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India meet Windies in do-or-die ICC Women's WC tie on Thursday

2009-03-19T10:53:00.001+05:30

SYDNEY: Their morale sagging after the defeat against New Zealand, India will have to beat the West Indies in their do-or-die Super Six match
here on Thursday to keep alive their faint chances of making the final of the ICC Women's World Cup.

Thanks to their five-wicket loss against the Kiwis on Tuesday, Jhulan Goswami and her teammates are standing on the threshold of exiting from the event and their chances of progressing to the March 22 final hinges not just on their performance, but also on their fortune.

Even though the Indians are still ahead of New Zealand on run rate, they would have to beat the West Indies and pray that New Zealand go down to Pakistan and England beat Australia in the remaining Super Six matches.

Jhulan did not hide her disappointment after the setback against New Zealand and was virtually in tears to see the team's final hopes lying shattered.

"We worked extremely hard for the World Cup but all has gone down the drain because of one bad performance. It is a devastating blow to all of us as the next World Cup will be after four years and who know who will be there by then," she said.

Indian batting has been inconsistent in the tournament so far with Mithali Raj shining initially and veteran left-hander Anjum Chopra regaining her touch later on.

Reema Malhotra's brisk half-century notwithstanding, the middle order looked brittle against the Kiwis on Tuesday while their bowling too has been far from menacing.

To add to the woes, the Indians cut a sorry figure in the field, spilling catches and making sloppy errors while fielding.

Mithali dropped Kate Pulford (71) early in her innings and the lapse proved costly as the Kiwi opener went on to slam a match-winning knock. The former India skipper also dropped Aimee Mason, while some of her teammates were evidently slow in the field and missed quite a few run out chances.

The West Indies, however, look like an easy meat for the Indians in Thursday's tie at Drummoyne Oval.

The West Indians are yet to register their first win in the Super Six stage where England pasted them by 146 runs before Pakistan tamed them by four wickets.

But for the West Indians, there is nothing at stake while India simply cannot afford to lose if they are to keep alive their theoretical chances of making the final.

source:

Delhi CM keen on IPL, appeals to Chidambaram

2009-03-19T10:48:00.000+05:30

Delhi CM keen on IPL in Delhi, appeals to Chidambaram
18 Mar 2009, 1915 hrs IST, IANS

EW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has appealed to the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram not to deny the cricket fans of the capital
the pleasure of witnessing the Indian Premier League matches.

Even as Chidambaram made it clear on Wednesday that the IPL should finalise its schedule in consultation with the state governments involved in holding the matches instead of revising it every now and then, Dikshit was approached by the owners of the Delhi franchise Delhi Daredevils to find ways to hold their matches in the city.

Also Read:

Delhi may host IPL matches: DDCA

Too stretched to cover IPL matches: Delhi Police chief

Modi cites security concerns for taking out Delhi, Jaipur

The IPL organisers dropped Delhi, Jaipur and Visakhapatnam as venues after their state governments expressed inability to provide adequate security in view of the General Elections. Delhi security comes directly under the Home Ministry.

A Daredevils spokesman admitted that the franchise officials met Dikhsit who, he said, was as keen as any Delhi cricket fan that the the IPL games should be held in the capital.

Also, on Wednesday, the Delhi Police Commissioner YS Dadwal told reporters that the security machinery in the national capital was not adequate to take care of elections as well as IPL.

Dadwal's reasoning was that security risks cannot be taken for the IPL after the audacious attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3 during their tour of Pakistan.

However, the central government is under pressure not only from some of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies, but also from some industrialists who have sunk huge amounts in IPL's second edition which is likely to cost over Rs 17 billion to earn in excess of Rs 100 billion from the 44-day Twenty20 league.

Chidambaram reiterated that the fate of the multi-billion dollar Twenty20 league rests with the state governments which will examine the thrice revised IPL schedule and his ministry would strictly go by their advice.

He told reporters after a meeting of the Union Cabinet that his ministry received the new IPL schedule and it has been sent to the state governments.

"Any decision will be taken after the states give their verdict on the dates," Chidambaram said.

The IPL scheduled to be held from April 10 to May 24 and the home ministry does not want to take chances by stretching central forces to provide security for both the elections and the IPL.

The government has made it clear to the organisers that it will not be able to spare any of the paramilitary forces and wanted state governments to take the call on security for the IPL matches.

Dharamshala and Ahmedabad have been named as the new venues in place of Delhi and Jaipur. The organisers are also looking at Raipur in Chattisgarh as a possible venue.

The West Bengal government, however, has cleared the schedule after the change of dates.

The schedule of matches submitted by the IPL bosses on Tuesday provides for staging all the home matches of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) between April 11 and April 26 leaving a clear four-day gap before the firsat phase of the Lok Sabha election in the state April 30.

"We have gone through the latest list. I discussed the matter with chief secretary (Ashok Mohan Chakraborty) today (Wednesday). We don't have any more objection, and we have informed Delhi accordingly," state home secretary Ardhendu Sen said.

As per the schedule, the Shah Rukh Khan-owned KKR will be playing their home matches at the Eden Gardens April 11, 15, 16, 18, 22, 24 and 26.

The state government had earlier objected to the schedule saying it could not organise the Lok Sabha elections and the IPL simultaneously.

West Bengal is set to have three-phase elections April 30, May 7 and May 13.

source:cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

India tour of New Zealand, 2008/09

2009-03-19T10:31:00.001+05:30

Prev Ings : NZ 279/10

SMS CRI to 58888 for latest scores l SMS SUB CRI to 58888 for cricket alerts

Batting							Career
Batsman	Status	R	B	4's	6's	SR	Mat	Runs	Ave
Gautam Gambhir	c Brendon McCullum b Chris Martin	72	135	11	0	53.33	23	1898	49.95
Virender Sehwag	run out James Franklin	24	21	5	0	114.29	67	5641	50.82
Rahul Dravid	b Iain O'Brien	66	138	12	0	47.83	132	10575	52.35
Sachin Tendulkar	not out	70	135	11	0	51.85	157	12499	54.34
VVS Laxman	c Ross Taylor b Chris Martin	30	91	4	0	32.97	103	6476	44.05
Yuvraj Singh	not out	8	30	1	0	26.67	26	1270	35.28
MS Dhoni (W & C)
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma
Munaf Patel

		Total:(278/4 in 91.0 overs)
Extras: 8(NB-5, WB-0, LB-2, Byes - 1, Penalty-0)				Run Rate: 3.05

Fall of wickets:

1/37(Virender Sehwag, 9.2 ov.), 2/142(Gautam Gambhir, 41.4 ov.), 3/177(Rahul Dravid, 53.2 ov.), 4/238(VVS Laxman, 81.3 ov.)

Bowling								Career
Bowler	O	M	R	W	NB	WB	E/R	Mat	Wkts	Ave
Chris Martin	20.0	7	53	2			2.65	46	148	33.46
Kyle Mills	15.0	2	70	0	3		4.67	19	44	31.91
Iain O'Brien	20.0	5	56	1			2.8	15	44	28.75
James Franklin	13.0	1	46	0			3.54	24	79	29.97
Daniel Vettori	16.0	2	40	0	2		2.5	90	286	33.23
Jesse Ryder	7.0	5	10	0			1.43	7	2	38.5

New Zealand team:

Chris Martin, Daniel Vettori , Kyle Mills, James Franklin, Brendon McCullum , Ross Taylor , Daniel Flynn, Tim McIntosh, Iain O'Brien, Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill

Abbreviations: (R - Runs, B - Balls, 4s - Fours, 6s - Sixes, S/R - Strike Rate, nb - No Balls, wb - Wide Balls, LB - Leg Byes, O - Overs, M - Maidens, W - Wickets, E/R - Economy Rate)

Source:card.cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Kruttika Nadig wins national women chess championship

2008-12-29T18:08:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: Balanced thinking is what separates Kruttika Nadig from the rest. "I was prepared for the game. I waited and watched till the final mov
e," she told TOI after winning her maiden National women's chess title here on Sunday.

This pretty Pune-based player flashed a 1000-megawatt smile and carefully put the crystal trophy on a chair before warming up to the conversation.

"I got into chess mainly because of my surroundings. I was lucky to have people around me who instilled the thrill of playing this game from the very beginning," says the 20-year-old who won her first chess crown when only 11.

In the eleventh round on Sunday, Nadig settled for a quick 20-move draw against Eesha Karavade. Though she lost to defending champion Tania Sachdeva in an earlier game, the defeat failed to dent her confidence.

Before going into the final round, Nadig enjoyed half-a-point's lead over Tania who had to make way for this new chess princess. "I was trying not to watch Tania's game," said Nadig, who is among the top 100 players in the FIDE list.

Nadig started playing very early as almost all chess players do and soon developed into a major talent. She won the national sub-junior title in 2003 and the junior one the next year.

The senior title now completes her collection. But has women's chess been able to create a niche? There's no one like Judith Polgar in India... "Why not? Koneru (Humpy), Viji (Vijayalaksmi) are players who are respected outside India. Particularly Viji who is quite aggressive like Judith," stressed Nadig.
source:indiatimes.com

Lewis Hamilton

2008-12-29T17:40:00.003+05:30

Lewis Hamilton

Name: Lewis Hamilton
Nationality: British
Team: McLaren
Podium Finish: 13
Date of Birth: January 7, 1985
Place of Birth: Stevenage, UK

Lewis Hamilton is a British Formula One racing driver from England, who races for McLaren Mercedes team. Hamilton made a superb start to the 2008 F1 season as he raced to win the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

From a modest family in England, with a white mother and a black father Anthony Lewis, the ace driver got his name after the US Olympic gold medal winning athlete Carl Lewis. Hamilton finished second in the 2007 Formula One Championship, behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. He has set numerous F1 records. After winning the British Formula Renault, European Formula Three and GP2 championship, Hamilton became a McLaren F1 driver for 2007.

Rookie driver for 2007, Hamilton made a stunning F1 debut season. He scored podium finishes in his first nine races. The British driver secured four wins and six pole positions as he out-performed champion team-mate Fernando Alonso. Hamilton was in fact the title favourite until errors in final two rounds dropped him to second position behind Raikkonen in the 2007 drivers' standings.

source:racing.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Armaan Ebrahim signs up for Formula 2

2008-12-29T17:36:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: Up and coming Indian motor racer Armaan Ebrahim will compete in next year's F2 Series which is being promoted by the FIA, the world body of motorsports, and billed as the feeder series to Formula One.

F2 Series organiser and former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer of Motorsport Vision Ltd confirmed the signing of Armaan for the championship, which starts in April next year.

Armaan joined drivers such as Julian Jousse from France who finished second overall in the World Series Renault and Robert Wickens, a junior Red Bull driver who won a couple of A1GP races in 2007-08, who have been the first few contracted drivers with F2.

The F2 series, which was conceptualised by FIA for those drivers who cannot afford huge budgets required for GP2 and World Series Renault, will consist of eight rounds with 16 races across Europe. It starts in April with the official test days and the races start in May 2009 and finishes in November.

The winner of the F2 Championship will get a test drive with the Williams Formula One team and the top three winners will be awarded a F1 license by the FIA.

Armaan, who is undergoing training in Singapore after his very first test in the new Ferrari powered car in Sepang, for A1GP Team India said it was a welcome development for a racer like him who could not find enough sponsors for GP2 Series or World Series Renault Championship.

"The F2 Championship is a bold and revolutionary concept and a very beneficial concept for most drivers including myself. I wanted to try to do the GP2 Series or the World Series by Renault for 2009.

"But had only a 5 per cent chance to find the budgets for those championships as neither am I from a wealthy family, nor are such huge sums of sponsorship money available in India for an upcoming racing driver.

"The budget for 2009 that we have to find is in the region of Rs 2 crores. My existing sponsors JK Tyres and Amaron have already confirmed their support for 2009 despite these difficult financial times. I am presently in discussions with BPCL for their continued association with me," Armaan said.

The Williams Formula 1 Team is building the official partners to the championship and all the cars. The cars will be built very close to F1 car specifications adopting the same technology of a F1 car.

The engines that will be used are the Audi 1.8litre Turbo charged engines producing 450 BHP with power boost. The gearbox will be a six-speed paddle shift gearbox, which will be very similar to that of the present F1 cars.

The F2 Championship will cost 1/4th that of the GP2 Series and half the cost of the World Series Renault Championship.

All the 24 cars will be built by the Williams F1 Team at their factory and all the cars will be run by the mechanics and engineers appointed by Palmer Motorsport.

Certain suspension mechanisms and the gear ratios as well as the differential settings will be the same for all cars, thereby reducing the cost and cutting down on inventory and more importantly making the cars more equal than before which then puts a lot of focus on the driver rather than the expertise of the team.

source:racing.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

England bowl out India for 453

2008-12-20T17:34:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: The England first innings failed to get underway as play was called off due to bad light after India were all out for 453 runs intheir first innings on the second day of second Test at the PCA stadium in Mohali on Saturday.
Play was called off after the umpires offered the England openers Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook the light without a ball being bowled. Strauss and Cook were more than happy in accepting the light.
England bowlers took wickets at regular intervals to deny the Indian middle order to build on the contributions of Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid.
The Indian first innings end came when Andrew Flintoff clean bowled Amit Mishra who hit a four and a six in his 23-run knock.
Flintoff took his second wicket when Zaheer Khan (7) was clean bowled off an inside edge.
Before that, India lost captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh in quick succession to be at 418/8 after tea.
Monty Panesar took his second wicket when he had Harbhajan Singh caught by Graeme Swann at mid-off. Harbhajan entertained his home crowd hitting two fours and a six in his 21-ball knock of 24.
In the previous over, Dhoni miscued a hit off James Anderson to mid-wicket for substitute Owais Shah to take the catch after hitting 3 fours in his knock of 29.
Monty took his first wicket of the match when he dismissed Yuvraj Singh (27) to reduce India to 379/6.
Yuvraj came down the pitch to play a flick, the ball pitched in the rough bounced to edge off the glove for Matt Prior to take the catch.
Yuvraj resurrected the Indian innings to an extent by hitting 3 fours and a six and adding 40 runs with his Dhoni.
In the second session of the day, the Indian innings was jolted by losing four quick wickets.
Graeme Swann dismissed Gautam Gambhir (179), Rahul Dravid (136) and Sachin Tendulkar (11) in quick succession before Andrew Flintoff sent back VVS Laxman for a duck to reduce India to 339/5 soon after lunch.
India lost 4 wickets for 19 runs as Flintoff trapped Laxman, who failed to get off the mark after facing 23 deliveries, plumb in front of the wicket with a reverse swinging delivery.
Swann took his third wicket when Tendulkar tried to play a paddle sweep but missed the ball that hit his front pad. Tendulkar hit a single four in his knock.
Swann's second wicket came in the form of Dravid who charged down the pitch, but beaten by the flight was forced to check his shot and mistimed it up in the air for Monty Panesar to take the catch at mid-off.
Dravid hit 19 fours in his rock solid innings and it came soon after the dismissal of Gambhir.
It was more of a case of Gambhir gifting his wicket rather than England taking it as the diminutive opener charged down the pitch needlessly and edged a Swann delivery to Alistair Cook for the catch.
Gambhir's superb innings was studded with 25 fours and a six and he added 314 runs with Dravid for the second wicket.
Gambhir and Dravid took India to 302/1 at lunch.
Dravid brought up the Indian 300 on the last ball before lunch with a boundary off Monty Panesar. With their partnership, Gambhir and Dravid ensured that India is calling the shots in this Test.
Gambhir and Dravid broke the record partnership between a left-hander and right-hander that was of 281 runs and stood in the name of Sachin Tendulkar and Ganguly that came against New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 1999.
When he reached 143, Gambhir became the fourth Indian after Virender Sehwag, Tendulkar and VVS Laxman to complete 1000 Test runs in the calendar year.
Dravid hit 17 fours in his knock, while Gambhir's knock is studded with 24 fours and a six.
Earlier, reaffirming that class is permanent and form is temporary, Dravid hit his 26th century that is probably one of the most important centuries of his career because of the constant criticism he was getting from the self-styled cricket critics who were even questioning his place in the side.
But a firm believer in his capabilities that he is, Dravid celebrated in a clam fashion just with a raised bat, no wild celebrations at all as everyone in the Indian dressing room stood up and applauded the effort.
This was Dravid's 4th hundred against England and the first century since March 2008 when he scored 111 against South Africa at Chennai - a knock that was overshadowed by Virender Sehwag's belligerent 319.
With this partnership, that is the highest for India against England for the second wicket and the highest at the PCA stadium for any wicket, Gambhir and Dravid have justified Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's decision to bat first in overcast conditions.
Gambhir and Dravid joined forces on day one to put India on path to a sizable total after losing Sehwag early that left India at 6/1.
This was Gambhir's third century in the last four Tests, second at Mohali and first against England.
Dravid has now been involved in 73 century partnerships, which is the most by any batsman.
After lunch on day one, when he reached 20, Dravid completed 8000 runs at number three in Test cricket.

