Storming Vettel blows title race wide open

Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel threw the battle for this year's Formula One title wide open on Sunday when he cruised to a supreme victory in the Japanese Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old German, who won in Singapore only two weeks ago, became the first man this year to score back-to-back wins as he slashed Fernando Alonso's championship lead to just four points with five races left.

Alonso, of Ferrari, was eliminated from Sunday's contest when he was hit by rival Finn Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus at the first corner and suffered a puncture. The fuming Spaniard refused to speak to media afterwards.

Despite the carnage behind him Vettel was left out in front, on his own, and raced to a luxurious triumph, the 24th of his career, a feat that drew him level with the legendary Argentine Juan-Manuel Fangio in the record books.

"Woo-hoo! Yes baby, Yes baby... unbelievable!" screamed Vettel over his team radio on his slowing-down lap, after taking a big step forward in his pursuit of a third consecutive world title.
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He came home comfortably clear of Alonso's Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa with local hero Kamui Kobayashi third for Sauber, a result that made him only the third Japanese driver to score a podium finish in Formula One.

Massa's podium finish was his first in 35 races since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix, a feat that may help retain his seat in 2013 -- but was overshadowed by the huge roar from the capacity crowd that greeted Kobayashi's finish.

Jenson Button finished fourth for McLaren ahead of his Mercedes-bound team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with Raikkonen sixth behind the two Britons.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India came home seventh ahead of Pastor Maldonado of Williams and Australians Mark Webber of Red Bull, who was involved in the first corner accidents after starting second, and Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso.

Retirement-bound seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, 43, finished 11th, just failing to score a point after starting from the back of the grid for Mercedes.

On a warm and dry day with a track temperature of 32 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit), Vettel made a perfect start and drew clear of the pack -- but behind him, it was mayhem.

Kobayashi, inspired by his bid to become the first Japanese driver to claim a home podium finish since Aguri Suzuki in 1991, shot forward to snatch second as the lights went out while the luckless Alonso was heading towards elimination.

In a thunderous burst of collisions, similar to the start of last month's Belgian race, both Alonso and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes were knocked out as innocent victims of collisions while Webber was also forced off the circuit, but recovered.

Re-runs of the action showed that Raikkonen rammed into Alonso and punctured his left rear tyre, in a bitterly frustrating incident for the Spaniard.

Webber was shunted by Romain Grosjean of Lotus and Rosberg was the victim of a similar assault from Williams' Bruno Senna. Both offending drivers were given drive-through penalties.

When the safety car withdrew after three laps Vettel streaked away in front followed by Massa and Sauber's Sergio Perez, who will replace Hamilton at McLaren next year and raced with great vim before making a mistake and spinning out.

By lap 15, Vettel held a large 11-second lead ahead of Massa, Perez and Hamilton before the leaders began their pit-stops.

Then the German, revelling in the performance of his Red Bull car, simply romped away from the field. By lap 33 he was 15 seconds clear of Massa with Kobayashi third and the two McLaren men, led by Button, in pursuit.

Button closed to conjure up the prospect, for McLaren, of a podium finish, but Kobayashi, inspired by his fans, held on to enjoy the finest afternoon of his Formula One career and boost his own hopes of staying with Sauber next season.

T20 final a perfect tribute

Two of the most consistent teams have made it to the final of the World T-20, challenging the myth that anything can happen in this format.

By Boria MajumdarThe current tournament is evidence that the best do progress to the title round and teams that are inconsistent, including our very own India, fall by the wayside. And consistency, it is important to point out, does not only mean the end result. For example, West Indies may have lost to Australia in the initial stage of the tournament because of a rain interruption, but even in that contest they had scored a healthy 191, thanks to half centuries from Gayle and Samuels.

They are the only side to have crossed the 200 mark in the competition in the semi-final against the very same opponent. India, on the other hand, struggled to reach 160 every time they went in to bat.

The stand-out feature in both the finalists is the completeness in these teams. To start with, the West Indies: surely they have in their ranks the best T-20 bating line-up in the world. Gayle, followed by an in form Samuels, Pollard, Bravo, Sammy and a host of other lower-order hitters, it is a batting line-up, which, even on a relatively bad day, will get to 150. And in bowling they have the express pace of Edwards, the swing of Rampaul, the guile of Bravo and the spin of Narine and Badree. Sammy and Pollard are more than fill-in bowlers.

Compare the West Indies to India, Australia and Pakistan and the difference is palpable. While the Indians are way thin in bowling, the Australians are particularly over reliant on Warner and Watson at the top of the order. Pakistan, on the other hand, has a fantastic bowling line-up but aren’t up to the mark in batting with a fragile middle-order letting them down.

If the West Indies are the most complete side in the competition, Sri Lanka isn’t very far behind. And with home advantage and a 30,000-plus crowd to cheer for them at the Premadasa, they are more than a match for Gayle and team. In Mahela they have the best player in the world in big match situations. Perhaps not as celebrated as many of his contemporaries, Mahela’s record speaks for the Sri Lankan captain.

In the semi-final of World Cup, 2007, in the Caribbean, captain Mahela had scored one of the best hundreds in the fifty-over format to propel his team to the final. He bettered it with an even better hundred in the final of World Cup, 2011. And in the semi-final of the World T-20 against Pakistan on October 5, it was his innings that made the difference between the two sides. Ability to handle pressure and bring out his best in high pressure situations is the hallmark of the Sri Lankan skipper, making him one of the standout performers of our times.

If it is Mahela, Sangakkara and Dilshan in batting, in bowling it is Malinga, Mendis, Herath and Kulasekara in these conditions. Each of the four are capable of chipping in with match-winning performances on their day and a couple of examples will help illustrate the point better. In the Super Eight encounter against the West Indies, Kulasekara picked up Gayle with an absolute beauty, which hardly ever reached Gayle and finally caught the toe end of his bat before landing in the wicket-keeper’s gloves.

And in the semi-final against Pakistan, Herath bowled an absolute beauty to pick up the inform Shoaib Malik. The ball landed on good length, beat Malik’s lunge forward, spun past his bat and uprooted the off stump, bringing to an end Pakistan’s resistance.

From the evidence at hand there is little doubt that the final will be a high-intensity affair. Having lost three major finals in the last five years, the Sri Lankans are definitely looking to overcome the final jinx. West Indies, on the other hand, has been fighting hard to regain their lost status in world cricket and a win in Sri Lanka will give their cricket a huge boost.

I am in fact tempted to say that it is great for world cricket that these two deserving teams have made the final, giving the game a fillip in islands across the world. Time then to call play with Gayle taking strike to Kulasekara and Malinga.