Pakistan See Off Sri Lanka

As the ICC Cricket World Cup rolls on great teams are heading for a showdown and those not-so-great teams are falling by the wayside and one such team is Sri lanka, who were comprehensively beaten by a superior Pakistan team.

Openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga gave Sri Lanka a solid start, but when Afridi (4-34) removed Dilshan, they slipped from 76-0 to 96-4.

Both strong through the off-side, Dilshan (41) and Tharanga (33) looked to have Sri Lanka well placed to pull off what would have been the fifth-highest successful run chase in World Cup history.

But Pakistan are a formidable team and came back with a vengeance and when Tharanga drove the off-spin of Mohammad Hafeez to Afridi at short extra cover, it began a collapse in which Sri Lanka lost four wickets for 20 runs and perhaps realistic hopes of winning the match.

Ultimately it was Pakistan’s day and Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi starred as Pakistan earned an 11-run World Cup Group A win over Sri Lanka in Colombo.

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World Cup 2011: Pakistan vs New Zealand – betting preview

Game:- Pakistan v New Zealand
Competition :- Cricket World Cup 2011
Venue :- Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy
Date :- Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Start time:- 09:00 GMT

The abandoned game between Australia and Sri Lanka has opened up Group A. Pakistan are sitting pretty on top, having won three in three. Another win would guarantee them a spot in the last eight. New Zealand, on the other hand, would move above Sri Lanka and Australia with a win on Tuesday. Don’t miss a chance to make some money on this game – head over to Bet365 after having read our betting preview.

Pakistan results – last few games – most recent games on top
v. Canada (Won by 46 runs) Akmal U 48, Afridi 5-23
v. Sri Lanka (Won by 11 runs) Misbah-ul-Haq 83, Afridi 4-34
v. Kenya (Won by 205 runs) Akmal 71, Afridi 5-16
v. England (Lost by 67 runs) Younis 80, Junaid 3-44

Pakistan looked to have shot themselves in the foot after folding up for a paltry 184 against Canada, but an inspired effort in the field under Shahid Afridi’s all-round leadership saw them eek out an important win. Pakistan’s top-order batting has not been very impressive. Their opening batsmen have failed to give them any sort of a good start. They have had to rely a bit too much on the all-round ability of Afridi and Razzaq. Abdur Rehman, who missed the game against Canada, is fit and practised with the side. It remains to be seen if he makes the side in place of Saeed Ajmal.

New Zealand results – last few games – most recent games on top
v. Zimbabwe (Won by 10 wickets) Guptill 86, Southee 3-29
v. Australia (Lost by 7 wickets) N McCullum 52, Bennett 2-63
v. Kenya (Won by 10 wickets) Guptill 39

and it just gets deeper for Pakistan

News of the World have printed the latest series of allegations in the Pakistan cricket corruption scandal. Pakistan have had a chequered history in cricket with rumours, allegations and the odd conviction prevalent for a few decades, and before that, it was presure on home umpires to cheat - long before the neutral umpire system came in.

So on top of last week's deliberate no-balls to show the players would perform on cue, now we have Salman Butt caught with a pile of dirty money in his room, a player annoyed at not being selected accusing most of his teammates of being corrupt and then the same player denying he said anything. The football club Mazhar Majeed confessed to using a money-laundering toy is now falling apart. And it all came from a tip-off....

It's time cricket authorities, and not just the ICC, had the balls to stand up to Pakistan and tell them to piss off to the B leagues, playing the likes of Zimbabwe. If the ICC don't kick them out, then countries too soft to refuse should schedule their matches at the lowest-budget venues around. Nobody will pay money to watch them and not should they.

They have ruined the sport of cricket, and there now is too much mud being thrown for it all to be made up. The Pakistan High Commissioner has played the race card, claiming it's part of a global conspiracy against Pakistan. Nope, it's a conspiracy against people who bloody cheat and ruin a gentleman's sport enjoyed around the world. I hate racism and all it stands for, but equally I despise people who feel compelled to play the race card because they are incompetent or cannot admit the truth.

Just a tenth of the accusations being true is enough to expel them from international cricket. It goes far, far too deep to just be down to a couple of bad eggs.

Don't let your arse hit the door on the way out....Posted byScott Fergusonat19:34

and Pakistan had been warned about dodgy connections..

More and more evidence is coming to light in the wake of the NotW scandal. GamblerFalls' blog points out that Shahid Afridi warned team management of the characters involved getting too close to the team. And naturally, what did team management do? Put their heads in the sand and ignore it....

The evidence is pretty damning now. I'd be really pissed off if I was boss of a ground about to host a T20 or an ODI in the next couple of weeks. Ticket sales are going to be screwed unless they are already sold. All that effort going into securing an international match, hoping for it to fill the coffers and keep the business ticking over - all gone now.Posted byScott Fergusonat21:32

Pakistan cricket betting scandal - genuine or faked?

News breaking tonight of another betting scandal involving the Pakistan cricket team and the News of the World, an English tabloid newspaper. A middle-man is alleged to have arranged no-balls at specific times in the England first innings in the current Test match at Lord's, in return for substantial amounts of money. The no-balls in question were not even close, at least a foot over, which is curious.

But is it as clear-cut as it seems? For me, it sounds too perfect. Pakistan are easy targets - they don't have a great reputation for integrity, and linking it to illegal bookmakers on the sub-continent is the perfect modus operandi as they have no licence or audit trail. People say that millions get bet on this stuff, despite all sorts of previous allegations about these markets, but there's nowhere to prove it is true or not. Was the evidence shown to anyone before the event, or did it only emerge conveniently after it?

I just find it very hard to trust anything that comes out of the News of the World, and destroying the reputation of one outstanding young bowler to increase flagging newspaper sales I do not find beyond them. Their modus operandi of catching dodgy characters (Sven-Goran Eriksson, John Higgins etc) isn't exactly a secret.

There may be more evidence to show for it and back the allegations up. How bad were the other no-balls from Amir and Asif? Is there any proof that this meeting with the fixer was actually before the events in question took place? There doesn't seem to be any footage of the players involved in this, unlike the Higgins snooker case.

IF the story is genuine, then fair play to the NotW for flushing it out.... I just think it's a bit too well put together...

Match-fixer pockets £150k as he rigs England Test at Lord's

THE News of the World has smashed a multi-million pound cricket match-fixing ring which RIGGED the current Lord's Test between England and Pakistan.

In the most sensational sporting scandal ever, bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif delivered THREE blatant no-balls to order.

Their London-based fixer Mazhar Majeed, who let us in on the betting scam for £150,000, crowed "this is no coincidence" before the bent duo made duff deliveries at PRECISELY the moments promised to our reporter. Posted byScott Fergusonat22:43