CMYK

CMYK

CMYK

CMYK

Edited by Along Longkumer, Published and Printed by Aküm Longchari on behalf of Morung for Indigenous A� airs and JustPeace from House No. 4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur at Themba Printers and Morung Publications, Padum Pukhuri Village, Dimapur, Nagaland. Email : morung@gmail.com, morungexpress@yahoo.com. RNI No : NAGENG /2005/15430. House No.4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur 797112, Nagaland. Phone: Dimapur -(03862) News Desk- 281043, Admin -236871, Fax: (03862) 235194, Kohima - (0370) 2291952

For advertisements and circulation, please contact: (03862) 236871, Fax-235194 or email : morungad@yahoo.com

CENSUS 20119th to 28th February, 201 1

YOU COUNT THEREFORE, WE COUNTThe data of each and everyone is valuable,Make sure you are part of thisNation building exercise.

da

vp 1

71

35

/13

/00

28

/10

11

11th Match, Group B India vs EnglandVenue : M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru Sunday 27 February 14:30 PM

OVERALLMATCHES PLAYED

WON BY INDIA

WON BY ENGLAND

MATCHES PLAYED

74

38

30

06

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Key Windies star Dwayne Bravo out of World CupNEW DELHI, FEBRU-ARY 26 (AFP): West In-dies' World Cup hopes suf-fered a major body blow when key all-rounder Dwayne Bravo was ruled out of the rest of the tour-nament with a knee injury. Bravo, a veteran of 110 in-ternationals, suffered the injury while bowling in his team's opening defeat against South Africa at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi on Thursday.

He was initially ruled out for the remainder of the league stage, but is now fl y-ing back to the Caribbean for treatment on the dam-aged left knee. A scan re-vealed the 27-year-old, who made 40 in the seven-wick-et defeat to South Africa, had sprained his anterior cruciate ligament and torn his knee cartilage. "This is a blow for us. Dwayne is our vice-captain and one of the key members of our team," said coach Ottis Gibson on Saturday. "He has been showing good form with the bat and batted well against South Africa.

"He is also a livewire in the fi eld and a reliable bowl-er. We wish him a speedy re-covery and hope he gets back on the fi eld soon." The West Indies lost opening batsman Adrian Barath and wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh to in-jury before a ball was bowled in the World Cup, with Kirk Edwards and Devon Thom-as called in as replacements. Fast bowler Tino Best, who has played 14 Tests and 12 one-day internationals, is the third reserve on the West Indies World Cup list.

BANGALORE, FEBRU-ARY 26 (PTI): Brimming with confi dence after their emphatic win in the tourna-ment-opener, India`s resil-ience and ability to handle pressure in crunch situa-tions will be tested when they take on England in a high-voltage World Cup group-B league match on Sunday. A win on Sunday will more or less guaran-tee India a place in the last eight stage with two victo-ries from as many outings after having thrashed Ban-galdesh by a 87 runs in their opening match of the mega-event in Mirpur last week.

Even though England too stand in a similar posi-tion with a win from their only outing, going by the present form and track re-cord in the World Cup, Ma-hendra Singh Dhoni`s men clearly hold an edge over their English rivals. While it was a superior performance by India against Bangla-desh, the same cannot be said about England`s win over the Netherlands. Rid-ing on Virender Sehwag`s explosive 175 and Virat Kohli`s unbeaten 100, India avenged their 2007 shock loss to Bangaldesh, by pil-ing up 370 for four on the board and then restricted the hosts to 283 for nine to start their campaign on a rousing note.

Skipper Dhoni would be hoping for a repeat per-formance from Sehwag and Kohli tomorrow but it won`t be easy for the duo as Eng-land possess a potent bowl-ing attack, which would be eager to make up for their shoddy showing against the Dutch. Champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who in all probability is playing in his swansong World Cup, and Gautam Gambhir both got starts against Bangla-desh but failed to capitalize on them and would be des-perate to score big against

England.Also, the fact that the

famed Indian batting line-up had completely domi-nated the English attack in the Tests as well as ODIs during the latter`s tour in 2008 will act as a confi-dence booster for the home team. However, going by head-to-head record in the World Cup, there is little to seperate the two sides with both winning three match-es each against the other. Overall, India have won 33 of their 59 World Cup matches (25 loss and one no result), while England recorded 37 wins (22 loss) from 60 matches.

