16 Greater KashmirSrinagar | February 25, 2016, Thursday

Santosh Trophy-Final Round

Abid KhAn

Srinagar, Feb 24: All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Wednesday announced the schedule for the final round of the 70th Santosh trophy football event which puts J&K in the tough group that feature sides like Mizoram and Maharashtra.

The final round of the Santosh trophy would kick off at SEC Railways Sta-dium and University sta-dium, Nagpur, Maharash-tra from February 29. The 10 top teams of the Country have been divided into two groups with each side to play four matches. From each group two teams would qualify for the semifinals.

JK who have qualified for the second (final round) of the event after a gap of four years find themselves in the tough group which can be considered as group of death.

JK would start its cam-

paign with a clash against hosts Maharashtra on Feb-ruary 29 and would take on, Services in its second match on March 2. JK’s third match of the event would be against Mizoram on March 6 while as JK would play its last match against Railways on March 8.

JK team would leave for Nagpur from Jammu on Friday and will arrive at the venue on February 27.

JK chief coach, Hilal Rasool Parray termed the group as tougher among the two and said that it boosts defending champions in it.

“It is a group that every coach would have liked to avoid. All the teams in the group are favorites to lift the title while we would be considered as under dogs. However, we are going for win and not for a picnic and that is the mentality my side boosts right now,” he said.

“Mizoram are the defend-

ing champion’s while as Ser-vices has got strong history in the event. Railways I will consider little low on caliber but the hosts Maharashtra are top side. Considering all the factors this group should be called group of death as the other group is far too easy then this one,” he said

He said that JK team is not going into the final round of the event with old mentality of being mere participants.

“We are going for the win and my side has thrown away the mentality where in we were going for mere par-ticipation. We have proved in I-League that we should be taken seriously and in Santosh Trophy group it was no different. We are serious and know that we can do it. This is chance for us to make name for our State at top level and give a message that JK cannot be taken lightly, “he said.

“JK team is mixture of youth and experience and that is quality of top side. The players have gelled well and the inclusion of Ishfaq Ahmad has only made things better for us. Every player is eager to perform at highest stage and make his State proud,” Coach said.

About the weather con-ditions in Nagpur and how the team has planned to cope that, he said, “We will be playing in the condi-

tions that would be totally different from what we have in Valley. It will be hot weather in Nagpur. However, we have devised a plan and conveyed that to players. The plan is simple preserve energy and water level. Whatever the plan, weather conditions there is no excuse for a team when they step in the middle”.

“We have two rest days before we will play our first match of the event. On the February 27 evening we have our first practice session. Team would be kept in one place that has got in house eating facility. The facility will be beneficial for our side as everything would be avail-able at one player and we will not need to roam around unnecessary. JKFA this time has been supporting us both morally and financially have told us that there would not be a problem or shortage of anything,” he added.

JK finds itself in tough group

Australia reclaim No.1 Test spot, India secondMumbai, Feb 24: India have finished second in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Cham-pionship, while Australia took the top spot after win-ning the Christchurch Test by seven wickets, which has given them a 2-0 series win against New Zealand.

Australia won a cash award of $1 million while India will collect $500,000. South Africa will pocket $200,000 and Pakistan $100,000 after claiming the third and fourth positions, respectively.

According to an ICC statement on Wednesday, the win against New Zea-land in the last Test helped Australia finish two points ahead of India on 112 points in the final series before the April 1 cut-off date.

Steve Smith will receive

the ICC Test mace and the cash award on behalf of his team in a ceremony to be held at a later date.

This is the eighth time Australia have finished as the number one ranked Test side at the annual cut-off date since the inception of the current rankings system in 2003.

They had earlier topped the table each year from 2003 to 2009, before India claimed number one spots in 2010 and 2011. England ended as the number one ranked side in 2012 before South Africa completed a hat-trick by retaining the top spot from 2013 to 2015. It is a double delight for Smith's men who had earlier topped the ICC One-Day International (ODI) team rankings at the annual cut-off date. They had finished comfortably

ahead of second-placed New Zealand, followed by India, South Africa, Sri Lanka and England.

On the ICC Twenty20 International team rank-ings, India lead the field with South Africa occu-pying second position following its 2-0 win over England. The two are fol-lowed by the West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, England and Australia.

A shuffling of the pack is on the cards as a lot of crick-et in the shortest format of the game is still to be played before the April 1 cut-off date. While the main round of the Asia Cup T20 will be played from February 24 to March 6 in Mirpur, the ICC World T20 India 2016 will be staged from March 8 to April 3.

Islamabad, 24 Feb: The Paki-stan Cricket Board received an overwhelming response from millions of cricket-starved fans, even if it didn't succeed in spotting a new fast bowler or unearth a new batting star in its inaugural professional Twenty20 league in the United Arab Emirates.

Islamabad United, led by Pakistan Test captain Mis-bah-ul-Haq, defeated Quetta Gladiators by six wickets at a packed Dubai International Cricket Stadium late Tuesday to conclude a three-week Paki-stan Super League.

Millions of fans stayed tuned in across Pakistan until after midnight throughout the tournament, which also fea-tured teams including Paki-stan Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi's Peshawar Zalmi, all-rounder Shoaib Malik-led Karachi Kings and ODI captain Azhar Ali's Lahore Qalandars.

“It's our own league, I haven't missed a single ball of it,” said Yousuf Mustafa, a 19-year-old college student in Islamabad.

