pakistan beat japan in world cup and qualify for the world cup hockey 2010

Pakistan beat japan by 3-1 in world cup and qualify for the world cup hockey 2010. Sohail Abbas score 2 goal and Abdul Haseem khan score 1. Pakistan show his strength in starting of match Abdul Haseem Khan opened the scoring for Pakistan four minutes after the start before Sohail Abbas came into action with a 24th minute conversion of a short corner.Japan reduced the margin through Shibushi who found the target from a penalty corner in the 27th minute with Pakistan leading 2-1 at the halfway stage.



Sohail Abbas widened Pakistan’s lead with another successful strike in the second period of a fast-paced match.

Pakistan then missed a couple of sitters but their defence, particularly the goalkeeper, stood firm against the repeated Japanese attacks, according to reports available here.



With victory in the play-off match to decide the first position in this six-Nation qualifying tournament, Pakistan grabbed the lone qualifying spot for the final round of the hockey World Cup 2010 to be played at New Delhi (India) in February-March next year.



Pakistan, the four-times World Cup winners, will now join the nine other teams, with two places still up for grabs, which have already made it to the final round.



International Hockey Federation (FIH) will soon hold another two qualifying tournaments, one in New Zealand and the other in Argentina, to fill the vacant berths for the final round.



The final standings in the qualifying round at Lille were:1-Pakistan, 2-Japan, 3-Poland, 4-France, 5-Russia, 6-Italy.



Pakistan, which had to appear in the World Cup qualifiers for the first time ever, had beaten Japan 6-1 in the league, also defeating Italy, Russia, France before being beaten by Poland in the last league encounter.



Despite defeat by Poland, Pakistan topped the league points table, thus setting up a first-position duel against fellow Asians Japan.

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Aisam press conference before next match

" I am very happy after defeating Roger Federer in street set 6-3 6-4 . I have a dream to defeat him and which has comes mostly true. We will try to win this title. I want to defeat Federer in single match in a big Slam Of Tennis event."

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Phillies' Rollins yearns to be king of the hill, top of the heap

NEW YORK — The stage is the biggest. The lights are the brightest. The stakes are the highest.

This is New York City. And this, Jimmy Rollins says, is where the Philadelphia Phillies will win the World Series, for the second year in a row, and become one of the greatest teams in the past half-century.

The Yankees might be up 3-2 with Game 6 scheduled today at Yankee Stadium, but the Phillies shortstop packed his bags for two games. "Phillies in seven," Rollins says.

The Phillies would become the first visiting team to throw a party at the Yankees' new $1.5 billion crib.

"Wow, playing the Yankees in the World Series, and now to beat them at Yankee Stadium," Rollins says. "It doesn't get any better than that.

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Hendon: The week that was

Eurosport commentator David Hendon looks back on the week that was, including Rory McLeod's win at the Masters qualifying event.

So well done to Rory McLeod for winning the Masters qualifying event.

His career seems to have blossomed much later than you would expect. Rory's 38 now but in the last year made three successive centuries against Ronnie O'Sullivan at the UK Championship, qualified for the Crucible for the first time and is now Wembley bound.

A Wellingborough boy of Jamaican parents, McLeod now lives in Qatar.

During the Masters qualifiers he spent time between matches listening to verses from the Koran in an attempt to relax himself. It obviously worked and he now waits to see whether he will play Mark Williams or Mark King.

This will depend on who the other wildcard is. Liang Wenbo is hot favourite and will surely only miss out if there is a shock winner of the UK Championship.

You will recall McLeod and King played out a long, often tedious match at the World Championship last season that went into an extra session, so if they are paired together again I fear for the sanity of whoever is making the decision.

Better to pair McLeod with Williams and King with Liang.

Not that Rory will care who he plays. Snooker professionals at all levels are well used to the setbacks and disappointments that inevitably come as part and parcel of a sporting career.

This, though, is a moment to relish.

The Masters is the game's most prestigious invitation tournament and to many players second only to the World Championship in terms of prestige.

Stephen Hendry won it a record six times and has appeared in a record nine finals.

He likes a record, does Stephen, just as he likes a trophy.

On Sunday he won his 74th in defeating Ken Doherty 5-3 to win the first 110sport Legends event in Glenrothes.

I can report it was a fun weekend, although the action was serious as the old warhorses locked horns once again.

I was alarmed by the sight of a frail Alex Higgins unable to produce any sort of form but cheered by Cliff Thorburn's warmth towards him and the Canadian's general charisma.

Hendry was a fitting winner, given that his legendary status cannot be questioned.

He remains snooker's greatest ever player. Tony Drago, with whom I did some commentary, also pointed out that he has profoundly changed snooker.

"Stephen is the most attacking player I have ever played. All the players who have come since have copied him," he said.

While we were enjoying ourselves in Scotland, Ricky Walden was out pounding the streets as he completed the New York marathon in a time of four hours, 17 minutes.

That sounds pretty good to me and Ricky raised around £1,500 for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Meanwhile, the WPBSA board member, Jim McMahon, made an attempt to broker peace in the civil war afflicting Scottish amateur snooker and came very close, but the old order - having agreed on a way forward with the rival group - reneged on it at the last minute.

