DLF IPL5 playoff begins

After a close contest in IPL5 the points table, the position of the 9 teams in the contest is as follows:

The four teams that go into the playoffs have been confirmed as

DELHI DAREDEVILS, KOLKOTTA KNIGHT RIDERS, MUMBAI INDIANS and CHENNAI
SUPERKINGS

Delhi prides itself on its batting strength with key performers being Warner, Sehwag, Umesh Yadav and Mornie Morkel.

For Kolkota Knight Riders, Gambhir, Bret Lee, Jacque Kallis, McCullum, Sunil Narine and Shakib have performed with consistency

The Mumbai Indians team Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Sachin, Kieron Pollard and Malinga are their strengths

Chennai Super Kings strong men are Hussey, Murali Vijay, Raina and Dhoni. For bowling they have Bollinger, Hilfenhaus, A. Morkel, Bravo

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India win Cricket World Cup 2011 – after 28 years

A  glorious new chapter has been scripted in cricketing history when India lifted the World Cup 2011 today.  All the team members wanted to dedicate the cup to Sachin Tendulkar.

SriLanka opted to bat first after winning the toss.  The highlight of the SriLanka innings was a brilliant 103 not out by Mahela Jayawardene.  SriLanka put up a total of 274/6.  The match was nerve-wrecking with many exciting moments.

A brilliant and gusty 97 from Gautam Gambhir, Kohli’s 35 and a captains innings from MS Dhoni (91 not out)were the highlight of the Indian innings after the openers Sehwag and Tendulkar were out to Malingas bowling.  Victory was sealed  by 6 wickets with 10 balls to spare.  Dhoni who had promoted himself up the order hit 2 consecutive boundaries off the bowling of Lasith Malinga when 15 runs were needed from 17 deliveries.

The tense crowd at the Wankhede stadium erupted in wild celebrations as Dhoni hit the winning six runs of Kulasekaras bowling  to give India their biggest cricketing moment.

This victory will long be remembered as it is after 28 long years that India has been able to achieve this feat!   The team mates lifted Sachin  as celebrations began.  It was also a fitting farewell to coach Gary Kirsten.

(Picture courtesy: NDTV, Zeenews)

Cricket World Cup – India, Sri Lanka eye second title!

All roads lead to Wankhede today for the cricket world cup finale!  Who will win the cup this year? Will it be India or Sri Lanka? This is India’s best chance to win the world cup! Muralitharan and Nehra are unlikely to play today.  A keen contest is on the cards and hoping that the Indian team puts up a good show today!

With favourites India looking to win the trophy for the first time since 1983, newspapers summed up the mood of expectation, with many focusing on whether local hero Sachin Tendulkar could secure a victory on his home ground.

(Source: Hindustan times.com)

So its an India vs Srilanka final!

So, yesterday turned out to be a really high pressure , adrenaline pumping semi-final.  What with all the bollywood celebrities, the Indian PM, the Pakistani PM, Sonial Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and the list of celebrities go on. ..  All roads led to Mohali and the bookies must have made a lot of money!

India put in to bat started off in great style.  Sehwag was at his best and managed a quick-fire 38 runs.  Sachin had a record number of 4 lives which helped him to reach 85.  It was not one of his great innings but what mattered is that it was important for India.  Raina also played a very useful innings of 36 not out to help India to reach 260/9.

The Pakistan top order gave them some hope. Mohammad Hafeez made 43 before Munaf  got Hafeez out caught behind. After Asad Shafiq’s wicket the  Mohali crowd came alive.  He made 30 runs. After that it was difficult for Pakistan to recover. They could only manage 231 and India won the match by 29 runs.

This time the fielding as well as the bowling of Nehra and Patel  worked  for India.
Overall, it was a great team effort and the Pakistan fielding also contributed to our win.
Now, we are all set to take on the Lankans at Wankhede!
Good luck India! to win the world cup (and the extra perks of watching Poonam Pandey fulfil her promise!)

India vs Pakistan – The final before the final

In yesterdays quarter-final, India ended Australia’s 12-year reign as world champions with a five-wicket win in Ahmedabad. Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Gambhir and Sachin chipped in with nice contributions and it was a team-effort. In the other quarter-final, Pakistan vanquished the Windies.

Now, the stage is all set for what is being termed as ‘the final before the final’ as Team India sets up a clash with perennial rivals Pakistan in the semi-final of the ongoing ICC World Cup 2011. India, and their neighbours, Pakistan, battle against each other on March 30 in Mohali.

