Sports



Pak vs Sri 1st ODI-Man of the Match 

 

 Fourth ODI: Sri Lanka win toss, elect to bat first against Pakistan

 

Pakistan  remained unchanged from the side which won the third match in Sharjah against Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka made three changes from the last match, bringing in Kithruwan Vithanage, Ashan Priyanjan and Suranga Lakmal in place of Dimuth Karunaratne, Thisara Perera and Seekkuge Prasanna.
Pakistan won the first match by 11 runs in Sharjah while Sri Lanka won the second in Dubai by two wickets.

Valencia gives Ecuador 2-2 draw with Honduras

 
Valencia scored from 25 yards out in the final seconds to level the score.

HOUSTON (AP) - Enner Valencia scored in the 89th minute to lift Ecuador to 2-2 draw with Honduras in an international friendly Tuesday.
Walter Ayovi put Ecuador ahead 1-0 in the 15th minute, sending a free kick over the wall of defenders from 22 yards out.
Carlo Costly entered the game in the 62nd minute and equalized with a left-footed shot in the 63rd. He then put Honduras ahead three minutes later.
Valencia scored from 25 yards out in the final seconds to level the score.
Both teams finished the match with 10 men due to red cards.

 

Clarke: comparisons pointless, Australia is ready

 

Clarke and the Australians will have to be at their grittiest best to stop them.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - Michael Clarke is giving nothing away on the eve of the Ashes. Not his starting XI, not comparisons between this and the previous series, not praise nor predictions, not even observations on England.
Outwardly, the captaincy style harks back to another era, back in the mid-1980s when Australia was struggling in the international arena. And with good reason
England is in Australia with a settled squad and favored to win a fourth consecutive Ashes series for the first time since the 1880s.
Clarke and the Australians will have to be at their grittiest best to stop them.
Australia's squad is more settled than it was during the tumultuous buildup to the last Ashes series in England, which only finished in August with the home team as 3-0 victors. England has won eight of the last 15 Ashes tests, and won four of the five Ashes series since ending Australia's dominating run with a home triumph in 2005.
In the weeks leading up to the last Ashes series, Cricket Australia fired South African Mickey Arthur as coach
bringing in former test batsman Darren Lehmann as a late replacement and suspended opener David Warner after a night club incident. The squad never seemed to recover, but is outwardly showing signs of growing confidence ahead of a home series.
"We've played a lot more cricket now as a group. The five tests in England helped us as a group," Clarke told a news conference Wednesday at the Gabba, less than 24 hours before the five-test series was due to start. "It would be silly to compare where we were then compared with where we are now. Different series, different conditions."
Rival players have been trading barbs in the media and on social networks in recent days, with Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad having plenty to say for England, and Warner and co. firing salvos from Australia.
It's all hype, Clarke said, and means nothing come Thursday morning. He didn't respond to questions about Broad, Pietersen's 100th test cap or the chances of wicketkeeper Matt Prior recovering from injury to play in the first test for England.
The Australian lineup is more stable than it was five months ago, with Shane Watson recovering from a hamstring strain to take his place at the top of the order and also offering to bowl some overs if he's needed to cover the pace group of Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and the returning Mitch Johnson.
Clarke said he knows his batting lineup from No. 1-7, but won't reveal it until after the starting XI is announced before the toss. The only uncertainty seems to be whether Australia will play spinner Nathan Lyon or go for another pace option with allrounder James Faulkner.
Warner returned midway through the last Ashes series but didn't cement his spot in the order, and was one of six batsmen tried at No. 6 as selectors searched for a replacement for the retired Mike Hussey.
He was dropped from a subsequent limited-overs tour to India but has regained form with multiple centuries in domestic cricket and will open the innings. George Baily earned a shot to bat at No. 6 on the basis of his form while leading Australia in India when Clarke was sidelined with a back problem. That should be the only change at the top of the order from the team Australia fielded in the fifth test at The Oval.
Clarke batted and bowled in the nets on Wednesday, and said he's ready to contribute with bat and ball if required in Brisbane.
Australia hasn't lost a test at the Gabba in 25 years, and the Brisbane venue has become something of a fortress as the start of each test series.
"The belief is there," Clarke said. "Hopefully we'll show that over the next five test matches."
Australia (from): David Warner, Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke (captain), Steve Smith, George Bailey, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Ryan Harris, Nathan Lyon, James Faulkner.

