Ashley Cole Confident Ahead Of Catalans Clash

Ashley Cole The Left Back Of Chelsea's Defense Insists Our team Can Beat Barcelona In the Semis Tonight.

The Blues left-back feels that Roberto di Matteo’s side have what it takes to nullify the attacking threat of Pep Guardiola’s team and that it will be Chelsea in the final.
Cole also feels that Chelsea have been the closest of all English sides at toppling the Catalan side and revealed the west Londoners have a game-plan to eliminate the reigning European champions.“Chelsea, of course. Chelsea against Real Madrid, I hope,” he said in the Evening Standard when asked who he thinks will be stepping out in Munich next month.
“We know what Barcelona are about and that we have to be on our game. We’re confident and feel we’re good enough to progress.
“I do think that while they’re not worried about us, out of the teams they’ve played in the Champions League and the Premier League sides they’ve faced, we have given them the hardest run.”
Cole is talking about the 2009 semi-final when he speaks of running Barcelona close, where a last minute Andres Iniesta strike meant Chelsea went out on away goals on a night filled with controversy.
The Blues felt as though the referee on the night, Tom Henning Ovrebo, denied them a number of penalty kicks and their anger was evident when they left the field as Didier Drogba ranted at cameras, something he was banned for afterwards.Despite the feeling of injustice and the last-gasp elimination, Cole was proud of the side’s performance.“The match against them in 2009 was one of the best games I have seen Chelsea play, with the fight and the determination and the spirit,” he added.“But Iniesta just popped up with that great strike. That’s what they’ve got. All they need is one shot.”
Chelsea will be buoyed going into the game after their emphatic 5-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Sunday evening.

No Champions Trophy after 2013

Australia won the previous Champions Trophy, in 2009 

The 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, to be held in England, will be the last time the tournament is played as the ICC moves towards having one championship for each of the game's three formats from 2015. The tournament is part of the Future Tours Program in 2013 but does not appear after that, with the play-offs for the World Test Championship scheduled for June 1017."If you don't see it in the schedule, it means it is not planned for the future," Haroon Lorgat, the ICC's chief executive, said at a press conference following the executive board meeting on Monday. "We have said for a while that we would like one championship event for each format. We are including the Test championship in there. We have the World Cup to have the champion for 50-overs cricket. So we are not planning to hold Champions Trophy in the future."The World Test Championship was initially scheduled for 2013, but had to be postponed due to the ICC's commitments to its broadcaster and sponsors. The ICC's broadcast partner is, with whom they have a contract till 2015. The ICC had initially hoped to convince all interested parties to switch the Champions Trophy, the ICC's second-biggest 50-over tournament, to play-offs between the top four Test teams as per the ICC Test rankings.However, after the ICC's executive board meeting in October, 2011, it released a statement saying there would be significant commercial challenges in replacing the Champions Trophy without the support and consent of the ICC's broadcast partner. Changing the tournament's format from ODIs to Test play-offs would have required a substantial cut in the broadcast rights fee, which would have repercussions on the Members.Inaugurated as the ICC Knock Out tournament in 1998, the Champions Trophy was played every two years until 2009, switching to a round-robin format in 2002. Originally, all ten Full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) took part, together with (for the first four competitions) two Associate members. The 2013 event in England will feature the eight highest-ranked ODI teams calculated six months before the tournament.

De Villiers, Gayle help Bangalore edge thriller

AB de Villiers played a match-winning cameo, together with Saurabh Tiwary

Royal Challengers Bangalore 186 for 4 (Gayle 81, Tiwary 36*, de Villiers 33*) beat Pune Warriors 182 for 6 (Uthappa 69, Ryder 34, Samuels 34) by six wickets

Chris Gayle was  going at round  a run a ball against some tight bowling. Then he calmly decided to shift gears. The bowling ceased to matter; five consecutive sixes came against the bowler with one of the best economy-rates in the IPL, Rahul Sharma. Treating that Rahul over as an aberration, Pune Warriors responded with more tight bowling, with Ashish Nehra yorking Gayle. But AB de Villiers and Saurabh Tiwaryhit 24 off the final over, bowled by Nehra, to pull off an improbable win, Royal Challengers Bangalore's first in four games.

