|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
| Home | |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Sports News Wednesday, September 03, 2003 Compiled by SDNP Head lines Multan Test from today AP, MULTAN, The Independent Sept 2: Pakistan captain Rashid Latif on Tuesday predicted his team would complete a 3-0 Test whitewash of Bangladesh with a convincing win in the third and final Test starting Wednesday in the central Pakistani town of Multan. Bangladesh, a fledgling Test-playing nation and heavy underdogs, put in creditable performances in their first two encounters, taking the first Test match at Karachi into the fifth morning and posting an innings lead in the second Test last week in Peshawar - the first time the team have held a lead in its short, 23-Test history. The Bangladeshi advantage didn’t last, however, as Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar tore them apart in the second innings. Latif blames pitch conditions and a negative playing style on Bangladesh’s part for the surprisingly close matches. "They have played negative cricket and they won’t learn if they play like this," Latif said of Bangladesh, who lost by seven wickets at Karachi and nine wickets at Peshawar. Pakistan will be without Shoaib, the man of the match of the second Test. Shoaib, who returned to England to rejoin his county club Durham for the English county championship, took a career-best 10-80 at Peshawar. Pakistan have recalled off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq - a veteran of 47 Test matches with a tally of 205 wickets. Latif said he didn’t know how the wicket would behave under the searing temperatures expected for the next test, when temperatures are predicted to hover in the mid-30 degrees Celsius (mid-90s Fahrenheit), but said he hoped his bowlers would get enough support from the batsmen to put Bangladesh under pressure. Pakistan have fond memories of playing at Multan Cricket Stadium, where they defeated Bangladesh inside three days at the Asian Test Championships in 2001. Five Pakistani batsmen scored centuries in one innings in that match. Three of those century-makers - opener Taufeeq Umer, Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam-ul-Haq - are still in the Pakistan squad and two are certain to figure in the third test. Umer has some pain in his knees, but Latif said that the final decision would be taken Wednesday morning. If Umer fails the fitness test, Salman Butt, who scored a double century and a century for his Pakistan Academy team on a tour to South Africa last month, will make his debut. Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud Sujan insisted that his team have played positively and was looking forward to giving Pakistan another fight in the last Test. "We have played positive cricket and the boys have improved both physically and mentally to play the five-day games. I am looking forward to another good performance from them," Mahmud said. Bangladesh have made two changes for the Multan Test. Medium pacer Mashrafee Mortaza Koushik has been given rest, while Almagir Kabir has been dropped. Left-arm pacer Monjurul Islam and right-arm pacer Tapash Baisya have been included in their places. Only batsmen Habibul Bashar Sumon - with scores of 71 and 108 at Karachi and 97 and 28 at Peshawar - and opener Javed Omar Gullu with a maiden century in the second Test have showed some resistance against Pakistan. The pair shared Bangladesh’s record 167-run third wicket partnership at Peshawar and put the team in a commanding position before Shoaib took six wickets inside 21 deliveries. TEAMS Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umer, Yasir Hameed, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Rashid Latif (wicketkeeper) (captain), Saqlain Mushtaq, Shabbir Ahmad, Umer Gul, Danish Kaneria, Farhan Adil, Salman Butt, Yasir Ali, Asim Kamal and Mohammad Khalil. Bangladesh: Khaled Mahmud Sujan (captain), Hannan Sarkar, Javed Omar Gullu, Habibul Bashar Sumon, Mohammad Ashraful, Razin Saleh, Alok Kapali, Mohammad Rafiq, Kaled Masud Pilot, Tapash Baisya, Monjurul Islam. Umpires: Ashoka de Silva (Sri Lanka) and Russell Tiffin (Zimbabwe) MSC, Muktis meet in Friday's final Kanchan does the magic SPORTS REPORTER, The Independent A spectacular late strike by Rokonuzzaman Kanchan against run of play steered Mohammedan Sporting Club to the final of the Nitol-Tata 3rd National Football League with a 1-0 win over Abahani Limited in the second semifinal on Tuesday. Treated underdogs before the match, Abahani dominated the show over the defending champions but Kanchan utilised a counter attack to score seven minutes from time as Mohammedans set a final clash against Muktijoddha Sangsad. Muktijoddha edged tournament dark-horse Moulvibazar wanderers also by the same margin earlier in the first semifinal. The two teams will face in the final on Friday. A 40,000-strong crowd enjoyed superb football at the floodlit Sher-e Bangla Mirpur National Stadium from the word go with the sky-blues, unimpressive throughout the run, revealing their real strength. Three foreign imports, Brazilian attacker Sandro, Nigerian midfielder Donald and Guniea's centre-back Scylla inspired Abahani's local collection to put on their best show in the season. Still, they could not avoid their third defeat in seven outings and had to settle for a third-fourth place play-off against the Moulvibazar league champions tomorrow. Sandro rushed early blood but his curling freekick from the left was brilliantly pushed out of the line by Mohammedans keeper Nizam four minutes after start. Abahani midfielders unsettled their rivals winning almost every tackle and stringing passes together from the start. And Mohammedans' defensive midfielder Joy, infamous for his rough tackles, committed three dangerous fouls inside ten minutes in bid to take control, all being ignored by referee Ibrahim Nesar. The ploy failed and Nizam was at Sandro's mercy in the 12th minute when the Brazilian, playing in striking position, exchanged passes with Donald to get in the box. He put the ball past the black and whites keeper but Masud Rana deflected the placing shot inches wide. Nizam once again came to the rescue in the 20th minute when he intercepted a low hard cross by Donald before it could reach an unguarded Khokon near the goalmouth. Mohammedans twice broke the compact Abahani backline but Titu and Farhad both lost the ball under pressure inside the box. After a flurry of attacks came the inevitable low tide and a wrong decision by the referee near the Abahani penalty box sparked a brawl between the two sides after 37 minutes. Afterwards, the holders tested the Abahani custodian with a long range effort but Joy's powerful drive was safely handled by Titumeer in his second attempt. Russian coach Anatoly must have completed his homework and the sky-blues came with fresh vigour after the break. Mohammedans booters looked no match but Abahani, despite shattering the slow opposition defence often, failed to hit the mark due to lack of a matured goal scorer. The match probably got out their hands in the 62nd minute when a twin act on the goalline helped Mohammedans make a great escape. Dashing down the left, Donald sent a low hard cross in the box and Khokon was in position to flick the ball with a glancing header. Nizam's reflex, however, parried the close-range effort and Liton's shot on the rebound was kept out off the line by defender Hassan. Mohammedans got the wake up call right and hit back with a series of raids but every time, found the towering Scylla foiling them. Kanchan's final blow was inspired by Hassan who was awarded a wrong pass in their own area. The central defender ran 40 yards down the middle of the pitch and superbly cut the ball to his right where no defenders marked Kanchan, adjudged man of the match. The diminutive forward ran wide of the goal but having seen Abahani goalie covering the near post, lobbed the keeper with his favourite left foot. The ball evaded the wrongfooted keeper's hands and kissed the far post before crossing the line for the match winner as three Abahani defenders inside the box hopelessly watched their first big mistake paying heavily. Yellow cards: Hassan, Farhad (Mohammedans) and Nazrul, Liton (Abahani). TEAMS Mohammedans: Nizam, Raid, Jewel, Hassan, Titu, Joy, Monwar (Pappu, 60th minute), Turabikov (Salisu, 89th), Masud Rana, Kanchan and Farhad. Abahani: Titumeer, Aminul, Nazrul, Scylla, Mintu, Liton (Nayan, 89th), Pranotosh, Donald, Asad (Shuvra, 83rd), Sandro and Khokon. We allowed Bangladesh to perform in the first two Tests: Latif Tigers main aim to avoid whitewash AFP, REUTERS, MULTAN, The Independent Sept 2: Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore is hoping to staunch the Test minnows' rapidly evaporating confidence to avoid a series whitewash against Pakistan here Wednesday. Whatmore was left stunned in the second Test last weekend when his side surrendered a 66-run first innings lead to be bowled out for just 96 in the second innings after dominating the opening days play. The collapse handed Pakistan a nine-wicket win and gave them a 2-0 lead in the best-of-three series against Bangladesh, still looking for their maiden win in Test cricket. Although Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore has been heartened by a general improvement in his team's performances against Pakistan, he is concerned that confidence could be undermined by the back-to-back defeats. "We have to guard against that," he said. "It is never easy for any team to keep their morale high after losing in this manner. "We have to be careful that we don't suffer a sudden drop in form and confidence. So far, we have achieved improvement in certain areas that I was looking at. "As a coach, I am not satisfied with the results, but the improvement is there and the team is now playing hard and getting physically stronger." "I am trying to make sure that the boys do not lose confidence after their slump in the Peshawar Test," said Whatmore. Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud Sujan meanwhile dismissed criticism of his team's Test status as unwarranted. "When someone criticises our Test status we feel hurt because the improvement is definitely there," said Sujan, whose team has lost 17 Tests in a row since drawing against Zimbabwe two years ago. Sujan, who took over as captain in April this year, said he would discuss his future with Bangladesh officials at the end of the series. "After the series I will sit down with the Boards officials and will review my career," he said. The tourists are likely to replace pacers Mashrafe Murtaza Koushik and Alamgir Kabir with Tapash Baisya and Manjurul Islam. Pakistan captain Rashid Latif urged Bangladesh team to play positively in the remaining Test. "They have a mediocre bowling attack and they have managed to stay in the matches by bowling to open fields. They have played negative cricket, and it is doing them no good. "I don't want to interfere in what their captain or coach thinks or plans. But they need to play positively -- win or lose," Latif told reporters in his pre-match news conference on Tuesday. Latif added that Pakistan's overall dominance had been blunted by slow pitches for the first two Tests in Karachi and Peshawar. "We didn't get the tracks we would have liked," he said. "If the pitches had had some pace in them, I think we would have won the Tests inside three days. "In Multan, we have to assert our authority completely and try to finish off the match as soon as possible," he added. "We allowed them (Bangladesh) to perform in the first two Tests but here we will try our best to finish it off early," the Pakistan captain said. Pakistan won the first Test by seven wickets in Karachi and the second by nine wickets in Peshawar and appear set to blank the tourists in the three-match series. Pakistan previously achieved a 3-0 rout against Australia in 1982-83, against New Zealand in 1990-91 and against the West Indies in 1997-98. Pakistan face Bangladesh without their ace pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who is returning to England to complete his contract with county outfit Durham. Shoaib wrecked the tourists with match figures of 10-80 in the second Test. Experienced off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq, summoned from county commitments in England with Surrey, and middle order batsman Younis Khan, who missed the first two Tests due to family commitments, are set to play. MSC meet Abahani in crucial tie today SPORTS REPORTER, The Independent Reining champions Abahani Limited will meet archrivals Mohammedan Sporting Club in the championship deciding match of the Green Delta Premier Division Hockey League today at Maulana Bhashani Hockey Stadium. The match will start at 4 pm. The two heavyweight outfits of Dhaka hockey will fight for the same target i.e. to win the match. Mohammedans will need just a draw to regain the title after one season, Abahani have only one option left to win the match in their bid to retain the prestigious league crown. The captains of the both teams expressed their determination to win the match while talking to media after completing their final preparation at the Maulana Bhashani Stadium on Tuesday. Hedayetul Islam Rajib, captain of the Abahani Limited, told that they were fully tension free, though they were one point behind of their rivals. "Citing the previous experience, Rajib said, "We trailed by six points in the last year's league race but finally we overcame the deficit to win the title. So we have every confidence to make it once again," said Rajib the hardworking Abahani midfielder. Meanwhile, Abahani were making a last minute effort to reinforce the team frontline by recruiting Indian captain Dhanraj Pillay who was yet to confirm his arrival time. Abahani hockey secretary Zahidur Rahman Pushkin said that the Indian captain was due to reach Dhaka on Tuesday as per earlier talks between him and Pillay. However, the team will wait for him till the last moment to include him in today's crucial match, said Pushkin. Abahani will play with three Indians while the Mohammedan will field four Pakistani stick-wielders. When asked about Pillay's uncertainty , Rajib said, "It will not effect the team. We played full league sans Pillay, so the absence of Pillay would not cause any harm to the team." Mahbub Harun, now the main coach of Abahani, in absence of Jumman Lusai agreed with his captain Rajib that now they have no alternative but to win said his team will play a positive game in a bid to earn full points. Musa Mia, captain of the Mohammedan Sporting Club, has also expressed his optimistic about winning the match. When asked what would be the Mohammedans' strategy as they need a draw to win the title, Musa said, "We shall play to win, not to draw, now we don't think about the advantage of one point, we want to become the champions after winning the prestigious match." "Mohammedan-Abahani match is always a prestige issue and high tempered match, so we shall try to win the match," Musa added. The first-league match between the two giants ended in 2-2 draw. Mohammedans so far earned 32 points from 12 matches, while Abahani closely followed them with 31 points. Basketball coaches' clinic ends SPORTS REPOTER, The Independent A ten-day basketball coaches' clinic organised by Bangladesh Basketball Federation was concluded on Monday at Dhanmondi Basketball Gymnasium. Indian coach J P Singh conducted the coaching clinic. Bangladesh Basketball Federation president Major General (retd) Z A Khan distributed certificates among the participants on Tuesday. BBF general secretary Selim Chowdhury and other officials were present. |
|||
|
|
|||
|
| About us | Bangladesh | Success Stories | Documents | SEMP | Links | News | Partners | Environment | Tech.Info | |
|||
|
© Copyright and
Fair Use . SDNP Bangladesh holds the ©
copyright to its publications and web pages but |
|||
