The Fortune could swung to either side....

The mighty come back....

    It could be much earlier, to dodge England batting order. But soon after lunch Indian, bowlers changed their plans, what they have done to England top order batsmen. Indian seamers pitched it up and seamed it away from the English batsmen till tea; got the result for it plumbing England to 124/8. But after tea, they inexplicably abandoned plans, they resorted to shorter length with wider balls, this gave Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann to free their arms and scored around seven runs per over that resulted them to a decent score of 221 runs in their first innings.
  At the same time, Indian skipper Dhoni's fielding arrangement also astonished me a bit. Rather then setting up an attacking one he resorted much on defence. This gave more advantage to the England tail-enders. Broad's some shorts went tantalizingly over the Indian fielders while others fell too short. Indian fielders' "snail-like" movement also helped them a lot. Finally a full slaughter from Praveen Kumar ended Swann's anguish at gully. There were no celebrations,only angry relief. Two sessions of good play by the Indian bowlers completely unraveled by these two players in just 12 overs.
  Earlier winning the toss, Dhoni again chosen to field first seeing the mighty conditions prevailing then and bowlers did a fantastic job to back captain's decision. ZaheerKhan's replacement in this test, Sresanth bowled enthusiastically at right places and swung away which wrecked English middle order. Also he joined in formidable alliance with Ishant and Praveen who well utilized their pace and swing. The result was that England were down to 124/8 at tea.
  England bowlers in reply started off flamboyantly as Anderson knicked Indian opener Abhinav Mukund to gully which clearly showed that he didn't learned anything from the Lord's test. At stumps on day-1 Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman carried the Indian first innings score to 24/1 without much loss.

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India - To regain their aura....

  It was always like this. Having lost in the first test match at Lords, in 2011 also the same conditions prevail. Nine years ago, in 2002, Indian team under their most unperturbed captain lost the first test match at Lords. The arrogant people met him at the street told him that they are returning to home. Then Dada replied "Why so soon? Stick on we are going to level the series...." and Dada kept his words probably more than that. India won the third and the fifth test and sealed the series. Now Lords 2011 is lost, England are more stronger than then. On the other side India will loose their bowling spearhead, Zaheer Khan.
   But now, it is already late in this series. Team India is on the verge of extinction from the eminent position of the ladder; if they loss one more. Watching the video of players practicing at Trent Bridge, one thing is clear, having a defeat of 196 runs at Lords had made them more tired than having demoralized. Especially the bowlers, who had to bowl around 210 overs by three bowlers and most interestingly Dhoni used their part time bowlers only in 19 overs and half of was bowled by himself. This led to many controversies even during the test match itself. And due to this action by the captain , the bowlers had to work over time and they dot tired. Apart from this Gambhir was injured and Sachin infected by fever. It's quite relieving for India that both are now fit and said the media that they are fit enough to play in the second test.
   Let's hope for the best from team India and keep their position on the top of the ladder itself....

 

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India sunken in Anderson's fifer....

  A win in the first test match for India was improbable at the beginning of the last day of the test, yet a draw would  have been an incredible result. And for that credible result, Indian batsmen needed a special effort. The key to this was overnight not-out batsmen VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. I thought they will do it as both were tamed under such conditions and are capable of doing so. But both these giants fell before the leader of the English attack James Anderson in a well similar manner. For Anderson it was rising from ashes as he hadn't done anything in the first innings.

  Just look at the wickets Anderson claimed in the second innings and sealed England's victory in the 2000-th test match and the 100-th between India and England. Rahul Dravid,VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh. I can say that England's victory in the first test match was a team effort except in the final day were the final nail had to be struck and it was perfectly executed by James Anderson....

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Mumbai Inidans stuns the listless Bangalore Royal Challengers....

       As far as Twenty-20 matches are concerned 7.00 run rate is a below par target one.Once again it made clear that Bangalore has a weak point in their batting and this led to their loss against Mumbai Indiansby 9 wickets.In Mumbai Indians' innings when Sachin Tendulkar became the controller while Ambati Raydu took enforcer role and both of them led the Mumbai to a comfortable win over Bangalore Royal Challengers in their home ground.Most interesting thing in Mumbai's chase is that they never shown even a hint hesitation in their chase as both of them played flawless innings.

Courtsey:http://www.espncricinfo.com

Sachin Tendulkar and Ambati Raydu celebrates Mumbai Indians' win

 

 

 

 

        But in comparison,Bangalore had a completely different approach as they were pondered to 19 for 2.Even though Dilshan could a score a half century he was only his shadow.A Bde Villiers also scored some interesting 38 runs but was misjudged to Pollard.This gave chance for Saurabh Tiwary to free his arms and also was able to put Malinga and Harbhajan to the boundaries.Dilshan woke up only in the 20-th over to hit Mallinga a six and posted a fighting total (as expected but it never to be) of 140 runs.But as Sachin and Raydu played some magnificent and unbeaten 110 partnership whipped away the target from the screen....

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Once again YUV"RAJ"....

                I think Ricky Ponting is one of the luckiest player in the cricket world.That is why he was able to quit the world cup career with a fine and well remembered century in the Quarter-Final against India at Motera stadium in Ahmedabad. Of course Ricky Ponting had a terrific century  which geared them into a decent score of 260  and in return India started chasing the target with Sachin Tendulkar leading from the front with a fine half century.But it was all done by the imperous Yuvraj  with an awesome innings and led India to a splendid semi final against Pakistan on next Wednesday (30-3-2011) at Mohali.

 

Punjabi se pankha math lein.....

             In the beginning Indian captain Dhoni lost the toss and were forced to field.As all expected Dhoi handed over the new ball to R.Aswin who did well with the new ball and also took the valuable wicket of dangerous Watson.Then came the "Punter".he was under immense pressure which was very clear from his face.But he did well to manage the temper with in himself, and played calmly with great patience.Actually he was the only player who tried to stick on the pitch and so he got the result to his hard work.Also he must be very much relieved as he made the century (104) in a very important match and that too after 18 months since he scored a century in ODI matches.Before him only Haddin gave him a good support and had little partnership with him.After that none of the Aussie batsmen  could posted a good score.Only David Hussey showed some responsibility and scored some quick runs at the end.It's really interesting that  he was there  in the team instead of leg-spinner  Steven Smith.All the bowlers from team India bowled well and all  of them bowled well with Aswin,Zaheer and Yuvraj took two wickets each and helped India to restrict the mighty Australians at a defending total of 260.

Ooph...My century in vein....

            In reply,team India started of well with Sehwag and Sachin in their usual manner.Sehwag as usual tried to hit the ball out of the rope in the first ball itself and he couldn't , but he fulfilled his aim in the very next ball itself.But as usual Sehwag was out after a fine start.But then Sachin and Gambhir led the Indian score towards the target by rotating the strike without much risk .But soon after the half century when Sachin was   diving to his 100-th century , a loose ball outside the off stump from Shaun Tait touched the outside edge and rested in Haddin's gloves.Then came Kohli who also batted well till he got out from a loose full toss from David Hussey.From that Indian batsmen started showing some kind of  hurry-bury as the India middle order began to choke.Dhoni and Gambhir threw away their wickets unnecessarily.But then Raina and Yuvarj  led India to a flamboyant  victory.

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THE CLASH OF TITANS....

      This may be one of  the most awaited match of World Cup 2011,I'm sure.On March 24 when Australia and India face each other , Motera stadium will definitely witness an electrifying crowd and as that much enthusiastic players.Also the Australian coach Tim Nielsen coined  the term "mini-grand final" for Thursday's match.Both the teams will meet each other  after losing each game in their league matches.But at the same time the advantage goes to the visitor's side as they have won nine of the last fifteen matches played in India in the last five years.Also the pressure will be on the host as they are playing in their home ground and their home crowd with the crowd expecting some thing supernatural and complete entertainment from the Indian Cricket Team.

