Pakistan v South Africa T20 series preview

There will be plenty of subplots when Pakistan and South Africa take the field in the first of two Twenty20 matches in Abu Dhabi. Some eyes will be on Graeme Smith to see how he handles being back in the ranks after resigning the captaincy in this format, others will be on the form of players in coloured clothing as the World Cup approaches, but most will be on Pakistan as they begin life after the controversial tour of England.

The match-fixing saga continues to hang over Pakistan cricket, with the news that Mohammad Asif has dropped his appeal against his suspension dominating the build-up to what should be an interesting contest.

Its more immediate effect was shown in England, when the Pakistan squad bounced back to take a five-match ODI series to a decider. If that siege mentality is maintained, then the Proteas might struggle in conditions that suit the 2009 World Twenty20 champions more.

This increased determination to succeed is offset by the loss of Asif, Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir, three first choice players who are hard to replace in any format. The emergence of Asad Shafiq in England will soften the blow of Butt’s absence and it is likely to be trial by spin for South Africa, with major roles expected for Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman and captain Shahid Afridi.

United Arab Emirates is Pakistan’s home venue nowadays, but Abu Dhabi is not a fortress for them. They have played 14 ODIs at the Sheikh Zayed stadium, winning eight and lost both their series at the venue last year, against Australia and New Zealand by a 2-1 scoreline. This is their first Twenty20 match at the ground.

South Africa have won all four Twenty20 matches since the world event in the Caribbean, albeit against West Indies and Zimbabwe, but this will be a stern test for a team in transition under the guidance of new captain Johan Botha. A win apiece would perhaps be an outcome that both teams would settle for.

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.

Boom Boom Afridi

Shahid Afridi is known for hitting cricket balls out of the ground with ease. But he has been more of a bowler in recent times and failed miserably with the bat. It wasn't the one we know. And the one we know is back with a bang with 2 superb centuries in Asia Cup. He struck 109 off 76 balls that included 8 fours and 7 sixes, against Sri Lanka in Asia Cup 2010. And today he scored another blitzering knock of 124 from just 60 balls against Bangladesh that included 17 fours and 4 sixes. And what's more, it was the sixth fastest ODI century and the quickest one in Asia Cup. I've not seen any of these innings, but I can say that Afridi is back.

Afridi has shown interest in leading his team in international cricket. He got a chance to lead Pakistan in T20 world cup earlier this year in England. And he was made captain for all formats of the game.

Do you think captaincy(responsibility) changed his game? Can Afridi fire against England and Australia?

Last few days

1. Yuvraj Singh climbing up the ODI rankings list....can he reach No.1 spot?
2. Lol at the pilot who halted the play at domestic cricket game in India by landing the helicopter on the cricket pitch thinking it is a landing pad...
3. Team India unveiled a new jersey...btw it sucks..
4. Afridi not in the test squad against Sri Lanka... the end of Afridi?...not a good year for him..
5. Jayawardena scored a double century against 'Pakistan'....back to form?
6. England humiliated once again by West Indies....what a shame..
7. Ponting decided not to play in IPL this season...Are you feeling happy KKR?
8. Steve Bucknor announced his retirement :)
9. Azharuddin starts his second innings as a politician....all the best Azhu Bhai
   
10. Take a bow Adam Vogues ...
    

PS: Congrats A R Rehman and the "Slumdog Millionaire" team

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...

Day/Night test cricket

Wouldn't it be fun to watch the final hours of test cricket at night after coming home from work.

Keeping in mind the amount of damage T20 is causing to Test Cricket and as popularity of test cricket is decreasing among spectators , it seems to be a better idea to implement day/night test cricket.

Cricket Australia has been very keen to introduce the day and night tests. But the major problem in this kind of tests is to find a ball that can be used for 80 overs and make sure that it does not lose its visibility under any the circumstances.

Positive points :

1. There won't be any instances of game being stopped due to bad light.
2. This move would allow more people to watch at grounds and on television.
3. Hot and humid climates can be avoided.
4. Bad light would no more be a problem.

Negative Points:

1. Teams bowling at night may have problems with the ball. But as it is a 5-day game, it won't effect the game much as the other team may also get into the same situation to bowl during the night.
2. Changing the ball to suit the day/night cricket.
3. Color of the ball.
4. Fielding may be difficult in presence of dew factor. There will be a lot mis-fields as the ball easily slips away from hands.

2nd and 3rd problems are solved by Cricket Australia. It has been trying to host Test matches at nights for the long time. CA commissioned the CSIRO in July to manufacture a revolutionary all-conditions ball suitable for Tests in Australia played from 1pm to 9pm. Cricket Australia is assured that it is possible to develop a suitable ball for day-night tests.

Australia and Pakistan are going to become the first teams to play a night Test next November in Adelaide according to a report.

I think a bit of thinking should go in before putting this idea into practice.

any thoughts?

India to cut-off ties with Pakistan?

It is really sad to see the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. The attacks have damaged India's relationships with Pakistan. Cricket between these two countires is also largely affected. Though there is no official confirmation, many news channels have reported that India's tour of Pakistan is cancelled. As it is found that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai have links with Pakistan, Central Government refused India's tour of Pakistan. It is also decided that there should not be any cricketing ties with Pakistan in future.

There was no cricket between India and Pakistan for almost two years during Kargil war in 1999. After some talks the cricketing ties were resumed in 2001.

The sources also ruled out the possibility of India playing the series at a neutral venue as proposed by PCB. It is known that many of our cricketers like Sachin, Dhoni are reluctant to tour Pakistan. In any way, cricketing ties between India and Pakistan are certain to be affected for sometime.

Is India's decision to stop cricketing ties with Pakistan right??
Will this decision have any effect on world cricket?

Anyway I hope India and Pakistan will resolve their differences soon....

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.....

Pakistan clinches the nail biting thriller

What a match!
Pakistan won the nail biting thriller against West Indies.
West Indies set a target of 295 for Pakistan, thanx to the brilliant 113 from Chris Gayle.
Needing 17 off the last over, Kamran Akmal hit 2 sixes in that over to win the match for Pakistan.
A very entertaining knock from Akmal...

Tight Schedule

Australians are still here playing test cricket. England have already reached India for 7 ODIs and 2 Tests. And they have already started their preparations. ODI series between India and England begins on 14th November, just 3 days after the test series with Australia concludes.
The players(Indian) have no time to rest. It's not this time, it is going to be the case for the next 9 months.

Indian players are going to play non-stop cricket for the next 9 months, which starts with the ODI series against Egland. The ODI series will be followed by Champions Twenty20 Leauge in India and then the 2-test series with England. Soon after India will facing Pakistan in Pakistan for a three-match Test series, 5 match ODI series and a Twenty20 match. Then India will play 2 tests, 5 ODIs and a Twenty20 against New Zealand in New Zealand. Soon after this series finishes, they will take part in the 2nd season of Indian Premium League. They have to fly all across the country during the IPL. Within a week, India have to go to Egland to play in ICC Twenty20 World Cup, followed by 4 ODIs with West Indies in West Indies.

The schedule for India in next 9 months is as follows.

India Vs England : 7 ODIs and 2 Tests, 14th Nov'08 - 23rd Dec'08
Champions Twenty20 Leauge : 3rd Dec'08 - 10th Dec'08
India Vs Pakistan : 5 ODIs, 1 Twenty20 and 3 Tests, 6th Jan'09 - 19 Feb'09
India Vs New Zealand : 5 ODIs, 1 Twenty20 and 2 Tests, 6th Mar'09 - 7th Apr'09
IPL 2nd season 10th Apr'09 - 29th May'09
ICC World Twenty20 : 5th June'09 - 21st June'09
India Vs West Indies : 4 ODIs 26th Jun'09 - 5th July'09

There has been a lot of debate over too much cricket in India. This schedule causes a lot of problems to the players' fitness. Many players are prone to injuries because of this kind of schedule.

Many people were surprised over Sachin's decision to opt out of the first 3 ODIs. He wanted rest and so he opted out for first 3 ODIs. Many players would follow Sachin if such is the case with this tight schedule. Dhoni pulled himself out of test series against Sri Lanka this year because of the tight schedule at that time.

The cricket fans will enjoy this, but not the players...a tough time ahead for the players...
I am afraid some of Indian players may pull out themselves during these 9 months. BCCI need to implement rotation policy.

Pakistan cricket in shock

He has been in dilemma for the last eight months whether to join ICL or not. Finally he comes out and joins ICL...
Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan signed up for ICL and as expected he is banned by Pakistan cricket board from all forms of the game. He will play for Lahore Badshahs in ICL.

Yousuf is the No.3 batsman in Tests and No.5 bastsman in ODIs. He is the Pakistan's best batsman now. It's a big shock and a big loss for Pakistan. None of the Pakistani players can replace this batsman. Pakistan will have to suffer in their next series against India. Not only against India, Pakistan will be outplayed by every other nations.

