Australia began their quest for the ICC World Twenty20 title against the West Indies at the Oval on Saturday with Andrew Symonds been sent home.

The Group C which is termed as the Group of Death has Australia, West Indies and Sri Lanka. The first and crucial match for the Aussies ended with a big disappointment when Chris Gayle and Fletcher ruled the show with their blistering performances that led to an easy win for the West Indies.

Scoreboard:

Australia innings (20 overs maximum)
SR Watson       c Sarwan b Taylor         0
DA Warner      c Benn b Bravo             63
RT Ponting      lbw b Taylor                    0
MJ Clarke        c Benn b Edwards           2
BJ Haddin       c Benn b Pollard           24
DJ Hussey       c Fletcher b Bravo      27
MEK Hussey   not out                            28
MG Johnson   c Bravo b Edwards        9
B Lee                  not out                               1

Extras     (b 1, lb 5, w 7, nb 2)               15

Total     (7 wickets; 20 overs)             169

Fall of wickets:1-1, 2-3, 3-15, 4-81, 5-113, 6-143, 7-153

Bowling: JE Taylor:4-0-33-2-8.25, FH Edwards:4-0-34-2-8.50, DJ Bravo:4-0-31-2-7.75, SJ Benn:4-0-35-0-8.75, CH Gayle:2-0-13-0-6.50, KA Pollard:2-0-17-1-8.50

West Indies innings (target: 170 runs from 20 overs)
CH Gayle              c Watson b Lee                    88
ADS Fletcher     c DJ Hussey b Johnson     53
XM Marshall      c Hopes b Johnson                8
S Chanderpaul  not out                                        0
RR Sarwan          not out                                        8

Extras     (lb 5, w 8, nb 2)                                   15

Total     (3 wickets; 15.5 overs)                    172

Fall of wickets:1-133, 2-157, 3-162

Bowling:B Lee:4-0-56-1-14.00, MG Johnson:3.5-0-36-2-9.39, NW Bracken:2-0-21-0-10.50, JR Hopes:2-0-13-0-6.50, DJ Hussey:1-0-16-0-16.00, SR Watson:2-0-13-0-6.50, MJ Clarke:1-0-12-0-12.00

Result: West Indies won by 7 wickets (with 25 balls remaining)
Man of the Match: Chris Gayle(West Indies)

Tags: Andrew Symonds, Australia Vs West Indies, Chris Gayle, ICC T20 World Cup, ICC World T20, Ricky Ponting, T20 world cup 2009, T20 World Cup News

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High on confidence after the last-ball victory against Kolkata Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist is now eyeing another win in their next outing against Kings XI Punjab on Sunday to seal a semi-final berth in the Indian Premier League.

Sent in to bat first, Kings XI Punjab lost three quick wickets against consistent Deccan Chargers at New Wanderers Stadium.

RP Singh dismissed opener Sunny Sohal (9) in the second over to become the highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Sohal tried all possible ways to get out and was finally successful when miscued one to Rohit Sharma at short fine-leg.

Luke Pomersbach also did not last long and was run-out by Herschelle Gibbs for 1 run.

Simon Katich played couple of good shots before being claimed by Andrew Symonds for 11 runs. Pragyan Ojha took a comfortable catch at the mid-on.

Adam Gilchrist won the toss and invited Kings XI Punjab to bat first in the 49th match of the IPL.

Chargers included Jaskaran Singh in their line-up, as Harmeet Singh was warming the benches.

Kings XI Punjab retained the same side which stunned Delhi Daredevils on May 15.

Punjab have the psychological advantage going into the match as they had beaten Adam Gilchrist’s men by three wickets in their earlier meeting.

Deccan Chargers took a stride towards reserving their semi-final berth as they pipped Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets in a last-ball thriller on Saturday.

The teams

Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Tirumalsetti Suman, Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds, Venugopal Rao, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Ryan Harris, Jaskaran Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh, Pragyan Ojha.

Kings XI Punjab: Sunny Sohal, Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara (w), Yuvraj Singh(c), Luke Pomersbach, Irfan Pathan, Wilkin Mota, Brett Lee, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, S Sreesanth.

