|
|
|
|
|
Two
Tons Too heavy for england |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
‘No extra pressure of playing India in semis’
Imran: India have the edge
Chokers tag still sits on SA: Media
Red bull’s Vettel takes pole
FIH reasserts Hockey India’s supremacy
Wolves staff to train with JCT
Chawla makes an early exit
|
|
Two
Tons Too heavy for england
Colombo, March 26 Turning in a highly professional performance Sri Lanka routed England by 10 wickets at the Premadasa Stadium here tonight to become the fourth team to qualify for the semifinal, where they will now meet New Zealand at the same venue on Tuesday. On the field England never looked like a side who wanted to win tonight. The body language of the players was sluggish and their overall approach reeked of lethargy. The Sri Lankan openers—Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga—were quick to pounce on this lax England performance and mauled the average bowling attack. Both batsmen--Dilshan and Tharanga—scored a century as the Lankans overhauled the target of 230 with more than ten overs to spare. This English team has been on the road for close to six months now and have traversed a long and arduous journey beginning with the Ashes in Australia. Sadly, the euphoria of the Ashes has ended with a premature losing campaign at the World Cup. Sri Lanka were the much better side on the day and won with consummate ease. Dilshan brought up his tenth ODI hundred off 107 balls, while Tharanga scored his ton off 122 balls. Sri Lanka finished with 231 for no loss. Earlier, England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss and decided to bat. By winning the toss Strauss must have imagined that he had done most of the hardwork already. But when it was his turn to open the batting, Strauss found it extremely hard to find the middle of his bat and perished in the eighth over to off-spinner Dilshan. The other opener Ian Bell fell in the next over and, at 31 for 2, the onerous climb had begun for the English side. For the home spectators though it was an occasion to celebrate. It was carnival atmosphere at the stadium with sections of the crowd fully armed with an assortment of musical instruments. Some of the music being churned out in the aisles was quite disjointed and broken as shattered glass. And some of it being belted from the music system at the ground was quite new and baffling. At any rate, the noise was deafening. As if almost impervious to this loud music, England batsman Jonathan Trott stuck to his task of grafting the runs. Trott has been the pillar of the England batting in this World Cup and in the course of the last match he became the joint-fastest batsman to reach 1000 ODI runs. He has an impressive average of 54, a balanced stance, agile footwork against the spinners, mature head on his shoulders and a wide array of strokes. Trott plays the reverse sweep as adroitly as he does the cover drive. He nudges for singles and is a clever accumulator of runs. His fifty came in 71 balls and contained just one boundary. Trott showed all his qualities of a skilful batsman today in his smart knock of 86 (114 balls). He put on 64 runs for the third wicket with Ravi Bopara (31) and later 91 with Eoin Morgan (50). If Trott was a picture of concentration and composure, Morgan was at his adventurous best. The extravagant left-hander enjoyed a charmed existence at the crease and was dropped thrice (on 19, 33 and 34). Finally the Lankan fielders succeeded in holding on to a catch offered yet again by Morgan. By this time he had completed his half-century off 55 balls. The batting powerplay that has strangely been the nemesis of most teams at this World Cup showed up its dreadful side yet again during the English innings. This period saw Morgan fall while trying to clear the in-field and off the very next ball Graeme Swann was claimed leg-before by Ajantha Mendis going for a rash reverse sweep. The batting powerplay (from overs 43-47) brought about just 23 runs and two wickets were lost. Instead of gaining an impetus, the innings was pegged back. Scoreboard
England: 229/6 (50 ovrs)
Strauss b Dilshan 5 Bell c Samara b Mathews 25 Trott c Jayawardene b Murali 86 Bopara lbw b Murali 31 Morgan c Mathews b Malinga 50 Swann lbw b Mendis 0 Prior not out 22 Wright not out 1 Extras: (lb 3, w 6) 9 Bowling: Malinga 10-0-46-1, Dilshan 6-1-25-1, Mathews 5-0-20-1, Herath 10-1-47-0, Mendis 10-0-34-1, Murali
9-0-54-2.
