Rugby LEaster

My Sporting Weekend 21-25^th April 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Co-Operative Championship (Rugby League):

Dewsbury Rams V Batley Bulldogs, The opening match of a bumper Easter weekend of sport, especially for rugby league. Dewsbury had a good start to the game, and even though they were playing into the sun they were leading 8-0 after a try from Elliot Cosgrove and a conversion and penalty from Dominic Brambani. But after 20 minutes forward Anthony England was sent off, pretty harshly, for lashing out at a Batley player. Batley then pretty much dominated the rest of the half and eventually got their first score on 30 minutes when David Tootill went over and they then took the lead just before half-time when Jason Walton scored.

Dewsbury also opened the scoring in the 2nd half with Brambani going over after Batley conceded a penalty for a high shot, but Batley responded with 3 more trys, with Dane Manning, Danny Maun and Alex Brown all scoring. Rob Spicer scored for Dewsbury with 5 minutes to go, to get them within 10 points of Batley, but they couldn't get another and the game finished with George Flanagan scoring for Batley to deny Dewsbury the losing bonus point.

Even though they were down to 12 men after 20 minutes Dewsbury played well in defence and even though Batley had most of the possession Dewsbury kept forcing errors so they never ran away with the game.

Engage Super League (Rugby League):

Bradford Bulls V Leeds Rhinos, A packed Odsal Stadium saw the regular Easter match-up of Bradford Bulls taking on local rivals Leeds Rhinos and 7 minutes into the match Patrick Ah Van had a fantastic catch off a Marc Herbert high kick to get the opening try of the game, and 3 minutes later Andy Lynch went over to get the Bull's 2nd try. Paul McShane got Leeds back in the game, on 26 minutes, after going over from dummy-half, and Jamie Jones-Buchanan used his upper-body strength to fight off 2 Bradford defenders and get the ball down to score Leed's 2^nd try on 36 minutes to draw the score level at 10 all.

Olivier Elima got his 1^st score 7 minutes into the 2^nd half, getting Bradford's 3^rd try, but Leed's Keith Senior responded 6 minutes later, scoring after breaking going through 2 tackles, and Ryan Hall got another Leed's try 4 minutes later to take the lead. Elima then got his 2^nd try to level the scores again, at 22 all, but after a Bradford played blocked off Jones-Buchanan Kevin Sinfield scored the resulting penalty to take the lead again and on 77 minutes Danny Buderus went from dummy-half and around the post to get Leed's 5^th try and seal the win. Leed's played well in the 2^nd half, stepping up their game, and not letting Bradford get too much momentum and allow them back into the game.

Wigan Warriors V St Helens, this was played in front of a sold out DW stadium and had a fast, exciting and end-to-end start. Micheal Shenton got the first try on 13 minutes for Saint's, after a Iosia Soliola offload, Gary Wheeler made a break through the Warriors defensive line and released Shenton for the score. The game was then pretty even but after a couple of good breaks from James Roby and Jonny Lomax, Jamie Foster went over down the left wing to extend the Saints's lead on 25 minutes. Just before half-time Sam Tomkins had a good run across the Saints's defensive line, before winger Josh Chandley went over for the Warriors first try of the game, after receiving what looked like a forward pass.

5 minutes into the 2^nd half Pat Richards got his 1^st try of the season down the left wing to open the scoring for the half for the Warriors and they then look the lead 4 minutes later when Charndley went over after a nice inside pass, round his back, from Joel Tomkins. Richards then got his 2^nd try as the Saints sliding defence couldn't get across fast enough to further extend their lead. Wigan had dominated the start of the 2^nd half but on 64 minutes Foster went over for his 2^nd try, after a Wigan player gave away a penalty on half way, to get Saints within 6 points, and youngster Thomas Makinson drew the scores level when he went over for Saints 4 minutes later. On 71 minutes Wigan's Brett Finch had a poor drop-goal attempt before Saints went up the other end, after Shenton stole the ball off Sam Tomkins, then George Carmont gave away a penalty, for being offside, and Foster converted. Wigan then had some sustained pressure on the Saints goal-line, and the Saints defence couldn't hold out as Liam Farrell went over with 50 seconds left to win the game for Wigan 28-24.

Catalan Dragons V Bradford Bulls, as the game started it became extremely hard game to watch due to the constant loss of picture, due to thunder storms in the area around Perpingan. The Dragons got the opening score on 12 minutes after winger Ben Farrar spun out of a tackle and found a gap in the Bulls defensive line and went over. After half an hour Sky coverage disappeared all together with the channel then showing Sky Sports News. Pictures returned at half time and we learnt that Heath L'Estrange had gone over and have a try awarded by the video ref on 32 minutes as well as both teams having a player sin-binned, Paul Sykes for the Bulls and Sebastien Martins for the Dragons. After a scrappy start to the 2^nd half Scott Dureau slotted over a penalty kick on 48 minutes after Bradford gave away successive penalty's and the Dragon's then had another played sin-binned after Greg Mounis gave away a penalty for holding down, which Patrick Ah Van converted, on 57 minutes. From that point both teams had missed penalty and drop-goal attempts and the game was played out to a pretty dire 8-8 draw. The game started off ok but as the rain fell errors came into the game and both teams found it hard to hold onto the ball, as well as keeping their footing, the pitch seemed to cope well with the rain, draining fast, and leaving very little standing water, but it was the players that found it hard to cope, giving away too many silly penalty's and winding up referee Steve Ganson who probably awarded too many penalty’s and didn't really take the conditions into account for some decisions.

NRL (Rugby League):

Wests Tigers V Brisbane Broncos, English international Gareth Ellis was playing in his 3^rd game since returning from a ankle injury, and his 50^th overall for the Tigers, but it was the Broncos, after a good start, who got the 1^st score with a nice leap and catch from winger Jharal Yow Yeh, and an easy touch down, after a high bomb from Darren Lockyer, on 20 minutes and 3 minutes later the video ref gave the Broncos their 2^nd try, after Alex Glenn slid over and just got the ball down. The Broncos got their 3^rd try on 28 minutes when Sam Thaiday went over, after a fantastic run from Yow Yeh, breaking through at least 4 tackles, got the Broncos down the pitch. With only the Tigers 2^nd decent chance of the game they got their first try on 32 minutes after Tim Moltzen broke through the Broncos defence and went over. The Tigers then got some momentum, and the crowd got behind them, but after Beau Ryan made a mistake in defence, losing the ball in a tackle, Peter Wallace picked up the loose ball and went over for the Broncs 4^th try and just before half time Lockyer completed the 1^st half scoring with a field goal to end the half with a lead of 25-6.

During the 1^st half the Broncos pretty much controlled the game and never allowed Tigers play-maker Benji Marshall to feature, or get any sustained possession in the Broncos half.

