Apna Pakistan

Congrats to all the Africans out there!
In the series against the Indians, South Africa completed a whitewash by beating the Indians by 4-0. First match ended up to be a “no-result” game but other four games gave results in favour of the hard working South Africans.

Shaun Pollock performed extra-ordinarily well in the tournament, because of what he got the man of the series award. He performed well through out the series. He managed to pick up 10 wickets in four games with 83 given in total - strike rate of 8.3.

AB de Villiers was the top scorer in the tournament. He managed to score 175 runs in 4 games with an average of 58.33. Highest batting average in the tournament was of Jack Kallis of 84.00.

After the end of the series, ODI team rankings slightly changed. South Africa didn’t move from its position and stayed at 2nd, next to the World Champions Australia. India, however, dropped to 6th position, that is below Sri Lanka, where they are tied with West Indies. Both teams have 106 points.

A British Airways flight was going to Pakistan in Islamabad from London. When it gets close to Karachi it starts having some kind of trouble. The pilot contacts the Air Tower at Islamabad airport and asks for help:

“Hello Islamabad, this is Captain Smith, British Airways flight 000, do you read?”

“Flight 000, this is Tower flight Control of Islamabad , go ahead”

“Islamabad, this is flight 000, we have a problem”

“This is Islamabad, what kind of problem?”

“This is flight 000, we have lost power to our engines, please advise”

“This is Islamabad; I reed you, please check some things for me, ok?”

“This is flight 000, go ahead”

“This is Islamabad; can you get emergency power to your engines?”

“This is flight 000, negative, no power is available”

“This is Islamabad; can you please bring your altitude to 20,000 feet?”

“This is flight 000, negative, our wing controls do not respond”

“This is Islamabad: can you please see if you can lower your wheels?”

“This is flight 000, negative, landing gears are stuck”

“This is Islamabad: would you please repeat these words after me”

“This is flight 000, go ahead”

“This is Islamabad: repeat these words please:

“Inna Lillah I Wa Inna Ila’hi Rajioon”

Toronto Maple Leafs lose again. Today they lost to the Montreal Canadiens in a shootout. Here is an article from The Toronto Star.

The Montreal Canadiens pulled off a come-from-behind win that would make Liberal Leader Stephane Dion proud, relying on captain Saku Koivu to score twice in the third to rally his team to a 4-3 shootout win against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kevin McGran reports.

The Montreal Canadiens pulled off a come-from-behind win that would make Liberal Leader Stephane Dion proud, relying on captain Saku Koivu to score twice in the third to rally his team to a 4-3 shootout win.

The Leafs, who had a 3-1 lead and perhaps like Michael Ignatieff expected better, came away with a point. But they have won only two of their last nine games.

The Canadiens, who lost to Carolina on Thursday, hadn’t lost two in a row all season and weren’t about to begin now.

When Sheldon Souray scored in the shootout and Kyle Wellwood didn’t, it was all over. The Leafs are now 2-3 this season in shootout situations.

A city gripped by Liberal poliltics earlier in the day was on the edge of its seat when the struggling Leafs faced off against the surging Canadiens.

Leaf head coach Paul Maurice had been saying all week that if his team was to break out of its scoring slump – and its losing ways — it would start with defence. Offence, he said, begins with defence.

He wasn’t kidding.

Rookie defenceman Ian White scored the game’s first goal. The just-inserted defenceman Brendan Bell was instrumental setting up Mats Sundin for a 2-0 first period lead.

And the ever offensive-minded tandem of Bryan McCabe and Tomas Kaberle chipped in with assists for the Leafs’ third goal.

Wellwood slapped home a rebound at 2:21 of the third with Alex Kovalev off for hooking as the Leafs sudden inability to score with the man advantage ended.

The power play had gone 0-for-17 over two-plus games while the Leafs lost three in a row. It was a relief for Wellwood, who counted his sixth goal, and first point in four games.

Alexander Perezhogin scored for Montreal, which had only itself to blame in taking needless penalties. The game proved costly to the Canadiens. Defenceman Craig Rivet injured his arm and didn’t play the third period.

Koivu outhustled Mike Peca on a faceoff, powering by the Leaf defensive stalwart to make it 3-2 at 11:17 of the third, setting up an action-packed finish that had fans chanting, the house rocking and the Leafs back on their heels.

White took one of those delay-of-game calls when his clearing effort went over the glass into the crowd at 14:46 and the noise was deafening. It got even louder when Koivu deflected Alex Kovalev’s shot for a power play goal to tie the game at 15:24.

Andrew Raycroft put on a solid performance in the Toronto net, picking up his first win in four games. Cristobal Huet, the league’s hottest goalie, looked uncomfortable in net to start the game, but settled down in the second period.

