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Sports 16
England on brink of back-to-back Test wins KOLKAtA
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OR a major part of Saturday, the Barmy Army's band played loud and cheerfully at Eden gardens as England all but consigned India to their first set of consecutive home Test defeats since 1999-2000. It was fitting that the "band" drowned out the despondent Indian contingent in the stands, putting in place the jingoistic advertisements put together by the host broadcasters, which ridiculed English people. The England supporters, though, were silenced a little in the morning session by a mini comeback from India. It was ruthlessly stomped over by graeme Swann, so far a great support act to Monty Panesar in the series. Just when it seemed India might be slipping away from them for the first time in the Test, Swann assumed the lead role just after lunch. India had taken England's last four wickets cheaply, then gone to lunch without damage but Swann came back to burst through Virender Sehwag's gate. Cats among pigeons cause less panic. Under relentless pressure, India batted and ran like headless chickens, and went from 86 for 0 to 239 for 9.
316 INDIa 1St INNINGS 523 eNGlaND 1St INNINGS INDIa 2ND INNINGS 40 G Gambhir c †prior b finn 49 V Sehwag b Swann 8 Ca pujara run out (Bell) 5 SR tendulkar c trott b Swann 20 V Kohli c †prior b finn Yuvraj Singh b anderson 11 0 MS Dhoni*† c Cook b anderson R ashwin not out 83 Z Khan lbw b finn 0 I Sharma b panesar 10 pp ojha not out 3 eXtRaS 10 total 239 fall of wICKetS 1-86 (Sehwag, 21.1 ov), 2-98 (pujara, 28.6 ov), 3-103 (Gambhir, 30.4 ov), 4-107 (tendulkar, 31.5 ov), 5-122 (Yuvraj Singh, 36.4 ov), 6-122 (Dhoni, 38.1 ov), 7-155 (Kohli, 52.5 ov), 8-159 (Khan, 54.3 ov), 9-197 (Sharma, 72.3 ov) BowlING JM anderson 15-4-38-2, St finn 17-6-37-3, MS panesar 22-1-75-1, Gp Swann 28-9-70-2, SR patel 1-0-9-0, toss India, who chose to bat player of the match tba umpires HDpK Dharmasena (Sri lanka) and RJ tucker (australia) tV umpire Va Kulkarni Match referee JJ Crowe (New Zealand) Reserve umpire S Das
When England went into lunch having lost four wickets in 4.3 overs and then conceded 86 runs in 21 wicketless overs, there might have been thoughts of Chennai 2008-09 at the back of their heads. Swann had himself dropped Sehwag on 7 and seen him race to 49 by
work to lay blue turf at national hockey Stadium begins
the break. India were only 121 behind. Out comes Swann and tosses one outside off, putting all his might in trying to turn the ball, creating a gap between Sehwag's pad and his open face, and then hitting the top of off. India were now like a house of cards in a bicycle stand. gautam gambhir, who was assured in Sehwag's company, and Cheteshwar Pujara looked like they would get out any ball. Steven Finn, bowling reverse swing at high pace, and Swann were relentless. The pitch that had looked docile thus far began exploding all of a sudden. It was merely the amount of action put into the ball. After just 12 runs in close to eight runs in that partnership, gambhir called Pujara through for a risky single and Ian Bell hit the stumps direct from short midwicket. You could imagine England bowlers fighting to get a bowl now; there were easy wickets on offer. gambhir was nearly gone when a replay to check the validity of a low catch off Swann revealed he hadn't edged it at all. In the next over, gambhir went driving at a wide and full ball from Finn, edging him through to Matt Prior. Just to prolong his agony, the umpires asked him to wait at the edge of the boundary as they checked for a foot fault that wasn't. With gambhir
finally gone, focus turned to Sachin Tendulkar, playing surely his last Test innings at Eden gardens. He had got four with a trademark lap sweep but, two balls later, stayed back to an offbreak pitched on a length. The ball from Swann didn't turn as much as he expected it to, and took the outside edge to Jonathan Trott at slip: 107 for 4. Before India could draw breath, Finn was replaced by an even more threatening James Anderson. Reverse swing at high pace again. Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh somehow added 15 before Anderson bowled one short of a length, and it shot low to take the bottom edge and crash into Yuvraj's stumps. MS Dhoni came in. MS Dhoni got one short outside off. MS Dhoni followed it tamely. MS Dhoni went back: 122 for 6. Kohli was next, beautifully set up by Finn. Immediately after reversing one ball in to Kohli's bat handle, Finn inverted the shine of the ball and got it to move away. Kohli didn't have the discipline, followed it, and was taken at the wicket. He followed it with a symbolic wicket of Zaheer Khan with a reversing inswinger. Here was a former master of reverse swing who has become an innocuous trundler being shown how to do it.
BD grab nerve-wrecking win to take series MIRPUR aGeNCIeS
LAHORE Staff RepoRt
The work for the laying of the Desso Blue Turf at the National Hockey Stadium has started and is expected to be completed by the first week of January. The work at the stadium was stalled due to the ill-planned approach of Swallow International, the company which was given the task to complete the work. But due to the delaying tactics and reluctance to replace the old shock pads with the new ones the Sports Board Punjab was compelled to hand over the job to the second lowest bidder, which was the TS Builders. The TS Builders after doing its complete homework brought not only the blue turf but also the shock pads from Holland to lay at the Stadium. However, during the course of time the venues were utlised for the Punjab Youth, Provincial and National Festivals 2012 and Punjab International Sports Festival activities, that also included the record breaking mass national anthem singing event, the biggest mosaic and the largest human flag and later international freestyle wrestling was also held at the same venue. Now the sports and general activity is over the venue is handed over to the contractor who has after cleaning the surface started the laying of the shock pads and once the pads are laid, the blue turf would be pasted over it. According to the contractor the work would be completed in a month’s time and the venue will be ready for use in January. “We have laid the shock pads at one-fourth part of the stadium and within a day or two it will be laid at the entire area. After that the blue turf would be laid, which is a time consuming affair but it would be completed by the end of the month or the first week of January,” he maintained. TS Builders is thge same company whcih has laid the turf at the newly-built Johar Town Hockey Stadium where international hockey activity is continuing and only recently the Indian Punjab team and the Dutch veterans played a number of matches against their Pakistan counterparts.
Bangladesh on Saturday made an excellent series win against the West India when they defeated the visitors by two wickets with 36 balls to spare. The teams were locked two-all in the series and the Bangal Tigers got the final match to win the series. Earlier, three early wickets, followed by a substantial partnership, followed by a slump. That was the pattern of West Indies' innings in the afternoon and Bangladesh's chase under lights had a similar script. In pursuit of 218 to win the final match in Mirpur, and take the series 3-2, Bangladesh were rocked early by Kemar Roach. Their captain and deputy, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, launched a counterattack against wayward bowling and their fourth-wicket stand of 91 in 12.4 overs put the innings on course. However, both batsmen were dismissed by Sunil Narine and the match was evenly balanced once again. For a while, it appeared as though Bangladesh would slump like they did last night, when they failed to chase 211. Tamim Iqbal was bowled playing across the line, Anamul Haque fended a rising delivery to point, and Jahurul Islam nicked one that burst off a length to the wicketkeeper. Roach took all three and Bangladesh were 30 for 3 in the ninth over. The shift in momentum was sudden, for the next 11 balls after Jahurul's dismissal yielded 29 runs. West Indies' bowling was poor: the lengths were too short and the lines were scattered outside off and down leg side, resulting in an ample supply of wides. Darren Sammy, who excelled with bat and ball in the fourth ODI, leaked 16 runs in the tenth over. He conceded six runs in wides, bowled a long-hop that Mahmudullah pulled for four and a half-volley that was driven to the cover boundary. The change bowlers also struggled with their lengths. Andre Russell pitched short and wide and was cut twice by Mushfiqur to the boundary. Sunil Narine bowled five tight balls in his first over before the sixth was loose and punished. And so it continued, Mushfiqur and Mah-
mccullum denies involvement in captaincy change
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weSt INDIeS Koa powell st †Mushfiqur Rahim b Sohag Gazi 11 CH Gayle c Nasir Hossain b Shafiul Islam 2 1 MN Samuels run out (Mahmudullah) 51 DM Bravo c Mominul Haque b Mahmudullah Ka pollard b Mominul Haque 85 DJG Sammy* c Jahurul Islam b Mominul Haque 2 25 DC thomas† c †Mushfiqur Rahim b Shafiul Islam 0 aD Russell lbw b Mahmudullah V permaul run out (tamim Iqbal/Sohag Gazi) 10 Sp Narine not out 7 KaJ Roach lbw b Shafiul Islam 0 23 eXtRaS (lb 5, w 18) total 217 fall of wICKetS 1-16 (powell, 2.3 ov), 2-17 (Samuels, 5.2 ov), 3-17 (Gayle, 7.2 ov), 4-149 (pollard, 31.5 ov), 5-151 (Sammy, 33.1 ov), 6-188 (Bravo, 40.1 ov), 7-188 (Russell, 40.5 ov), 8-204 (permaul, 44.6 ov), 9217 (thomas, 47.4 ov), 10-217 (Roach, 47.6 ov) BowlING Sohag Gazi 10-2-32-1, Shafiul Islam 9-4-31-3, elias Sunny 8-0-58-0, abdur Razzak 9-1-39-0, Mahmudullah 10-1-38-2, Mominul Haque 2-014-2 BaNGlaDeSH tamim Iqbal b Roach 8 anamul Haque c pollard b Roach 0 Jahurul Islam c †thomas b Roach 10 44 Mushfiqur Rahim*† b Narine Mahmudullah b Narine 48 Nasir Hossain not out 39 Mominul Haque lbw b Narine 25 Sohag Gazi c †thomas b Roach 19 0 abdur Razzak lbw b Roach 1 elias Sunny not out eXtRaS (b 3, lb 4, w 18, nb 2) 27 total 221 DID Not Bat Shafiul Islam fall of wICKetS 1-8 (tamim Iqbal, 2.2 ov), 2-9 (anamul Haque, 2.6 ov), 3-30 (Jahurul Islam, 8.1 ov), 4-121 (Mahmudullah, 20.5 ov), 5-133 (Mushfiqur Rahim, 24.1 ov), 6-186 (Mominul Haque, 38.1 ov), 7-214 (Sohag Gazi, 42.4 ov), 8-215 (abdur Razzak, 42.5 ov) BowlING KaJ Roach 9-0-56-5, DJG Sammy 5-1-23-0, aD Russell 10-0-51-0, Sp Narine 10-1-38-3, V permaul 9-0-39-0, MN Samuels 1-0-7-0 Match details toss Bangladesh, who chose to field player of the match tba umpires enamul Haque and ReJ Martinesz (Sri lanka) tV umpire anisur Rahman Match referee aJ pycroft (Zimbabwe) Reserve umpire tanvir ahmed
Brendon McCullum, who took over as New Zealand captain under controversial circumstances after Ross Taylor refused an offer to remain as the leader of the Test team in a split-captaincy scenario, has said he is concerned for his predecessor as well as the team ahead of a tough tour of South Africa. Taylor has asked for a break and will not be travelling to South Africa. "I'm more concerned now with how the team is handling the situation and where we go from here - how we try and galvanise the unit, rather than my own individual accolade of picking up the captaincy," McCullum told reporters at a press conference in Lincoln. "I'm obviously worried for Ross and how he is dealing with things at the moment, and obviously how we try and ensure that we pull together this team inside a very short space of time for what is going to be an incredibly tough tour." McCullum said he had been in touch with Taylor, who said on Friday he felt he never had the support of New Zealand coach Mike Hesson. "I've spoken to him a couple of times - two days ago and then left a message with him again this morning - but he obviously needs a little bit of space at the moment as well, and I thought he did a really good job yesterday with the media of being able to deal with some tough circumstances," McCullum said.
mudullah cutting and pulling forcefully, and running hard between the wickets. Roach returned for his second spell in the 19th over and he too conceded two boundaries.
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FAYSAL BANk T-20 CUP
Lions, Wolves play for National T20 Cup LAHORE Staff RepoRt
Asif Ali single-handedly lifted Faisalabad Wolves to a 5 wickets win and made his team qualify for the final of the Faysal Bank National T20 Cup here at the gaddafi Stadium on Saturday night. With the winning stride, the Wolves will now face strong Lahore Lions team in the final on Sunday. Asif Ali won the game for Wolves by remaining unbeaten at 66. At one stage Multan Tigers bowlers were all over
Wolves batsmen but Asif came in and played his natural game and won the game for Wolves. The final will start 4:00 pm between Lahore Lions and Faisalabad Wolves at the gaddafi Stadium. Multan which chose to bat gathered 120 runs, thanks to Naved Yasin’s 46 and Sohaib Maqsood’s 25 while Amer Yamin added 10 runs. It were Asad Ali who took two wickets while Kamran Shehzad and Imran Khalid who shared one wicket each halted the Tigers progress. In the chase, Asif took things in his hands after Wolves were at 31 for three. He
held the innings knitted to keep the runs coming and got 18 runs support from Jahandad Khan while Imran Khalid contributed useful 10 in the Wolves’ win. Mohammad Irfan, Rahat Ali, Zulfiqar Babar and Rizwan Haider shared one wicket each. Wolves reached with an over to spare and five wickets in hand. SHEHzAD TON TAKES LAHORE TO fINAL: Ahmed Shehzad's second T20 ton fired Lahore Lions to the final of the Faysal Bank T20 Cup with a 51-run win against first-timers Bahawalpur Stags at the gaddafi
Stadium in Lahore. Shehzad started the match at a rapid pace with a flurry of boundaries and by the time he lost his opening partner, he had scored 39 off 20 balls in a 41run opening stand. He stayed dominant in a 96-run stand with Mohammad Hafeez and brought up his hundred off 54 balls. Once Shehzad was out, Hafeez lifted up the tempo, taking 24 runs off an Imranullah Aslam's over, and took the team past 200. Kamran Hussain picked up four wickets, three of them in the last over. Chasing a big target, Bahawalpur were dented by Abdul Razzaq's
double-strike in the first over, Hamid Ali and Kashif Siddiq, both falling off their first balls. At the halfway mark, Bahawalpur had lost four wickets and the required rate had shot up to 14.20. As the wickets continued to tumble, the lower order flayed and got some runs, but it was all too late and Bahawalpur were knocked out after making a promising debut in the tournament. Scores: Lahore Lions 211 for 5 (Shehzad 107, Hafeez 65, Hussain 4-23) beat Bahawalpur Stags 160 (Aslam 43, Riaz 3-23, Rasool 3-27) by 51 runs.
Sunday, 9 December, 2012