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It was not expected for most of the people out here in India as well as some of the people out there in South Africa too. Three old guys Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble steal the attraction of the opening day in IPL second session.

Sachin Tendulkar who him self says that this format is not fit for him and that’s why he is not a part of the Indian team for Twenty20 matches, made a superb half century in the opening match of the Indian Premiere League 2009 against Chennai Super Kings. Because of the brilliant half century by Master Blaster Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Superkings, last year Runner Up team, by 19 runs. Sachin made 59 runs in 49 balls, he hit 7 boundaries in his innings.

Another old guy Rahul Dravid, who was never considered fit for Twenty20, even he was axed from the ODI’s too by some of the selectors who think that only hitting big shots is the matter which makes sense in ODI’s and Twenty20, proved once again that cricket is not only the game of power hitting. When he joined the crease in the second match against defending champions Rajasthan Royals, his team Royal Challengers Bangalore was struggling at 17 for 3 wickets in 4.5 overs. Then he took the responsibility and brought his team to a respectable total of 133. He made 66 runs in only 48 runs and he hit 8 boundaries and 1 six. Of course Vijay Malya will be pleased to see this match winning inning.

Then it was the turn of one of the most senior player of the tournament Anil Kumble. Jumbo who has taken retirement from Tests as well as ODI’s too, took 5 wicket in just 3.1 overs. His bowling figure of 3.1 Overs 1 Maiden and 5 runs and 5 wickets were superb and it caused the worst defeat for the defending champions Rajasthan Royals. They got all out for the lowest total of the tournament, they made only 58 runs. Thus Bangalore Royal Challengers won the match by 75 runs.

The two man of the match of the opening day were Sachin Tendulkar for the match one and Rahul Dravid for the match two. Both of these genius has proved their ability in this format of the cricket too. I am now keen to see the performance of Saurav Ganguly in the first match against Deccan Chargers tonight.

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Tags: Anil, Anil Kumble, Dada, Dravid, Ganguly, Indian Premiere League, IPL, IPL 2, Kumble, Rahuil Dravid, Rahul, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav, Saurav Ganguly, Tendulkar

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Team India won the first test against England. When Indian skipper lost the toss and then the top order of Indian team failed in the first inning and India faced a trail of 75 runs in the first inning, no one was thinking that India can even win this match. Not even at the time when England declared their second inning just before tea on Day Four, thus England gave India a mammoth target of 387 in the last inning.

The previous examples of the targets met by Indian Team in the sub continent were not a good symbol in the second inning, and the results of at the tea of Day Four was clearly indicating one option of the England’s victory and second one of a draw, which too was looking so dim in the conditions there at Chennai. It was not at all easy to bat on the breaking pitch on Day Four and Fifth.

Four people Sachin, Yuvraj, Sehwag, and Gambhir rewrite the history today for India and thus the Dhoni brigade made the history of a famous victory against England by chasing the fourth highest total in the test history. The foundation was made by Virender Sehwag on Yesterday. His blistering knock of 83 in just 68 balls was a match winning inning and turned the match towards India.

The match has once again proved the importance of the captaincy of MS Dhoni. This victory is the fourth consecutive victory under his captaincy and thus he has a 100% record so far. The 41st test century of Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar was superb and he dedicated his century to the people who lost their life during Mumbai Attack.

The match also provided the much needed platform to Yuvraj Singh to show his strength in Test matches too. He was called to replace Dada and his not out 85 was a good reply to those critics who are blaming him for his inconsistency in tests. After all he too failed in the first inning.

One thing which hurts me is the form of Rahul Dravid. I don’t know what has happened to the best batsman of the Indian team. Once he was known as The Wall and Mr. Reliable but these days his performance is certainly going through some bad patch. I would be happy to see him making some big inning for India. Let’s see what is going to happen with him.

Tags: Chennai, Chennai Test, cricket match, Dhoni, Dravid, England, Firts Test, Gambhir, India, Laxman, Mr. Reliable, MS Dhoni, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag, Team India, The Wall, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj

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As we all know that Team India won in the second cricket test match in Border-Gavaskar trophy. They defeated Australia the number 1 team in test cricket by a huge margin of 320 runs. We are here by preparing a list of seven lime lights of the test match.

1. 12K runs by Sachin: The master blaster of Indian cricket, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar made 88 runs in the first inning of India and he became the highest run getter in the history of test cricket. Also check the 10 glorifying moments of his career! He crossed the land mark made by Brian Lara of West Indies. At the end of the match he has more than 12,000 runs in his bag.


Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly

2. 7K runs by Ganguly: He was once considered as the best captain of India. A bit of politics in cricket and Greig Chappel caused him his place in the team. Finally he get the place in the team but became so frustrated that he decided to quit the cricket after this series. And in this series his bat is talking with all those people who were criticizing him earlier. He made a superb century in the first inning and due to that he made more than 7000 runs in test cricket. It was not a small feet, but still he decided not to revert back his decision of quitting cricket. I News India salutes the “Dada”, we always supported him during his bad phase too.


Maya of Dhoni and a different Bhajji

3. Maya of Dhoni: He is the guy who has changed the form of Indian cricket, he brought it from the aged person to the younger ones. Under his captaincy India won the T 20 world cup one year back and after that whichever match he captained gave India something to cheer about. He is a bit lucky too, considered by a huge section in India. We still remember the match against South Africa in this year, in which he got the captaincy due to the sickness of the regular skipper Anil Kumble and India won that match. Even today India won the match in which he was the captain. This is the Maya of Dhoni. The two attacking half centuries are superb and those gave him the Man of the Match.


The best Indian opening pair of Viru and Gauti

4. Opening pair of India: Viru and Gauti, the opening pair of India is these days considered as the best ever opening pair for India. These two have played lots of cricket together and they love to play together. In One Days too they are being considered as the best and now in test too. The 182 runs stand between these two in the second inning of this test was really brilliant, while the pitch was offering help to the bowlers. Sehwag though failed to convert 90 into 100, but Gambhir get the second test century of his life.


Superb Ishant Sharma

5. Superb Ishant Sharma: This school guy has troubled one of the best batsman of the world, Rickey Ponting. He made the hat-trick of dismissing him in test cricket. He is doing the same thing which Bhajji did in the previous tours of Australia in India. Since his debut in the national team from the January of this year he is continuously creating problem for Rickey Ponting. During this match he dismissed Ponting in both the innings and that caused problem to Aussies, while they are also facing the failure of Mathew Hayden in the series.
6. A different looking Bhajji: We still remember the slap controversy in IPL 2008. That incident has changed our main bowler Harbhajan Singh. He is looking more polite and attacking on the field after that. Yesterday he dismissed the top three batsman on Aussies and that caused them the match. He was not so much successful in the drawn first test match, while he devastated the Aussies second inning. The fall of the batsman like Hayden, Katich and Hussey caused them the match. Now he is one short to the 300 test wickets.


Amit Mishra a good beginning

7. Amazing Amit Mishra: He was not in news before this match and he performed brilliantly in the match. He took 5 wickets in the very first inning of his life and that is also against the number 1 team of world. That was superb, and awesome. Indian team management will have to face a bit more problem now in choosing the playing 11. Whom will they remove, Kumble, Mishra or Bhajji?

It was a team effort and other than these guys Zaheer Khan too did well, along with good contribution from all the players of the team, especially Rahul Dravid. So overall it was a all OK match for team India and now they are looking ahead to defeat Aussies in the series. Best of luck to team India. We would be happy to see the comments of our readers on this match. Also you can take a look at the Cricket Updates for the match reports.

