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8th Match, Group A : Australia vs New ZealandVenue : Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur

Firday | 25 February | 09:30 AM

HEAD-TO-HEAD

OVERALL

MATCHES PLAYED

WON BY WON BY AUS

WON BY NZ

TIE / NR / ABANDON

124

84

34

06

9th Match, Group B : Bangladesh vs IrelandVenue : Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka

Friday | 25 February | 14:00 PM

HEAD-TO-HEAD

OVERALL

MATCHES PLAYED

WON BY BANGLADESH

WON BY IRELAND

TIE / NR / ABANDON

06

04

02

00

8th Match, Group A : Australia vs New ZealandVenue : Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur

Firday | 25 February | 09:30 AM

HEAD-TO-HEAD

OVERALL

MATCHES PLAYED

WON BY WON BY AUS

WON BY NZ

TIE / NR / ABANDON

124

84

34

06

9th Match, Group B : Bangladesh vs IrelandVenue : Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka

Friday | 25 February | 14:00 PM

HEAD-TO-HEAD

OVERALLOVERALL

MATCHES PLAYED

WON BY BANGLADESH

WON BY IRELAND

TIE / NR / ABANDON

06

04

02

00

NZ without key support staff for Aus match

NAGPUR, FEBRUARY 24 (AP) - New Zealand cap-tain Daniel Vettori will lead a team worn out emotion-ally by the deadly Christ-church earthquake when his side takes on defending World Cup champion Aus-tralia on Friday.

Physiotherapist Dayle Shackel and trainer Bryan Stronach have fl own home to help families and deal with property damage, while players have been calling loved ones and ex-pressing concern via Twit-ter. "It has been difficult, but I suppose we put it into perspective," Vettori said Thursday. "It's nothing compared to what the peo-

ple back home in Christ-church and all over New Zealand are going through.

"The whole country is hurting immensely and the team feels exactly the same way." The Black Caps have enlisted local physio Sanil Koyili ahead of the Group A game in Nagpur to fi ll in while Shackel is away for the next week. "He's joined up with us this morning and been great so far," Vettori said. "We'll utilize him as much as possible until they return from New Zealand.

The players are now especially keen to lift fans back home by ending Aus-tralia's World Cup-record 30-match unbeaten run. The

Australians have won the last three trophies, routing New Zealand by a mammoth 215 runs in a Super 8 game four years ago. With the Chappell-Hadlee trophy also on the line at the VCA Ground, the New Zealanders are hugely motivated to build upon their opening 10-wicket win over Kenya. "For a lot of guys, I suppose coming to train-ing has allowed them to take their minds o� things," Vet-tori said. "It's a big game in terms of the World Cup and it's also a Chappell-Hadlee game, which means a lot to people back home. "So I defi -nitely think we'll be up for it and looking forward to it."

Another key member

of the support staff is Al-lan Donald, who is with New Zealand as a bowling consultant. With the Nag-pur pitch punishing indis-ciplined fast bowling, the former South Africa pace-man's input could be price-less. "He's brought a wealth of experience but the big-gest thing he has brought is confi dence," Vettori said. "When a team hasn't been winning, to have had him come into the side and in-still the sort of confi dence that he has and the knowl-edge that he has in some of our bowlers has been great.

" Pa r t i c u l a r l y T i m Southee and Hamish Ben-nett have worked really hard with him and enjoyed his expertise. He's been a great fit for the team and he's well revered within world cricket so that brings a lot to the team."

New Zealand has opted for the same match squad as for the Kenya match, leav-ing out Kane Williamson, Kyle Mills and Luke Wood-cock. That leaves the option of a maximum two spinners, with an unchanged side the most likely option. "I think it will be a really good wicket," Vettori said. "We played the Irish warmup here and there was a lot of runs in it. It's go-ing to be a day game so the dew's not going to be a factor, so I think it will be a relatively high-scoring game but it may slow up as the game goes on."

Australia opener Shane Watson looked to be in form against Zimbabwe and Michael Clarke's ex-pertise against spin could be crucial, but Vettori said the conditions and teams' familiarity with each other meant that the Black Caps know exactly what they need to do. "Nothing really changes for any team you play in the subcontinent," Vettori said. "You try and bowl straight and hit the wickets. You know you're going to have to score a lot of runs. There's no mystery to what you're going to try and do. "The key is when you come up against these big teams and these big players is having the pres-ence of mind to execute time and time again."

New Zealand's cricket captain Daniel Vettori, left, listens to coach John Wright during a train-ing session in Nagpur on February 24. (AP Photo)

Yuvraj leaves practice after being hitBANGALORE, FEBRU-ARY 24 (AGENCIES): In what could spell fur-ther trouble for injury-hit India, ace batsman Yu-vraj Singh had to leave the team’s practice session midway on Thursday af-ter being hit by a delivery from pacer S Sreesanth. According to latest news reports, Yuvraj sustained an injury on his left hand. However, sources said , the injury was a minor one and the southpaw had left for some medical attention as a precautionary measure. India, who are one of the favourites to win the ongo-ing cricket World Cup, are struggling to cope up with injuries to some of their key play-ers. Sachin Tendulkar also had to go for an MRI scan a few days earlier after he complained of uneasiness in his knee. The ace batsman, however, was declared fi t after the scan reports came out. India are already without the services of pacer Praveen Kumar, who had to pull out of the tournament at the last minute after failing a fi tness test. India take on Eng-land in a crucial match at Bangalore’s M Channaswamy Sta-dium on February 27.

