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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outIt was Pandeymonium again for the bowlers•Associated Press

Last things first. Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers, placed at the bottom last year, will face each other in the IPL final tomorrow. And lightning does strike twice. Ask Chennai Super Kings. They had shot under by setting Bangalore 147, but would have thought of it as a fighting total. Manish Pandey, who came out of nowhere and scored a century in the last game, didn’t think so. His 35-ball 48 almost killed the chase, and a minor hiccup later Bangalore were in the final.If anything this was an even better innings in terms of the quality of strokeplay and this being a knockout match. Pandey got going with a square-drive in the first over, following a ball both wide and full. As if to show it was no fluke, he brought out a more classical square-drive, down on one knee, to the next delivery. Jacques Kallis matched that start with back-to-back square-cuts of equal ferocity and beauty in the second over.But within seven deliveries Bangalore lost Kallis and Roelof van der Merwe. To pull them out of the shock Pandey produced boundaries with a back-foot punch and a drive on the run in two deliveries in the fourth over. Out of habit the slogs came out in the next two overs, but he cleared the leg-side field with them. By the end of the Powerplays Pandey had reached 29 off 14 deliveries with the help of six fours, four of them along the ground, and Bangalore needed only 88 from 84.Pandey had batting with him the best man possible, Rahul Dravid, whose classical strokeplay and superb planning had a calming effect on the 19-year-old at the other end. His straight-drive off Shadab Jakati and flick off Albie Morkel were shots as good as any played in the night. The key moment was always going to be when Muttiah Muralitharan, held back by MS Dhoni, came on to bowl.Murali started off with a big lbw shout against Pandey, and after that Dravid made a conscious effort of keeping the youngster away from the fox. Pandey finally fell when he went to slog-sweep the other spinner, Jakati, and a turnaround was in the offing. Fifty-three were required in 45 balls then, and Dravid seemed to have it under control until Murali came back and got him lbw in the 16th over. After an asphyxiating over, Bangalore required 35 off four overs.

Chennai needed a gamble then, after all other bowlers had been taken for runs. Suresh Raina bowled the next over, and both Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli took a six off him. The decisive, and the most symbolic, blow came in the next over when Kohli read a doosra, stepped out to Murali, and hit him straight down the ground for a big six. Bangalore’s fifth win in a row was all but sealed.The win, though, looked far away when Parthiv Patel stunned them after they had put Chennai in. The whole talk before the semi-final centered around the orange cap holder Mathew Hayden and whether he would be back for the big match. But Bangalore were hit from an unexpected quarter. It’s not often you go about outscoring Hayden in good form, and if you do you better be playing exceptionally. That’s precisely what Parthiv did for a brief while.Parthiv was attacked with short bowling, but he brought out the pulls, the cuts, and the upper-cuts. In the first six overs Chennai raced away to 52, and Hayden hadn’t even warmed up by then. In fact Parthiv had reached 32 off 20 deliveries, while Hayden was still 13. What odds would punters get for that?But Anil Kumble and Bangalore regrouped fast. Smart bowling changes and smart bowling thereafter kept pulling Chennai back whenever they threatened to move too far out of reach. The result? A late assault never came. It was Kumble, who brought some control to the proceedings, coming in to bowl the sixth over. And then when Hayden went for one six too many off R Vinay Kumar and mis-hit to long-on, Kumble seized the opportunity.He brought back Kallis, whose first two overs had cost 21. With his fourth delivery Kallis removed Parthiv, and Bangalore could now try and rein in the two new batsmen.The new batsmen were Dhoni and Raina, in that order. There was a period of quiet around the time-out, and Kallis went for five in his next two overs. Just when Raina looked like opening up, with a four and a six off Vinay, Kumble brought back Praveen in the 15th over. With the first ball, Praveen got Raina to sky a slower ball, and Bangalore had once again prevented Chennai from getting away.Again, when Morkel slogged Kumble for a six after 23 balls without a boundary, van der Merwe got Dhoni, caught at long-on. Dhoni’s move to come in at No. 3 didn’t work: he didn’t hit any boundaries in his 30-ball 28.Kumble handed over India’s Test captaincy to Dhoni but today he had managed to outfox his younger counterpart.

Match facts

May 3, 2009
Start time 16.45 (14.45GMT)Roelof van der Merwe’s unorthodox power-hitting has given Bangalore a boost•AFP

Big Picture

The fight for places in the middle of the league is heating up as the 2009 season of the IPL moves towards its second half. The increased competition for semi-final berths is largely due to Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore recovering from poor starts in the tournament. Bangalore have strung together two consecutive victories, after four defeats in a row, but their push for a hat-trick of wins will be against tough opposition. The Mumbai Indians are currently third in the tournament with three wins out of six games (one washout). Bangalore have three out of seven matches and a victory at the Wanderers will take them into the top half of the league.Bangalore scrapped hard for their victories but those wins were largely due to their bowlers who restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 139 and Punjab to 137. A misfiring top-order, the problem that led to Bangalore’s terrible start to the season, still remained. Jesse Ryder and Robin Uthappa have been the biggest disappointments with the bat and they were 84 for 6 at one stage against Punjab. Bangalore’s shaky batsmen will face one of their toughest tests against Mumbai’s bowling attack, which is led by Lasith Malinga, the best bowler of the tournament so far, and Zaheer Khan, who found form in his last outing against Kolkata.Mumbai are a formidable all-round team but while their bowlers are in prime form, their batsmen have slipped in the last two games. Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya have failed twice in a row after the Kolkata massacre in Port Elizabeth: Mumbai failed to chase 120 against Punjab and needed JP Duminy to rescue them from 96 for 5 against Kolkata.

Form guide (completed matches, most recent first)

Mumbai Indians – WLWLW
Tendulkar and Jayasuriya are Mumbai’s biggest stars but their best batsman has been Duminy with scores of 9, 47, 18 not out, 59 and 52. Tendulkar’s their highest runscorer with 198 runs in five innings but Jayasuriya has a disappointing average of only 17. Malinga has been a class apart with the ball, with 11 wickets and an economy of 4.36. Their two other main bowlers – Zaheer and Harbhajan Singh – have also conceded less than seven runs an over.Royal Challengers Bangalore – WWLLL
Bangalore don’t have a consistent performer with the bat – Jacques Kallis is their top-scorer with 151 runs in six innings – and have relied on several small contributions for their totals. Roelof van der Merwe, however, provides them with a power-hitting option in the lower-order but he ideally needs a platform to launch from. Kumble has been Bangalore’s stand-out bowler with ten wickets in seven games with an economy-rate of 5.59.

Watch out for

Roelof van der Merwe v Lasith Malinga: Don’t expect orthodox strokes from van der Merwe. He prefers to clear his front foot out of the way and send the ball soaring over long-off and point while appearing to hit towards leg. If he misses, however, Malinga’s low and deadly accurate yorkers will nail him.

Team news

Ryder’s continuing struggle for runs could prompt Bangalore into bringing back Dale Steyn to bolster the pace attack, which had no genuinely quick bowlers in the previous game. With van der Merwe proving competent with the ball, KP Appanna’s place could also come under scrutiny if the track isn’t spinner-friendly.Bangalore 1 Robin Uthappa, 2 Sreevats Goswami, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rajesh Bishnoi, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Roelof van der Merwe, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Anil Kumble (capt), 10 Dale Steyn, 11 KP AppannaThe only change Mumbai are likely to consider is whether to bring back Dwayne Bravo, who was rested in the last game, instead of Graham Napier, who has returned to England.Mumbai 1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 JP Duminy, 5 Abhishek Nayar, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Saurabh Tiwary, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Pinah Shah (wk), 11 Lasith Malinga

Head-to-head record

Both Mumbai and Bangalore had dismal campaigns last season, and they split their two games in 2008. Bangalore won the first match at the Wankhede by five wickets, and Mumbai crushed Bangalore in the return leg by nine wickets at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Edgar Schiferli, the Netherlands medium-pacer, has been named Man of the Tournament for his consistent bowling performances in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa. Schiferli opened the bowling and was the highest wicket-taker with 24 scalps at 17.37.Schiferli, 32, took four wickets in an innings on two occasions during the voting period, against Kenya in the group stage and Scotland in the Super Eights before adding another in the third-place play-off against Kenya. His batting down the order also proved handy for Netherlands; Schiferli averaged 19.00 at a strike-rate of 168.88 with a top score of 41.ICC match referee Roshan Mahanama, one of the adjudicators for the award, said the other nominees were Netherlands’ Alexei Kervezee and William Porterfield of Ireland. “It was a very difficult choice and we spent a long time deliberating and debating the various contenders,” he said. “We decided that Edgar’s bowling, on what were essentially batsman-friendly wickets, was instrumental in gaining qualification for his team while his all-round contribution was also more than useful.”Opening the bowling is not an easy task these days with Powerplays and pinch-hitters so it’s always important that teams take wickets early. Edgar did that on a regular basis with good pace and excellent lines to make life very difficult for the tournament’s batsmen.”On the day he was named for the award, Schiferli took 4 for 23 in the third-place play-off game against Kenya at Potchefstroom.

