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The BCCI top brass have denied reports of an alleged rift in the Indian team, saying that the media have taken an “exaggerated” stand in the wake of stand-in captain Virender Sehwag’s contentious comments following India’s defeat to Sri Lanka on Tuesday. Sehwag had said that he was unaware that one of reasons MS Dhoni wanted to rotate the three openers (Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir) was because he feared they would leak at least 20 runs in the field.”I don’t think there is any rift within the team,” Rajiv Shukla, the BCCI vice-president who was meeting with other board officials in Mumbai at the IPL governing council meet, said. “It is only speculation by a section of the media. The team is united. So I don’t think there is a problem.”Shukla said the board was constantly in touch with the team management. “From what we have understood, Sehwag has been misquoted.”Sehwag had lead India against Sri Lanka in the absence of Dhoni, who was serving a one-match ban for not meeting the required over-rate in the previous game against Australia. In the post-match media conference, speaking on the rotation policy, Sehwag said that Dhoni had had chats with him, Tendulkar and Gambhir individually, telling them that the young players in the squad should get enough exposure in Australian conditions, keeping in mind that the next World Cup will be played in Australia and New Zealand. Sehwag said he was fine with that reasoning, but was unaware that Dhoni had said, after the February 19 match against Australia, that he could not fit all three openers into the XI because of their slowness in the field. That statement sparked speculation in the media, raising the question as to whether there was a divide in the team.The BCCI president, N Srinivasan, said there was nothing to be “concerned” about. “We have to see what exactly they [Sehwag and Dhoni] have said. They were responding to some question in a press conference. I have spoken to the media manager there [in Australia]. I think the reports here are exaggerated.”Asked if the pair of Duncan Fletcher and Dhoni had informed the board of their plans to try out the younger players and adopt the rotation policy, Shukla said that matter was entirely the decision of the tour selection committee, comprising the captain, coach and team manager. “It is for the coach and captain to decide on the team composition,” Shukla said.Edited by Nikita Bastian

ScorecardBrett Lee picked up two wickets in the first over of the match•Getty Images

The Sydney Sixers began the Big Bash League as one of the least fancied sides but they won the tournament after Moises Henriques set up their chase in the final against the Perth Scorchers. In front of a WACA crowd desperate to see the state’s first silverware – albeit not for the Warriors – in nearly a decade, the Sixers spoiled the party and won by seven wickets.Mitchell Marsh had excited the Perth fans with a powerful innings of 77 after Marcus North chose to bat, but Brett Lee helped contain the Scorchers to 5 for 156, which was a gettable, though challenging target. Henriques and Steve O’Keefe put together a 110-run opening stand in the chase and it was a start the home side was unable to pull back.A pair of wickets from Ben Edmondson late in the game gave the Scorchers a sniff, as the Sixers needed 22 from the final three overs. But the Sixers captain Steven Smith procured three boundaries and 15 in total from the next over, a poor one from Nathan Rimmington, and from there it was all very straightforward for the visitors.They reached their target with seven balls to spare, Smith striking the winning boundary down the ground off Ben Edmondson to finish unbeaten on 21 with Ben Rohrer on 3. Led by the 40-year-old Stuart MacGill and fellow veteran Brett Lee, the Sixers players streamed on to the field to celebrate their triumph, which came with no international imports in the final.Instead, it was two local allrounders who set the chase on the right path. O’Keefe struggled early, swinging wildly and missing plenty of deliveries as he battled to find his rhythm, but gradually he started to find the middle of the bat. O’Keefe drew confidence from a flat pull for six off Marsh’s medium pace, although he was still well behind the tempo of his partner Henriques, who brought up his half-century when O’Keefe had only 21.Henriques was especially brutal against the spin of Michael Beer, striking a pair of consecutive sixes over long-on and long-off, and he found gaps all around the ground. On 70 from 41 deliveries, Henriques was tricked by the 40-year-old spinner Brad Hogg, who saw Henriques advancing and sent the ball down the leg side for Luke Ronchi to complete the stumping.O’Keefe kept the chase going well until, on 48, he scooped a catch to short fine leg off Edmondson, two balls after Nic Maddinson (10) had also skied a catch. But Smith and Rohrer ensured the win for the Sixers, a victory that was also due to the bowling of Lee, whose 2 for 21 from four overs helped restrict the Scorchers to a manageable total.Lee began in the perfect way, with two wickets from the first over of the match. Herschelle Gibbs pulled the first ball of the game straight into the hands of deep square leg and later in the over, Ronchi took a big swipe and was caught behind to leave the Scorchers at 2 for 2. Marcus North steadied the home side until he top-edged a sweep off MacGill on 22.However, Marsh and Paul Collingwood formed a useful 62-run partnership, Collingwood paddling sweeps and reverse sweeps to cleverly find the gaps while Marsh used his strength to clear the boundary four times. Marsh took 12 off an Henriques over and launched a monster six over long-on off the bowling of O’Keefe.O’Keefe gave Marsh a life on 55 when he put down a chance at midwicket and in the next over, Marsh made the Sixers pay with a pair of sixes off Mitchell Starc. But Starc grabbed two wickets, Collingwood for 32 and Simon Katich for 12, and Marsh’s 77 not out from 57 deliveries was comfortably the standout performance.In the end, it wasn’t enough, as Henriques and O’Keefe made up for their lapses with the ball and in the field. Henriques was named Man of the Match.

