Tag Futebol

Remarkable as it might appear, Australia took the result but England took heart from the last session of the fourth Test. Needing just 99 to win on the fifth morning, Australia lost five wickets in reaching the target with moments of stirring batting, intense excitement, umpiring controversy and, yes, heroic efforts from England’s two bowlers.If England had been disappointed by their failure to take wickets at the close of the fourth day, they had to wait no time at all for success at the start of the fifth. Matthew Hayden hooked at a short ball from Andrew Caddick and substitute fielder Alex Tudor took the catch.While Justin Langer was content to settle in after that blow, Ricky Ponting took the attack to England. He went for his considerable array of strokes from the off and had hit three fours and a six as he raced to 30 from 35 balls taking full toll off bowling that was a little too short. Having said that, it was a short ball from Steve Harmison to which Ponting played something of a half-hearted pull that touched the glove on the way through to James Foster.Three balls later, Harmison produced a beauty to Damien Martyn that took a faint outside edge on its way through to Foster and suddenly Australia were 58 for three. They needed only another 49 runs to win, but there was still time for drama.It came in the 12th over of the morning, bowled by Harmison to Steve Waugh who had four unconvincing runs to his name at the time. The fifth ball climbed past the outside edge and went through to Foster who looked inquiringly but said nothing. Marcus Trescothick at first slip raised his arms, but there was no more by way of an appeal until the fielders saw a replay on the big screen. Then Foster appealed, but umpire Dave Orchard said not out.Next ball, Waugh drove off the back foot low into the covers where Hussain clutched the ball and threw it up in a celebration that was only cut short when he noticed that Orchard had signalled a no ball. Waugh did not notice and had to be called back when well on his way to the pavilion. He returned to crash the last ball of the over back past the bowler to the boundary.After some more uncomfortable moments, Waugh tried to leave a ball from Caddick that looped off the glove wide of Mark Butcher at second slip who took off to hold a spectacular catch. Four balls later, Langer was hit on the pad by Caddick, everyone went up and Russell Tiffin pointed his forefinger to the sky. Langer out for a calm 24, but a replay showed that the ball had pitched outside leg stump.It was extraordinary entertainment, especially bearing in mind the fact that England had just two fit fast bowlers. Both Caddick and Harmison gave their all but Australia had the depth of batting to reach their objective. There was still time for a few moments of excitement before Gilchrist hit the winning runs and for once in the series there was a real contest.It took a long time in coming and the result was as expected, but at last England have something positive to remember as they go to Sydney for the final Test. Australia needed their steadiest nerve to head north with the chance of a whitewash still very much on the cards.

The rain interrupted Tamil Nadu-Kerala South Zone Ranji Trophy encounter atKochi ended in a draw even as the visiting side claimed five points aftertaking the first innings lead. This meant that Tamil Nadu topped the SouthZone standings with 26 points ahead of Hyderabad (25) and Karnataka (24).By topping the South Zone standings, Tamil Nadu have retained the MDSoundararajan Trophy.Resuming on 204/4, Tamil Nadu declared their innings closed at 251/9 afterC Hemanth Kumar completed his century. Hemanth Kumar’s 101 (423 minutes,317 balls, 5 fours) ended as the top score of the match. CP Menon with 4/44off 14 overs was the pick of the Kerala bowlers. Tamil Nadu gained a leadof 45 runs.In their second essay, Kerala once again struggled against legspinner WDBalaji Rao. The former Railways tweaker claimed 4/60 as Kerala were reducedto 167/6 when the match ended. For the hosts, only MP Sorab (61) and AjayKudua (46) batted for some length of time.

Aston Villa’s owners have shown in recent years just how capable they are when it comes to spending money in the transfer market and bringing new players to the Midlands club since their arrival back in the Premier League.

However, regrets will surely now be emerging for Villa over one player they failed to secure after they were previously linked in 2020; Said Benrahma.

During his time at Brentford, the Algerian racked up 30 goals and 27 assists in 92 appearances across all competitions before eventually making the move to West Ham United on loan in October 2020.

In the 2021 January transfer window, the east London club secured the winger on a permanent deal for a fee of £20m.

