Kochi making giant strides in IPL 4

 

Kochi beat last year’s runner-up Mumbai Indians to register their first win and registered their 2nd consecutive win by defeating  defending champions Chennai Super Kings yesterday at Kochi. Kochi Tuskers started their IPL campaign on a sad note as they lost their first 2 matches and written-off completely by cricket pundits. But this team has made giant strides after first tow losses and now playing like a champions. Great turnaround indeed.

Kochi won the toss and elected to field first and soon this decision of Mahela Jayawardene proved right when Kochi got the wicket of most prolific CSK batsmen Mike Hussey. Raina and Vijay tried to build the partnership but Vijay carried away too much and caught plumb in front of the wicket while playing across the line. At this point rain interrupted and when game resume it was shortened by 3 overs each innings. Badrinath departed soon after the rain break and MS Dhoni joined Raina. The way both of them playing it looked like CSK will post huge total but at wrong juncture Raina got run-out after scoring brilliant 50. Morkel and Dhoni carried the innings but CSK was reduced to 131 in their allotted 17 overs and D/L method set the target of 135 for Kochi.

Jayawardene and McCullum once again gave superb start to Kochi innings and took the score to 40.  Jayawardene tried to clear the infield but caught at  covers in the bowling of Ashwin. Parthiv Patel got the promotion and he came to bat at No.3. McCullum and Patel did fantastic partnership and put the Kochi Tuskers at the doorstep of victory before getting out. After that it was easy for Jadeja and Hodge to finish the game quickly and they did that in style. It was fantastic display of team-work by Kochi as they registered their 2nd win of the tournament and it was unlucky on the part of CSK that rain interrupted at wrong time and robbed the CSK momentum.

It was great win for Kochi and now Kochi Tuskers have gained the great momentum and looks threatening for other teams. CSK have to work hard on their game and have to grab the opportunities which comes their way if they want to retain their champions title.

Man of the Match

Brendon McCUllum

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Deccan and Delhi will fight to get up from the bottom.

Deccan and Delhi are the two teams which is languishing at the bottom of the table and these teams will fight to recover from bottom of the table. Both teams have on 1 victory under their belt though they have lot of talented players in their side.

It’s a home game for Delhi so wicket will going to be slow and low which means it will assist the spinners. Delhi Daredevil will rely heavily on their openers Sehwag and Warner to give them quick and solid start because their middle-order is bit weak. If captain Sehwag and Warner play out the first 10 overs then it will going to be easy for Delhi to post or chase any score.  Form of Venugopal is also very good from the Delhi perspective. Venugopal is the unsung hero of Delhi team. Delhi also have likes of Naman Ojha, Aaron Fynch and Irfan Pathan who can score quick runs at the end. But all these batsmen have to apply themselves to get out of the messy situation. Delhi team is weak compared to last year but they are not that bad. If their top 2 batsmen fire then they will be able to beat any team in the tournament. Delhi team will go into this match with lot of confidence from their last win over Sahara Pune Warriors.

As far as Deccan is concern they are not clicking as a unit. They won only 1 game out of 4 they played so far and nothing is going their way. They won against RCB and broke the home jinx but lost the last match against Kings XI Punjab. They have very good players in their ranks and only thing needed from their perspective is to play sensibly and grab the opportunities they get in the field. They have very good captain in Sangakkara who is also one of the great batsmen. They have good bowling line-up which includes Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Daniel Christian. They have all the ingredients of champion team but only thing they lack is the focus. So they have to focus hard.

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Team Info:

Deccan Chargers

Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Manpreet Gony, Akash Bhandari, Anand Rajan, Ankit Nagendra, Arjun Yadav, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, DB Ravi Teja, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Ishank Jaggi, Ishan Malhotra, Jaydev Shah, Kedar Devdhar, Sunny Sohal (Foreign) Kumar Sangakkara (Captain/Wicket-Keeper), Kevin Pietersen, Cameron White, JP Duminy, Dale Steyn, Daniel Christian, Chris Lynn, Juan Theron, Michael Lumb.Darren Lehmann(Coach)

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Team Info:

Delhi Daredevils

Virender Sehwag (Captain), Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha(Wicket-Keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Venugopal Rao, Aavishkar Salvi, Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robin Bist, S Sriram, Tejashwi Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Vikash Mishra, Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem (Foreign) David Warner, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aaron Finch, Mathew Wade, Roloef van der Merwe, Andrew McDonald, Travis Birt, Collin Ingram, Robert Frylinck.. Greg Shipperd(Coach)

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Royal battle on the cards.

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore started their campaign with win in this edition of IPL. Rajasthan even went on to win its second game as well but after that both the teams lost their way somewhat in the tournament and now playing catching game. RCB is far better side on paper compared to Rajasthan Royals but it is not firing at the moment. While Rajasthan is struggling with the injuries to its key players.

RCB have the best and strong batting line-up among all the teams playing in IPL. But their batting is not clicking according to their liking. Both Dilshan and DeVilliers are not firing simultaneously and last nail was put in the coffin by management as they are constantly changing the batting –order. I think if RCB have to win then they have stop experiments. Virat Kohli is in superb form and he is No.3 but why he is coming at No.4 is still a quiz. They have players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Saurabh Tiwary who can bat up the order but both are batting after No.5. AB DeVilliers is batting at No.5 is also sensless. RCB have to re-think their strategy and sent their best batsmen up the order rather than experimenting with pinch-hitters like Zaheer Khan and Asad Pathan. Bowling is also not clicking though they have quality bowlers in their ranks. Likes of Zaheer and Vettori can do wonders to any team but somehow bolwing is also under-fire. RCB have to lift their game today as they can’t afford to lose this game and they have little edge over Rajasthan Royals in terms of resources.

Rajasthan Royals lost twice to KKR after winning their first 2 games of the tournament. In the last match they were handicapped due to injuries. Rajasthan Royals are champions of first edition and they carry great reputation. They have to play right combination today and Shane Watson have to shoulder more responsibility with the bat. They have good hitters in their team. Ross Taylor and young Ashok Menaria can change the game in couple of overs if they get the great start. They also have to change their bowling combination little-bit by bringing in young Deepak Chahar who is in great form right now. Rajasthan Royals have magical captain in Warnie who is bowling at his best and this is a big advantage.

So it will going to be Royal battle today.

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Team Info:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Daniel Vettori (Captain), Virat Kohli, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB De Villiers (wicket-keeper), Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dirk Nannes, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, CM Gautam (Wicket-Keeper), S Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthick, Asad Khan Pathan, Abrar Kazi, Ryan Ninan, Bhareth Narayanan, Nuwan Pradeep.Ray Jennings(Coach)

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Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.Shane Warne(Coach/Captain).

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Jubilant RR will face KKR. Kochi will take on Sachin’s team.

Jubilant RR will face KKR

Two matches and two that’s the tale of Rajasthan Royals. The team which did not had enough funds during auction to buy good players is giving good teams run for their money under the magical leadership of legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne who is their coach also. Today they will face new look Kolkata Knight Riders at Jaipur.

So far Rajasthan Royals beat Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils which did not look like formidable side so far. Game against KKR will give clear idea about Rajasthan Royals because KKR is far more formidable team compared to Deccan and Daredevils. So big test ahead for Warnie and his team. If Shane Watson will be included in Rajasthan Royals then it will become far more formidable. So far Rahul Dravid, Johan Botha has done good job with the bat and Shane Warne is leading from the front, so things looks bright for RR but KKR is too good team.

KKR is the team which lost its first match against defending champions CSK but came back well to win its next match against Deccan Chargers. This year KKR got the face-lift as owner of KKR bought new players in auction. Gambhir, captain of KKR is the costliest player in IPL 4 as he fetched $2.4 million in auction. He is in good form right now and will look to win this game for KKR. Yusuf Pathan is the another key player in this line-up. He was with Rajasthan Royals for last 3 seasons so his inputs will definitely help KKR. Brett Lee and Shakib Al Hasan has joined this team and this makes KKR more formidable. So far their bowling lacked some teeth but with inclusion of Lee, bowling becomes far more potent. Manoj Tiwary is in good touch in middle-order. Jacques Kallis is providing them best of the starts, so KKR is favorites to win this contest.

