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General Sports News

Strauss confident of victory

Author: Rose Young
Date: 07/03/2009

Captain Andrew Strauss is confident England can take the 20 wickets necessary for victory after day one of the fifth Test against West Indies.

Strauss again led by example as his century helped England reach 258-2 at the close of play after winning the toss and choosing to bat first at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad.

But after picking two spinners in Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, along with handing a debut to pace bowler Amjad Khan, the England skipper has backed his new-look bowling attack to take wickets.

England need to win the last game in the five-match programme to ensure the series ends in a 1-1 stalemate and the sportsbooks believe they can do it.

Meanwhile, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that the prospect of retirement fills him with fear.

The 67-year-old announced his intention to retire at the end of the 2001-02 season before changing his mind, but concedes that he is finally close to calling it a day.

United are aiming for an unprecedented quintuple of trophies this season, with reports suggesting Ferguson could bow out at the top should they add the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup to their haul which already contains the Club World Cup and Carling Cup.

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas hopes he will be fit enough to feature in next month's Premier League game against Manchester City.

The influential Spanish midfielder, who damaged medial knee ligaments in December, thinks it will be another four weeks before he can make his comeback.

Everton's fine form in February has resulted in them being handed two monthly awards.

David Moyes and Phil Jagielka won the Barclays Premier League Manager and Player of the Month awards respectively.

In Formula One, Bernie Ecclestone has welcomed the teams' proposal to alter the current points system.

On Thursday, the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) put forward a suggestion that Grand Prix winners should be awarded 12 points - three more than the runner-up - from the start of the forthcoming 2009 season.

The new points-scoring system, if accepted by the FIA, would be 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1, from first to eighth position respectively and F1 supremo Ecclestone believes the proposal should be adopted.

In tennis, team coach John Lloyd has admitted Britain face an uphill battle to win their Davis Cup tennis tie against Ukraine after losing both opening singles rubbers.

Josh Goodall lost to to Illya Marchenko and Sergiy Stakhovsky got the better of Chris Eaton in Glasgow, but Lloyd still believes the team - which is missing the injured Andy Murray - can stage a fightback in Saturday's doubles.

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