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Sehwag and Robin miss the opportunity, India fail to win the series convincingly

India won the toss and elected to field on the final match of the series. India went with some new players to evaluate and experiment the budding talent - P Kumar and Rohit Sharma. Indians thought of using the morning conditions to their advantage, however Pakistan's opening pair waived off the initial swing and bounce to give themselves a good start. Sreesanth got the control of his bowling after some wides and runs. He picked up the top 3 batsman and put India back in the game - 77 for 3 after 17 overs. This brought the arrival of in form batsms Yousif and Pak's captain Sohaib Malik. They played a brillant knocks to take the game away for Indians and help Pak cross 300 mark for the second time on this series. Middle order bowlers could not break the huge partnership of Yousif and Malik. Quick fire of runs by Pak tailenders also helped to reach a hugh target. Sreesanth was the only bowler to finish of the innings with good figures.


India had a shaky start by losing Gambhir quickly and also losing Sachin when he was looking dangerous. Sachin made a quick thirty but that was not enough to take India to a good start. Robin and Shewag did lose a wonderful opportunity to cement their position in team, they played ordinarily and did not help the cause of India innings. Yuvraj and Rohit Sharma the new kid in the block played sensibily, but there innings only took India closer to the target. However, the Irfan Pathan showed some character, which few of the top order batsman can learn, to score 44 useful runs. India's tendency is give more responsibilities to tail enders to see match through, since you might have observed that many close matches have been won by tailenders. But this time around they could take us through to the finish line. Man of the match went to Shoiab Malik and Man of the series went to the well deserved India player Yuvray Singh. India won the series but failed to sweep it.

Clinching the series is something special...

Pakistan entered this match under pressure, since it was a do or die match for them inorder to defend against India in this series. Pak started off their day with some luck in their favour, they won the important toss and elected to bat. The Pak had new opening pair for this season, it was Salmaan Butt and Shoiab Malik. This new pair did not last for more than 2 ball, as Salmaan Butt was trapped in front of the wicket before he could get a feel of the ball. However Pak recovered a bit with a good partnership before the captain was bowled by a beauty of a delivery. This was followed by good show of cricket by Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf. They played quite amazing knock to take Pak to a respectable and defendable score of 255, off course with as usual valuable runs from Misbah-ul-haq.


India start was shaky with loss of Saurav and Gambir to put India at 48 for 2. But the suprise performance was from Sehwag along with Sachin. Sachin failed to get past the nervous 90s for the 6th time this year, which is a record of some sorts in world cricket. Even though Sachin and Sehwag lost their wicket within a short span leaving other Indian batsman to score 100 odd run, the captain and vice captian took this responsibility with incredible style and ease. Dhoni finished off the match with a straight six off Salmaan Butt to clinch the series for the India. This is India's ODI series win against Pak after 24 long years. India team must be celebrating to their heart's content a well deserved win. The last match of series remains a formality, but India should not lose the momentum it has gained, so that it can carry this forward to the test matches and hopefully the rest of the season.

Kanpur's Diwali Gift...

Kanpur was rewarded a treat of Indo-Pak match, it has been 2 years since a cricket match was held here.

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl hoping to use the good bowling conditions to restrict India to a moderate total. Pakistan's bowling plans was misaligned by some good looking strokes of
Sachin and Saurav. But this was only after Saurav got a life in the first over when his catch was dropped by the keeper. Saurav looked shaky due to lack of foot work and inability to offer the right defensive stokes to some of Shoaib and Umar's swinging deliveries. Luck favored the opening pair and India took advantage of the misfielding. India lost the Sachin to unorthodox bowling style of Sohail Tanvir and this was quickly followed by Saurav. The Kanpur wicket was not offering the batsmen to play their natural strokes due to dual bounce and pace. This resulted in frustrated moments to batsmen like Gambir, who was not able to get value for his stroke play. India were rotating their strike well during the middle overs and kept their wicket intact. This gave a nice platform for set Yuvraj and Dhoni to take some risks and accelerate the scoring rate. Dhoni and Yuvraj hit big sixers to take India to good defendable score of 294/6 at the end of 50 overs. Highlighting point of Pakistan's bowling was Sohail economical and wicket taking bowling.


Pakistan to counter the asking rate of around 5.88, they send in the hard hitting Afridi and their stylist batsman Salmaan Butt. The gamble with Afridi only paid off for couple of overs and he was sent to the pavilion by a beautiful in swinging delivery of Irfan Pathan. This started the consolidation period for Pakistan, but they kept on loosing wickets, RP Singh deceiving in form Younis Khan a gem of a delivery to remove his off stump. Salmaan Butt played his best innings of this season by scoring century without receiving any support from his team mates at the other end of the crease. India applied pressure using the pace and spin attach. The surprise performer in the spin department was Yuvraj with his off cutters helped India keep Pakistan at bay. At one point Pak need 100 run with 10 overs remaining, this where Pakistan failed to raise the tempo of the game. Dhoni faired decent as a captain, but still has long way to go w.r.t to field placings and learning the tricks of the trade. With this win India lead the series 2-1 against Pak. With 2 games remaining to go this series is open anyone's grab. The man of the match went rightly to Yuvraj for his matching winning knock of 77 and crucial bowling performance.

A Diwali gift to true cricket lovers...

The series is alive with Pakistan winning the 2nd ODI in Punjab. Cricket lovers were treated to a wonderful game on the occasion of Diwali festival, even though the result was a slight dampener for some of the India fans. But most Indians would also agree that this win by Pakistan revives the excitement for the remaining games in this series. Closer the games better the entertainment.