” After such a [bad] performance in the field, we got two days so we have worked really hard on that, let’s hope for the best in the second test”
.”We had discussions on which area to improve and did that in training sessions. As a batting unit we are fully prepared to do well in this Test. Confidence is really high after the way we made a comeback and did so many things to save it [the first Test].”
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Though South Australia Redbacks’ three spinners conceded 69 runs for no wicket in eight overs against the Warriors, they are planning to play the same combination against Kolkata Knight Riders.”The three spinners have worked very well for us over the last two years,” batsman Callum Ferguson said. “I don’t see that being any different coming up on Tuesday or for the rest of the tournament. We are very confident about the strategy and we think that it will bring success.”Spinners Nathan Lyon, Adil Rashid and Aaron O’Brien played a major part in South Australia’s victorious Big Bash campaign in February, taking 29 wickets in seven games at under seven runs an over. However, insisting on including all of them could backfire against a side like Kolkata Knight Riders, with fine players of spin in Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan.In the game against the Warriors, South Australia’s plight was compounded by the fact that there wasn’t any control from the other end, with an erratic Shaun Tait going for 53 in his four overs. It was left to Daniel Christian and Daniel Harris to somehow keep the Warriors from exploding with 4 for 47 from eight overs of tight medium-pace.It might be too much to expect the two Daniels to perform the holding role again, but Ferguson maintained that South Australia had things covered. “Our attack has good all-round capability. Dan Christian fills that [holding seamer’s] role very well. Dan Harris did a very good job containing yesterday as well. While they may not be express, we think that Christian has got enough pace.”Another worrying aspect for South Australia was the way their batsmen approached the chase of 172 against the Warriors. Only two of the top seven managed to strike at above 100 and Ferguson was hopeful of a more purposeful approach against the Knight Riders. “We didn’t think that our guys got out to outrageous shots. When you lose early wickets, it makes it difficult to rebuild the momentum straight away on a slow pitch.”Coming up on Tuesday, we are looking to be a bit braver with how we go about it. We are going to go out and play like we normally do. We are confident that our results over the last two years have shown that this does not happen to us very often and it was just a one-off.”We are a better side than we showed last night. We are very confident we will turn it around against KKR.”