There is a resilience about this Indian team that makes people think twice before writing them off, and that quality came to the fore again on the fourth day in Napier. There is no doubt that they had themselves dug the hole they were in. And though they aren’t fully out of it yet, the way they have made half their way back up speaks a lot for the character in the side.Rahul Dravid, who scored his second half-century of the match and played a key role in India’s comeback on the fourth day, summed it up perfectly. “We knew that we didn’t have any chance to win the Test,” he said. “We needed to protect the 1-0 lead. We needed to show character and did that. We could have easily come here and got rolled over, but we have fought back hard and have kept them on the field for a long time.”Following on and trailing by 267 with two days to go, India needed to perform one of the most difficult tasks in modern-day Test cricket – bat out time. It required a big effort from Dravid, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar to bring India back. Dravid batted for 241 minutes, Gambhir was still unbeaten after more than seven hours of batting, and Tendulkar scored a brisk unbeaten half-century to take the pressure off.”It was a mentally demanding day,” Dravid said. “I thought in the first session New Zealand came out and bowled well. They knew they had a sniff and they had their tails up. They came and really challenged me and Gautam up there in the first session. It was a tough day mentally, and hats off to Gautam for being there through till the end of the day. He showed at lot of character. A Test innings like this will go a long way in a young career. He will learn a lot from a day like this in Test cricket.”Dravid himself was under extra pressure because it was his careless dismissal in the first innings that had triggered a collapse when India looked well on their way to avoiding the follow-on. “We had a one bad hour when batting,” Dravid said. “After I got out, that was when things went wrong for us, but I think we have corrected that to some extent.”If Dravid was disappointed by his dismissal in the first innings, the one in the second innings would have probably frustrated him more. He had done all the hard work again, looked good for another century, and had to go off due to an umpiring mistake. But once the day was over, he could maintain his equanimity over that.”At that instant, you do get disappointed. But once you have a cold shower and you sit down and you have some time to ponder about it and reflect on it, you get a better perspective on it.” It would have been tough to be as understanding had it resulted in another collapse.As it happened, Tendulkar and Gambhir made sure no other wicket fell till stumps. At the end of the day, India looked good to save the Test, but Dravid knew it was far from over. “We know that New Zealand will come hard at us in the first two hours [of the final day],” Dravid said. “That is their only chance.”It has been a long time for them on the field. They have fought hard and they will go for one big effort and that is what we have to be wary of. We have to know that we can’t be complacent and that we cannot think that this Test is over. We have to show the same mental discipline that we showed today.”

England XI 299 for 8 (Mascarenhas 84) beat WIPA XI 248 (Harmison 4-59)
Scorecard
Dimitri Mascarenhas is in form for England•Getty Images

Dimitri Mascarenhas battered a rapid 84 not out from 54 balls, and Ian Bell marked his captaincy debut with a determined 55, as England warmed up for Sunday’s Twenty20 international against West Indies with a 51-run victory over a Players’ Association XI in Pointe-a-Pierre.Following the disappointment of last week’s Test series defeat, England chose to rest a number of their senior players, including Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and the captain Andrew Strauss, who has not played a limited-overs game for England since the 2007 World Cup.But, having posted an imposing 299 for 8 and reduced their opponents to 100 for 7, England came uncomfortably close to embarrassment as Samuel Badree and Kenroy Williams compiled a 114-run stand for the eighth wicket to revive their team’s fortunes.England’s spinners, Gareth Batty and Adil Rashid, conceded 86 runs in 15 overs between them, and it wasn’t until James Anderson and Steve Harmison were recalled to the attack that England regained the initiative. Harmison, overlooked for the final Test, finished with 4 for 59 to boost his prospects of a recall.After batting first, England lost their opener, Steven Davies, for 2, although Bell and Ravi Bopara both made half-centuries to give the innings a measure of momentum. The loss of three wickets in six overs, however, pushed them back onto the ropes until Mascarenhas, back in favour after missing the India tour before Christmas, clubbed nine fours and two sixes to provide the lower order with much-needed momentum.

