PALLEKELE, SRI LAN-KA, MARCH 7 (AGEN-CIES ):New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori on Monday asked his team-mates to brace up for an even stronger Pakistan side than the one they had faced at home in their re-cent ODI series defeat in their crucial World Cup Group A encounter in Pallekele stadium in Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

New Zealand lost a hard fought ODI series to Pakistan 2-3 just two weeks before the start of the World Cup and Vet-tori said that the same op-ponents in tomorrow's game will be even tougher to beat in the subconti-nental conditions. "It was a pretty tightly fought se-ries in our conditions, this is more like their condi-tions. They're probably going to be an even better team than the one we came across. They are playing re-ally well. We have to fi nd a way to beat them," Vettori said at the pre-match press conference.

"We are fortunate that we played a lot against them lately so we are pretty familiar but they are pretty familiar with us so it's go-ing to be a tough game but hopefully there is some confi dence from the Zim-

babwe game," said Vettori.Pakistan have six

points with three victo-ries from as many matche games, while New Zealand are on four after lopsided victories over Kenya and Zimbabwe and a defeat against Australia.

New Zealand go into tomorrow's match with a poor recent record in the subcontinent as both Ban-gladesh and India white-washed them in ODI series but Vettori said it all boiled down to team work and consistency.

CHENNAI, MARCH 7 (AFP): England batsman Kevin Pietersen will miss the rest of the World Cup, with a team spokesman an-nouncing Monday he would be returning home in the next 24 hours for a hernia operation. England have ap-plied to the International Cricket Council (ICC) for Eoin Morgan to come in as a replacement player, the spokesman said. Pietersen, moved up the order to open during the World Cup, made a duck during England's dra-matic Group B win over his native South Africa on Sun-day, and it is now 27 one-day internationals since his last century.

Team o� cials said Sat-

urday that Pietersen would undergo an operation, but after the tournament, al-though he did say the inju-ry would "no doubt impact my preparation" during the World Cup. However, the procedure appears to have been brought forward af-ter he was clearly troubled during Sunday's six-run win at the Chidambaram Stadium and looked more of a threat with his part-time off-spin than with the bat. Pietersen's injury was diagnosed following England's 6-1 one-day se-ries loss in Australia which came after the Test side's Ashes series triumph. The batsman's early departure from the World Cup raises

questions over his future in the 50-over form of the game, with Pietersen hav-ing frequently complained about a crammed interna-tional schedule. Advanc-ing the surgery might en-able Pietersen to appear in this year's Indian Premier League. His original plan for a six-week course of treatment after the World Cup coincided with the lu-crative event, which starts next month.

Pietersen is due to earn around $650,000 (400,000 pounds) playing for IPL side the Deccan Chargers this season. However, Eng-land would like their star batsman to be well-rested ahead of a busy home sea-

son of international crick-et, featuring series against Sri Lanka and India. The fi rst Test against Sri Lanka starts in Cardi� on May 26. Former Ireland batsman Morgan would have been in England's original squad but for a fi nger injury. His replacement, Ravi Bopara, made a man-of-the-match winning 60 against South Africa in Chennai on Sun-day. However, both Morgan and Bopara are middle-or-der batsmen which leaves England needing to find a new opening partner for captain Andrew Strauss. Ei-ther Jonathan Trott or Ian Bell could now be promot-ed up the order. England's victory over previously un-

beaten group leaders South Africa revived a faltering World Cup campaign which has featured a stuttering win over the Netherlands, a tie with co-hosts India and

a shock defeat by Ireland. Their bid for a quarter-fi nal spot continues with a group match against co-hosts Bangladesh in Chittagong on Friday.

