Shane Watson threat looms over South Africa

September 30, 2012

watson_sBeware South Africa! A 'tornado' called Shane Watson is about to strike. It has already blown away Ireland, West Indies and India. This is a warning the Proteas better take seriously, before going into a potentially exciting Super Eights clash of the World Twenty20 against Australia at the Premadasa on Sunday afternoon.

Everything Watson is touches since he landing here, seems to be turning into gold. The 31-year-old all-rounder started this tournament with a bang, taking Irish skipper William Porterfield's scalp off the first ball he bowled. He took three for 26 and scored 51 against Ireland, a team the Aussies were determined to crush - since they were rankled after being ranked below them thanks to some poor form - and never looked back.

Against the Windies, Watson dropped dangerman Chris Gayle, but recovered from the horror quickly to take the Jamaican's wicket, and then score a quick, unbeaten 41 that helped the Aussies win despite the Windies having scored 191 earlier. It was on Friday, however, when Watson unleashed his real terror.

After taking three Indian wickets, the Queenslander sent the ball into the orbit seven times in an entertaining 72 off 42 balls.

It was a performance that won Australia the game in a canter, and it gave Watson his third man-of-the-match award.

Together with 'pocket dynamo' David Warner, Watson forms the most fearsome opening partnership of the tournament, as was visible during their 81-ball 'destruction' against India, that yielded 133 runs.

In Dale Steyn, the best fast bowler in the world, and Morne Morkel, the Proteas have a fabulous new ball pair. So this would be one battle that could effectively seal the fate of the contest pretty early!

South African coach Gary Kirsten's biggest challenge here is lifting the team after the morale-sapping two-wicket defeat against Pakistan on Friday. Having reduced Pakistan to 76 for seven after making 133 for six, they seemed to have nicely wrapped it up till Umar Gul and Kamran Akmal added 49 runs in 27 balls to stun them into silence. The old bogey of 'choking at the sight of victory' is staring at SA again.

"I'm proud of the way we fought back. We lost it in the last five overs," SA skipper AB de Villiers admitted after the loss.



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News Network
March 23,2020

Colombo, Mar 23: Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara has said he is currently in self-quarantine, following his government's guidelines for those recently returning from Europe, which has now become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authorities are concerned over people returning from the most-affected COVID-19 countries in Europe not registering with the police and practising isolation.

"I have no symptoms or anything like that, but I'm following government guidelines," Sangakkara told News First.

"I arrived from London over a week ago and the first thing was there was a news bulletin saying that anyone who had travelled from within March 1 to 15 should register themselves with the police and undergo self-quarantine. I registered myself with the police."

The former captain said this even as the government confirmed there have been at least three cases of recent returnees attempting to hide the novel coronavirus symptoms from authorities.

Both Sangakkara and his former teammate Mahela Jayawardene have been active on social media, urging Sri Lankans to avoid panic and to exercise proper social distancing, as the country went into curfew on Friday evening.

Sri Lanka has so far reported more than 80 active COVID-19 positive cases in the country.

Across the world, the number of infected has crossed three lakh besides a death toll of more than 14,000 people.

Meanwhile, former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie has also gone into a two-week isolation after returning from the United Kingdom.

Gillespie, who is the head coach at Sussex, had been in Cape Town with the team for a pre-season tour, which was cut short as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

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News Network
January 30,2020

Hamilton, Jan 30: Caught unaware about the Super Over scenario, Rohit Sharma took five minutes to “find” his abdomen guard after the third T20 International against New Zealand had ended in a tie on Wednesday.

The India vice-captain said the team had almost given up with New Zealand going great guns at one point.

“Everything was packed. All my stuff was inside my bag. I had to get it out. It literally took me five minutes to find my abdomen guard because I didn’t know where it was,” Rohit said.

“I mean we never thought it would go to the Super Over, the way they were batting at one point. It looked like they could easily win the game,” he added.

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News Network
May 2,2020

Melbourne, May 2: After becoming the number one side in Test cricket, Australia's head coach Justin Langer has said that his team has won back the respect of the country.

Australia dethroned India from the top spot in Tests and now the Men in Blue are in the third place.

Langer came in as the coach of Australia after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal and it took him some time to get the side back to winning ways.

Ever since the return of David Warner and Steve Smith, Australia went on to become a commendable side and the results reflect that.

"We have got lots of work to do to become the team we want to be. But over the last couple of years, not only have we performed well on the field, we have performed well off it. We have earned some respect back from other teams around the world but also from Australia," Langer said in an official statement.

"When we started on this journey, there had been a lot of talk about Australia wanting to be No. 1 in the world in all three forms of the game.

We took a different approach. Not once did we talk about being No. 1 ranked in the world. We wanted to be No.1 in our values and process. That is what I am most proud of," he added.

In the latest ICC rankings update, that rates all matches played since May 2019 at 100 per cent and those of the previous two years at 50 per cent, Australia (116) have taken over from India as the top-ranked side in the ICC men's Test team rankings with New Zealand (115) remaining in second place.

India is now third with 114 points. With only two points separating them, this is the second closest the top three teams have been since the Test rankings were launched in 2003.

The closest for the top three teams were in January 2016, when India had led Australia and South Africa by a single point.

Australia has also moved to the top spot in the T20I rankings for the first time in the format.

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