Thursday, September 24, 2009 JOHANNESBURG: Pakistan defeated the West Indies by five wickets in their first Group A match of the ICC Champions Trophy here at the New Wanderers Stadium on Wednesday night.Chasing a rather easy target of 134, Pakistan completed the task in just 30.3 overs for the loss of five wickets.Young batsman Umar Akmal top scored with an unbeaten 41 while stand-in captain Shahid Afridi was 17 not out.Both added 58 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket stand after Pakistan lost their five top order batsmen for 76 runs.Gavin Tonge bagged four wickets for 25 runs.Earlier, Pakistan bowlers skittled out West Indies for 133 runs in 34.3 overs after the West Indies captain Floyd Reifer won the toss and elected to bat first but their batsmen could not resist the Pakistani seamers and the West Indies lost their seven wickets for 47.Later, their late-order batsmen took out the team from disaster and succeeded in taking the score to 133.Number nine batsman Nikita Miller emerged as top scorer with 51 from 57 balls. He struck six fours and a six.For Pakistan, seamers Mohammad Aamer and Umar Gul claimed three wickets each while spinner Saeed Ajmal got two wickets. Sahhid Afirdi and naved-ul-Hasan took one wicket each.All-rounder Shahid Afridi led Pakistan in the absence of Younus Khan, who was ruled out of the match due to a finger injury.West Indies: Floyd Reifer (captain), Darren Sammy, David Bernard, Tino Best, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Nikita Miller, Dale Richards, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge, Chadwick Walton.Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (captain), Imran Nazir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Rana Naved-ul Hasan, Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir, Saeed Ajmal.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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