Argentina beat Netherlands 4-2 on penalties to reach final

July 10, 2014

final

Sao Paulo, Jul 10: The rainy evening at the Corinthians Arena grew colder as the second semifinal between Argentina and the Netherlands progressed to a dead end after 120 minutes.

Two saves from Sergio Romero settled the shootout and the issue for Argentina 0-0 (4-2) who are set for a date at the Maracana with Germany in four day's time.

Ron Vlaar and Wesley Sneijder were the culprits for the Netherlands, whose aspirations for a World Cup title eludes them once again.

Argentina made it to the final for the first time since 1990 where they got the better of hosts Italy also in a penalty shootout. Sergio Javier Goycochea was the hero and Romero just emulated him. In the final, however, Argentina lost to Germany.

After the high octane action the evening before, the cautious approach of two powerhouses left a lot to be desired.

It seemed that Lionel Messi actually failed to turn up for the party. In the 120 dreary minutes of non-action, the most noise were made by the hordes of Argentinian fans. They kept on singing, maybe just to keep themselves warm, as the action on the pitch barely gave then anything to cheer about.

After a couple of trademark darts, Messi made peace with the fact that he was too heavily marked. He chose to hide himself in the mesh of covering that Dutch coach Luis Van Gaal plotted for him.

A three man defence had a two man insurance on the flanks. Dirk Kuyt and Daley Blind positioned themselves wide and cut off all the adventurous streaks from the Argentinians. Pablo Zabaleta and Marcos Rojo could not move up. Ezequiel Lavezzi and Gonzalo Higuain looked out of place and that left Messi looking helplessly for support.

Whatever inspiration he managed to garner, Ron Vlaar's fearless tackles snuffed it out.

At the other end, Javier Mascherano did the similar job on Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Jul 21: The tickets sold for the now-postponed ICC T20 World Cup will remain valid if Australia hosts the edition in 2021 instead of India.

In case the event is shifted to 2022, all ticket-holders will be entitled to a full refund, the ICC stated on its website on Monday night after postponing the mega-event this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tournament was to be held in October-November but will now be conducted later because of the pandemic.

The ICC has not yet announced which country will host which edition as there are operational issues that both the Indian and Australian cricket Boards need to sort out.

The world body had opened ticket booking through its ticketing partners and a significant number was already sold.

"Ticket holders are welcome to retain their tickets, noting, if Australia hosts in 2021, tickets will remain valid for fans who have already bought and will be automatically updated to reflect the new dates.

"If Australia hosts in 2022, for tickets already bought a full refund will be processed automatically," ICC stated in a series of FAQs.

Fans can retain their tickets until a date is confirmed for the event.

Refund requests can be made until December 15 and they will be processed within 30 days after an online submission.

The hospitality package will also remain valid for the 2021 fixtures.

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News Network
March 25,2020

New Delhi, Mar 25: Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen appealed to Indian citizens to stay home during the 21-day lockdown, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contain coronavirus.

"Namaste India! I have heard that your situation is like ours, PM Modi has announced a nation-wide lockdown for 21 days. I request you to follow this instruction. We will fight coronavirus together and come out to this situation. Please stay at your home and stay safe, " he tweeted in Hindi.
At the end of the message, Pietersen gave credit to his "Hindi teacher" Shreevats Goswami, who is an Indian domestic cricketer.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the nationwide total lockdown will be in place for three weeks to combat the coronavirus menace.

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June 6,2020

Mumbai, Jun 6: Reminiscing about his 'special knock' of 208 runs from 153 balls, Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma revealed why his wife Ritika had got emotional after he smashed his third double century in ODIs.

Rohit narrated the incident during his appearance in Episode 2 of the 'Open nets with Mayank'.

The batsman, who was accompanied by Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank on the show, said his wife thought that he had twisted his hand while diving for the 196th run during the innings.

"As you can see my wife got emotional there, this day was special as it was my anniversary. Probably the best gift I could give it to her while I am on the field, it was quite emotional though," said Rohit during the candid chat.

"When I came from the ground, I just asked her why did you (Ritika) cry? So she told me that she thought I (Rohit) twisted my hand when I dived for my 196th run and that was a little worrying factor for her, she got little emotional of because of that I guess," Rohit added.

In the match, the 32-year-old scored 208 runs with 13 fours and 12 sixes against Sri Lanka at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali.

This enabled India to post a score of 392/4 in the allotted fifty overs.

India then went on to win the match by 141 runs.

"To be honest I was going pretty slow, I never thought I will get to a double hundred but once you cross 125, I feel it gets easier for you because bowlers are under pressure. Unless you make a mistake I don't think you can get out," said Rohit.

Rohit has scored two double hundreds against Sri Lanka and one against Australia in ODIs. The right-handed batsman is the only cricketer to make three double hundreds in ODI history.

Rohit, Shikhar, and Mayank would have been in action for Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, and Kings XI Punjab respectively, had the Indian Premier League (IPL) commenced from March 29. However, the tournament was suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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