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Minutes after India’s humiliating exit from the Women’s World Cup, following a shock defeat to Sri Lanka in Mumbai, their captain Mithali Raj was asked during the media briefing about Thursday’s “big match” against Pakistan. Despite being teary-eyed, Raj managed a smile and said, “I am not in a state of mind to think about it right now.”There’s nothing big at stake in the match at the Barabati Stadium – it’s a playoff for seventh place and the loser will finish last in the World Cup – but for a subcontinental cricket fan, especially in a small town like Cuttack, an India-Pakistan match is a major event.After Pakistan’s loss to South Africa had put them out of the tournament hours before India’s exit, a policeman said to his colleague that it was only two more days until the neighbouring women left. But after India were upset at the Brabourne Stadium, and were going to travel to Cuttack to play Pakistan, the security personnel were taking all sorts of precautionary measures for the game to go off smoothly.”An India-Pakistan match is always an interesting affair. Even if it’s a seventh place playoff, it has generated excitement in town,” Odisha Cricket Association president Ranjib Biswal. “I am sure there will be a sizeable crowd in the stands tomorrow.”Regardless of their number, the people who come to watch will not be cheering the team they had adopted over the last week. A crowd of about 500-1000 was neutral during Pakistan’s opening game against Australia, and then cheered their good shots against New Zealand. By the time Pakistan played their must-win encounter against South Africa on Tuesday, the crowd had started cheering them on.”It was really a nice feeling to see the crowd cheering for us,” Pakistan captain Sana Mir said after their loss to South Africa. “This shows that when it comes to cricket, the rest of the problems are set aside. We have been taken care of very well and would love to come back to Odisha and explore the state, something that we couldn’t do this time around.”After a disappointing week, neither India nor Pakistan trained ahead of their final match of the World Cup. Pakistan will hope their batsmen improve on their best total of the tournament so far – 104 – while India will be desperate to avoid finishing last in a World cup they are hosting.

Clare Connor, the ICC women’s committee chairman and former England Women’s captain, has blamed the BCCI for India’s poor showing at the Women’s World Cup.India finished in seventh place after failing to qualify for the Super Six stage with just one victory from the group phase. Connor has said the team did not receive the support they deserved from their board.Connor is now head of women’s cricket at the ECB who have made the England Women’s team the best-resourced in the world but says standards have slipped in India and the BCCI are at fault.”Generally India have been strong but other teams, Sri Lanka and West Indies who have accelerated so much in the past four years, are overtaking them,” Connor said in an interview. “The Indian players and the support staff will look to the BCCI for more support.””There is such passion for cricket in this country. It probably asks the question whether the women have had the support they deserve because their standards have slipped. While that is partly the responsibility of the players I don’t think they had as much support going into this tournament as they would need. That is a shame because they were the hosts and we wanted to bring the World Cup to India because of the passion for the game. It is a shame they didn’t make it further in the tournament.”If there is more support from the BCCI, then standards will rise. The passion is there for the game, people just need to know more about women’s cricket probably, and hopefully that support will grow.”Connor said the world cup was a “huge achievement” for the women’s game but it was disappointing that the BCCI didn’t put as much weight into the tournament as it has done for men’s competitions. The Wankhede Stadium was dropped at a late hour to host the final of the Ranji Trophy.”For me personally the disappointment is that the BCCI has not pulled its way as much as it could have done for the Indian women’s team and to support the profile and exposure of this tournament.”The market for women’s cricket in India is massive. It is why we wanted a successful tournament here. We wanted to engage this cricket-mad nation and we wanted people to support the Indian women’s team more. We want to grow the game. We want there to be role models and the aspiration to play towards the highest level. Hopefully on television that message would have got across a little bit.”India is really important for the women’s cricket. It has so much passion for the game that has not necessarily flowed into the women’s game. Over time I hope that will happen with more high-quality cricket being played. It has huge finance in terms of backing the game. I hope this tournament has gone towards opening up some minds that were closed towards women’s cricket in the past.”

