Sri Lanka v India, tri-series, 3rd ODI, Dambulla

Dambulla: Disruptions to their practice schedule on Saturday won’t be as big a dampner as Yuvraj Singh’s unavailability when India play Sri Lanka in the third one-day international of the tri-series in Dambulla on Monday. However the good news is that Sehwag and Raina who had gone to India after the first game have now returned to Dambulla and are available for selection. Ishant trained in the nets after an ankle injury forced him out of the first game and is likely to replace Mithun. In the event of Nehra's absence, Munaf Patel could be drafted in while Kohli could replace Yuvraj. Dhoni seems confident with the team and has ensured a victory especially after the 200 run defeat.

India (probable): 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Dinesh Karthik, 3 Rohit Sharma, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Pragyan Ojha, 11 Ashish Nehra/Munaf Patel

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Chamara Silva/Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Chamara Kapugedera/Thisara Perera, 8 Suraj Randiv, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Ajantha Mendis/Rangana Herath, 11 Nuwan Kulasekara.

Murali gets 800 wickets, Sri Lanka win by ten wickets, Sri Lanka v India, 1st Test, Galle, 5th day, July 22, 2010

Sri Lanka 520 for 8 dec (Paranavitana 111, Sangakkara 103) and 96 for 0 (Dilshan 68*) beat India 276 (Sehwag 109, Murali 5-63) and 338 (Tendulkar 84, Laxman 69, Malinga, 5-50, Murali 3-128) by ten wickets.
Muttiah Muralitharan's team-mates lift him on their shoulders as he leaves the field, Muttiah Muralitharan had to wait but eventually became the first bowler to take 800 Test wickets. At the start of his final Test, he was eight wickets short of being the first cricketer to reach the 800 test wicket mark.At 799 the umpire denied him a palpable lbw. VVS Laxman, who kept him at bay for so many hours, ran himself out and there was only one wicket left to take. He waited and perhaps even fretted. He nearly ran out the last pair himself, twice. After 23 wicketless overs, with perhaps growing doubt about whether it would come at all, the moment arrived, and Muttiah Muralitharan was there, where no man had gone before. The long wait for the 800th wicket only exemplified the toil that went into the preceding 799. And by the way, Sri Lanka won his farewell Test too, by ten wickets for the seventh time.The script had tinges of romance and fiction. Lasith Malinga nearly didn't allow Murali to get to 800. The Indian tailenders refused to relent, and it also threatened to rain. Would Malinga knock out the tail before Murali got his two wickets? By design or otherwise, Kumar Sangakkara stepped in and removed Malinga from the attack after only three overs. Murali is 38. The wrists aren't as supple as they once were, the old fizz was certainly missing, the shoulder aches and the knees creak when he pivots. Yet he still produced magical deliveries and took a five-for in his last Test. On the fourth day, he removed Dhoni with a magical offbreak and twice made Yuvraj Singh look like a tailender. Today, he didn't have to do anything special and just remain patient. The temptation to produce something magical, something unplayable to reach the landmark would have been there but he didn't show it. Murali kept delivering offbreaks, the occasional doosra and varied his pace and trajectory. The fans watching began to fear it would not come, it did. Ojha edged a flighted offbreak to slip where Mahela Jayawardene grabbed his 77th catch off Murali's bowling. Murali roared, his team-mates hoisted him on their shoulders, his wife and mother jumped out of their seats, the crowd cheered and the fireworks exploded. All seemed well with the world.

Salman Butt stumped to Marcus North

Salman Butt could not believe his lapse in falling to Marcus North's first ball, Pakistan v Australia, 1st Test, Lord's, July 16, 2010.

Pakistan's stalwart Salman Butt suffered an aberration against the part-time spin of Marcus North, and was stumped down the leg side for 92, as Australia overcame an anxious first hour on the fourth day at Lord's to claim three important wickets in their quest for victory in the first Test. On the stroke of lunch, North added a second to end a spirited cameo from Umar Akmal, to leave Pakistan teetering on 216 for 4 with five sessions of the match remaining.

After a confident start to a mountainous run-chase on Thursday evening, Pakistan had resumed on 114 for 1, still requiring an improbable 326 to make history and secure their first victory over Australia for 15 years. But the overnight pair of Butt and Azhar Ali showed no signs of anxiety as they racked up 48 runs in the first ten overs of the day under moderately overcast skies that did not offer prodigious amounts of movement to any of Australia's bowlers.

Butt, who resumed on 58 not out, was once again the main source of Pakistani optimism, as he cashed in on a wayward first spell from Mitchell Johnson to slash four fours over the covers in the space of 10 deliveries, before angling the first ball of Shane Watson's spell through third man for another boundary. Following on from his first-innings 63, the innings briefly carried his Test average against Australia past the 50 mark.

