Rain Playing Spoil Sport

Two back to back matches were abandoned due to rain and the team which got most affected by it was Mumbai Indians and they were left in a high and dry situation and left in a must win match situation 

Chennais blitzkrieg blows titans

It was a champions performance by csk as they chase down a massive target with a lot of ease,thanx to brilliant performanace by raina and hussey who set the tone for the run chase

Rajasthan clinch the CL opener

143 was never a fighting total for RR,but mi tried really well till the end,well played samson.

T20 is back

Champions league starts today with two IPL giants ,mumbai and rajasthan taking on each other,Two legends sachin and rahul would want to finish high in their T20 career.

Sunrisres and Ottago make it to the main draw

The match was over as a contest in the 14th over of Sunrisers Hyderabad's chase. Saeed Ajmal had bowled his last over, remained wicketless and mostly ineffective. Shikhar Dhawan soon reached his second consecutive half-century in the Champions League Twenty20, setting up Sunrisers' comfortable victory over Faisalabad Wolves which eased them into the main competition.

The result also ensured that Otago Volts, who hadbeaten Kandurata Maroons earlier in the day, also qualified. Both Faisalabad and Kandurata were knocked out. Sunrisers look to be the most well-balanced side among the four qualifiers, and will provide competition for the rest of the pack.

Dhawan's fifty came off 48 balls, and it had his usual dose of pleasing off-side strokes as well as some slogs. His only six was hit between reaching his fifty and getting out to left-arm spinner Imran Khalid. He added 68 for the first wicket with Parthiv Patel, before a 44-run stand with Jean-Paul Duminy during which they got over a tricky period when the ball kept low. Biplab Samantray got out for a duck to a beauty from Khalid, but Duminy and Darren Sammy completed the win.

Dhawan, Patel and Duminy tackled Ajmal quite well, but the offspinner was tasked with defending a low total in a ground favoured by chasing sides. The Faisalabad bowling was as insipid as their batting, except for their captain Misbah-ul-Haq who, like his time as Pakistan captain, played a lone hand.

Faisalabad's innings ran out of juice as soon as the Powerplay overs were completed, by when they had raced to 44 for 0. But two wickets fell in the next two overs and the run-rate fell too, as Sunrisers reclaimed momentum.

Amit Mishra made the difference at that stage, as he bowled four tight overs on the trot. His figures, 4-1-13-1, stunted Faisalabad's hopes of getting the score past 150. He started off with a wicket off his second ball when Ali Waqas flicked him to deep midwicket. Mishra's line was immaculate for most of the four overs, as he accumulated 17 dot balls. The only boundary in a spell that caused plenty of damage to Faisalabad's confidence was in his final over when Misbah launched him straight down the ground.

There was a danger of the Pakistan Twenty20 champions slipping further, but with Misbah around, they had fight at one end. Misbah struck five sixes and a four in his unbeaten 40-ball 56, becoming the oldest batsman - at the age of 39 - to score a fifty in the Champions League Twenty20.

He was playing a young man's game but his running between the wickets, the five sixes and the fight he provided showed he was in his element. He slammed four of his sixes down the ground, and the last one off Thisara Perera over square-leg, a timely and powerful swivel of the bat.

But despite all his efforts, Faisalabad's first Champions League campaign is set to be a short one as there was too much for Misbah and Ajmal to do.

Captains day at the first day of the CL qualifiers

Sunrisers Hyderabad 174 for 2 (Dhawan 71, Patel 52) beat Kandurata Maroons 168 for 3 (Sangakkara 61*, Thirimanne 54, Ishant 2-20) by eight wickets

A century-stand between Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel, both of whom scored effortless half-centuries, and a late cameo by Thisara Perera helped Sunrisers Hyderabad cruise to an eight-wicket win over Kandurata Maroons. Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne also scored aggressive half-centuries to set up a strong target, but Kandurata's bowling and fielding crumbled against persistent attack from Sunrisers' batsmen to be left in a position from where they need to win both their remaining matches.

Chasing 169, Dhawan and Parthiv never let the pressure of the chase build as they kept finding the boundaries from the start of the innings. It was Parthiv who got the chase going with a flurry of boundaries through the off side, but Dhawan soon caught up with his partner with well-timed shots on either side of the ground and in the form that he has displayed this year, there was not much the bowlers could do to stem the flow of runs.

Kandurata, in a bid to curtail the burgeoning opening stand, threw the ball to Ajantha Mendis in the sixth over but he was greeted by three consecutive boundaries from Dhawan. Parthiv was hitting the ball twice as hard as Dhawan while getting only half the speed behind it, but on a true pitch and a fast outfield, he too derived full value for his shots. The two batsmen took the score past 100 in the 11th over.

Kandurata sensed a comeback when 33 were required off the last 23 deliveries after Dhawan's dismissal, but Perera smashed four boundaries and two sixes to finish off the challenge.

In a game in which eight of the nine batsmen to bat were left-handers, Sangakkara and Thirimanne had played risk-free knocks to power Kandurata to a strong total. The two batsmen rotated the strike for a few overs, maintaining a run-rate of more than six, and started accelerating in the second half of the innings.

Thirimanne was the more aggressive of the two, bringing up his half-century off 37 deliveries, but after hitting Ishant Sharma for two boundaries in the 15th over, missed a yorker. Sangakkara took over the scoring from that point onwards, finding boundaries at will with clever flicks and deft touches as he brought up his half-century off 36 balls. But he was not left with the pressure of scoring all the runs - Dilhara Lokuhettige played a brisk innings of 21 off 10 deliveries - as Kandurata ransacked 56 from the last five overs.

