07It’s about battles on the field. It’s about do-or-die situations. It’s aboutjust one goal. It’s about victory. In short, it’s about playing fair.Howzzat? Well, that’s SIMPLY SPORTS!

L iton Das is pleased with histeam’s performance in theWorld Cup and the way it

held its own against heavy-weights such as India and Aus-tralia in unfamiliar conditions.

Blowing hot and cold,Bangladesh ended their WC en-gagements with a 94-run lossagainst Pakistan at Lord’s. Theysuffered five losses, while win-ning three against South Africa,

West Indies and Afghanistan.Mashrafe Mortaza’s men

also tested each of the four semi-finalists — India, Australia,New Zealand and England.

“This has not been a badtournament, there were a lot ofclose games, there are lots ofpositives we can take. We’vecome to different conditions andproven that we can win match-es, that we can play against the

top opposition,” said Liton.Liton had a perfect start to

the tournament when he blastedan unbeaten 94 during his side’s7-wicket win over West Indies buthe couldn’t replicate that form inthe following matches. “I didn’tlive up to my expectations, Iscored a few 20s or 30s but if I hadgot that up to 50 or 60 if not more,that could have made a big dif-ference to the team,” he said. PTI

Former captain Dan-iel Vettori feels threeconsecutive losses

for New Zealand in the on-going World Cup will nothave much effect on KaneWilliamson’s men goinginto the semifinals.

New Zealand, whostarted off their tourna-ment campaign on a bril-liant note by winning fiveof their first six matches(one being washed out),seemed to fall apart asthey lost their last threegames and ended thegroup stage at 11 points.It will be courtesy of theirhigher net run-rate thatthey have almost quali-fied for the semis.

“From a New Zealand

perspective, it is not ide-al to have lost three in arow, even if they are stillpretty much assured of asemi-final place,” Vettoriwrote in as column.

“Despite the threestraight losses, I don’tthink it will affect the

team too much, particu-larly knowing some of theguys well.

“They have six or sev-en individuals who canwin a game for them, andthat is a pretty excitingway to think about it,” headded. IANS

Three straight losses won’taffect NZ too much: Vettori

Photo: TOI

“We beat South Africa and WestIndies here (in England) in condi-tions that are not easy for us, weran Australia, India and NewZealand close, and that’s a bigpositive. It shows that we can playall around the world and we shouldtake a lot of confidence fromthat,” said Bangladesh’s Liton Das.

Photo: AFP

Happy with team’s WC showing: Liton

STILL HAVE FEW MORE GAMES LEFT: GAYLE

Unlike four years ago, when West Indian batsman ChrisGayle hit a double century against Zimbabwe, this was nota productive World Cup for Gayle and the West Indies, whowon just two games. “It’s a brilliant privilege and honourto represent West Indies in five World Cups (2003 to2019),” Gayle said after the match against Afghanistan,which was West Indies’ last match in the 2019 WC. “I stillhave a few more games left as well, so we'll see what hap-pens,” Gayle, who previously that he would quit ODIs afterthe WC, although he later prevaricated, said. AGENCIES

Photo: AFP

SHAHEEN ENTERS RECORD BOOKS

‘KIWIS HAVE TO PERFORM COLLECTIVELY’ Photo: AFP

Pakistan speedstar ShaheenAfridi entered the recordbooks with a six-wicket haulagainst Bangladesh in theWorld Cup at the Lord’s.Afridi became the youngestever bowler at 19 years and90 days to claim a five-wicket haul in the WC whenhis six for 35 helped Pakdismiss Bangladesh for 221and notch up a 94-run win intheir last outing. AGENCIES

“There are some individualswho obviously aren’t get-ting the runs and wickets

that they want to. As longas we as a team can per-

form collectively well thenthat’s our best chance of

going further in the tourna-ment,” New Zealand coach

Gary Stead said of histeam’s chances in the 2019

World Cup. REUTERS

Teenager Ikram Alikhilhas set his sights on be-coming Afghanistan’s

greatest-ever player afterbreaking Sachin Tendulkar’srecord for the highest score byan 18-year-old at a World Cup.

His 86 against the West In-dies at Headingley saw himmove ahead of Tendulkar’sbest of 84, which came 27 yearsago. “I’m very proud to havebroken the record of a legendlike Tendulkar. It makes mevery happy,” he said.

