Month: November 2015

Of Burgess , Vardy and the Final Four !

      Sam Burgess

They call him Slammin Sam. It doesn’t seem the world of Rugby Union especially  Bath will be jamming anytime soon  with the way things are running with Sam Burgess. As the print media in the Uk throws out ink about his high profile move back to Rugby League and South Sydney Rabbitohs in NRL shunning the purist culture in Bath , there are many Union lovers who would be critical of this act. Slammin Sam says his heart was always with Rugby league. Was it ?  He won the Churchill Medal for being man of the match in NRL final leading the Rabbitohs to their 1st title in 43 years.

 

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Switching codes to Bath rugby in late 2014 , he was selected for  Stuart Lancaster’s world cup squad  of 2015, amove that could be debated for many reasons let alone the playing style and place he occupied. The Hosts struggled and bowed out before the quarterfinals following defeats to Wales and Australia . Sam had an ambivalent role playing the inside centre slot which was highly debated in the circles leading up to the tournament.

The Dewsbury native decided not to continue with the Aviva Premiership season and go back to Sydney where his mum and brothers also reside. There’s no doubting his talent as Rugby League player  with skill, agility and talent.  This move was pleasing to his fans who followed his career as a Bradford Bull and later on as a Rabbitoh.The deal is lucrative  which itself could be reason enough but the  bottom line is he couldn’t adapt to Union  as some what have expected. Sonny Bill Williams will have to wait for England.

sam 3

 

Jamie  Vardy 

    Non league football has produced many great names for top flight clubs over the years . John Barnes, Vinnie Jones, Stuart Pearce, Chris Waddle and more recently Charlie Austin have enjoyed premier league success coming from very humble beginnings. The latest in that series of success stories seems to be Sheffield born Jamie Vardy. Released in 2002 by Sheffield Wednesday as a junior to join Stocksbridge Park Steels in the Northern Premier League , the forward played for 4 seasons before subsequent moves to Halifax town and Fleetwood town. His big move came when Leicester made him a million pound buy from non league Fleetwood.That was a record itself. Leicester gained promotion in 2014 and Jamie prospered.

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This season in particular,he has had a flying start scoring in nine consecutive premier league games , leaving him one behind  the record heading into 13th round of EPL games .Combined with Riyadh Mahrez , they form the top two rated footballers of the league. No wonder Leicester  find themselves 3rd in the table ahead of Manchester United , whose  former player Ruud Van Nistelrooy is the holder of the league scoring streak at 10. St James Park at the weekend is the place to be as the fast flicking forward fox tries to overcome a thigh injury  in a bid to overtake the record .

Jamie’s speed and skill as well as finish in the final 1/3rd has been one of the bright spots in the Premier league this fall.He is a breath of fresh air and much needed forwarding boost that Harry Kane provided last winter in his steep rise for Spurs. Nevertheless , the season has just been just 12 games old , so more challenges await for Leicester and Vardy in the winter.

Jamie will find good company in the League and England squad come next summer. Dele Alli who was playing in League One a year ago is one of them. Another is Ross Barkley who at one point struggled to make  Leeds United’s first team whilst on loan.Both started this week’s England friendly versus France. A combination for the future.

jamie 1

As for club he played as a junior,Sheffield Wednesday must be missing him now considering his form this season and  their recent quest for promotion to top flight football from the Championship. Hillsborough might just not be on his mind yet,as greener pastures await.

Final Four of Euro 

Date, July 2016. The venue, Stade de France. The occasion, Euro 2016 finale. All looked a bit distant as the events in Paris overtook the sporting headlines between the recent France and Germany friendly.How ironic it might be if the two teams actually make it to that final in 8 months time.

 

As the race for European qualification climaxed  in the last week, Sport overcame the off field issues as it usually does , with qualifiers resuming and France playing a friendly at Wembley. Hungary produced a shocker beating Norway , whilst Ireland courtesy Jon Walters progressed past Bosnia at Dublin. Sweden won the Battle of Scandinavia as Zlatan Ibrahimovic the Paris St Germain forward  starred again scoring his 62nd international goal .

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The final spot was clinched by Ukraine who held to 1-1 draw with Andriy Yarmalenko’s strike. The Russian born forward  has 22 international goals in 55 appearances for Ukraine and 74 for Dynamo Kiev in 185 games and potential move to EPL might be in the offering for next summer.

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There you have it. All 24 decided and set for France 2016 who host for the 1st time the event since winning at home soil in 1984. And if hosting is any way to go by, then 1998 is a much recent note for many at how well they do it. Just ask Zizou.

