For England, all is not lost Posted by naila , Friday, March 4, 2011 at 11:20 AM, in Labels: Sports »

“I reckon it would have to be 1,000-1, more like, to be worth it,” says O’Brien himself. “Because I have absolutely no intention of playing for England.”

The suggestion came as a surprise to him, and understandably so. Until Wednesday night, only one member of this Ireland squad had been tipped to emulate Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan by swapping emerald green for lilywhite.

That was George Dockrell — a precocious slow left-armer who warrants comparison to the young Daniel Vettori. As for O’Brien, there was little apparent interest in a 26-year-old journeyman who had failed to hold down a place at Nottinghamshire in 2009.

But then the O’Brien of 2011 is a very different animal to the one who struggled in county cricket. He proved that point in Bangalore, with a savage beasting of England’s attack. O’Brien’s 50-ball hundred had the sort of punishing simplicity that we are more used to seeing from the giants of world cricket. It had a touch of Graeme Pollock about it, or maybe Clive Lloyd.

A frenzy of interest is already building around O’Brien’s signature. No sooner had the game finished than his agent was emailing a number of counties, looking for a deal for next season.

A good wake-up call for us: Afridi Posted by naila , at 11:18 AM, in Labels: Sports »

Canada gave Pakistan a scare at the Cricket World Cup on Thursday but once again was let down by its lack of batting firepower.
Shahid Afridi took five wickets as he steered Pakistan to a 46-run victory over Canada and avoided a major upset in Sri Lanka. Batting second and chasing a modest Pakistan total of 184, Canada failed to cope with the Pakistan captain's faster leg-spinners in an inspirational performance and was shot out for 138 in 42.5 overs.
Canada has now scored 122, 123 and 138 runs in going 0-3 at the tournament.
"We had a very good chance of putting in a good performance and we disappointed ourselves," Canadian captain Ashish Bagai said. "We did a great job with the ball (but) our batting worries continue."
Pakistan, meanwhile, saw the game as a warning.
"It's a very good wake-up call for us for the next game," Afridi said of his team's poor batting display. "Coach Waqar Younis and myself will definitely talk to the boys that it does not happen again."
Canada's fast bowlers had used the overcast conditions to perfection and gave their team real hope of causing an upset by dismissing Pakistan in 43 overs in the Group A match.
Jimmy Hansara (43) then further improved Canada's chances by sharing a 60-run fourth wicket stand with Zubin Surkari (27).
But Afridi — perhaps wanting to make amends for his surprise decision to bat first — rattled the middle-order with four wickets off 17 balls and also ran out Balaji Rao off a superb direct throw.
Afridi took his wickets tally to 14 in the World Cup after his 5-16 and 4-34 in earlier victories over Kenya and co-host Sri Lanka, respectively.
Pakistan-born Rizwan Cheema tried to break the shackles and lofted Afridi over wide midwicket for a boundary before he was clean bowled by the leg-spinner off the next delivery.
Afridi went on to shatter the stumps of Hansara and Harvir Baidwan off successive deliveries in the next over before Wahab Riaz — playing in place of Shoaib Akhtar — brought up a well judged diving catch to remove Gordon Taylor.
Earlier, Baidwan (3-35) had rocked Pakistan's top order with a superb display of swing bowling and then wrapped up the innings when he bowled No. 11 Saeed Ajmal.
Leading scorer Umar Akmal (48) and Misbah-ul-Haq (37) laboured for 117 deliveries to put on 73 runs for the fifth wicket stand before both fell to burly leg-spinner Rao in quick succession.
Canada had a brief setback when fast bowler Khurram Chohan limped off the field in his fourth over with a thigh injury that is set to sideline him for three to four days.
However, Pakistan's batsmen were struggling, with Baidwan especially disturbing them with his swing bowling.
The opening pair's poor run of form continued as fit-again fast bowler Henry Osinde had Mohammad Hafeez trapped lbw off a sharp delivery while Ahmed Shehzad played a half hearted uppish drive to Gordon Taylor at mid-on.
Younis Khan — who scored half centuries in Pakistan's previous victories over Kenya and Sri Lanka — and Kamran Akmal also found it difficult to negotiate the swing of Baidwan.
Pakistan slipped to 67-4 in the 16th over when Baidwan had Khan dismissed leg before wicket and Akmal played a rash cut off Rizwan Cheema to point.
Afridi, with 20 off 17 balls, tried to lift the tempo by pulling and lofting Baidwan for two boundaries in one over, before chasing a one-handed wide full toss from Cheema to give young Nitesh Kumar his second catch at point.
"It was a good decision (batting first) but there was not really good shot selection," Afridi said.
Pakistan lost its last four wickets for just three runs with Hansra (2-23) chipping in with two of them by trapping Razzaq lbw. An edge from Riaz somehow managed to get stuck in between Rao's legs in the lone slip after the ball slipped out of his hands.
Canada had to leave out veteran John Davison at the last moment after he pulled a muscle in his right leg in the warmup, while Pakistan rested Shoaib Akhtar and injured Abdur Rehman.
Pakistan has a full six points from three victories while Canada lost its third match in a row.
Canada takes on Kenya in Group A's two bottom-place teams on Mar. 7 at New Delhi. Pakistan meets New Zealand in its next match at Pallekele, Kandy on Mar. 8

FAKE MIRACLE :: Flying dome(Minarate) in Nepal Posted by naila , Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 12:31 PM, in Labels: Most Popular