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Sunday, February 27, 2011

World Cup: India-England thriller ends in a tie

Sachin Tendulkar during 47th oneday century.

(TOI)
BANGALORE.
This was a game both India and England deserved to lose but in the end it was a tie. If the Indians seemed listless while defending a more than healthy 338, the English after being in a position to spoil the Indian party on a pitch on which the expected demons did not surface, suddenly seemed to have invoked the devil himself. In the end what transpired was the fourth ever tie in the history of the World Cup.
AJ Strauss shot during century
The match swayed like a pendulum. The Indian total of 338, set up by a record fifth World Cup ton from Sachin Tendulkar, looked good enough at the break, more so as the hosts had gone in with two spinners. England captain Andrew Strauss had different ideas as he set about all but obfuscating Tendulkar's knock with his maiden World Cup ton.Then came the batting Powerplay. Suddenly from an impregnable 280/2 from 43 overs, when Strauss (158, 145b, 18x4, 1x6) and Bell (69, 71b, 4x4, 1x6) were going strong with a 170-run stand off 156 balls, things turned upside down.
 Zaheer Khan, hit around in his first two spells and held back by Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the Powerplay, got two in two, sending back Bell and Strauss to open up the game again.
Suddenly the Indians were pumped up, as the English middle and late order collapsed. But then two sixes, one each by Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan, both off Piyush Chawla's final over, the penultimate one of the innings, again changed the game. Fifteen had come from that over leaving 14 required from the last to be bowled by Munaf Patel. With number 10 Ajmal Shazad on strike, the match looked to be in India's grasp, but the drama wasn't over by any means. A solid six and some hurriedly run singles brought the equation to two runs off the ball. They got one and the Bangalore crowd, some of whom had left early seeing India's chances all but gone, got what they expected least. A tie!
Before that, the Indians had got most things right. Having decided to play with two spinners in Harbhajan Singh and Chawla, it was important that Dhoni won the toss and allowed his spinners the second use of the pitch. That part went along the script as did the batting, with the top-order firing for the second match in succession. It was even better that the middle-order too got a chance to show their wares and they didn't do too badly either.
Only Tim Bresnan stood up and got noticed among English bowlers. Having dismissed the fortuitous as well as dangerous-looking Sehwag off his fifth ball, Bresnan came back at the death, to keep the Indians from running away to a total in excess of 350. His final analysis of 10-1-48-5 was true reflection of his showing on the afternoon.
No other English bowler went under five an over, with James Anderson in real danger of going for twice that. Every Indian batsman got stuck into him. Tendulkar and Gambhir used his wayward line and length to full effect. That Tendulkar (120, 115b, 10x4, 5x6) picked boundaries even off his better deliveries, ensured that it was not to be Anderson's day.
Once Sehwag (35, 26b, 6x4) had gone, poking at Bresnan for wicketkeeper Matt Prior to bring off a fine one-handed catch diving to his right, the right-left pair of Tendulkar and Gambhir (51, 61b, 5x4) took charge. Without looking in any sort of hurry, the master-blaster milked the bowlers before assaulting them.
The innings wasn't just about Tendulkar and Gambhir though, even if their 134-run second wicket stand set it up. There was also Yuvraj Singh, rightly promoted ahead of Kohli seeing that it was the 30th over, and Dhoni, whose 25-ball 31 went almost unnoticed. Yuvraj (58, 50b, 9x4) wasn't at his fluent best but who knows this knock could well be the launching pad for more to come.
Warne predicted it 8 hours ago

 Shane Warne was bang on target when before the start of the match he Tweeted saying "Looking forward to the game between India and England today. My prediction... a tie." And the cracker of a contest which saw 676 runs being scored did actually end up in a tie, making Warne's prediction come true.







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score card 


India innings (50 overs maximum) R M B 4s 6s SR
V Sehwag c †Prior b Bresnan 35 34 26 6 0 134.61
SR Tendulkar c Yardy b Anderson 120 170 115 10 5 104.34
G Gambhir b Swann 51 95 61 5 0 83.60
Yuvraj Singh c Bell b Yardy 58 76 50 9 0 116.00
MS Dhoni*† c sub (LJ Wright) b Bresnan 31 38 25 3 1 124.00
YK Pathan c Swann b Bresnan 14 12 8 1 1 175.00
V Kohli b Bresnan 8 12 5 1 0 160.00
Harbhajan Singh lbw b Bresnan 0 4 1 0 0 0.00
Z Khan run out (Bresnan/†Prior) 4 10 5 0 0 80.00
PP Chawla run out (Anderson) 2 5 4 0 0 50.00

MM Patel not out 0 1 0 0 0 -

Extras (lb 3, w 7, nb 5) 15











Total (all out; 49.5 overs; 233 mins) 338 (6.78 runs per over)
Fall of wickets1-46 (Sehwag, 7.5 ov), 2-180 (Gambhir, 29.4 ov), 3-236 (Tendulkar, 38.2 ov), 4-305 (Yuvraj Singh, 45.6 ov), 5-305 (Dhoni, 46.1 ov), 6-327 (Pathan, 48.1 ov), 7-327 (Kohli, 48.2 ov), 8-328 (Harbhajan Singh, 48.4 ov), 9-338 (Chawla, 49.4 ov), 10-338 (Khan, 49.5 ov)










Bowling O M R W Econ

JM Anderson 9.5 0 91 1 9.25 (1nb, 1w)

A Shahzad 8 0 53 0 6.62 (2w)
TT Bresnan 10 1 48 5 4.80

GP Swann 9 1 59 1 6.55 (2w)

PD Collingwood 3 0 20 0 6.66

MH Yardy 10 0 64 1 6.40 (2w)









England innings (target: 339 runs from 50 overs) R M B 4s 6s SR
AJ Strauss* lbw b Khan 158 188 145 18 1 108.96
KP Pietersen c & b Patel 31 45 22 5 0 140.90
IJL Trott lbw b Chawla 16 30 19 1 0 84.21
IR Bell c Kohli b Khan 69 108 71 4 1 97.18
PD Collingwood b Khan 1 12 5 0 0 20.00
MJ Prior† c sub (SK Raina) b Harbhajan Singh 4 15 8 0 0 50.00
MH Yardy c Sehwag b Patel 13 17 10 1 0 130.00
TT Bresnan b Chawla 14 18 9 0 1 155.55

GP Swann not out 15 12 9 0 1 166.66

A Shahzad not out 6 5 2 0 1 300.00

Extras (b 1, lb 7, w 3) 11











Total (8 wickets; 50 overs; 229 mins) 338 (6.76 runs per over)
Did not bat JM Anderson
Fall of wickets1-68 (Pietersen, 9.3 ov), 2-111 (Trott, 16.4 ov), 3-281 (Bell, 42.4 ov), 4-281 (Strauss, 42.5 ov), 5-285 (Collingwood, 44.3 ov), 6-289 (Prior, 45.2 ov), 7-307 (Yardy, 47.3 ov), 8-325 (Bresnan, 48.6 ov)










Bowling O M R W Econ

Z Khan 10 0 64 3 6.40 (1w)
MM Patel 10 0 70 2 7.00 (1w)
PP Chawla 10 0 71 2 7.10 (1w)
Harbhajan Singh 10 0 58 1 5.80


Yuvraj Singh 7 0 46 0 6.57


YK Pathan 3 0 21 0 7.00







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Malaysia police detain dozens of Indian protesters

