Chances of each team for World cup Cricket 2011

The stage is all set for the biggest contest of modern cricket and the countdown has already begun. ICC Cricket World Cup is to begin on the 19^th of February, 2011, hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Earlier, Pakistan was to co-host the tournament; however, thanks to an attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket team in 2009, they lost their rights.

Below are the fourteen teams fighting for the cup, divided into two broad groups. Both the groups are to have their individual league matches, where each team would have to play versus each other. The top four teams based on points awarded or in case tied based on their Net Run Rate, would proceed to the next round i.e. Quarter Finals.

Here on, the knock-out begins and it would drill down to the Last Men standing. 

A prediction in terms of who can win might be a tough job as the teams have evolved over the past four years and quite a few of them have started to make good progress. Let’s take an analytical crack at this.

Group A League Matches: 
Undoubtedly, Australia would be the hot favorites but might end up taking the second and third slot considering the fact that they don’t play as well on the sub-continental pitches as they do outside. However, Sri Lanka should come out victorious in the league table, definitely because they have five home matches out of the six that they are supposed to play.

Pakistan should either trail Sri Lanka or Australia with some of the key players back to their squad. They have a nice blend of youth and experience on their side which might come in handy on the sub continental turfs.  The Kiwis however can be very unpredictable and on a given day can beat any team in the world. They should end up third or fourth on the chart.

Kenya has been a developing team for quite a while and have shown occasional sparks but their performance have not yet established a strong belief in the mind of cricket followers. The same can be stated about Zimbabwe. However, to infer, both the teams don’t have enough fuel to outclass teams like Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand. Canada is still an amateur in this sport. They should be happy to win a match or two on a good day.

Group B League Matches: 
This is the Group of Death. Other than Netherlands and Ireland, all other teams are capable of making it through to the Quarters.

India has quite a few players capable of single-handedly butchering the opposition. Home advantage alone can play a big role in their success story.  Also, unarguably, the best batsman in the world, Sachin Tendulkar would be creating history playing the sixth World Cup. His inclusion in itself is a massive confidence boost.

The South African side has been phenomenal in terms of adapting to various playing conditions. They seem to have what it takes to win the cup, leave aside their chance of making it through to the Quarter Finals. A lot of their players have been playing in the Indian Premier League giving them a lot of comfort.

Bangladesh and West Indies are highly unpredictable in terms of their approach but I would like to keep Bangladesh ahead of West Indies due to their home advantage. They have a lot to play for and history suggests that they are capable of making huge upsets.

The English team is quite unstable and is capable of losing matches from winning situations. However, it’s hard to rule them out as well. They have quite a few match winners in Kevin Peterson, Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood. However, their strong swing attack might find it tough to adjust.

Possibilities and probabilities might be endless but, what all should be looking at is a competitive series and not something like the previous one.

A great year for cricket

The year 2008 will be remembered in cricket history forever... 2008 is the beginning of the end of an era of Australia's domination in the world cricket. 2008 brought a new life to test cricket. India and South Africa are the stars in 2008. Both these teams are the strong contenders for the top spot in test cricket.

IPL was a great success... "We don't even watch one day cricket...then how can we watch test cricket....the future is Twenty20 cricket's"....This is what we have been hearing recently...All the cricket fans, former players, cricket analysts.....everyone who is attached to cricket have been saying just one thing..."Test cricket is in danger"...

But the two test match results, at the end of 2008, in a span of a week gave a new life to test cricket....one is the first test between India and England Chennai in December, and the second one is the first test between Australia and South Africa at Perth in December...And also out of 46 test matches that took place in 2008, 35 matches got the results which shows that test cricket has gained some speed.

And the year ended on Australia losing a test series to South Africa, at home, after 16 years..

The performances of teams in 2008.

India: No doubt 2008 will remain as a wonderful year in India cricket. Dhoni took on the test captaincy and now he is the captain of team India in all formats of the game. There are so many unforgettable moments like test series win against Australia in India, CB series win, test and ODI series win against England, IPL etc.. Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Zaheer, Ishant, Harbhajan and Dhoni's captaincy took India to great heights.. Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar and Laxman crossed 1000 runs in tests in a calender year..The year marked the end of an era with Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble bidding adieu to international cricket.

South Africa: South Africa is on a roll under Smith's captaincy. SA won 11 of their 15 test matches played in 2008. SA has been very consistent in all the formats of the game. Smith is the leading run scorer in tests in 2008 with 1656 runs in 15 test matches. Amla also crossed 100 runs in tests in 2008. Steyn is the leading wicket taker in tests in 2008. SA has got a new talent in the form of Duminy. De Villiers has been in good touch..If they continue this form, they will surely be No.1 in all formats..

