England win final ODI

Manchester, July 10 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) ? A patient 72 from Jonathan Trott helped England to a 16-run win over Sri Lanka in the final one-dayer at Old Trafford on Saturday, giving the hosts a 3-2 series win which allowed them to gain some revenge for their 10-wicket World Cup quarter-final humiliation.

A century sixth-wicket partnership between Angelo Mathews (62) and Jeevan Mendis (48), which rescued Sri Lanka from 131-5, threatened to upset England but some assured catches at the end and fine bowling put paid to the tourists' chances.

Young paceman Jade Dernbach finished with two wickets off the final two balls, while James Anderson also picked up two victims and Tim Bresnan was the pick of the attack with 3-49.

Earlier the rocksteady Trott notched up 72 off 87 deliveries to guide England to 268-9 off their 50 overs, the hosts having started strongly with captain Alastair Cook (31) and Craig Kieswetter (43).

Eoin Morgan (57) combined with Trott while Anderson struck a crucial late 12 runs, Suraj Randiv leading the Sri Lankan attack taking 5-42.

England dropped Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad before the match, while Cook, who replaced Andrew Strauss as one-day skipper following the World Cup, led from the front to steer his team to a series victory.

He smashed an unbeaten 95 in the fourth match to hand England a 10-wicket win, and finished with 298 runs at an average of 74.50.

Cook was not in the World Cup squad, where England were demolished by eventual runners-up Sri Lanka.

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Yuvraj '100% fit' for England tour

New Delhi, June 23 (bdnews24.com) ? Yuvraj Singh, who is missing India's ongoing tour of West Indies with a chest infection, has announced he is fully fit and ready for the England tour that gets underway on July 15.

"I am 100% fit for the tour and I am sure most of the other seniors who are battling respective injuries would be fully fit for the tour. I am really looking forward to the tour," Yuvraj said, reports ESPNcricinfo.

Yuvraj played a pivotal role in India's World Cup triumph, scoring 362 runs and taking 15 wickets to pick up Player-of-the-Tournament honours.

He is one of several first-choice India players - along with Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan - to sit out of the West Indies tour, that follows a bloated IPL season that began five days after the World Cup final.

Yuvraj rubbished speculation that he had opted out of the West Indies tour since he did not want to play under the leadership of the much younger Suresh Raina, who captained the depleted ODI side, in MS Dhoni's absence.

"I have played under Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir," Yuvraj said. "I have played under so many captains. And Gautam and MS came to the team five years after I got included in the team. There has been no such thing. I play for my country and not for captains."

Yuvraj's World Cup high was followed by a lacklustre showing in the IPL where he led Pune Warriors through a forgettable debut season.

The only time Pune's campaign made the headlines was when they signed Ganguly for the final stages of the event, after he had been ignored by all franchises at the auction.

"Sourav and I share a very good relationship," Yuvraj said. "He supported me a lot during my initial years in international cricket. And I think it was my time to support Dada as he wanted to play in the IPL. We had very good interactions during the IPL season. We had good plans and I hope that we will have good plans and strategy in the next season of the IPL also."

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