Scorecard File photo: Nikita Miller’s ten-for was the centrepiece of Jamaica’s victory over Barbados•West Indies Cricket

A match haul of 10 for 67 by left-arm spinner Nikita Miller helped Jamaica hand Barbados a 63-run defeat in the Regional Four Day Competition in Bridgetown. Chasing 192 runs for a win with two days of play left in the game, the hosts struggled to occupy the crease, losing wickets regularly, and were eventually dismissed for 128.Except for wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich, who scored an unbeaten 31, none of the other batsmen crossed a score of 20, as the Jamaican spinners, led by Miller, held sway. Offspinner Tamar Lambert took a couple of wickets, as did leg-spinner Odean Brown.Bowlers from both sides dominated the match and it was the Barbados bowlers who gave their side a clear advantage on the first day, dismissing Jamaica for just 165. At one stage, Jamaica, who chose to bat, were three wickets down without a run on the board. Jermaine Blackwood and David Bernard added 67 runs for the fifth wicket, taking Jamaica towards a respectable first-innings score. Blackwood, who scored 81, was involved in another 50-plus partnership, with Andrew Richardson, as Jamaica scraped out 165.The home side hardly fared better in their first innings. It took a half-century from Jonathan Carter and 35-run, ninth-wicket stand between Chris Jordan and Ashley Nurse to take Barbados to 162, giving Jamaica a slender, three-run lead.Jamaica were hoping to fare better in their second innings, but opener Simon Jackson was the only batsman who spent some time at the crease, scoring 59. An exceptional spell of bowling from medium-pacer Jonathan Carter, who finished with figures of 3-3-0-4, cleaned up the Jamaican lower order. However, in the end, Jamaica’s effort proved quite enough to secure a win in the opening round of Regional Four Day games.

N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, has said the concerns surrounding the participation of Sri Lankan players in the IPL was an “operational issue” and would be handled accordingly.Political tensions in India, especially in Tamil Nadu, over the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka had resulted in the Sri Lanka Players’ Association raising concerns over the safety of Sri Lanka players in India during the IPL. Thirteen Sri Lankan players have been contracted with different franchises, including Chennai Super Kings who have Nuwan Kulasekara and Akila Dananjaya as part of their squad.”India is a safe place,” Srinivasan said in an interview to . “Every state in India is safe for playing cricket. I cannot predict anything, but these are operational matters. We have an event manager, IMG, who will deal with local issues as and when they arise. I believe the government of Tamil Nadu is extremely capable of handling any situation and there is absolutely no problem of law and order or anything of that kind here. And the IPL is still some time away. These are issues which, I think, will get sorted out.”Srinivasan also said that he was unaware of requests made by IPL franchises to shift games but said the board and the IPL would discuss the situation if needed.Srinivasan expressed his happiness with India’s 4-0 series win against Australia but refused to comment on the future of Sachin Tendulkar, who will turn 40 next month. In the home series against England, Tendulkar scored 112 runs at an average of 18.66, and he made 192 runs at an average of 32 against Australia. Having already retired from one-day internationals in December last year, and with India’s next Test series several months away, there has been speculation about Tendulkar’s Test retirement.”I don’t think anyone of us can talk about Sachin,” Srinivasan said. “He is possibly the greatest cricketer India has produced. I don’t think it is for us to sit and analyse his performance series-wise. Sachin is different from others. This is a personal view. I distinguish between selection and my view. If you ask my view, if you ask me what I feel, I think every Indian will say that Sachin is different from others.”

Jesse Ryder offered a ‘thumbs up’ gesture and interacted with his family and manager on the day two men were arrested and charged with assault in connection with the attack that left the New Zealand cricketer in an induced coma in a Christchurch hospital.The two men, aged 20 and 37, are set to appear in the Christchurch District Court on April 4.Progress in the police investigation was accompanied by signs of improvement in Ryder’s condition, which is now deemed stable rather than critical by medical staff. Heath Mills, the New Zealand players association chief executive, delivered a statement on behalf of the family.”Jesse is in a stable condition in intensive care. He’s been responsive and interacting with his family and the medical team,” Mills said. “Jesse is still in an induced coma, and is still needing support with breathing due to an injury to his lungs. In terms of a head injury, it cannot be fully determined at this stage what the effects of a knock to Jesse’s head are. We will know more once he comes out of the coma.”Ryder’s manager, Aaron Klee, said the thumbs up had been delivered to a neurosurgeon at the hospital before his family interacted further. Ryder’s level of sedation had been adjusted to allow him to interact with his family, Klee said, though he added that “it’s awful, he’s lying there with tubes everywhere”.”I was there this morning and they’re working on the level of sedation of the coma to a level where they can talk to Jesse and make him aware of talking to him,” Klee said. “We got a thumbs up from him this morning. Everyone was very pleased [to hear that].”We then had some interaction with me and Jesse and Jesse’s mum and Jesse’s partner. We were able to talk to him and he looked at us.”Medical staff are now assessing when may be the right time to bring Ryder out of the coma. Klee expressed thanks for all the many messages of support that have come in from around the world, and said these messages had been relayed to Ryder in hospital.Detective Senior Sergeant Bryan Archer of Christchurch police said they were now confident that only two men had been involved in the attacks.”I’ve been able to review the CCTV footage and I think we can describe it as being an altercation outside Aikmans and a second incident in the carpark to McDonald’s,” he told reporters.”A member of the public got involved to try and break up the fight and that’s probably swelled the numbers from what people saw, but I believe the altercation involved two people initially and one person in the second incident.”A candlelight vigil for Ryder will be held outside Christchurch Hospital at 7pm local time. It will be led by the Canterbury Cricket chief executive Lee Germon and the city councillor Aaron Keown.”I am really upset this has happened in our city and it is a really bad image for Christchurch,” Keown said. “Good Friday is meant to be a day of peace and the whole country will be looking at Christchurch and saying, ‘If a cricket player can’t go out with his mates and not be assaulted then what is going on?'”Ryder had been celebrating the end of the season with several Wellington team mates at Aikmans Bar in Merivale. Archer said he got into a brief altercation with a group of people as he left the bar. He crossed the road to join his team mates in McDonalds, but was assaulted before he got there.

George Bailey has conceded that he struggled with constantly changing formats last summer, which contributed to his least productive Sheffield Shield campaign since his maiden season in 2004-05. The international retirements of Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey in the middle of 2012-13 left the selectors looking to Shield form to find batsmen for the Test tour of India and the Ashes, but Bailey managed only 256 runs at 18.28 in Tasmania’s successful campaign.A schedule packed with ODIs, Twenty20 internationals, Ryobi Cup matches, Big Bash League and Sheffield Shield cricket meant that from August last year until the Shield final in March, Bailey had to switch between formats 18 times. That is cricket’s equivalent of constant jet-lag, and even for a mature player like Bailey, that proved too great a challenge. It was his four-day cricket that suffered: he scored only one half-century in his eight Shield matches.”I struggled at different times with switching back through the formats,” Bailey said of his 2012-13 season. “That’s not an excuse, because I think every modern-day cricketer has to make those changes pretty regularly, but I just didn’t adjust to it very well. I certainly felt like I was going into Shield games with a one-day or Twenty20 mentality. It was certainly not a conscious thing, but just not having the awareness and ability to work out how to build your innings.”It was a blow to the Test aspirations of Bailey, who is highly regarded by John Inverarity’s selection panel and was on Wednesday named Michael Clarke’s vice-captain in Australia’s squad for the Champions Trophy. Bailey was appointed captain of Australia’s Twenty20 outfit in January last year and over the past 12 months has been the highest run scorer in the ODI team, but his presence in both the shorter formats for Australia has not helped his Shield form.However, he was far from the only experienced batsman who struggled in the Shield last summer, which has left the selectors scratching around for Test batting options. David Hussey, Adam Voges, Rob Quiney, Michael Klinger and Peter Forrest were among the others who failed to pass the 400-run mark in the Shield and, like Bailey, any of them could have forced their way into Ashes contention with a big summer.As it was, Chris Rogers managed to do so with a solid tally – Ricky Ponting, Mark Cosgrove, Rogers and Alex Doolan were the top four Shield run scorers for the season. The presence of three Tasmanians in that group helped the Tigers to win the Sheffield Shield but Bailey said it also led to him cruising through the campaign without having to hit top gear. Not since his debut season, when he scored 185 at 23.12, had he endured such a lean first-class season.”The way our top order was batting there was probably a little bit of complacency there,” Bailey said. “Batting behind Mark Cosgrove, who had a fantastic season, Alex Doolan, who is in great form, and the season that Ricky Ponting had, I reckon I just took my foot off the pedal a little bit and thought it was going to happen.”Quite often I was going to the crease in quite comfortable situations, where in the past I might have gone in under the pump a little bit and you’ve really got to be switched on. It was a really disappointing individual season, but having said that I probably wouldn’t change it for the world because it was such a great team season.”Although the Ashes opportunity has passed him by for the time being, Bailey has at least given himself a chance of strengthening his case for a mid-series call-up if a batsman is injured. He is in England for a two-month county stint with Hampshire and started with an innings of 93 against Leicestershire – higher than any Shield score he made over the past summer.”One of my fears was coming over here and feeling a bit lethargic or flat, coming straight from the end of one season and such a high to finish the year and straight back into it,” he said. “But it’s a different group of faces and a new challenge and the opportunity to rectify how my four-day cricket had been, with more consistent four-day games.”There are quite a few of them in a two-month period; I think I’m playing six or seven over the eight-week period. As soon as I landed here I was really excited and, touch wood, it has started really well thus far. I’m just really enjoying the challenge of playing in different conditions and getting back to working out how to build your innings and bat for long periods.”

A day after Pune Warriors announced its pullout from the IPL, the BCCI has said it hasn’t received any “direct communication” from the franchise owner Sahara India regarding the issue. The board also confirmed that it had cashed part of the franchise’s bank guarantee.On Tuesday, Sahara had issued a press release saying it was withdrawing from the IPL over financial differences with the BCCI stemming from the valuation of the annual franchise fee it has to pay. It appears it has not formally communicated that decision to the board.Sahara has repeatedly tried to get the board to revise its franchise fees – $370m over 10 years, the highest in the IPL – and had to pay Rs 120 crore (around $21.6m) this year before the start of the season.”Once the 3 April 2013 due date had passed, the Governing Council had two letters sent to Sahara Adventure Sports Limited – one on 12 April 2013 and the second on 24 April 2013 – requesting settlement of the overdue amount,” the BCCI’s release said. “No payment was made and no response was received to the second letter and so, in order to protect its interests, the BCCI was forced to encash the guarantee.”Sahara had also complained that the process of arbitration, which began soon after the franchise initially pulled out in February 2012, wasn’t progressing as the BCCI hadn’t agreed on any arbitrator. The BCCI, in turn, said it was Sahara which was stalling the negotiations.”The BCCI cannot be held responsible since every one of the eminent retired judges suggested by the BCCI was not found acceptable by the franchisee,” the board said. “In order to break this impasse, a letter was sent to Sahara Adventure Sports Limited, proposing that as the claimant to the arbitration, it should approach the court to appoint an arbitrator so that the process could move forward. Again, no response was received to this suggestion.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Mahela Jayawardene was in dazzling form, caressing his way to an unbeaten 84•Associated Press