Australia: 2008 is the year Australia don't want to remember. 2008 marked the end of an era of Australia's dominance. Australia's great wicket-keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist retired in 2008 after CB series. The effect of the retirement of McGrath and Warne was completely visible on the team's performance. Australia lost to India and SA in successive test series at the end of the year. The form of their top order batsmen like Hayden, Ponting and Hussey has been their main concern. Bowling department is also looking weak with no one, except Johnson, performing well. Retaining Ashes is their main focus in 2009.

Sri Lanka: Mendis is SL's new weapon. Asia cup win was their biggest win in 2008. The team was not up to the mark in a series with Zimbabwe. With Mendis and Murlai in the bowling department, and Jayawardena, Sangakkara, Dilshan in batting department, SL looks ahead for a great future.

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming retired after the test match against England in Napier. Except Vettori and McCullum no other player performed well for New Zealand. New Zealand has many new players. It will take a little time before they all adjust. NZ got mixed results in 2008.

England: After England lost the four match series against South Africa, captain Michael Vaughan stepped down from the captaincy. England appointed Kevin Pietersen as their new captain. England's whole concentration has been on Ashes. England won the hearts of many people by coming to India and play the test series after Mumbai blasts. Pietersen was their star in 2008 with Flintoff, Strauss, Collingwood performing consistently. Stuart Broad is a rising talent. England's bowling department is also good with Sidebottom, Anderson and Harmison.

West Indies: The form of West Indies was very bad. They won only one test match in 2008. The team depends a lot on Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul.

Pakistan: 2008 is a worst year in Pakistan's cricket. Pak did not played even a single test. They played some ODIs and won many matches but all of them came against weak teams. Pak is pleading other teams to come and play in Pak. Neutral venues seems to be the only option for Pakistan. Pakistan's great player Mohammad Yousuf joined ICL. It was a big shock to Pak. Aisf was accused of using drugs in IPL and banned from all formats of cricket.

Bangladesh: Bangladesh cricket was under shock when 14 of their cricketers joined ICL. But with many other youngsters like Shakib-ul-Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mortaza, the team performed well under the captaincy of Ashraful. But the results were not satisfying. On a whole, their performance improved a little bit.

Smith, Sehwag, Gambhir, Steyn and Mendis were the stars of 2008.

Hoping for a much more exciting cricket in 2009...

Badshahs take revenge on Heroes

What an excellent innings from Imran Nazir...

I expected this match to be interesing as in the 2nd fianl, but Nazir made it look one-sided. He took Badshahs to a comfortable 8-wicket win in the 3rd final of best of 3 finals to win this season's ICL title. He blasted a sparkling 44-ball 111 with 7-4s and 11-6s.

Hyderabad Heroes couldn't retain their championship. After losing the first final, Heroes came back strongly and won the 2nd final with plenty of drama to make it to the third final. Both the finals were a bit close.

Badshahs won the first match by 4 wickets after they were asked to chase 170. The 2nd one very close match. Defending 158, Heroes did well to win the match by taking wickets at regular intervals. But Sami and Saqlain batted well and were looking to take the match away from Heroes. But a stunning catch from Kemp sent Sami back to the pavilion. But even after all the umpires gave it out, Badshahs were not happy and play was stopped for sometime, and finally they agreed. Run-out of Saqlain in the last over ended Badshahs chase and Heroes won the match by 8 runs.

Rana Naved was the man of the series for his all round performance in the tournament. He was the the highest wicket taker of the tournament with 22 from 11 matches and also scored 189 runs from 11 matchs with an average of 27.00 with 2 fifties.

ICL has been a success with almost 90% of the stadiums filling up. With this success they move on to the next tournament ICL 20s World Series. ICL 20s World Series will start on Nov 23rd which features the teams ICL India, ICL Pakistan, ICL Bangladesh, and ICL World. Each team will play a match against the other 3 teams and the final will take place between the top 2 teams on 29th November.

It will be much more interesting.....

Cricket-Past, Present and Future

Cricket is one of the greatest games ever played. It is a mind game than body. Going back to the past, it was a game played by a minimum number of nations, but as time passed on, the game raised interest in the hearts of millions. The number of cricket playing nations have increased over time.

Cricket was discovered in England and the only countries which played it initially were England and Australia. Then the countries South Africa, West Indies, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Srilanka and Bangladesh have joined the list. Now cricket is played in more than 100 countries. It all started with test matches which do not have a limit on time. Then the time was limited to 5 days and later the limited overs game was established which are the one-dayer. The one-day matches were initially 60 overs but were later reduced to 50 overs. Now the new format of the game is established which are the 20-20's. This was introduced in England to provide the tired workers with some evening entertainment and it proved prosperous. Thus the unlimited time matches has reduced to a very much limited time. And what might be the future. It might even reduce to 10 overs.

