Jul
30
Eng vs Pak Day 2 Score: England In A Dominating Position, As Bowlers Crush Batsmen
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In a match which looks headed for a definite result, the bowlers are making merry, as the batsmen struggle to find a foothold. The day saw twelve wickets falling for a mere 113 runs.
Read more on Eng vs Pak Day 2 Score: England In A Dominating Position, As Bowlers Crush Batsmen…
Oct
15
Champions league CLT20 stage round recap
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What happened thus far, a look back..
- Great inauguration, amazing choreography by Shaolin Monks and others.
- Boring speech which was booed by the audience; started clapping before he could finish. (Mr.Modi)
Read more on Champions league CLT20 stage round recap…
Oct
12
the castrol index
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The Castrol Index looks at a batsman or bowler’s performance in his core skill area.For a Batsman, its the batting that counts and bowling adds on and vice-versa for the bowlers.. For the all rounders though, the indices are added..
For a batsman it’s his Batting Momentum, the combination of runs scored and the rate at which those runs are scored..
For a bowler it’s his Bowling Efficiency, the combination of wickets taken and the economy rate.
The Castrol Index also factors in each player’s non core skills, such as the Bowling Efficiency for a batsman or the Batting Momentum for a bowler. This is crucial, because in the shorter formats of the game every ball matters.
The Castrol Index also factors in each player’s fielding performance, such as runs saved or conceded, which further adds to the bonus or penalty earned. It’s by looking at all three aspects of the game for every player and not just the runs scored or wickets taken, that the Castrol Index is able to tell you the true impact of every player’s contribution in the shorter versions of the game.
With a match centre, that previews and reviews every match with the help of the Castrol Index.. It is claimed that this index predicts the outcomes and deduces the player performances in a much more comprehensive way than what a simple statistic of runs scored and wickets taken would do..
The expert fan view would run throughout the Champions League T20 where fans can post questions or answer the ones posted by their peers.. The best post and answer of each day would be picked up by Harsha Bhogle, the famous commentator of the ESPNSTAR group.. And what more there are cash rewards for doing the same..
visit http://www.castrolcricket.com/ for details..
Read more on the castrol index…
Oct
6
Champions Trophy: New Zealand set-up a final date with Australia
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New Zealand set-up a final clash with defending champions Australia after defeating Pakistan by five wickets in a thrilling semi-final at the New Wanderers Stadium here Saturday.
New Zealand, who won the title in 2000 when it was known as the ICC Knock Tournament, achieved the target of 234 runs in 47.5 overs by losing just five wickets. Grant Elliot was the top scorer with an unbeaten 75, while skipper and Man of the Match Daniel Vettori scored 41.
Pakistan bastmen failed to covert the good starts they got after captain Younis Khan opted to bat first. Umar Akmal (55) and Mohammad Yousuf (45) played crucial knocks as they put a competitive total on board.
New Zealand made a cautious start but were found struggling at 71 for three by the 17th over. Ross Taylor started the repair act with his patient 38 and Vettori and Elliot played solid innings and with their 104-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
The game looked evenly poised till the 42nd over when New Zealand needed 59 runs from 48 deliveries. But Vettori’s decision to opt for the Power Play in the 42nd over paid rich dividends as 55 runs came off in five overs, paving way for New Zealand’s second final appearance in the tournament.
Fast bowler Umar Gul and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal were erratic in the dying stages of the game and both Elliot and Vettori came out with some big shots to end Pakistan’s hopes.
Earlier in the day, paceman Ian Butler and spinner Vettori shared seven wickets as New Zealand restricted Pakistan to 233 for nine.
Butler had a career-best haul of four for 44, while left-arm spinner Vettori ended with three for 43.
Teenager Umar Akmal hit a solid 55 as Pakistan looked set for a big total. But Vettori and Butler struck in quick succession to reduce them to 198 for nine.
Another teenager Mohammad Aamer (19 not out) and Saeed Ajmal (14 not out) then showed some great fighting spirits adding 35 off 34 deliveries for the last wicket as Pakistan made 233.
Read more on Champions Trophy: New Zealand set-up a final date with Australia…
Oct
5
Lets travel DOWN UNDER to meet the teams qualifying for the Champions league T20 -
New South Wales Blues and Victoria Bushrangers..
Aussie domestic set up is pretty much familiar with most cricket fans.. For starters, though, Aussie domestic cups are simple.. 6 teams, 3 competitions..
New South Wales – based in Sydney
Victoria – MCG, Melbourne
South Australia- Adelaide
Queensland- Gabba, Brisbane
Tasmania – Hobart
Western Australia – WACA,Perth
Pura cup which is now Sheffield Shield cup 4 day matches, Ford Ranger cup – limited overs and KFC big bash T20..
In KFC big bash, each team plays against the other once.. The 2nd and 3rd placed teams play in a semi final, and the winner plays the team which had topped the points table in the round robin stage..
2009 KFC Big Bash T20 Points table
Read more on Australian teams in Champions League -CL T20…
Oct
2
ICC awards
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As part of the ICC’s celebration of the game’s heroes and role models, it stages the annual LG ICC Awards ceremony to recognize the major individual and team achievements in world cricket.
The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its sixth year and in 2009 the Awards took place in Johannesburg. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007) and Dubai (2008).
The LG ICC Awards in 2009 included eight individual prizes, including the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Cricketer of the Year. The winners of seven of these individual awards were voted upon by a 25-person panel from around the world, made up of renowned former players, respected members of the media, and an elite umpire and elite match referee. Meanwhile, the nominations for the Women’s Cricketer of the Year Award were voted on by a separate 16-person voting academy featuring former players and other experts on the women’s game.
The other three awards were the ICC Test Team of the Year, the ICC ODI Team of the Year and the Spirit of Cricket Award.
Based on the 12 months between August 2008 and August 2009, the LG ICC Awards 2009 – presented in association with FICA – took into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game.
Lists of nominees- Individual Awards
Cricketer of the Year
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind)
Gautam Gambhir (Ind)
Mitchell Johnson (Aus)
Andrew Strauss (Eng)
Test Player of the Year
Gautam Gambhir (Ind)
Mitchell Johnson (Aus)
Thilan Samaraweera (SL)
Andrew Strauss (Eng)
ODI Player of the Year
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind)
Virender Sehwag (Ind)
Yuvraj Singh (Ind)
Emerging Player
Ben Hilfenhaus (Aus)
Graham Onions (Eng)
Jesse Ryder (NZ)
Peter Siddle (Aus)
Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year
Rizwan Cheema (Can)
Ryan ten Doeschate (Ned)
William Porterfield (Ire)
Edgar Schiferli (Ned)
Twenty20 International Performance of the Year
Shahid Afridi (Pak) for scoring 51 off 34 balls and taking 2-16 against South Africa during the ICC WT20 semi-final in Nottingham on 18 June
Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL) for scoring 96 not out off 57 balls against the West Indies in the semi-final of the ICC WT20 at The Oval on 19 June
Chris Gayle (WI) – for hitting 88 off 50 balls against Australia during the ICC WT20 at The Oval on 6 June
Umar Gul (Pak) for taking 5-6 against New Zealand during the ICC WT20 at The Oval on 13 June
Women’s Cricketer of the Year
Charlotte Edwards (Eng)
Shelley Nitschke (Aus)
Claire Taylor (Eng)
Umpire of the Year
Aleem Dar
Tony Hill
Asad Rauf
Simon Taufel
Spirit of Cricket
Australia
England
New Zealand
Sri Lanka
This list was arrived at after a long list of nominees was announced earlier.. Surprisingly, South Africans were missing from the short list of nominees.. CSA chairman Gerald Majola was surprised and shocked at the absence of South Africans from the final list especially after having a great year in both the test and the ODI formats and being No.1 in the ICC rankings too..
On October 1, in Johannesburg, the awards were given away..
Cricketer of the Year- Mitchell Johnson
Test Player of the Year- Gautam Gambhir
ODI Player of the Year- Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Emerging Player- Peter Siddle
Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year - William Potterfield
Twenty20 International Performance of the Year – Tilakaratne Dilshan
Women’s Cricketer of the Year – Claire Taylor
Umpire of the Year - Aleem Daar
Spirit of Cricket- New Zealand
ICC ODI and Test team captain – MS Dhoni
Johnson - Impressive performances against SA in both home and away series.. Played a hand with both bat and ball, integral part of the Aussie team which is rebuilding after the loss of its stalwarts..
