Champions League T20, 2012 Fixtures

Tue Oct 9 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Qualifying Tournament Pool 2 - Uva Next v Yorkshire New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Tue Oct 9           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Qualifying Tournament Pool 1 - Auckland v Sialkot Stallions New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Wed Oct 10 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Qualifying Tournament Pool 1 - Auckland v Hampshire SuperSport Park, Centurion
Wed Oct 10           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Qualifying Tournament Pool 2 - Trinidad & Tobago v Yorkshire SuperSport Park, Centurion
Thu Oct 11 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Qualifying Tournament Pool 2 - Trinidad & Tobago v Uva Next New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Thu Oct 11           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Qualifying Tournament Pool 1 - Hampshire v Sialkot Stallions New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Sat Oct 13 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Group A - Titans v Perth Scorchers SuperSport Park, Centurion
Sat Oct 13           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group A - Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils SuperSport Park, Centurion
Sun Oct 14 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Group B - Chennai Super Kings v Sydney Sixers New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Sun Oct 14           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group B - Lions v Mumbai Indians New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Mon Oct 15           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group A - Kolkata Knight Riders v TBC (Qualifier 1) Newlands, Cape Town
Tue Oct 16 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Group B - Sydney Sixers v TBC (Qualifier 2) Newlands, Cape Town
Tue Oct 16           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group B - Chennai Super Kings v Lions Newlands, Cape Town
Wed Oct 17 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Group A - Titans v TBC (Qualifier 1) Kingsmead, Durban
Wed Oct 17           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group A - Kolkata Knight Riders v Perth Scorchers Kingsmead, Durban
Thu Oct 18 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Group B - Lions v Sydney Sixers Newlands, Cape Town
Thu Oct 18           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group B - Mumbai Indians v TBC (Qualifier 2) Newlands, Cape Town
Fri Oct 19           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group A - Delhi Daredevils v TBC (Qualifier 1) Kingsmead, Durban
Sat Oct 20 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Group B - Lions v TBC (Qualifier 2) New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Sat Oct 20           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group B - Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Sun Oct 21 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Group A - Perth Scorchers v Delhi Daredevils Newlands, Cape Town
Sun Oct 21           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group A - Kolkata Knight Riders v Titans Newlands, Cape Town
Mon Oct 22 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Group B - Chennai Super Kings v TBC (Qualifier 2) Kingsmead, Durban
Mon Oct 22           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group B - Sydney Sixers v Mumbai Indians Kingsmead, Durban
Tue Oct 23 11:30 GMT | 13:30 local 16:30 PKT	Group A - Perth Scorchers v TBC (Qualifier 1) SuperSport Park, Centurion
Tue Oct 23           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Group A - Delhi Daredevils v Titans SuperSport Park, Centurion
Thu Oct 25           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	1st Semi-Final - TBC v TBC (1st Group A v 2nd Group B) Kingsmead, Durban
Fri Oct 26           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	2nd Semi-Final - TBC v TBC (1st Group B v 2nd Group A) SuperSport Park, Centurion
Sun Oct 28           15:30 GMT | 17:30 local 20:30 PKT	Final - TBC v TBC New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

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Taufel to retire after World Twenty20

 

The Australian umpire Simon Taufel will step down from the ICC's elite panel at the end of the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka. He will be replaced by his countryman Bruce Oxenford, who will join the elite panel from November 1, having impressed the ICC with his work at international level over the past few years.

Taufel, 41, will take up the newly-created role of umpire performance and training manager with the ICC, a job that he hopes will allow him to spend more time at home in Sydney with his wife and children after nearly a decade of travelling the world as a match official. Taufel was named the ICC's Umpire of the Year five successive times from 2004 to 2008 and has remained one of the game's most respected umpires throughout his career.

In 2011, he stood in the World Cup final and has also been in the middle for the deciders of the World Twenty20 in 2007 and 2009, as well as the Champions Trophy in 2004. However, Taufel also endured the horror of being part of the group of officials shot at during the terrorist attack in Pakistan in 2009.

"Following the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012, I'm moving on from active international umpiring for personal and professional reasons," Taufel said. "My wife and children have supported me immensely throughout my career and it is time for me to spend more time with them.

"My passion for cricket umpiring and personal professional development has shifted from on the field to off the field. In my new position as ICC umpire performance and training manager, I look forward to help create professional programmes and resources to support the current and future generations of cricket match officials. The new role includes working closely with the national cricket federations which is really exciting as is continuing to work with the entire cricket community in helping the development of our cricket umpires."

The ICC's chief executive, Dave Richardson, said: "Simon has been one of the most respected umpires for over a decade due to his excellent decision-making and man-management skills. He has been a role model for umpires globally who look to him for inspiration and guidance.

"I am delighted that he will be working with us to groom and develop the next generation of elite umpires and have no doubt that he will be equally successful in his new role as ICC's umpire performance and training manager. In the meantime I know that Simon, thorough professional that he is, will want to focus on the job at hand, that of getting things right on the field, something he has done as well as any other umpire in the history of the game."

