Sri Lanka squandered advantage. India eager to start campaign with a win.

 

Sri Lanka controlled the game in first session of 2nd test match at Lords after winning the toss but failed to capitalise on a good start provided by their bowlers. Lankan bowlers proved Dilshan’s decision correct when they picked up 3 quick wickets upfront which included the wicket of in-form batsmen Jonathan Trott and Captain Strauss. But Cook had other ideas and he got perfect support from Ian Bell as duo helped England in reaching safe total. Matt Prior and Eoin Morgan further strengthen the position of England. Prior is still not-out and looking good to get another hundred. Bell, Cook and Morgan scored brilliant half-centuries. It was unfortunate that Cook got out on 96 and failed to get one more hundred but he certainly saved England from embarrassment.

Sri Lanka did everything right in first session but lost their way in second session  and they allowed England to claw back from the hopeless situation. Lankan bowlers however picked up six wickets at the end of first day but advantage is with England now as they are in comfortable position to dictate terms. Lankans really missed Malinga and Muralitharan and it was written all over on their day’s performance. Score was 22 when 3rd wicket fell but Lankans allowed England to get away with huge score at the end of first day. Tough times ahead for Lankans as series loss looming large over their head.

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India eager to start campaign with a win.

Indian will start their Caribbean safari today with one off T20 games. On paper both teams are equal but in betting market India is favourite to win today’s contest.

Pitches in Caribbean are much like sub-continent nowadays and this will certainly help the Harbhajan & Co.  Looking at Indian team it has some exciting talent and this talent have to perform on this tour because this tour will decide future of these young cricketers. it’s a golden chance and needs to be grabbed with both hands.

India will open with Pathiv Patel and Shikhar Dhawan,that is sure. In middle–order India have players like Kohli and Raina who are in tremendous form and they will be supported by Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan and Badrinath. All these batsmen had a great IPL and will be looking to transfer their good form in International cricket. Who ever perform well on this tour will certainly get the ticket for England which will be following Caribbean tour. It will also test the captaincy skills of Suresh Raina who will be leading this Indian team 2nd time in his career. Duncan Fletcher have big challenge ahead of him.

Looking at bowling, India have only Ishant Sharma who is genuinely quick. Likes of Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar and Praveen Kumar are  swing bowlers. They will not get enough assistance from the slow low pitches of West Indies. According to me spinners will going to play big role on this tour as we all saw how Pakistani spinner Saeed Ajmal destoryed the West Indian batting recently.

Looking at West Indian side, they are bit below par in the absence of Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. But they are in re-building phase and they will try out few youngsters against India. Among all the players Darren Bravo and Andre Russell looks like good talent. Apart from these two players West Indies have players like Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Devendra Bishoo, Marlon Samuels who can turn the tides in the favour of home team.

I think it is going to be an even contest considering both teams don’t have the services of their  frontline players.

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The squads

Suresh Raina (c), Parthiv Patel (wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Subramaniam Badrinath, Yusuf Pathan, Virat Kohli,  Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, R Ashwin, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra and R.Vinay Kumar.

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Darren Sammy (c), Christopher Barnwell, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Andre Fletcher (wk), Danza Hyatt, Ashley Nurse, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Krishmar Santokie, Lendl Simmons.

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Thumping victory in QF over England put Sri Lanka in semis

It was one of the days which Sri Lankan cricket lovers will never forget as their team made it to the semi-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 with dominating performance. Lankan giants dominated Englishmen completely on the field and achieved easy victory which gave them much required momentum needed for semi-finals and finals. Sri Lanka will play New Zealand in semi-finals and Kiwis failed to win the match in Sri Lanka since 2003, so semis will again become easy transit for the finals as far as Lankans are concerned.

Sri Lanka did make few mistake in the field where they dropped as many as four catches of Eoin Morgan. This was  the only flaw in their performance in that game against England. Dropped catches helped England reaching partly competitive total of 229 and cricket lovers thought that this total will be enough looking at the condition of the pitch in the second innings. Moreover, other night collapse of South African batting against New Zealand confirmed that chase will not going to be easy for the Lankans. But Dilshan and Tharanga had other ideas and both these openers stamped their authority on the match by playing freely and both scored centuries which helped Lanka winning this match by 10 wickets. This clearly showed that how comfortable Sri Lanka is in their home conditions. South Africa lost the match by 49 runs while chasing New Zealand score of 221 shows the difference between the two teams and their adaptability to the pitches and conditions.

