Daily Sports News

Bangladesh Cricket Board approved to confront England for a day-night test match held next year in England. This match would be the first day-night test ever played with the support of International Cricket Council. Bangladesh will play two test matches with England in May and June 2010 in Headingley.

One of the tests matches is allocated in Lord’s. Day and night idea is yet to obtain official approval from ICC. One of the predominant fears from the side of sports officials was over the color of ball to be use. In fact, white ball is exercise through day- night one- day internationals but not realistic to use white ball when players wear white for Test match, even though both pink and orange balls are been suggested and tried out but  they believes to be inappropriate. Bangladesh Cricket Board extended the contract with Australian Coach Jamie Siddons until 2011 World Cup. He joined as a couch of Bangladesh team In November 2007.

Australia beat England in the third one- day international in Nat West at Rose Bowl to take a lead of 3-0 in seven match series. Cameron White strike his first ODI century a prime mover for Australia’s victory. England won the toss and decided to take the first strike they congregated 228-9.

Match- winning joint venture by White 105 and Michael Clarke 52 added 143 runs made easy for Australia to win. White’s century included of one six and nine fours batted coolly right through the match. England batted inadequately in all the three series. In spite of this captain decided to bat first. England did not loose their heart and they remained determined with the final score 228 with the loss of nine wickets. England did set some calculated sort of target to try to defend the team. With the win, Australia is in leading position in the seven matches of one-day series. On the other hand, England does have a lot many issues to struggle about it. Aussie striking lead indicates of getting Champions Trophy.

After loosing the Test and the ODI series, luck has turned in favor of the visitors. They have not only won the last two ODI’s but also beaten the host in style in the last T20 game. Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka in the only T20 game of the tour with a 52 runs. Last time the two countries had played a T20 match was in the final of the T20 world cup, and the results again went in favor of Pakistan.

Shahid Afridi was the reason for the Lankan loss, he scored a brilliant half century, bowled a very tight spell taking one wicket and then a run out to send back Kapugedera to the pavilion. Pakistan was excellent in all the departments of the game. There were some excellent batting performances by Imran Nazir, Umar Akmal and Abdul Razzaq scoring 40, 30 and 25 runs respectively. Although it was not the perfect start what visitors would have expected as opening batsman Kamran Akmal was bowled out on the very first delivery of the match. Pakistan quickly recovered for the early loss and compiled a challenging target of 172 runs with the loss of 5 wickets in there required 20 overs at a run rate of 8.60 runs per over. The Pakistani approach to batting was simple, hitting boundaries at regular intervals and that is what they precisely did.

Sri Lankan chase started in a good was and as expected Jayasuriya came out firing in his true style. First to go back to the pavilion was Udawatte on the fifth delivery of the third over and just two balls after that Jayasuriya was out as he tried to pull a delivery which turned much quicker then his expectation. Jayawardene and Sangakkara tried to get the chase back on track but Jayawardene gave a leading edge to Razzaq of the bowling of Iftikhar Anjum. The last hopes for a Lankan victory were over when Sangakkara was bowled by Saeed Ajmal. Sri Lanka was bowled out in 18.1 over’s and could just score 120 runs, still short by 52 runs.

Shahid Afridi was declared man of the match. One can just say in the end – Pakistan is one team that has a habit of throwing surprises.

An impressive maiden century by Umar Akmal and a five wicket haul by Iftikhar Anjum helped visitors Pakistan to a 146 run victory in the fourth ODI over Sri Lanka. The younger Akmal remained unbeaten on 102 runs of just 72 deliveries. Akmal along with Younus Khan put on 176 run stand and also broke the Pakistani record of the highest fifth wicket stand. The surpassed the previous record of 155 by Mohammad Yousaf and Younus.

Younus Khan won the toss and elected to bat, but Pakistan was soon in trouble at 130-4. Then came Umar at the crease and crafted an excellent revival of the innings and scored a magnificent ton. He had excellent support from his captain who played a role of an anchor making 89 runs of 111 deliveries. Elder of the Kamran brother’s Kamran also contributed 57 runs as he opened the Pakistani innings. Pakistan managed to set an excellent target of 321 runs with the lost of 5 wickets in there designated 50 overs. It was also a sad day for the Lankan spear head bowler Malinga as he conceded 26 wides.

Lankan batting was a disaster, as Mahela Jayawardene was bowled out at 19. Sangakkara did try to revive the Lankan innings but he was also sent back to the pavilion at a score of 80. Tharanga was the only one to offer resistance with a score of 80 runs but after his dismissal all chances of Lankans coming back in the match were over. Lankan team was all out in 36.1 over and could just manage a score of 175.

Umar Akmal was awarded the man of the match. Post this win Pakistan has been able to restore some pride as this was there first victory in the current series. Sri Lanka leads the series 3-1.

The first half of the day belonged to Pakistani Akmal Brothers but it was Sri Lanka who came out victorious in the end, giving them a first home ODI serious victory against Pakistan. Even though Pakistan posted a challenging score of 289 but the openers Jayawardene and Upul Tharanga made it look like child’s play. The opening stand of 202 for the first wicket made sure that Sri Lanka easily defeated the visitors to take the series 3-0. Jayawardene had not scored a single 50 against Pakistan in last ten innings but today performance of 123 of only 108 balls made sure that he removed all the doubts that critics had on his batting ability. Upul Tharanga played an important role in the Lankan innings by providing support to an aggressive Jayawardene after reaching his 50.

Contributions to the Pakistani score of 289 came from Akmal Brothers, Kamran scoring 45 and Umar scoring 66. Younis Khan contributed with 44 and Afridi with a quickfire 32 or 18 balls. For Lanka, Mathews bowled superb taking two wickets with a low economy rate of 4.10 runs per over, Murli even though took two wickets but was a bit expensive giving 6.4 runs per over.

During the Lankan Batting Pakistan managed to take four wickets but it was two late in the match as the openers have provided the rite platform for an easy victory.

It has been amazing for Sangakkara since he took captaincy and now has won both his opening series in the test and ODI format of the game. He scored the winning runs to sail Sri Lanka to a serious victory. Jayawardene was declared the Man of the Match for his impressive batting performance.

Captaining the team for the first time, Sangakara lead the Lankan team to a series victory. This is the first home series win for Sri Lanka against Pakistan. Kumar Sangakkara scored an unbeaten century and closed all doors for a Pakistani victory. The Lankan team made a clean sweep in the series 2-0. Sangakkara was 111 not out and now has 19 test centuries to his name. He had an excellent 122 run fourth wicket stand with teammate Thilan Samaraweera who contributed 73 runs to the Lankan score.  New comer in the team Angelo Mathews was not out at a score of 33 runs.

Lanka were give a world record chase target of 492 runs to chase for a victory but could not beat the record. The best chase in the history of the game has been of 418 runs by the West Indies team in 2003 against the Australian team in Antigua.

This has been a disappointing series for the visiting Pakistani team as they had lost the first test on the fourth day of the test and the second on the third day of the test.

This match was also the last test match for Sri Lankan pacer Chaminda Vaas who quit test cricket. He has been an inspiration to many young pace bowlers. Vaas was the first successful pacer in Lanka with has a history of producing excellent spinners. Vaas has to his credit of taking 355 wickets in 111 test matches.

It was another day of surprises at the T20 World Cup, as Pakistan, the unquestioned underdogs of the tournament vanquished S.A, to enter the finals. This is Pakistan’s 2nd consecutive appearance in the finals of the T20 mega event. Last year they lost to India thanks to a blunder from Misbah-ul-Haq.

The daring promotion of Shahid Afridi to the No. 3 slot disrupted its bowling strategy; from the length of the bowlers to the management of the overs by skipper Graeme Smith. The fling of the dice worked for Pakistan. Riding on Afridi’s 34-ball 51, Pakistan progressed to a challenging 149 for four in the first semifinal of the ICC World Twenty20 at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

Both sides traded heavy blows. Pakistan smashed two fours in the opening over, but then lost Shahzaib Hasan, caught by Roelof van der Merwe off Wayne Parnell to just the second ball he faced.  Pakistan then scored at a modest rate of a run a ball until the 11th over, when it took 18 runs off Johan Botha, including four consecutive fours by Afridi. Afridi reached 50 from 33 balls in the 12th over but was then out off J.P. Duminy’s first delivery at the start of the 13th.Having gone 29 balls without a boundary, Malik tried to accelerate the scoring, but the four he struck off Duminy in the 15th over was the last of the innings as South Africa’s disciplined attack reined in the Pakistan batsmen.

Pakistan supporters, who made up the majority of the crowd, created a deafening noise as the game began in explosive fashion but were left stunned as it ended in a fizz…..

For the Proteas, everything began in a nervous fashion and it was once again Afridi who ran riot, this time with his bowling skills. Gibbs, who made 5, was beaten by the quicker delivery from Afridi that went straight on to knock off the stumps. (46-2, 7)

In his next over, Afridi claimed another big scalp in the form of AB de Villiers, who played on to his stumps for 1. De Villiers was dropped by wicketkeeper Akmal off an outside edge the previous delivery but that did not deter Afridi, who struck a ball later. (50-3, 8.3)

Afridi had made the difference with the bat and now was making a vital contribution with the ball too. He finished with two for 16 in four overs. South Africa were 73 for three after 13 overs, and faced a stiff task of scoring another 77 runs in the last seven overs. The pressure paid off in the next over when Kallis holed out Ajmal straight to Malik at long-on and was dismissed for 64 from 54 deliveries, inclusive of seven boundaries and a six. (111-4, 17.1)

He added 63 runs in 51 deliveries for the fourth wicket with Duminy, but failed to produce the big shots when needed. But it was just not Duminey’s day as Pakistan managed to keep the Proteas at bay and won the match with their hard work and perseverance.

The Proteas on the other hand are left with the title of the “chokers”…..

Everything went right for Sri Lanka, as they put runs on the board, bowled efficiently and fielded perfectly to comfortably beat the Kiwis by 48 runs. The side has topped Group ‘F’ in the Super Eight to enter the semifinals of the ICC World Cup Twenty20. Pakistan is the second team to qualify from the group. The Kiwis failed to unravel the “M” magic- ‘M’urali, ‘M’alinga, ‘M’endis and ‘M’ahela. The Kiwis miserably failed to stop these for as they ran riot on the field.

New Zealand landed an early blow when Sanath Jaysuriya was caught off the third ball of the innings, offering a simple chance to Ross Taylor after top-edging a delivery from Nathan McCallum to be out for a golden duck. The decision to move Chamara Silva up the order to No. 3 then backfired when he mishit a ball from Kyle Mills straight to Jacob Oram in the fourth over.

Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara steadied the innings with a 50-run partnership from 32 balls, until the former was caught by Brendon McCullum off Vettori in the 12th over. Jayawardene smashed Vettori into the top tier of the pavilion two overs later, and Mills went for 14 in the 16th as Sri Lanka accelerated.Sangakkara was out straight after the pair had completed its half-century stand in 37 balls, caught by Scott Styris off Vettori in the 17th over. Jehan Mubarak tried to restore the impetus, but was lbw after making 8 to Ian Butler in the 19th over.

Under pressure to win the last game, Sri Lanka, defending 158, responded well. The defining moment of the game arrived in the ninth over when New Zealand’s finest batsman, Ross Taylor, was out-thought by the young Ajantha Mendis. Taylor, bravely, took stance well outside the crease, but Mendis surprised the batsman by delivering a quicker delivery outside the off-stump and Kumar Sangakkara removed the bails.In the same over, Scott Styris, playing for the turn, was castled by one that went through straight. The Kiwis were not picking Mendis’ variations.

New Zealand was 64 for four in the ninth over and it never recovered. The big-hitting Jacob Oram was deceived by a slower one from left-arm medium-pacer Isuru Udana.Martin Guptill (43, 35, 4×4, 1×6) was impressive in the manner he hit Lasith Malinga over his head and drove the paceman down the ground. However, the right-hander departed as things hotted up, miscuing a sweep off Sanath Jayasuriya.

Muttiah Muralitharan bowled with immaculate control giving away little and there was no escape route for New Zealand.Upfront, Aaron Redmond fired New Zealand to a terrific start smashing Jayasuriya’s left-arm spin for three fours and a six over long-off in the second over. Redmond (23 off 13) succumbed to Malinga’s slower ball. The slinger worked up pace, swung the sphere and employed the short ball judiciously. Udana also struck a massive blow upfront for Lanka when Brendon McCullum attempted to swing him from out-side off and mistimed to mid-wicket.

And with the Lankans possibly facing the Windies and the Pakistan facing S.A this tournament seems to be heating up.