Youngsters propel Wolves to Twenty20 title win
 

[CENTER][B][SIZE="5"]Youngsters propel Wolves to Twenty20 title win[/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]

Asif Ali hit a glorious unbeaten half century and Asad Ali and Ehsan Adil took three wickets each to help Faisalabad Wolves overwhelm holders Sialkot Stallions by 36 runs in the final of the Faysal Bank Super Eight T20 Cup at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Sunday night.
Asif hit 70 not out to enable Wolves to post 158-3 in the allotted 20 overs. Then Asad Ali took 3-21 in 3.1 overs and Test pacer Ehsan Adil got 3-37 to dismiss Stallions for 122 in reply.
After opting to bat first, Wolves lost left-hander Ali Waqas (1) early, stumped by keeper Shakeel Ansar off Shoaib Malik.
Umaid Asif then sent Farrukh Shehzad (8) in the third over as Shakeel Ansar took a sharp catch down the leg side to leave Wolves at 16-2 in three overs.
Khurram Shehzad and Asif Ali then added 63 runs for the third wicket before Khurram was bowled by left-arm spinner Raza Hasan for 30. He hit five fours from 31 balls and Wolves were 79-3 in 12.2 overs. After Khurram’s fall, skipper Misbah-ul-Haq joined Asif and the duo plundered runs with great pace, adding 79 runs for the fourth wicket unbroken association to catapult Wolves to 158-3.
Asif smashed six fours and three sixes in his 49-ball fifty. Misbah hammered three sixes and two fours in his 25-ball 38 not out. The last two overs yielded 35 runs.
Umaid Asif’s second last over, in which he was hit by Misbah for two glorious sixes, gave away 19 runs. The last over bowled by Rana Naved-ul-Hasan cost Stallions 16 runs. Rana Naved conceded 42 runs in four overs. Leggie Adeel Malik gave away 17 in two overs, while Abdur Rehman conceded 26 in four overs.
Stallions had a poor start when they began their chase, losing Shakeel Ansar (4), Ali Khan (3) and Umaid Asif (0) with only ten runs on the board.
Mansoor Amjad (3) then sacrificed his wicket for Shoaib Malik as he was run out responding to a difficult call from his skipper. This left Stallions at 26-4 in 6.4 overs.
Ayaz Tasawwar then gave good support to Shoaib, putting on 63 runs for the fifth wicket before Ayaz was caught by Asif Ali off Ehsan Adil. The left-hander banged two fours and a six in his 28 runs, scored off 26 deliveries.
Ehsan then removed Shoaib Malik (40) and Adeel Malik (0) on two successive balls to leave Stallions reeling at 97-7 in 16.4 overs. Shoaib smacked four fours and a six from 39 balls.
Asad then bowled Shahid Yousuf (12), Saeed Ajmal dislodged Rana Naved (11) and Asad removed Abdur Rehman (3) as Stallions perished for 122 in 19.1 overs.
Test spinner Saeed Ajmal took 1-21 in four overs, while Samiullah Niazi got 1-17 in four.
Wolves had brought in Ajmal in place of Jahandad Khan, while Stallions fielded the same side that won the semi-final.
Asif Ali was declared man of the match.

[url]http://e.thenews.com.pk/4-1-2013/page17.asp#;[/url]

Karachi University march into final
 

[CENTER][B][SIZE="5"]Karachi University march into final[/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]

Karachi University have set up a mouth-watering title clash against DAV College Chandigarh in the Campus Cricket final here.
Karachi University confirmed themselves as the finalists as they brushed aside Great Britiain Combined University Team by 76 runs, in the semi-final. Batting first, a half-century to opener Faraz Ali helped set a strong foundation for Karachi, before Nabeel Khalid and Shahzaib Khan made useful contributions from the lower-middle order, to help Karachi score 154 all out in 20 overs. Simon Watkins was the best of Great Britain Combined’s bowlers, taking 4 for 27 from his four overs.
In response, Great Britain Combined lost opener Harry Bush on the first ball of the innings, and it hardly got better from there. Chris Wakefield and Luke Blackaby began a recovery, but could not sustain their innings long enough to make a difference, and after their demise, the remainder of the batting order succumbed quickly. Shahzaib Khan and Mirza Jamil took three wickets apiece, to help dismiss the opposition for 78, in 15 overs.
In the other semi-final, a late charge from the University of Moratuwa middle order was not enough to haul in the tall total set by DAV Chandigarh, who have booked a place in the Campus Cricket final, with a 16-run win in the first semi-final. Chandigarh made 210 for 4, batting first at the Premadasa Stadium, thanks to an impressive start and an explosive finish.
Wicketkeeper batsman Gaurav Tandon made 53 from 33 deliveries after arriving at the crease in the third over, and put on 81 runs in 48 balls alongside opener Jaskaran Singh, who made 47 from 32 balls.

[url]http://images.thenews.com.pk/07-04-2013/ethenews/e-169946.htm[/url]

Wolves to feature in CLT20 Qualifiers
 

[CENTER][B][SIZE="5"]Wolves to feature in CLT20 Qualifiers[/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]

The Champions League T20 2013 will be held in India from September 17 to October 6 and there will be no team from England in the tournament. The main draw also sees West Indian representation for the first time.
The schedule, announced on Friday, has ten teams split in two groups, with the top two in each group making the semi-finals. Eight teams have been seeded directly into the main competition and will be joined by two of the five qualifiers.
One of those qualifiers is the Pakistan side Faisalabad Wolves, who recently won the Faysal Bank Super Eight T20 Cup; their participation in the tournament will be interesting given the fragile diplomatic and sporting ties between India and Pakistan.
The Indians have not allowed the participation of Pakistani players in the Indian Premier League since the event’s second edition. Last month, Pakistan’s hockey players were sent back home from India where they had gone to feature in a professional event because of cross-border tensions between the two neighbours.
Meanwhile, Trinidad & Tobago find a place in the main draw, after sustained public pressure following strong performances in previous seasons. They had finished runners-up in the inaugural edition in 2009, and won Qualifiers in 2011 and 2012 to secure their berth.
The ECB’s announcement that no teams from England will take part in this year’s competition has opened up slots for other domestic teams.
Group A: IPL 1st ranked team (India) Highveld Lions (South Africa) Perth Scorchers (Australia) IPL 3rd ranked team (India) Q1 (Qualifier)
Group B: IPL 2nd ranked team (India) Titans (South Africa) Brisbane Heat (Australia) Trinidad & Tobago (West Indies) Q2 (Qualifier)
Qualifier: IPL 4th ranked team (India) Otago Volts (New Zealand) Sri Lanka qualifier Faisalabad Wolves (Pakistan).

[url]http://e.thenews.com.pk/4-13-2013/page21.asp#;[/url]

PCB suspends Nadeem Ghauri for 4 years
 

[CENTER][B][SIZE="5"]PCB suspends Nadeem Ghauri for 4 years[/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has suspended international umpire Nadeem Ghauri for four years for agreeing to ``extend undue favors for material gain'' during a sting operation carried out by a Indian television channel last year.

The PCB said Saturday in a statement that Ghauri will not be considered for any appointment during the length of his ban.

Ghauri has officiated in five tests, 43 one-day internationals and four Twenty20 matches.

Domestic umpire Anis Siddique was banned for three years. The committee felt he initially resisted the offers during the same sting operation ``but finally conceded to them on their persistence.''

source : [url]http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-96587-PCB-suspends-Nadeem-Ghauri-for-4-years[/url]

[B][SIZE="6"][U]Pakistan bids to host Cricket World Cup 2018
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[B]LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Zaka Ashraf has said that Pakistan submitted a bid to host 2018 World Cup to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the matter has also been forwarded to the Cricket Governing Body.
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Speaking to media at the airport after his return from Dubai where he attended an ICC meeting , Ashraf said that talks were held with some more countries to woo them for Pakistan tour but there was no progress.

Replying to a query regarding MuhammaD Asif and Salman Butt, the PCB chief said that the cricketers would have to complete their punishment before the cricket board considered their future. However, he said that sentencing and banning such players would be an example for others.

Source: [url]http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-97272-Pakistan-bids-to-host-Cricket-World-Cup-2018[/url]

Chris Gayle 175 off 66 (IPL 2013)
 

[CENTER][I][B][SIZE="4"][FONT="Georgia"]Chris Gayle 175 off 66...
17 Sixes 13 Fours...[/FONT][/SIZE][/B][/I]
[IMG]https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/528451_496746990393264_1364175022_n.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]

Tendulkar to bat on at 40
 

[CENTER][B][SIZE="5"]Tendulkar to bat on at 40[/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]

Record-breaking batsman Sachin Tendulkar turns 40 on Wednesday with no plans to retire despite media speculation and recent form suggesting that age is finally catching up with the “Little Master”.
Test and one-day cricket’s greatest run-scorer approaches the game with undiminished enthusiasm and insists he has much to offer despite slipping from the dizzying heights he reached earlier in his 24-year career.
“People have been talking about my retirement since 2005, but that does not worry me at all,” Tendulkar chided reporters at a promotional event in New Delhi last week.
“Your job is to write, my job is to play. I will stick to my job and you stick to yours.”
Tendulkar, afforded almost religious status in India, burst onto the world cricket scene as a 16-year-old in 1989 and has played a record 198 Tests and 463 one-dayers, scoring an unprecedented 100 international hundreds.
He was singled out by Don Bradman but the Australian legend’s Test average is one of the few marks that Tendulkar has been unable to threaten, with his 15,837 runs coming at 53.86. Bradman averaged 99.94, far more than anyone else.
Questions over Tendulkar’s future mounted when he struggled for a year to score the ton he needed to take him to 100 centuries. He finally achieved the landmark against Bangladesh in Dhaka in March 2012.
Tendulkar, who decided not to play Twenty20 Internationals after just one match in 2006, announced his retirement from one-day cricket last December in a bid to prolong his glittering Test career.
But his form in the five-day format has also dipped by his own stellar standards. He has scored just 1,145 runs in 21 Tests at an average of 31.80 since being part of India’s World Cup-winning team two years ago.
And Tendulkar has not added to his tally of 51 Test centuries since making 146 against South Africa in Cape Town in January 2011.
But despite his struggles with the bat, the veteran is refusing to follow fellow modern greats such as compatriot Rahul Dravid and Australia’s Ricky Ponting into retirement.
Sunil Gavaskar, the first man to reach the 10,000-run milestone in Tests, suggested last year that Tendulkar’s reflexes were on the slide. Former Australian captain Steve Waugh also feels he is past his best.
“He is not playing up to his standards,” Waugh said last week. “But he himself has to decide (on retirement).”
When India succumbed to a Test series defeat against England at home in December, former skipper Sourav Ganguly backed calls for Tendulkar to quit.
“He is getting a long rope because of what he has achieved,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. “As somebody watching it from outside, Tendulkar is not performing.
“And I think if I were Tendulkar, I would go (retire).”
But Kapil Dev, another ex-India skipper, says Tendulkar is fit and hungry for success even after so many years of gruelling cricket. “Sachin passes on both counts. He could go on for years if he wanted to,” he told AFP.
Six months ago, Tendulkar admitted in a television interview that retirement had crossed his mind, but said he would take it series by series before making a final call.
“I am 39-plus and it is not abnormal for me to think of retirement,” he said. “I will go by what my heart says. At this moment, my heart says I am OK.”
There has been media speculation over whether Tendulkar will play in India’s next Test outing — a three-match away series against world number one side South Africa starting late in the year.
There is even talk of organising two home Tests against an unknown opponent before the tour of South Africa to enable Tendulkar to bow out with 200 appearances in a farewell series.
But few would be surprised if the player, described by former India coach Gary Kirsten as cricket’s “greatest role model”, bats on at the top level.
As many as 102 cricketers have played Test matches after hitting 40, the oldest being Englishman Wilfred Rhodes, who was 52 when he took on the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1930.
Tendulkar, who last year accepted a government offer to take up a nominated seat in India’s upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha, has never revealed what he wants to do post-retirement.
“It is going to be hard because I have not experienced anything close to what I might go through when I retire,” he said in a recent television interview.
“I cannot relate this moment with any other moment in my life.”

[url]http://e.thenews.com.pk/4-24-2013/page21.asp#;[/url]

[B][CENTER][SIZE="5"]Khan beats Diaz on points to stay in title picture
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[B]SHEFFIELD: Amir Khan came back from a knockdown to beat a fast-finishing Julio Diaz by unanimous decision at Motorpoint Arena on Saturday.
[/B]
Khan, trying to recover his reputation after successive losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia in the last 16 months, was cruising early against Diaz, the aging former two-time world lightweight champ.

