Pakistan hails 'wonderful' Asia Cup crown

KARACHI: Pakistan on Friday celebrated a nail-biting victory in the Asia Cup after a two-run win over Bangladesh that was hailed as providing some much-needed relief to the troubled country.

Pakistan clinched only their second Asia Cup title in Dhaka late Thursday, sending delirious fans pouring onto the streets in major cities to celebrate, though some missed the action on the field because of power cuts.

"Our cricket team gives us joy, otherwise we're obsessed with problems of inflation, loadshedding (power cuts) and lack of security," said fan Tehmina Siddiqui, celebrating in Karachi's upmarket Clifton area.

Congratulatory messages from President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other political leaders praised the team effort, captain Misbah-ul Haq's leadership and new Australian coach Dav Whatmore.

Despite orders from the prime minister for no power cuts during Sunday's match against arch-rivals India and Thursday's final, fans still complained of outages at home.

"We had to come out and watch the matches on big screens in the streets as power outages were as frequent as ever," complained Raza Elahi, a pupil at middle school.

Former players were delighted, having been sceptical that Pakistan would perform well after being routed 4-0 by England in a one-day series last month.

"It's a wonderful performance," said Moin Khan, who was captain when Pakistan won their first Asia Cup, in 2000, also in Dhaka. "Our players have given the nation great joy and we are proud of them."

"Congratulations to our team for winning the title," said chief selector Iqbal Qasim, who also had warm words for Bangladesh.

"They beat India and Sri Lanka in the tournament and proved a tough opponent," he said.

Bangladesh proved that "they are no more the minnows of cricket", said Qasim. "I hope they will carry on the good work and be reckoned as one of the major forces in Asia and the world."

Former captain and director general of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Javed Miandad, said the dramatic win was testament to the side's never-say-die attitude.

"It's a great win and showed the fighting abilities of the team, but the hosts played very well," said Miandad, a member of Pakistan's World Cup winning team in 1992.

But another former captain, Rashid Latif, cautioned that Pakistan must not run away with themselves and should "sit down and analyse our weaknesses".

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N. Zealand bowl 1st against S. Africa in final Test

WELLINGTON: New Zealand captain Ross Taylor won the toss and elected to bowl first in the third and final Test against South Africa at the Basin Reserve on Friday.

"Hopefully we can get some early wickets and put them under pressure," Taylor said at the toss, after the morning session was lost because of rain and the covers came off the pitch to show a green wicket.

South Africa lead the series 1-0 after winning the second Test by nine wickets.

New Zealand have replaced opening batsman Rob Nicol with Daniel Flynn and boosted their batting stocks with the inclusion of Dean Brownlie, who returns from injury to replace bowler Brent Arnel.

South Africa have left out Jacques Kallis, who has a sore neck, and brought in JP Duminy while Marchant de Lange replaces Imran Tahir.

Teams:

New Zealand: Daniel Flynn, Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor (captain), Kane Williamson, Dean Brownlie, Daniel Vettori, Kruger van Wyk, Doug Bracewell, Mark Gillespie, Chris Martin.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, AB de Villiers, Jacques Rudolph, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel, Marchant de Lange.

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Cricket: Afghanistan qualify for World Twenty20

DUBAI: Afghanistan booked their place in the 2012 World Twenty20 on Thursday with a 47-run victory over Namibia in the first final of the 16-nation qualifying tournament.

In a battle of two undefeated teams, Afghanistan were bowled out for 146 in their 20 overs before Namibia were dismissed for 99 in the 19th over.

Despite the loss, Namibia will get a second chance of making the World Twenty20 when they face either Ireland or the Netherlands in Saturday's second qualifying final.

Afghanistan, who also played in the 2010 World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, saw openers Karim Sadiq (28) and Javed Ahmadi (24) give their side a flying start with a partnership of 57 by the seventh over.

But Namibia slammed the brakes on the scoring rate with skipper Sarel Burger taking with 3 for 16.

However, the African side never recovered from a precarious 18 for four by the fourth over with seamer Dawlat Zadran boasting figures of 3 for 1 off his first two overs.

Burger and Nicholaas Scholtz, with 22 runs each, gave a little middle-order impetus, but Afghanistan were simply too powerful in all departments as they coasted to a place in the finals in Sri Lanka in September and October.

Right-arm fast bowler Aftab Alam claimed 4 for 25, sweeping up the tail in the process.

Earlier, Ireland swept past Canada in the play-offs, winning by 10 wickets while the Netherlands edged out Scotland by three wickets.

Ireland will face the Dutch on Friday with the winner of that game taking on Namibia on Saturday for the second available berth in Sri Lanka.

Afghanistan and the winner of Saturday's final play-off will meet in the tournament finale on Saturday night.

The winner will be slotted into Group B in Sri Lanka along side Australia and the West Indies with the runner-up going into Group A against India and defending champions England.

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Pakistan snatch Asia Cup in sensational final

DHAKA: Pakistan recorded a dramatic two-run victory over Bangladesh in a sensational final to win the Asia Cup one-day tournament for second time here at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Thursday.

Earlier, they had become the Asia Cup champions in 2000.

It was looking that Bangladesh, playing the final for the first time in Asia Cup history, would win the title. They played extremely well – first restricting Pakistan to 236-9 in 50 overs with their accurate bowling and alert fielding and then batted with determination to reach very close to the winning target but lost the match just three runs short.

Chasing 237, the hosts needing nine runs in the last over, finished at 234-8 in 50 overs.

Their main scorers were allrounder Shakib Al Hasan (68) and opener Tamim Iqbal (60).

Tamim with Nazimuddin (16) provided a sound start making 68 for the first wicket and later Shakib and Nasir Hossain (28) added valuable 89 runs for the fourth wicket partnership.

For Pakistan, paceman Aizaz Cheema grabbed three wickets while fast bowler Umar Gul and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal each finished with two wickets.

Earlier, Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat first, who set a moderate target of 237 runs for the hosts.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed top scored with an unbeaten 46, followed by Mohammad Hafeez (40), Shahid Afridi (32), Umar Akmal (30) and Hammad Azam (30) as no other batsmen could not enter into double figures.

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