricinfo. “I pulled out of the South African series in 2011. It seems a long time ago now. It wasn’t a great time for me. I probably would have been on that tour and if I’d done well there, who knows, Tests might have been around the corner as well. But to have such a long time out of the game it’s going to take me a long time to gain the selectors’ trust again and get back in that side.”When I wasn’t bowling or batting I spent a lot of time on my fitness, working on my strength and conditioning in the gym with David Bailey, the now Australian strength and conditioning coach. We worked our butts off to try to get me back. I think a yard of pace has probably helped me get a few more wickets than I normally would have in four-day cricket, and a little more durability as well, so I can continually back up my spells.”So far this season, the results have been coming. Only James Pattinson, who demolished Queensland with 6 for 32 in the second innings in Brisbane, has more Shield wickets than Hastings after the first two rounds. In a Victoria attack featuring four fast and medium bowlers who have worn the baggy green – Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Clint McKay and Andrew McDonald – that’s no mean feat.”I come on and I’m not as fast as the other guys, I think the batsmen think they can get after me and they just nick one to the keeper or something,” Hastings said. “For me to bowl at the other end to James Pattinson is just fantastic. He creates all the pressure. That spell at the Gabba was absolutely world-class, on a pretty flat third-day Gabba wicket, he extracted bounce and a bit of movement.”Hastings, 26, can also get plenty of bounce from his 195-centimetre frame. He will enjoy the challenge of bowling to the Tasmanians at the MCG this week. Last time he played a first-class match at home it was against the touring England team during Australia’s disastrous 2010-11 Ashes. Twenty-two months is a long time to wait.”Everything is going really well at the moment,” Hastings said. “It’s probably the best my body has felt for four or five years. Looking back I think I was lucky to have that 18 months to get my body right and get it where I wanted to be. It’s great to pull up well from games and hopefully that can continue.”

England A saw their Busta International Shield title hopes slideaway into the Georgetown culverts today after Ramnaresh Sarwanput paid to their semi-final plans to win first innings pointsagainst Guyana.The 20 year-old Test batsman made 110 from 274 balls in aninnings spanning just over six hours. It was his fifth firstclass century and his first on home soil and while Carl Hooperexhibited power and good judgement for his 91 yesterday, thehugely talented Sarwan showed patience and good timing, steeringhis side past the 293 target set by England A to secure firstinnings points.Now, all Guyana have to do to progress through to the final nextweekend is to draw this match. England A meanwhile have tocomplete an outright win to qualify and after losing both IanWard, John Crawley and Michael Powell in the closing stages, thistask has taken on gargantuan proportions.England A’s batsmen played enterprisingly in the final session,their wickets falling in the chase for quick runs as they soughtto build up a big second innings total and leave themselves withenough time on the final day to bowl Guyana out.The opening stand between Ian Ward and Michael Powell was one ofthe best of the tour so far, as both players took risks to getthe ball away. Ward pulled Mahendra Nagamootoo over mid wicketfor six and Powell attempted his trademark reverse sweeps, two ofwhich spun to the boundary.But with the total on 124, Ward tried the pull shot again, thistime to pace bowler Reon King but Carl Hooper was in line to takean easy catch at mid wicket and the Surrey opener, who hasenjoyed a successful tour with the bat was dispatched having made56.Crawley faced two balls before he became King’s second victim,struck on the pads to receive an immediate verdict from umpireEddie Nicholls and Powell went the same way, in the over beforestumps, having struck a impressive 59, his half century comingfrom 103 balls and three fours.By the close, England A were 165 for three, having scored at morethan four an over in the 39 bowled in the innings and their leadover Guyana had extended to 129 runs.It could have been more had Sarwan not played a faultlessinnings, denying England A any chance of a sniff at his wicket.He struck 12 boundaries, leaving no quarter of the Bourda grounduntouched and received rousing encouragement from a small butboisterous crowd who in between barracking for Sarwan foundenough energy to make Ryan Sidebottom’s life uncomfortable, hisspectacular hair, ambitious footballing displays and aggressionattracting a series of insults from the folk behind long on.There was a delay as a stray dog wandered onto the field andmooched around, untroubled by any official for more than fiveminutes. It even found time to make a deposit, under the nose ofan irritated Ward who gestured to the groundstaff for one of themto come and clear it away, quickly.Clearly he too was getting stick from the crowd since he thensuggested the poop be scooped in their direction, prompting thebiggest reaction of the day.Sarwan’s innings came to a close when he finally holed out toWard at long on off Graeme Swann’s bowling, in a spinners spellthat saw that last three wickets fall for 21, both Swann andChris Schofield earning four wickets a piece.Guyana made 336, a lead of 43 runs but according to England Acoach Peter Moores, a plan of action for the remaining sessionswas formulated and immediately deployed.”We knew we had to get runs quickly and decided we wanted to putat least 160 on the board by the close of play. Our openersplayed extremely well and we were happy that we made quickprogress” he said.”It would have been nice to have got Sarwan out sooner but heplayed extremely well and although we bowled well, he didn’toffer up too many opportunities.”Tomorrow we will aim to get around 250 but the key thing isleaving ourselves with around 60 overs to bowl them out and thenI think we are still in with a very good chance of winning.”Our policy is all or nothing. We are definitely prepared tosacrifice a defeat in the pursuit of victory because we badlywant to get into the final so we know what we have to do” hesaid.

Shane Warne has pleaded for some recovery time on the beach in Durban after transforming his 100th Test into the most memorable match of his career.Warne figured in each of the four innings in the second Test in Cape Town, winning the player-of-the-match award in Australia’s four-wicket win.Captain Steve Waugh joked that Warne wrote the script for his milestone match after taking 8-231 from 98 overs and scoring 63 and 15 not out, but Waugh agreedAustralia would have been out of business if not for the leg-spinner.Australia and South Africa have just two days to recover from their gripping Cape Town battle before meeting again in the series finale at Kingsmead.”I’ll wake up and it will probably be a dream. I’ll probably get 0-200 in the next Test and come down to earth,” Warne said.”The way I’m feeling at the moment it probably does pip the (first Test in Sri Lanka in 1992) as my favourite.”From my own individual point of view this was probably my favourite Test but I’m very tired and I’ve probably dropped a couple of extra kilos.”But hopefully (coach) John Buchanan and Steve Waugh will give us some time at the beach in the next two days because otherwise I wouldn’t fancy having to bowlfor another day-and-a-half on Friday.”Warne has 37 wickets from eight Tests in a season which included a rough time against New Zealand’s adventurous batsmen.”After the first few Tests against New Zealand, Buck (Buchanan) asked me to talk to the team about how I was going because I was just feeling frustrated,” Warnesaid.”I thought I was bowling well but there were no results.”But it’s impossible to have a good game all the time. You’re going to go through the ups and downs.”It’s how you deal with that, and at times we’ve probably all made a few mistakes along the way.”In my situation there has been a hell of a lot of good times and not too many bad times.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentaryTim Paine smashed four sixes in his 71 off 57 balls•Getty Images

Tasmania has started its Twenty20 Big Bash campaign in emphatic style, crushing Western Australia by 63 runs at the WACA.George Bailey won the toss for the Tigers and had no hesitation batting first on a picture-perfect WACA deck. Opener and man-of-the-match Tim Paine anchored the innings with a level-headed 71 off 57 balls and was well supported by the brutal Travis Birt, who hit four sixes on his way to a 22-ball 43.The pair shared an 86-run partnership and combined for eight of the Tigers’ 11 sixes – hitting five of them in a ten-ball burst between overs 9.4 and 11.1.Seamer Mick Lewis – who at 36 came out of retirement to play for the Warriors in the Big Bash – did his best for the hosts with three wickets, but his four overs were costly, going for 46 runs.Fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile’s third over looked to have swung the momentum back towards the Warriors, taking the crucial wicket of Birt and conceding just three runs, but cameos from Bailey (20 off 13) and Dutch international Ryan ten Doeschate (12 off 9) lifted the Tigers to an imposing total of 189 from their 20 overs.The Warriors appeared to have the firepower capable of chasing down the target, but they got off to a horror start when Shaun Marsh was trapped in front for a duck by offspinner Jason Krejza on the third ball of the innings. Pinch-hitter Luke Ronchi soon followed, chipping a drive to Birt at cover, and the Warriors chase went from bad to worse when ten Doeschate picked up the wickets of Chris Gayle and Luke Pomersbach in his only over.From there, the hosts never looked likely to win, limping to a disappointing 126 all out with an over to spare. The spin of Krejza (2 for 24) and Doherty (2 for 22) worked a treat for the Tigers, who had gambled playing two spinners on the bouncy WACA pitch, while the Warriors had left out their only recognised spinner in Aaron Heal – a move which proved costly.Tasmania has an eight-day break before it travels to the Gabba to play the Bulls, while Western Australia will face New South Wales in Sydney on January 9.