Duminy powers South Africa into quarter-finals

KOLKATA: South Africa rode on JP Duminy’s robust 99 to storm into the World Cup quarter-finals with a crushing 131-run victory over Ireland on Tuesday.
The Proteas were wobbling at 117-5 after a tight bowling and fielding show by Ireland, but Duminy played a responsible knock to help his team post a challenging 272-7 in the day-night match at Eden Gardens.
The target proved too big for Ireland who were bowled out for 141 in 33.2 overs, with Gary Wilson top-scoring with 31.
South Africa currently top Group B with eight points from five matches, followed by India (7/5), the West Indies (6/4), Bangladesh (6/5) and England (5/5).
Ireland, with two points in five games, are eliminated.
“We wanted to qualify. We’ve got one round robin game left against Bangladesh and hopefully three good games in the knockout phase. We’ve done the first part of it now,” said South Africa captain Graeme Smith.
Ireland captain William Porterfield said: “We started off pretty well. We got couple of wickets up front. We thought it was important to get wickets to peg them back and I thought we did that pretty much throughout.”

Chasing 270 was not out of our reach but we consistently lost wickets.”

Asif, Amir and Butt given bail

LONDON: Three Pakistan cricketers, accused of taking bribes to fix parts of a test match in England last year, told police the incidents were coincidental or bad luck, a London court heard on Thursday.
The trio, former captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, are accused by British prosecutors of spot-fixing or rigging the match by bowling no-balls at pre-agreed times during the fourth test at Lord’s last August.
“There is no doubt that the allegations are very serious. I know you understand that,” Judge Howard Riddle told the men at a hearing at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ court.

Along with a fourth man, sporting agent Mazhar Majeed, the three players, who appeared in court wearing dark suits and dark open-necked shirts, face charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, and conspiracy to cheat.
Prosecutor Sally Walsh told the court Butt and Amir had said in police interviews that money which had been found was from appearances at an ice-cream parlour owned by Majeed.
Butt told detectives the no-balls were coincidental and Amir said they were the result of bad luck because the ground had been slippery, Walsh said.
The men were ordered to appear again at London’s Southwark Crown Court on May 20 and were given unconditional bail, while Majeed was ordered to surrender his passport.
Riddle said, while Britain had no extradition treaty with Pakistan, any failure to show up for future court hearings would end their careers.
“Failing to attend these proceedings will destroy playing international cricket in the future,” he said, describing the men as being of good character.
“Their reputation is of the utmost importance. They have a very strong incentive to attend trial and to defend this.”
LENGTHY BANS
In addition to the criminal case, the men have been given lengthy bans after having been found guilty of corruption by the International Cricket Council.
They have all lodged appeals against the bans with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Amir’s lawyer Gareth Peirce said her client had had to deal with problems with British immigration in order to attend Thursday’s hearing.

COLOMBO: Pakistan’s maverick paceman Shoaib Akhtar, whose colourful career has been a heady mix of on-field brilliance and off-field controversy, will quit international cricket after the World Cup.

Akhtar made up his mind after Pakistan’s 110-run defeat against New Zealand, in which he went for 70 runs in his nine overs.

“I have decided to retire. Mentally I wanted to go on forever but I have decided to make way for the youngsters,” the 35-year-old said on Thursday.

“I have no regrets. I made lots of friends but some people have misunderstood me. I thank all the players who played with me and against me.

“It was an honour to have played with Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. I never imagined I would play for Pakistan. It was my greatest moment.

“Pakistan’s last match in this World Cup will also be my last. I hope that will be the final on April 2.”

After his mauling against New Zealand, Akhtar was rested for the match against Zimbabwe on Monday and was thought to be an unlikely starter for Saturday’s last Group A match against Australia.

Akhtar, who made his international debut in 1997, took 178 wickets in 46 Tests, the last of which was against India at Bangalore in 2007.

He is three wickets short of 250 in 163 one-day internationals and has taken 19 wickets in 15 Twenty20 internationals.

Pakistan squad members hugged him in the dressing room on Thursday before captain Shahid Afridi embraced him as the players entered the R. Premadasa stadium in Colombo for practice.

“I want to be remembered as an honest and patriotic player who never trod a wrong path,” said Akhtar.

Akhtar, known as the Rawalpindi Express during his tearaway days as one of Test cricket’s most feared if unpredictable talents, once cracked the 100mph barrier at the 2003 World Cup.

At this World Cup, which was always likely to be his swansong, he looked neat and tidy with figures of 0-10 and 2-42 against Kenya and Sri Lanka respectively.

He missed the win over Canada before being smashed all over the park at Pallekele against New Zealand — including 28 runs off his last over — and was dropped for the game with Zimbabwe.

His career will always be remembered for a series of fitness problems, discipline violations as well as a doping offence that put the brakes on achieving his true potential.

Most recently he was fined $2,000 for breaching discipline after the defeat to New Zealand.

Team manager Intikhab Alam confirmed the fine, which was levied after an on-field spat with wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, who missed two chances off his bowling.

Akhtar and the now banned Mohammad Asif failed drugs tests in 2006 and were suspended for two years and one year respectively, both of which were lifted on appeal.

Fitness problems forced him to miss the 2007 World Cup while he was fined heavily and banned for 13 ODIs after he hit Asif with a bat two days before the 2007 World Twenty20 in South Africa.

In 2008 he was banned for five years after publicly criticising the Pakistan Cricket Board following his exclusion from the list of centrally contracted players.

The ban was reduced to 18 months by a tribunal, which levied a fine of 7.0 million Pakistani rupees ($105,000 at the time). His appeal against the ban is still pending.

Akhtar’s last delivery against New Zealand    – which may prove his final one at international level if he doesn’t get another chance at the World Cup — was hit for six by Ross Taylor.

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Tokyo Disneyland Closed of Earthquake

During this horrible earthquake many peoples are inside the Disney land and the gates are automatically locked and they were inside there.According to media reports, the earthquake and subsequent tsunami forced the Tokyo Disney Resort has closed its doors to thousands of tourists still within the park. Parking lot was flooded, and it is impossible to leave for people. Earthquake and tsunami 200 miles north of the resort.Its so huge and dangerous.

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