Sri Lanka:231/0 (39.3 ovrs)
Tharanga not out 102 Dilshan not out 108 Extras: (b 9, lb 6, w 6) 21 Bowling: Bresnan 8-1-40-0, Swann 9-0-61-0, Tremlett 7.3-0-38-0, Bopara 5-1-22-0, Tredwell 6-0-38-0, Wright 4-0-17-0 |
|
‘No extra pressure of playing India in semis’
Mohali, March 26 Of the previous four meetings against India in the quadrennial extravaganza, Pakistan have lost on all occasions, but Hafeez is optimistic of a turnaround this time around. According to him, it's the performance on the given day that counts. "I don't think that on me or on my team, there is any extra pressure in playing against India. For the past 6-7 months, we have been following a simple strategy which is to put our best performance on the (match) day and don't think about the past," Hafeez said here today. "We just think about that particular day, and try and win that particular match. So I don't think we will be under any extra pressure." Hafeez said bowling was the team's strength and he is expecting the bowlers to deliver the goods against India. "Bowling is our major strength and we are heavily relying on our bowlers. At the same time, our batsman complement our attack. I feel that it is not necessarily about big scores, but what it important is that our batsman have the ability to get the required runs," he said. Reminded about the team's past World Cup record against India, Hafeez said, "The past is history. Even Australia had not been defeated by anyone for several years in the World Cup before they lost to us and India . As I said, what has happened in the past, we are not thinking about that, but looking to perform on the given day." — PTI
|
|
Imran: India have the edge
Kolkata, March 26 Imran conceded that based on recent form, India are the favourites to win the World Cup. "Favourites not always win the World Cup. Home team has never ever won so far. But there is always a first time. Obviously I want Pakistan to win. But at the same time, if ever India had a chance; this is their best chance," Imran said.
— PTI |
|
Betting in full swing, bookies back India
Mumbai, March 26 According to the grapevine here, bets on the semi-final and final matches in the World Cup is expected to cross Rs 10,000 crores with Dubai-based betting syndicates activating their networks across the country. India is the hot favourite with most bookies tipping Mahendra Singh Dhoni's boys to prevail over Shahid Afridi's Eleven. Ladbrokes, the British betting shop, has given the Indian team a 4/7 odd to win the match while there is a 11/8 chance of Pakistan making it to the finals. The Dubai syndicate is offering 60 paise for every rupee bet if the Indian team wins while Rs 1.55 is riding on every rupee bet on the Pakistani team. Punters are also feverishly betting on Sachin Tendulkar knocking off his 100th ODI century against Pakistan though the odds do not favour the star batsman. If the master achieves the landmark, everyone who bets on it will take home Rs 4.50 for every rupee bet. However, it is not easy for newbies to place their bets as the police have turned the heat on bookmakers ahead of the India-Pakistan tie. Raids across the country have netted scores of bookies who have now adopted innovative ways to conduct business. Bookies from Mumbai have already moved out of the city to operate from unknown locations. "Many bookies are now in Dubai taking bets from their customers in Mumbai on their mobile phones," says a matka operator in suburban Borivli who still takes small bets on cricket matches. Other bookies have moved to Goa and other places following the crackdown by the Mumbai police. "We are still vigilant about bookies operating in Mumbai," says Deputy Commissioner of Police Himanshu Roy. Following tip-offs from the Mumbai police, their counterparts in Pune arrested several bookies today, police said.
|
|
Chokers tag still sits on SA: Media
Johannesburg, March 26
South Africa lost to New Zealand by 49 runs in the quarterfinal in Mirpur as their jinx of not having won a single knock-out game in five attempts since 1992 continues. "The short - to medium - term future seems so bright for the South African team but now a solid chunk of the Proteas' support base would be burying their heads in their hands in misery or in more strident cases spewing out a stream of unflattering mantles - some of them will begin with inevitable 'c' (choker)," a write up said. "For the moment the post-mortem period, something Proteas' CWC critics and observers are so used to grappling with since the bogey first reared its head in 1992, cannot be avoided," it said. — PTI
|
|
Red bull’s Vettel takes pole
Melbourne, March 26 The 23-year-old German set the quickest time in all three sessions and managed a searing best lap of one minute 23.529 seconds, 0.778 seconds quicker than second-placed Briton Lewis Hamilton. "Although the gap now might appear to be big, it's a long season and a lot of things can happen," said a cautious Vettel, who failed to finish the race here last year. "It's a good position to be in, and I'm very happy with that (but) we need to keep our feet on the ground." Hamilton's late lap of 1.24.307 in his McLaren knocked Vettel's team mate Mark Webber (1.24.395) off the front row of the grid, leaving the Australian to line up alongside Jenson Button in the second McLaren (1.24.779). Ferrari's twice former world champion Fernando Alonso claimed a spot on the third row in fifth place next to Renault's Vitaly Petrov, the best ever qualifying position for the Russian. Button, who will be gunning for a third successive win at Albert Park, conceded that Vettel had been untouchable. "If you look at the pace of Sebastian, I mean they're in a different league really in qualifying, whether it's the same in the race I don't know," said Button. "We don't really know what our pace is really going to be like in the race distance yet." McLaren struggled for reliability in testing and Hamilton paid tribute to the "fantastic job" done by the team to give their two British drivers a competitive car. "Absolutely thrilled to be here today, we've really got ourselves back on track and, although there's a lot of work to do, we laid a fantastic base," the 2008 world champion said. Webber is aiming to become the first Australian to win his home grand prix and was clearly disappointed at being so far behind his team mate. "I'm not overly rapt to be third on the grid," he said. "I wasn't really in the fight for pole and I need to address that." German Nico Rosberg steered his Mercedes to seventh place on the grid ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa on what was a disappointing day for Ferrari. "Position we are happy, distance from pole we are not so happy, so it's what we have to look at and analyse tonight," Spaniard Alonso said. German Michael Schumacher failed to fulfil the promise of good pre-season testing with Mercedes when he was unable to get through to the final session of qualifying by 0.089 seconds. "After testing, coming to the first race we had expected certainly a different performance so naturally there is some disappointment," the seven-times world champion, who will start 11th, told the BBC.