NOW NOR NEVER

     Batting is the main area of concern for both the teams.While Indian top order batsmen is the best that any team can get in this world cup but at the same time the worst too.With Sehwag ,Sachin on the opening followed by Gambhir,Kohli,Yuvraj,Dhoni... any team can dream of.But the problem is that ,their batting powerplay.Indian team didn't perform well in their bating powerplay in this entire world cup. India lost their 9 wickets for just 29 runs in Chennai and 7 for fifty against West Indies.But regarding team India, this not the only area of concern.Team India's bowling is also equally  thinkable about their performances so far in the worldcup.Only there is one bowler in the team who is consistent through out the series and that is none other, Zaheer Khan.Apart from him none other  was able to prove himself to be consistent.Now I just remember what one of my friend said "Team India is playing this world cup with only two players; one is Sachin Tendulkar and the other is Zaheer Khan.

WILL HAVE TO TRY HARD TO RETAIN THE WORLD CUP

    The same batting department also worries the Australian team.Ricky Ponting and White is struggling to score runs.Their bating weaknesses was evident in their last match against Pakistan when they were all out for 176 runs and suffered a lose from the hands of Pakistan.

      

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MUMBAI INDIANS PARALYZED BEFORE THE LIONS....

In the opening match of the CLT T-20 tournament in South Africa,the experienced Mumbai Indians were defeated by the young Highveld Lions by 9 runs.Tossing the coin to his choice Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar elected fielding first.The Highveld Lions build a fighting total of 186 runs in just 20 overs.Their young opener Jonathan Vandiar (71 of 53 balls) and the experience Neil Mckenzie(56 of 35 balls) helped the Lions to reach 186.The Mumbai Indians bowling was upto average and their sloppy fielding added extra bonus to the Lions. Even though Malinga was able to pick three wickets of Lions , he was not able to control their run flow.

In the second half Mumbai Indians made a good start as their openers Sachin Tendulkar and Shikar Dhawan, scored at above 7 runs per over.After Dhawan who scored 34 runs and made a partnership of about 73 runs with Sachin Tendulkar who just escaped from the very first ball he faced of Ethan O'Reilly.But sachin Tendulkar 69 runs from 42 balls smoothly brought Mumbai Indians to their target.But a very good spell from Burger dismissed Sachin and also the danger man Keiron Pollard with a pinpoint yorker. Then the game was fully under the control of Highveld Lions.
Yesterdays match once again poped up the fact that experience and past performance will never be a criteria to the T-20 matches.Hope for more interesting matches in the tournament....

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SACHIN-HONORARY GROUP CAPTAINOF IAF....

On friday,master blaster and the cricket genuis Sachin Tendulkar was conferred with the rank of HONORARY GROUP CAPTAIN of IAF to honour his great cricketing achievements.Also Sachin is the first person in cricket to receive a honour from IAF and also with no aviation backgrounds.Sachin Tendulkar is now the brand ambassador of Indian Air-Force.
Some days before India's world cup winning captain Kapil Dev was rewarded with the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel by the Territorial Army.Sachin Tendulkar received the honorary rank by Armed Forces on the basis of acknowledgments of their contributions to the nation.Sachin Tendulkar will now receive a rigorous training from the IAF in the aviation technology will be able steer the India's most efficient SUKHOI-30 fighter planes.
Sachin is now one of that cricket legends who have established their presence not only on the ground but also in the hearts of many.Sachin is now holding almost all the batting records of the world class cricket with 94 hundreds in both tests and ODIs.

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PHENOMINAL TENDULKAR....

"Sachin Tendulkar is a great player and a 'phenomenon'".This was said by none other than Sourav Ganguly,the former Indian captain of course the most succesfull captains that India had.Ganguly was responded to the repoerters query when he came for the domestic cricket leading the Bengal team.
He also added that he had played a lot innings with Sachin Tendulkar probably than by any other and found that Sachin is Master who is a true hard worker.

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