Sports Digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Morgan takes top spot in new Twenty20 rankings

CRICKET: Dubliner Eoin Morgan has been named as number one batsman in the new International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty20 rankings that were announced yesterday, writes Emmet Riordan.

In 18 T20 internationals for England, Morgan has scored 569 runs at an average of 47.41 with only Matthew Hayden (308 runs at 51.33) and Andrew Symonds (337 runs at 48.14) having better averages than the 25-year-old left-hander.

Morgan, who is presently sidelined with a shoulder injury, takes top spot from New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum, with England’s Kevin Pietersen in third.

William Porterfield is the highest ranked Ireland batsman, coming in at 54th position.

Ireland fair better in the bowling rankings, with Trent Johnston in 20th spot, while Alex Cusack (45th) and George Dockrell (48th) also make the top 50.

Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis is named as top bowler, while England are named as the top side.

Egan and Sheehan sign for Leopards

BOXING: Ken Egan and Tipperary super-heavyweight Con Sheehan will sign for new World Series of Boxing (WSB) side the Leipzig Leopards at the National Stadium in Dublin today.

The pair will pen six-month (one-season) contracts with the German team and travel to Leipzig on October 31th for training.

The Leopards first outing of the season will be a home match versus Mexico City on November 11th, followed by an away tie against the Beijing Dragons on November 18th.

The 2011/12 WSB season will be contested across two intercontinental groups comprising of twelve sides. John Joe Nevin’s Paris United open their campaign at home to Istanbulls.

Nevin helped United win out the inaugural WSB Team Championships last season.

Holland gets Rangers back in the hunt

BASEBALL: Temperamental pitcher Derek Holland kept his emotions in check and as a result put the Texas Rangers back in the hunt for their first World Series title.

Holland shut down the Cardinals on two hits over eight and one-third innings to lead the Rangers to a 4-0 victory and even the World Series at 2-2.

The hard-throwing Holland has a tendency to get too high or too low when on the mound, but the southpaw worked like a machine to blank the Cards, who scored 16 runs on Saturday.

Holland, 25, said he is even-tempered now, realising that getting too excited or too angry is not the way to go.

He kept St Louis off balance all night, as designated hitter Lance Berkman was the only batter to reach base safely with a single and a double.

Semenya turns to Mutola to guide her Olympic 2012 bid

ATHLETICS: Former world 800 metres champion Caster Semenya has turned to two-lap great Maria Mutola to help her win Olympic gold in London next year.

Semenya, who left her previous coach Michael Seme shortly after capturing silver behind Russian Mariya Savinova at the world championships in South Korea last month, said joining up with 2000 Olympic champion Mutola would help kick-start her career.

Maria has been my idol since I started to run,” Semenya, who won gold at the Berlin world championships in 2009, said.

After Daegu I asked Maria if she was interested in coaching me. Her answer was positive and I am very happy now. Maria has had a long and super successful career. She will be a great teacher for me.

Mutola, who won the world 800m title three times as well as Sydney Games gold while running for Mozambique, said she was looking forward to preparing the 20-year-old Semenya for the London Olympics.

“We still have a long road to go if we want to be number one in the London Olympics next summer,” Mutola said. “Caster just needs to take the last steps to be a professional athlete. I want to use all my experience to help her to understand what it means to be on the top. It is much easier to get the top than to stay there.”

Sunny can't check Windies' recovery

CRICKET: Left-arm spinner Elias Sunny claimed four wickets on his debut but could not stop West Indies from moving towards safety in the rain-hit first Test against Bangladesh yesterday.

West Indies reached 144-5 at the close on the fourth day in reply to Bangladesh’s 350-9 declared in their first innings after rain and a damp outfield caused a cancellation of more than two days of play.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul fell one run short of a half century after adding 62 with Kraigg Brathwaite (33).

Chanderpaul had survived two close appeals and was almost caught at forward short leg by Imrul Kayes off Sunny on 26, before he fell to the same bowler when he was caught in the slips by Shahriar Nafees.

Earlier, leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo claimed 3-81 and Fidel Edwards also struck to restrict Bangladesh who had resumed on 255-4.

Rossi retirement reports denied

MOTO GP: Valentino Rossi will not be retiring from the sport in the wake of friend Marco Simoncelli dying after a crash with his fellow Italian, Rossi’s mentor said yesterday.

Honda’s Simoncelli, 24, died after a horror collision early on in Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix when he was struck by the bikes of Rossi and Colin Edwards and had his helmet knocked off.

Rossi, a winner of nine world titles across the classes, was so distraught the only public words the Ducati rider has uttered since have been on Twitter.

“Sic (Simoncelli) for me was like a youngest brother. So strong on the track and so sweet in normal life. I will miss him a lot,” Rossi wrote.

Davide Brivio, his manager at former team Yamaha, denied widespread internet and media rumours the 32-year-old was too upset to carry on racing.

“Many are asking about Vale stopping races. This is absolutely not true and I’m sorry even that I have to explain it,” Brivio wrote on Twitter.