The Broncos started the 2^nd half well, but after a mistake from Yow Yeh the Tigers got the ball back and on 7 Minutes, after the Tigers won a penalty within 5 meters of the Broncos goal-line, Robert Lui got his arm between 2 Broncos players and got the ball down to give the Tigers a glimmer of hope of getting back in the game. The Tigers then won successive penalty’s within 20 meters of the goal-line and, after they spread the ball from right to left, Moltzen went over for his 2^nd try of the game, amid a protest from Lockyer about Corey Parker being taken out by a dummy runner. On 67 minutes Lockyer went over, down the right side, to extend the Broncos lead to 13 points meaning that the Tigers needed 3 scores to take the lead, and from that point the Tigers never looked like scoring with the game finished 31-18 to the Broncos.

Again the Broncos dominated the 2^nd half, and never looked like losing the lead they built up in the 1^st half, and apart from a 10 minute spell when they got their 2 try's the Tigers were never in the game and didn't really create that much within 20 meters of the Broncos goal-line. The Broncos would have being disappointed letting in 3 try's as they have the best defence in the competition, but before this game the most points they had scored in a game was 24 so at least they have improved their ability to score.

Melbourne Storm V New Zealand Warriors, the Storm started the game with 4 back-to-back sets and got the 1^st try on 4 minutes with Beau Champion going over, but after that the Warriors had most of the territory and possession and they eventually scored on 22 minutes with some assistance from the video ref. Krisnan Inu got the loose ball and went over after a good kick from Brett Seymour into the corner was not dealt with by the Storms's Matt Duffie. After scoring a penalty, they then got their 2^nd try 7 minutes later when Jacob Lillyman went over after after taking the short ball from Aaron Heremaia out of dummy half and their 3^rd try came on 32 minutes, Storm's Anthony Quinn made a good tackle on Ukuma Ta'ai, but the ball ricocheted loose and Michael Luck dabbed it down in the in-goal area. The Storm finished the half with a penalty that Cameron Smith slotted over. As the half went on mistakes crept into the Storm's game and they found it hard to deal with the high bomb, as well as finding themselves out of position when the Warriors made breaks.

The Storm got their 2^nd try 4 minutes into the 2^nd half with Cooper Cronk going over after Gareth Widdop kicked over and Billy Slater tapped back. The 2^nd half was a lot more competitive with both teams having about equal possession and territory and even though their was no more points scored it was thrilling match when the Storm decided to play and get back in the match, but it was the unfavoured Warriors who came out on top, winning 18-14.

Barclays Premier League:

Manchester United V Everton, United dominated the match having 60% the possession and 21 shots, but only Javier Hernandez looked like scoring, and did so on the 84^th minute after getting on the end of a Antonio Valencia cross. Everton played well in defence, not really letting United into the final third of the pitch, but it was their midfield that was poor, not being able to hold the ball up or move the ball forward into the United half. They were slightly better though in the 2^nd half after Tim Cahill replaced Diniyar Bilyaletdinov at half time, but they were still not good enough to keep out the constant onslaught on their goal, and it was only a matter of time until United got a goal.

Bolton Wanderers V Arsenal, The 1^st half was pretty competitive with both teams making some good chances and Bolton went into halftime with the lead after Daniel Sturridge slotted in after Samir Nasri couldn't properly clear the ball away from the goal line from a Gary Cahill header off a corner. The 2^nd half started with Bolton on top and with only 2 minutes gone they won a penalty after Johan Djourou caught Sturridge, who went down easily, but Kevin Davies's shot was poor and Wojciech Szczesny saved quite easily. And within a minute Arsenal had equalised with Robin Van Persie scoring after playing a nice 1-2 with Cesc Fabregas on the edge of the area. From that point on Arsenal had Bolton pinned in their own half, as they looked to take the lead, but they only had 1 shot on target, with Nasri finding the Bolton keeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen. Then on 90 minutes Tamir Cohen headed in off a Matthew Taylor corner to give Bolton the lead and end Arsenal's chances of wining the league. Arsenal had enough possession, but their shooting was poor, with only 6 hitting the target all game, Bolton were a bit lucky to come away with the win, but they played well in defence keeping Arsenal out and Sturridge had a good game getting involved to create a couple of good chances, as well as having a few shots himself.

Evo-Stik League South:

Sheffield FC V Romulus, Sheffield put on a poor display for their final home game of the season as they lost 3-1 to Romulus, a poor pass back led to FC's keeper, Dan Whatsize, taking out Romulus's Marvin Johnson, and giving away a penalty that Nathan Walker easily converted. FC got the equaliser on 21 minutes when Andy Gascoigne volley past the Romulus keeper from 10 yards out, Sheffield then had some more possession and a few more chances but they couldn't take the lead. Romulus started the 2^nd half well, and look the lead again after 7 minutes with Johnson scoring a siomple volley off a good cross. From that point they never looked like losing the game, as FC found it hard to keep up with them, and on 67 minutes they got their 3^rd, after Whatsize made a good save the ball rebounded to Robert Evans who slotted in easily from close range. After that both teams had a few more chances, but their were no more goals, as both teams seasons fizzled towards the end.

Main Event:

Engage Super League (Rugby League):

Hull FC V Hull KR, the big city derby and the only real true derby regularly played in the Super League. KR have had an eventful week with star player and their big signing for the season Willie Mason being de-registered with Michael Dobson, returning from injury, taking his place on the foreign player quota, and it looks like Mason may be on his way to French rugby union side Toulon, after meeting with their president in the week, and after only playing 6 games for KR. FC have also had some player news with Martin Gleeson signing, and making his debut, after being released from Wigan for disciplinary issues. After a poor start to the season the FC fans turned out in large numbers, as well as a good following for KR, for an attendance just short of 20,000 at the KC Stadium, and the FC fan would not have been disappointed with a fantastic performance from their team.

FC's Kirk Yeaman got the opening try of the game, on 3 minutes, after a Tom Briscoe run opened up KR's defence and left space down the left wing for Yeaman to go over, but KR responded 5 minutes later with Matt Cook going over down the center after FC gave away a penalty on half-way. On 21 minutes KR's Ben Cockayne made a fantastic effort to tackle over the goal line but could not stop Sean Long touching the ball down to get FC's 2^nd try but after a good cut-out pass from Dobson, Kris Welham went over and Dobson converted to level the scores on 27 minutes. Gleeson got his 1^st try for FC after they worked the ball from left to right and had the numerical advantage down the left wing, Gleeson broke through a tackle and went over for FC to be leading 16-12 at half-time. During the 1^st half Long kept using cross-field kicks to put KR's young winger Sam Latus under pressure, but FC could not take advantage of the occasions when he did make a mistake.

