World Of Cricket

Chennai: India takes 1-0 lead over Australia after beating them in the first test quite convincingly.

Dhoni scored 224 runs his highest test score © BCCI

India starts the test series with a win over Australia. Ashwin and Dhoni were their main contributers. Ashwin grabbed 12 wickets in the match whereas captain cool played innings of his life as he scored over 200 runs for the first time in his career.

For Australia Michael Clarke and Henriques who was also making his debut performed well. Australia made 380 runs in the first innings with the help of Michael Clarke’s brilliant century. India in reply lost 8 for 406 and after that one of the best partnership started as Dhoni and Kumar calmed their nerves. For India Virat Kohli scored century  whereas Dhoni scored double century.

Australia failed to score in their second innings only Henriques could score some runs and took Australia to 240 Ashwin was again the pick of the bowlers as he bagged 5 wickets.

India only wanted 50 runs to win and they won it easily by 8 wickets. Australia will have to make some improvements before going into the next game. The spinners Ashwin in particular proved a key player for India and Australia will have to play spin well if they want to equal the series.

Chennai: Micheal Clarke’s century helped Australia to score 316 runs on first day of the test match. Ashwin took 6 wickets but he did not get support from other bowlers.

Australian on top despite Ashwin’s six wickets

Australian captain Micheal Clarke won the toss and choose to bat at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. David Warner scored 59 runs but despite of that Australians were 153-5 at one stage. Micheal Clarke and Henriques played well for 151 runs partnership. The wicket was not easy and there was a turn on pitch and Indians played with 5 bowlers, 3 spinners and 2 pacers. Micheal Clarke played well against spinners and scored a century and he is still at the crease scoring 103 runs.

Ashwin took 6 wickets but no one from the other end supported him.Catch was dropped from Virender Sehwag and stumping chance was also missed by MS Dhoni. When Micheal Clarke was on on 39 runs, he was not given out by empire as he was clearly out. He would have been out 0n 39 runs if there was DRS in this match. Australia is in a good position at the moment as Michal Clarke is still at the crease. Australians are in a position from where they can put pressure on Indians. MS Dhoni has to come with better plans t get Australia out as early as possible.

Mumbai: Harbhajan in, Gambhir out as India announced their squad against Australia.

World Champions India announced their squad against Australia

Indian squad includes: MS Dhoni (capt. & wk.), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane.

This squad seems to be a balanced squad since this squad includes combination of both experienced and young players.

After a long time Gautam Gambhir is dropped from the Indian side. His performance against Pakistan and England was poor. Harbhajan Singh is included in Indian squad after a long time. Harbhajan’s performance against Australia is very good and that is why he is included in the squad. Virender Sehwag who was dropped against England is also included in the squad. Sachin Tendulkar who played well in the domestic tournament is also included against tough Australian series.

On the other hand keeping in view importance of India tour,Australia announced 17-man squad instead of 16-man. Australia’s selection of a 17 man squad has provided them with a wide variety of options. Australia have a good variety of world class pace bowlers in the form of Mitchell Johnson,Pattinson,starc and siddle but spin bowling has been a problem for Australia after the retirement of Shane Warne.  Whether to go with 3 pace bowlers or not, it will depend on the condition. Against Pakistan and England, we have seen bowlers swinging and seaming the bowl but Indians are aware of Australian pace attack strength.

Melbourne: Australia won fifth ODI and they won the series by 5-0.With this victory, Australia extended their record to 17 consecutive victories over West Indies in Australia. Last time West Indies won in 1997 in Perth.

Australia clean sweep West Indies

In the absence of Michael Clarke, David Warner, George Bailey, Matthew Wade and Glenn Maxwell,it was not easy for young players. But under captaincy of Shane Watson Australia dominated and completed a 5-0 clean sweep. Batting first Australia scored 274-5 which was a very good total against West Indies. Adam Voges scored his first international century. Adam Voges scored an unbeaten 112 runs that helped Australia to post a huge total against West Indies.

In reply, West Indies failed to chase the target and were all out on 257.  Johnson Charles scored a beautiful hundred but that was not enough to stop West Indies from clean sweep. Kieron Pollard, who scored a hundred in the last game tried hard but unfortunately he got out. It was a disappointing tour for West Indies and they maintained their ODI ranking.West Indies only rank above sides like Bangladesh in Tests and ODI matches so 5-0 was not a surprising result .

Australians are looking forward to their tour to India which will be a challenge for them. This 5-0 victory will boost their confidence. Shane Watson is also fit and he will soon start his bowling practice as well. Usman Khawaja,basically from Pakistan, is known as Australia’s next in line and he has shown good performance for Prime Minister’s XI game a week back.Already this season he is the Sheffield Shield’s third leading run-scorer despite of missing 2 games. Usman Khawaja who is currently in India will be a key for Indian tour.

Cuttack: India maintain their unbeaten record against Pakistan and end their World Cup campaign with a convincing victory against Pakistan.

India VS Pak

In ICC women world Cup, match for 7th/8th position was played between Pakistan and India.Pakistan won the toss and they batted first and scored 192-7. In reply India chased the target easily and India won by six-wickets in just 45 overs.The six-wicket win helped India end the tournament at seventh place while Pakistan finished the tournament with eighth place. The crowd also supported Indian cricket team but they are not able to qualify for super-six.

Pakistan and India are out of the tournament and both the teams are not able to qualify for super sixes. Australian cricket team is dominating as their women club cricket is very good. As far as Pakistan and India are concerned, their women club cricket is not good. You can say players hardly get chance to play cricket. Cricket boards of both Pakistan and India are not much concentrating on Women cricket and their incomes are also very low.

If Pakistan and India want to be the best teams they should play more and more cricket and they should concentrate on club cricket. There are currently very good coaches who are working with both women cricket teams but still they need improvement in their club cricket.

Dubai: The DRS has been the talking point since its birth. India is the only nation who is against the technology.

Misbah-ul-Haq was part of a controversial decision in the first test against South Africa © Associated Press

The Decision review system is still not a permanant part of the game as India continues to stand against it. In the previous ICC meating India once again showed no interest in making the use of DRS permanantly.

England and Wales Cricket board (ECB) chairman Giles Clarke was the lone man in that meeting who asked to change policy of implementation of DRS.

The current policy says that the implementaion of DRS requires the approval of both the playing nations in a bilateral series.

Though there is now going to be a enhanced DRS version later this year when Snickometer will be made a permanant part of DRS. Edges will now be heard more clearly and it will work in tandem with hotspot to improve the technology.

There was some controversy regarding hotspot in a recently concluded match between Pakistan and South Africa. Pakistani team was not happy with some of the decisions made during the match.

The Snickometer is not a part of DRS because it takes to much time. But the new version will be fully automatic and will not take much time.

The Australian company BBG are behind this technology they are conducting its trials they were also behing Hotspot. They are in favour of these technologies and according to them these two technologies can help DRS in improving.

The two technologies can work together and can help the umpires with faint edges. It is expected that in July 2013 this technology will be used for the ashes (England Australia series).