Bridgetown, April 13
Australia qualified for the semifinals of the World Cup after a crushing nine-wicket victory over Ireland in their Super Eight game today.

Pace bowlers Glenn McGrath and Shaun Tait skittled Ireland out for 91 at the Kensington Oval and the World Cup holders then knocked off the total inside 13 overs with the loss of just one wicket. The match lasted just 42.2 overs.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and put in the Irish — without a win in the second stage of the competition — and was rewarded with impressive spells from his two opening bowlers who claimed three wickets apiece.

In reply, Adam Gilchrist scored 34 and Michael Hussey was unbeaten on 30 as Australia made easy work of a harmless Irish attack to win an utterly one-sided game with over 37 overs remaining.

Earlier, Australian pacers breathed fire as minnows Ireland wilted miserably to be bundled out for 91 in 30 overs.

Woes aplenty were in store for the Irish from the very first over. Veteran seamer McGrath castled Jeremy Bray (1) at the team total of 2 and three overs later, William Porterfield (1) fell to Tait’s raw pace as he was trapped in front.

Ireland lost wicketkeeper-batsman Niall O’Brien in very next ball as Tait was in sight of claiming a place in the record books by securing a hat-trick in the World Cup. But the glory did not come the Australian’s way.

The fourth blow came sooner than later for Ireland as McGrath sent back Eoin Morgan, caught by Matthew Hayden, for nought.

At 4 for 12 after 4.3 overs, the minnows’ innings was in tatters. But a 20-run partnership by Kevin O’Brien (16 off 25 balls) and Andrew White (6 off 20 balls) instilled some confidence in the side.

McGrath broke the stand by removing White, brilliantly caught by Brad Hogg at mid-off, and 10 runs later Stuart Clark accounted for Kevin as Brad Hodge took the catch.

The regular fall of wickets did not deter Ireland skipper Trent Johnston (17), who tried to put some runs on the board.

But his defiance was too meek as he perished while dragging a Tait delivery onto his stumps.

The most valiant effort from the Irish came from tailender John Mooney, who scored 23 runs off 44 balls before being run out as the last man.

For the Aussies, the best performer turned out to be the seasoned McGrath (3-17), while Tait (3-39) provided him good support in sharing the new ball.

Andrew Symonds, Hogg and Clark claimed a wicket each.

Scoreboard

Ireland

Bray b McGrath 1

Porterfield lbw Tait 1

St George’s, April 13
A needle contest is in the offing as two title aspirants, South Africa and New Zealand, take on each other in their penultimate Super Eight match of the World Cup at the National Stadium here tomorrow.

Both teams face each other after having recorded a big win and suffering a huge defeat, respectively.

South Africa play their fifth super league game after chalking out an impressive 67-run win over the West Indies here on Tuesday.

Though they suffered a rude jolt prior to that, having lost to Bangladesh.

They have come back stronger and underlined their determination in no uncertain terms with their strong professional display against the hosts.

For New Zealand, a big defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka was nothing short of a huge shock. Having chalked out six wins in a row — including three in group stage, they were suddenly left looking vulnerable as their top order fell apart in the face of disciplined bowling from veterans Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan.

The Kiwi total of 220/9, built almost entirely around Scott Styris, proved entirely inadequate despite Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori turning in probing spells.

In the process New Zealand's frailties were exposed, and that too on a pitch holding no terrors for the batsmen. Stephen Fleming fell early, the returning Ross Taylor aslo failed to disturb the scoreboard and had it not been for a 64-run eighth wicket partnership between Styris (111 not out) and James Franklin (25 not out), the Kiwis would not even have tallied 200 on the day.

Against the resurgent Proteas, it will be interesting to see whether New Zealand have that sort of resilience or not. It is more the ability of a team to bounce back and its will in question here.

The Black Caps are not a side to give up easily. Yet, at the same time it cannot be forgotten that in the World Cup, they have always promised more than they have eventually delivered. That is something they have travelled here determined to amend. How deep that determination runs is now on test and this will make it an interesting game. With eight points already in the bag, it is hardly time to press the panic button, but they will want to be in top form ahead of their final league game, against Australia here in eight days time.

The Proteas are still some way short of sealing their semi-final berth, but wins in their final two games will take care of that.

However, they are convinced that the team is peaking at just the right time. ''We are coming together very well. The Guyana result could have resulted in hasty reactions but none of that happened.

Instead, everyone was focused on doing his best against the West Indies here yesterday, and that is an encouraging sign,'' said wicket-keeper Mark Boucher.

And with Shaun Pollock, Andre Nel and Kallis all in wicket-taking form, the Kiwis look like having their hands full in bouncing back from Thursday's setback. Most importantly, they need Shane Bond to fire.