Taufel will leave the game having stood in 74 Test matches and 174 one-day internationals. He made his international debut at the age of 27 in a one-day international in Sydney in 1999 and his first Test appearance came in the Boxing Day Test of 2000, when he was 29.

A former leading schoolboy cricketer in Sydney, Taufel was a fast bowler who played in teams alongside Michael Slater and Adam Gilchrist. However, a back injury ended his playing career and he took to umpiring at a young age.

His replacement on the international panel, Oxenford, is a former first-class cricketer who played eight matches for Queensland in the early 1990s. Oxenford, 52, made his debut as an international umpires in a T20 match in early 2006 and over the past three years has regularly been appointed to tours outside Australia as part of the ICC's international panel.

"Bruce is a very experienced and respected umpire, and follows a long line of elite Australian umpires," Vince van der Bijl, the ICC's umpire and referee manager, said. "He has been umpiring at the first-class level for well over a decade and is committed and dedicated to officiating. We are delighted to welcome Bruce, who will add his own brand of professionalism, energy and love of umpiring to the elite panel."

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West Indies target England spin problem

 

England will face another examination against spin in their first World Twenty20 Super Eights tie against West Indies in Pallakele on Thursday. Destroyed by India's Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla at the group stage, they must now combat West Indies' Sunil Narine and a potential unknown accomplice, Samuel Badree.

Narine is West Indies' "trump card" according to their captain, Darren Sammy, but perhaps it is possible to exaggerate the likely extent of the ordeal after England's batting horrors against India. The most danger to England is more likely to emanate from the usual place: West Indies' long list of destructive batsmen.

Narine had a bowling average of 199 in England last summer in all competitions - his only wicket came when he dismissed Jonathan Trott in an ODI at the Rose Bowl and Trott is not even here. After his success in the IPL, England played Narine rather well. If he is to prove a trump card, it will have needed a change of suit since the sides last met.

As for Badree, he is a 31-year-old legspinner from Trinidad whose international exposure amounts to two T20I matches against New Zealand in the United States. He claimed Tim Southee as his only wicket and is the only international player who can fairly claim to be bigger in Florida than the rest of the cricketing world. There again, he is an unknown quantity and, in England's current state, that is a good thing to be.

It is not that the Pallakele pitch is expected to favour the spinners, not this early in the tournament anyway, just that West Indies have unsurprisingly taken a view. It was hard not to after the way England capitulated to India, bowled out for 80, their lowest Twenty20 score.

But even if you add in the offspin of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, who are both most notable for the expenditure of a minimal number of calories in delivery, England will be telling themselves that their fallibility against spin is in danger of being overplayed.

England's T20I captain, Stuart Broad, is doing his best to shrug it off. "We are ready for that," he said. "It is not as if we have found out yesterday that people are going to bowl spin at us. Coming to Sri Lanka, we sort of knew that because those are the conditions we will face. It is important as individuals we try to counteract it."

Broad refuses to accept that England have technical issues against spin bowling. Even if he harbours doubts, it is far too late to do much about it now. The only option is to try to restore self-belief and trust that England somehow brazen it through

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ICC T20 World Cup 2012 Super Eight Matches Schedule

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Sri Lanka sweat over Mendis fitness

 

Sri Lanka are still unsure whether their key spinner Ajantha Mendis will be fit to play their first Super Eights match against New Zealand on September 27. Mendis, who is suffering from a side strain, is scheduled to practice with the team today, and a call on his participation will be taken before the game.

Mendis picked up the injury in Sri Lanka's opening game against Zimbabwe on September 18, but completed his overs after being treated on the field. He has since then been under treatment and was left out of Sri Lanka's final group match against South Africa on September 22; Sri Lanka lost that rain-curtailed game by 32 runs. Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, had said Mendis' omission from the South Africa match on Saturday had simply been precautionary but, despite having eight days to recover, Mendis is yet to regain full fitness.

"We are monitoring his progress carefully. We took an MRI scan on his left side and it showed a slight tear," Charith Senanayake, the Sri Lanka manager, said on Tuesday. "These injuries are quite common with fast bowlers, but because Mendis bowls at a fast pace may have strained himself," he said. "Mendis bowled a few overs at the nets today, but we will monitor him carefully and take a call whether he is fit enough to play against New Zealand."

Mendis marked his return to international cricket after a back injury had kept him out for eight months in Zimbabwe game with the best bowling figures by a bowler in T20 cricket with six wickets for eight runs.

