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India, Pakistan renew cricket rivalry after Mumbai attack

December 24, 2012

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Bangalore, December 24: Five years after their bilateral cricket ties were snapped due to the Mumbai terror attack, India and Pakistan are set to slug it out in what promises to be a high-voltage limited-over series starting with the first Twenty20 international on Tuesday.

The two-match T20 and three-match ODI series has been squeezed in between India's ongoing full series against the England cricket team, which has taken a break to go home for Christmas and New Year holidays.

India and Pakistan, which last played a bilateral series in 2007, squared off in multi-national events several times after 2008 but for the first time, a Pakistani cricket team will be hosted for a series after the attacks.

The Indian team is going through some testing times as they renew rivalry with Pakistan since the side has been struggling for success.

India did well in the T20s against England after being humiliated in Tests but bowling remains a persistent headache for them in all the formats.

The likes of Alex Hales, Michael Lumb and Eoin Morgan put the Indian attack on sword during the short T20 series and the Pakistan batsmen would be looking to exploit this weakness of the hosts.

Except for a spirited show put up by Ashok Dinda, none of the Indian bowlers made an impact on the English batsmen. Parvinder Awana, Ravichandran Ashwin and Piyush Chawla have all struggled to get wickets

This may prompt skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to give a chance to either Abhimanyu Mithun or Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Surprisingly, Yuvraj Singh was the most successful bowler with six wickets and he also batted stupendously for India.

India would want the Chandigarh boy to continue with his good touch against a very tricky opponent.

Flamboyant Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and skipper Dhoni himself have had some runs under their belts and they would like to continue in the same vein against Pakistan.

It will be interesting to see if Dhoni gives a chance to Ambati Rayudu, considering his past performances in this format of the game.

But it will be a tough test for Indian batsmen against Pakistan's formidable pace attack, led by Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir.

Not only the pacers but Pakistan have an extremely good spin attack in the form of Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and captain Mohammad Hafeez to choke the strong Indian batting.

Afridi's dwindling form has been a worry for the Pakistani captain which at times muzzles the team's batting prospects. However, Hafeez has tremendous confidence in his all-round abilities.

Pakistan have landed in India after making wholesale changes to their bowling. They have made six changes to the squad that went to Sri Lanka for the T20 World Cup.


Fast bowler Junaid Khan, who was dropped from World T20 squad, has been included for his ability to do well in the death overs.

Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Amin and M Irfan have also made a comeback while Asad Ali and Zulfiqar Babar are the other inclusions.

India and Pakistan met last time in the 2012 T20 World Cup which the former won by eight wickets.

In 2007 T20 World Championships, India won both the clashes. In the league stage, the match ended in a tie and India won via a bowl-out. In the final, India defeated Pakistan by five runs to win the trophy.

Teams (from):

India: MS Dhoni (Capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Parvinder Awana, Piyush Chawla, Ambati Rayudu.

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez (Capt.), Ahmed Shehzad, Asad Ali, Junaid Khan, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Irfan, Nasir Jamshed, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Akmal, Umar Amin, Umar Gul, Zulfiqar Babar.



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Agencies
August 7,2020

Islamabad, Aug 7: Former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, known for his blistering deliveries on the cricket field, recently baffled many with a deadly off-field bouncer by claiming he is willing to eat grass if it enabled an increase in budget for his country's Army!

"If Allah ever gives me the authority, I will eat grass myself but I will increase the budget of the army," said Akhtar in an interview with ARY News.

The 'Rawalpindi Express', considered the fastest bowler in history said he does not understand why the civilian sector cannot work in collaboration with the Armed forces.

"I will ask my army chief to sit with me and make decisions. If the budget is 20 per cent, I will make it 60 per cent. If we insult each other, the loss is ours only," the once feared fast-bowler said.

Akthar had also claimed to ARY News interview that he was willing to take a bullet for his country and had turned down a county stint just because he wanted to fight the 1999 Kargil War.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been strained in the recent months over several issues, the latest being Pakistan's attempt to broach in the UNSC the issue of Kashmir on the first anniversary of the India's move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split the erstwhile state into two union territories .

