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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsLendl Simmons led a positive West Indies innings by rushing to a 31-ball fifty•Getty Images

It’s just one match, which will fade into obscurity by the end of the next, but West Indies began their latest New Era impressively, beating Pakistan by seven runs in the first ever Twenty20 match between the teams. Lendl Simmons made 65 to help West Indies set a competitive total before Devendra Bishoo’s four wickets brought them victory.Such has been Ottis Gibson’s desperation for renewal after a disappointing World Cup campaign that five debutants were fielded. Critics, though, could point to a desire for greater control as much as freshness after several senior players were jettisoned from the squad.That certainly seemed to be the view held by Chris Gayle, the former captain, who vented his frustration with Gibson and the WICB by joining Royal Challengers Bangalore and issuing a withering assessment of both in a radio interview. The off-field wrangling dominated the build-up to the match and is likely to rumble on for some time to come but West Indies fans could at least enjoy a moment of on-field catharsis.Such drama is familiar to Pakistan but of late they have been alarmingly stable. Their last game was a passionate spectacle against India in the World Cup semi-final in Mohali, so they could be forgiven for looking a little underwhelmed by St Lucia.Barely a smattering of spectators showed up but those who did were treated to an entertaining opening from Simmons. Filling the immense hole left by Gayle’s absence he cracked 65 from 44 balls and shared a 99-run stand for the second wicket with a fluent Darren Bravo, who made 42.The pair struck 15 boundaries between them, which proved crucial as West Indies collapsed in familiar fashion after they were separated.Luckily for them the bowlers, led by legspinner Bishoo, masked the errors in an energetic display. The six no-balls pointed to performance lacking polish but the attack used a tiring pitch to good effect.Darren Sammy ensured Pakistan’s chase got off on the wrong foot as he had Mohammad Hafeez caught at fine leg for 3 before Ahmed Shehzad spooned Ravi Rampaul to mid-on for 12. Asad Shafiq threatened a revival with Umar Akmal before Bishoo intervened with two wickets in his first over. Shafiq was brilliantly caught for 25 by Danza Hyatt, diving forward from midwicket, before Misbah-ul-Haq was dismissed for a duck, treading on his stumps a ball later.Even modest legspinners have proved potent in 20-over cricket and Bishoo, who impressed on international debut in the World Cup, is better than that. Mixing his pace and flight nicely he got his third wicket when Shahid Afridi scythed a cut to point on 12 to leave Pakistan’s hopes entirely with Umar.Having reached a run-a-ball 41, Umar was victim to his own misunderstanding. The previous delivery he had alerted the umpires to a no-ball caused by West Indies not having the required three men in the ring but, thinking the following ball was a free-hit, swung Rampaul to Marlon Samuels on the square-leg boundary. Umar lingered but the umpires this time knew better.What should have been a doddle from there for West Indies became tense, as Rampaul’s no-ball-ridden penultimate over cost 15, but Andre Russell held his nerve in the final over to seal victory.The lacklustre showing from Pakistan’s batsmen was in sharp contrast to Simmons and Bravo. Happy to use their feet, both were proficient against the pace and spin and used the small boundaries to good effect. West Indies passed 100 in the 13th over and looked set to post a really significant total but a trademark collapse punctured the optimism.Bravo holed out to long-on off Abdur Rehman before Simmons was run out by Samuels two overs later. Samuels, on his comeback after serving a two-year ban for alleged involvement with illegal bookmakers, endured a torrid time as he laboured to 4 from 11 balls before running past a Saeed Ajmal doosra. Sammy followed quickly for 1 and it needed a last-over boundary to take the total past 150. Pakistan looked to have the edge but Bishoo ensured otherwise.

New Zealand’s triumph over Pakistan might have come at considerable cost as they sweat on the fitness of their captain Daniel Vettori, who hurt his right knee during the victory. Vettori appeared seriously restricted in his movement after diving for an attempted catch at mid-on in the sixth over of Pakistan’s innings, and two balls later he limped slowly from the field.He struggled to walk around the boundary with the help of the support staff and had ice treatment in the rooms while the vice-captain Ross Taylor oversaw the 110-run win. A New Zealand spokesman said the extent of Vettori’s injury would not be known until the team arrives in Mumbai ahead of their fifth group match, Sunday’s clash with Canada.”We’ll just have to wait and see,” Taylor said. “Obviously he’s a key part of our team and we need him to go further in this competition. But he didn’t bowl a ball today and we won, so we just have to give it a couple of days and see where he’s at. Hopefully he’s all right come two or three days’ time.”Vettori is not only a key player due to his bowling on the spin-friendly surfaces of the subcontinent, but he is also a canny leader whose on-field nous would be missed if he is sidelined. If that is the case, New Zealand would look to Taylor, 27, to captain the side, as he has done in nine one-day internationals for three victories.”I’ve captained the team in quite a few matches now,” Taylor said. “We’ve got a lot of senior players in the team for me to look to, to get help and to bounce ideas off. We’ll have to wait and see, but if it did come about it would be something that would be an honour to do. There’s still a long way to go in this competition, but if that comes about then I’d grab it with both hands.”

