AHMEDABAD, MARCH 3 (PTI): New Zealand would be aiming to put behind the disappointment of a crushing loss to Australia and return to winning ways when they take on minnows Zimbabwe in a Group A tie in the cricket World Cup. Both the teams are aware that a victory would go a long way in enhancing their chances of making the quarterfinal from a group which has holders Australia, co-hosts Sri Lanka and the unpredictable Pakistan. The Kiwis, who lost to Australia just three days after a devas-tating earthquake struck the city of Christchurch to leave a trail of destruction, appear to hold a slight edge over the Africans.

New Zealand have not been beaten in fi ve meetings between the two teams in the tournament in the past, with four wins to their credit. One meeting ended in a no result and their overall record too against Zimbabwe, 19 wins from 28 head-to-head con-tests with one tie and one no result, is better. The return to fi tness of strike bowler Kyle Mills has also bolstered the Kiwis who had opened their campaign with a thumping 10-wicket victory over min-

nows Kenya on February 20 before being over-run by seven wickets by the Aussies on February 25.

It was the Australian pace attack that unsettled the Kiwi batsmen and but against Zimbabwe it would be not be pace but a four-pronged spin attack that would confront the Kiwis who, at the best of times, are vulnerable against the slow bowlers in this part of the world. Skipper Vettori is aware of the challenge his batsmen face in the match. "Yes, it`s an important game for us. This is a must-win game for us on where we go in

the tournament. Zimbabwe have played pretty well. It`s going to be a difficult game and a strong challenge for us. We have seen a di� erent set of tactics. Against Australia it was pace, we would see a lot of spin in this game," he said ahead of the match. With tougher challenges com-ing up against Pakistan (at Pallekelle stadium in Kandy on March 8) and Sri Lanka (at Mumbai`s Wankhede Stadium on March 18), New Zealand are eager to clinch the tie against Zimbabwe by taking on the spin challenge head-on.

The Morung ExpressSPORTSFriday4 March 201110 Dimapur

Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner, shoots and scores a goal against Leyton Orient's during their English FA Cup fi fth round replay at Arsenal's Emirates stadium in London, Wednesday, March 2. (AP Photo)

LONDON, MARCH 3 (AFP): Nicklas Bendtner scored a hat-trick as Ar-senal bounced back from their League Cup fi nal dis-appointment to thrash Leyton Orient 5-0 and earn a place in the FA Cup quar-terfinals on Wednesday. All eyes were on how Ar-sene Wenger's men would respond following defeat in the League Cup fi nal to Birmingham, which de-nied them one chance of ending their six-year tro-phy drought. The remain alive in England's premier knockout competition and goals from Marouane Chamakh and Gael Clichy either side of Bendtner's hat-trick set up a clash at Manchester United in the next round.

Their League One oppo-nents still have a trip to Las Vegas to look forward to, re-ward from their chairman Barry Hearn for snatching a replay in the fi fth-round tie, and they gave a decent account of themselves de-spite the one-sided score-line. More than 50 league places separated the two teams but he minnows cre-ated their own chances.

But it was Arsenal's evening. They were even given a lift before kick-off when Cesc Fabregas, who was sidelined for the tie, revealed he could return from a hamstring injury at the weekend. Fabregas

had been rated as a doubt for next week's Champions League clash against Barce-lona, but wrote in his pro-gramme notes: "Perhaps I'll have a chance for Saturday (against Sunderland). I am running, getting better and don't sense any pain at the moment."

Fabregas was hoping his team-mates would keep the club in the FA Cup to give him a chance of lifting a tro-phy at the end of the season, having missed Sunday's fi -nal against Birmingham. They needed an early goal to settle their nerves after the weekend and Chamakh provided it in the seventh minute. Tomas Rosicky cre-ated the opener, speeding past Charlie Daniels on the right flank before cutting the ball back for Chamakh to side-foot home.

It was the Morocco for-ward's fi rst goal since No-vember but Orient refused to give in, with Ben Chor-ley having a powerful vol-ley on target before it hit his own team-mates. Alex Revell also planted a fi nish wide from Daniels' cross, al-though any hopes of an up-set were ended on the half-hour mark when Bendtner added a second.

Kieran Gibbs provided the cross, this time from the left, and Denmark striker Bendtner got above Dan-iels and looped his header into the far post. Bendtner

Bendtner hat-trick ends Orient FA Cup dream

added the third goal three minutes before the break, cutting in from the right wing and curling his e� ort in the far corner before cupping his ear to taunt

the away fans. Abou Dia-by almost added another just after the break when he wriggled through three challenges and shot wide - but Arsenal fans were not

made to wait long before another goal came. Gibbs was brought down by Rev-ell in the penalty area and Bendtner first his penalty past for his hat-trick, then

was taken o� by Wenger for a breather shortly after. Cli-chy smashed home a fifth when Emmanuel Eboue's cross found its way to the far post.

Pakistan should not play quarters in India: Akram

ZIM vs NZ WI vs BAN

2011

WO

RL

CU

P

Fri | 4 Mar | 9:30 AM Fri | 4 Mar | 2:00 PM

TODAY'S MATCHES

Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera

Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur

MOHALI, MARCH 3 (PTI): Contrasting centuries from Hashim Amla and AB de Vil-liers guided South Africa to a comprehensive 231-run vic-tory over the Netherlands in their Group B match here on Thursday. Put into bat by the Netherlands captain Peter Bor-ren, South Africa overcame an extremely lethargic start before Amla (113, 130 balls, 8X4) and De Villiers (134, 98 balls, 13x4, 4X6) put on 221-run stand for the third-wicket, which paved the way for a facile win. Inci-dentally, their partnership was the highest for third wicket for South Africa.

Thereafter, a nice cameo by Jean-Paul Duminy made mat-ters worse for ‘Oranje Brigade’ as his 15-ball 40 helped the Pro-teas pile up a massive 351 for fi ve in their 50 overs. The Nether-lands batsmen never looked like making a match of it. They kept losing wickets at regular inter-vals to eventually get bundled out for 120 in 34.5 overs. Imran Tahir fi nished with three for 22 from five overs, while Jacques Kallis (2/19) and Robin Peter-son (2/22) chipped in with cru-cial wickets. Having struggled to fi nd his rhythm earlier, Amla survived a few scares before set-tling down to bring up his eighth century in ODIs, while De Vil-liers looked in great form since the time he took the crease as he completed his quickfi re hun-dred to put South Africa in box

seat at the PCA Stadium here on Thursday.

At his devastating best, De Villiers entertained the hand-ful of spectators as he hit four huge sixes out of which three came o� consecutive deliveries of Bernard Loots. Duminy also joined the party as he smashed 20 runs of the fi nal over of the innings bowled by Ryan ten Doeschate, including two huge straight sixes. Earlier, Dutch captain Peter Borren invited the Proteas to bat to make use of the wicket under overcast conditions, following a light drizzle yesterday evening. The Dutch bowlers justified their skipper’s decision as they kept things tight by bowling fuller and also generated a bit of seam movement.

Holland’s new ball bowl-ers Berend Westdijk and Mu-dassar Bukhari stuck to a dis-ciplined line and offered very few loose deliveries, as South African captain Graeme Smith and Amla found it difficult to play their free-flowing natu-ral game. Apart from the two short balls in the opening overs, which were immediately pun-ished by Amla for boundaries, Bukhari and Westdijk didn’t err in length.

Initially, Westdijk and Bukhari were ably comple-mented by Ten Doeschate and Loots as South Africa reached 50 in 12.1 overs. Smith, who was also looking completely out of

sorts on Thursday, finally fell after making a slow 20 off 32 balls when he played across the line to a delivery that was an-gled into him and was bowled in the process.

Also with the strip easing out, the South African batsmen came out all guns blazing. Amla completed his ton o� 121 balls, studded with the help of six boundaries. South Africa were 218 for two after 41 overs when they decided to take a batting Powerplay. It turned out to be a good move as the Powerplay overs yielded 69 runs. It was De Villiers who first chanced his arms hitting a six and a four of left-arm spinner Pieter See-laar’s over. Amla also got into the act stealing another bound-ary to help South Africa take 16 runs as they were successful in breaking the shackles.

De Villiers, also brought up his 11th ODI century in 88 balls, studded with 10 boundaries and a six. Thereafter, without wast-ing any time, he straight away hit three sixes o� the fi rst three balls of Loots’ over, while Amla chipped in with a four to help Proteas notch up 25 runs in that over. Although both Amla and De Villiers perished in succes-sive overs, Duminy continued the mayhem to take his team to a commanding total. For the Netherlands, Ten Doeschate chipped in with three wickets but was blasted for 72 runs in the process.

South Africa thump Holland by 231 runs

South Africa's batsman Hashim Amla, right and AB de Villiers encourage each other during a ICC Cricket World Cup league match between South Africa and Netherlands in Mohali, In-dia, Thursday, March. 3, 2011.(AP Photo)

NZ meet ZIM in crucial tie at Motera

KARACHI, MARCH 3 (PTI): Pakistan cap-tain Shahid Afridi is right in saying that the team should top the group to avoid playing its quarter-fi nal match in India, feels former skipper Wasim Akram. "I agree with what Afridi and coach Waqar Younis have said that they would not like to play their quarterfi nal in India," Wa-sim said from Colombo. The former fast bowling great pointed out that it would be better for Paki-stan to play their quarter-fi nal in Sri Lanka or then in Bangladesh. "In these two countries Pakistan will get a lot of support and many Pakistani sup-porters will fi nd it easier to reach these countries to back their team compared to India," Wasim said.

