Friday, November 27, 2009

India completes Thumping Victory


India thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and 144 runs in the second test here in Green Park Stadium, Kanpur. The first test in Ahmedabad’s Motera Stadium was a draw. As the debutant spinner Pragyan Ojha took the last wicket, Indian players, team management, crowd present in the stadium and millions following the match went wild.

India batted first and openers Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid scored hundreds and good scores by Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman enable India to reach a mammoth total of 642. In reply, Sri Lanka was bundled for a mere 229 in the first innings, thanks to a five wicket haul of the returning pacer S Sreesanth. Not even a single half century was scored by any of the Sri Lankan batsmen in the first innings. Indian spinners too supported Sreesanth well, as Harbhajan Singh took 2 wickets and debutant spinner Pragyan Ojha too chipped in with a couple of wickets.

Sent for the follow-on, the story of first innings was repeated and Sri Lanka lost their first 4 wickets for just 54 at the end of third day’s play. India, having sense the victory, deliver the knockout punch on the fourth day as Harbhajan Singh took 3 wickets, Ojha took 2, Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth took 1 wicket apiece to restrict Sri Lanka to just 269. Middle order Sri Lankan batsman Thilana Samaraweera tried very hard to delay the defeat, as he scored a patient 78 not out, but he ran short of batting partners.

S Sreesanth was declared the Man of the Match for his second five wicket haul.

Indian team now looks charged up and will be ready to take on Sri Lankans in Mumbai, in the third test starting from Dec 2.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Indian Team Declared for Sri Lanka Series


Indian Cricket Team has been declared for the Test Series against Sri Lanka. Injured pacer Zaheer Khan is back in the Indian squad for the three match series against Sri Lanka. Also, pacer S. Sreesanth is back in the Indian team. Sreesanth has been in out of the Indian team from a long time back.

The team is as follows:

Captain: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Vice Captain: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, S. Sreesanth, S Badrinath, Amit Mishra.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

New Zealand Wins Cool Cool Cup


New Zealand defeated Pakistan by 7 runs in an exciting finish, which could have gone Pakistan’s way – thanks to one of the most outstanding innings played by young Pakistani fast bowler Mohammad Aamer, who finished unbeaten on 73 off just 81 balls, with 7 fours and 3 sixes, hit in 1 over of Daniel Vettori.

Earlier, New Zealand managed to score just 211 runs, thanks to a brilliant bowling by Pakistani off spinner Saeed Azmal (4-33) and Mohammad Aamer (2-41). New Zealand opener and wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum scored an impressive 76. Rest of the batsmen can’t stand for long whole Kiwi team was sent by Pakistani bolwers.

In reply, it was a one sided game from the starting, as Timothy Southee, Kylie Mills, Shane Bond and New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori limited the Pakistani batsmen and at one stage Pakistan were 101-9. It was looking a feeble batting effort from Pakistan, until young Mohammad Aamer, along with Saeed Azmal (30) took Pakistan to the doors of victory. In the process, Mohammad Aamer broke the record of Zimbabwean Doug Mariller, who scored 56* against India in Faridabad, way back in 2001, by scoring 73 not out.

Mohammad Aamer was given the Man of the Match and Brendon McCullum the Man of the Series awards. Earlier, Pakistan won the first game and New Zealand, the second game of the Cool Cool Cup.

Monday, November 9, 2009

India loses the ODI Series


India, after losing to Australia by 6 wickets at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Guwahati, lost the ODI Series against Australia. Earlier, India also lost the Hyderabad One Day by just three runs chasing a massive target of 351 runs.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and surprisingly chose to bat on a pitch that was looking green and also, the morning freshness of the wicket was bound to help the fast bowlers. Soon, it started to show it’s nature, when Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir got out when the score was 7. The centurion of the last game and only batsman to score more than 17,000 ODI runs – Sachin Tendulkar got out when the score was just 23. Soon, Yuvraj Singh got out in a strange fashion, when he dragged the ball to his own stumps, in an effort to get back to the crease. Soon followed Suresh Raina and India almost lost the game st this juncture, having been reduced to 27-5. Captain M S Dhoni and Ravinder Jadeja tried to settle the things, but they had to sacrifice the run rate for the same.

Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh’s wicket pushed India further down. Then cam Praveen Kumar, who scored a record 85 runs for the 8th wicket with Ravinder Jadeja. Praveen Kumar went on to score a half century, but India were unable to play their full quota of overs and got out on the score of 170 in 48 overs. Left arm pacer Doug Bollinger took 5 wickets.

In reply, Australia though lost the wicket of Shaun Marsh early, but after that patient innings of Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Cameron White and Michael Hussey played useful innings and took Australia to the victory target easily.