Pakistan's cricket chief on
Thursday said that his country would host the Champions Trophy as planned but
that the International Cricket Council would appoint a commission to ensure
security.
"The Champions Trophy will stay
in Pakistan and we thank all member countries for their kind support," Pakistan
Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Naseem Ashraf told a news conference.
South Africa 247 (Prince 101, Panesar 4-74) and 13 / 0 (Smith 8*, McKenzie 1*) trail England 593 / 8 declared
Monty Panesar's impressive spell of spin bowling forced South Africa to follow on England, after the pacers provided a comfortable starting to England. England's collective and strong attack dismantled South Africa for 247 on third day and forced them to follow on.
India easily cruised into finals with their batting might. This might be sounding so easy and that's how it was in the final 15-20 overs. It was more of singles than 2s and 4s and 6s in the final 15 overs, between Yuvi and Sharma.
Gautam Gambhir and Virendra Sehwag provided a blazing start to the Indian innings. Sehwag scoring 42 in 34 balls and Gambhir going for 68 and 61. The games slowed a bit with Dhoni and Raina but ot for long. Both of them provided a good middle order support carrying all the way to 253. Dhoni scored 67 off 62 balls with a towering six and Raina had 54 off 66 balls.
Batting first, Sri Lanka scored a massive ton of 308/8 in 50 overs. Indian bowlers had no support from the pitch. Captain Dhoni tried his best, but it was all futile. Specifially, the pacemen had no role to play on the pitch.
Kapugedera's 75 with Jayawardene and Silva with 50 a piece contributed to Sri Lanka's 308.
Today's game against Sri Lanka was a repeatation of yesterday's game
between India and Pakistan, to the extent that their scores were with
in the difference of 1.
Karachi's pitch had no support for bowlers. It's like dead pitch that helped batsman score at their will.
