ISB 24-08-2013_Layout 1 8/24/2013 2:53 AM Page 17
16
Most ball games are lost, not won. –Casey Stengel
sPorts
S
saturday, 24 august, 2013
kP awarded silver Bat for becoming england’s all-time leading run-scorer
australia chip away as england grind ScOREBOARD AUSTRALIA 1st INNINGS 492/9d ENGLAND 1st INNINGS AN cook* c †Haddin b Harris jE Root c Watson b Lyon IjL Trott lbw b Starc KP Pietersen c Watson b Starc IR Bell not out cR Woakes not out Extras 20 Total
25 68 40 50 29 15 (b 9, lb 5, w 4, nb 2)
(4 wickets; 116 overs) 247 TO BAT Mj Prior†, Scj Broad, GP Swann, jM Anderson, Sc Kerrigan FALL OF WIcKETS 1-68 (cook, 31.3 ov), 2-118 (Root, 53.4 ov), 3-176 (Trott, 80.1 ov), 4-217 (Pietersen, 100.3 ov) BOWLING: MA Starc 26-5-60-2, Rj Harris 23-9-41-1,jP Faulkner 12-3-29-0, PM Siddle 21-6-46-0,NM Lyon 26-8-41-1,SPD Smith 8-3-16-0
LONDON: Star England batsman Kevin Pietersen on Friday was awarded a Silver Bat during the lunch break of Day two of the fifth Ashes Test match at the Oval for becoming the highest run-scorer for England in all forms of the game. Pietersen who made his debut for England in November 2004, has scored 13,320 runs in 267 international matches for England. He surpassed the previous record held by Graham Gooch during the fourth Ashes Test at old Trafford. The South African-born Pietersen, who has been embroiled in numerous controversies over the years with the England team, tops the list followed by former England captains Gooch and Alec Stewart. Pietersen was noticed at the international stage during the historic 2005 Ashes Test where he played crucial knocks to add value to the team’s total on more than one occasion. Even as brushes with administrators and frequent tiffs with former players and teammates have continued, Pietersen has gone on trample over records in all formats of the game. He reached 1,000 ODI runs in 21 innings, tying for the fastest with Viv Richards. He got to 2000 in 45 innings, joining Zaheer Abbas at the top of the list. AG EN c IES
LONDON
E
AGENcIES
NGLAND went to stumps on 247 for four, still needing 48 runs to avoid the follow-on, at stumps on the third day of the fifth and final Ashes test against Australia at The Oval on Friday. Replying to Australia’s 492 for nine declared in ideal batting conditions, England lost Alastair Cook for 25, Joe Root (68) and Jonathan Trott (40) to leave their hopes of winning a home Ashes series 4-0 for the first time hanging by a thread. An unusually subdued Kevin Pietersen reached the interval on 29 not
out and Ian Bell was on four with England still trailing the touring side by 311 runs. Cook and Root, who resumed on 32 for no wicket, batted cautiously through the first hour under clear blue skies against tidy but largely unthreatening fast bowling. Root produced two neat wristy flicks to the mid-wicket boundary and Cook drove Ryan Harris square for four but runs were generally hard to come by. The pair had taken their opening partnership to 68, England’s best of the series, when three balls after the drinks break Cook nibbled at a wide ball from Harris and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin took a diving catch. The England captain swished his bat in frustration as his disappointing series
continued and his dismissal sent Root into his shell. The 22-year-old failed to score a run off 19 balls in a row but he pulled Peter Siddle for a single just before lunch to reach his half-century, made from 145 deliveries and including eight fours. It was a welcome return to form for Root, who has struggled with the bat since making 180 in the second test at Lord’s, and England took lunch on 97 for one. Root hit two fours in James Faulkner’s first over of the day but with a century in his sights he swept at a fulllength ball from off-spinner Nathan Lyon and top-edged a simple catch to Shane Watson at short fine-leg. Pietersen got off the mark by driving Mitchell Starc for four through mid-off
BABAR TOPPLES ASIF AS FARHAN PILES UP 129 BREAK KARACHI STAFF REPORT
PCB serves notiCe to rashid LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board has issued a show-cause notice to former captain Rashid Latif for his continuous statement against the board. The PCB served the notice on Friday, asking the former wicket keeper to prove his allegations against the board. Latif has alleged that an Indian bookie Annu Bhatt had been enjoying hospitality of the PCB. The board said legal action would be taken against the ex-cricketer if he failed to prove his allegations within three days. Latif had earlier stated that Indian bookie Anu Bhatt is PCB’s guest. The PCB has directed the former cricket team captain to explain his statement with evidence. Latif had earlier announced that he would stay put on his statement. S TA FF REP O RT
Babar Masih, who represented Pakistan in the Asian snooker championship at home earlier this year, sent shock waves when he toppled reigning IBSF world amateur snooker champion Mohammad Asif in the fully stretched battle 4-3 of the fifth National Bank of Pakistan Ranking Snooker Championship on Thursday. The 26-year-old Babar, a winner of Punjab Cup last year, opened the match on brisk note and soon surged 2-1 and 3-1 in the best of seven frames battle. Asif recollected his act by neutralising 3-all grabbing the fifth and sixth frames only to lose the decisive. Babar, who in his opening game to Rambel Gul the other day, won the duel 68-51, 71-40, 42-67, 77-1, 1-87, 32-76, 58-32. Eighth seed Farhan Noor, meanwhile, surpassed the 117 break of Mohammad Bilal by piling sterling break of 129, third century break of the event, against Sindh’s Sohail Shehzad in the seventh frame while registering
60-67, 103-12, 62-7, 29-101, 77-6, 4453, 130-0. All the top four seeded cueists were extended to limits by their respective opponents before chalking up second successive victories. National champion Hamza Akbar faced a tough resistance from national junior champion Mohsin Amin before winning 56-64, 60-3, 73-44, 32-64, 4969, 60-54, 54-16. Similarly, former Pakistan No 1
and second seed Imran Shehzad overcome fighting Bahadur Khan of Balochistan 54-68, 85-21, 81-23, 5434, 42-91, 1-68, 70-38. Third seed Mohammad Sajjad, a former Asian No 2, handed 21-70, 5613, 54-63, 16-62, 76-64, 63-2, 77-18 defeat to Sindh’s Sultan Mohammad while fourth seed Abdul Sattar inflicted 43-27, 48-56, 71-61, 24-71, 62-50, 5-55, 79-27 defeat on Punjab’s Amir Rasheed.