SOURCE:www.indiatimes.com

Kirsten reveals secret of Yuvi's return to Test form

2008-12-17T23:23:00.002+05:30

MOHALI: India's cricket coach Gary Kirsten has revealed that Yuvraj Singh rediscovered his form in the Chennai Test against England after being
asked to "pretend" that he was playing a One-day knock.

Comeback man Yuvraj, who flopped in the first innings with 14 runs, more than made up for it with a quick-fire 85 in the second essay as India clinched a memorable six-wicket victory.

"Yuvraj has felt the heat but you need just one innings to turn it around. We told him to pretend he was playing a One-day innings, and to play positively," Kirsten said.

Kirsten said even when England were on top, he was confident of an Indian win.

"England were on top but we still felt that we could win. Then it was up to England to make a plan. We went into the fifth day saying that we could do it," he said.

"We were sure that we could make it. I had seen Sehwag play and knew what he was capable of and Sachin was of course equally good," he added.

India chased down a record 387 target in the match riding on Sachin Tendulkar's magnificent 41st hundred. Kirsten said even when not in best of forms, Tendulkar is a confidence booster in the dressing room.

"The players were nervous but when you have Tendulkar at the crease, playing as he did, the nervousness seems to disappear," said Kirsten.

Kirsten said the reason why India had been putting up one dominating display after another is the fine current form of all the team members.

"Our batting line-up is getting decent scores and there is great balance in the bowling line-up," said Kirsten.

"It's been amazing being part of this setup and its been really big for me," he added.

source:cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

England will hit back in Mohali: Vaughan

2008-12-17T23:19:00.002+05:30

LONDON: Former captain Michael Vaughan has backed England to bounce back from the bitter loss in Chennai, saying that Kevin Pietersen and his men
Members of England cricket team
Members of England cricket team arrive at Taj hotel for the 2nd Test against India in Chandigarh.
have the 'bulldog spirit' to square the Test series against India in Mohali.

"One thing with the England team is we do have a 'bulldog spirit', a fighting spirit. We proved that in this game," Vaughan said ahead of the second and final Test in Mohali starting December 19.

England dominated the first three days of the Chennai Test before losing the plot on the fourth day when Indian opener Virender Sehwag went on a rampage to snatch the match away from the visitors.

"It was a great game of cricket. Both teams played to an incredible standard in terms of what they'd gone through in the previous two weeks," Vaughan was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph .

"The England team can be very proud of the way they played. For three-and-three-quarter days they dominated the Test and that is something which is very difficult to do in India," he added.

Vaughan admitted that the six-wicket loss was a bitter pill to swallow, considering the way England dominated most part of the match.

"The defining moment was that middle session (on day four) when we probably let the momentum sway back towards India when we could have nailed home the game."

However, Vaughan, who is currently on a sabbatical from international cricket, said the task would be tough test of England's mental strength.

"We've just lost a real big game, a game that all the lads would have expected to win on that fourth evening," he said.

"It's going to be a real task of mental strength. The boys are pretty drained and emotionally tired from what they've been through in the last few weeks. But if they win the toss, and bat, and get runs on the board they can put India under a lot of pressure," he added.

The right-hander, training with the England's elite performance squad, said he is working towards his international comeback.

"My mind is very refreshed and of course after such a great game of cricket I'm desperate to get out there and make decisions, play and score runs," he said.

source:cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

India won 1st gold

2008-08-11T16:07:00.002+05:30

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra won the gold for the Men's 10m Air Rifle final after shooting a total of 700.5, thus becoming the first Indian individual gold medallist ever at the Olympics. He scored 596 (fourth) in the qualifying round and out-scored all other shooters in the finals with a round of 104.5.

This was India's first individual gold medal at the Olympics, and the first gold in 28 years, since the Men's Hockey team won the gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Abhinav Bindra (born September 28, 1983) is an Indian shooting sports person and CEO of Abhinav Futuristics, a PC games peripherals distributor based in Chandigarh. As a shooter, he specialises in the field of Air rifle. On August 11, 2008 he became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games and the first gold medal for India since 1980.

At the age of 15, Abhinav Bindra was the youngest participant at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and two years later he was the youngest shooter at the 2000 Olympic Games. He won six gold medals at various international meets in 2001. In the Air rifle event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester, he won Gold in the Pairs event and Silver in the individual event. At the 2004 Olympic Games, he broke the Olympic record but failed to win a medal. He is a recipient of the Arjuna award in 2001 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award for the year 2001-2002. Abhinav Bindra's potential talent was first spotted by Lt. Col. J.S. Dhillon. He was Bindra's first coach. Abhinav also holds an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) .

source:ritemail.blogspot.com

A day before olympics

2008-08-08T19:52:00.000+05:30

source:rocking emails

All the Olympic Logos...AMAZING

2008-08-08T18:50:00.000+05:30

source:

babes_in_blue

Fireworks explode over National Stadium during 2nd full dress rehearsal

2008-08-06T14:06:00.001+05:30

Fireworks explode over the National Stadium during the second full dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 2, 2008.

Fireworks explode over the National Stadium during the second full dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 2, 2008. (Photo credit: Li Gang/Xinhua)

source:en.beijing2008.cn

2008-08-06T13:58:00.001+05:30

Photos: Salon service in Olympic Village attracts athletes and Beijingers

Updated: 2008-08-04 16:15:50

Zheng Jie receives a manicure.

(BEIJING, August 3) -- If you want to get an Olympic haircut, then, come to the Hair Salon in the Olympic Village, Ma Cunyun, manager of the Olympic Village Hair Salon, told reporters.

The busy beauty salon

The Hair Salon in the Olympic Village boasts a highly qualified staff, with 60 percent professionally certified.

Manicure after hairdressing

The salon offers a wide array of services, including hairdressing, manicures and massages.

Front desk of the salon

"It's very clean here; the service is great. I'm very happy with my new hairdo," said one customer at the hair salon.

Athlete receiving a manicure

Tennis player Zheng Jie has been one of the many famous patrons of this beauty salon.

source:en.beijing2008.cn

Photos: Garden-like, convenient Olympic Village

2008-08-06T13:47:00.002+05:30

Photos: Garden-like, convenient Olympic Village

Updated: 2008-08-06 10:07:33 From: Xinhuanet

Athletes have dinners in a restaurant at the residential area of Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 5, 2008. The Olympic Village, located in the Olympic Green in north Beijing and divided into three sections of the international area, residential area and operations area, houses about 16,000 athletes, coaches and their entourage from over 200 countries and regions coming for the Olympics. (Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2008 shows a clinic at the residential area of Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China. The Olympic Village, located in the Olympic Green in north Beijing and divided into three sections of the international area, residential area and operations area, houses about 16,000 athletes, coaches and their entourage from over 200 countries and regions coming for the Olympics. (Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2008 shows a clinic at the residential area of Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China. (Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2008 shows a scenic spot at the residential area of Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China. The Olympic Village, located in the Olympic Green in north Beijing and divided into three sections of the international area, residential area and operations area, houses about 16,000 athletes, coaches and their entourage from over 200 countries and regions coming for the Olympics. (Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

Athletes have fun in the entertainment center at the residential area of Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 5, 2008. (Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

taken on Aug. 5, 2008 shows the swimming pool at the residential area of Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China.(Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

An athlete jogs at the Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 5, 2008. The Olympic Village, located in the Olympic Green in north Beijing and divided into three sections of the international area, residential area and operations area, houses about 16,000 athletes, coaches and their entourage from over 200 countries and regions coming for the Olympics. (Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

Photo Gallery>>

Athletes exercise at the residential area of Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 5, 2008.(Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2008 shows the garden-style residential area of Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China. The Olympic Village, located in the Olympic Green in north Beijing and divided into three sections of the international area, residential area and operations area, houses about 16,000 athletes, coaches and their entourage from over 200 countries and regions coming for the Olympics. (Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

Athletes arrive at the residential area of Olympic Village in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 5, 2008. The Olympic Village, located in the Olympic Green in north Beijing and divided into three sections of the international area, residential area and operations area, houses about 16,000 athletes, coaches and their entourage from over 200 countries and regions coming for the Olympics.(Photo credit: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua)

source:en.beijing2008.cn

Dhoni to be conferred Khel Ratna

2008-08-04T22:50:00.002+05:30

NEW DELHI: India's One-Day and Twenty20 captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Monday chosen for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, country's highest honour for a sportsperson.

An expert committee, chaired by Milkha Singh, on Monday met to discuss the nominees and they decided to confer the award on Dhoni for leading India to the Twenty20 World Cup triumph -- making him only the second cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to get the honour.

Sources in the Sports Ministry, however, informed that an official announcement would follow only after August 20.

Meanwhile, BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty hailed the decision.

"On two occasions, we felt let down when Rahul Dravid didn't get Khel Ratna and Yuvraj (Singh) was denied Arjuna. Dravid was in good form, we had won 16 ODIs on the trot and the team was on a high -- still he did not get the award.

"Yuvraj too was unlucky not to get Arjuna after two years of consistent performance. We are happy Dhoni got it," he told 'Times Now' channel.

Shetty said what impressed him most about Dhoni was the way he conducted himself.

"What I like most about Mahi, apart from his cricket, is the way he leads. He is a cool customer and never gets agitated. I'm also impressed by his clarity of thought. He speaks his mind even if it may not be seen in the right sense," he added.

source:cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Back with a bang India beat Sri Lanka to level series 1-1

2008-08-04T22:39:00.004+05:30

GALLE, PTI: India made amends for the Colombo debacle by trouncing Sri Lanka by 170 runs within four days to level the three-match Test series 1-1 on Sunday.

After setting Sri Lanka a target of 307, Harbhajan Singh (4/51) and Ishant Sharma (3/20) bundled out the home team for a paltry 136 on a dramatic fourth day's play which saw as many as 16 wickets fall.

It was a remarkable comeback by the Indians who were beaten comprehensively by an innings and 239 runs in the first Test in Colombo. The teams now return to Colombo for the series decider beginning on August 8. (AFP Photo)

Galle (Sri Lanka), PTI: Virender Sehwag stood bravely amid the ruins with a swashbuckling unbeaten 201 before Harbhajan Singh scalped four wickets to leave the second cricket Test between India and Sri Lanka evenly poised at the end of the second day here on Friday.

The dashing Sehwag again did the bulk of the scoring as the Indians folded up for 329 in their first innings with 'mystery' spinner Ajantha Mendis tormenting them with a six-wicket haul.

The hosts then lost opener Michael Vandort in the very first over but recovered to some extent through a 133-run second wicket partnership between Malinda Warnapura (66) and Kumar Sangakkara (68) even though they still trail India by 114 runs.

But Harbhajan (4/71) then broke the Lankan backbone to leave the hosts 215 for five at close on an absorbing second day's play.

Captain Mahela Jayawardene (46) and Prasana Jayawardene (5) were at the crease at stumps on a day which saw as many as 11 wickets tumble at the Galle International stadium. (AP Photo)

source:cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Sehwag and Harbhajan move up in ICC rankings

2008-08-04T22:31:00.002+05:30

DUBAI: Riding on their match-winning performances in the second Test against Sri Lanka, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh climbed up in the International Cricket Council rankings issued on Monday.

Sehwag, who scored a double century and a half-century in the two innings, moved up ten places to eleventh in the batting charts. Sehwag single-handedly rescued India's first innings scoring 201. He is now the highest ranked Indian batsman in the latest ICC rankings.

Off-spinner Harbhajan, who took a match haul of ten wickets, cleared seven heads to reach eleventh position among the bowlers.

Below Sehwag and inside the top-20 are team-mates Sachin Tendulkar (17th), Rahul Dravid and VVS. Laxman (joint 18th). Sourav Ganguly is 26th but another big climber is Gautam Gambhir, up 28 spots to 49th.

Anil Kumble remains India's highest-ranked bowler at ninth while Zaheer Khan (18th) is next in line.

Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, who started the series at the top of the batting table, is now fifth. He dropped one place after the first match at the Sinhalese Sports Club and has slipped a further three places after the second Test in Galle.

The batting list is headed by the West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul, although he is only narrowly clear of the Australia duo of Michael Hussey and Ricky Ponting and Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan.

Muttiah Muralitharan is leading the bowlers rankings while spinner Ajantha Mendis is now on 39th in the table after just two Tests, having returned match figures of 10-209 in Galle.

source:cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

India braced for spinner's pitch in Galle

2008-07-30T16:46:00.001+05:30

GALLE, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - India's batsmen have been warned to expect a "spinner's pitch" for the second test in Galle starting on Thursday as they aim to recover from their humiliating innings and 239-run first test loss to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's new 'spin twins', Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, created huge problems for the Indian batsmen in the series opener, claiming 19 wickets between them.

