Daily Sports News

Australia defeated England in the one-day international series, even though England reached its highest total in five matches with 299 all out. Australia to 302-6 with 10 balls remaining. A superb century from captain Ricky Ponting scores of 126 from 109 balls, which include 14 fours and 3 sixes, gave Australia a four wicket win and lead of 5-0 against England.

Just two games victory away for Australia to retrieve the world’s number one ranking. Michael Clarke partnerships also hits 52 and Ponting stayed until his team scored 261 but later Owais Shah caught him out then later Cameron White and Mitchell Johnson guided the team. Defeat uncovered England inadequacy with poor fielding and loose bowling. Ponting uttered to the reporters Aussie is playing some good cricket now. Sixth match of series will be held on Thursday at Trent Bridge and the last series on Sunday at Riverside.

Luke Wright all- rounder of England is uncertain of playing for the fifth one-day international after been injured by the bowling machine and has stitches while practicing at the National Cricket Performance in Loughborough. England will play against Australia at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

Wright injury may obstruct England’s selection, as England is sprawling 4-0 in ODI series. He an all-rounder had taken three wickets in the series so his absence will matter a lot. In the meantime Captain Andrew Strauss, uttered saying other teammate has to stand up. He added saying we all are capable of scoring hundreds but we have not done it until someone does it so now we are going to find things bit tough.

Kim Clijsters accomplished her astonishing win over Dane Caroline Wozniacki with the victory of 7-5, 6-3 in the Grand Slam tournament of US Open Tennis. Belgian Clijsters made history after her comeback of two and a half year and the first woman to win as a wildcard; she gave birth to daughter and became the first mother to win the title since 1980.

After her break of 27 months, she was playing her 14th match and third tournament. After her astonishing win, Jada was brought to the court she cradled her 18-month-old daughter in one hand and trophy in other hand. The match was interesting as it outshined particularly as the Belgian to defeat American mind bowling players Venus and Serena Williams towards the final, it was also a milestone day for the Denmark first major winner Wozniacki. Her victory over the first Danish player claim greater fame that she has won more matches on tour this year than anyone Wozniacki uttered saying Kim is a great girl and for her comeback excited me, unfortunately, she defeated me, but she played a great match and deserved this trophy. Clijsters drop her knees in celebration later to celebrate with family and friends. She uttered later saying that she does not have words to describe her feeling the support she received for her comeback was crazy. It helped her to stay focused and keep fighting from the start of first round itself.

England boomed into 5-1victory over Croatia at Wembley. Fabio Capello coach of England team tagged as their best performance under him. England pay backed in a most wide-ranging manner thanks to a powerful performance from Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard both scored twice while Wayne Rooney finished off scoring succeed record.

Capello expressed his view stating, he is very happy as they accomplished the target pity early. He added saying, a best performance under him, they played quick, and movement of ball was awesome and first 20 minute of the game was mind bowling. Capello was enchanted, as his team was qualified for World Cup. Both performances next to Croatia team were delightful. Fall out from Euro Cup 2008 with the loss of 3-2 over Croatia was at Wembley when Steven Mc Laren was the precursor of the team. John Terry the captain of England team was uniformly pleased. Slaven Bilic Croatian Manger was surprised by England’s performance and he did not even assume in a nastiest dreams. England players did look quick and assertive from the start of first goal. At half- time, it was only 2-0 and then we accepted a third goal it was difficult to come back. He added saying if they enhance playing like this then definitely, they can win the World Cup.

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.

Finally the 75 year wait is over; an Ashes test victory at Lords for England over rivals Australia at Lords. England are now 1-0 ahead in the Ashes as the first test at Cardiff resulted in a draw.

England gave the visitors a mammoth target of 552 to win, but Australia was bowled out by England for 406 in the post lunch session on the fifth day. The day belonged to Andrew Flintoff who just before the start of the match announced his retirement from test cricket after the ongoing Ashes series. He took five wickets in 27 over’s giving away just 115 runs with three on the fifth day. This is Flintoff’s third five wicket haul in test career of 77 matches. He was also awarded the Man of the match for his excellent effort.

Michael Clarke’s effort in the form of 136 runs to rescue Australia went in vain as the Aussie batting tumbled against England. There was good support from Off-spinner Graeme Swann who took four wickets for 87 runs.

A generous Ricky Ponting accepted defeat with grace and in a post match interview said that the Aussie team was outplayed by England from the very first delivery of the match. He also added that he looks forward to the next test at Edgbaston and his team would come back strongly in the third test. The biggest concern for the Punter is now his bowling attack, especially Mitchell Johnson.

