Schumacher rues missing out on points

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher narrowly missed out on tenth-place after losing a fierce battle with Daniel Ricciardo towards the end of the Japanese Grand Prix.

We also post reactions from drivers from Mercedes, Caterham, Marussia and HRT.

MERCEDES:
Michael Schumacher: "I have mixed feelings after the race here in Japan, because it's obviously unfortunate to come so close to scoring points and not manage it, after a race which went better than we expected. In the final laps, I had a nice and interesting battle with Ricciardo, but in the end I couldn't get past him because the Toro Rosso was so quick on the straights. That's why we have to say we couldn't have got much more out of it today. Now let's see how things go in Korea."

Nico Rosberg: "I had a good start to the race but unfortunately it ended fairly quickly today. In the first corner Grosjean spun into Webber and that also led to my accident. I began to brake but Senna crashed into me from behind which destroyed my rear tyre and meant that I had to retire. It's a shame as I felt very comfortable with my car on the installation lap, and I was confident that we could score some decent points. I'll now hope for a better weekend in Korea."

CATERHAM:
Heikki Kovalainen: "I had a fantastic start, avoided all the problems in turn one and passed Glock as soon as the safety car came out. I was running really well in 11th until the first set of stops and in that first stint the car felt great. I was keeping the pack behind me and tyre wear on the softs was good. We went onto the hard tyres for the second stint and, again, wear rates were excellent. We were even thinking about doing a one stop race but towards the end of the stint they started to go off so we came in with ten laps left and from there it was all about making sure we got to the flag without any problems."

Vitaly Petrov: "At the start I had to avoid the problems in front but got through that ok and pretty quickly settled into a good rhythm. My first stop was fine but after that we lost KERS and that obviously cost me time. I also had a problem with the radio and couldn't hear the blue flag calls and that ended up with the drive-through penalty. From where I started on the grid and with the KERS issue I think I probably got as much as I could out of the car today. It's been a bit of tough weekend but it's good to see the team working so hard to keep pushing us forwards and next week in Korea we have another chance to keep fighting."

MARUSSIA:
Timo Glock: "I'm very happy to say it was a good race for us today. The start was quite a shock when I saw all the cars flying across the track. Heikki came through it quite well but I was right behind him and I was able to overtake him in the Esses. I was up to P11 but I knew that would be short-lived because we were struggling a bit with traction out of the last corner and obviously they have KERS and we don't. Heikki got past and I continued to lose quite a lot of time in that corner afterwards - three or four tenths each lap into turn 1 and the Esses - which allowed the other guys - who also have KERS - to pass me. In general though we had good pace and were quite consistent. The behaviour of the tyre to the car was very good and we were able to stay out quite long. The first pitstop was very strong - the fourth quickest team of the race - so a great job by the crew as they work so hard on that every day. I had good pace on the prime tyre and was going well, but at last pit stop I was a little long in the box having misjudged the grip, so my mistake and sorry for that. I was then able to close the gap to Heikki so our strategy was spot-on. We were as close as four seconds at one stage but the blue flags opened the gap again. Still, eight seconds away at the end was pretty good! We have to be happy I think. We fought well, the car was a lot of fun to drive and it's great to have a consistent car again. We continue to have better pace in the race, so we will keep working hard on our overall performance and enjoying this very positive final phase of the season."

Charles Pic: "Obviously it is disappointing for me to have to retire as we were coming back strong at that point in the race. It is also the first retirement for a while. The start was difficult as we had to avoid the trouble at the first corner, then on the first stint I was struggling for grip with the Hard tyre. This improved when I switched to the Soft tyre for the second stint. My race was going well and I was behind Timo and ahead of Vitaly and Pedro. Unfortunately I misjudged the pit box on my second stop, going quite long, and lost a lot of time. Shortly afterwards I had to stop due to a problem with the engine. Overall it has been a good weekend and I have enjoyed my first experience of this amazing technical circuit. I look forward to another new circuit for me next weekend and a better result."

HRT:
Pedro de la Rosa: "Today's race was quite good and we could say we've taken a step forward, although we still have plenty to do. The first stint was good but we had a problem in the first pitstop which made me lose quite a lot of time. My times with the hard tyres towards the end were very good and we were right in there. The car was handling well and we got close to Pic and Petrov, which for us, at a track like this, is fantastic."

