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sPorts Desk
RENDAN Rodgers probably had something else in mind when he introduced Luis Suarez from the bench to give Liverpool a helping hand as his team toiled to FA Cup victory against Mansfield. On the ropes against the Blue Square Bet Premier outfit, who had laid siege to the Liverpool goal as Rodgers' players defended their first-half lead, Suarez's handled goal within four minutes of entering the action tainted the Merseysiders' progression to a fourth-round tie against Oldham at Boundary Park later this month. Despite the Liverpool manager's post-match assertion that Suarez's handball was not deliberate, the Uruguayan certainly gave the ball a fair whack with his right hand before beating goalkeeper Alan Marriott from close range. Just as it would be utterly unrealistic to expect Suarez to do what Diego Maradona and Thierry Henry never did by telling the referee that the goal had been scored with his hand, it was also no surprise to hear chants of "cheat, cheat, cheat," raining down from the stands inside Field Mill. PALMED: Robbie Fowler might have urged the referee to backtrack on a penalty award during a game against Arsenal at Highbury in 1997, but that was a one-off in a hard-bitten profession where any inch is taken to claim a mile. Suarez, a 54th-minute replacement for £12m debutant Daniel Sturridge, put the game beyond Mansfield when he palmed the ball down and then kicked it into the net on 58 minutes. Referee Andre Marriner, having
‘lampard definitely leaving chelsea’ sPorts Desk The 34-year-old has widely been expected to leave the club he joined back in 2001 at the end of the season, and agent Steve Kutner claims the Blues hierarchy have confirmed that to the player. He told the Daily Mirror: "Chelsea executives told Frank in Japan during the Club World Cup then again reconfirmed with me after the Everton victory that in no circumstances will he be offered a new contract to stay at the club after the end of this season. "Nothing since has changed in any respect. "Frank has had to accept that and just wants to carry on playing football for Chelsea so as to finish the season as successfully as possible for the club that he loves." Reports over the weekend suggested Chelsea may be interested in keeping the player after all and that Lampard had offered to take a hefty pay cut to stay at the club. Fans made their feelings clear on Saturday as they chanted "sign him up" when Lampard came off the bench in Chelsea's 5-1 FA Cup win at Southampton.
djokovic ready for melbourne return Defending champion Novak Djokovic returns to the Australian Open seeking his third consecutive trophy at Melbourne Park, where memories of last year's gut-wrenching final against Rafa Nadal still linger around Rod Laver Arena's blue centre court. Last year's record-breaking epic of five punishing hours and 53 minutes secured Djokovic his fifth grand slam title while establishing the 25-year-old as tennis's indisputable iron man. SpoRtS DeSK
looked across at his linesman Mike Mullarkey, awarded the goal, despite the appeals of the incensed Mansfield players, led by Marriott. Mansfield's anger was fuelled by their team having a penalty claim turned down moments earlier when Matt Green's backheel was blocked by a stray Liverpool arm on the goal line. With tensions running high, a supporter wearing a blue and yellow jester's hat then ran onto the pitch and approached Suarez before being ushered away by stewards. Whether Suarez's handball was deliberate or not, it took the shine off a stirring cup tie, during which Mansfield belied their status as a mid-table non-league club lying 93 places behind their illustrious opponents. Having insisted prior to the game that he would be taking the tie seriously, Rodgers opted to make eight changes to his starting line-up, with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson and Daniel Agger given a day off altogether. Suarez, meanwhile, was named on the bench, with Rodgers perhaps mindful of the need for a 'just in case' option should the game go badly for Liverpool. When Sturridge put Liverpool ahead inside the opening 10 minutes, though, it appeared as though Rodgers' bold selection was justified after all. Having gone close moments earlier when Suso sent a 25-yard effort flashing over the crossbar, Liverpool went ahead when Sturridge recorded his first goal for the club with a crisp finish on eight minutes. The England forward displayed slick movement to escape centre-half Exodus Geohaghon and latch onto Jonjo
Poa serves notice to federal sports secretary
Shelvey's through-ball before guiding a first-time shot past Marriott. At that stage, it appeared as though Mansfield were destined for a brutal dose of reality against the five-time European champions. But Paul Cox's team overcame their nervous start and began to push Liverpool back, taking advantage of the uneven Field Mill pitch and Geohaghon's long throw-ins, which were straight out of the Rory Delap guide to causing defensive panic. Chris Clements saw a free-kick blocked by the Liverpool wall, while the industrious Green forced Brad Jones into an important save on 32 minutes. Liverpool still carried plenty of threat, with the impressive Shelvey linking well with Sturridge, but their failure to score a second injected Mansfield with energy and belief and they were unlucky not to equalise during a vibrant start to the second half. Within the space of three minutes, Anthony Howell saw a close range shot saved before the same player was denied by the out-stretched leg of Jamie Carragher. As Mansfield heaped pressure on the Liverpool goal, Louis Briscoe forced Jones in another save before the Australian 'keeper palmed away another effort from Clements. But the goal just would not come, even when Geohaghon's downward header was saved and Green saw his backheel from two yards pushed away by the besieged Jones. Having seen his team go close to conceding, Rodgers made the change which ultimately decided the game by introducing Suarez in place of Sturridge.
