Mashrafe Mortaza is very impressed with how his young bower Mustafizur Rahman

Mashrafe Mortaza is very impressed with how his young bower Mustafizur Rahman has carried himself after having a sensational first season in international Cricket.

According to Mortaza, the name and fame has not got Mustafizur fascinated at all and he is just enjoying his game.

The rookie left arm seam bowler destroyed the powerful batting line ups of India and South Africa on the home pitches in back-to-back One Day International series in 2015.

His exploits brought him in the limelight in the Cricketing world as he even managed to earn a contract in the Indian Premier League.

Mustafizur’s slower balls and cutters which he disguised with expertise caught a lot of accomplished players in awkward positions.

Most of the wickets that he got were the soft dismissals and that’s because the batsmen were finding it almost impossible to pick his variations.

However, as nobody had played him at that time, it all came as an element of surprise, but, it would be slightly tougher for Mustafizur from here onwards as the batsmen would be better prepared to take him on. Continue reading “Mashrafe Mortaza is very impressed with how his young bower Mustafizur Rahman”

Brian Lara has failed to entertain in the two All Stars

Brian Lara has failed to entertain in the two All Stars games that he has played so far.

He has gotten out cheaply both times and that against the spinners.

Those people who followed Lara’s international career would know how good a player of spin he was. He had the capability to pummel even the best of spinners on the turning tracks.

But, playing in USA, he doesn’t seem to still have got that in him.

He showed a slight glimpse in the second game though when he danced down the track to a nicely lopped delivery and whacked it straight down the ground for a one bounce four, but, soon after that, he was taken down as Andrew Symonds, the former Aussie part time spinner, beat him in the air and got one past him to knock him over at a score of 19.

It was a shot which was bread and butter for Lara when he was on his roll, the loft over the spinner’s head. He was such an expert at that, but, not anymore. Even somebody like Andrew Symonds was good enough to outfox him.

In the first All-Stars game too which was played in New York, Lara had been dismissed on a shot which he would never fault at during his playing days, that is the sweep shot. Continue reading “Brian Lara has failed to entertain in the two All Stars”

Jonathan Trott has found himself opening the batting for England

Jonathan Trott has found himself opening the batting for England after his comeback.

And, there’s the possibility that he would continue at that position in the Ashes series too.

Trott used to bat one down until he was hit by that depression issue in the middle of the Australian tour 2013.

It took him one and half years to revive himself from that, but, during that period, Garry Ballance secured that no. 3 spot, scoring regular hundreds, leaving no option for the team management, but, to push Trott upwards to the opening slot.

Trott was actually lucky that there was a vacancy at the top of the order with Sam Robson failing the previous season.

If Robson had gone well and had established himself as the opening partner of Cook, Trott might not have got himself into the playing XI at all.

And, even now, Trott will have to go well to make sure that he stays in the XI for the Ashes games. Continue reading “Jonathan Trott has found himself opening the batting for England”

Rohit Sharma opened the batting for the Mumbai Indians

Rohit Sharma opened the batting for the Mumbai Indians in the first game versus the Kolkata Knight Riders and scored 98 fabulous runs and then, for some reason, he demoted himself in the batting order and started coming at 3 or 4.

And, since the time he has done that, Mumbai’s overall batting has been all over the place.

Rohit is the most important batsman for the Mumbai Indians in the subcontinent conditions and that’s because he is a fine player of the spinners.

He can milk the spinners which the overseas batsmen or even some of the other Indian batsmen can’t do effectively.

In the limited over formats of the game, you want your best player to play the maximum no. of deliveries and in Mumbai’s case; it can happen only if Rohit opens the innings.

Also, Mumbai’s problem in the recent games has been that they have not been able to build a platform.

With Rohit opening, they might be able to do that and then, their big hitters can take over in the death.

And, Rohit opens for India as well quite regularly in the One day Internationals and the T20s.

Mumbai has lost 4 out of their 4 games and to have any chance of reaching the playoffs now, they need to win at least 7 out of their remaining 10. Continue reading “Rohit Sharma opened the batting for the Mumbai Indians”

Sri Lanka vs New Zealand – First Match in World Cup

The runners up of the previous World Cup, Sri Lanka, will play against the New Zealand in the first match of the World Cup 2015 this Saturday.

However, for the England viewers, the match will be starting on Friday night itself at 11 PM.

Sri Lanka might be above the Black Caps in the team rankings of the International Cricket Council at the moment, but, given the conditions that will be there in Christchurch, it’s New Zealand which is the favourite.

The Sri Lankan bowling attack is more about spin. On the small ground there, using too much of spin can be dangerous as the ball would not turn at all and thus, playing lofted shots would be too easy. Continue reading “Sri Lanka vs New Zealand – First Match in World Cup”