Dale Steyn, coming off a three-month injury lay-off, struggled with his rhythm; he bowled a leg-stump line in the first over and was taken for 15 runs. While Steyn was off colour, the presence of left-handers in Kandurata's line-up meant Dhawan hesitated from using the two legspinners in the side. Amit Mishra was introduced in the 15th over and bowled just one over while Karan Sharma didn't get to bowl.

Watson leads Australia to winning finish

Australia 298 (Watson 143, Clarke 75, Stokes 5-61) beat England 249 (Bopara 62, Faulkner 3-38) by 49 runs

As in the Ashes, Shane Watson saved his best until last to enable Australia to end their almost four-month stay in England with silverware as they wrapped up the NatWest series with a convincing 49-run victory. Watson's 143 provided nearly half of Australia's total and his stand of 163 with Michael Clarke, who battled through with his troublesome back, was the defining period of the match and series.

England's chase only ignited when Ravi Bopara and Jos Buttler were adding 92 in 13 overs; perhaps it was the autumnal chill which descended and left spectators huddle up in jacks that prevented an early spark. But by then it was a monumental task, even for Buttler's nerves of steel. Kevin Pietersen was run out in the third over and any remnants of a chance, however slim, disappeared when Eoin Morgan departed straight after the halfway mark of the innings.

Australia were clearly the better team over the three-and-a-bit ODIs that the weather allowed and this trophy, although low down in the priority list when they arrived in late May, will be some solace for Darren Lehmann - who wasn't even in charge when the Champions Trophy squad landed at Heathrow. Australia really have been here that long.

That is not to say there are no benefits England can take, and in this match it was the bowling of Ben Stokes and debutant Chris Jordan - who replaced the injured Steven Finn - as they shared eight wickets. Stokes finished with 5 for 61 having struck early in the innings and then during Australia's collapse of 7 for 87. Both young pace bowlers were sharp, hitting 90mph, and held their nerve against flashing blades.

As in Cardiff, Australia struggled at the top and tail of their innings but this time the central plank provided by Watson and Clarke was so dominant it made a crucial difference. It appeared a rain break in the 10th over might derail their innings when, on resumption, Stokes struck twice in consecutive balls to leave Australia 48 for 3. But England's inexperienced attack could not keep up the pressure as Clarke and Watson feasted on some wayward bowling during their rapid partnership.

Watson reached his eighth one-day hundred from 87 balls in a muscular display of hitting and then latched on to Joe Root's sixth over, which cost 28, the most expensive by an England bowler in ODIs, including three massive leg-side sixes. He was threatening his best score against England - an unbeaten 161 at the MCG in 2011 - but edged behind to give Stokes his fourth wicket.

Stokes claimed his fifth two balls later when Mitchell Johnson lobbed back a return catch and along with Jordan and Boyd Rankin, the latter superbly economical on another good batting pitch, provided a positive glimpse at some of England's depth. Jordan had managed to open his wicket tally in his second over - after being driven twice by Aaron Finch in his first - when he beat Phillip Hughes for pace and the left-hander top-edged to midwicket.

Jordan returned in the batting Powerplay, taken early by Clarke in the 29th over, with Australia at the peak of their scoring rate and removed the Australia captain when he clubbed to mid-off for 74 five balls after Rankin had dropped him in the same position. Clarke had not been convincing at the start of his innings, as England tested out his back with the expected short-pitched attack, but was given early scoring opportunities to get his innings underway and was rarely under a run-a-ball. His straight drive for six off Stokes stood out.

The problem for England was that the combined 10 overs of spin from Root and James Tredwell went for 96; Watson immediately aimed Tredwell over midwicket in a four-over spell that proved his only one of the day. If other sides have been taking notes, Tredwell will need to "batten down the hatches", as he put it the other day, in future series.

Overs 21-30 of Australia's brought 93 runs - a scoring rate considered impressive for the final 10 of an innings - and at 202 for 3 after 30 overs anything seemed possible, but a combination of some laziness from them and resilience from England gave the final 20 overs a very different outcome, to the extent that Australia did not use up their final five deliveries.

Australia rued their late collapse in Cardiff, but it never had the feel of a repeat here. The Pietersen-Michael Carberry opening partnership has not hit it off in this series and for the second time it ended through a breakdown in communication. Pietersen was beaten but Matthew Wade could not take the ball cleanly and it bobbled to short fine-leg. Carberry started to make his way up the pitch, but only made a positive call a few seconds later, by when there was not enough time for Pietersen to make his ground.

Carberry's hometown innings - and perhaps, even, his last for England - was ended by the DRS after Rob Bailey had turned down an appeal from James Faulkner. Joe Root, who laboured for his 21, dragged on against the quick and thrifty Johnson when playing without footwork and most shambolically Luke Wright - a last-minute replacement for Jonathan Trott, who suffered a back spasm - was run out when he did not even attempt to ground his bat going for a sharp single.

Adam Voges gained an lbw decision against Bopara with his first ball, only for DRS to show it was sliding past leg stump, but he claimed the key wicket of Morgan when the England captain was drawn out of his crease and Wade did not add to his list of errors.

For a while, as Buttler and Bopara started picking off boundaries at will, a grandstand finish was not out of the question until Faulkner, from round the wicket, cleaned up Buttler. Seven balls later Bopara rifled a catch to cover off Johnson's first ball back to give him his 200th ODI wicket. That was that, barring the finishing touches, but for anyone who is feeling misty-eyed at the end of England-Australia contests, don't worry: it all starts again in 66 days.