No surprises as T20 heads into Super Eights

September 26, 2012

top_eight_team

There were no jitters for the big teams in the first round of the World Twenty20, as all eight of them cruised into the Super Eights starting from Thursday.

Afghanistan, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh failed to spring a surprise before bowing out in the group stage.

With the Super Eights split into two groups, Group 2 looks marginally more challenging, with South Africa, Australia and former champions India and Pakistan in the chase for semifinal berths.

All four Group 2 teams won their first round matches while West Indies is the only team to progress without a victory, doing so on superior run-rate after its matches against Australia (loss) and Ireland (abandoned) were affected by rain.

The three subcontinent teams India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be relying heavily on their spinners.

Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis broke his own world record with staggering figures of 6-8 against Zimbabwe.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh returned after a year out with an impressive four-wicket haul against England, as India shot out the defending champ for only 80 after posting 170-4.

Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal also took four wickets against New Zealand and denied the Black Caps a victory with two wickets in the last over.

The Asian teams’ pacemen struggled to curtail the flow of runs, but there was no such headache for South Africa, New Zealand and England.

South Africa’s Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel bowled with lot of verve and Sri Lanka lost its rain-curtailed seven-overs-a-side match against the Proteas by 32 runs.

New Zealand’s Kyle Mills and Tim Southee knocked over Bangladesh’s top-order with six wickets between them after Brendon McCullum smashed a best-ever T20 innings of 123 off 72 balls.

New Zealand has the advantage of knowing the conditions well at Pallekele as it played both of its first round matches there.

Kiwis skipper Ross Taylor hoped his batsmen will also show as much aggression against the Sri Lanka spinners as they did against Bangladesh.

“The main message is to be aggressive and not let them settle,” Taylor said. “The two games that we’ve had against Pakistan and Bangladesh, there was one short boundary and one big boundary ... if there is a short boundary then we need to attack that.”

A host team has yet to win the World Twenty20, but Sri Lanka hopes to end that jinx thanks to Mendis, Lasith Malinga, captain Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara.

Mendis missed the rain-shortened game against South Africa due to a side strain during his record-breaking performance against Zimbabwe. Coach Graham Ford said it would be a setback if Mendis could not recover for Thursday’s match.

“With the way he bowled and the x-factor he brings, it would be a big blow,” Ford said. “In T20 cricket you want guys who can win matches on their own and he’s one of those guys.”

Led by Luke Wright’s brilliant 99, England’s top-order flourished against the mediocre bowling attack of Afghanistan before it hit rock bottom against Indian spinners at Colombo.

There will be no letup for them in the Super Eights, where they will face the likes of Mendis and West Indies’ off-spinner Sunil Narine.

“I think it’s important for the batsmen to get back into the nets and feel hitting the ball again. It’s all a state of mind, getting yourself back into a positive frame,” England captain Stuart Broad said.

West Indies’ batting reputation precedes it, so much of its hopes rest on Narine helping to restrict opponents.

“Sunil is our trump card, he has done well for us in this format and hopefully he could have a big impact on the English batting line-up,” captain Darren Sammy said. “We definitely look to bowl spin against them, but we have quality seam bowlers up front in Fidel (Edwards) and (Ravi) Rampaul.”

Pakistan has problems with its pacemen, but its top-order batsmen all have showed decent form, with Imran Nazir smashing 72 against Bangladesh and Nasir Jamshed scoring 56 against New Zealand. Captain Mohammad Hafeez also played useful knocks of 43 and 45.

Pakistan struggles when chasing a target. Although it successfully chased down 176 on Tuesday against Bangladesh for the loss of only two wickets, the competition is much stronger from here on.

“In the pace bowling department there’s probably a bit of an issue with the implementation of the basics,” Hafeez said. “Mohammad Akram (the bowling coach) is working hard at this, but sometimes things just don’t work out.”



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News Network
February 21,2020

New Delhi, Feb 21: Vinesh Phogat yet again fell to Japanese nemesis Mayu Muakida to go out of the gold medal race but Sakshi Malik will fight for the title after winning her semifinal bout at the Asian Wrestling Championship, here on Friday.

Vinesh had lost twice to Mukaida in 2019 – at World Championship and Asian Championships —and the trend continued as the gritty Indian yet again struggled to break the strong defence of the Japanese.

In a tough opening round, Vinesh tried single leg attacks a number of times but every time Mukaida blocked her move and eventually got the upper body lock to subdue the home favourite.

In her last two meetings, Vinesh had not scored a single point against the 2019 world silver medallist. She managed a takedown this time before eventually losing 2-6.

The hard-working Vinesh will now fight for bronze against Vietnam's Thi Ly Kieu but even a medal won't suffice to lift her mood as she and the fans have high expectations from her.

Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, who has been struggling of late, lost her opening round 1-2 to Naomi Ruike from Japan but later overcame two weak opponents to eventually reach the final of the non-Olympic 65kg category.

She could hardly attack Naomi but outplayed Korea's Ohyoung Ha in the next round, winning by technical superiority.

In her semifinal against Uzbekistan's Nabira Esenbaeva, Sakshi led 5-0 but her rival pulled off consecutive two-point moves to make it 5-4.

Sakshi has been losing in closing stages of late but this time she managed to hold on to her narrow lead, surviving anxious last two seconds.

Also in medal contention are India's brightest youngsters Sonam Malik (62kg) and Anshu Malik (57kg).

Sonam, who had defeated Sakshi in the trials, showed good tactical mind in her resounding win against Korea's Hanbit Lee and also in the 2-5 defeat against world bronze medallist Yukako Kawai.

She pulled off a superb point-scoring move from a disadvantageous position and resisted the 2018 U-23 world champion Yukako in a good fashion.

She will now fight for bronze against Aisuluu Tynbekova.

Anshu Malik opened up her campaign against Kyrgyzstan's Nuraida Anarkulova, winning by technical superiority but was outplayed by reigning world champion from Japan Riskao Kawai.

She will have to beat Sevara Eshmuratova from Uzbekistan to grab a bronze.

In the non-olympic 72kg, Gursharanpreet Kaur is in bronze medal contention. She beat Uzbekistan's Svetlana Oknazarova but lost to Kazakhstan's Zhamila Bakberzenova.

She still made it to the semifinal in which she lost to Japan's Mei Shindo.

She is now up against Mongloia's Tsevegmed Enkhbayar.

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News Network
July 24,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 24: Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who was earlier banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for breaching the Anti-Corruption Code, on Friday, said that people are bound to make mistakes and the important thing is that how well they make a comeback.

Shakib was banned from all forms of cricket on October 29 last year after he accepted the charges of breaching the ICC's Anti-Corruption Code. He will be able to resume international cricket from October 29, 2020.

"You have to be honest. You just can't lie to the people and pretend different things. Whatever happened has happened. People are bound to make mistakes. You are not 100%. The important thing is how well you can comeback from those mistakes. You can tell other people not to make those mistakes. Tell them the path so that they never take those paths," Shakib told Deep Dasgupta in a videocast hosted by ESPNcricinfo.

The 33-year-old all-rounder said he has seen many controversies ever since he was first made captain in 2009. He had trouble with the board chief, selectors and the media, mainly about selectorial decisions and not being made permanent captain between 2009 and 2010.
He believes those experiences have changed him as a person over time.

"I think [it's] combination of both [controversy following him, and vice versa]. I got the responsibility so early in my career, I was bound to make mistakes. I was captain when I was 21. I made a lot of mistakes, and there are so many things that people think about me. Now I realise that it was my fault in some areas, and in some I was misunderstood. But I get it completely. It is part and parcel in the subcontinent," Hasan said.

"Of course I will try to minimise [my mistakes] as much as I can, but by the time I got married, and now I have two kids, I understand the game and life better. It has made me a calmer person than I was in my twenties. I have changed quite a lot. People won't see me doing a lot of mistakes now. My two daughters changed my life completely," he added.

Shakib is likely return to international cricket during Bangladesh's proposed Test series against Sri Lanka in October. 

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News Network
March 19,2020

Geneva, Mar 19: Regional Olympic officials are rallying around the IOC and have backed its stance on opening the Tokyo Games as scheduled, as direct criticism from gold medalist athletes built amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Leaders of continental Olympic groups praised the IOC after a conference call Wednesday to update them on coronavirus issues four months before the opening ceremony in Tokyo on July 24.

"We are living through an unpredictable crisis and as such, it is important that we have one policy, expressed by the IOC, and we follow that policy in unison," the Italy-based European Olympic Committees said.

However, when the International Olympic Committee published an interview with its president, Thomas Bach, after a separate call with athlete representatives, it prompted a four-time Olympic champion to urge postponing the games.

Bach acknowledged that many athletes were concerned about qualifying events being canceled, but noted that there were still four months to go until the games are set to be opened.

"We will keep acting in a responsible way in the interests of the athletes," Bach said.

British rowing great Matthew Pinsent wrote on Twitter that the comments from Bach, his former IOC colleague, were "tone deaf."

"The instinct to keep safe (not to mention obey govt instructions to lock down) is not compatible with athlete training, travel and focus that a looming Olympics demands of athletes, spectators organisers," Pinsent wrote.

Responding to the criticism from Hayley Wickenheiser, a four-time Olympic hockey gold medalist, the IOC said it was "counting on the responsibility and solidarity of the athletes."

Members reinforce faith in IOC

The IOC repeated its steadfast stance after a conference call with sports governing bodies, many of which have not completed qualification events for Tokyo.

"There is no need for any drastic decisions at this stage; and any speculation at this moment would be counter-productive," the IOC said.

That message was repeated after Wednesday's conference call by IOC executive board member Robin Mitchell, the interim leader of the group of national Olympic bodies known as ANOC.

"We share the view that we must be realistic, but not panic," Mitchell said in a statement released by the IOC on behalf of the Oceania Olympic group.

Offering unanimous support for the IOC's efforts to resolve qualification issues, the 41-nation Pan-American group noted challenges facing potential Olympians.

Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll said his organized recognized there was a global health crisis, but equally was assured by the IOC that the games would go ahead.

"We recognize people are suffering -- people are sick, people are losing jobs, businesses are struggling amid enormous community uncertainty. Things are changing everyday and we all must adapt," Carroll said.

"We owe it to our Australian athletes to do everything we can to ensure they will participate with the best opportunity in those Games."

Australia's team delegation leader said the focus now was "moving to the planning of our pre-Games preparation to ensure we get our athletes to the Games healthy, prepared and virus free."

"Clearly that is a major challenge for all National Olympic Committees," he said.

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