Tag Futebol

Madhya Pradesh secured a bonus-point victory on the back of an innings and 64-run thrashing of Uttar Pradesh in Hyderabad. UP, asked to follow-on after being bowled out for 176, slumped to 225 all out on the final day. Chandrakant Sakhure, the right-arm medium pacer, playing in only his third first-class game, finished with career-best figures of 6 for 40. MP’s 465 in the first innings was built around Harpreet Singh’s unbeaten 216. UP captain Suresh Raina, recovering from fever, didn’t bat in both innings.A double century from Manpreet Juneja helped Gujarat pull off a heist and pocket three points, courtesy a first-innings lead, despite conceding 544 against Baroda in Jaipur. Gujarat began the day needing 267 runs with six wickets in hand, to take a lead. The task appeared tougher when they lost the services of Rujul Bhatt, who retired hurt on 58. But Juneja found able support from Axar Patel, the left-arm-spinning allrounder, who made an unbeaten 109 as Gujarat went past Baroda’s score without losing a wicket on the final day.Railways’ push for an outright win was thwarted by Uday Kaul as Punjab salvaged a point after conceding a first-innings lead at Palam grounds in New Delhi. Set a target of 362, Punjab were 170 for 3 when play ended, with Kaul (61 not out) and Mandeep Singh (41 not out) having forged an unbroken 86-run fourth-wicket stand. Railways, who resumed on 180 for 2, lost five wickets for the addition of 65 runs before the declaration. Shivakant Shukla, who made 128 in the first innings, made 97 in the second dig. Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh had a disappointing outing, making 9 and 17 in his two outings.

June 30
News – Shoaib files petition against ban
June 15
News – Shoaib free to appeal
June 14
News – Shoaib’s five-year ban reduced to 18 months
June 8
News – Shoaib’s appeal proceedings delayed
May 5
Osman Samiuddin – PCB softens stance on Shoaib
May 4
News – Shoaib cleared to play in IPL
May 3
News – Shoaib can play IPL only if ban is lifted – Modi
News – Shoaib pushes for suspension of ban
May 2
News – Ashraf files defamation suit against Shoaib
May 1
News – IPL yet to decide on Shoaib ban
April 30
News – Shoaib’s five-year ban upheld
April 29
News – Shoaib apologises to PCB chairman
April 18
News – Shoaib to file fresh appeal by Monday
April 14
News – Senate committee says Shoaib appeal process to continue
April 8
News – Anti-Corruption Unit probes Shoaib’s match-fixing claims
April 7
News – Three-man tribunal to look into Shoaib’s appeal
News – Shoaib’s comments anger Inzamam and Moin
April 4
News – ICC wants anti-corruption unit to talk to Shoaib
News – Shoaib launches appeal against banApril 3
News – Shoaib cannot play in IPL
News – Ashraf files legal notice against Shoaib
April 2
News – Shoaib claims he got offers to underperform
Quotes – ‘I have been victimised’ – Shoaib
News – Lawson regrets Shoaib’s downfall
April 1
News – Shoaib banned for five years
Osman Samiuddin – The final episode in the Shoaib soap opera?

Graeme Smith was among those who attended the funeral © AFP

Percy Sonn’s funeral took place in Cape Town on Saturday, six days after the ICC president died from complications following colon surgery.Leading members of world cricket, including South African captain Graeme Smith, government figures and judiciary attended the service at St George’s Cathedral.”It is amazing that Percy, the boy from Bellville Cricket Club, became the boss of world cricket,” said ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed.Pall bearers into the cathedral included Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Peter Chingoka and Gerald Majola, Cricket South Africa’s CEO.

There was one thing that distinguished Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid from Indian captains before them: the absence of parochialism © Getty Images

Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMAIndian cricket has changed fundamentally in the last five years, and there is no one who can place these changes in a historical perspective better than Ramachandra Guha, the cricket historian and author of A Corner of a Foreign Field. In this interview with Cricinfo Audio, Guha tells Amit Varma about how “the absence of parochialism” was the seminal shift that set Sourav Ganguly’s side apart. Among the many reasons for this shift: the appointment of a foreign coach, and crowded international cricket itineraries.Guha also speaks of the decentralisation of cricket in these years – the rise of the small towns – and the role that television played in this process. He also talks about the last few months, and why Indian cricket needs Rahul Dravid now just as it needed Ganguly once. He holds that the gains to Indian cricket are irreversible, but there is, nevertheless, something that worries him.Listen in!Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMA

Vince Hogg: ‘It wouldn’t have bothered me who was listening’© Getty Images

Vincent Hogg, who resigned as managing director of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union in August, has until now kept his silence over the whole rebel-player crisis. But AFP are reporting that he was ready to tell all to the ICC hearing into allegations of racism levelled against the Zimbabwe board.As the hearing was cancelled, Hogg will instead write to the ICC outlining several incidents involving black ZCU directors, explaining that these led to his decision to stand down at the board’s AGM.”I am going to write to the adjudicators describing some of the things that were done and said to me during the dispute with the players,” he told the agency. “For instance one director told me that whites have no right to be in the country at all … and that was during a formal meeting.”Some of the directors were totally out of order in this regard and it was extremely upsetting to have to listen to that sort of racist language,” he continued. “I was hoping to give this evidence orally to the two adjudicators when they were here last week, but I did not get the chance.”The news that Hogg is willing to speak out will be a blow to the Zimbabwe board. Whereas it believed that it could counter the players’ evidence, the testimony of Hogg, who was privy to most board meetings, will be harder to dismiss. Hogg was embroiled in several incidents towards the end of his tenure, and whereas those would have been recounted to the hearing third hand, his testimony could be far more damning. He added: “Some of the things said to me at that time were just terrible.”But Hogg said that he did not agree with the rebels that the national selectors acted improperly or favoured coloured players over whites.

One of the players in dispute with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union has claimed that a leading official threatened to dig up the pitch for a recent international match if more black players were not selected for the series against Sri Lanka. Another local player told Wisden Cricinfo that the official had also said that he would orchestrate a pitch invasion if his demands were not met.Australia’s newspaper reported that the player, who chose to remain anonymous, explained to Ross Barrat – the chief executive of Albion, who make helmets and other cricket clothing – that the rebels had made it a legal matter. He claimed that the official has a track record of erratic behaviour, and last season allegedly assaulted an opposing player during a match.”Things have gone mad here,” wrote the player. “We’ve had non-stop meetings … for the last three weeks. We’re forcing them into arbitration, which they don’t like because they’re so guilty. It’s a dangerous move, but we’re doing it to try to save Zimbabwe cricket.”The report added that the letter (written before the latest round of negotiations) claimed that a number of individuals were considering joining the player exodus, with Australia the favourite destination.The signs that a settlement might be on the way, which came when four rebels were picked for the A-team match against the Sri Lankans, soon disappeared when it emerged that the other 11 rebel players were not being considered for selection in the squad for this week’s first Test. The Zimbabwean board – via the government-controlled Herald newspaper – said that the 11 were all “unfit”.This claim was met with a shrug of the shoulders by one senior player: “We all passed our fitness tests,” he said. He added that the ZCU again appeared to be trying to find a way out of the mess with a combination of half-truths and slyness. Whether this will work depends on the attitude of the four – Streak, Trevor Gripper, Sean Ervine and Ray Price – and whether the board meets the Tuesday deadline imposed by the rebels.One interesting aside was that Streak was given the biggest ovation of anybody by the all-black crowd at Takashinga when he went out to bat against the Sri Lankan tourists on Saturday. This is an indication of the respect he is held in by all sections of the community. The local press’s decision to label him as a racist clearly left the crowd unimpressed.

© CricInfo

The placid contours that had marked the first two World Cupcompetitions were disturbed quite markedly in the third editionin 1983. The competition, held in England for the thirdsuccessive time, started with a couple of upset results and endedin the biggest shock of all. At the end of it, West Indies hadbeen dethroned from their pedestal and surprisingly, the newchampions were not Australia or England but India who had beenranked 66 to one outsiders on the eve of the tournament.The format was once again the same as the eight teams were placedin two groups. While group A comprised England, Pakistan, NewZealand and Sri Lanka, group B comprised West Indies, Australia,India and Zimbabwe. By now Sri Lanka had joined the ranks of Testnations and Zimbabwe were the only associate member to make thegrade. But one important change in the format was that each teamwould be playing each other at the preliminary stage twice. Thismade each group quite competitive and had an impact on thesurprising results.The opening round itself was marked by two surprising resultswith Zimbabwe defeating Australia and India upsetting the WestIndies.Zimbabwe’s defeat of Australia was easily the biggest upsetresult in the history of the World Cup. The African nation hadbeen listed as 1000 to one outsiders to win the competition butwith a highly professional performance they won by 13 runs. Thebatsmen played Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Rodney Hogg and GeoffLawson with more than a degree of confidence while the bowlerswere able to restrict Kepler Wessels, Graeme Wood, Kim Hughes,Allan Border, Graham Yallop, David Hookes and Rodney Marsh.India’s victory over the West Indies was almost as big a shock.For starters, India had won just one of six matches in the twoprevious competitions. Secondly, West Indies had never previouslybeen defeated in 1975 and 1979.India had served notice that they might be coming to termsfinally with the intricacies of the limited overs game bydefeating West Indies at Berbice dur ing their tour to theCaribbean a few months earlier. But few expected a similar resultin the World Cup where West Indies had reigned as undisputedchampions.The two matches set the tone for some more surprising results tofollow and a few days later, Sri Lanka surprised hotly fanciedNew Zealand in a group match. But the tournament was not allabout surprise results.West Indies won their next five matches totop the group. England likewise won five and lost only one intopping their pool comfortably. But there was a keen tussle forthe second semifinalist spot from each group. Finally, India gotthe better of Australia in group A while New Zealand, underpressure because of their upset loss to Sri Lanka, were edged outby Pakistan in group B.The semifinals pitted India against England and West Indiesagainst Pakistan. Not unexpectedly, a second successive finalbetween England and West Indies was freely predicted. But Indiaupset the calculations even if Pakistan could not. It was anunexpected bonus for the sub-continent to produce two of thesemifinalists and Kapil’s Devils as they were now christenedproceeded to make the pundits scratch their heads in disbelief.The captain himself had played one of the great one-day knocks inthe return game against Zimbabwe. Entering when the scoreboardread nine runs for the four wickets, Kapil first extricated histeam from the dicey situation and then went on to launch into afurious counter attack that ultimately saw him get an unbeaten175, the highest score in a one-day international with the helpof 16 fours and six sixes. Inspired by their captain, the teammembers put up a splendid show.India’s advantage was that they had a number of utility players,so very essential in the limited overs game. Still it waspredicted that a confident England side playing at home would getthe better of India. England did start well with the 100 comingup for the loss of only two wickets but they then flounderedagainst Mohinder Amarnath and Kirti Azad who bowled 24 oversbetween them for just 55 runs and three wickets. India neversurrendered the initiative that they obtained with England beingbowled out for 213. Sensible batting by every one of their mainbatsmen Sunil Gavaskar, K Srikkanth, Amarnath, Yashpal Sharma andSandip Patil saw India home with six wickets and 5.2 overs tospare.