Yousuf said "I have decided to sign for ICL. There was a misunderstanding with the ICL. I was misguided and confused and not able to take a decision earlier. See, I want to continue playing for Pakistan and the ICL authorities also have no problem with that."

But Yousuf, you have done a great mistake by choosing ICL ahead of your nation though you know you will be banned. The pakistan cricket is in a grim situation now and you left your team aside for money when you are supposed to be with the team. Really shame on you Yousuf. You made pakistan cricket even worser...

All the 11 players in the team bowls

Yesterday, when I was looking at the scorecard for the test match between India and West Indies at Antigua in 2002 where Kumble bowled with a broken jaw, I found an interesting stat. All the 11 indian players bowled in an innings in that match. It happened twice before this match.

Here are the other two matches.

All 11 England players bowlers bowled during Australia's score of 551 at the Oval, London on August 12, 1884. In fact in this Test match Australia became the first team in Test cricket to score over 500 runs. Interestingly WG Grace kept wickets for some time thus allowing regular keeper Alfred Lyttelton to bowl during Australia's innings. He went on to claim four wickets - his figures being 12-5-19-4 - which still remains the best bowling performance by a wicket-keeper in Test cricket.

Then nearly 95 years later, on March 11, 1980 all 11 Australians bowled in Pakistan's innings of 382-2 at Faisalabad. Australia batting upto the fourth afternoon while scoring 617 runs, hardly left any time for Pakistan to bat more than once. So on the last day the Australians made all their 11 players to bowl, including their keeper Rodney Marsh (skipper Greg Chappell kept wickets after tea on the final day). Not surprisingly both the above Tests were boring drawn matches.

Source: http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2001/apr/28answer.htm

When will Yuvraj learn?

India Blue won the the recent NKP Challenger Trophy. But Yuvraj Singh's contribution to the team's victory was almost nil. He was out for some poor shots in this series. He doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes. He was trying to play too many shots too early in the innings.
His place in the team is going to be in danger. A lot of talented youngsters are there waiting for the place in the national team. Yuvraj must be aware of this and he has to perform to keep his place safe.
Yuvraj was in the form of his life one year ago. He was named as the man of the series in three consecutive series against South Africa (joint with Graeme Smith), against Pakistan and England. He scored three centuries and four half-centuries in fifteen matches in those 3 series. It helped him to make it into the top ten of the ICC ODI batting rankings.
Though he is there in the international cricket for around 8 years, he is yet to make his mark in the test cricket. Though he got many opportunities in tests, he did not utilize them. He already lost his place in the test team. And if you consider his recent ODIs, he scored 72 runs with an average of 14.40 in 5 matches against SriLanka. He struggled a lot against the spinners. And it's still the main concern for Yuvi.
In the last 12 months, he has not played a big innings. He scored 840 in 27 matches with an average of 35.00. After his successful performance in the T20 world cup last year, Yuvraj has been playing that kind of shots in all formats of the game. He was trying to hit every ball out of the ground. It's going to be difficult for Yuvraj to keep his place safe in the team(atleast ODIs) unless he changes his attitude.
C'mon Yuvi...you are a match winner...make a strong come back...

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.

Will Sreesanth come back?

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, fast bowler from Kerala, is struggling to make it to the Indian team after being ruled out with a side strain injury that he suffered during the Indian Premier League. Sreesanth suffered a left side strain in the IPL during Kings XI Punjab's final league match on May 28 and played the semi-final, but only bowled one over.
He was left out for the Kitply Cup in Bangladesh, the Asia Cup in Pakistan, the Sri Lankan tour, the Irani Cup , Challenger Trophy, the Champions Trophy.(postponed to 2009) and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
He was picked for the India-A team after he was declared fit by the NCA(Bangalore) physio. But unfortunately for him he again injured his back and was left out of the squad. He is not even playing any domestic cricket. S. Sreesanth has not been included in the Kerala Ranji Trophy squad for the opening match of the plate league against Goa which begins at Fort Maidan on November 3.
Sreesanth last played for India in the Test series against South Africa in April 2008.
He is not looking to be concerned about his place in the team. He is frequently seen in fashion shows and other TV realty shows. This emotional, aggressive fast bowler needs to concentrate more on his fitness and bowling rather than these TV shows.
Former Indian Captain Ravi Shastri said "Sreesanth should be more disciplined if he has to make full use of his talent.
Kapil Dev said "I wish he concentrates more on cricket. Aggression is good but it should be on the field".
We have Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel, with RP Singh too in the mix. It would be best for Sreesanth to play matches, get match fit and pick wickets to return to the Indian side.