FC dominated the 2^nd half possession and had a good period of pressure in the KR half, after forcing 2 consecutive drop-outs, but Gleeson was unable to get the ball down as KR full-back Cockayne make a big effort to get across and dislodged the ball with his knee as he was going over. They then had 2 more cross-field kicks into the left corner with FC players coming up with the ball both times, but on both occasions they were short when putting the ball down, but they eventually scored after Richard Whiting went over down the left wing. after getting past KR winger Latus. With 10 minutes to go KR had a good break and got within 20 meters of the FC goal-line, for only the 2^nd time in the half, and after a short inside pass from Blake Green, Cockayne went over unchallenged to get back within 4 points of FC. But a few minutes later Mick Vella gave away a penalty just short of 20 meters out in front of the posts and Danny Tickle slotted it over for FC to extend their lead by 2 points and after winning a penalty on halfway for interference FC worked the ball down the center and on the 5^th tackle they gave the ball to Long who shaped up for the drop-goal, but ran it instead and after a good run and off load from Willie Manu, Yeaman went over for his 2^nd try to seal the win for FC, and then Tom Briscoe completed the scoring against a tired KR defence after they outnumbered them down the left hand side, for a final score of 36-18.

Hull FC pretty much dominated the game, but it wasn't until the last 5 minutes when they ran away on the scoreboard as Hull KR played well is defence, but they didn't really create very much going forward.

Cool-Down's:

Sheffield Eagles got their 5^th win in a row to extend their unbeaten run, but dropped down to 3^rd in the table, after only playing 1 game over Easter, with Leigh and Batley going above them and without another league game for 3 weeks hopefully they won't lose their momentum and keep the run up against an, as yet, unbeaten Leigh side on the 15^th of May.

Recent Results:

Co-Operative Championship (Rugby League): Batley Bulldogs 16 Sheffield Eagles 28

Npower League 1 (Football): Wallsall 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1

Sheffield Wednesday 3 Swindon Town 1

Evo-Stik League South (Football): Lincoln United 4 Sheffield FC 2

LV= County Championship (Cricket): Yorkshire: 336 & 86 (30.3 overs)
Nottinghamshire: 143 & 337 (114.1 overs)
Nottinghamshire beat Yorkshire by 58 runs

Clydesdale Bank 40 (Cricket): Yorkshire: 188-9 (40.0 overs)
Netherlands: 190-8 (40.0 overs)
Netherlands beat Yorkshire by 2 runs

Barca, Kings Of Madrid

My Sporting Weekend 16-17^th of April 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Evo-Stik League South (Football):

Sheffield FC V Loughborough Dynamo, This was quite a close game with neither teams having many chances on target. Sheffield had quite a good start, having lost of possession, but after conceding on 21 minutes to a low curving shot by Dynamo's Luke Edwards from outside the area Sheffield started to give away easy possession and ended the half pretty poorly. They did start the second half well, keeping hold of the the ball and moving it forward fast, but they couldn't get any shots off. While Dynamo were down to 10 men, after a player was off with a nose-bleed, FC's Steve Wooley scored with another curving shot from outside the area. For the final 10 minutes or so Sheffield pushed more players forward looking for the winning goal, but after winning multiple corners they still couldn't get a shot on target, and the game was played out to a 1-1 draw.

During the game Sheffield were always looking to get the ball forward as fast as possible down the wings, with quick free kicks and the full-backs receiving it short from the keeper, but the crossing was very poor, with most being cut out by the first defender, and the ones that got through Dynamo's keeper, easily picked the ball out of the air unchallenged.

FA Cup Semi Final's (Football):

Manchester City V Manchester United, The first half was pretty even with equal possession and both teams having about 5 shots, with United's Dimitar Berbatov having the 2 best chances, but Joe Hart made a good save for the first, and Berbatov putting it over after a Nani cross for the second.

7 minutes into the second half, after a bad clearance from Edwin van der Sar and a mistake from Michael Carrick, Yaya Toure got control of the ball on the edge of the area and opened the scoring after sliding his shot under the United keeper. United then found it hard to get in the game as City had more off the ball, with their best chance coming on 65 minutes when Nani hit the bar from a free kick, after a good save from Hart. Things then got worse for United when, on 72 minutes, Paul Scholes received a straight red after a high foot studded Pablo Zabaleta on the thigh. After that City played the game out for the 1-0 win.

To an extent City didn't really miss their injured playmaker Carlos Tevez, as in his last few games he has failed to make an impact on games, and his replacement Mario Balotteli also didn't do that much during the game, but it was United who missed their suspended player, Wayne Rooney, more, as they seemed to have that link between the midfield and the strikers missing, as well as Rooney's ability to track back and break up opposition play.

UBS Chinese Grand Prix (Formula 1):

Pole sitter Sebastian Vettel had a poor start with both Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton overtaking him by the first corner. The 3 leaders then kept close and Vettel overtook 2^nd placed Hamilton on lap 14 using DRS, and when Button and Vettel pitted Button stopping in the wrong pit box, letting Vettel past him. After they cycled through the 1^st set of pit-stops, surprisingly, Nico Rosberg was leading and Hamilton was down in 5th behind Filipie Massa. After another set of pit-stops, a bit of a lull in the middle of the race, Hamilton then had a great finish to the race, with his 3 stop strategy giving him fast lap times on his 4th set of tyres and he easily went past 2nd placed Massa, before catching and overtaking leader Vettel with 5 laps to go. Sergio Perez and Nick Heidfeld had a running battle, over a couple of laps, that started with some clean overtaking and finished with Perez knocking Heidfeld off the track and receiving a drive-through penalty, Heidfeld eventually finished in 12^th and Perez finished a lap down. Mark Webber was having a poor weekend after qualifying in 16th, but during the race he made good use of new tyres and had a great end to the race to finished in 3rd, again with KERS problems. After his pit-box mistake Button finished in 4^th and Rosberg finished in 5^th.

This was easily the best race of the year with the field not spreading out too much early on in the race due to the drivers using different pit strategies, as well as the ability to use DRS on the final straight.

Barclays Premier League (Football):

Arsenal V Liverpool, Arsenal pretty much dominated the first half having most of the possession, as well as having quite a few good chances, as well as some good crossing, but they couldn't get many shots on target. Liverpool defended well and their young full-backs fitted in well, hardly making any mistakes, but they found it hard to keep hold of the ball, and only forced 1 save from Arsenal's returning keeper Wojciech Szczesny. Liverpool played better at the start of the 2nd half, but within 25 minutes they had lost both Jamie Carrager and Andy Carroll to injury, first Carroll landed awkwardly and twisted his knee, but played on for 20 minutes or so, and inbetween this Carragher clashed heads with teammate John Flanagan and had to be stretched off after loosing conciousness. Arsenal then tried to change the game by bringing on Arsharvin and Bendtner, but they didn't make much of a difference and Liverpool kept pushing forward to get the winner when they had the chance. 8 minutes of injury time was shown and I then had to turn off, and during injury time both team won and scored penalty's, overall a draw was probably a fair result as Liverpool were quite organised without the ball and were quick to get back into position, and Arsenal found it hard to break them down in the second half. All of Liverpool's young players, Jay Spearing, and Flanagan played well, and look excellent prospects for the future.

Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (IndyCar):

The race had a clean start, and their was not not much overtaking, due to the tight nature of the track. The 1st major incident of the race came on lap 24 when Helio Castroneves caught Justin Wilson's back-end and spun him out on the hairpin and 1 lap later Simona de Silvestro spun on the same corner and caused the first full course caution of the race. During the caution Marco Andretti took out Sebastien Bourdais at the end of the pit lane, after not seeing him come up his outside, ending both their days. On lap 61 E.J. Viso made contact with Danica Patrick and then the wall, breaking his right rear suspension in the process and also ending his race. On lap 63 Wilson was involved in another incident, this time locking up the back wheels and spinning himself out into the tyres, but he got himself going and eventually finished 7 laps down in 22nd. Will Power was looking strong again, but on the restart on Lap 67, teammate Helio Castroneves took him out going into the first corner, ending both their chances of podium positions, as well as Scot Dixon who also sustained damage, but Oriol Servia made a good move to avoid the collision and got himself back in the race and finished 6^th. With 15 laps to go Mike Conway had a fantastic restart getting up to 4th after the 1st corner, before overtaking Dario Franchitti, Ryan Hunter-Reay (who was having issues and didn't finish the race) and Ryan Briscoe within 2 laps to take the lead, and to eventually get his first IndyCar victory.

Main Event:

La Liga (Football):

Real Madrid V FC Barcelona, The worlds best footballing team met the worlds best counter-attacking team for the 2nd, of 5, El Classico match of the season, in Madrid. The game was sold out and on the streets before the game touts were looking for 500 Euros a ticket. After missing 11 league games through injury Barcelona's linchpin in defence Carles Puyol was back, after 2 months of Pique playing with several different defensive partners. Real Madrid had prepared for this game by letting the grass grow at the Bernabau to try and slow down Barcelona's ball playing ability, as well as training with 10 men all week in anticipation of getting a player sent off, and this payed off as they played a bit better after they went down to 10 men. They also started with center-half Pepe playing in the defensive midfielder role, with the more attacking Mesut Ozil missing out, allowing the full-backs, Marcelo and Sergio Ramos to get forward as much as possible. It was a tense and tight opening to the match with each team only having 1 shot each on the first 20 minutes, but after Real forced multiple corners the game started to open up and the crowd started to get involved in the game. Just before half-time each team had a good chance each, first Lionel Messi pulled out a fantastic run playing 2 1-2's with team mates, before Iker Casillas made a fantastic reaction save, and then Christiano Ronaldo had a header cleared off the line by Adriano. During the first half Barcelona had most of the possession, but it was Real who had the best chance's, forcing Victor Valdes into making 3 saves.

5 minutes into the second half Raul Albiol wrapped his hands around David Villa's neck, before dragging him down to give away a penalty and the inevitable happened Real were down to 10 men. Messi then went on to convert the penalty, for Barcelona to take the lead. Nearly straight away Ozil came on for Real, replacing Karim Benzema and Seydou Keita came on for Barcelona replacing Puyol, who was obviously lacking match fitness. The Real substitution made it seem as if they had given up on the game and within 10 minutes they had also taken off regular starters Xabi Alonso and Angel Di Maria, most probably to stop them picking up injury's that would rule them out of the cup final on Wednesday, and they dropped into a more solid 4-4-1 formation. But on 80 minutes Real won their own penalty, after Dani Alves caught Marcelo with his leading leg, he went down, and Ronaldo converted to bring the scores back level, during the last 10 minutes both teams had a couple of chances to win the game, but it finished 1-1.

Losing a player did not make that much difference to Real and as Barcelona relaxed they came back into the game. Pepe was probably Real's best player being involved with most of their chances, as well as getting back and covering his defence. It now looks like the league is Barcelona's but Real can still have a big say in what other trophies they may win this season as they now meet again 3 more times over the next few weeks, in the final of the Copa Del Rey, in Valencia, and over 2 legs for the Champions League semi-final, where the winner will either meet Manchester United or FC Schalke in the final at Wembley.

Cool-Down's:

Sheffield Eagles got their 4^th win on the bounce away at Dewsbury on Sunday and hopefully they can extend the run when they travel to Batley on Easter Monday, but it will be a tough task as they also have 4 wins from 5, and have only lost 1 home game this season, to Leigh in the Northern Rail Cup.

Yorkshire had a disappointing result in the County Championship, losing at home to Durham, after beating Worcestershire in their first match and Adil Rashid will also have been disappointed with only taking 1 wicket after taking 11 in the opening match. Back after 15 months out, after picking up a back injury while on England duty in South Africa, Durham's Graham Onions had a good match getting 6 wickets, and hopefully he will be able to get back in the England set-up by the end of the summer.

Sheffield United had another loss and now are bottom of the Championship 8 points adrift with 4 games to go, and look certain to go down, what a shame.

Recent Results:

Npower League 1 (Football): Sheffield Wednesday 2 Hartlepool Town 0

Co-Operative Championship (Rugby League): Dewsbury Rams 12 Sheffield Eagles 36

LV= County Championship (Cricket): Durham 327 & 311-6dec beat Yorkshire 149 & 343 by 146 runs

India's Big Bash Kicks Off

My Sporting Weekend 8-10^th April 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Super League (Rugby League):

Huddersfield Giants V Warrington Wolves, This was the battle between the top two teams and I turned on after 10 minutes with the score already 6 all and with Huddersfield having a sustained period of pressure against the Wolves. The Giants then put on 2 trys with Larne Patrick scoring after Danny Brough forced Brett Hodgson to concede a drop-out, and Luke Robinson got through 3 players to score from dummy half. The Wolves then ended the half with a well worked move from a penalty and Hodgson going over for his second try of the game to get the Wolves back into the game with a score of 18-10 to the Giants. Huddersfield had a good first half, having a lot of the possession, but the Wolves showed in flashes their ability and as the Giants tired during the last 5 minutes they then had their own sustained pressure on the Giants goal-line, before scoring.

The Giants took control of the scoring in the second half with Brough getting 2 penalty's and a drop-goal, before winger Jermaine McGillvary got the final try of the game scoring out wide on the right, and Brough converted to extend the Giants lead even further, and give them a 29-10 win.

Warrington had some better possession during the second half, but they didn't create anything that would lead to a try, they were missing play-maker Lee Briers, but all this affected was their kicking game with no one really taking control, and, as the other Wolves players kept making uncharacteristic mistakes Huddersfield took control of the situation and won the game.