 


 

The prize money for the men’s event will be $3 million. 

LAHORE (Web Desk) - Pakistan will play against its traditional rival India on March 21 in the ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday announced the match schedules which will be staged from March 16 to April 6.
According to the ICC website, as many as 35 tournament matches will be played across Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet in the 22-day tournament.
The format for the event in next year’s tournament has been changed following an increase in teams from 12 to 16.
The prize money for the men’s event will be $3 million, with the winner receiving $1.1 million and the losing finalist collecting $550,000.
Format
As the teams’ seeding are based on the ICC T20 Team Rankings as on 8 October 2012, the top eight sides following the conclusion of the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 will play directly in the Super 10 stage, while Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, which finished outside the top eight, will participate in the first round that will be held from 16-21 March.
The first round of the event will include eight sides that will be divided into two groups (Group A, B) of four teams each, with the table-toppers progressing to the Super 10 stage.
In the first round, Group A will feature host Bangladesh alongside three teams that will qualify from the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2013, to be staged from 15 to 30 November. Group B will include Zimbabwe, which will be joined by another three teams from the upcoming qualifiers. As such, the two groups will be finalised on 30 November.
The Super 10 stage will start with an evening match between former champions India and Pakistan in Dhaka on Friday 21 March.
The two groups of the Super 10 stage are:
Group 1 – Sri Lanka, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Group B Qualifier 1 (Q1B)
Group 2 – West Indies, India, Pakistan, Australia, Group A Qualifier 1 (Q1A)

 

Scott, Kuchar favored at World Cup

 

There are 26 teams taking part and eight individual golfers.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - On current form and on a very familiar golf course, the two top-ranked players at the World Cup Adam Scott and Matt Kuchar are heavy favorites for individual honors when play begins Thursday at Royal Melbourne.
No. 2-ranked Scott has won two tournaments in a row the Australian PGA and the Australian Masters, which was held last week at Royal Melbourne.
Seventh-ranked Kuchar led by two strokes late in the final round of the Masters before a double-bogey on 18 enabled Scott to successfully defend his title. Kuchar finished second.
"He has been in such good form," Kuchar said of Scott on Wednesday. "To at least give him a run it was awfully good. I stood five back going into Sunday. Unfortunately I got a bad break on 18 and that's part of golf."
The Australians, with Scott's teammate Jason Day at No. 18, are the highest-ranked team this week and will have the benefit of local crowds.
"It's an interesting week," Scott said Wednesday. "We're playing together as a team but we still want to beat each other." Added Day: "I don't know whether to love him or not if he beats me."
Kuchar and his teammate, Kevin Streelman, will attempt to successfully defend for the Americans the title that Kuchar and Gary Woodland won in 2011.
\The differences between the tournament, format-wise, that Kuchar and Woodland won in 2011 is about as far as the distance between Royal Melbourne and Haiku, China, where the Americans won.
Then, it was a team event in keeping with the near 60-year history of the tournament. Two days of four-ball competition, two days of foursomes. This time, to prepare for golf's return to the Olympics and the format that will be used in Rio, it's basically an individual stroke-play event.
The financial emphasis is on the individual portion of the tournament $7 million in prize money to be divided among the 60-man field, including $1.2 to the winner. And just $1 million allocated for the teams event, with money only going to the top three teams.
Kuchar said the change doesn't bother him.
"I know the format is different but the golf is the same," Kuchar said. "It's much more of an individual event ... but there is a team component and I think we have got as good a shot as anybody."
Earlier, U.S. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem defended the move away from the team-only concept at a media conference Wednesday at Royal Melbourne.
"I think it is way too soon to conclude that the team portion of the Cup is lost," Finchem said. "We haven't played yet so let's see how that plays out and then we will see. We feel like the tournament is more marketable. We think that it has a better chance of fulfilling its mission which is to create more interest in the game in unique ways."
\"But we will see. If we go down this road and it doesn't work, we will adjust, but we are going to give this every chance to work."
The system being used to determine the entries at the Word Cup rankings and number of players eligible from each country based on those rankings, will be used at Rio in 2016.
The other differences are that there will be no team competition at the Olympics, and there, golfers from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland who are playing as separate countries at the World Cup, will play as Britain.
Also, at the World Cup, Ireland and Northern Ireland play as one team. So this week, Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell and Ireland's Shane Lowry will play together.
McDowell says Scott is unquestionably the favorite this week.
"From Scotty's point of view, he is just one of those guys you play with and you think to yourself 'Why does this guy not win every week'?" McDowell said Wednesday. "He's that impressive."
There are 26 teams taking part and eight individual golfers, including Fiji's Vijay Singh, who finished third at the Australian Masters.