For more than three-quarters of the game, the Royal Challengers had played catch-up to the Warriors. After Robin Uthappa's 69 took the visitors to 182, they had kept the Royal Challengers, and Gayle, in check for 12 overs. Gayle and Virat Kohli, game-changers both, had crawled along in a partnership of 30 in 35 deliveries. The asking-rate had ballooned to over 13, with 111 needed from 50. It claimed Kohli, who found deep point as he tried to hit out.Kohli's dismissal fired up Gayle, who was on 37 off 35 then. Rahul bowled short, he bowled full, he went around the stumps, he went wide of the crease, he went wide of Gayle. To no avail. Five consecutive sixes later, the asking-rate was down by more than a couple of runs.Warriors were stunned but they recovered quickly. Ashok Dinda, battling a painful side strain, conceded just 12 in two overs, including seven off the penultimate one with Royal Challengers needing 28 from 12. In between, Nehra had, for once, found the perfect yorker to send Gayle back for 81 off 48.De Villiers and Tiwary kept the Royal Challengers in the hunt, hitting a six each to take 16 off the 18th over bowled by Angelo Mathews. Dinda's final over, the19th, seemed to have left Royal Challengers too much to get in the 20th over - 21.De Villiers scrambled outside off to play the scoop off the second delivery in the final over, arming it past the wicketkeeper for four. Nehra delivered a low full toss and a length ball next. De Villiers smoked one straight down the ground for six; the next one was scooped nervelessly for another six over fine leg. With three needed off the last ball, Tiwary swung a length ball over the long-on boundary even as the rain came pouring down. Marlon Samuels, who had gone for under three an over, had two overs left.Somehow, the Royal Challengers' batsmen had delivered after their bowlers had once again conceded a substantial score. Uthappa did most of the scoring with a power-packed half-century at the top of the order with Jesse Ryder and Samuels chipping in with smaller contributions.The opening partnership between Uthappa and Ryder was worth 63 in seven overs. By then, Uthappa was in complete control. He timed three consecutive reverse-sweeps off Dilshan, with two of them beating short third man. He was put down by KP Appanna at long-off, a tough diving chance off Vinay Kumar in the 12th over but departed in the next as he sliced Daniel Vettori to point. The Warriors went at the same rate of around nine an over after Uthappa's dismissal with Samuels smashing the spinners for a couple of sixes. As it turned out, though, even 13 an over wasn't enough to deny Gayle, De Villiers and Tiwary.

Bayern Munich To go Into the 2Nd leg Into an Advantage

Bayern Munch Has Beated Real Madrid by 2-1 and Now Has the greatest chance of going into the finals .

The visitors dominated the opening minutes of the match, with an intelligent pass through the Bayern Munich defence from Mesut Ozil setting up Karim Benzema for a shot at goal. The striker's effort was on target, forcing keeper Manuel Neuer to push it over the bar.

The hosts then began to find their form, allowing Franck Ribery to surge forward, only to be denied a penalty after referee Howard Webb decided he had gone down too easily in the box.

Moments later and Munich were back in Madrid's half, this time with a corner kick. A lucky deflection left the ball at Ribery's feet, and the winger powered the ball past keeper Iker Casillas from close range to open the scoring and put the hosts ahead.

Cristiano Ronaldo got his chance to equalise five minutes later after going down in front of the Munich goal and earning a free kick, but his shot soared over the bar.

A flurry of yellow cards followed, with Bayern's Holger Badstuber receiving a caution followed by Arjen Robben, the latter following two reckless challenges in as many minutes.

Real Madrid went into half-time a goal down, the first time the La Liga leaders had found themselves behind in this year's competition.

They re-emerged on strong form, with Benzema making two strong runs into the Munich penalty box in the opening minutes of the second half.

Ronaldo appeared to have thrown away a golden scoring opportunity moments later as he fired a shot straight into the path of Neuer. The keeper failed to keep hold of the ball, however, with the deflection falling to Benzema in the box.

He found Di Maria to his right, who slid the ball just wide of the post. Ronaldo kept the ball in play, tapping it back in front of goal where Ozil drove the ball past Neuer to bring the visitors level.

Three Real Madrid players then found themselves on the receiving end of yellow cards in quick succession as both sides looked to score.