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Team Info:

Rajasthan Royals

Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan (Foreign) Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Shaun Tait.Shane Warne(Coach/Captain).

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Team Info:

Kolkata Knightriders

Gautam Gambhir(Captain), Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Jaidev Unadkat, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manvinder Singh Bisla(Wicket-Keeper), Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Sarabjit Ladda, Shami Ahmed, Shreevats Goswami (Foreign) Jacques Kallis, Brad Haddin(Wicket-Keeper), Shakib Al Hassan, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate, James Pattinson.Dave Whatmore(Coach)

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Kochi will take on Sachin’s team.

Losing 2 out of 2 is the story of Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Big test ahead for them as they take on Sachin led Mumbai Indians today at Mumbai. Kochi batting looked good in both the matches but their bowling has been very poor. Both RP Singh and Sreesanth are going over 10 runs an over in opening spell and also failed to pick up early wickets. Kochi is one of the tow new teams included in this edition of IPL and so far their performance is disastrous. They have very good captain in Mahela Jayawardene but he failure with the bat causing lot more trouble to Kochi team. They have good all-rounder in Ravindra Jadeja but his batting abilities have been not utilised properly so far. Kochi have to find ways to win the game against Mumbai and winning against Mumbai Indians will going to be uphill task because Mumbai Indian is far more superior than Kochi. But Kochi have to win this game at any cost just to gain momentum.

On the other hand Sachin led Mumbai is doing very well. They won both their matches so far. They defeated formidable team like RCB and their confidence is sky high at the moment. Malinga is providing them early wickets and Sachin is leading from the front in batting. Youngsters like Ambati Rayadu and R.Satish are doing well in the company of Sachin. Mumbai Indians has continued their good run and gaining great momentum with every match.  They have likes of Kieron Pollard, Jacobs and Harbhajan Singh in their ranks who can turn the match anytime. So Mumbai starts as favorite in this game.

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Team Info:

Mumbai Indians

Sachin Tendulkar (c), Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Ali Murtuza, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pawan Suyal, Rajagopal Sathish, Surul Kanwar, Surya Kumar Yadav, T Suman, Yazvendra Singh Chahal, (Foreign) Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, Davy Jacobs, James Franklin, Moises Henriques, Alden Blizzard, Dilhara Fernando

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Team Info:

Kochi Tuskers

VVS Laxman, S Sreesanth, RP Singh, Parthiv Patel(Wicket-Keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Ramesh Powar, R Vinay Kumar, B Akhil, Chandan Madan, Deepak Chowghule, Kedar Jadhav, Raiphi Gomez, Sushant Marathe, Tanmay Srivastava, Y Gnanswara Rao, Yashpal Singh, Prashant Padmanabahan, (Foreign) Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Brendon McCullum(Wicket-Keeper), Steven Smith, Muttiah Muralitharan, Brad Hodge, Thisara Perera, Steve O'Keefe, Owais Shah, Michael Klinger, John Hastings. Jeff Lawson(Coach)

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Deccan broke the home jinx as they beat RCB

RCB started as favorites in this match.  They won the toss and elected to field first which  tilted the match slightly more  in their favour as pitch was having greenish look. But hats-off to Deccan batsmen who batted brilliantly on pitch which had something in it for the bowlers and put up more than competitive score on the board. It was one of the day when Deccan never put the foot wrong in entire match. Batting came good, bowling and fielding complimented the batting well and finally Deccan managed the win at home after all the previous losses.

Deccan replaced Ishank Jaggi with Sunny Sohal, the ex-Kings XI player. Dhawan and Sohal opened the innings for Deccan in this match but Dhawan fell cheaply in trying to up the scoring. It looked like, once again Deccan will falter but Sangakkara and Sohal knitted good partnership between them which provided the platform to their middle-order to put up huge score. After dong brilliant partnership Sanga fell but in came ex-RCB boy Bharat Chipli who played brilliant knock and scored brilliant half-century against its ex-team and took the score  past 170. RCB bowling failed to make an impression in this match though pitch was favouring the bowlers. Their was clear lateral movement available off the pitch yet Deccan bowlers failed to use it.

Chasing marginal big total RCB lost its momentum very early as they lost Mayank Agarwal, Dilshan, Ab DeVilliers and Sourabh Tiwary in quick succession. Vettori sent Zaheer Khan as a pinch hitter but that move also back-fired as Zaheer faced 3 balls and scored none and Steyn bowled him. RCB was in all sorts of trouble but Virat Kohli and Pujara did wonderful partnership and kept the RCB hopes alive. Especially Kohli played brilliant innings but when run-rate goes past 15 then it becomes difficult for any batsmen to keep up with the run-rate and if he tries to do so then often he lose his wicket and that’s what happened with Pujara and Kohli. Both tried to up the scoring but lost their wickets in the process. It was heartening to see that Ishant Sharma was consistently hit the high 140 km speed mark  in this match and he looked in good rhythm while he was bowling. Few of his deliveries clocked over 150 km speed as well. This spell of his certainly give him lot of confidence as he bowled with speed and maintained good line and length throughout the spell.

Before this match Deccan lost all its home matches but they managed first win on home soil and hopefully this will give some momentum to Deccan campaign. Bharat Chipli batted brilliantly for Deccan. RCB has lost some momentum after win in first match as they lost two consecutive matches and need to re-think over their strategy. RCB have the best batting line-up among all the teams in IPL.

Man of the Match

Dale Steyn

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Fight for momentum. Preview: KKR vs DC

Each team in IPL 4 played their first game and 5 out of 10 teams opened their account with victory. Unfortunately KKR and DC were ended on losing side in their opening games and they have great chance today to open the account of points. It will not going to be easy for both the teams to go in with relaxed mind in this game and pressure will be immense on both the teams. KKR’s skipper Gambhir will be under more pressure compared to DC’s Sangakkara because KKR never ended in TOP 5 in previous 3 editions while Deccan won the title in 2009. It will be a test of nerves for Gambhir & Co.

On paper, KKR looks far better team than DC. It has likes of explosive Yusuf Pathan, legendary Jacque Kallis, Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, Bengal Ranji  Captain Manoj Tiwary, superb English middle-order batsmen Eoin Morgan. KKR have all the ammunition this time to beat any team.  However bowling looks bit weak compared to batting, except Kallis there is no big name right now,  Brett Lee is on National duty , so he can’t feature today.

On the other hand, DC batting looks bit weak compared to KKR as they have only Kumar Sangakkara and JP Duminy as accomplished batsmen. DCs bowling is quite ok with Dale Steyn leading the bowlers pack and he is currently one of the finest fast bowler in the World Cricket. Pragyan Ozha have to raise his game today if  DC wants to make some impression in this game.

It will be interesting to see how Kallis will play against Dale Steyn as both are playing for South Africa and today they will be playting against each other. Kallis will open the batting for KKR while Dale Steyn will open the bowling for Deccan Chargers. It will going be interesting little battle in big contest. KKR have to forget their nightmarish loss to CSK before going into this game as they were cruising at one stage in reply to CSK'S 153/4, but Knight Riders lost wickets in a hurry, and required 9 from the last over, but finished at 151/7 and lost by just 2 runs. Gambhir have to come up the order in batting against Deccan Chargers as opening or one-down is the best place for Gambhir-The Batsman. Gambhir raised lot of question when he came into bat lower down the order against CSK in last game.

Great contest ready to sizzle the Eden Gardens tonight and it will be interesting to see how many fans come to watch this game in absence of KKR’s former skipper Sourav Ganguly. Fans from Kolkata declared after auction that they will not going to watch any of the KKRs game in absence of Sourav Ganguly. KKR starts as  favourite in this game but Deccan have the fire-power to surprise KKR. It is also going to be  important game for Ishant Sharma who is looking to make a come-back in Indian side. He bowled well in last game for Deccan and have to bowl well today against his ex-team.

Team India dethroned Aussies from the World Cup, Kiwis face Proteas challenge

Its been one evening which every Indian cricket lover waiting desperately and finally it arrived, when Team India dethroned Aussies  from the Cricket World Cup and ended their 12 years regime. Team India also broke Aussie arrogance. It was India who started process of diminishing Aussie regime from 2001 with turnaround in that Eden Garden test match and from that series onwards Australian cricket  started declining and yesterday India put final nail in the coffin. India moved to semi-finals where they will play Pakistan, indeed a mouth-watering contest in prospect and Australia already left for the home where Ponting & Co. have to face lot criticism. Its end of an era in Australian Cricket.

Dhoni once again remained unlucky with the toss yesterday and Australia decided to bat first after winning the toss on a wicket which had something in it for the spinners. I think India did everything right except winning the toss. They fielded like leopards and I have not seen such a brilliant fielding in long time from Indian side. It was really heartening to see. It was good to see Dhoni attacked the batsmen and he reaped the fruits of attacking, by picking up wickets at regular interval which jolted Australian batting. Yuvraj Singh has found sublime form in this World Cup with the bat and ball. Indian bowling was also terrific but it became more terrific because fielders supported the bowlers however Munaf Patel was disappointing. Ashwin is the unsung hero of this team so far, he bowled brilliantly in whatever opportunities he got. 

Indian batting also delivered as Tendulkar, Gambhir and Yuvraj got half-centuries under their belt. Raina also re-discovered himself in this match by playing a small cameo. It was big call from Dhoni to drop Yusuf and replace him with Raina. It could have backfired but to Dhoni's credit it worked and its good for Team India that they found their proper playing eleven before semi-final.However there are areas of concern as well for India. Running between the wickets looked ordinary. Bowling of Munaf Patel was not upto the mark. Throwing of wickets by batsmen after settling in, Dhoni's poor form with the bat.etc. and Indian team have to sort out these problems before semis. Overall good performance by Team India and they will go to Mohali with lot of confidence, where they will take on arch-rivals Pakistan on next Wednedsay.

For Australia, everything went wrong in this match except Ponting's century. This Australian side was not the same which we watched over the years. It had the same old aggressive attitude but quality was completely missing. If we talk about averages of the batsmen, then most of the batsmen averages in mid-thirties which clearly indicates the quality. They were dependent heavily on rejuvenated Brett Lee in this tournament but one bowler can't win you matches and that bowler can also have off-day, so needed 3 to4 quality bowlers to win the game. They did alright by reaching the score of 260 which was par score under the conditions prevailed but they did not had the bowlers who take advantage of the conditions. They clearly missed two quality spinners on a wicket which had something in it especially for the spinners. Krezja was the only spinner in that side but he also bowled wrong line and length. So he struggled badly. David Hussey picked up wicket but not because he bowled good balls, he got the wicket because of the mistake from the batsmen. I think with this game Australian dominance in the World cricket is over and after 12 long years we will see new champion emerging. Its good for cricket. For Aussies and Ponting, it is a time of soul searching. Ponting era is also ended with this game and we will see change in Australian leadership in coming days. Sad end for the great captain and great batsmen who dominated the World Cricket for more than a decade.

Kiwis face Proteas challenge at Mirpur.

Kiwis will take on Proteas today at Mirpur in Dhaka. Its the fight for third semi-finalist spot. Kiwis have shown in the tournament that, if they play to their potential they can beat any team. I think Kiwis need little bit of luck also to go with their performance. They have class and talent in their batting but that batting has to click together if Kiwis wants to advance into the semis. Brendon McCullum, Guptill, Taylor are capable enough player to win the games on their own. Who can forget that league match against Pakistan in this World Cup where Ross Taylor alone ruined the Pakistani bowling and won the match for the New Zealand. Although they were lucky also in that match and that much luck is always on your side when you perform well. Kiwis beat Pakistan, Kenya, Canada and Zimbabwe during their journey towards quarter-finals. Kiwis won all these matches convincingly and none of the matches went to the wire. They lost to Australia and Sri Lanka but they beat the best team of their Group. So you cannot count Kiwis out of the contest today. They are bit handicapped because of captain Vettori's knee injury but they still have good bowling line-up and Tim Southee is their stand out bowler so far in the tournament. I think if Vettori play today and entire Kiwi team put collective effort then it will not be difficult for the Kiwis to beat Proteas.and seal the berth of semis.

Talking about Proteas they are best side in the tournament alongwith Pakistan. They have quality 4 pacers and 3 quality spinners to choose from and they are the most balanced side among all the teams. Their batting line-up is excellent which consists players like Amla, Kallis, DeVilliers, Smith. Remember they are the best fielding side of the World Cup. Dale Steyn is No.1 bowler in ICC ranking and Hashim Amla is No.1 batsmen in the ICC ranking. They possess lethal spin bowling combination which will come good against the side like New Zealand which is not used to playing spin. Imran Tahir will be the key for South Africa. South Africa don't have many weakness except their mentality of choking under pressure which often hampered their progress in the big tournament. Amla, Kallis and DeVilliers are in good form and capable of taking on any bowling line-up in the World. They are also lucky in a sense that Australia is out of the tournament and they stands with very good chance of winning this World Cup, all they required is mental toughness under-pressure. If they will be able to do so then they will definitely emerge as winners.

History in the making! Preview: Bangladesh V/s South Africa

Its a game which matter the most in the tournament. Result of the game between Bangladesh and South Africa will play crucial role in deciding the fate of four teams from Group B which is known as 'Group of Death' as well.  Victory of Bangladesh over England changed all the permutations of Group B and I think England will be cursing themselves over the defeat against Bangladesh. So what this game holds? 

This is the most crucial match for Bangladesh in the history of their cricket and it will give them chance to create an history. If Bangladesh win this game they will qualify for the quarter-finals of the Cricket World Cup for the first time and this day will register as golden day in the history of Bangladesh cricket. I believe key to Bangladesh's success depends on the pitch and the spinners and I think Bangladesh cricket administrators will certainly provide the rank-turner to the Proteas. We all know teams from outside sub-continent struggles against quality spin especially when they are playing in sub-continent and Bangladesh have lot of spinners in their ranks which is not very good sign for the South African batsmen. Batsmen like Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal and Captain Shakib Al Hasan have to score big runs in order to put pressure on South Africa and if this trio fires then anything can happen but Bangladeshi batsmen have to face the raw pace of Morkel and Steyn upfront and if these two bowlers will be confronted well then Bangladesh can think of winning the game. 

If we talk about South Africa, they played like champions in this World Cup so far. Although they lost to England but that was near contest. I think match against India made them very strong and given them great momentum. If they lost that match against India then situation would have become more difficult for them but they hold their nerves in that game and inspite of getting lot of hit in first 15 overs from India they came back strongly and snatched the victory from the jaws of defeat. No doubt they are the most balanced side in this World Cup but they often crumble under-pressure but they got rid of that weakness in the match against India. They already made into quarter-finals but they will be going into this match with the intention of winning it and try to sustain the momentum ahead of knock-out stages. Injuries to their key players like AB DeVilliers and Imran Tahir must be a little worry but I think both Tahir and DeVilliers will get fit ahead of the match against Bangladesh. I think this match will going to be very important match for Greame Smith as well as he has not fired with the bat so far in the tournament and he has the chance tomorrow to hit some batting form ahead of the crucial knock-out stage. If Smith hits the form then I believe Proteas will become more strong and even invincibles.

So great game ahead of knock-out stage, probably the most important and crucial match of the ICC Cricket World 2011. Teams like India, West Indies and England will keep close eye on this game because this is the game which will more or less decide, who will qualify for the quarter-finals from Group B. This match also have the capability of creating history in World Cricket and most important game for all the Bangladeshi fans.

Cricket is a game of Glorious uncertainties, World Cup of unexpected results

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 started with glittering ceremony in Dhaka on 17th February and games started from 19th February since then lot of games played but most of them were boring especially matches involving minnows but this World Cup also provided us lot of excitement in terms of unexpected results of many games. Now we are heading towards business end of the tournament but  Group B is still open and who will make it to the Quarter-FInals  is depending on lot of permutations. But here are the few matches which lived upto the expectations of the people but results were unexpected.

