India is in the midst of Diwali, the Festival of Lights, which is celebrated by Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains as well as Hindus. The Champions’ League matches today provided a few fireworks to help the holiday along, but not before there were fears if fireworks of entirely the wrong kind.

We began the day with a match between the Cape Cobras and Victoria Bushrangers. The match was delayed by a bomb scare at the stadium. The Indian police reportedly detected traces of explosives on the kit bag of a young Kashmiri player who was taking part in an Under-22 tournament at the ground. The players were kept in their hotels until the ground had been checked, though apparently the crowd was let in.

After almost 2 hours delay the game got underway, but the stress had clearly told on the players. Cobras star Herschelle Gibbs declined to play, saying he didn’t feel mentally up to it, while the Victorian openers minds also seemed to be elsewhere as both of them were dismissed for 0 in the first over by Monde Zondeki. Victoria’s innings never recovered, and they posted only 129 in a game reduced to 17 overs a side. The strong Cobras batting lineup had no difficulty reaching that target.

The second game of the day saw the home team, Bangalore, take on Delhi. The result of the first game meant that Bangalore could no longer qualify for the semi-finals, but that didn’t stop them wanting to get one over on their local rivals in front of a massive holiday crowd.

Sehwag got the Daredevils off to their usual flying start, but when he was out (for 47 off 29 balls) the Delhi innings began to stagnate. Bangalore captain, Anil Kumble, who was celebrating his birthday, took 3-20 off his four overs. In the end Delhi struggled to 138.

In contract the Bangalore innings got off to a slow start, but with two wickets down Ross Taylor and Rahul Dravid began to turn the game around. Taylor scored a rapid-fire 65 off only 38 balls. By the time he was out the game was all but over. With five overs to play Bangalore needed just 6 runs to win and Dravid, a man known as “The Wall” because of his defensive style of play, celebrated by smashing the very next ball back over the bowler’s head and into the crowd.

Today’s games sealed the fates of all of the teams in League B. Cape Town and Victoria go through to the semi-finals. The Cobras still have a game against Delhi to play, and they will want to top the group, but even if they lose they are guaranteed the second-best record.

League A will be decided tomorrow. Trinidad & Tobago are best placed, and will top the group if they beat the Eagles, but they will probably be OK if they lose a close one. They will also know what they need to do, because they play second. The first match is Somerset v NSW. My boys are not quite out of the tournament. A convincing win over the Australians, plus a win by T&T, might just see them through on net run rate. However, the NSW side is very good so I’m not expecting a miracle.