The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Cricket: Australia handed 241 victory target in second test
- NBA: Knicks acquire Chandler in three-team deal
- Hockey: MJHL goes zonal
| Cricket: Australia handed 241 victory target in second test Posted: 10 Dec 2011 06:22 PM PST HOBART (Reuters): Australia bowled New Zealand out for 226 in their second innings to bring up lunch on the third day of the second test on Sunday and give themselves a victory target of 241. Australian paceman Peter Siddle and James Pattinson bowled superbly to end up with three wickets each and help restrict the Blacks Caps to just 87 runs in the extended morning session. New Zealand had resumed on 139 for three on a cool morning at Bellerive Oval looking to build a big lead with a first test victory on Australian soil since 1985 to level up the series a realistic target. Australia struck early with Siddle removing Kane Williamson for 34 with the third ball of the day to break up the New Zealander's 66-run partnership with his skipper Ross Taylor. Ricky Ponting, wearing a black armband in memory of his grandmother who died overnight, took the catch at slip after Williamson got a thick edge to the ball. Taylor managed to accrue only the second half century of the match before departing for 56, finally tempted to attack a wide delivery from Pattinson with Michael Clarke taking the catch in the cordon. Dean Brownlie, who made 56 in the first innings, had already taken one ball on the wrist when he backed up to a short delivery from Pattinson on 21 only for the ball to catch his glove with Brad Haddin snaring the catch behind the stumps. Siddle next had Reece Young plumb lbw for nine before offspinner Nathan Lyon came in to mop up the tail with three wickets of his own. Tim Southee, celebrating his 23rd birthday, slammed Lyon for a six and a four on consecutive balls before pushing his luck too far and holing out to Mike Hussey at long-on for 13. Two balls later, Lyon bowled Doug Bracewell for four and Australia were allowed four extra overs to try and end the innings before the break. Debutant paceman Trent Boult showed he might be a welcome addition to the New Zealand tail with 21 runs off 13 balls before the Lyon-Hussey combination ended the innings. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| NBA: Knicks acquire Chandler in three-team deal Posted: 10 Dec 2011 05:54 PM PST The New York Knicks have acquired center Tyson Chandler from the Dallas Mavericks as part of a three-team trade, the Knicks said on Saturday. "Signing a player of Tyson's caliber, with championship experience, to this roster, is an opportunity we could not pass up," Knicks interim general manager Glen Grunwald said in a statement. Chandler, 29, averaged 10.1 points and 9.4 rebounds in 74 regular-season starts for the NBA champion Mavericks last season. He has spent 10 years in the NBA with Chicago, New Orleans, Charlotte and Dallas. "Tyson will be the anchor to our defense," Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said. "The trio of Amar'e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson makes one of the most formidable frontlines in the entire league." The Knicks sent forward Ronny Turiaf, cash considerations and a 2013 second-round draft choice to the Washington Wizards and guard Andy Rautins to Dallas as part of the deal. Dallas traded a 2012 second-round draft choice to Washington and the draft rights to forwards Ahmad Nivins and Giorgos Printezis to New York. The Mavericks also gained a conditional future second-round draft choice from Washington. -Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Posted: 10 Dec 2011 03:15 PM PST KUALA LUMPUR: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) obviously don't believe in that saying. The zonal system introduced for the inter-state Razak Cup tournament this year was an abject failure and was scrapped after just one try, but MHF have not given up on it. They have decided that the Malaysia Junior Hockey League (MJHL), which is in its 16th year, will go zonal. The MJHL is supposed to start in the middle of January but there has been no clear directive on how the zonal system is to be applied or what sort of format the league will take. MHF secretary Maninderjit Singh said they will call for a meeting of all the teams that took part last year to discuss the format. "The decision to change the format for the MJHL was made earlier this year when we held a seminar to discuss our domestic competitions. It was agreed then that the zonal system be implemented. "The competitions committee have an idea how it works but they will have to discuss it with the teams first," he said. The Razak Cup zonal experiment was a dismal flop. The idea was to utilise the system to trim the number of teams for the Finals, which would then be held on a carnival basis. This was to ensure that only quality teams made the cut. But, along the way, the competitions committee decided to change their ruling and decided that all 16 teams would play in the Finals. In that event, why was there a need for a qualifying tournament? What made it worse was that a number of teams did not even bother to play in the zonal competitions. Now, the MHF are going to change the MJHL format, which has proven to be a success since it was launched in 1995, with one which clearly does not work. The MJHL started as a one–round league with 10 to 12 teams. It was then expanded to a two–division format when more teams entered the fray. It is still a two–division format and 24 teams took part this year. Ten teams played in Division One while the rest, in Division Two, were divided into two pools of seven teams each. If the MHF were to follow the failed Razak Cup zonal format, then they will have four zones - east, west, south and central - for the peninsular and another for East Malaysia. Depending on the number of teams in the first stage, the competitions committee will then decide on how many will qualify for the final round which could be held at one particular venue. Next year's MJHL, slated to start on either Jan 13 or Jan 19, comes under the ambit of the Malaysian Hockey Confederation with a new competitions committee in place. The MHF will be officially dissolved after the extraordinary general meeting on Dec 17. The MJHL is now for the Under-19 age group but MHF plan to change it to Under-21 after the tournament next year. But MHF will have to finalise the format of the competition first. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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