As far as England is concerned, they made it to the quarter-finals after topsy-turvy performance in the league round and everybody expected that if England is in   quarter-finals after up-down in the league stage then this time something is waiting for them but quarter-finals turned out to be a sorry state of affairs for the England. They came into the World Cup with lot of cricket behind them, so the fatigue factor also played its role in their performance. The looked tired and didn't put fight-back. They got the golden chances from Lankans yet they couldn't capitalise on those chances and got out for the  par total. Once Dilshan and Tharanga started attacking, English bowlers looked completely out of sorts and it looked like they lost all the hopes of winning the game. They were monotonous on the field and didn't look energetic enough to convert even the half-chances. English batting also failed to dominate,  they started defensively against the part-time spinner like Dilshan. There was no intent in their batting in the beginning and they also lost wickets quite quickly and also to the part-timer. Trott played well for his 80 odd but he consumed too many balls. Only Morgan showed some intent but he was also lucky because he was dropped four times by the Lankans. Such poor performance was not expected from the team which defeated Australia just two months back. I think England have to do lot of soul searching about their performance in this World Cup.

As far as Lankan bowling is concern, Muralitharan once again showed his class. He was struggling with hamstring injury, yet he bowled like a champion, no wonder why he is so precious to the Sri Lankan cricket. Malinga, Mendis, Mathews and Herath bowled brilliantly and given red alert to the Kiwis. 

Do or Die game for Englishmen against Carribeans

Its been unfortunate and forgettable tournament for the English team so far and today is their D-Day and they have to come good on this day. If they lose today they will go home, so they have to win at any cost. They can take inspiration from Pakistan's 1992 World Cup victory where Pakistan was in the similar situation and from that situation they bounced back and ended up as champions. So still little hope alive and to keep it alive England have to win.

So far England's journey in this World Cup is bit scratchy. They involved in four matches which ended with unexpected results which is very rare in International Cricket. They have 5 points from the 5 matches they played so far and this is also highly unexpected of them because before the start of tournament they were considered one of the team who can lift the elite trophy on April 2 but now they are on the stage where they can be knocked-out of the tournament. I think if they win today then I believe they will win the World Cup for sure. England also plagued  with injuries as half of their team was injured before the start of tournament and to add to their woes Kevin Pietersen also suffered hernia problem and left the team in the middle of tournament. English bowlers  also don't look that fit and this is because of fatigue.  The amount of cricket they played before the World Cup definitely affecting their bodies and mind. More than physical, it is mental fatigue which is affecting England because they did not get the time after Ashes to switch-off from the cricket and kept playing cricket till the World Cup. You need good amount of mental and physical rest before the tournament like World Cup.

Coming to today's game, I think Andrew Strauss is key man for England. He is captain and he is their in-form batsman. Strauss have to lift his game today and have to lead his side from the front. Good innings up-front from the captain will certainly boost the morale of entire team. Strauss have to make his luck to work today in terms of toss. In Chennai team batting second always face trouble, so Strauss have to win the toss and put runs on the board. Pitch will certainly turn more in second innings and whichever team bats second will face lot of problems. Batting is not very big problem for England so far in the tournament as Trott, Bell and Bopara are in good form and their batting have been bolstered little bit with the return of Eoin Morgan and he holds the key in the death overs for England. Morgan have to stay on wicket till 50th over and have to play the finisher role with perfection because good start requires good finish as well.  England restricted Proteas on the same ground last week  for just 165 and won the game even after scoring 171 runs. So they take inspiration from that victory. Swann and Yardy holds the key in this match and if these two bowlers bowls well than England can think of winning this contest. So its a must win situation for England to stay in hunt.

As far as West Indies is concerned, they are really not the team which they were in 70s and 80s but still they have good enough players who can win them any game on their day, so in that way one cannot count West Indies out of the contest. They have quality players like Sarwan, Gayle, Pollard, Chanderpaul and Darren Bravo who can change course of any game in a minute. Bowling also look far more better with Roach picking wickets consistently and with his speed he can do lot of damage in opposition batting. Sulieman Ben bowled well for them and he holds the key on rank turner of Chennai. So far West Indies has won against minnows in this tournament and they lost to giant South Africa, so it will be interesting to see how well they compete against England. West Indies will be under no pressure today because even if they lose today they still get one more game against India, so they have to play freely and have to take full advantage of opposition's weakness and that is pressure because England will be under tremendous pressure going into this game and West Indies have to just take advantage of that.

