Afghanistan in debut one-day against Pakistan

KARACHI : Pakistan and Afghanistan will play their first ever one-day international cricket match in Sharjah next February, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced Friday.

It will be Afghanistan's first one-day against a top international team, taking place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on February 10, shortly before Pakistan begins a one-day series against England, the PCB said.

Cricket was made popular in Afghanistan by refugees who spent years living in Pakistan when Soviet troops invaded their country in 1979.

Since then, Afghanistan has made lightning progress in the sport, finishing fifth in the World Cup qualifiers in 2009 and earning one-day status the same year.

The run of positive results has continued, as they won the World Twenty20 qualifiers, which allowed them to play top teams in the WorldTwenty20 in the West Indies last year.

Afghanistan are now placed ninth in the International Cricket Council
Twenty20 rankings.

The PCB also announced the venues and dates of England's two side games
ahead of the three-Test series against Pakistan.

Pakistan and England also play four one-day and three Twenty20s in the UAE.

"From January 7-9, England will play an ICC combined associate and
affiliate members XI while on 11-13 January, a PCB XI will take on England both the matches in Dubai," the PCB said.

"England will also play a warm up one-day game against the England Lions on February 10 in Abu Dhabi."

The three-Test series between Pakistan and England starts in Dubai on
January 17.

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South African pacers plunge Sri Lanka into deep trouble

CENTURION : South Africa's fast bowlers plunged Sri Lanka into deep trouble on the third day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at SuperSport Park here on Saturday.

Sri Lanka were 38 for four in their second innings at lunch, still needing 193 to avoid an innings defeat in the first match of a three-Test series.

South Africa's fast bowling discovery, Vernon Philander, took two wickets and Dale Steyn one before Sri Lanka lost Mahela Jayawardene to a needless run out when he was one run short of becoming the first Sri Lankan to score 10 000 runs in Tests.

Philander made the first breakthrough when he had Sri Lankan captain Tillekeratne Dilshan caught behind by Mark Boucher for six in the fourth over, with Dilshan forced to play a ball close to his off stump which moved away off a pitch which has helped the fast bowlers throughout the match.

Tharanga Paranavitana was caught behind for four off Dale Steyn in the fifth over and Kumar Sangakkara followed two overs later when he edged a superb delivery from Philander to Boucher, the ball swinging in to the left-hander and then nipping away off the pitch.

Paranavitana survived two television reviews and was struck on the knee and right elbow during his brief innings.

Steyn, on a hat-trick after finishing off the Sri Lankan first innings, appealed for leg before wicket when he beat Paranavitana with the first ball of the innings.

Umpire Rod Tucker gave the batsman not out and his decision was shown to be correct when the South Africans asked for a review, with the ball missing the left-hander's leg stump.

Paranavitana was then given out lbw to Philander by umpire Steve Davis and successfully sought a review which showed the ball pitched outside leg stump.

Jayawardene, needing 16 to reach 10 000 Test runs, took his score to 15 with two boundaries in an over off Jacques Kallis.

He then pushed a ball from Kallis to the off side and was called through for a run by batting partner Thilan Samaraweera. Kallis reacted quickly, picked up the ball, turned and threw down the stumps at the bowler's end with Jayawardene well short.

South Africa were bowled out earlier for 411 with last wicket pair Mark Boucher and Imran Tahir adding 22 runs in four overs to extend their last wicket stand to 61, a record against Sri Lanka.

Boucher added four boundaries to his overnight 49 before chasing a wide ball from Chanaka Welegedera to be caught behind by Kaushal Silva for 65. Tahir was unbeaten on 29

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PCB bars players from Dhaka Premier League

LAHORE : The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has barred national players from taking part in the Dhaka Premier League, Geo News reported.

Nine Pakistan cricketers were scheduled to take part in the league, but according to the PCB they have been barred from taking part due to the upcoming series against England.

Prominent cricketers such as Younis Khan, Muhammed hafeez, Abdul Rehman, Shoaib Malik and Imran Farhat were to take part in the league.

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William Porterfield to lead ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI against England in Dubai

Three-day warm-up fixture to be played at the ICC Global Cricket Academy from 7 - 9 January 2012

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced its Combined Associate and Affiliate (AM) XI which will take on England in a three-day practice match at the ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai from 7 to 9 January 2012.

This match is part of England's preparation for the series against Pakistan which starts on 17 January with the first Test at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the Dubai Sports City.

Ireland's William Porterfield has been named captain of the side which is made up of players selected from ICC Intercontinental Cup, five of those countries, Ireland, Scotland, Namibia, UAE and Afghanistan are represented. While the Netherlands players were unavailable due to other commitments, players from Canada and Kenya failed to make the final squad.

The ICC Combined AM XI has been selected after a nominations process which involved coaches of the eight sides. The list was then shortlisted to 24 players before a 12-member squad was finalized by the eight ICC Intercontinental Cup coaches, the two ICC Global Cricket Academy coaches – Mudassar Nazar and Dayle Hadlee – and ICC's High Performance Manager Richard Done.

27-year-old Porterfield, who won the ICC Associate ODI Player of the Year award at the LG ICC Awards in Bengaluru in 2009, has played 60 first-class matches, 56 ODIs and 17 T20Is.

On his appointment as captain, Porterfield said: "It will be a great honour for me to lead out the Associate and Affiliate team against the number one team in the longer format of the game.

"If you look through their squad they are full of world class cricketers and it will be a great test for us against whatever eleven they put out. Another challenge we face is coming together as a group ourselves, we have played against each other a few times but we will have to gel pretty quickly in the few days' preparation we have in order to put in a good performance.

"As this is such a great chance for all the individuals to showcase their talent against the number one Test team in the world, I do not see this being an issue at all."

England Director of Cricket, Andy Flower added: "We are delighted to be playing a warm-up fixture against the ICC Combined AM XI in Dubai at the ICC's Global Cricket Academy.

"I'm sure that the match will not only provide the England squad a challenging first warm-up ahead of the Pakistan series but it will also give the AM XI players, many of whom are part of the extremely successful Gatorade ICC High Performance Programme an opportunity to play a three-day fixture at the highest level. I am sure this match it will aid the current players to improve and provide a motivation for future players."

Combined AM XI - William Porterfield (captain, Ireland), Saqib Ali (UAE), Kyle Coetzer (Scotland), George Dockrell (Ireland), Majid Haq (Scotland), Hamid Hassan (Afghanistan), Mohammed Nabi (Afghanistan), Boyd Rankin (Ireland), Mohammed Shahzad (Afghanistan), Paul Stirling (Ireland), Christi Viljoen (Namibia) and Craig Williams (Namibia)

Coaching staff

Mudassar Nazar (head coach), Dayle Hadlee (bowling coach)

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Nafees and Shakib revive Bangladesh fortunes

Bangladesh's Shahriar Nafees (97) and Shakib Al Hasan (108 not out) put on a record fifth-wicket stand for their country against Pakistan on day one of the second Test in Dhaka.

The pair added 180 after Aizaz Cheema had given Pakistan the upper hand during the first session.

Following a delayed start, due to fog, Cheema picked up three wickets to reduce the hosts to 43-4.

Cheema and opening partner Umar Gul took full advantage of the new ball with three wickets in the first eight overs of the Bangladesh innings.

Nazimuddin (0) fell at the end of Cheema's first over when the quick bowler swung a delivery back into the right-hander, who was trapped lbw not offering a shot.

Fellow opener Tamim Iqbal (14) played in a typically aggressive manner that would ultimately prove his undoing. The left-hander struck successive boundaries off Gul before he pulled the same bowler to long-leg.

Mahmudullah was cleaned up by Cheema first ball to a delivery that shot through low as Bangladesh slid to 21-3.

Nafees looked solid but he lost his fourth-wicket partner, Nasir Hossain (7), after they added 22 runs, when the youngster got a thin edge to a ball that left him off the pitch.

Bangladesh found themselves in a parlous position at lunch on 49-4 but Nafees and Shakib batted all the way through the middle session as they advanced their partnership by 103 runs.

Shakib got the partnership flowing with three fours in four balls off Cheema as batting conditions eased.

Nafees brought up his 50 off 85 balls (7 x 4) before he was followed soon after by Shakib (off 87 balls, 9 x 4).

Pakistan endured their most frustrating session of a two-Test series that has otherwise gone entirely according to plan.

After the resumption, Shakib hit two fours in a Gul over to get to 99 and then steered to point for a single to reach his ton.

The former skipper recorded his second Test century off 159 balls (14 x 4).

Nafees was then out three short of his century when he gloved a lifting Gul delivery to wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal.

The left-hander narrowly missed out on what would have been a deserved second Test century on a day that ended much better than it had started for the home team.

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim (5 not out) helped Shakib get to the close without further loss before bad light finished the day early.

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