In the past cricket was even seen with pride ,but now its been a business with a lot of sponserships, telecasting rights and even high amount of betting. The players are giving top priority to money than game. Now by introducing different leagues like IPL,ICL and the Champions league which are drawing more crowds, the number of one-days and tests played will get down. Even the players are giving priority to the leagues than playing to their country. Many players already said that Test matches are no more interesting. The interest in test cricket has gone down. The stadium in India which are always seen filled up are now seen empty during the test matches between India and Australia. Even the 50-50 format is slowly loosing its grip. ICC is taking care to limit the number of 20-20 played every year. But this cannot avoid the fact that other formats of the game are dipping. The future might well give way to short time matches like the 20-20 where the importance of class-play is minimum. The test matches might not be eradicated but might loose their importance.

What a day

for Bangladesh, especially Shakib Al Hasan and India, especially Ganguly.

Shakib Al Hasan ripped through New Zealand to boost Bangladesh on the second day of the first of 2 tests against New Zealand. A six-wicket haul from the left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan allowed Bangladesh to make an impressive start to their test match against New Zealand today. He took six for 32 from 24 overs at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium to make New Zealand struggling at 155/9 at stumps on day 2 after they bowled out Bangladesh for 245. New Zealand pinned their hopes on Oram , McCullum when they were 57/4 at tea. But both these players got out looking to play big shots. Vettori is batting on 48 and they still trail by 90 runs.

India had an excellent day at Mohali they could be proud of. Brilliant performances from the captain MS Dhoni(92) and Sourav Ganguly(102) took India to a good total of 469. Dhoni was a little unlucky to be given out. He deserved a century. Dhoni played his natural game after a long time. Dhoni played agressively and carried the momentum set by Sachin Tendulkar. It was nice to see him playing this way. Ganguly makes his last test series a sweet one with his hundred in the first innings of the second test and a good performance in the first test. He was cool and confident throughout his innings and did not play a too many unnecessary shots. He constructed his innings with ease.

Here is what Ganguly has got to say after the day's play "This will be my last series, I will not reconsider coming back (smiles). It's been a fantastic batting quartet. Our overseas performances have improved over the last few years. I knew I wasn't going to be selected any more"

Zaheer Khan got the early breakthrough by removing Hayden for 0. It's Zaheer Vs Hayden now after Harbhajan Vs Ponting. Zaheer gets Hayden three times in a row in this series. Debutant Amit Mishra took 2 wickets. Australia is 102/4 at the end of day2. The day completely belongs to India. Australia keeps its hopes on Hussey.

New Zealand struggles

New Zealand is struggling on 57/4 at tea on day-2 in the first test against Bangladesh. All the 4 wickets have fallen to the spinners. Shakib Al Hasan takes 3 wickets. McCullum and Flynn are at the crease. Can McCullum play a long innings to get his team to a comfortable position? A lot depends on McCullum, Oram and Vettori.

India heading towards a big total

A good knock of 88 by Sachin, a brilliant unbeaten 91 by Ganguly and an entertaining knock of unbeaten 45 by Dhoni ensured India a big total in their first Innings in the second test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008 against Australia. India is 401/6 at lunch. Ganguly is well set to score a century. I think Australians missed a trick while bowling to Ganguly. There were only a few short balls bowled to him.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh 245 all out in their first Innings against New Zealand...and NZ is 8/0 in 3 overs.

India ends the day on a high note

Well, first day of the 2nd test between India and Australia saw some milestones. Sachin beat the Lara's record of most test runs, Sachin corssed 12000 test runs, Ganguly crossed 7000 test runs. But one sad thing is Sachin Tendulkar once again missed a well deserved century. His partnership of 142 runs with Ganguly took his team to a comfortable position. Ganguly scored a half century and is looking strong and confident.
Sachin, after the stumps on day 1, says " When I got out in Bangalore a few guys made it a point to remind me about the record. I knew I had done a good job there and that was important. My focus today was just to watch the ball. The journey over the last 19 yrs has been fantastic. There are stones thrown at you and you turn it in to milestones. I was not that excited to be honest. The focus was to continue and not lose concentration. Me and Sourav focussed on batting out the day. I didn't really think of the record too many times. I try to keep the records out of my mind and my aim is mainly to contribute. It's nice that it's come at the right time, the Australians are a quality opposition. I planned to stay till the end but it didn't happen. I thought i didn't use my feet well but that's the beauty of the game. The ball changes and so does the game." India end's the day with 311/5.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh recovered an initial setback by New Zealand and ends the day with 183/4. Bangladesh's batsmen Mehrab Hossain and Mushfiqur Rahim played well and made an unbeaten partnership of 139 runs.

India makes a flying start

In the absence of Anil Kumble, Dhoni came out for the toss and he won it. He decided to bat in the second test against Australia at Mohali. Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Ghambr made a flying start before Sehwag departed for 36. They made 70 runs for the first wicket. Dravid joined Ghambir after Sehwag was out. Ghambir made a half century to take India to 104/1 at lunch. Ghambir is on 53 and Dravid is on 11 at lunch.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh is 34/1 , in 32 overs, against New Zealand at lunch on day-1.