India won the toss and elected to bat as most would expect, with great start by Sachin and Gautham Gambir even after early loss of Saurav at 3rd ball of the day. Quick and long partnership of Sachin & Gautham took to India good position. Sachin missing his hundred by 1 run again (99). Is it got to do something with the 9 number jersey causing him to get out in the 90s? Well certainly India and Sachin wouldn't mind this as long as India wins the match. India also lost Gambir quickly after Sachin. Yuvraj and Sehwag tried to stabilize the boat from some good bowling of Pak especially Umar and Akhtar. India kept on losing wickets regularly and never capitilized fully the start provided by Sachin and Gautham. India were at one point 260-6 at end of 40 overs, if Indians had done some decent batting they could have crossed 350. But India lost the momentum late in the innings and with some good gusty batting from Harbajan result in India crossing 300 and final reach a competent score of 320 on a very good batting pitch with only 4 regular bowlers to defend this total.


Pakistan fielders were sluggish on the field with lots of miss fields and extra balls of around 6 overs. Pakistan starting with lots of confidence and bang with scoring 10 runs in the first over. Pakistan lost early wicket of Akmal, but Pak were able to make 80 odd runs on the board from first 15 overs. India pulled back Pak's scoring rate with some good tight bowling during the 3rd power play. India noticeably looked containing Pak rather than trying to take wickets, in other words India was defensive rather than being offensive with aggression. India might have missed the aggressive body language from the likes of Sreesanth. However for if you were watching the match during 20th over, you might have felt that India were at control. Yes they were in control, however not aggressive even after a big score on the board. Younis Khan played a sensible game of not panicking, while on other hand realizing with his experience that game is not won by random shots but with planning and sensible cricket. Misbha joined the party with good knock of 49, although getting dismissed playing is favorite and familiar shot of trying to play the back paddle. This partnership brought the life back in Pak's innings and the match. Younis Khan's effort paid of with bringing Pak close to a victory and in the end Afridi playing the neat finisher with good strokes and with help of some bad bowling and field placings. It was a very close finish with Pak having the upper hand at the end and won the match with 1 ball to spare. Man of the match went to the well deserved, planned and crafted innings of Younis Khan. As ever Indo Pak series is alive and kicking :)

Good partnerships help India win

The excitment of Indo Pak match was evident in the grounds of Guwahati Cricket Stadium. The ground was filled with cricket lovers and passionate spectators. Everyone knows that this series will be closely fought and it will fought with aggregation and strategy. India went with more batsmen than bowlers, with good mixture of youth and experience. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat on the slow pitch, hoping to a score unreachable by Indians. The start was good with 40 runs in quick time. However the Pakistan did not have a large partnership all through their inings. But lack of good bowling in the death overs, helped Pakistan reach a decent total of 239. If you analyze Indian bowling over previous ODIs you will quickly realize that Indians have conceded lots of run during the slog overs. This is one of the areas where Indians should be focusing on in the coming games. Over all a very good effort by our bowlers and the keeper for 3 good dismissals. On the Pak side Younis Khan played a anchor role to help Pak reach a defendable score on a slow pitch.



India start was good even after losing 10dulkar early to Shohib Akthar. Gautham Gambir and Saurav played a neat innings to help Indians hold their fort against Pak pace bowling. Indians had better partnership than Paks, this is something which made a big difference and eventually helped Indian's win. Even though we had 4-5 opening pairs in the team, we managed to have a good batting order. Quick thinking by Dhoni on promoting him before Yuvraj was a good move to keep left and right combinations going on, there by making bowling difficult to Pak. Dhoni and Yuvraj played a brilliant knock to see off the danger period. Robin hit the winning shot to enable India win over Pak by 5 wickets. Man of the match went to Dhoni for a captain's innings and good wicket keeping. Pakistan has some areas they should work on like the better bowling and partnership. We will definitely see better resistance from Pak and thereby a good treat to cricket lovers.

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India are the champions of T20......

India clinch the coveted title of the T20 world cup..

The buzz is still on n will continue for a long time to come...India are the champions of the T20 world cup...beating pakistan by 5 runs...The action and frenzy at the bull ring arena reached new heights when India beat pakistan by 5 runs...A match that could have gone either ways turned in India's favor when misbah ul haq misqued a shot to the safe hands of shreesanth...it was a match that had all its viewers glued to it till the last wicket was taken...a match that had fortunes swinging verey alternate over...huh....cricket at its best
Pakistan won the toss and put india to bat...an injured sehwag was replaced by yousuf pathan,irfan pathan's elder brother,thus making it only the 3rd pair of brothers in the history of the game to play in the world cup finals after the waugh's and the chappell's.he just proved to be a ideal parner for gambhir who took on the mantle of scoring runs ...he was the top scorer with 75...Yuvray and dhoni failed to make much with the bat and were sent packing by umar gul.the resiliant knock of rohit sharma of 30 runs helped india cross 157 run mark
pakistan started their chase miserably losing kamran akmal anf hafeez to the accurate bowling of rp singh....but imran nazir threatened to take the match away from indians belting shreesanth for 21 runs off his 1st over...but a moment of brilliance by uthappa had him run out...younis khan, shoiab malik and afridi lost their wickets to an disciplined bowling by irfan pathan...at 77 for 6, the match looked under india's control..till misbah ul haq and sohail tanvir hit some huge sixes to bring pakistan back to the game...pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals but were always within the targets reach...pakistan lost their 9 wicket in the 19 over having to score 13 of the last one and misbah to do all the work...
Dhoni had to gamble an d the ball was in joginder sharma's hands he bowled a wide making it 12 off 6 balls...the second ball saw no run...and the 3rd ball was sent for a 6 makin it 5 off 4 balls...pakistan were one shat away from victory and indai 1 wicket away...misbah now only mistimed his shot to poch a catch to shreesanth....india had won and how....every body who watched the match will be unanimous of the opinion that cricket cannot get better....batting bowling and fielding at its very best.....this victory will be cherished by indian fans for years to come....Its a old saying...it doesnt take long for time to change.....its just proved it once again...who in their wildest of imagination may have dreamt of dhomi's boys winning the cup....huh...great feeling...well done india....we are proud of you......