Charl Langeveldt took three wickets off the final over to seal a thrilling tie between the Cape Cobras and the Lions in Potchefstroom. Chasing 155, the Lions were well-placed to win, needing eight off the last over with seven wickets in hand. Langeveldt had the innings top scorer Alviro Peterson caught at long-on off the second ball but the next delivery was smashed for six by his partner Dane Vilas. A single gave Werner Coetsee the strike but he fell immediately, edging a bouncer to Andrew Puttick. The scores were level at that point but the Lions failed to score the winning run as Cliff Deacon was bowled by Langeveldt off the final ball. Earlier, the return of JP Duminy from Australia bolstered the Cape Cobras as he top scored with 56 off 44 balls to push the score to 154. However, the efforts of Peterson and Neil McKenzie weren’t enough as the Lions choked in the final over.The Titans finally opened their account in the Pro20 with an an easy six-wicket win against the Eagles at Centurion. The Eagles, after being put in to bat, managed 153 and were led by Dean Elgar, who top scored with 47. He added 62 for the second wicket with Adrian McLaren but after the pair was dismissed, their team struggled to get past 150. The Titans openers Gulam Bodi and Blake Snijman set a solid foundation with a stand of 75, making the chase of 154 much easier for the rest. Farhaan Berhardien built on the platform with an aggressive 35 off 20 balls, launching three consecutive sixes off Ryan Bailey before Roelof van der Merwe sealed the match in the penultimate over with successive sixes off Ryan McLaren.A frenetic seventh-wicket stand of 57 in 4.1 overs between Johan Botha and Craig Thyssen carried the Warriors over the finish line against the Lions in a low-scoring affair in Port Elizabeth.. The Warriors were in trouble at 70 for 6 at one stage in pursuit of a modest 124. Craig Alexander made early inroads with 3 for 14 to jolt them early in their chase before Botha and Thyssen changed the complexion of the game. Lions lost an opportunity to record their first win of the tournament but their bowlers in the end didn’t have a big target to defend. In their innings, the Lions had struggled to 59 for four in the 12th over and were lifted by Vaughan van Jaarsveld but he was circumspect in his unbeaten 40, which came off 43 balls.The Dolphins coasted to an eight-wicket win against the Lions in Durban. Yusuf Abdulla, the left-arm seamer, set it up with 3 for 28 to restrict the Lions to a disappointing 112 for 8. Dane Vilas played the lone hand with an unbeaten 55 off 51 balls with very little support from the other end. The Dolphins openers Hashim Amla and HD Ackerman led the chase with ease, adding 67 before both fell in very quick succession. Ahmed Amla and Grant Rowley then eased to the target with an over to spare. It was a rather disappointing end for the Lions as they finished the tournament without a win. The Dolphins will now meet the Cobras in the first leg of the semi-finals in Newlands on Friday.Ashwell Prince made a fine return from injury with 46 to set up the Warriors’ 18-run win against the Eagles in Bloemfontein. He came in with his team in trouble at 13 for 3, started the repair work with Colin Ingram and continued it with Davey Jacobs. After his dismissal in the 16th over, run out by Dean Elgar, the Warriors were boosted by a late assault by Jacobs and Craig Thyssen, who smashed four sixes in his 41 off 15 balls. Chasing 150, the Eagles were progressing steadily at 88 for 2 in 13 overs but lost five wickets for 22, a position from which they never recovered. The Warriors secured a semi-final berth and will now face the Eagles in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