At 5.45pm on Friday, when Graeme Swann walks out to toss up with his West Indian counterpart, Darren Sammy, the end of one of the more improbable journeys in English cricket will have been reached.In the winter of 1999-2000, Swann was a brash young upstart on England’s tour of South Africa under Nasser Hussain, and so offended his elders and betters that he was banished from the set-up for the next seven years. Now, 12 years on, he is England captain, and regardless of the circumstances in which the honour has come about, he is ready to embrace the sort of responsibility that no-one ever imagined he was capable of producing.”My mother’s prophecy comes true at last,” Swann told reporters at The Oval. “She always said I would captain England but I am not sure which sport she was thinking of. It’s great. I am delighted. It is a tired old cliché but when you do get asked it is a proud moment and I have surprised myself about how excited I have been about it.”As the fifth England captain of a memorable summer, Swann knows his role is very much a temporary measure that only came about because of injuries to the Twenty20 captain and vice-captain, Stuart Broad and Eoin Morgan. Nevertheless, at the age of 32, Swann is the gnarled old veteran in a youthful squad that includes a host of players who are barely out of their teens, and as such, he recognises the need to lead by an example that perhaps doesn’t come entirely naturally to him.Swann first played for England when he was the same age as the likes of Joss Buttler and Alex Hales, and by his own admission, he was far from ready for the big time. However, he believed that series such as the one about to take place could have helped him develop his game.”Graeme Swann the captain would never pick Graeme Swann the kid,” he said. “The one regret I have about being 19 or 20 is that there was not Twenty20 around in those days. I’m sure I would be pretty good at it because I could bat in those days. I would have had a way of staying in the England squad for a few years while I developed my skills in the longer form. That is the only regret I have got about the young, lunatic Graeme Swann. He is still in there but I manage to hide him most of the time.”Now, however, it is time to put on his more serious face. “For all the impression I give about messing around all the time, it is not always like that,” Swann said. “Most of the joshing around is in the Anderson-Bresnan corner, but I have curbed that this week because I can’t be seen to be taking the mickey out of my players. Some of these guys are coming in for the first time, so they are wide eyed and excited about playing. Going in with a group of gnarled old pros, half of whom don’t like you and the other half like you even less, it is nice to have a young and exciting squad to be in charge of.”Swann’s previous captaincy experience is limited in the extreme. At Nottinghamshire, what few opportunities might have existed were limited by the presence of the New Zealand skipper, Stephen Fleming, whom he rated as arguably the best captain in the world, while Fleming’s successor Chris Read cemented his credentials last summer with a memorable victory in the County Championship.”I have always harboured ambitions of captaining at first-class level and it is nice that I have got a chance, if only for a couple of games, to show the inner workings of my mind, that I think are brilliant,” said Swann. “Normally it is a case of if you hang around long enough you might get a chance, so I am delighted. I feel like a senior player in this group now and when I looked at this squad for the matches, I thought it would be exciting to be in charge of that lot.”Aside from providing four tidy overs, Swann admitted that there was only so much he could do to have a direct influence on the tactics in Twenty20 cricket. “It is a reactions game,” he said. “You can start with grandiose plans about how you want to start, and they can change quickly. I like to think I will be attacking, but I am not sure it will be too maverick or out of the box. It is important in this form of the game to take wickets. That is what won us the World Twenty20 [last year]. At any given stage during the game, we will be thinking where is the best chance to take wickets.”With West Indies also set to field a young and inexperienced side, the true value of these two fixtures has been called into question. However, Swann was adamant that, in 12 months’ time in Sri Lanka, the team that takes the field to defend the World Twenty20 is likely to contain a sizeable number of the rookies on show this weekend – among them Jonny Bairstow, whose dynamic debut in the final ODI against India was proof of his hard-hitting abilities.”These are guys who have been brought up on a diet of Twenty20 and they are close [to the first eleven],” said Swann. “I can’t see that team next year being vastly different from this squad. Obviously the odd player will come back in but cricket is a game in which new superstars emerge all the time and this team has got the potential for four or five megastars in it.”The way the likes of Bairstow played the other night was a glimpse into the potential he has got,” Swann added. “We have not seen anything of Stokes but we know what potential he has got, and then there are people like Joss Buttler who does it day in, day out for Somerset and he will come to the party sooner rather than later. We have got the potential for the most exciting top six in world cricket which is great.”With that in mind, the chance to play two extra Twenty20s in the build-up to Sri Lanka was not to be sniffed at, given how few fixtures are allocated in any given tour. “It defies belief that we only have one Twenty20 match [per series],” said Swann. “It is the biggest game in the short format and somewhere down the line we will have to treat it a bit more seriously and play series of Twenty20 games. We are World Champions but going into Sri Lanka we will only play four or five games in this format before that World Cup starts.”