Rahul, Sachin and Sourav helped India win T20 World Cup 2007

India exhibited a great show of cricketing skills with good mix of youth, youth and more youth. Indian cricketing youth not only proved the whole world wrong, it also gives credibility to their instincts, will power and controlled aggression.

T20 games need agility, stamina, fearlessness, the hunger to win and focus to win. These games fits exactly to the young cricketers. I believe that T20 gives very little margin for error and any lapse of concentration can lead to a team losing the match quickly.

I am very glad that Rahul, Sachin & Saurav lead from the front to ensure that young cricketers get to play important roles for India. This will surely go a long way in boosting the confidence of the youth. I believe that Experienced Trio's decision to avoid T20 has shaped India win the World Cup 2007.

3 cheers to India and the experienced Trio! :)

Hip hip hurray!!!!!

India belongs to the youth of today and tomorrow.
Karthick :)

India lose to the kiwis bya narrow margin

In the first super8 match of the T20 cup,India lost to new zealand by 10 runs...India chasing a score of 191 ended at 180 for 9 conceding a win to new zealand....India won the toss and put the kiwis into bat...it all looked well for india when vincent was out on 4.But the content seemed to be only short lived as the later batsmen pounded the Indian bowlers all over the park at jo'burg.Brendon McCullum was the wrecker in chief scoring 45.Mcmillan fired 44 and Oram scored 35 off just 15 deliveries.it was raining sixes at the ground as the kiwis blasted 9 sixes.it was quite a noteworthy score considering new zealand innings had 4 run outs....the hard hiiting by the kiwi batsman was evident as they scored 78 runs in the klast 5 overs...RP singh and harbhajan had 2 wickets each
India started their chase at brisk pace with sehwag and gambhir takin the attack to the kiwi bowlers....shane bond went for 18 runs in his second over as india reached 67 fo no wicket at the end of 5 overs.but then wickets falling at the other end made life tough for the indian batsman who perished tryin to pep up the run rate....gambhir with 51 was the top scorer with sehwag making 40 and dhoni contributing 24...the asking rate proved too much for the lower order batsman who could not see India through who just to take the score to 180 at the end of 20 overs..This just proved to be the right match for the kiwis who needed one good game to come out of the thrashing they got at the hand of lankans....vettori was the man of the match for his 4 wicket haul....a game that probably India could have won if it had its top batman till the end...India seriously needs to sort out the way it needs to bat in this version of the game...its next up against England who are considered to be one of the better teams equipped with this format of the game..all in all a victory well earned for Kiwis and job half done for India...

What a thriller......! India 'bowl out' pakistan

India and pakistan in a cricket match........can it get better and bigger...The last nite clash at the wanderers just proved that....pakistan won the toss and inserted India in...Lack of match practice showed right at the beginning as india lost early wickets and were struggling to cope with the pace of umar gul who claimed 4 wickets.A well sort out knock of 33 by the skipper Dhoni and quickfire 50 off 39 from uthappa saved the face for the day for India.India finished at 141 for 9.
pakistan set out to chase the target dint do the opening well either. A swinging delivery saw Imran nazir's stump uprooted and India just had the start they were looking...they had to win the match or narrowly lose to the arch rivals iff they had to enter the super 8.Irfan Pathan back into the side after long made the right comeback claiming 2 for 20...Pakistan who wer at one point lookin very comfortable with the target had to make up with the climbing run rate and lost some wickets in the process.Pakistan needed 29 from last 12 balls and the 19 over from agarkar yielded 17 runs making it 12 off 6 balls....Pakistan camp looked relaxed as they had Misbah-ul-haq and Arafat who looked pretty set to take them home...all India V/s pakistan matches in the world cup have gone down to the wire and this was turningout much more than that...pakistan needed 1 from 2 balls at the end and the match was tied at the 4th delivery of the 20th over at 141 with two balls to go...misbah could not score for the next ball and it was right upto the last ball for pakistan to get the winning run...misbah hit the next ball for a run and scampered to the other end of the crease only to realise the ball had reached the other end well in advance.He was run out on 33.The t20 world cup had its first ever tie....
Confusion and chaos prevailed at the kingsmead for a while as it was first heading towards its first bowl out....nor had the players taken part in such an event before neither had the officials dealt with it...both the teams had to line up 5 bowlers to hit the stumps one after the other in 5 deliveries ....only the stumps to aim at and hit it...
india took the lead when sehwag hit the stumps..arafat from pakistan missed it...it was 1-0....
.
Harbhajan then took his stance and as all were guessin where the turabnator would hit,he hit the stump and the pressure was on pakistan to open the account...umar gul for once forgot where his stumps where and missed it by a mile...it was 2-0 advantage India
Robin uthappa was the third to have a go at the stumps and he did precisely that...his acknowledgement to the crowd was worth a watch...now the onus was on pakistan to hit the stumps in the remaining 3 chances...and pakistan did what they are usually associated with "consistantly inconsistant".Afridi too missed the stumps and the scoreline read 3-0...India won the match though not in cinventional way but definately the one they'll remember for long...India still maintain their winning streak against Pakistan at the world cup...India wil have to bat well further on as their next meeting would be against the kiwis...a good match to remember for some time...now that most minnows except bangladesh are out of the tournament it''ll only get exciting to watch...get ready for many more close encounters...

Srilanka on the rampage

Srilanka went on a assault against Kenya making 260 in the alloted 20 overs...kenya's decision of fielding first proved to very hard to them as Jayasuriya went on a rampage first scoring 88 off just 44 balls.4 sixes and 11 fours rained from jayasuriya's bat...the swahbuckling opener is just 38...did someone say T20 is just for younsters?...this innings was followed by the skippers innings of 65 and mubarak's carnage of 46 off just 13 balls...all the kenyan bowlers and fielders looked club level courtesy the onslught...the kenyans were never in the chase as they lost wickets regularly with Obanda the top scorer with 21...they were dismissed for 88,thus giving a massive victory margin to the lankans....srilanka now face new zealand on sat with both teams already entering the super8's.

hey all u cricket buffs, get ready for the adrenaline to soar...the T20 world cup is all set to roll

its fun time again....the first ever twenty twenty world cup will get kick started in south africa tomorrow when the hosts South africa take on the West indies at jo'burg.all the test playing nations have been grouped into four groups with 2 test playing nations pitted with the minnows in each group.India is in group D with Pakistan and scotland.. the top 2 teams move on to the super eight and the top four to the semis...with the twenty 2o format it would be interesting to see each teams strategy...a new set of rules, free hits and power plays wil definately make the game interesting.....hard hitters and sloggers will be in great demand and so wil be the bowlers who wil be the stingy if the lot...in any case it must be a treat to watch...so get ready for some fast and furious cricket...at its best

India beats England by 38 runs...by the D/L method

India won the 5th ODI at leeds beating England by 38 runs.england won the toss and put India into bat.The opening pair of sachin and sourav enthrusted with the job of providing a solid opening partnership.they started cautiously gauging the wicket at first and then displaying the array of shots associated with them.Tendulkar's flurry of 18 runs in one over of lewis was just an indication of events to follow.sachin and saurav put up a 1st wicket partnership of 116 runs before sachin fell to stuart broad.together.sachin made 71.Saurav fell to Panesar at 59 in the pursuit of carting the spinner out of the park.gambhir who joined ganguly after sachin's exit made 51.things only improved for India as Yuvraj scored at run-a-ball 72 off just 57 deliveries.runs came thick and fast from Dhoni and Dravid as India piled 324 runs.the bowiling figures dint read much with Panesar, collingwood and anderson each claiming a wicket
England stated their run chase scoring easily the runs. at one stage the score read 97 for 1.but things changed with Ganguly claiming 2 wickets quickly putting the english middle order under pressure.pieterson fell for a duck to Zaheer and pressure was truly on England.Collingwood kept going with wickets tumbling at the other end.rain interrupted the play and england were asked to score 31 in 45 overs.when rain stopped play at 39 overs, england was 242 for 8 well below the D/L score of 285.collingwood was unbeaten on 91.the othr scorers were proir-46,bell-44,and shah 15.M S dhoni had 6 scalps equalling adam gilchrist's record of the same.India declared the winner coutesy,duckworth-lewis and making the series 3-2,still lot of catching up to do.saurav was the man of the match for his 59 runs and 2 wickets.For india,its job only half done and they need to play better at lords in case they wish to equal the series.for England, just a bad day.come on teams, the series is still alive.....give us a plenty to cheer...all the best

Oppurtunity goes abegging....!

England beat india by 3 wickets at Manchester to take a lead of 3-1 in the natwest series.Rahul Dravid won the toss for the record fouth time in row and chose to bat.england had done their homework well making indians struggle for every run.The tight line and length of the english bowlers was evident by the fact that india could scamper for only 30 odd runs in the first 10 overs,pressure led to wickets tumbling one after the other .tendulkar and yuvaraj with their laboured fifties were the only noteworthy scorers of the indian innings with their 55 and 71 respectively.late flourish by zaheer saw india go past the 200 run mark ending their innings at the 49 th over with 213 on board to defend.chris braod had 4 for 51 and anderson had 3 wickets for 38
for once indian pacers opened well with zaheer removing cook with no score on board.Agarkar looked to prove that he is still worth a place in the side bowling well removing bell,prior, piterson and flintoff.Owais shah was foxed by powar and a misunderstanding between collingwood and bopara meant collingwood had to walk a long walk back to the pavillion.Indians seemed to to be well in control of the game then.But what awited them was a good fight back by Ravi Bopara and Chris Broad.the fielding woes of the indians only making the job easier for the english batsman.Bopara probably showed indians how to bat under prssure as he held his nerve for a well made 43.chris broad made 45.Engalnd reached the target in the 48th over.
Two more days to go and rahul dravid will have a lot of thinking to do if he hopes of ending the english summer on a high...come on team India chak de....!.winning is a habit its high time u get into it.....

Advantage England...