This season has seen the 26-year-old, who is currently picking up a weekly wage of £58k-per-week according to Salary Sport, score five goals and provide six assists in 25 league games, earning himself an overall performance rating of 6.87 according to WhoScored.

Benrahma’s goal contributions and performance rating both eclipse the number of goal contributions and performance rating that Villa’s summer signing Emi Buendia has managed to acquire at this point in the season, with the Argentine having just two goals, four assists and an overall rating of 6.78 to his name, also from 25 league appearances.

In addition to this, the Algerian has created more big chances (19) in the league this season than the current Villa playmaker (7).

To put it simply, Benrahma is a magical player on his day, with Brentford B’s assistant coach. Sam Saunders one exclaiming that “he could nutmeg a mermaid.”

Having been praised by former West Ham player Michael Owen for his “unplayable” performance for the Hammers against Genk in the Europa League, Benrahma could have been a cheaper option for the Villans than Buendia, who the club splashed out a club-record fee for in the previous summer transfer window.

With the former Brentford star also scoring three goals in seven Europa League games for David Moyes’ side in this campaign, he has shown just how useful he is in the Premier League and in their European clashes.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Also, having been deployed in numerous positions across the pitch in this campaign, the £22.5m-rated star has shown what a versatile and reliable attacking option he can be.

Taking all of this into account, it wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that Villa’s hierarchy could be kicking themselves over having missed out on signing Benrahma, who now has the chance to win the Europa League with the Hammers and potential finish in the top four of the Premier League table.

In other news: Lange could seal his next Coutinho as Villa eye up “relentless” £22.5m-rated “machine” – opinion

David Smith will take over from Paul Maylard-Mason as Leicestershire’s chief executive in January.Smith, who played for Warwickshire, said: “This is a great opportunity to build on the good work undertaken by the club. In Tim Boon, we have an outstanding cricket coach – he and I share a vision for the club to establish a sustainable development pathway which gives young Leicestershire cricketers the best opportunity to represent their county at first-class level.””David brings a rare set of credentials to the post,” Neil Davidson, the chairman, said: “A successful playing career at first-class level, experience of cricket administration and a successful business career in a highly relevant industry.”

Charl Willoughby feared for his life © Getty Images

Charl Willoughby, the South African left-arm seamer, feared he would never see his family again when he and seven team-mates were held at gunpoint near their Johannesburg hotel.”All I could think was that I would never see my wife and child again,” he said. Still shaken from their experience, he explained how they were hit by armed robbers at a Nandos (a popular South African fast food outlet) in Croydon on the East Rand on Saturday night.Vernon Philander was standing with his back to the entrance of the store, while phoning his girlfriend, when he heard his captain, Con de Lange, shout that there were problems. At one moment Philander, the Cobras allrounder was looking down the barrel of a gun.One of the robbers pushed the firearm into Philander’s face and told him: “Don’t try to be clever.” The Cobras were staying at a hotel near the O R Tambo International Airport for their SuperSport match again the Titans in Benoni, had decided about at about 8pm to eat out.Three armed robbers posing as Chubb security guards, complete in fake uniforms uniforms, and stormed into the restaurant ordering eight players and four other customers inside to lie down flat on the floor. They had to place their mobile phones, wallets and other valuables beside them on the floor.The other players involved were Dominique Telo, Andrew Puttick, Alistair Gray, Henry Davids and Robert van der Ross. Their valuables were stolen as well as the keys to the team minibus in which they had arrived, after the incident the players were all pushed into a fridge before the robbers fled.The coach Shukri Conrad said: “When Con phoned me later to tell me they had been robbed, and I must come and fetch them, I thought he was joking. I could see in the dressing room on Sunday that the full impact of what had happened was hitting home only then. It was all they could talk about.”