 

 

Seven Stunners of 2015 !

The thrills of  sporting shocks make each sport ever so interesting . North Korea did so in 1966 FIFA  World Cup, Kenya beating Windies in 1996  ICC World cup, the unknown Boris Becker winning Wimbledon in 1985  at the age of 17. These are seven of the famous ones that have shaped 2015 so far.  

    The Ashes

Heading into the summer, Australia as world champions in the ODI format and defending a 5-0 whitewash of England from Down Under were overwhelming favourites to take the urn again . The tests were one sided depending on which team took the first two days. England strangled the Edgbaston and Trent bridge tests on the basis of moving wickets on opening days and and recurring  Aussie collapses. Joe Root had a remarkable series with the bat.

England  hung on to a 3-2 series win after the visitors won at the Oval  in Michael Clarke’s final ever test. In a stunning summer of test cricket , they  had regained the Ashes signposting  Nasser Hussain’s famous words ” Cook has his redemption!”

cook n pup

The Triple Crown of Horse Racing

     Not since the Affirmed in 1979 as a thoroughbred horse won the  triple crown of horse racing. The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and The Belmont stakes provide a 3 set series in early May to early June over 4 weeks that sets the thoroughbred season alight in USA.

   This year American Pharoah, a colt owned by Ahmad Ziyat broke the 37 yr old jinx which many before in the last generation have failed to. The challenging Belmont Park often has confounded many horses in achieving the hat trick . For American Pharoah, it was a dream running the second fastest Belmont stakes to complete the crown.The colt became the 12 th horse to win the triple crown.

 Interestingly , American Pharoah  won the ” grand slam” winning the Breeders Cup last month.

belmont

Stan Wawrinka beats Novak Djokovic in French Open Final

   The only grand slam final lost by Novak this year . It sent the famous Paris crowd applauding the usually unemotional Serb into a moment of reflection at the end. Djokovic has totally dominated the year in tennis but Stan on the red clay on Paris provided a big shock on the day coming back from one set down to win in four.  It  was the 3rd time Djokovic lost in Paris.

    He did win in the same city later on in the year , a record Masters tournament win  beating Andy Murray .

                               french 15

Bangladesh ‘s One Day Home stand 

The shocks started in the world cup when the beat England but that wasnt a shock to England fans. A young Pakistan side toured in April and found the bitter end of a “Bangla wash ” losing 3-0  in the one dayers. In the ensuing series versus India, a 19 yr old left arm slingie called Mustafizur Rahman shot into stardom claiming 11 wkts in the first two games and rolling the home team to another unlikely series win.

Next up, South Africa. The Proteas won their opening game but lost the next two, Mustafizur playing a part in those wins as well. Bangladesh had qualified for the Champions trophy in 2017 in England by claiming the no 7 spot in ODI rankings.

They completed a fourth series win earlier this week with a comprehensive series win over Zimbabwe.

bangladesh

Women’s US Open :  Serena’s semi 

    The grand slam  event hyped to be the famous crowning of Serena Williams’ slam ended up being pear shaped as she bundled out of her home grand slam in the semi final to unheralded Roberta Vinci .Vinci came from one set down in the huge Arthur Ashe stadium and the partisan crowd to record one of the biggets wins of her career.

    Roberta played the final against compatriot Flavia Panetta, a day later but lost to her dear tennis friend. Moments after lifting the trophy , Flavia announced her retirement from the sport.

us open final

 Rugby Union World Cup : Japan beat South Africa 

      The Rugby world cup always posts some interesting results, this year’s World Cup in England was no different. Japan took on South Africa on 19th September at Brighton Community stadium in a group B match.

The last minute try in the 83rd minute was the biggest moment in Japanese rugby history for sure but also registered one of ,if not the biggest upsets ever in sport itself. It was only Japan’s second ever win in the world cup and ended a run of 18 straight defeats.

Michael Leitch & Goromaru had tries, Goromaru kicked 5 penalties  and a conversion. The winning try came form Karne Hasketh. Many tweeted comparing the upset to James Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson in 1990.

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Netherlands failed to qualify for Euro 2016

Known to be one of the most cheerful fans in the football, the Dutch will have little to cheer next summer in France as the national squad failed. Total football became ” total failure” as Robin van Persie scored an own goal in a 3-2 home defeat to Czech republic in a crucial final game in October.