Ikram’s knock came in a los-ing cause as Afghanistan fell toa 23-run defeat and go home af-ter nine losses. “I’m very happythat I scored 86 runs, which was

the top score for Afghanistan(at this WC),” he said. “No

one had crossed that mark inthe nine games but I’m disap-pointed at the same time be-cause I thought I could score ahundred... I want to work veryhard at my game and becomethe best-ever player producedby Afghanistan.” AFP

Q.1) What is thefull form of theT20 LeagueCPL?A. ChampionsPremier LeagueB. CaribbeanPremier LeagueC. Continental PremierLeagueD. Cricket Premier League Q.2) With which sport isRashanpreet Kaur associat-ed?A. Table tennisB. SquashC. BasketballD. HockeyQ.3) Name the Indian wholost to Milos Raonic at the2019 Wimbledon. A. Prajnesh GunneswaranB. Leander PaesC. Rohan BopannaD. Yuki BhambriQ.4) Martijn Drijver is awell-known Dutch coach. Heis into which sport?

A. Football B. TennisC. BoxingD. Hockey

Q.5) Name thesports personality in

the picture.

A. Bhaichung Bhutia B. Pritam Kotal C. Nishu KumarD. Sunil Chhetri

ANSW

ERS

1. B. Caribbean PremierLeague, 2. D. Hockey, 3. A. Prajnesh Gunneswaran, 4. D. Hockey, 5. C. Nishu Kumar

Ikram aims highafter breakingTendulkar record

Liton Das

Daniel Vettori

☛ Pakistan batsman Shoaib Malikconfirmed his retirement from one-day cricket without making a farewellappearance in his side’s win overBangladesh. Malik had admitted lastyear that he intended to quit one-daycricket after the World Cup and hefollowed through with that plan afterPakistan's 94-run win at Lord's.

☛ The 37-year-old will continue toplay the Twenty20 format. “I am retir-ing from one-day cricket,” said Malik,who was dropped after a disappointingWC featuring two ducks in 3 matches.Malik appeared in 287 ODIs and scored7,534 runs with nine hundreds. AFP

Pak’s Malik confirms ODIretirement after WC exit

Phot

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Shoaib Malik

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Imam, Mustafizurmake it to Lord’sHonours Boards

I mam-ul-Haq andMustafizur Rahman madeit to the Limited-Overs Ho-

nours Boards at the Lord’s dur-ing the World Cup match be-tween Pakistan andBangladesh.

Imam scored run-a-ballcentury, including sevenboundaries, to power Pakistanto 315 for the loss of nine wick-ets. While Mustafizur took afive-wicket haul in his 10 oversquota. The Bangladesh pacerdismissed Imam, Haris Sohail,Imad Wasim, Shadab Khanand Mohammad Amir.

The Home of Cricket,Lord’s Cricket Ground con-gratulated both Imam andMustafizur for their brilliantperformance with the bat andball, respectively. ANI

I t’s going to be India versus NewZealand in the first semifinal ofthe ICC World Cup on Tuesday,with hosts England taking on five-

time defending champions Australia in theother on Thursday. The 45-game group stage

ended with the match between Australia andSouth Africa. Australia, India, England andNew Zealand knew prior to Saturday’s final

group matches that they would be in the topfour and that all that was to be decided was the

end of group standings. India's seven-wicket winover Sri Lanka at Headingley ensured that theyended on a winning note and leapfrogged Australiaafter their 10-run defeat by South Africa.

India’s win and Australia’s defeat meant that the2011 winners topped the group and face fourth place

New Zealand at Old Trafford. It will be an intriguingmatch-up as these two sides have not played each oth-er at this World Cup. Their game at Trent Bridge on

June 13 was abandoned without a ball bowled. Indiafinished the group stage with just one defeat – to Eng-land – to finish on 15 points from their nine match-

es. While after a good start to this World Cup, NewZealand lost three games – to Pakistan, Australia

and England – and ended on11 points from their ninegames. Rohit Sharma is In-dia’s dangerman with thebat with 647 runs in thegroup stage while BlackCaps captain KaneWilliamson has481 runs.

Australia'sdefeat in their fi-nal game means theyslipped down to second atthe end of the group stages andset up a meeting with England.Aaron Finch's men beat Eng-land by 64 runs at Lord's at the end ofJune. Captain Finch (507) and DavidWarner (634) have been Australia’s starswith the bat while Joe Root (500) andBairstow (462) are England'sleading run scorers. With theball, Mitchell Starc has 26 wicketsat this World Cup, while England'sJofra Archer has 17. PTI

J asprit Bumrah,who has as muchmodesty in him ashis extraordinary

bowling skills, attrib-utes India’s run to

the World Cupsemi-finals to team

effort. “I don’t takepraise or criticism se-

riously,” said the pacespearhead after centuries

from Rohit Sharma and K LRahul helped India to a seven-

wicket victory over Sri Lankain their last group stage World

Cup game on Saturday.“The only focus for me is on my

preparation, my execution andwhat I can do for the team.”

Bumrah was keen to share theplaudits with the rest of the at-tack, even though he was the un-doubted star of the bowling showduring the win.

The 25-year-old fromAhmedabad joined NewZealand's Lockie Ferguson, Pak-istan’s Mohammad Amir and Eng-land’s Jofra Archer in third placewith 17 wickets in the showpieceafter claiming 3/37 from his 10 oversat Headingley.