 

Nadal can beat Federer's 17-Slam haul, says Becker


Boris Becker has said that Rafael Nadal is capable of beating Roger Federer's 17-Slam haul.

PARIS (AFP) - Rafael Nadal is capable of beating Roger Federer s record haul of 17 Grand Slams, former German number one Boris Becker told AFP on Thursday.
"If you d asked me that a few years ago, I d have said no. But this year he (Nadal) has returned to his top form and now has 13 titles to his credit," Becker said.
"He s 27 and doesn t intend to stop there.
"He s capable of getting more," added the London-based star.
"Nadal is a great competitor. After all that happened to him last season (a long lay-off with a left knee injury) to return and have the success he s had this year in becoming world number one again is almost a miracle."
Becker was talking about Nadal, who has won 10 titles including the French Open and US Open, at an event linked to the German s participation in the Doha Goals sports forum in Qatar in December.

Crime, fan injuries drop in German football league matches

Number of football fans hurt at German league matches last season dropped by a third.

BERLIN, Oct 14, 2013 (AFP) - The number of football fans hurt at German league matches last season dropped by nearly a third, while crime incidents sank by 20 percent, according to a new report.
In their annual report, Germany s Central Information Office for Sports Deployment (ZIS) said injuries at German first and second division grounds had dropped from 1,142 cases in the 2011-12 season to 788.
During the same period, the number of prosecuted crimes also dropped from 8,143 to 6,502.
"Fewer injuries and fewer crimes amongst the 18 million spectators who attended matches in the previous Bundesliga season is a good figure," said German politician Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, in Duesseldorf.
The news was less than impressive further down the leagues with the number of injuries at third division matches rising by just over 50 percent last season.
"The incidents of violence and riots at third division games is still too high," added Jaeger.
The amount of man hours spent policing German Bundesliga matches in the last ten years has nearly doubled from 900,800 to 1.75 million, something Jaeger has dubbed "unacceptable".
"Our goal is to use fewer police officers at future football matches," he added.

 

 

Vettel silences critics as title beckons

 
Vettel was accused of sending fans to sleep with his consecutive wins.