Gambhir- Scored more than 1000 runs, dream run for him. 5 centuries including a double century against the visiting Australia..
Dhoni- Retained his ODI player award, highly consistent.. Averages above 50 and his average increases by 7 when India chase more than 275.. (remarkable to note that in the same period of consideration Sachin’s average dips by 7 when India chase high totals)
Dishan- Has a shot named after him, Dilscoop which he used effectively in the T20s.. Scored 96 of 57 balls in the T20 WC semi final against Windies.. Afiridi’s performance was more effective and it lifted the entire team against the Proteas.. Gayle’s 88 against Aussies deserved an award too..
Siddle- Emerging player of the year award, he had to fill in the gap left by McGrath and an injured Lee. Truly a better choice from the nominees..Never easy to make your debut in the absence of Lee and having to lead the bowling attack and perform so superbly..
Claire Taylor- England woman’s team captain, only in the woman’s cricket have they won a major ICC tournament.. This year they won the 50 over championship and the 20-20 championship in which Taylor played a great role with the bat..
Aleem Daar- First time I have seen Simon Taufel being pipped for the award.. Aleem Daar, Asad Rauf, Taufel have been the better umpires..
William Potterfield- First seen in Ireland’s T20 campaign, made it to the super 8s.. They have also won 9 of the 11 ODIs they played..
Spirit of Cricket- Switched hands from Sri Lanka to New Zealand this year, Vettori was pretty startled as to what this award was for..
Panel:Clive Lloyd, Anil Kumble, Mudassar Nazar, Stephen Fleming and Bob Taylor
ICC ODI Team of the year-
Virender Sehwag (Ind),
Chris Gayle (WI),
Kevin Pietersen (Eng),
Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL),
Yuvraj Singh (Ind),
Martin Guptill (NZ),
MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK),
Andrew Flintoff (Eng),
Nuwan Kulasekara (SL),
Ajantha Mendis (SL),
Umar Gul (Pak),
12th man: Thilan Thushara (SL)
The team has one batsman too many.. The line up cannot be determined.. Martin Guptill may be a misfit and the balance is missing..
Oct
1
India out of CT, not mathematically
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After rains washed away the match between India and Australia, the chances of India making it to the semi finals was even more bleak.. India now have just 1 point from their 2 matches now and just have a game against West Indies..
India lost their opening match to Pakistan by 54 runs.. Throughout the match, India just did not look like taking wickets; the scorecard may not give that view (302 for 9).. Yousuf and Malik added 206 runs in their partnership and India never seemed to attack or look to take wickets.. MSD later in the post match presentation came up with an interesting quote that he had never seen that many runs scored of the cut and that he felt he was 2-3 bowlers short.. Not so difficult to fathom the reason though,the absence of Yuvraj has hurt the team a lot.. Yuvraj has been an integral part of the team for almost a decade now and off late India have depended a lot on his heroics in both ODI and T20s. The ease with which he tackles the bowlers and the elegant drives and hoicks over mid wicket are a treat to watch any day and in a span of 5 overs he has the potential to take the game away from the opposition which not many posses in the world cricket now leave alone India.. Its also his bowling that has developed lately, much of the success owed to MSD who used him more often and at trying situations than his counterparts earlier..
Virender Sehwag is another dashing opening bat whom India have missed in T20 world cup and now in the CT.. Viru may not be as elegant as Yuvi but certainly instills fear in the bowlers.. His mere presence at the crease makes the bowlers panic.. He is shrewd and a good bowler in the turning tracks..
The bowling attack lacks depth and is off color at the moment now.. Ashish Nehra who made a comeback after a great performance in the domestic circuit and in the IPL-2 held in South Africa.. He, after returning to the team, has performed well in the West Indies and in CT too he was the one who looked attacking and also the only bowler who looked like taking wickets..
Ishanth is very poor, hopelessly bad.. The riches from the IPL may have driven him crazy or may be the KKR effect that he simply doesn’t look the same bowler who tormented the Aussie great Ponting.. He is way below par and just runs in and drops the ball from his hands.. Pace has dropped, nothing in his bowling now would keep the batsmen on their toes.. Rather, yesterday, the Aussies saw him as a scoring opportunity and got out of the blocks after he was introduced in the 9th over..
RP and Bhajji are in an another world.. No clue as to why they perform well in one tournament and do not perform in the tournament only to come back and perform brilliantly in the IPL..
MSD is true, he is 2-3 bowlers short and is also missing Yuvraj badly..
If Australia beat Pakistan on Wednesday, they’ll obviously go through as toppers in their group, while Pakistan will take the second slot. It’ll get more complicated, though, if Australia lose to Pakistan and India beat West Indies. Then, the margins of the wins will decide which team joins Pakistan in the last four.
The vital question is the margins of victories. Currently, the difference between the net run-rates of Australia and India appear vast: +1.00 for Australia, -1.08 for India. The good thing from India’s point of view, though, is that those numbers have come about on the basis of one match only – the stats from no-result matches are excluded in the calculation of net run rates.
AUS won by 50runs; IND lost by 54 runs..
So, SIMPLE !!!
IND win by 54 runs and AUS lose by 50 runs.. Or IND win by a margin greater than 54 runs and the Aussies lose by a margin greater than 50 runs will ensure that India are through undeserving.. That is to say, if we win by 20 runs, Aus need to lose by 85 runs and more..
Yes, with a bowling attack that is as paltry as India’s and a batting that once again is heavily dependent on Sachin’s innings and also on Rahul to be the wall anchoring the entire innings.. Its not that they perform once and thats enough, they have to perform in every match for India to do well..
The only positive may be that, India’s game is a D/N.. So, the earlier match would be completed by the time the 2nd team comes out to bat..
‘If we don’t do well, we can pack our bags and leave’ – MSD
Read more on India out of CT, not mathematically…
Sep
29
India Vs Australia: Do-or-die match in Champions Trophy
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After a dissapointing loss against Pakistan, India will take on defending champions Australia in a must-win Champions Trophy Group A game at SuperSport Park here Monday.
World No.1 India could have won the match against Pakistan but missed the presence of of a part-time bowler. It is now time for India to regroup and come out with a better game plan against Australia.
But skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has quite a few problems to sort out before his boys take the field Monday. His frontline bowlers, too, had failed to click against Pakistan.
The Indians didn’t bowl according to the set field and allowed the Pakistani batsmen to score freely on both sides of the wicket. They can’t afford the same mistake against Australia.
So furious was Dhoni with their performance that he said his front line bowlers were reduced to just part-timers.
“It seemed we had three or four part-time bowlers. You cannot set a field for bad bowling,” he maintained.
Given the slowness of the SuperSport Park track, Dhoni may opt for an extra spinner in leggie Amit Mishra in place of an unimpressive Rudra Pratap Singh. The India captain is also likely to go in with an extra batsman and all-rounder in Abhishek Nayar, who can be useful with his medium pace and may come in for Virat Kohli.
India also need to think about their batting. Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid and Suresh Raina all got starts but failed to convert them into big scores while chasing a 300-plus target.
Dhoni would also hope Dravid is fit for the game against Australia. Dravid injured himself while stretching to reach the crease during his run-out dismissal.
For Australia, it will be a tricky task to adjust to a slow SuperSport track from a pacy Wanderers strip.
Australia are better placed than India, but their win against the West Indies was far from being impressive.
The depleted West Indies team put up a spirited performance but the defending champions survived the scare.
The Australian middle-order has been wobbly but the return of vice captain Michael Clarke will strengthen the line-up.
The formidable Ausssie bowling attack, spearheaded by Brett Lee, will also be put to test against India. While Lee and Mitchell Johnson can be deadly with their swing, Peter Siddle can cause some damage with his raw pace.
e stage is perfect for the world No.1 and No.2 to fight it out for the top spot.
Read more on India Vs Australia: Do-or-die match in Champions Trophy…
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