(TOI)
KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia).
Malaysian police arrested dozens of ethnic Indians on Sunday in a clampdown on a protest against a high school literature book that was slammed for denigrating the minority community.
Police set up roadblocks in the country's biggest city, Kuala Lumpur, amid tight security around the landmark Petronas Twin Towers, where the protest was to be held.
The main protest leader, lawyer P Uthayakumar, was among those rounded up early Sunday as he was leaving home, said his colleague S Jayathas, who also was detained. He said more than 100 Indians were believed to have been picked up.
Some 50 protesters who managed to escape the police dragnet gathered at a temple in the city, holding banners and shouting "Ban Interlok" and "Don't insult the Indian community" before dispersing.
"We want a stop to racism against minority citizens, especially the Indian poor, and a ban on Interlok, which is sowing the seeds of racism in schoolchildren. We are not asking for special rights but equal opportunity," Jayathas told The Associated Press from police detention.
Police could not be immediately r Indians complained about a portion of the book involving a poor man from India's "Pariah caste" who migrates to the country to find work and is surprised at the absence of a caste system. They say it unfairly depicts Indians, who make up about 8 percent of Malaysia's 28 million people, as coming from inferior communities and contributes to ethnic tension and discrimination.
Under the Indian caste system, Hindus are divided into four main castes according to their line of work. Although the system is banned in India, it is still practiced in villages. Malaysian Indians continue with most traditions of their ancestors, but the caste system is largely obsolete here.

Malaysia police detain dozens of Indian protesters

(TOI)
KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia).
Malaysian police arrested dozens of ethnic Indians on Sunday in a clampdown on a protest against a high school literature book that was slammed for denigrating the minority community.
Police set up roadblocks in the country's biggest city, Kuala Lumpur, amid tight security around the landmark Petronas Twin Towers, where the protest was to be held.
The main protest leader, lawyer P Uthayakumar, was among those rounded up early Sunday as he was leaving home, said his colleague S Jayathas, who also was detained. He said more than 100 Indians were believed to have been picked up.
Some 50 protesters who managed to escape the police dragnet gathered at a temple in the city, holding banners and shouting "Ban Interlok" and "Don't insult the Indian community" before dispersing.
"We want a stop to racism against minority citizens, especially the Indian poor, and a ban on Interlok, which is sowing the seeds of racism in schoolchildren. We are not asking for special rights but equal opportunity," Jayathas told The Associated Press from police detention.
Police could not be immediately r Indians complained about a portion of the book involving a poor man from India's "Pariah caste" who migrates to the country to find work and is surprised at the absence of a caste system. They say it unfairly depicts Indians, who make up about 8 percent of Malaysia's 28 million people, as coming from inferior communities and contributes to ethnic tension and discrimination.
Under the Indian caste system, Hindus are divided into four main castes according to their line of work. Although the system is banned in India, it is still practiced in villages. Malaysian Indians continue with most traditions of their ancestors, but the caste system is largely obsolete here.

North Korea threatens to attack South Korea, US

(TOI)
SEOUL (South Korea).
North Korea threatened Sunday to attack South Korea and the United States, as the allies prepared to start annual joint military drills - maneuvers Pyongyang says are a rehearsal for an invasion.
The North has routinely issued such war rhetoric against South Korea and the US. The latest warning, however, came nearly three weeks after the rival Koreas failed to reach a breakthrough in their first dialogue in months.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula rose sharply last year over two deadly attacks - the sinking of a South Korean naval ship blamed on the North and a North Korean artillery barrage that killed four people on a front-line South Korean island. North Korea denies it was involved in the ship sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors.
On Sunday, the North used harsh rhetoric against South Korea and the U.S., calling their joint drills a "dangerous military scheme."
"Our military and people will take stern military countermeasures against the American imperialists and the (South Korean) traitors' group, because they are challenging us with aggressive military action," the North's military said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
It accused South Korea and the US of plotting to launch "limited war" and topple Pyongyang's communist government. If provoked, the North will start a "full-scale" war and turn Seoul into a "sea of fire," the statement said.
Earlier Sunday, the North's military warned that it would fire directly at South Korean border towns and destroy them if Seoul continued to allow activists to launch propaganda leaflets toward the communist country.
In a separate statement carried by KCNA, it accused South Korean activists and lawmakers of flying balloons carrying hundreds of thousands of leaflets critical of North Korea's government, one-dollar bills, DVDs containing corrupt animation files and other materials on the North's most important national holiday, an apparent reference to leader Kim Jong Il's 69th birthday, which was Feb. 16.
It was unclear whether activists have launched more balloons since then and if they plan additional leafletting in coming days.
The South Korean defense ministry confirmed it had received the North's warning. A ministry official said South Korea's military keeps a close watch on North Korean military movement. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.
Defense minister Kim Kwan-jin told parliament Friday that North Korea may launch new attacks this spring and that South Korea's military was ready to cope with any types of hostilities.
On Monday, South Korea and the U.S. are to launch drills aimed at rehearsing how to respond to any potential emergency on the Korean peninsula.
About 12,800 US troops and some 200,000 South Korean soldiers and reservists will take part in the drills, which will last 11 days and involve computer war games, live-firing exercises and other field training, according to the US and South Korean militaries.
Pyongyang has called the drills a preparation to invade North Korea, though South Korean and US officials have repeatedly said the maneuvers are purely defensive and that they have no intention of attacking.
After weeks of tension following November's bombardment of the island, North Korea pushed for dialogue with South Korea and expressed a desire to return to stalled international disarmament talks on its nuclear program.
Military officers from the two Koreas met earlier this month but failed to produce any progress, with both sides accusing the other of rupturing the dialogue. North Korea later threatened not to hold any more military talks with Seoul.
The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea to help deter potential aggression by the North.