England won the third ODI of the natwest series a edgbaston beating India by 42 runs.England now lead the series 2-1.Chasing a target of 282, india was all out for 238.India played with Zaheer in place of agarkar.England played with monty panesar and owais shah who replaced the injured Flintoff and mascarenhas.
Earlier in the day dravid won the toss and with 5 bowlers on his side put england in.The supposed moisture on the early morning wicket just seemed to be a myth as England put 76 runs for the first wicket.Indians continued to embarass in the field with sloppy fielding and dropeed catches.The scoring rate was well at ease till the spinners came on.Pieterson again misreading chawla only to land up playing all over it. Useful parnerships in the middle order with bell(79runs),collingwood(44 runs)saw england reach a competitive score of 281 for 8,with the last 15 runs of the england innings coming off the very last over.RP singh returned with 3 for 55 runs.
The chase needed Indian openers to anchor themselves firmly and a flurry of fours in the beginning giving a plenty for the supporters to cheer.tendulkar fell to anderson and with the ploy of karthik moving up the order failing it was upto dravid to do the resurrection.He did not let his team down, building a partnership of 104 with ganguly with his individual score at 56 falling to tremlett.Ganguly too fell soon to tremlet at 72 on the way going past beyond 11000 ODI runs,only after sachin,lara,inzamam and jayasuriya.Yuvraj and dhoni tried to put up a fight,but with dhoni dismissed by anderson and yuvraj fallin prey to a run out meant the chase was never in place with india losing the match by 42 runs.Anderson took 3 wickets for 32 runs.India has a lot of homework to do to bring themselves back in the series be it the batting, bowling and most important fielding..misfields throughout doesnt speak too well of any team's capacity n the soon it is rectified the better....wake up India n well done England.

Its even steven!

India finally managed a victory to square up the series at 1-1.chasing a target of 330, england came too close for comfort finishing at 320 for8 at the end of the 50th over.england started their run chase at ease with agarkar providing them help with his wayward line and length.the 60 up for england just in the 8 th over did speak bout the opening bowlers woes. But munaf's breakthrough in succession dismissing prior and cook must have cooled some nerves of the skipper.India's gamble of two spinners came off when kevin pieterson got foxed by chawla.pieterson just did not seem to understand how he got out.chawla ended with 3 wickets and so did munaf with 3 for 70.just when all looked under place for India,in came mascarenhas,the 20-20 specialist for england smacking the bowlers all around the ground.His 52 off 39 balls gave some scare for sure,but dint last long.Victory,by a narrow margin was in India's favor,though the psychological edge is still with the englishmen
India had 4 dropped catches,sloppy fielding also to add to their worries.its the third time India has conceded over 300 runs and its high time the thinking cap is put on.Buck up India if u dream of winning the series.allowing ur opponent to come so close isnt always good..

Way to go India....

The 2nd match of the natwest series between India and England at the Bristol turned out to be a good outing for the Indian batsmen who seem to gettin back to their good old form after the hapless show at the Rosebowl a couple of days back as they have put England on a mammoth run chase of 330.India had 2 changes in Munaf and Powar in place of Gambhir n Zaheer n english have gone for all pace attack leavin Panesar
Sachin Tendulkar....Master is a master
The picturesque ground at bristol had plenty to offer but none better than the little master's innings of 99.though he missed his ton by a run,the 99 is as good as a hundred if not better.He cut, pulled and leashed his on drives at ease only leaving the english skipper searching for bowlers.lookinat him play one could just recall wat was once told to Dr W.G.Grace by a bowler"i bowl in areas where i please and he hits them where he is pleased".Though Tendulkar still cannot be said to be in his best self,i am sure most batsmen around the world,will love to be in such form any day.after being dropped at 57 by tremlett,a tough chance,he stil played with panache for his 99 though it turned out to be painstakinly slow in his 90s.Ganguly n yuvraj also played well for39 n 49 respectively....Rahul Dravid was his trademark best in his 92 not out,anchorin the innings once sachin left.Rahul knows his job the best and that is exactly what he did.Good job skipper..Flintoff got the 1st 5 wicket haul,the only smile for england in the 1st session.the latest score read 98 for 2at teh 15 over mark,with cook and prior out by munaf...hope it turns to be a good match..You need to win to keep some hopes on the series..so all the best India

Its more important than a Cricket match !

I agree with general view that ICL is good for first class cricketers and for the game in general. But I think there is one more fundamental reason why we should support an effort like ICL. India, a sovereign country, gives its citizens a bunch of fundamental rights - chief among them is the right to chase one's dreams - whatever they may be - within the boundaries set forth by the constitution. Since early 90s, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit have catapulted India into a league where its citizens could (at least) dare to dream.

To me, BCCI's attempts at hindering ICL's progress are against the very spirit, ideology that drives modern India. I think every Indian citizen has a stake in this - even those who don't care about Cricket. Because, it is simply more fundamental and more important than a cricket match. It's about freedom.

I do not expect BCCI to go out of its way and help the new kid in the block, but at least don't throw stones at him. What hurts most is the manner in which the luminaries of Indian cricket are silent on this (and you know whom I am talking about :-).

A 'cricket manager' - Again ?

Between now and 8th of Sepetember, India will play 13 ODIs and 3 Test matches (see schedule). 11 of these are against England and South Africa, both of which fared way better than India at the World Cup.

It will be seven months by the end of September during which Indian cricket team is without a coach but only a 'cricket manager'. I always think of a cricket team's coach as a mentor. Or a Chief Backroom Officer (CBO) if you will, who knows exactly what he is supposed to do, and is not scared to take radical decisions. The CBOs in the modern days draw up the strategy, discipline the players, shape the younger players' careers and help the senior players with their wisdom.

For a moment, think of the Indian team touring England/Ireland as a company whose shares are traded on the BSE. Other than the captain Dravid, the entire leadership team is made up of people who either do not have a clear mandate to do their job or have not been given enough time to make any significant impact. During this time, the CBO of the 'Team India' will be an intern, or a 'temp' employee at best.