Hull KR V Leeds Rhinos, Leeds made a good start with Lee Smith scoring on 4 minutes, after a quick play of the ball on the left hand side they moved the ball right and KR's sliding defence couldn't keep up. And they got another easy try 10 minutes later when Kallum Watkins got on the end of a Kevin Sinfield chip and touched down unchallenged. After a bad pass from Keith Senior that Watkins fumbled, Mick Vella picked up the loose ball and went over to get KR back in the game on 19 minutes, and 2 minutes later a dummy from Blake Green gave him a good break and after quick play of the ball and a nice cut out pass, Kris Whelam went over, and KR took the lead after scoring the conversion. KR then extended their lead even further with 2 more try's, first Matt Cook scored after forcing a Leeds goal line drop-out and then Scott Murrell went over after what looked like a forward pass from Cockayne, for KR to go in at half time with a 24-10 lead.

Leeds had a good start to the game and Hull looked pretty poor, but after the mistake from Keith Senior the tables turned and KR took control of the game and the Rhinos players made some simple errors and got caught out of position which gave KR the chance to put points on the board.

KR then got the first score of the second half with Liam Colbon going over after 2 minutes. Ryan Hall scored out on the left wing to give the Rhinos a glimmer of hope with 30 minutes remaining, but Sam Latus went over on in the left corner, after what looked like another forward pass, to restore a 16 point lead for KR, with 20 minutes to go. Leeds replied 5 minutes later with Paul McShane scoring, and Ben Galea got KR's last try of the game on 75 minutes, Watkins then got his 2nd score of the game with a brilliant solo try to get a consolation for Leeds, after breaking through 2 tacklers he chipped forward before re-gathering under the posts and touching down.

The game finished with a score of 38-28 and Hull KR truly deserved the win after fighting back during the first half, but they seemed to switch off a bit at times in the second half, giving Leeds a slight chance but they couldn't take advantage as they kept giving away silly penalty's or keep any sustained pressure on KR.

La Liga (Football):

Barcelona V CD Almeria, During the first half Barcelona seemed to be having a bit of a off night and were finding it hard to keep the ball for long spells, and Almeria pushed forward and created some pressure, forcing consecutive corners, but they only had 1 shot during the first half.

5 minutes into the second half Almeria got the opening goal, after a quick counter-attack left a two-on-one against defender Gabriel Milito, Pablo Piatti crossed and Miguel Corona slotted past reserve keeper Jose Pinto. Within 3 minutes Barcelona were back level after Messi ended his goal drought with a penalty, Milito had played a long ball forward into the box and as David Villa was about to control Almeria keeper Diego Alves brought him down. Barcelona then immediately changed tactics, bringing on striker Pedro for Milito, leaving Pique as the only real defender and as they pushed forward they created more chances and Almeria hardly had a touch outside of their own half. Barcelona eventually got their second goal on 66 minutes after Thiago Alcantara headed in from a Messi corner, and within 5 minutes Barcelona changed their tactics again with Thiago coming off and Seydou Keita coming on in defence. Barcelona continued to dominate the game and created a few more chances and in injury time Messi got his second goal after controlling a long ball, taking it round a player on the edge of the box and shooting past the Almeria keeper. Oddly enough Barcelona's three goals came from situations that they don't normally score from, a header off a corner, and 2 long balls forward, the first ending with a penalty and the second the final goal.

Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix (Formula 1):

The Red Bull's had a mixed day with both cars having issues with their KERS system going down, with Mark Webber being the most affected, and after a poor start he dropped down to 9^th but fought back to eventually finish in 4^th. But Sebastian Vettel had an easy victory, after starting on pole he had a good start and then led until the end, apart from pit-stops, and when it looked like Lewis Hamilton was catching him in the middle of the race he just kicked on again and increased the gap.

McLaren's Jenson Button had a pretty solid race finishing in 2^nd after team mate Hamilton had trouble in the pits and Hamilton's day got worse when, with about 10 laps to go it looked like he was losing speed and then Fernando Alonso clipped his right rear tyre and he started to drop down the grid and eventually finished in 7^th.

The Renaults had a good start with Nick Heidfeld getting up to 2^nd, from 6^th, and Vitaly Petrov 5^th, from 8^th, after the first corner and Heidfeld eventually finished 3^rd, but Petrov 's day didn't end as well when, with 4 laps to go he went wide round a corner and came off the track, and as he tried to get back on the track he went over a storm drain, sending his car airborne, and breaking his steering column on landing, ending his race.

Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi had an eventful race challenging any driver who came near him to a duel, providing viewers with some exciting overtaking maneuvers, and he finished 8^th.

Their was more overtaking this week, with the DRS system coming into play on the pit straight, and the KERS system also helped, but I think that there is too many restrictions on the DRS system and if it was more widely available I would think that their would be more overtaking.

After the race was completed both Alonso and Hamilton were given 20 second penalty's, with Hamilton receiving his for making more than one change of direction while defending his position against Alonso, and Alonso's was for causing a preventable collision.

Heineken Cup Quarter Final (Rugby Union):

Northampton Saints V Ulster Rugby, This match had to be played in Milton Keynes, at stadium:mk, due to Northampton's Franking Gardens not meeting capacity requirements set by the ERC. But the game was a sellout with both sets of fans travelling well and Ulster bring over around 3,000 supporters. Northampton had a fantastic start with Soane Tonga'uiha scoring on 2 minutes, after Ulster left a big gap in their defence Tonga'uiha charged through and Ulster couldn't stop him as he rolling over. Ulster responded 4 minutes later with Ian Humphreys scoring a penalty from 10 meters inside the Saints half and he got another one on 15 minutes. The game was then pretty even and Ulster got the next score on 33 minutes, after Stephen Myler missed a penalty for Northampton, with Andrew Trimble going over after receiving a short pass from Rory Best that opened up a gap in the Saints's defence. Just before half-time Ulster's Humphreys had a knock-on that forced team-mate Simon Danielli into making a try saving tackle on Myler who couldn't take advantage of the situation. But after gaining a penalty from the resulting scrum Northampton came away with 3 points to finish the half trailing 10-13. The first half passed pretty quick, with both teams playing some open, flowing, rugby that didn't get bogged down by long delays at scrum time or excessive kicking.

Myler drew Northampton level 8 minutes into the second half after slotting away a penalty, won after an Ulster player was caught going off his feet at the ruck. Northampton then look the lead again, after a quick throw in, and a brilliant move down the left wing, involving Ben Foden and Chris Ashton, led to Lee Dixon going over for the Saints's second try on 55 minutes. Soon after, after taking a quick penalty Ulster looked like they would score a sure try, after moving the ball out wide, but Adam D'arcy fumbled, giving possession back to the Saints. Myler then scored his 3rd penalty on 65 minutes to extend the Saints lead to 10 points and 3 minutes later he had a chance to score another, but missed. For the final 10 minutes Ulster had most of the possession, but nothing really came of it, and after winning a line-out with a minute to go Northampton drove forward to play out the game, and set themselves up a semi-final, back in Milton Keynes, against USA Perpignan. Ulster were pretty poor in the second half, not being able to have any extended periods of possession, or scoring a single point and Northampton truly deserve the win.

Barclays Premier League (Football):

Aston Villa V Newcastle United, Villa had the lead at half-time after James Collins headed in off an in-swinging free kick from Ashley Young, but possession was about equal with Villa making the better use of the ball and creating the most chances, with both Darren Bent and Richard Dunne missing with headers. Near the end of the half, after a through ball from Jean Makoun, Bent was adjudged to be offside after slotting the ball past Newcastle keeper Steve Harper, but it was pretty tight and he was probably onside.

During the 2nd half Villa created the most chances again, but never looked liked scoring, with Bent never getting in the game, and the service from the wings diminished. For the last 10 minutes of the game Villa looked a bit shaky as they allowed Newcastle to come on to them and have more possession but they only had 2 chances on target, with Peter Lovenkrands finding keeper Brad Friedel on both occasions.

Throughout the game Villa looked to get the ball out wide and work off Ashley Young and Stuart Downing's crosses and this worked in the 1st half but in the 2nd half they were less involved, and recent signing, center midfielder, Makoun didn't seem to work hard enough to get involved in the game and Villa's outlet then became Gabriel Agbonlahor who also didn't make much of an impact on the game. Newcastle were pretty poor, not being able to keep possession long enough to create chances in the 2nd half.

Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama (Indy Car):

The race started with most of the cars getting cleanly through the first 2 turns, but after banging wheels with J.R. Hildebrand, Raphael Matos spun off causing a full course caution on the first lap, but he got it going again and carried on. Tony Kanaan had a great start and picked up 10 places before the caution. On lap 36 Alex Tagliani got loose and spun out with no one around him, and got stuck in the sand trap, to cause the 2^nd full course caution. The race restarted on lap 41 and as they went into turn 6 the field bunched up and got 3 wide with EJ Viso and Simona de Silvestro coming together ending Viso's race as well as rookie James Hinchcliffe who got caught up in the accident, causing the 3^rd full course caution of the day. They restarted again on lap 46 but could not complete a full lap under green after Mike Conway got spun out by Danica Patrick and hit the fence ending his day. On lap 58 Ryan Hunter-Reay went up the inside of Ryan Briscoe and hit the curb which fired him back across the track, taking out Briscoe in the process, and causing another full course caution. Everybody pitted under the caution, with Patrick making up 3 spots after not taking tyres, but after they restarted, on lap 63, she lost 3 places before Justin Wilson and Matos got together, ending their days, causing another full course caution. Brit Wilson was racing with a damaged left wrist and on lap 45 he had to switch braces after breaking the first one and was probably glad to get home for some recovery time before next weeks race in Long Beach. The race restarted on lap 70 and ran under green flag until the end, Patrick dropped back further down the field, due to her old tyres, and eventually finished in 17^th, 1 lap down. Will Power had a good day leading from start to finish and doing a good job on the double-file restarts to keep the lead for all of the race, this sent him to the top of the leader board with Dario Franchitti trailing him by 7 points. Simon Pagenaud had a good race on his IndyCar debut, filling in for Ana Beatriz who has a broken wrist, finishing in 8^th place and keeping out of trouble. Brit James Jakes had to retire on lap 30 after an oil pressure issue caused a fire in his car. The race didn't feature too much overtaking but the double-file restarts led to some exciting racing.

Main Event:

DLF Indian Premier League (Twenty20 Cricket):

Deccan Chargers V Rajasthan Royals, A controversial winter has passed for the Royals, after initially being excluded by the BCCI due to ownership issues, they were reinstated, but faced a $2 million salary cap reduction when entering the player auction. But they did retain captain and main-man Shane Warne, as well as fellow Aussie Shane Watson and in the auction they captured Indian veteran Rahul Dravid, as well as current internationals Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Shaun Tait and Paul Collingwood (who was subsequently replaced by Jacob Oram after getting injured during the World Cup).

The Chargers didn't retain any of their previous players, losing Aussie stars Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds as well as Herschelle Gibbs, but in the auction they picked up internationals Dale Steyn, Cameron White, Kumar Sangakkara, Kevin Pietersen, Pragyan Ojha (who had previously played for the Chargers) and JP Duminy. But Pietersen will miss this years IPL through an hernia injury picked up during the World Cup, fellow Englishman Michael Lumb is also in the squad, but was not picked to play for this game.

This was the 2nd match of the tournament and the Chargers had a good start to the game scoring 40 off the first 5 overs, but they started to lose wickets, which slowed down their run-rate and were 71 for 4 after 11 overs. Daniel Christian and Ravi Teja then stabilised the innings and put on 37 off 27 balls between them before Christian was out. Teja then kept his scoring up until he was out for 28 in the last over, and after losing another wicket the Chargers finished with a score of 137 for 8. Medium-pacer Siddharth Trivedi had the best bowling figures only giving away 15 runs off his 4 overs, as well as taking 3 wickets.

The Royals would have thought that they could catch the Chargers modest score quite easily and they pretty much kept up with the Chargers 'worm' score, apart from 2 blips when they lost wickets. The Royals set themselves up needing 30 off the final 3 overs, and after scoring 15 in the 18th over they caught the Chargers total in the 19th over to win the match with 7 balls remaining. Botha had a good innings scoring 67 off 47 balls, but didn't take any wickets with his 4 overs, giving away 31 runs, Taylor also had a good game, scoring 21 off 14 balls, and forming fantastic partnership with Botha that won the game.

Cool-Down's:

This years Indian Premier League started on Friday with 2 new teams, Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala, an expanded un-balanced regular season and a new play-off format, that favours the 2 higher ranked teams. The teams look significantly different from previous seasons with each franchise only being able to hold on to up to 4 players, and the rest of the players going back into the auction, this was to help redistribute players between the new teams to make them competitive from the start. 7 English players were originally signed up for IPL4, but due to injuries only Eoin Morgan, Owais Shah and Michael Lumb have joined up with their teams, and after the opening games only Morgan has played, scoring 6 off 6 balls, before being stumped by MS Dhoni in his 1^st game and not batting in his 2^nd.

Recent Results:

Npower League 1 (Football): Brighton and Hove Albion 2 Sheffield Wednesday 0

Evo-Stik South (Football): Shepshed Dynamo 1 Sheffield FC 2

Dhoni leads the way in Mumbai

My Sporting Weekend 1-4^th April 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Super League (Rugby league):

Leeds Rhinos V Wigan Warriors, the game had a scrappy opening with both teams conceding penalty's, with Leeds giving away the majority and Wigan having most of the possession. Joel Tomkins then got the first try of the game, for Wigan, on 10 minutes, after a good break from Thomas Leuluai. Leeds then came into the game and Jamie Jones-Buchanan got over for their first try, after some fast passing caused their to be a wide gap in Wigan's defensive line. And less than 2 minutes later, after a chip through from Ryan Hall, Danny Buderus had some good footwork before going over for Leeds second try. From that point Leeds had virtually all the possession until halftime and Wigan only went up to Leeds's goal line once, before knocking on. After dominating the first 15 minutes Wigan were lucky to be only trailing by 8 points at half time after Leeds had 2 chances wiped off by the video ref, as well as being pulled back at least 2 other times for forward passes in good positions.

The second half started with Kevin Sinfield slotting over 2 penalty, both in front of the sticks, the second one after Jeff Lima was sin-binned for a tackle below the knee on Chris Clarkson. After a mistake under the high ball Sam Tomkins gave away a scrum on his 10 metre line and Brent Webb went over after Leeds moved the ball out left. Liam Farrell had a good break to make metres, and this was followed by S Tomkins chipping through Leeds's defensive line before re-gathering and going over on 65 minutes. On 73 minutes Darrell Goulding went over low on the left wing after a high pass from Sean O'Loughlin to bring Wigan within 8 points of Leeds, and with 3 minutes to go Prescot squeezed over the line and Sam Tomkins converted to bring them within 2 points. After a good break from Sam Tomkins Wigan went up the pitch and won a penalty just short of Leeds's goal line and they then completed the comeback after Sam Tomkins scored with the last kick of the game to earn a draw.

Wigan did play well for the first 15 minutes, pinning Leeds on their goal-line and created some chances, but when Leeds came into the game they seemed to run out of ideas and didn't know what to do. Leeds played some great rugby in spells but they couldn't kill off Wigan and as they tired towards the end of the match they let them back into the game.

Spanish Grand Prix (Moto GP):

This was the seasons first (of 4!) visits to Spain, and more specifically the Circuito de Jerez. The rain was falling as the race started and Casey Stoner had a good start going into the first corner in the lead. After qualifying in 12th Ducati's Valentino Rossi also had a good start to the race getting up to 4^th within 4 laps after some good overtaking maneuvers and after a few more laps he had caught up with the leading pack. On lap 7 Rossi went down the inside of Stoner, during the first corner, and lost the front end, taking both riders down, this left Stoner out of the race and Rossi at the back of the field. Then on lap 11 Marco Simoncelli, who was leading by 3 seconds, came off his bike, putting himself out of the race. This left Jorge Lorenzo in the lead, but Dani Pedrosa, who had had a bad start to the race dropping as low as 8^th catching him. With 7 laps to go Cal Crutchlow, who was in 5^th, came off also in the first corner and with 4 laps to go Pedrosa made a mistake that let Ben Spies go past him. But 1 lap later he came off putting Pedrosa back in 2^nd, 9 seconds behind leader Jorge Lorenzo. With 2 laps to go 3^rd placed Colin Edwards's bike had mechanical problems putting him out of the race and Nicky Hayden took the final place on the podium. After coming off Rossi did well to fight back through the field and eventually finished in 5^th. Further back in the field their was a good battle, that involved a pack of up to 6 riders at times, led at times by Randy de Puniet and Karel Abraham, but both came off in separate incidents and as the pack broke up Hiroshi Aoyama took the lead and with all the riders coming off ahead of him he eventually finished in 4^th. This was a very exciting race with a lot of riders coming off their bikes due to the wet track and later on tyres wearing out, and as well as this their was some good overtaking. But their seems to be such a wide difference between the top manufacture teams and the other teams and satellite teams as shown with Rossi going through the pack twice with ease.

Co-operative Championship (Rugby League):

Sheffield Eagles V Halifax RLFC, Halifax opened the scoring on 7 minutes after Joe Chandler collected a loose ball a few metres out and went over, their was a potential knock-on that caused the loose ball but the ref played on. Menzie Yere then got the Eagles first try, 5 minutes later, after breaking through a couple of tackle and going over down the left wing. A well worked move down the left-hand side led to Bradford dual-registration winger Vinny Finigan scoring the Eagles 2nd try for them to take the lead on 17 minutes. After forcing their second drop-out of the game the Eagles put pressure on Halifax before Alex Rowe went over on 23 minutes and soon after Halifax made a handling error on the Eagles goal-line and Kyle Wood made a good break getting just over half-way before being tackled, they then moved the ball out right and after some good footballing skills Tim Bergin went over on 28 minutes.

Halifax had a awful first half giving away easy penalty's as well as making simple handling errors, which Sheffield punished them for. The rain also didn't help their cause, but Sheffield used it to their advantage with Simon Brown kicking into the corners, looking to force errors.

The second half started with momentum shifting towards Halifax and after winning back-to-back penalty's Chandler went over for his second try of the game, on 45 minutes, but within 10 minutes the Eagles had scored two more try's, first Andrew Henderson went over from dummy-half and then after a fantastic line break from Alex Rowe Kyle Wood went over to virtually seal the game for Sheffield. Halifax did have a bit of a fight back scoring 2 more try's with Paul White scoring down the left side on 60 minutes and Ex-Eagles player Rob Worrincy scoring on the left wing on 67 minutes. They also had a try disallowed by the touch judge after Graham Holroyd knocked on 20 metres from his own goal line and the ref played on. On 73 minutes Sheffield's Brown scored a drop-goal to take the bonus point away from Halifax, and then Sheffield finished the game with Ryan Hepworth getting a try, and a final score of 41-22.

Sheffield played well with the forwards earning some good metres down the center of the pitch, but they switched off a bit in the second half letting Halifax back into the game, but they were not consistent enough to take control and make a comeback. Halifax had 2 former Eagles players, Rob Worrincy and Sam Barlow, and both had pretty poor games with Worrincy not being able to make much ground up down the wing and having too many handling errors, and Barlow giving away stupid penalty's.

Npower Championship (Football):

QPR V Sheffield United, QPR opened with all the possession and Wayne Routledge got the opener on 29 minutes, after stepping away from the defence and volleyed into the bottom right corner from a Heidar Helguson cross. Towards the end of the first half United came more into the game with Daniel Bogdanovic and Stephen Quinn having good chances. 7 Minutes into the second half Fourlin had a fantastic strike from the edge of the area, striking the ball across his body into the right hand side of the net, to extend QPR's lead. Helguson then got another assist on 66 minutes, after threading the ball down the right hand side of the box, Routledge shot across the United keeper Steve Simonsen into the bottom left corner of the net to get his second goal of the game. And the duo of Helguson and Routledge would of got a third goal it not for a fantastic reaction save from Simonson, after Routlede shot from 6 yards out. Rangers did create a few more opportunities but their shooting was pretty poor and did not trouble the United keeper.

