PAKISTAN SPORTS NEWS

SPORTS

Saeed Ajmal is Top in ODI rankings

ICC issued its ODI ranking in which Saeed Ajmal, who was recently named man of the series in South Africa, remained No. 1.

T20 WORLD CUP 2014 TO BE STARTED...

 ICC World Twenty20 2014 scheduled to be played in Bangladesh were announced after the ICC World Twenty20 qualifiers concluded at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

Pakistan were defeated by four wickets in the third and final One-day International but they won the three-match series 2-1 against South Africa.

Chasing an easy target of 180, South Africa completed the victory with 68 balls remaining after Pakistan fought hard to dismiss their six batsmen.

The main scorers were captain AB de Villiers with an unbeaten 48 and opener Hashim Amla with 41.

For the tourists, off-break bowler Saeed Ajmal claimed two wickets for 34.

Earlier Pakistan sent into bat by the hosts batted poorly and at one stage they were reeling on 97 for seven in the 29th over.

However, it was their captain Misbah-ul-Haq who was determined to stay at the wicket. He came to the crease at the score of 48-3 at the board and remained not out on 79 after the whole team were bowled out for 179 in 46.5 overs..

Only three other batsmen could enter into the double figures. They were opener Umar Amin (25), middle-order batsman Sohaib Maqsood (25) and late-order batsman Abdur Rehman (22).

Fast bowler Vernon Philander was the most successful bowler for South Africa, capturing three wickets for 26 runs, followed by Ryan McLaren (2-28), Lonwabo Tsotsobe (2-38) and leg-spinner Imran Tahir (2-56).

Pakistan won the first two One-day Internationals of the series – first by 23 runs at Cape Town on Sunday and one run at Port Elizabeth on Wednesday – to record their first ODI series win against South Africa.

KABADDI WORLD CUP

Sixteen young Pakistani women will make history this weekend as they compete in the Kabaddi World Cup -- the first time the conservative Muslim country has ever fielded an international women’s team in the sport.

The traditional tag-wrestling sport involves players trying to tag an opponent before making it back to their half of the field.

Kabaddi is hugely popular in the Punjab provinces of India and Pakistan, where it originates, and is played in countries around the world with South Asian populations.

It has traditionally been seen as a macho sport but now Pakistan is sending a women’s team to the November 30-December 14 World Cup in India.

India and Pakistan, neighbours and ferocious sporting rivals, have met in two of the three mens world cup finals held so far, with India prevailing both times. The women are determined to succeed where their male counterparts have failed.

Having decided to build the womens team, the authorities wrote to top sports organisations and educational institutions, collecting a group of girls coming from diverse sporting backgrounds.

Half already represent various other sports like athletics, weightlifting and racket games, while a few new players with the right attitude and ambitions have also earned a place in the team.

Training for the women in green, yellow and blue tracksuits begins with prayers and a recitation from the Koran. After chants of "Long live Pakistan" and "God is great", they begin physical training before moving on to wrestling techniques.

It has not been an easy task for the support staff to get the team together and direct their potential.

"All the girls come from different games, some are from athletics, some are weightlifters," Aisha Qazi, the teams coach, said. "These are individual players games but kabaddi is a team event, so there is a huge difference and it has taken me some time to teach them."

Qazi, herself a first-class cricketer and international baseball player, said they were thrilled to be the first women’s team to represent Pakistan in international kabbadi.

The Pakistan women face England, Mexico and Denmark in their pool matches while arch rivals India play the United States, Kenya and New Zealand.