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/ 29 October 2007
South Africa spoiled Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar’s comeback match on Monday with a stunning 14-run victory in the fifth and final limited-overs game to clinch the series 3-2. Akhtar took 4-43 to restrict South Africa to 233-9 off 50 overs with Jacques Kallis scoring a fighting 86 and Herschelle Gibbs making a fine 54.
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/ 20 October 2007
Mohammad Yousuf hit a brilliant century to lead Pakistan to a 25-run victory over South Africa in a day-night international in Lahore on Saturday and level the series 1-1. Yousuf’s 143-ball 117 ensured Pakistan posted a fighting 265-9 before the home team overcame poor fielding to restrict the SA to 240 in 49.3 overs.
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/ 19 October 2007
South African cricket officials will meet to assess player safety before deciding whether to continue their tour of Pakistan after deadly blasts in Karachi, officials said on Friday. Two blasts ripped through a homecoming parade for former premier Benazir Bhutto late on Thursday in attacks that killed at least 130 people and injured more than 400.
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/ 18 October 2007
AB de Villiers and Herschelle Gibbs smashed centuries to help South Africa defeat Pakistan by 45 runs in the first day-night international in Lahore on Thursday. De Villiers notched a brisk unbeaten 95-ball 103, while Gibbs scored 102 to propel the tourists to 294-5 in 50 overs before paceman Makhaya Ntini restricted Pakistan to 249 in 46.3 overs.
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/ 17 October 2007
South Africa are confident of carrying their Test form into the five-match one-day series against Pakistan starting at Lahore’s Gadaffi stadium on Thursday. Having won the two-match Test series 1-0, skipper Graeme Smith and his men will be looking forward to maintaining a tradition of impressive one-day performances in Pakistan.
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/ 16 October 2007
Mark Boucher and AB de Villiers hit quick-fire hundreds as South Africa tuned up for the one-day international series with a crushing 176-run win against Pakistan’s Patron’s XI on Tuesday. Boucher scored a 106-ball 103 while de Villiers raced to an unbeaten 113 off 95 balls as the tourists compiled 328-4 in just 45 overs at Bagh-e-Jinnah Stadium.
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/ 15 October 2007
South African ace batsman Jacques Kallis revealed on Monday his team’s most desperate desire — to beat rivals Australia in a Test series. South Africa are riding high after drawing with Pakistan last week to clinch their first Test series on the subcontinent since 2000. They won the first Test by 160 runs in Karachi in the two-match series.
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/ 12 October 2007
South Africa sealed their first Test series on the subcontinent since 2000 on Friday after being held to a draw by Pakistan in the second and final match. Pakistan, set a mammoth 457 to win, finished the final day on 316-4 with Younis Khan scoring a brilliant 130 while Mohammad Yousuf marked his return to the team with a stylish 63.
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/ 12 October 2007
South African all-rounder Vernon Philander and assistant coach Vincent Barnes were racially abused with monkey chants during the second Test against Pakistan on Friday, officials said. Police removed about a dozen spectators, mostly school students, from the stadium during the match in Lahore after complaints from the South African team, officials said.
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/ 11 October 2007
Pakistan put up a spirited display as they fought to save the second Test against South Africa on the fourth day on Thursday. Kamran Akmal (49) and Younis Khan (48) added 93 runs for the unbroken second wicket to take Pakistan to 108-1 at close, raising the home team’s hopes of salvaging the match on the fifth day on a deteriorating pitch.
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/ 11 October 2007
Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar has been banned for 13 international matches and fined 000 by the disciplinary committee of the country’s cricket board for four breaches of the code of conduct. The committee also placed the fast bowler on a two-year probation period during which if he is found guilty of violating the code of conduct he could be banned for life.
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/ 11 October 2007
Captain Graeme Smith scored his first century in 17 matches to put South Africa in control of the second Test against Pakistan at lunch on the fourth day on Thursday. Smith made his 12th Test century and Jacques Kallis (69 not out) his 47th fifty to take South Africa to 211 for two at the interval
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/ 10 October 2007
South Africa marched towards setting a stiff target for Pakistan in the second Test on Wednesday. The visitors were 154-2 at stumps on day three — enjoying an overall lead of 305 runs with captain Graeme Smith batting on 75 and in-form Jacques Kallis not out on 37.
Pakistan struggled to 140 for four in reply to South Africa’s 357 all out at the close on day two of the second Test at the Gadaffi stadium on Tuesday. Inzamam-ul-Haq (37) appearing in his 120th and final Test, was unbeaten on 10 alongside Misbah-ul-Haq (10) after Pakistan lost four wickets in the final session.
Ashwell Prince and Jacques Kallis hit fighting half centuries for South Africa on Monday against a disciplined Pakistan bowling attack on the first day of the second Test. South Africa prodded to 259-6 with Mark Boucher not out on 9 and Andre Nel yet to score as stumps were drawn for the day seven overs before scheduled close due to bad light.
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/ 8 September 2007
Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar returned home on Saturday after being expelled from the inaugural Twenty20 championship following a spat with teammate Mohammad Asif in South Africa. The 32-year-old struck his new-ball partner Asif with a bat during a practice session in Johannesburg on Thursday, prompting the team’s management to send him back.
Pakistan declared an emergency in state-run hospitals on Monday as the death toll from a sizzling heatwave rose to 47, officials said. Temperatures have soared to more than 50 degrees Celsius in some parts of central Punjab and southern Sindh provinces since Friday, the meteorological office said.
An inquiry into Pakistan’s shock first-round exit from the cricket World Cup has blamed the arrogant attitude of captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, accusing him of acting like a dictator. The three-member committee, which revealed its findings on Thursday, added that lack of planning and poor discipline were also behind Pakistan’s dismal performance in the Caribbean.
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/ 27 February 2007
Injury-hit Pakistan suffered a fresh World Cup blow on Tuesday when all-rounder Abdul Razzaq was ruled out for three weeks with a fractured knee. Razzaq was hit on the left knee by a ball during practice on Monday and doctors have advised him to take three weeks of rest, followed by another two to three weeks of physiotherapy.
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/ 26 February 2007
At least 11 people died and more than 100 people were injured at an annual spring festival in eastern Pakistan celebrated with the flying of thousands of colourful kites, officials said on Monday. The deaths and injuries were caused by stray bullets, sharpened kite-strings, electrocution and people falling off rooftops.
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/ 11 December 2006
Opener Imran Farhat hit an aggressive half-century and paceman Rana Naved-ul-Hasan took 3-37 to help Pakistan beat the West Indies by seven wickets in the third one-day match on Sunday. The dashing left-hander hit five boundaries and two sixes in his 72-ball 58 to help Pakistan achieve a revised target of 191 with eight deliveries to spare and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
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/ 16 November 2006
Inzamam ul-Haq on Thursday urged the International Cricket Council to play six-day Tests during the winter in Pakistan to reduce the impact of bad light and poor weather. ”We lost 15 overs a day because of poor natural light,” said the Pakistani captain of the first Test against the West Indies in Lahore, which his side nevertheless won by nine wickets inside four days, finishing on Tuesday.
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/ 14 November 2006
A century from captain Brian Lara could not prevent West Indies from tumbling to a nine-wicket defeat by Pakistan on the fourth day of the first Test on Tuesday. Lara scored a defiant 122 runs, his 33rd Test hundred, but it was not enough to stop West Indies from suffering their 16th defeat in their last 23 Tests since May 2004.
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/ 1 November 2006
Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was banned for two years and teammate Mohammad Asif for one year after they tested positive for a banned steroid, an official said on Wednesday. A three-member doping tribunal appointed by the Pakistan Cricket Board ruled the pace pair out of all international and domestic cricket following hours of deliberations in the eastern city of Lahore.
Pakistan have hired former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes to boost their squad’s fielding skills ahead of an important tour of England, officials said on Friday. ”We have finalised the hiring of Rhodes as fielding coach for two weeks and he will be arriving in early June,” Pakistan Cricket Board director Abbas Zaidi told Agence France-Presse.
Somewhere beneath the thousands of multicoloured kites that flash above the rooftops in defiance of a government ban, Rizwan Ahmed is mourning the death of his four-year-old son Shayan. ”You cannot imagine the horrible and tragic scene. My son’s throat was completely cut open,” he says from his humble home in a suburb of Lahore.
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/ 13 February 2006
Star batsman Sachin Tendulkar missed a century on Monday but anchored India to a five-wicket win over Pakistan, with Mahendra Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh also scoring beligerent half-centuries in the third limited-overs international. The victory gave India a 2-1 lead over Pakistan in the five-match series.
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/ 13 February 2006
Hundreds of Indian cricket fans faced frustrating delays on Sunday in collecting tickets booked over the internet on the eve of the third limited-overs international between Pakistan and India in the eastern city of Lahore. The five-match limited-overs series between the two Asian nuclear neighbours is tied 1-1.
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/ 13 January 2006
Sourav Ganguly was included in the Indian team for the first Test against Pakistan in Lahore on Friday due to pressure from cricket board chiefs, said a team source. Coach Greg Chappell and captain Rahul Dravid did not want Ganguly to open the innings and could not fit him in the middle-order either without disturbing a trusted combination.
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/ 11 January 2006
India go into the first Test against arch-rivals Pakistan in Lahore on Friday struggling to find a place in the playing eleven for former captain Sourav Ganguly. Sacked as captain in October after a damaging row with coach Greg Chappell and struggling to find his best form with the bat, Ganguly has created a selection headache for the team management.
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/ 13 December 2005
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday pledged to crack down on verbal sparring during international matches, saying it does not want to see the game reduced to a ”hooligan sport”. The ICC also released a statement from its headquarters in Dubai on Sunday, singling out Australia and South Africa as the worst trash talkers.
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/ 12 December 2005
Pakistani police were on Monday investigating the deaths of at least 38 people killed on their way home from a wedding party in the eastern city of Lahore when firecrackers exploded on their crowded bus. The incident occurred on Sunday, sending fire sweeping through the bus and killing 38 passengers, all of them wedding guests.