The captain of the Indian cricket team, MS Dhoni, has lauded his team for putting up a brilliant show in the recently played 2-match test series against West Indies. India secured huge wins in both the test matches of the series.
It was the last international series for one of the greatest players of all times Sachin Tendulkar and the Indian team couldn’t have given him a better farewell than that. Continue reading DHONI HAILS GREAT SHOW
The young Indian top order batsman Virat Kohli has said that watching Sachin Tendulkar bat in Sharjah in the nineties motivated him a lot.
According to Virat, the way Tendulkar used to dominate each and every bowler during that period was remarkable.
Tendulkar has recently announced his retirement from test cricket. The upcoming test series against West Indies will be his last series. He has already quit the shorter versions of the game. So, after the two test matches against the Caribbean team, he will not be seen in action on the ground again.
The Indian fans are hugely disappointed with the fact they will not see the master blaster taking on the bowlers again, but, the good news for them is that India has found out a young batsman who has started dominating the bowlers in the same way as Tendulkar used to do when he was at his peak. That young batsman is none other than Virat Kohli. This 24 years old guy from Delhi is well on his way of becoming one of the greats of the game.
Talking to the reporters yesterday about Tendulkar, Virat said, “Sachin bhai has inspired me a lot. I had watched some of the innings that he had played in Sharjah 13-14 years ago and the way he took on some of the legendary bowlers there was awesome. He won the games on his own and after watching him bat like that, I also started dreaming of playing similar kinds of knocks for my nation.”
When asked about Sachin’s last series which is going to start in a couple of days’ time, Virat said, “We will try to make sure that he gets a fantastic farewell. We will give our 100% to win those 2 games for him.”
Australia has defeated Scotland in the one off ODI played at Edinburgh yesterday. Australia won the match by a huge margin of 200 runs.
A large no. of spectators had turned up at Grange Cricket Club Ground to cheer for Scotland, but, they would have returned home disappointed as their team couldn’t even give Australia a run for their money. Continue reading AUSSIES BEAT SCOTLAND
Kevin Pietersen might not be able to feature for England in the third test match of the ongoing Ashes series because of the side strain that he picked up while fielding in the second test match at Lord’s.
Because of that injury, Pietersen didn’t take the field in Australia’s second innings.
There is a gap of 10 days between the second and the third test match and the England team management is hopeful that Pietersen will be able to recover in time.
In case Pietersen doesn’t get fit before the third test match, it’s James Taylor who is expected to replace him in the playing XI.
James Taylor had made his test debut last year against South Africa. He performed alright in a couple of test matches that he played, but, despite that, he got dropped for the next series.
But, with consistent performances in the domestic circuit, he is back in contention.
Taylor will also play for Sussex as a guest player in the upcoming practice match against the Australian team.
Talking to the reporters yesterday, the coach of the England test team, Andy Flower said, “We want to thank both Sussex and Nottinghamshire for allowing James to play in the warm up game against Australia. It will be a good opportunity for him to have some match practice as he might be needed for the third test.”
“Kevin’s fitness will be assessed after a few days and then, the decision will be taken whether he will play at Old Trafford or not.”
“He is one of our vital players and we desperately want him to be fit in time. Let’s see what happens.”
The warm up match between Australia and Sussex is going to start from Friday at County Ground, Hove.
Stuart Broad got two crucial wickets for England in the last match of the ODI series against New Zealand yesterday.
Broad had not played in the first two matches of the series because of his shin injury. He managed to recover in time for the third match.
Broad was given the new ball in the absence of James Anderson and he made the most of it.
He bowled with good pace and created problems for the Kiwi batsmen from his very first over. He could have got the wicket of Luke Ronchi on the second ball of his spell, but, Eoin Morgan at Backward point dropped an easy catch.
However, Broad eventually managed to dismiss Ronchi on the last ball of his third over. It was a quick, short pitched delivery which got big on Ronchi. The Kiwi wicketkeeper tried to pull it, but, ended up slicing it to mid on. Jonathan Trott didn’t make any mistake there.
Broad bowled only 4 overs in his opening spell in which he gave away 37 runs. He came back to bowl again in the 23rd over and he got a wicket in that spell too. He dismissed James Franklin at the score of 7.
It was a good length delivery which was going across Franklin. The tall leftie tried to punch it and got an outside edge. The ball flew to gully where the English skipper Alastair Cook had positioned himself. He took a sharp catch and Broad got his second wicket.
After Franklin’s dismissal, England’s victory was not looking far away. But, Ross Taylor played sensibly with the lower order batsmen and kept New Zealand in the game.
However, Taylor got out in the form of 9th wicket at the score of 71 and that was the final nail in the coffin.
Steven Finn dismissed the last man Mitchell McClenaghan in the 47th over and secured England’s win.