It all started with Group B match between India and England where India were considered favourites to win the game and after scoring 338 nobody expected of loss or a tie but   match turned into hard fought contest and ended in a tie against everybody's expectations.

The next match which turned out very exciting and given unexpected result was the match between England and Ireland where everybody expected England to win and after scoring more than 300 runs England were firm favourites to win that contest but 'cometh the hour, cometh the man'. Kevin O'Brien of Ireland washed all the hopes of England won the game for his country single-handedly.

Next match comes to the mind was the match between England and South Africa. Everybody expected South Africa to win this contest and it also confirmed by the lunch time that South Africa win this game after restricting England to 170 odd runs but South Africa choked under pressure and lost this game against everybody's expectations.

Another match which resulted into unexpected outcome was the match between England and Bangladesh. England were favourites to win this contest and Bangladesh fought hard and won this game leaving England in situation where they are on the doorstep of exit from the tournament.

In all the above four matches Team England is the common factor and their situation is in complete jeopardy and now they have to win against West Indies at any cost and that too with big margin and they also have to depend on result of other team's matches  in order to qualify for the Quarter-Finals

The match between Bangladesh and West Indies also saw unexpected result. Looking at the current ICC ranking West Indies is below Bangladesh and everybody considered Bangladesh favourites to win the contest but against all expectations West Indies won this match convincingly leaving Bangladesh in complete disarray.

Match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan also yielded unexpected result. Before the start of tournament Sri Lanka were one of the strongest contenders to win the title and Pakistan were underdogs but the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka turned all equations wrong. Pakistan won this game against everybody's expectations.

New Zealand were considered weakest team among all the test playing nations before the start of tournament and their drubbing at the hands of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan prior to the World Cup confirmed that but to everybody's surprise Kiwis lifted their game in the match against Pakistan and defeated them. The team which won all its 3 games in World Cup before this match lost to Kiwis thanks to the dropped catches.

So cricket is a game of great uncertainties and in this World Cup it proved once again. Expecting some more unexpected results from the remaining matches.

Team India will go through acid test against Proteas ahead of QF

Team India's serious World Cup campaign starts from tomorrow with the match against Proteas. So far India were playing weaker teams in the tournament and yet they struggled. So Indians will be under tremendous pressure going into this match. India have lot of worries in  bowling, fielding, running between the wickets and top-order batting but remember India have little edge over Proteas according to the statistics of recent times and that suggests out of last 10 ODIs against Proteas, India won 6 of them. Something which can give boost to the Indian team but over all record of India against Proteas is poor which suggests out of 65 ODIs Proteas won 39. But when we talk about recent performance Indian team have little edge. 

 India's main worry in this World Cup is its bowling. So far bowling failed to pick up early wickets except for one match against Ireland. Indian bowlers are certainly struggling on the flat pitches of sub-continent. India's main worry are its regular spinner in Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla, both failed to impress so far in the tournament. Harbhajan Singh have picked up only 2 wickets in 4 games although his economy is quite good but remember he is attacking bowler and expected to pick wickets rather than containing the batsmen. What to talk about leggie Piyush Chawla, 2 top wicket-takers in the tournament are leg-spinners and this guy Chawla struggled to pick the wickets in the conditions which favours the spinners and his economy is also poor. India is clearly struggling with 3rd seamer as well and captain Dhoni is completely confused in picking up right combination and that confusion reflects in his statements. I believe they have to continue with 2 pace -2 spin combination and they must replace Chawla with Ashwin in the game against South Africa just to check whether Ashwin fits the bill or not ahead of the knockout stage. I think  not playing Ashwin so far, Dhoni did it deliberately. I think he wanted to introduce him in a big match like this as a surprise package and I believe this can prove master-stroke as well.

