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The match was hurtling towards a dull climax when Irfan Pathan tried to pull off the improbable with an audacious innings, but eventually Deccan Chargers prevailed and sealed their first win against Kings XI Punjab in IPL history. Set 171 to win, Punjab were dawdling along at 104 for 7 in the 17th over when Irfan exploded to create some excitement.

Match facts

Saturday, December 12
Start time 17.30 (12:00 GMT)

Big Picture

The ICC World Twenty20 win, and the subsequent celebrations that riled Andrew Symonds so, seems like it belonged to another age. Though it set in motion the events that led to the creation of the IPL, India’s form in the international arena has been dire. Wednesday’s thrashing at Nagpur was their fourth loss in succession, and you have to go back nearly a year to their last victory against a major side. The Pathan brothers, Irfan and Yusuf, denied Sri Lanka then, and it will need similar strength of will from the middle and lower order to ensure that the team’s alarming slide in the game’s most abbreviated format is arrested.

Match facts

Thursday, November 5
Start time 1430 (0900GMT)

Big Picture

Australia have no business being 2-2 in this series. Seven first-choice
men out, followed by two of their replacements (Moises Henriques being the latest). Foreign conditions. Back-to-back matches, spread across the length and breadth of India, suggesting more a sightseeing tour than one of the cricketing variety. Bowlers struggling at the death. Big hitters absent. Horror of horrors, Andrew Symonds is being discussed again by the fans. Conventional wisdom suggests that cannot be a good sign for the Australian team. Look at the scoreline, though – Two wins each. Who told Australia they could compete once their players started going down one by one after the first ODI?

Andrew Flintoff is giving serious consideration to becoming a freelancer cricketer according to his manager, Andrew Chandler, in a Sunday newspaper. Flintoff has already received a number of offers, but his recent knee surgery means he will be sidelined for at least six months. On Friday he was awarded an incremental contract by the ECB, but the option of lucrative Twenty20 deals will be very tempting.

Flintoff ’s freelancing would have followed the route expected to be taken by Australian allrounder, Andrew Symonds, who is also eyeing several Twenty20 opportunities around the world after his national career stalled due to disciplinary issues.

Auckland are keen to get Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds on board for the upcoming State Twenty20 competition. With an eye on qualification for the lucrative Champions Twenty20 League, next year, Auckland believe that signing on Symonds for even one game will help boost crowd numbers as well.

Symonds will not be available for the entire competition because he is due to turn out for Queensland in the Twenty20 Big Bash in Australia. That competition, however, is only five rounds, furthering the possibility of him playing for Auckland towards the end of January.

Andrew Hilditch, Australia’s chairman of selectors, has defended his panel’s persistence with Andrew Symonds and its forgiveness of his frequent indiscretions. Despite Symonds’ worsening behaviour over the past year, Hilditch wanted the allrounder back in the national set-up as soon as his bans ended following the India and South Africa tours.

Both times the selectors’ judgment was poor, with Symonds unable to follow his own contract guidelines or perform on the field. His international career ended last month when he was sent home from the World Twenty20 for drinking in public.

Andrew Symonds has conceded he is a binge drinker but said he was not an alcoholic despite his frequent off-field alcohol-related dramas. In his first major interview since being sent home from England and having his Cricket Australia contract torn up, Symonds said he had felt “caged in” within the Australian team environment.

“I am not an alcoholic – I have been diagnosed as a binge drinker,” Symonds said on Channel Nine’s Sixty Minutes programme. “I go out and drink hard all in one hit. Too fast, too much.

Andrew Symonds delayed a possible retirement announcement after touching down in Brisbane by saying he will take some time before making a decision. Symonds landed in Queensland on a cool Saturday morning, two days after being sent home from England for breaking team rules over his behaviour and alcohol intake.

He made a brief statement at the airport and was then driven off by Joe Dawes, a former Queensland team-mate and Queensland Cricket’s players’ professional development manager. “I’ve got a fair bit to consider I suppose and I appreciate you all coming out here this morning and I will come out and make a full proper [statement] when I’ve gathered my thoughts and sat down with friends,” he said.

Andrew Symonds is believed to be contemplating retirement after being ordered home from the ICC World Twenty20 for an “alcohol-related incident” that has thrown Australia’s tournament plans into disarray.

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland announced Symonds’ contract was under review, but Cricinfo understands the allrounder may jump before he is pushed. The developments come after the Australian team’s leadership group – consisting of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Tim Nielsen and Steve Bernard – recommended to Cricket Australia’s board that Symonds be withdrawn from the World Twenty20 for drinking while watching the State of Origin rugby league match on Wednesday morning.

Australia, spurred to a daunting total by a thumping opening partnership from Brad Haddin and Shane Watson, clinched a facile victory over Bangladesh in Nottingham. From the start it was apparent that Australia were going to dominate, what with Bangladesh’s medium-pacers leaking runs and Tamim Iqbal reprieving Haddin in the first over.

Haddin and Watson – who slammed a 21-ball half-century – made Bangladesh pay and though Mahmudullah’s four wickets ensured Australia didn’t post an even more mammoth total, the favourites clearly had enough runs. Bangladesh’s top order chased hard, but following Shakib Al Hasan’s dismissal for a sprightly 54 in the 14th over the wheels fell off.