World Of Cricket

Barbados: Zimbabwe get off to a good start in their first test match in almost a year.

Sameuls made a good comeback taking four wickets © WICB Media Photo/Randy Brooks

Zimbabwe made a good enough start to their first test in a long time, although they could have done a lot better given the start they had. The match saw the return of Marlon Sameuls too. Zimbabwe Captain, Brendan Taylor, won the toss and chose to bat on a confusing pitch.

Zimbabwean openers were up against Kemar Roach and Tino Best, and both of them gave it their best but could only dismiss two of their batsmen as Tim Mawoyo and Brendan Taylor led their recovery. It wasn’t easy going though, being hit all over their bodies. getting edges, but they persisted and persisted which meant they went into lunch with only two wickets down.

Soon after lunch, the downfall started for Zimbabwe as Tim’s hard work came to an end and after getting through the hard part of facing the pacers he fell to the off-spinner Shillingford. Dismissal of Tim, started the collapse from which they never recovered and fell from 100/2 at lunch to 211 all out.

Marlon Sameuls on his return became one of the cheif destroyers taking four wickets. Cremer and Chakabva tried to recover a bit when they added 38 for the seventh wicket but their partnership was broken by Sameuls too and after that it was just a matter of time.

West Indies were given about 10 to 12 to face for the day, and credit should be given to the Zimbabweans that after being dismissed cheaply they did not give up and struck early in the 7th over to send Powell back to the pavillion. Sammy looking to save his batsmen for tomorrow, sent in nightwatchman Kemar Roach but to everybody’s disappointment in the West Indian dressing room he was dismissed too as he became Jarvis’s second victim of the day.

Darren Bravo and Chris Gayle made sure that no more wickets fell as West Indies ended the day on 18/2 from 11 overs. Zimbabwe should be pretty pleased their performance on the first day as the match hasn’t tilted much in anybody’s favor and both teams could make the most out of it.

Caribbean: Dwayne Bravo will be leading West Indies for first two ODIs against Zimbabwe as Darren Sammy is rested.

Darren Sammy has been rested for the first 2 ODIs against Zimbabwe © AFP

West Indies has announced it’s team for first two ODIs against Zimbabwe. Darren Sammy and Chris Gayle are rested while Dwayne Bravo will be leading the side for the first 2 games in absence of Darren Sammy who is regular captain for West Indies.

Denesh Ramdin has also been added to the squad after Devon Thomas was dropped. Fast bowler Jason Holder who travelled with the team for Australian tour was also replaced by Veerasammy Permaul who made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in December’12.

The first ODI will be played on February 22 and the 13 man squad of West Indies for the first two ODIs is.

Dwayne Bravo (capt), Tino Best, Darren Bravo, Johnson Charles, Narsingh Deonarine, Sunil Narine, Veerasammy Permaul, Kieron Pollard, Kieran Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Ramnaresh Sarwan.

Mumbai: Australia won the World Cup for the sixth time by beating West Indies in Mumbai. They started as tournament favorite and at the end won the world cup.

Australia won the World Cup for the sixth time

Australia won the Women world cup for the sixth time. They started the tournament as favorites and at the end they have proved that they are best in the world by beating West Indies in the final match. West Indies qualified for the final for the first time and in the final match they were crushed by Australia. The final match was played in Mumbai and Mumbai is the lucky place for Australia where they lifted the trophy. This victory will certainly boost the confidence of Australian men cricket team and they are yet to play against world champions India.

Batting first Australia scored 259 runs. This was a very good effort the Australian team.  JE Cameron and  RL Haynes both scored fifties and helped Australia to score 259 runs.EA Perry played well at the end by scoring 25 off 22 balls and being part of a unbeaten 50 run, 7th Wicket Partnership scored off 40 balls. Then taking 3 wickets in 10-balls for very few runs  and at one stage having a the figures of 3-2 from 15 balls.259 was a tough ask for West Indies and they were bowled out scoring just 145 runs. JE Cameron was man of the match who scored 75 runs with the help of 2 sixes.

West Indies will face favorite Australia in women world cup final. Australians are looking for their sixth world cup title.

West Indies will face Australia in final

Women World Cup will be played between Australia and West Indies in Mumbai. West Indies were impressive in this tournament and for the first time they have qualified for the final and they have a great opportunity to win the world cup for the first time. As West Indies men cricket team won the T20 World cup and surprised everyone, West Indies Women cricket team is quite capable of doing the same. There are many dangerous players in the West Indies squad who can win the match at their day.

On the other hand Australians who are favorite in this world cup have a great chance to win the world cup for the sixth time. In the whole World cup Australians played like a unit and they certainly are favorite to win this world cup as well.  Throughout the tournament, West Indies out classed every team in batting, bowling and fielding. The final match will be played in Mumbai. Australian men team is also in India and this will also a cheering news for men cricket team if their women cricket team won.

Message from Micheal Clark and his men to is”They have said they are really proud of our team and proud to be watching alongside what we have achieved with the World Twenty20 and also that there is a big opportunity for us to walk away with our sixth title.”

Brisbane: T20 World Champions West Indies beat Australia in Australia for the first time since Feb 1, 1997.

T20 World Champions beat Australia in Australia for the first time since Feb 1, 1997

Batting first, West Indies scored 191-6 which was a very good score. Charles once again played well with scoring 57 match winning runs. He was well backed by DM Bravo and Pollard who scored 32 and 26 runs respectively. Chris Gayle lost his wicket at the early stage but Charles and DM Bravo played well. 191 was a very score and difficult to chase. This victory will certainly give West Indies fans something to cheer.

In reply Australia tried hard and scored 164-8. Voges scored 51 runs but this was not enough to stop world champions West Indies from victory. With this victory, West Indies beat Australia in Australia for the first time since Feb 1, 1997. Pollard was the man of the match. Pollard said: “We got a really good score on the board. Hopefully we can improve our 50-over game as well. Took me a couple of games too late to find form. We’ve got to get the team balance right to win more consistently”.

West Indies were playing without Marlon Samules who played a match winning role in the World T20 World Cup. He is suffering from eye injury. On the other hand Australians were also playing without David Warner and Shane Watson who are in India. It was a very good match and both the teams played well and at the end it was West Indies who hold their nerves and showed why they are World Champions.

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.