Tickets for the near-28,000 capacity stadium were sold out in a record day-and-a-half, with PCA officials claiming that 16,500 tickets were sold and the remainder were sold to ICC, who in turn would be issuing tickets to its guests and officials.

India and Pakistan have played each other four times in past world cups and each time India has emerged victorious against their fiercest rivals. Proceedings in the matches themselves have been nothing short of hugely entertaining and even now images of the clash in 1996 when Pakistani opener Aamir Sohail carted two successive boundaries off Venkatesh Prasad, showing him the bat and then Prasad clean bowling him off the very next delivery still come to mind.

‘India v Pakistan in semi-finals – it doesn’t get better. A World Cup hosted by the sub-continental nations and India and Pakistan making it to the semis,’ said India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

‘There will be more pressure on the Indian side and it will be from outside. People will say ‘win the semis, we don’t care about the final’.

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said it will be ‘awesome’ to take on India for a place in the final at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on April 2.

‘There is no bigger rivalry in the game than that. We have not played each other in our own country in recent years,’ he said.

Source: Times of India & AFP

Great start by Team India! Way to go

 

 

 

Today’s match saw great batting displays by Virendar Sehwag (Nawab of Najafgarh) – a great knock of 175 (14 fours & 5 sixes) and Virat Kohli 100 not out (8 fours & 4 sixes) and an also good bowling display by Munaf Patel (10-0-48-4).  Bangladesh did try to put up a good fightback and ended on 283/9.  It is easy to put the blame squarely on Sreesanth (5-0-53-0) but it would be wiser not to forget his aggressive bowling against South Africa in the recent series.

India put up a mammoth total of 370 for 4 that was out of  reach but  Imrul Kayes (34), Tamim Iqbal (70) and Shakib (55) put up a tough fight.

This match has been a very good practice match for both teams and Bangladesh will go into the rest of the matches with greater confidence and as for India a win in their first world cup match sets the tone for the rest of the matches.  Go India! Now take on England with the same vengeance!

 

 

ICC World Cup fever starts

There are only 2 days to go to the start of the ICC World Cup and cricket fever has started.
In the  ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, 14 Teams will take part, these 14 teams are divided into 2 groups:

The first Match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, will commence with India and Bangladesh at Mirpur, Dhaka on 19th February 2011 and Final Match of of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, will be played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 2nd April 2011. 10th ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, will be played at 13 venues in Asia (India-Sri Lanka-Bangladesh).

Following is the Indian squad for the world cup:

Based on earlier world cups, the following are the statistics of teams winning and making it to runner-up.

Past statistics:

Country	Win	Runner-Up
Australia	4	2
India	1	1
SriLanka	1	1
South Africa	0	0
England	0	3
Pakistan	1	1

My predictions for the semis are that the following teams will qualify:

Australia
India
South Africa
England

IPL4 auction

 

 

 

Today the news and twitter were all following the IPL4 auctions.  Glitz, glamour and big money will be on display at the two-day Indian Premier League (IPL) auction here Saturday-Sunday as 350 cricketers go under the hammer for the fourth season of the money-spinning league.  The IPL-4, beginning in April, just about two weeks after the end of the cricket World Cup jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, is expected to feature 10 teams, with Kochi and Pune being the two new entrants.  As a long day wound to a close at the ITC Royal Gardenia Hotel, Gautam Gambhir emerged on top of the pile as he earned the highest price of $2.4 million from Kolkata Knight Riders.

The team-wise list of players auctioned here on Saturday is as follows –

Team-wise on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir , $2.4 million; Yusuf Pathan, $2.1 million; Jacques Kallis, $1.1 million; Brad Haddin, $325,000; Shakib Al Hasan, $425,000; Brett Lee, $400,000; Eoin Morgan, $350,000; Manoj Tiwary, $475,000.

Pune: Robin Uthappa, $2.1 million; Yuvraj Singh, $1.8million; Graeme Smith, $500,000; Tim Paine, $270,000; Angelo Mathews, $950,000; Ashish Nehra, $850,000; Nathan McCullum, $100,000; Callum Fergusson, $300,000.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, $2 million; Andrew Symonds, $850,000; David Jacobs, $190,000; James Franklin, $100,000.

Delhi Daredevils: Irfan Pathan, $1.9 million; David Warner, $750,000; Naman Ojha, $270,000; James Hopes, $350,000; Morne Morkel, $475,000; Aaron Finch, $300,000.

