World Of Cricket

Calcutta:  On 13th march 1996 Srilanka played India in the World-cup Semi-final in Calcutta which in the end turned out to be a very embarrassing day for Indian cricket.

Crowd reacts on India’s dismal performance / © Getty Images

Srilanka qualified for the World Cup final for the first time and went on to win it in Lahore. Srilanka played India before reaching to the final. After loss of their openers early Arvinda D’Silva held the innings together and pushed Srilanka’s final total to 250 leaving 251 for India to chase.

India’s chase was not good from start but it turned worst from their as the fans in the stadium showed their anger by burning the stands and throwing bottles at the players. Match Referee had to eventually take a decision and gave Srilanka a much deserved victory as India were never in the game. India made 120/8 in their 34.1 overs.

Only Sachin Tendulkar made over 50 for them. Srilanka later in the tournament went on to win it as Arvinda D’Silva scored century in the final to give Srilanka its first World Cup win ever in Lahore. After 1996 World Cup Srilanka has appeared in World-Cup finals for 2 times but did not win it.

Chennai: First test between two strong opponents India and Australia will start on Friday. It’ll be a contest between Indian batting & Australian pace bowling.

Sachin Tendulkar will be a key

Big series between two best teams Australia and India will start on Friday. Indians who faced clean sweep in the series against Australia in Australia will be looking for revenge. It is certainly a very important series for both the captains Micheal Clarke and MS Dhoni. The opening match of the 4 match series will be played on Chennai stadium. Both the teams are balenced and are in a good shape. It will be a fight between Australian pace bowling and Indian batting.

India-A batted well against Australia in the warm-up game. It will be interesting to see nature of pitches and it is expected that pitches will be either batting or will support spinners. India has very good spinning options and in the presence of Harbhajan Singh their spinner attack seems to be very good. It is expected that Indians will go for 2 spinners and 2 pacers while Australians will go for 3 pacers and Shane Watson can also bowl. So it will be a very good series and crowd will see an exiting cricket.

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.

Dhaka: Bangladesh delivered an upset 5-wicket defeat to India. The remarkable 100th international century of master-blaster Sachin Tendulkar went in vain.

Bangladesh defeated India after 5 years © AFP

Bangladesh won the toss and decided to field first. Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar started the innings, India lost their first wicket at 25 when Shafiul Islam bowled Gambhir (11).

Virat Kohli then came in and supported Tendulkar in his art work. Both played really good looking shot, specially the ‘little-master’ was looking in great touch.

Kohli (66) after making 2nd wicket partnership worth 148 with Tendulkar got out to Abdur Razzaq in the start of 3rd powerplay. Suresh Raina was promoted up the order to use the powerplay as the score of India was 173/2 in 35.5 overs.

Sachin reached to his 100th international century in 44th over by taking single; his team-mates, fans were on the feet, Bangladeshi fielders congratulated him and he raised his bat to acknowledge the praise. It was not only a proud moment for India but also for Cricket. It is a milestone which may never be achieved again.

In the 47th over, Mashrafe Mortaza first sent Raina (51) back in the pavilion and then sent legend Tendulkar back. The master scored 114 off 147 balls and struck 12 FOURS & 1 SIX.

Rohit Sharma (4) didn’t last long, he was undone by a beautiful throw of Nasir Hossain. MS Dhoni added 21 runs and remained not-out with Jadeja (4).

India with the accomplishment of Sachin mounted a huge score of 289 in 50.0 overs and lost 5 wickets. Mortaza took 2 wickets, Shafiul Islam and Abdur Razzaq took 1 wicket each.

Tamim & Nazimuddin started things for Bangladesh. Team India received gift when Nazimuddin skied one ball high up in the air and Rohit took an easy catch.

Jahurul Islam who was playing his 8th ODI played a good knock with Tamim, both showed their aggressive intent and raised a partnership of 113 runs. Jahurul after making his 1st international fifty got out to Jadeja.

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Young batsman Nasir Hossain came in but then settled Tamim Iqbal got out after making 70, he gave a good platform to the follow-up batsmen. Old captain and one of world’s best all rounders; Shakib Al Hasan joined Nasir in Bangladesh’s interest.

Both took Indian bowlers on their target and nailed them. World Of Cricket never witnessed such hard hitting from Bangladesh before.

After scoring 49 off 31, Shakib got out to Ashwin, he was given stump-out, replays showed that his one foot was out of the line, one was on the line and the line belongs to the 3rd umpire who gave Shakib out.

It was a good and important breakthrough for India but they never what is coming next. Bangladeshi captain Mushfiqur Rahim hit 2 consecutive Sixes to Irfan Pathan in 48th over, then a FOUR & a SIX in the next over to Parveen Kumar which took the game completely away from India.

Nasir Hossain skied one in greed of ending the game in style and was caught out as 2 runs were required off 8 balls. In the next over, new batsman Mahmudullah hit FOUR to win the game.

He embraced Mushfiqur Rahim and the other Bangladeshi players from the pavilion ran out to celebrate their outstanding victory. Bangladesh scored 293/5 in 49.2 overs to win the game. Parveen Kumar took 3 wickets for 56 in 10 overs, Ravichandran Ashwin & Jadeja took 1, 1 wicket.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was honoured with souvenir by Bangladesh Cricket Board, it was presented by its president Mustafa Kamal.

Last time when Bangladesh defeated India was 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup (West Indies) [March 17, 2007], it was also a 5-wicket victory and was also a group match, India was bowled out in it for 191 and Bangladesh chased it successfully in 48.3 overs.