Worse, the bowling and fielding coaches (Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh) have played with all the senior players of the team selected for the tour. Though both of these coaches will be able to immensely help the younger players in the team, I don't see them making any difference with playing styles of the senior players. This is like hiring one of the retired regular employees and asking him or her to come back and lead the same bunch of people he/she used to work with. Why would a Sachin Tendulkar or a Sourav Ganguly listen to his former colleague who has been away from the thick of the action for the last 5 years. Even if they do, what would Venky and Singh have to offer to the senior players ?

Both Venky and Robin have been given 1 year contract. That means, to add to the confusion, they will be working with at least 3 different bosses during their tenure - Ravi Shastri during Bangladesh tour, Borde during England/Ireland tour, and hopefully a new coach after that.

Take nothing away from Borde, Venky or Robin Singh. They all are worthy people and would be able to help the players under a strong setup. The point I am trying to make here is that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way the leadership team has been put in place. Again, if Indian team to England/Ireland were a company, I wouldn't take chances on its shares.

McGrath's bowling figures in WC semi finals

Here is how well McGrath did today in the second WC Semi FInal (Aus vs NZ)

Bowling Figures

Bowlers	O	M	R	0s	1s	2s	3s	4s	6s	W	Wd	Nb	Econ
Nathan Bracken Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT	7.0	0	15	30	11	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2.14
Glenn McGrath Runs Per Over Total Glenn McGrath 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 4 1 0 0 4 0 9 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 12 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 31 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 33 0 1 0 0 0 0 1	8.0	0	18	39	7	1	0	2	0	3	1	0	2.25
Shaun Tait Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT	10.0	0	39	45	8	0	0	5	1	4	5	0	3.90
Shane Watson* Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT	8.5	0	49	24	19	1	0	7	0	1	0	0	5.76
George Hogg Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT	10.0	0	24	44	15	1	0	1	0	1	3	0	2.40
Runs Per Over Total THIS IS THE CONTENT

And here are the details on the overs he bowled (The leftmost column is the over numbers in South Africa innings that McGrath bowled).

2	0 0 0 0 0 0 1	1
4	0 0 0 0 0 0	0
6	4 1 W 0 4 0	9
8	1 0 0 0 0 0	1
10	0 0 1 W W 0	1
12	0 0 0 0 0 1	1
31	2 0 0 0 0 1	3
33	0 1 0 0 0 0	1

Even in over #6, were he was hit for 2 fours, he took the wicket of Kallis. And in Over #10, back to back wickets of Prince and Boucher ! Go McGrath !

New features and feedback

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cricketernews.com team

cricketernews.com's LiveScore BETA launched !

cricketernews.com team is proud to announce the launch of our LIVE scorecard, LiveScore Beta!

We have had live scorecard in alpha testing for more than a month now. Since this past weekend we are officially in Beta mode. This is an important milestone for us as we have worked extra hard over the past month to make this possible. Our goal, right from the get go, was to create the best Live scorecard on the www. I think we have come really close to reaching that goal. For starters, check out the Sri Lanka vs New Zealand semi final match.

But we are not stopping here. We still have plenty of features to roll out. Our developers are thinking of innovative ways to make the Live Cricket experience on the web the best ever. For techies among you, I'll post a synopsis of the technologies involved soon.

Troubles with the site

Past week has been a good mixture of joy and sorrow for us at cricketernews.com. First the good news - we launched an AJAX based cricket score card, called Livescore Beta. This beta version has the most minimalistic features right now, but expect much more in the next month or so. Now to the events that made us spend a couple of sleepless nights. Due to a combination of hardware and software troubles the site first could not bring you the latest news. Things worsened over time and the site completely went down. We have made necessary fixes and the site is back up.

Sorry for the inconvenience.
- cricketernews.com team

Milestone reached on the eve of World Cup 2007

Today we reached a milestone - CricketerNews.com went live with next generation Live score card - Livescore Beta, thanks to efforts of our developers. This score card has various features like the dynamic run rate graphs, runs scored in previous overs, etc. It also offers quick access to player's profile and other score details without refreshing the whole page. We hope this will enhance the user experience to a large extent.

We all must have enjoyed the opening ceremony of the World Cup 2007. Let this spirit continue throughout the world cup.

www.CricketerNews.com :)

Send in your valuable feedback(s) to contact@crickternews.com

Up, alive and kicking

Our hosting provider fixed the issue on their end. The site has been up and running for the last 21 hours. Sorry for any inconvenience.

- Cricketernews.com team

Hosting service down

Our site (cricketernews.com) has not been accessible for sometime since Sunday, March 11th.

The problem is not with us but with our hosting service provider. We are in touch with service provider and hope they get around to fixing the issue soon. cricketernews.com apologizes for the inconvenience.

Australian team - 2003 vs 2007

Here is the chart for comparision. Please arrive at your own conclusions. And btw, Glen McGrath did not play twice in the 2003 World Cup (though he ended up taking Sachin Tendulkar's wicket in the 2003 World Cup Finals)

Two cricketers and a World Cup

Rahul Dravid and Jacob Oram come from different worlds. One is from a cricket crazy city(Bangalore) of a cricket crazy country and the other is from a country where cricket needs to compete with other sports for the top slot. In one country cricket is a religion and in the other, its a mere sport. But these two cricketers made news last week for reasons that are completely non-idiosyncratic.