Irish PM Brian Cowen accepts election defeat

(TOI)
DUBLIN. 
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen conceded defeat on Saturday in the general election, after his ruling Fianna Fail party was crushed by voters angry over the economy and an EU-IMF bailout.
"Clearly today there wasn't support for our party in great numbers. We accept as democrats the outcome," Cowen told RTE television after exit polls suggested Fianna Fail was set to lose two-thirds of its parliamentary seats.
Cowen himself had already stepped down as leader of Fianna Fail, Ireland's traditional ruling party, after months of pressure over his handling of the economy.He was replaced by former foreign minister

Maximum Country: India again unleashes its soft power on US

(TOI)
WASHINGTON.
Some of Washington DC's cognoscenti still remember Bundu Khan Langa. With his brilliant smile and colorful safa, the oversized Rajasthani turban, the young folk singer would send titters through the audience, exhorting them to "shiiitt down...shiiitt down," so he could start his performance. Once he began, the crowd on the grassy mall in front of the Capitol would end up spellbound, hushed by the soulful melodies that essayed from then 14-year old genius.
It was an event that made Langas and Manganiars, the Rajasthani desert singers, famous, and unleashed the cultural strength and variety of India on the US and the world five years before the term "soft power" was coined by Harvard University's Joseph Nye. Some 25 years after the great Smithsonian Institution's Festival of India, it is now the turn of Washington's other grand cultural establishment, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, to host an India festival at a time the country and its cultural muscle and depth hardly needs any introduction.
Maximum India, a 20-day cultural extravaganza of Indian soft power, kicks off here on March 1 with scores of artistes set to enthrall a capital where India is now looked on more favourably than ever before. A recent Gallup Poll put India among Canada, Britain, Japan - and ahead of China, and even Israel -- as countries rated favourably by Americans. India's strategic partnership with the US has much to do with it, but underpinning that is a cultural bonding that has come a long way since 1985 when America got a sustained taste of India.
In recent years, Kennedy Center has hosted a China Festival, an African Odyssey and an Arabian extravaganza even as memories of the great Festival of India had begun to fade. Fortunately, New Delhi responded with alacrity to Kennedy Center's initiative to drum up the India beat again. The result is a fiesta that will be brighten up Washington DC's cultural calendar in the fading days of winter. "Maximum India may not be on the same scale as the Festival of India, but it is a major effort to display the creativity, ferment, and dynamism that characterizes Indian arts," India's ambassador to the US Meera Shankar observed while unveiling the program.
Indeed, the 2011 extravaganza, which Kennedy Center and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) have been working on for two years, showcases a whole generation of new artistes, alongside familiar icons such as Zakir Hussain and L.Subramaniam. Piano prodigy Utsav Lal, rock band Parikrama, and the folksy Bollywood singer Kailash Kher are among those who will perform on the prestigious Millennium stage.
Some of the performers will be Indian-Americans who may not be household names in India - jazz saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, who is making waves in U.S and Europe, DC's own ghazal queen Vatsala Mehra, and US bhangra-rap DJ Punjabi MC, make the cut. Kennedy has also reached out to the far corners of India, featuring the acclaimed north-east blues band Soulmate and the Hindi-Kannada rock band Raghu Dixit Project, for American exposure.
Leading names in dance (Alarmel Valli and Madhavi Mudgal performing together; Priyadarshini Govind and the Nrityagram Ensemble; Malavika Sarrukai; Shantala Shivalingappa), theater (the peerless Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi) and movies (Nandita Das) are featured in the program that is rounded off with taste of India sessions with chefs Hemant Oberoi and Ananda Solomon.
While most of the performances are ticketed (prices range from $10 to $100), there are many free events (on a first-come basis), including those on the millennium stage, which will also be webcast live.

