ENGLAND PULL OFF STUNNING VICTORY
Three balls after he had reduced Pakistan to 78 for eight, White sent Pakistan spiralling further towards defeat whenWaqar Younis was turned and the ball looped up to Knight in the gully.
Shoaib Akhtar enjoyed himself with some wild swinging and authentic strokes to take two sixes off White. That 30th over of the innings cost 21 runs and lifted Shoaib to become top scorer. He only faced 16 balls, but he smote five fours and three sixes before Flintoff, who had perhaps been guilty of bowling …

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) – New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming says his team’s defeat by Sri Lanka might force a change of mind about boycotting their World Cup Group B match in Kenya.
Fleming said the New Zealand players were still confident their cricket board would make the right decision and would not try to influence them either way, even if it cost the team a place in the next stage of the tournament.
“The situation with Kenya is that the process is still underway,” Fleming said after his team’s 47-run loss …

The ICC have promised to give a written response tomorrow to the ECB over their request to move England’s World Cup opener from Zimbabwe.
ECB chief executive Tim Lamb said in a press conference that talks had been held with ICC officials on Monday evening.
The ECB and the England players want Thursday’s game in Harare moved from Zimbabwe following death threats made by a group called the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe.
But research by Deputy National Commissioner of South African Police Andre Pruis into the death-threat letter concluded that the group …

KIMBERLEY – Having been beaten by Australia in the opening game, and to add insult to injury, being considered ‘a topsy turvy team, which is quite beatable on its off-day’ by Namibian coach Douglas Brown, Pakistan enter the De Beers Oval Sunday to put some points on the table and improve their net run rate.
In a press conference here, skipper Waqar Younis acknowledged that motivating the boys against the minnows was important. “This is a World Cup game; so there is no question of any complacency”.
To another question, he said …

HARARE (Reuters) – Opener Craig Wishart has hit a commanding 172 not out to set up Zimbabwe’s 86-run victory over Namibia in a rain-curtailed World Cup Group A match.
Although the match started on time after months of controversy about the six World Cup games scheduled to take place in strife-torn Zimbabwe, rain halted play for the second time at 2:10 p.m. British time and, with no chance of a resumption, the game was abandoned.
Facing a revised victory target of 325 in 46 overs, Namibia slipped from a flying start to …

New Zealand’s World Cup hopes were left in tatters as they went down by 47 runs in their opening Pool B game against Sri Lanka at Goodyear Park here today.
The Black Caps now face a major uphill battle to qualify for the Super Sixes, especially after refusing to honour their fixture against Kenya in Nairobi and will have to win their next two big games against the West Indies and South Africa respectively to be sure of a place in the next round of the tournament.
In the end the regular …

Sri Lanka crushed international minnows Canada with embarrassing ease at Paarl on Wednesday, completing a nine-wicket win inside two hours without the majority of their players even breaking into a sweat.
Srilanka Celebrate Skipper Sanath Jayasuriya had promised beforehand that his players would retain their focus against the amateurs, who had pulled off a shock victory against Bangladesh, but he could scarcely have expected such a clinical performance.
New-ball bowlers Prabath Nissanka and Chaminda Vaas shared seven wickets as Canada were bowled out for a miserable 36, the lowest-ever score in a …

EAST LONDON, South Africa, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Nasser Hussain is to consider his position as England captain at the end of the World Cup after losing faith in cricket’s governing bodies.
Hussain, speaking hours after the World Cup technical committee’s decision to award his side’s Group A match in Zimbabwe to the hosts, said he did not think the International Cricket Council (ICC) had taken England’s security concerns seriously enough. “It makes me think more about my long-term future as captain after the tournament,” Hussain told a news conference on …

KIMBERLEY (South Africa), Feb 14: The Pakistan cricket team continued to make friends on their tour of South Africa when they made a surprise visit to the Kimberley Hospital on Thursday morning.
The cricketers, dressed in travel kits, visited the entire hospital and interacted with the patients, particularly with the children in paediatrics ward. Only those present at the scene can explain the delight and happiness that was visible on the faces of the sick children when they found the star cricketers next to them.
The local media gave prominent coverage to …

This afternoon’s meeting of the ICC Technical Committee has confirmed the request from the South African team to replace the injured Jonty Rhodes with left hand batsman Graeme Smith. In making its decision, the Committee also confirmed that Rhodes would not be eligible to rejoin the squad, even if another player in the South African squad is injured during the tournament.
For clarification, at this time the Australian team has not formally approached the Technical Committee to request a replacement for Shane Warne, who has returned to Australia to face an …