Against England, India is expected to go with the same batting combination but a few changes are defi -nitely in the offing in the bowling department, which continues to cause a few worries to skipper Dhoni, particularly the pace attack.

Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan needs consistent support from the other end if India has to contain the opposition batsmen in the fi rst 10 over and at the death stage, which was absent against Bangladesh.

Zaheer`s new ball part-ner S Sreesanth came in for harsh treatment from the Bangladeshi batsmen as he went for 53 runs off his fi ve overs, even though Munaf Patel gave a good ac-count of himself with 4 for 48 from his 10 overs. In all probability, Sreesanth will make way for Ashish Nehra, who missed the Bangladesh game due to a back spasm. But it would be interesting to see whether India will be tempted to go with an extra spinner in Piyush Chawla, who claimed four wickets in the warm-up game against Australia here, though Dho-ni has so far indicated that part-timer Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan would fi ll the slow bowlers’ slot.

India will be England’s acid test in WC

BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 26 (AFP): England will have prob-lems if hard-hitting Indian opener Virender Sehwag bats through the innings in Sunday's World Cup clash, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said. Sehwag, fi t to play the day-night game after su� ering a rib injury on Friday during a practice session, said ahead of the tourna-ment he would like to bat the en-tire 50 overs. The opener narrowly missed his pre-tournament aim in the opening match against Bangla-desh in Dhaka when he got out in

the 48th over, but not before giving his team a blazing start.

Sehwag hammered an explo-sive 175 o� just 140 balls to set up his team's 87-run victory. "If he (Sehwag) bats 50 overs I don't have problem with that, but definitely the opposition will have problems," said Dhoni. "But his most important role is to bat aggressively and give us a good start and momentum from which the middle order can capital-ise." The Indian captain said his side were well-equipped to cope with the pressure in the high-profi le match.

"It was in 2004 when I made my debut and I have never played a se-ries when we're not under pressure, whether it's the pressure of win-ning the game or playing against a strong opponent," said Dhoni. "Most of the guys are used to it." Dhoni said his team had prepared well for Sunday's clash as every game was important in the tourna-ment. "It's all about coping with the challenges that come to you. I think it's a very intent English squad and they have outdone us quite a few times, so they must have prepared

well for this tournament," said Dhoni. "For us, each game is im-portant. We prepare likewise for every game, Bangladesh, England, Australia or Ireland."

The Indian captain said his team had yet to decide on wheth-er to include a second specialist spinner. "It (team's composition) is a really challenging decision to make. We will have to see what the conditions are like," said Dhoni, whose team had entered the opening game with just one spe-cialist spinner.

England in trouble if Sehwag fi res, warns Dhoni

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, left, and Sachin Tendulkar discuss during a practice session ahead of their World Cup match against England in Bangalore, Saturday, February 26. (AP Photo)

'Sachin is one of mammoths of world cricket'BANGALORE, FEBRU-ARY 26 (PTI): Many an ad-jective has been used to de-scribe Sachin Tendulkar in a career spanning more than two decades and England skipper Andrew Strauss on Saturday added another one, calling him a mammoth of world cricket. Tendulkar re-mains a thorn in the fl esh for the rival teams globally and Strauss said his consistency for the last 22 years showed how prepared he is going into their Group B match of the World Cup here on Sun-day. "He is one of the mam-moths of world cricket for the last two decades," Strauss said ahead of England`s clash with India on Sunday. "The fact that he has been doing that for so long and so consis-tently is a great testament to his preparations," he added. virtually

For a man, who holds ev-ery key batting record and is dreaded by bowlers world over, Tendulkar remains a big threat and England will be trying to find ways to contain the iconic batsman. Tendulkar could add only 64 runs in three matches in the 2007 World Cup, where In-dia were knocked out in the first round and the senior batsman would look to make amends as it probably is his last World Cup. Strauss also acknowledged that there is hardly any negative point in Tendulkar and said he is a true legend. "There are nor-mally no negative words that you can say about Tendulkar. He is absolutely a great leg-end," Strauss said. Tendulkar holds the record of most ca-reer runs at 17,657, high-est individual score of 200, most matches (444), most 100s (46), most 100s against any one team -- nine against Australia, most 50s (93) and most boundaries (1,929).

Sri Lanka's opener Tillakaratne Dilshan is bowled by Paki-stan's captain Shahid Afridi, unseen, for 41 runs during their ICC Cricket World Cup match in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Satur-day February 26. (AP Photo)

COLOMBO, FEBRUARY 26 (BBC): Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi starred as Pakistan earned an 11-run World Cup Group A win over Sri Lanka in Colombo. Misbah (83 not out) shared a fourth-wicket stand of 108 with Younus Khan (72) as Pakistan totalled 277-7.

Openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Thar-anga gave Sri Lanka a solid start, but when Afridi (4-34) removed Dilshan, they slipped from 76-0 to 96-4. Chamara Silva (57) and Ku-mar Sangakkara (49) led the recovery, but the co-hosts could only close on 266-9.

Both strong through the off side, Dilshan (41) and Tharanga (33) looked to have Sri Lanka well placed to pull o� what would have been the fi fth-highest successful run chase in World Cup history. But when Tharanga drove the off-spin of Mohammad Hafeez to Afridi at short ex-tra cover, it began a collapse that saw Sri Lanka lose four wickets for 20 runs. Dilshan played on trying to cut an Afridi delivery that was too straight for the shot, Mahela Jayawardene was undone by a ball that nipped back

between bat and bat from Shoaib Akhtar and Thilan Samaraweera was stumped by Kamran Akmal after grop-ing for a leg break from the Pakistan skipper and over-balancing.

Sangakkara and Silva tried to rebuild, Silva suc-cessfully appealing when given out lbw and Sangak-kara surviving a tough leg-side stumping chance - Ab-dur Rehman the bowler on both occasions - but Sri Lanka fell well behind the required run rate. In an at-tempt to claw his side back into the game, Sangakkara opted to take the batting powerplay at the beginning of the 34th over, with more luck going the way of the Sri Lankans. First, Kamran again missed the chance to stump Sangakkara down the leg side, Rehman again the bowler, then the left-arm spinner spilled the simplest of chances at mid-wicket when Silva miscued a pull off Umar Gul. San-gakkara top edged Gul over third man for the first six of the innings, but the Sri Lanka skipper's good for-tune ended when he found Ahmed Shehzad at long on

from the bowling of Afridi, his 300th wicket in one-day internationals.

The departure of his captain sparked Silva, who did not find the boundary until the 67th delivery he faced, into life. Twice in succession he swept Rehm-an to the fence, before pull-ing both Gul and Akhtar for fours. But, after Angelo Matthews was caught in the deep o� Afridi and Thisara Perera was bowled by Akhtar, Silva ran past a wide from Rehman and Kamran this time made no mistake.

Some late hitting by Nuwan Kulasekara left Sri Lanka needing 18 from the fi nal over, but Gul kept his nerve to see Sri Lanka tasts a fi rst ever World Cup defeat on home soil. Ear-lier, after winning the toss, Pakistan saw Shehzad (13) caught behind from a fl at-footed waft at Perera before Hafeez and Kamran Akmal added 48 for the second wicket. With the bound-ary easier to find against the hardness of the new ball, Hafeez (32) lifted Ku-lasekara over square leg for the only six of the innings but he departed in comical fashion at the beginning of the 13th over. After sweep-ing Muttiah Muralitharan's first ball of the match to short fi ne leg, Hafeez failed to respond to Kamran's call, resulting in both batsman meeting at the striker's end. Wicketkeeper Sangakkara received the ball and then threw wildly over Murali-tharan's head, but there was enough time for Sri Lanka to return it to the bowler with both batsmen still 22 yards away. After some dis-cussion, the umpires de-cided that Hafeez should be the man to depart.

Cricket World Cup: Effi cient Pakistan beat Sri Lanka