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Essex have signed Darren Thomas on a one-year deal, ending his 15-year association with GlamorganThomas made his debut in 1992 when, aged just 17, he took 5 for 80 against Derbyshire at Chesterfield. A promising young bowler, he was an instrumental force in helping Glamorgan winning the Championship title in 1997 and, in all, has taken 504 first-class wickets.”I’m sad to be leaving Glamorgan because they have been part of my life for 15 years,” Thomas told Essex’s website, “but things change and when one door closes another opens. I’ve now come to Essex to further my cricket career. They have had a lot of success recently so I’m hoping to help them win more silverware in the future.”This is an opportunity I didn’t realise would come around. When I played against Essex for Glamorgan it was always massively competitive so I’m over the moon to now be joining them. I get on well with Ronnie Irani and have had quite a lot of success against them in the past, which I hope to now bring to Essex.”Thomas has had success against Irani, too; in the NatWest Trophy semi-final in 1997 Thomas punched the air in delight after dismissing Irani. Unfortunately, the batsman walked straight into the bowler’s euphoric thump.”When a cricketer like Darren Thomas becomes available during the transfer window it is an opportunity not to be missed,” Irani said. “Darren has a fantastic track record in both forms of the game, has over 500 first-class wickets and played a major part in Glamorgan’s Championship season in 1997. As has been seen, our bowling performances have let us down at times so Darren’s arrival will strengthen us.”

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene has said that if his country was to make any headway in the Twenty20 format, the Sri Lankan cricket authorities must plan out a proper structure for it domestically.”Twenty20 is something unique and provides a lot of challenges to cricketers,” said Jayawardene. “If we are to go forward we need to play more Twenty20 cricket domestically at a highly competitive level, not just clubs competing with each other day in and day out.”We have to look into getting the best players involved and have a high quality tournament,” he said. “Twenty20 is going to be a part of the international calendar, so we need to develop specialist players for this type of game.”Jayawardene said that with every game Sri Lanka played in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20, they learnt a lot.”Hopefully we should get a few more good cricketers coming through this system who will be really good Twenty20 players. Guys who are in the middle should be able to handle tough situations, not panic, be cool-headed and have confidence in what they are doing and bat according to situations. Bowlers with a lot of talent and variation who can adapt to different conditions will also come into play.Jayawardene stated that it was disappointing that his team won only one of their three matches in the Super Eights, against Bangladesh, but had words of praise for his bowlers.”We started off very well and we had our chances, but we made a few mistakes especially in the batting department. We never batted to our potential. We tried to do too many things which were not in our control,” he told the . “If we had stuck to our strengths and batted accordingly we probably would have given a better account of ourselves.”He praised his bowlers’ performance at the Twenty20 event. “The bowlers bowled really well throughout the tournament. Even without Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan] they put their hands up and performed really well. Credit should go to them.”Jayawardene was of the opinion that the ICC would not allow Twenty20 to replace the fifty-over game.”Twenty20 has been brought in to get in more crowds for the game. We need to strike a proper balance between Test cricket, one-day cricket and Twenty20. That’s the right way to go about it. The more we play Twenty20 the more we get kids involved. It’s obviously good for the game, but the real challenge for individual professional cricketers would be Test cricket and one-day cricket to test their capabilities.”Twenty20 cricket will develop individual skills. It will improve the one-day version just as one-day cricket improved Test cricket – run-scoring became faster, and Tests became more interesting and result oriented. I’m sure Twenty20 will have the same impact on one-day cricket as well.”

Match facts

December 28, 2015
Start time 1430 local (9am GMT)Gautam Gambhir-led Delhi will be gunning for their second Vijay Hazare Trophy title against plucky Gujarat•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Big Picture

The presence of the big India stars brought some attention to the knockout week of Vijay Hazare Trophy, but it’s the two best teams with those hungry to do well at this level that are left standing. Axar Patel has been Gujarat’s talisman, but he is hardly the established star that would bring newspaper headlines to a tournament. Delhi, on the other hand, have relied mainly on team work in their bowling: Quicks Navdeep Saini and Suboth Bhati have gained massively from a dash of Ishant Sharma. Left-arm spinner Manan Sharma has been the perfect support act with an economy rate of 3.36, and Pawan Negi has had a bit of an X-factor about him.The batting of these two sides have been the opposite. Gujarat have shared around the duties: Parthiv Patel hits at the top, Priyank Pachal, Rujul Bhatt and Chirag Gandhi have been the rocks, and Manpreet Juneja returned to form with a fifty in the semi-final. Delhi are more reliant on Unmukt Chand and Gautam Gambhir. Nitish Rana has shown signs of maturity, and Negi has again provided crucial lower-order quick runs.This has been a good turnaround for both the sides after a disappointing first-class season. Delhi seemed to have put behind administrative controversies when they led the points table in the first half. They fell away in the second half whereas Gujarat failed to recover from a slow start. Only one team will cap it off, though.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Delhi WWWWW
Gujarat WWWWW

