Kenya Tears Through Scotland

Nehemiah Odhiambo tore through Scotland’s top order, tak ing five wickets as openers Steve Tikolo and David Obuya shared unbroken partnership of 126 runs to see Kenya win by 10 wickets at the Nairobi Gymkhana Thursday.

Winning the toss, in the Twenty20 friendly cricket match, Kenya put the visitors to the crease and Scotland bowled them out for 123.

Odhiambo picked up both openers in his first spell after Kyle Coetzer and Ryan Watson had made a bright start. Nelson Odhiambo bowled Fraser Watts while Neil Mc Callum was run out by Rakep Patel before Odhiambo found the edge of Richie Berrington’s bat as a surging Kenya reduced Scotland to 38 for 5.

Captain Gavin Hamilton and Jan Stander stabilized things.

Stander struck three sixes in his 45 runs before he was bowled by Nehemiah Odhiambo, only for Gordon Drummond to go the same way next ball.

Hamilton became another victim of Odhiambo after a tenacious 28 on 110.

Chasing, Obuya and Tikolo set about the visitors’ bowling with a vengeance with masterful display of powerful hitting.

The two went neck-to-neck towards their half centuries with Obuya finishing with 65 not out and Tikolo on unbeaten 56.

None of the Scottish bowlers was able to make inroads on a rampant Obuya and Tikolo.

More here: http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/kenya-posts-5-wicket-win-over-scotland-2010020543571.html

IRB Sevens – Darwin, New Zealand

The Springbok Sevens will face their nemesis Fiji for the third time in a row in the quarterfinals of the Wellington Sevens on Saturday after losing their final match against New Zealand 19-7.

After impressive wins over Niue and Wales, the Blitsbokke started off well against the Kiwis, but a lack of finishing power in the second half, problems with dew on the pitch and vital turnovers at the wrong time cost them dearly as the Kiwis went on to win.

The loser of the match would have to face Fiji, who looked in awesome form on day one, conceding just two tries in three matches as they looked odds-on favourites for the title.

The Springboks have lost their last four games against Fiji, twice last season and in the quarter-finals of George and Dubai.

Unfortunately for the Boks, they will have to lift their game and beat the Fijians if they are to salvage any pride in the rest of the IRB Sevens series. Their poor performances in Dubai and George mean gave them nightmare draws in Wellington and next week in Las Vegas, where they have Fiji in their pool and New Zealand in the quarters if they finish second.

In a game which was physical throughout and evenly matched, the Boks were denied a try early on when referee JP Doyle ruled a forward pass from Kyle Brown to Steven Hunt with an open tryline in front of him.

The home side were the first on the board when their speedster Sherwin Stowers stepped Rayno Benjamin, who slipped on the wet dew, before stepping through a tackle by Mzwandile Stick.

The Boks hit back to level things at the break when Benjamin did a nice switch with Brown on attack, beating the New Zealand defence with speed.

The Boks attacked for most of the second half, but twice slipped after taking the gap, allowing the defence to close them down.

Then on attack, the All Blacks forced a turnover, allowing the ball to be spread to Zar Lawrence, who sprinted in for the try.

Desperate and with time running out, Mpho Mbiyozo attacked from within his own 22 metre area, but was caught by three defenders and turned the ball over, with Kurt Baker running in for the try to seal the game.

More here: http://www.supersport.com/rugby/article.aspx?headline=Blitsbokke%20face%20Fiji%20again%20in%20quarters&id=332105

Amazing How This Fascinates Women Of All Ages

John Terry’s Indiscretions

fter a weekend of damaging revelations surroundingJohn Terry and his affair with Wayne Bridge’s partner Vanessa Perroncel, all eyes are on Fabio Capello.

Will the single-minded England manager take tough action against his publicly-disgraced skipper and demand that he hand over his armband? Regardless, the onus to do the right thing should not be on Capello, but on John Terry.

If the 29-year-old defender wants to preserve the little respect he has left in the England dressing room and ensure he is on that plane to South Africa, he must accept to Capello that his position as captain is now untenable.

Capello, a devout Roman Catholic, is likely to be unimpressed by the allegations this weekend that Terry paid for his secret lover to have an abortion. But the Italian will want to hear Terry’s version of events first, when the two meet in the coming days. After that tense conversation, a decision should be made immediately.

Many people in England believe that Terry’s affair with the French model and mother of Wayne Bridge’s child is a private matter, unrelated to his ability to perform on the pitch for the national team.

‘JT’ has committed no crime; say the most blinkered Chelsea fans and the most fervently-patriotic England supporters who are desperate for the Three Lions to go all the way at the World Cup.

But by ‘doing the dirty’ on a team-mate (and former best friend) Terry has broken the code of the dressing room. No longer can Terry look his team-mates in the eye and command their full respect. Moreover, reports have emerged that some of Terry’s international team-mates are ‘disgusted’ by his behaviour.

Manchester United You Beauty

Wayne Rooney bagged his 100th Premier League goal as Manchester United saw off title rivals Arsenal 3-1 at Emirates Stadium.

A Manuel Almunia own goal and a well-taken effort from Park Ji-sung, either side of Rooney’s effort, saw the Red Devils to a comprehensive victory against their arch-rivals.

Thomas Vermaelen did pull one back for the Gunners late on, but it was no more than a consolation.

Both sides looked dangerous on the counter early on, but it was United who made the most of their opportunities as they broke the deadlock after 33 minutes.

The impressive Nani did brilliantly to twist his way inside two defenders and get to the dead-ball line.

From there he looked to stand a cross over the head of Almunia, but the Spanish shot-stopper got a hand on the ball and turned it into his own net.

United were now rampant and added a second four minutes later as Rooney and Nani broke at pace and the former rounded off a sweeping move by steering the ball into the bottom corner.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side were in no mood to take their foot of the pedal after the interval and added a clinical third on 52 minutes.

Arsenal were ripped wide open once again and Park was left with the simplest of tasks as he bore down on goal and slid the ball calmly under the onrushing Almunia.

With 10 minutes remaining the Gunners finally found a way through but an acrobatic volley from Vermaelen, which took a big deflection off Jonny Evans, failed to change the course of the game.

Man of the match:

Nani looked like the heir to Cristiano Ronaldo’s crown United hoped he would be.

Goal of the match:

United’s counter which led to Wayne Rooney’s goal was exquisite. Arsenal had no answer to the pace of Nani and Rooney finished in style.

And for my predictions in the weekend’s Premiership matches, I get the yellow cap on Superbru

Road To Wembley

Wayne Rooney headed home in second-  half injury-time to book Manchester  United’s place in the Carling Cup final  after they inflicted a 4-3 aggregate  victory over bitter rivals Manchester  City.

City went into the second leg at Old  Trafford boasting a 2-1 lead and they  looked good value for next month’s  showpiece after restricting United in the  opening 45 minutes.

However, Paul Scholes was on target  early in the second period to draw United  level on aggregate before Michael Carrick  handed the holders the edge as his strike clipped the post on its way into goal.

City, though, would not go down without a fight and former Red Devils forward Carlos Tevez restored parity overall as he angled in a classy effort that looked set to send the match to extra-time.

But two minutes into injury-time, Rooney, who earlier missed a golden opportunity to wrap up the game, headed in from close range to set up a clash with Aston Villa at Wembley on 28th February.

City were attempting to “change history” in manager Roberto Mancini’s words.

In pure domestic and European terms alone, United had made 21 cup final appearances and won 11 league titles since the Blues last reached Wembley in 1981.

More here: http://bit.ly/b2xDLQ

Google Wave

Eish-Kom vs Jacob Maroga

 The saga of Jacob Maroga, who either resigned from or was fired as CEO of domestic electricity monopoly Eskom on 2 November 2009, has once again thrown focus on the gross and foul subject of remuneration of parastatal executives. Parliament’s public enterprises portfolio committee chairwoman Vytjie Mentor reacted thus: “Maroga exposes how morally bankrupt and corrupt the system is”.

Really? Maroga recently filed a lawsuit claiming either reinstatement, or R85.7m compensation, hinged mainly around the notion that his five-year contract as CEO would/could have run through to April 2012.

While some think that Maroga’s lawsuit has as much chance as the proverbial snowball in a piazza oven, the court papers glaringly highlight the kind of caviar swill gulped down by parastatal executives, regardless of performance. According to Eskom’s latest annual report, to March 31 2009, Maroga was paid R4.96m in salary for the year. There was no bonus (as in 2008), which is not surprising, given how Eskom fell over early in 2008, panicking the nation.

But according to Maroga’s papers, Eskom shelled out a further amount of R2.76m a year for Maroga, including R1m for a “personal assistant”, and another R1m for a “driver”. The amounts are not disclosed in Eskom’s annual report, which raises serious questions over the specific role of Eskom management, its auditors and others.

More here: http://www.moneyweb.co.uk/mw/view/mw/en/page326289?oid=342546&sn=2009+Detail&pid=287226

Carlos Spencer To Play For The Lions – Super 14

Carlos Spencer won’t be seen in action this weekend during the Lions warm-up game against the Bulls in Polokwane, but he’s definitely going to play in this year’s Super 14 tournament. Watch out for the Lions this season. I still believe that they field the most promising sides but just never have the ‘lion’s heart’ to finish a good run. They now have Carlos the king. Go Dick Muir!! Go Lions!!

Cannot Decrypt The Symmetric Key – Reporting Services

This is a great solution to the reporting services encryption key problem:

Follow below steps:

go to the directory:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Reporting

Services\ReportServer\

or the equivalent program path on your computer and type

rsactivate -r -c RSReportServer.config

if rsactivate is not in your path (which it should be after an install) you will find it in

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn

or whatever path is the equivalent on your machine.

Source: http://weblogs.asp.net/taganov/archive/2005/03/23/395685.aspx