— Reuters |
|
FIH reasserts Hockey India’s supremacy
New Delhi, March 26 Thus, the national associations are required not to participate in unsanctioned events; prohibit teams/players under its jurisdiction from participating in unsanctioned events and not to permit an athlete from other national association to participate in an event that it organises or sanctions unless he/she has first obtained a No Objection Certificate from his home national association in such an event. The new regulations are in line with the FIH strategic plan and the focus is on event management as the FIH.
|
|
Wolves staff to train with JCT
Hoshiarpur, March 26 Wolves Academy Head Sports Scientist, John Iga, and Academy physiotherapist, Jaswant Sodhi, have arrived in India to start a special training programme from March 25, onwards, in which they will view JCT FC’s facilities, share practices and hold coaching sessions with the team and coaching staff. The community-led relationship between JCT and Wolves was established in 2008 as part of the ‘Wolverhampton-India’ partnership. Since the partnership began between the two clubs, a number of exchange visits have been arranged. In 2008, Wolves CEO Jez Moxey and first team coach Terry Connor toured JCT FC’s stadium site and training ground in Hoshiarpur, before Terry took a short training session with the JCT youth squad. In 2009, a high-level delegation led by Samir Thapar, president, JCT FC, went to Wolverhampton to plan further strategy. Similarly, in July 2010, five young players and a coach from JCT FC visited Wolves and spent a week there for training with Wolves Academy at the Compton Training Ground. Thapar expressed his happiness and said, “I am satisfied with the development of relationship between our two clubs. The annual visits from both sides have taken place in the spirit of planned community led partnership and knowledge sharing, making the relationship stronger with each interaction”. “I am really looking forward to the visit,” Iga said. “It will be really interesting to see the differences in facilities and working practices between JCT and our own.” JCT coach Parminder Singh said, “It was really nice to work closely with experts when we visited Wolverhampton. With Wolves experts coming to India, it would be a great learning experience for our team.”
|
|
Chawla makes an early exit
Ludhiana, March 26 Ayush, playing consistently since first frame, tied Chawla and obtained a lead of three. A rack surrendered by Ayush on an 8-ball foul gave a chance to Kamal to make it a tie and force Ayush to play a decider. Ayush held the nerve and made a good clearance to win the rack as well as the match. Results: Rajat (Pun) b Amit (Pun) 6-5; Lalbiaksanga (Miz) b Venkatesham (Rlys) 6-1; Naveen (Kar) b Dhvaj (Guj) 6-4; Shivam (Bih) b Joy (Pun) 6-5; Vipin (Del) b Pushpinder (Del) 6-5; Vijay (Del) b Mohit (Del) 6-0; Chetan (Har) b Arpit (6-4); Aneesh (Har) b Hari (Del) 6-2; Lalrinsanga (Miz) b Siddharth (Pun).
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
It is not without reason Sri Lanka are considered such a dangerous side at home.
If the opposition plays mediocre cricket, the Lankans more often than
not, make a no-contest of the match. 
Their disastrous past record against India in World Cup notwithstanding, Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez says the team is under no pressure ahead of Wednesday's high-voltage semi-final clash against the arch-rivals.
Hoshiarpur, March 26
McKay for Mills
