Briefly Cricket

South Africa beat Pakistan by eight wickets at the Zayed Cricket Stadium to take a 1-0 lead in their five-match series.

Easy for South Africa

Abu Dhabi: South Africa beat Pakistan by eight wickets at the Zayed Cricket Stadium Friday to take a 1-0 lead in their five-match series. Jacques Kallis scored an unbeaten 66 before he retired hurt while A.B. de Villiers made 51. South Africa skipper Graeme Smith also retired hurt on 18 after injuring his finger. After Pak won the toss and elected to bat,Pakistan had looked to be heading for a respectable total but SA paceman Tsotsobe picked up three wickets in nine balls to leave Shahid Afridis men struggling.

Brief Scores: Pakistan 203 all out in 49 overs Md Hafeez 64,Y Khan 54; L Tsotsoben 27/4,J Botha 40/2 South Africa 207/2 in 39.3 overs J Kallis 66 not out A.B. de Villers 51; S Ajmal 42/2

Afridi should deliver

New Delhi: Former Pak skipper Shoaib Malik on Friday came out in support of national teams ODI captain Shahid Afridi but said that he would have to deliver positive results. I always supported him but he will have to deliver positive results and grab the opportunity that was given to him to lead the country. said Malik. Afridi was reportedly keen on Maliks inclusion into the team for on-going series against South Africa. In order to perform,it is very important to have the unstinted faith in the captain, he said.

Arthur suspected fixing

JOHANNESBURG: Former South Africa cricket coach Micky Arthur has made a shock revelation that they suspected match-fixing when Pakistan lost the decisive one-dayer against them from an advantageous position in Lahore in 2007,in a series which SA won 3-2. There was a strong suspicion of match-fixing and it took some of the gloss off the series win. We did not have any proof.

Duplicate ticket scam

Margao: Goa Cricket Association has summoned a Pune-based printer after duplicate tickets for the recently called off ODI between India-Australia at Fatorda stadium began surfacing for the repayment. Several tickets with the same serial numbers have prompted the cricket association to call for an enquiry into the matter. GCA Secretary Prasad Fatarpekar it could be a printing error on part of the printer,who was awarded a contract of 25,000 tickets and the issue will be cleared only after enquiry.