Cricket News In Brief – February 4, 2012 – Part 1
Pakistan has dismissed England on 141 in the first hour of the second day’s play at Dubai, with spinner Abdur Rehman grabbing an impressive five-wicket haul.
Resuming on 104 for 6, the tourists failed to count on their early dominancy, (after they bowled out the Men In Green on 99 on the first day), surrendering easily to the host’s inform spin duo of Rehman and Saeed Ajmal.
The only bright spot for the Poms was the coming to form of skipper, Andrew Strauss, who top scored with a highly competitive 56.
Australian skipper, Michael Clarke, reckons that his side is favourite to triumph over India and Sri Lanka in the upcoming Commonwealth Bank series.
The Aussies have performed exceptionally well under the leadership of Clarke, where they remain undefeated in all series, following the World Cup 2011.
The form of their upcoming opponents has been well below par, especially away from home. The Men In Blue recently won their first match Down Under, while the Lankan Lions have not succeeded in any series (excluding T20) since the mega event where they finished
runners up to eventual winners India.
"We're the No.1 one-day team in the world so I'd like to think that we're favourites," Clarke said. We know the conditions very well in Australia and I'm confident if we play our best cricket we can win this series."
Sahara India Parivar has pulled out from their respective associations with the Indian cricket team and IPL, citing differences with the BCCI.
The corporate body was the chief sponsors for the national team since 2001, while also held stakes in Pune Warriors. They will continue their association with BCCI till the governing body finds an appropriate replacement.
The news was broken just before the final auction at Bangalore, where the Pune franchise did not take part.
"We are withdrawing from all cricket under BCCI," the group stated. "However, we don't want to give any problem to the BCCI and we also feel that the players should not suffer. BCCI will definitely take 2-4 months to get a new sponsor and we will continue
paying the sponsorship money till then.”