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Rohit shines as India win series
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India aim for clean sweep
India can dominate world cricket: Fletcher
‘WI pacers have forgotten how to intimidate batsmen’
Vettel grabs pole at Canadian GP
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel (C) is flanked by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (R) and Felipe Massa after the qualifying session of the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on Saturday. — Reuters
Bopanna-Qureshi win title
Fergie could end up splashing £100m
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Rohit shines as India win series
Antigua, June 12 An 88-run partnership with Harbhajan Singh (41) put India back in contention and then Praveen Kumar (25 not out) saw the tourists through to a comfortable victory with 22 balls to spare. It was a day for lower order contributions with West Indies only managing to set a decent target thanks to an outstanding 92 not out from 84 balls by Jamaican Andre Russell. Russell's score is the highest made by a number nine batsman in one-day internationals and included a 78-run partnership with wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh as the Caribbean side recovered from 85-6. The big hitting innings included eight fours and five sixes as the success-starved home crowd were finally treated to some entertainment. Once again West Indies struggled against spin with leg-spinner Amit Mishra taking 3-28 from his ten allotted overs. — Reuters Scoreboard
India
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India aim for clean sweep
Antigua, June 12 Led by Suresh Raina, the second-string Indian team has given a good account of itself dominating the struggling Caribbean side, which has been weakened further by the absence of big-hitting Chris Gayle and reliable performers such as Dwayne Bravo. In fact, the series has done a world of good to young Indian players such as Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Raina himself. They have proved themselves as fighters when faced with tense situations, prompting coach Duncan Fletcher to state that the given the pool of talent, his wards are set to dominate world cricket for another decade or so. "It is due to the amount of talent India have. Indian cricket is in a very, very healthy state presently," stated Fletcher after India clinched the series with a three-wicket win yesterday. Right-handed batsman Manoj Tiwary might get a look in after Raina hinted that reserve players are likely to be fielded for the remaining two matches. But bowling would certainly be an area of concern for the Indians. Without the ever-reliable Zaheer Khan, who won't be available even for the Test series due to injury, the pacers led by Munaf Patel have struggled. — PTI |
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India can dominate world cricket: Fletcher
"It is due to the amount of talent India have. Indian cricket is in a very, very healthy state presently," stated Fletcher. India beat the hosts by three wickets on Saturday to claim an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match ODI series. "I know five years in international cricket is a long time but unless some international teams suddenly come up, I don't see (India losing its grip)," added the Zimbabwean. Much of Fletcher's profuse praise, and that of skipper Suresh Raina, was reserved for India's man of the moment Rohit Sharma, who played an unbeaten knock of 86 to haul India out of the woods. "It was a great innings. It speaks of the tremendous quality India has that a batsman like him is out of the Test side. He has shown that he can finish off an innings. Not many batsmen can do it," remarked Fletcher. "He can probably play for most international Test sides. He is not getting his opportunity because the present side is so very good. I look forward to working with him. I can't tell the areas on which I would work with him since it's a confidentiality between a player and me. "I like to have one-to-one interaction with young cricketers. At the moment I am observing and trying to gain their respect," Fletcher added. Rohit seems to reserve his very best under Raina's captaincy as he had also hit two hundreds in the latter's first stint at the helm in Zimbabwe last year. "He is more disciplined now. He knows when to defend or attack. It has helped him that he has spent some quality time with Sachin for Mumbai Indians. He is now a very composed batsman," said Raina in appreciation. Fletcher felt the most pleasing aspect of India's performance has been how they have been able to extricate themselves out of tight situations. "It's pleasing how they have worked themselves out of tight situations. In the first one-day game, it was a difficult situation with four wickets down. Again today it was not easy. "I think it was the spinners who brought us back today. At one stage we were looking at a 270-plus target. It was great captaincy (on part of Raina) to keep them on," he said. The two Indian spinners - Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh - bowled their 20 overs for 52 runs only and picked up four wickets between them. — PTI |
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‘WI pacers have forgotten how to intimidate batsmen’
Antigua, June 12 "The present standard is very, very bad and the only way interest can be revived is if we start winning some matches," said Ambrose, who took 405 wickets from his 98 Tests. Ambrose is disappointed that West Indian fast bowlers have forgotten the art of intimidating batsmen. "I think it's very important for a fast bowler to be intimidating. He must intimidate batsmen. I used to do it. I liked to soften them up," he recalled. The giant fast bowler, who terrorised the best in the world throughout the 90s, feels slow pitches have contributed a lot to the decline of pacers in the Caribbean. "Two things have contributed to the downfall of West Indies cricket. Firstly, the pitches in the Caribbean have really slowed down and secondly, there is no deal of great experience which is being passed around in the dressing room," he lamented. He recollected his early playing days when interaction with Malcolm Marshall helped him finetune his skills. "When I joined the team, I learnt a lot by just interacting with Malcolm Marshall, and later with Courtney Walsh. “Now, these guys (the present team) have nobody to talk to; they are just sharing between them whatever little they have learnt from international cricket." Even though Ambrose was aggressive, it never affected his economy. A third of his 3000-odd overs in Test cricket were maidens and his career economy rate was a mere 2.31 runs per over. He didn't play much against India but his affection knows no bounds for Sachin Tendulkar. "When I first watched him, it was in England in 1990 when he appeared a schoolboy. Yet watching him hit his first century at the age of 17, you knew here was a special talent," he said. Two years later, they were squaring up in a World Cup game in Basin Reserve Park in Wellington and Ambrose dismissed Tendulkar with a delivery that kicked off from short of good length to take his outside edge. "He was a young guy and I was senior. So I needed to keep that equation," Ambrose laughed. Being reluctantly pushed into cricket by his mother at a rather late age of 21, Ambrose made it to the West Indies team within three years. Yet, it took him the next two years to really start thinking about the game seriously. "The mantle of being world champions was falling off and a guy like me really had to learn very, very quickly. It helped that I was naturally very strong, very competitive and very aggressive," he said. For the Antiguan, the toughest batsman he ever bowled to was David Boon of Australia, not to mention former Aussie skipper Steve Waugh with whom he nearly exchanged fisticuffs. However, Ambrose still has a great deal of respect for Waugh. It was the Trinidad Test of 1995 series against Australia. Waugh was repeatedly hit on the body by Ambrose's bouncers. He let out his steam with a few chosen ones and enraged Ambrose to the extent he stood next to him, glaring and a physical contest wasn't far away. "I really wanted to hit him. We were trailing the series. I was being frustrated. But we settled it then and there. It didn't go beyond the pitch." Ambrose though had the last laugh when he won the Test for West Indies and helped them square the series 1-1. — PTI |
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Kirsten may rope in Horn for SA
Johannesburg, June 12 Johannesburg-born Horn was part of Kirsten's team that led India to victory in the recent World Cup. Horn, also a motivational speaker, had worked with India during their preparation in the final stages of the World Cup. According to the Sunday Times, Horn, who has walked solo to the North Pole, swam the Amazon River and circumnavigated the earth without motorised transport, would face his toughest task yet — stopping the Proteas from choking. The South Africans have always funmbled in the crucial World Cup matches with the latest being their defeat against underdogs New Zealand in the quarter finals of the World Cup. Horn was confident Proteas triumph at the next World Cup in 2015 was not impossible. "South Africa has the most talented cricket players in the world. It is just that at that level it is only psychological and not technical," Horn said. Kirsten could not be reached for comment, but Cricket South Africa Spokesman Michael Owen-Smith said Kirsten had a "free hand" to choose consultants, who would "probably" include Horn. — PTI
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Vettel grabs pole at Canadian GP
Montreal, June 12 The 23-year-old German, winner of five out of six races this season, will be joined on the front row by Ferrari's Spanish double world champion Fernando Alonso. Vettel's 21st career pole, and Red Bull's eighth in succession, also brought him his 12th consecutive front row start. Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa and Australian Mark Webber in the other Red Bull will line up together on the second row. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, winner of two of the last three Canadian Grands Prix and on pole in all of them, qualified a disappointing fifth with team mate Jenson Button back in seventh. Vettel had nothing but praise for his Red Bull team after he got his Canadian weekend off to a stuttering start by smashing into the 'Wall of Champions' during first practice, damaging the right side of his car. After frantic repairs, Vettel was back on the track for Friday's afternoon session and back on top on Saturday. "Thanks for fixing the car on Friday after I stuffed it in the wall," he shouted over the radio to his team as he returned to the pits. Obviously I had a rough start yesterday morning," Vettel told reporters later. "I have to make sure it doesn't become a habit to crash the car on Friday and be on the pole on Saturday," added the youngster, who also did that in Turkey. "The team worked very hard, initially there was no hope to go out in the second session and they fixed it very quickly and I was fortunate there wasn't too much damage. "It doesn't feel nice when you come back to the garage without your car," he said. "The only way I can say thanks is to drive the car as quick as I can and put it in a good position." Resta starts at 11th
Force India drivers will have to push hard for points at the Canadian Grand Prix as Q3 slipped out of their hands with Paul Di Resta to start 11th and Adrian Sutil 14th on the grid. Resta yet again outpaced Sutil as he clocked 1:14.752 minutes to finish on the edge of the top-10 in the qualifying session while the German driver managed 1:15.287 minutes for 14th position. — Agencies |
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Smith receives ‘Mampara’ title
Johannesburg, June 12 "Our mampara cricket captain just doesn't get it about having to say sorry," 'Sunday Times' weekly said in connection with Smith's first public appearance last Monday. Smith did not return to the country with his teammates after South Africa crashed out of the World Cup by losing to New Zealand in the quarterfinals. "Having failed to pitch up with the rest of the team, who had to face the music when it was at its loudest, Biff (nickname for Smith), thought he could get away with a wishy-washy apology in which the word "sorry" never appeared. "Not once," the weekly said. "It sounded as if he was reading grudgingly from a script that included some waffle about him feeling incredibly emotional at the time. "Emotional! What did the mampara think the rest of us were feeling when our Proteas choked yet again?" the weekly concluded. Smith had gone directly to Ireland from India to propose to his girlfriend, pop star Morgan Deane, prompting a huge outcry in South Africa. — PTI
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New Delhi, June 12 It took the Indo-Pak pair one hour and 19 minutes to beat the Dutch-Canadian combination. The win would do a world of good to the confidence of the Indo-Pak pair in the run up to the Wimbledon Championships. It is Bopanna's third career ATP World Tour doubles title, having triumphed in Johannesburg with Qureshi last year and with American Eric Butorac in 2008 in Los Angeles. — PTI
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Fergie could end up splashing £100m
London, June 12 A leading football wheeler-dealer told the paper: “United’s transfer business is the talk of the game. And the big question is where all this money is coming from, given the level of debt at the club. He added, “The level of spending is eye-opening and the word on the grapevine is that this is money from Qatar, where the royal family are known to be interested in buying United from the Glazers. It could be that some sort of deal, possibly a loan or a down-payment, has already been made.” Qatar Holdings, the financial arm of the ruling Al Thanis, have regularly been linked with a near two billion pound takeover at United. — ANI
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