Pakistan Will Face Sri Lanka in Colombo

Pakistan will look to their spinners to bowl them to victory over hosts Sri Lanka in their World Twenty20 semi-final in Colombo on Thursday.Saeed Ajmal, Raza Hasan, Shahid Afridi and captain Mohammad Hafeez have helped the 2009 champions reach their fourth straight semi-final in the event."It's because of our spinners that we are doing a great job," said Hafeez."Sri Lanka also plays spin well. But whatever conditions we have seen here, it suits the spinners."Pakistan bowled 18 overs of spin during the 32-run win over Australia on Tuesday, which clinched their place in the last four.However, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said his side would not be fazed by the prospect of facing their rivals' in-form spinners."We have some quality guys and play spin quite well," said Jayawardene. "We need to make sure that we execute our plans well against them."Jayawardene can also call upon his own star spinner in Ajantha Mendis.He took the best figures ever recorded in Twenty20 internationals with 6-8 against Zimbabwe in the opening match of the tournament.The home side can also draw upon the talents of fast bowler Lasith Malinga, who took a T20 career best 5-31 while helping to eliminate England.Hafeez said Pakistan would come up with a plan for Mendis, but said there was more to the home side's attack than spin."Mendis is the one who is always very good in the Twenty20 format," said Hafeez. "We have played each other quite often, so we know each other as players. We will come up with a plan hopefully."But we know that Sri Lanka has good seamers. [Nuwan] Kulasekera is playing a good role for them and Malinga is also there."In ICC tournaments, you play different oppositions and we are really trying to come up with surprises. I have no idea what it will be tomorrow, but you will know it tomorrow as well."But Jayawardene said his side were prepared to deal with anything Pakistan might produce."We have been planning for this tournament for three months or so when we played Pakistan and India in Twenty20 and ODIs. We knew the players we wanted in the squad."We have got the right combination going and the guys have put their hands up and performed. At the end of the day that's what matters in big tournaments," he added.

ICC T20 2012 Super 8:India beat Pakistan by 8 wickets

India needed a win to keep their chances of making their first ICC World Twenty20 semi-finals since the inaugural edition in 2007, and after the hammering at the hands of Australia bounced back brilliantly with a nine-wicket win over Pakistan on Sunday. After their five-bowler plan flopped miserably on Friday, India reverted to Virender Sehwag and L Balaji and both played parts in victory over Pakistan, who now need to beat Australia on October 2 to progress past the Super Eights. Pakistan’s brittle batting has been overshadowed by some brilliant bowling for long, but against their old foes India – who have yet to lose to Pakistan in ICC tournaments dating back to 1992 – they contrived to be bowled out for 128, their lowest total in tournament history. As in the last game against South Africa, Pakistan’s batting was poor but the difference this time was that there was no batsman to stick around, or anyone to inject crucial runs down the order. Their cause was not helped by a slew of dropped catches, three of which were off India’s anchorman Virat Kohli whose unbeaten 78 closed the deal with 18 balls remaining. A 13-run opening over from Zaheer Khan hinted that Pakistan were going to bolt out of the blocks, but India struck back with five wickets inside the first ten overs. Irfan Pathan removed Imran Nazir for 8 with his second ball and Shahid Afridi, promoted to No. 3, pulled L Balaji out to deep square leg after also getting a rousing start. It was the lack of pace that really worked for India, however. Yuvraj Singh struck in his first two overs, getting Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal caught behind as Pakistan slumped to 49 for 4 in the ninth over. Their captain, Mohammad Hafeez, appeared ready to play out the innings until a silly shot against Kohli saw him bowled for 15 off 28 balls. Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik averted a crisis from 59 for 5 with a 47-run stand in 33 balls punctuated by deft cutting and tucking off the pads, but crucially R Ashwin extracted the pair before they could cut loose. With five overs to go, however, Malik spooned a catch to Rohit Sharma for a brisk 28 and in Ashwin’s next over, the 18th of the innings, Umar Akmal heaved out to Suresh Raina in the deep for 21. A fine throw from Yuvraj at backward point did for Yasir Arafat, and Pakistan’s innings ended with a whimper as Balaji plucked out Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal in consecutive deliveries – Dhoni taking the catches to finish with four dismissals. Pakistan scored just 23 runs from their last 28 ball, losing five wickets in the process. India’s reply began with a jolt when Gautam Gambhir chipped a return catch to the 20-year-old left-arm spinner Raza Hasan, and India managed just 11 runs from three overs. Sehwag got the chase purring with two boundaries off Gul, followed by a glance off Hasan. Without any risks, India took 36 for 1 off the Powerplays. The introduction of Afridi brought the aggression out of Kohli, who hit the former Pakistan captain for a six in his first over but also edged a four past Kamran on 27. In the same over, Sehwag chipped a high return catch to Afridi that was grassed. In the next, Kohli was dropped at backward point by a diving Umar. Pakistan’s ground fielding was poor as well, with overthrows and slides in vain adding to the Kohli-Sehwag partnership of 69. By the time Pakistan held on to something – Gul catching a lofted Sehwag drive just inside the long-off boundary off Afridi – India were beyond the point of jitters. Kohli and Yuvraj finished the chase with ease, thanks to a 54-run stand in 6.3 overs.

Brief scores: India 129 for 1 in 17 overs (Virat Kohli 78*, Virender Sehwag 29) beat Pakistan128 in 19.4 overs (Shoaib Malik 28; L Balaji 3/22, R Ashwin 2/16, Yuvraj Singh 2/16) by nine wickets.

ICC T20 2012 Super 8 Results:Pakistan beat S Africa by 2 wickets & Australia beat India by 9 wickets

Pakistan beat S Africa by 2 wickets

Pakistan restricted the Proteas to 133-6 and then surpassed the target with two balls to spare to make a winning start in the second round. Umar Gull and Umar Akmal made the victory possible for Pakistan after the top order 6 batsman got out cheaply. Tail ender Umar Gul became Pakistan s unlikely batting star as he helped Pakistan pull off a thrilling two-wicket win over South Africa in their World Twenty20 Super Eights match on Friday. Batting first upon winning the toss, South Africa made a modest 133-6 in 20 overs then looked like it might be able to defend it. Pakistan s chase was precariously placed at 76-7 when Gul (32) and Umar Akmal (43 not out) combined for a 49-run stand in 28 balls for the eighth wicket to snatch a stunning victory. Captain Muhammad Hafeez thanked the crowd for support and appreciated the performance by the South Africans. India and Australia, the other two teams in the group, play in the second match of the double-header at the Premadasa stadium later on Friday night. Pakistan will now play its next match against the arch rivals India on Sunday. 

Australia beat India by 9 wickets

The Australians restricted India to 140-7 and then raced past the modest total in the 15th over at the Premadasa stadium. Australia join Pakistan, who beat South Africa by two wickets earlier on Friday, at the top of group two with one win each.

Brief scores:

India 140-7 in 20 overs; Australia 141-1 in 14.5 overs

ICC T20 2012 Super 8 Results: Sri Lanka beats Kiwis & Windies stun champions England by 15 runs

Sri Lanka beats Kiwis in Super-over in WT20

New Zealand needed 14 for victory in the eliminator after Sri Lanka had posted 13-1, but Malinga s skiddy deliveries proved too difficult to score from and the Kiwis were restricted to 8-1. During the regular 20-over stage, Sri Lanka needed only eight off the last over after New Zealand had scored 174-7. Lahiru Thirimane required a single off the final ball but was run out for the hosts to finish on 174-6. Tillakaratne Dilshan made 76 off 53 balls and captain Mahela Jaywardene hit 44 off 26 deliveries before New Zealand rallied. Dilshan was run out after hitting five fours and three sixes when 15 was needed to win and Thisara Perera was bowled by James Franklin in the penultimate over. Sri Lanka looked to be heading toward easy victory when Dilshan and Jayawardene smashed 80 runs for the first wicket in just 44 balls. But the departure of Jaywardene in the eighth over when he top-edged Jacob Oram to Daniel Vettori at fine leg and the run out of Kumar Sangakkara (21) four over later helped New Zealand to hit back. Franklin brought the Kiwis back in the hunt with Sri Lanka needing 21 off the last two overs. Dilshan smashed Franklin s low full toss for a six before being run out, while Perera was bowled after hitting a boundary. Earlier, opening batsman Rob Nicol hit a career-best 58 in New Zealand s competitive total to better his previous best of 56 made against Zimbabwe at Hamilton earlier this year. Nicol smashed three fours and four sixes from 40 balls, and was well supported by Martin Guptill with 38, Brendon Taylor with 25 and captain Ross Taylor with 23 after New Zealand had won the toss and elected to bat. Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis recovered from side strain but was ineffective, taking 1-48. Nicol tarnished those figures by hitting three sixes in finger spinner s last over. It was a below-par performance from Mendis after he had bested his own world record by claiming 6-8 against Zimbabwe in the first round. Akila Dananjaya wasn t seriously hurt when he was struck on the face while trying to catch Nicol off his own bowling. The 18-year-old offspinner on debut was hit hard on the cheek bone by the full-blooded drive. He was the best bowler with 2-32. Guptill gave the Kiwis a decent start by putting on 57 with Nicol off 45 balls. Mendis was hammered for 10 runs in his first over as Guptill dominated the opening stand by hitting five boundaries in his 38. Guptill could have been dismissed on 6 in seamer Nuwan Kulasekara s second over, but Perera missed a two-handed catch over his head in only the third over. Dananjaya made the breakthrough off only his third delivery in Twenty20 internationals, when Perera held Guptill s lofted shot at mid-off. Brendon McCullum, who hit the highest score in the Twenty20 format when he hit 123 off 72 balls against Bangladesh last week, smashed Dananjaya for two sixes before holing out in the deep off Mendis. Dananjaya got his revenge when he had Nicol caught by Perera at deep midwicket, before Kulasekara struck twice late in the innings by bowling Taylor off a slower delivery and Jacob Oram was caught at long-off.

Windies stun champions England by 15 runs

West Indies edged out defending champions England by 15 runs in an exciting finish to the World Twenty20 Super Eight group one match at Pallekele stadium on Thursday. Chasing a daunting 180-run target, England came close with Eoin Morgan (71 not out) and Alex Hales (68) putting on a resolute 107-run partnership for the third wicket but in the end they fell short. England had lost Craig Kieswetter and Luke Wright for first over ducks but Hales, who hit five boundaries and two sixes off his 51 balls, and Morgan's 36-ball knock, with five sixes and four boundaries, defied West Indies's four-pronged spin attack. England needed 125 runs in their last 10 overs but Morgan and Hales paced the innings well before Marlon Samuels bowled an excellent last over, conceding only eight runs. West Indies were set on their way for a big total by openers Johnson Charles and Gayle. Charles smashed three sixes and 10 well-timed boundaries in his 56-ball 84 while Gayle hit four sixes and six fours in his 35-ball 58. West Indies had raced to 103 by the 11th over when Gayle was finally out, caught by Steven Finn at long-on off as the left-hander tried to hit Graeme Swann out of the ground. Three of his sixes came in one over from left-arm spinner Samit Patel. But Gayle's dismissal allowed England to pull back as they dismissed Marlon Samuels (two) and Kieron Pollard (one) in quick succession, with Broad claiming one wicket besides bowling a maiden over. Charles finally holed out at mid-on, missing a low Jade Dernbach full toss and was caught by Jonathon Bairstow. Broad was the pick of England bowlers with 2-26.

Afghans gripped by domestic football fever

It’s a long way from the glamour of the Champions League and the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Chelsea but the first professional football league in Afghanistan kicked-off on Tuesday to fan fever, goals and vibrant enthusiasm in Kabul. The modest stadium of the Afghan football federation was packed to a near capacity crowd of some 3,500, with the crowd largely made up of men only sections apart from a small one where families and women were welcomed by officials in a country where human rights are a constant debate. Les Maiwand Atalan (Heroes of Maiwand), – a mythical mountain in the unstable region of the Helmand province – took to the pitch and defeated the Shaneen Asmayee (The Asmayee Eagles) 3-1 to great applause in the first match of the newly founded Afghan premier league (APL), a tournament that began Tuesday and culminates on October 19. “I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved today. I’m proud that we managed to organise such an event and I would like to send more positive messages, not only about today,” enthused APL commissioner Said Shafir Gawari, in the wake of a suicide attack that killed 12 people, including nine foreigners in Kabul on Tuesday. “Most of the Afghan population are young people. They’re under 25. We would like to bring our message to the majority of Afghans, and to the world, that Afghans can play together, and that we have teams composed of different tribes, of different ethnicities. “If you look at the Kandahar team, they are not only composed of Pashtuns. They are Hazaras and other ethnicities too,” continued Shafir Gawari. Ethnic rivalries were at the root of the almost three decades of violence that has torn apart Afghanistan and fermented after the Soviet invasion of the country in 1979 coming to the boil once the Soviets left in 1989. The Pashtuns, many of whom joined the Taliban, used military force to oppose the Tadjiks, Uzbeks and Hazares, the other dominant ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Eight teams will meet during a group phase which determine semi-finalists and eventual finalists for a total of 16 matches, all televised across the country on two of the leading networks, one in dari, the other in pashtun, the two most popular languages. A novel twist has also been thrown into the competition with a section of APL players being chosen from tv reality shows and an event that attracted the applications of thousands of young Afghans.

ICC T20 2012 DAY 7 Results: Pakistan beat Bangladesh by 8 wickets

Pakistani openers Imran Nazir and Muhammad Hafiz gave a solid start to Pakistan by scoring the fastest fifty by the opening partnership in a T20 match. Imran Nazir hit 72 of 36 balls and Hafeez made 45 of 47 balls. After the openers were out, Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal took Pakistan to victory. Nasir Jasmshed scores 29 of 14 balls and Akmal scores 22 of 15 balls. Bangladesh elected to bat after winning the toss and scored 176 runs. Shakib Al Hasan hit the highest individual score by a Bangladeshi in all Twenty20 cricket to propel his team to a challenging 175-6 in their must-win group D clash against Pakistan on Tuesday. The 25-year-old left-hander scored 84 - his second Twenty20 fifty -- and added 68 runs for the third wicket with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim (25) after Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat at Pallekele stadium. Pakistan were sloppy in the field, with Sohail Tanveer dropping a sitter off Rahim and Shahid Afridi failing to hold on to a sharp chance off Hasan -- both in one Yasir Arafat over.

