Roping in Gayle has changed RCB fortunes: Vettori

Jaipur: 

Having registered five wins on the trot with Chris Gayle playing a significant role in their success, Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Daniel Vettori acknowledged that the explosive West Indian batsman's entry into the team has completely changed their fortunes.



"We had started badly, losing three opening games but with Gayle coming in and his opening partnerships with (Tillakaratne) Dilshan have been able to put pressure on the opposition. Gayle has been in tremendous form and has bowled well too," said Vettori at the match-eve press conference.



Gayle had destroyed rival bowling attacks with utter disdain with his power-hitting on more than one occasion in the tournament. He has helped the team post big scores. But Vettori disagreed that has shielded the bowlers. "We were out for 120 and the bowlers were tested in that match. In fact, they are tested in every match because of shorter boundaries and flat wickets."



Defending Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, whose performance has been below par in the IPL 4 so far, the Bangalore skipper said "he bowls economically in the last overs".



"He is a key bowler for us and swung the match for us against Pune Warriors. He bowls economically in the last overs and he and I bear the brunt of the attack."



On his team's chances of reaching play-offs, Vettori said RCB could reach the knock-out stage but need to improve their fielding.



"With four games remaining, three victories can push us to top two. The current form is satisfying but need to improve on fielding.



"It was fielding which had cost us few initial matches but with batting and bowling coming good the confidence has trickled down to fielding too, which has improved," said Vettori.



"It is an important match and we need to win against Rajasthan Royals to consolidate our position," said Vettori.

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Sri Lanka Premier League to have seven teams

The first edition of the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) will be a seven-team inter-provincial tournament played over approximately 18 days at the end of July and the beginning of August this year. The teams will play each other once, with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals. All the games will be played the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo and the winner of the tournament will qualify for the Champions League Twenty20.

ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the seven provinces that will be represented are Basnahira, Kandurata, Nagenahira, Ruhuna, Uthura, Uva and Wayamba. Sri Lanka Cricket will select the players for each team, with domestic players likely to be allotted to their home provinces, thereby ensuring the teams have local support.

Each team will have a mix of Sri Lanka and international players with total squad sizes between 16 and 18 players. The playing XI must consist of a minimum of seven Sri Lanka players and a maximum of four international players, with one Sri Lanka player being a current Under-21 cricketer. Each team will also have its share of icon or marquee players, as well as a prominent ex-Sri Lanka player as a mentor or coach.

International players will also be assigned to the various teams by the SLC national selection committee depending on the needs of each team. In this respect, SLC's approach differs from the IPL, in which teams were sold to franchises who then bid for players in an auction. Among the international players who will be taking part are Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Daniel Vettori, Daniel Christian, Herschelle Gibbs and Kevin O'Brien.

The SLPL has also approached a number of Indian players apart from those likely to be playing the Test series against England, and is waiting for the BCCI to approve their participation. The BCCI has already stated it has no problems with the proposed league and that Indian players are free to take part as long as there is no conflict with India's international or domestic schedule.

The league will be run by the Singapore-based Somerset Entertainment, which has bought the rights for five years. The television rights for the tournament have already been sold in Sri Lanka and the goal is to broadcast the tournament across all mediums in every cricketing nation. The matches will be played at 4 pm and 8 pm on most days, although some days will see only an 8 pm game.

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Cracks appear in Afridi-Waqar relationship

Shahid Afridi, Pakistan's limited overs captain, has hinted at differences with his coach Waqar Younisafter arriving in Karachi from the West Indies where he led the side to a victorious, but ultimately deflating 3-2 series win.

Speculation has grown in the last two days about problems between the pair, specifically over issues of team selection. Both, along with team manager Intikhab Alam, are members of the on-tour selection committee which decides on a playing XI. It has been reported that Afridi was unhappy with what he has seen as Waqar's interference in selection; ahead of the fourth ODI against West Indies, one report claimed Afridi almost walked out of a selection meeting and had to be persuaded by Intikhab to come back.

"Although the differences in team management are not such which could not be solved, I feel everyone should do his job and need not interfere in other's work," Afridi told reporters on arrival. He also said he would be meeting the board chairman Ijaz Butt in Lahore next week to discuss the issue.

Board officials have downplayed the matter; one source telling ESPNcricinfo that "no such incident as described in those reports [Afridi walking away from a meeting] occurred during the series." He did concede, however, that there may have been "long-standing issues" over selection matters.

Another senior official confirmed to ESPNcricinfo, however, that differences between the pair had widened during the Caribbean trip. "They did have issues. Afridi believes he should have final say in the XI as he takes the heat when he goes out on the field and Waqar feels strongly that a coach should have input."

The official also confirmed that Intikhab did try to mediate between the two and stressed the need to keep matters within the team rather than leak them to the media as ultimately happened.

Afridi and Waqar went through the World Cup without huge problems but there are longer-term issues. For example, it is widely believed that before the World Cup, before a decision had been made on who would captain Pakistan in the tournament, Waqar was in favour of Misbah-ul-Haq ahead of Afridi as captain.

The matter is complicated by the recent threat to resign by chief selector Mohsin Khan. Although he eventuallyrelented after resolving the matter with Butt and never publicly disclosed who he was having problems with, some reports suggested that he was also unhappy with Waqar's role in selection, especially of the Test squad for the current tour.

The board official believes though that the problems are not something that cannot be resolved. "It is something that has happened before and does crop up every now and again. I don't feel they are irreconcilable differences between the two. Afridi has requested time with the chairman so let's see what happens beyond that."

Pakistan lost the last two games of the series, the last one by ten wickets, having given chances to a number of untried young players such as Hammad Azam, Usman Salahuddin and Junaid Khan through the matches. Afridi regretted his team lost a good chance to win all the matches, calling once again for the involvement of a batting coach with the side.

"We should have clean-swept West Indies but the defeat in the last two matches left a bad taste in the mouth; we flopped in batting and that's why I must say we need a batting coach," said Afridi, who also admitted he was below par in the series.

"I played average cricket because I was tired after the World Cup and only played the series on the advice of some friends and former players."

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Brilliant Bangalore demolish Kochi

Bangalore: If you aren't a fan of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, there's good news and bad news. The good news first: Tillakaratne Dilshan has found form late, and will not unleash any more violence in the IPL, since he is headed to England. The bad news is that Chris Gayle is in such form that you probably wouldn't notice Dilshan's absence. And then there is worse news - Bangalore are fielding like a team possessed. The hapless Kochi Tuskers Kerala ran into each of these facets of Bangalore's brilliance, and were brushed away by nine wickets, with 6.5 overs to spare.

Scorecard | Points Table

On a day when their franchise went green, Gayle and Dilshan did more than their bit for the environment, setting up a finish before the floodlights had to take full effect. Gayle began the mayhem by depositing RP Singh into the second tier behind long-off in the first over. Dilshan responded by looting 20 runs off Ramesh Powar in the second over. What followed was not for children and the faint-hearted.



At the start of Prasanth Parameswaran's over, if you had stopped him and said he was going to do worse than concede six sixes, he would have laughed it off. After all, he was a man who had stared Virender Sehwag in the face and nailed him in his first IPL over. Today was a different day, though.



Parameswaran chugged in and delivered a length ball first up, and Gayle carved it over point for a six. Parameswaran did not flinch; Sehwag had done likewise the other day before perishing. Today, Parameswaran's second ball was a slower ball. Bad idea. Even worse, it was a no-ball. Gayle slashed him for six more. The free-hit was thumped through midwicket. The next ball was thundered through the covers. By now, Parameswaran was clearly rattled, and he ran in robotically to delivery two more length balls. Six over cover, followed by a shimmy down the track and a 91m six over long off. The last ball was a high full toss, and Gayle inside-edged for four more. The over had gone for 37, and Parameswaran had a story his grandchildren would ask him to relate years from now. Kochi, meanwhile were looking at an early flight out. Dilshan ensured they would have enough time to beat the Bangalore traffic and make it to the airport in time.



Incredibly, Bangalore were just as brilliant on the field earlier in the day. Daniel Vettori sparkled with some masterly bowling changes on a sluggish track. He brought himself on after his fast bowlers had allowed Kochi to get off to a good start, and stalled them with two huge wickets. His fielders - from the usually nimble AB de Villiers, to the rarely agile Zaheer Khan - responded with sparks of brilliance on the field, and Kochi lurched from 64 for 1 in eight overs to 89 for 5 in 14, before finishing on an unconvincing 125 for 9.



Kochi's problems began with Brendon McCullum's inability to adapt to the slowness of the strip, though Michael Klinger's smart footwork got them early boundaries. Vettori switched to Plan B after four overs, bringing Chris Gayle and himself on. McCullum charged Gayle for two fours, but Vettori foxed him with a clever change of length, lulling him into an awry swipe.



Parthiv Patel kept looking for boundaries, and Kochi had managed at least one in each of the first eight overs. The party was about to end though: Bangalore struck in each of the next three overs. Klinger yorked himself by charging out to Gayle, before Vettori cracked the game open by getting Mahela Jayawardene's to edge behind. Bangalore's fielding then took centre-stage.



Brad Hodge nudged his first ball backward of point and took off for a non-existent single. Parthiv responded before pulling out of the run, and was soon running alongside Hodge towards the bowler's end. AB de Villiers pouched the very wide throw on the dive with his left glove and, not knowing that both batsmen were stranded close to the other end, threw down the stumps in one smooth motion as he tumbled.



Three overs later, Zaheer Khan bettered the effort: Hodge whipped S Aravind off the hips and the ball was hurtling towards the boundary when Zaheer jumped up full length and intercepted with one hand at short fine leg. Kochi were visibly stunned, and never looked like recovering. Bangalore's fielding kept bettering itself, right up to the last over where Kaif took a brilliant catch running forward, and de Villiers slung-shot another run-out. At that point, the home crowd already had seen a spectacle from their side. What followed after the break was just plain cartoonish violence.

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Harbhajan, Symonds in friendship with help from Sachin: Report

Melbourne: Bitter foes in the Sydney Test racial row, Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds have buried the hatchet and are friends now with Sachin Tendulkar helping his IPL side Mumbai Indians teammates in doing that, according to a report.



Three years of seething animosity triggered by the "Monkeygate" scandal of the 2008 Sydney Test has ended thanks to the Indian Premier League, with both the feisty players forming a bond at Mumbai Indians playing environment, 'The Australian' reported.
The newspaper said Tendulkar played a part in ending one of the most talked-about feuds in world cricket.
"India's Test legend Sachin Tendulkar has been front and centre in healing their wounds as Symonds relishes his role of small fish in the big Mumbai pond next to World Cup heroes Tendulkar and Harbhajan," the report said.
Symonds, who was stinging in his criticism of Harbhajan as recently as last October, refused to speak much about the new bonding but his manager confirmed the truce.
"I'm not really doing any interviews, sorry - but it's all good here," Symonds was quoted as saying by the newspaper when asked about his relationship with Harbhajan.
35-year-old Symonds has been living away from the spotlight for some time in far north Queensland after retiring from international cricket in 2009.<
His manager Matt Fearon said Symonds has left the "Monkeygate" wounds behind.
"That's definitely the case. They've left everything in the past. The auction for the IPL was in January. I remember calling him and saying, well, you're going to Mumbai - with Harbhajan. He said two words: 'Aw, true?'
"That said it all. He was a bit speechless. It would be fair to say there was a bit of uncertainty about how it would play out. There was an unknown there but yes, they are getting on great. They are both competitive animals. When two people like that are on different teams, there can be some very real tension. But put them in the same team and it's a different story," Fearon said.
"We all know how much tension there was before, but that's one of the beauties of the IPL."
Symonds and Harbhajan became sworn enemies when the fourth Test of the 2007-2008 series exploded after Harbhajan was charged for calling Symonds a monkey. The Indian team denied the charge, saying that Harbhajan had only uttered a native word that sounds like monkey.
India threatened to quit the tour when Harbhajan was suspended for three matches. On appeal, an ICC-appointed judge overturned the ban. Symonds was furious and accused Cricket Australia of failing to back its own players.
Symonds's close friend and former Test teammate Matthew Hayden was pleased to hear that the two had made up. "There was probably a time when I thought Symonds and Harbhajan would never be on speaking terms. But they've moved on now and I'm not surprised to hear it. That's the way it should be. But there's no point in any of us looking back to what happened in 2008," Hayden said.
"The IPL has been tremendous in making two competitive cricketing nations much closer. There are highly competitive players from both countries and there's always going to be tensions on the field because that's the nature of the sport."
"I've always said you never really know someone until you play with them. All the things about someone you hate because they're on the other side, you love it when they're on your team. That's what has happened with Roy and Harbhajan."
Mumbai Indians coach Shaun Pollock said he expected the two players to get on with it regardless of personal feelings.
A three-day initiation camp in February, involving team dinners and promotional work, had done little to lessen worries about Mumbai Indians imploding around another Symonds-Harbhajan dispute but it did not happen and the two finally got along.

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