SPORTS Friday, 25 March, 2016
T20: Green-shirTs flaTTen B’desh women NeW DeLHI
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women world T20(2016) poinTs Table
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AKISTAN’S women cricket team beat Bangladesh by nine wickets with over three overs to spare on Thursday in the ICC World T20 match at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi. Bismah Maroof and Sidra Ameen ensured Pakistan aced their chase against Bangladesh as this second-wicket pair added 99 runs in their unbroken partnership, Pakistan’s highest in World T20s for any wicket and best for the second wicket in T20Is. Bowling first, the national women’s team restricted their opponents to 113 for nine, with Anam Amin and Asmavia Iqbal getting two wickets apiece. Fargana Hoque was the top scorer for Bangladesh, scoring 36 off 37 balls with two fours. She shared a 43-run third wicket stand with opener Sharmin Akhter, who made 19 off 34 balls. But once Sharmin fell in the 14th over, through a soft dismissal when she dabbed Sana Mir to Nida Dar at short fine leg, Pakistan took control.
GroUp a pos 1 2 3 4 5 GroUp b pos 1 2 3 4 5
In the field, the girls in green were at times clumsy but put up an extraordinary effort. Wicket-keeper Sidra Nawaz, who
was a live-wire behind the stumps, was involved in two of the four run-outs while spinner Anam Amin bagged two wickets.
Team new Zealand women aUsTralia women soUTH aFriCa women sri lanKa women ireland women
maTCHes 3 3 2 3 3
won 3 2 1 1 0
losT 0 1 1 2 3
neT rr +2.564 +0.089 +1.411 -0.527 -2.900
poinTs 6 4 2 2 0
Team enGland women wesT indies women paKisTan women india women banGladesH women
maTCHes 3 3 3 3 4
won 3 2 2 1 0
losT 0 1 1 2 4
neT rr +0.750 +0.867 +0.327 +1.130 -2.306
poinTs 6 4 4 2 0
In their chase, Pakistan reached their target in 16.3 overs. Sidra Ameen was declared player of the match for her maiden half-ton from 48 deliveries. Both Ameen and Maroof ensured Pakistan remained in contention for the knockouts. On four points from three games, they have a match against England in hand; a win in that game will put them directly in the semis should West Indies lose their final game to India; if both Pakistan and West Indies win, it will be a three-way tie with England on six points and come down to net run rate. Even if Pakistan lose that game, though, they still
might go through if West Indies are defeated by a big enough margin to bring their NRR below Pakistan’s. Bangladesh bowed out of the competition having lost four out of four group matches. Earlier, Bangladesh skipper Jahanara Alam won the toss and decided to bat as they took on high-flying Pakistan. On Saturday, Pakistan women’s team won against India by two runs in the tournament under the Duckworth-Lewis method after rain disrupted the match. The green-shirts meet England in their final Group stage match on Sunday.