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PAK vs NZTue | 8 March | 2:30 PMPallekele International

Cricket Stadium, Kandy

TODAYS MATCH

DUBAI, MARCH 7 (PTI): The ICC on Monday issued fresh guidelines to umpires for greater consistency in the 2.5 metre rule, the most controversial aspect of the Decision Review Sys-tem (DRS) in the ongoing cricket World Cup in the sub-continent. The direc-tive stated that even though there may be a distance be-tween the stumps and the point of impact of 2.5 me-tre or greater, the on-fi eld umpire can reverse the de-cision even if the ball is hit-ting any part of the middle stump. According to the previous rule, the leg-be-fore could be reversed by the on-fi eld umpire only if the ball was hitting the cen-tre of the middle stump. If both the 40cm and 2.5m graphics appear for the same delivery, the batsman will definitely remain not out, it said.

It further said that if the "more than 2.5m" graphic appears without the 40cm, the third umpire will be in-formed by Hawk-Eye of the exact distance of impact from the stumps. If this distance is greater than 3.5m, the bats-man will remain not out. Meanwhile the ICC revealed that correct decisions in the tournament have risen from

Kevin Pietersen out of World Cup for hernia surgery

ICC alters 2.5 metre rule for greater consistency

Vettori warns teammates of a stronger Pakistan

an 90.18 per cent to 97.82 due to the use of the DRS. "It is a fact that the number of de-cisions in this event is way above the normal average for ODIs. This is because of the

type of wickets that prevail in the sub-continent where the bounce is often lower and where there is a great-er amount of turn. "What it is demonstrating clearly

is that the DRS is helping umpires who are maintain-ing consistently high levels of performance," said David Richardson, ICC general manager, cricket.

India's bowler Yuvraj Singh, center gestures to the umpire while waiting for a review deci-sion against Ireland's Alex Cusack, unseen during an ICC Cricket World Cup league match between India and Ireland in Bangalore. (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI, MARCH 7 (AGENCIES): Captain Ashish Bagai and Jimmy Hansra hit half-centuries to take Canada on the verge of victory against Kenya in their World Cup clash at the Fero-zeshah Kotla in New Delhi on Monday. The Bagai-Hansra stand came after Canada were struggling at 48/3 in 11 overs in pursuit of a 199-run victory target. Kenya got the third breakthrough when Ruvindu Gunasekera (18) was stumped by Maurice Ouma o� James Ngoche.

Kenyan captain Jimmy Kamande ran out Zubin Sur-kari by a direct hit as Canada lost their second wicket with 37 runs on the board. Riz-wan Cheema hit a six and two fours in his 13-ball 17 before he was clean bowled by Elijah Otieno as the Ca-nadian run chase got o� to a bad start. Earlier, fast bowl-er Henry Osinde grabbed a career-best 4/26 as Canada bowled out Kenya for 198 de-spite a fi ghtback by Tanmay Mishra and Thomas Odoyo. The paceman, 32, picked up three wickets in his opening spell to rock the Kenyans, who won the toss and elected to bat in the day-night clash.

Mishra hit a composed

73-ball 51 for his fourth half-century in one-day internationals and Odoyo also chipped in with 51 to lift Kenya, who were tot-tering at 57/5 at one stage. Mishra said the wicket was tough to bat on, adding Ke-nya's score is "very much defendable on this wicket. It keeps low. There's some turn. If we can get a couple of early wickets we're in the game." Neither team have a realistic chance of quali-fying for the quarter-fi nals but both want to notch their fi rst win of the tournament.

Osinde struck early for Canada, removing opener Morris Ouma off the sec-ond ball of the innings and his partner Seren Waters in the fifth over. Ouma of-fered a thick outside edge which was pouched by Har-vir Baidwan (2/41) at sec-ond slip and Waters lost his o� -stump. Osinde sent back David Obuya to grab his third wicket and reduce Kenya to 21/3 before Baidwan brought an end to a promising knock by Collins Obuya. Collins Obuya (31) had started con-fi dently, hitting a four and a huge six o� left-arm spinner Parth Desai, playing his fi rst match of the tournament.

WC: Canada beat Kenya by 5 wickets

Canadian cricket team captain Ashish Bagai looks as Ke-nya's Collins Obuya is bowled during a cricket world cup match in New Delhi, Monday, March 7. (AP Photo)