A victorious Sri Lanka will play in Cardiff on Thursday. A humbled Australia will start pondering the Ashes, and the state of disrepair their cricket has fallen into. Led by Mahela Jayawardene’s silken unbeaten 84, Sri Lanka stuttered into a Champions Trophy semi-final against India by defeating a collective whose captain Michael Clarke watched disconsolately from The Oval balcony.Their slim chances of qualifying long since expired, Australia offered a last gasp via Clint McKay and Xavier Doherty, who added 41 for the final wicket. They were only separated by a blinding return catch from Tillakaratne Dilshan, whose exultant celebrations underlined the anxiety that had crept into a team who looked comfortable winners for most of the journey.Once Jayawardene had lifted Sri Lanka to 253 for 8 after an uncertain beginning, passing 11,000 ODI runs on the way, Australia’s chances of qualifying became largely theoretical. India in their pomp might have been a chance to reach 254 in 29.1 overs, but not a team that had failed to top 250 in two previous matches and been distracted by all manner of off field woes, from Clarke’s fragile back to David Warner’s choices of drinking spots and punching bags.This left Angelo Mathews’ team to ride out a brief spell of hitting from Glenn Maxwell, a doughty rearguard from Adam Voges, and a pesky last stand by the final wicket pair of McKay and Doherty, who conjured the second best partnership of the innings. As in India earlier this year, this served mainly to expose the appalling lack of application shown by many of the batsmen.Australia’s troubles were best summed up by their stand-in leader George Bailey, who dozed off at the wrong moment and found himself run out, helping to end a Champions Trophy defence that never really began. Apart from the emergence of James Faulkner they have precious little to show for the past two weeks.Sri Lanka’s innings had flirted with mediocrity in the face of some diligent bowling until Jayawardene’s delayed arrival, which signalled a late innings surge. Lahiru Thirimanne had been promoted ahead of Jayawardene at an uncertain 20 for 2, and the switch allowed the senior man to make merry in the later overs against the older ball after Thirimanne composed an important, steadying 57.Given the scenario confronting them, Australia’s batsmen were forced to play on instinct, and Shane Watson’s cover drive from the first ball of the innings made for a promising portent. But as has become the norm Watson flattered to deceive, bowled in the second over when making a hare-brained attempt to cut Nuwan Kulasekara off the stumps.Phillip Hughes showed himself adept at edging past the bails, twice gaining boundaries in those fortuitous circumstances. But the use of only half the bat did not suggest permanence, and it was no great surprise when he glided Kulasekara into Kumar Sangakkara’s gloves.Having come in at No. 3, Maxwell offered entertainment, cracking five boundaries and one six in the manner that earned him his exorbitant IPL contract. But Sri Lanka always had Lasith Malinga to use in case of emergencies, and he duly yorked Maxwell in his first over after the Victorian had swung once too often.Bailey has been a middle order resuscitator of sorts in the two previous games, but the team has not responded fruitfully enough to his leadership. He was to slip up badly here, dawdling in mid-pitch when trying to pinch a leg bye and finding himself run out at the non-striker’s end by Kulasekara’s direct hit.The innings then petered out in a manner sadly familiar to those who have watched Australia away from home in recent months. Only Doherty and McKay gave the impression they genuinely cared to win the contest, something not so surprising when observing the recent record: they have not won overseas in an international match in any format this year. Quite apart from the problems unearthed by Warner’s Birmingham misadventures, this is no trend to take into an Ashes series.Overcast skies and a desire to know his eventual target had encouraged Bailey to send Sri Lanka in. Mitchell Johnson’s first two deliveries of the match were poor; the first clattered to the backward point boundary, the second scuttling to fine leg off the pads. But his third was straight and too quick for Kusal Perera, who was clearly lbw.Sangakkara hinted at the genius that had guided Sri Lanka to a stirring chase against England on this ground last week, but found himself tied down by McKay’s persistent line and subtle movement. Having already chanced a desperate single, Sangakkara was offered a fraction of extra width and lashed out, but managed only to slice a drive to Maxwell.At that moment Australia could envision a slim target, but Thirimanne was sent in to steady the innings in Dilshan’s company, leaving Jayawardene in reserve. A serviceable job was done, gaps found every now and then the Australian bowlers were not gifted any wickets. It took Doherty to split them with a ball that straightened just enough to take an edge, Watson diving alertly to his right at slip.Mathews played a halting innings in Jayawardene’s company before losing his off bail to a nicely pitched delivery from Faulkner, but Dinesh Chandimal was busier and more effective in a fifth-wicket stand of 65 in 56 balls. The Australians did not bowl too much that was loose, but were left to marvel at Jayawardene’s knack for manipulating the field as the score mounted.In what is becoming a pattern as familiar as Australian defeat, the wicketkeeper and agitator Wade became embroiled in a profane joust with Jayawardene. Ninety-nine Sri Lankan runs from the final 13 overs meant the Australians could start thinking less about niggle and more about the Test matches to come.