Police lathicharge fans at B'lore stadiumBANGALORE, FEBRUARY 24 (AGENCIES): Fans who had camped outside Bangalore`s M Chinnaswamy Stadium to buy tickets for Sunday`s World Cup showdown between India and England clashed with police on Thurs-day, local media reported. Police were seen hitting dozens of fans with sticks as chaos broke out among those who had been waiting outside the arena since Wednesday to buy tickets from the box o� ce, media reports said. Me-dia reported fans were angered by the shortage of tickets available for purchase at the venue.

BANGALORE, FEBRU-ARY 24 (DNA): With this World Cup probably being the last one for Sachin Ten-dulkar, Team India coach Gary Kirsten believes that Tendulkar would be the biggest strength for the Men in Blue. This has been mentioned in the 125 page manual -- Let's make our Dream come true -- that has been given to the players. The manual was prepared by Kirsten, with the help of mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton and famous South African motivator Mike Horn.

The three have done a SWOT analysis, which is a strategic planning meth-od used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

involved in a project or in a business venture. For Team India, the World Cup is in-deed the biggest project.

The manual, a copy of which is available with DNA, reads, "Mental strength of the Little Mas-ter would be the pillar of the current team. So de-sire, backed up with tre-mendous talent, does make Sachin Tendulkar a noted strength." The manual also points out how the bal-anced team and playing in the subcontinent is a big plus for the team.

The manual also high-lights the weaknesses in the team, which is its inconsis-tency. The manual reads, "The team has not consis-tently performed of late and a lot of reliance has been on in-

dividual performance. If we are to win the WC, then the team must perform collec-tively and every player must play his part to the fullest." As far as the threats are con-cerned, the manual points out that injury and choosing the right pace and spin com-bination in the playing XI are the biggest threat for Team India. The team has also been advised to follow a strict diet routine. Some of the points that have been mentioned in the manual are:1. Eat every 2-3 hours --

no matter what.2. A good percentage of

your diet must come from fat. Just be sure it's the right kind.

3. Ditch the calorie con-taining drinks (including fruit juice).

But the strictest of points that has been mentioned is the time for the players to go to sleep. The players are ex-pected to go to bed and get up at about the same time ev-ery day during the course of the tournament. This point has been marked under the "Must Do's for the players" category. The manual has also pointed out major chal-lenges that the players might face during the tournament. This has been categorised under seven categories -- ex-pectations, pressure, batting powerplay, team strategy, team composition, likely playing XI and a close-fought tournament.

"It is a tricky one and it can work in your favour in a big way and it can work against you in a big way" is

what has been mentioned under the batting powerplay category. The manual also has inspirational quotes of Boxer Muhammad Ali and cyclist Lance Armstrong and what lessons the players can learn from these famous sporting icons.

The manual also has a chapter called "Must learn from Mike Horn", where the co-author of the manual has spoken about "Passion and in-tensity through the game." It is not the first time that Team India has been given such a manual during the World Cup. In 2003, they were handed out a manual -- "Now or Never", which was written by sports psychologist Sandy Gordon. So, from "Now or Never", its time for Team India to "Let's make our Dream come true."

Kirsten wary of inconsistency

Indian cricket coach Gary Kirsten, right, talks to Indian team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni during a training session in Bangalore. (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI, FEBRU-ARY 24 (PTI): Leg-spin-ner Imran Tahir made a memorable international debut by scalping four key wickets as South Africa bundled out West Indies for 222 in 47.3 overs in their World Cup Group-B league match here today.

The 31-year-old Tahir returned with impressive figures of 10-1-41-4 to take the bowling honours on what appeared to be a good track at the Feroze Shah Kotla, hosting its fi rst match since December 2009 after the India-Sri Lanka ODI was abandoned because of a "dangerous" pitch. Dar-ren Bravo (73) was the top scorer for the West Indi-ans who never really got to take control of the innings after being put in to bat by South African skipper Graeme Smith. The Carib-beans failed to recover from the early jolt of losing their opener Chris Gayle in the very fi rst over and although a few players got the starts, they could not translate them into big knocks.

South Africa opened the bowling with spinner Johan Botha and the move paid dividends straightaway as he accounted for dangerous Gayle in the third ball of the innings. Gayle tried to play on the leg side but only suc-ceeded in edging the ball to Jacques Kallis at the slip.

Morne Morkel replaced Botha whose fi rst spell read 3-0-11-1 while Kallis took the bowling responsibil-ity from Dale Steyn at the other end. Kallis turned out to be quite expensive in his fi rst over as Bravo spanked him for two boundaries.

Smith and Bravo stead-ied the innings after the ear-ly loss of Gayle by playing cautiously but were quick to dispatch the loose deliver-ies to the boundary. While Bravo was the more aggres-sive of the two batsmen, unleashing a fl urry of shots on both sides of the wicket, Smith was quite content in playing second fiddle and giving strike to his partner.

The duo brought up the 100-run stand for the sec-ond wicket in 19.4 overs and put the Caribbean innings back on track as the South

Villiers destroys WindiesAB de Villiers cracked his 10th one-day

century as South Africa opened their World Cup account with an impressive seven-wicket victory over West Indies.

Africans tried to break the partnership. Just when West Indies seemed to be cruising along comfortably, the Proteas struck three vi-tal blows to unsettle them again with leg-spinner Ta-hir doing the damage on two occasions. Devon smith (36), Bravo (73) and Ram-

naresh Sarwan (2) were the three batsmen who re-turned to the pavilion in quick succession as West Indies suddenly slumped to 120 for four. It was Botha who triggered the collapse by getting rid of Bravo who was looking quite comfort-able at the middle.

South Africa's AB de Villiers bats during a ICC Cricket World Cup league match between South Africa and West Indies in New Delhi, Thursday, February 24. (AP Photo)