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Capital One Cup - Third Round

Wednesday 26th September 2012
	Fixture                              Timing  Arsenal V Coventry           19:45
	Carlisle V Tottenham           19:45
	Man Utd V Newcastle        19:45
	Norwich V Doncaster         19:45
	QPR V Reading                  19:45
	West Brom V Liverpool       20:00

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Result of Barclays Premier league

Sun 23 Sep 2012 - Premier League

• Liverpool 1 - 2 Man Utd
• Newcastle 1 - 0 Norwich
• Man City 1 - 1 Arsenal
• Tottenham 2 - 1 QPR

Sat 22 Sep 2012 - Premier League

• Swansea 0 - 3 Everton
• Chelsea 1 - 0 Stoke 
• Newcastle P - P Norwich
  Postponed - now being played Sun, Sept 23
• Southampton 4 - 1 Aston Villa
• West Brom 1 - 0 Reading 
• West Ham 1 - 1 Sunderland
• Wigan 1 - 2 Fulham

Mon 17 Sep 2012 - Premier League

• Everton 2 - 2 Newcastle

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Nazir takes Pakistan to Super Eights with super chase

 

Pakistan's celebrated bowling unit's rare off day put a latch on it, but their batsmen smashed through the qualification door by chasing down 176 - their highest successful chase - with eight balls to spare.

To progress in the tournament, Bangladesh needed to not only post their first win over Pakistan in 13 years, but win by at least 36 runs. On a true pitch, Shakib Al Hasan posted the highest score by a Bangladesh batsman to facilitate their second-highest total, but Imran Nazir whacked his way to the fastest fifty in this World T20 to calm down any nerves there might have been after the effort in the field.

It was also a night that will be remembered for shoddy short bowling on a flat track and shoddier catching by both sides. Sohail Tanvir put down one of the simplest catches ever put down in international cricket, Kamran Akmal let through a regulation take, but it was the drop by Abul Hasan, brought in to replace Elias Sunny, that proved decisive in the end. Had he held on, Nazir would have been gone on 1 and Shafiul Islam would have got off to a confident start with a first-ball wicket. Nazir ended up with 72.

It didn't help that the chance had come off a short delivery, which encouraged them to keep bowling short, and Nazir, often good with the horizontal bat, took full toll. In his second over, Shafiul kept bowling short and was carter for four, four and six. Another short ball that went for five wides made it 20 off the over, and Pakistan had had a head start at 43 for 0 after four overs. Clearly they were not going for just the qualification. The win was on their mind.

Smart stats Imran Nazir's strike rate of 200 is the second-highest for a Pakistan batsman for a fifty-plus score. Umar Akmal is on top with a strike rate of 206.45 during his 64 against Australia in 2010. Shakib Al Hasan's strike rate of 155.55 is the fourth-highest for a fifty-plus score by a Bangladesh batsman in Twenty20 internationals. The target chased (176) is the highest for Pakistan in Twenty20 internationals. Their previous highest was 165 against Australia in 2007. The 124-run stand between Nazir and Mohammad Hafeez is the second-highest opening stand for Pakistan in Twenty20 internationals. The highest opening stand for Pakistan (142) also came against Bangladesh. The run-rate in the game (9.12) is the seventh-highest in World Twenty20 matches (minimum 30 overs in the game) and the second-highest in a World Twenty20 game involving Pakistan.

Mohammad Hafeez remained the calm man at other end, chipping and pushing runs as Nazir kept up his power hitting while getting at least one short ball every over. After Shakib put the brakes on with just four in the seventh over, Nazir stepped out of the crease to hit Abdur Razzak over mid-off to break the rhythm. That four took him to 42 off 18, and the fifty came when Shakib provided him with a long hop for six in the 10th over.

That even Shakib was making mistakes was sign enough. Relief arrived for Bangladesh when Nazir and Hafeez fell in one Hasan over, after which came a quiet five-run over, bringing the equation down to 45 needed off five overs. For the first time it seemed Pakistan might be conscious of that qualification mark - now nine runs away - but Nasir Jamshed quashed those thoughts with two of the finest shots, four through point and a flicked six over square leg, off the next two balls.

That was cue enough for Kamran to open up too, and the rest was just a stroll. Had you mentioned the word stroll in the first innings, though, Pakistan's coach Dav Whatmore would have given you a piece of his mind. For the most part, it was a stroll for Shakib, who capitalised on the brisk start provided by Mohammad Ashraful and Tamim Iqbal.

Shakib had the extra responsibility after playing a significant role in Tamim's run-out at 61 for 2 in the sixth over. He had himself raced away to 16 off 11 by then, took it easy for the next three overs, and then resumed the charge with two fours off Saeed Ajmal in the 10th over. When Tanvir dropped a dolly from Mushfiqur Rahim in the 13th over, Shakib had reached 42 off 30. He introduced a second wind to that innings now, hitting short deliveries from Yasir Arafat for four and six to bring up his fifty.

Another period of calm followed when Arafat and Shahid Afridi managed two wickets in five deliveries, but Kamran failed to make it three in eight when he dropped a sitter from Nasir Hossain. At 133 for 4 in the 16th over Shakib remained the main threat. He moved around the crease in the 18th over to pay with Umar Gul's length, scoping, flicking and cover-driving for fours. With 33 coming off the last three overs, Pakistan's travel agent might have had a look at Karachi fares, but Nazir put them back on their way to Colombo.

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