“It’s an emotional decision and I reject it. I hope to convince Younus to revoke his decision, but if he sticks to his stand then the matter will be decided by the PCB’s governing council next week on 19th October.”

Younus Khan first offered his resignation before the National Standing committee on sports where he was grilled over allegations of match fixing in Trophy games against Australia when the lost the match on the last ball, stopping rivals India from progressing and again in the semi final game going down to New Zealand, when Pakistan were firm favourites.

The commitee dismissed the charges and exconerated the Pakistan team from any wrong doing. One of Pakistan’s most prolific batsmen, Younus took over the captaincy in January this year after Shoaib Malik was controversially stripped of the role. He told reporters after the meeting;

“I could not stand criticism from all and sundry as it was affecting my performance. That is why I resign. If captains are summoned like this, nobody will want to lead the Pakistan team.”

champions trophy hero shane watson

Ricky Ponting led the Australian team to victory in the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, beating New Zealand by six wickets as they continued the imperious form that started with the seven day ODI series against England after the Ashes defeat.

Ponting singled out the excellent Shane Watson who scored his second successive century for Australia, reaching an unbeaten 105 against the New Zealander’s, following his Man of the Match performance against England in the semi final.

After their innings New Zealand had left the Australians needing only 201 runs to win the final, but a rocky start to the Aussie batting quickly saw the dismissal of both Paine and most suprisingly Ponting with just one run apiece at 6 for 2.

Australia dug in and despite a slow build up of runs eventually took the game by the scruff of the neck, losing only two more wickets during the day with White going for 62 and Hussey for 11.

The victory was achieved during the 46th over thanks largely to Watson’s stand of 134 with Cameron White. A great and deserved victory for the Australians who picked up the ICC Champions Trophy for their remarkable accomplishment in the tournament.

Australia

England had managed just 257 all out with the bat, Tim Bresnan making an impressive 80 before falling to Brett Lee. Luke Wright enjoyed a good partnership of 107 runs with Bresnan, making 48 himself, while only Collingwood (34) and Denly (36) could manage decent scores.

The Australian’s lost a quick wicket when Paine was caught by Davies off Onions bowling and at 6 for 1 England’s chances looked very good indeed.

Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson had different ideas and between them made 252 not out to easily surpass the English total and make their way into the final.

It was another deserved victory for Australia both Ponting and Watson relished the challenge and controlled the English bowlers with ease. Ponting comes in for a lot of stick particularly back in Australia when the team are not winning games, but he has proved himself to be among the best batsmen in the world over the years and today’s performance was no exception.

The 34 year old Australian hit his first 50 off 58 balls and his unbeaten 111 was his 28th century in one day internationals. He also became the first Australian and only the third player in the world to pass 12,000 runs in ODIs, an incredible milestone for an incredible player.

Memories of England’s win over hosts South Africa are already in the dim and distant past, the loss to the Australians in seven out of eight one day encounters really means that things still need fixing in the England camp.

Indeed the memories of the 6-1 drubbing by Australia seem to have been put firmly behind England as Strauss and Denly set the foundations but it was man of the match, Owais Shah(98)  who shone brilliantly particularly in the partnership with Paul Collingwood(82) and Eoin Morgan(67) who set up the victory as England hit twelve sixes in scoring 323 for 8.

South Africa’s larger than life captain Graeme Smith then put on a superb display of batting himself to keep his team’s chances alive, he finally fell to Stuart Broad for 141, with South Africa on 274 for 9.

After the fifty overs South Africa trailed by 22 runs with 301 for 9.

An angry Smith then launched into Strauss for refusing to allow him to bring on a runner with just six overs remaining – his request quite rightly ignored by Strauss and umpires Steve Davis and Tony Hill.

“He asked me for a runner because he was cramping, the umpires were not particularly keen to give him one, and I felt at the end of a long game when you have had a long innings you are going to be tired,” said Strauss.

“That is one of the things that happens and cramping to a certain extent is a preparation thing and to a certain extent a conditioning thing. I didn’t feel he merited having a runner at that stage. My personal view is you shouldn’t get a runner for cramps full stop.”

Bitter in defeat Smith made the following noise;

“From my perspective it seemed a little bit inconsistent, players have got runners for cramp in the past and there needs to be a level of consistency there. The thing I have learned from this game is that the world is round and it is going to come back somewhere in his captaincy.It will be interesting to see how he handles it if it happens again. It was a crucial part of the game, I had been on the field for 95 overs and had cramped up.”

England’s final group game is against New Zealand on Tuesday.

yuvraj singh

India batsman Yuvraj Singh will miss the ICC Champions Trophy after he fractured a finger during training. The batsman was injured during fielding drill ahead of  Saturday’s clash with Pakistan.

The BCCI have confirmed that Yuvraj will be returning home from South Africa and made the following statement:

“Yuvraj has fractured a finger in his right hand and has been ruled out for six weeks. The selectors have chosen Virat Kohli as his replacement. Yuvraj will fly out as soon as formalities are completed.”

Yuvraj has scored 7,098 runs and taken 76 wickets in one-day internationals and will be sorely missed by India, who were among the favourites to win the Champions Trophy, but bad luck in the form of injuries has left the Indian squad looking fairly depleted.

Opening batsman Virender Sehwag and fast bowler Zaheer Khan will both be missing the tournament due to shoulder injuries, and opening batsman Gautam Gambhir is still recovering from a groin strain.

India are grouped with Pakistan, Australia and West Indies in the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.

England proved once again that Strauss and Denly apart, the batsmen in the squad are just not capable of much at all. Once Denly had left the field, following a terrible call from Bopara that resulted in the Kent batsman being run out, the middle order once again collapsed.

Collingwood and Bresnan managed to hang on to weather the Aussie bowling storm that threatened an ODI whitewash but ended instead with a very sound thrashing 6-1.

Thankfully England appear to have a captain with his feet on the ground who accepts that the current crop of players are just not up to the task, whether he has the management skills required to lift his players is, after this series seriously in question.

OK England did win the Ashes, but it was not a comfortable victory and owed more to some bad form in the Australian team than quality in the English side. In fairness the skipper has been scathing with his criticism of the team and said ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy tournament:

“This series has served as a timely reminder that as a side, we are nowhere near where we want to be, either in Test cricket or one-day cricket. It brings your feet back down to earth, that’s for sure. In international cricket, you have always got to keep looking forward, you can’t bask in anything you have done previously anyway.

We are still going to hold on to that Ashes victory because it was very special and if you don’t get excited about those victories, then you are not going to get excited about anything. We can be proud of ourselves the way we played in the Ashes, and as a Test side, we have got a lot of the component parts in place; as a one-day side, it’s clear we have got some work to do still.”