Galle ground manager Jayanda Warnaweera, a former Sri Lanka spinner, said he has prepared a surface that will suit the pair.

"Sri Lanka have got spinners and this (pitch) will therefore be a spinner's pitch," Warnaweera told reporters.

"Although it should help the seamers on the first day, it will start spinning a lot by day three," he added.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene noted, however, that only four of the 24 fallen wickets in the venue's last test -- December's draw with England -- were taken by spinners.

"We'll have to see how it shapes up this week as with some rain around there might also be help for the quicker bowlers," Jayawardene said.

"Whatever surface it is we'll need to play good cricket and right now we are focused on carrying on where we left off in Colombo.

"We played some great cricket there but this is a new game and we can't afford to be complacent against a strong team like India."

ADDITIONAL OPTION

Sri Lanka have called up uncapped pace bowler Dammika Prasad as an additional bowling option for the test.

Local media reported that Chaminda Vaas may be rested, but with the quick bowlers being used so sparingly in the first test, the hosts are unlikely to make any changes.

India are also set to remain unchanged unless the pitch does indeed turn out to be very dry and spin-friendly.

If so, left-armer Pragyan Ojha could be considered as a third spinner with Saurav Ganguly opening the bowling.

The tourists's greatest test will be how their batsmen come to grips with Muralitharan and Mendis, two unorthodox slow bowlers. Opener Gautam Gambhir insists they remain positive.

"We had a bad test but now we are positive and want to come back hard against the Sri Lankans," Gambhir said.

"Yes, they have a quality spin attack but we also have guys who can play spin well."

Sri Lanka squad:

Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Michael Vandort, Malinda Warnapura, Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Prasanna Jayawardene, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekera, Chamara Silva, Thilan Thushara, Chamara Kapugedera, Dammika Prasad

India squad:

Anil Kumble (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Dinesh Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel

source:in.sports.yahoo.com

Do or die (INDIA)

2008-07-30T16:34:00.001+05:30

GALLE (Sri Lanka), PTI: A demoralised India will have to quickly find a solution to counter the twin threat posed by Sri Lankan spinners as they go into the must-win second Test here on Thursday with the reputation of their star-studded batting line-up at stake.

Still licking the wounds of their humiliating defeat in the first Test in Colombo, the Indians got little time to regroup and work out a definite strategy to deal with the wily Muthiah Muralitharan and new spin sensation Ajantha Mendis who have proved quite a handful for the visitors.

Apart from the poor batting display, the Indian bowling and fielding also left much to be desired in Colombo and it will need a vastly improved performance from Anil Kumble and his men to keep themselves afloat in the three-match series.

source:cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Breaking down Germany vs. Spain

2008-06-28T17:12:00.001+05:30

Germany's Michael Ballack (left) and Spain's Cesc Fàbregas should play starring roles in Sunday's Euro 2008 final.

Let's count the reasons why Germany has no business beating Spain for the Euro 2008 championship on Sunday (ABC, 2:45 p.m. ET):

• Spain has been the undisputed best team in Euro 2008, winning every one of its games. (I consider the penalty-kick elimination of Italy a win, statisticians be damned). Germany lost convincingly to Croatia in the group stage and has had a schizophrenic tournament.

• German midfield star Michael Ballack was rendered invisible in the semifinals by one Brazilian-born defensive midfielder (Turkey's Mehmet Aurélio), and he'll be facing an even better Brazilian-born D-mid (Spain's Marcos Senna) on Sunday.

• Germany struggled mightily and needed a last-minute goal to win a 3-2 semifinal against a Turkish team that was missing its four best attacking players due to injuries or suspensions. For its part, Spain throttled a red-hot Russian side in the semis 3-0.

• Germany's borderline insane goalkeeper, Jens Lehmann, gave up not one, but two soft goals against Turkey, and Near-Post Jens' form at his ex-club Arsenal was so shaky that he lost his starting job to a goalkeeper (Manuel Almunia) who couldn't even make this Spanish team. His counterpart in this game, Spain's Iker Casillas, has been marvelous in goal during Euro '08.

• Spain's due. La Furia Roja got over its "choker" past by ousting Italy in the quarterfinals, and now that the psychological barrier is gone, the Spaniards can finally maximize their talent advantage over the Germans and win Spain's second major trophy (after the 1964 European title).

• If dinged-up striker David Villa is declared healthy to play, Spain's three likely subs (Cesc Fàbregas, Xabi Alonso, Dani Güiza) are way better than Germany's (Marcell Jansen, Kevin Kuranyi, Tim Borowski). And even if Villa can't play, Spain can seamlessly insert Fàbregas into the lineup and switch to a 4-5-1 formation.

• Spain's back line has been amazing in the knockout rounds, shutting out Italy and Russia. Carles Puyol and Carlos Marchena clamped down on Luca Toni and Andrei Arshavin in the center, left-back Joan Capdevila hasn't taken anything off the table, and right-back Sergio Ramos has balanced attacking and defending far better in recent games.

• Spain has a greater number of creative sources on the attack. Midfielders Fàbregas, David Silva, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta spread out the worries more than Germany's trio of Ballack, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski. (Swashbuckling outside backs Ramos and Philipp Lahm cancel each other out.) Advantage: Spain.

Bottom line: On paper it should be pretty easy to pick Spain in this game. And so, of course, I'm going with Germany. Why?

• Germany knows how to convert set-pieces. How many times have we seen the Germans be outplayed on the field, only to win the game on a ruthlessly converted set-piece goal? It happened again in the quarterfinals against Portugal, and this Spanish team reminds me a lot of its Iberian counterpart. Marchena and Puyol are not nearly as tall as Germany's Miroslav Klose, Schweinsteiger and Christoph Metzelder, and the goals that Spain has allowed in this tournament have come on balls in the air. Spain may outplay the Germans, but they will not out-set-piece them.

• Germany almost always regroups after a sub-par performance. We saw it in the group-stage when the Germans dispatched Austria after the loss to Croatia. This is where Ballack earns his stripes as a captain, rallying the troops when it counts. This is where the German defense eliminates the mistakes it made against Turkey.

• Podolski and Schweinsteiger understand winning-time -- and each other. Their combination plays to score goals against Portugal and Turkey were things of beauty, and you know they'll show up on Sunday ready to play.

So yes, there are more reasons Spain will win. But this is Germany, after all, and I feel like we've been through this before. Should be a great game, though.

source:sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Germany 2, Spain 1.

Real racing in the virtual world

2008-06-28T17:00:00.002+05:30

Real racing in the virtual world

By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Felipe Massa drives ahead of McLaren Mercedes" British driver Lewis Hamilton at the Monaco racetrack on May 25, 2008

Sat on the start grid, foot poised over the accelerator, you wait for the row of red lights to extinguish.

Alongside you are top names like Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. The cars' engines are screaming and everyone is poised to go. For any Formula One fan the chance to race against their heroes would be a dream come true.

Sadly, the closest most of us have ever got is watching the Grand Prix on television. But that could soon change if a company from the Netherlands has its way.

"It's clear that the next trend in gaming is going to be bringing real objects into the virtual world; playing not against other gamers but people doing the real thing," said Andy Lurling, founder of iOpener Media.

The patented system his company is developing sucks in real-time GPS data from racing events and pumps it out to compatible games consoles and PCs.

The idea is that you could pit yourself against the top drivers in the world, as it happens, from the comfort of your living room.

"You can compete against the best of the best," he told BBC News.

'Hardcore appeal'

And if all of this sounds far fetched, think again.

The European Space Agency (Esa) was so impressed with his proposal, it gave Mr Lurling's company a grant to develop a proof of concept. A German venture capitalist has stumped up cash to develop it further.

Project Gotham Racing

Driving the boundaries of realism

He has already tested it with an F1 car and plans to have the first games on the market as early as September this year.

"At this point we have lots of interest and we are looking for the right partner to launch," he said.

The firm is currently in talks with six developers about using the technology.

Gareth Wilson, design manager at Bizarre Creations, makers of the Project Gotham Racing series, says he thinks games with the real-time feature would "excite a hardcore minority of gamers".

"Formula 1 and similar complex simulation games are getting less mass market nowadays, compared to their more arcade-style heyday in the late 90s," he told BBC News.

"This sort of feature would probably appeal to the hardcore gamer or F1 fan more than a mass market gamer.

"Having said that, the hardcore would totally love it."

Bizarre Creations is not currently one of the firms evaluating the system.

Precision position

At the core of iOpener's technology is an enhanced GPS system known as differential GPS (DGPS).

This uses a network of fixed base stations to correct the GPS signal, which on its own may only be accurate to within 10m. DGPS is commonly used for air navigation or shipping where precision is key.

Real Time Games infographic
1. Car position located with Global Navigation Satellite Systems
2. Location data and car telemetry is beamed to a track side server
3. Data is tagged with unique ID of the car and sent over the internet
4. Information stored on servers and "mediacast" to gamers.
Whole process from car to gamer takes less than five seconds

"With that we know the location and the velocity of the car," explained Mr Lurling.

As further precision is needed, iOpener can use information from the European EGNOS network, which augments GPS satellite signals to provide positional data accurate to within 2m.

Other tweaks include fitting cars with an inertial measurement unit (IMU), commonly used in guided missile systems, which measure acceleration, angle and yaw of the object.

"IMUs give accuracy on a short range," Mr Lurling told BBC News.

"Combined with DGPS, we know the location of the car to within less than 30 centimetres."

In addition, the system collects telemetry data from the car, which is fitted with a small computer, transmitter and the GPS receiver.

"That is already good enough data for a game," he said.

Telemetry is commonly collected by track-side engineers to monitor the vehicles' performance and can include information such as acceleration and what gear the car is in.

It has already used by games developers to build more realistic simulations.

Designers at Bizarre Creations used the telemetry to generate accurate track models for early F1 games, before detailed circuit maps existed, for example.

From the track side, the data is sent over the net to a server farm, where it is saved before being pumped out - or "mediacast" - to eager gamers.

The delay between collecting the data and the gamer being immersed in it is up to five seconds, similar to the lag on a TV broadcast.

"We also store the data, so not only can you play the game in real time, but you can replay races at a later date," said Mr Lurling.

Intelligent gaming

The company does not intend to develop its own games; rather it will provide the backbone for games developers to build on to.

But it will provide some software; specifically an artificial intelligence (AI) program to make sure that the virtual and real worlds blend seamlessly.
Giancarlo Fisichella (top) of Italy and Force India and Kazuki Nakajima (bottom) of Japan and Williams collide
Artificial intelligence handles collisions between real and virtual drivers

"If Hamilton is driving behind you he can't see you [in the game], so he would drive right through you," explained Mr Lurling.

"So the AI takes over at that point and you see a very realistic overtaking."

The system also handles the results of in-game collisions between real and virtual drivers.

In this case, the real car always drives away. The gamer's fate is less certain.

"We go for optimal realism but the game experience has to be right," he said.

Mr Wilson agrees with this approach.

"There is a huge difference between what happens in the real world and what happens in video games - even the most 'realistic' simulator has to bend real world physics to make the game more fun," he said.

However, even with the AI, he thinks gamers may encounter a more fundamental frustration with the system.

"I know I wouldn't even get close to the lap times that Lewis Hamilton could run, unless my car in the virtual world had a load of extra grip and power - which might defeat the point," he said.

At the moment, iOpener is concentrating firmly on racing games, but believes that there is a huge market for the system in other sports.

"You can think of biking, rowing, skiing and snowboarding," said Mr Lurling.

"In the next three to five years, we believe that games will not be 'triple A' games unless they have our feature in," he said.

Mr Lurling was the 2006 Dutch regional winner of the European Satellite Navigation Competition (Galileo Masters) which aims to find novel uses for location data. The 2008 competition is now open to entries, until 31 July.
source:www.news.bbc.co.uk

Cristiano Ronaldo and Nereida Gallardo Bikini Pictures

2008-06-28T16:46:00.000+05:30

Asia Cup 2008 Schedule

2008-06-26T23:37:00.001+05:30

Date	Teams and Match	Venue
Tue, Jun 24	Bangladesh vs United Arab Emirates, Group A, First match Bangladesh beat United Arab Emirates by 96 runs	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
Tue, Jun 24	Pakistan vs Hong Kong, Group B, First Match Pakistan beat Hong Kong by 155 runs	National Stadium, Karachi
Wed, Jun 25	Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, Group A, 2nd Match Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 131 runs	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
Wed, Jun 25	India vs Hong Kong, Group B, 2nd Match India beat Hong Kong by 256 runs	National Stadium, Karachi
Thu, Jun 26	Sri Lanka vs United Arab Emirates, Group A: 3rd Match	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
Thu, Jun 26	India vs Pakistan, Group B, 3rd Match	National Stadium, Karachi
Sat, Jun 28	TBC (A2) vs TBC (B2), 7th Match	National Stadium, Karachi
Sun, Jun 29	TBC (A1) vs TBC (B1), 8th Match	National Stadium, Karachi
Mon, Jun 30	TBC (A1) vs TBC (A2), 9th Match	National Stadium, Karachi
Wed, Jul 02	TBC (B1) vs TBC (B2), 10th Match	National Stadium, Karachi
Thu, Jul 03	TBC (A1) vs TBC (B2), 12th Match	National Stadium, Karachi
Fri, Jul 04	TBC (A2) vs TBC (B1), 13th Match	National Stadium, Karachi
Sun, Jul 06	TBC vs TBC, Final	National Stadium, Karachi source:www.indiatimes.com

Twenty20 no problem for Kapil's Devils

2008-06-26T23:35:00.000+05:30

ndia's 1983 cricket World Cup-winning side would have fared well in Twenty20, the new and faster-paced form of the game, members of the triumphant team said.

With the entire squad reuniting at Lord's Cricket Ground for a dinner to commemorate 25 years since their stunning victory over a powerhouse West Indies side in the final at the London ground, opener Sunil Gavaskar and all-rounder Ravi Shastri both said the team would have adjusted to the more frenetic style of Twenty20.

"I think they would have done very well," Gavaskar said. "The biggest advantage of this 1983 side is the all-rounders they have. "If you have a look at the all-rounders we have -- Mohinder Amarnath, Kirti Azad, Madan Lal, Roger Binny and," he said, nodding towards then captain Kapil Dev, "above all, Kapil ... which meant we had the flexibility to keep on making bowling changes.

It was Amarnath and Lal, in particular, who rescued India in the final against the West Indies, with each taking three wickets - Lal snatched the prized scalp of Vivian Richards, while Amarnath was named man-of-the-match.

That depth and flexibility would have served the team well in Twenty20, Gavaskar noted: "If somebody was getting a pasting, because of the all-rounders, you can give that bowler a bit of a break."

Shastri, meanwhile, said he believed the best sides would always emerge, regardless of the format, telling that "a good side is a good side", describing the World Cup-winning XI as "one of the greatest teams ever."

