Chennai Wins Champions League T20

Chennai Super Kings became the first Indian team to win the Airtel Champions League T20 Tournament. Chennai defeated South African domestic T20 winner, Warriors. Warriors batted first in the most crucial match of the tournament and Chennai bowlers, especially the spinners, played a huge part in restricting the Warriors. Warriors managed to score just 128/7 in their alloted 20 overs. Chennai chased the target with precision.

Warriors won the toss and elected to bat first. They have cracker of a start, but could not convert them into a big one. Their captain and opening batsmen Jacobs had been the best batsmen of Warriors in the tournament and today was no exception. Jacobs scored 34 off just 21 balls, but once his wicket fell, Warriors lost their way & submitted to the bowling of Muttaih Muralitharan & R Ashwin, who took 5 wickets of the total 7. Doug Bollinger & Albie Morkel also took 1 wicket apiece. In the lower order, Thyssen scored a quickfire 25 off 18 balls & took the team to a fighting total of 128.

Chennai was always in the control of the chase and their openers Murali Vijay & Michael Hussey shared a 103 run partnership for the 1st wicket and this ensured their win. Warriors' bowlers tried very hard, but they could do nothing about these two. Both the openers made cracking half centuries. Vijay scored 58 off 53 balls, with 6 fours and 2 sixes, whereas Hussey remained unbeaten on 51 off 46 balls. It was a calm & controlled innings by Hussey, as always! In the end, Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit a six & a four to win the tournament & complete the 'double' of IPL victory and Champions League.

R Ashwin was declared Man of the Series for taking 13 wickets. He was outstanding throughout the tournament except for that super over defeat against Victoria Bushrangers. Murali Vijay gets the Golden bat for scoring the most number of runs & R Ashwin gets the Golden Wicket.

The Tour Will Go On

In spite of all match fixing controversies surrounding Pakistan Cricket team, the team management has decided to continue the tour. In fact, the team has arrived in Taunton. Meanwhile, the 'Center of Attraction', Mazhar Majeed, has been released on bail by Scotland Yard Police. Also, the three alleged players, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir & captain Salman Butt, whose mobile phones were confiscated, have also travelled to Somerset, with the team.

The whole Pakistan has mixed sorts of emotions; people are cursing their 'heroes'. Some are crying over the incident, while some are still not ready to believe the 'spot fixing' allegations. The media, former players and fans, all are very disappointed with these sorts of allegations. Some former players are putting all the blame on PCB for not reacting on One dayer and T20 Captain Shahid Afridi's warning of keeping Pakistani players away from Majeed Brothers.

Andrew Strauss, on the other hand, showed mixed feelings. He, on the one side, was very happy to win the test from the position of losing; on the other hand; he also looks dejected on the possibility of deleting the Test Match's records from the history.

Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed, on the other hand, said that the tour will continue as per the itinerary, with a warm up game against Somerset at Taunton, scheduled for Thursday.

Sri Lanka New Zealand Match Got Abandoned Again

After getting the match postponed for one day because of excessive rains, the ODI between Sri Lanka and New Zealand have been abandoned and the two teams have to get satisfied by sharing equal points. Sri Lanka was 203 for 3 in 43.4 overs, when the match got stopped due to rain.

Meanwhile, Srilankan Captain Kumar Sangakkara has been founded a level 2 accused of breaching ICC Code of Conduct when he get collided by New Zealand off-spinner Nathan McCullum, The incident occurred in the 27th over of the Sri Lankan innings. Sangakkara guided a McCullum delivery to fine leg and set off for a run. He was turning for the second when he bumped into the bowler, who had his back to Sangakkara. McCullum complained to the umpire and Sangakkara also had words with him.

This has been rather an unfortunate series for Sri Lanka.First some players got injured and some of them were down with Dengue fever; then the Suraj Randiv - Virender Sehwag 'no-ball' controversy & defeat against India (and that too without achieving a single point) and now the captain Kumar Sangakkara has ran into trouble. We think that Sri Lanka has to overcome their fortune also, apart from India and New Zealand.

Veteran Yousuf Helps Pakistan take control

In the second test at The Oval, Pakistan's returning batsman Mohd. Yousuf made a patient half century to help Pakistan take lead in the ongoing Test match. Apart from Mohd. Yousuf, new batsman Azhar Ali made a patient half century and is still batting (when the blog is posted) on 66 and is the leading scorer in Pakistan's first innings as they take a lead of 45 runs in the first innings.

Pakistan, on the other hand, restricted England to a mere 233, thanks mainly to a first 5 wicket haul for the debutant Wahab Riaz, who took 5-63 in his first ever test innings. Pacer Mohd. Asif took 3 wickets and played an important role in restricting England to 233.

Pakistan were 276 when the last news came in. For England, G.P. Swann took 3 wickets.

Match Abandoned

Hey All,

Your Favourtie Cricket Maniac is Back. From now on, the update on your favourite cricket blog will be regular. I PROMISE.