In the spotlight

The knockout stage played on tired pitches has been a low-scoring affair. The pitches, especially at Chinnaswamy Stadium, the venue of the final, have been two-paced and generally slow. In the first day-night match of the event, the conditions will be in focus.It might be easy to say Gujarat have been all Axar, but Rujul Bhatt will take exception. He has been a solid middle-order batsman, a good slip fielder and a steady offspinner. He is Gujarat’s highest run-getter with 278 runs, and has given away runs at under 4.5 an over. When Axar was running through Tamil Nadu in the semi-final, Bhatt bowled 10 straight overs for just 34 runs.Chand, meanwhile, is the only one with a realistic chance of unseating Mandeep Singh as the highest run-getter of the tournament. At 308 runs, he is 86 behind Mandeep’s mark of 394. He nearly scored that many in the semi-final, shepherding what could have been a tricky chase on the Chinnaswamy pitch.

Team news

Neither of the teams might have pressing reasons to change their winning combinations.Delhi (probable) 1 Rishabh Pant (wk), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Unmukt Chand, 4 Gautam Gambhir (capt.), 5 Milind Kumar, 6 Nitish Rana, 7 Manan Sharma, 8 Pawan Negi, 9 Suboth Bhati, 10 Navdeep Saini, 11 Ishant Sharma.Gujarat (probable) 1 Parthiv Patel (capt. & wk), 2 Priyank Panchal, 3 Bhargav Merai, 4 Rujul Bhatt, 5 Chirag Gandhi, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Manpreet Juneja, 8 Rohit Dahiya, 9 Rush Kalaria, 10 Hardik Patel, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.

Stats and trivia

• This is only the second time these two teams are facing each other in a one-day match. The last encounter was a romp for Delhi, in the quarter-final of 2012-13.
• Axar Patel is the joint highest wicket-taker in the tournament, with 19 of them. He is tied with Punjab’s Siddarth Kaul.
• Delhi have won the Vijay Hazare Trophy once in 2013. Gujarat are looking for their first title.

Quotes

“We can’t take any opposition lightly. We were beaten by Assam in the days and that cost us the knockout berth. We lost against Vidarbha, a very close match. We could not chase 163. We have got enough instances for the fact that we can’t take any opposition lightly. Of course it being a final, we have to raise the bar in all the three departments and make sure that we put in a 100%, do our best so that we win the finals as well.”
“It is great the way preparation for Australia is going. Have batted and bowled well in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. But I am taking it step by step. Right now thinking of the final only. Will think of Australia after that.”

Dwayne Bravo is looking to put the advice he has received from Brian Lara to good use when the third Test against England gets under way at Old Trafford on Thursday. Lara could do nothing as his former team-mates slumped to a record innings and 283-run defeat in the second Test at Headingley.”Just last [Monday] night I was on the phone with Brian,” Bravo said. “He called me, having arrived in London. He is aware of everything that is going on. He still has a big interest in the team’s performance. At Lord’s [where West Indies drew the first Test] he was in the dressing room among the guys.”It is very nice to know that even after he called it a day he still has enough time to make himself available to the younger players. Brian has a special place in the heart of West Indian cricket and has a lot to offer still. Anything going wrong with our batters, whether it be Chris Gayle or Devon Smith, if he can’t get hold of them, he will pass it on to me.”West Indies technique against the swinging ball looked inadequate at Headingley where the cold conditions were far removed from those in the Caribbean, although they weren’t helped by being without Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan. But Bravo, whose second-innings 52 at Headingley was a rare West Indies highlight, is hoping for better weather at Old Trafford, where three years ago he struck 77 and took six wickets in the first innings of a Test.”The weather is looking fine so far,” he said. “The pitch looks hard and that is our kind of cricket, where the ball is coming on to the bat and there is bounce for the fast bowlers.”

A case of mistaken identity:
One of the posters outside the FerozShah Kotla introduces you to “The Speedy Daredevil”. You may call FarveezMaharoof a lot of things, including a Glenn McGrath wannabe, but speedy?Dale Steyn was playing for the opposition.Lights, camera, no action:
The started was delayed by 10 minutes asa result of a glitch in the TV transmission. Were it not for the crowdgetting restive, the pause might have gone on longer. Steyn filled thetime with rolls and stretches on the outfield, and it wasn’t until theseventh over that pictures were available.No country for old men:
Sunil Joshi is even older than McGrath, andlooks a stranger to this format. His only over was pounded for 19 byGautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan, and when Jacques Kallis was flayed inthe next over, Bangalore’s reliance on experience wasn’t looking thatclever.Are you watching, Jens Lehmann?:
When Dhawan powered one in thedirection of midwicket, most eyes went to the boundary rope. But wait. Whowas that diving full length to his right to pouch a stunning catch? RahulDravid may no longer be part of the one-day team, but at this rate, an I-League football club may come calling next season.Not quite perfect:
Most bowlers would bite your hand off if youoffered them figures of 4 for 29 in a T20 game. In his final over, McGrathcame back to claim the wicket of Dravid and tilt the game decisively inDelhi’s favour. His last ball, though, was tucked away for four by MarkBoucher. Cue a frustrated kick at the air. The true champions are neverhappy.