"They (the 1983 side) would have adapted. If they could have adapted to 50-50 (a one-day international), then why not Twenty20?"

Dev agreed, noting that "if you can play 50 overs, then you can play 20 overs."

Twenty20 cricket, which features just 40 total overs, has proved to be a crowd-puller.

While some observers believe it threatens the long-term future of Tests and One-Day Internationals, Gavaskar joined the likes of England great Ian Botham in saying they are all complementary.

"Just the same way that 50 overs cricket impacted positively on Test cricket, made it far more attractive, made it far more result-oriented ... I think Twenty20 will make 50 overs a lot more attractive," the former India captain insisted.

"You'll probably see more 300-plus scores regularly now in 50 overs than ever before, or maybe even 350," Gavaskar, who recently stepped down as chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) cricket committee added.

The ICC said last week it would explore options to preserve interest in five-day Tests in the face of Twenty20's growing popularity.

The options, including proposals to hold a Test championship, will be discussed by the governing body when its board meets in Dubai from June 29.

After speaking to reporters, Dev's men gathered to once again hoist aloft the 1983 World Cup trophy, which has been on display in the Lord's museum.

source:www.indiatimes.com

England captain Collingwood banned for four One-dayers

2008-06-26T23:31:00.001+05:30

LONDON: England One-day captain Paul Collingwood was banned for four matches on Thursday after his side failed to bowl their overs in the required time in the One-day international against New Zealand on Wednesday.

Collingwood will miss the fifth and final One-day international against New Zealand at Lord's on Saturday as it was his team's second offence within 12 months.

source:indiatimes.com

India win by 6 wickets against Pakistan

2008-06-26T23:17:00.002+05:30

NEW DELHI: India won by six wickets against Pakistan in the Group B Asia Cup match in Karachi on Thursday. Chasing a target of 300 runs set by Pakistan, India scored 301 runs in 42.1 overs for the loss of four wickets.

Virender Sehwag's splendid innings of 119 runs and Suresh Raina's remarkable knock of 84 runs steered India to victory against the archrivals. For Pakistan, Iftikhar Anjum took two wickets.

This was India's first win against Pakistan in Asia Cup after 1988, and the quickest win for India while chasing 300 runs.

Scorecard

Earlier, electing to bat first, Pakistan set India 300 to chase in the Asia Cup match at the National Stadium.

Pakistan scored 299 for four with skipper Shoaib Malik (125 retired hurt) leading from the front. Malik, who opened the innings, recorded his first hundred as skipper and shared valuable stands of 90 with fellow opener, Salman Butt (35) and 133 with Younis Khan (59) to ensure Pakistan took full advantage of batting first in extremely hot and humid conditions.

After a series of handsome drives, Malik reached his sixth hundred and third against India in the 36th over from 104 balls with 13 fours and one six. He survived two chances in the 39th over when he was dropped on 116 and 121 by Piyush Chawla and Gautam Gambhir from off-spinner Yousuf Pathan.

Butt was the first to go during a mixed day in the field for India when he pulled leg-spinner, Chawla straight to Suresh Raina at mid-wicket after batting for 64 balls and hitting four boundaries.

Younis, who scored his 34th One-day half-century was the second man out, also caught by Raina who took a smart running catch at mid-wicket off Pathan.

After Malik retired hurt, Mohammad Yousuf picked up the pace by hitting five fours from 20 balls while Misbah-ul-Haq contributed an unbeaten 31 from 26 balls.

Yousuf was run out in the 46th over while big hitting Afridi fell in the penultimate over. A crowd of around 25,000 turned out to watch India play a match in Pakistan for the first time since February, 2006.

source:cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Cricket's latest revolution

2008-06-17T16:20:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI, TNN: BCCI announced on Monday that India's upcoming three-Test series against Sri Lanka, beginning in Colombo on July 23, will be used as a trial for cricket's latest revolution, the proposed umpire review system.

The idea was originally scheduled to be trialled during the upcoming England-South Africa series but both boards failed to reach an agreement. The ICC will now have to approve its cricket's committee's recommendations before the Sri Lanka-India series begins. (AFP Photo)

source:www.indiatimes.com

Dhoni brigade aim to halt Pakistan's run

2008-06-10T13:13:00.001+05:30

haka: Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Team India has virtually captured every frontier in the recent past including the mighty Australia and aim to continue the good run while arch-rival Pakistan is eager to extend its 12-match winning streak when the two sides lock horns in the second match of the tri-series here on Tuesday.

Pakistan drubbed minnows Bangladesh by 70 runs here on Sunday and its coach Geoff Lawson believes his team is capable of forcing India to surrender and that too by a bigger margin.

However, Lawson's Indian counterpart Gary Kirsten says his team is confident and its good run will continue the way it has in the recent past.

Pakistan team, which is on a roll after winning 12 successive matches has its tails up. Its winning spree which started against India was followed by 11 wins but all of them came against minnows Bangladesh (6) and Zimbabwe (5).

Dhoni's boys are raring to go and keen to settle scores despite the fact that energy-sapping marathon 44-day IPL Twenty20 event did not allowed them any breathing space before the tri-series here.

Lawson believes his side will look to play their natural game and will not allow pressure to affect his players' performance.

''We do not want to treat the match as a must-win one and put ourselves under pressure. We want to play our own game,'' Lawson said about the match, a win in which would assure Pak a place in the finals.

However, he did not reveal his team's strategy which would obviously change drastically against India in comparison to the whipping boys of the event Bangla.

''I would prefer to discuss strategies against India with my players rather than telling the media. I would like to score a 150-run win over India 'morrow,'' he said.

While Pakistani players were a sure shot flop in the recently concluded IPL, Sohail Tanvir stood out with his exceptional bowling efforts in the tournament and emerged the highest wicket-taker. His team would look up to him to provide some early wickets.

In his side's victory against Bangladesh, Lawson was particularly pleased with an out-of-form Shahid Afridi's all-round effort. Afridi scored 20 runs off 17 balls and was spinning the bowl a great deal as he picked up three wickets in his eight overs conceding a mere 19 runs.

''He is obviously an experienced player. Every team has its own targets and they do have their strategies against rival teams,'' he said.

Meanwhile, India have already played some competitive and tough cricket thro' the last summer but with Kirsten as coach and Dhoni as captain would not be complacent against Pakistan who have played some good amount of cricket but with some lowely ranked teams.

Kirsten said shifting from the Twenty20 mode to One-day cricket would not be a difficult task for his boys and added that their strategies are ready for Tuesday's encounter.

''It is something we have given some considerations and thoughts too. We need to make sure that our gameplan and strategies are designed for 50-over cricket. It is different to what they did in IPL. So, we worked hard during the last two days to get things right.''

After finishing their IPL assignments, Indian team did not get a huge break but Kirten said his boys hdo not complain about it. He further added that too much of cricket could be a blessing in disguise for young and upcoming players.

''It is important in our long-term plan that we have a group of 15 to 20 players equally good enough to play for India, because we have got to give enough rest to the players. I have been thinking very carefully about how we do that,'' he said.

S Sreesanth's replacement Manpreet Gony could well get a nod while Yusuf Pathan, a revelation for India in the IPL, is also set to make his debut.

With South West mansoon gathering the steady strength weather could well play a spoilsport here.

Teams (Probables):

India: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt, wk), Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma.

Pakistan: Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal (wk), Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik (capt), Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Fawad Alam, Wahab Riaz and Umar Gul.

source:thatscricket.oneindia.in

Tri-Nation Series in Bangladesh in 2008

2008-06-08T18:56:00.001+05:30

ODI Squads
Bangladesh	India	Pakistan
Mohammad Ashraful(c)	Mahendra Singh Dhoni(c)(wk)	Shoaib Malik (c)
Mushfiqur Rahim(wk)	Virender Sehwag	Salman Butt
Mashrafe Mortaza	Gautam Gambhir	Nasir Jamshed
Abdur Razzak	Robin Uthappa	Younis Khan
Alok Kapali	Yuvraj Singh	Mohammad Yousuf
Dolar Mahmud	Rohit Sharma	Misbah-ul-Haq
Farhad Reza	Suresh Raina	Shahid Afridi
Mahmudullah	Yusuf Pathan	Kamran Akmal(wk)
Mehrab Hossain	Irfan Pathan	Sohail Khan
Nazimuddin	Praveen Kumar	Umar Gul
Raqibul Hasan	Piyush Chawla	Sohail Tanvir
Shahadat Hossain	Rudra Pratap Singh	Rao Iftikhar
Shahriar Nafees	Ishant Sharma	Wahab Riaz
Tamim Iqbal	Manpreet Gony	Fawad Alam
Dhiman Ghosh	Pragyan Ojha	Bazid Khan
Junaid Siddique		Naumanullah
Mosharraf Hossain
Rubel Hossain

source: en.wikipedia.org

Lauren Jackson sexy

2008-06-01T17:18:00.005+05:30

Lauren Jackson Detailed Biography

Name :	Lauren Jackson

Birth date :	May 11, 1981

Height :	6-5 / 1,96

Weight :	187 lbs. / 84,8 kg.

From :	Australia

Plays :	Basketball

Position :	Forward/Center

Lauren Jackson is an amazing athlete. Before her 20th birthday, she managed to become the #1 overall pick in the 2001 WNBA Draft. Jackson is blessed with some pretty good basketball genes. Her 6�2� mother played for Louisiana State and averaged 27.7 points and 16.4 rebounds a game in 1977. She was also a member of the Australian National Team. Her father was a National Team member and her parents met playing basketball for their country. Jackson began playing when she was five years old and it was clear she had found her calling. It is important to note her parents did not force the game on their daughter. They made it clear she should play because she wanted to, not because they had. In an age where so many parents live through the sporting careers of their children, it was nice to find out this was not the case with Lauren Jackson. She plays the game with great focus and intensity. Her skill and athleticism are unmatched. She has shown the world she wants to be the best she can be. Leaving her native Australia for the WNBA was a statement in itself. Jackson could have continued to dominate the WNBL and stayed close to home in the process. But she chose to explore her options in the most competitive women�s league in the world. The city of Seattle is lucky to be witness to Jackson as she takes her game to the next level.

Career Highlights :
Played for WNBL Champion Canberra in 1999-2000 and 2000-01.
Member of WNBL Championship team (2000).
WNBL Co-MVP (2000) and MVP (1999)
All-Star Five selection (1999, 2000, 2001)
Led the WNBL in rebounding in 2000-01 (14.2 rpg) and 1999-2000 (11.1 rpg)
Led WNBL in blocks in 2000-01 (4.3 bgp) and 1999-2000 (2.5 bpg)
Led the WNBL in scoring in 1998-99

source : www.netglimse.com
source : www.sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Jennie Finch Biography and picutre

2008-06-01T16:51:00.004+05:30

Full Jennie Finch Biography Jennie Finch (born September 3, 1980), or occasionally using her husband's name, Daigle, is a softball player and an American athlete. She is widely regarded as the most famous softball player of all time. As of 2004, she is a pitcher for USA Softball, and pitched on the team that won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Born in La Mirada, California, Jennie Finch has been playing softball since she was five years old and has been pitching since she was eight. At La Mirada High School, Finch lettered four times in softball, and twice each in both basketball and volleyball. (As a senior, she was the captain of all three sports.) As a sophomore, she was an All-CIF Div. II choice in softball and an All-Suburban League selection, which was quite a great honor for her. Her dad, Doug Finch, was her first pitching coach. He is also the inventor of the Finch Windmill, an arm conditioning device that has been selling successfully for over 15 years.

Finch played softball for the University of Arizona. She was a three-time All-American pitcher and first-baseman and "Honda Award" winner for the Player of the Year as a member of the Wildcat softball team. Her jersey number -- #27 (the date of her parents' first date) -- was retired by the University of Arizona on May 9, 2003 at Hillenbrand Stadium. She recorded 24 wins in her freshman season; 29 wins in her sophomore season; 32 wins (and no losses) in her junior season to set a NCAA record; and 24 wins in her senior season, to amass a career total of 109 victories which were the 12th most at the time. She has since been passed by Alicia Hollowell, Monica Abbott, Cat Osterman, Tara Penney, Keira Goerl, Brooke Mitchell, Jamie Southern, and Kristen Schmidt, and tied by Jessica Sallinger.

Finch had a 2-0 win/lose record in the 2004 Athens, Greece, Summer Olympics, striking out 13 batters in eight innings while giving up only one hit, one walk, and no runs at all. Her pitching helped lead the American team to the gold medal.

Jennie Finch appeared on season one of Pros vs Joes on Spike TV along with Bill Romanowski, Dan O'Brien, Muggsy Bogues, and Bo Jackson. Her appearance marked a number of firsts for the show, such as the first woman to appear on the show, and the first Pro to wear lipstick while competing.

Jennie Finch married Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Casey Daigle on January 15, 2005 at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. Casey Daigle was born on April 4, 1981.

Finch and Daigle welcomed a son Ace on May 4, 2006. After an induction because Finch was overdue, Ace Shane Daigle was born in Tucson, Arizona.

Finch defeated Anna Kournikova in an ESPN online poll as the most attractive female athlete. Like Kournikova, Finch has modeled swimwear for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition in 2005-06.

Finch has appeared on various talk shows promoting softball and the US Olympic Team, and also hosts a segment on the TV program This Week in Baseball. Her "This Week in Baseball" segment often features her pitching to major-league baseball players, using a softball and pitching from the same distance she would in a softball game. Finch usually strikes out the baseball players by using her 71 mph riseball that is equivalent to a fastball of nearly 100 mph in baseball, where the pitcher's rubber is 17.5 feet farther away than in softball.

She was offered a lucrative contract to appear nude for Playboy magazine, but commented to the press on August 14, 2004 that the offer was not going to tempt her. She said that she would "rather be a role model for young girls." She also said that "muscles on women are beautiful, but my personal decision is to stay away from those things; to stay away from that." She once appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated wearing a tank top and a mini skirt.

Finch currently works for ESPN. She also pitches for the Chicago Bandits of the National Pro Fastpitch Softball League. She was named the NPF's Co-Pitcher of the Year in 2005, sharing the award with teammate Lauren Bay.

source : www.perfectpeople.net
source : www.sports-wired.com

I want to captain India some day: Yuvraj Singh

2008-05-31T17:12:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: He continues to harbour hopes of captaining the Indian cricket team some day but Yuvraj Singh insists that being overlooked for the job has not created any rift between him and incumbent M S Dhoni and speculation about a rivalry between the two is baseless.

"I think things like rivalry and confrontations are talks stirred up by the media. Me and Dhoni are very good friends and help each other at any time because we understand how the game has to be played," Yuvraj said in a TV interview.

Yuvraj, however, admitted that he still desires to lead the team but would never let his personal ambitions come in the way of team's good.

"It is an honour to captain the Indian cricket team, I also wish to be the captain but the most important thing is to do what is good for the team and what are your goals as a team. I think, what the team wants is more important than personal desires," he explained.