Throughout the game United were pretty poor at times and its no surprise that they are 3^rd from bottom, they found it hard to hold the ball, and most of the time kicked it long, with QPR coming away with the ball most of the time. Also the defenders seemed to be caught marking space, and not the attackers, or following the ball headlessly. For example for the 3^rd goal left back Joe Mattock followed the player with the ball inside, leaving Routledge with lots of space out wide to run into and receive the ball, but he didn't need to follow the player as he had gone past him and he wouldn't catch him and their was also 2 other United players their to stop him. United's right back Nyron Nosworthy had a pretty poor game, and only laster 60 minutes, mis-controlling the ball several times to give away throw-ins, as well as giving away the corner that led to Fourlin's goal. QPR's man of the moment Adel Taarabt didn't really do much in the game, but his ability to hold the ball under pressure is outstanding, but his lack of defensive nous may get him caught out in the Premiership next season, as they look to have virtually guaranteed promotion.

Main Event:

ICC Cricket World Cup Final:

India V Sri Lanka, so here it is the last match of this long winded tournament that seemed to have started last decade and the game was played in front of a capacity crowd at the newly built Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Both teams had eased through their semi-finals, with India making 1 change from the team that last played, Seeresanth in for Ashish Nehra, who has a broken finger. But Sri Lanka had to make 4 changes, with Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Chamara Silva and Rangana Herath out, and Thisara Perera, Suraj Randiv, Chamara Kapugedera and Nuwan Kulasekara in, this was mainly due to the injury to Angelo Mathews and the need to re-jig the spinners.

Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat but it was India who made the best start, allowing only 31 runs during the first 10 overs of power-play, as well as taking the wicket of Upul Tharanga, who edged into the slips off a Zaheer Khan ball for only 2 runs off 20 balls. In the 17th over, after increasing their run rate a bit, Sri Lanka lost their 2nd wicket after the ball flicked off Till Dilshan pads onto the stumps from a Harbhajan Singh ball. Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena then formed a good partnership, scoring 62 off 68 balls, before Sangakkara was out off an outside edge caught by Mahendra Sing Dhoni from a Yuvraj Singh ball. In the 32nd over Indian captain and wicketkeeper Dhoni called for a review after the ball had flicked up into his gloves, but the conclusion was that it came off Thilan Samaraweera's leg pad, but India got their next wicket in the 39th over after their second review was called and Samaraweera was then dismissed for an LBW off Yuvraj's ball, to get his second wicket. In the next over new batsman Kapugedera played a shot, off a slow ball from Zaheer Kahn, straight towards Suresh Raina, who made the easy catch, for Sri Lanka's 5th wicket to fall. India's 3rd and final review, of the first innings, came in the 44th over after Munaf Patel claimed that Nuwan Kulasekara had nicked the ball, but the original decision of not out was upheld. Kulasekara then went on to get the first 6 of the game with the first ball of the 48th over, before Jayawardena reached his century, off just 84 balls, 4 balls later, and then Kulasekara was run out after the last ball of the over. Sri Lanka ended their innings with Thisara Perera scoring a 6 off the last ball for him to finish with 23 off 9 balls. Even though they built a couple of good partnerships Sri Lanka didn't really kick on until the last 5 overs when they scored 63 off 30 balls to finish their innings with a run rate of 5.48 and a score of a score of 274 for 6. But a score of 274 was potentially defendable, as long as Sri Lanka took wickets. Zaheer Kahn had an innings of 2 halves for India, after bowling 3 maidens and only giving away 6 runs during his first 5 overs he was hit around the ground for 54 during his last 5 overs.

Lasith Malinga opened the bowling for Sri Lanka and took Virender Sehwag, who wasted a review looking for an inside edge, for an LBW with his 2nd ball, and he then got his second wicket in the 7th over as Sachin Tendulkar edged to wicketkeeper Sangakkara. India had kept up with the required run-rate but after losing their first 2 wickets they started to fall behind, but staying ahead of Sri Lanka's scoring worm, and only posted 41 runs for the first 10 overs of powerplay, their lowest score in the tournament. During the second power-play, as Sri Lanka introduced spin, India picked up the scoring, getting 40 off the 5 overs and India reached 100 during the 20th over, compared to Sri Lanka who took 24 overs, who at this stage were also 2 wickets down. During the 22nd over Dilshan bowled and had a fantastic one handed catch to dismiss Virat Kohli, for 35, but for the next 10 or so overs India kept up with the run rate, as Sri Lanka couldn't break the partnership between Gutam Gambhir and MS Dohni, and they left themselves needing 92 from the last 15 overs. Sri Lanka eventually broke the partnership, in the 42nd over, when Perera bowled Gambir for 97, giving them a slight hope of getting back into the game. In the 44^th over their was a close call for a run out that went to an Umpire Review, but Dhoni was ruled to be in, and 2 balls later Sri Lanka called for a review on Yuvraj for a possible LBW shout, but their was an inside edge before it hit his pads. India caught Sri Lanka's score with 10 balls remaining, after Dhoni put the ball into the stands to score a huge 6, to win the 2011 Cricket World Cup in front of their home crowd.

Unexpectedly each teams biggest stars India's Sachin Tendulkar and Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan, who was playing in his last ever game for Sri Lanka, didn't really feature in the game, with Tendulkar only scoring 18 and Muralitharan's bowling was ineffective not taking any wickets, or really making an impact on the game, and it also looked as if his injury's had caught up with him. Sri Lanka's bowling was quite economical, but their inability to take enough wickets cost them the game.

Cool-Down's:

Now the World Cup has ended, on reflection, I think that the main issue was the scheduling of the games, with the group stage taking too long to complete. Most days only had 1 game played, but if 2 games a day were played (1 day game, 1 day-night game) then it would have taken 9 less days to complete the group stage. And removing 9 days out of 43 day tournament would have made a big difference, shortening the tournament for the players and helping the group stages to develop more quickly. Anyway that doesn't matter now as it has been officially announced that the next Cricket World Cup, in 2015, will be only contested by only the 10 full ICC members, leaving out the associate members such as Ireland, Kenya, Holland and Canada. Now this is a pretty stupid decision as how are the associate members meant to improve their standard of cricket if they are not playing against the best teams, especially as they don't really play games against these teams outside of the World Cup or T20 World Cup, now if some sort of system was brought in whereby they do play the top level teams more often then it may be an understandable decision, but that is not going to happen as these games would not be seen as cost effective, i.e. not making the big teams enough profit. For the 2019 World Cup their will be a qualifying process which is a slightly better situation for the associate members, but how are the top teams meant to fit these fixtures into their already packed schedules.

Recent Results:

Npower League 1: Sheffield Wednesday 2 Colchester United 1

Evo-Stik South: Kidsgrove Athletic 2 Sheffield FC 2