The one organised by the Indian board, Modi said, will be held from September 29 to October 8 at three venues - Jaipur, New Delhi and Mohali. The tournament, details of which will be finalised in Mumbai on Wednesday at a meeting to be attended by officials from the BCCI, Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA), has received “four separate offers of US$750 million each” for the commercial and TV rights for a 10-year period, Modi said.

The ECB will not be represented at the meeting and, Modi said, the tournament is also unlikely to include England, which “has been unreasonable” in continuing to object to various rules and regulations, including the ban on players from the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL), the share-holding pattern and profit-sharing formula.

“We are going ahead with the tournament whether England joins up or not, “Modi said. “South Africa and Australia are fully on board with the various rules and regulations but the ECB is being unreasonable and continues to have objections to issues like the shareholding pattern and the governing structure. But we can’t wait any longer and we are going ahead. It’s now up to the ECB to decide whether it wants to join us or not.”

A report in the Sunday Telegraph said the ECB was involved in talks with the royal family of Abu Dhabi over a Champions League to be held there with £750m available over ten years. Asked about the possibility of the ECB organising a Champions League of their own, Modi said “they are welcome to do so” but added that no Indian team would participate in that tournament. “There is no question of any Indian team, including those from the IPL, participating in any other Champions League, whether it’s organised by the ECB or anybody else. Anyway, we must not forget that it’s the television revenue that decides the fate of such tournaments and it’s very obvious where that is headed right now.”

The BCCI’s Champions League originally planned to include the top two Twenty20 domestic teams from India, Australia, South Africa and England. With the ECB’s participation in doubt, Modi said a team from Pakistan has been confirmed while the last slot may be filled by a team from New Zealand or even Sri Lanka.

“I can confirm that Pakistan will send a team because even if the ECB joins us, only one team from England can participate, which is Middlesex,” Modi said. “As for New Zealand, Sri Lanka, or even West Indies, they will all be taking part from next year, anyway, when we expand to 12 teams. One of them will send the eighth team this year, if the ECB stays away and refuses to send even Middlesex.”

Kent, the other finalist in England’s domestic Twenty20 tournament, has players affiliated to the ICL and will not be invited, Modi confirmed. “Kent will not be invited but we will be happy to welcome Middlesex. But for that to happen, the ECB has to take a final call,” Modi said.

The dates for the tournament clash with a tour game for Australia ahead of their first Test against India on October 9 but Modi said the issue will be sorted out on Wednesday. Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey, who are part of the IPL’s Chennai Super Kings, which has qualified for the Champions League, are also expected to be part of the Australian team for that practice match in Hyderabad from October 2-5.

Modi added that the Champions League’s governing structure, profit-sharing formula and shareholding pattern, to which the ECB had objected, will be revealed after Wednesday’s meeting in Mumbai but confirmed that the BCCI owns 50% of the tournament.

ICC General Manager (Cricket) Dave Richardson said Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) Chief Sir Paul Condon in a presentation at the annual conference in Dubai has warned that “IPL brings with it the biggest threat to the game in terms of corruption since the days of cricket in Sharjah”.

“We are concerned. Let’s face it, the IPL is the first domestic competition which has attracted such huge interest and when it does it’s going to inevitably going to attract the interest of match-fixers and people like that,” Richardson said.

“And because of the interest created, there is no doubt that we would be concerned if the BCCI neglected that part of the game and didn’t make sure that they had very strict measures in place to ensure doesn’t take a foothold in the IPL or any other domestic competition for that matter,” he was quoted as saying by a cricket website on Thursday.

Richardson said Condon’s presentation was an attempt to inform the member boards on what is the current situation of corruption in the game.

“The purpose of the meeting and having the briefing from Lord Condon is to keep the members informed and so the message was clearly accepted by the BCCI.

“There is certainly no criticism intended on IPL or the BCCI. It’s just a fact of life that there is a lot of betting going on in cricket. And that because there’s so much money passing hands, inevitably the temptations are going to be there to try and get the players involved”.

Richardson said the IPL had many cricketers who would not have undergone ICC’s anti-corruption education process and could fall to softer approach by bookies.

“…you’ve got players who don’t necessarily go through the ICC education process… so it’s very important for the BCCI to make sure that those players who wouldn’t know what exactly going on because you know it’s normally a softer approach… How about a nice leather jacket or something… and then they get you like that. So as long as the players are aware of the dangers we should be able to keep it under control.”