This victory of Bangladesh will keep the tournament alive, Pakistan who is on top of the group with 9 points can still find itself in a problem as India is at no.2 with 4 points and Bangladesh is at no.3 with 4 points (positions are different because of run-rate). India will face Pakistan in the next match on March 18, 2012 and Bangladesh will face Sri Lanka on March 20, 2012.

HQ Photo Gallery: Click here and enjoy the photos from the match.

Result: Bangladesh won by 5 wickets.

Man Of The Match: Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh).

Mumbai: Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) announced squad of India for the Asia Cup 2012 which will start from March 11, 2012 & will feature Bangladesh, Pakistan & Sri Lanka.

India: MS Dhoni will be the captain & Virat Kohli will be the vice-captain in Asia Cup 2012 © Associated Press

The selection committee has dropped/axed/rested Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav & Parthiv Patel. Yusuf Pathan & Ashok Dinda will make their comebacks.

Virat Kohli has been named vice-captain after his impressive run in the ODI’s for India, he was the highest run-getter in this format in 2011. He is also the leading run-scorer in the ongoing ‘Commonwealth Bank Series’, his last masterpiece was witnessed in the 11th game of CBS when he screwed Sri Lanka by scoring 133 runs off 86 balls & wrapped-up the game in 36.4 overs.

38 years old, Sachin Tendulkar who scored 143 runs in the 7 matches during his 1st 50-over assignment after the world cup is also selected for the Asia Cup. He’ll indeed search for his 100th hundred.

Chairman of selection committee Kris Srikkanth said: ”The selection committee and board feels that Virat Kohli could be good future captaincy material,”

“Unfortunately Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan have been asked to take rest by the physiotherapist. It is purely on injury grounds both have been rested,” he said. “I can assure you that nobody has been dropped.”

The CB series is also the only ODI series the injury-prone Zaheer has been involved in since the World Cup. The decision to rest him and Yadav opened the doors for Dinda, who last represented India in the previous edition of the Asia Cup, in 2010. His selection comes on the back of a successful Ranji Trophy, in which he was the second-highest wicket-taker with 37 in six matches. Several other contenders for a fast bowling slot, including Varun Aaron and Sreesanth, are still recovering from injuries.

Allrounder Yusuf has recovered from a knee injury which cut short his Ranji season, and will resume his battle for the No. 7 allrounder’s slot with Ravindra Jadeja.

Among the fringe players, India have retained batsman Manoj Tiwary and legspinner Rahul Sharma, but have axed backup wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel.

India are defending champions of the Asia Cup, which will be held in Mirpur from March 11 to 22 and also features Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Squad of India for Asia Cup:

MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virat Kohli (vice-capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ashok Dinda.

Hobart: A brilliant century from precocious youngster Virat Kohli has steered India to an astonishing seven-wicket bonus-point victory over Sri Lanka on Tuesday night.

Virat Kohli celebrates his ninth ODI ton © AFP

Courtesy: Cricket Australia

Set 321 for victory and needing to reach the target within 40 overs to secure a bonus-point and keep their Commonwealth Bank Series finals hopes alive, the previously misfiring Indian batting line-up clicked into gear at Blundstone Arena to produce a victory that will stun the cricket world.

They passed the target on the fourth-ball of the 37th over to move level with Sri Lanka in second place on the Commonwealth Bank Series ladder, but still need to rely on Australia winning against Sri Lanka on Friday to go through to the final with a superior win/loss record against their fellow tourists.

It was the equal third highest Indian run chase in ODI history, but given it came up with more than 12 overs to spare must be ranked at the very top of the tree.

On target from the outset thanks to a whirlwind partnership of 54 from 33 deliveries between Sachin Tendulkar (39) and Virender Sehwag (30), the unlikely task of reaching 321 within 40 overs never really looked beyond India while they kept wickets in hand.

With Kohli (133 not out from 86 balls) dominating a 115-run third wicket partnership with the more staid, but still aggressive, Gautam Gambhir (63 from 64 deliveries) the Sri Lankan attack had no answers – even the normally tidy Lasith Malinga posting ragged figures in the face of an unbelievable onslaught.

Although he took the precious wicket of Tendulkar, Malinga was carted for 24-runs from his seventh over and finished with figures of 1-96 from 7.4 overs in a match where bat dominated ball from the outset.

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Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan carried his bat through the first innings for a dazzling 160 from 165 deliveries and added 200-runs for the third wicket with fellow centurion Kumar Sangakkara (105 from 87 balls).

With 320 runs in the bank, Sri Lanka would have been confident of defending the total – and certainly the 40-over period within which India had to earn a bonus point – but were pushed from the outset on a stunning night of cricket in Hobart.

Kohli shared a 120-run stand with the big hitting Suresh Raina (40 from 24 balls) and the pair bought up their century partnership from just 45 deliveries amid a flurry of fours and sixes to really take the match away from Sri Lanka.

Only a small crowd turned out to see the match but will talk about the Indian batting for years to come given the non-stop shot making and heavy hitting on display.

Kohli smashed 16 fours and two sixes in his highest limited overs score for India, an innings that may spur him to greater heights in what is a burgeoning career.

All eyes will now turn to Melbourne for the final match of the series on Friday with Indian fans praying the hosts beat Sri Lanka to ensure that their magnificent effort was not in vain.

Result: India won by 7 runs.

Man Of The Match: Virat Kohli (India).