Author Archives: Swati

Preview: India Vs Ireland

clip_image002Match Details

Group A | Match No 12

Date: Jun 10, 2009

Time: 10:00 PM IST

TV Coverage: On Star Cricket in India

Venue: Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Playing Conditions

Weather: High: 15°C, Low: 8°C, Mostly Cloudy, Humidity: 94%

Teams Form

In chronological order from left to right

India: LWLLW

India has already qualified for the Super8. Although there is no significance of this match on the rest of the tournament but India would not like to give away this match. They will be looking to try out the bench and also give some rest to the members who have recently recovered from an injury.

Ireland: WWWNW

Ireland has already qualified for the Super8 and they have nothing to lose in this match. They have not lost any T20 International matches that they have played so far. However, 138 is the highest total that they have managed in any T20. Playing against the world champions could be the real test of their skills.

Team News

India

Sehwag has been ruled out of the tournament due to a shoulder injury. Dinesh Kartik gets a chance to replace him. India would be missing Sehwag in the Super8 where it faces stiffer competition from West Indies, England and South Africa.

Gautam and Rohit have been handling their job well at the top of the order and Dhoni need not worry about that. The middle order could be one thing where Dhoni would be using his own ideas deciding who goes in to bat. I would personally like to see Yusuf Pathan getting a free license today to hit the balls out of the ground.

Ireland

The heroes of the match against Bangladesh – O’Brien brothers to hold the key to the team’s performance. Niall O’Brien scored 40 off 25 balls in the early part of the innings while Kevin O’Brien scored 39 off 17 in the end confirming the win against Bangladesh.

Possible Eleven

Looks like Zaheer will be asked to rest in this game. Sehwag has been ruled out of the tournament and it is less likely that Dinesh will be available for today’s match.

Dhoni might give chance to Ravindra Jadeja and might try to play with only one specialist spinner.

India

  1. Gautam Gambhir
  2. Rohit Sharma
  3. Suresh Raina
  4. Yuvraj Singh
  5. MS Dhoni (capt./wk)
  6. Yusuf Pathan
  7. Ravindra Jadeja
  8. Harbhajan Singh /Pragyan Ojha
  9. Irfan Pathan
  10. Praveen Kumar / R P Singh
  11. Ishant Sharma

ICC World Twenty20 Super8 [Schedule and Fixtures]

clip_image002Pakistan has managed to qualify for the Super8 after defeating Netherlands quite handsomely. The teams were to retain their seeding for the Super8s stage, irrespective of whether they finish first or second in their group. The fixture details of the Super8 stage are already very clear.

Just to remind you, the rule is that if any of the 3rd seeded team from a group qualifies for the Super8, it will get the seeding of the team that they knock out for the purpose of deciding the Super8 matches.

Thus, Ireland and West Indies now get seeding of Bangladesh and Australia respectively for deciding their matches for the Super8 stage.

The group wise team seeding now stands as given below:

GROUP A GROUP B GROUP C GROUP D
India – A1 Pakistan – B1 West Indies – C1 New Zealand – D1
Ireland – A2 England – B2 Sri Lanka – C2 South Africa – D2
Bangladesh Netherlands Australia Scotland

Super8 – Groups

GROUP E GROUP F
A1 B1
B2 A2
C1 C2
D2 D1

Schedule and fixtures for Super8

Super 8s GROUP E GROUP F
11 THU England vs South Africa

(B2 vs  D2)

10:00 PM IST

 New Zealand vs Ireland

(D1 vs  A2)

6:00 PM IST
12 FRI India vs West Indies

(A1 vs C1)

10:00 PM IST

 Pakistan vs Sri Lanka

(B1 vs  C2)

6:00 PM IST
13 SAT West Indies vs South Africa

(C1 vs  D2)

6:00 PM IST

 New Zealand vs Pakistan

(D1 vs  B1)

10:00 PM IST
14 SUN India vs England

(A1 vs B2)

10:00 PM IST

 Ireland vs Sri Lanka

(A2 vs  C2)

6:00 PM IST
15 MON England vs West Indies

(B2 vs  C1)
10:00 PM IST

 Pakistan vs Ireland

(B1 vs  A2)

6:00 PM IST
16 TUE India vs South Africa

(A1 vs D2)

10:00 PM IST

 NewZealand vs Sri Lanka

(D1 vs  C2)

6:00 PM IST
18 THU Semifinal – E1 vs F2
10:00 PM IST
19 FRI Semifinal F1 vs E2

10:00 PM IST 2030 hrs BST
21 SUN Final

7:30 PM IST

India’s Graphical Fantasy Cricket: Create your Dream 11 with Dream11.com

image For all you cricket enthusiasts… here’s your chance to choose your favorite cricketers, create your dream 11 and earn some points!