“PSL is more than a World Cup to me, I wished it could have been played in Paki-stan.”

An attack on the Sri Lankan team's bus in 2009 at Lahore shut the doors on Test nations touring Pakistan before Zimbabwe broke the deadlock by playing a limited-overs series — also in Lahore — last year.

Convincing foreign players from other major cricket coun-

tries like Australia, England, New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa to tour Pakistan was almost impossible, so the PCB finally decided to host the PSL on neutral venue in the UAE.

Chris Gayle, Kevin Piet-ersen, Shane Watson, Luke Wright and Andre Russell were among the 29 foreign players who signed up for the five franchises.

Cricket greats Viv Rich-ards and Wasim Akram were associated as mentors for Gladiators and United respec-tively and played pivotal roles in guiding their teams to the final.

“Today it's the victory of people of Pakistan — nobody has lost, it's victory for every-one,” PSL chairman Najam Sethi said during the prize ceremony.

Sethi, who is also one of the PCB's governing board members, initiated the idea of staging the PSL along simi-lar lines to lucrative Indian Premier League, Big Bash in Australia and Bangladesh Premier League.

After twice postponing the PSL, late last year Sethi finally managed to kick off the league by selling the five franchises for $93 million over a period of 10 years.

“The league has been a success and there are good chances some of the franchises will go close to the break even after the first edition. The PCB is also very close to break-ing even,” he said. United

was rewarded with three of its unheralded players as Mohammad Sami, Shar-jeel Khan and Khalid Latif were drafted into Pakistan's squad for next month's

World Twenty20 in India.Gladiators' uncapped left-

arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz has also been labelled as one of the players to watch out on spin-friendly wickets in India.

“You can see lots of young-sters coming up ... they are getting more chances to har-ness their skills and handle the pressure. That's what IPL did for India, that's what BPL did for Bangladesh,” Misbah said.

Sethi said he had spoken with Pietersen about convinc-ing player associations across the world to send cricketers to Pakistan for the second edi-tion of the PSL.

“I promise you the way we have done the hard work,

hopefully we will bring this league in Pakistan too,” Sethi said.

Misbah said foreign play-ers got a mild taste of what it would be like to play in a Paki-stan competition during their three-week stay in the United Arab Emirates, and hoped it will help bring international cricket back to Pakistan.

“This is one way you can build confidence of players coming from Australia, Eng-land, West Indies and Bangla-desh,” he said.

“When you get confidence and know from other play-ers that Pakistan is a safer country, it will be possible for the Pakistan Cricket Board to bring back international cricket to Pakistan.”

PSL a victory for Pakistan, says Najam Sethi

Asia Cup T-20

India favourites against Pakistan: Wasim Akram

Islamabad, Feb 24: Former captain Wasim Akram has said India may have a slight edge, due to current form, over Paki-stan for their Saturday’s clash of the Asia Cup Twenty20 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.

“That will be a good

game to look forward to and given the way India are playing right now, they may be favourites,” Wasim told the Times of India.

He also said the Asia Cup would be a good prep-aration for the participat-ing teams for the upcoming World Twenty20 in India next month.

Wasim said out of the last three World T20 cham-pions, three are participat-ing in this Asia Cup, so that quotient alone adds so much excitement to the tournament.

“Then, Bangladesh have been an unbeatable side at home. This edition has a lot of potential and will help teams pick their best com-binations for World T20,” he said.

It is pertinent to men-tion that Pakistan and India last met at the 2015 World Cup. India and Pakistan were scheduled to play a bilateral series in December 2015 but that did not materialize.

After playing India, Pakistan’s next match in Asia Cup T20 will be on Feb 29 against the United Arab Emirates (UAE), then against Bangladesh on March 2 and Sri Lanka on March 4.

Pune, Feb 24: Dhawal Kulkarni wreaked havoc with the new ball to hand Mumbai the initial edge in their quest for 41st Ranji Trophy title by reducing Saurashtra to 192 for eight in the first innings on the opening day of the summit clash in Pune.

Back in the side after missing the semi-final due to a groin strain, Kulkarni uti-lised the green track on offer to perfection after Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare won the toss and invited Saurashtra to bat.

Kulkarni was spot on with his line and length, and managed to cut through Saurashtra top-order with figures of four for 30, which included the important wickets of opener Avi Barot, Cheteshwar Pujara, Arpit Vasavada and skipper

Jaydev Shah.Kulkarni was ably sup-

ported by his new ball partner Shardul Thakur (2/59), Abhishek Nayar (1/42) and Balwinder Sandhu (1/41). Kulkarni, in particular, produced an impressive opening spell as Mumbai reduced Sau-

rashtra to 108 for seven at one stage.

Had it not been for Arpit Vasavada and debutant Prerak Mankad, it could have been an embarrass-ing scorecard for Saurash-tra at the end of day's play during which they played 84.4 overs.

Vasavada (77) played a patient knock and held one end together during his 214-ball stay at the crease, which included just six boundar-ies, even as the wickets kept tumbling at the other end.

Together with Mankad (55 not out off 119 balls), Vasavada stitched 84 runs for the eighth wicket to give some respectability to Sau-rashtra's total.

However, Vasavada was the last wicket to fall when he became Kulkarni's fourth victim of the day.

Ranji Trophy Final

Dhawal Kulkarni rips apart Saurashtra

The league has been a success and there are good chances some of the franchises will go close to the break even after the first edition. The PCB is also very close to breaking even

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