Narain Karthikeyan: "I had a good start and passed Pic on the first lap. The car was working well, it had good pace, and after the first pitstop I was ahead of Pedro and completing a good race. However, we suffered a problem with the car later and, coming in for a second tyre change, the team decided that, as a precautionary measure, it was best to stop. Now it's time to think about Korea and work to take another step forward."

india won south africa

Funny are the vagaries of cricket. It’s the second round of a World Cup and a team that lost today — Australia — is going to the semifinals. And the team that won later in the evening — India — is going home. It’s hard to think of another sport where such an oddity would occur at a World Cup.

But that’s the Super Eights format for you – an ICC invention that allows one team to get away with a bad day, and another team to pay for it through its nose; one that makes calculators more important than bats and balls. India won four games out of five in the tournament, the same as Australia, but one bad spell of 10-odd overs against Australia did them in.

Compare that to the West Indies: they are in the semifinals despite one win less than India, and only one outright win if you discount winning by a Super Over. This run-rate gobbledygook could have been avoided with the simple yet effective knockouts format which would have seen four meaningful quarterfinals instead of these run-rate-reliant Super Eights games which create convoluted contests like this one.

There was nothing to take from this game for South Africa. Thanks to Pakistan exposing Australia’s inadequacies earlier today, South Africa were out of the semifinals race. But India had half a chance of qualification. The men with the calculators informed us that MS Dhoni’s needed to win this game by scoring at least 150 and then winning by 32 runs or more.

Thanks to a top-order that has been all show, no go, India barely got over the 150-run mark with a fine counter-punching stand by Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni. But the magic number for Pakistan was a mere 122. When South Africa got over that mark with 20 balls to spare, they had ensured Pakistan a superior net run rate than India's. The large Pakistani contingent at the Premadasa Stadium today cheered South Africa’s march towards 122. One could call it Pakistan’s first cricketing win over India at a World Cup. So what if it was by proxy.

While the result itself had failed to matter afterwards, this game was a thriller in its own right. South Africa lost Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis early, but Faf du Plessis’ 65 (38b) settled the qualification race. Now the attention turned towards South Africa trying to chase down the 153-run target for their first win of the Super Eights.

Wickets fell and the contest got tighter. It boiled down to 14 off the last over from Lakshmipathy Balaji. The Morkel brothers each clubbed a six over midwicket in that over and got out immediately after, letting Balaji be the hero of the one-run win.

INDIA SLOPPY WITH THE BAT

Yuvraj bowled better than he batted in the tournament.
India’s opening combination has been persisted with like a compromise marriage. No surprises then that Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag failed to get it on. Gambhir crossed 20 just once at the World Twenty20. Sehwag, despite the fuss over his exclusion in the Australia game and him sulking about it in practice, never crossed 30.

Gambhir played on to Morkel attempting a strange walking dab. Soon, Sehwag lifted Peterson down the ground for a big six, and then tried to repeat the shot. Peterson showed great courage, bowled the next ball slower and Sehwag missed it completely to be bowled. Watching Sehwag bat is at once one of life’s greatest pleasures and frustrations. He’ll thrill you by playing shots mere mortals can only dream of. Then he’ll disappoint by getting out like that making you wonder if he has the IQ of a potato.

Gambhir and Sehwag’s collective failures have burdened the middle order gripped by form issues of its own. While Kohli has been sublime at No. 3, Yuvraj has been far from his best at No. 4. He’s made a swift comeback after a life-threatening disease, but he didn’t thrill with the bat the way he had at the previous editions of the World Twenty20. One of the positives was his bowling: he had eight wickets in the tournament. Rohit Sharma had one big knock against England, but was a let-down in the other games.

Each time they went to bat Dhoni and Raina had to try and compensate for the collective failures of their colleagues. In retrospect, it’s a wonder India won four games out of five in the tournament. India went into the WT20 banking on their batting. While the batting underwhelmed, the bowlers (India's perennial weakness) bowled out four of their five opponents. It wasn't enough. Perhaps, in another year at some other tournament, the men with the calculators will have favourable news for Dhoni.