Adopting a tough stand, the Indian government on Thursday dismissed protests by the ICC against its decision, which makes it mandatory for private sports broadcasters to share feeds of matches involving the Indian team with Doordarshan, the state-owned broadcaster. “We are a sovereign nation. We are not dictated by what the ICC says,” PR Dasmunsi, India’s information and broadcasting minister, told reporters in New Delhi.Many foreign cricket boards, private sports broadcasters and management companies as well as the ICC have said that the Indian government’s decision, taken late last year, will devalue exclusivity and result in huge losses to the private broadcasters.”I wouldn’t like to speculate on how much money it would cost us, but I know it would be substantial,” Ehsan Mani, ICC president, said recently. In fact, he has written to the information and broadcasting ministry and even the Indian prime minister on the matter.To drive home his argument, Dasmunsi said that the Indian government also had to abide by rules when it dealt with matters abroad. “When we wanted to show our programmes in the UK, they wanted us to register a company there. So if they want us to follow their rules in their country, they have to do the same here,” he said.Some of the private sports broadcasters have decided not to accept the government’s decision lying down. Both ESPN-Star Sports and Ten Sports have sought legal recourse in the Delhi and Bombay high courts respectively to have the government decision rescinded.

Former Pakistan allrounder Mudassar Nazar is the favourite to take over as director of the National Cricket Academy in Lahore.Although he is currently in temporary charge of Kenya following the resignation of Andy Moles last month, the situation in Nairobi in chaotic and it is not clear who Mudassar has to train given that most players have opted to play for the government-backed Cricket Kenya side rather than the official Kenyan Cricket Association. It is also reported that the KCA has no money and it is likely that Mudassar has not been paid. He flew back to Pakistan earlier in the week.”Once the offer is made to Mudassar officially we don’t think there should be aproblem for him to join the national academy," A Pakistan board spokesman said. "He is more keen on doing some work in Pakistan cricket and also the situation in Kenyan cricket is very fluid."Mudassar coached the Pakistan side in 2002 but was removed in the build-up to the 2003 World Cup. It is thought his appointment will be confirmed in the next few days and other coaching roles in the academy will be identified soon after.

Close Australia 400 for 5 (Ponting 176*, Katich 75, Langer 58) v India
Scorecard

Ponting was Australia’s hero on the first day at Adelaide © Getty Images

A scintillating unbeaten 176 by Ricky Ponting was the outstanding performance of the day as Australia made full use of winning the toss at the Adelaide Oval. At close of play on the opening day, they had raced to 400 for 5 – the highest total in a day at this venue, beating Australia’s 387 on the second day against West Indies in 1968-69 – with useful contributions from Justin Langer (58) and Simon Katich (75).Apart from Matthew Hayden, all the Australian batsmen got starts, but Ponting capitalised on it, racing to his hundred off just 117 balls. He slowed down noticeably after reaching 150, despite which Australia finished the day with a run-rate of nearly four-and-a-half an over. All the Indian bowlers toiled – rather unsuccessfully – to beat the daunting combination of a flat pitch, a fast outfield with short square boundaries, and an awesome opposition batting line-up.Coming in at the fall of an early wicket, Ponting started off with an all-run four down the ground, before peppering the square boundaries on the off side with some sumptuous drives off either foot. He had a couple of reprieves early in his innings: on 12, a close lbw shout off Ajit Agarkar was turned down, while Virender Sehwag dropped a head-high chance at third slip off Irfan Pathan when Ponting had added just six. Once past those early jitters, though, Ponting didn’t give the Indians much respite.The tone for the day was set early when both the Australian openers drove through the line of the ball, trusting the even bounce and the lack of movement off the pitch. Sourav Ganguly packed the off side, and his bowlers largely stuck to an off-stump line, but the batsmen still threaded the gaps – in fact, every single one of the 16 fours Ponting struck in his first 100 runs were on the off side. Ganguly didn’t help the Indian cause by keeping the third-man region vacant for most of the day.These were ideal conditions for Hayden’s plonk-the-front-foot-and-drive-through-the-line style of batting, but Pathan – making his debut after Zaheer Khan missed out due to a strained hamstring – nailed him with one in the corridor which shaped away and kissed the edge of the bat (22 for 1).The dream start for Pathan and India soon went sour as Ponting and Langer went about their merry ways, cashing in on all the bad balls and sometimes putting away the good ones as well. Anil Kumble was soon pressed into service, but that only inspired Langer to go into overdrive – in one over he smote Kumble for two sixes and two fours. Kumble struck back in his next over, though, when Langer miscued a sweep to Sehwag at midwicket (135 for 2).That dismissal, which came at the stroke of lunch, was some respite for the Indians, but it only meant that one effective run-scorer was replaced by another, more graceful one. Martyn was in fantastic touch from ball one, stroking some gorgeous drives through the covers off Agarkar and Pathan, who, after an impressive first spell, fell away, struggling to find the movement he had obtained with the new ball. A big score was there for the taking, when Martyn (30) threw it away, steering a wide one from Nehra – the first ball of a new spell – to VVS Laxman at second slip (200 for 3).Steve Waugh smote a few through the off side in his 30, but was sorted out by a clever piece of bowling by Nehra. Bowling from round the wicket, he dug a few in short, then slipped in a full-length ball on middle. Waugh, weight on the back foot and probably expecting another short one, played all over the ball as it crashed into his stumps (252 for 4).A feature of this innings was the partnerships that the Australians put together for every wicket, and Simon Katich now joined Ponting to add the biggest one for the day. Katich first dug in, then showed that he could play a few strokes too, the most emphatic of them being a pulled six off Nehra, who came in armed with the second new ball. Galvanised by that shot, Katich raced along, even as Ponting quietened down and seemed to set his sights on his double-century.The 138-run partnership was finally broken off the penultimate over of the day, when Katich top-edged a pull and was caught spectacularly by Sehwag, diving full length and coming up with the ball in both hands (390 for 5). In walked Adam Gilchrist, and promptly dispatched the second ball he faced to the cover fence, and then pulled Kumble for another boundary before bringing up the 400 with the last ball of the day. In four Tests at the Adelaide Oval, Gilchrist has scored a mere 145 runs at 24.16. Time to set the record straight?

Australia qualified for the ICC Under-19 World Cup final against South Africa on Saturday but the West Indies with a little more patience might have pushed them a lot closer than the final 93-run margin of victory in today’s semi-final.By confining the Australians to 252/8 when they batted first in cool overcast conditions on the reserve day at Bert Sutcliffe Oval, the West Indies gave themselves a chance.They had pulled the Australian scoring rate back from a possible 280-plus and, while the job remained in front of them, they got into a good position at 102/2 in the 22nd over.But just as the West Indians had utilised spin to peg back the Australians, so the Australians did in even more masterly fashion when, between the 20th and 40th overs, the West Indies were only able to score 61 runs.The innings’ of the two sides were similar in construction, based largely around high third-wicket partnerships. In Australia’s case theirs, between captain Cameron White and opener Craig Simmons was worth 84 runs but, having come on the top of 84 runs scored by the first two wickets, it had a much more solid base.Simmons, who was named man of the match for his 84 off 110 balls, played a fine innings, hitting eight fours and a six, while White kept the score moving through the middle of the innings, playing some deft late cuts during the early part of his innings and then working the ball around the ground more later. He was finally out caught from Alcindo Holder’s off-spin for 64.The West Indies stand of 82 runs was more by necessity after the two openers, including the big-hitting Donovan Pagon, were out with only 20 on the board. Tonito Willett and captain Narsingh Deonarine combined well to not only get settled but to get the scoring rate moving at an acceptable level.It was then that White made his decisive move. The introduction of left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty for the 20th over, followed a few overs later by the arrival of left-arm chinaman bowler Beau Casson had the desired effect.Deonarine was first to go for 40 and then Willett tried to hold the innings together but eventually departed the eighth man our for a lovely 83 off 123 balls.Whereas earlier, the Australian lower order had a chance to hit out to build on the earlier work, the West Indian middle and lower-order had not only to survive but also keep the scoring rate moving.With such superbly tight bowling, they had no show. Doherty bowled his 10 overs through to finish with two for 26, Casson took two for 28 off nine and Jarrad Burke came into quickly polish off the end of the innings with final figures of two for 17.Ten overs remained after the last eight West Indies wickets had fallen for 57 runs.White said afterwards while it was disappointing not to get more runs if someone had said before the game they would get 250 he would have been happy with that.He was disappointed to get out when he did. He was a little concerned once the West Indies got to the position of 102/2 but was delighted with the way his bowlers responded.Despite the fact the side had to wait an extra day and would have only tomorrow to prepare for the final, they were still feeling fresh and were “ready and well prepared.”Australian coach Wayne Phillips said he had been delighted with the way the team had gone throughout the tournament and they were justifiably going into the final feeling confident.”There has always been tremendous rivalry between Australia and the West Indies and today was no exception,” he said.West Indies coach Gus Logie said they were happy to be in the semi-finals, and while they hadn’t made the final they had done well, especially when the side’s batting had rarely clicked during the tournament.They had hoped to put up a good fight against the Australians and while beaten he felt there were some significant lessons learned because the tournament had been good preparation for the future by the players.He said that while the West Indies don’t have the quality of fast bowlers of their recent history, the wickets in the West Indies were more conducive to spin bowling nowadays and it was not unknown for teams at youth level to have good spinners, a feature reflected in the side’s bowling in Christchurch.He believed the Australians would win the tournament.”They have been quite consistent and have set a standard for us all to follow.”Logie also thanked New Zealand Cricket and the ICC for staging the tournament.”The grounds and facilities have been tremendous. We will have very fond memories of this tournament. Having everyone staying at the one venue here made it a nice little community and it was a good thing for players to experience this sort of thing,” he said.

It was a long day for scribes and spectators alike at the Nehru Stadiumin Indore. The visiting Zimbabweans did not think it necessary to make asporting declaration and thereby a match of this game. A complete farceensued, one in which the Zimbabwe batsmen carried out net practicein the middle. Earlier in the day, National Cricket Academy skipperReetinder Sodhi was hopeful of an early declaration by the Zimbabweans. He said the NCA team would go after the target, even if the asking rate was around six runs per over. As it turned out, all that was unnecessary.India also have an irritating habit of bringing batsmen out of a leanpatch. Trevor Madondo certainly benefited from this brand ofhospitality. After playing a shaky knock in the first innings, Madondogot his eye in well in his second essay. Stroking the ball around thepark, Madondo had a good look at a subcontinent wicket. He made 65before playing all over a straight ball from Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan.Having lost out in the first innings, Andy Flower came in next and hedisplayed what a class player he is. Never in any trouble, Flower workedthe ball into the gaps with ease. After making 119 runs, (180balls, 14 fours) he decided that he had had enough of the Indore heat.Retiring ill, he returned to the comfort of the pavilion and wasreplaced by acting skipper Guy Whittall.Stuart Carlisle (39) and Guy Whittall (36 not out) gained a bit ofexperience batting in Indian conditions. Just when it looked likeZimbabwe would quietly play out the day, they surprised everyone bydeclaring their innings closed at 320/5. This left NCA with a hugelyimprobable, and almost statistically impossible, target of 320 off 11overs. Sridharan Sriram was obviously quite content with his knock inthe first innings. In his place, stumper Ajay Ratra opened the inningswith Nikhil Doru.Although Ratra was trapped leg before by Henry Olonga it was really ofno consequence. Gautam Gambhir worked the bowling around for an elegant22 runs while Doru managed 12 not out. NCA had 42/1 and the match endedin a dull draw.After the NCA lads had declared their innings having secured a lead ofjust 1 run, one expected Zimbabwe to think on similar lines. Althoughthat would have made for maximum viewing pleasure, one really cannotfault the Zimbabweans for their tactics. They are not here to give theNCA boys a shot at victory against an international side. They are herefor the far more serious business of winning a Test series againstIndia. They did all they could to prepare themselves for the same.Speaking to scribes after the game, acting skipper Guy Whittall said,”We batted almost the whole day because we wanted to shift from theOne-Day mode to the Test mode. The Test matches here are the highestpriority for us and we wanted to prepare as well as we could for that.”When asked why he declared when he did, leaving the NCA boys elevenovers to face, he added, “Henry Olonga didn’t get much of a bowl in thefirst innings. We just wanted to give him another go.” That wrapped up amatch that left the NCA boys emptyhanded, the Zimbabweans moreexperienced in Indian conditions and a majority of spectators just plainbored.