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!

Pushed to the wall, Englandbounced back in style tostay alive and skipper Eoin

Morgan says that the hosts arevery much in contention for amaiden World Cup trophy, pro-vided they produce their ‘A-game’in the remaining matches.

Back-to-back defeats to SriLanka and Australia threatenedto derail England’s World Cupcampaign but they came up

with a great show when it mat-tered and defeated India by 31runs on Sunday to stay afloat.

“Yeah, it is. The closer wecan get to playing our A-game,the more of a chance we have ofgoing the whole way. If we’rescraping our way along, notplaying the type of cricket weplayed in the last four years, Iwouldn’t be as confident,” Mor-gan said at the post-match press

conference.“I think the manner in

which we played today, partic-ularly with the bat, was out-standing. It certainly resonateswith everybody in the changeroom to the identity which wewanted to play with in this tour-nament. It’s come at a reallygood time and against an ex-tremely strong team. So we’redelighted.” PTI

Rishabh Pant has thebig game but ex-pecting the young-

ster to deliver from thestart in an event like theWorld Cup perhaps is notthe right thing to do, feelsIndia’s vice-captain RohitSharma.

Pant’s exclusion fromthe playing XI at the ex-pense of Vijay Shankarhad been hotly-debatedand Rishabh did showsome spunk in his 32 .

Asked if he was sur-prised to see Rishabh atthe critical No 4 positionwhen an in-form HardikPandya was more suitablefor the role, Rohit’s answerwas laced with sarcasm.“Not really because all you

guys wanted RishabhPant to play, right. All youguys, right, from India?Where is Rishabh Pant?Where is Rishabh Pant?There he is at Number 4,”Rohit said.

Rohit feels Rishabhcertainly does need a bitmore confidence while go-

ing for the big hits. “Hejust needs confidence be-cause, obviously, playinghis first game, expectinga lot is not right at the mo-ment from him, but heshould just come and playand enjoy his cricket.When he does that, he willdo well,” he said. PTI

‘Expecting a lot from Pantat the onset is not right’

Photo: AP

“The closer we can get to playingour A-game, the more of a chance wehave of going the whole way,” saidEngland captain Morgan. England have jumped to the fourthspot with 10 points from eight gamesand will need to beat New Zealand intheir last league match Wednesdayto be assured of a semifinal spot.

Photo: REUTERS

We need to play our A-game: Morgan

HAMID ENDS CAREER WITH INJURY

Afghanistan’s Hamid Hassan felt he could have stoppedPakistan from getting over the line in a thrilling World Cupmatch if his one-day career hadn’t come to an end with apainful injury. Paceman Hassan, 32, could only bowl twoovers before injuring his hamstring as Pakistan overcamea tense chase to beat the minnows on Saturday.Afghanistan, playing in their second WC, are winless in the10-team group stage with one match to play. AFP

Photo: AP

‘WE DON’T TALK ABOUT 1992’

INDIA DEFEAT WAS TURNING POINT: STARCPhoto: AP

Pacer Wahab Riaz says histeam is not reading toomuch into the parallels beingdrawn with Pakistan’s 1992World Cup victory despiteexperiencing a similar resur-gence. “We don’t really talkabout 1992 that much. Thefirst thing is in this team,everybody has the same pur-pose. That’s where we started off and where weremain,” Riaz said. AFP

Mitchell Starc said thelessons learnt from adefeat by title rivals

India were behind cham-pions Australia’s impres-

sive surge to the semi-finals of the World Cup.Oz had already bookedtheir place in the last

four ahead their 86-runwin over New Zealand on

Saturday. AFP

The ongoing edition of theWorld Cup in England andWales has seen keen com-

petition between bat and ballwith the bowlers giving thebatsmen a run for their mon-ey and the International Crick-et Council (ICC) CEO DaveRichardson says the idea hasbeen to avoid preparing bat-ting paradises.

Speaking to media, Richard-son said that balance has beenthe key word when it comes topreparing wickets in this edi-tion of the World Cup. “We havelooked at bringing in balancewith even wickets. It is not aboutpreparing batting paradises.The weather also comes into

the picture and a wicket witheven bounce throughout

the game is what we look at,”he said. Asked if this sets aprecedent for the future tour-naments, Richardson said:“Yes, the idea is to have bal-ance. The overcast conditionsin England also helps. It al-lows you that position.” IANS

Q.1) Who amongthe followingcricketers have notplayed any Testmatch for India?A. Sunil GavaskarB. Gagan KhodaC. Mohinder AmarnathD. Rahul Dravid

Q.2) Which NBA player wonthe Rookie of the Yearaward for the 2018-19 season?A. Pascal SiakamB. Trae YoungC. Luka DoncicD. Jason Kidd

Q.3) Who won the NBAMost Valuable Player awardfor the 2018-19 season? A. Giannis AntetokounmpoB. Kyrie Irving C. Kevin DurantD. DeAndre Jordan

Q.4) With which sport isTim Duncan associated?

A. Marathon B. FootballC. BasketballD. Skating

Q.5) Name the sports personality in

the picture.

A. Kusal PereraB. Isuru UdanaC. Angelo MathewsD. Jeevan Mendis

ANSW

ERS

1. B. Gagan Khoda, 2. C. Luka Doncic, 3. A.Giannis Antetokounmpo,4. C. Basketball , 5. D. Jeevan Mendis

Balance keywordfor wickets thisWC: ICC CEO

Photo: AFP

Eoin Morgan

Rishabh Pant

☛ After India’s 31-run defeatagainst England in the ongoing ICCMen’s Cricket World Cup, Indiancommentator Harsha Bhogle saidthe team did not try ‘hard enough’at the end to win the game.

☛ “I thought India were trying towin it till the time when HardikPandya and Rishabh Pant werebatting and then all of a suddeneveryone is looking at everyoneelse because I do not think Indiatried hard enough to win at theend,” Bhogle said in a video post-ed on the official Cricket WorldCup website. ANI

India did not try hard enoughto win, says Harsha Bhogle

Harsha Bhogle

Photo: AP

Edgbaston turnsblue for One Day forChildren campaign

Edgbaston turned blue onSunday as the ICC Crick-et for Good, in partner-

ship with UNICEF, deliveredthe pinnacle event of the tour-nament, the One Day for Chil-dren campaign, with a specialcelebration at the England ver-sus India World Cup match inBirmingham.

The money raisedthroughout the campaign willsupport UNICEF’s work forchildren in cricket playing na-tions across the world, as thesport’s one billion fans uniteto ensure children have thechance to learn, play and behealthy. A core focus of the ac-tivities on Sunday was to max-imise fundraising from the in-venue and broadcast audi-ence. IANS

I ndian middle order batsmen MSDhoni and Kedar Jadhav were atthe receiving end of fan fury afterIndia suffered their first defeat of

the 2019 World Cup at the hands ofhosts England in Birmingham Sunday.

Chasing 338, India required 71 runsoff the last five overs with five wicketsremaining, but Dhoni and Kedar scored40 runs as India went on to lose thematch by 31 runs.

In the final 30 balls, the duo couldonly manage three fours and a six asthe required run rate per over crossedthe 14-run mark.The effort, especiallyfrom veteran finisher Dhoni drew sharpcriticism from cricket pundits and fans.

Dhoni’s style of play has been un-der the scanner in the last few gameswhere he has been accused of takingtoo much time to settle in and not be-ing able to clear the fence with ease,like he could earlier.

Once again on Sunday, Dhoni wasnot quite able to accelerate when re-quired. Although Dhoni ended up scor-ing an unbeaten 42 off 31 balls, the

chase went out of hand as both he andJadhav were not not able to find thefence in the death overs.

Though Dhoni and Jadhav havebeen drawing flak, the Indian battingeffort overall wasn’t a great one, con-sidering India are thought to be one ofthe better chasing teams in world crick-et. The pace of the innings and the wayit was planned raised many eyebrows.

India need to win oneof their remaining twogroup matches to clinchtheir semi-final berth, withtheir next clash againstBangladesh slated for Tues-day back in Birmingham.

Kohli was not too pleasedwith the ground in Birming-ham having a very shortboundary on one side, sayingthe toss became crucial due tothis factor. “The toss was vital,especially since the bound-ary was that short. It is acoincidence that it justfalls under thelimitations ofthe shortestboundary youcan have,” Kohlisaid. TIMESOFINDIA.COM

& AGENCIES

Jonny Bairstow’s bat does thetalking after spat with Vaughan

Jonny Bairstow has one predominant ex-pression that he wears on his face. It’s of aperson who has been wronged but who is sto-ically living through the vicissitudes

of life. It’s with his batting that he seemsto be expressing his anger. His sole in-tention is to blast the life out of theball and he is ready to use agricul-tural shots to achieve this end. Heoften uses his bat as an axe, goingabout his job without any emotion.

The recent Bairstow-MichaelVaughan spat over Twitter indicat-ed that Bairstow does carry someanger within him.

In response to formerEngland captain’s pun-gent criticism of theEngland team over awobbly World Cup cam-paign, Bairstow hadsaid, “People were wait-ing for us to fail. Theyare not willing us on towin, in many ways, sothey can jump on yourthroat.” He added, “It’sa typical English thingto do, in every sport.”

While Vaughan calledhim “negative and pathetic,”Bairstow’s commentsevoked widespread reactionwith many asking him toexercise restraint. A fewadvised him to let hisbat do the talking.Bairstow did exactlythat, cracking a typical-ly bellicose centurywhen England needed it

the most. His 109-ball 111 pro-pelled England to 337/7 againstIndia in a game England could-n’t afford to lose.

Jonny was helped along bythe return of regular openingpartner Jason Roy. Roy had notbatted in the last four WC games,

leaving Bairstow aloneto address top-order

issues for England.He tried gamelybut without Roy at

the other end, his ef-ficacy declined. TNN

“They (England) played better cricket throughout this match. Whilebatting they had not one but three partnerships. On the other side we hadonly one big partnership,” said Rohit Sharma, Indian vice-captain.“When MS and Kedar were batting, I think they were trying to hit, butthey were not able to because of the slowness of the pitch,” he added.“You’ve got to give credit to English team because they used the condi-tions really well. They used the longer boundary really well.”

Vijay Shankar out ofWC, Mayank Agarwalset to join team

Mayank Agarwal

Indian all-rounder Vijay Shankar wasMonday ruled out of the ongoing WorldCup due to a toe injury and is likely to

be replaced by Mayank Agarwal.Karnataka opener Agarwal, 28, who

made his Test debut against Australialast year, has not yet played in the ODIformat.

“Vijay got hit on the toe by a JaspritBumrah delivery once again. His situa-tion is not great and he won’t be able totake part in the tournament. He is goingback home,” a a senior BCCI official said.

“The Indian team management islikely to ask for Mayank Agarwal as re-placement since he is an opener and alsoit might give KL Rahul a chance to getback to the No.4 position in case RishabhPant fails in the next two games,” thesource added.

In fact, Rohit Sharma had mentionedShankar's injury but it was presumed tobe an old hit that he took at Southamp-ton. It is expected that Agarwal's namewill be approved by the ICC's tournamenttechnical committee and the player willarrive in Birmingham and travel to Leedssubsequently.

India lost their previous match toEngland by 31 runs here on Sunday andwill take on Bangladesh at the same ven-ue on Tuesday. PTI

I ndia have been the in-formteam in this edition of theWorld Cup in England and

Wales, Bangladesh on the oth-er hand have been a teamwhich has punched above itsweight and shown that theyhave finally realised the needto be consistent at the top lev-el. Despite a loss to Englandon Sunday, India go into thegame on Tuesday at the Edg-baston Cricket Ground inBirmingham as favourites.

But a look at the history be-tween the two teams will tellyou that the Tigers have oftenroared fiercely when compet-ing against the Men in Blue andthis time round, they have mo-mentum on their side. An in-form Shakib Al Hasan, somequality performers in Mah-mudullah Riyad and TamimIqbal and a skipper in MashrafeMortaza. Not to forget the tal-

ented Mustafizur Rahman.Having earned a well-de-

served break, the Bangladeshare raring to go and they willundoubtedly be banking ontheir biggest star in this edi-tion — Shakib — to once againlead from the front with bothbat and ball. And when itcomes to clashes against India,

one man who seems to be highon energy is former skipperand wicket-keeper MushfiqurRahim.

India on the other handhave taken a day off on the eveof their game againstBangladesh as they played anintense game against Englandon Sunday. While it was their

first loss of the tournament,it has shown a few areas thatdo need fine-tuning. IANS

In response to former England cap-tain’s pungent criticism of the

England team over a wobbly World Cupcampaign, Bairstow had said, “People

were waiting for us to fail...” Bairstow’s comments evoked wide-

spread reaction with many askinghim to exercise restraint. A few

advised him to let his bat do thetalking. Bairstow did exactly that,cracking a 109-ball 111 that pro-pelled England to 337/7 againstIndia in a game England could-n’t afford to lose.

We have to assesswhat’s going to

happen here inBirmingham. If the wick-et’s going to turn thenit’s best for us to have aspinner bowling earlier aswell trying to get anearly wicket. But obvi-ously with the new ball ifthere is going to be anyswing or movement, wewould want the seamersto use it as well.Courtney Walsh,Bangladesh bowlingcoach

Photo: REUTERS

Shakib Al Hasan

BAIRSTOW’S 111 HELPEDENGLAND WIN

DHONI, JADHAV TRIED TO HIT BUT COULDN’T: ROHIT SHARMA

Jonny Bairstow, England batsman Photo: REUTERS

Disappointing finish. Arun-a-ball partnershipcan't win games. Wasexciting till Pandya was in.— Harsha Bhogle

“India going down withoutfight” - Nasser Hussain “I donthave explaination for these sin-gles” - Ganguly #INDvENG #Dhoni— Cricket FreakNot sure what Kedar and Dhoni

trying to do here. Its notabout winning but itsabout showing the intent

to win....— Broken Cricket

Kohli always defendsDhoni by saying thatDhoni knows what isrequired..... Does he knowwhat is required now?— Gappistan Radio

Dhoni, Jadhav draw flak for ‘lack ofintent’ during run-chase vs England

Photo: AFPMS Dhoni

Plugging gaps key for India in Bangla test