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

Australia completed a comprehensive 103 run victory over the West Indies in the delayed match today. Glenn McGrath and Brad Hogg were the destroyers in chief, each taking 3 wickets.

With this the West Indies suffered their first defeat of the tournament.

Chasing 323 against a bowling attack that boasts the variety Australia does is a tough ask at the best of times. Fortunately for the West Indians, the dampness caused by the overnight drizzle at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua did nothing to cause exaggerated assistance for the fast bowlers early on.

However, the West Indies had a disastrous start losing 3 for 20 by the 10 over. Brian Lara led the recovery with a typically sparkling 77 and wicket keeper Dinesh Ramdin hit a half century, but it was not enough.

Tags: Australian Cricket News, Cricket News, One Day Internationals News, West Indies Cricket News, World Cup Cricket 2007

Matthew Hayden slammed 158 off 143 balls, with 14 fours and 4 sixes as Australia built a commanding total of 322 for 6 off their alloted 50 overs in their super eight clash against the West Indies. Brian Lara won the toss and put Australia in to bat.

The West Indies tasted early success with the wicket of Adam Gilchrist for 7 in the fifth over. Ricky Ponting was soon into his stride, before being run out for 35. Michael Clarke scored 42 and Shane Watson finished off the innings with his powerful hitting, remaining unbeaten on 33.

All the West Indies bowler took a bit of a hammering, with Darren Powell being the most economical at 5.3 runs per over.

The West Indies innings will commence later today, as rain washed out play before their innings could commence.

Australia are in a very strong position.

Shiv Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Brian Lara will need to fire in order for the West Indies to come close.

Will they make it? Let’s watch and see later today.

Tags: Australian Cricket News, Cricket News, One Day Internationals News, West Indies Cricket News, World Cup Cricket 2007

Mohammad Yousuf scored his ninth century of the calendar year and in the process broke Sir Vivian Richard’s 30 year record of scoring the most Test runs in a calendar year.

Viv Richards had scored 1710 runs in 1976, a memorable run during which he hit two double hundreds against England in England. Ricky Ponting was the batsman that had come closest to it since then with 1544 runs in 2005.

Youhana was finally out for 124, bowled by Ramnaresh Sarwan. His tally for the year now stands at 1788 runs, of which a staggering 665 have come in the current series against West Indies alone.

Comparisons are now going to be made with former greats. Yousuf does appear to have a sense of humour with his tongue in cheek replies.

When asked to compare himself with Javed Miandad, Yousuf said only, “It is difficult to compare. You are either better or worse and anyway, it is for the media to decide. I can’t say anything about it. But he is my ideal.” And when the question of Sir Don Bradman’s record of six hundreds in six consecutive Tests reared its head, Yousuf replied, with some cheek, “I have six in five Tests, so you decide.”

Read about how he broke the record and the reactions to it below:

Cricinfo – Yousuf breaks 30-year-old record

From a match perspective, the West Indies need to bat out the whole of day 5 to save the Test match. They were 39/2 at stumps still 404 runs behind. Lara was batting on 18, with Sarwan on 11.

Lara will need to put in another record breaking performance if the West Indies are to get through day 5.

Cricinfo – ‘I just need to bat out the entire day’ – Lara

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

Mohammad Yousuf hammered 190 to takePakistan to a very healthy score of 485 runs. This was in reply to the West Indies first innings score of 206.

Yousuf has been in sparkling form this calendar year. This was his sixth century for the year and his seventh in his last 10 Test matches.

He was well supported by Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik who both hit half centuries.

The West Indies were in trouble in their second innings, at 35 for 2 at the time of this report. Both the openers Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga were out. At the crease were Ramnaresh Sarwan and that man Lara.

Can Brian Lara help the Windies save the Test?

It is a tall order with 2 days play still remaining.

Yousuf ton puts Pakistan on top
Mohammad Yousuf’s century gives Pakistan a healthy first-innings lead over West Indies on day two of the first Test.

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

For all accounts, the ‘real’ part of the Champions Trophy got underway last night, with Sri Lanka taking on West Indies. Both team were vying for the top spot in the qualifying round.

At stake – national pride, plus an opportunity to avoid Australia in the next round.

The match was played at Brabourne stadium in Mumbai, where one day internationals returned after a gap of 11 years.

Sri Lanka thrashed the West Indies – there is no other way to describe it.

On a wicket where stroke making was difficult, the West Indies were bowled out for only 80 runs.

Chaminda Vaas started the slide getting Chris Gayle out in the fourth bowl of the innings. He followed up shortly with a beautiful inswinger that caught Sarwan plumb in front of this stumps.

However the real star of the day for Sri Lanka was all rounder Farveez Maharoof. He took 6 wickets for 14 runs as the West Indies batting floundered.

Sri Lanka knocked off the required runs losing just one wicket in 13.2 overs.

The much anticipated game was over four hours before the scheduled time.

England face hosts India in a crucial game tonight. Should be fascinating to watch.

Click below to read the full story of the Sri Lanka – West Indies game.

Cricinfo – Maharoof sizzles in thumping win

Tags: Cricket News, One Day Internationals News, Sri Lanka Cricket, West Indies Cricket News

India won a Test series in the Carribbean for the first time in 35 years. The last win was in 1971.
That series saw the debut of Sunil Gavaskar, who scored a record breaking 774 runs in the series to announce his arrival.

Kumble was one the the chief architects of this years victory.

He talks about the series win below:

The Telegraph

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

The West Indies were in dire straits at the end of the third day’s play against India.

They were 43 for one when bad light stopped play.

Earlier the West Indies were shot out for 215, in reply to India’s total of 588-8 declared.

Anil Kumble, Munaf Patel and Virender Sehwag each took 3 wickets.

At the close of play, Daren Ganga and Brian Lara were at the crease.

The scene is certainly set up for a ‘Lara special’. However with the pitch turning and gripping it will take the West Indies some extra ordinary batting to save this Test match.

India tighten grip on Windies

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

The West Indies are facing an uphill battle to save the second Test match against India at St Lucia.

For India, Mohammad Kaif scored a career best 148 not out, whilst captain Rahul Dravid scored 146.

India finally declared at 588 for the loss of 8 wickets.

The West Indies were in trouble early on with Munaf Patel bowling a probing spell that saw him take 2 wickets in 2 balls.

Brian Lara survived the hat trick, but did not last long falling LBW to Anil Kumble.

At close of play, the West Indies were 65 for 3, still a long way behind the follow on score of 388.

The pitch appears to be turning and gripping, which could prove crucial for India with Anil Kumble present.

Can the West Indies rise to the challenge?

Time will tell.

Read about the whole day’s play below.

Windies face uphill struggle

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