The Supreme Court, while admitting a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the BCCI last Friday, has issued a notice to the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), asking it to reply by August 29. However, the court has not permitted the BCCI to examine the inquiry commission’s report, which was submitted last week, and is yet to be opened.The BCCI had filed the SLP against a Bombay High Court order that said that the board had violated its own rules in the formation of the inquiry commission investigating the corruption allegations against the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, as well as the two franchises in general.The High Court order was in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by CAB secretary Aditya Verma. The BCCI’s 13-page SLP contested the High Court order on various grounds, including its decision to entertain the PIL, given the board’s status as a private body. It had also sought to challenge the petitioner’s right to file a PIL and question the legality of the inquiry panel when it was not even part of the BCCI, and therefore not subject to the findings of the panel.During Wednesday’s 15-minute hearing in the Supreme Court, C Aryama Sundaram, the senior legal counsel appearing for BCCI, did not ask for any interim relief. Sundaram, arguing the case with Raju Subramaniam and Radha Rangaswamy, was heard by the two-judge bench of Justices AK Patnaik and Jagdish Singh Khehar. The court then asked CAB’s legal team to file their reply by August 29.Sundaram sought the court’s permission for the BCCI’s working committee to look at the contents of the inquiry commission’s report. He said that since the inquiry was an internal affair of the BCCI, its members should be allowed to read the report. However, the court felt that would be improper, and that it would only be correct to argue that point during the August 29 hearing.”The Supreme Court, at the stage of mentioning, can either issue a notice or dismiss the petition saying there is no substance. If the court finds there is substance, then it will issue a notice and direct the opponent to file a reply normally within four to six weeks,” a BCCI insider told ESPNcricinfo. “The date of hearing in this case is a miscellaneous date, so it should not take much time to dispose of the case.”Wednesday’s developments in the Supreme Court are unlikely to be a deterrent to N Srinivasan who is continuing as the BCCI president. If the Supreme Court doesn’t pronounce its ruling before the BCCI annual general meeting (AGM), slated to be held in the last week of September, Srinivasan may still continue to be the president for an additional year. According to the BCCI constitution, a president’s initial two-year term can be extended by another if the board backs him. Srinivasan will have completed two years by the September AGM.As one of the measures that would help improve his image in public, Srinivasan may back the appointment of a fresh inquiry commission, in place of the one whose appointment has been held in scrutiny. Many IPL governing council members feel the need of the hour is to appoint a new probe panel. “If the governing council proposes such a move, then the BCCI will seek opinion from its legal experts as to whether a new panel can be appointed when the matter is sub judice,” the BCCI insider revealed.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsLendl Simmons guided the chase•Getty Images

Opener Lendl Simmons scored an unbeaten 67 off just 44 balls to guide Guyana Amazon Warriors to a comfortable eight-wicket win over Jamaica Tallawahs at the Providence Stadium. The win was Guyana’s second in as many games, and took them to the top of the table ahead of the Barbados Tridents on net run-rate.Simmons, the Man of the Match, struck five fours and four sixes, and put up an unbeaten 60-run stand for the third wicket with Ramnaresh Sarwan, to chase down a modest 118 inside 15 overs.Jamaica, put in to bat, got off to a slow start as Ahmed Shehzad was caught at long-off by Chris Barnwell off seamer Krishmar Santokie off the last ball of the fourth over, and off the very next delivery, Chris Gayle fell short of his crease trying to sneak an unlikely second run.James Franklin had an expensive night and conceded 38 runs in his four overs, but all other bowlers were economical, and bowled out Jamaica for just 117. Santokie stood out with figures of 3 for 20, including the wicket of Carlton Baugh, who top scored for the visitors with 32.Guyana, needing less than six an over, were comfortable throughout the run-chase as Simmons and Martin Guptill added 48 for the opening wicket. Muttiah Muralitharan dismissed Guptill and Mohammad Hafeez in quick succession, but Sarwan, coming in at No. 4, steadied the innings with a 19-ball 24 to take Guyana home with 33 balls remaining.