Yuvraj, who led the race for captaincy before Dhoni was surprisingly handed the reins, said Dhoni has the backing of the team and rubbished talks of a rift in the team.

"Dhoni is very young. He came in 3-4 years after I had started playing and he is captaining the Indian cricket team and as a youngster he needs the support of the team and the team likes him a lot. He is a very cool headed person which is very necessary for a captain," he said.

Captaining one of the most successful franchises in the Indian Premier League, Yuvraj said it was a high-pressure job with the owners turning on the heat on teams that failed to live up to expectations.

"As a franchise, an owner must understand the game of cricket. Someone who hasn't played cricket cannot understand the game. And it is not easy to endure the pressure we come under," he said.

The left-hander had a word of advice for the owners getting impatient with their teams - have faith in the players and understand the kind of pressure they endure on field.

"Every team makes an effort, no one likes to lose. The franchises are successful people in their own field and they don't like to lose which is good but they should also understand the kind of pressure we have to put up with," he said.

Yuvraj felt IPL was a revolutionary concept but on the downside the amount of travelling during the league was certainly a cause of concern.

"... definitely the players have to work more and subsequently keep themselves fit. The travelling has increased so much that each player is even more accountable," he pointed out.

On the increasing display of aggression on the field, Yuvraj said no player needs to be told where to draw the line as they understand the importance of keeping their temper under control.

"Every one knows that anger is something that should be under your control in crucial situations. I believe that there should be a balance of everything in life. But where aggression is concerned it is within the player itself.

"An aggressive player has always been like that. It is in his nature. One should not cross the limits. Aggression and pomp is fine within its limits," he said.

source: timesofindia.com

Batting gives Mohali the edge

2008-05-31T17:09:00.001+05:30

MUMBAI: Despite losing both their previous IPL matches to Chennai Super Kings, King's XI Punjab were going into Saturday's semi-finals against the same opposition with a measure of confidence, team captain Yuvraj Singh and coach Tom Moody said.

"It's a different ground (Wankhede Stadium) and circumstances are different. We are coming into the game with greater confidence and will be looking to do our best with ball, bat and on the field," the lanky Australia-born Moody said.

Captain Yuvraj said the team had learnt valuable lessons from their losses to Chennai at home and in the latter's backyard (Chidambaram Stadium) and were keen not to commit the same mistakes. "We will try not to make the same errors again and will see where the opposition falters and try and take advantage," the stylish left-handed batsman said.

"Our confidence is high with the way we are playing and if we execute our plans properly tomorrow, no doubt we can win," the King's XI skipper said.

About his own form with the bat, Yuvraj said the good run he had in their last game would stand him in good stead. "I had some good form in the last game. It has come at the right time ahead of the semi-finals," he said referring to his knock of 49 in 16 balls.

Yuvraj Singh backed his bowling attack by saying it had performed well barring the odd game. "Our bowlers have bowled well. It's just that the wickets were flat. The attack might have faltered on one or two games, but our bowlers are doing a great job," Yuvraj said.

Yuvraj praised the batting of Shaun Marsh, who has accumulated nearly 600 runs in only ten games. "It's been great to watch him and he's an important member of the team. We hope he does well tomorrow also," he said about the Western Australian left-handed opener's superb show thus far.

Yuvraj also played down his earlier comments criticising the Mumbai crowd and said he was confident they would support his team in the semis. "My comments have been blown out of proportion. I had only said (after the thrilling one-run win over Mumbai Indians team at this venue) that they should not criticize Indian players. The public here is good and I'm sure at least half of them will support us in our game".

Yuvraj sounded upbeat that many more youngsters would be working hard through domestic and international cricket to make it to the IPL. "Lot of youngsters who could have come in had to go for international duty and I'm sure many would work harder to come in to the IPL next year," he explained.

Talking about the aspect of coaching in a T20 tournament, Moody said that it was not easy to improve the players' skills. "It's just about trying to get the players as close as possible to each other and getting them to play together. Most of the players have not even seen each other before and at times have seen them only on television. There's not enough time to up skills but you can only help with improving technique and innovation," the King's XI coach said.

Moody said it was not proper to judge a coach's worth after only one year of IPL. "It's not about the coach but about the players. It's just about creating the right environment about the players. You can't judge a coach in the first year of the IPL," he said, adding it would be ideal to do so after a couple of years.

source: timesofinida.com

Royals continue their ruthless march

2008-05-31T17:01:00.001+05:30

Quickies Royals continue their ruthless march
MUMBAI, PTI: Riding on a brilliant all-round display by Shane Watson, the ruthless Rajasthan Royals crushed Delhi Daredevils by 105 runs in a lop-sided semi-final to storm into the final of the Indian Premier League on Friday.

Watson powered his way to a 29-ball 52 with three sixes and four fours in his team's challenging total of 192 for nine after league table toppers Rajasthan Royals were asked to take first strike by Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag.

Later, Watson ripped out the top-order of Delhi with a triple strike to account for the top three Delhi batsmen Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan cheaply to reduce them to 24 for three.

Delhi never recovered from this early body blows and lost wickets at regular intervals while the asking rate kept climbing before they were shot out for a paltry 87 in 16.2 overs. (TOI Photo)

source: ipl.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

IPL Batting and Bowling Records so far.

2008-05-31T16:39:00.000+05:30

IPL Batting and Bowling Records so far...

IPL Statistics Highest innings totals

Total	Overs	For	Vs	Venue	Match
240-5	20	Chn	Moh	Mohali	2nd
222-3	20	Kol	Ban	Bangalore	1st
221-3	20	Moh	Jai	Mohali	56th
217-7	19.5	Jai	Hyd	Hyderabad	9th
214-5	20	Hyd	Jai	Hyderabad	9th
211-5	20	Jai	Chn	Chennai	49th
208-5	20	Chn	Mum	Chennai	8th
207-4	20	Moh	Chn	Mohali	2nd
204-4	20	Kol	Hyd	Hyderabad	32nd
202-7	20	Mum	Chn	Chennai	8th
201-7	20	Chn	Jai	Chennai	49th

Lowest innings totals (excluding shortened matches)

Total	Overs	For	Vs	Venue	Match
67	15.2	Kol	Mum	Mumbai	38th
82	15.1	Ban	Kol	Bangalore	1st
103	16.2	Jai	Mum	Mumbai	27th
109	19	Chn	Jai	Jaipur	24th
110	18.4	Hyd	Kol	Kolkata	4th
110	17.5	Del	Kol	Kolkata	35th
112-8	20	Chn	Ban	Chennai	46th
116-9	20	Mum	Moh	Mohali	10th

Highest individual innings

Batsman	Score	For	Vs	Venue	Match
BB McCullum	158*	Kol	Ban	Bangalore	1st
A Symonds	117*	Hyd	Jai	Hyderabad	9th
MEK Hussey	116*	Chn	Moh	Mohali	2nd
SE Marsh	115	Moh	Jai	Mohali	56th
ST Jayasuriya	114*	Mum	Chn	Mumbai	36th
AC Gilchrist	109*	Hyd	Mum	Mumbai	14th
V Sehwag	94*	Del	Hyd	Hyderabad	7th
KC Sangakkara	94	Moh	Mum	Mohali	10th
SC Ganguly	91	Kol	Hyd	Hyderabad	32nd
GC Smith	91	Jai	Chn	Chennai	49th

Leading run-scorers

Batsman	For	Mts	Runs	Hs	Avg	100s	50s	SR
SE Marsh	Moh	10	593	115	74.12	1	5	139.85
G Gambhir	Del	13	523	86	43.58	0	5	143.68
ST Jayasuriya	Mum	14	514	114*	42.83	1	2	166.34
AC Gilchrist	Hyd	14	436	109*	33.53	1	3	137.10
GC Smith	Jai	10	416	91	52.00	0	3	121.99
RG Sharma	Hyd	13	404	76*	36.72	0	4	147.98
V Sehwag	Del	13	403	94*	36.64	0	3	186.57
SR Watson	Jai	13	392	76*	49.00	0	3	149.04
MS Dhoni	Chn	14	385	65	38.50	0	2	131.39
R Dravid	Ban	14	371	75*	28.53	0	2	124.49

Most sixes in the tournament

6s	Batsman	For	Inns	Sixes/Inns
31	ST Jayasuriya	Mum	14	2.21
25	SE Marsh	Moh	10	2.50
21	V Sehwag	Del	13	1.61
19	RG Sharma	Hyd	12	1.58
19	Yuvraj Singh	Moh	13	1.46
19	AC Gilchrist	Hyd	14	1.35
17	DJ Hussey	Kol	13	1.30
17	YK Pathan	Jai	13	1.30
16	SR Watson	Jai	13	1.23
15	BB McCullum	Kol	4	3.75
15	Y Venugopal Rao	Hyd	10	1.50
15	SC Ganguly	Kol	13	1.15

Highest Partnership for each wicket

Wkt	Runs	Batsmen	For	Vs	Venue	Match
1st	155*	AC Gilchrist & VVS Laxman	Hyd	Mum	Mumbai	14th
2nd	133	G Gambhir & S Dhawan	Del	Hyd	Delhi	37th
2nd	133	JR Hopes & LA Pomersbach	Moh	Mum	Mumbai	45th
3rd	121	G Gambhir & S Dhawan	Del	Chn	Delhi	28th
4th	113*	RV Uthappa & DJ Bravo	Mum	Kol	Kolkata	16th
5th	95	S Badrinath & MS Dhoni	Chn	Mum	Mumbai	36th
6th	104	DJ Hussey & WP Saha	Kol	Moh	Mohali	22nd
7th	54	TM Dilshan & MF Maharoof	Del	Jai	Jaipur	33rd
8th	41	P Kumar & Zaheer Khan	Ban	Jai	Bangalore	12th
8th	41	LR Shukla & M Kartik	Kol	Mum	Kolkata	16th
9th	35	R Dravid & A Kumble	Ban	Jai	Jaipur	39th
10th	14*	R Dravid & Abdur Razzak	Ban	Jai	Jaipur	39th

Best bowling in a match

Bowler	Wkts	Runs	For	Vs	Venue	Match
Sohail Tanvir	6	14	Jai	Chn	Jaipur	24th
A Mishra	5	17	Del	Hyd	Delhi	37th
L Balaji	5	24	Chn	Moh	Chennai	31st
Shoaib Akhtar	4	11	Kol	Del	Kolkata	35th
Sohail Tanvir	4	14	Jai	Mum	Jaipur	53rd
CRD Fernando	4	18	Mum	Ban	Bangalore	55th
M Ntini	4	21	Chn	Kol	Kolkata	41st
Umar Gul	4	23	Kol	Moh	Kolkata	52nd
GD McGrath	4	29	Del	Ban	Delhi	17th
JA Morkel	4	32	Chn	Ban	Chennai	46th
VY Mahesh	4	36	Del	Mum	Delhi	50th

Hat-tricks : 3

Bowler	For	Vs	Venue	Match
L Balaji (5-24)	Chn	Moh	Chennai	31st
A Mishra (5-17)	Del	Hyd	Delhi	37th
M Ntini (4-21)	Chn	Kol	Kolkata	41st

Leading wicket-takers

Bowler	For	Mts	Wkts	Best	Avg	SR	Econ
Sohail Tanvir	Jai	9	21	6-14	10.00	10.04	5.97
S Sreesanth	Moh	14	19	3-29	22.89	15.84	8.67
SK Warne	Jai	13	17	3-19	20.52	15.52	7.93
PP Chawla	Moh	14	17	3-25	21.52	15.52	8.31
RP Singh	Hyd	14	15	3-35	29.46	20.53	8.61
VY Mahesh	Del	10	14	4-36	22.85	16.35	8.38
IK Pathan	Moh	13	14	2-18	23.28	21.00	6.65
M Gony	Chn	14	14	3-34	28.50	22.28	7.67

source:Twenty20Cricket

Punjab Kings XI beat Rajasthan Royals by 41 runs - PHOTOS

2008-05-30T16:31:00.000+05:30

Punjab Kings XI beat Rajasthan Royals by 41 runs

Kings XI Punjab opener Shaun Marsh, who was named man of the match, acknowledges the crowd after reaching his century in the IPL T20 match against Rajsthan Royals at PCA stadium in Mohali on Wednesday.

Marsh together with opening partner James Hopes (51) [in the picture], who hit an elegant half-century, provided a rollicking start to the Punjab team after being sent in to bat by rival skipper.

Skipper Yuvraj Singh's late blitzkrieg helped the team get past the 200 run-mark. He hit a blazing 16-ball 49-run cameo before getting run out on the last ball of the innings.

Rajasthan Royals opener Niraj Patel plays a fine stroke on his way to a well made 57 off just 39 deliveries.

Yusuf Pathan, elder brother of Irfan, played a fine knock of 39 off just 15 balls, including 3 fours and 3 sixes.