The difference for the Leafs were some of the little things: good pinching decisions by defencemen, quick passes out of their own zone, and the tall men like Nik Antropov and Hal Gill holding territory.

Montreal played a physical game, hammering Sundin, Darcy Tucker and Jeff O’Neill on numerous occasions. There were times when both sides seemed ready to come to blows. Montreal defenceman Francois Bouillon dropped the gloves in the first to start fighting Tucker, who thought better of a fight. Tucker, oddly enough, ended up with the extra two minutes, for charging, near the end of the first period.

Congrats to all Raptors’ fans. Victory at last!
Below is an article from The Toronto Star:

Raptors 103, Knicks 100

Dec. 2, 2006. 10:33 PM

DOUG SMITH

NEW YORK – These are indeed heady times for the Raptors, who have been winning more than they’ve been losing of late and looking good in the process; making amends for a difficult start to the NBA season.

They marched off the Madison Square Garden floor last night feeling proud of themselves, having vanquished the New York Knicks 103-100 in a game that won’t go down as one of the greatest defensive battles of the season but one that was entertaining and confidence-boosting for the beleagured Toronto team.

Despite a dominant late-game performance by New York’s Eddy Curry, who scored 13 straight points for his team, the Raptors hung on as T.J. Ford made four clutch free throws and a huge basket in the final 90 seconds.

Those were six of Ford’s 20 points as the Knick guards couldn’t match his quickness at any point. Chris Bosh had 21 points in the first half and finished with 28 while Jorge Garbajosa had just eight points but grabbed a huge offensive rebound in the final 30 seconds.

Curry had 27 for the Knicks. Toronto has now won four of five and two straight and is 7-10 on the season, in sole possession of second place in the Atlantic Division.

The last time they won on back-to-back nights was last Feb. 12-13 when they beat Portland in Toronto and won the next night at Minnesota and they didn’t get their seventh win last year until the 29th game of the season, when they beat Atlanta to go 7-22.

The starting lineup change – Rasho Nesterovic in and Joey Graham out – was made simply to save Bosh the wear and tear of having to battle Eddy Curry in the low post.

Curry’s listed at 6-11, 285 pounds and Bosh is 6-10, 230; that 55 official pounds difference is likely substantially more in reality.

“The guy out-weighs Chris by twice as much and I just think it would be too much to ask Chris to do it for 38 minutes,” Raptor coach Sam Mitchell said before the game. “That’s what we got Rasho for, nights like this; it wouldn’t be very smart if we didn’t use him.”

But instead of replacing Garbajosa, Mitchell took Joey Graham out of the starting lineup one night after putting him.

Nesterovic scored four of Toronto’s first 13 points and drew a quick foul on Curry but the Raptor centre got two personals himself in the first four minutes and had to come out of the game. That forced Mitchell to go with a frontcourt of Bosh, Garbajosa and Andrea Bargnani which represents Toronto’s biggest possible lineup.

“The guys play well together,” Mitchell said of the threesome. “Garbo can play multiple positions, Chris can step outside and do some things and with Andrea out there, he can shoot and stretch the defence a little bit. It gives us the flexibility.”

What makes that trio work is the fact Garbajosa can guard small forwards, something that’s been a rather pleasant surprise for the Raptors. He’s not quick, nor a great leaper but he knows how to keep guys in front of him and handle his man.

“Chris and Andrea can also switch out on guys and with the rules and such and the way you’re playing, you really can’t (isolate) a guy,” said Mitchell. “We feel like for the most part we can do a decent job getting to shooters.”

Not early last night, they couldn’t.

Despite knowing that New York’s Quentin Richardson was shooting 43 per cent from three-point range going into the game, they inexplicably left him open enough times that he made four from long range in the first quarter alone.

The Knicks made six three-pointers in a run-and-gun first half that allowed them to stay close as the Raptors led 64-60 at the break. Toronto shot 50 per cent in the half – Bosh had 21 points in 19 first half minutes – as the Raptors matched their biggest one-half offensive output of the season.

Bargnani, meanwhile, drew raves from Knicks coach Isiah Thomas before the game – to a point.

Thomas lauded the rookie’s shooting and ball-handling abilities (“he’s a perfect choice for them because he can stretch the defence,” Thomas said) but he wouldn’t go for any comparisons.

“I don’t think he’ll be the (Dirk) Nowitzki kind of player but he’ll be a big guy who can play out on the perimeter,: said Thomas. “Those guys come every 30, 40 years and it’s very rare you see two in the same league at the same time. There was one (Larry) Bird and there’s one Nowitzki.

“There was Bird and then Dirk came and it took a long time before Dirk came. There were a lot of Larry Bird comparisons but Dirk is the only one you can really legitimately have a discussion with.