IPL8 – Chennai gets the better of Bangalore on their home ground

#IPL8 #SureshRaina #AshishNehra #CSKvsRCB #Bangalore It was another wonderful offering of T20 cricket on view at the Chinnasawmi Stadium in Bangalore when the Chennai Super Kings got the better of the Royal Challengers Bangalore by beating them by 27 runs. This has been reported in thehindu.com dated 23 April 2015.

Batting first, CSK posted a total of 181 runs with a huge contribution of Suresh Raina who belted 62 runs before holing out. Dwayne Smith and Faf du Plessis also contributed while captain M S Dhoni looked to be out of form. The aggressiveness he is known for in the death overs was missing. Among CSK batsmen, Brendon McCullum failed again as did Ravinder Jadeja.
However, with the never-say-die attitude one usually associates with CSK, they took to defending the apparently chaseable total. However, with Ashish Nehra in top form, RCB was denied the chance of tasting success at home ground from CSK. Nehra returned figures of 4 for 10 runs in his allotted 4 overs!! However, Suresh Raina was adjudged Man of the Match.
Captain Virat Kohli of RCB top scored with 54 and the whole team folded up for 154 runs – thus, CSK won by 27 runs.

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IPL8 – Mumbai Indians break the jinx with first win against Royal Challengers Bangalore

#IPL8 #RCBvsMI #harbhajansingh #rohitsharma Mumbai Indians finally broke the jinx and won their IPL8 encounter against Royal Challengers Bangalore to beat them on their home ground by 18 runs as reported in zeenews.india.com dated 20 April 2015.
This win came after four defeats and was a result of a dedicated approach to the game and posting an impressive total of 200 plus for the opposition.

RCB won the toss and sent in MI to bat first. Opening the MI innings, Lendl Simmons made 59 off 44 balls with the help of nine boundaries and two sixes, and Unmukt Chand smashed his way to 58 off just 37 balls which included eight fours and two hits over the fence.
Then skipper Rohit Sharma contributed with a 15-ball 42-run cameo to help Mumbai's cause. He hit three fours and four huge sixes. And, towards the end, young Hardik Pandya played an unbeaten 16 runs off just six deliveries for Mumbai. The final total of 209 was too much for RCB and, with Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli failing to deliver, the RCB had to face defeat on home ground.
Harbhajan Singh took 3 wickets for 27 runs was the Man of the Match.

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IPL8 – Royal Challengers drubbed in home ground, had no answer to Sun Risers

#IPL8 #RCBvsSRH #ChinnaswamyStadium #TrentBoult #chrisgayle This match did not go own to the wire, neither did it have a nail biting finish – it finished in the 18th over. It was a case of abject surrender of Royal Challengers Bangalore to Sun Risers Hyderabad in their IPL8 encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Or - was it a case of over confidence of the Royal Challengers?
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 14 April 2015.

Winning the toss, Sun Risers Hyderabad opted to field first and the Royal Challengers Bangalore began batting with two stalwarts Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle but, neither could fire as they would have desired.
AB de Villiers hit a useful 28-ball 46 while Virat Kohli chipped in with a 37-ball 41 and Chris Gayle scored a 16-ball 21 as RCB folded up with a score of just 166 runs which was not enough.
Trent Boult of SRH picked up three wickets in the last but one over and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up two wickets in the last over.
Sun Risers Hyderabad chased down the 167-run target quite easily in 17.2 overs with Warner slamming a 27-ball 57-run knock that was studded with six fours and four sixes.

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India opens 2015 Cricket World Cup journey with a win over arch rivals Pakistan

#2015cricketworldcup #IndVsPak #adelaideoval It was a memorable Sunday in Adelaide when India opened its 2015 Cricket World Cup journey with an emphatic win over arch rivals Pakistan. It was the 6th time that the two had met in World Cup matches and Pakistan lost all six times as reported in ibnlive.in.com dated 15 February 2015.
From the word go, the Indians showed that in spite of recent failures with the bat and the ball, they had brushed all past failures and emerged with more determination to do better and prove their worth.
After all, India are the defending champions and played like champions in spite of not having among them stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. This was a match in which the top order fired and helped India put up a score of 300 which turned out to be a tough one for Pakistan who lost by 76 runs.
The plus point of the match was the 107 scored by Virat Kohli who was adjudged Man of the Match – in doing so, he beat the record set by Sachin Tendulkar of the highest number of runs posted by an Indian against Pakistan in the World Cup. India will now take on South Africa next Sunday and let us hope that also turns out to be another memorable match.

