World Of Cricket

This day reminds us of the famous semi-final between South Africa and England. South Africa required 22 to win from 13 balls against England in 1992 world-cup semi-final to reach the final but it all changed after the rain interrupted the match.

South Africa had a impossible task to achieve after the rain interrupted the game © Patrick Eagar

The match that can never be forgotten as South Africa were left helpless after rain interrupted the game. South Africa and England were battling to mark their place in world-cup final. South Africa were playing their inaugural world cup and it turned out to be a forgettable day for them.

England batted first in a rain hit match and scored 252 in 45 overs. South Africa while chasing the target kept losing wickets at regular intervals but they remained in the hunt. The game was all set for exciting finish as South Africa needed 22 to win of 13 balls but  the real drama started when rain interrupted the game.

Play did resume after the rain but it was only a formality by that time as the equation went totally against South Africa, after the rain South Africa required 22 to win of 1 ball, which was a impossible task.

England went on to play their 3rd world cup final but they lost yet another final, Pakistan won the world-cup, it was also the first world-cup with coloured kits.

Dunedin: After day 1 was washed out due to rain, day 2 was dominated by New Zealand in all departments as they are only 36 runs behind of England’s score with all 10 wickets in hand.

Hamish Rutherford raises his bat after scoring fifty on his debut © AFP

Only toss was possible on day 1 which was won by New Zealand and they choose to field first. The toss helped New Zealand in the 2nd day as they demolished England, the day 2 was completely dominated by New Zealand.

England started day 2 in awful manner as they lost Compton early in the match. Peterson joined Cook and they both started to stable the innings after an early loss but Wagner had other plans, he dismissed both Cook and Peterson of successive deliveries.

Bell and Trott then combined a small partnership before Wagner dismissed Bell who was looking dangerous, Root soon joined him in dressing room as Boult ended his small stay.

Prior then joined Trott who attacked New Zealand bowlers but not for long as he too was dismissed for 23, soon after him Trott was also picked up by Martin to leave England in a dismal state.

The tail then hung around for a while Broad, Finn and Anderson contributed 10,20 and 23 respectively to take England’s first innings total to 167. Wagner and Martin troubled England as they both picked up 4 wickets each while Southee and Boult picked up 1 each.

For New Zealand Fulton and debutant Rutherford started the innings. They both stood like  rock against threatening England bowling line-up . Both played with positive intent, the debutant Rutherford in particular smashed England’s bowlers to all parts and batted with a strike rate of 68, which is very impressive.

Fulton and Rutherford made sure that they stay together till the end of the day to make in New Zealand’s day both added 131 and still are batting. England will have to do something special to get back into the game. New Zealand are only 36 runs behind England’s first inning total and they will fancy their chances from here.

Dunedin: The debutants Bruce Martin and Neil Wagner combined to bundle up the England team for 167.

Kevin Petersen was dismissed for a first ball duck by Wagner © Getty Images

After the first day was washed out, the New Zealanders took full advantage of the surface to dismiss the English on a paltry 167. Today was one of the worst performances by the England’s batting order in recent times. The Kiwi bowlers were extremely accurate with their line and length and deserve all the praise, but the fact that it was one of the most embarrassing performance from the English side cannot be kept hidden.

Neil Wagner partnered with the debutant Bruce Martin to totally annihilate the English batsmen. After very poor performance from the England’s batting order, Peter Fulton and Hamish Rutherford showed that although the surface wasn’t a walk in the park but neither it was something that could not be dealt with as they put on 131 for the opening wicket when stumps was called.

Both the batsmen displayed great solidness at most of the times but did show signs of nervousness too. Rutherford was pretty much unrestrained for most part of the innings but did present with a couple of chances too. Both chances came of Broad’s bowling but were dropped both the times, on 52 by the bowler himself and on 64 by Kevin Petersen at point.

Neil Wagner playing at home had a great start to the test. Southee provided with the early breakthrough dismissing Compton under  10, Cook couldn’t stay for longer too.  Wagner was on a hat-trick in the 11th over as both Cook and Pietersen fell on back to back deliveries. Once Martin came on, there wasn’t much in it for the England batsmen.

Jonathan Trott was the only English batsman that showed some promise of going on for a longer innings but his stay ended soon after Prior’s dismissal. Trott formed little partnerships with Bell and Root but nothing too damaging for the Kiwis. On his debut Martin ended up with figures of four wickets for 43 and he was the one who dismissed Trott.