ICC T20 2012 DAY 6 Results: West Indies enter next round of WT20

Ireland made 129-6 in their 19 overs before heavy rain at the Premadasa stadium prevented the West Indies from starting their innings. Both teams gained one point each, but the West Indies joined Group B winners Australia in the next round due to a superior net run-rate over the Irish. The West Indies will be placed alongside defending champions England, New Zealand and hosts Sri Lanka in group one of the Super Eights which starts on Thursday. The other half has Australia, South Africa, India and either Pakistan or Bangladesh, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semi-finals. The match, watched by barely 1,000 fans, was reduced to 19 overs per side after an hour s interruption midway through Ireland s innings due to rain. Chris Gayle turned star performer with the ball with two wickets as the Ireland innings failed to gain any momentum after the West Indies won the toss and elected to field. Niall O Brien made 25 and Gary Wilson scored 21, before both batsmen fell to Gayle s off-spin. Irish captain William Porterfield was dismissed off the first ball of the match for the second time in a row, bowled by Fidel Edwards. He had also fallen to Australian Shane Watson s first delivery in Ireland s previous match last week. The West Indies, who had lost to Australia in a rain-affected match, endured another wet outing as rain lashed the ground during the innings break. 

ICC T20 2012 DAY 5 Results: Pakistan beat New Zealand by 13 runs & India defeats England by 90 runs

Pakistan beat New Zealand by 13 runs

Pakistan beat New Zealand by 13 runs in an exciting finish to their Group D World Twenty20 match at Pallekele stadium. Pakistan scored 177-6 in their 20 overs before restricting New Zealand to 164-9 in their 20 overs. Nasir Jamshed top-scored with 56 while Saeed Ajmal finished with 4-30. New Zealand had beaten Bangladesh in the first match by 59 runs in the group from which the top two teams will qualify for the Super Eight rounds.  Pakistan 177-6 in 20 overs (Nasir Jamshed 56); New Zealand 164-9 in 20 overs (Saeed Ajmal 4-30) Pakistan scored 177-6 in their 20 overs before restricting New Zealand to 164-9 in their 20 overs. Nasir Jamshed top-scored with 56 while Saeed Ajmal finished with 4-30. New Zealand had beaten Bangladesh in the first match by 59 runs in the group from which the top two teams will qualify for the Super Eight rounds. Nasir Jamshed hit a career-best 56 off 35 balls to lead Pakistan to 177-6 against New Zealand in a World Twenty20 Group D match on Sunday. Lefthander Jamshed smashed two fours and four sixes while captain Mohammad Hafeez scored 43 off 38 balls after Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first in its opening match. New Zealand had its chances but dropped catches of both top-scorers. Skipper Ross Taylor grassed a regulation catch of Hafeez in the lone slip before Pakistan had scored while Rob Nicol missed a sitter off Jamshed on 34 in the deep. Flamboyant opener Imran Nazir hit five boundaries in his knock of 25 and put on 47 runs with Hafeez before Tim Southee had the former caught off his own bowling. Jamshed continued the brisk scoring rate and surpassed his 45 last month against Australia at Dubai with a midwicket boundary of Jacob Oram and raised his half century off 27 balls. Hafeez, who should have been gone off Kyle Mills  third delivery of the match, finally departed in the 14th over when he was bowled by James Franklin but not before putting 76 runs off 48 balls with Jamshed. He hit two fours and two sixes. Jamshed soon perished after hitting his maiden half century to a tumbling catch at long on by Nathan McCullum. New Zealand, which conceded 92 runs in the first 10 overs, didn t fare much better in the last 10 when it conceded 85, with Umar Akmal (23) and Shahid Afridi (12) combining to hit five fours and a six. Tim Southee was the pick of the bowlers with 2-31 while Oram was expensive for the wickets of Akmal brothers Kamran and Umar conceding 44 runs. New Zealand defeated Bangladesh by 59 runs in its opening match. The top two teams from the group will advance to the Super Eights.

India defeats England by 90 runs

India scored 170-4 after being sent in to bat and then bowled England out for 80 in front of 20,000 spectators at the Premadasa stadium. Both teams had already qualified for the Super Eights stage, having knocked minnows Afghanistan out of the competition.

Brief scores:

India 170-4 in 20 overs; England 80 all out 14.4 overs.