On an IPL window in the Future Tours Programme (FTP), Richardson said it was difficult to say anything at this stage.

“Well ideally if you could create a window (for IPL) without jeopardising all other international tours obviously that would be an ideal situation.

“But the fact is apart from India and perhaps England all the other countries rely very heavily on their international tours or their bilateral tours.

“They don’t make money from their domestic competitions. so obviously we have to be very careful that we don’t create a out practically we would go for it. But to say that we’d definitely create a window it’s impossible to say at this stage,” said Richardson.

“There is no plan to shelve the Champions League. We will decide on the dates of the Champions League after the Champions Trophy,” Modi said.

Media reports claimed that the plans for the Champions Trophy, scheduled in October, had been shelved.

According to reports, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) insisted on having 50 percent ownership and some other boards also threw in the spanner, forcing IPL authorities to drop the plan.

The ICC too was not sure if two BCCI-backed Twenty20 events, IPL and Champions League, could be accommodated in an already crammed calendar. Besides, there was also the fear of Twenty20 overshadowing other forms of the game, the reports claimed.

Modi said in a statement that the players are legally bound by their three-year contract with their respective franchisees and they have to abide by that.

“The three-year contractual clause was made public to both the franchisees and players prior to the auction and the player’s participation.

“All the parties will abide by the terms and conditions laid down by the governing council and it is only up to the franchisee to trade a player/players as and when the trading window opens next year,” Modi said.

Presently, each of the eight franchisees can spend a maximum of USD five million for its squad, and players like Ricky Ponting has already opposed such moved, fearing it would lead to uneven contests.

The release said the players are bound by the contractual agreements signed with franchisees for a period of three years and new guidelines would be out soon before the transfer window opens early next year.

“…the DLF Indian Premier League will issue a fresh set of guidelines on the player transfer protocols for the next season keeping in mind the transfer window,” the release said.

“It would however, be the prerogative of the franchisee alone to take a decision to trade a player/players, when the trading window opens in the early part of 2009 just prior to the second season of the DLF Indian Premier League,” it added.

However, Modi told Cricinfo that the Champions League was “still a long way away” and what has been agreed upon by various boards so far is “only an in-principle agreement” to host such an event. “The venues have not been decided, the dates are still open and we are trying to host the event this year,” Modi said.

The England and Wales Cricket Board had on Saturday issued a press release which said that the ECB, Cricket Australia, the BCCI and Cricket South Africa had “reached an agreement for the staging of the inaugural Champions League this autumn” for a top prize of US$ 5 million. However, Modi said he would be able to provide a clear picture only after the BCCI’s working committee discusses the issue during a meeting scheduled on June 22.

Asked about the Champions League’s regulations, Modi, who is also a vice-president of the BCCI, said that “it had been clearly resolved earlier” that the IPL franchises would get priority over cricketers in their team. But the franchises will have to pay a “relieving fees” to the player’s state team if both have qualified for the event, he said.

Elaborating on the case of Michael Hussey, who is caught between Western Australia and Chennai Super Kings for the Champions League, Modi said, “In the case of Michael Hussey, Chennai Super Kings has the option to keep him and pay a relieving fees to Western Australia. The option is with Super Kings.”

However, players like David Hussey, whose IPL team, Kolkata Knight Riders, failed to qualify for the Champions League, will have to play for Victoria, he said. “In case of David Hussey, he has to play for his home team if his IPL team has not qualified. If his home team has qualified, which it has, then he plays for them. The county option is his third fall back,” Modi said.

Modi also clarified that “any ICL player playing for any team automatically disqualifies that team from participating” in the Champions League. “No exceptions will be made under any circumstances,” Modi said.

Currently, about 24 ICL players have been signed up to play for various English counties - the top two Twenty20 teams from England will join Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings from India, the Titans from Pretoria and KwaZulu Natal Dolphins representing South Africa and Western Australia and Victoria from Australia in the Champions League.

The fine detail is yet to be confirmed, but Cricket Australia are currently drawing up the regulations which will deal with the issues of Indian Cricket League players and potential conflicts for players involved with more than one team.

It is possible that the Indian board will be generous towards ICL players after the success of IPL. It was also agreed, verbally, between the boards that foreign players will turn out for their local teams in the tournament. That undertaking was sought by the England and Australia boards at a meeting in Singapore.

However, it has been confirmed the event will feature 15 matches over 10 days, and will take place in either the Middle East or India. Alongside the huge sum for the winners, there will be significant prize money for the teams finishing second, third and fourth.

