England make a thrilling tie with India

England made a thrilling tie with  India in their Group B clash of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in Bangalore on Sunday. Chasing India’s enormous total of 338 off 49.5 overs, England notched up 338 for the loss of eight wickets in the fixed 50 overs. Andrew Strauss of England fractured a marvelous 158 off 145 balls together with 18 boundaries and a over boundary while Ian Bell hit 69 off 74 balls in the middle of four fors and a six.

Zaheer Khan grabbed three wickets at the cost of 64 runs while Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla bagged a pair of wickets each for 70 and 71 runs correspondingly. Left-handers Yuvraj Singh (58) and Gautam Gambhir made half-centuries, while opener Virender Sehwag contributed 35 and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni inclined in with 31.

Dhoni won the toss and chosen to bat first, and Tendulkar and Sehwag put on 46 for the first wicket in 7.5 overs. Sehwag fell when he tried to guide a ball from pace bowler Tim Bresnan, that was outside the off-stump, through the empty slips only to find wicket-keeper Matt Prior dived to his right and get a good one-handed catch.

Sehwag, who had starred in India's win over Bangladesh with a luminous 175 in the tournament opener at Mirpur on February 19, scored 35 today off 26 balls with the help of six fours.

Tendular, quite hesitant in the early stages and unable to find gaps in the tight England field, slowly came into his own and brought up the 50 of the innings with a brilliant flick to the hurdle front of square and then followed it up with an even more beautiful shot, this time to backward of square.

Tendulkar creates history

Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar smacks a six during their World Cup match against England at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Sunday.

Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday reached another milestone as he became the uppermost century-maker in World Cup history by scoring his fifth hundred in the impressive event.

The 37-year-old Tendulkar reached the landmark during the group B clash against England when he glanced strongly built paceman Tim Bresnan for a boundary towards the fine leg region in the first ball of the 35th over. It was his 47th ODI century and his 98th overall.

earlier India captain Sourav Ganguly, current Australia captain Ricky Ponting and his former team-mate Mark Waugh have all scored four World Cup hundreds.

With Ganguly and Waugh retired, it is only Ponting who has a chance to match or surpass Tendulkar. Tendulkar scored 120 runs from 115 balls and the knock was decorated with five sixes and 10 fours.

Tendulkar, playing his sixth World Cup, also holds the records for most runs and most half-centuries in the flagship event of the ICC.

He has accumulated 1,944 runs in 38 matches and has scored 13 fifties so far, followed by Ponting with 1,577 runs in 41 matches.

Ganguly is the only other Indian who has managed to score more than 1,000 runs in World Cup matches. He scored 1,006 runs in 21 matches and stands 11th in the list of highest run scorers in World Cup.

During the course of his innings, Tendulkar shared a magnificent 134-run partnership for the second wicket with Gautam Gambhir, who scored 51 runs.

Afridi bowls Pakistan to victory

Shahid Afridi took four wickets and Misbah-ul-Haq notched a second succeeding half century as Pakistan upstaged Sri Lanka in a highly-charged World Cup Group A match by 11 runs on Saturday. Afridi, who became the 11th player to take 300 wickets in ODIs, finished with 4-34 to help Pakistan defend a 278-run target, as they limited Sri Lanka to 266-9 in 50 overs for their second win in the tournament.

Chamara Silva, who made a 78-ball 57, gave Pakistan a scare with a 40-run stand with Angelo Mathews (18) before the 1992 champions held their nerve to win. The win gave Pakistan four points from two matches and top spot in the table.

It was 30-year-old Afridi who kept Pakistan on track by bowling dangerous opener Tillakaratne Dilshan (41) and Sangakkara before having Thilan Samaraweera (one) stumped and Mathews caught in the deep.

Pakistan could have finished the match earlier had wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal not missed stumping Sangakkara on two occasions off spinner Abdur Rehman while Rehman also dropped a simple chance off Silva.

Pakistan were earlier set on course for a big total by in-form Misbah-ul-Haq, who finished with an unbeaten 83 and Younus Khan (72) who added 108 during a fourth-wicket stand of 108.

With Pakistan looking set for a 300-plus total, Sri Lanka’s bowlers, especially Muttiah Muralitharan, kept a tight line and length, only allowing Pakistan 36 runs in the five-over batting power-play. Misbah hit six boundaries during his 91-ball knock.

Pakistan, who won the toss and batted, lost Ahmed Shahzad (13) in the sixth over, before Mohammad Hafeez (32) and Kamran Akmal (39) steadied the innings during their second wicket stand of 48.

Hafeez opened up, hitting paceman Nuwan Kulasekara for a well swept six, but a crazy run out accounted for his downfall when he swept Muralitharan to backward square-leg without noticing Kamran running down to his end.
Wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara’s throw went over the bowler’s head but Hafeez, leaving his crease late, had no time to recover. Hafeez hit four boundaries and six during his 31-ball knock.

Kamran, who hit five boundaries in his 48 balls, was stumped off Rangana Herath who finished with 2-46. Younus top-edged Herath in the 41st over, and was smartly caught by Jayawardene after hitting four boundaries during his sedate 76-ball innings.