Last week CNN-IBN interviewed Rahul Dravid. After the interview, quite a few eyebrows were raised among those who follow Indian cricket. Rest of the media picked it up and ran with the story, or a version of it. There was quite a bit of noise in the blogosphere as well. In the interview, Rahul Dravid simply did not say what people expected him to say. He simply refused to be told that he was the center of the world. He refused to take himself more seriously than he needed to. He refused to share the belief that all his life's hard work (and that of his teammates') culminates with World Cup 2007. All of it, while maintaining the typical composure and assertiveness. In that interview with CNN-IBN, a couple of things struck with me. First - "Its not modest, its just the way I feel about it" line. And then the "Life goes on after the World Cup" line. Quite uncharacteristic and gutsy for an Indian captain about to lead his team in the World Cup. Or for that matter, uncharacteristic for any captain from the sub-continent. With 2 weeks to go, the last thing the captain wants, is to sound as though winning the World Cup is less important than anything else - a n y t h i n g e l s e.

Around the same time, Jacob Oram was talking about amputating his finger in order to play the World Cup(Thank God he didn't have to and hopefully no Cricketer has to). Remember again that Jacob Oram has never had his effigy burnt. He will never have to see his house mobbed due to one bad performance. In his country unlike Rahul Dravids', cricket is simply not that big. But still he wanted to play the World Cup so badly that he was ready to go under the knife. Was it worth the prize ? Only Jacob can answer. Because, like Rahul Dravid, ONLY he knows the answer. Because, like Dravid, only he could measure his success.

Well, tale of two cricketers - each with a big heart.

Win win for all

Cricket World Cup 2007 Teams
---------------------------------

Australia, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Canada, England, Netherlands, India, Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Srilanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe

Cricket World Cup 2007 - a platform where 16 countries displaying the best cricketing skills to outclass each other in order to place their hands on the coveted Cup and reclaim their supremacy in the world of cricket. For the first time we see that 1/3 of the world cup teams do not have any major experience in international cricket. Hence the question most of us are asking is, will all the matches in the world cup be exciting? Do we need to include such large percentage of new teams into world cup? Will it not dilute the interest of world cup matches on the whole?

Commercially these might be some concerns which ICC or the sponsors would have looked at before going ahead. Since certainly there will be some matches where you will find empty spectator stands, or lower viewer ship on Television, or hits on cricketing websites. Continuing to think on commercial front, one other positive factor which could have popped into the sponsors mind is the length of his world in days or in terms of number of matches played in this world cup. Since this world cup easily being one of the longest series in cricketing world, which in turn provides more opportunities for the companies to cash on (including ICC). However there is always a fear of dilution in interest; since only close, well fought, uncertainty in matches always attract more interest.

Thinking in long term, I believe this will enable the spirit of Cricket to enter many more millions of hearts across the globe by opening the door of cricket to new nations. In the end a win win situation to all the people who are involved with this wonderful game. However the biggest win goes to the game called "Cricket".

Don't you all think that spirit of cricket can spread to people who are in contact with it like a contagious smile or laughter :)? Hope you all catch this cricket fever soon :).

www.cricketernews.com :)

The anti-browser products

This past weekend I got a chance to review and intall Joost, a new P2P internet TV product that tries to bring the TV to the web. It so happens that Joost is developed by the same guys, who developed Kazaa and Skype (both based on Peer to Peer technology). Unlike iconic YouTube that depends on thousands of users to upload typically short videos, Joost depends on the TV channels for its content. Whereas YouTube and its siblings depend on the browser to deliver the content, Joost uses P2P technology (no browser). The content is streamed from Joost's servers for the first time. Afterwards, when more people are using their service, the content could be coming either from Joost's servers or from one of the peers. In fact, more the number of people watching a particular TV show on Joost, faster and more efficient would be the service. Joost currently only has older TV programs and they absolutely don't have any live TV programs.

Now, we all have watched live cricket videos over the www using the browser. At least in my case the experince has been less than perfect. Can P2P technology help deliver "live" sports feeds ? As I mentioned above - more people watching a specific Cricket match would result in more peers and hence more efficient streaming. This is quite opposite to browser based streaming, wherein more people watching a specific match would simply bog the streaming servers down.

Food for thought .... eh ? Shall we build a P2P video client at cricketernews.com :-) ??

(Blog on cricket animation is here)

England team - 2003 and 2007

Simply comparing the team that played the last edition of the WC verses the team that will be playing this edition tells a story. It tells you what the team has been upto in last 4 years. While you are free to interpret the story in your own way, here is how I would read it :

The 2007 England team is a much younger unit. There are only 3 players who have played in the 2003 WC. The English bowling attack is as fresh as it could get. Scouts must have worked over-time trying to replace aging stars with younger talent. One name thats missing from the 2007 squad is that of Steve Harmison. He is the first casulty of the Ashes whitewash. On paper, this team does not look threatening - especially if you compare roaster to that of the star-studded Indian side. But as a unit on the ground they may be able to do quite a bit of damage.

What the comparision doesn't tell you is that England won and lost Ashes in the same breath. When the lost - they lost bad.

cricketernews updates

We, at cricketernews.com have been working on fixing a few Podcast links, after we received complaints that users were unable to get to some of the podcasts. The ones that were not working included podcasts from 'CricInfo Round Table' and Tony Greig. We did some initial research last week and now we are working on the fix. We will certainly have a fix within this week - well ahead of the world cup.

Also, a few (not ALL) users using Firefox 2.0 browser have complained that the cricketernews.com content does not load at all. We are looking into this too. Untill we find a fix for this, please use any version of IE. We'll keep y'all in the loop. This is the first instance wherein we found out that some of our code does not work with Firefox. In general, Firefox has been very good to our developers.

If you would like to see any new features added to cricketernews.com, please write to us at contact@cricketernews.com

The world of cricket animation

Now, whats the next best thing to watching live Cricket on TV ? Following it on the web - considering that the radio has been thrown out of this equation for reasons unknown(At least in India, its largely due to sub-standard commentaries on AIR). Mid nineties, a lot of websites started posting live cricket scores on the web, much to the relief of the office-goers and fans living overseas. And then there were (and still are) a few streaming sites that let you watch live matches over the www. But even with high speed internet, the experience is excruciatingly painful. I remember Irfan Pathan's hat-trick against Pakistan in the Karachi (3rd) Test. I could only see the first 2 wickets fall - that of Salman Butt and Younis Khan. It took me 10 more minutes to figure that he had indeed taken a wicket with the next ball - that of Mohd Yousuf.

Roughly twelve years after web-based scorecards were launched, nothing much has changed - the same sites offer similar services. There are a few Flash based scorecards too, which could marginally improve the user experience. Amidst of all this, enter Cricket animation for live matches - mostly based on Flash.

Our own techies at cricketernews.com thought of building something very similar early in 2006. But we backed away as there were others doing the same thing.

For every action taking place in the field, the animated characters move around a small screen in the browser. For example, if a batsman takes a single, you'll see the two animated characters complete a run. These animations, that I first saw in baseball, are becoming common in Cricket too. It was Yahoo ! who first launched such a service first. Now its Cricinfo, introducing CricInfo 3D. CricInfo's service would let you pick the camera angle and also will provide you with scorecards and statistics. CricInfo says users need a decent processor with at lease 512 MB RAM. They will also have to download Adobe's Shockwave, version 10 or higher.

Lets see if animations satisfy the hunger of office-goers and fans living overseas.

Also read : Brainstorming about P2P cricket videos

This week in world cricket

Ok, the first prediction that I made has already been proved wrong. I predicted that Shoaib and Asif will play for Pakistan in the WC. But how would I know that just the day before the team left for West Indies, both of them would get injured :-) This saga has been a management nightmare for PCB. The problem is, even the former Pakistani players are not believing PCB's story. But believe me, this story is far from over.

Check out this video of a young Pakistani swing bowler. Pakistan seems to have a knack of producing world-class fast bowlers, time and again. If only somebody could teach them the knack of staying out of trouble !

A man in Hyderabad, India has designed this car to cheer for the Indian cricket team. Not sure if I wanna be in it. Anyway, hope his efforts pay off.

I'm kinda relieved to see Michael Vaughn back as the England captain. Not that I don't like Flintoff. Being only a vice-captain will help Flintoff do what he is good at doing - winning matches for England.

Now, about Monty Panesar - he may be the 'find' for England. But as a spinner, the benchmark for judging Monty 's ability is simply by looking at how he bowls to Indians and Pakistanis. I myself am very curious to see how he bowls to the batsmen from the sub-continent.

This and that

• Now again, for those who liked this Nike ad, this is how it was made !! I personally have seen better Cricket ads, but this one is right up there..

• Martin Scorcece finally won an Oscar this past weekend. Will Sachin Tendulkar win a World Cup ?

• And talking about momentum in the run up to the WC, if anyonez got it, its gotta be England and New Zealand. But, momentum could only take you so far in the World Cup. Look at India's 2003 campaign. But at least England and New Zealand have created a few doubts in the minds of the faithful.

• No matter who says what, but I firmly believe that Shoaib and Asif will play the WC 2007. There ya go fellas, my first WC prediction !

• And then there was Wasim Akram. Here is a fitting tribute.
  

• We, at cricketernews.com have been observing that some non-cricket related blogs and videos and creeping into the site. Thats because the super-duper program that we wrote to collect cricket related information is duped into collecting info on crickets and more ! We certainly don't want NSFW kinda stuff appearing on cricketernews.com. If indeed you find offensive info on cricketernews.com, please let us know at contact@cricketernews.com. We'll get rid of it ASAP.

Cricket World Cup 2007 - excitment has no limits

How is this world cup different from other cricket world cups? No, it is not the venue of tournament nor the amount of money spent for the world cup. But it is the form of various cricket teams. Just days / weeks before the start of the world cup no team looks a clear winner at the moment. At least in the last installment we could broadly agree that Australia or South Africa could win the world cup. However, this is not the case for World Cup 2007, which I believe brings in more excitement due to uncertainty of a sure winner for the spectators and the bookies.

Australia has lost the recent series with New Zealand, South Africa is no longer the same force while lead by Hansie, Sri Lanka lost the ODI series in India, India just looks to regain some form in the home series, Pakistan looks to have some internal issues, West Indies looking to regroup under the captaincy of Lara, England having lots of new players for this World Cup and so on... This is what excites me - expectation of an equally fought, close finishing and the sunny West Indies for an memorable world cup.

It is now time to relax, cheer for your team, grow nails inorder to bit them off during close matches, switch on the TV to watch Mandira showcase her 60 odd new dresses and listen to some Sidhuisms. All in all expect a fun filled time during the World Cup.

Which team are you cheering for and why? Send in your choices... :)

2 weeks to WC

From making Cricket related commercials (Nike) to auctioning saris with players' signatures(eBay), the advertisers are embracing Cricket as expected. Even US State department is taking notice. But will the host countries be ready? No - says this article from LA Times.

Indian team - then and now

We at cricketernews.com started comparing Cricket teams announced for this World Cup and its previous edition played in South Africa in 2003. Here is a comparion of 'Team India' that played in 2003 and now:



Its going to be the last world cup for the some of the Indian bigwigs - Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly. While Mohd. Kaif is unlucky to miss out the 2007 bus, the 2007 squad still looks a solid batting unit.

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