Pakistan also has not been in a good financial position and under prime minister Imran Khan, himself an all rounder cricketer, has added nearly USD 22 billion, that is 35 per cent to the nation's international debt pile in the last two years, according to an Asia Times report in July.

While Pakistan recently received USD 1.39 billion from the IMF to cushion the economic shocks caused due to COVID-19 outbreak, Akthar had a few months ago proposed that a joint cricket match be played between India and Pakistan to raise funds to fight the coronavirus. The suggestion that was put down by cricketers in India.

Meanwhile the 'Pindi boy' whose deadly pace and bounce was once dreaded by batsmen had recently taken to Twitter to deny former India cricketer Virender Sehwag's claim of sledging him.

Sehwag along with other Indian crickerters such as Harbhajan Singh and even Rahul Dravid had been at the receiving end of Akthar's sledging and antics during their playing days.

"Yes, totally self made story by him. Mujhe yeh bol k bach k jana kidhar tha us nay," Akthar tweeted to a report in which Sehwag claimed that he had sledged the 'Rawalpindi Express' by telling him that Sachin Tendulkar was his father.

During an awards ceremony Sehwag had recounted that fed up with Akthar's sledging and retaliated by telling him to say the same things to Tendulkar, who smashed the 'Pindi boy' for a six. Sehwag quipped that he told Akthar then that "Baap baap hota hai".

In the recent ARY interview, asked about the allegation made against him by former India cricketer Virendra Sehwag that he makes pro-India comments for greater following on social media channels, Akhtar said, "I cannot talk on the basis of hate." 

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News Network
March 7,2020

Melbourne, Mar 7: Ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup against Australia, India spinner Poonam Yadav said that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has given her a lot of support.

"Harmanpreet has been of immense support. When I got hit for a six in the first over, she came to me and said, 'Poonam, you're one of the most experienced players in the team, and we expect better of you'," Poonam said.

The 28-year-old experienced bowler has played 68 shortest format games for India and taken 94 wickets at an average of 22.66.

She has been in devastating form throughout the tournament and has bagged nine wickets so far.

"So, that kind of stirred something within me. I told myself if my captain has that much faith in me, I should be able to make a comeback," she said.

"I took a wicket in the very next ball, and didn't look back since. Now when I look back at that moment, it means so much in the context of my individual performance and run to the final," she added.

In the opening game against Australia at Sydney Showground, Poonam came within a whisker of the third hat-trick in Women's T20 World Cup history, dismissing Rachael Haynes and Ellyse Perry before Jess Jonassen was dropped.

The final of the tournament will be played at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on March 8 -- International Women's Day.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Jeddah, Jan 9: Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde criticised the new Supercopa format and said that "football has become a business and as a business it looks for income".

"The bottom line is football has become a business and as a business it looks for income. That's the reason we are all here," Goal.com quoted Valverde as saying ahead of Barca's semi-final against Atletico.

"It's a completely different format to what we're used to. It was always the first title and the opener of the season and to me, that seemed fine," he added.

The Supercopa was traditionally a two-legged affair played between the winners of La Liga and the Copa del Rey at the beginning of the season, but following last term's one-off meeting between Barca and Sevilla in Tangier, Morocco, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) went ahead with a full revamp.

Instead of just two teams being involved, the Supercopa has been expanded to also include the runners-up from La Liga and the Copa - meaning Barca and Valencia are joined by Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. It is also set to be hosted in Saudi Arabia for the next three editions.

"It's been changed and let's see, it will be judged once it has happened. It's interesting, with four good teams, but from a sporting point of view, I'm not sure," Valverde said.

"We must bear in mind that the football we are involved in is an industry, sources of income are sought and in the same way that there are special connotations in this country, there are also in Morocco, where we played last year," he added.

Barcelona will face Atletico Madrid in the semifinal of the Supercopa at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on January 10.

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