Sports digest -Dubliner Eoin Morgan continued his fine form as his innings of 40 off 34 balls helped England scramble a three-wicket win over New Zealand to complete a perfect Super Eight record – a result that is likely to see them avoid Australia in their semi-final.
England needed to reach 120 in reply to the Kiwis’ 149 for six in yesterday’s final Group E match in St Lucia to remain top of the table on run rate. But on the back of an important stand of 52 between Morgan and Luke Wright, they did the job properly to ensure they can welcome the absent Kevin Pietersen back from London – where his baby son was born today – with the lure of a chance to reach his first final in a world event.
New Zealand were edged out for a place in the last four on run rate by Pakistan – who, like South Africa, also managed just one Super Eight victory to England’s three.
From the moment Craig Kieswetter got England’s run chase off to a flying start with a straight six and a four in Nathan McCullum’s first over, they were almost always on course to book a semi-final back at this ground on Thursday against the runners-up in Group E.
Vinokourov leads in Giro
CYCLING:Irish pro Daniel Martin suffered bad luck on yesterday's third stage of the Giro d'Italia, being delayed by a crash and reaching the finish seven minutes and 59 seconds behind the stage winner Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step).
World champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) also lost out, dropping 46 seconds to the front riders. That cost him the race lead, with the controversial Kazah Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) taking over instead.
Martin is now 106th overall, nine minutes and seven seconds back, thanks to two days of being delayed by other riders’ accidents.
“It was a crash that caused the problem,” he said. “I stayed upright somehow, but got delayed by the fall that ended [Garmin Transitions team-mate] Christian Vande Velde’s race.”
Ronan McLaughlin finished eighth overall and won the King of the Mountains title in Sunday’s Circuit de Wallonie in Belgium. He was 36 seconds back from overall winner Thomas Degand from Belgium.
Williams shows her mettle to overcome Dushevina
TENNIS:A pumped-up Serena Williams drew on all her battling qualities to get past Vera Dushevina into the third round of the Madrid Open yesterday, coming back from a set down and saving a match point for a 6-7 7-6 7-6 success.
The American world number one, who won her 12th Grand Slam title at January’s Australian Open before injury sidelined her for three months, looked to be on her way out of the clay event when the unseeded Russian held a match point at 6-5 in the second set.
She clawed her way back and took the deciding set despite having a long treatment break for right thigh and lower back problems.
She squandered one match point with a wild backhand at 6-4 in the third-set tiebreak, but a ninth ace on the next point prompted a bellow of delight from the 28-year-old after almost three and a half hours of play. In first round matches, eighth-seeded Samantha Stosur edged past Gisela Dulko 7-6 7-5 and 16th seed Nadia Petrova beat fellow Russian Elena Vesnina 4-6 6-2 6-3.
Top-eight finish for McCreery
TABLE TENNIS:Ireland's Paul McCreery produced the performance of his career at the International Table Tennis Fedeeration World Junior Circuit event in Barcelona, culminating in a top-eight finish.
In the group stages, McCreery claimed victories over Dorian Nicolle of France and Lewis Gray of England to progress to the last 64, where he faced Otsuka of Japan and won 4-2. In the last 32, he faced Tristan Flore, ranked the 52nd junior in the world, and again showed supreme battling qualities to win 4-3 and progress to the last 16.
Facing Sweden’s Jesper Hedlund, McCreery had a straight-sets victory to reach the quarter-final, where he met the top seed and eventual runner-up Patrick Franziska of Germany.
Franziska, 175th in the world senior rankings, had too much for McCreery, winning in straight sets.
Busy line-up at Royal Ulster show
EQUESTRIAN: The annual three-day Royal Ulster Agricultural Show starts tomorrow morning in the King's Hall, Belfast, and there will be two international show jumping classes each day with the highlight being Friday afternoon's Grand Prix. There are also four national jumping classes for which horses have pre-qualified.
In the large showing section, three championships, for broodmares, youngstock and hunters, will be decided tomorrow with all other sections bar the working hunters coming before the judges on Thursday. Friday is devoted to the workers with horses in the morning and ponies in the afternoon.