© CricInfo

India were now one steep step away from the summit. But theystill had to get the better of the West Indies who in the othersemifinal coasted to an eight-wicket victory over Pakistan.Despite the impressive showing by the Indians, the West Indiesremained firm favourites on the eve of the title clash at Lord’son June 25. And a hat-trick of title triumphs was taken forgranted when India were all out for 183. The feeling gainedmomentum when West Indies were 50 for one with the incomparableVivian Richards in commanding form.Then followed an amazing turn about. Within a few overs, WestIndies had slumped to 76 for six and suddenly India were headingfor an astonishing title triumph. Kapil took a fine catch todismiss Richards, Madan Lal took three quick wickets and it wasleft to Jeff Dujon and the long tail to try and retrieve thesituation. The wicket-keeper and Malcolm Marshall did give therampaging Indians some anxious moments in putting together a 43-run seventh wicket partnership. But now Amarnath did the starturn. He broke the partnership by getting rid of Marshall andthen took the last wicket to herald Indian cricket’s greatestmoment. West Indies were all out for 140 and the whole of Indiaerupted in a riotous celebration. It was a well-deserved triumph,for after all India had beaten the West Indies not just once buttwice and had also added England’s scalp for good measure.The Indians got six man of the match awards and these includedtwo for Mohinder Amarnath for his all-round display in thesemifinal and final, while Roger Binny, with 18 victims, emergedas the leading wicket-taker.

India’s batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar suffered a foot injury duringthe final of the tri-nation series against the West Indies on Saturdaywhen his right foot spiked his left foot while fielding, forcing himto withdraw from the first part of the coming Sri Lankan tour.”Though an X-ray has ruled out any fracture, the injury is extremelypainful and the foot has to be rested for at least two to three weeksas there is an aggravation of muscles”, the Indian Cricket Board(BCCI) sources said in Mumbai today.His right foot, with spikes, landed between toe and heel of the leftfoot, resulting in a sesamoid bruise, sources added.However, the BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele or any of the selectors whomet here yesterday to finalise the team for Sri Lankan tour were notable to describe the nature of injury to Tendulkar’s foot butannounced that the Mumbai star would be joining the team for the lastleague tie against New Zealand on 2 August.

When Marcelo Bielsa looks back on his time at Leeds United, last summer’s transfer window may be the one he looks at as the beginning of the end for him.

The Whites’ squad was already razor-thin as it was, but the Yorkshire club failed to get a number of their targets through the door, including one of the most eye-catching in Club Brugge’s Noa Lang.

Indeed, it was suggested that the Whites had even agreed personal terms with Lang ahead of a potential move to Elland Road, and all that was left to be discussed was the actual fee involved.

Of course that didn’t materialise in the end, and Lang has simply gone from strength to strength with Brugge this season, and now has the likes of Arsenal monitoring his progress.

In fact, with reports claiming he could be available for £33m in the upcoming summer transfer window, it does feel like Leeds really missed the boat with the flying Dutchman.

