My Sporting Weekend 1-2nd Of July 2011:
Warm-Up's:
FIFA Women’s World Cup (Football):
England V New Zealand, England dominated the start of the game, but it was New Zealand who got the opening goal, on 18 minutes, with Sarah Gregorius slotting in, assisted by a good run that beat the offside trap and cut-back cross from Amber Hearn. England then carried on their domination of the game with the better of the possession, but although they created some good chances, they disappointingly had only 1 shot on target. And as the half went on New Zealand came more into the game, with quick counter attacks, and a couple more shots of their own.
The 2nd half started, again, with England having all the possession as they pushed forward, and as the match went on they started to get more and more desperate looking for the equaliser, allowing New Zealand to counter-attack. Then on 63 minutes Jill Scott equalised with a looping header to the back post, off a long cross from from deep by right-back Alex Scott. As England pushed forward looking for the lead New Zealand had more of the ball in good positions, but they couldn't capitalise on their possession and a scrappy 2nd goal gave England the lead, on 81 minutes, with Jess Clark firing in after J Scott rolled the ball across the box in her direction.
New Zealand were physical throughout the match, and fortunately for them the referee was very lenient as their wasn't a single card shown, but they couldn't capitalize on this physical dominance and after 2 defeats they are now out of the tournament, but they do have a final match against Mexico to try and get something from the tournament. Goalkeeper Jenny Bindon was probably New Zealand's best player, making some good saves and keeping them in the game, until the 2nd English goal went in.
England made hard work of their victory and now face Japan in their final group-game, with a draw most probably putting them through to the quarter finals, and a win hopefully making sure they miss Germany in the next round.
Super League (Rugby League):
Wigan Warriors V Leeds Rhinos, Leeds had a good 1st half, leading 18-6 at the break, but Wigan were unlucky not to have been awarded 2 penalty tries (although they did score soon after the 2nd incident) after Pat Richards was twice taken out in the air when trying to catch high bomb's on the Leeds goal line.
Wigan came out of the blocks fast in the 2nd half with 2 quick tries as they took the lead, and control of the game, but as both teams tired errors crept into the game and Leeds Zak Hardaker got a try on 70 minutes after a good dab through from Danny McGuire. Both teams then had good chances in the last 10 minutes, with McGuire having a try chalked off for a knock-on as he tried to kick through, but it was Wigan who took the victory after their 2nd half fightback.
NatWest Womens Quadrangular Series (Cricket):
Australia V India, Chesterfield is not well known for hosting international events, but on Thursday and Saturday Queens Park cricket ground hosted 2 games in the current Womens Quadrangular series involving England, Australia, India and New Zealand, the 1st match being New Zealand V Australia, which Australia won by 29 runs, and the 2nd match involved Australia and India.
Just as I walked into the ground the 1st wicket fell, in the 6th over, as India were batting, and just after the opening power-play was completed the 2nd wicket fell, as India seemed to be floundering at 28 for 2. But opener Poonam Rout held the innings together and formed a good partnership with Mithali Raj, who scored 49 off 61 balls before being bowled by Shelly Nitschke. Rout then took the lead, reaching 60 before being caught by Jess Cameron, and soon after that Harmanpreet Kaur went for 31, after being caught by wicket keeper and captain, Jodie Fields. After that wickets fell regularly until the end of the innings, with Amita Sharma being the top score with only 18 and India made 215 with their 10th wicket falling with 2 balls to go.
India made a good start with the ball, only allowing 14 runs in the 1st 5 overs, but Australia picked up the pace, reaching 52 by the end of the 1st power-play. And soon after the 1st wicket fell, in the 11th over, as Meg Lanning was run-out after a miscommunication with fellow opener Nitschke.
Australia reached 100 in the 24th over and it looked as if they would catch India's target, of 215, with a few overs remaining, but India's Jhulan Goswami and Ekta Bisht carried on their good spells with the ball as the Aussie middle order found it hard to get runs. And it wasn't until Sarah Coyte came to the crease that that the Aussie's innings were stabilised with her making 17 off 19 balls which helped Australia to dramatically win the match on the last ball. Needing 1 from the last ball Coyte scampered through for a single, with both the wicket keeper (Anagha Deshpande, who had a good game taking 4 catches) and bowler missing the stumps, as they tried to run out both batters.
This was a good day out watching cricket, and I thoroughly enjoyed my 1st ever international cricket match, and realistically it does not bother me watching either men or women as all that I care about is seeing competitive sport, and not too many walk-overs.
It was just a shame their was very little advertising for both matches at Queens Park and I only found out about the games by accident on Thursday while looking for upcoming Yorkshire fixtures.
Main Event:
WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO Heavyweight Titles (Boxing):
David Haye v Wladimir Klitschko, After 2 years of will they, wont they, between David Haye and the Klitschko brothers, one of the most hyped up fights in recent history actually took place on Saturday night with Brit Haye taking on the younger of the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir, at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg.
Leading up to the fight it had been raining all day and the soaked crowd were kept waiting even longer when Haye delaying his entrance to the ring, keeping Klitschko waiting backstage, as he tried to gain the psychological advantage.
Both fighters had a tentative start to the fight, with the significantly larger Klitschko controlling the centre of the ring, and both fighters looking to land quick jabs, and the odd bigger shot.
In the 2nd round both fighters landed head shots, and all though they weren’t very effective, they would have given them both confidence to go back for more, and try and land bigger, heavier shots.
The 3rd round came alive with Haye landing a big right handed shot, and for the first time the crowd could be heard singing and this was then followed by both fighters landing combinations.
A close 4th round came and went with similar action of a few head shots and during 5th round Haye started to get cocky as he dropped his guard and defended himself against Klitschko's jabs with his quick reflexes. But it was Klitschko who ended the round on top after landing a few combination punches.
The 6th was close and cagey again and in the 7th Klitschko was deducted a point for pushing Haye to the floor as the cageyness continued, and as both fighters tired, the 8th and 9th rounds had less action, with only a few bigger shots being landed.
Klitschko's fans started to make some good noise in the 10th round as he responded to Hayes jabs with a couple of landed shots at the end of the round, and in the 11th round Haye received a standing count after it looked like he slipping down as he stepped into a Klitschko jab. This seemed to be punishment from the ref from playing wolf, with going down to easily as Klitschko towered over him.
In the 12th and final round Haye landed a good right handed shot and Klitschko looked shaken as he held onto Haye while trying to compose himself, as well as not allowing Haye to build on this momentum. And as the round continued both fighters landed a couple of shots as they tried to end the fight, but it wasn't to be, and the fight went the distance.
Both fighters claimed victory after the final bell but it was the Klitschko camp who looked the more convinced of the victory. And it was Klitschko who got the unanimous decision by a large margin, taking Haye's WBA title.
During the fight Adam Booth looked cool and calm in the corner as he relayed information to his boxer, with the rest of the team keeping out of the way, giving Haye space, and compared to this Emanuel Steward was starting to get a bit flustered in Klitschko's corner, as the rest if his team crowded around him. Also Haye used a tactic of going to ground as Klitschko took control and towered over him, over-exaggerating the pushing down and during recent Klitschko fights (both brothers) have been allowed to dominate their opponents by holding on to them, and pushing them around.
In Haye's post match interview he revealed that he was fighting with a broken toe on his right foot, which he said stopped him from pushing off that foot as he tried to land a big right-handed shot, but this seemed to be a bit of a poor excuse as tried not to give Klitschko the credit for the win.
The Klitschko's have now completed their goal of unified the heavyweight division between them
Recent Results:
The Co-Operative Championship (Rugby League): Sheffield Eagles 30-26 Barrow Raiders
Friends Life T20 (Cricket): Northamptonshire: 132-7 (20.0 overs)
Yorkshire: 144 (20.0 overs)
Yorkshire beat Northamptonshire by 12 runs
Yorkshire: 152-5 (20.0 overs)
Nottinghamshire: 156-4 (18.1 overs)
Nottinghamshire beat Yorkshire by 6 wickets
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