A weird question

Guys.. what if Ganguly is given one last chance to captain indian team in his last test ( 4th test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008) at Nagpur :) ?

Australia dominates India on day-4

Australia dominated India on day-4 of the 3rd test match of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008. Australia finished their first innings fo 577, 36 runs behind India's first innings total. Michael Clarke's timely innings with some support from Watson and White helped Australia to reduce India's first innings lead. Clarke was lucky to survive three times when he was on 21 and in 90s. He gave 3 simple catches to Ishant Sharma, Laxman and Amit Mishra. They missed thse catches and Clarke went on to score 112 before he was dismissed by Mishra. His knock was an absolute delight to watch. He was determined and timed his shots to perfection. His footwork was good. Clarke put on valuable partnerships with Watson and White.

Fielding mistakes by India, manily the simple catches, helped Australia to get into a safe position.
Sehwag picked his career best figures of 5-104. Harbhajan would have really enjoyed bowling on this pitch. Kumble finally got some wickets in this seris. He finished with 3-112. Amit Mishra took 2 wickets.

Australia put India under pressure by removing Sehwag and the nightwatchman Ishant Sharma early in India's 2nd innings. Brett Lee dismissed Sehwag for the second time in this match. Ishant Sharma was welcomed by a short pitch delivery. The ball hit his bat and was in air for sometime. Fortunately for him, the ball landed safely. But he was dismissed the next ball faced for a similar delivery off Stuart Clark by giving a simple catch to Ponting.

India's hopes of clinching the series by winning this match were destroyed by Australia. For India to win this test, they have to score quickly 2morrow morning and set a target of 250-300 in 30-35 overs before Australia and then bowl them out. I think it won't be possible without Bhajii :)...

Who wants to be Stanford's millionaire?

A Match can change their life.....Yes I'm talking about Stanford T20. After a lot of publicity and practice matches, the final showdown is here. The US $20 million match between England and Stanford Superstars is all set to begin on Saturday, 1st November.

The winner of the match takes all the money. The losing team gets nothing. The player who takes his team to victory will be a hero. If a player commits a mistake and if his team loses the match, everyone in the team has to suffer. And all of them see that player as villian who cost them $20 million.

This match is going to be an interesting one. But it won't at all do good for the game of cricket. There is a famous saying "Money is the root of all evil". And that's the case with these Twenty20's.

If Stanford really wants to help West Indies cricket why doesn't he directly involve with the board and give the money directly to the West Indies board.

Twenty-20 is for money, fun and excitement. Twenty-20 surely destroys the Test cricket. Test
cricket is the best form of the game and ICC must fo something to protect test cricket.

Everyone thinks Twenty-20 is always exciting, but unless you get a close match, games can be as uninteresting as in any other forms of cricket.

It's not new

for Sachin to break the records. He has done it again today. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar surpassed Lara's record of most test runs. His long wait has come to an end. He brought up the world record
with a glide of a full delivery off Peter Siddle on the first day of the second test against Australia at Mohali. Now he is the leading run scorer in both ODI and Test cricket. The Little Master holds several records to his name. Sachin will be there as long as cricket is there.
Congratulations Master Blaster.

First wicket is the best wicket

For many bowlers dismissing Sachin Tendulkar is a dream come true. But when a bowler gets Sachin Tendulkar as his first wicket in his career, his joy knows no bounds. The bowler will never forget that moment. 8 bowlers got the opprtunity of dismissing Sachin Tendulkar as their first test wicket.
Hansie Cronje(SA) in 1992-93, Ujesh Ranchod(Zim) in 1992-93, Ruwan Kalpage(SL) in 1993-94, Mark Ealham(ENG) in 1996, Neil Johnson(Zim) in 1998-99, Jacob Oram(NZ) in 2002-03, Monty Panesar(ENG) in 2005-06 and Cameron White(AUS) in 2008-09 got Sachin as their first test wicket. Hansie Cronje got the opportunity in his 2nd test where as the others in their debut matches.

First Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008 ends up in a draw

However it ended up in a draw, the first test match of Border-Gavaskar Trophy between Australia and India stood up to its hype. Ponting's decision to declare the innings, setting India the target of 299 in 83 overs, was brave and clever. Had Sehwag and Ghambir stayed at the crease, it would have been easy for the Indians to win the test. But the aggressive play from Austrlia helped them to get the wickets of Sehwag, Dravid and Ghambir. The hopes of India's win gone with the wickets of Sehwag and Ghambir as no other Indian batsmen can play as aggressive as the two openers. However Sachin scored quickly till Ghambir fell. He slowed down a bit when Laxman came into crease. It was this pair that saved the match for India. However Sachin fell for 49, 15 runs short to break Lara's record of most runs by a batsman in test cricket. Ganguly and Laxman stuck to the crease till the end without giving the Ausies a chance to get a wicket. The game called off with 10 more overs left. It was Australia who dominated throughout the test match. India fought hard to save the match. In India's point of view, it was Zaheer and Harbhajan, on day 3, who helped India to recover from a bad situation. Zaheer, Harbhajan, Tendulkar and Laxman saved the game for India. Zaheer was awarded the Man of the Match for his 6 wickets and a knock of 57* in the first innings.

The positives for Australia:
1. Ponting's record in India is poor. He came back well and scored a century. His come back made the team look strong.
2. Hussey's form.
3. Their fast bowlers performing well.

The positives for India:
1. Ishant and Zaheer bowling well. They have taken the 13 wickets out of 16 Ausies wickets.
2. The fab 4 seemed to be in good touch. Dravid and Ganguly's innings on the 2nd day and Tendulkar and Laxman's innings on the 5th day were important.

The negatives:
1. Spin bothering both the teams.
2. Kumble was wicketless in this match. Both Kumble and Harbhajan were not upto their mark. They have to perform in the next match.
3. Cameron White and Michael Clark could not trouble the Indian batsmen much.

Shortest Test Match

The shortest test match, with a result, in the history of cricket took place between Australia and South Africa. It was the final test of the 1931-32 series. South Africa scored 36, 45 in their first and second innings respectively. Australia(153) beat South Africa by an innings and 72 runs. The match lasted 109.2 overs. The next shortest test match was between West Indies and England in 1934-35. It lasted 112 overs.