Misfiring Australia face under-fire Pakistan in must-win showdown Pakistan cricket team not good enough to be in WT20 semi-finals: Waqar Younis Pakistan head coach Waqar Younis has conceded that his team is not “good enough” to play in the World T20 semi-final. The Men in Green are facing an early exit from the tournament after facing back-to-back defeat at the hands of hosts India and then New Zealand. “We don’t deserve to go through to the semi-final,” Waqar said while speaking to the media after the match. “If you [media] say, we will keep our hopes up, our hopes high.” The former legendary fast-bowler also went on to criticise batsman Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad, who managed to score just 54 runs off 58 balls collectively in a chase of 180. “Those who were shouting about not getting to bat in the position they want, this was their perfect opportunity,” said Waqar. “We were just not good enough. You can cry all you want, you can talk all you want, we are just not good enough, and people have to take a hard look at themselves.” Shahid Afridi’s men still have a chance to qualify for the semi-final, but for that they will first have to beat Australia on Friday in their last match, and then will have to hope that Australia beat India in their last match, which will tie all three teams on four points each, and Pakistan as of now have a much better run-rate than Australia and India, which can help them qualify for the semi-final. sporTs desK
‘Nobody will be happier than me if we can win this for Afridi’: Shoaib Malik MOHALI: Pakistan batsman Shoaib Malik Thursday vowed his team will do all it takes to pull off a win against Australia and give skipper Shahid Afridi a winning send-off at the World Twenty20. Afridi, who no longer plays Test and one-day cricket, has hinted at an imminent retirement from the game after being criticised for his side’s disappointing show in the marquee tournament. Pakistan have lost two of their three group matches and another defeat against Australia in Mohali on Friday will throw them out of the competition. “This is going to be Afridi’s last World Cup. I respect him a lot, he is like an elder brother to me,” Malik said at the pre-match press conference. “Nobody will be happier than me if we can win this World Cup for Afridi. “Every player is trying to give 100 percent. Winning or losing is not in our hands, but each one of us is taking responsibility and trying to give our best,” he said. Veteran Afridi has played 97 T20 internationals and scored 1,391 runs while taking 97 wickets. Malik, 34, said the team was looking at plugging the loopholes and come out firing against Australia, who have one win and a loss from two outings so far. aGenCies
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A stumbling Australia will need to raise their game when they take on Pakistan in a must-win group match of the World Twenty20 in Mohali on Friday. The Australians handed Bangladesh a second straight defeat in their previous outing but only after surviving a scare against Mashrafe Mortaza’s depleted side. The reigning 50-over world champions have appeared tentative at best, going down to New Zealand in their opening encounter and then sweating for a win against the Tigers. “I don’t think we have hit our 100 percent just yet,” Aussie skipper Steven Smith said Thursday at the pre-match press conference. “But I think that’s good because you want to play your best cricket at the back-end of the tournament. “I think we have to be a little bit better than we have been in the first two games. Pakistan is a quality opposition, so yeah we have to be better than we have been.” Pakistan are hurting after defeats to India and an impressive New Zealand, who have already booked their place in the semi-finals from Group B. Another defeat will finish off Pakistan’s hopes of advancing any further in the tournament, which would be a huge disappointment for a side eyeing a repeat of their 2009 title winning feat. Senior Pakistan batsman Shoaib Malik said the players were eager to improve in all departments in the crunch game against the Aussies. “There are certain areas where we need to improve our skills. Consistency is one thing which we are lacking. We are working on it,” Malik said. “As professional players, we want to give our 100 percent. Our first goal is to win tomorrow.” Under-fire Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi might be tempted to tinker his playing eleven, given neither his seamers nor spinners have looked threatening against qual-
ity opposition. Australia could consider bringing in the fitagain batsman Aaron Finch, who has yet to play largely because of the way his replacement Usman Khawaja has stood up at the top of the order. Finch, who is the topranked batsman in the shortest format of the game, was dumped as T20 captain in favour of Test and ODI captain Smith last month. Khawaja made a match-winning 58 against Bangladesh after scoring a handy 38 against the Black Caps. PAkIStAn: shahid afridi (captain), anwar ali, imad wasim, Khalid latif, ahmed shehzad, mohammad amir, mohammad Hafeez, mohammad irfan, mohammad nawaz, mohammad sami, sarfraz ahmed, shoaib malik, sharjeel Khan, Umar akmal, wahab riaz