Tags: Amit Mishra, Bhajji, Border Gavaskar Trophy, Captain of India, Dada, Dhoni, Dravid, Gambhir, Ganguly, Gautam, Gautam Gambhir, Gauti, Greig Chappel, Harbhajan Singh, Hayden, Hussey, India Australia, Ishant Sharma, Katich, Kumble, M S Dhoni, Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Rickey Ponting, Sachin, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Second Cricket Test, Sehwag, T 20, T-20 World Champions, Team India, Tendulkar, Test Match, Virender Sehwag, Viru, Zaheer Khan

Yesterday I was going through one Hindi Daily News paper and I found one article on the Australia tour of India. The story was that Greig Chappel was warning Team India about the performance of the skipper of the Aussies squad, Mr. Rickey Ponting, who has a worst record in India. He made only 172 runs in 8 matches with a mere average of 12.28, while batting in India.

So the Guru Greig Chappel is warning the team India from the anger which he has seen in the eyes of Rickey Ponting. The worst part which I felt is his statement that if Rickey is going to bat according to my tactics then he is going to score some big innings in India.

This is the Team India which for the first time give the title of Guru to this batsman from Australia, the regard which we gave him is more than which he deserves, as far as my views are concerned. It is Saurav Ganguly who first gave the challenge to Greig Chappel and then our Indian team management sidelined Ganguly from Indian team. It was a shame that we did not supported our own skipper, who was still considered as the best skipper of Team India, rather we supported some one who tried to break the Indian team.

After that incident it was a huge distance Team India has covered, meanwhile Team India won the T 20 World Cup, and defeated Australia in Australia in the tri-nation ODI series. India lost to the test series to Aussies in Australia. So now every body is looking forward to the test series of four tests between India and Australia, which is beginning at Bangalore on 9th of October.

Let’s discuss about the performance of Suarav Ganguly. Once he was neglected by the Indian team management and then he fight back. He created one example of a strong comeback in the history of Indian team. It was unfortunate that he did not perform well in the recently concluded test series against Sri Lanka in Lanka, but in the same series all the senior cricketer failed to perform according to their reputation. So I think the blame should not be given on his shoulder only.

He was recently ignored by the selection panel in the Irani Trophy and in the camp which is going on in Bangalore. It was really unfortunate, since I think that he is the only guy in the Indian team which can give reply to the aggression of the Aussies which they do on field as well as off field too.

So I think that it is not fair to keep him away from the team for the test series against Aussies. They are not a smaller team; they can do any thing to win. So we should give one more chance to these people who have shown his aggression in the past. In my views if team has decided to drop Ganguly then why not drop Sachin and Kumble too, because they too did not performed well in the test series against Lanka. If performance was the key to drop any one then why Yuvraj Singh is in the ODI team, while he was not doing any thing good in the middle?

As far as the selection is concerned today is the first meeting of the Indian team selection panel, which is now a paid unit and I know the pressure is mounting on them to choose the best possible team. Let’s see whom they are going to chose for the series. If Dada is not picked for the series, then I think it will be the end of his career unless he once again made the history in his own manner.

Tags: Chappel, Dravid, Ganguly, Greig Chappel, Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Rickey Ponting, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Team India, Yuvraj Singh

The cricket icon, Sachin Tendulakar who have been a brand ambassador of soft drinks major Pepsi since 90s, was dropped by the company. The decision came on the backdrop of Pepsi axing the other two members of the Indian batting troika - Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly - earlier this year.

“The decision was also influenced in a big way by the premium amount demanded by the batting maestro,” the sources added.

The Pepsi contract with Sachin, who is earning Rs 3-4 crore from Pepsi every year through promotions and ads, was expired in May.

A company source said that he had not “got back” to a request to “lower his price” for renewing his contract, which expired around two months back.

Pepsi had made it clear its intention to go with youngsters as part of a new campaign for 2008, ‘Yeh hai Youngistaan Meri Jaan; and roped in Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma while dropping Dravid and Ganguly.

Other insiders said the Master Blaster had asked for a “huge” hike. “We went back to the drawing board to see if it made more sense to put money on young cricketers who fit into our Youngistan campaign than shell out a huge sum for someone like Sachin,” the source said.

Tags: Cricket, Dravid, Ganguly, Pepsi, Rahul Dravid, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Youngistan

Indian team have finally written success story on Kanpur’s Greenpark pitch on the third day of third test against South Africa winning the test by eight wickets to level the series 1-1.

