NatWest series (India, Sri Lanka and England)

NatWest Series, The Oval:
India 203-6 (45.2 overs) beat Sri Lanka 202-8 (50 overs) by four wickets.

India strolled to a comfortable four wicket win against Sri Lanka with nearly five overs to spare and look set to book themselves a place in the NatWest Series final.

Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya won the toss and elected to bat, but was made to regret the decision to leave out batsman Kumar Sangakkara after Ajit Agarkar ripped out their top order.

Jayasuriya cracked 36 off 38 balls, including a six and six fours, to get Sri Lanka off to a flying start with Romesh Kaluwitharana.

But the introduction of Agarkar, named man of the match, paid instant dividends for India as he had Kaluwitharana caught behind first delivery.

Scorecard | Match report | Slide show

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Ajit Agarkar, the Indian all-rounder whose bowling broke the back of Sri Lanka's batting, said he was surprised by the bounce he extracted from the pitch.

"After the Lord's win yesterday I got lucky with my first ball," said Agarkar after being named man of the match.

"The bounce was quite surprising and there was movement in the wicket right up until the last ball was bowled."

Agarkar removed the dangerous Romesh Kaluwitharana with his first ball of the match after a burst with the new ball from Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan failed to reap rewards.

He also had Sri Lanka's two dangerous left-handers - captain Sanath Jayasuriya and Russel Arnold - caught behind at crucial stages of the innings.

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After the heroics of Indian batsmen, particularly Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, in the match against England, captain Sourav Ganguly said the experiment with the batting order has begun to yield results.

Referring to the three batsmen, Ganguly said the switch in their batting positions had come good for India as the team successfully chased a target of 272 runs.

All three hit half-centuries as India defeated England by six wickets in the second match of the triangular tournament here.

"We gave been trying to do that, get the batting order right. And it is beginning to come good", he said.

Praising Yuvraj Singh for his man of the match performance (unbeaten 64 and three for 39), Ganguly said he was not surprised by the youngster's batting prowess.

New Zealand in West Indies

Second Test, Grenada, day three
New Zealand 373 v West Indies 394-5

Chris Gayle blasted a double century to give the West Indies an outside chance of beating New Zealand in the second Test in Grenada.

The opener's 204, his second Test century, helpe dthe hosts to a 21-run first innings lead with five wickets in hand and two days remaining.

New Zealand lead the two-Test series 1-0. Gayle, whose previous Test-best was 175 against Zimbabwe, hit 29 boundaries and two sixes in his 332-ball stay.

TriSeries in Pakistan

Pakistan have lost their battle to host a one-day tournament and a Test series scheduled for later this year. Both will take place at a neutral venue.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has formally ruled out hosting the tri-nation series involving Australia and New Zealand in August and the Test series with Australia in October.

In a statement, the PCB said that discussions at Lord's between their director, Brigadier Munawwar Rana, and the Australian Cricket Board had ended in mutual agreement that a neutral venue was the best option.

Sri Lanka, Kenya, Bangladesh, Tangiers in Morocco and the Gulf are the likely venues and a final decision is likely to be made by mid-July, the PCB said.

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