Younis Khan replaces Chanderpaul as No. 1 Test batsman

DUBAI: Pakistan captain Younis Khan's triple hundred in the drawn Karachi Test against Sri Lanka catapulted him to the top of the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen which has only one Indian, Gautam Gambhir, in the top 10.

Younis batted for nearly 13 hours in Karachi to become just the third Pakistan player in history to get past the 300-run mark in a single Test innings after Hanif Mohammad (337 vs West Indies at Bridgetown in 1958) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (329 vs New Zealand at Lahore in 2002).

Younis was the only real mover in the top 20 of the rankings although Mahela Jayawardena's double hundred in the same match means he stays in fourth position as Australia's Michael Clarke drops two places to fifth position.

Having been knocked off his number-one perch, West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul is now in second spot with Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka in third.

Younis will have to continue to score heavily to maintain his stay at the top because he has a very slender one-point lead at the top with almost every player in the top 10.

Gambhir's opportunity to improve his position will come when the Test series against New Zealand gets underway next month.

Delhi teammate Virender Sehwag is placed 11th, while Sachin Tendulkar share the 17th spot with compatriot VVS Laxman.

In the Test bowlers' chart, Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan is still top of the heap but the gap between him and South Africa's Dale Steyn has now been cut from 43 ratings points to just 17.

With Steyn just starting a Test series against Australia, there is every chance the Protea could nudge in front of Murali before too long.

Sri Lanka's other big-name spinner Ajantha Mendis also fared badly in the match as he finished with the figures of 59-14-157-1. As a result, he has slipped five places, out of the top 20 to joint-23rd position, and is now level with South Africa's left-arm slow bowler Paul Harris.

Harbhajan Singh remained India's top Test bowler at the eighth place, while Zaheer Khan is ranked 12th.

Source:http://cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Younis-replaces-Chanderpaul-as-No-1/articleshow/4194725.cms

Younis Khan replaces Chanderpaul as No. 1 Test batsman

DUBAI: Pakistan captain Younis Khan's triple hundred in the drawn Karachi Test against Sri Lanka catapulted him to the top of the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen which has only one Indian, Gautam Gambhir, in the top 10.

Younis batted for nearly 13 hours in Karachi to become just the third Pakistan player in history to get past the 300-run mark in a single Test innings after Hanif Mohammad (337 vs West Indies at Bridgetown in 1958) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (329 vs New Zealand at Lahore in 2002).

Younis was the only real mover in the top 20 of the rankings although Mahela Jayawardena's double hundred in the same match means he stays in fourth position as Australia's Michael Clarke drops two places to fifth position.

Having been knocked off his number-one perch, West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul is now in second spot with Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka in third.

Younis will have to continue to score heavily to maintain his stay at the top because he has a very slender one-point lead at the top with almost every player in the top 10.

Gambhir's opportunity to improve his position will come when the Test series against New Zealand gets underway next month.

Delhi teammate Virender Sehwag is placed 11th, while Sachin Tendulkar share the 17th spot with compatriot VVS Laxman.

In the Test bowlers' chart, Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan is still top of the heap but the gap between him and South Africa's Dale Steyn has now been cut from 43 ratings points to just 17.

With Steyn just starting a Test series against Australia, there is every chance the Protea could nudge in front of Murali before too long.

Sri Lanka's other big-name spinner Ajantha Mendis also fared badly in the match as he finished with the figures of 59-14-157-1. As a result, he has slipped five places, out of the top 20 to joint-23rd position, and is now level with South Africa's left-arm slow bowler Paul Harris.

Harbhajan Singh remained India's top Test bowler at the eighth place, while Zaheer Khan is ranked 12th.

Source:http://cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Younis-replaces-Chanderpaul-as-No-1/articleshow/4194725.cms

Sachin Tendulkar at Madame Tussauds

LONDON: Cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar will be the latest sporting great to be featured at the internationally-renowned Madame Tussauds in London when a new wax figure of the Mumbai-born batsman joins the A-list line-up in April.

Tendulkar follows in the famous footsteps of Bollywood greats Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan and will join other cricket legends Brain Lara and Shane Warne to become the very first Indian sports personality to be portrayed, the waxworks museum said in a statement on Friday.

The cricketing legend has already had a sitting with the Madame Tussauds studios team who last week travelled to Mumbai to capture a catalogue of reference photographs and hundreds of precise measurements.

The information they collected at the two hour session at the Taj Lands End Hotel will prove invaluable as the sculptors and hair and make up artists get to work on his figure.

"We are delighted to confirm our next Indian superstar is going to be Sachin Tendulkar; his achievements on the cricket pitch are phenomenal and he is one of the biggest names in international sport," says Liz Edwards, Madame Tussauds PR manager.

"The Bollywood stars we have included over the past ten years have proved enormously popular with Asian guests and film fans from all over the world. We know Sachin will be just as popular for sports fans from home and abroad and are looking forward to introducing the real Sachin to his wax double soon."

Tendulkar, the Mumbai Indians Captain will be featured in typical celebratory "on the pitch" pose after another century marked in the scorebook.

He will be dressed in his cricket whites which he has donated. The figure will be created at Madame Tussauds studios in West London at a cost of 150,000 pounds.

The cricket star will join the ranks of sporting greats, including David Beckham, Mohammed Ali, Tiger Woods and Jesse Owens, in Madame Tussauds interactive Sports Zone.

There will also be a cricketing challenge around the introduction of the figure, where guests can test their cricketing skills against the 'masterblaster'.

Source:http://cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Younis-replaces-Chanderpaul-as-No-1/articleshow/4194725.cms

New Zealand win series

WELLINGTON: New Zealand on Friday snatched a dramatic last-ball victory in the second Twenty20 international to clinch the series 2-0 against India, who very nearly pulled off an incredible win in the dying moments of the thriller.

Chasing a modest 150 to win, the hosts were cruising along comfortable before the Indians changed the complexion of the game with some tidy spin bowling and Irfan Pathan's double strike in the 18th over.

Needing 12 runs off Pathan's last over, the Kiwis rode on Brendon McCullum's unbeaten 69 to scrape through to record their third consecutive victory against the world champions. The home team won the thrilling match by five wickets.

The result of the ding-dong battle at Westpac stadium could have been different had substitute fielder Rohit Sharma latched on to a difficult catch off McCullum, which would have carried the game to the eliminator stage.

Source:http://cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4201124.cms

Bopara's maiden Test ton keeps England on top

Bridgetown, Barbados: Ravi Bopara collected his maiden Test hundred to help bat England to a formidable first innings total in the fourth Test against West Indies on Friday.

Bopara followed up his blistering hundred in a two-day, warm-up match last weekend with an equally purposeful 104 which allowed England to declare their first innings on 600 for six, 45 minutes after tea on the second day at Kensington Oval.

England then enhanced their position when James Anderson claimed West Indies captain Chris Gayle for six before stumps were drawn as the home team reached 85 for one in reply.

Bopara arrived in the Caribbean last Saturday from the England Lions' tour of New Zealand to cover for the injured Andrew Flintoff, who has flown home for treatment on his injured hip, and got into his stride with 124 against a side of young, inexperienced Barbadians.

On Friday, the 23-year-old shared successive hundred-run stands with Paul Collingwood and Tim Ambrose. Collingwood scored 96 and Ambrose was unbeaten on 76 when England declared.

Fidel Edwards took three for 151 runs from 30 overs and was the most successful West Indies bowler. Anderson then trapped Gayle lbw for six playing back and across to a delivery that straightened on him in the fifth over of the West Indies reply.

England had to refer the decision to video umpire Daryl Harper to get the decision, after on-field umpire Russell Tiffin chose to give the West Indies captain the benefit of the doubt. But England could not make another breakthrough before the close, as Ramnaresh Sarwan, not out on 40, and Devon Smith, unbeaten on 37, defied the visitors' attack in an unbroken stand of 72.

Bopara, playing his first Test since the tour of Sri Lanka at the end of 2007, overcame a black eye, the result of being accidentally hit under his grill by paceman Fidel Edwards.

"I felt pretty confident from the minute I went out there on the back of a hundred in the warm-up game," said Bopara. "I'm happy with that and hopefully I can build from there. Fidel Edwards did come back at me, getting me on the grill, but it fired me up.

"It looks a flat wicket out there and, if I have to do my overs, I have to do my overs, and hopefully I can get a few wickets as well."