Shaun holds the award for the maximum sixes during the presentation ceremony.

source: Twenty20Cricket

Bangalore Royal Challengers won by 14 runs

2008-05-22T23:23:00.000+05:30

Twenty20 match

Indian Premier League - 46th match
Chennai Super Kings v Bangalore Royal Challengers

2007/08 season

Played at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai, on 21 May 2008 - day/night (20-over match)

Result Bangalore Royal Challengers won by 14 runs


Bangalore Royal Challengers innings (20 overs maximum)			R	B	4s	6s	SR
	JH Kallis	c Fleming b Gony	5	5	1	0	100.00
	SP Goswami	c Patel b Gony	10	19	1	0	52.63
	V Kohli	c Morkel b Muralitharan	10	16	1	0	62.50
	R Dravid	c Dhoni b Morkel	47	39	5	0	120.51
	Misbah-ul-Haq	c Patel b Balaji	4	6	0	0	66.66
	MV Boucher	lbw b Morkel	17	15	3	0	113.33
	B Akhil	not out	6	7	1	0	85.71
	P Kumar	b Morkel	21	11	2	1	190.90
	R Vinay Kumar	b Morkel	0	1	0	0	0.00
	A Kumble	not out	2	1	0	0	200.00
	Extras	(lb 3, w 1)	4

	Total	(8 wickets; 20 overs)	126	(6.30 runs per over)

Did not bat DW Steyn

Fall of wickets1-7 (Kallis, 1.4 ov), 2-22 (Goswami, 5.3 ov), 3-33 (Kohli, 8.1 ov), 4-41 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 9.6 ov), 5-76 (Boucher, 14.6 ov), 6-97 (Dravid, 16.5 ov), 7-124 (Kumar, 19.4 ov), 8-124 (Vinay Kumar, 19.5 ov)


Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
M Ntini	4	0	27	0	6.75
M Gony	4	1	11	2	2.75	(1w)
M Muralitharan	4	0	19	1	4.75
L Balaji	4	0	34	1	8.50
JA Morkel	4	0	32	4	8.00


Chennai Super Kings innings (target: 127 runs from 20 overs)			R	B	4s	6s	SR
	PA Patel	c & b Kumble	24	29	4	0	82.75
	SP Fleming	c Akhil b Kumble	45	39	3	2	115.38
	MS Dhoni	c Kumble b Vinay Kumar	4	8	0	0	50.00
	SK Raina	not out	21	21	2	0	100.00
	S Badrinath	lbw b Kumble	1	3	0	0	33.33
	JA Morkel	c Vinay Kumar b Steyn	1	5	0	0	20.00
	S Vidyut	c Kallis b Steyn	0	3	0	0	0.00
	M Gony	c Steyn b Kumar	4	4	1	0	100.00
	L Balaji	run out (Dravid/Goswami)	0	4	0	0	0.00
	M Ntini	not out	0	6	0	0	0.00
	Extras	(lb 2, w 8, nb 2)	12

	Total	(8 wickets; 20 overs)	112	(5.60 runs per over)

Did not bat M Muralitharan

Fall of wickets1-60 (Patel, 9.1 ov), 2-65 (Dhoni, 10.6 ov), 3-85 (Fleming, 13.2 ov), 4-87 (Badrinath, 13.6 ov), 5-93 (Morkel, 15.3 ov), 6-93 (Vidyut, 15.6 ov), 7-108 (Gony, 17.4 ov), 8-110 (Balaji, 18.2 ov)


Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
DW Steyn	4	0	28	2	7.00	(1nb, 3w)
P Kumar	4	0	26	1	6.50	(1w)
A Kumble	4	0	14	3	3.50
JH Kallis	4	0	15	0	3.75
R Vinay Kumar	3	0	23	1	7.66	(1nb)
B Akhil	1	0	4	0	4.00

Toss Bangalore Royal Challengers, who chose to bat first
Points Bangalore Royal Challengers 2, Chennai Super Kings 0

Player of the match A Kumble (Bangalore Royal Challengers)

Umpires DJ Harper (Australia) and I Shivram
TV umpire BR Doctrove (West Indies)
Match referee J Srinath
Reserve umpire S Ravi

Match notes

Bangalore Royal Challengers innings
Bangalore Royal Challengers: 50 runs in 11.4 overs (71 balls), Extras 3
Bangalore Royal Challengers: 100 runs in 17.3 overs (106 balls), Extras 4
Innings Break: Bangalore Royal Challengers - 126/8 in 20.0 overs (B Akhil 6, A Kumble 2)

Chennai Super Kings innings
Chennai Super Kings: 50 runs in 6.3 overs (42 balls), Extras 7
1st Wicket: 50 runs in 42 balls (PA Patel 20, SP Fleming 23, Ex 7)
Chennai Super Kings: 100 runs in 17.1 overs (107 balls), Extras 9

The road to the 2011 World Cup

2008-05-22T23:22:00.000+05:30

The road to the 2011 World Cup

Will Luke

May 22, 2008

The Taliban banned cricket in Afghanistan, with many of their cricketers learning their trade when exiled in Pakistan © Getty Images

It may be three long years years away, but the road to the 2011 World Cup begins this week in the unlikely setting of Jersey. More famed for its cattle and potatoes than a venue for cricket tournaments, Jersey plays host to 12 of the world's lesser-known teams in Division 5 of the World Cricket League (WCL), as they battle to climb the ladder to the fourth division and dream of a World Cup place in Asia.

The road is long, winding and complicated. The two finalists from Division 5 progress to the fourth division - joining Hong Kong, Fiji, Tanzania and Italy - whose tournament takes place in Dar es Salaam in October. The top two sides then advance to World Cricket League's third division in Argentina next January, which is followed by the World Cup qualifiers. And, finally, the top four Associate or Affiliate teams from that competition book their place in the World Cup. So far, so confusing.

There are some unlikely countries participating, too: Mozambique, Vanuatu and Germany; Bahamas, Singapore and, of course, Jersey. But among the 12 sides, who are split into two groups, are three teams with realistic ambition of hot-footing it into the higher leagues. Nepal's infrastructure, while relatively modest in world terms, continues to expand. USA's interest in the game is burgeoning, and they return from international suspension. Perhaps most intriguingly of all, Afghanistan: ravaged by war, but no stranger to the peaceful clunk of ball on bat. As Taj Malik, the coach of Afghanistan, told Cricinfo, his side are in excellent form too.

"The preparations have been very good. We've been training for four months and played 14 matches in Pakistan and won all the games, so we arrive in supreme form," he said prior to arriving in Jersey. "I'm sure we will give a good [account of ourselves and we simply must go for the win. All the Afghan people expect us to win. Yes, cricket is a game of chance, but we want to win 100% so that we can reach the next division."

The irony of Afghanistan doing so well isn't lost on Malik. After all, the Taliban regime banned the game, and it is through exile in Pakistan that the Afghan people have rediscovered the game or learnt from scratch. "We have financial problems of course, and our cricket infrastructure is still poor," Malik said. "For example we have only just completed our national cricket ground and academy. But the team spirit is very high for the last three or four years because we have travelled to India, Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia, UAE - and the UK in 2006.

"The team is mature and experienced and ready for an international tour. We even had some of our guys in India, facing Mitchell Johnson, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel during a cricket academy in India, and they did very well."

Malik remains bullish of Afghanistan's chances and - no surprise here - is exceedingly keen, as his countrymen back home might also be, to beat USA. "To play America in the semi-final or final would be wonderful," he said, "and we would put our all into that game. But sport is about making friendships. It can bring two nations together. We don't see it as a political game - we just want to play seriously and win because they're a very good team full of different nationalities: Indians, Pakistanis, maybe even some Afghanistanis!"

The USA are back in international cricket, but will their year-long absence affect their performance this week? © Getty Images

They will be wary of the Americans. Their banishment from international cricket was not a surprise - repeated refusal to carry out the most basic of requests (such as engage a new constitution and hold elections) forced the ICC's hand - but they contain a number of dangerous players, not least their captain, Steve Massiah, who has been left kicking his heels for 12 months.

Little can be expected of the minnows' minnows - Norway, Mozambique, Germany, Singapore, Vanuatu - but the World Cricket League offers these smaller nations the incentive of boosting the sport's profile. Few Japanese people will even be aware their country has a national cricket side, let alone a gifted wicketkeeper in Tatsuro Chino, for example.

"The biggest problem cricket faces in Japan is lack of exposure. The average person just doesn't know what cricket is," Jarrad Shearer, Japan's manager, said. "That's why tournaments like this are so important. By being successful in Jersey, hopefully we'll get more exposure domestically. Our goal for this tournament is, first and foremost, to win it and progress to Division 4 - we're not here just to make up the numbers. At the very least we aim to finish in the top six at this tournament to stay in Division 5."

Shearer's sentiments will be shared by his opponents; big league cricket this is not, yet the competition will be hard-fought and the incentives are great. And in three years, one or two of these 12 will be looking back to where it all began in Jersey this week.

Squads

Group A

Germany: Graham Sommer (capt), Abdul Bhatti, Ayoub Pasha, Anees Butt, Farooq Ahmed, Javed Iqbal, Rajeev Vohra, Asif Khan, Milan Fernando, Surya Narayanan, Eksan Latif, James Eggleston, Srinivas Satyanarayana, Barkatullah Masaud. Keith Thompson (coach) and Dhushyanta Ekanayake (manager)

Mozambique: Muhammad Shoaib Younus (capt), Jayesh Mohanlal Khorova, Bineesh Vadavathi, Imtiyaz Shafikbhai Lili, Mohmed Aasif Aiyub Koliya, Imran Ismail, Muhammad Ikheriya, Zainulbidin Gulam Patel, Giovanni Florentino, Chandra Shekhar, C Puspussen, Nadir Gafar Karim, Mohammed Zulficar Sidat, Muhammad Kamran Qadir, Syed Kaleem Raza Shah, Wayne P Smith. Ismail Hassan (coach) and Carlos Jaime Mandlate (manager)

Nepal: Binod Kumar Das (capt), Paras Khadka, Paresh Prasad Lohani, Shakti Prasad Gauchan, Mahaboob Alam, Sanjam Regmi, Sharad Vesawkar, Dipendra Chaudhary, Gyanendra Malla, Mahesh Kumar Chhetri, Raj Kumar Pradhan, Amrit Bhattarai, Basant Regmi, Dhirendra Bahadur. Roy Dias (coach) and Tanka Prasad Paneru (manager)

Norway: Shahid Ahmed (capt), Aamir Waheed, Abdul Hadi, Adeel Ibrar, Ehtsham Ul Haq, Majid Zia Butt, Mubasshar Ahmed Bhatti, Muhammad Shahbaz Butt, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali, Sameer Sachdev, Shahid Ahmed, Syed Munawar Ahmed, Waseem Gill, Zaheer Ashiq, Saqib Qayyum. Ralph Dellor (coach) and Shahbaz Tariq (manager)

USA: Steve Massiah (capt), Gowkaran Roopnarine, Niraj Shah, Lennox Cush, Imran Awan, Khawaja Shuja, Steve Pitter, Sushil Nadkarni, Orlando Baker, Mohamed Masood, Rashard Marshall, Rahul Kukreti,Wahab Syed, Aditya Thyagarajan. Clayton Lambert (coach) and Sohail Bari (manager)

Vanuatu: Patrick Haines (capt), Andrew Mansale, Pierre Chilia, Kenneth Natapei, Richard Tatwin, Simpson Obed, Selwyn Garae, Manu Nimoho, Lenica Natapei, Trevor Langa, Michael Avok, Aby John, Eddie Mansale, Patrick Matautaava, Lazaro Carlot. Timothy Curran (coach) and Garry Blake (manager)

Group B

Afghanistan: Norooz Khan Mangal (capt), Karim Khan Sedeq, Rais Ahamdzai, Dawlat Ahamdzai, Ahamd Shah Ahmadi, Noor Ali Noori, Mohmmad Asghar Stanikzai, Hasti Gul Abed, Mohd.Nabi Eisakhil, Samiullah Shenwari, Hamid Hassan, Jalat Khan Naseri, Abdul Rashid Zadran, Gulbadin Naid. Taj Mailk Alam (coach) and Rais Jaji (manager)

Bahamas: Narendra Ekanayake (capt), Andrew Ford, Gregory Taylor, Whitcliff Atkinson, Jonathan Barry, Mario Ford, Garfield Armstrong, Wayne Patrick, Dannavan Morrison, Dwight Weakley, Roderick Mitchell, Lee Melville, Himchan Rampersaud, Ryan Tappin. John Welch (coach) and Irvin Taylor (manager)

Botswana: Tshepo Mhozya (capt), Akrum Chand, Abdul Patel, Omar Ali, Mosa Gaolekwe, Karabo Modise, Denzil Sequiera, Saad Mohiyuddin, Karan Kapoor, Manon Barot, Shah Zaib Khan, Nadeem Tajbhay, Dave Buchanan, James Moses. Solly Chotia (coach) and Ahmed Fazal Sheriff (manager)

Japan: Ko Irie (capt), Gavin Bruce Beath, Kenji Murata, Masaomi Kobayashi, Ahmad Munir, Naoki Miyaji, Patrick Jamieson Giles-Jones, Naoki Kamatani, Tatsuro Chino, Courtney Jones, Takuro Hagihara, Kensuke Kobayashi, Yuta Matsubara, Satoshi Nakano. Richard Laidler (coach) and Jarrad Shearer (manager)

Jersey: Mathew Hague (capt), Tony Carlyon, Steve Carlyon, Jonathan Gough, Peter Gough, Christopher Jones, Thomas Minty, Andrew Dewhurst, Robert Minty, James Brewster, Sachin Patidar, Bradley Vowden, Ryan Driver, James Caunt. Peter Kirsten (coach) and Chris Minty (manager)

Singapore: Chaminda R Kumarage (capt), Zeng Renchun, Syed Ali Muhammad, James Kailash Muruthi, Narender Reddy Bonguram, Anish Edward Param, Chongwei Low, Chetan Ramchandra Suryawanshi, Arun Vijayan, Mohamed Shoib, Abdul Razak, Mohd Rizwan Nasir Madakia, Christopher Janik, Buddhika Mendis Yange Oshanka, Dharmichand Mulewa. Venkataramana Margasahayam (coach) and Mahmood Gaznavi (manager)

Indian Premier League Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders

2008-05-22T22:30:00.000+05:30

Twenty20 match

Indian Premier League - 47th match
Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders

2007/08 season

Played at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, on 22 May 2008 - day/night (20-over match)

Result Match abandoned without a ball bowled

	Delhi Daredevils squad
R Bhatia, AB de Villiers, S Dhawan, TM Dilshan, G Gambhir, B Geeves, KD Karthik, GD McGrath, MF Maharoof, VY Mahesh, M Manhas, A Mishra, Mohammad Asif, Y Nagar, P Sangwan, V Sehwag, Shoaib Malik, M Tehlan, MK Tiwary, DL Vettori, T Yadav

	Kolkata Knight Riders squad
S Kaul, AB Agarkar, A Chopra, DB Das, AB Dinda, SC Ganguly, CH Gayle, BJ Hodge, DJ Hussey, Iqbal Abdulla, M Kartik, BB McCullum, BAW Mendis, Mohammad Hafeez, RT Ponting, WP Saha, Salman Butt, I Sharma, Shoaib Akhtar, LR Shukla, T Taibu, Umar Gul

Toss No toss
Points Delhi Daredevils 1, Kolkata Knight Riders 1

Umpires SJ Davis (Australia) and AV Jayaprakash
TV umpire RE Koertzen (South Africa)
Match referee CH Lloyd (West Indies)

More IPL Photos..