He said there was al-ways extra pressure play-ing in India for Pakistani players and that is why they were looking at re-maining in Sri Lanka for their quarterfinal. "But I don't think it will be a prob-lem playing their semifi nal or fi nal in India because by that time the team would have played a knockout match and would be over their nerves," he added. Wasim also advised the Pakistan team to avoid giv-ing too many statements in the media. "I think their main focus should be on cricket you don't need to discuss everything in the media. There should be an element of secrecy about which team you are playing or if any player is unfi t. No need to discuss everything in the press," he said. Pakistan's for-mer captain Imran Khan also backed the policy of players giving mini-mum statements in the press. "It also depends on who is speaking because when you come into the media you must be able to express your thoughts clearly many times I have seen that cricketers have landed up in trouble be-cause what they wanted to say and what they eventu-ally said was not the same thing," Imran stated.

NOVI SAD (SERBIA), MARCH 3 (PTI): India's young brigade, led by Somdev Devvarman, faces a sti� test of nerve and ability as it takes on top seed and defending champion Ser-bia in the Davis Cup World Group first round, from Friday. As if the tough opponents in their own den was not enough, India would miss the ever-reliable doubles duo of Le-ander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi due to injuries. It just makes the job for the Indian youngsters a lot more tough against a side, which boasts of World number three and Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, top-20 player Viktor Troicki, num-ber 45 Janko Tipsaveric and Nenad Zimonjic, a very formidable doubles player, featuring in top-fi ve.

Djokovic is still undecided about playing the tie following his title win in Dubai but even without him Ser-bia has the class to outplay India. Somdev played against world num-ber two and Swiss legend Roger Fe-derer in Dubai, losing in the open-ing round. There is no comparison between the two sides and in the absence of Paes and Bhupathi, se-curing even one rubber out of fi ve, would be considered a big achieve-ment. Yet again India's best chance of winning a rubber remains Som-

dev, who of late has been in good touch. He made his second ATP fi nal in Johannesburg and jumped back into the top-100.

Rohan Bopanna has also done well in Davis Cup for India in the last few ties but this time around he will have to shoulder the responsi-bility of guiding the side in the dou-bles rubber. He has the experience of playing big matches but does not have a strong partner to support. Captain SP Misra and coach Nan-dan Bal hardly have strong options and most likely it will be either Som-dev or Rastogi who will join forces with Bopanna. It does not look like that Bhambri and Rastogi will get a chance to play until the fourth rub-ber. If the tie is decided on the sec-ond day itself, in favour of the hosts, Yuki and Rastogi may get to play for exposure. Serbia and India are locked 1-1 in Davis Cup records. In-dia had defeated Yugoslavia 3-0 in an away tie in 1927 and lost 2-3 at home in New Delhi in 1988.

India secured its place in the elite 16 for the second straight year after defeating Brazil 3-2 in the play-o� s in Chennai. Serbia has defeated France 3-2, overcoming a 0-2 defi -cit to be crowned champions for the fi rst time.

DDVFA elects new offi ce membersDIMAPUR, MARCH 3 (MExN): New o� ce bearers of the Dimapur Dis-trict Veteran Association (DDVFA) for the tenure 2011 to 2013 have been elected. A press note issued by Jacob Yanthan, general secretary, DDVFA, informed that the following members have been elected: president-Toshi Ao, vice-president-G. Kami, general secretary- N. Jacob Yanthan, assis-tant general secretary- Noklen Jamir, and treasurer- Shilu Sangtam.

Acid test for India's young players against Serbia

NEW YORK, MARCH 3 (AGENCIES): They’re not playing much defense.; they’re not getting any scor-ing output from their start-ing back court, and they’re not — as they often like to say — imposing their will on opponents. But most of all, they’re not winning, coming up on the short end of a 107-88 snoozer against the New York Knicks on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, their third consecu-tive loss and second to open the season’s longest trip.

What the Hornets are do-ing, though, is dropping like a stone in the Western Confer-ence playo� standings, with a game against the Memphis Grizzlies, breathing down New Orleans’ neck in the chase, coming up Friday at the FedEx Forum in Mem-phis, Tenn. And first-year Coach Monty Williams took postgame steps Wednesday night to right a listing ship. “They were a lot better than we were in a number of ar-eas,” Williams said. “I just think we didn’t have the fi ght we’ve had this year. I had to address some things after

the game and personally go at some guys a little bit. I’m not going to get to the sum-mer time and have stones that are unturned.

“I cannot stomach guys who go out there and don’t play with passion and play afraid. That’s what I saw to-night. It’s hard to bring it when you’re playing afraid. I saw fear in some of our guys’ eyes tonight. Take no cred-it from them. They played their game.” Chris Paul didn’t do much to excite the New York fans, who came hoping to see the four-time All-Star display the talents they hope he would one day bring to the Garden. Mired in a miserable shooting slump, Paul fi nished with a second-low four points and made two of seven shots. He had 10 assists and four rebounds while once again the Hornets were led in scoring by backup point guard Jarrett Jack, who had 21. New Orleans also lost starting small forward Trev-or Ariza in the third quarter with a strained left adductor muscle. He’ll be evaluated again before the Hornets play on Friday.

New Orleans Hornets' downward spiral continues in 107-88 loss to New York Knicks

Actress Vanessa Hudgens, center, watches NBA basketball game action during the fi rst half between the New York Knicks and the New Orleans Hornets, Wednesday, March 2, at Madi-son Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo)