Sure Bets
All info about sure bets and how you can use them..
England choke in Chittagong
England’s rollercoaster World Cup campaign continued as they lost by two wickets to co-hosts Bangladesh in Chittagong.
After a tie with India, losing to Ireland and beating South Africa, this latest defeat leaves England needing to overcome West Indies in their final Group B match next Thursday to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Batting first in the day-nighter, England toiled to 225 all out with just Jonathan Trott (67) and Eoin Morgan (63) managing notable contributions.
But after reducing Bangladesh to 169-8, England looked on course for the knockout stages before Shafiul Islam (24no) and Mahmudullah (21no) put on a match-winning stand of 58 for the ninth wicket.
Remarkable
It was a truly remarkable fightback from Bangladesh, who still need to overcome the Netherlands on Monday to keep their own hopes of making the knockout stages alive.
With heavy dew expected to make bowling and fielding difficult later on, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan inserted England, who named Matt Prior alongside captain Andrew Strauss at the top of the order.
Prior and Strauss put on 32 together, but their stand was broken in comical fashion when the England gloveman inexplicably left his ground following Abdur Razzak’s leg-side wide, and Mushfiqur Rahim whipped off the bails.
Prior had made 15 at that point and the setback, just after Bangladesh had turned to spin at both ends, cut off England’s early impetus.
Three overs later, Strauss (18) thought he saw an opportunity to attack off-spinner Naeem Islam off the back foot but instead edged to slip, where Junaid Siddique took a sharp and neat catch away to his right.
Warwickshire duo Trott and Ian Bell therefore had to start again, and the latter had not settled when he chipped a Mahmudullah off-break straight into the hands of midwicket.
Morgan, back in the side after a hernia injury cut Kevin Pietersen’s campaign short, then launched a one-man fightback against the Bangladesh spinners, using his feet and chipping the ball over the infield on both sides of the wicket.
The only close calls came when Trott just made his ground for a sharp single on 25 and Morgan’s edge flew narrowly wide of the wicketkeeper off Rubel Hossain on 28.
The Irishman’s expert placement and timing brought him seven fours in a 60-ball 50 until both deserted him in one faulty sweep at Naeem to deep square-leg, where Imrul Kayes took a superb diving catch.
Trott had hit a solitary four in his 50 but seemed set on staying the course until he too holed out, off Shakib (2-49) at long-off.
His was one of two wickets in the final powerplay, during which England could muster only 28 runs to post a below-par final total, all out with two deliveries left unused.
Tamim Iqbal, the scourge of England attacks at home and abroad last year, made his intentions clear with a flurry of early boundaries as new-ball bowlers James Anderson (0-54) and Ajmal Shahzad (3-43) struggled to find a consistent line and length.
Tamim and Kayes took the score on to 52-0 before Tim Bresnan (1-35) came into the attack and snuck one through the former’s defences after he had made a quickfire 38.
Risks
Then, after Anderson’s direct hit ran out Junaid Siddique (12) and Shahzad produced a fine delivery to bowl Raqibul Hasan for a duck, England were favourites again.
However, Shakib and Kayes settled the ship with a calm stand of 81, moving the score along to 155-3 as a result.
They needed to take no risks to stabilise the chase – and after Imrul had moved past a 91-ball 50, the match seemed theirs to lose.
But Imrul gave England the opening they needed, needlessly calling for a second run and finding himself short of his ground after Shahzad’s accurate throw.
With the pressure building, Shakib edged on to his stumps as he tried to sweep Swann and then Shahzad took over, producing his second near-unplayable delivery of the night to have Mushfiqur (6) very well caught by a diving Prior and then bowling Naeem (0).
Bresnan then claimed an oustanding outfield catch at deep extra-cover when Razzak tried to launch Swann, leaving Bangladesh on the brink of an early exit from the competition.
It seemed England would prevail with relative ease after all, until Mahmadullah and Shafiul capitalised on some substandard bowling – including 23 wides – to see their side home with six balls to spare.
Kumar set to miss World Cup
India seam bowler Praveen Kumar looks likely to miss the World Cup after his elbow injury failed to heal quickly enough.
Kumar, 24, sustained the problem during the recent tour of South Africa, forcing him to return home midway through the one-day series.
After receiving treatment at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, he went to England in an effort to aid his recovery.
Kumar was picked ahead of Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma in India’s 15-man World Cup squad, with the hope that he would recover in time.
Sreesanth would appear the obvious replacement should Kumar be officially ruled out.
The tournament gets under way with the opening match between co-hosts India and Bangladesh in Dhaka on February 19.
Anson questions investigation
The leader of England’s 2018 World Cup bid has questioned the logic behind the BBC’s programme scheduling.
Andy Anson is disappointed that the publicly funded broadcaster plans to push ahead with their plans to a air a Panorama documentary just days before Fifa announces the hosts of the next two World Cups.
The bid team have already written to Fifa’s executive committee members distancing themselves from the investigation, which they believe rakes ‘over old issues’ already dealt with by Swiss courts.
The programme is set to broadcast three days before the Fifa vote on 2nd December and Anson says he is ‘incredibly disappointed with the timing’.
