Kolkata, March 15
JP Duminy agonisingly missed out on his first World Cup hundred by a run but his sparkling effort propelled South Africa into the quarter-finals with a crushing 131-run win over Ireland on Tuesday. The 273-run target proved a bit too steep for the Irish as they never recovered from the early jolts, and were ultimately shot out for a paltry 141. South Africa became the first team from Group B to reach the last eight.

Speedster Morne Morkel and spinner Robin Peterson picked up three wickets apiece as South Africa made regular inroads to block Irish hopes of an upset. Duminy also chipped in with a wicket with his part-time off-spin but it was definitely not enough to compensate his missing a deserved hundred while unselfishly trying to gather more runs for his team.

Earlier, South Africa rode on a valiant 99 by Jean-Paul Duminy to post a challenging 272 for seven.

Put into bat, South Africa had a wobbly start as their top order batsmen in absence of leading run-getter AB de Villiers, who is down with a thigh strain, did not have any partnership going.

But sensible batting by left-handed duo of Duminy and Colin Ingram (46), who were engaged in an 87-run partnership for the sixth wicket, led the fightback.

In his maiden World Cup appearance, Ingram who replaced the injured de Villiers, showed a lot of character in his 43-ball innings during which he hit seven fours. He and Duminy laid the foundation for the lower order to fire.

But the day belonged to Duminy as he slowly built on his innings showing tremendous resilience for his 13th ODI half-century. Looking to step up the momentum in the final over, Duminy miscued a shot from John Mooney to miss out on a brilliant century by one run.

Duminy struck six boundaries and one six for his best World Cup score and was given a fine support by Johan Botha (21 from 28 balls) as the duo stitched 65 runs together for the seventh wicket.

Ireland broke the opening stand of Hashim Amla (18) and Graeme Smith (7) when Boyd Rankin dismissed the former in the fifth over as the South African skipper tried some repair work with Morne van Wyk. But their 28-run second wicket partnership was broken by John Mooney who cut short Smith's stay at the crease with a lovely throw from the midwicket to run the skipper out as South Africa had a slow start to their innings.

Having survived two dropped chances when on 4 and 23, van Wyk made maximum use of the opportunity as he took the attack on the inexperienced opposition dishing out some big hits to lift the run-rate. — Agencies

Scoreboard

Bangalore, March 15
Defending Champions Australia are already in the quarterfinals but their spinners have struggled so far in the tournament and they would be keen to prove their worth when they meet Canada in their penultimate group A World Cup match here tomorrow.

The title-holders have already booked a berth in the knock-out stage with an unconvincing 60-run victory over a spirited Kenya but their bowling, specially spinners have been listless to say the least.

Having taken just four wickets between them in the World Cup so far, the slower bowlers have been far from impressive, and the match against the minnows from North America provides them with the best opportunity to show their mettle and brace up for bigger battles ahead.

The side that played against Kenya is likely to be retained, but skipper Ricky Ponting would desperately want his slower bowlers to make greater impact than what they have so far in the tournament.

Specialist spinners Jason Krejza and Steven Smith have taken just a wicket each in the tournament and Michael Clarke too, hasn't done much of bowling. While the pace trio of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson, with 21 wickets at an average of 21.76, have done the bulk of the damage, the spinners' failed to show their worth on helpful sub-continent tracks.

Against Kenya, Krejza and Smith were easily worked around for runs during the middle overs, while Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara played them with ease during their hi-profile clash that was washed out due to rain.

Ponting has already said that he wants more from his spinners after the match against Kenya. "I still would have liked to see them making some breakthroughs for us. Through those middle overs in this tournament when the ball gets old, and the wicket starts to spin, we are going to need our spinners to strike for us, and that didn't happen," Ponting said. "I tried a few different things with the spinners.

Bowling Smith early in the Powerplays was just to give him some experience there and see how he would cope with the situation. It's probably the first time he's done that, so that should be good for him.

"Jason tried a couple of different things tonight, bowled the majority around the wicket on a wicket that was spinning, just to get a bit of a feel for the conditions and what he can do in these conditions. There was a bit of experimentation from the spinners," he had said.

Bidding for their fourth title on the trot and fifth overall, Australia were somewhat frustrated by a 115-run partnership between Collins Obuya and Tanmay Mishra, and would not like to see something similar against Canada, as that could affect their net run-rate. — PTI

New Delhi, March 15
Cricketer-turned-betting business expert Ken Rutherford has called on the International Cricket Council to understand the working of sports betting industry and work pro-actively to clean up the game from the menace of match fixing.

Rutherford, a former New Zealand captain and currently working in the South African sports betting business, said understanding the working of the betting industry can recognise when match-fixing may occur.

He said the ICC should form information-sharing partnerships with the world's biggest bookies and betting markets should be closely monitored by experts during games for any suspicious movement of money.

"I would be shocked if a World Cup game was interfered with. The spotlight is at its most extreme and the fixers could find better options for their skullduggery in matches where the focus is less strong," Rutherford, who captained New Zealand in 18 Tests and 38 ODIs from 1992 to 1995, said.

"The ICC should employ traders from the sports betting industry whose job it would be to watch the markets on a daily basis. They could set up some kind of software that would be applied to the markets that would act as an alert should money be moving oddly - that is, against the natural progression of a match."

Rutherford, who has worked as heads of sports betting in various organisations in New Zealand and Singapore, suggested the ICC to form its own "underground" network of "spies" to track illegal bookies, especially in countries like India where betting has no legal sanction.