Malaysia, Guernsey and Fiji were the victorious teams on the opening day of the World Cricket League Division Six in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.Adverse weather conditions meant one of the three games was shortened and the Duckworth-Lewis method applied after the rain clouds arrived in the late afternoon bringing thunder and lightning. No re-calculations were required for Fiji’s match against Nigeria, or Guernsey’s against Jersey, while hosts Malaysia had their game abandoned against Kuwait but not before D/L was imposed.After a delayed start at the Selangor Turf Club cricket ground, Malaysia’s Suresh Navaratnam dismissed Irfan Bhatti with his second delivery as the hosts made a spirited start against Kuwait. Watched by a small crowd of supporters at a venue that is surrounded by the Selangor Turf Club racetrack on the south-side of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia then removed Aamir Javed five overs later when the 22-year-old was bowled by Hassan Ghulam, while Navaratnam dismissed Sibtain Raza not long after for just one run.Captain Hisham Mirza briefly steadied the innings but the slide continued when he fell for 22, with six wickets being lost before the score had passed 100. After a series of sloppy shots Kuwait were bowled out for 151 in the 47th over, Navaratnam collecting figures of 4 for 15.Faris Almas had his stumps rearranged by Abdullah Akhunzada as Malaysia’s chase suffered some early blows, but captain Suhan Alagaratnam and Ahmed Faiz added an unbeaten 54 for the third wicket and put their side ahead of the required rate before the rains arrived. After a lengthy stop in play, the match was called to a halt and Malaysia won by 38 runs after D/L was calculated.”I am very happy to have won,” said Alagaratnam. “One win and we’re building momentum. I was surprised Kuwait chose to bat, the wicket was a bit sticky early on. Our bowlers, especially Suresh [Navaratnam], did really well and the spinners played a big part. It’s a little disappointing not to have finished the match but we know our strengths and I was glad to see how fast we were to the ball when fielding.””We’re very disappointed to have lost,” added Kuwait captain Hisham. “Our batsmen couldn’t cope with the early swing. If we win the toss tomorrow, I will think hard about bowling first.”We’re missing Mohammad Murad, he’s the kind of bowler that gets early breakthroughs and he works well with Saad Khalid. Nevertheless we’re looking forward to the rest of the tournament. One strong team would have lost today. We can bounce back.”At Kinrara Oval, Jersey took on local Channel Island rivals Guernsey in the sides’ hotly anticipated first round game. Stuart Le Prevost’s side won the toss and elected to bat against Peter Gough’s bowling attackGuernsey’s star allrounder Jeremy Frith made his intentions for the tournament clear after the 33-year-old smashed his way to 80 runs to be the cornerstone of the side’s innings. Frith departed after being caught by Jersey’s Ben Stevens off the bowling of Gough.Ross Kneller ably assisted Frith for some time, with the 28-year-old right-hander hitting a half-century, while after their departure Le Prevost and David Hooper added important runs. Jersey’s bowlers shared the spoils with captain Gough the pick of the attack with 2 for 11.Jersey initially looked like making light work of their target of 252, knocking off 131 runs before a wicket was lost. The fortunes began to change after a passing rain shower forced the teams from the field. Dean Morrison had been run out for 59 before the brief interval, and when the teams returned to the field Ben Stevens departed without a run to his name after being bowled by Jamie Nussbaumer.Nussbaumer then dismissed in-form batsman Ed Farley who dragged the ball onto his stumps to depart for 64, gathering thunderclouds adding to the drama at Kinrara. Corey Bisson added a hard-fought 29 but Jersey captain Gough managed just 17 runs.As thunder and lightning struck around the ground and the rain clouds converged, Jersey began to lose wickets and at six down in the 44th over, it began to look as though the threatening downpours might end the match. Jersey moved ahead on D/L after a 19-run over off Stuart Bisson, but the rain held off and a reinvigorated Guernsey bowling attack fought their way back into the game.Jersey fell just short despite Edward Farley’s half-century•ICC/Peter Lim