Stuart Broad, the England quick bowler, is excited by the move. “It’s certainly an incentive for domestic sides to take Twenty20 seriously which can only help the international team,” he said after the third day’s play against New Zealand. “I’ve always thought Championship cricket is the priority because it develops players for Test cricket and that’s the ultimate. But this could change the emphasis.”

Western Australia and Victoria from Australia, Rajasthan and Chennai from the IPL along with the Dolphins and Titans from the Pro20 in South Africa have already qualified. They will be joined by the two finalists from the English Twenty20 Cup, which starts next week.

Following meetings late last week between the ECB, represented by chairman Giles Clarke and chief executive David Collier, Cricket Australia’s chairman Creagh O’Connor and chief executive James Sutherland, an agreement was reached yesterday between Clarke, IPL commissioner and BCCI representative Lalit Modi, and Cricket South Africa president Norman Arendse.

“We are extremely grateful to our great friends from Australia, India and South Africa for their hard work and determination to get this tournament off the ground,” Clarke said. “The Twenty20 Cup will be even more fiercely contested this season in the knowledge that the two teams who reach the final will qualify for the Champions League and the chance to win US$5 million.”

This event throws up a number of potential conflicts, not least involving an players linked to the unofficial ICL. Chris Read, Vikram Solanki, Stuart Law, Niall O’Brien and Paul Nixon all appeared in the ICL, and if their counties qualify their inclusion will be a major conflict with the Indian board.

The other issue that will occur is involving players who are contracted to more than one of the teams involved, for example Mike Hussey who played for Chennai in the IPL and is also from Western Australia. The clash could also happen with overseas players in county cricket, for example David Hussey, who plays for Nottinghamshire and Victoria.

Somerset chief executive Richard Gould admitted to Sky Sports News: “We’ve already had some discussions and we’re basically looking to mirror what the IPL contracts are. It was first mooted at the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa and it’s taken a while but now it’s there, I think it’s brilliant for club cricket. It gives it much more juice.”

“IPL has given me great exposure. You rarely get a chance to bowl to so many world class batsmen and this experience has made me a better bowler. (Chennai Super Kings) coach Kepler Wessels made a slight adjustment to my action, helped me hit the deck harder and bowl at right areas.

“But, I will look to have a fresh start when I bowl in the tri-series, where I will also get opportunity to bowl a longer spell which should help me show my abilities,” Gony, who has played just five first class matches, said.

Gony, who replaced in the ODI squad after pacer S Sreesanth was ruled out due to a side strain sustained in an IPL match, described the national call-up as a dream come true. “It is like a dream come true. It was always my dream to play for my country. When I got the call from a BCCI official informing about my selection in the team for the tri-series, my joy knew no bounds,” said the 24-year-old right-arm seamer.

The 6′4″ tall cricketer from Mohali, who took 17 wickets from 16 games in the IPL, does not seem to be bothered about pressure of making India debut, though he adds “only pressure on me will be to perform well”.

Gony said he was surprised when he was bought in the IPL players’ auction by the Chennai Super Kings team owners.

“After an ordinary first class debut, getting the call from an IPL franchise came as a surprise. However, I feel taking eight wickets in two Deodhar Trophy matches for North Zone helped me catch the eye of the team owners. IPL has been a great learning experience for young cricketers like me. Though schedule was hectic, but I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it,” he said.

Gony praised his Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni for showing faith in him during the Twenty20 extravaganza.

“My skipper showed great faith in me. He is a real guiding force and all the players enjoyed playing under him. In addition, (South African pacer) Makhaya Ntini used to interact with me regularly and I got the opportunity to talk to many international players which also helped me a lot,” he said.

Scorecard

Chasing a target of 164, Rajasthan began on a disastrous note, losing three wickets inside seven overs with just 42 runs on the board.

Niraj Patel (2) was cleaned up by Manpreet Gony in the fourth over and Swapnil Asnodkar (29) and Kamran Akmal (6) were dismissed in the space of three balls (of an Albie Morkel over), the latter needlessly run-out.

However, the in-form duo of Shane Watson (28) and Yusuf Pathan (56) put on 65 runs in just 45 balls for the fourth wicket in a partnership that brought Rajasthan back in the game.

Watson was impressive in his 19-ball knock, which had three hits to the fence, before he was cleaned up by a beautiful delivery from Muralitharan.

