India sign off with third straight defeat

NOTTINGHAM, June 16 (PTI): A pathetic India could not salvage their lost pride and sunk to a 12-run defeat against South Africa to end their miserable Twenty20 World Cup campaign on a losing note here tonight.

Supposedly playing for pride, India's star-studded batting order could not chase down the 131 runs that would have spared them the embarrassment of finishing the Super Eight campaign without a single win to show.

In the end, 118 was all they could manage losing eight wickets.

This was after India's disciplined bowlers -- eight of them were pressed into action -- had restricted South Africa to 130 for five on a sluggish track and the Proteas owed nearly half of their total to AB de Villiers (63) alone.

Gautam Gambhir (21) and Rohit Sharma (29) gave India a strong start but it was Yuvraj Singh's run-a-ball 25 that actually rekindled India's hopes of a win in their swansong tie before the defending champions faltered.

Going by their start, a defeat never looked like a possibility for India. With Gambhir wasting precious little time in imposing himself and his aggression rubbing off on Rohit, India were off to a flying start till the mid-innings collapsed happened. PTI

India's T20 team doesn't need me, says Tendulkar

CAPE TOWN: A lazy Sunday morning, the first hurdle crossed, and Sachin Tendulkar was in the mood. He had come down to for a commercial event in the team hotel and with a handful of media persons around, Tendulkar seemed to be opening his heart out.

Going back to his childhood days when he used to pick his own fantasy team with Sunil Gavaskar and Viv Richards as certainties, to why he is not playing international T20 cricket, Tendulkar was ready to play every ball.

After so many years of international cricket, is there a special feeling after showing the world, along with Rahul Dravid, that T20 cricket can also be played in a different vein? Sachin agreed, but only to a certain extent.

"This was probably my most satisfying T20 innings. But neither me, nor Rahul, have anything more to prove to the world.

We play just for the love of it," Tendulkar said with a smile hanging on his lips.

"All my life, I have played according to the situation. Yesterday, on a difficult wicket, the team wanted me to buckle down and bat through and I did just that," Tendulkar said, talking about his unbeaten 59 that won Mumbai Indians the opener against Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Team Chennai.

Probably, his son Arjun was more excited about the innings than the man himself. "Arjun was saying quite a few things...he was actually excited," Sachin joked.

Had he been 25, Tendulkar would surely have liked to play international T20 cricket, but not now, not anymore.

"I backed out of 2007 T20 World Cup because my body was not 100 per cent. I just didn’t want to be a burden on the team," he said.

But now that he is in such great form, why is he so adamant about not playing the T20 World Cup? "No point. This Indian team has gelled quite beautifully as a unit and there’s no need why I should be playing T20 cricket," Tendulkar added.

Not that Tendulkar dislikes the T20 format, but there’s something about it which can’t make him take it too seriously. Not that he would say it in as many words, but Tendulkar made it clear that technique doesn’t really matter too much in T20 cricket.

"If you play some of the T20 shots in Test cricket, you’ll be sitting there in the dressing-room for the next two days. But here you get runs for the same shot."

Source: TOI