Iceland had started their run of autumn losses with a 1-0 away win in Amsterdam. Turkey who had earlier in September beaten the Dutch 3-0 , qualified  as the highest 3rd place team in a tournament that sent the Bosphorus on fire . The Euro has been expanded to 24 teams from 16 in France next year which made it even more stunning for them to miss out.

Euro 2016

Tuk Tuk-tastic !

In October 2010, Pakistan’s cricketing fortunes plunged deep into darkness that can be only summed as the sporting version of a Black Hole. They had suffered a heavy 3-1 test series defeat on the field in England and off it had three players         ( Mohammad Aamir , Salman Butt , Mohammad Asif ) being banned for spot fixing charges. This on top of the fact they were forced to play cricket away from home following the Lahore debacle of 2009 with Sri Lankan team.It was not a good time to be a fan of the Cornered Tigers.

2010 south africa series

As the obvious change in the captaincy occurred, came a player who had not always been held in high regard in Pakistan’s cricketing circles . Misbah ul Haq Khan Niazi was infamous because of his 2007 World Cup T20 final at Johannesburg against India where he had played a scoop shot that had clinched defeat from a possible chance of a win. This was on his return to mainstream cricket after 4 years . On his second return in 2010, at 37, he was made in charge of a side who might have lost its bowling punchline a few months before the  2011 World Cup. They faced a formidable South African test squad and managed to hold them to two dull draws.

Misbah-ul-Haq-007

As he progressed in his captaincy, he became renowned for his slow batting after the fall of early wickets typical of a Pakistan top order performance. The famous 2011 World Cup semifinal at Mohali was another dark spot in his CV, with the loss again primarily blamed at his rate of run making. However he continued to take on the barrage of criticism, an offshoot of which was a nickname called Tuk Tuk . It meant slow tapping of the ball without any run accumulation. Despite that ,he managed a successful streak in tests . This culminated in a famous whitewash of 2012 in the Gulf against the Poms 3-0 which began to strengthen his cause. He went on to in lead to an Asia cup win the same year and later on to a victorious Indian ODI  tour.Things were looking a bit brighter for Tuk Tuk.

2012 series win

Although he lost 3-0 in South Africa , the return leg in the fall was drawn in the Gulf 1-1.12 months later he led a famous 2-0 drubbing of the Aussies . This was Pakistan s first test win since 1995 and eventually a series since 1988 against the Kangaroos . Misbah in the 2nd innings of the Abu Dhabi went into AB Devilliers mode  and clubbed the fastest test 100 in 56 balls, a record he tied with the legendary  Vivian Richards. This followed a first innings of 101. Misbah had tied the legendary skippers Imran Khan and Javed Miandad at 14 test wins. He went on to break that record on the same ground versus Kiwis following a third straight 100.

aus series

2015 might have signalled the end of his ODI career during the World Cup but his test wins continued. The Greenshirts won in Bangladesh at Mirpur where he hit 82. A few months later, they won a series against Sri Lanka at Pallekele , a 1st for 9 years. The winning runs were achieved in his stand with Younus Khan in a monumental run chase scoring 382.  As one of the most closest series played this year against England concluded with a 2-0 win at the historic Sharjah stadium which has been a site for their previous one day successes, Pakistan rose to No 2 in the rankings. He again had a match winning 102 at Dubai and innings saving 71 in the 1st inning of the final test at Sharjah .

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There was talk of retirement looming as the series against England began but now the PCB and most of his cricket fans possibly think otherwise considering the difficult tour of the UK expected next year to be anything but a walk in the park. It was a tightly contested series despite the end results with spin dominating. Misbah ended with 352 runs in the  series behind only to Mohammad Hafeez and the England skipper Alistair Cook.

cook

Forgiveness is hard to achieve in Pakistani cricketing folklore. Although played only 61 tests, he has taken a long and weary journey at the age of 41 to convince many that he can be remembered that what he did In the past didn’t reply reflect the player he is. It might be boring at times and he might not attract the best of crowds considering the kind of young stroke players around and in an era of T20 cricket , but he does play solidly and puts an enormous price to his wicket. And in a series which commended Younus Khan for becoming his team’s highest test runs scorer ever, Misbah now can rule the roost at 20 test captain wins, a record that will stay for some time.

Misbah 1

As a well groomed and a learned individual from Mianwali, he had an arduous task cleaning up that mess of 2010. His calmness and control prevailed. In five years and 42 tests at the helm, he finally managed to change the outlook of Pakistan cricket at test level, something many struggled to do before him.Maybe his future following cricket might be more forgiving than the path he took towards achieving this success.