Munich stiker Mario Gomez appeared increasingly frustrated as he failed to put his side ahead, with both a shot and a header going off target. He was then denied a penalty by referee Howard Webb despite going down after a strong double challenge in the box.

His moment finally came in the ninetieth minute. Philipp Lahm sent the ball across goal and the striker found himself on the end of it and powered it in to make the final score 2-1, putting Bayern Munich ahead in the battle for a place in the Champions League final.

The two sides will meet in Madrid next week for the second leg, whilst Chelsea and Barcelona face each other in the first leg of their semi-final tomorrow.

Lyon haul gives Australia advantage

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was trapped lbw by Nathan Lyon for 94 during West Indies' collapse

West Indies 252 or 9 (Chanderpaul 94, Deonarine 55, Baugh 17*, Edwards 0*, Lyon 5-68) trail Australia311 by 59 runs

West Indies came close to having a very good day in Port-of-Spain but finished on the verge of conceding a significant first-innings lead to Australia. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who fell six short of another hundred, and Narsingh Deonarine added 130 for the fifth wicket before Nathan Lyon broke the resistance then swept through the lower order with the second five-wicket haul of his career to leave West Indies trailing by 59 and the last pair together.Nothing appeared more certain than Chanderpaul reaching his 26th Test century, and second of the series, after another masterful display of defiance but he was pinned lbw by Lyon from around the wicket - the fifth such decision of the innings. Opposition teams expend huge energy trying to shift Chanderpaul, but know there are likely to be some easier rewards once he has gone. To make the timing even worse for West Indies, two overs earlier Deonarine's excellent supporting hand had also been ended when, with his first ball back into the attack, Lyon drew him down the pitch and Matthew Wade showed the importance of having a tidy wicketkeeper.Lyon had be brought back to the bowling crease with the second new-ball only seven overs after Ben Hilfenhaus and James Pattinson had not made the most of it. He waited until his 21st over for a wicket but a bowlers' lot can change in a flash. Darren Sammy, in an attempt to repeat his breezy first innings in Barbados, picked out long-on and Shane Shillingford added to his opposite number's success when he got an inside edge that was superbly held by Ed Cowan at short leg. Lyon's fifth wicket came when Kemar Roach was given caught down the leg side although Wade was more interested in the stumping opportunity. Australia's new keeper was impressive in tough conditions, not conceding a bye in 104 overs.The evening collapse of five for 19 in 12 overs was another example of West Indies not being able to sustain a performance for long enough to take control. The 44 overs that Chanderpaul and Deonarine combined (and the period when Darren Bravo was also at the crease) was another of those uplifting passages that West Indies are just managing to produce slightly more regularly. Chanderpaul's role came was no surprise but Deonarine showed application that was less well known, remaining calm as he reached 4 off 43 balls before beginning to expand his strokeplay either side of lunch.Before Lyon's intervention Australia's only breakthrough had come from Michael Hussey as Michael Clarke again went through his book of captaincy tricks. On a surface gripping for medium-pacers Hussey, developing something of a golden-arm of late, and Shane Watson were tough to score off. Hussey produced a delivery that swung late to beat Bravo and take his back pad. Again, though, Bravo had given flashes of what makes him stand out as a batsman particularly his off-side driving.Chanderpaul had been given a life on 8, off Lyon's bowling, when Clarke could not hold a thick edge at slip which came off Wade's pad. Alongside Deonarine he initially focused solely on survival - although Deonarine was inches from being run-out the ball before lunch - but at the start of the afternoon session Australia lost their way a little and the batsmen cashed in.Pattinson struggled with his rhythm throughout the day and later left the field with back spasms after an awkward piece of fielding. His first over of then afternoon was taken for 16 by Chanderpaul which included three boundaries alongside two no-balls. Deonarine was not all defence, either, and a whip through midwicket off Lyon stood out before he launched David Warner over midwicket for six. Rain brought an early tea, but had not seemed to disrupt West Indies.Chanderpaul brought up the 200 with another six, a slog-sweep off Michael Beer, and when Deonarine's third half-century arrived from 132 balls with a rasping cover drive thoughts were even turning to the potential of the hosts building a first-innings lead that would put the pressure back on Australia. Then, however, Test cricket showed that despite it being the longest format a strong position can unravel in the blink of an eye. And, for West Indies, it was a familiar feeling.