Today good contest in offering at Chepauk and its a must win game for England. If England lose today the fate will be sealed and for West Indies nothing to lose today as they will still in hunt with game under their belt.

Increase the number of teams in International cricket

1st half of the South Africa and Ireland match was dominated by the Ireland when they reduce Proteas to 105-5 but Duminy came to the rescue and took the Proteas score, past 250. Ireland clearly lacked the experience and that showed in their performance when Duminy took on their bowlers and put Proteas in good position. Had Ireland played more International cricket then they could have easily tackled that situation but lack of exposure in International cricket proved costly to them and this is not the situation of only Ireland. I think all the minnows playing in this World Cup suffering due to lack exposure on International level. Netherlands and Canada showed that they have the potential and only thing they require to compete hard with big boys of cricket is exposure at International level.

At this moment ICC has 105 members: 10 Full Members that play official Test matches, 35 Associate Members, and 60 Affiliate Members. I think ICC must identify 20 members  from these 95 members who are having domestic structure in place or playing active cricket.After identifying these 20 nations ICC have to give them test status. These 20 countries have to play each other in ODIs and Test Matches which is specifically designed for them. Their test matches should be of 4 days and that will give them ideal exposure to International Cricket like arena. ICC can take a leaf out Indian domestic structure and have to organise similar kind of tournament for the identified 20 members and this will help these minnows in developing cricketing culture in their respective countries. Although ICC have many tournaments for associated and affiliated members but that is not working well as most of the countries play cricket at amateur level. So ICC must try something similar to Ranji Trophy in order to spread and develop cricket globally. Ranji Trophy format is ideal for the ICC to adopt  and implement at associate and affiliate level. Formats like Ranji Trophy will  also increase the skills, temperament and stamina of the players of these small teams and they will be able to compete hard in big ICC tournaments and can even think of winning also. This will also give the financial security to the players of these associate and affiliate countries as they will be playing cricket regularly and in more professional way. So they will not leave the cricket for earning their bread. 

Currently there are 27 teams playing in Ranji Trophy tournament in India. Starting with the 2002–03 season, the zonal system was abandoned and a two-division structure was adopted: the Elite Group and the Plate Group. For the 2006–07 season, the divisions were re-labelled the Super League and Plate League respectively.

The Super League is divided into two groups of eight and seven teams, while the Plate League is divided into two groups of six teams each. In both divisions, the top two teams from each group advance to the knock-out phase. The finalists from the Plate League are promoted to the Super League the next year while the two teams at the bottom of the Super League are relegated.

New Ranji format from 2008–09 season, the top two Plate teams join three teams each from the two groups in the Super League to play a knock-out from the quarter-final stage. The new format, thus, gives a relegated side realistic chance of winning the title.

Points summary

Points in the league stages of both divisions are awarded as follows:

Scenario	Points
Win Outright	5
Bonus Point (for innings and 10 wicket wins)	1
1st Innings Lead	3 *
No Result	1
1st Innings Deficit	1 *
Lost Outright	0

note^* – If match ends in a draw.

In Ranji Trophy whoever emerge as  winner get the chance to play against Rest of India in Irani Trophy. In the same way out of 20 associate teams, whoever emerge as winner must get the chance to play atleast one test series and one ODI series against bottom 2 ranked  test playing teams for next two years and if their performance remains consistent then ICC must promote that team to the league of top test playing nations. ICC must give chance to top 3 associate teams of that tournament to play in atleast 2  ODI triangular series and 2 ODI bilateral series with top test playing nations in a year and this will help these minnows in a big way to develop their cricketing skills according to the demand of International cricket. More they play at International level, more beneficial it will be for these teams as well as ICC. 

I think these measures definitely develop cricket globally and ICC associate and affiliated teams will get the exposure to International Cricket and this will also increase the teams  in World Cricket and also help the teams like Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, UAE,etc. to grow in International cricket.