2008-05-22T22:29:00.000+05:30

IPL Most Runs

2008-05-19T17:16:00.002+05:30

http://ipl.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/stats.cms?statstype=5 Most Runs
Player	Mat	Inns	Runs	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s
Gautam Gambhir	11	11	466	46.6	336	138.69	0	5	59	7
Virender Sehwag	11	11	338	33.8	199	169.85	0	3	34	19
Sanath Jayasuriya	10	10	336	33.6	195	172.31	1	0	42	19
Rohit Sharma	11	10	336	37.33	232	144.83	0	3	34	15
Adam Gilchrist	11	11	335	33.5	241	139	1	2	42	16
Shane Watson	10	10	333	47.57	216	154.17	0	3	34	14
MS Dhoni	11	10	332	41.5	260	127.69	0	2	31	12
Graeme Smith	8	8	301	43	277	108.66	0	2	36	4
Shaun Marsh	6	6	297	74.25	226	131.42	0	3	33	9
David Hussey	11	11	296	32.89	242	122.31	0	2	14	17
Shikhar Dhawan	11	11	292	36.5	252	115.87	0	4	32	6
Rahul Dravid	10	10	273	27.3	213	128.17	0	2	26	10
Robin Uthappa	10	10	241	26.78	230	104.78	0	0	27	6
Yusuf Pathan	10	9	239	26.56	147	162.59	0	3	28	10
Sourav Ganguly	11	11	231	21	234	98.72	0	2	25	9
Venugopal Rao	8	7	214	35.67	151	141.72	0	2	18	12
Kumar Sangakkara	6	6	203	33.83	130	156.15	0	2	27	4
Suresh Raina	11	9	203	22.56	147	138.1	0	1	17	8
Yuvraj Singh	10	9	195	24.38	123	158.54	0	1	16	12
Mark Boucher	8	8	190	38	150	126.67	0	1	18	6

Top 10 Test Batsmen

2008-05-18T16:48:00.002+05:30

Top 10 Test Batsmen

Rank	Name	Country
1	M.E.K. Hussey	Australia
2	R.T. Ponting	Australia
3	K.C. Sangakkara	Sri Lanka
4	Mohammad Yousuf	Pakistan
5	J.H. Kallis	South Africa
6	M.L. Hayden	Australia
7	S. Chanderpaul	West Indies
8	D.P.M.D. Jayawardena	Sri Lanka
9	Younis Khan	Pakistan
10	K.P. Pietersen	England

Top 10 Test Bowlers

Rank	Name	Country
1	M. Muralidaran	Sri Lanka
2	D.W. Steyn	South Africa
3	S.R. Clark	Australia
4	B. Lee	Australia
5	M. Ntini	South Africa
6	W.P.U.J.C. Vaas	Sri Lanka
7	A. Kumble	India
8	S.E. Bond	New Zealand
9	Shoaib Akhtar	Pakistan
10	R.J. Sidebottom	England

IPL Point Table

2008-05-18T16:33:00.000+05:30

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Rajasthan	10	8	2	16	+0.876	1558/184.4	1439/190.2
Punjab	10	7	3	14	+0.475	1590/180.2	1553/186.1
Chennai	10	6	4	12	-0.203	1725/197.0	1659/185.1
Mumbai	9	5	4	10	+0.658	1267/153.1	1307/171.4
Delhi	11	5	6	10	+0.295	1664/195.1	1701/206.4
Kolkata	10	5	5	10	-0.014	1471/195.0	1339/177.1
Deccan	10	2	8	4	-0.380	1589/190.0	1632/186.4
Bangalore	10	2	8	4	-1.577	1410/195.4	1644/187.1

Amit Mishra destroyed Hyderabad hopes

2008-05-18T16:32:00.000+05:30

Amit Mishra destroyed Hyderabad hopes

Amit Mishra helped Delhi to beat Hyderabad by 12 runs in a high scoring IPL T20 thriller at Feroz Shah Kotla. Delhi batsmen set an imposing target of 195 runs but Hyderabad hard hitters fought valiantly till the last over. Amit Mishra single handily took the match away from Hyderabad with a hat-trick in the final over. Mishra earlier took the vital wickets of Gibbs and Afridi when Hyderabad was going strong. Weak bowling of Hyderabad cost them this match but Hyderabad batsmen impressed everyone with their never say die attitude. Delhi audience enjoyed a wonderful match and their team improved semi-final chances with this win.

IPL Statistics and records: 1. Delhi leg spinner Amit Mishra took the second hat-trick in IPL. Balaji of Chennai Superkings took the first hat-trick in Indian Premier League.

2. Gautam Gambhir is leading the “Orange cap” race with 425 runs in 10 matches Dhoni and Rohit Sharma are in second and third places with 332 and 331 runs.

3. Shaun Marsh is leading averages with an unbelievable average of 98.33 from 5 matches.

4. Amit Mishra took 5 wickets for 17 runs in his 4 overs. Best figures by a spinner in Indian Premier League.

5. This is the first win for Delhi in the last 5 matches and Hyderabad is out of IPL Semi-final reckoning.

Toss: Adam Gilchrist won the toss and elected to field first as batting is their strength.

IPL T20 Score:

Delhi Daredevils: 194/4 in 20 overs.
Hyderabad Deccan Chargers: 182/9 in 20 overs.

Man of the match: Amit Mishra. No spinner dominated the match in IPL as he did today. Marvellous performance from this leg spinner in a match where Legend McGrath went for 42 runs in his 4 overs.

IPL T20 match Review:

Highlights of Delhi innings:

1. Virender Sehwag succeeded in scoring second successive duck out.
2. Vijay Kumar is once again at his economical best. He is “McGrath of Hyderabad”.
3. Sarvesh Kumar made his IPL debut and bowled much better than Vaas and Zoysa.
4. IPL helped many bowlers (Balaji, Ashish Nehra, Gony, Dinda and Sangwan etc) to catch the eye of selectors but it RP Singh omission from one day squad is almost certain.
5. Gautam Gambhir is marched ahead of rivals for orange cap as he scored 79 runs while rivals Gilchrist and Sehwag failed. But Rohit Sharma
6. Shikhar Dhawan once again played beautiful knock and if I were Indian selector, Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Badrinath are my automatic choices among younger lot. Indian selectors get huge opportunity to build good team for 2010 cricket world cup with these youngsters. Will they do it?

Highlights of Hyderabad innings: 1. Glenn McGrath took the crucial wicket of Adam Gilchrist.
2. I expected a lot from Mohammad Asif. He is one of the biggest failures in IPL along with Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Misbah-Ul-Haq etc.
3. Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi played sensational shots in the first 6 overs.
4. Good captaincy from Virender Sehwag. His gamble paid off. He brought in spinner Amit Mishra and Afridi went for shot too early and paid the price. Afridi innings came to an end. He scored 33 runs in just 14 balls with two 6’s and three 4’s.
5. Amit Mishra changed match course. He took vital wicket of Herschelle Gibbs who looked in ominous form. Did you see the two superb sixers of Gibbs in McGrath’s over?
6. Amit Mishra – 2 overs; 6 runs; 2 wickets. Exceptional performance against biggest hitters in the game. Can Rohit Sharma save the match?
7. Rohit Sharma is on fire. He scored 19 runs in Rajat Bhatia’s over with 2 massive sixers and one four. Hyderabad needs another over like this to win this match.
8. I can’t understand why players like Scott Styris, Akash Chopra and Stephen Fleming are playing in IPL. They are not suitable for IPL T20 Cricket. When will these teams realise this?
9. Maharoof turned the match by taking the wicket of Rohit Sharma who looked to take the match away from Delhi. Hyderabad is in big trouble. Styris is wasting balls in this big scoring match. Rohit Sharma played unnecessary shot at crucial stage of match. Sharma scored 35 runs in 18 balls with two sixers and three fours.
10. All the Hyderabad big hitters started well in this match but fell at crucial time. Huge target and mounting run rate made them to take huge risks.
11. Mohammad Asif bowled another bad over and Hyderabad batsmen scored 15 vital runs. Hyderabad needs to score 43 runs in 3 overs.

Verdict: Delhi ended their losing streak with a fine performance in this match. But Delhi is relying too much on their top order. Whenever its top order clicks, Delhi wins. If not, Delhi loses. They need to find a solution for this problem. I can’t able to understand why Delhi picked Mohammad Asif ahead of Pradeep Sangwan and Yo Mahesh.

Why Hyderabad hadn’t picked Ravi Teja, Sarvesh kumar and Vijay Kumar in the first round matches? Why Hyderabad is sending opener Ravi Teja at no.6? Why they are picking players like Scott Styris who can neither bowl well nor hit big shots?

Answer: They are not practicing enough to find the potential in their young recruits. In the first round matches, they picked Arjun Yadav to satisfy his father and Hyderabad Cricket Association president Shivlal Yadav. What benefits will Coach Robin Singh get for this generosity? Wait and see. Just compare the performances of teams under Indian coaches with the teams under foreign coaches. It is not due to lack of ability but due to .... Have you got my point.

Can they recover from Mumbai cyclone?

2008-05-18T16:30:00.000+05:30

Can they recover from Mumbai cyclone?

Chennai Superkings will clash with Kolkata Knight Riders after both teams suffered humiliating defeats against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede. Mumbai cruelly exposed weak links in both teams in those two matches. Both teams are not looking as tournament winners and they are just depending on 2 to 3 players. For Kolkata, it is Sourav Ganguly and David Hussey in batting and Shoaib Akhtar in bowling while it is Dhoni, Badrinath and Morkel are for Mumbai. Home ground advantage is a big plus point for Kolkata. To raise their semi-final chances hopes, they should win this game.

Match timings: 4 PM to 7 PM live from Eden Gardens on Set Max channel.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

1. Shoaib Akhtar is in superb form and even top players are struggling against him. If Akash Chopra took the Jayasuriya catch in the Mumbai match, He might have repeated his sensational performance as he did against Delhi. Weak Chennai top order will definitely struggle against Akhtar and Ishant Sharma.
2. Sourav Ganguly returned to form and he is effectively playing all-rounder role.
3. David Hussey is one man army for Kolkata in batting. If he falters, Kolkata stumbles.
4. At Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders always play well with the support of huge fans.

Chennai Superkings:

1. Dhoni and Badrinath are carrying weak Chennai batting on their shoulders.
2. Vidyut and Raina are playing inconsistently.
3. Albie Morkel is a dangerous all-rounder who is sorely missed in Kolkata lineup.
4. Balaji is a high quality bowler and Dhoni should use him more.
5. Gony is a good bowler but not a dangerous one. Muralidharan failed to reach expectations.

IPL Statistics and Records:

1. Dhoni is the leading scorer for Chennai and is in superb form in the recent matches.

Verdict: Both teams are banking on individual performances and result will depend on their performances. Both teams are even on cricket abilities but mental strength will decide the match winner. Both teams are struggling with their unpredictable batting performances. Can these victims of “Mumbai Cyclone” play an entertaining game? Punjab, Rajasthan and Mumbai will definitely reach semi-finals and for the fourth spot, there will be a tight contest between Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. That’s why the result of this match is crucial for both teams. Chennai bowlers should exploit the weak batting of Kolkata Knight Riders to strengthen semi-final chances.

Latest news: Kolkata Knight Riders picked Sri Lankan young spinner Ajantha Mendis after sending back 5 local players back home. So management lost faith in Murali Karthik and Iqbal Abdulla.

Christiane Lamy

2008-05-17T17:25:00.000+05:30

Christiane Lamy is a muscle sweetheart; a soft spoken, gentle and generous strongwoman who love to showcase her passion via heartfelt performances on the competition stage.

She began weight training at a very early age. Still in her teens she started competing and right away she fell in love with the thrill of showing off her hard work in front of an enthusiastic audience.

For better or worse she had to halt her training and competitive career because she had to made a living performing hard physical work on a farm for several years. In 2000, after only 8 months of training after a very long layoff she was able to capture the natural Quebec overall title despite working around 50 hours per week, sometimes more!

A firm believer in natural training and a true fan of the sport of bodybuilding; she hopes to help attract more fans and competitiors to female bodybuilding by demonstrating that a muscular woman can also be feminine and sexy. Christiane is fueled by her passion for the muscle game and hopes to be able to motivate others as well.

female bodybuilders

2008-05-17T17:22:00.000+05:30

Top 10 May 2008

Internet people has decided that the best 10 female bodybuilders in the world are:

Name	Pic	Votes
Kc Inlow		402
Wrestler Afrika		347
Aghata Brasil		195
Liza Larence		149
Melissa Dettwiller		120
Alina Popa		99
Petra Walk		89
Trudy Ireland		85
Maria Mikola		79
Maria Cortes		66

Lisa Andersen

2008-05-15T17:30:00.001+05:30

Lisa Andersen

Signature Style: stylish tubes and turnsLisa Andersen / photo © 1998 Martha Jenkins

Nationality: American

Age: 33

Sponsors: Roxy, Reef, Channel Islands

Achievements:
2000 (1) – Billabong Pro (Fra)
1998 (1) – Typhoon Lagoon Surf Challenge (Specialty-USA)
1997 (6) – Quit Women’s Classic (Aus), Grand Slam (Specialty-Aus), Marui Women’s Pro (Jpn), Kahlua US Open of Womens (USA), Buondi Sintra Pro (Port), Expo ’98 Figueira ’97 (Port)
1996 (4) – Quiksilver Pro (Specialty-Ind), Rip Curl Women’s Pro Saint Leu (Reunion Is.), Billabong/CSI Pro (SAfr), Lacanau Women’s Pro (Fra)
1995 (3) – Quit Women’s Classic (Aus), OP Pro (USA), Gotcha Lacanau Pro (Fra)
1994 (3) – Reunion Pro (Reunion Is.), US Open (USA), Roxy Surfmasters (Fra)
1992 (3) – Quit Women’s Classic (Aus), Lacanau Pro (Fra), Miyazaki Pro (Jpn)
1991 (1) – Bounty Ice Cream Trophee (Fra)
1990 (2) – Bundaberg Rum Surfmasters, Quit Women’s Pro (Both Aus)

4 time world champ '94-'97

Profiles / Biographies

Chronicle Books to Publish Biography of Lisa Andersen

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 10 October, 2005 : - - Board Sports Management is pleased to announce that its client and four-time professional surfing world champion Lisa Andersen has signed a contract with Chronicle Books to publish her life story. The hard cover illustrated biography is currently being written by award-winning surf journalist Nick Carroll and is scheduled for publication in the first quarter of 2007.

One of the greatest female surfers of all time, Lisa is largely credited with elevating womens surfing to the performance level it now enjoys and for the immense popularity of womens surfing in general. Her early fashion sense and refusal to settle for the status quo led to the creation of Quiksilver’s Roxy line of clothing and a now booming industry catering to girls, young women and the beach lifestyle.

Lisa’s life story is certainly a remarkable one. After running away from her Ormond Beach, Florida home at age 16, she headed for Huntington Beach, California aka Surf City, USA. The rest, as they say, is history as Lisa spent the next two decades surfing the planet’s best waves and winning dozens of contests en route to her four world titles. Now 35 and again living in Huntington Beach, Lisa is the mother of two and an executive with Roxy.

“I’ve had a lot of people over the years telling me I should do a book,” said Lisa. “But, the timing was never right, and I never felt like I had the right person to write the book,” she continued. “When Nick showed interest in doing it, everything just kind of came together…We’ve known each other a very long time and he knows surfing and surfing history as well as anyone. I’m pretty excited about it all because I couldn’t ask for a better person to work on this book with me.”

The former editor of Surfing Magazine and Tracks Magazine, Nick Carroll has authored four surfing-related books and has contributed numerous articles to publications such as Playboy, Village Voice, the Sydney Morning Herald, Mens Journal and Vogue. By his own account, he has probably written more than a million words on the sport of surfing. An accomplished waterman, Nick is a two-time Australian national surfing champion and currently a world-ranked open ocean paddleboard racer. “I’m both excited and honored to be given the opportunity to write Lisa’s bio,” said Nick. “She is a complex, fascinating person whose life has come to represent one of surfing’s biggest ever shifts – from male monoculture to a place where the majority of beginner surfers worldwide these days are girls and women.”