At the other end, the debutant Azhar continued the composed performance he had begun the previous evening, although he was forced to ride his luck against Ben Hilfenhaus, whose accurate outswingers were once again the most disciplined asset at Ricky Ponting's disposal. Twice in two balls, Azhar was squared up on off stump to squirt boundaries through the gully, but on 42, his luck ran out. Hilfenhaus found the perfect length once again, and Tim Paine behind the stumps snapped up a welcome dismissal.

Hilfenhaus's rhythm was disrupted one over later when he dived awkwardly at third man and jarred his left shoulder on the turf, while Pakistan's concentration was unsettled by a blink-and-you-miss it break for rain that was over before the hover-cover had even been moved into place. But it was the unassuming offspin of North that really did for Pakistan, as his teasing lobs proved too tantalising for two of Pakistan's key performers.

First to succumb was Butt, who had moved to within eight runs of becoming the first batsman to make a century in a neutral Test at Lord's for 98 years, when he was lured out of his crease by North's very first ball, an innocuous delivery that drifted late down the leg-side and was expertly snapped up by Paine as Butt overbalanced.

Pakistan v Australia, 1st Test, Lord's, 1st day

Aamer and Asif have given Pakistan the edge on the first day of the delayed test match against Australia at Lords, UK

Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer claimed three wickets apiece to counteract a battling century stand between Simon Katich and Michael Clarke at the first day of the first test at Lords. Bad light closed in with 10 overs still to be bowled and a dramatic collapse of 7 for 51 had left the Aussies groping for a decent first-innings total on 229 for 9.

After winning the toss following an hour-long delay for rain, Pakistan's pace attack revelled in the sort of conditions they could never have dreamed of encountering had they been playing this "home" Test in Karachi or Lahore. With Aamer swinging the ball late and at a zippy pace, and Asif nagging away on an impeccable seamer's length, Australia inched along to 36 for 1 after 13 overs at lunch, which became 51 for 2 soon afterwards, when Ricky Ponting flicked Aamer straight into short leg's midriff for 26.

Clarke and Katich made arduous but invaluable progress thereafter, adding 120 for the third wicket to carry Australia into the ascendancy on 171 for 2, but when Clarke fell to the final ball of the session, trapped lbw by Asif for 47, Pakistan had received a vital boost at the end of a frustrating passage of play, and they made the most of their incision.

After the break, Asif continued his devastating rhythm from the Pavilion End, nipping the ball down the slope to nick the edge of Katich's bat and send him on his way for a gutsy 80 from 138 balls, before Marcus North was bowled through the gate for a third-ball duck (174 for 5). The debutants, Tim Paine and Steven Smith were the next to go - Paine had been entrenched for 46 balls for his 7 when he nicked off to Umar Gul, before Smith was unluckily adjudged lbw to Danish Kaneria, despite getting an inside-edge on his topspinner (208 for 7).Despite holding the captaincy of Australia's limited-overs teams, Test cricket is the form of the game that brings out the best in Clarke's elegant strokeplay, and while Katich bedded in in his familiarly attritional manner, it was his 77-ball 47 that secured them the honours in the afternoon session. But then, on the stroke of tea, Clarke misjudged a nipbacker from Asif and he had to get back to the pavillion

The most notable wicket of the day, however, was that of Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting. His top score in three Ashes Tests at Lord's is a meagre 42, and there is little guarantee that he will be back again for a fourth visit in 2013. Having survived the worst of the conditions to reach 14 not out from 23 balls at lunch, he notched up his 115n 94th Test run after the break to move ahead of Brian Lara in second place on the all-time list.

Pakistan vs Australia Test match Delayed due to Rain

Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl first under cloudy skies but had to stop play due to an hour-long rain delay, as the much-anticipated first Test against Australia (the first neutral Test played in England after 98 years) prepared to get underway at Lord's. It was a good toss to win as admitted by Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting.He anticipated a tricky first hour before lunch on a pitch with an even grass coverage and in conditions tailor-made for Pakistan's strike bowlers, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif.

Both sides announced two Test debutants before the toss. For Australia, Tim Paine comes in as wicketkeeper for Brad Haddin, just as he did for the one-day series against England last month, while the legspinner Steven Smith plays in place of Nathan Hauritz, who flew back home to Australia with a foot injury.

Meanwhile, Pakistan have gambled on two rookie batsmen in their middle order, with the selectors looking to the future in Umar Amin and Azhar Ali, whose chance to impress will come later in the game.

Australia 1 Shane Watson, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Mike Hussey, 6 Marcus North, 7 Tim Paine (wk), 8 Steve Smith, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Ben Hilfenhaus, 11 Doug Bollinger.

Pakistan 1 Imran Farhat, 2 Salman Butt, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Umar Akmal, 5 Umar Amin, 6 Kamran Akmal (wk), 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Umar Gul, 9 Danish Kaneria, 10 Mohammad Aamer, 11 Mohammad Asif.