The IPL franchises are expected to splurge over US$3 million on Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, two of the biggest stars in world cricket, at the player auction in Goa on Friday. But after the pullout of Michael Clarke, the other star player who could have got well over a million dollars, most franchises agree that this year’s smartest pick will be JP Duminy, the South African batsman.Duminy, who is also a brilliant fielder, played a key role in South Africa’s success in Australia and is now being tagged by the franchises as “a favourite and one of the top three picks” for the season.The franchises concede the big money will be spent on Pietersen (base price: $1.35 million) and Flintoff ($950,000), especially after Clarke’s withdrawal. “Now if you are thinking long-term, current form and availability, then Duminy is your man,” a franchise official said.Duminy’s base price is $300,000 but what has made him a particularly attractive purchase, according to franchise officials, is that he will be available for most of this tournament, which starts on April 10 – the South African players are free after the home ODI series against Australia ends on April 17. In contrast, England players will be available only for the first three weeks of the IPL while the Australians will be free towards the end after they play Pakistan in an ODI series after the South Africa tour.”Duminy is also a natural strokeplayer, a great fielder, and at 24, your player for the future,” the official said. “You can expect vigorous bidding in his case.”The auction, which is scheduled to start at 10 am, is expected to be short and intense affair and IPL officials have confirmed that 17 slots would be available for purchase from a revised list of 50 players after the withdrawal of Pakistani cricketers.Last year, the inaugural IPL auction had featured over 75 top cricketers, including the entire Indian team, and the auction spilled over well into the evening. “This time, all the action will be foucused on a handful of cricketers,” a franchise official said. “After Pietersen, Flintoff, Duminy and possibly Shaun Tait, there are not many left to bid big for.”But of course, the big buzz is all about Pietersen and Flintoff. The Bangalore franchise, owned by industrialist Vijay Mallya, is expected to go the distance for Pietersen, while Punjab and Mumbai will bid hard for Andrew Flintoff. Chennai had originally targetted Clarke, but are now likely to join the race for Duminy while Rajasthan, the IPL champion, hasn’t ruled out the possibility of going after one of the top players. Incidentally, Graeme Smith, Duminy’s national captain, is a key member of the Rajasthan team.In fact, questions have already been asked whether Pietersen’s price would touch the $2m mark, which is the maximum a team can spend at this auction. And IPL officials are happy to let the price tag float around – it is great publicity, an official said.However, $2m for Pietersen is highly unlikely, going by IPL rules. “Each franchise will have the sum of US$ 2mn to spend on 2009 player fees for players who are acquired either: in the auction, through signing uncapped “new” players, through re-signing any 2008 temporary replacements,” the IPL rules state. Chennai is the only franchise that has the full amount at its disposal as the team has not yet signed on an uncapped player or resigned a temporary player from last year.Then, there are teams with specific needs. Delhi wants a specialist batsman; Kolkata, which has been hit by the absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul, needs a fast bowler, possibly Shaun Tait; Mumbai would like to purchase an allrounder. “It has been generally accepted that multi-skilled players will be in demand, but most of the teams will enter the auction room with a clear, short list,” a franchise official said.The missing Pakistani players have also left the teams with a delicate balancing act to perform at the auction. According to IPL rules, teams can pick one-year replacements for the Pakistani players at the auction but will have to stay within the US$ 2 million cap. However, if the teams go for a replacement after the auction, they can spend the equivalent of the amount they would have paid the Pakistani player this year – this replacement will have to be from the original IPL list of 111 players released last week

Michael Clarke has pulled out of the IPL auction – where he had a base value of US$1 million – citing Australia’s busy international schedule for his decision. Clarke was set to be among the top three picks and Chennai Super Kings, last year’s finalists, were expected to lead the bidding for him in Goa on Friday.Clarke, who joins Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Broad in deciding to stay away from the IPL, made the announcement at the MCG, where Australia were preparing for Friday’s game against New Zealand. “Speaking with my management, my family, my fiancee and the hierarchy of the IPL and for me this year, I won’t be going to the IPL,” he said.”There’s probably a number of reasons but the most important thing for me is we’ve only got a couple of weeks off, we’ve got a really busy schedule, and I just think for where I’m at with my body and that time at home it’s valuable for me. I’d love to take part in it one day. It’s just about finding the right time for me to be a part of it.”Clarke chose not to go last year and said it was a tough decision this time. “There’s obviously a lot of great things about the IPL and that’s why I say I certainly want to be a part of it at some stage,” he said. “Every player is in a different position as well but for me – mentally, physically where I am – I just think those two weeks at home will be great for my to come home and see family and friends.”Asked whether he was surprised, given the constraints, that so many Australian players had signed up, Clarke spoke of the positive spin-offs from the tournament. “I think it’s a wonderful thing for cricket,” he said. “It’s definitely improved Twenty20 cricket, certainly played a part in improving one-day cricket and the lead-up to the Twenty20 World Championship is the IPL, so it’s pretty good preparation. It doesn’t surprise me so many guys are going there. It’s just a personal choice at this stage.”Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, believed Clarke opted out to avoid an embarrassment at the auction. “I don’t think anybody is ready to pay that kind of price [$1m],” Modi told the news channel NDTV. “The reality is in front of him. He didn’t want to be unsold in the auction and so decided to pull out. We asked him to reduce the price but he was unwilling.”Unfortunately, he pulled out earlier and there was penalty in the first year but this year we have waived off the penalty and I don’t think we will be able to move forward like this. We will discuss the matter in our governing council and have the answer by this evening.”