Dream11 Gaming Pvt Ltd recently launched Dream11.com – the first graphical fantasy cricket game in India,  conceptualized to provide cricket lovers with an exceptional fantasy cricket experience.

With the buzz around the T20 World Cup, you could make the most of cricket by creating your team of the cricketers you love from across the world and earn points depending on how those cricketers perform in real life matches.

Manage your virtual team with features like:

  1. Live scores
  2. News updates
  3. Player profiles
  4. Statistics
  5. Standings

Things you could do:

  • You could compete with other Dream11 users for the top position on the leader board
  • You could challenge competitors as well as connect with friends over cricket using
    • Dream11 Web Messenger
    • Scraps
    • Other community features, etc.
  • There will soon be tools available to customize and personalize content on the home page.

Harsh Jain, founder, chairman and managing director says,

“Fantasy Sports is a huge market globally and considering the packed upcoming cricket calendar, we believe that the time is just right for Indian audiences to connect with fantasy cricket. We assure our users of the best ever fantasy cricket interface and pledge our commitment to constantly innovate in this category.”

Link: dream11.com

How can Pakistan qualify for the Super8?

clip_image002The 8th team that will qualify for the Super8 will be either Pakistan or Netherlands. In case, Netherlands wins the match against Pakistan or the match ends in a Tie or No Result, Netherlands will qualify for the Super8.

However, in case Pakistan wins the match, there will be a three way tie between England, Pakistan and Netherlands. In such a situation, Netherlands can not improvise on its current net run rate of +0.05. Thus, England in a way would have already qualified for the Supr8.

The decision on which team out of Pakistan and Netherlands qualifies for the Super8 will depend on the net run rate of both the teams after the match.

Group B standings:

Have a look at the Group B standings for more clarity:

Group B

P

W

L

T

NR

PTS

NRR
B2 – England 2 1 1 0 0 2 +1.175
Netherlands 1 1 0 0 0 2 +0.050
B1 – Pakistan 1 0 1 0 0 0 -2.400

Net Run Rate

A team’s net run rate is calculated by deducting from the average runs per over scored by that team, the average runs per over scored against that team during the group matches.

If a team gets all out in less than its full quota of overs, the full quota of overs to which the batting team would have been entitled are used for calculating of the net run rate of both the teams and not the number of overs in which the team was dismissed.

Permutations for Pakistan

Now, let us try to see how Pakistan can beat Netherlands such that it ends up with a better net run rate than Netherlands, so as to qualify for the Super8.

Scenario 1: Pakistan bats first

Suppose Pakistan makes 180 runs in the allotted 20 overs. In that case, Pakistan should restrict Netherlands by 155. In short, what ever Pakistan scores, the margin of victory shall be more than 24 runs.

Scenario 2: Pakistan bowls first

Suppose Netherlands makes 180 runs in the allotted 20 overs. Pakistan would now need to make 181 runs in less than 17.2 overs.

In case Netherlands makes 150 runs in the allotted 20 overs. Pakistan would now need to make 151 runs in less than 17.0 overs.

Quick calculation:

If Y is the number of runs made by Netherlands in the first innings then Pakistan should make Y+1 runs in less than (2540 + 20Y) / (174+Y) overs

IND, IRE, WI, SL, NZ, SA and ENG reach Super 8: AUS out of the contest!

This seems like action packed thriller, so much happening at such a fast pace! India, Ireland, West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa have played only one match each but results of other matches have helped them secure their place in the Super8. No one would have predicted this, only eight matches have been played and seven teams have reached the Super8 stage. 🙂

The battle remains between Pakistan and Netherlands for the last spot…

Group standings

Before getting into the details, let us have a look at the group standings after the end of Australia vs. Sri Lanka match on June 8.

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Group A:

Bangladesh having lost both its game is out of the tournament, thus the other two teams from the group- India and Ireland have automatically qualified for the Super8.

Group B:

In case Pakistan beats Netherlands in the final match of the group, there will be a 3 way tie… but in no case Netherlands, even after losing to Pakistan, can improve their net rate. This means that England is safely into the Super 8.