The yet to be titled biography will also include more than 100 photos taken throughout the course of Lisa’s home and surfing life. Besides photos from her personal archive, the book will include the work of some of the world’s best surfing photographers such as Jeff Hornbaker, Tom Servais, Steve Sherman, and Jack English.

Chronicle Books was founded in 1966 and has since become one of the most widely admired publishing companies in the United States. The San Francisco, California-based company publishes about 200 titles each year. “Lisa is an icon of surfing with a great story to tell,” said Chronicle Executive Editor Sarah Malarkey. “We at Chronicle are very excited about the book and look forward to seeing it come to fruition.”

Board Sports Management is the surfing world’s leading athlete and event management agency. The firm works with Lisa on endorsement and business affairs and is acting as a conduit for Chronicle, Lisa, Nick and the book’s other contributors. “From a production standpoint, we couldn’t have a much better scenario for the book,” said Board Sports Management President Mitch Varnes. “We’ve got a publishing company that is firmly behind the project, one of the most influential surfers of all time as a subject and surfing’s premiere writer telling the story.”

sexy golf player Natalie Gulbis

2008-05-15T16:51:00.004+05:30

Natalie Gulbis Biography

Name : Natalie Gulbis
Date of birth : January 7, 1983
Place of birth : Sacramento, California
College : University of Arizona
Points of Interest : 1998 U.S. Women's Amateur medalist
Height : 5 feet 9 inches

Natalie Gulbis Detailed Biography
Natalie Anne Gulbis was born on January 7, 1983, in Sacramento, California. Natalie's father John worked for the Sacramento County Probation Department, while her mother Barbara continues to act as purchasing director for a Sacramento medical laboratory. Natalie first hit the links at age 4, when her father began to teach her to play golf. She soon fell in love with the sport. At 7, she won her first tournament, and by 10, young Natalie was already breaking par.

In 1996, 13-year-old Natalie finished in second place in the California State Women's Amateur tournament. The top spot went to another future LPGA player, Dorothy Delasin. The following year, however, Natalie came back to win the tournament. That same year, she became the youngest player to ever qualify for an LPGA event, playing in the Long Drugs Challenge. Natalie would hold this record until 2002, when 12-year-old Michelle Wie made fresh claim to it.

Natalie continued developing her golf game at Granite Bay High School, where she played on the boys' team. Despite the fact that she was also committed to gymnastics and diving, Natalie still excelled academically, and graduated early, at age 16.

On the strength of her high school scores, Natalie was given a scholarship to Arizona State University in 1999. At that time, Arizona's golf team was the defending NCAA champs. In her freshman year, Natalie won three tournaments and was recognized with All-American honors. The next summer, she qualified for the US Women's Open, was ranked 34th among amateurs, and then was named MVP at the USA-Japan Collegiate Golf Championship. On the strength of these achievements, Natalie made the decision to turn pro.

Natalie went to the LPGA Qualifying Tournament (aka "Q-School") in the fall of 2000, and earned a spot on the tour on her first attempt. In 2001, Natalie moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. Her reason for doing so was initially strictly for tax purposes, but she soon grew to love her new home on Lake Las Vegas, about 30 minutes from the strip. Another advantage to her new location was its proximity to the Butch Harmon School of Golf, where she could take daily instruction from the same man who tutors golf heavyweights like Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

In 2002, Natalie tied for fifth at the ShopRite LPGA Classic and for fourth at the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic. These two performances propelled her into second place in the Rookie of the Year points standings. The following year, Natalie tied for 12th at the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship and scored a career-low 63 in the third round of the Welch's/Fry's Championship. In 2004, Natalie finished in the Top 15 in five tournaments and carded her first LPGA career hole in one in the final round of the Safeway Classic.

In 2005, Natalie released her second calendar. The first annual 2004 edition was deemed "too provocative" by the USGA, who cancelled Natalie's signings, but it still proved to be a very successful enterprise. Natalie has also played on many charity and Pro-Am events, where she has teed off against such celebrity athletes as Roy Jones Jr., Michael Jordan and Barry Bonds.

IPL Preview: Mumbai Indians Vs Chennai Superkings

2008-05-14T16:47:00.002+05:30

IPL Preview: Mumbai Indians Vs Chennai Superkings

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Sachin Tendulkar led Mumbai Indians will take on Dhoni led Chennai Superkings at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. This is the first match for Sachin in Indian Premier League as he missed previous Mumbai matches due to fitness reasons. Stand-in captain Shaun Pollock led Mumbai to crucial victories over strong teams like Rajasthan Royals. Both Chennai and Mumbai are in resurgent mood in the recent matches. We can expect another interesting contest at Wankhede as it happened in the last game between two teams. Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya will open for Mumbai Indians and they are looking strong due to presence of strong all-rounders in the batting lineup. Mumbai strength lies in middle order hard hitters like Robin Uthappa, Abhishek Nayar, Shaun Pollock and Dwayne Bravo. If Mumbai top order clicks, big hitters will take the match away from Chennai. Ashish Nehra is vital for Mumbai in the initial spell.

For Chennai, their weakness lies in the inability of their batsmen to convert good starts into big knocks. Albie Morkel and Badrinath are playing well for Chennai and they should exploit bowlers like Bravo and Jayasuriya. If Balaji continues his superb form, Mumbai will be in trouble. Suresh Raina needs to convert those 20's and 30's into big scores.

Match timings: From 8 PM to 11 PM.

IPL Statistics:
1. Sachin Tendulkar will play his debut match in IPL.
2. L. Balaji is the only bowler to take hat-trick in Indian Premier League.
3. MS Dhoni is in the sixth position in the top 10 batsmen list needs to score 57 runs to wear orange cap.
4. Only Ashish Nehra is in the top 10 bowlers list from both teams.
5. Cricketers whose name starts with “S” won the man of the match awards (Shoaib Akhtar, Shaun Marsh, Sourav Ganguly and Shane Watson) in the last 4 games. Can Sanath, Sachin or Shaun make it five in a row? Sanath, Shaun and Ashish played vital roles in the last 3 Mumbai wins.
6. Mumbai lost 4 successive matches and won 3 games in a row.
7. Robin Uthappa is the leading batsman for Mumbai Indians.

Probable squads:

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Dominic Thornley, Robin Uthappa, Dwayne Bravo, Shaun Pollock, Abhishek Nayar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ashish Nehra, Muzafir Khote/ Raje and Yogesh Takawale.

Chennai Superkings: MS Dhoni (captain), Stephen Fleming, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Suresh Raina, S. Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Balaji, Muralidharan, Kupugedera, Joginder Sharma/ Amaranath and Manpreet Gony.

Verdict: Mumbai Indians will win this match and their strong batting lineup will expose chinks in Chennai bowling attack especially in middle overs. I don’t think current Chennai bowlers can stop the likes of Sachin, Jayasuriya, Uthappa, Bravo and Pollock from hitting those big shots. Chennai hopes lay in big hitting all-rounder Albie Morkel, MS Dhoni and Badrinath.

Shah Rukh Khan cuts cost, dumps 5 players

2008-05-14T16:47:00.001+05:30

Shah Rukh Khan cuts cost, dumps 5 players

In an apparent bid to cut cost, the Kolkata Knight Riders team management “politely” asked five of the players, who are yet to feature in the side’s 14-member squad in any match, to leave the team hotel. The players are Ranadeb Bose, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sourasish Lahiri, Yashpal Singh and Hokkaido. One of the players said they were “politely given the option of either staying at the team hotel or going home”.

“It was clear what the team management wants. Apparently coach John Buchanan feels that he has found his set combination and had no need for the fringe players,” one of the players said.

Ranadeb Bose, one of the players spoke to TIMES NOW and said, “I did not expect this was coming. I was surprised when John said that we have to win more games and we have to concentrate on the first 11 or first 14. This is unfair on our part that we will not practice or play any game. So, it is better we go back and relax rather than staying with the side.”

However, team owner Shah Rukh Khan justified this eviction and said that no player has been dumped and all of them continue to play for Kolkata Knight Riders. He said, “John has been feeling that there is not much time for all the twenty-three players to practice. We have to concentrate on the core team because ours is more spread out. Which is why we have constricted the team to lesser amount of people so that they can concentrate on practicising effectively with whatever little time they have in their hands. This is purely a technical decision by John Buchanan.”

Justifying further SRK said, “All the five players are a part of our team and they remain contracted to the Kolkata Knight Riders. They will be with us and we have given them the same explanation of having less time for practice. The franchise is for life and all of them will get a chance to play for the team. There is nothing controversial about the same out here. This is just a technical move so that we can focus more on the upcoming matches and win them.”

KNIGHT RIDERS WIN BY 23 RUNS

2008-05-14T16:37:00.003+05:30

Shoaib akhtar made a dramatic IPL debut taking four wickets in a blistering new-ball spell to condemn the Delhi Daredevils to their fourth straight defeat. In what could be a key match in the scramble for a spot in the semi-finals the Kolkata Knight Riders batting fizzled and posted only 133 but Shoaib and an inspired fielding effort vindicated captain Sourav Ganguly’s decision to bat first and saw them through to a 23-run win, their third successive triumph.
Unable to break the shackles put by the Delhi Daredevils’ battery of medium-pacers, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ batsmen posted only 133 on a good batting pitch. Kolkata’s batting has been their weakness through the tournament and it failed again with only Salman Butt and David Hussey making more than 13.
In what could be a key match in the scramble for a spot in the semi-finals, Kolkata opted to bat first backing their formidable bowling line-up to defend the runs. Their attack was bolstered by Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who made his IPL debut after his five-year ban was suspended for one month, coming in place of Umar Gul.

Glenn McGrath was typically miserly with the new ball and Pradeep Sangwan also didn’t offer too many loose balls as Kolkata struggled to inject momentum to their batting. Aakash Chopra’s troubles with the bat continued and he managed only 13, despite being reprieved early on by Gautam Gambhir at wide slip.

His dismissal was greeted with a roar by the Eden Gardens crowd as Kolkata’s captain Sourav Ganguly strode out. They had more to cheer as he imperiously slammed his second ball, a free hit, over the bowler’s head for six, but were silenced two deliveries later when he was bowled by Yo Mahesh after his attempted pull failed to make contact with the ball.

With Kolkata at 47 for 2 after seven, Salman Butt and David Hussey tried to rebuild and while they strung together a 40-run stand, they were unable to provide the acceleration the innings desperately needed. Besides Butt’s two powerful drives through cover off Mahesh, there weren’t too many boundaries and the runs came mainly in the form of singles. Just as they were giving Kolkata a platform from which they could take off, Butt perished for 48, slicing a Mahesh delivery to McGrath at mid-off.

Hussey then had to play his by-now-familiar role of trying to rescue Kolkata from the top order’s failings. He is the world’s leading six-hitter in Twenty20s but even he failed to provide the necessary fireworks; there were a couple of huge sixes on the leg side but he fell attempting another for a run-a-ball 31, lobbing a catch to midwicket.

Three of Delhi’s big wins have come chasing, and they will fancy their chances of getting their campaign back on track after three consecutive losses saw them slipping from first to fifth. The silver lining for Kolkata is that their total is above-par, given that the average batting first at the Eden Gardens so far is 125.

Kerri Walsh

2008-05-13T17:24:00.003+05:30

Kerri Walsh

4th American Woman to surpass $1 Million in Prize Money

Kerri Walsh is likely on her way to becoming the best female beach volleyball player of all time.

In 2006, Walsh became the fourth American woman to surpass $1 million in Pro Beach Volleyball prize money.

She has led the AVP in both blocks and hitting percentage in 2005, 2006 and 2007. She has been the top-ranked player each season she has played domestically.

Walsh was a member of the United States National Volleyball Team for two seasons (1999-2000) and was a right side hitter on the 2000 Olympic Team, helping the team place fourth in Sydney.

A Star at Stanford

Before graduating from Stanford University with a BA in American Studies, Kerri enjoyed a successful collegiate career winning a National Championship, the Player of the Year award, and First-Team All American honors.

Kerri Walsh is considered to be one of the best all-around players in collegiate history.

While at Stanford, Kerri became only the second player in NCAA history to receive First-Team All-American honors all four seasons (1996-1999). She was also the first player in PAC-10 history to record 1,500 kills (1,553), 500 blocks (502), and 1,200 digs (1,285).

She comes from an athletic background as her mother was named two-time MVP in volleyball at Santa Clara and her father played minor league baseball for the Oakland A's.

Kerri Walsh Volleyball Quote

“Today, today, today is what matters. Take advantage of it, make a difference, smile more, work harder; it will pay off.”

Interesting Facts:

In 2004, Kerri Walsh and teammate Misty May won the Beach Volleyball Gold Medal at 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. It was the first United States Women's Beach Volleyball Gold Medal in US Olympic history.

Second player in NCAA history to receive First-Team All-American honors all four collegiate seasons (1996-1999).

In 2005, Kerri married Professional Beach Volleyball player Casey Jennings.

Favorite advice for the beach, “Play dirty and be ready for anything”, from Butch May.

Career Highlights

2007 AVP - Best Offensive Player, Best Defensive Player, Most Valuable Player and Best Team of the Year

2003 AVP Best Offensive Player

2006, 2007 AVP Crocs Cup Champion with partner Misty May-Treanor

2003, 2004 AVP Most Valuable Player

2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 AVP Team of the Year with partner Misty May-Treanor

2002 FIVB Tour Champion with partner Misty May-Treanor

2005, 2006, 2007 FIVB Best Blocker

2005, 2006, 2007 FIVB Best Hitter

2005, 2006, 2007 FIVB Sportsperson

2007 FIVB Best Offensive Player

2007 FIVB Most Outstanding

Dane Selznick comments on Kerri and Misty dominating the beach...

"Overcoming adversity is right up this duo's alley...they're probably one of the best teams I've ever seen at staying together when things get a little bit tough."

-- Dane Selznick, Pro Beach Volleyball Coach

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IPL Preview: Mumbai Indians Vs Chennai Superkings

IPL Preview: Mumbai Indians Vs Chennai Superkings

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Shah Rukh Khan cuts cost, dumps 5 players

Shah Rukh Khan cuts cost, dumps 5 players

KNIGHT RIDERS WIN BY 23 RUNS

Kerri Walsh

Kerri Walsh4th American Woman to surpass $1 Million in Prize Money

A Star at Stanford

Kerri Walsh is considered to be one of the best all-around players in collegiate history.

Kerri Walsh Volleyball Quote

Interesting Facts:

Career Highlights

Dane Selznick comments on Kerri and Misty dominating the beach...

Kerri Walsh

4th American Woman to surpass $1 Million in Prize Money