Shoaib Malik has been retained as Pakistan’s captain for an indefinite period. The decision was made by PCB chairman Ijaz Butt and not the board’s governing council as had been expected.Salim Altaf, the board’s chief operating officer, confirmed Malik’s extension and said the chairman had made the decision and not sought the council’s approval as it was not operational, six of its members having resigned.Butt said he saw “no reason to replace” Malik as captain, who himself said the decision would spur him on further. “Ever since I took over the team, my aim has been for us to fight and play as a unit, so that remains the prime target, and I aim to take Pakistan to the top place in the world,” Malik told .”I am thankful to the PCB, the PCB chairman for showing faith and confidence in me. I will always try my level best to keep the team on the winning track.”Malik’s captaincy came up for review at the end of 2008, but the extension of his tenure was a formality after he got the vote of confidence from both the PCB chairman as well as Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam in recent weeks. Former players have continued to express doubts over Malik’s potential as a leader in the past, and former team-mate Mohammad Yousuf blamed the “lack of respect” from Malik as one of the reasons for his signing up with the ICL.There have also been persistent reports of rifts between Malik and other senior players. But he seems to have won over Intikhab, who had said before he took over as coach that Shahid Afridi was a better candidate than Malik.Malik was handed the reins following Pakistan’s early exit in the 2007 World Cup. Under him, Pakistan have had mixed fortunes. They reached the final of the ICC World Twenty20 in 2007, and last year they beat India in the Kitply Cup final in Bangladesh, followed by a 3-0 sweep in the ODI series against West Indies in Abu Dhabi in November. Malik led Pakistan to a country record 12 successive ODI wins in 2008, though the bulk of them came against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.However, Malik also lost both the home Test and ODI series to South Africa in 2007, as well as the Test and ODI series in India that followed. The team also failed to make it the final of the Asia Cup held in Pakistan in June-July 2008. In an otherwise bleak international schedule in 2008 – Pakistan did not play a single Test – Malik, however, impressed the board with domestic success.He first led Sialkot Stallions to the Twenty20 title, before leading Punjab to victory in the Pentangular One Day cup. That win, in particular, when he faced off against three potential contenders for the national captaincy in Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar and Misbah-ul-Haq, made a particularly strong impression on the board.

Cricket last brought Trafalgar Square to a standstill in September 2005, and on a cold day in December it nearly happened again. The circumstances, however, were entirely different.The Everest Test is the ambitious fund-raiser involving 30 people and players from Britain. Their aim? To stage the highest Twenty20 match – indeed, the highest field-sport match – on the slopes of Mount Everest. The expedition itself consists of 51 people which includes two squads of 15, two umpires and a support crew of cameramen, photographers, medics, lawyers and environmental experts.To raise their profile and attract sponsors the team descended on London this afternoon, where they held several “freeze mobs” – an offshoot of another cult, “flash mobbing”. The group re-enacted a team’s appeal, holding the pose and freezing for three minutes, leaving spectators bemused and curious. And a little impressed, too.”We wanted to raise the profile of what we’re doing and I think we’ve done that,” the organiser, Richard Kirtley, told Cricinfo. “The look on some people’s faces was absolutely priceless.”The teams are named after the first two men to conquer Everest, Hillary and Tenzing, and Hillary captain Glen Lowis also took part in the mob.”This whole thing keeps getting better and better. It’s been rolling for about eight months now and everyone is pulling together in the way we hoped they would,” Lowis said. “There’s no doubt this is a huge undertaking and we want to make it as big as it can possibly be. Days like this are great fun, but there is an enormous amount of hard work going on behind the scenes as well.”After the freezes the whole squad headed to Lord’s to have an official meeting regarding progress and official partners. As for publicity stunts, co-organiser Gareth Wesley hinted that they are unlikely to stop here and will carry on after they return to raise as much money for the Himalayan Trust as possible.A potential rematch to be played at The Oval either during a lunch break of the final Ashes Test next year, or the ODI, is one such event on the cards.