The comparison of the NRR between Pakistan and Netherland will decide which team out of them qualifies for the Super8

In case, Netherlands beat Pakistan in the final match of the group, Netherlands will qualify to the Super8 along with England.

In case the match ends in a tie or as ‘No Result’, Ireland will end up topping the group with 3 points and will qualify for the Super8 along with England.

What ever the result of the match between Pakistan and Netherlands may be, England has definitely qualified for the Super8.

Group C:

Australia having lost both its games is out of the tournament, thus the other two teams from the group- West Indies and Sri Lanka have automatically qualified for the Super8.

Group D:

Scotland having lost both its game is out of the tournament, thus the other two teams from the group- New Zealand and South Africa have automatically qualified for the Super8.

Preview: India Vs Bangladesh

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Match Details

Group A | Match No 4

Date: June 6, 2009

Time: 10:30 PM IST

TV Coverage: On Star Cricket in India

Venue: Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Playing Conditions

Weather: High: 27°C, Low: 17°C, Partly Cloudy

Teams Form

In chronological order from left to right

India: WLWLL

Last two T20 Internationals that India played were against New Zealand and they lost both the matches. After a big win in the warm up match against Pakistan, India is looking good for this match.

Bangladesh: LLLLL

They scored 206 against Netherlands in the warm up match and Australia piled 219 against them in another match. Their batting looks good in patches but bowling is the weak link.

Team News

India

There is still uncertainty over fitness of Sehwag and Zaheer to be in the playing XI for today’s match.

Rohit Sharma has impressed everyone with his knock in the warm up matches replacing unfit Sehwag.

Bangladesh

Shakib Al Hasan shall be the key player to watch out for from the Bangladesh side. He gave a fighting performance against Australia in the warm up match.

Possible Eleven

India

  1. Gautam Gambhir
  2. Rohit Sharma
  3. Suresh Raina
  4. Yuvraj Singh
  5. MS Dhoni (capt./wk)
  6. Yusuf Pathan
  7. Ravindra Jadeja / R P Singh
  8. Harbhajan Singh
  9. Irfan Pathan
  10. Praveen Kumar
  11. Ishant Sharma

Bangladesh

  1. Tamim Iqbal
  2. Junaid Siddique
  3. Mohammad Ashraful (capt.)
  4. Shakib Al Hasan
  5. Mahmudullah
  6. Raqibul Hasan
  7. Mushfiqur Rahim
  8. Mashrafe Mortaza
  9. Rubel Hossain
  10. Shahadat Hossain / Naeem Islam
  11. Syed Rasel / Abdur Razzak

Can India Retain the World Cup?

clip-imageThis time when the Indian team starts its campaign in the World T20 Cup, there are two major differences more than any other.

First, the team looks stronger and better prepared for the shortest form of cricket.

Second, the expectations from the fans are way more than expected.

Given the balance and experience of the side, fans have all the rights to demand nothing less but retain the cup.

Pick any playing 11 out of the 15 member squad and you will have around 8 batsmen and 9 bowlers, courtesy – a big bunch of the all-rounders… A world class seam attack, superb spin attack, very successful part time spinners, a great opening pair, a solid middle order and a super cool minded captain!

If the trophy was to be given based on the cumulative talent of the players on papers, India would have already won it. J No doubt, they start the tournament as the favorites. With a very narrow margin loss to New Zealand and a huge win over Pakistan in the warm-up matches, India has announced that they are in England to win the title.

The line-up

Opening

Be it Shewag and Gambhir OR Rohit and Gambhir (in case Sehwag is not fit) both the pairs have the potential to make the opposite team’s captain run out of ideas. Gambhir got back his form in the match against Pakistan and Rohit looked good filling in Sehwag’s place in his absence during the warm-up matches.

Middle Order

Raina, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Yusuf

All of them are so good in hitting the ball outside the stadium and rotating the strike at almost every ball other than that. The middle order of the team is like a big fort wall and any team playing against India will have to work really hard on their strategy to stop them.

Batting Depth

Jadeja, Irfan, Zaheer and Harbhajan

Jadeja got some good practice in the warm-up match against New Zealand and has placed his candidature well to be in the playing eleven, but then who will sit out to give him space? Not at least in first few matches.

Spin Attack

Harbhajan and Ojha

Both are in good form and have the potential not to allow opposition take middle overs easily.