SCORECARD

The Ashes 2009 – 2nd Test, Australia vs England,Played at Lord’s, 16-20 July 2009

Result – England beat Australia by 115 runs

India thrashed Ireland by 8 wickets to complete the group stages on a winning note. Ireland, despite improving their game in the past years, fell well short of matching up the Indians as they were 112-8 in a match reduced to 18 overs thanks to rain.

As usual, Dhoni won the toss and elected to field as he believed that due to the rain, the Duckworth-Lewis theory may come into play. And from then on, it was India all the way. J.P. Bray, Irish opener, has been having a terrible series and this match proved to be no better as he was bowled out by Zaheer for a duck after facing 7 balls. When Zaheer began his second over, Porterfield, was dismissed after a wonderful catch by Yusuf Pathan in the slips. Zaks was declared man of the match for his four wicket haul.

Then, if the Indian seamers proved to be bad for the Irish, it got worse as the spinners stepped up. Ojha, who is having a wonderful series, once again showed why his captain trusts him by taking KJ. O’Brien off an inside edge, on the first ball of his spell. It is amazing to see an orthodox spinner like Ojha, who lacks the carom ball, seldom bowls the doosra and other special deliveries, take wickets thanks to his flight and simple pace variation. But the Irish did strike back at the spinners, this time with sweeps as a few balls ran to the boundary. Moreover the Irish exploited the short boundary at Trent Bridge at Nottingham. And then R.West got himself run out thanks to his diabolical running because when he was run out, his leg and bat, despite being well inside the crease, were well, above it (didn’t touch the ground), and hence he was declared run out.

But as it has been happening in the previous matches, the Indians seem to relax a bit at the death, thereby helping the Irish to cross the 100 run mark, at a time when tight bowling could have restricted the Irish to a score well below 100. So this a major concern for the coach Gary Kristen as the Indians are yet to face serious opponents who would challenge their bowlers more than the Irish. But when it was India’s turn to bat, it was all smooth sailing for the openers Rohit Sharma and Gambhir who are in the top of their form. They played a sensible innings spiced with boundries. They steered India to the finish line, though Gambhir fell for 37 to West, the tone was set for a victory. As the captain too fell for 14, Rohit Sharma stayed till the end with a well earned half century.

So all is set for India to scorch the super eight. However the Indians have to improve their bowling in the death if they are to retain the coveted ICC T20 crown …

West Indies came on top of their game with excellent exhibition of both bowling and bating. West Indies surely came with a plan and the same was executed with precision. The Aussie camp again looked short of ideas, especially when it came to bowling to Chris Gayle and Andre Fletcher. Australia lost the game by seven wickets with 25 balls to spare.

West Indies captain Chris Gayle was hitting Aussie bowlers with ease and in the course of the match hit the longest six in the tournament when he sent to ball 105 meters out of the stadium on to the adjacent road. During the match Gayle hit three sixes of the bowling of Brett Lee, two of the bowling of David Hussy and one of the bowling of Michael Clarke. He also hit six boundaries in his innings, scoring 88 of just 50 deliveries.

He was well supported by his opening partner Andre Fletcher who scored 53 of just 32 deliveries. One can judge the devastation by just looking at the economy rate of the Aussie Leading bowler, Lee ended the match with 1/56 in his four over’s and at an economy rate of 14.

Australia is placed in the ‘group of death’ which has Sri Lanka apart from West Indies. If the Ponting’s men have to keep their dream alive of capturing the ICC world twenty20 Trophy which is the only championship that has eluded them, then they have to beat the Lankans in there next game on Monday.

To make maters worst, Ponting himself got out on a duck apart from Shane Watson who started the Aussie bating with a duck. The other worry for the Punter is his deputy Michael Clarke who got out after just scoring 2 runs. Ponting with face a formidably challenge when they go out against Sri Lanka, the team which has Jaysuriya…

Chris Gayle was declared Man-of-the-Match for his vicious knock of 88 runs of 50 balls.

Match Summary (West Indies Won by 7 Wickets)
Australia – 169/7 in 20 Overs
D.Warner- 63 M.Hussey –28*
J.Taylor– 4-0-33-2 D.Bravo- 4-0-31-2
West Indies – 172/3 in 15.5 Overs
C.Gayle- 88 A. Fletcher –53
M.Johnson – 3.5-0-36-2 Brett Lee- 4-0-56-1