AuStrALIA: steve smith (captain), david warner, ashton agar, nathan Coulter-nile, James Faulkner, aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, mitchell marsh, Glenn maxwell, peter nevill, andrew Tye, shane watson, adam Zampa
Dutch legend Cruyff dies aged 68 SportS DeSk Johan Cruyff, one of football’s greatest players and most influential and visionary coaches, died aged 68 on Thursday after a five-month battle with lung cancer. His death was announced on his website and soon
after by the local newspaper, for whom he wrote a weekly column that was often controversial but always eagerly anticipated. An ex-smoker who had heart surgery in 1991, Cruyff joined Ajax Amsterdam as a long-haired teenager before emerging as one of the world’s greats in the early 1970s. He helped Ajax Amsterdam win three European Cups in a row from 1971-73 and also named European Footballer of the Year in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Born Hendrik Johannes Cruyff, he joined Barcelona for a then world record transfer fee of $2 million, and it was Barcelona that would later define his coaching career, helping the Catalan club to win their first La Liga title in nearly 15 years in 1974. He was also a key player in the great Netherlands team that reached the 1974 World Cup final when, for the first time, during the tournament a global audience saw him perform the now-famous “Cruyff turn” the movement in which the player with the ball plays it behind their own leg before
swerving away in the direction of the ball. The Dutch also got to the World Cup final but lost again in 1978, this time without Cruyff who had quit the national side, saying years later he walked away after an armed kidnap attempt. Following stints at Los Angeles Aztecs and Washington Diplomats in the old NASL, then Levante in Spain, Cruyff returned to Ajax before ending his playing career at their bitter rivals Feyenoord in 1984. In 1999, he was voted European Player of the Century while he is often bracketed alongside Brazil’s Pele and Argentina’s Diego Maradona as the three best players ever to grace the sport. The Barca ‘Dream Team’ Cruyff coached won four straight La Liga titles between 1991 and 1994 and beat Sampdoria 10 for the club’s maiden European Cup triumph in 1992. The possessionbased playing style Cruyff promoted, with an emphasis on relentless attack, has been widely copied and is credited with underpinning Barca’s subsequent successes, as well as those of the Spanish national team.
Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad.
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Our cricket is 10 years behind the modern game: Wasim Akram ISLAMABAD: Pakistani cricketing greats called for an overhaul of the national team and the country’s domestic infrastructure following back-to-back defeats in the World T20 that have ensured a likely early exit for the former champions. After triumphing against Bangladesh, the 2009 winners suffered sound beatings at the hands of arch-rivals India and then New Zealand that have left their campaign teetering on the brink. Fastbowling legend Wasim Akram said the team had been exposed in all departments and were miles behind their competitors. Speaking to Pakistan’s The News on Thursday, he said: “I mean we have not been doing anything right. “In [the New Zealand] game Sharjeel’s knock was the only silver lining and to some extent Sami’s bowling. Otherwise we were really bad in all areas. “What we have here is the best lot that was available in Pakistan. They are the cream. The problem is that most of them aren’t world class and for that I blame our system, which is extremely faulty,” he said. “Our cricket is 10 years behind the modern game. We are lagging behind teams like New Zealand because we haven’t updated or upgraded our system. You can’t keep repeating your mistakes and then expect different results.” Ageing captain Shahid Afridi has also come under fire for his declining form and lack of tactical nous. The 36-year-old, who is widely expected to retire when Pakistan conclude their campaign, began the tournament with a match-winning 49 but was blasted for failing to pick a specialist spinner on a turning Eden Gardens track against India. His darting leg-spin, which was crucial to Pakistan’s success in years gone by, has also looked unthreatening. “The man who is unpredictable and no one knows how he will perform is playing as a team captain,” said batting legend Javed Miandad on Pakistan’s TV channel. Former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar meanwhile said on Wednesday that the team had thrown away a match-winning position against New Zealand by failing to promote wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed up the order after openers Sharjeel Khan and Ahmed Shehzad had laid the foundation for a successful chase. “The batting order was wrong. We are all sick of shouting and shouting on TV channels [and asking for] to correct the batting order,” he said on India’s Star Sports Live. “They are technically not correct batsmen, they have no technique, if you watch them technically, none of them is playing down the ground.” Pakistan must beat Australia in Mohali on Friday, and hope their Antipodean rivals then defeat India for a chance of sneaking through on a net run rate. aGenCies