Pace Attack

Zaheer, Ishant, RP Singh, Praveen and Irfan

Ishant looked good on English pitches during the warm-up matches… good to see him getting over the IPL non-performance in a quick time. The only question that remains is who amongst these five will sit out from the playing eleven?

Part-time Bowlers

Yuvraj, Jadeja, Rohit, Raina, Sehwag and Yusuf

Plenty of options for Dhoni… he can comfortably use them to complete at least one bowler’s quota of 4 overs.

The overall balance of the side displays an immense talent and energy required to defend the title. But, the format of the tournament is such that a single ‘off’ day can put the team out of the contest.

Overall, it should be exciting to see how team India plays and progresses during the tournament to defend its title.

‘Catch the Spirit’ – WT20 India vs Pakistan warm-up match

clip_image002The International Cricket Council (ICC) has designated the World T20 2009 warm-up match between India and Pakistan as a ‘Catch the Spirit’ match. The match is scheduled to be played at the Oval on June 3 from 10:00 PM IST.

‘Catch the Spirit’ highlights the respect with which the game is played around the world and is one of the themes of the ICC’s ongoing centenary year of 2009.

As per ICC media release, the funds raised by this match will go to support the families of the victims of the attack on the Sri Lankan team and match officials in Lahore in March.

Though, complete details are still not available but the funds will be raised primarily through requests for contributions from spectators inside the ground, appeal for donations from the spectators outside the ground via television broadcasts and internet coverage of the match and contributions from other parties having direct or indirect interest in cricket.
This stands out as a testimony of a great spirit that sport events can show to support a noble cause. I wish all the success to the organizers and hope spectators and cricket stakeholders across the globe contributes wholeheartedly during the match.

The match will be broadcasted live in India on TV on Star Cricket.

The Indian Squad for WT 20

india-cricket-teamThe young Indian team with an average age of 24.6 years looks pretty balanced and much stronger than the team that won the last title.

The suspense around Zaheer’s fitness and availability still continues. In case he is not able to join the squad, he could be replaced with Ashish Nehra who did well at this IPL or perhaps Munaf Patel. If Nehra is included in the squad, it will be his first international match after 2005.

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Though Sehwag and Gambhir seemed a little out of touch during the IPL, but they need just one match to get back into the demolishing form again and promise a solid fort at the top of the order. Part time bowlers have proved that they are more than a utility option and with any combination from the playing eleven, Dhoni will have a choice of 9 players whom he can ask to bowl.

No doubt, the defending champions will start their campaign being the tournament’s favorite!

ICC World Twenty20 2009 Women’s Tournament [Schedule]

clip_image002The second edition of ICC World Twenty20 will feature two parallel tournaments – the women’s tournament featuring 8 teams and the men’s tournament featuring 12 teams.

The groupings and schedule of the women’s tournament is given below:

Group A Group B
Australia India
New Zealand England
West Indies Sri Lanka
South Africa Pakistan

Warm-up matches

JUNE 2009
08 MON NZ vs ENG
4:30 PM IST		 RSA vs SL
4:30 PM IST
08 MON AUS vs IND
8:30 PM IST		 WI vs PAK
8:30 PM IST
09 TUE RSA vs PAK
4:30 PM IST		 NZ vs IND
4:30 PM IST
09 TUE WI vs SL
8:30 PM IST		 ENG vs AUS
8:30 PM IST

Group Stage

JUNE 2009 GROUP A GROUP B
11 THU WI vs RSA
4:30 PM IST		 IND vs ENG
8:30 PM IST
12 FRI AUS vs NZ
4:30 PM IST		 PAK vs SL
8:30 PM IST
13 SAT WI vs NZ
4:30 PM IST		 IND vs PAK
8:30 PM IST
14 SUN AUS vs WI
4:30 PM IST		 ENG vs SL
8:30 PM IST
15 MON NZ vs RSA
4:30 PM IST		 IND vs SL
8:30 PM IST
16 TUE AUS vs RSA
4:30 PM IST		 ENG vs PAK
8:30 PM IST
18 THU

Women’s S/F – A1 v B2
5:30 PM IST
19 FRI

Women’s S/F – B1 v A2
5:30 PM IST
21 SUN

Women’s Final
3:00 PM IST

This is a welcome decision by ICC to hold Women’s T20 World Cup along with Men’s T20 World Cup as this will surely bring extra media attention and a definite boost to women’s cricket, the otherwise ignored aspect of international cricket.

With so many matches happening every day during the World Cup, it sure is going to be absolute delight for the cricket fans!