Test

Pakistan vs South Africa Super Eight Round T20 World Cup 2012

Pakistan 136 for 8 (Umar Akmal 43*, Gul 32) beat South Africa 133 for 6 (Duminy 48, Hafeez 2-23) by two wickets

Umar Gul and Umar Akmal pulled off a spectacular coup to bring Pakistan back from the brink to beat South Africa. The second round of the tournament started with two thrillers on Thursday and the fire carried over into Friday as the match swung three times.

Pakistan put themselves in front with a strong performance in the field as their four frontline spinners wove a web around South Africa. But what should have been a straightforward chase for Pakistan turned into a comedy of soft dismissals and a surprising outfoxing of the batsmen by the South African spinners.

Then, Gul and Umar Akmal took centre stage and shared a stand of 49 in 27 balls for the eighth wicket to inflict a demoralising defeat on South Africa. The pair stroked a series of audacious boundaries as they took on South Africa's pace attack with Jacques Kallis and Albie Morkel the worst hit. To add to South Africa's worries, Dale Steyn left the field with an injured ankle after being struck in his final over.

South Africa will reflect on a number of tactical errors, rather than simply being outplayed. Talking points will centre on be AB de Villiers batting at No. 6, instead of higher up the order and Johan Botha and JP Duminy only bowling two overs each on a pitch that clearly had something in it for spinners -Kallis and Albie Morkel could have been used less.

For Pakistan the strategy may not matter. They take the points and the advantage in the group after looking as though they would at the halfway stage, almost giving it away and then snatching it back in some style to ensure their early efforts did not go to waste.

Only JP Duminy had some measure of the Pakistan attack as the rest of the line-up were troubled and tied down by turn. Raza Hasan did the early containing job, setting the stage for the introduction of Saeed Ajmal, who bowled Richard Levi around his as the opener attempted a reverse sweep to the first ball he faced from Ajmal. 

Mohammed Hafeez accounted for Jacques Kallis, who slapped his first ball to cover and South Africa were in serious trouble at 28 for 3. Despite the situation, AB de Villiers chose to hold himself back and Farhaan Berhardien came in ahead of him.

He and Duminy shared a stand of 38 and built the platform De Villiers may have been waiting for. Behardien played two shots in anger before he was stumped and De Villiers finally made his entrance at No. 6. He had seven and a half overs to make an impact but managed 25 runs while Duminy continued to play the anchor role. He suffered from dehydration during his innings and vomited on the field but was able to bowl later on. Given the conditions, some may say he should have bowled more.

Pakistan were in a worse situation than South Africa early on. Imran Nazir gloved an attempted pull to de Villiers and then Robin Peterson found turn and bounce to have Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed stumped in the same over. Kamran Akmal was bowled playing a cut that was not on off Johan Botha and Pakistan were 37 for 4.

Umar Akmal played a Duminy-like innings, taking advantage of anything loose and full and holding back for the rest of the time. He was not shaken by Shoaib Malik handing a catch to third man, Shahid Afridi falling for a golden duck after smashing Duminy to the long-off fielder or Yasir Arafat fending a short ball to Duminy who took a spectacular catch at midwicket.

The two dismissals Duminy was involved in looked to spell the end for Pakistan but Gul was reading a different script. He made his intent known when he clubbed Kallis for back-to-back sixes on the on-side, picking up the length well. Umar Akmal let Gul go wild while he held up his end and Gul obliged.

Gul holed out to Petersen on the cover boundary but he had done enough damage. Umar Akmal's eyes lit up when Morne Morkel offered him a full toss and he hit it flat over midwicket to leave Saeed Ajmal to seal the win with an outside edge to third man. 

South Africa innings (20 overs maximum)		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	RE Levi	b Saeed Ajmal	8	20	9	1	0	88.88
	HM Amla	c Shoaib Malik b Yasir Arafat	6	6	6	1	0	100.00
	JH Kallis	c Shahid Afridi b Mohammad Hafeez	12	18	18	0	1	66.66
	JP Duminy	c †Kamran Akmal b Yasir Arafat	48	55	38	2	2	126.31
	F Behardien	st †Kamran Akmal b Mohammad Hafeez	18	22	21	2	0	85.71
	AB de Villiers*†	c Imran Nazir b Umar Gul	25	20	18	2	1	138.88
	JA Morkel	not out	9	14	6	1	0	150.00
	RJ Peterson	not out	3	7	4	0	0	75.00
	Extras	(lb 2, w 2)	4
	Total	(6 wickets; 20 overs)	133	(6.65 runs per over)

Did not bat J Botha, DW Steyn, M Morkel

Fall of wickets 1-8 (Amla, 1.5 ov), 2-28 (Levi, 5.2 ov), 3-28 (Kallis, 6.1 ov), 4-66 (Behardien, 12.3 ov), 5-110 (de Villiers, 17.2 ov), 6-123 (Duminy, 18.4 ov)

Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	Raza Hasan	3	1	12	0	4.00
	Yasir Arafat	3	0	25	2	8.33	(1w)
	Saeed Ajmal	4	1	26	1	6.50
	Mohammad Hafeez	4	0	23	2	5.75
	Shahid Afridi	4	0	26	0	6.50	(1w)
	Umar Gul	2	0	19	1	9.50

Pakistan innings (target: 134 runs from 20 overs)		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	Mohammad Hafeez*	st †de Villiers b Peterson	15	16	9	2	1	166.66
	Imran Nazir	c †de Villiers b Steyn	14	14	11	3	0	127.27
	Nasir Jamshed	st †de Villiers b Peterson	0	3	2	0	0	0.00
	Kamran Akmal†	b Botha	1	10	6	0	0	16.66
	Shoaib Malik	c Steyn b Kallis	12	29	26	1	0	46.15
	Umar Akmal	not out	43	66	41	4	1	104.87
	Shahid Afridi	c JA Morkel b Duminy	0	2	1	0	0	0.00
	Yasir Arafat	c Duminy b Steyn	3	9	5	0	0	60.00
	Umar Gul	c Peterson b Steyn	32	29	17	2	3	188.23
	Saeed Ajmal	not out	4	4	1	1	0	400.00
	Extras	(b 2, lb 6, w 3, nb 1)	12
	Total	(8 wickets; 19.4 overs)	136	(6.91 runs per over)

Did not bat Raza Hasan

Fall of wickets 1-24 (Imran Nazir, 2.6 ov), 2-30 (Mohammad Hafeez, 3.2 ov), 3-31 (Nasir Jamshed, 3.6 ov), 4-37 (Kamran Akmal, 6.2 ov), 5-63 (Shoaib Malik, 11.5 ov),6-63 (Shahid Afridi, 12.1 ov), 7-76 (Yasir Arafat, 14.3 ov), 8-125 (Umar Gul, 18.6 ov)

Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	DW Steyn	4	0	22	3	5.50	(2w)
	M Morkel	3.4	0	33	0	9.00
	RJ Peterson	4	1	15	2	3.75
	JA Morkel	2	0	26	0	13.00	(1nb)
	J Botha	2	1	10	1	5.00
	JP Duminy	2	0	5	1	2.50
	JH Kallis	2	0	17	1	8.50	(1w)

 Man of the Match: Umar Gul (Pakistan)

(Thanks to: www.espncricinfo.com)

Video Test

ఉషోదయమే నీ రూపం, నీటిలోనే నీ ప్రతిబింబం…

ఉషోదయమే నీ రూపం,
నీటిలోనే నీ ప్రతిబింబం.
నిండు జాబిలి నీ అందం,
అది నా మనసులో మల్లె చందనం.

లోలోన ప్రాణం,
పెదవిపయిన మౌనం.
పరితపించే ప్రణయం,
ఊహకందని అభిమానం.

సిరివెన్నెల శిల్పమా, సిరికి ప్రాణమా.
కలిసే చైత్రమా, పలికే మౌనమా.
కరిగే కావ్యమా, కదిలే బింబమా.
నిదురించే వేళ కలవై రావా.

By: SJ

కనిపించని ఆ హృదయ భావం…

ఎక్కడవున్నా కళ్ళెదుటే నీ తలపు,
ఏం చేస్తున్న మరువట్లేదు నీ వలపు,
ఆవేదనే ఆలోచనై, కలిసిన క్షణాన,
కావాలనే కాగితం, చేర్చలేని తీరం.

ఈ నయనం గానం చేయగా,
చూసిన మనసుకు ఊరటనిస్తుందని,
కనిపించని ఆ హృదయ భావం, రాసిన సిరికి విలువనిస్తుందని ఆశిస్తూ,
ప్రేమతో సిరి.
By : SJ

నిన్ను నువ్వు తెలుసుకో, నిన్ను నిన్నుగా మలుచుకో…

జీవితం ఒక పయనం,
మనుసులా మతిస్తిమితం.
ఎడారిలో ఎండమావిలా బంధం,
బాటలో బాటసారిలా శాశ్వతం.

నిన్ను నువ్వు తెలుసుకో,
నిన్ను నిన్నుగా మలుచుకో.
జననం నీకు తెలిపి రాలేదు,
మరణం నీకు చెప్పి రాలేదు.

ఆశల వలయాలు అనేకం,
అందుకో ఒక సుందర స్వప్నం.
నిద్రమత్తులో నీకున్నది బ్రాంతి,
అది తెలుసుకున్నప్పుడే నీకు క్రాంతి.

అపకారం కారాదు అర్ధం,
పరోపకారం కావాలి పరమార్ధం.
ఓటమి గెలుపుకి తొలిమెట్టు అనుకో,
విజయాన్ని ఆస్వాదించు ఎగిసే ఉత్సాహంతో.
By : SJ

Review: Fire In Babylon

Director: Stevan Riley

Cast: Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Michael Holding

Genre: Documentary

Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

4

Story: From harmless 'calypso' cricketers to champions who mauled their enemy, how did the West Indies become cricket's giants? 

Movie Review: Fire in Babylon (FIB) is a detailed sports documentary - and more. It's a vibrant, throbbing piece of world history told through the tale of test cricket played by one nation - the West Indies. FIBshows how the West Indies - where cricket, as an elderly Caribbean tells you in that glorious accent of rum and sun, is 'a daily situation' - went from being a team of harmless players facing humiliating defeats, to being lean, mean masters of the game.

And it shows why this was vital. The West Indies's rise reflected the fight back against a colonial past, against a mindset of 'Babylon' which didn't treat all as equals, to win equality - and regard - from a grudging world. 

Like a calypso number, FIB draws you in gently, its narrative swaying from a 1960s of confusing defeats, to a deadlier 1970s when under Clive Lloyd's focusing captaincy, the West Indies became the team every cricketing nation feared.

FIB uses a host of rich narrative techniques - cricketing legends speaking about those glory days, press reports, black-and-white TV footage of matches, archival political footage of apartheid South Africa - policeman shooting black protestors, letting loose Alsatian dogs on them - all shaken up with West Indian music. It portrays how the West Indies realized they needed to fight humiliation - hard. 

And win the respect of their former British colonisers, of devastating Australian pace bowlers, of crowds who chanted 'Go back to the trees, black bastards'. In 1975, the West Indies was battered by Australia. In 1976, after English captain Tony Greig sneered, 'We'll make them grovel', press reports screamed, 'Look Who's Grovelling Now!' 

FIB captures cricket's beauty. But it widens, showing how the West Indies unleashed a huge wave of black pride - vital when racism was acceptable in many parts of the world. By capturing how Viv Richards and Bob Marley connected - and how Ian Botham and Richards finally walked in smiling equality - FIB shows sports is more than a pastime.

It's about the grit which pushes you to play a gentleman's game far from gently, going from what Frantz Fanon called the wretched of the earth, to its giants. 

Catch it.