The Sri Lankan also snapped up Mohammad Kaif (12) off his final delivery (the last ball of the 17th over) and Morkel dismissed Ravindra Jadeja (0) with the very next delivery to brighten Chennai’s prospects.

Rajasthan were precariously placed at 139 for six, needing 25 runs with 17 balls left.

Then the worse happened. Pathan, who surived three chances to post his fourth half century of the tournament, saw his luck run out finally.

Pathan, whose 39-ball knock contained three hits to the fence and four huge ones over it, was run-out to a direct hit by Suresh Raina.

But Rajasthan captain Shane Warne was not to be denied his moment of glory.

Rajasthan needed 18 runs off the last two overs and eight from the final over, bowled by Lakshmipathy Balaji.

Warne (9 not out) and Sohail Tanvir (12 not out) took their team home, the latter hitting a boundary off the last ball.

Earlier, Rajasthan Royals used their bowling resources intelligently to restrict Chennai Super Kings to a modest 163 for five wickets.

Royals skipper Warne won the toss, asked the rival team to bat first and then captained the side imaginatively with his field placings and bowling changes, never allowing the Super Kings to settle down on a slow-pace track.

The Super Kings owed their score mainly to an enterprising 43 by in-form one-down batsman Suresh Raina, who faced only 30 balls while hitting two pulled sixes and a four.

The UP left-hander, back in the Indian one-day team, built on a decent start of 39 in 5.2 overs provided by Parthiv Patel (38 in 33 balls) and Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan (16 in 14 balls).

But his dismissal in the 17th over, when he threatened to cut loose, derailed Chennai’s plans for a more healthy total.

The most impressive bowler for the Royals was off-spinner Pathan, who grabbed three for 22 in two spells, while Watson accounted for the wicket of Raina.

The Super Kings, who had lost their two home and away ties earlier in the tournament against the same opposition, began their innings on a cautious note on a slow-paced track of low bounce on which the ball did not come on freely to the bat.

Parthiv and Sivaramakrishnan played it safe against Tanvir, who had grabbed six for 14 against them on May 4 at Jaipur.

Seeing the mood of the two openers, Warne removed the Pakistani left-arm pacer, the most successful bowler in the tournament, after only one over.

The run-rate perked up when Vidyut played an inside-out cover drive off Watson and then was lucky when his top-edge flew over the third man fence for a six.

Parthiv, coming into the match on the back of an unbeaten 51 last night in the semifinal against Punjab King’s XI, was content to see off Tanvir by facing five dot balls and then hitting his first four. He was also lucky to see his top edge off Munaf Patel race to the fence.

Warne replaced Watson with Pathan after five overs, in which 39 runs were scored, and the move paid off immediately when Vidyut pulled a short ball for Jadeja to bring off a fine front-diving catch at mid-on.

Warne rung in quick bowling changes to unsettle the second wicket duo of Parthiv and fellow left-hander Raina, who had powered their team to a nine-wicket win over Punjab King’s XI with an unbeaten century stand.

The 50 of the innings was raised in the seventh over and then Parthiv, after pulling off spinner Pathan for his fifth four, departed. He edged an attempted off-glide to wicket keeper Akmal who juggled with the ball before completing the catch.

In-form Raina, who made 54 not out against Deccan Chargers in his team’s last preliminary phase tie and followed it up with 55 not out against Punjab, continued his good run by stroking the ball well. He was hardly troubled by the spinners and pulled the great Warne for a six.

Morkel (16) also pulled Warne disdainfully for a six into the stands in the 12th over after the first 10 had yielded 75 runs. The South African all-rounder also swung Pathan over mid-wicket for his second six before he got out in the same over, 13th of the innings.

In trying to repeat the shot he ballooned a catch to stumper Akmal who took a tumble over Mohd Kaif, who also went for the ball, while managing to hold on to the sphere to provide Pathan his third wicket.

The 100 came up in 80 balls after which Raina swung Siddharth Trivedi, bowling his second spell, for a six. Later skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (29 not out in 17 balls) lofted Warne, bowling his last over, over the straight field for another six to take Chennai Super Kings to 117 for three with five overs remaining.

Raina fell in trying to clear the long off area and was caught just inside the rope by Jadeja after which Dhoni and Chamara Kapugedara added 20 runs before the latter holed out to the deep off Tanvir in the last over.

Dhoni, who hit a straight second six in Tanvir’s last over, and S Badrinath (6) remained unbeaten at the end of the innings.