"At my old job at Singapore Pools, we often heard things in advance from our own network of spies. If something was suspected in football, the match officials would warn the players prior to the game that the match was suspected of being fixed, and that they better not try anything," said Rutherford about his experience as head of Singapore Pools, the gaming operator in that country. — PTI

Mumbai, March 15
His captain may not be happy to play their last World Cup Group A league match in India, but Angelo Mathews did not see it as a handicap that Sri Lanka are to play New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday and not at home.

"It's not a big deal. The conditions are similar to Sri Lanka and the wickets are also slow. We have also played in India often," said the 23-year-old all-rounder today. Sangakkara had expressed unhappiness earlier this month that the last league tie of Sri Lanka is scheduled in Mumbai though they are the co-hosts of the tournament.

"We were surprised when we learnt that we will have to travel to Mumbai to play that game (against New Zealand). I thought hosts play at home," Sangakkara had said after his side's match against defending champions Australia was washed out due to heavy rains in Colombo on March 5.

"Playing the New Zealand game is beyond our control. You can't change that now. That's gone now and we need to be up for the task," the Lanka captain had said. Mathews sees Friday's match against the Black Caps as a good challenge against a performing side. — PTI

Indian Wells, March 15
India’s Somdev Devvarman won the last five points in the third-set tie-break to knock out Belgian Xavier Malisse 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5) to set up a pre-quarterfinal encounter with World No. 1 Rafael Nadal at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament here.

Somdev, who is playing his third main draw here, was down 2-5 in the tie break when he reeled off five points to win the hard-fought match Monday at the BNP Paribas Open in two hours.

The 26-year-old India No. 1, ranked 84, who had never won a Masters 1000 match before coming here, beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino and then upset 19th seed and World No 22 Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the first two rounds.

Nadal outplayed Ameican qualifier Ryan Sweeting, 6-3, 6-1, in 68 minutes. This is the second time the Spaniard defeated the 22-year-old American this season, having beaten him at the Australian Open in January.

Somdev, who played the Chennai Open final in 2009 and the South African open final last month, won the first set against the 2007 Chennai winner comfortably, but the Belgian came back strongly in the second to force the issue to a third set.

The Indian, the Commonwealth and the Asian Games gold medallist, was at the exit door when Malisse jumped to 5-2 in the tiebreak. Somdev hung in to take five points in a row to clinch the set and match.

Somdev, a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) singles champion playing for the University of Virginia, defeated top-ranked American John Isner in the 2007 final and retained the title the next year. He came here after beating World No. 45 Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets in the Davis Cup tie in Novi Sad earlier this month. — IANS

Mumbai, March 15
India's Test batting mainstay Rahul Dravid has been named in an MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) team which is to play in a four-day match in Abh Dhabi under floodlights with pink cricket balls and launch the English cricket season.

MCC would take on English county champions Nottinghamshire at Zayed International Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi from March 27-30, a media release from the club said.

Dravid, who is a member of the MCC's World Cricket Committee, would play alongside Afghanistan duo Mohammad Nabi and Hamid Hassan, among others, in the traditional curtain raiser to the English season to be played away for the second consecutive year. Australia's Chris Rogers, is to lead the MCC side. — PTI

Chandigarh, March 15
King’s XI Punjab today announced its final 23-member squad for the upcoming IPL season-IV starting next month. There are seven foreign and four Indian interantional players in the squad. The team also has 12 domestic players. The team will be captained by Adam Gilchrist and will have Michael Bevan as coach.

"All our players have their distinctive qualities yet complement each other to form a ‘team’. This team will bring in a new perspective and vigor to the game and we promise our fans an exhilarating and action-packed season of cricket in IPL 4,” said Col Arvinder Singh, COO, Kings XI Punjab. Overseas Players: Captain- Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Ryan Harris, Nathan Rimmington, Dmitri Mascarenhas, Stuart Broad, Indian International Players: Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Abhishek Nayar.

Domestic Players: Paras Dogra, Sunny, Nitin, Bipul, Love Ablish, Vikaramjeet Malik, Siddarth Chitnis, Paul Valthaty, Shalabh, Bhargav Bhatt, Mandeep Singh, Amit Yadav.

New Delhi, March 15
The win or loss in Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament will not make much difference as the team is bracing up for the tough challenge ahead — to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, said Indian captain Rajpal Singh.

A 45-member Indian squad started its preparation for the Azlan Shah Cup to be held in Kuala Lumpur from May 5 under the watchful eyes of national coach Harendra Singh at Major Dhyan Chand national stadium here today.

After missing out on a gold medal at Guangzhou Asian games in November last year, India now have to go through the tough qualifying rounds to confirm their participation in the London Olympics.

"Win or loss in Azlan Shah cup does not matter much to us as we see it as the beginning of our preparation for the Olympic qualifiers next year," said Rajpal. — PTI

New Delhi, March 15
A ten-member Indian table tennis team — five men and five women — will participate in the Polish Open Table Tennis Championship to be held at Cetniewo/Wladyslawo (Poland) from March 16 to 20.

The squads: Men: Sharath Kamal, Abhishek Ravichandran, Sanil Shetty, Anthony Amalraj and Subhajit Saha. Women; Shamini Kumaresan, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar, Mamta Prabhu and Nandita Saha.

Coaches: Arup Basak and Arul Selvi.

New Delhi, March 15
Top colleges of Delhi and NCR Region will participate in the Inter-Collegiate Football Tournament for the GR Goenka Trophy.

The tournament, which was formally inaugurated by Delhi Soccer Association secretary N.K. Bhatia, will conclude on March 26.

Prominent teams in the fray include Shri Ram College of Commerce, Motilal Nehru College, Kirori Mal College, Zakir Hussain College, Khalsa College and Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology.