ICC Cricket World Cup: Australia seal quarter-final slot by beating Kenya

AUSTRALIA failed to bowl out a much-improved Kenya side, but still won by 60 runs to seal a quarter-final place.

Collins Obuya fell agonisingly short of a century on 98 not out as he and Tanmay Mishra (72) led the resistance for Kenya, who finished on 264-6.

But Kenya’s scoring rate never really threatened Australia, who made a daunting 324-6, helped by Mike Hussey’s key innings.

Hussey (54) and Michael Clarke (93) put on 114 runs for the fifth wicket.

“I thought the Kenyans did a reasonable job,” said Australia captain Ricky Ponting. “We were a bit rusty.”

India must rely on fortune to win Cricket World Cup

Right before this ICC Cricket World Cup started, India were labelled unanimously as one of the leading favorites to win the cup by all experts. In five games they played, India have won three, tied one and lost the latest one. But more important than result, although sound cynical, they didn't satisfy the stake holders, the fans and followers of Indian cricket.  Hence five games later most of these experts disagree. India are no longer a fore-runner to triumph in, according to them.

Cricket tickets Cricket Live Streaming

The Pressure factor

Sports and emotion are closely coupled. That's what makes sports, well, sports. It's only fair to assume, for a country which rides in emotion the opinion fluctuates proportionally. It's fascinating for an observer to watch the nation gets high or raged based on the performance of national cricket team.

In most societies, kids, in may ways take the burden to fulfill parents' expectations. When they go to school, few parents wouldn't like them to top in the class, but some get really disappointed if they don't. Imagine the plight of a kid who did reasonably well in the exam, but still making his parents broken-hearted, sometime furious, 'coz he didn't top the exam. The pressure is simply enormous. The members of Indian team are not kids and we, the fans, are not their parents. But it's not much different either, isn't it?

I wonder which one is more dominant reason for such huge, and somewhat preposterous expectation from the Indian cricket team.  The developing nation's ardent search for identity and pride in the larger world? Or the affinity and indulgence to the emotional roller-coaster, the sine qua non for a spiritual nation.

India must rely on fortune to win Cricket World Cup

Right before this ICC Cricket World Cup started, India were labelled unanimously as one of the leading favorites to win the cup by all experts. In five games they played, India have won three, tied one and lost the latest one. But more important than result, although sound cynical, they didn't satisfy the stake holders, the fans and followers of Indian cricket.  Hence five games later most of these experts disagree. India are no longer a fore-runner to triumph in, according to them.

Cricket tickets Cricket Live Streaming

The Pressure factor

Sports and emotion are closely coupled. That's what makes sports, well, sports. It's only fair to assume, for a country which rides in emotion the opinion fluctuates proportionally. It's fascinating for an observer to watch the nation gets high or raged based on the performance of national cricket team.

In most societies, kids, in may ways take the burden to fulfill parents' expectations. When they go to school, few parents wouldn't like them to top in the class, but some get really disappointed if they don't. Imagine the plight of a kid who did reasonably well in the exam, but still making his parents broken-hearted, sometime furious, 'coz he didn't top the exam. The pressure is simply enormous. The members of Indian team are not kids and we, the fans, are not their parents. But it's not much different either, isn't it?

I wonder which one is more dominant reason for such huge, and somewhat preposterous expectation from the Indian cricket team.  The developing nation's ardent search for identity and pride in the larger world? Or the affinity and indulgence to the emotional roller-coaster, the sine qua non for a spiritual nation.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011: 'Upsets' Bring 'Delight' in World Cup

iSporter Vipul Deshpande summarizes the World Cup and it's highs and lows so far. However, here is the question - would you call these world cup upsets, or world cup delights?

The World Cup is in its last week of league matches and is at the peak of excitement. We have witnessed some nail biting finishes which made our heart skip a beat or two, while others have been a complete one sided affair.

A lot has been said on whether the associate members deserve to play in World Cups, but it is these weaker teams who bring the surprise element in the tournament. Everyone enjoyed watching Kevin o'Brien score the almost unbelievable innings of 63 ball 113 against England which caused the first major 'upset' of this World Cup. While it was a big upset for England, Ireland were praised all over the cricketing world for their sheer determination in chasing down 327, the highest second innings total for a winning cause in the World Cup history, and Kevin o'Brien became an overnight hero.

Worse was yet  to come for England as just nine days later, they suffered another humiliating defeat at the hands of dangerous Bangladesh by two wickets, who themselves were bowled out for just 59 runs in their previous game. Captain Shakib Al Hasan himself played a crucial role in this pride salvaging win of Bangladesh.

Another surprise came in group A, when Pakistan, who were a completely messed up team entering the tournament, not knowing who their captain would be, defeated Sri Lanka, who have one of the most balanced side, filled with big names.

We also witnessed Netherlands and Kenya giving England and Australia a run for their money, though they could not reach the finishing line

It is such games, which produce the most unexpected results that give an interesting twist to what would have been a predictable and hence boring tournament, had it not included the associate members or other weaker test playing nations a chance to participate in World Cup.

Not much was expected from these 'weaker' teams other than giving a scare to the strong opponents in a match or two, but they have certainly performed a lot better than that and are certainly making ICC rethink their plan to field only 10 teams in the next World Cup. Had Ireland not been participating, we would have missed the brutal counter attacking innings by Kevin o'Brien.

It also must not be forgotten that teams like India and Sri Lanka were once one of the weakest One Day sides. India had lost all their league matches in the 1979 World Cup and in the very next edition, they were the World Champions. No one took Sri Lanka seriously until they stunned the world by lifting the Trophy in 1996. Had Sri Lanka been discarded from World Cups, labeling them as a 'weak' team, cricket would have never seen two of its greatest players, r, Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan, cast their magic on the field. Bangladesh were criticized heavily for not raising their standard of performance, before they sent home India packing in the 2007 World Cup. Today they command equal, if not more respect from all opponents.

So, if One Day cricket, which has been under lot of scanner, has to survive and if ICC wants World Cups to be as interesting as they have been so far, associate members must be given a chance to participate so that cricket is the ultimate winner, as more and more world class players as well as teams will emerge.

FIFA scores over 2 billion dollars from 2010 World Cup

JOHANNESBURG, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The Federation of International Football (FIFA) profited over 2 billion US dollars from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said here on Monday.

"We kept under control the cost of the World Cup. It cost a bit more than 1.2 billion US dollars to organize the World Cup in South Africa. We made an income of 3.9 billion US dollars and this means that we get quite a large level of positive results," Valcke said.

The South African Football Association (SAFA) president Kirstin Nematandani also expressed his gratitude to FIFA for having faith in South Africa and ensuring that the 2010 World Cup left huge benefits for the country.

South Africa was given 100 million US dollars from the tournament's profits. This amount will be managed by the FIFA Legacy Trust and be used to benefit local football development programmes. "All our fifty-two FIFA regions will be receiving cars. We purchased about thirty-five buses and the committee is planning to buy more buses for each region to have its own bus.

"The FIFA Legacy Trust is another very exciting project which will focus on issues of development. The profits that were amassed from this World Cup will certainly be put into great use to promote grassroots football in our country," Nematandani said.

Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Chief Executive Officer, Danny Jordaan, also present at the press briefing said he was excited that South Africa managed to host a successful World Cup. He said every African country has received up to 550 thousand US dollars as a direct benefit from the World Cup profits.

The LOC board members have now been reduced to three as the committee prepares to round up its operations and hand over all the 2010 World Cup legacy projects to the South African Football Association.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup was held in South Africa from June 11 to July 12.

ICC cricket world cup 2011: Pakistan vs Zimbabwe live score preview

Pakistan is a very difficult team to write about at the moment when they get ready to face Zimbabwe in Sri Lanka on Monday in the ICC World Cup.

Pakistan would be almost certain to get inot the last four of the tournament but it has not only beat Zimbabwe today but their own controveries and problems too.

Pakistan came in the World Cup with a lot of controversies; both within the team and outside of it. Then three successive win helped by tremendous performance by Shahid Afridi made it look quite promising. Then came the match against New Zealand and all its prestige was blown away by the super fast Ross Taylor.

Zimbabwe should not be a tough nut to crack but think of Pakistan's own 'naughty nuts'. Since Kamran Akmal is in the news more for dropping chances than grabbing those, it was reported than Shahid Afridi is mulling to play Kamran's brother Umar Akmal as wicketkeeper batsman. Then the younger brother Umar came up with some sort of pain reportedly to force the team management to keep Kamran back in team.

Truly sub continental example of 'bhai bhateejawad' or nepotism.

Now, the Pakistani team management is said to have taken this problem seriously and would not succumb under such tactics.

One may think why it is so important to discuss this 'Akmal syndrome'. Because Ian Chappell says even if Kamran would have been batting better than Sir Donald Bradman, his performance behind the stump should keep him away of the ground.

Back to Pakistan's main team. It has still to resolve the problem of openers, which have failed to provide even a single partnership nearing fifty. The batting is heavily dependent on the middle order and particulalry Younis Khan and Misbahul Haque. Not playing Kamran at the top would also require some thinking by Pakistani team management whether to replace him with a batsman or bowler. Pakistan two other explosive all round batting star Shahid Afridi and Abdurrazaq are not firing.

In the bowling department Pakistan need a lot of improvement as except for Shahid Afridi no other bowler seems to be penetrative enough. The beating Shoaib Akhtar got against Ross Taylor must have forced him to think about variations.

Zimbabwe started badly but its performance is getting better. Fielding is one department in which Zimbabwe is surely superior to Pakistan. But its bowling and batting might not be enough.

Cricket World Cup: Pakistan storm into knockouts after 12 years

Asad Shafiq scored his maiden world cup fifty as Pakistan cruised into the quarter-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 after beating Zimbabwe by seven wickets on Duckworth/Lewis Method in their crucial Group A match at Pallekele Stadium here Monday.

Asad Shafiq. Courtesy: Getty Images

Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura, who was celebrating his 25^th birthday, won the toss and decided to bat first on a pitch which had the juice to assist fast bowlers especially under overcast conditions.

Pakistani new ball bowlers pitched the ball in the right areas as Abdul Razzaq got rid of the danger man Brenden Taylor in the first over of the match and then Umar Gul started dictating terms as he sent back Chakabva and Sibanda for a duck and five runs respectively as Zimbabwe looked down the battle quite early in the match.

Umar Gul wins Man of the Match award. Courtesy: AP PHOTO

Craig Ervine and Tatenda Taibu then joined hands and looked good for some time before Wahab Riaz was introduced into the attack by skipper Shahid Khan Afridi and the left-arm bowler never disappointed as he captured the prized scalp of Taibu.

However, Ervine kept hold of one end and completed his fifty before Mohammad Hafeez clean-bowled him for 52 runs.

Mohammad Hafeez. Courtesy: AP PHOTO

With the rains coming down heavily, umpires and players went back into the pavilion and later came back with match shortened to 43 overs. A second rain break further cut the number of overs to 38 as Zimbabwe batsmen took long handle to score maximum runs.

In the end, the African side managed to score 151 runs from their 39.4 overs, giving Pakistan a target of 162 runs from 38 overs.

Umar Gul once again led the Pakistani bowling attack with style as the right-arm fast bowler grabbed three wickets for 36 runs.

Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal. Courtesy: AP PHOTO

A lot was expected from the openers but Ahmad Shehzad once again failed to cash in on the given opportunity and tried to play too many shots thus losing his wicket to Raymond Price after scoring only eight runs, yet another failure for the young batsman.

On the other hand, Mohammad Hafeez showed some application and commitment to spend some time at the crease which rewarded him with some crucial runs under his belt ahead of the bigger games of the tournament. Hafeez along with Asad Shafiq, who replaced injured Umar Akmal, built the match-winning partnership of 82 runs which is the highest second wicket partnership for Pakistan in the current edition of the ICC World Cup.

Hafeez failed to complete his well-deserved fifty and had to return to the pavilion after Utseya got him out at 49 runs, but till then Pakistan were on course to the required victory.

Younus Khan (13 from 28) then joined forces with Asad Shafiq, who after a slow start capitalized in the later stage and scored an impressive fifty on his world cup debut.

Asad Shafiq remained not out at 78 from 97 balls with the help of seven boundaries.

Umar Gul was declared Man of the Match for his brilliant spell of fast bowling getting rid of three Zimbabwean batsmen.