It will be a face-off between two of the better all-rounders active in the game today. Kallis and Styris have both had good tournaments so far, and how they go on tomorrow could also determine their team’s fortunes. — UNI

The match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand was always going to be a game to look forward to. There has been some tension between these teams, especially after the Lankans toured New Zealand late last year.

The run-out of Muralitharan when he went down the pitch to congratulate Kumar Sangakkara on getting to his century, was an act that didn’t go down well. It was quite obvious that Murali wasn’t trying to steal a run, but in his excitement had forgotten that the ball was still ‘live’ and in play.

McCullum taking the bails off and Stephen Fleming sticking with the appeal showed a new face of New Zealand cricket, one which was going to play hard and ruthlessly in attempting to win every possible advantage for the side. So there has been a fair bit of needle in the Sri Lanka and New Zealand matches.

New Zealand would have fancied their chances in the absence of Lasith Malinga, who has troubled them in the past. But it was the old warhorse Chaminda Vaas who rocked them with his burst of three top-order wickets. Vaas is now more a military medium pacer, but he gets the ball to swing late and causes problems to the batsmen. With skipper Fleming and young Taylor being consumed for ducks, Scott Styris had to do a holding operation.

Unfortunately, he had little support and with wickets falling regularly, the only partnership of note was the one with Oram. That 64-run partnership took 15 overs and put New Zealand on the back foot. Only a late flurry by Styris and Franklin who added 64 in a little over 9 overs helped the Kiwis get past 200.

It was never going to be enough, for all Sri Lanka needed to do was bat sensibly without taking any undue risks. It was also important from the Sri Lankan point of view to have Sangakkara play a long innings, for he has not quite done justice to his talent as a batsman. Perhaps the dual responsibility of keeping wickets and batting as high as number three is taking a toll of his energies.

In this game, with these being no extra pressure of trying to maintain a big scoring rate since the asking rate was a little over four runs an over, Sangakarra could play himself in. Jayasuriya also batted without taking risks and that partnership sealed the game for the Lankans, even though they lost Jayawardene early and later the impressive Chamara Silva failed to capitalise on a good start. Sri Lanka of course have a cool experienced hand in Dilshan, and with Sangakarra staying till the winning runs came, there was no need for any nerves or tension in the dressing room.

It was a most impressive win and pretty much assures Sri Lanka of a place in the semi-finals. For New Zealand though, this defeat makes it hard to get to the number one position for the semi-finals as they still have to play the Australians, though there is little danger to their chances of qualifying for the series. It does look as if the fight for the fourth place is now going to be between South Africa and England. — PMG

Melbourne, April 13
BCCI's wish to associate Greg Chappell with Indian cricket may not be fulfilled although the Australian has said that he will look at his options only "after a while".

Nine days after resigning as the Indian coach in controversial circumstances, the former Australian captain has said that he would reveal his future plans within three weeks.

Chappell said he did not feel "cheesed off" after his Indian experience, but a leading daily here reported today that he might join the Australian Cricket Academy (ACA) as its head coach.

In his first interview after returning home from India recently, Chappell told the 'Herald Sun' "I am not making decision yet but after a while I will look at the options".

After Chappell's resignation following a spat with senior Indian players, BCCI President Sharad Pawar had stated that he would like the Australian to be associated with the Indian cricket and indications were that he would be offered the post of director or a consultant at the National Cricket Academy.

The paper also reported that Chappell had feared for his safety after India lost to Bangladesh. But he denied the reports in an e-mail to BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah. "...media reports in Australia that I felt that my life was in danger following the loss to Bangladesh in World Cup is untrue," Chappell said in a letter to Shah.

"I never made that statement and nor did I feel that my life was in danger at any time during my stay in India," Chappell added.

The Australian media said Chappell was a clear favourite to succeed Tim Nielsen, who leaves the job to take over the Australian team's reins from John Buchanan after the World Cup.

But Chappell said over the next few days, he would visit friends and family in Canberra and Adelaide before deciding his future.

He, however, asserted that his troubled tenure with the Indian team had not turned him off coaching.

But he criticised the Indian media for exaggerating his medical check-up in Mumbai. — PTI

Melbourne, April 13
The West Indies may have made a concerted effort to build infrastructure for the cricket World Cup but Australian skipper Ricky Ponting is unimpressed and feels the training facilities in the Caribbean continue to be the “worst in the world”.

“Since I was here for the first time, in 1995, that’s 12 years of touring here, training facilities have always been the worst in the world by a long, long way,” Ponting was quoted as saying by ‘The Australian’.

