Posts for 'Teams' Category

World champions England did their best to put cricket's week of crisis behind them as they returned to the Twenty20 format with a five-wicket victory over Pakistan.

Captain Paul Collingwood was delighted with a "100%" performance which owed much to an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 67 between Eoin Morgan and Michael Yardy, to aid the recovery from a mid-innings wobble in reply to 126 for four at the SWALEC Stadium.

"I'm absolutely delighted," said Collingwood. "Our strategies seem to be working in the Twenty20 form of the game. It has been a tough week. But the guys focused 100% on their cricket, and we enjoyed our win.

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The Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Aamer was warned about his conduct after clashing with the Australia captain Ricky Ponting on the first day of the Lord's Test yesterday. Aamer was spoken to by the match referee Chris Broad at the close of play after he had collided with Ponting as he celebrated dismissing the Tasmanian for 26.

"Aamer is a young, exciting, talented player full of enthusiasm for this great sport and that is to be celebrated and nurtured," said Broad. "But there are a few things he still has to learn in relation to how to conduct himself on the field of play.

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The home team produced another inept batting display to reach the close of play with a 19-run lead and only three wickets left. The defiant Shivnarine Chanderpaul was 57 not out and Sulieman Benn was unbeaten on 4. Paceman Dale Steyn ripped through the top order with three wickets before spinner Johan Botha took three more.

Steyn removed openers Dale Richards (17) and Chris Gayle (10) and then dismissed Narsingh Deonarine for a first-ball duck. Steyn was earlier involved in a war of words with Benn and appeared to spit in his direction when the South African was dismissed.

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"Without a doubt it is better to beat Australia 5-0 than 3-2 or 4-1," said Flower, whose England  team go into Wednesday's NatWest Series match at the Oval with a 3-0 lead. "I think that the fact that we have won three games and that we can win another two, grows our self belief and can dent theirs."

The Germans managed 4-0 against the Aussies in the football World Cup but nobody beats them 5-0 at cricket, do they? Well, actually New Zealand did so at home in 2005. But Flower will not allow his team to entertain thoughts of emulating that until they have secured win number four.

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India swiftly erased a Sri Lankan dream at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium here on Thursday night. Pursuing a title hat-trick, defending champion Sri Lanka crumbled in the chase and India won the Asia Cup.

In a final that was headed just one-way after Sri Lanka was reduced to 51 for five while trailing India's 268 for six in 50 overs.

M.S. Dhoni's men scored steady runs and scythed through the host's top-order to make it a no-contest. India won by 81 runs to claim a title that it won last in 1995. Sri Lanka scored 187 in 44.4 overs.

Sri Lanka never recovered from a steady fall of wickets right from the moment, Tillakaratne Dilshan tamely popped up a catch off Praveen Kumar.

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After a long a break of almost a year cricket lovers will see the two titans clashing once again. World famous enmity between India is loved by all when they come on cricket field. Whether it is ODI, test or T20 their collision is worth watching.

Coming towards the series today’s 4th ODI match of India and Pakistan at Dambulla will draw the route of Asia Cup for one of the teams playing.

Pakistan was impressive in the opening game against Sri Lanka but failed to carry it off. If they failed to win this match as well their innings will end here only.

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Wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal has said that Pakistan cricket is passing through a difficult phase and it cannot afford more controversies. In an exclusive interview with Deutsche Welle Radio Urdu Service on Tuesday, he reminded that a difficult tour of England was on the cards and Pakistan had to participate in the World Cup next year. “I believe that in such a difficult situation when foreign teams are reluctant to visit Pakistan we should abstain from creating controversies in the larger interest of the game and the country,” he said.

For the last two weeks Kamran is in the news amid allegations of match-fixing levelled against him by former team coach Intikhab Alam and assistant coach Aaqib Javed. Kamran, known for his swashbuckling batting in the limited version of the game, said he would not comment on allegations of two former team officials. “I am astonished by such allegations but I am under a contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and I hope that the board would take care of these allegations.

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Welcome, to what seems, is the often perplexing world of the Pakistan cricket team, who will continue the defence of their World Twenty20 title against Australia at the Beausejour Stadium on Friday.

Last year’s attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore effectively led to the suspension of international cricket in Pakistan and turned the national side into globe-trotters denied the chance to play in front of their own fans.

If that were not bad enough, a wretched tour of Australia, where Pakistan lost all three Tests, five one-dayers and a Twenty20 match led to seven players being either banned or fined by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

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Little wonder New Zealand are walking around Guyana with smiles on their faces. Two warmup games, two wins and their big guns are firing, notably Jacob Oram, who hit form with the bat against the hosts yesterday.

New Zealand open the World Twenty20 against Sri Lanka at Providence tomorrow morning (5am NZ time) and the word from afar is a happy camp full of fit players.

"It's nice to have two wins leading into the first game," captain Daniel Vettori said. "An in-form Jake Oram is a real bonus for the team – he makes the balance a lot easier. The way he batted, it just shows how destructive he can be.

Oram came to the crease yesterday at 37-6 in the 10th over. Initially he played second fiddle to Ross Taylor (50 from 35 balls) but he clubbed the bowling at the end to help New Zealand reach 124-8 on a pitch Vettori classified as "difficult".

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The batsman dominated the bowler in the royal contest between two masters. A packed audience at the Sawai Man Singh stadium watched Rajasthan Royals suffer its first home loss in nine matches. They still relished it because the man who beat their team was their hero too. Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 89 carried Mumbai Indians to a convincing 37–run win and earned the side a place in the semifinals.

Rajasthan Royals has complicated its course and must win its remaining two matches. Clinical batting A target of 175 was possible only due to Tendulkar's clinical batting after Rajasthan elected to field. He made the most of a ‘life', paced his knock tactically and produced a match-winning effort as only he can.

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