Florida Cricket: Sportsman advances in SFCA Twenty20

SFCA Twenty20 Cricket – Sportsman knocks over Ambassador By Ricardo Inniss – Special Correspondent On yet another bleak Sunday, Sportsman convincingly knocked over Ambassador by 7 wickets at Lake Stevens Elementary, as the South Florida Cricket Alliance (SFCA), Twenty20 Cricket Competition continued on Sunday October 14.

Ambassador, taking to the crease first , in the Premier Division, was dismissed for a very modest 74 after 19.4 overs of the allotted 20. Only Antoine Charlery 28 and Errol Stuart 11, managed double figures. Bowling for Sportsman, Riad Mohamed took 3 for 16, Moien Mohamed 3 for 18 and Masood Mohamed, 2 for 11. Looking for 75 for victory, Sportsman rushed to 78 for 3, to win convincingly by 7 wickets. Moien Mohamed hit 24, Kaiume Mohamed carried his bat for 23, while Waffie Mohamed remained undefeated on 10. The best bowler for Ambassador, was Dwight McKenzie who took 2 for 19.

Following are the SFCA Twenty20 matches scheduled for Sunday October 21:

Premier Division

Zone A, Osswald Park vs. Lauderhill Jammers at Myrtle Grove Elementary (second match), Palm Beach vs. West Indies Alliance at John Prince Park, (one match only).

Zone B, Ambassador vs. Myrtle Grove at Lake Stevens Elementary (second match ), Sportsman vs. International at Lauderhill Sports Park.

Division 1 South

Zone A, Challengers vs. Leewards United at Miramar Regional Park- South (first match), Westside Cavaliers vs. Islanders at Lauderhill Sports Park (first match).

Zone B, Lauderhill Jammers 2 vs. St. Lucie at City Hall Park (first match), Broward United vs. R.L. Glass at City Hall Park ( second match).

Division 1

North, Parkway vs. Trinidad & Tobago at Myrtle Grove Elementary (first match), Ambassador 2 vs. United Sports at Lake Stevens Elementary (first match), Melbourne vs. Southshore at Miramar Regional Park-South (second match).

FSCL 30 overs Cricket Competition -India United defeats South India

India United defeated South India by a decisive 58 runs, when the two teams met as the Florida Southeast Cricket League (FSCL), continued at St. George Park on Sunday October 14.

India United, batting first after winning the toss, knocked up 126. Amol Sanap scored 29 and Ankur Gerg 20. The best Bowler for South India, was Matthew Phillips with 3 for 28. Replying, South India could only muster 68 all out. Justin Jose topscored with 33. Bowling India United to a decisive 58 run victory, Rajesh Thadani took 4 for 8 and Pranay Tigga, 2 for 4.

The FSCL matches scheduled for Sunday October 21 are as follows:

Broward C.C. vs. Cricketers at Brian Piccolo Park-North, WID C.C. vs. Fl. International at Brian Piccolo Park-South, Miramar Masters vs. Grenada at Miramar Regional Park-South, Atlantic vs.Toofan at Boynton Beach, India United vs. Fort Lauderdale at St. George Park, USC Academy vs. South India at Tradewinds Park, Coconut Creek vs. Lagaan at Lyons Creek Middle School. Everest has a bye.

North-Lauderdale Tennis and Windball Cricket Competition

As the North-Lauderdale Tennis and Windball Cricket Competition, continued on Friday evening October 13, at the Jack Brady Sports Complex, Togetherness, Junkies and Hotshots, all chalked up wins.

On field 2 in the Tennisball Division, Togetherness batting first scored 82 for 9. Replying, D.C.C. 60 allout. Togetherness won by 22 runs. On field 3 batting first, Citrix 43 all out. Replying, Junkies 44 for 2. Junkies won by 8 wickets. In the Windball Division on field 4, Young Bloodz taking first knock, 50 for 9. Replying, Hot Shots 51 for 8. Hot Shots won by 2 wickets.

On Wednesday evening at 8 pm, on field 4, Invaders will take on Young Bloodz.

‘Looking forward to playing T20 world champions’

Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Friday said his team was not looking at Saturday’s one-off Twenty20 cricket match as a chance for revenge against India for their loss in the World Championships in South Africa.

