Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

GREAT START

The England Cricket Team made a great start in the second test match against India at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, but, couldn’t quite capitalize on that start and let India bounce back in the match.

The wicket at the Wankhede Stadium was a rank turner and it was expected to turn right from the first day. Alastair Cook lost the toss again and England had to bowl first again.

There were a couple of changes in the England team. Ian Bell had flown back home. So, on his place, Jonny Bairstow was included in the XI. The second replacement was an obvious one. Considering the nature of the wicket, England had to play with two spinners and that’s what they did. Tim Bresnan made way for the left arm orthodox spinner Monty Panesar.

England was off to a brilliant start. There was some swing in the air in the first hour and Anderson made good use of it. He bowled a perfect in swinger to the left handed Gautam Gambhir and trapped him in front of the leg stump. The first wicket was down when the score was only four and India was under a bit of pressure.

Sehwag and Pujara played a few shots and took India past 50. But, when the score was 52, Sehwag tried to play Panesar through the leg side, but, he was beaten in the air and was clean bowled.

Sachin Tendulkar was knocked over by a beauty from Panesar. Kohli looked good during his brief stay at the crease, but, he didn’t manage to keep a drive along the ground and was caught in the covers off the bowling of Panesar.

Yuvraj was beaten by a marginally spinning delivery from Swann and got clean bowled. India was in a spot of bother at 119 for 5, but, Pujara along with the skipper MS Dhoni provided the steadiness to the innings. These two added 50 runs for the sixth wicket. Dhoni became the fourth player to be dismissed by Panesar as he edged one to Swann at Gully.

R Ashwin came to bat no. 8 and he looked pretty comfortable at the crease. He added 97 runs with Pujara for the seventh wicket and the partnership is still unbeaten.

At the end of the first day’s play, the score of India was 266 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. Pujara and Ashwin were not out on 114 and 60 respectively.

Posted on

CAPTAIN RESIGNS

Mahela Jayawardene has resigned as the T20 skipper of Sri Lanka. Jayawardene told the reporters about his decision in the press conference after the final match of the World T20 Championship on Sunday night.

In the final match, the Sri Lankan team was defeated by 36 runs. But, Jayawardene made it quite clear that his decision to resign has nothing to do with the defeat of Sri Lanka in the final. Jayawardene said, “It was my last match as the T20 captain of Sri Lanka. I think that it’s the time for a youngster to take over the captaincy of the T20 team. I will continue captaining the test and ODI sides.”

“Our defeat in today’s match is not the reason behind my resignation. Before the start of the tournament, I had told the selectors that I would step down after this tournament.  I will continue to give my contribution as a player in the shortest format of the game.”

When asked about the performance of Sri Lanka in today’s match, Jayawardene said, “We started brilliantly and the first 10-12 overs were fantastic for us. But, after that, we lost the momentum. Samuels decided to take on our best bowler and he succeeded in that. He played a great knock and his inning shifted the momentum in the favour of West Indies.”

“137 was a decent score on this pitch. It was a two paced track and there was a bit of bounce in it for the spinners. We lost Dilshan in the second over and that wicket pushed us back. Their spinners bowled really well. Overall, it was a good all round performance by the West Indies team. They were certainly better than us today and they deserved to win the Championship.”

Posted on

CRICKETER OF THE YEAR

Rahul Dravid has been named as the ‘Castrol Test cricketer of the year’ for his brilliant performance in test cricket in 2011. The Castrol awards were given to a number of Indian cricketers a few days ago.

Dravid had announced his retirement from test cricket earlier this year. But, his performance was brilliant in the test matches in 2011. He scored two centuries against West Indies and three centuries against England last year. Rahul Dravid was the only Indian batsman who played the English fast bowlers confidently on the tour of England last year.

Rahul Dravid was the highest run scorer in the test matches in 2011.He played 12 test matches last year in which he scored 1145 runs at an average of 57.25 and at a strike rate of 44.74. He scored 5 centuries and 4 half centuries in 2011. The Sri Lankan batsman, Kumar Sangakkara, was no. 2 in the list who scored 1034 runs in 11 test matches.

Apart from Dravid, some other Indian cricketers were also awarded. Suresh Raina was named as the ‘one day cricketer of the year’. Sachin Tendulkar was named as the ‘batsman of the year’, while, the captain of the Indian U19 team, Unmukt Chand, was named as the ‘junior cricketer of the year’.

The Indian captain, MS Dhoni, was named as ‘cricketer of the year’, but, he was not present in the award ceremony to collect his award. The former Indian captain, Ajit Wadekar, was given the lifetime achievement award.

After getting the award, Dravid said that the last year was very good for him and after the England series, he had thought that he would continue playing for another two years. But, the Australian tour changed his mind set. He started missing the line of the deliveries in Australia and he felt that the time had come for him to quit.

Posted on

NEW BOWLING COACH

The former fast bowler of Tasmania, Allister De Winter, has been appointed as the new bowling coach of Australia. He will replace Creig McDermott who resigned from his post. McDermott said that he has not been able to give proper time to his family due to his coaching duties. So, he is resigning from his post to spend some time with his family.

The general manager of Cricket Australia, Pat Howard, said that there were quite a few candidates for this post including the former Pakistani fast bowler, Waqar Younis, but De Winter won the race eventually. De Winter is currently the assistant coach of Tasmania. After being appointed as the bowling coach, De Winter said that he is very excited to work with the Australian bowlers. As per De Winter, Australia has a very good bunch of fast bowlers at the moment. It would be wonderful to work with these aggressive fast bowlers.

De Winter also coaches the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big bash League (BBL). De Winter didn’t represent Australia in the international cricket. He played first class cricket for Tasmania. He played 21 first class matches for Tasmania and took 35 wickets. De Winter said that the bowlers at the international level should not be taught how to bowl. They already know how to bowl. All they need is a bit of guidance about their bowling and that’s what the role of a bowling coach is all about. As per De Winter, sometimes the bowlers need a minor adjustment in their action or in their bowling stride and suddenly they start picking wickets. So, a bowling coach should tell a bowler where he is getting wrong and what should he do to overcome his problem.

De Winter would take the charge of the Australian team from the UAE tour where Australia will play ODI and T20 matches against Pakistan.

Posted on

Australia move up

After giving some consistent performances in test match cricket, Australian cricket team has moved up in the official test rankings of International Cricket Council (ICC). Australia is now at no. 2. England is still the number 1 side while South Africa has moved down to no. 3. The Australian cricketers have performed brilliantly in the last two test series that they have played. At first, they whitewashed Team India by a margin of 4-0 in the home series and then they visited West Indies and beat them by a margin of 2-0 in the 3 match test series. In the last 7 test matches that Australia has played, it has won 6 of them.

After the appointment of Michael Clarke as captain, the Australian test team has shown gradual improvements. The team is looking stabilized and every member of the team has a fixed role. Australia has a young brigade of fast bowlers who can bowl pretty quickly. Also, it has a very good spinner in the form of Nathan Lyon. He is an old fashioned orthodox off spinner who likes to flight the ball. The opening slot is also looking quite stabilized. David Warner is relishing the opportunity of playing test cricket. He makes a lethal combination with Shane Watson at the top of the order. Australia has also found a fabulous wicket keeper in the form of Matthew Wade. He is quite capable with the bat. Ian Chappell, former Australian Captain, has said during a television show that Wade is good enough to play as a specialist batsman in the Australian team. Also, he doesn’t do a bad job behind the stumps.

Australia has to play an important test series against South Africa in the later part of the year. If Australia wins that series, it might become the No. 1 test team in the world again.

Posted on

Sachin given award by Wisden India

There is absolutely no need of explaining the credibility of Sachin Tendulkar and another feather was added on his hat by felicitating him with Wisden India Outstanding achievement award. This award ceremony was organized in Dubai. The place where this award ceremony was organized was not too far from the stadium where he made the excellent pacer Shane Warne literally spellbound in the year 1998. The trophy was a crystal one with a highly stylish look and was of high prestige.

According the cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar, he had a spent a memorable night of his life on that day as the ceremony was full of life with a plotted comedy, a trophy and of course which ended with dinner. He has received a number of trophies but this trophy was unparallel according to him. Sachin was honestly best part of the evening as it was made more wonderful by the questions asked by Alan Wilkins. Alan was a bowler from Glamorgan and no is a well known face in the Star Sports- ESPN in the Asian branch. His tricky questions were beautifully handled by master blaster who answered all the questions with a sixer.

This celebration includes a total of six dinners one of which was on this day and five will be celebrated later in the span of three years. This will help both the master cricketer and his fans to interact with each other. Sachin Tendulkar came closer to the fans as he answered questions based on his successful life. He talked, he smiled, he answered and he made the evening a memorable one to everyone who witnessed it.  The master blaster with 49 ODI 100s and 51 Test 100s showed his skill in this award ceremony with a usual attitude.