Monday Sports News

Women’s football suspended 
Staff Correspondent 

The three scheduled matches of the Dhaka Metropolitan Women’s School Football Tournament at the Dhanmondi Women’s Sports Complex were suspended due to incessant rain in the capital on Sunday.
  Viqarunnissa Noon School were scheduled to meet Natun Kuri, Master Mind were pitted against Summer Field and Siddheshwari Girls’ School were to face Azimpur Girls’ High School in the day’s matches.
  The matches have been shifted to October 29, while the semi-finals will take place on October 30 instead of October 29. The remaining fixture will remain unchanged. 
Australia receive ODI championship award 
Agence France-Presse . New Delhi 

Australia captain Ricky Ponting collected the one-day championship shield on Sunday for his team’s move to the top of the world rankings.
  The Australians regained top spot after defeating the West Indies in the opening game of the five-match ODI series in St. Vincent in June. The shield was presented to Ponting here by Inderjit Bindra, principal adviser to the International Cricket Council, ahead of the third Test against India starting on Wednesday.
  ‘It’s good for Australia to hold the ICC ODI Championship shield once again,’ Ponting said.
  ‘Following our success in the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007 we were challenged at the top of the rankings by a good South Africa team but we pride ourselves on improvement.
  ‘I’m pleased that we’ve played well enough recently in ODI cricket to regain this prestigious award.’
  Bindra hailed Australia’s performance in the 50-over format over the year. ‘For me Australia have always been an exciting side and are the worthy holders of the ICC ODI Championship shield as they have remarkable consistency in winning 25 of the 34 ODIs, with three no-results, since April 1, 2007.
  ‘They retained the ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies last year and reclaimed the number-one position by making a clean sweep of the five-match series against the West Indies.’
  ICC ODI Championship Table
  (Rank, Team, Rating points)
  1 Australia 131
  2 South Africa 118
  3 England 116
  4 New Zealand 113
  5 India 113
  6 Pakistan 110
  7 Sri Lanka 105
  8 West Indies 95
  9 Bangladesh 47
  10 Ireland 19
  11 Zimbabwe 15
  12 Kenya 14 
Tigers embark on SA tour Nov 1 
Staff Correspondent 

The Bangladesh national cricket team will have only two days’ recess after the New Zealand series before leaving for South Africa on November 1 to play three ODIs and two Tests against the Proteas during the month-long tour.
  Bangladesh Cricket Board is expected to declare the squad on Tuesday. The rain-affected second and final Test against New Zealand is scheduled to end on Wednesday.
  Bangladesh will start their campaign with a day-night Twenty20 match against South Africa on Nov 5 at the New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg.
  The Tigers will play the first ODI on Nov 7 at the Senwes Park in Potchefstroom, second ODI on Nov 9 at the Willowmoore Park in Benoni and the 3rd and last ODI on Nov 12 at Buffalo Park in East London. All the matches will be day-night affairs.
  After completing the ODI series Bangladesh will warm up for the Test series with a two-day match against South African Airways Challenge X1 on Nov 15-16 at the De Beer Diamond Oval in Kimberley.
  The first Test will be played from Nov 19-23 at Bloemfontein while the second Test will be held at Centurion from Nov 26-30. 
NCL hit by rain 
Staff Correspondent 

Due to the inclement weather and continuous downpour the three third round matches of the Ispahani Mirzapore Tea National Cricket League could not be started on Sunday.
  The matches will begin today, weather permitting.
  Leaders Rajshahi and Dhaka were waiting at the Rajshahi Divisional Stadium, defending champions Khulna and Chittagong were at the Chittgaong Divisional Stadium while Barisal and Sylhet were in the dressing room of Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra. 
Joseph, Benn lead Superstars 
Cricinfo 

Stanford Superstars (146/5) beat Trinidad & Tobago (124/8) by 22 runs
  A thumping and unbeaten 45 from the Stanford Superstars’ stand-in captain, Sylvester Joseph, led his side to a convincing 22-run win over Trinidad & Tobago in the first match of the eagerly anticipated Stanford Super Series.
  The opening game was a warm-up to the richer events that lie in store next week, but there was still plenty of intrigue, not least in gauging the vagaries of the pitch – the sandy-coloured stage on which the small matter of an unprecedented US$20 million rests. From the outset, it was difficult for batsmen to time the ball, the only reward coming from muscular and powerful hitting, which Trinidad lacked.
  The Superstars initially struggled, however, with Trinidad – the domestic Stanford 20/20 champions – opening the bowling with Samuel Badree, the legspinner. Bowling full, straight and at a good pace, Badree restricted the Superstars’ strokeplay, and although Andre Fletcher and Travis Dowlin’s opening partnership spanned 7.3 overs, they scratched a paltry 34. As it turned out, this was a vital base on which to propel their innings in the last five overs.
  Fletcher grew in confidence, flicking the legspinner through midwicket and heaving him over the top for the series’ first six, but he eventually fell trying to lift another maximum to long-on, neatly taken by Ravi Rampaul. Trinidad were applying the squeeze impressively, as the Superstars limped to 50 for 2 at the halfway point, but Joseph and Dowlin provided the momentum with a brisk stand of 55 in six overs.
  Captaining the side in place of Chris Gayle, who was unavailable due to family problems, Joseph took a shine to Trinidad’s other spinner, Rishi Bachan. Joseph lifted him muscularly over midwicket before launching Sherwin Ganga onto the roof of Sir Allen’s prized Sticky Wicket restaurant.
  And then came Kieron Pollard, a heavyweight in build and batsmanship, who smashed 24 from 14 balls to really give the Superstars a late-innings charge. His only six was one of the biggest of the night, heaving Navin Stewart over midwicket and into the swimming pool. Impressively, Stewart held his nerve to york him in the same over, and Lyndon James three balls later. The Superstars had carved 96 from the second half of their innings, helped by three dropped catches from Trinidad. Nevertheless, a target of 147 still seemed perfectly gettable.
  They began poorly though, Jerome Taylor removing Lendl Simmons with a searing delivery which pinged off the surface, but William Perkins ensured Trinidad were within touching distance with a crowd-pleasing 18 from 16 balls. Like Trinidad, however, the Superstars were quick to wheel in their spinners, and Sulieman Benn, a towering windmill of a spinner at 6ft 7in, fired in a yorker to bowl Perkins.
  In came Justin Guillen – whose great uncle was Sammy Guillen, Test cricketer of both West Indies and New Zealand – and he was in elegant touch, driving sweetly through the off side. On a pitch offering no pace, Trinidad needed much more than classy twos and threes, however. Stewart showed his appetite for a battle with an enjoyable 26 which contained two of the night’s zingiest sixes – Dave Mohammed was dispatched out of the ground with ease. But with 49 needed from 25 balls, and Benn bowling full and straight, Trinidad lacked lower-order firepower to make a go of it.
  This was not the clinical performance the Superstars’ seven-week training camp promised, with dropped catches and a below-par batting performance, but they were strong enough on the night. 
Dasgupta shines for Bengal 
against Dhaka 
Cricinfo 