Kochi: Mahela Jayawardene, $1.5 million; V.V.S. Laxman, $400,000; Brendon McCullum, $475,000; S. Sreesanth, $900,000; R.P. Singh, $500,000; Parthiv Patel, $290,000; Ravindra Jadeja, $950,000; Steven Smith, $200,000; Muttiah Muralitharan, $1.1 million; Ramesh Powar, $180,000; Brad Hodge, $425,000.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: AB de Villiers, $1.1 million; Dilshan Tillakaratne, $650,000; Zaheer Khan, $900,000; Daniel Vettori, $550,000; Saurabh Tiwary, $1.6 million; Dirk Nannes, $650,000; Cheteshwar Pujara, $700,000.

Deccan Chargers: Cameron White, $1.1 million; Kevin Pietersen, $650,000; Kumar Sangakkara, $700,000; J.P. Duminy, $300,000; Shikhar Dhawan, $300,000; Ishant Sharma, $450,000; Dale Steyn, $1.2 million; Pragyan Ojha, $500,000; Amit Mishra, $300,000.

Rajasthan Royals: Ross Taylor, $1 million; Rahul Dravid, $500,000; Johan Botha, $950,000; Paul Collingwood, $250,000.

King’s XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist, $900,000; Shaun Marsh, $400,000; David Hussey, $1.4 million; Dinesh Karthik, $900,000; Stuart Broad, $400,000; Abhishek Nayar, $800,000; Praveen Kumar, $800,000; Ryan Harris, $325,000; Piyush Chawla, $900,000.

Chennai Super Kings: Michael Hussey, $425,000; Wriddhiman Saha, $100,000; Dwayne Bravo, $200,000; Doug Bollinger, $700,000; R. Ashwin, $850,000; S. Badrinath, $800,000.

Unsold players:

Sourav Ganguly, base price $400,000

Brian Lara, base price $400,000

Chris Gayle, base price $400,000

Luke Wright, base price $400,000

James Anderson, base price $400,000

Graeme Swann, base price $400,000

Herschelle Gibbs, base price $200,000

Matt Prior, base price $200,000

Mark Boucher, base price $200,000

Murali Kartik, base price $200,000

Ajantha Mendis, base price, $200,000

Jesse Ryder, base price $100,000

Dilharo Fernando, base price $100,000

Chamara Kapugedera, base price $100,000, unsold

Tamim Iqbal, base price $100,000, unsold

Graham Manou, base price $50,000

 

 

India win Kolkota test against SA; retain No.1 spot

A superb team effort both in batting and bowling saw India beat South Africa in the 2^nd test at Eden Gardens and retain the No.1 test ranking.

One South African stood like a rock and offered stubborn resistance to the Indian bowlers.  Hashim Amla thwarted our win hopes until the fag end of the fifth days play nearly carrying the South Africans to safety with an unbeaten 127 to deservedly win the man of the match and man of the series. 

With rain ruining the 4^th days play,  South Africa resumed the fifth day at 115 for three after conceding a lead of 347 runs, the South Africans were all out for 289 with just 15 minutes remaining on a nail-biting last day.

Spinners Harbhajan Singh (5/59) and Amit Mishra (3/84) were the wreckers-in-chief as they ripped through the South African middle order but it was the stout resistance from Amla and the tailenders which delayed the victory.

After the tea break, the Indians were literally racing against time to dismiss the last three wickets in the tense post-tea session and the injury-induced absence of Zaheer Khan did have a bearing.

Harbhajan claimed the last wicket of Mornie Morkel, trapping him leg before wicket, to mark India’s victory and send the vociferous Eden crowd into a frenzy. The fiesty off spinner ran towards the boundary line and was soon hugged by his teammates who celebrated the victory. Amla and Morkel defied the Indians for 124 balls to frustrate the hosts who just could not get the breakthrough despite deploying an attacking field right through the day.

But it was Amla, who achieved the rare feat of scoring centuries in all the innings he played in the series, who took the centrestage with his superb batting, occupying the crease for more than a day and facing 394 balls.

With the Test series ending with honours shared, both the teams will now gear up for the three-match one-day series beginning in Jaipur from Sunday.

With this win, India not only avenged their defeat in the Nagpur series-opener but also nixed South Africa’s bid to snatch the number one Test team’s tag

Cricket may be played in Olympics 2020

Cricket was cleared to pursue its bid to be included in future Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rubberstamped the sport’s recognition on Thursday.

Cricket, powerboating and sports climbing became the latest sports to be officially recognised by the IOC, a status necessary before launching a bid to become part of the Olympic programme.

source: Reuters