Daily Sports News

Ricky Ponting Australian captain uttered his team needs to be the best to beat New Zealand in the Champions Trophy. Australia won against England in the semi final.Ponting mentioned his team requires playing the best game in the final champion’s trophy.

Ponting added saying team will not be happy until they the peak the achievement. Australia has won three World Cups and the reigning Champions Trophy holder. This year tournament some of their revival team is out of the tournament so it would be interesting to watch as well as play the game against New Zealand. Ponting was fined 20% of his match fee for a slow over rate against England and his teammate fined 10%. Ponting uttered saying winning the game gives a lot of satisfaction. He said this is the first time in few years we have not been ranked the number one team as if for now we are probably world’s number three or four. Aussie team is happy the way we played one-day cricket over the last three to four weeks. The record in these events speaks for itself and expectation has always high. New Zealand beat Pakistan in semi final. Daniel Vettori the captain of New Zealand said his team is hungry to win the competition. He added saying once you reach the immense level you realize an immense desire to go all the way.

ICC Champions Trophy India against Australia was forsaken due to heavy rains. Australia won the toss and decided to bat first there total score was on 234 runs by four wickets out of 42.3 overs. Match was called off at 1840 local time as expected rainstorm arrived.

India still has the possibility of achieving and getting into semi finals when India defeats West Indies credibly well. Pakistan entered semi finals with the victory of two matches. India and Australia both still have chances of entering semi-finals Australia needs to beat Pakistan in the match happening on Wednesday and if Pakistan beats, Australia by similar margin then Mahendra Singh Dhoni captain of India will get a chance to decide on run rate. However if they Australia beats Pakistan then India needs to return home likewise in 2007 World Cup. All Indian eyes are on the 30 September match praying and hoping for Pakistan victory so that India will not be out of the tournament. In history, it has never happened Indian praying for Pakistan victory. Australia was playing well in recent months they defeated England 6-1 in One Day International series. In 2006, the match that held in India they were champions of ICC trophy by defeating West Indies in the final match.

Yuvraj Singh Indian Batsman has been excluded from Champions Trophy after a finger fracture during the practice of fielding session in Johannesburg. He was injured just three days left before the teams opening match played against Pakistan.

Indian cricket board declared in a statement that Yuvraj singh would be out of the game for another six weeks. Virat Kohli will substitute Yuvraj in the tournament held in South Africa. India will plays against Pakistan on Saturday and later with Australia and West Indies. In one-day international, he has scored 7,098 runs and caught 76 wickets. India is the much loved among the eight-team tournament but the team by now has lost  two leading players opening batsman Virender Sehwag and pace bowler Zaheer Khan through injury however opener Gautam Gambhir has groin strain and is under fitness  worry.

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”…..