First test in Chennai was a dull draw followed by second test won by South Africa while the last and final test today is won by India to level the series.

After dismissing the rivals at a small score of 121 in second innings, India reached the target of just 62 runs for the loss of two wickets.

In the second inning of India, opener Virendra Sehwag gave 22 runs including two brilliant sixers off 12 balls. Wasim Jaffer was dismissed after making 10 runs. Suarav Ganguly (13) and Rahul Dravid (18) remained not out and took the team to reach the required target.

However the day started when Indian batsman continued from previous score of 288 for nine wickets of the first inning. Last wicket pair of India, Sharma and Sreesanth joined to frustrate the South Africans for a 46-runs partnership leading India to a score of 325, 60 runs ahead. South Africa had made 265 runs in its first inning.

In the second inning of South Africans, team is soon wrapped up at 121 as the Indian spinners dismissed the players one by one.

The pitch proved to be very favorable for the Indian spinners especially Harbhajan Singh. In 21 over of his bowling he gave away 43 runs at an economy of 2.04 taking away the four wicket giving India a serious chance of leveling the series.

South Africa remained under pressure from the very start of their batting. Harbhajan took 4 wickets while Virander Sehwag knocked out 3. Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth also took away 2 and 1 wicket respectively.

McKenzie was the first one to be knocked out by Sreesanth after making 26 runs. A hard blow came to Proteas when Amla is sent back to pavilion without opening his account by Harbhajan Singh.

Getting rid of Kallis(15) first and then bowling Smith(35) round his legs Sehwag proved how lethal he is.

Ishant Sharma took 2 wickets of Boucher (5) and Morkel (0). Sreesanth also dismissed Harris at no score.

Harbhajan took away the ninth wickets in the form of Steyn(7) while it was Virendra Sehwag who dismissed the last wicket of Ntini(0). Prince remained not out on the pitch with 22 runs.

It was India’s fifth win over South Africa in 21 Tests, their fourth at home, as against 10 losses and seven draws. It was only the eighth Test in Kanpur (out of 20) to have produced a result with India winning five of them and preserved the home team’s record of having not lost a Test match here. For complete update of the match please visit Cricket Updates.

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Tags: Amla, Cricket, Dravid, Ganguly, India, Jaffer, Sehwag, Smith, South Africa, Test

The Indian team for the third and final test has been announced today and it includes Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel and Ramesh Powar. Rudra Pratap Singh has been dropped from the team. Ramesh Powar has been included as the skipper and the leg sppiner Anil Kumble is not 100% fit.

Ishant Sharma was included in the third test though he was not fit for the first two test matches. India lost the second test match at Ahmadabad last night with an inning and 90 runs. The third and final test is scheduled to begin on 11th April at Green Park, Kanpur.

The team for the third test is consist of Jaffer, Sehwag, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman, Yuvraj, Kaif, Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, and Munaf Patel.

Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar is already announced unfit for the third test and after the defeat in Ahmadabad Team India really need to win the third and final test in Kanpur.

Tags: Dhoni, Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble, Sachin, Team India

The situation for Indian team at Ahmadabad is really tough, India is playing the second test match of the future cup against South Africa at Ahmadabad. Today is the third day of play and India is on the verge of the inning defeat.

At the tea India is batting at 191 for the loss of 4 wickets and Ganguly is batting at 59 along with Dhoni who is batting at 28. India is still trailing by 227 runs and only 6 wickets are left.

Today early morning South Africa decided to declare their inning at their overnight score and they give India a target of 419 runs to save the match by an inning. Then Sehwag started brilliantly by hitting two sixes in the very first over of Steyn.

Within a very short time Sehwag became the victim of Ntini and India moved to 31 for the loss of one wicket. After that Dravid felt at 64 while he scored only 17 runs. Then Jaffer got out at 19 and India reached to 3 down for 70 only. After that Laxman and Ganguly played some good cricket but Laxman too fell cheaply at 35 while at that time India were 125 for the loss of 4 wickets.