Meanwhile, the fourth match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka have been abandoned due to heavy rain. This came as a surprise as this was the first ever ODI that was abandoned in Dambulla. However, the points will not be distributed till tomorrow, where the two teams will toss again and might play (obviously, if the weather allows, as tomorrow is the reserve day).

Sri Lanka have to come harder on their opponents as they are on a back foot after the 'Suraj Randiv' No-Ball controversy.

New Zealand, on the other hand, included the big all-rounder Jacob Oram and batsman Graham Elliott and leaving batsman Martin Guptill due to an injury. However, both the teams have new opportunity to rename the final XI.

India Defeats South Africa

India defeats South Africa by an innings and 58 runs to retain the No 1 spot in the ICC Test Ratings. India would have lost the Numero Uno status, if they've lost this match or even played a draw. Though, India does not have any Test match in this year, it would be very interesting to see, how long can they stay at the top.

As far as this match goes, India won emphatically, despite a fighting century by the middle order batsman hashim Amla. Amla remained unbeaten on 127 but South Africa was unable to play the necessary overs today. Had South Africa played those last 9 balls, the efforts of Harbhajan Singh (5 wickets), Amit Mishra (3 wickets) and Ishant Sharma (2 wickets) would have gone in vain.

South African batsmen (apart from Amla) only looked to pass the time in the middle and were interested in sticking to the pitch, whereas Amla attacked the bowling, as and when he got a lose delivery. India had their moments regularly, as both the spinners get wickets at regular intervals. They broke the partnerships when they seemed stubborn and dangerous. Amla was their main target; however they were unable to take his wicket. Other batsmen just played around him.

India would have however, won this game pretty easily, had the rain not made this match such a nail biting finish. Indian supporters looked down when the final overs were going on. Then came the magical over of Harbhajan Singh, who was the real hero for India on Day 5.

The Man of the Match award and the Man of the Series award was given to Hashim Amla for making 490 runs in the series.

Well, this series proves that the real winner is Test Cricket. Who can say after watching such an enthralling Test Series that Test Cricket is boring. What do you think?

India Wins Idea Cup

Zaheer Khan took 6 wickets in the second innings of Bangladesh to complete the Indian whitewash over Bangladesh. Tamim Iqbal scored a brilliant century on the third day evening and shared a century stand with Junaid Siddiqui. This was the fastest century by any Bangladeshi batsmen, surpassing the century of wicketkeeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim in the first test of this series. India took the remaining wickets and completed the formality. Bangladesh though managed to avoid the innings defeat and took a lead of 1 run. Night-watchman Shahadat Hossain made 40 runs to avoid the innings defeat.

India defeated Bangladesh in the first Test match and completed the whitewash by defeating them in the second innings. Zaheer Khan took 6 wickets in the innings and was declared as the 'Man of the Match' and 'Man of the Series'. The worst part of the series for India was injury to S Sreesanth, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh. Dravid and Yuvraj will miss the series against South Africa.

Afridi Ready to Play in IPL

Shahid Afridi is still ready to play in IPL season 3, as he is ready to participate even after not being picked up by any franchisee in the auctions. Sohail Tanveer also joined Afridi and said that he does not have 'anything personal' against India and is ready to participate in the IPL and Champions League. Afridi, who played for Deccan Chargers in the first season of IPL, earlier said that it is an 'insult' for Pakistan Cricket, players and the country, as none of the Pakistani cricketers was picked in the IPL auction.

Meanwhile, IPL boss Lalit Modi said to a television news channel that there is still a 'window of possibility' for Pakistani players to participate in the IPL, as there are still some franchisees, who do not have full quota of players in their side. These franchisees can shun some players and picked Pakistani players, if they liked so. 2 days back, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram also said that there are no indications from the government on picking or dropping Pakistani players and it is a 'disservice of cricket'. After this statement of Modi, it is likely to be taken an indication for the franchisees to pick at least top Pakistani players like Afridi, Tanveer, Abdul Razzaq and Umar Gul.

Pakistan Loses Third ODI

Pakistan lost the third ODI to Australia by 40 runs in Adelaide Oval. With this victory, Australia won yet another ODI series win, as the hosts win the first two ODIs comfortably. Also, Pakistan was defeated in all the Test matches by the mighty Australians.

Australians, after batting first, put a decent total of 286 on the board, thanks mainly to a patient 83 by Shaun Marsh off 113 balls and a brilliant inning of 80 by Michael Clarke and a late onslaught by Michael Hussey. These two added 80 runs off just 33 balls.

Pakistan was soon reduced to 60/4, before Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam and then Shahid Afridi and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan scored briskly, but could not avoid defeat. For Australia, Ryan Harris took 5-43 and Mckay took 3.

I am back

Hey folks! I am back. I met a very bad accident (though accidents are bad only) on 18^th Dec 2009 and after nearly 1 and half months, I am returning to office. I hope you missed me during this time. My right leg got fractured, but now it is fine. Though, there is a slight stiffness, but it will be fine.