“There’s nothing about trying to get even. We are looking forward to playing against the Indian team which won this format of the World Championship a few weeks ago. This match has been talked about even more than the (seven-match) ODI series,” Ponting said on the eve of the Twenty20 International at the Brabourne Stadium here.

“We were pretty disappointed about losing the last ODI from a winning position. We lost to the Indians in the T20 World Championship. But you win some and lose some. What’s important is enjoying the game. It’s an enjoyable format,” said the Tasmanian batsman.

Australia were knocked out by the Mahendra Dhoni-led side in the semi finals of the T20 event at Durban and went on to clinch the inaugural world crown in the shortest format of the interntional game.

Ponting also said some of the Australian cricketers were down with sore throats, including left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg, who was a key member of the ODI squad that defeated the hosts 4-2 in the series that ended on October 17.

“We will have to take a call on Brad Hogg later this evening. He has a sore throat,” said the Aussie skipper who expected in-form opener Matthew Hayden to return to action after missing the last two ODIs because of a hip injury.

Nadal clinches thrilling win over Murray

World number two Rafael Nadal clinched a thrilling 7-6 6-4 victory over Britain’s Andy Murray to claim a place in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters in Spain on Thursday.The two men played some superb tennis as they slugged it out in front of a packed crowd at the Madrid Arena, but it was 2005 champion Nadal who played the big points better and managed to edge victory over the Scot.

“It was a very intense, high-level game and I’m very pleased I came through. I played a very complete match,” said Nadal.

The Spaniard had edged a five-set epic on the only previous occasion the two players met in the last 16 of the Australian Open at the start of the year and this was almost as dramatic.

Murray made a confident start, slamming down two aces to take the opening game and then giving Nadal plenty of problems on his serve with some brilliant returns.  But with Murray failing to convert five break points in the early games, Nadal grew in confidence and eventually edged the set on a tie-break.

It was nip-and-tuck in the second set with Murray holding the early advantage at 4-2 up, but Nadal had the greater reserves, fought back to draw level and claimed the match-winning break in the tenth.

“It was an unbelievably close match,” said Murray. “There were a lot of tough points and it could have gone either way.”

The Spaniard now meets David Nalbandian who beat fellow Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 6-2 6-4 earlier in the day.

Defending champion Roger Federer was at his dominant best as he crushed Argentine Guillermo Canas 6-0 6-3 to take his place in the quarterfinals.

WHIRLWIND START

The world number one made a whirlwind start on the super-fast greenset surface to rattle through the first set, leaving Canas totally bemused.

The Argentine put up stiffer resistance in the second set but still could not cope with the technical brilliance of the 26-year-old Swiss, who wrapped up the match in under an hour and will play Stefan Koubek or Feliciano Lopez in the last eight.

“I took my chances and always felt in control. It was a good feeling out there,” said Federer who lost back-to-back matches against Canas at the beginning of the year.

Third seed Novak Djokovic, Fernando Gonzalez, Mario Ancic and Nicolas Kiefer also booked their places in the quarters.

Djokovic fended off a determined Juan Carlos Ferrero to beat the former world number one 6-3 2-6 6-4 and clinch a win that set up a showdown with Ancic who eased through 6-4 6-3 against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Last year’s losing finalist Fernando Gonzalez breezed into the last eight with an emphatic 6-4 6-2 victory over Argentine Juan Monaco. The win also took the fifth-seeded Chilean a step closer to securing his place at the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai for the second time in his career.

Gonzalez will now meet Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer who won 7-6 7-6 against big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic.

Karlovic hammered 22 aces against his lower-ranked opponent but Kiefer survived the barrage to reach the last eight.

‘I’m not really feeling my age’ :Pollock

Chatting to Shaun Pollock about as-yet-unreached career milestones is a lot like trying to pick out a birthday present for a billionaire. What do you give the man who already has it all?

Take a glance at Pollock’s career statistics. He’s already played his 100th Test (against New Zealand, 2006 ); he’s already taken his 400th Test wicket (India, 2006); he’s already scored his 3000th Test run (India, 2004); and, even though he’s nominally a fast-medium bowler, he’s already scored two Test hundreds (Sri Lanka and West Indies, both 2001).

His one-day international record reads much the same: he’s already scored his 3000th ODI run (Bangladesh, 2007 ); taken his 350th ODI wicket (New Zealand, 2006); and scored his maiden ODI hundred (against the Asia XI in 2007). Oh, and he’s also captained the national team already – in 26 Tests, 97 ODIs and, lest we forget, in South Africa’s 1998 Commonwealth Games gold medal campaign. So could Shaun Pollock possibly have any milestones left to reach?

“Yeah, I do,” he nods. “You’ve got to have goals, you know. If you have nothing to strive for, your passion will start to dwindle. So yes, I do still have some goals. But that’s not my main focus and I’m not the kind of person who puts them out there. There are, at the back of my mind, some milestones that I’d like to achieve. And you’d love me to tell you what they are, but …” He closes his lips into his familiar naughty-schoolboy grin.

Ag, c’mon, Polly.

“Okay, I’ll give you one,” he relents. “I’d like to get 400 one-day wickets. And I’m not too far off.” Indeed not: at last count, Pollock had 383 ODI scalps.

It all seems a long way from his illuminating maiden ODI, against England at Newlands in January 1996, when as a wide-eyed, red-haired youngster he thwacked an unbeaten run-a-ball 66 and took 4 for 34 to announce his arrival on the international scene. He was named Man of the Match and then Man of the ODI Series, having already averaged 26.60 with bat and 23.56 with ball in the Test series.

Pollock’s early reputation – no doubt fortified by his famous family name – was based on what was perceived as an ability to intimidate the batsman. “People had this big impression that I was a tearaway quickie,” he says. “But I’ve never enjoyed pinning people, and I still don’t get any pleasure out of tonking someone on the head. I had quite a quick bumper back then, and another one that nipped back at the right-hander and tended to follow him, so that probably got the batters into more trouble than my actual pace.”

Come to mention it, Pollock’s pace has faded over the years – to the point where there’s now talk that his time as a top-level cricketer may be coming to an end. But all that talk has been limited to press opinions, commentator chatter and idle around-the-water-cooler office debates. Speak to Pollock himself, and it’s clear that he’s not ready to call time just yet.

“I’m not really feeling my age,” he shrugs. “Yes, you get sore, but that’s part and parcel of playing international sport. You wake up some mornings and think, ‘Gosh, how’m I gonna get out of bed here?’ But that’s also part of the mental side of things, of lifting yourself every morning, lifting yourself out of disappointment, lifting yourself when you’re feeling sore to come back and fight and put in another performance.”

So were we wrong, in our World Cup previews earlier this year, to suggest that 2007 would be his last World Cup? Is he saying that he’ll stick around till 2011?

Sharapova withdraws from Linz

Russia’s Maria Sharapova has confirmed she will not take part as expected in the Linz WTA tournament next week, tournament organisers said on Thursday.”I am very disappointed not to be able to play in the Generali Ladies Linz (tournament) but my shoulder injury is still not completely healed,” Sharapova was quoted as saying in the organisers’ statement.

“I will do anything to get fit again as quickly as possible,” she also said, adding “I hope that I will be able to play again in Linz in the future.”

The world number four said on Sunday on her internet site that she was pulling out of the tournament, due to begin on Monday, citing persistent shoulder pain, but later said “I will do everything in my power to play in Linz.”

Sharapova also pulled out this week’s Zurich Open.

Indian cricket fans arrested for racial abuse

Four Indian cricket fans will face charges of racially abusing Australian batsman Andrew Symonds with monkey gestures, police in Mumbai said yesterday.The four were ejected from a one-day international match, which India narrowly won on Wednesday, after officials showed police pictures of the three men and a woman making the racist gestures at Symonds, who is the only black player in the Australian team.

The fans were charged with misbehaviour and harassment and freed on bail to appear in court later. Australian newspapers carried photographs of the Mumbai crowd, clearly showing spectators making offensive gestures.

The seven-match series, which Australia won 4-2, has been marred by allegations of racial comments aimed at the Australians. Symonds, the outstanding batsman of the series, complained that crowds in a match against India in the western city of Vadodara this month had begun monkey chanting. The city’s police chief had claimed the supporters were praying to the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman.

However both Indian and Australian cricket officials have condemned the Mumbai spectactors. “There is no place for racism in cricket either on or off the field,” said a statement by Sharad Pawar, India’s top cricket official, and Creagh O’Connor, his Australian counterpart. “All cricket nations have to be on guard to ensure that the fun does not cross the boundary into unacceptable behaviour.”