BOARDS ADD T20S TO SL’S ZIMBABWE TOUR SCHEDULE COLOMBO AGENcIES
Sri Lanka Cricket has confirmed its national team will travel to Zimbabwe for a full, 35-day tour, which begins on October 3. The boards have added two Twenty20s to the Future Tours Programme’s schedule of two Tests and three ODIs. Sri Lanka will also play a two-day warm-up match before the Tests. Both Tests and the first two ODIs will be played at the Harare Sports Club, before the action moves to the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo for one ODI and the Twenty20 matches. The two-day match will also take place in Harare, although the opposition team has not yet been decided. Sri Lanka are likely to experiment on the tour, continuing their focus on regeneration in this year. Angelo Mathews will lead the team in his first away Test
series as captain, and Twenty20 captain Dinesh Chandimal is also in a similar situation. However, Sri Lanka may temper their quest to blood youth with a desire to provide match practice to the
senior players, in a lean year of Tests. The team has not played Tests since the Bangladesh tour in March, and have a major tour against Pakistan at the end of the year. Excluding the Test against Pakistan in Dubai, which begins on December 31, Sri Lanka have only five Tests in their 2013 schedule. Zimbabwe will have had more Test-match practice this year, having played two matches in the West Indies in March, as well as two Tests at home, against Pakistan, in September. They will also play two Twenty20s and three ODIs against Pakistan in the ongoing tour. SLC has also named a 27-man preliminary squad for the tour, from which 15 players will be selected. Major omissions from the side are left-arm fast bowler Chanaka Welegedara and Test-specialist wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene, who was also left out of the squad for the Bangladesh series. Dinesh Chandimal is likely to keep wicket in his stead.
but the normally dynamic right-hander also struggled to find his touch. Trott’s first boundary came off the 78th delivery he faced and Pietersen’s frustration was evident when, on 11, he attempted a suicidal quick single and was well short of safety when David Warner’s throw narrowly missed the stumps. England edged to 150, off 431 balls, and when Pietersen drove a full toss from leg-spinner Steve Smith back over the bowler’s head for four it was the first boundary for 11 overs. Lyon, bowling round the wicket to imaginative field settings, extracted some turn which troubled both batsmen but they picked off a few easy singles to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Australia took the second new ball just before tea and Starc trapped Trott lbw with his first delivery, the batsman failing to get the decision overturned on review.
neurologist wants More tests of uMar LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board is waiting for the report of the neurologist who examined wicket-keeper batsman Umar Akmal for epilepsy seizure and other ailment that left him unconscious on a fight from the Wesdt Indies to Zimbaber. The neurologist has asked for more tests of the player as the reports developing from the board said that nothing has been found in the initial tests and the doctor as a precautionary step wants complete and thorough checkup. The PCB sought the help of a neurologist to unravel the mystery behind the player`s reported illness in the West Indies where he was a part of the Caribbean Premier League. Umar had been taken to the neurologist by Intikhab Alam along with his fresh MRI scan reports as a precautionary step. “The neurologist has ordered some more tests and will examine him again after the reports come in and will give his diagnosis,” the official said. The PCB recalled the youngster from the West Indies after it was learnt that he had reportedly fallen unconscious on a flight from Trinidad to Jamaica. However, Umar after landing in Lahore told reporters that he was perfectly fine and had no medical issues, and was fit to go and play in Zimbabwe. Umar was named in the T20 and ODI squads by the selectors for Zimbabwe tour but after his reported illness the board decided to withdraw him and instead named wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed as his replacement. The official said the board had received all the medical reports about Umar from the West Indies and he was also examined by a doctor in New York while returning to Pakistan. “We have decided to have him undergo a complete set of tests including consulting a neurologist because something was wrong which led to his falling ill in the West Indies and we just want to be sure he is well taken care off as he is the future of Pakistan cricket,” the official explained when asked to comment on Umar`s statement to the media. STAFF REPORT