India lose in Brisbane – beaten hollow by England in Carlton Mid tri-series ODI

#INDvsENG #carltonmidtriseries #gabba #2015CricketWorldCup It was yet another collapse of India at the Gabba in Brisbane when England beat them hollow by 9 wickets to earn a bonus point in the Carlton Mid tri-series. It was England’s biggest win against India. One wonders why the captain opted to go in for batting after winning the toss when it is a fact that Indians are good at chasing targets instead of setting targets.
The poor form at the top order continued with Shikhar Dhawan raising doubts of whether he would find a place in the playing eleven of the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Virat Kohli, India’s test captain failed yet again and this was strange.
As to Suresh Raina, he wanted to blast off from the word go to prove a point that he had arrived but was stumped – he had gone way outside his crease and committed suicide.
Captain M S Dhoni with Stuart Binny tried to mend the innings but could not and India crumbled to end at 153 runs – it was at least 100 runs short – and could not even complete the quota of 50 overs and finished in 39.3 overs. This score of 153 was their lowest ever ODI score against England – the previous low was 158 at Headingley in 1996.
Such display of attitude and irresponsible play is not what India would have wanted as the World Cup draws near and it would require complete attention of the captain, the team manager as well as the director to work out better strategies.

Go India, go – win the 5th Test match at Sydney and show your mettle

#SydneyTest #Kohli At the end of the 4th day, Australia has a huge lead of 348 runs and, if they decide to let the Indians have a go at scoring 349 runs on the last day, it would be a fantastic 5th day. Cricket Test matches spilling over to the 5th day is gradually becoming a regular feature unlike the times when it would finish on the 3rd day itself.
Actually, Indians have only themselves to blame for allowing the Aussies to have plundered runs in the last session of the 4th day and it is now up to the batsmen to make a match of it.
There would be 90 overs on the 5th and last day and a score of 349 would mean scoring around 4 runs per over – with our boys tuned to the ODI and T20 formats, such a task should be an easy one because they are accustomed to scoring at even 6 and 7 runs per over if needed.
Hence, Virat Kohli should take the field with a positive frame of mind and tell his boys – we can do it. Take it session by session and keep gnawing away at the target. Keep whittling it down and watch the Aussies fuming and fretting.
Let us not keep it to the end for R Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to come to the rescue but the top order should play out of their skins and win the 5th match. They are the batsmen and must deliver and not leave the task to tailenders. When the tail wags, it looks good but that does not always happen.

Virat Kohli has arrived but India lose 1st test match of the series in Adelaide

Virat Kohli has arrived in the test cricket scene with a bang – with a hundred plus in each innings, he matched Greg Chappell's feat of scoring twin hundreds in a Test in his first match as captain. The Australian had achieved it against the West Indies in 1975-76 at Brisbane.
Kohli became only the second player in Test history to score a century in both innings on his debut as captain but his effort went in vain because of the shocking display of inept performance by his other batting colleagues, who seemed bent on committing suicide.
India could have won the 1st test match of the current series in Adelaide, but the Gods willed otherwise – it was Aussie off-spinner Nathan Lyon who upset the applecart and spoiled the show for India.
Lyon was, undoubtedly, the pick of the Australian bowler as he kept on exploiting the rough on the track to good effect to finish with figures for 7/152 for an overall haul of 12 wickets in the match. He was adjudged Man of the Match for his superlative effort.
It was a match that went on till the last day and, if only the tail enders had kept their cool, the result would have been in India’s favor.

BCCI announces Indian team for 2015 cricket World Cup

BCCI has announced a team consisting of 30 players for the 2015 World Cup to be played in another 71-days’ time in Australia but big names like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh are not in the list.
The decision was taken by the five-member selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil and they chose to leave the heroes of World Cup 2011 from the squad in spite of their past laurels.
Commenting on the selection, former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar remarked that the omitted seniors had not performed in domestic circuit and therefore, could have hardly made their case. He has added that the game has become faster and a team cannot afford to take passengers.
The only players carried forward from the 2011 World Cup are MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin. The focus is obviously on youth.
Remaining players are new to the huge stage of the World Cup but, that should not be much of a problem because they have experience of playing in the IPL at home.
It is understood that the final 15-member squad should be announced latest by January 7 - the World Cup starts from February 14.

BCCI announces that Virat Kohli will lead India in 1st test against Australia

India’s star batsman Virat Kohli is on a high – he has scored the fastest 6000 runs in ODI and eclipsed the record set by Vivian Richards who had scored 6000 runs in 141 innings while Kohli did it in 135 innings.
Incidentally, Anushka Sharma was present in the stands and Kohli blew her a flying kiss on achieving the record – her name has been linked with Kohli and the Bollywood actress is believed to be his lady love.
Kohli has also reason to celebrate because he would continue to captain India in the remaining two ODIs and also be at the helm for the 1st test in Australia since the regular captain M S Dhoni is not well – he has suffered from an injury to his forearm and, hence, would miss the first Test against Australia. However, he will lead the squad in the rest of the series against Australia.
The Indian team would leave for Australia on November 21 and are scheduled to play a four-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from December 4, 2014 to January 7, 2015. The Test matches would be held at Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
The Border-Gavaskar trophy is played between Australia and India and was started in 1996 in honor of the two cricketing greats of Australia and India namely Alan Border and Sunil Gavaskar. Before the start of this trophy, the two countries had played each other 50 times in Tests in a 49 year period from 1947 to 1996.
Incidentally, the Border-Gavaskar trophy began in 1996–97 with a one-off Test that was captained by Sachin Tendulkar – it was played at Feroz Shah Kotla Ground in Delhi.

India seal Sri Lanka ODI series at Hyderabad – thanks to Dhawan and Umesh

As one of the commentators has said – Sri Lanka won all three tosses but not any of the ODI matches. It was a reflection on the non-performance of the top order batsmen who appeared to be struggling to get bat to ball.
Shikhar Dhawan has missed a century by 9 runs and has not only scored 283 runs from three games in the series but has led India's batting effort in the series, and his return to form is a positive sign ahead of a grueling tour of Australia and the World Cup.
Sri Lanka won the toss at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad and chose to bat but Umesh Yadav foiled their plans with two quick wickets – he removed opener Kusal Pereira with the last ball of his first over and then in the first ball of his second, he sent Kumar Sangakkara for a duck. However, Mahela Jayawardene’s century saved them the blushes and allowed them to post a score of 242 which was insufficient.
With this knock, Mahela also crossed 12,000 ODI runs. He and Dilshan put on a 105-runs partnership but much more was needed.
This home series would help the probable squad to get match practice and Virat Kohli, as captain, has shown that he has the capability to handle situations. Of course, noting drastic happened and it has been plain sailing till now. With two more matches to go and with Virat Kohli determined to make it a 5-0 series win, one only hopes that the Indian team is not peaking too early. The road to the 2015 World Cup trophy is a long one, that too away from home.

Cuttack cuts Sri Lanka down to size – visitors beaten by Virat Kohli & Co

It was a literal run feast in the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack as India beat Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 169 runs to take a lead in the 5-match ODI series timesofindia.indiatimes.com. With the Indian openers scoring centuries each and with Ishaant Sharma’s haul of four wickets, the visitors had no answer to the Indians. They could not bat beyond 40 overs and were all out for 194 runs.
The Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane scored 113 and 111 runs respectively and set up 231 runs for the first wicket stand which helped the remaining batsmen to pile up the miseries on the Sri Lankans.
Moreover, the pace bowlers ensured that the advantage was never frittered away and captain Virat Kohli was a happy captain.
The sudden void created by the West Indies pulling out of their scheduled tour of India due to a dispute with their Cricket Board, Sri Lanka seized the opportunity given by the BCCI to get some much needed match practice before the 2015 Cricket World Cup. They also had to groom new players because some of the Sri Lankans stalwarts were aging and replacements were necessary – such newcomers needed to acclimatize with cricket on the international arena. And – what better to do so other than playing with their neighbors who are loaded with talent.
This sudden change of itinerary helped M S Dhoni to get some rest and also allowed Virat Kohli to step out in the role of the captain for the first three ODIs.