“Everybody’s taking a lot of re-sponsibility so that's very good,” saidBumrah.

“When you have extra responsi-bility, then you try even harder andyour execution is good, so that’s a verygood sign for us.

“In most of our World Cup games

we’ve only had five bowlersthat are bowling and it’s been

going like this throughout.Everybody's had a good run here.

It's been a good campaign for us,everybody’s chipped in with wick-ets, and with the bat also, so it’sbeen a case of so far, so good.”

Bumrah gave an equal-ly understated response when

he was asked how it felt to be re-ceiving heaps of praise as the linch-pin of India’s attack in his firstWorld Cup.

“You see Hardik Pandya takingwickets, you see Mohammed Sha-mi taking wickets and I've also tak-en wickets, so that’s the positive forus going forward.

“Everybody’s had a good runhere. It's been a good campaign forus, everybody has chipped in with

wickets and with the bat,” saidBumrah after becoming the sec-

ond fastest Indian bowler to reach100 wickets in one-day internation-

als. PTI

There’s a healthy competi-tion. It’s a good headache to

have when everyone’s per-forming and everyone’s ingood nick and that’ssomething you love to

have going into a cru-cial game like nextweek’s semi-final.

How Carlos Brathwaiteovercame ‘rememberthe name’ pressure

Carlos Brathwaite

Virat Kohli

The best moment in your career cansometimes be your worst too. Andthat’s because it becomes an alba-

tross hanging around your neck, withpeople expecting you to do it again andagain, without realising that we are alljust human at the end of the day!

“Remember the name,” former WestIndies fast bowler Ian Bishop hadscreamed on air after Carlos Brathwaitesmashed four sixes off four balls fromBen Stokes to give the West Indies a fa-mous win in the 2016 World T20 final atthe Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

It was the biggest moment of Braith-waite’s life. It was also something thattroubled him so much he had to ultimatelytake psychological help to sort it out. “I’vebeen working with Steve Sylvester (a psy-chologist)... about accepting the ‘remem-ber-the-name’ tag. I think I shied awayfrom it a bit. And I almost thought it wasa curse. So, this was about just acceptingthat what I did will be remembered for along time. Now, I’m actually comfortablehearing it again..,” Brathwaite told TOI.

Post his fighting hundred againstNew Zealand in Manchester, which is be-ing hailed as the best knock in a losingcause in this WC, Brathwaite should ac-tually find people remembering his nameagain. TNN

P akistan coach MickeyArthur urged the Inter-national CricketCouncil

(ICC) to give head-to-headrecord a higher priority thannet run rate after the team’sfinal game of the 2019 WorldCup against Bangladesh.

“I would have liked theICC to consider head to headbecause tonight we would bein the semi-final. It is disap-pointing, and it just goes backto our first game (a heavy de-feat) against the West Indies,”Mickey Arthur said.

“We had an opportunity tobeat Australia and we didn’ttake that. Those are the twonightmares I’m going to have,”he added.

Pakistan went into thematch against Bangladesh onFriday needing to win by arecord margin in order to pipNew Zealand to final semi-fi-

nal spot on the basis of netrun rate.

Batting first, they endedtheir innings on 315/9 andneeded to bowl out Bangladeshfor seven in order to get to thetop four. They eventually wonthe match by a comprehensivemargin of 94 runs but thatwasn’t enough for them to seal

a spot in the semi-final.“What the system has

done to us is that after onevery poor game, you really bat-tle to recover again. So it’s avery disappointed dressingroom, no congratulations go-ing on because we haven’tqualified. Congratulations tothe four who have, I think

they’ve played the best crick-et so far and may the best teamwin,” said Arthur. PTI

Reconsider net run rate rule: Arthur to ICC I would have likedthe ICC to consid-

er head to head (head-to-head match record as ahigher priority than netrun rate) because tonightwe would be in the semi-final. It is disappointing,and it just goes back toour first game (a heavydefeat) against the WestIndies... What the systemhas done to us is thatafter one very poorgame, you really battle torecover again. — Arthur

Photo: AP

Photo: AFP

Photo: ANI

Mickey Arthur

Hosts England face Australia in the other

It’s not too long ago that we played aseries against them (New Zealand). Weknow what they are capable of, we know

their strengths. We’ll be keeping an eyeon that. We’ll just take it how it comes.

— India's batting coach Sanjay Bangar

The opposition has never mattered.We don’t focus on what the oppositionbrings to the table. If we don’t play wellanyone can beat us and if we play well we canbeat anyone.— Virat Kohli, captain

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Photo: AFP

BUMRAH: I don’t take praiseor criticism seriously

Photo: GETTY IMAGESJasprit Bumrah

It’s India againstNZ in first semis