LONDON // The Stanford Superstars scooped the richest prize in cricket after crushing England by 10 wickets in a one-sided Twenty20 US$20 million (Dh73.4m) challenge in Antigua last night.
The West Indian select team bowled England out for 99 in the last of their 20 overs and then raced to their target with seven overs to spare led by their captain Chris Gayle, who ended unbeaten on 65 after finishing the match with a six.
Each member of the victorious team takes home $1m with another $1m being shared by four non-playing squad members. The remainder of the prize pot goes to the English and West Indies cricket boards.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, England never got going and, with wickets falling all too regularly, failed to construct any sort of partnership.
The England captain Kevin Pietersen said poor preparation had been behind the humiliating defeat.
"It started during the week, there has been a lot of nonsense and unfortunately I don't think we concentrated hard enough on our cricket," Pietersen told Sky Sports.
"The main focus should have been to come in and concentrate on our cricket and that's what we've got to focus on." The second half of the innings continued in the same style with England struggling to get bat on ball and wickets tumbling.
Samit Patel top scored with 22 while Matt Prior (12) and Paul Collingwood (10) were the only others to make double figures as England's bid to scrape 100 fell short when Steve Harmison was bowled by Sulieman Been off the penultimate ball.
The wickets were shared pretty evenly with three for Benn, two each for Darren Sammy ? including the prize wicket of Pietersen ? Jerome Taylor and Kieron Pollard and one run out.
The Superstars, who prepared for the game in a six-week training camp, set about the chase in emphatic style with Andre Fletcher ungainly crashing three successive Stuart Broad balls for boundaries in the second over.
Gayle got in on the act in the fifth over from Harmison, smashing the game's first six, and then another in a over that produced 22 runs to further emphasise the difference in class.
The 50 came up in the sixth over and the left-hander Gayle continued to dominate with two more huge sixes before reaching his personal 50 in the 11th over.
With Fletcher unbeaten on 32 from 31 balls, Gayle finished it off perfectly by thumping another six over long on to set off wild scenes of celebration.
The match financier Allen Stanford said in the post-match presentation the tournament had been a success.
"Our cricket in the Caribbean is back," the American added.
"Three years ago we started an experiment to get young kids who were going elsewhere back into cricket and to reward the best players. The results are here tonight, this programme is working."
*Reuters
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Company%20Profile
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Frida%20
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THE DETAILS
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Dir: Ron Howard
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson
3/5
The Greatest Royal Rumble card
50-man Royal Rumble - names entered so far include Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, The New Day and Elias
Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
WWE World Heavyweight ChampionshipAJ Styles (champion) v Shinsuke Nakamura
Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal
SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos
Raw Tag Team Championship (currently vacant) Cesaro and Sheamus v Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt
Casket match The Undertaker v Rusev
Singles match John Cena v Triple H
Cruiserweight Championship Cedric Alexander v Kalisto
The distance learning plan
Spring break will be from March 8 - 19
Public school pupils will undergo distance learning from March 22 - April 2. School hours will be 8.30am to 1.30pm
Staff will be trained in distance learning programmes from March 15 - 19
Teaching hours will be 8am to 2pm during distance learning
Pupils will return to school for normal lessons from April 5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
JAPAN SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Masaaki Higashiguchi, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, Sho Sasaki, Hiroki Sakai, Sei Muroya, Genta Miura, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
BOSH!'s pantry essentials
Nutritional yeast
This is Firth's pick and an ingredient he says, "gives you an instant cheesy flavour". He advises making your own cream cheese with it or simply using it to whip up a mac and cheese or wholesome lasagne. It's available in organic and specialist grocery stores across the UAE.
Seeds
"We've got a big jar of mixed seeds in our kitchen," Theasby explains. "That's what you use to make a bolognese or pie or salad: just grab a handful of seeds and sprinkle them over the top. It's a really good way to make sure you're getting your omegas."
Umami flavours
"I could say soya sauce, but I'll say all umami-makers and have them in the same batch," says Firth. He suggests having items such as Marmite, balsamic vinegar and other general, dark, umami-tasting products in your cupboard "to make your bolognese a little bit more 'umptious'".
Onions and garlic
"If you've got them, you can cook basically anything from that base," says Theasby. "These ingredients are so prevalent in every world cuisine and if you've got them in your cupboard, then you know you've got the foundation of a really nice meal."
Your grain of choice
Whether rice, quinoa, pasta or buckwheat, Firth advises always having a stock of your favourite grains in the cupboard. "That you, you have an instant meal and all you have to do is just chuck a bit of veg in."