SUZUKA (AFP) - Sebastian Vettel is used to dominating from the front but a brilliant, come-from-behind victory in Japan silenced the critics and proved it s not all about his Red Bull car.
The young German has attracted cynicism and even boos this year but if there was any doubt that he belongs among Formula One s greats, he obliterated it at Suzuka.
Vettel was accused of sending fans to sleep with his consecutive wins at Belgium, Italy, Singapore and South Korea, but he had to fight for victory in Japan.
The performance, described as "quite supreme" by his team principal Christian Horner, leaves the 26-year-old all but assured of a fourth successive world title.
Only two men in Formula One history -- Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher -- have won four in a row, and neither managed it at such a young age.
At Suzuka, Vettel qualified second on the grid despite being without his speed-boosting Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), a handicap estimated at 0.3sec per lap.
And at the start of the race, he got away slowly and was clipped by Lewis Hamilton, suffering damage to his front wing.
But he waited patiently in third place and nursed his tyres to the extent that he only needed two pit stops, compared with three for his team-mate Mark Webber.
And when he finally got his chance, late in the race, he pounced on leader Romain Grosjean, darting past and then watchfully bringing his deteriorating tyres home.
Vettel has now won five races in a row, the longest winning streak since Schumacher in 2004, and four of the last five grands prix in Japan.
With a 90-point lead over Alonso and 100 available from the last four races, his coronation is a foregone conclusion, barring an extraordinary turn of events.
Vettel has the statistics of a champion, but does not always get due recognition. Critics point to his superior car, crafted by Red Bull s brilliant designer, Adrian Newey.
His decision to ignore team orders and snatch victory from a fuming Webber this year in Malaysia lowered him in the opinion of some fans.
And others seem to be growing tired of the finger-pointing celebration and excitable yelling from the cockpit that accompanies every win.
"Ichiban (first)!" whooped Vettel over the radio as he took the chequered flag for the ninth time this season. "You re the best team in the world. I love you guys. Yes! Ichiban!"
Boos greeted his victories in Belgium, Italy and Singapore. But great sportsmen are often accused of arrogance -- just ask Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods.
Horner highlighted a telling moment in Japan, when Webber had the chance to follow Vettel past Grosjean and challenge his team-mate for victory.
"Seb had DRS (drag reduction system) when he passed Grosjean," Horner said. "There was one lap where Mark got right into the slipstream but because he pushed the button too early, the flap didn t open."
Webber got stuck behind Grosjean, and his chance of winning disappeared. Fine margins that separate the great from the rest.

 

 

 

Ghana through to World Cup, Egypt misses out

 
Egypt won Tuesday's second leg 2-1 in the first international in Cairo in two years.

CAIRO (AP) - Ghana has qualified for the World Cup with a 7-3 aggregate win over Egypt in the playoffs to seize the fourth of five African places available at the finals.
Egypt won Tuesday's second leg 2-1 in the first international in Cairo in two years, but Ghana progressed because of its 6-1 win at home in the first leg last month.
The 2010 quarterfinalist joins Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Cameroon at the showcase in Brazil next year. Burkina Faso can make it a clean sweep for West Africa if it ousts Algeria later Tuesday for the continent's final place at the World Cup.
Amr Zaki scored in the 25th minute and Gedo in the 84th for Egypt. Kevin Prince-Boateng scored Ghana's goal on the counter in the 89th.

 

 

Warner rips into Broad, Pietersen ahead of Tests

 
Warner has also taken a pot shot at England batsman Kevin Pietersen and his ego.

BRISBANE, Australia, Nov 20, 2013 (AFP) - Australia batsman David Warner has spiced up the war of words before Thursday's opening Ashes Test by telling England fast bowler Stuart Broad to "stop having a sook".
Warner, who has earned a bad boy reputation for punching England batsman Joe Root in a nightclub and engaging in a Twitter war with journalists, has also taken a pot shot at England batsman Kevin Pietersen and his ego.
Broad has gained notoriety in Australia after he refused to walk after being caught off a thick edge during the last series in England, and has been a constant talking point in the lead-up to the Gabba Test.
He reacted angrily on Twitter on Monday to accusations he took offence to some choice words from members at the Sydney Cricket Ground last week during a tour match.
Broad strongly denied two spectators were ejected at the request of the England team, but Warner said he needed to lighten up.
"He's already complaining and having a sook (sulk)," Warner told reporters Wednesday, using an Australian term for someone who is acting like a cry-baby.
"He can expect a lot. If you have a good laugh and enjoy it, people get behind you.
"That's what happened with me in England."
Warner was given a roasting by England supporters and gave it back to them in Manchester during the July-August series, his first match since being suspended for punching Root in a Birmingham nightclub.
Warner was also forthright when asked for his take on Pietersen ahead of his 100th Test match at the Gabba.
"He's already talking his garbage, but that's how he is," Warner said. "He lets his ego take over and he thrives on that.
"We're here to spoil it (Pietersen's 100th Test) and I reckon we will."
England captain Alastair Cook gave his support to Broad, saying he liked his feisty style.
"He's a very combative character, he's an in-your-face type of cricketer. I like that about him," Cook said Wednesday.
"Anytime you set him a challenge he has stood up and delivered.
"He's done that a number of times for an England team. He's got the ability to change games very quickly. He's had a good preparation, he looks in fine fettle with the ball and he's raring to go."

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