He added that the decision to show the documentary at such a crucial stage ‘is not very patriotic of the BBC’.
Suspended
Meanwhile, the Fifa ethics committee is set to make an announcement on Thursday on whether it will be taking action against the two executive members accused of asking for money in exchange for votes.
Nigeria’s Amos Adamu and Tahiti’s Reynald Temarii are currently suspended following an investigative report by the Sunday Times.
Fifa will also confirm the outcome of their investigation into allegations that 2018 World Cup bidders Spain/Portugal and 2022 hopefuls Qatar colluded to trade votes, which is against bidding regulations.
In the cases of Adamu and Temarii, if they see their suspensions lengthened, they will be unable to vote on 2nd December when the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 events are revealed.
The ethics committee will also rule on four former executive members – Slim Aloulou, Amadu Diakite, Ahongalu Fusimalohi and Ismael Bhamjee – who have also been suspended in the wake of the Sunday Times probe.
Brady hopeful over 2018 bid
Karren Brady remains optimistic that England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup can still be successful.
England 2018 has admitted the separate investigations into Fifa by The Sunday Times and Panorama regarding alleged corruption in the bidding process could have a detrimental effect on their campaign.
England were formerly favourites to be named as hosts on 2nd December but have reportedly slipped down to third behind Russia and a joint bid between Spain and Portugal.
However West Ham vice-chairman Brady, a member of the bid team, is confident England have done enough to win the vote.
Hopeful
“I think if you look at the Olympics, no-one thought London would get the Olympics and they did,” Brady told Sky Sports News.
“It’s all in the vote. We expect the bids to be judged on sporting merit, and we have a technically great bid.
“I think that these things are always judged on the atmosphere, the temperature and what’s going on in and around the bid. But you never really know until the votes are in.
“We also have an awful lot to offer football in terms of our infrastructure, in terms of our coaching, in terms of the fact that the Premier League is the best-watched league in the world.
“All of those things, we think, will extend the power of football across the world.”
Brady is certain England will fare well in Fifa’s inspection report, which is due to be published on Wednesday.
“We really do have a really vigorous and professional bid team,” she added.
“We’ve done all the lobbying that we can, we’ve put all the things in place that we can and I think the inspection report will be really strong.”
Allegations
Brady has called on Fifa’s executive committee to base their decision on the content of the bid and to not be swayed by media allegations.
“What we can’t measure is the effect that some of the stories that are not led by the bid team will have,” said Brady.
“We equally accept that if there are allegations of wrongdoing around the voting, there should be an investigation into that.
“What we’re asking is very, very simple – please judge our bid on its sporting merits. And we think in that respect we’ll be very strong indeed.”
Fifa exec plays down fears
A member of Fifa’s executive committee has played down concerns that England’s 2018 World Cup bid could be undermined by a recent bribery scandal that has surrounded world football’s governing body.
An investigation has been launched after it was alleged in Sunday newspapers that two of Fifa’s 24-man executive committee offered to sell their votes regarding the location of the finals.
With the reports emerging from Britain, there are fears that Fifa members could be angered by the allegations and that it could cause a backlash against England’s bid to host the World Cup in eight years.
It has been suggested that the deciding vote could be postponed from a planned date of 2nd December, but Chuck Blazer, the American member of Fifa’s executive committee, has offered reassurances.
He said: “I don’t think this is an issue which will have an anti-English backlash in the executive committee.
Trap
“If it had been in a Spanish paper, would that damage the Spanish bid? I don’t think so.”
Fifa’s ethics committee has launched an investigation into the expose of Amos Adamu from Nigeria and Tahiti’s Reynald Temarii, president of the Oceania Football Confederation.
Blazer, though, insists that all bidding countries that he had dealt with had behaved entirely properly.
He said: “I’m disappointed with what I have read but you can’t say the system is bad. They have created a scam, a trap, tempting people to do something wrong and it’s up to the Fifa ethics committee to make their recommendation.”
Blazer said that Fifa should deal with the scandal as quickly as possible and stick to the 2nd December vote.
Scandal
He added: “We should deal with it within the timeframe established. We want to keep the issues separate and it’s important we conclude the World Cup decision. There is no reason why we shouldn’t. The investigation can be done right away.”
Meanwhile, Fifa president Sepp Blatter has admitted that the bribery scandal has had a ‘very negative impact’ on the governing body.
He has written to all 24 executive committee members promising a full investigation into the allegations.
Blatter’s letter says: “I am sorry to have to inform you of a very unpleasant situation, which has developed in relation to an article published today in the Sunday Times titled ‘World Cup votes for sale’.
“The information in the article has created a very negative impact on Fifa and on the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Some current and former members of the executive committee are mentioned in the article.”
He adds: “Fifa will… open an in-depth investigation, which we will start immediately together with the Fifa ethics committee and the Fifa secretary general.
“I will keep you duly informed of any further developments. In the meantime, I would like to ask you to refrain from making any public comments on this matter.”
Bwin – No. 1 Gambling in the World
Bwin – Casino
Bwin – European Roullete
Designed by Get Paid Online and coded by Australian Survey Sites and Cashcrate.
Bet Safe, Bet with Bwin!