Fielding and running between the wickets is also very big area of concern. India struggled badly in the outfield. India fielders allowed opposition batsmen to pick singles easily and also allow them to convert singles into 2s and 2s into 3s and thats not going to help because the opposition team supposed to get 270 in normal circumstances is ending up with 300 or more means 30-40 runs extra just because of poor fielding and extra pressure on Indian batting as well. India has dropped quite a few catches as well. If we look at the match against England Strauss was dropped by Harbhajan when he was new to the crease later in the same match Virat Kohli dropped Ian Bell and both these batsmen took the match away from India. Had those 2 catches taken then I believe result of that match would have been different. So lot to improve in the fielding and I think India have to employ faster fielders on the boundaries and slow fielders in the close-in because singles are anyways available even though field is up but it is important to stop extra runs which are taken when ball goes near the boundary and slow fielders don't able to throw the ball back quickly enough. India have to improve running between the wickets as well. So far we have seen India clearly struggled in this area as well in the tournament. In the first match Tendulkar got out because of poor calling. I think calling have to be precise and batsmen have to work hard in nets to set the good rhythm with their partners while running between the wickets, so that they can be in a sync with their partners in match while running.

Indian top-order batsmen are also struggling and they have to come good now, because one failure can cost dearly. Sachin, Shewag, Gambhir and Kohli have to bat well and out of these four, tow players have to take the anchor role. I think Sachin and Kohli have to play the role of anchor and Gambhir and Sehwag have to go after the bowling and that will be ideal situation for the middle-order batsmen where you have hitters like Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan who can easily capitalise on the good start given by the top-order batsmen. So Indian top-order have to take some responsibility and one or two of them have to carry their bat through the innings. We have seen how Indian team struggled to chase scores in last two matches where top-order failed. However, Yuvraj's form with both bat and ball is a big plus for India.


Squad:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni(Captain/WK), Virender Sehwag(Vice-Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel. Gary Kirsten(Coach)

Talking about Proteas, I think they are the most balanced side in the World Cup.   Amla and DeVilliers are in great nick and batting looks very good as they possess one of the best batting line-up in the world which includes star batsmen like Jacques Kallis. However Kallis is not among the runs so far in the tournament but he is big match player and against India he is terriffic and in the match against India he will definitely going to make a big score because he loves Indian bowling very much..Proteas won  their first two matches  convincingly but lost to England in a cliffhanger and that will be playing on their mind in this match and they will certainly play better cricket compare to the match against England and will not going to repeat those mistakes which they did against England. Proteas lower-order batting is a bit of concern which often cracks under-pressure and they have to work on this weakness. I think they must promote Morne Wan Vyk up the  order and send Kallis or DeVilliers down the order just to consolidate the lower middle-order.  

Proteas are the best bowling side in the tournament in terms of pace and accuracy. They have great variation in their bowling department. They have two terrific opening fast bowlers in Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and Indian batting is quite vulnerable against genuine pace and bounce. They possess great spin weapons in leg-spinner Imran Tahir, left-arm spinner Robin Peterson and off-spinner Johan Botha but since Tahir is injured I think they will go in with Johan Botha. They can also think of playing Lonwabo Tsotsobe who had great success against India in the last series and pace is also the Indian weakness so there is no harm in going with pace attack. Felding is the Proteas biggest asset and I must say Proteas starts as favourites to win this game. Imran Tahir is the joint second leading wicket-taker in the tournament and he was trump card for Proteas in previous matches but I think he play or don't play doesn't matter in the match against India because Indians play spin well.


Squad:

Greame Smith(Captain), Hashim Amla, Jacque Kallis, AB DeVilliers(WK), Morne Van Wyk(WK), Jean-Paul Duminy, Collin Ingram, Faf DuPlessis, Johan Botha, Robin Peterson, Imran Tahir, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell. Corrie Van Zyl(Coach)

Wicket at VCA Stadium in Nagpur will going to be a belter and will allow score in excess of 300 if teams bat well. I think toss will not going to be a factor in this match because wicket will going to be the same for entire 100 overs and there is no problem of dew as well because we are in mid-March. VCA stadium have the history of big scores. So it will going to be run-feast for the batsmen and nightmare for the bowlers especially Indian bowlers who need some assistance from the wicket.