From then Ganguly and Dhoni are playing and they have scored a partnership of 66 runs. For complete coverage please visit Cricket Updates.

Tags: Ahmadabad, BCCI, Bhajji, Cricket News, Dhoni, Dravid, Ganguly, Harbhajan, India, Ishant, Kumble, Laxman, Live Score, live update, Motera, News Live, South Africa, Team India, Test Match

First test match of Future cup series in M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai ended after a dull draw between South Africa and India on Sunday. South Africa played cautiously in its second batting. At the end of the match South Africa scored 331 runs at loss of five. McKenzie with 155 runs and Boucher with 11 runs were remain unbeaten on the pitch as the match was finalized.

During the second batting of South Africa, the openers Smith and McKenzie gave a speed start. Smith was dismissed yesterday after making 35 runs and Amla joined McKenzie then. Before the team agreed to draw, McKenzie hit 13 boundaries and a six during his 445-minute stay at the crease. He hit a double century in his previous Test.

South Africa got its first stroke from India by losing Amla at Kumble’s ball. Amla delivered 81 runs to the team. Kallis and Prince couldn’t contribute much after Amla. Both were dismissed by Harbhajan after making 19 and 5 runs respectively. De Villiers gave his 11 and was claimed by Sehwag.

The pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium did not have any significant help for the bowlers on the first four days and was not expected to behave any different on day five.

The match will always be remembered for Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid. Sehwag, who smashed 319 in India’s first innings, was deservedly named man of the match. He broke his own record of 309 runs in 2004 in Multan against Pakistan, although he couldn’t cross Lara’s record of 400 runs. Sehwag had taken India to a mammoth 627 in reply to South Africa’s first innings total of 540.

Dravid who completed his 10,000 runs in Test, is the third Indian and world’s sixth batsman to achieve the milestone. With this, the former Indian captain has also completed his 25th century.

The second Test will be played in Ahmedabad from April 3-7, with the third Test in Kanpur from April 11-15.

Tags: Amla, Boucher, Chennai, Dravid, First Test, Future Cup, Ganguly, India, Kallis, Sehwag, South Africa, Test

Triple Century of blasting batsman Virendra Sehwag led India to beat the huge score of South Africa. Today on the fourth day of the first test match of Future cup Series, India scored a brilliant record of 627 runs, 87 points more than the rival team. Sehwag was dismissed by Ntini at a mammoth record of 319. he crossed his own score but unable to beat Lara’s record of 400 runs.

Dravid has achieved the milestone of 10,000 runs in test. Dravid also gave his century with 111 runs and was knocked out again by Ntini after lunch. He became the sixth player to tally 10,000 Test runs reaching the milestone in the first Test against South Africa. He is the third Indian player after Sachin and Sunil Gavaskar to achieve this target.

South Africa scored 540 runs in its first inning and India replied the rivals with 468 runs on second day at only one loss. South Africans seemed very helpless in front of the star batsman Sehwag. He gave the opponent team a hard nut to crack. Sehwag is the second player who achieved the milestone of making two triple centuries in test matches after Brain Lara.

Other players including Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dhoni couldn’t use their bats much. They all got dismissed one by one very soon. Dhoni gave only sixteen and Ganguly contributed 24. Sachin, Harbhajan and R P Singh were sent to pavilion without opening their account. Laxman gave 39 while the captain (Kumble) couldn’t achieve more than 3. Sreesanth was the last player with only 4 runs in hand.

In the second inning of South African team, the players have recorded 131 runs in 33 overs at the end of the day at one loss. Smith had made 35 runs and was knocked out soon. McKenzie and Amla are now the overnight players with 59 and 35 runs respectively.

Tags: BCCI, Bhajji, Chennai, Chepauk, Cricket News, Dhoni, Dravid, Ganguly, Golden Ball, Harbhajan, India, Ishant, Kumble, Laxman, Live Score, live update, News Live, Rain, South Africa, Symonds, Team India, Test Match