Rajasthan were without opener Graeme Smith and made two changes to the side which won the semifinal against Delhi Daredevils while Chennai retained the side that won them the semi final against Punjab King’s XI.

Punjab’s two previous losses to Chennai, in the league games, had both come when they’d chased, and Yuvraj Singh did the team a huge favour by winning the toss and choosing to bat on a pitch which was expected to assist the spinners later in the evening. That, though, was the only thing that went right for Punjab, as Makhaya Ntini and Manpreet Gony struck twice each in their first spells, reduced Punjab to 40 for 5, and never released the pressure thereafter, as the Wankhede Stadium played host to the second one-sided semi-final in two days.

On a pitch offering generous bounce to the fast bowlers, Chennai’s pace attack of Ntini, Gony and Albie Morkel bowled in the perfect channel, denying the Punjab batsmen any room to execute strokes through the off side. Learning from Shane Watson’s spell on Friday, Ntini pitched it slightly short of a length, hit the bat hard, and hurried the batsmen in their shots, while Gony bowled a fuller length, and with the sort of control which would have made Glenn McGrath proud. Chennai were also superb in the field - Muttiah Muralitharan pulled off a splendid catch over his head to intercept a Yuvraj pull, Suresh Raina was equally spectacular in pulling off a diving catch to dismiss Wilkin Mota, while the ground fielding was without blemish.

There was little sign of such a dramatic collapse when Shaun Marsh stroked the first ball of the match - from Muralitharan, surprisingly - through the covers for four. Seven came off that over, but the wheels started coming off in the next over, when James Hopes slashed at a wide one from Ntini and edged to Parthiv.

That dismissal sparked off a procession of wickets, as three more fell in the next four overs. Kumar Sangakkara’s was the most bizarre, as he seemed to miss a drive off Gony, but walked off even though Parthiv didn’t appeal at all. Yuvraj was restless after playing out three successive dot balls and pulled to Murali at short midwicket, but the biggest blow was delivered in the next over, when Ntini hit back to dismiss Marsh immediately after being creamed for a perfect straight drive. Marsh had top-edged a pull for six earlier in the innings, but wasn’t as lucky in the sixth over, as the inside edge crashed into his stumps.

Clearly rattled by the early wickets, Punjab lost the plot with some terrible running between the wickets, which cost Irfan Pathan his wicket. Mahela Jayawardene stroked the ball to third man, ran two, started for the third and then changed his mind, leaving Pathan with too little time to gain his ground. When Jayawardene himself fell next over, steering to the wicketkeeper, Punjab had slumped to 45 for 6.

From there, it was only an exercise in damage control: Mota and Ramesh Powar - the two local Mumbai players - put together 35, easily the most productive partnership of the innings. Mota managed a useful 26-ball 25, while Powar smeared Morkel for a huge six over midwicket and then punished a listless L Balaji for three fours in the last over, but a target of 113 was hardly enough to test Chennai.

S Vidyut fell early, but Raina and Parthiv gave Punjab no further opportunity. Raina was in especially sublime touch - he started off with two delectable fours, adjusting to Powar’s turn and gliding a four to third man, and then cutting the next ball through point. As he grew in confidence, the ferocity of the strokes increased, and the high point was an incredible pull off Hopes - on a pitch where most batsmen struggled to ride the bounce and execute the stroke - which sailed onto the roof of the stadium. Pathan was similarly dismissed over square leg, while Chawla was slog-swept for six and then driven through extra cover in the last over as Raina brought up his fifty off a mere 32 balls.

Parthiv was slightly more subdued, but the paltry target gave him plenty of time to work with. He started slowly, but then a couple of superb straight hits off the fast bowlers, and powerful sweeps off the spinners. Pathan’s early swing with the new ball offered Punjab some hope, but once Chennai got past that threat, there was little the slower bowlers could do. Chennai lost both their league games against Rajasthan, but after such an emphatic win, that’ll hardly bother them.

The Australia all-rounder first hit a breezy 52 as the Royals put up a challenging 192 for 9 in their allotted 20 overs and then destroyed the Delhi top order.

In a triple strike he had the top three Delhi batsmen — Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan — dismissed cheaply.

Reduced to 24 for 3, Delhi never recovered and lost wickets at regular intervals. Watson finished with figures of 3 for 10 in three overs as Delhi Daredevils were dismissed for a paltry 87 in 16.2 overs.

