C M Y K C M Y K C M Y K C M Y K Edited by Along Longkumer, Published and Printed by Aküm Longchari on behalf of Morung for Indigenous Affairs and JustPeace from House No. 4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur at Themba Printers and Morung Publications, Padum Pukhuri Village, Dimapur, Nagaland. Email : [email protected], [email protected]. RNI No : NAGENG /2005/15430. House No.4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur 797112, Nagaland. Phone: Dimapur -(03862) News Desk- 281043, Admin -236871, Fax: (03862) 235194, Kohima - (0370) 2291952 For advertisements and circulation, please contact: (03862) 236871, Fax-235194 or email : [email protected] NAGPUR, FEBRUARY 25 (PTI): Brad Haddin and Shane Watson slammed fifties as Australia beat new Zealand by 7 wickets in their World Cup match. Earlier, Ricky Ponting was stumped by McCullum off Southee but Australia were still in control at 167/3. Both Brad Haddin and Shane Watson departed in quick succession after putting up 133 for the first wicket. Australia took com- plete control of the match against New Zealand as openers Shane Watson and Brad Haddin cracked fine fifties. After bundling the Kiwis for just 206, Austra- lia got off to an excellent start as they reached 74/0 in the first 10 overs. Earlier, Nathan McCullum stood tall amid ruins with a fight- ing half-century as the pace duo of Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait shared sev- en wickets between them to help Australia bowl out New Zealand for 206 in their group B World Cup match at VCA Stadium in Jamtha here on Friday. Courtesy Nathan`s grit- ty 52 off 76 balls, New Zea- land crossed the 200-run mark after Aussie bowlers blew away the top-six with- in 17 overs with 73 on board. Nathan shared 48 runs for the seventh wicket with Ja- Australia thump New Zealand by 7 wkts Bollinger out of World Cup NAGPUR, FEBRUARY 25 (AFP): Australia fast bowler Doug Bollinger has been ruled out of the re- mainder of the World Cup with a left ankle injury and is returning home, it was announced on Friday. "Doug Bollinger has been experiencing increasing left ankle pain since arriving in India," Australian team physio- therapist Alex Kountouris said in a statement. "Unfortunately the pain is now significantly affect- ing his ability to bowl and he will not be playing any fur- ther part in the tournament." "Doug will now return to Australia and seek specialist opinion to determine the best course of management for this injury." No decision has yet been made about a replacement for the New South Wales quick, who took one for 29 in a warm-up match against India. Bollinger was not selected for Aus- tralia's opening win of the tournament against Zimba- bwe or the reigning champions' ongoing second match against New Zealand in Nagpur on Friday. Australian selectors will decide on a replacement player and this will be announced once approved by the International Cricket Council's technical committee. Shane Watson plays a shot off the bowling of New Zealand's Nathan McCullum in the Cricket World Cup Group A match between Australia and New Zealand in Nagpur on February 25. (AP Photo) mie How (22) and 54 runs with skipper Daniel Vettori (44) but Kiwis could not bat for the complete quote of 50 overs and were all out in 45.1 overs. Both Tait (3/35) and Johnson (4/33) bowled with pace and accuracy which made things difficult for the Kiwi batsmen in the match which is also being played for the Chappell- Hadlee Trophy. After overnight rain, Australian captain Ricky Ponting elected to field as conditions were bit over- cast. Tait and Johnson were ably complemented by Shane Watson (1/9) and Brett Lee (1/29) and the pace quartet ensured that Ponting`s decision to bowl first was vindicated. All of them pitched the ball fuller, got a bit of move- ment and were also helped by some lousy shots played by the Black Caps bats- men. If Tait`s bowling was all about raw pace, Johnson got deliveries to swing away from the batsmen at a brisk pace. Although Jesse Ry- der pulled a couple of short ones from Johnson, none of the top-order batsmen were ready to apply them- selves on a pitch which eased out with time. Both Nathan and Vet- tori showed that it was not difficult to play shots once the batsmen got their eye in. In the morning, the first to go was Brendon McCul- lum (16). The Kiwi opener used Tait`s pace to get two boundaries with upper cuts. One such slash off a delivery that had extra yard of pace ballooned up and was easily caught by Jason Krejza at thirdman. Martin Guptill who struggled for his 10 from 25 balls was a bit unlucky though. Shane Watson found a spot outside off- stump where the deliveries didn`t take off after pitch- ing. The ball kept low as it whizzed past the toe of Guptill`s bat to hit the off- stump. Ryder (25) started off well as he took four bound- aries off Johnson. Three of them were sweetly timed pull shots that bisected the fine leg and square leg field- ers. In the 14th over, John- son lent a telling blow as he first got Ryder and then James Franklin (0) to re- duce the Kiwis to 66 for four. 10th Match, Group A : Sri Lanka vs Pakistan Venue : R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Saturday | 26 Feb | 14:30 PM HEAD-TO-HEAD OVERALL MATCHES PLAYED WON BY SRI LANKA WON BY PAKISTAN TIE / NR / ABANDON 121 46 70 05 COLOMBO, FEBRUARY 25 (PTI): Sri Lanka would look to carry on their winning momentum from their open- ing match and seek their first World Cup victory against Pakistan when the two teams meet here on Saturday. The two teams have played six World Cup matches from 1975 to 1992 and all of them have been won by Pakistan. With paceman Lasith Malinga set to return for Saturday`s Group A match at the R Premadasa Stadium, Sri Lanka would fancy to make amends of their awful re- cord against Pakistan. Both teams recorded thumping wins against Associate Members in their open- ing games in Hambantota. While Sri Lan- ka won by a massive 210 runs against Can- ada, Pakistan beat Kenya by 205 runs. "It`s time for us to change that I suppose. If we do the basic things right, we have a great chance for tomorrow," Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara said. Since 1992, Sri Lanka have won the World Cup (in 1996) and they have be- come a much better side since then. The last time Sri Lanka met Pakistan in an ODI was during the Asia Cup in Dambul- la and the hosts had won on that occasion also. Malinga on that occasion picked up a five wicket haul and he`s expected to play a key role on Saturday`s game. Playing at home conditions and in front of a sell- out crowd, it would be a perfect setting for Kumar Sangakkara`s men to make amends of their woeful World Cup record against Pakistan. Sri Lanka Cricket has announced that the reserved tickets were sold out two months before the game. The non-re- served tickets were put on sale a week be- fore the game and finished within a cou- ple of hours. Malinga is the only change the Sri Lankans are expected to do with the fast bowler coming in for either Nu- wan Kulasekara or Thisara Per- era. "He was feeling a bit stiff ahead of the Canada game. We have a long World Cup campaign and didn’t want to take a risk. He should be okay for tomorrow once the physio clears him," Sangakkara said. Spin wizard Muttiah Mura- litharan, who is set to retire from international cricket after the World Cup, would also be eager to play his part in his country making amends of the poor record against Pakistan. He has a world record 521 wickets in 342 ODIs and has a tally of 95 against Pakistan in 64 match- es, and is even more dangerous in home conditions. Pakistan, the 1992 champions, are expected to stick to an unchanged side that thrashed Kenya by 205 runs. "Tomorrow`s game is important for us. In this tournament, momentum is im- portant. Sri Lanka in their home ground are very good and it`s very difficult to beat them. But we have played and trained and I am hopeful we can beat them," Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said. For Pakistan, they would look to improve on their starts both in batting and bowling. "If the openers give us a good platform then we have in- form batsmen like Misbah- ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan and Umar Akmal," said Afridi. "We know the impor- tance of the match and I am confident that we are up to the Sri Lankan challenge, whether it`s Malinga or Muralitharan," he said. Lanka look for first WC win against Pak Sri Lanka's spinner Muttiah Muralitharan bowls during a practice session in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday February 25. (AP Photo) NEW DELHI, FEBRU- ARY 25 (PTI): As if gag- ging the players is not enough, the Indian Crick- et Board on Friday asked the media to "refrain" from contacting Mahen- dra Singh Dhoni's men for interviews as the team wants to "concentrate" on its World Cup campaign. "The members of the me- dia are requested to refrain from constantly contacting the members of the Indian Cricket Team on phone/ SMS for interviews/bytes as players would like to concentrate on the ongo- ing World Cup matches," Board Secretary N Sriniva- san said in a statement. The Indian team won its opening match against Bangladesh and is cur- rently training in Banga- lore for the second Group B match against England on Sunday. Every move of the Indian cricket team is making national headlines in the ongoing World Cup with reports ranging from the colour of their jerseys to minor niggles picked up dur- ing practice making for breaking news on tele- vision channels. Before the World Cup started, the BCCI told the players not to write any syndicate columns for newspapers to avoid creating any con- troversy in the middle of the campaign. BCCI asks media to keep off Indian players BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 25 (AFP): India and England will both have a better idea of their World Cup credentials when they meet in one of the stand-out matches of the tournament so far in Bangalore on Sunday. India, strongly fancied to add a second World Cup trophy to their 1983 success, were in commanding form while seeing off co-hosts Bangladesh by 87 runs in the tournament opener in Dhaka. Hundreds from Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli indicated it will be a bold captain who follows Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan's example by asking In- dia to bat after winning the toss. Sachin Tendulkar, who looked in excellent touch, may well have got to three figures as well but for a dreadful run out mix-up with Se- hwag. Star batsman Tendulkar has been causing millions of Indian hearts to miss a beat with a scan of his left knee barely two days after the start of the tournament but initial indications are that the 'Little Mas- ter' will face England. Of arguably greater concern to India was the performance of fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, whose five wicketless overs against Ban- gladesh cost an expensive 53 runs. He may be the quickest member of India's attack but pace, especially in one-day cricket, is usually meaningless against top-class batsmen if it's lacking in control. By contrast, Munaf Patel provided a textbook example of how seamers should bowl on subcontinental pitches in main- taining a full length and good line on his way to four for 48 against the Tigers. The question facing India is whether, with left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra nursing an injury that kept him out of the Ban- gladesh game, they drop Sreesanth and bring in a second spinner in leg-break bowler Piyush Chawla to supplement the undoubted threat of Harbhajan Singh. Chawla, on the same pitch that will be used for the England game, took an im- pressive four for 31 in a 38-run warm-up win over champions Australia just a fort- night ago. England are not renowned for the way they play spin and former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri believes a win this weekend will have much more sig- nificance than just the raw result. Virender Sehwag fit despite ribs blow BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 25 (AFP): In- dia's in-form opener Virender Sehwag will be fit for the crucial World Cup clash with Eng- land despite receiving a painful blow to the ribs in the nets on Friday. The hard-hitting opener was struck by a delivery from a net bowler and did not bat again. "A thorough examination has been done and a scan is not required. There is no major worry and he is fit enough to play," Indian team manager Ranjib Biswal said. India, who meet England in the day-night match on Sunday, defeated Bangladesh by 87 runs in their opener in Dhaka last Saturday. Se- hwag was instrumental in setting up his team's victory, hammering a blazing 175 off 140 balls with the help of five sixes and 14 fours. He has so far scored 7,555 runs in 229 one-day inter- nationals. India had already been sweating over the fitness of fellow opener Sachin Ten- dulkar who needed a scan of his left knee after the win against Bangladesh where he made 28 Tendulkar, 37, had only recently recovered from a hamstring strain which forced him to miss three games of the recent five-match one- day series against South Africa. India, England set for test of Cup ambitions Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag, center, shares a joke with Sachin Tendulkar, right, and coach Gary Kirsten even as he nurses an injury on his left hand incurred during practice in Bangalore on February 25. (AP Photo) DHAKA, FEBRUARY 25 (AGENCIES): Bangladesh resurrected their World Cup campaign with a 27- run victory in front of some 25,000 boisterous home fans on Friday. Bangladesh, bowled out for 205 after taking first strike in the day- night match, hit back to dis- miss the leading non-Test nation for 178 in 45 overs at the packed Sher-e-Bangla stadium. Former captain Mo- hammad Ashraful, who scored just one run, turned an unlikely hero with the ball by claiming two top- order wickets with his part-time off-spin. Skip- per Shakib Al Hasan also picked up two wickets with left-arm spin before seamer Shafiul Islam polished off the tail in quick time with 4-21 from eight overs. Bangladesh, who had lost their first match to In- dia last week, lapped up the pressure in a game they had to win to stay in contention for the quarter-finals from Group B. But the co-hosts, who play all their league matches at home, must still beat the Netherlands and at least one of the established teams among England, South Africa and the West Indies. The win helped Bangla- desh avenge two successive defeats by Ireland in major events, having lost during the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean and again in the 2009 World Twenty20 in England. Shakib turned to spin after just one over from Shafiul, bringing on left- armer Abdul Razzak in the second over and off-spinner Naeem Islam in the third. The move paid imme- diate dividends as Paul Stirling was stumped off Razzak for nine, before Irish captain William Por- terfield fell to Shakib's first delivery for 20. Ed Joyce and Niall O'Brien carried the score from 36-2 to 75 when Ashraful struck with the first delivery of his sec- ond spell. Joyce, the former England batsman, made a fluent 16 when he was beat- en in the air by a flighted ball and gave a delighted Ashra- ful an easy return catch. Ashraful then bowled Andrew White for 10, while Shakib claimed his second wicket when Niall O'Brien fell to a diving catch by Ta- mim Iqbal at deep mid- wicket after making 38. Shafiul bursts Irish bubble Bangladesh revived their World Cup campaign with an impressive bowling display to beat Ireland by 27 runs Ireland's batsman Andre Botha is bowled by Bangladesh's bowler Shafiul Islam, unseen, for 22 runs during their Cricket World Cup Group B match at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 25. (AP Photo)
p12_feb26_2011
Mar 24, 2016
70 05 TIE / NR / ABANDON 10th Match, Group A : Sri Lanka vs Pakistan For advertisements and circulation, please contact: (03862) 236871, Fax-235194 or email : [email protected] Venue : R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Saturday | 26 Feb | 14:30 PM Ireland's batsman Andre Botha is bowled by Bangladesh's bowler Shafiul Islam, unseen, for 22 runs during their Cricket World Cup Group B match at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 25. (AP Photo) C M Y K C M Y K C M Y K
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Edited by Along Longkumer, Published and Printed by Aküm Longchari on behalf of Morung for Indigenous A� airs and JustPeace from House No. 4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur at Themba Printers and Morung Publications, Padum Pukhuri Village, Dimapur, Nagaland. Email : [email protected], [email protected]. RNI No : NAGENG /2005/15430. House No.4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur 797112, Nagaland. Phone: Dimapur -(03862) News Desk- 281043, Admin -236871, Fax: (03862) 235194, Kohima - (0370) 2291952
For advertisements and circulation, please contact: (03862) 236871, Fax-235194 or email : [email protected]
NAGPUR, FEBRUARY 25 (PTI): Brad Haddin and Shane Watson slammed fifties as Australia beat new Zealand by 7 wickets in their World Cup match. Earlier, Ricky Ponting was stumped by McCullum o� Southee but Australia were still in control at 167/3. Both Brad Haddin and Shane Watson departed in quick succession after putting up 133 for the fi rst wicket.
Australia took com-plete control of the match against New Zealand as openers Shane Watson and Brad Haddin cracked fine fifties. After bundling the Kiwis for just 206, Austra-lia got off to an excellent start as they reached 74/0 in the fi rst 10 overs. Earlier, Nathan McCullum stood tall amid ruins with a fi ght-ing half-century as the pace duo of Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait shared sev-en wickets between them to help Australia bowl out New Zealand for 206 in their group B World Cup match at VCA Stadium in Jamtha here on Friday.
Courtesy Nathan`s grit-ty 52 o� 76 balls, New Zea-land crossed the 200-run mark after Aussie bowlers blew away the top-six with-in 17 overs with 73 on board. Nathan shared 48 runs for the seventh wicket with Ja-
Australia thump New Zealand by 7 wktsBollinger out of World Cup
NAGPUR, FEBRUARY 25 (AFP): Australia fast bowler Doug Bollinger has been ruled out of the re-mainder of the World Cup with a left ankle injury and is returning home, it was announced on Friday. "Doug Bollinger has been experiencing increasing left ankle pain since arriving in India," Australian team physio-therapist Alex Kountouris said in a statement.
"Unfortunately the pain is now signifi cantly a� ect-ing his ability to bowl and he will not be playing any fur-ther part in the tournament." "Doug will now return to Australia and seek specialist opinion to determine the best course of management for this injury." No decision has yet been made about a replacement for the New South Wales quick, who took one for 29 in a warm-up match against India. Bollinger was not selected for Aus-tralia's opening win of the tournament against Zimba-bwe or the reigning champions' ongoing second match against New Zealand in Nagpur on Friday. Australian selectors will decide on a replacement player and this will be announced once approved by the International Cricket Council's technical committee.Shane Watson plays a shot off the bowling of New Zealand's Nathan McCullum in the Cricket World
Cup Group A match between Australia and New Zealand in Nagpur on February 25. (AP Photo)
mie How (22) and 54 runs with skipper Daniel Vettori (44) but Kiwis could not bat for the complete quote of 50 overs and were all out in 45.1 overs. Both Tait (3/35) and Johnson (4/33) bowled with pace and accuracy which made things di� cult for the Kiwi batsmen in the match which is also being played for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.
After overnight rain, Australian captain Ricky
Ponting elected to field as conditions were bit over-cast. Tait and Johnson were ably complemented by Shane Watson (1/9) and Brett Lee (1/29) and the pace quartet ensured that Ponting`s decision to bowl fi rst was vindicated.
All of them pitched the ball fuller, got a bit of move-ment and were also helped by some lousy shots played by the Black Caps bats-men. If Tait`s bowling was
all about raw pace, Johnson got deliveries to swing away from the batsmen at a brisk pace. Although Jesse Ry-der pulled a couple of short ones from Johnson, none of the top-order batsmen were ready to apply them-selves on a pitch which eased out with time.
Both Nathan and Vet-tori showed that it was not di� cult to play shots once the batsmen got their eye in. In the morning, the fi rst
to go was Brendon McCul-lum (16). The Kiwi opener used Tait`s pace to get two boundaries with upper cuts. One such slash o� a delivery that had extra yard of pace ballooned up and was easily caught by Jason Krejza at thirdman.
Martin Guptill who struggled for his 10 from 25 balls was a bit unlucky though. Shane Watson found a spot outside off-stump where the deliveries
didn`t take off after pitch-ing. The ball kept low as it whizzed past the toe of Guptill`s bat to hit the off-stump. Ryder (25) started o� well as he took four bound-aries o� Johnson. Three of them were sweetly timed pull shots that bisected the fi ne leg and square leg fi eld-ers. In the 14th over, John-son lent a telling blow as he fi rst got Ryder and then James Franklin (0) to re-duce the Kiwis to 66 for four.
10th Match, Group A : Sri Lanka vs PakistanVenue : R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo
Saturday | 26 Feb | 14:30 PM
HEAD-TO-HEAD
OVERALL
MATCHES PLAYED
WON BY SRI LANKA
WON BY PAKISTAN
TIE / NR / ABANDON
121
46
70
05
COLOMBO, FEBRUARY 25 (PTI): Sri Lanka would look to carry on their winning momentum from their open-ing match and seek their first World Cup victory against Pakistan when the two teams meet here on Saturday. The two teams have played six World Cup matches from 1975 to 1992 and all of them have been won by Pakistan. With paceman Lasith Malinga set to return for Saturday`s Group A match at the R Premadasa Stadium, Sri Lanka would fancy to make amends of their awful re-cord against Pakistan.
Both teams recorded thumping wins against Associate Members in their open-ing games in Hambantota. While Sri Lan-ka won by a massive 210 runs against Can-ada, Pakistan beat Kenya by 205 runs. "It`s time for us to change that I suppose. If we do the basic things right, we have a great chance for tomorrow," Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara said.
Since 1992, Sri Lanka have won the World Cup (in 1996) and they have be-come a much better side since then. The last time Sri Lanka met Pakistan in an ODI was during the Asia Cup in Dambul-la and the hosts had won on that occasion also. Malinga on that occasion picked up a fi ve wicket haul and he`s expected to play a key role on Saturday`s game. Playing at home conditions and in front of a sell-out crowd, it would be a perfect setting for Kumar Sangakkara`s men to make amends of their woeful World Cup record against Pakistan.
Sri Lanka Cricket has announced that the reserved tickets were sold out two months before the game. The non-re-served tickets were put on sale a week be-fore the game and fi nished within a cou-ple of hours. Malinga is the only change the Sri Lankans are expected to do with the fast bowler coming in for either Nu-
wan Kulasekara or Thisara Per-era. "He was feeling a bit sti� ahead of the Canada game. We have a long World Cup campaign and didn’t want to take a risk. He should be okay for tomorrow once the physio clears him," Sangakkara said.
Spin wizard Muttiah Mura-litharan, who is set to retire from international cricket after the World Cup, would also be eager to play his part in his country making amends of the poor record against Pakistan. He has a world record 521 wickets in 342 ODIs and has a tally of 95 against Pakistan in 64 match-es, and is even more dangerous in home conditions. Pakistan, the 1992 champions, are expected to stick to an unchanged side that thrashed Kenya by 205 runs. "Tomorrow`s game is important for us. In this tournament, momentum is im-portant. Sri Lanka in their home ground are very good and it`s very di� cult to beat them. But we have played and trained and I am hopeful we can beat them," Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said. For Pakistan, they would look to improve on their starts both in batting and bowling. "If the openers give us a good platform then we have in-form batsmen like Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan and Umar Akmal," said Afridi. "We know the impor-tance of the match and I am confi dent that we are up to the Sri Lankan challenge, whether it`s Malinga or Muralitharan," he said.
Lanka look for fi rst WC win against Pak Sri Lanka's spinner Muttiah
Muralitharan bowls during a practice session in
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday February 25. (AP Photo)
NEW DELHI, FEBRU-ARY 25 (PTI): As if gag-ging the players is not enough, the Indian Crick-et Board on Friday asked the media to "refrain" from contacting Mahen-dra Singh Dhoni's men for interviews as the team wants to "concentrate" on its World Cup campaign. "The members of the me-dia are requested to refrain from constantly contacting the members of the Indian Cricket Team on phone/SMS for interviews/bytes as players would like to concentrate on the ongo-ing World Cup matches," Board Secretary N Sriniva-san said in a statement.
The Indian team won
its opening match against Bangladesh and is cur-rently training in Banga-lore for the second Group B match against England on Sunday. Every move of the Indian cricket team is making national headlines in the ongoing World Cup with reports ranging from the colour of their jerseys to minor niggles picked up dur-ing practice making for breaking news on tele-vision channels. Before the World Cup started, the BCCI told the players not to write any syndicate columns for newspapers to avoid creating any con-troversy in the middle of the campaign.
BCCI asks media to keep off Indian players
BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 25 (AFP): India and England will both have a better idea of their World Cup credentials when they meet in one of the stand-out matches of the tournament so far in Bangalore on Sunday. India, strongly fancied to add a second World Cup trophy to their 1983 success, were in commanding form while seeing o� co-hosts Bangladesh by 87 runs in the tournament opener in Dhaka.
Hundreds from Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli indicated it will be a bold captain who follows Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan's example by asking In-dia to bat after winning the toss. Sachin Tendulkar, who looked in excellent touch, may well have got to three figures as well but for a dreadful run out mix-up with Se-hwag. Star batsman Tendulkar has been causing millions of Indian hearts to miss a beat with a scan of his left knee barely two days after the start of the tournament but initial indications are that the 'Little Mas-ter' will face England. Of arguably greater concern to India was the performance of fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth,
whose five wicketless overs against Ban-gladesh cost an expensive 53 runs. He may be the quickest member of India's attack but pace, especially in one-day cricket, is usually meaningless against top-class batsmen if it's lacking in control.
By contrast, Munaf Patel provided a textbook example of how seamers should bowl on subcontinental pitches in main-taining a full length and good line on his way to four for 48 against the Tigers. The question facing India is whether, with left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra nursing an injury that kept him out of the Ban-gladesh game, they drop Sreesanth and bring in a second spinner in leg-break bowler Piyush Chawla to supplement the undoubted threat of Harbhajan Singh. Chawla, on the same pitch that will be used for the England game, took an im-pressive four for 31 in a 38-run warm-up win over champions Australia just a fort-night ago. England are not renowned for the way they play spin and former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri believes a win this weekend will have much more sig-nifi cance than just the raw result.
Virender Sehwag fi t despite ribs blowBANGALORE, FEBRUARY 25 (AFP): In-dia's in-form opener Virender Sehwag will be fi t for the crucial World Cup clash with Eng-land despite receiving a painful blow to the ribs in the nets on Friday. The hard-hitting opener was struck by a delivery from a net bowler and did not bat again. "A thorough examination has been done and a scan is not required. There is no major worry and he is fi t enough to play," Indian team manager Ranjib Biswal said.
India, who meet England in the day-night match on Sunday, defeated Bangladesh by 87 runs in their opener in Dhaka last Saturday. Se-hwag was instrumental in setting up his team's victory, hammering a blazing 175 o� 140 balls with the help of fi ve sixes and 14 fours. He has so far scored 7,555 runs in 229 one-day inter-nationals. India had already been sweating over the fi tness of fellow opener Sachin Ten-dulkar who needed a scan of his left knee after the win against Bangladesh where he made 28 Tendulkar, 37, had only recently recovered from a hamstring strain which forced him to miss three games of the recent fi ve-match one-day series against South Africa.
WORLD CUP CRICKET2011
India, England set for test of Cup ambitions
Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag, center, shares a joke with Sachin Tendulkar, right, and coach Gary Kirsten even as he nurses an injury on his left hand incurred during practice in Bangalore on February 25. (AP Photo)
DHAKA, FEBRUARY 25 (AGENCIES): Bangladesh resurrected their World Cup campaign with a 27-run victory in front of some 25,000 boisterous home fans on Friday. Bangladesh, bowled out for 205 after taking fi rst strike in the day-night match, hit back to dis-miss the leading non-Test nation for 178 in 45 overs at the packed Sher-e-Bangla stadium.
Former captain Mo-hammad Ashraful, who scored just one run, turned an unlikely hero with the ball by claiming two top-order wickets with his part-time off-spin. Skip-per Shakib Al Hasan also picked up two wickets with left-arm spin before seamer Shafiul Islam polished off the tail in quick time with
4-21 from eight overs.Bangladesh, who had
lost their fi rst match to In-dia last week, lapped up the pressure in a game they had to win to stay in contention for the quarter-fi nals from Group B. But the co-hosts, who play all their league matches at home, must still beat the Netherlands and at least one of the established teams among England, South Africa and the West Indies.
The win helped Bangla-desh avenge two successive defeats by Ireland in major events, having lost during the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean and again in the 2009 World Twenty20 in England. Shakib turned to spin after just one over from Shafiul, bringing on left-armer Abdul Razzak in the
second over and o� -spinner Naeem Islam in the third.
The move paid imme-diate dividends as Paul Stirling was stumped off Razzak for nine, before Irish captain William Por-terfi eld fell to Shakib's fi rst delivery for 20. Ed Joyce and Niall O'Brien carried the score from 36-2 to 75 when Ashraful struck with the fi rst delivery of his sec-ond spell. Joyce, the former England batsman, made a fl uent 16 when he was beat-en in the air by a fl ighted ball and gave a delighted Ashra-ful an easy return catch.
Ashraful then bowled Andrew White for 10, while Shakib claimed his second wicket when Niall O'Brien fell to a diving catch by Ta-mim Iqbal at deep mid-wicket after making 38.
Shafi ul bursts Irish bubbleBangladesh revived their World Cup campaign with an impressive bowling display to beat Ireland by 27 runsIreland's batsman Andre Botha is bowled by Bangladesh's bowler Shafi ul Islam, unseen, for 22 runs during their Cricket World Cup Group B match at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 25. (AP Photo)