International sports, cricket
Cardiff, Wales (GenevaLunch) - England beat Pakistan by five wickets in the first of the Twenty20 matches. Pakistan were held to 126 runs as Graeme Swann gave a master class of off-spin bowling. England started quickly but then lost wickets to reach 62 for 5 before Eoin Morgan and Michael Yardy put together a 67 run partnership to win the match by five wickets with 17 balls left.
The News of the World had earlier released more details of the betting scam they revealed the previous week. They report that captain Salman Butt was found to have at least £10,000 in cash when his rooms were searched by police investigating a betting fraud. The alleged fixer, Mazhar Majeed, was also suspected of trying to open Swiss bank accounts for some of the players.
Beausejour Stadium, St Lucia (GenevaLunch) – India beat newcomers Afghanistan by seven wickets in their first match of the Twenty20 World Cup. In the next game, against South Africa, they set up a huge total of 186 for five with a century by Suresh Raina. The South Africans could never keep up with the run rate with a slow outfield, and they eventually lost by 14 runs. New Zealand beat Sri Lanka with Jesse Ryder scoring 42 from 27 balls for the Black Caps.
Australia did even better when they batted against Pakistan, scoring 191 thanks to 81 by opening batsman Shane Watson. Pakistan could only manage 157 all out in reply.
Links to other sites: Cricket Twenty20, Guardian, Yahoo Cricket
Lords/London, England (GenevaLunch) – Shahid Afridi was the star as Pakistan at last was in the news for a celebration of victory. The Pakistan team has played little cricket in the last few years as other teams have refused to travel to Pakistan because of security concerns. The last team to visit was the Sri Lankans who were forced to end their tour by a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus.
London, England (GenevaLunch) – The Netherlands beat England on the final ball of the opening match of the world Twenty20 match at Lords.
Dallas, Texas, USA (GenevaLunch) - Texas financier Sir Allen Stanford, who provided the $20 million prize for the Twenty20 tournament between England and the West Indies, has been accused of operating a massive $8 billion fraud and has had his assets frozen by a court in Dallas. The West Indian winners of the Twenty20 reportedly have already been paid but the proposed matches in May look like being cancelled. Details: Guardian, UK
Melbourne, Australia (GenevaLunch) – David Warner scored a thrilling 89 from 43 balls in his debut international match to lead Australia to a 52-run victory over South Africa in the Twenty20 International. He was the first man to play for Australia without having played any first class matches.