10,000 fled Libya into Tunisia Saturday: Red Crescent

(TOI)
RAS JEDIR (Tunisia). 
More than 10,000 people fled Libya into Tunisia at the Ras Jedir post on Saturday, most of them Egyptians, the Red Crescent said Sunday, calling it a "humanitarian crisis".
"More than 10,000 people passed through Ras Jedir yesterday," the organisation's regional president in Ben Guerdane, the main border town, Monji Slim said.
More than 40,000 have come through this border post in the past week, including more than 15,000 Egyptians. The flood of arrivals was continuing Sunday.
"It is a humanitarian crisis, our capacities to take in people are exhausted, people are sleeping in the open. I appeal urgently for everyone to help resolve this problem. The entire world should mobilise to help Egypt repatriate its nationals," Slim added.
The exodus from Libya, where leader Muammar Gaddafi is battling for survival, began on February 20.
The situation has worsened all week, particularly after Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam on Monday accused Arab and African expatriates of fomenting the revolt against his father and accused Egyptians and Tunisians of being behind the conspiracy.

Palin's India trip build-up to Prez bid?

(TOI)
WASHINGTON.
America's political theater is spewing snickers and sarcasm over Sarah Palin's proposed trip to India next month amid uncertainty over whether she will run for the White House in 2012.
While state governors bidding for Presidency typically make overseas trips to shore up their foreign policy credentials, Palin, ex-governor of Alaska and former vice-presidential candidate, is famously shy of foreign travel.
She got a passport only in 2006, and before signing up with John McCain for the Republican ticket in 2008, she had travelled overseas only once, to visit US troops in the Middle East.
Since then, she has gone abroad twice, travelling to Hong Kong in 2009 for a conference where she spoke about US-China relations, and then going to Haiti on an earthquake relief mission.
But in a huge leap of faith and distance, Palin is scheduled to be in New Delhi on March 19 for the annual India Today conclave, where she will give a speech on "My Vision for America". Political pundits are divided on whether that stab at policy articulation by the controversial politician widely perceived as having a limited worldview is meant to signal a Presidential run in 2012.
Some analysts think the trip actually indicates Palin will not be running. In a blog post headlined "Palin going for the outsourced vote?,"A ndrew Cline, a leader writer for a conservative New Hampshire paper, said he has a hard time believing that "someone who makes a trip to India a higher priority than a trip to New Hampshire is a serious presidential candidate."
New Hampshire is a key state in the Presidential stakes because it traditionally holds the first primary in the race to the White House. Palin has not visited New Hampshire after her 2008 vice-presidential bid.
"Chalk this up as one more bit of evidence that she's probably not running,"Cline wrote.
While some arch conservatives are dismayed that Palin is not making a call on a White House run, the former governor is being pilloried for her India sortie, with comedians and cartoonists having a field day.
A Huffington Post cartoon by Sunil Adam, editor of the 'Indian-American', wondered why Palin is going to India, with one character replying, "Probably because she can"t see it from her house in Alaska."Palin had been mocked by pundits for declaring during her 2008 run that Alaska's proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience.