The Indian Premier League is set to start up later this week.

Who will be the winners? Which individuals will make a name for themselves, who will be the also rans? This IPL will definetely see a lot of stellar performances, as players will be out to out do each other and the rival teams, as new contracts are on the horizon for the next year. This year’s performances will have a big impact on how the players are assessed in terms of their market value.

There will no doubt be a number of innovations as well. Harsha Bhogle analyses the innovations that may be on the cards in this excellent article here.

Darren Berry from Australia, who is also director of coaching for the Rajasthan Royals analyses the prospects of all the teams in this newspaper article here.

All in all, it promises to be a fascinating month of top class cricket ahead. Can hardly wait for the festivities to begin on Friday. Bring on the IPL!

Tags: Cricket News, IPL

The third and final Test match between Sri Lanka and India got underway this morning at the historic Brabourne stadium in Mumbai.

India leads the series 1-0 and a win here will put them at the top of the ICC Test match rankings.

Sri Lanka made a strong start to the Test match in the morning session. Although the Indian bowlers made inroads in the afternoon, they could not stop Sri Lanka from achieving a healthy position of 366 for 8, at close of play on the first day.

For Sri Lanka, that man Tillekaratne Dilshan was in fine form again, reaching 109. He was well supported by Angelo Mathews who was unbeaten on an entertaining knock of 86.

For India, Harbhajan Singh picked up 4 key wickets. And then, turned up at the press conference to say that his team mates “looked tired”.

He is nothing, if refreshingly honest, calling it the way he sees it, but I wonder if this will get him into any further controversy. Hopefully not and all the focus will be on the cricket, with 4 engrossing days to go.

Morning Session

Sri Lanka made a strong start to the Test Match, posting 117 for the loss of just one wicket at lunch.

The wicket to fall was that of Tharanga Paranavitana, whose fell to Harbhajan Singh, getting an edge.

Both Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha extracted turn and bounce from the wicket & it promises to be a testing time for batsmen on either side for the next few days.

Tags: Cricket News, India Cricket News, Sri Lanka Cricket, Test Cricket News

Team India somehow managed to make a mountain out of a molehill last week during compaq cup finals in Colombo as they almost gifted away the match to the mighty Lankans.

After the dynamic strokeplay of the little master which propelled India to a total of 319 with the loss of 5 wickets. Sri Lanka had a blistering start in the opening 8 overs largely due to aggressive batting from Jayasuriya and Dilshan. But the spinners put the brakes on to the scoring rate by taking 3 wickets inside 3 overs.

It was an interesting match as it see-sawed for the entire duration. Frankly Indians should have finished off the contest as soon as they got Sangakara’s wicket but missed catches, stumpings and run outs almost cost India the trophy. Thilina Kandamby almost pulled off the chase for Sri Lanka with some dazzling and powerfull hitting but the turbanator returned back for his third spell to finish of the lankans.

The celebrations after each wicket told the whole story. As India sniffed victory, they put a stranglehold on Sri Lanka’s tail and sure enough victory came.

But M.S Dhoni knew that his side were lucky to escape with the trophy today as the bowling and particularly the fielding weren’t up to scratch. Had the fielders taken all their chances then it wouldn’t have been such a close call. Dhoni knows this and he has tried to address this to the rest of the team.

The much needed 2 months break might have added to the rustiness but the sooner they iron it out the better it will be as in high profile tournaments such as Champions Trophy one mistake could cost Indians the match, India are ranked number 2 in the world and if they want to win in South Africa and grab the number 1 spot they have to field and bowl like their life depended on it.

If Team India can iron out those flaws it is certain that they would be able to win the tournament as they have enough talent in the squad and with that they would be able to justify people as to why they have been billed as one of the tournament favorites along with South Africa and Australia.

Posted by Abhi

Tags: Cricket News, India Cricket News, One Day Internationals News

Kumar Sangakkara scored a patient, but valuable century as Sri Lanka edged ahead on day 2 of the third Test match versus India at Colombo. In reply to India’s first innings score of 249 all out, at close of play Sri Lanka were 251 for the loss of 6 wickets.

Nightwatchman Chaminda Vaas played a valuable hand of 47 runs, before being dismissed by Harbhajan Singh, who took two quick wickets. Zaheer Khan took two wickets, those of Michael Vandort for 14 and Thilan Samaraweera for 35.

Anil Kumble dismissed Dilshan for 23.

It has also been an injury prone Test match for the Indians. Yesterday, VVS Laxman twisted his ankle, whilst Sachin Tendulkar jarred his left elbow whilst fielding. Then wicket keeper Parthiv Patel was hit in the face by the ball off an edge from Sangakkara’s bat. Ishant Sharma had also limped off the field with an injury, although it was not serious.

The day’s play has been absorbing and tomorrow’s events could decide the course of this series.

Tags: Cricket News, India Cricket News, Sri Lanka Cricket, Test Cricket News

In a pulsating match that went down to the wire, India beat Pakistan in a bowl off, after scores were tied at the end of 20 overs.

India started badly losing 4 early wickets, before Robin Uthappa & Captain MS Dhoni guided India to a score of 141 for 9 (Uthappa 50, Asif 4-18). Pakistan looked to be on track early on, but India came back into the game with wickets and eventually Pakistan made 141 for 7 (Misbah 53, Pathan 2-20). Misbah was run out off the last ball of the match.

In the bowl off, Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa all nailed the stumps, but the Pakistan bowlers while Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi all missed as a sell-out crowd celebrated an enthralling finale.

You can view a video of the finish at the official world twenty 20 site here.

Tags: Cricket News, India Cricket News, Pakistan Cricket News

Rahul Dravid photo courtesy of Flickr and Rajaram S

The pressures that go with captaining the Indian cricket team are enormous. And it has just taken it’s toll on ‘The Wall’, Rahul Dravid.

In a move that surprised everybody, Dravid stepped down as Indian captain today from both forms of the game. The move is to enable him to focus on his batting. The BBC quoted him as saying, “I enjoyed the captaincy, I loved it, but it can get tough after a while and some of the enjoyment can go away. So, I thought it was the right time to step aside.”

According to the BCCI “Rahul Dravid met Sharad Pawar (the Indian Board President) at Delhi on September 13 and expressed his desire to step down as the captain of the Indian team and requested that he should not be considered for the job from the ensuing Australia series.”

The 33-year-old Dravid assured that he would extend full co-operation to his successor and contribute as a batsman and senior player, the statement added.

BCCI president Sharad Pawar said he has forwarded Dravid’s resignation to the Board.”

The big question now of course is, who will captain India going forward?

In my mind, the contenders are:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni – the current India 20 20 captain. However he is quite inexperienced in Test Cricket. Wearing the gloves, looking after his batting and undertaking the captaincy would be too large a burden.

The other two options are Sachin Tendulkar and dare I say it, Sourav Ganguly once again. Purely looking at the series coming up, against Pakistan and Australia, either of the two would be the best for the job – if they want to do it.

Sachin’s batting did suffer when he was captain, as did Ganguly’s. However Ganguly has a very good captaincy record.

It will be interesting to see which way the board goes.

Stay tuned for more on this….

Tags: Cricket News, India Cricket News, One Day Internationals News, Test Cricket News

Sachin Tendulkar, photo courtesy of Flickr and mangalorecity.com

Shane Warne has completed his list of the 50 greatest players. At the very top of his list is Sachin Tendulkar, just ahead of Brian Lara at number 2.

Warne put Tendulkar ahead of Lara, because of his mental toughness. An example that Warne provides refers to Tendulkar’s 248 in Australia in 2003-04. Warne mentions “he (Tendulkar) was worried about getting out cover driving so he decided to cut out the shot. I saw the wagon wheel for his next innings: he scored 248 without a single cover drive.

Like Lara, he has scored runs all over the world. I have seen him run down the pitch and hit Glenn McGrath over the top for six, and I have seen him hit me for six against the spin going around the wicket. I have been lucky to get to know him off the field as well. He is quiet and humble. A great player and a great man”.

Read about the full list in Warne’s column in the Times.

Tags: Cricket News, India Cricket News, One Day Internationals News, Test Cricket News

England finished the first day of the first Test match against the West Indies on 200/3. It was a day, where play was shortened due to bad light.

For England, the bright spot was young opener Alistair Cook’s fifth Test hundred. He was unbeaten on 102 when play was called off. Keeping him company was Paul Collingwood on 21.

Read more via cricinfo

Tags: Cricket News, English Cricket News, Test Cricket News, West Indies Cricket News

The West Indian captain Ramnaresh Sarwan won the toss and put England into bat on the first day of the first Test match played at Lords.

The left handed pair of Alistair Cook and Andrew Strauss starred in an opening partnership of 88, before Strauss fell for 33. Soon after Owais Shah was out for 6. Both wickets went to Daren Powell.

At the time of this post, England were 156 for 2, off 40 overs, so fairly brisk progress in terms of run rate. Cook was unbeaten on 81 and that man Kevin Pietersen was just getting into his groove on 25 with 4 boundaries.

Tags: Cricket News, English Cricket News, Test Cricket News, West Indies Cricket News

Bangladesh proved that their presence in the super eights of the world cup was no flash in the pan, by beating the World’s number one ranked team South Africa by 67 runs in Guyana today.

South Africa won the toss and put Bangladesh in to bat. Opener Tamim Iqbal scored 39. Although they were reduced to 69 for 3, the middle order of Aftab Ahmed and Mohammad Ashraful came good for Bangladesh. Ashraful was terrific scoring 87 off just 83 balls in his inimitable style with 12 boundaries. Aftab scored 35 and then there was a late flurry by Mashrafe Mortaza who was unbeaten on 25 off 16 deliveries with 3 fours and a six.

Bangladesh scored 251 for 8 off their 50 overs. For South Africa Andre Nel took his World Cup best figures for 5 for 45.

The pitch appeared to be getting lower and slower, resembling a pitch from the sub continent when the Proteas went in to bat.

The South Africans lost their wickets at regular intervals and never appeared in the hunt. Particularly after Bangladesh’s trio of left arm spinners Abdur Razzak, Mohammad Rafique and Safiqul Haque got into the game.

By the 27th over, the South Africans were 87 for 5, with Graeme Smith, A B De Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher all back in the hut. Herschelle Gibbs came out to bat at number 7 and remained unbeaten on 56.

South Africa were all out for 184 in the 49th over, giving Bangladesh their biggest victory in the World Cup.

Tags: Bangladesh Cricket News, Cricket News, One Day Internationals News, South African Cricket News, World Cup Cricket 2007