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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Asia Cup 2012 Final: Pakistan win against Bangladesh

Pakistan left Asia cup 2011, In the end, it was 4 runs required off one ball for Bangladesh to win, and Aizaz Cheema couldn’t do better than bowling a perfect yorker to bring home the victory well longed for now. Bangladesh fell two runs short of Pakistan’s modest total of 236. Pace bowler Aizaz Cheema grabbed three wickets at key moments to help Pakistan beat Bangladesh by two runs in a thrilling final to win the Asia Cup for the second time on Thursday. The home side came agonisingly close to becoming the new Asian champions with nine needed in the final over. However, Cheema conceded only six runs and took a wicket in the process to see his side home. Shahadat Hossain took the strike in the final ball after Cheema bowled Abdur Razzak when a boundary would have done it for Bangladesh. But he could manage just a leg bye as the home side were restricted to 234 for eight in reply to Pakistan s 236 for nine. Tamim Iqbal scored 60 off 68 balls, his fourth half-century in as many matches in the tournament, and Shakib Al Hassan (68) added 89 runs for the fourth wicket stand with Nasir Hossain (28) to put Bangladesh in control. Umar Gul broke their resistance, inducing Nasir to hit a catch to Misbah-ul-Haq at mid-wicket and Cheema silenced the roaring Sher-e-Bangla crowd in the next over when he bowled Shakib around his legs. Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim was caught by Nasir Jamshed on the square-leg boundary off Cheema for 10 then Mashrafe Mortaza struck 18 off eight balls. Shahid Afridi won the man-of-the-match award after scoring 32 runs off 22 balls and conceding 28 from his 10 overs. Pakistan opener Mohammad Hafeez scored 40 off 87 balls and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed contributed 46 not out. Sarfraz took 19 runs off the final over bowled by Shahadat that finally proved to have made the difference Shakib, who also took two wickets for Bangladesh alongside Mortaza and Razzak, was adjudged player of the tournament The visitors — tournament winners in 2000 — held Bangladesh to 234-8, agonisingly short of Pakistan’s 236-9 despite impressive half-centuries from Shakib Al Hasan (68) and opener Tamim Iqbal (60).


Afghan mission on track


The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan insisted on Tuesday that the United States is winding down the decade-plus war and has no intention to remain in the country indefinitely. "There is no part of our strategy that intends to stay in Afghanistan forever," Marine Gen. John Allen told the a skeptical House Armed Services Committee. It was his first congressional appearance since a U.S. soldier s alleged massacre of Afghan civilians and the burning of Qurans by American forces dealt severe setbacks to the fragile U.S.-Afghanistan relationship. In his appearance before the committee, Allen parried questions from war-weary lawmakers who questioned whether the United States should accelerate the timetable for withdrawing some of the 90,000 combat forces still in the country, and whether a projected Afghan force of 352,000 would be capable of ensuring the country s security. Allen gave no hint of a speedier withdrawal in the face of increasing political and public pressure to end the mission. Opinion polls show a growing number of Americans say the United States should bring home the 90,000 troops now in the country. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said last week he was at "the end of the rope" over civilian deaths, and demanded that U.S. troops leave local villages. The current U.S. plan calls for a withdrawal of 23,000 American troops by the end of September and a complete withdrawal by December 2014, when Afghan forces are to take charge of the country s security. "I wish I could tell you that this war was simple, and that progress could easily be measured," Allen said. "But that s not the way of counterinsurgencies. They are fraught with success and setbacks, which can exist in the same space and time, but each must be seen in the larger context of the overall campaign. And I believe that the campaign in on track." Allen said by year s end he would assess the threat from the insurgency and the progress made by coalition forces before recommending further reductions in combat forces next year. Allen insisted that the U.S. and its coalition forces are moving ahead in to ensure that Afghanistan doesn t revert to a terrorist haven and transfer the security lead to the Afghans. The forces, he said, are meeting the commitments spelled out in the overall withdrawal plan hammered out at the conference in Lisbon in November 2010. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a nationally broadcast interview earlier Tuesday, said U.S. policymakers must "keep our nerve" in Afghanistan. "We just have to remember what Afghanistan was like 10 years ago," when the Taliban were in charge, said the former Cabinet officer in President George W. Bush s administration. She said the United States should focus heavily on training local security forces because "we can t afford to leave Afghanistan to the Taliban and the terrorists." In the past year, Afghan security forces have expanded from 276,000 to 330,000 and will achieve their goal of full strength before an October deadline. This will allow the United States to withdraw the remaining 23,000 American surge forces while pressuring the Taliban to reconcile. Allen acknowledged recent setbacks in his appearance, including the violence stemming from the Quran burnings. All told, 32 Afghans died in the riots and more were hurt. Sixty coalition troops from six countries have been killed since January. Allen said 13 have been killed at the hands of "what appears to have been Afghan security forces, some of whom were motivated, we believe, in part by the mishandling of religious materials." He said the military was investigating the murder of "16 innocent Afghan civilians at the hands of a U.S. service member." Some in Afghanistan have questioned whether the accused service member, identified as Army Sgt. Robert Bales, acted alone, Allen said that in addition to the criminal investigation, the military was conducting an administrative inquiry examining the command and control and the decision behind the assignment. In his opening statement, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, chairman of the House panel, urged caution in discussing the withdrawal of U.S. forces, arguing that with "our eyes on the exit" it may be difficult for the Americans to achieve their goals. "What s more, in the absence of sustained, public campaign to support the mission in Afghanistan from the White House on down  many have begun to question what we re fighting for," McKeon, a Republican, said in acknowledging the divisions in Congress and the nation. Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the panel, is among those in Congress pressing for a faster withdrawal. "The solution to this dilemma, that over time our large scale presence will have diminishing returns, is simple we should accelerate the plans we have already made. The NATO Lisbon Conference of 2010 laid out a realistic plan for transition. Our challenge now is to look for ways to implement it as fast as we responsibly can," Smith said.