England benefited from West Indies' indifference in the field, after the visitors continued from their overnight total of 301 for three. At lunch, England reached 405 for four with Collingwood and Bopara having started to drop anchor, after Kevin Pietersen was dismissed for 41 in the first half-hour.

Collingwood reached his 50 from 68 balls in the final over before lunch, when he struck Daren Powell into mid-wicket for three. But he and Bopara were both fortunate to have survived until the interval.

Bopara, on four, was dropped at long-leg by Jerome Taylor off Edwards hooking, and Collingwood was dropped by short leg fielder Ryan Hinds on 44 off spinner Suleiman Benn. Pietersen was out when Edwards trapped him lbw on the back-foot - a decision which the batsman challenged under the umpire review system and lost.

After lunch, Ambrose joined Bopara and they continued to plunder the runs, following the dismissal of Collingwood, as England reached 553 for five.Collingwood was caught inside the deep backward point boundary off Edwards trying to reach his hundred in grand style.

He added 149 at close to a run-a-minute for the fifth wicket with Bopara. Ambrose was more fortunate, when wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin dropped him third ball before he had scored off Sulieman Benn.

After tea, Bopara continued untroubled to his landmark which came when he clipped a slower ball from Taylor to fine leg for a single. But trying to accelerate, he was caught at deep fine leg hooking at short, rising ball from Edwards. He batted close to four hours, faced 143 balls, and struck nine fours and one six.

England trail in the five-Test series 1-0, following an innings and 23-run defeat in the opening Test at Sabina Park in Jamaica.

Soruce:http://cricketnext.in.com/news/boparas-maiden-test-ton-keeps-england-on-top/38661-13-1.html

Anand suffers second defeat at Linares

Linares, Spain, Feb 26: World champion Viswanathan Anand was handed a shocking defeat by Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen in the sixth round as the Indian slipped to joint fourth spot at the Magistral Ciudad de Linares chess tournament here.

The Indian ace now has three points out of a possible six and will have to pull out something special to get a hold in the remaining eight rounds of the Super Grandmasters tournament.
Anand, who has two losses in the first six rounds, shares the joint fourth spot with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine while Alexander Grischuk of Russia with 4.5 points is in the sole lead after a win over Levon Aronian of Armenia in an another thrilling encounter. Aronian was sharing the second spot with Carlsen with 3.5 points each.

Strauss leads charge

BARBADOS, Feb 26: Andrew Strauss capitalised on winning an important toss by leading England’s charge on the first morning of the fourth Test in Barbados. By lunch, he had racked up a fluent 99-ball 71, as he and Alastair Cook added 108 unbroken runs for the first wicket. In a session reminiscent of their first morning’s work in Antigua last week, England’s openers made unhindered progress on a surface that has turned out to be every bit as quick and true as anticipated. The only genuine opportunity offered by either man came when Strauss, on 58 at the time, was badly dropped by Chris Gayle at first slip off the bowling of Fidel Edwards.
By and large, West Indies’ bowlers produced another disciplined display with the ball, finding the right line and length and making England’s openers wait for their scoring opportunities. (Agencies)

Ponting leads Aussie fightback

Johannesburg, Feb 26: Captain Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke shared a century partnership as Australia fought back after a poor start on the first day of the first Test against South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium here today.
Australia were 254 for five when bad light stopped play.

Ponting (83) and Clarke (68) put on 113 for the fourth wicket with attacking stroke play after Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel reduced them to 38 for three.

Although Ponting and Clarke were out in fairly quick succession, new cap Marcus North (47 not out) and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin (37 not out) put on an unbeaten 72 for the sixth wicket to continue the Australian recovery.

India seek redemption in T20 series

Wellington, Feb 26: World champions India would seek to restore their pride after being trounced in the first match as they go into the second and final Twenty20 game against New Zealand here tomorrow, fully aware that only an inspired show will help them to level the series.

The seven-wicket defeat at Christchurch in the first match must have taken the reputation of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s young bravehearts as kings of Twenty20 a serious beating which they can only rectify by winning tomorrow.

A victory will also boost their morale ahead of the five-match ODI series starting on March 3 and put a balm after their second successive loss against New Zealand in the shortest format of the game.