Then Diaz exposed Khan's weakness by dumping him with a left hook in the fourth round, and staggered the former world light-welter champ with hooks in the eighth, 10th and 11th rounds.

But Khan (28-3, 19 KO) deserved his slim victory, judged 115-113, 115-112, 114-113. Diaz's record fell to 40-8-1.

[url]http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.aspx?ID=98739[/url]

Unknown pacer Ahmed Jamal crowned as ‘King of Speed’
 

[CENTER][B][SIZE="5"]Unknown pacer Ahmed Jamal crowned as ‘King of Speed’[/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]

Unheralded fast bowler Ahmed Jamal has vowed to make a name for himself after winning a nationwide “King of Speed” competition launched by Ufone and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to unearth new pace talent.
Pakistan boast a proud history of pacemen including the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar, and Jamal showed he has the pace to frighten batsmen with a fastest delivery of 143 kilometres (89 miles) an hour.
The 24-year-old, who hails from the city of Abbottabad where Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in 2011, came out on top in the competition.
Jamal, who plays first-class cricket for Port Qasim, was delighted to scoop the one million rupee prize after the four-man final.
“I am thrilled and very happy,” Jamal said. “My feet were on the ground before I won this and will remain on the ground after winning the prize as I want to make a name for myself.”
PCB and Ufone joined hands to launch the hunt for fast bowlers ahead of a 10-day training camp led by Wasim after chief selector Iqbal Qasim raised concerns about poor quality in the pace department.
Wasim, regarded by many as the best left-arm fast bowler ever to play the game, said he was satisfied with the talent on display at the camp, where around 20 bowlers trained.
“It was a short camp and we will not stop here,” he said at the end of the camp.“What I have noticed that all these bowlers are passionate and want to learn, which proved that the next five years we will have no problem in the pace department.”
Jamal was picked from trials in Abbottabad earlier this month, one of a series in 10 cities to find a bowler with 145 km speed. The other three finalists were Faisal Yasin, Abdul Hameed and Mohammad Imran.
Former Pakistan paceman Wasim Akram said Jamal, who is six feet four inches tall (1.93 metres), has the ability to thrive. “I noticed him on the first day and he looks very talented,” Wasim said of Jamal. “His pace will increase with the passage of time and I believe the pacer has a bright future,” Wasim told reporters.
Wasim also praised the initiative of including youngsters in the high profile fast bowling camp and said that it would enhance enthusiasm and skill among the upcoming pacers. Jamal said he was inspired to bowl fast by Shoaib Akhtar.
“The desire was inspired by watching Shoaib,” Jamal recalled. “I want to achieve his speed and want to bowl as fast as he used to.”
Wasim, meanwhile, will also help the bowlers at the national team’s camp next month to tune up for the eight-nation Champions Trophy in England where they will be without their usual pace spearhead Umar Gul, who is injured.

[url]http://e.thenews.com.pk/4-30-2013/page21.asp#;[/url]

[B][SIZE="5"][CENTER]Aamir Atlas wins final to become Asian Champion
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[B]KARACHI: Pakistan’s Aamir Atlas Khan brushed aside Kuwait’s Abdullah Al Mezayan in three sets to become the first Pakistani in 14 years to win the Asian Squash Championship on Sunday at the Islamabad Sport Complex.
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Earlier, Khan had beaten Asyraf Azan of Malaysia to the semi-final 11-5, 11-6, 11-6 on Saturday.

Speaking to Dawn.com, Khan said his victory was the result of his hard work and he was happy to have won a title for Pakistan.

“I am very happy and I am sure that after this victory, squash in Pakistan will see better days,” Khan said. The twenty-two year old had earlier said that he had the home advantage and was using it to his benefit.

“I knew I had advantage of home glass court and crowd, and I took advantage of both,” he said.

He added that his expectations before the start of the tournament were low because he had just recovered from an injury; however, his goal was to win the Asian title for which he worked hard.

In the women’s final, Hong Kong’s Annie Au beat Malaysia’s Low Wee Wern.

[url]http://dawn.com/2013/05/05/aamir-atlas-wins-final-to-become-asian-squash-champion/[/url]