The best player in football history "Lionel Messi"

If he carries on the way he is going he could be the best player in football history.”  Lionel Messi, a scrawny kid turned away by River Plate in 2000 despite being described by one of the club’s youth coaches as a mixture of Omar Sivori and Diego Maradona, set a Barcelona scoring record of 234 goals at the age of only 24 on Tuesday. Barca’s faith in their ability to groom the little lad from Rosario for their first team and transform him into the world’s best player has paid off handsomely while River have been left to rue not making him theirs. Messi has already won 18 titles in his eight seasons in the Barca first team – three Champions Leagues, five La Ligas, one King’s Cup, two European Super Cups, five Spanish Super Cups and two Club World Cups. Three World Player of the Year awards in a row look like being followed by a fourth for 2012 – and it is only March. The Catalan club are through to the last eight of this season’s Champions League and will play the King’s Cup final against Athletic Bilbao in May though they are five points behind Real Madrid in La Liga with 10 matches left. Messi was once again at his majestic best on Tuesday and scored a sublime hat-trick in Barcelona’s 5-3 league win over Granada at the Nou Camp to cruise past Cesar Rodriguez on the club’s all-time scoring list. The diminutive forward, who has now netted 34 league goals and 54 in all competitions this season, needed 314 games to break the record, while Cesar scored his 232 goals in 354 official matches. “He (Messi) is sat at the same table as the best in history because he was won very important titles, because he has three Ballon d’Or awards and he will be the one who wins the most because being the player he is he can achieve a lot more,” Johan Cruyff was quoted as saying in the Barca’s latest club magazine. “Messi is by far the best player in the world,” added the Dutchman, who won European titles with Barcelona as a player and coach and three World Player awards. “He is incomparable, he plays in a different league.”

US want talks with Taliban

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Obama administration is still open to Taliban talks. She said the US is for the talks that would support Afghan reconciliation with the Taliban and is hoping to finalize a blueprint for security relations with Afghanistan by May. She said Wednesday the U.S. would continue to try to get peace negotiations going between the Afghan government and Taliban members willing to renounce terrorism and violence and accept the country s constitution. She said it was up to the Taliban to take up the offer. The Taliban pulled out of preliminary discussions with American officials after a U.S. soldier was accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians. Clinton also said progress is being made on a U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership that could be completed by the NATO summit in Chicago in May.