The WPBSA understandably withdrew from the mediation process and have now taken away the main tour place for Scotland.

While I was in Scotland I heard nothing but bad things about those who have been running Scottish Snooker for the last few years.

Their actions have now resulted in the young Scottish players they are supposed to be representing suffering the ignominy of not having a place on the circuit to play for.

If this doesn't galvanise action north of the border, surely nothing will.

Next up in November is Pro Challenge Series event three in Leicester, followed by the UK Championship qualifiers.

Also, the IBSF world amateur championship takes place in India, starting on the 15th.

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NPB Japanese Baseball Draft Winners: Hiroshima Carp

The Hiroshima Carp came away from the NPB Japanese baseball draft the hands down winners on Thursday. After swiping up Ren Nakata last year from hometown Koryo High School, the Carp added to their young pitching corps by snagging Takeru Imamura from Seiho High School with their first pick, and adding pitcher Shota Dobayashi from Koshien winners Chukyo High School in round two. Imamura is thought to be the second best player in the draft behing Yusei Kikuchi, who was awared to the Seibu Lions by lottery.

If that was not impressive enough, in the third round they grabbed Hisashi Takeuchi, arguably one of the best pitchers at the college level from Hosei University and infielder Hayato Shoji from Tokoha Kikukawa High School in Shizuoka, who improved his stock greatly in the 2009 Koshien tournament.

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Afridi inspires Pakistan to crushing victory

ABU DHABI: Shahid Afridi smashed 70 off 50 deliveries and took two wickets Tuesday to lead Pakistan to a 138-run win over New Zealand in the first one-day international.

Afridi put on 101 in less than 15 overs with Kamran Akmal, who made 67 not out from 43 balls, to help Pakistan reach 287-9 after having lost two wickets for no runs at the start of its innings.

Akmal belted five boundaries and four sixes, while Afridi hammered four fours and three sixes.

Khalid Latif, playing in only his second ODI and replacing the more experienced Shoaib Malik, made 64 from 112 balls.

Afridi was then one of four Pakistan bowlers to take two wickets, finishing with 2-46 as New Zealand was dismissed for 149 with more than 10 overs remaining at the neutral venue of Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

Aaron Redmond top-scored with 52 for New Zealand, while captain Daniel Vettori made 38.
Captain Younis Khan hailed the victory as a ‘complete team performance.’

‘We started on the wrong foot, but luckily Afridi and Akmal did the job for us,’ he said.

Mohammad Yousuf and Umar Akmal put on 54 in 15 overs to rebuild Pakistan's innings after fast bowler Shane Bond dismissed opener Salman Butt and captain Younis Khan in his first two overs.

Yousuf was then run out by Martin Guptill as he hesisted for a quick single, and Umar Akmal was bowled by an arm ball from Vettori to leave Pakistan were 75-4 in the 24th over.

Afridi, the captain of Pakistan's Twenty20 side, and Latif then picked up the momentum. Afridi brought up his 30th half-century in only 37 balls, hitting across the line on a flat pitch with plenty of bounce to step up the run rate.

Latif had a slice of luck on 34 when he was dropped by wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum down the leg side.

Only Jacob Oram kept his composure as Afridi cut loose despite just returning from a hamstring injury.
Afridi departed in the 42nd over, moving across for a paddle sweep but holing out to Ian Butler at short fine leg off Oram.

That left Pakistan on 176, and Latif was out eight runs later after deflecting a ball from Vettori on to his stumps.

Kamran Akmal and Abdul Razzaq (26 from 20 balls) helped Pakistan score 104 runs in the last nine overs.

Bond finished with 2-61, while New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori took 2-34.

New Zealand also made a sedate start after a tight spell by new ball bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Umar Gul. Both worked up decent pace. Aamer, hailed as the next Akram, was particularly impressive with his first seven overs costing only 15 runs.

He bowled Brendon McCullum for 21 and Martin Guptill for 4 within two overs after both tried to force the pace.

Younis' persistence with Aamer also paid off as Ross Taylor was caught behind for 0 by Kamran Akmal to an angling delivery to leave New Zealand on 35-3 in the 11th over.

Scott Styris went for 5 only 15 runs later, caught by substitute Imran Farhat off Abdul Razzaq. Redmond and Vettori then provided some brief resistance with their right-left hand batting combination adding 69 runs for the fifth wicket.

Offspinner Saeed Ajmal provided the breakthrough, trapping Redmond lbw.

It was then Afridi's turn to strike as Vettori played on to his stumps and Nathan McCullum was bowled next delivery. The hat trick was saved but the Blacks Caps caved in, the last six wickets adding only 30 runs.

Vettori said the total was too much to chase.

‘We were on course to restrict them to 220-230 but Afridi and Akmal were fantastic,’ Vettori said. ‘They took the game from us.

‘After losing early wickets it was always going to be difficult. We thought if we could keep the target to 100 from the last 10 overs we could get there with the help of batting powerplay.’

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