Royal Bengal Tigers (175/2) beat Dhaka Warriors (172/7) by eight wickets
  Sparking half-centuries from Aftab Ahmed and Alok Kapali carried the Dhaka Warriors to a competitive 172, but Deep Dasgupta’s blistering unbeaten 80 helped the Bengal Royal Tigers overhaul that with eight deliveries and eight wickets remaining. Dhaka’s medium-pacers had been unable to tie down the runs in the tournament, and it was yet another disappointing performance. Bengal knocked off the runs with ease, thanks to Dasgupta’s 109-run stand in 12.3 overs with Rohan Gavaskar.
  By the time Hamish Marshall was bowled by Mosharraf Hossain, Bengal had rattled away 41 in 4.3 overs. Gavaskar was promoted to No. 3 - he hit 30 off 12 balls against the Mumbai Champs recently - and he offered perfect support to Dasgupta, who was aggressive from the off, striking the ball with power and placement. Gavaskar ran the singles well, but it was Dasgupta’s ability to find the boundary that frustrated Dhaka. Either making room to drill the ball over extra cover or rock back to pull the errant deliveries, he was unstoppable.
  Gavaskar’s first ICL half-century consumed 32 balls and included some soft-handed steers to third man to compliment three sixes. Mohammad Rafique got him lbw for 51 with the last ball of the 17th over, but in the next Klusener had an lbw appeal overturned after it was reviewed by the television umpire. A second six from Dasgupta, effortlessly lifted over midwicket, hastened victory in the same over, and it was all over when Klusener thumped his second six.
  After electing to field, Bengal struck in the first over when Klusener had Nazimuddin caught by Upul Chandana for 2. Clearly unaffected by his opening partner’s departure, however, Aftab hit Abu Nechim for two sixes in one over, using his feet superbly. Shahriar Nafees chipped Eklak Ahmid’s first delivery to Adams at deep midwicket but Aftab remained in a different zone.
  He crunched boundaries either side of the pitch and when Chandana was brought on as Dhaka’s 50 came up in six overs, Aftab welcomed him with a six and a four. The third six raised his fifty from just 30 deliveries. A miscued pull ballooned back to Ahmid to cut short a thrilling innings on 61, from 42 balls. Mahbubul Karim swung and missed to be bowled by Ahmid for 4 to make it 123 for 4.
  A bent-knee six from Kapali only minimally dented Ahmid’s very creditable 3 for 20 from four overs, but that was just the start. A lovely short-arm jab brought Kapali his fourth six in the same direction and he raised his fifty from 27 balls. Adams served up a chest-high full toss and Kapali steered it over third man for six more. Chasing a rising delivery from Klusener, Kapali was smartly stumped by Dasgupta in the penultimate over. His 65, with five sixes, had apparently
  done plenty of damage, but Dhaka’s bowlers had another poor outing. 
Federer faces Nalbandian 
in hometown final 
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Basel 

Roger Federer will take on David Nalbandian in the Swiss Indoors final after the Basel-born, world number two’s bid for a third straight hometown title continued with an easy semi-final win on Saturday.
  The top seeded Federer booked his place in Sunday’s decider with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over unseeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez while second seeded Argentine Nalbandian saw off compatriot and Davis Cup teammate Juan Martin Del Potro 6-4, 6-4.
  Federer faced two break points in his second service game against Lopez but defended them calmly with a service winner and an ace.
  After that he had no further problems — hitting a total of 15 aces and breaking Lopez three times to complete his seventh win in seven matches against the Spaniard.
  ‘I had a bit of difficulty at the start,’ acknowledged Federer. ‘But then I found my rhythm and my serve was working even better than normal so I’m really happy about that.’
  Federer said he expected a tougher challenge on Sunday from Nalbandian, whose 8 wins and 9 losses in previous matches against the Swiss is one of the best records on the tour.
  ‘Nalbandian? Never heard of him,’ the 13-time grand slam champion joked when asked about the prospect of playing the Argentine once again.
  ‘It’s true he has a good record against me and he’s also one of the few players to have been to at least the semi-finals of every Grand Slam event. It should be a lot of fun on Sunday.’
  Nalbandian also came through a one-sided match after benefiting considerably from the third-seeded Del Potro’s difficulties with a lingering toe injury.
  The 20-year-old world number nine began the match well enough against Nalbandian — the senior Argentine by six years and one world ranking place — breaking early to lead 2-0.
  A series of unforced errors by Del Potro and some astute play from Nalbandian allowed the former Wimbledon finalist to pull back with two breaks of his own, however, after which Del Potro called for treatment on the troublesome toe.
  It made little difference as Nalbandian cleverly exploited his colleague’s misfortune, spraying the ball left and right and even mixing in a handful of harsh drop shots.
  After wrapping up the first set he broke ahead early in the second and was barely troubled before saving a solitary break point at 5-4 with another drop shot that drew sympathetic groans from the crowd and then serving out.
  Del Potro, who was forced to out of this month’s Vienna Open because of the problem with the nail on his right big toe, said it would not stop him playing in next month’s Davis Cup final despite requiring removal and 15 days rest.
  ‘If I can play here I can play Davis Cup,’ he said. ‘We have the chance to win the Davis Cup for the first time so I don’t want to be thinking about my toe.’