Category Archives: Series

ICC World Twenty20: India reaches the Semifinals!

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Now, that is one heading I really wanted to write a post with… but Indian team’s performance in the Super8 let me down.

Nevertheless, the Indian team in Women’s T20 WC has given me this chance… 🙂

If you were busy following the men’s tournament and did not get a chance to check out what was happening in Women’s T20, here is an update.

Indian Women’s Team defeated Pakistan and Sri Lanka in their group matches to reach to the Semifinal stage. The other three teams that qualify for the Semi finals are England, New Zealand and Australia.

A Quick Re-cap

Indian Women’s Team was placed in Group B along with England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Match 1

  • England Women vs India Women at Taunton – Jun 11, 2009
  • England Women won by 10 wickets (with 26 balls remaining)
  • India Women 112/8 (20/20 ov); England Women 113/0 (15.4/20 ov)

Match 2

  • India Women vs Pakistan Women at Taunton – Jun 13, 2009
  • India Women won by 5 wickets (with 14 balls remaining)
  • Pakistan Women 75 (19.5/20 ov); India Women 78/5 (17.4/20 ov)

Match 3

  • India Women v Sri Lanka Women at Taunton – Jun 15, 2009
  • India Women won by 5 wickets (with 7 balls remaining)
  • Sri Lanka Women 94/6 (18/18 ov); India Women 95/5 (16.5/18 ov)

Indian Women’s Team ended up second in their group after England (who won all the matches they played). India women now plays against New Zealand women, the unbeaten from group A, in the first Semi Final match on the 18th.

Fixtures

Day Time Match Venue Forecast
Thu Jun 18 5:30 PM IST 1st Semi-Final
India Women vs New Zealand Women		 Trent Bridge Cloudy
Fri Jun 19 5:30 PM IST 2nd Semi-Final
England Women vs Australia Women		 Oval Mostly Sunny

The matches will be played on the same venue for Men’s Semifinal before their matches and will be telecasted live on TV.

ICC World Twenty20 Super8: The Semifinal Line-up

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With India losing to South Africa last night, the Super8 stage is over.

Three big teams- India (who started the tournament as the favorites), England (the host nation) and New Zealand (the only one team that Indians have never been able to defeat in T20) along with Ireland (the “nothing to lose” team) pack their bags to say goodbye to the biggest tournament of the shortest form of cricket.

South Africa and Sri Lanka enter the Semifinals unbeaten, as we look forward to a final match clash.

Pakistan and West Indies have shown some real good cricket in last two weeks to make it to the semifinal stage. The stage is all set for some exciting cricket in the coming days.

From here on, it narrows down to just two more wins in the coming matches for any of these teams to win the title.

Fixtures

Day Time Match Venue Forecast
Thu Jun 18 10:00 PM IST 1st Semi-Final
Pakistan vs South Africa		 Trent Bridge Cloudy
Fri Jun 19 10:00 PM IST 2nd Semi-Final
Sri Lanka vs West Indies		 Oval Mostly Sunny

Enjoy!

Preview: India Vs West Indies

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Match Details

Group E| Super 8

Date: June 12, 2009

Time: 10:00 PM IST

TV Coverage: On Star Cricket in India

Venue: Lord’s, London

Playing Conditions

Weather: High: 19°C, Low: 11°C, Partly Cloudy, Mostly Bright, Humidity: 52%

Teams Form

In chronological order from left to right

India: WLLWW

India registered comfortable wins against Bangladesh and Ireland at the group stage but today is the big first test of the tournament for them. With Zaheer coming back to the form, Indian team looks very complete and the formidable batting order adds on to opposition’s worry.

West Indies: WLWWL

West Indies is as predictable as ever in the recent times. If it is Gayle’s day, he can win any match on its own. Bravo had a good time in the IPL and is capable of playing winning knocks.

Team News

India

Rohit has filled in Sehwag’s place pretty nicely and there seems to be no problems as such at the top of the order. Dhoni continues to stick to the 3rd position to play an anchor’s role, while others to follow him can hit big boundaries.

There have been ups and downs with the Indian fielding. Dhoni has shown his concerns in this area and scope of improvements. Bowling in the death overs is again an area where Dhoni needs to give a serious thought.

West Indies

Gayle is slotted to be back in the team in today’s match after he missed out playing against Sri Lanka.

Lendl Simmons, who was included as Gayle’s replacement, impressed all with his bowling and batting against Sri Lanka. Team management would like to keep him in the playing eleven in today’s match.

Possible Eleven

Looks like Dhoni will stick to the team that won both the group matches. Though Irfan Pathan looks like a weak link in the bowling attack but his ability to score quick runs in the death overs brings in good balance to the team.

India

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

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

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!