“I have been on tours here where you could hardly practise between Test matches. You might train up on the Test venue and have a few throwdowns on the outfield and that was just about as much as you could do,” he added.

Ponting said it was important that the West Indies continued to work on their infrastructure as it was crucial to their chances of reviving cricket in the country.

“Once they get those facilities in place, they will start attracting more kids to the game and their first-class teams will be able to train and prepare better.”

“This will bring on better players and their national team will be able to get some great quality preparation as well,” he explained. He felt despite the flop show that the World Cup was turning out to be, the West Indies would benefit from the showpiece event financially. — PTI

Karachi, April 13
Pakistan cricket plunged into another crisis with senior player Younis Khan spurning captaincy and planning retirement from one day cricket after the team’s nightmarish World Cup campaign.

Younis was aghast at the way the players were treated after their return from the West Indies where Ireland knocked them out of the event.

Younis confirmed that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Dr Naseem Ashraf had offered him the captaincy with full powers.

“But I told them ‘thank you for the offer but I am not interested, specially after the way the team has been treated after the World Cup’,” Younis told PTI today.

Visibly upset and angry, Younis said he had still not recovered from the shame and stress of seeing people burning effigies of the players and staging mock burials.

“Losing and winning is part of the game but when your family is not spared and gets threatening calls and people abuse and insult you on returning to the country, then the captaincy is not worth it,” he said.

Younis also said that he was thinking about quitting one-day cricket and concentrating on playing Test matches which he considered the real cricket and challenge. — PTI

New Delhi, April 13
A high-powered delegation, led by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi, today left for Kuwait to attend the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) meeting on April 16 and 17 which will finalise the 2014 Asian Games bid.

New Delhi and Incheon (Korea) are the two cities in the fray for the Asiad bid and India hope to clinch the right to host the games which had taken birth in India when New Delhi hosted the inaugural Asiad in 1951.

The Indian delegation included IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh, who is also the secretary-general of the CA, Davis Cup captain Leander Paes, long jump champion Anju Bobby George, Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Archery Association of India president Vijay Kumar Malhotra, IOA senior vice president Tarlochan Singh and former Union Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, besides scores of sportspersons and officials.

Before leaving for Kuwait, Randhir said India stood a very bright chance of winning the Asiad bid as Korea had hosted the 2002 edition at Busan and India had last hosted the games in 1982.

With India slated to hold the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Randhir said India would have world-class infrastructure in place, and the country need not spend much on hosting the 2014 Asiad, and that was one of the reasons the government agreed to reaffirm its commitment to back the bid till its logical conclusion.

New Delhi, April 13
Federations running on outdated constitutions, lack of information, financial woes, non-registration of players and poor coaching modules are some of the vices that continue to plague Indian hockey, according to an expert report.

The much-anticipated and confidential report by Bob Davidzson, international hockey federation (FIH) observer, to the Indian Hockey Confederation (IHC) lists umpteen ailments that have been ruining the sport in the country over the years.

The initiative started by the FIH and funded by Olympic Solidarity of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had empowered Davidzson, a former Marketing Committee chairman of the FIH, to draft the status of Indian hockey.

Davidzson, after over 40 meetings with various stakeholders of the sport in India, had submitted a report to the FIH, a copy of which is with the PTI.

Identifying 14 areas of concern, the report says that the IHC and the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation (IWHF) basically run on “outdated” constitutions which lack clear responsibilities and tasks of committees in place.

Besides, it says, the constitution of IHC, founded in 2000 to comply with the guidelines of FIH as the sole body for men and women’s hockey in India, is “incomplete and confusing” and “looks a paper exercise.”

The report raps the IHC and IWHF for having “hardly any cooperation” between them and has put a question mark over their election procedure. — PTI

Shanghai, April 13
The Indians had a bad day in office and while Shiv Kapur and Gaurav Ghei slipped but managed to survive, the other three missed the cut after round two of the $2 million Volvo China Open here today.

Shiv Kapur was erratic throughout the day, while things went awry for Ghei on the front nine as both returned an identical two-over 73 card to slip to tied 34th and tied 53rd, respectively.

At half way stage, Kapur aggregates four-over 146 while Ghei is just a stroke behind. Meanwhile, Raphael Jacquelin of France fired a solid four-under-par 67 for a two-stroke lead over Australian Adam Blyth.

Meanwhile, other Indians found the fairways too tricky to handle. Gangjee returned a vastly improved 72 card,but his horrendous 76 yesterday did him in.

Amandeep Johl (76) and SSP Chowrasia (80) had a nightmarish outing that led to their exit. — UNI