Tigers cross Irish hurdle

Bangladesh players celebrate the fall of Irish captain William Porterfield's, second from left, wicket during their World Cup match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

SCORES IN BRIEF

BANGLADESH: 205 all out in 49.2 overs (Tamim 44, Imrul 12, Mushfiqur 36, Shakib 16, Rokibul 38, Naeem 29, Razzak 11;
Johnston 2-40, Botha 3-32, Dockrell 2-23)

IRELAND: 178 all out in 45 overs (Porterfield 20, Joyce 16, N O'Brien 38, White 10, K O'Brien 37, Botha 22; Shafiul 4-21, Razzak 1-30, Naeem 1-36, Shakib 2-28, Ashraful 2-42)
Result: Bangladesh won by 27 runs.
Man-of-the-match: Tamim Iqbal.

Joy & unabated celebration

Once again the vivacity of the crowd at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur yesterday proved the ultimate winners. The packed thousands saw their favorite Tigers initially bite the dust yet kept singing, dancing, drumming and cheering as loud and as long as they could. And in the end saw their unending fervor bore fruition as the Tigers ran home with a 27-run victory against Ireland in an utterly lively encounter. If you were not here to witness it, you missed a hell of a party.

“I cannot tell you how glad I am tonight. It was my birthday, and I could not have wished for a better gift than this. This will remain one of the most memorable occasions of my life,” said one, a chartered accountant from Shyamoli, who was one of those 25,000 fortunate to witness a memorable win by the Tigers.

Long after the victory, the jubilant supporters thronged the street outside the stadium, honking horns, beating drums, and shouting at the top of their voice: Go, Tigers go.

“I thank Shafiul for the way he tilted the match in our favor with those four wickets. In fact, I knew all the way that we would win once the Tigers had scored 205 runs. I'm sure they will win more matches with performance like this one,” shouted Roksana Munni

Yet the crowd kept believing in the Tigers. Every single run was cheered on by the crowd as if it was the winning run, every opposition appeal was boisterously disapproved of as if the campaign was at stake.

“We know Bangladesh were beaten twice by Ireland, but we are not counting those and don't want to give those defeats a place in the mind,” was the conviction of Adil who came from Shantinagar.

The theme of the song speaks about the fall from grace of a mighty emperor. Mighty may not be the Tigers, but still they were the big brothers against their Associate counterparts. So they had the onus to restore that pride and restore it they did.

Police beat up cricket fans in Bangalore

Police used bamboo sticks to beat cricket fans trying to buy tickets in Bangalore on Thursday as World Cup organizers criticized Indian officials over rising ticketing disorder.

Fans queuing for seats at India's game with England in Bangalore on Sunday were baton-charged by police as vast crowds pushed towards the gates of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Several people were injured and taken away on stretchers as police attempted to stay order among the throng of several thousand fans, an AFP reporter witnessed.

All 7,000 tickets put on sale on Thursday sold out within hours, departure many disappointed fans who had waited at the ground all night.

A letter from the International Cricket Council (ICC) to organizing committee chairman Sharad Pawar was leaked early Thursday airing "serious concerns" over distribution and sales of tickets for the tournament.

There was particular concern over plans to sell the remaining 4,000 tickets available for the April 2 final in Mumbai over the counter.

"With the important demand and small availability there is potential for disorder and physical injury when the box office sales open," the ICC warned. "For this reason we strongly recommend that this sale of tickets be cancelled."

The ICC's worst fears were quickly realized when huge numbers of excited fans descended on the stadium in Bangalore to purchase tickets for the high-profile India v England game.

The ICC told Pawar in the letter that issues surrounding distribution of tickets "had now reached critical status and need your instant involvement."

It said Kyazoonga, the official ticketing company, had not been given printed tickets in time to deliver them to customers.

"We have received many complaints from fans that purchased tickets but are yet to receive them despite having paid for these tickets more than six months ago."

Gifts bring a smile to Titu

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal (L) gifts his jersey to disabled fan Titu , also seen is his opening partner Imrul Kayes (C), at the GP-BCB Academy Ground yesterday.

The Daily Star's photo of the physically challenged young beggar Mohammad Titu, who was plying the roads of Karwan Bazar in a Bangladesh national team jersey, had garnered a marvelous response from a wide range of people over the last couple of days.

And a number of those responses bore frustration yesterday, when Titu found himself the recipient of different financial and logistical support from a wide side view of people and corporate.

Striking Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal, who had pledged his World Cup jersey to the young beggar, delivered on his promise and also further assisted him by pledging a sum of Tk 3,000 every month for the young man. Tamim's teammate, wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim also gave Titu his training jersey at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

Housewife Nargis Rahman, from Eskaton who was the first in a long line of callers to enquire about Titu, also delivered on her assure to provide him with a wheelchair, which she handed over at The Daily Star office on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue yesterday.

Zahir Ahmed, chief executive officer of Mir Telecom, and Directors of the company Ruslan Nasir and Mahreen Nasir presented Titu two tickets for the Bangladesh-Ireland match and also presented cash assistance.

Titu, who lost his legs in a road accident a couple of years back, expressed his gratitude to all of his well-wishers and said that these gifts would help him to survive in a better way.

Titu, who lives in a slum, at the back the FDC in Karwan Bazar, supports two siblings on his daily income. After being infected with the World Cup bug, he had saved two days' income to buy a Bangladesh team shirt.

After getting the gifts, Titu prayed that the Tigers performed their best in the World Cup.