MELBOURNE: Australia will travel to Pakistan twice over the next two years to make up for its canceled tour in March and April over security concerns.
Cricket Australia and the Pakistan Cricket Board said Monday that Australia will tour Pakistan in April/May of 2009 for a one-day series and then return in 2010 for a three-match test series.
Pakistan will also travel to Australia in 2009-10 for a previously scheduled tour, which includes three tests.
On March 11, Cricket Australia postponed its tour to Pakistan just hours after two bombs killed at least 15 people and injured many more in the eastern city of Lahore.
The tour, which had been scheduled to start March 29, had been in jeopardy due to security concerns expressed by Australian players and officials amid a wave of violence that swirled around the Feb.18 elections in Pakistan.
IPL: Chennai Super beat Punjab Kings by 33 runs
MOHALI: Chennai Super Kings beat Punjab Kings by 33 runs on Saturday in the first match of the day in Indian Premier League at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali.
Chennai Super Kings earlier set the highest record of Twenty20 cricket score with 240 runs, Punjab Kings XI chasing the target scored 207 runs in 20 overs.
Jay Hope 71, was the top scorer for the Punjab side and Kumara Sangakkara scored 54 runs.
Muralitharan, P. Amarnath and Joginder Singh grabbed one wicket each for Chennai Super Kings.
Earlier, the Chennai team won the toss and elected to bat firs. Michael Hussey made 116 runs with 10 sixes and seven fours for Chennai.
KARACHI: Pakistan made 329 for nine against Bangladesh in the fifth and final one-day international at National Stadium, Karachi on Saturday.
Pakistan opening batsman Salman Butt made 136 runs, while Younis Khan scored 69 to help the home side to reach an imposing total. Captain Shoaib Malik 27 and Misbabul Haq 35 were other contributors of the Pakistan innings.
Mashrafe Mortaza captured four wickets for 65 runs and Shahadat Hussain grabbed three wickets for 76 runs for Bangladesh.
Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. The home side scored 329 runs to set 330 runs target for Bangladesh.
Pakistan has already won the ODI series with 4-0 margin.
BANGALORE: Kolkata Knight Riders have given an improbable target of 223 runs in 20 overs to hosts Bangalore Royal Challengers in the inaugural match here today.
Rahul Dravid, captain of the Bangalore Royal Challengers won the toss but opted to field but his decision went wrong when the Kolkata batsmen severely punished his bowlers to amass a huge score of 222 runs for three wickets in the allotted 20 overss.
However, this was one man show as Kolkata’s opener Brendon McCullum hammered an unbeaten 158 off just 73 balls with 14 big sixes and nine fours.
This is the highest individual score by any batsman in Twenty20 cricket.
No other batsman made any significant score as Ricky Ponting (20), Michael Hussey (12) and captain Sourav Ganguly(10) went back to pavilion one after another.
Mohammad Hafeez from Pakistan was unbeaten on five.
Zaheer Khan, A. Noffke and Jacques Kallis claimed one wicket each.