Tags: Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Deccan chargers Vs Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Vs Punjab, Hershchelle Gibbs, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL Updates, Kings XI Punjab Vs Deccan Chargers, Punjab Vs Hyderabad, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh

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Delhi daredevils all rounder Rajat Bhatia is on a high after his match-winning spell against Deccan Chargers, which worked wonders for him last night, was his ability to bowl good yorkers and slower ones.

Terming Wednesday night’s spell of 4/15 as the second best day of his cricketing career, the 29-year-old said he enjoyed the confidence of skipper Virender Sehwag and knew he could turn the match with just one good over.

“I had full confidence in the captain, that he thought that I was capable of bowling in this situation was a bonus. I know that in a Twenty20 game one over can change the match. I was confident that I can do it for my team,” Bhatia said.

“I could not get runs but I bowled well. It was just another day for me where I wanted to bowl good yorkers and slower ones and it worked. At this level we have to learn to turn things around at such stages,” he was quoted as saying in the IPL’s official website.

With Deccan needing 25 runs off the last three overs with six wickets in hand, Bhatia picked up Andrew Symonds and then Dwayne Smith in one over to turn the match in Delhi’s favour.

He later took two more wickets of Pragyan Ojha and Shoaib Maqsusi to end up with superb figures of 4 for 15 in 2.4 overs

Tags: Andrew Symonds, Deccan Chargers Vs Delhi Daredevils, Dwayne Smith, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad Vs Delhi, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL Updates, Pragyan Ojha, Rajat Bhatia, Virender Sehwag

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The Indian Premier League may bring unforseen riches to the world’s top cricketers, but not everyone has fallen for the lure of the lucre.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting and senior pro Michael Hussey opted out of the IPL’s second season starting in South Africa on Saturday to rest tired limbs after a back-breaking schedule.

Two other Australians, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson, did not even put themselves up for auction, saying they wanted to concentrate on their international careers.

Expensive players are not guaranteed their entire riches as the England duo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have found out.

Both went for record sums of 1.55 million dollars each at this year’s auction, but England’s home series against the West Indies in May has shortened their IPL participation to the first two weeks.

Players are paid on a pro-rata basis and two other England stars, Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah, will also be similarly affected.

Collingwood and Shah were picked up by the Delhi Daredevils team for identical amounts of 275,000 dollars each.

West Indian captain Chris Gayle, who commands 800,000 dollars from the Kolkata Knight Riders, and team-mate Fidel Edwards, a new signee with the Deccan Chargers for 150,000 dollars, will also be available for two weeks.

Australian controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds, bought by the Deccan Chargers for 1.35 million last year, will now be available for only the last two weeks of the IPL.

Brett Lee, a 900,000-dollar signee with Kings XI Punjab, may not even play at all as the Australian medical staff monitors his recovery from ankle and foot injury ahead of the Ashes.

Australian Shane Watson, who was the IPL’s player of the tournament last year, is also out till May 7 due to his inclusion for the Pakistan series.

“I think Shane will miss the first nine games and be available for the last five and hopefully the finals,” said Shane Warne, his Rajasthan Royals captain.

The biggest losers are the Pakistani cricketers who were thrown out of the IPL this year after Islamabad denied them permission to travel to India for the tournament following growing tensions between the two countries.

The players’ appeal to allow them to return to the IPL since the tournament had been shifted to South Africa was rejected by tournament organisers.

It deprives Warne’s champion team of the services of left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir, the highest wicket-taker last year with 22 wickets.

Tags: Andrew Flintoff, Andrew Symonds, Australia, Brett Lee, Chennai Super kings, Chris Gayle, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, England, Flintoff, IPL 2, IPL 2009 News, IPL South Africa, Ipl T20, Kevin Pietersen, Kings XI Punjab, Knight Riders, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Owais Shah, Pakistan Cricketers, Paul Collingwood, Rajasthan Royals, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Sohail Tanvir, South Africa, West Indies

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