Backed by a comprehensive bowling performance Nothern Districts beat Auckland by 9 wickets with a day to spare at Colin Maiden Park. Left-arm fast bowler Trent Boult justified James Marshall’s decision to bowl, picking up three quick wickets to leave Auckland at 17 for 3. The hosts never recovered, bowled out for 136 in less than two sessions. Boult finished with figures of 5 for 35 and was given good support by Brent Arnel who picked up three wickets.Auckland did not allow ND to pile up too big a lead, bowling them out for 213 courtesy a haul of 7 for 97 from left-arm spinner Bruce Martin. ND’s innings was built around half-centuries from Brad Wilson and Hamish Marshall. Boult was equally impressive in the second innings, knocking over Auckland’s top three. Opening bowler Graeme Aldridge and Arnel picked up wickets at regular intervals thereafter, ending the Auckland innings on 253.Northern Districts made light work of chasing down their target of 177, with Wilson (100*) and Daniel Flynn (68*) involved in an unbeaten 136-run partnership to take their team home. Northern Districts are second on the points table after five matches.Otago pulled off a comprehensive 116-run win over table-toppers Central Districts at McLean Park. Otago began well after being put in to bat; openers Craig Cumming and Michael Bracewell stringing together a 129-run partnership. The middle order built on the solid start with Shaun Haig and Neil Broom scoring 124 apiece, followed by a half-century from Derek de Boorder to steer Otago to 475 for 7 declared.In a bid to get a result out of the match – day one was washed out and by the time Otago declared, there were just four sessions left – Central Districts batted just one session, scoring 156 for the loss of five wickets. Tim Weston powered the innings with a 54-ball 61, while the Otago bowlers shared the wickets around. The Otago second innings was even shorter, lasting just 9 overs and producing 71 runs for the loss of one wicket.Needing 391 in two sessions, Central Districts started steadily with openers Peter Ingram and George Worker putting on a half-century stand. Ingram fell after making 22, but Worker stayed solid. He made 98 before he was dismissed by Ian Butler. The Otago bowlers took control of the game after that and though Matthew Sinclair made 59, Neil Wagner and offspinner Mark Craig took seven wickets between them to give Otago the victory.The Wellington v Canterbury game was postponed.

Andy Flower, the England team director, has revealed that Tim Bresnan is the most serious of their lengthy injury list ahead of the World Cup. Bresnan suffered a calf injury during the second one-day international at Hobart and is one of five players to have flown home early from Australia with the most recent being Paul Collingwood.England’s casualty list also includes Graeme Swann (back), Ajmal Shahzad (hamstring) and Chris Tremlett (side). The latter isn’t part of the World Cup 15 but is a possible replacement should anyone not recover. “Probably it’s Bresnan considering the sight of his injury, just above his Achilles tendon in his lower calf,” Flower said when pushed on who was struggling the most. “But he’s not a man who has suffered injuries, well not many injuries, in the past and hopefully he will recover very quickly and be ready somewhere near the start.”England have been left battling to have a full-strength squad to take to the subcontinent later this month and it could be especially tight for the two warm-up matches against Canada and Pakistan. Collingwood, who suffered a back spasm at Sydney and flew out of Perth on Thursday evening, has been given paternity leave during the warm-up period along with Swann leaving the prospect of England not having 11 fit players when they arrive in Bangladesh.”Of course the timing of them getting back to full fitness is important for the start of the World Cup,” Flower said. “We can’t be absolutely certain of that at this stage but we are monitoring them on a daily basis.”Despite the rush to get Collingwood back to the UK with just four days of this tour remaining Flower wasn’t overly concerned about the allrounder. He was unable to bowl at Sydney as England failed to defend a record total of 333 having hurt his back playing the final shot of the innings. Collingwood’s mixture of medium-pacers and cutters are set to be important to England’s World Cup although he continues to struggle for runs.”He should be alright. He’s been sent home to get looked after back in England by the specialists, his lower back needs a scan and the right sort of treatment,” Flower said. “The sooner he got home the better, he wouldn’t have been available for this last game anyway. He’s going to a very important member of our World Cup side so we needed to get him off home early.”With the bowling ranks currently so depleted England could reach the point next week where they have to replace players in their final 15. Having stayed fit during the series, and taken 6 for 45 at Brisbane, Chris Woakes has made a strong case to be a first reserve as he also provides some useful lower-order batting.Steven Finn has been given his one-day international debut during this series having not originally been part of the squad until James Anderson was rested for the first three matches. He was England’s most impressive seamer in Sydney, taking 2 for 51 from his 10 overs in a high-scoring encounter. Liam Plunkett, the Durham pace bowler, has also been called into the squad for the final match in Perth and arrived on Wednesday after a 40-hour journey from the Caribbean where he was part of the England Lions squad.

The IPL has pruned its auction list for the next season from a preliminary 416 to 350, and also increased the base prices of Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. All 80 players named in the top three price bands of the preliminary list have retained their place in the final list for the auction, which is scheduled to be held in Bangalore on January 8 and 9.In the preliminary list, 21 players including former West Indies batsman Brian Lara had been in the highest bracket of US$400,000, a bunch that Ganguly has now joined after his reserve price was raised from $200,000. Laxman, who has had a vintage year in Tests in 2010, also had his base price bumped up from $200,000 to $300,000.Ganguly and Laxman are not the first players to modify their reserve prices. Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble had earlier changed their base price from $200,000 to $400,000. An IPL official confirmed that the players had the right to choose their reserve price. “This has been the practice in every IPL,” said the league’s chief operating officer Sundar Raman, “we merely set the bands of reserve prices.”But one of the franchise officials put a different spin to Ganguly increasing his base price. “Ganguly might have understood that there are not many franchises willing to even consider him. But to my knowledge one of the franchises has already assured him that they will buy him out. So, if there is only one franchise willing to buy but assuring him why not hike his price then. Probably that made Ganguly hike his price.”Previous IPL auctions have shown that base prices are not indicative of the final amount for which the franchise will buy the player. For example, at the first auction in 2008, Ishant Sharma was listed at $150,000 but was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders at $950,000, while Hayden was listed at $250,000 and was bought by Chennai Super Kings at $375,000. “With the requirement of each franchise minimal, virtually more than half of these players in the auction list will not attract any attention,” an IPL official said.Only 12 players were retained by their teams ahead of the auction, with three of the eight existing franchises – Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers and Kolkata – choosing to release all their players into the auction pool. As a result, those three franchises will have the entire complement of $9 million at their disposal for the auction, while the other teams will begin the auctions with purses reduced in accordance to the number of players they retained. Chennai and Mumbai Indians, who retained the maximum allowed four players each, will go into the auction with only $4.5 million to spend.The season is set to go ahead with 10 teams and 74 matches as originally planned, since the BCCI is not likely to move the Supreme Court after it lost its High Court appeals against the stay orders granted to the termination of Punjab and Rajasthan.

ScorecardMark Cosgrove finished unbeaten on 90•Getty Images

Tasmania comprehensively dominated the first day against Western Australia, where Mark Cosgrove almost made as many as the entire Warriors side. At stumps, Cosgrove was unbeaten on 90 with Alex Doolan on 48, as the Tigers moved on to 1 for 146 and extended their lead to 38 runs following their excellent bowling effort.James Faulkner skittled the Western Australia top order after George Bailey sent the visitors in, and Luke Butterworth also helped run through the Warriors, who were dismissed before lunch for 108. Marcus North, fresh from his Test axing, could only manage 2 before he was trapped lbw by Faulkner, who finished with 3 for 15.Faulkner had kicked off the chaos by throwing down the stumps in his follow through to have Wes Robinson run out for 9, and he soon got rid of Liam Davis, who top-edged a pull on 20, and Adam Voges caught behind first ball. The Warriors were lucky to even reach triple figures after crashing to 9 for 62; only a last-wicket stand between Ryan Duffield and Michael Hogan saved their blushes.It looked like Tasmania might struggle just as much when Hogan struck in the third over with Ed Cowan caught at slip for a duck, but Cosgrove and Doolan steadied proceedings. Michael Beer ended the day with 0 for 27 from eight overs after being released from the Test squad to get some overs under his belt.