LAHore Staff RepoRt
In what is a clear violation of the Supreme Court orders of May 8, 2012, the Olympic Charter and clear International Olympic Committee instructions communicated to the Government of Pakistan in several missives, Pakistan Sports Board has not invited the Pakistan Olympic Association and those National Federations whose presidents and secretaries have completed their two tenures. This playing favourites in order to create fissures in the sporting community to install their nominated people in positions of authority in the POA and the National Federation not only falls in the realm of government intervention into their affairs which is a serious breach of Olympic Charter, putting Pakistan in harm’s way for its international sporting status can be withdrawn. The International Olympic Committee’s stance aside, this is against the Supreme Court orders. As such Pakistan Olympic Association has through its legal firm Awan Raza sent a legal notice, quoting chapter and verse from the May 8, 2012 verdict, to the Federal secretary of sports who also doubles up as secretary of the Pakistan Sports Board.
england defeated in warm-up game
Sania-Huber duo into Apia International quarter-final
DeLHi agencIeS
England collapsed to a 53-run loss against India A in their first warm-up game ahead of the ODI series. Chasing 224 from 39 overs at Delhi, England went from 32 for 0 to 175 all out. Ian Bell hit an impressive 89-ball 91, but Kevin Pietersen (19), who was opening in the absence of the ill Alastair Cook, was the only other top-seven batsman to reach double figures. England's next warm-up game, against Delhi, is today. Michael Hussey bowed out of international cricket with a win as Australia beat Sri Lanka by five wickets at Sydney to take the series 3-0. Chasing 141, Australia had a few blips along the way but an unbeaten 27 from Hussey steadied the nerves. Hussey finishes his Test career with 19 hundreds from his 79 matches, at an average of 51.52.
sPorts Desk Sania Mirza continued her impressive run in the circuit this year when she combined well with Liezel Huber to rally from a first-set deficit to down Dominika Cibulkova and Lucie Safarova 1-6, 6-0, 11-9 and enter the women's doubles quarter-final of the Apia International tennis championship in Sydney on Monday, according to information received here. It may be recalled that Sania partnered Mattek-Sands Bethanie to clinch the Brisbane International last week. "This is the best start to the year I have ever had," says the champion tennis player from Hyderabad.
Interestingly, Sania is World No 12 in the individual roll-over rankings in doubles while Mattek is World No 27. Still good enough for this duo to enter
the Australian Open Grand Slam where they are likely to be seeded No 10, according to Sania's father-cum-coach Imran Mirza.
NASIR, AJMAL cLAIMS TOP HONOURS s Pervez QAiser Nasir Jamshed scored the highest number of runs while team-mate Saeed Ajmal claimed the highest number of wickets in the just concluded three-one day match series between Pakistan and in India which former won 2-1 The Pakistani opener scored 241 runs at an average of 120.50 and a strike rate of 75.31 with two centuries in three innings of as many matches. He hit 22 fours and three six in this series. Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the number one position for hosts. The Indian skipper, scored 203 runs at 203.00 and a strike rate of 75.46 with one century and one fifty in three innings of as many matches. He hit just 12 fours and seven sixes in three innings. Saeed Ajmal shared the first sport with team mate Junaid Khan amonth the bowlers. The Pakistani off spinner claimed eight wickets at an average of
10.75 and a economical rate of 2.89 in three matches while left arm medium fast bowler, Junaid Khan took same number of wickets at 12.37 and a economical rate of 3.66. Ishant Sharma was the most successfull bowler for the hosts The right arm fast medium claimed seven wickets at 15.57 with a economical rate of 3.71 in three matches. As many as three centuries were scored, two from Pakistan side and one from the hosts. Nasir Jamshed scored both hundreds for Pakistan while India's lone hundred was scored by their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the second match at Kolkata Two bowlers,both from Pakistan, claimed a four-wicket haul. Saeed Ajmal record his best bowling in one day internationals by taking five for 24 in 9.4 overs in the third and final match at Delhi. It was second best bowling performance by a Pakistani bowler
spinner against India Saaed Ajmal's previous best was five for 43 against England at Abu Dhabi on February 13,2012. Junaid Khan's four-wicket haul, four for 43, came in the first match at Chennai.
against India in India after Naved-ilHasan's six for 27 at Jamshedpur on April 7,2005 and best by a spinner against India. Mushtaq Ahmed's five for 36 at Toronto on September 23,1996 was the previous best by a Pakistani
top SIX BatSMen In tHe SeRIeS: Batsman nasir Jamshed mahendra singh dhoni mohammad Hafeez suresh raina younis Khan shoaib malik
m 3 3 3 3 3 3
i 3 3 3 3 3 3
n.o 1 2 1
runs 241 203 97 92 74 63
avg 120.50 203.00 32.33 30.66 24.66 31.50
H.s 106 113* 76 43 58 34*
s/r 75.31 75.46 91.50 48.42 77.89 80.76
100 2 1 -
50 1 1 1 -
4wi 1 1 -
Best 5-24 4-43 3-34 2-27 3-41 1-26
top SIX BoWleRS In SeRIeS: Bowler saeed ajmal Junaid Khan ishant sharma Bhuvneshwar Kumar ravindra Jadeja mohammad Hafeez
m 3 3 3 3 2 3
overs 29.4 27 29.2 28 20 30
runs 86 99 109 119 60 99
wkts 8 8 7 5 4 3
avg 10.75 12.37 15.57 23.80 15.00 33.00
r/o 2.89 3.66 3.71 4.25 3.00 3.30
tuesday, 8 January, 2013