DT
Sport 27
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2015
QUICK BYTES Tiny Guam slay India in World Cup qualifier Tiny Guam maintained their fairytale start to World Cup qualifying by beating India 2-1 at home on Tuesday to jump to the top of Group D after their second win in a week. Brandon McDonald and Travis Nicklaw scored the goals as the U.S. territory in the North Pacific Ocean with a population of little more than 170,000 followed up their first ever qualifying win on Thursday against Turkmenistan with another. Reuters
Raina expects good contest n Minhaz Uddin Khan
Suresh Raina won’t be leading the Indian side like he did last time around in their Bangladesh tour. Last year around the same time, a second-string India team arrived for a threematch ODI series and returned with a 2-0 victory margin. However, it is a full-strength side led by regular skipper MS Dhoni that traveled
to Bangladesh this time. Raina, not part of the India Test squad that drew the only Test in Fatullah a few days back, landed in Dhaka last Monday night along with seven other members including captain Dhoni. Following their first training session at the BCB Academy ground yesterday, Raina shed some light on the importance they are giving to Bangladesh. Below are excerpts from his in-
Canada, Germany through to last 16 in Women’s WC Germany and Norway advanced with wins to the last 16 of the Women’s World Cup on Monday as a draw was enough to see hosts Canada and China through. Favourites Germany beat Thailand 4-0 to progress as Group B leaders ahead of Norway who secured their berth by beating Ivory Coast 3-1. Canada were held 1-1 by the Netherlands but it was enough to top Group A ahead of China who were held 2-2 in their fiery do-or-die clash against New Zealand. AFP
Football kings Thailand seal golden Games Thailand emphatically defended their Southeast Asian (SEA) Games football title on Monday as they finished top of the medals table for the second consecutive edition. Thailand’s under-23s had to wait until after half-time to break down dogged Myanmar, but three goals in the second period earned them a deserved 15th SEA Games title 3-0. Thailand’s women’s water polo team shocked Singapore and their female volleyballers also took gold in a victorious run for the team on the penultimate day. AFP
Nobel Peace center ends cooperation with Fifa FIFA suffered another blow to its prestige on Monday when the Nobel Peace Center announced it was ending its cooperation with soccer’s scandal-plagued governing body. The Oslo-based center had been behind the Handshake for Peace initiative which had been enthusiastically promoted by FIFA President Sepp Blatter over the past three years. FIFA had promoted pre-match handshakes between team captains and officials as the Handshake for Peace and had been hoping to introduce it at the end of games as well. Reuters
Reina may go after Bayern sign keeper Ulreich Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich signed goalkeeper Sven Ulreich from VfB Stuttgart on a three-year contract on Tuesday, a move that may trigger the departure of Spaniard Pepe Reina. German international Manuel Neuer remains first choice at the Bavarian club but the arrival of the talented 26-year-old, who had been at Stuttgart since his youth team days, will heat up the competition. “After many years at Stuttgart I was looking for a new challenge,” Ulreich said in a statement. “Here at Bayern I am at the right place.” Reuters
India ODI captain MS Dhoni (R) and Virat Kohli during training at SBNS yesterday
DHAKA TRIBUNE
teraction with the media. You guys have brought a full-strength side this time around. Taking the opposition more seriously? Raina: Yes, definitely. You saw that after the IPL, the full Test team came and now the full ODI team has come. Bangladesh have done well in ODIs recently, and this shows how important this series is for us. We have done well in ODIs recently, and we are looking forward to it. Do you remember Taskin Ahmed’s bowling from the series last year? He bowled really well in the World Cup and was good in the ODI series last year. They also have Mashrafe Mortaza. Tamim Iqbal is batting really well at the moment and they also have Shakib al Hasan. They have lots of youngsters and they did really well in the World Cup. If you ask me about our team, we have done really well in one-days over the years. We are looking to enjoy each and every game. We’re here to play cricket, and we’ll be focusing on our strengths. The team has been working really hard. How focused is the team at the moment? There is a good atmosphere and lots of positivity in the dressing room. Mahi bhai is here now, Virat [Kohli] led well in the Test. Selectors are also here. In spite of the rain, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has organised our net practice well. If it doesn’t rain tomorrow (today), it will be an important match. The more you enjoy cricket, the better. Is it good to have a reserve day in the ODI series given the overcast weather? It’s a good thing because if the match can’t get over on the first day, we have a day in reserve. But it means we’ll have to think for two days. The rain is not in our hands. We have had a good batting and bowling session and we’ll go and field now. We’ll have a good meeting afterwards and once the match starts we’ll be focused. The weather is not in our hands. l
Mashrafe fit, Mushfiq still unsure n Minhaz Uddin Khan Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza is fully fit ahead of the three-match 50over series against India, starting tomorrow at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. Concerns were raised with regards to Mashrafe’s availability in the forthcoming ODI series against the two-time world champions after the paceman was involved in a road accident in Mirpur on June 4. The Narail Express sustained skin lacerations on both his hands and knee after a bus clipped the cycle-rickshaw on which he was travelling, on his way to the SBNS. According to team sources, Mashrafe is match-fit for the first ODI and has attended full-fledged practice sessions in the past two days. It is however, still unclear over whether Mashrafe will be able to bat. An official statement on Mashrafe’s behalf was unavailable due to the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s restric-
tion on its employees of not making a comment to the media. Mushfiqur Rahim’s role, on the other hand, is yet to be ascertained by the team management. The stumper-batsman played the just-concluded one-off Test against India as a batsman and had handed over keeping duties to debutant Liton Kumar Das. It was understood that Mushfiq has recovered from his right ring finger injury but the team management does not want to hand over the job to the Test skipper straightaway. And following Liton’s impressive showing in the drawn Test against India, there are chances that the Dinajpur cricketer might don the gloves in the ODIs too. However, it was learned that the team management will wait till the eleventh hour before making a final decision. The second and third ODI will also be held in Mirpur on June 21 and 24 respectively. All the matches will be day-night affairs. l
Mashrafe bin Mortaza shares a light moment with selector Habibul Bashar at SBNS yesterday