Munaf Patel, who was omitted from the ODI squads for Bangladesh and Pakistan tours, claimed 3 for 16 and Shane Warne 2 for 21 to hasten Rajasthan’s passage to the final.

Rajasthan Royals take on the winners of Saturday’s second semi-final between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings.

Delhi began their run-chase on a poor note as Sehwag (3) pulled a ball wide of the stumps from Watson and was caught by Sohail Tanvir at deep mid-wicket in the second over.

Gambhir (11) and left-handed Dhawan (5), who both showed good form earlier in the tournament, perished in quick succession after enabling Delhi make a partial recovery.

Gambhir slashed Watson off backfoot and was caught at cover point while Dhawan pulled the Aussie straight to short mid-wicket to leave Delhi gasping at 24 for three.

Watson’s first three-over spell read a superb three for 10 and if Delhi had hopes of staging a fight-back they were thwarted by the dismissal of Manoj Tiwary (0), four runs later, off Munaf Patel.

It was a regular procession of batsmen thereafter.

Tillakratne Dilshan top-scored with 33 in 22 balls — inclusive of a six and five fours — before being seventh out at 76 in the 13th over.

Earlier, Yusuf Pathan celebrated his Team India inclusion with a whirlwind 45. The hard-hitting Pathan, named in the Indian 15 for next month’s tri-series in Bangladesh and Asia Cup in Pakistan earlier in the day, creamed the hapless Delhi attack, which included Glenn McGrath, hitting four sixes and three fours in his 21-ball knock.

The 25-year-old Baroda all-rounder took over the attacking reins from all-rounder Watson, who stroked his way to a fine half century in 29 balls, including four sixes and three fours, after openers Graeme Smith (25 in 21 balls) and Swapnil Asnodkar (39 in 21 balls) launched the innings on a sound note.

Watson and Pathan’s efforts helped Rajasthan Royals add 109 runs in the last 10 overs after Smith and the pint-sized Asnodkar put on 65 runs in 40 balls at the start.

Watson was involved in a breezy 52 runs partnership off 29 balls with Mohd Kaif (12) after Rajasthan Royals suddenly slipped to 76 for 3 from 65 without loss.

The innings started slowly as Smith was hampered by a pulled muscle while going for a run. But Asnodkar, who often took the aerial route and hit a six and six fours, boosted the run-rate.

The right-hander, after edging McGrath for his first four in the third over, struck Mohd Asif for three fours in the fourth over — a slash, a lofted off drive and a hook � to give the innings the much-needed push.

Smith then took over and slammed McGrath for three consecutive fours as the score raced to 43 for no loss in five overs.

Asnodkar had a lucky escape off the first ball of V Yo Mahesh’s spell when Farveez Maharoof dropped a sitter at long leg. He celebrated the escape by swinging the same bowler to the same area for a six to raise the 50 of the innings in only 33 balls.

Maharoof made amends by sending back both the Rajasthan openers with the last three balls of his first over.

Smith was caught flicking at deep square leg by a diving Shikhar Dhawan and then Asnodkar was dismissed at the same score of 65, caught at backward point off the Sri Lankan.

Maharoof also accounted for Sohail Tanvir, promoted up the order by his skipper, Shane Warne, as a pinch-hitter, when he miscued a swing to leg and the ball ballooned behind to stumper Dinesh Karthik.

From 65 for no loss, Rajasthan were reduced to 76 for three in the space of 14 balls. But the arrival of Watson brought about another run-spree as the Aussie slammed Yo Mahesh for a four and two sixes in his third over after change of ends to raise the 100 in 65 balls after the first ten overs had yielded 83 runs.

Watson then lofted leg spinner Amit Mishra for a six over long on to keep the scoring on a healthy note by adding 52 runs in 29 balls for the fourth wicket with Kaif to take the total past 125.

Kaif looked out of touch and was clean bowled when he tried a leg side heave off Mishra and missed the ball completely.

Pathan commenced his innings in whirlwind fashion by hoisting Mishra for successive sixes. Later he hit McGrath for a flat six over long on before being run out while going for the second run.

The track did not offer the pace bowlers the same sort of bounce and pace that was evident in previous matches held at the same stadium. Asif was carted around for 21 runs in his first two overs while McGrath gave away 22 in his first three.

Yo Mahesh proved very expensive and gave away 50 runs for two late wickets in his four overs.

Maharoof took three for 34 to emerge as the most successful bowler while Mishra claimed 2 for 37.