World Cup favorites India came under fire from a demanding media yesterday after their dramatic tie with England.
In a gripping contest on Sunday that injected life into a tournament that has seen a series of lopsided matches, the home side scored 338 all out in Bangalore thanks to a crowd-pleasing century from Sachin Tendulkar.
However, in dramatic scenes under at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium, England, led by skipper Andrew Strauss’ 158, levelled the scores on the final ball of their innings.
Photo: AFP
Despite the excitement, India’s media said the match should serve as a wake-up call, bemoaning the hosts’ failure to beat England and lamenting lackluster fielding and a bowling line-up that lacked penetration.
“Top-rated India get wake-up call from England,” said the front page of the Daily Mail, which relegated news of the government’s impending budget onto an inside page.
“It must be said that the collective failure of the frail Indian bowling attack allowed the visitors to come back into the match several times,” the newspaper said.
The Hindustan Times asked: “Will just putting runs on the board be good enough to win the World Cup?”
“It could happen, but will require a lot of luck. When compared to most champion teams of any era, this team suffers in terms of all-round balance,” it said.
Strauss, whose century earned him the man-of-the-match award, said his side had put down a serious World Cup marker.
“Coming into this game after the Holland performance, it was a great bounce-back and showed everyone around the tournament that we’re going to be a force to be reckoned with,” said Strauss, whose side had a major scare against the Dutch in their opener.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni praised left-arm quick Zaheer Khan for a burst of three wickets for one run in six balls, including two in two to get rid of Ian Bell (69) and Strauss, that swung the match India’s way.
However, he said it was India’s fielding that had cost them a second victory of this tournament to set alongside their 87-run opening win over co-hosts Bangladesh.
He also hit out at the controversial Umpire Decision Review System (URDS) after a key decision went against his side.
The crucial stand between Strauss and Bell was worth just 52 when spinner Yuvraj Singh thought he had Bell LBW on review for 17, with replays showing the ball would have hit the stumps. Bell had started to walk off but because New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden’s verdict was not out, the decision was returned to him by Australian replay official Rod Tucker and the Kiwi deemed Bell to be too far down the pitch.
India have stood alone among major nations in refusing to use UDRS in Tests after getting on the wrong side of the system during a series in Sri Lanka in 2008 where several reviews went against them.
“The adulteration of technology with human thinking meant we didn’t get that [Bell] wicket,” Dhoni said.
“If Hawk-Eye says it’s good and going to hit middle stump, I see no reason why the distance matters.”
England were fined for their slow over rate during Sunday’s match and paceman Tim Bresnan was separately reprimanded for hitting stumps in frustration, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said yesterday.
England were one over short of their target at the end of the match when time allowances were taken into consideration, the ICC said in a statement.
Accordingly, captain Andrew Strauss was fined 20 percent of his match fee while his teammates lost 10 percent.
Bresnan was officially reprimanded after hitting his stumps in frustration after he was bowled by Piyush Chawla in the 49th over.
“While giving my verdict, I took into account that Bresnan admitted his mistake, apologized for his action and that it was his first offense,” match referee Roshan Mahanama said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB