The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh national cricket team leaves here for Pakistan early Sunday to play five ODIs and one Twenty20 match.

Ahead of their departure, the national side had their lone day's practice session on Saturday at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (SBNS) with the participation of all the 15 members of the squad.

At a pre-tour press conference at the SBNS Saturday afternoon, Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons said: "I don't really want to make any prediction whether we are going to win or loss. I just want to see more improvement, more commitment than the South Africa Series."

Asked what will be their main focus in the tour, he said: "Sticking to the team rules and doing the things that we need to do - like leaving the good balls outside the off stump, picking the right ball and execute the right shot. We need to land the ball on the right spot and if we can do these rightly, we will be successful."

Replying to a query, the coach said Bangladesh would have to do a little more, as they will be playing a world class side like Pakistan. "You don't get away from them even with small mistakes."

Asked if he was satisfied with the performance of his boys in the recent domestic cricket, he said: "I'm a little bit disappointed with some of the boys' form in domestic cricket. In the last four months, we played regular cricket -- three series, two really tough series and plenty of matches. Sometime it is difficult to deliver."

Replying to another query, Siddons said the recent batting performance of the Tigers was not so bad, as they scored 293/5 in the last ODI against Ireland.

"In the last series we batted very well. Stuck to our team rules and it worked. Frankly speaking, we tried to entertain in the last series… hopefully, we want to play with the same attitude against Pakistan -- put some good scores (on board) -- and hope, we can get some good wins."

Skipper Mohammad Ashraful seemed to be optimistic about winning one or two matches. He said: "Pakistan whitewashed Zimbabwe 5-0 in their last series at home… if we can play our best cricket, able to bat well, we can hope to win one or two matches."

He told a questioner that his batsmen would try to deliver their best. "I think, we will face no problem in playing under the floodlights," he said.

About his personal target, the ace top order batsman said: "I want to lead the team from the front with my performance… we played well against Ireland and hope to repeat this against Pakistan."

Team operations manager Shafiqul Haque Heera was also present at the press conference.

Earlier, on March 25, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced a 15-member national squad for the Pakistan tour, adding only left-arm medium pacer Syed Rasel to the squad that played recently against Ireland.

The first ODI will be held in Lahore on April 8, the 2nd in Faisalabad on Apr 11, the 3rd in Lahore on Apr 13, the 4th in Multan Apr 16 and the 5th in Karachi on Apr 19. The Twenty20 will be held in Karachi on Apr 20. All the matches will be played under the floodlights (day-night).

Squad: Mohammad Ashraful (Captain), Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (Vice Captain),Tamim Iqbal, Zunaed Siddique, Aftab Ahmed, Nazim Uddin, Shahriar Nafees, Shakib Al Hasan, Dhiman Ghosh, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain, Mahmudullah Riyad, Farhad Reza, Raqibul Hassan and Syed Rasel.

South Africa beat India by innings and 90 runs

AP, Ahmadabad

South Africa defeated India by an innings and 90 runs in the second test Saturday.

South Africa took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series after the opening test ended in a draw.

Scorecard

Final scoreboard Saturday on the third day of the second cricket test match between India and South Africa at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium:

India, 1st innings: 76

South Africa, 1st innings:

(Overnight 494 for 7)

Graeme Smith lbw b Sreesanth 34

Neil McKenzie c Dravid

b Harbhajan Singh 42

Hashim Amla c Jaffer b

Harbhajan Singh 16

Jacques Kallis b Sreesanth 132

Ashwell Prince lbw b

Harbhajan Singh 2

A.B. de Villiers not out 217

Mark Boucher lbw b Kumble 21

Morne Morkel lbw b

Harbhajan Singh 1

Paul Harris not out 9

Extras: (2b, 14lb, 4w) 20

TOTAL (for 7 wickets declared) 494.

Overs: 141.2. Batting time: 626 minutes.

Fall of wickets: 1-78, 2-100, 3-101, 4-117, 5-373, 6-439, 7-452.

Bowling: Shantakumaran Sreesanth 23-4-87-2 (1w), Rudra Pratap Singh 21-2-81-0, Irfan Pathan 21.2-3-85-0 (3w), Harbhajan Singh 40-5-135-4, Anil Kumble 33-2-78-1, Sourav Ganguly 3-0-12-0.

India, 2nd innings:

Virender Sehwag lbw b Ntini 17

Wasim Jaffer c de Villiers b Kallis 19

Rahul Dravid c de Villiers b Morkel 17

V.V.S. Laxman c Boucher b Morkel 35

Sourav Ganguly c Boucher b Steyn 87

Mahendra Dhoni c Smith b Ntini 52

Irfan Pathan not out 43

Anil Kumble b Harris 5

Harbhajan Singh lbw b Steyn 4

Rudra Pratap Singh c Kallis b Steyn 8

Shantakumaran Sreesanth b Ntini 17

Extras: (5b, 7lb, 5nb, 7w) 24

TOTAL: (all out) 328.

Overs: 94.2. Batting time: 448 minutes.

Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-64, 3-70, 4-125, 5-235, 6-268, 7-273,

8-292, 9-306, 10-328.

Bowling: Dale Steyn 23-1-91-3 (6w), Makhaya Ntini 16.2-3-44-3,Morne Morkel 20-0-87-2 (5nb, 1w), Jacques Kallis 10-3-26-1, Paul Harris 25-4-68-1.

Toss: India.

Result: South Africa won by an innings and 90 runs.

Series: South Africa 1, India 0.

Sports Reporter

The two-day-long Youngone 33rd National Athletics Competition starts today at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. Bangladesh Athletics Federation will arrange the athletics meet.

Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Brigadier General (retd) M A Malek will formally open the meet today at 9.00 AM as the chief guest.

To mark the ensuing athletics competition, a press conference was held at the conference room of National Sports Council on Saturday. President of Bangladesh Athletics Federation (BAF) and Chairman of BIWTC ASM Ali Kabir, Vice-President of BAF Shah Alam, General Secretary of the federation Mosharrof Hossain Shamim spoke at the conference. A Korean-based organisation Youngone Group will sponsor the meet while ATN Bangla will be the media partner and Spa will be the official drinks.

About 500 athletes from different districts, divisions, universities and associations will take part in the competition.

The budget of the tournament has been estimated at Tk eight lakh while Youngone Group, the sponsor of the meet, has given Tk four lakh to the federation and the federation will bear rest of the expenditure.

A total of 32 events for men and women will be held in the two-day-long athletics competition.