Hailed as a “phenomenon” by Belgian journalist Peter Vandenbempt, the 22-year-old made history when he became the first player in more than 50 years to mark his debut for Ajax by scoring a hat-trick – something that left manager Erik ten Hag waxing lyrical about him in his post-match press conference.

He said: “He showed (his talent) today and I am very happy with that. Noa shows (his ability) it during training and during the reserve matches. And today he has also clearly shown it at the highest level too.”

And, after a particularly fine performance against KRC Genk, Belgian analyst Filip Joos, said: “He is currently the best player in the league, I think. That‘s really pure class. He sees it, makes eye contact with Mechele who finishes it fine. Fantastic goal, because that pass is also ideal. He is constantly moving, he swings across the field, he likes to dribble, but he will always play it at the right time.”

This year has seen him net eight goals and provide another 13 assists in 40 games across all competitions, including picking up an assist in the Champions League against PSG earlier in the group stages.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Given how fellow winger and summer signing Dan James has fared since his move from Manchester United – the Welshman has managed just four goals and four assists in 28 Premier League matches and 31 games in total – Leeds will surely be ruefully looking at Lang and wondering what could have been.

Missing out on the Brugge dynamo is one that would have left Bielsa no doubt gutted.

AND in other news: Orta set for Leeds disaster as terms agreed for £63k-p/w “storm” who’s “a level above”

England 286 for 6 (Vaughan 63, Strauss 43, Pietersen 42, Collingwood 41*, Martin 2-53, Vettori 2-60) trail New Zealand 470 by 184 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

	Kyle Mills pumps his fists next to the broken stumps after bowling Ian Bell © Getty Images

On a day that was the antithesis of Twenty20’s thrill-a-minute cricket, England’s progress was, at its most exciting, pedestrian and at times they almost ground to a halt. They closed on 286 for 6 with Paul Collingwood and Tim Ambrose well set, still 184 in arrears, and in 93 overs they managed only 199 runs. Is it any wonder that crowds for Tests in New Zealand are so poor?While England got dogged defence down to a fine art, they forgot that to defend successfully, you need to score runs as well. For almost an hour in the afternoon the run-rate hovered at around one an over. Incredibly, that was while Kevin Pietersen was at the crease. The result was that although New Zealand only took four wickets, their lead remains large enough that if they can bowl England out cheaply tomorrow and score quick runs, they will have at least a day for their bowlers to win the match.New Zealand bowled superbly until weariness took hold in the last hour. The seamers offered little, the spinners tormented the batsmen, and Daniel Vettori tightened the noose with intelligent field placing that choked England’s usually aggressive middle order.Resuming on 87 for 2, England pressed on for much of the morning as Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss made slow, steady and untroubled progress, and when Vaughan brought up his half-century with a deliberate steer to third man off Vettori, the chatter was all about how a draw was almost inevitable.Even when the breakthrough came from Jeetan Patel, it seemed only a brief hiccup. Patel, who visibly grew in confidence as the day progressed, found a modicum of turn outside off stump and Vaughan feathered a sharp chance through to Brendon McCullum behind the stumps. Three balls after lunch and Strauss fell, undone by a sublimely-flighted ball from Vettori which fizzed out of the footmarks outside off and ripped through a loose drive.Vettori then turned the screw. When not bowling himself, he placed his field to choke the batsmen’s strengths, especially when Pietersen was on strike, reducing one of the game’s great strokemakers to a plodding grafter. Pietersen thumped the third ball of his innings before lunch for a towering straight six; in the entire afternoon he managed 26 runs, and eight of those came off the last two overs of the session. It wasn’t until the brink of tea that he hit his second boundary.

	Daniel Vettori clings onto a fine caught-and-bowled low to his left to dismiss Kevin Pietersen © Getty Images

Ian Bell, seemingly untroubled by the injury to his hand sustained on the first morning, never really settled, and with Pietersen rendered almost impotent, runs almost totally dried up – 56 came off 31 overs in the afternoon session. So effective were the spinners than Vettori delayed taking the new ball for almost an hour. When it did arrive, Kyle Mills nipped one back between bat and pad to bowl Bell, and the possibility of a follow-on, until then at the back of the mind, became a real possibility. Whether Vettori would have enforced it is another matter.Pietersen’s uncharacteristic vigil – he was at one stage given an ironic cheer for a single – ended soon after tea when a thin edge into his pads carried back to a diving Vettori, but as the shadows lengthened Collingwood and Ambrose finally started to hit out, their unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 41 coming at heady two an over. The diminutive Ambrose showed no sign of nerves in his debut innings.England should have done enough to ensure that unless this pluperfect surface suddenly falls apart, this game will end in nothing other than stalemate. But watching the way Vettori and Patel whirled away in the afternoon, and imagining how many more questions they will ask on a wearing fifth-day pitch, it would be foolish to write New Zealand off quite yet.