Finn and Anderson added 47 for the 9th wicket before Finn was dismissed by Wagner. This was the only period where the Kiwis felt a little irritated, on an otherwise perfect day. The Black Caps are in the driving seat to take this test match, until or unless they throw it away themselves.

Dunedin: Both the teams kept waiting on the sidelines as the rain gods opened up heavily.

The groundstaff tried their best but rain kept coming back © AFP

The first day of the first test between New Zealand and England ended without a ball being bowled. New Zealand had won the toss and elected to bowl first in overcast conditions but then the sky opened up, and almost never stopped.

Heavy rain kept returning with intervals in between when it stopped or wasn’t heavy. The very heavy rain ensured that the game could not start. Even though there were quite a few periods when it was gentle the umpires called the game off after tea because of the large amount of water that swept across the ground.

New Zealand had gone in with a left arm spinner, Bruce Martrin, who was on debut. Ian Butler who was called back in the squad since 2004 was left out as the fourth seamer even though the conditions favored the quickies. For England too, the lead spinner was a left arm, Monty Panesar as Graem Swann had to leave the squad and the remaining tour due to elbow surgery. Stuart Broad is also making a comeback for the English after his problem with his heel.

The umpires have decided to make up for the time lost today by starting the game as early as 10 am local time in all the remaining days of the test, rain permitting off course. Here are the teams that are bound to play tomorrow:

New Zealand team:

PG Fulton, HD Rutherford, KS Williamson, LRPL Taylor, DG Brownlie, BB McCullum*, BJ Watling†, TG Southee, BP Martin, N Wagner, TA Boult

England team:

AN Cook*, NRD Compton, IJL Trott, KP Pietersen, IR Bell, JE Root, MJ Prior†, SCJ Broad, ST Finn, JM Anderson, MS Panesar

Napier: The second ODI between New Zealand and England will be played on 20th February. New Zealand are currently leading the series 1-0.

James Anderson will look to improve his record in the 2nd ODI against NZ © Associated Press

England looks to avoid a series loss as they looks to win the 2nd ODI against New Zealand who are looking for their second straight series win after they won recently against South Africa in South Africa.

James Anderson has already set a record for England during the first ODI when he became the most international wicket takeing bowler for them.

THE FAVOURITES:

It is hard to decide who will start as favourites but since New Zealand has played better cricket than England as they have won the series against South Africa whereas England are coming from a fresh loss in India therefore, i will go with New Zealand.

Players to rely on:

England have found a really calm and collected captain in Alastair Cook and they will be hoping that he performs in tomorrows ODI against New Zealand to give his team a chance to stay in the series.

New Zealand will be relying on James Franklin as he can change the game on its head on his day. James Franklin has played some fine innings for New Zealand thus far in his career and New Zealand will be hoping that he plays another match winning innings tomorrow again. Along with his batting James Franklin has also the ability to bowl the opposition out with his bowling so he will be a big factor in tomorrows game.

Teams:

(New Zealand’s most probable)1 Hamish Rutherford, 2 BJ Watling, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Brendon McCullum (capt & wk), 6 Grant Elliott, 7 James Franklin, 8 Nathan McCullum, 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Tim Southee

(England’s most probable) 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Ian Bell, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Joe Root, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steven Finn

Former World T20 Champions,England beat New Zealand in 3rd T20 to win the series 2-1

England won the T20 series against New Zealand by 2-1

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum won the toss and opted to Bat first. Batting first New Zealand scored 139 runs. Guptil scored brilliant 59 runs but these 59 runs were not enough to stop England from winning. Except Guptil, New Zealand batting was flopped and no other batsman was able to make an impact in the series decider. Ross Taylor once again could not perform and Brendon MacCullum who scored match winning innings in the 2nd T20 scored 26 runs.

On the other hand Broad once again played a match winning role and picked 3 wickets. Broad’s economy rate was 3.75 which is very impressive in T20s. When England started their batting they starting dominating New Zealand. England won the series decider comfortably by 10 wickets with 44 balls remaining. Michael Lumb and Alex Hales were brilliant and they both scored 9 sixes.  Alex Hales scored 80 runs with 5 sixes and Micheal Lumb scored 53 runs with 4 sixes. This was a one sided match and England won the series 2-1.