ICC Twenty20 World Cup News

Despite their handsome victory against Pakistan on Wednesday evening, India are still sweating on the fitness of their two key players Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan. Sehwag, who is yet to bat on the tour, is suffering from a niggle to his right shoulder while Zaheer is on the recovery path from the shoulder injury to his bowling arm, picked up in the IPL.

Captain MS Dhoni sounded ambiguous last evening when asked about Sehwag's fitness. "To be honest I don't know. He could be [fit] for the second game, but we will see."

The Indians, having landed last Friday, had a couple of optional practice sessions before playing two warm-up games against New Zealand and Pakistan. Sehwag was present at the first nets session but did not bat and missed out on the practice matches. "The physio is still working on Viru [Sehwag]," a team source said.

Cameron White has been confirmed as Australia's replacement for the ICC World Twenty20, after Andrew Symonds was sent home by the team management for an alcohol-related incident.

White, 25, was a surprise omission from the original squad, seeing as Australia have long fancied his powerful middle-order batting in the 20-over game. He has previously played seven T20Is for his country, scoring a total of 152 runs from 102 balls, with a highest score of 40 not out.

Cricket Australia's request for a replacement player was accepted by the ICC on Thursday evening, and White is due to link up with the squad in the next 24 hours, ahead of their opening fixture against West Indies at The Oval on Saturday.

The South Africans got home with five balls to spare despite only being asked to chase 110 after a dramatic early collapse in the Asian team's innings.

Sri Lanka had to get early wickets and Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekera duly obliged by striking in each of their first overs to remove Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis cheaply.

South Africa had reached only 38-2 at the halfway stage although their paltry target meant they were still in the match.

England have comfortably had the better of West Indies throughout their early-season exchanges and the theme continued at Lord's. They raced to a nine-wicket win with 32 balls remaining on the back of an electric opening stand of 119 between Luke Wright and Ravi Bopara. Wright finished with 75 from 38 deliveries after giving the stands a peppering, and confirming his position for the tournament opener, against Netherlands, on Friday.

England's opening combination has never been settled in Twenty20s, but after this effort it's difficult to see these two being separated in the next couple of weeks. The team performance against Scotland was far from convincing, but here England hit their stride with the bowlers and fielders also doing their jobs to hold West Indies to 144.

Finally India and Pakistan played out a one-sided Twenty20 game. Filling in for Virender Sehwag as opener, Rohit Sharma continued to give India a combination dilemma and made the chase seem like an afternoon walk in a London park. A target of 159, with extra bowlers available by the virtue of this being a 13-a-side game, was by no means an easy one, but Gautam Gambhir and Rohit managed with the ease that belies the tension an India-Pakistan match brings.

Nothing about this encounter suggested it was a warm-up game. The sell-out crowd, and the intensity in the first innings was something even the final of the actual tournament will be proud of.

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni would need pluck and luck in equal measure to score a consolation win against Pakistan in the warm-up match of the ICC World Twenty20 here on Wednesday.

Dhoni's men lost the first sparring match of the warm-ups to New Zealand on Monday and are up against an opponent who consider themselves unlucky to lose in two previous encounters between the two sides.

Both the previous ties were in the inaugural edition in 2007 and India could cross over the finish line by a matter of chance.