Thursday, September 13, 2007
India Vs Scotland
Bad weather forced the Twenty20 world championship group D match between India and Scotland to be abandoned without a ball being bowled here on Thursday.
Persistent rain since the afternoon frustrated the two teams after Scotland captain Ryan Watson won the toss and sent India in to bat at the Kingsmead.
Play could not begin and Australian umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis called off the match when not enough time was left to bowl a minimum of five overs a side to force a result.
Both teams were awarded one point each, leaving India facing a tricky encounter against arch-rivals Pakistan here on Friday.
India need a win to ensure their place in the Super Eights along with Pakistan.
If Pakistan win, net run rates of India and Scotland will decide the second position from the group in the next round.
Pakistan beat Scotland by 51 runs on Wednesday.
Bad weather forced the Twenty20 world championship group D match between India and Scotland to be abandoned without a ball being bowled here on Thursday.
Persistent rain since the afternoon frustrated the two teams after Scotland captain Ryan Watson won the toss and sent India in to bat at the Kingsmead.
Play could not begin and Australian umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis called off the match when not enough time was left to bowl a minimum of five overs a side to force a result.
Both teams were awarded one point each, leaving India facing a tricky encounter against arch-rivals Pakistan here on Friday.
India need a win to ensure their place in the Super Eights along with Pakistan.
If Pakistan win, net run rates of India and Scotland will decide the second position from the group in the next round.
Pakistan beat Scotland by 51 runs on Wednesday.
Eng Vs Zim
Kevin Pietersen lashed 79 off 37 balls as England beat giant-ki
llers Zimbabwe in a World Twenty20 match at Newlands.England won by 50 runs as they sent Zimbabwe crashing back to earth after their shock five-wicket win over tournament favourites Australia at the same ground Wednesday.
Pietersen and captain Paul Collingwood were mainly responsible for England's total of 188 for nine after Collingwood decided to bat after winning the toss.
Pietersen and Collingwood (37) put on 100 for the fourth wicket off 54 balls.
Zimbabwe briefly threatened to repeat Wednesday's upset when Vusi Sibanda and Brendan Taylor put on 74 for the first wicket in 8.4 overs.
But Zimbabwe's innings lost momentum against the medium pace of Dimitri Mascarenhas and the leg spin of Chris Schofield.
Bowling in tandem, Mascarenhas and Schofield were responsible for five wickets while conceding only 33 runs between them in eight overs. Mascarenhas took three for 18 and Schofield two for 15.
For Schofield, 28, it marked a successful return to internationa
l cricket after he played in two Test matches in 2000 before hitting a low in his career, which included a spell in Minor Counties cricket before he joined Surrey late in the 2006 season.Australia play England in the final match of the group at Newlands Friday, needing to win to stay in the tournament.
Pietersen batted with power and invention in an innings which included four sixes and seven fours. At one stage he hit successive reverse sweep shots off slow left-arm bowler Keith Dabengwa for 6, 4 and 4 in an over in which he scored 22 runs.
It was the reverse sweep which was his downfall, however, when he hit Zimbabwe captain, off-spinner Prosper Utseya, to Hamilton Masakadza on the deep cover boundary.
The momentum went out of England's innings in the next over when Collingwood attempted a second run and could not beat an accurate throw from the boundary by Vusi Sibanda.
England could only add 37 runs for the loss of six wickets in the last 5.3 overs following Pietersen's dismissal.
Opening bowler Elton Chigumbura, one of the heroes of Zimbabwe's five-wicket win over tournament favourites Australia Wednesday, took four for 31. He twice took wickets with successive deliveries.
Sibanda and Taylor hammered 32 off the first three overs of Zimbabwe's innings. Taylor, man of the match after making 60 not out against Australia, scored 47 off 39 balls before he was bowled by Mascarenhas.
WI Vs Ban
Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful smashed the fastest half-century in Twenty20 cricket to throw the West Indies out of th
e world championships.The 23-year-old dynamo pounded seven boundaries and three sixes in 61 off 27 balls as Bangladesh overtook the West Indian total of 164-8 with 12 deliveries to spare at the Wanderers.
Aftab Ahmed chipped in with an unbeaten 62, sharing a rollicking stand of 109 for the third wicket with Ashraful that came off just 62 deliveries.
Ashraful reached his half-century off 20 balls by hooking Fidel Edwards for a six, surpassing Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya's 23-ball 50 against New Zealand at Wellington in 2006.
The West Indies were knocked out of the 12-nation tournament with their second successive defeat following the eight-wicket loss to South Africa in Tuesday's opening match.
The West Indians, who were sent in to bat on a drying wicket, struggled to 104-3 in 15 overs before the lower order added 60 valuable runs in the last five overs.
Dwayne Smith hit 29 off seven balls to lead his team's recovery, but the target of 8.3 runs an over was easily overtaken by the Bangladesh batsmen.
The match was delayed by an hour due to a wet pitch caused by excessive watering overnight by the ground staff, but there was no reduction in overs.
"I think it was a very good toss to win because batting could not be easy on a drying wicket," said Ashraful.
"I knew in my mind that 50 percent of the match had been won by winning the toss but we still had to go out there and get the runs.
"The boys have trained hard over the past month. We even attended an army cammando camp and I was confident we will do well in Twenty20."
Bangladesh lost openers Mohammad Nazimuddin and Tamim Iqbal by the fourth over with just 28 runs on the board before Ashraful joined Aftab to leave the West Indies in the dumps.
Ashraful began with four boundaries in Daren Powell's third over which realised 18 runs and then hit seamer Ravi Rampaul for a six an
d four off consecutive balls.The dapper batsman, who was dropped by Edwards on the fine-leg fence when on 29, welcomed Dwayne Bravo with 4, 4, 6.
At the other end, Aftab rotated the strike skillfully and hit eight boundaries and a six.
Chris Gayle, who hammered the first-ever Twenty20 century in the previous match, fell to the third ball of the match when he cut Syed
Rasel to Alok Kapali at point.Left-armer Rasel kept the runs in check with a superb spell of 1-10 in four overs even as Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Devon Smith put on 95 for the second wicket.
Chanderpaul made 37 off 31 balls with three fours and two sixes, while Devon Smith top-scored with 51 off 52.
Marlon Samuels launched the late charge with
two sixes and two boundaries in one over of Ashraful before holing out off the over's final delivery.Dwayne Smith hammered three consecutive sixes in another over from Ashraful, who conceded 55 runs in his spell.
Left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan finished with 4-34, including three wickets in the last over of the innings.
Bangladesh play hosts South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday with both teams already assured of a place in the Super Eights round.
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