With two overs remaining, Jersey needed 14 with just one wicket in hand, and after some tight bowling the target was 10 from the final six deliveries. Tim Ravenscoft bowled James Faudemer with the second ball of the over to secure a nerve-wracking win.”Obviously gutted about today with the fact we couldn’t score a victory but to keep them down to 250 on such a good batting track was good,” said Gough. “I was really pleased with the way our two young lads worked out in the middle. Corey Bisson and Sam de la Haye both worked really hard and now it’s about improving for tomorrow.””I think we were 15 to 20 short of runs on the board and then we didn’t bowl well to begin with which didn’t help us,” added Frith, who was named man of the match. “I am a little disappointed that I didn’t make it to a hundred and got us to 270 but fundamentally today got us two points. Jersey played fantastically and all credit to them, they probably deserved to win. It was a tough game out there but it’s good to walk away with a win and take the two points.”Fiji got their tournament off to a flying start at Bayeumas Oval, beating the promoted Nigeria by 63 runs. Having won the toss and elected to bat, Fiji lost wickets early on but the Rika brothers, captain Joe and his brother Colin, came together and were soon batting fluently in the morning sunshine.Their fightback was cut short when the Fijian captain was removed by Kunle Adegbola, but Colin Rika’s 40 helped his team pass 100 before the lower order took up the challenge. Wicketkeeper Maciu Gauna made an unbeaten 37 from just 35 deliveries while No. 10 Mohammad Khan’s quickfire cameo helped Fiji reach 203 for 8.In reply the Nigerians simply could not handle the veteran Iniasi Cakacaka’s canny offspin, the 43-year-old dismissing key batsmen Ramit Gill and Sean Philips on his way to 4 for 27. Despite the best attempts of Oluwaseun Odeku, who reached 29, Nigeria were bowled out for 140 in 41 overs.the side was on its way to be all out for 140 when Lomani took two bottom order wickets and the victory was sealed for Fiji when Joshua Ogunlola was run out.”It was great to start off with a win and the boys are feeling good,” said Joe Rika. “Iniasi [Cakacaka] did really well to come back after making a duck with the bat, to come back and take four wickets was a great effort. The boys are really happy and we’re looking forward to our next match tomorrow.”

Scorecard
Chris Read hit a superb hundred to rescue Nottinghamshire’s innings•PA Photos

A superb unbeaten 133 by Nottinghamshire skipper Chris Read was finally upstaged by a six-wicket haul for Graham Onions as County Championship leaders Durham took a first-innings lead of 90 at Chester-le-Street.Both Onions and Callum Thorp were on a hat-trick at the same time when the visitors’ first four wickets all fell on 21. And Onions ended the innings by again taking two wickets in two balls to finish with a season’s-best 6 for 95.Despite a fifth-wicket stand of 178 between Read and Adam Voges, Nottinghamshire were all out for 261, losing all their last four wickets to Onions for 21 runs. Their surprising decision to send in two debutants to open backfired as 18-year-old Sam Kelsall could have been out three times before Onions had him caught behind for 11.He got off the mark by edging the sixth ball of the innings for 2 via Paul Collingwood’s left hand at first slip, then was almost run out twice. When Riki Wessels played back to a good length ball and lost his middle stump Onions had taken wickets with the last two balls of an over. Then off the third and fourth of the next over Thorp had Durham Academy product Karl Turner lbw for nine before PhilMustard took a fine catch diving to his right to send Steve Mullaney packing. Read played Thorp’s hat-trick ball confidently through mid-wicket for three and scored the first 25 runs in his stand with Voges.The Australian survived another chance to Collingwood off Onions on 5 and went on to make 80, one more than his previous best of the season. Ian Blackwell bowled poorly in his first spell, with Read cutting him for three fours in his first over to race past 50 off 69 balls.After 47 overs without a wicket, Thorp made the breakthrough when Voges shaped to turn the ball in front of square and lobbed a catch to Dale Benkenstein at straight midwicket. Thorp also troubled Read after tea, but when he dropped short the visiting captain punched his 15th four through the covers to reach his second century of the season off 158 balls.Blackwell improved and was handed a wicket when he bowled Paul Franks through a reckless slog. Onions swiftly cleaned up the tail, although the first victim, Graeme White, indicated that he had hit the ball when given out lbw.Andre Adams sliced a steepler to deep backward point after completing his own five-wicket haul in the morning, also reaching 50 championship wickets for the season.Earlier, Durham resumed this morning on 272 for 7 and Mustard and Thorp scored 30 off the first four overs, mainly off Mullaney, before Adams bowled Thorp. Mustard was left stranded on 88 when Durham were all out for 351, but would have been happy with four bonus points after going in at 197 for 6.