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India defeated Sri Lanka in 3rd ODI by 46 runs today and won the five day match series by 3-1 with one match still to go on. India won the first ever One Day Series against Sri Lanka on Sri Lanka ground creating an historical record.

India won the toss and set a respectable target of 259 but the hosting team was all out in 46.2 overs at a score of 212 only. Led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian youth brigade done a fabulous job. Dhoni (71), Raina (72) and Kohli (54) are those who made their half century and contributed most to the victory.

Opener Gautam Gambhir (17) was the first one who was sent back to pavilion by Kulasekara. yuvraj singh was struck off by Chaminda Vaas before opening his account. Yuvraj became his 400th victim when he flicked a simple catch at short mid-wicket to Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene for a duck.

Virat Kohli, the Delhi lad was seemed in form but was departed after making 54 runs giving a big blow to India. But soon the India skipper MS Dhoni walked in to take charge with Suresh Raina. Both have been cracked their half centuries scoring 71 and 72 respectivily before departing. The duo powered the Indian total past 202 runs in 38 overs.

Among other players Rohit Sharma scored 18, Harbhajan Singh soon departed after making only 2 runs, while Badrinath gave 6.

In Sri Lankan team, only Jayasuriya (60) cracked his half century and added some good runs to the scores. Thushara and Kapugedera devoted 40 and 30 runs respectively. Others are departed back to pavilion one by one. After 30 overs, Lankans were 132/5. After 33 overs, they were struggling at 142/6. And after 42 overs, Sri Lanka was tottering at 194/8.

Suresh Raina was awarded Man of the Match. For complete score card, please visit Cricket Updates.

Tags: Badrinath, Cricket, Dhoni, Gambhir, Harbhajan, India, Jayasuriya, Jayawardene, Kapugedera, Kohli, MS Dhoni, ODI, ODI Cricket, Raina, Rohit Sharma, Sri Lanka, Thushara, Vaas, Yuvraj

India leveled the three match Test series 1-1 in Galle on Sunday after beating Sri Lanka by 170 runs in the second cricket test. Earlier, team India was defeated by Srilanka by a mammoth total of 239 runs in the first test match at SCG ground in Colombo. On Sunday in second test, Indian team performed very well in Galle setting a hard target of 307 runs but the Sri Lankans collapsed for 136.

Harbhajan, Sehwag and Gambhir deserves of being the responsible factor behind this victory. Harbhajan Singh returned a match haul of 10 wickets, four in the second innings, for 153 runs while Virender Sehwag once again shown his magical batting and hit an unbeaten double century in the first innings and a half-century in the second to pave the way to victory ground. Sehwag fell against the Srilankan strike bowler Chaminda Vass when India’s total was 90 in second inning. Sehwag and Gambhir partnership was the backbone of India’s victory. Out of India’s total of 598 (329, 269) the duo scored 381 runs, more than half scored by other batsmen.

Sri Lanka bundled India for 269 in the second innings. India was bowled out for 329 runs in their first innings and restricted the Sri Lankans for 292 in their first innings.

In the first inning, Kumble and Harbhajan dismissed nine batsmen of the opponent team. Only Warnapura (66), Sangakkara (68) and Jayawardene (86) stayed for long durations on the crease and played crucial innings for their team. But even they couldn’t cross India’s total of forst inning.

In the second inning, after dismissal of Sehwag and Gambhir, Dravid and Tendulkar were on the crease and they took the team’s total to 200 for two. However, both these batsmen returned to pavilion, only few minutes before the end of the Day-3 play.

On fourth day, Ganguly and Laxman began the morning session but after adding 21 runs to the score, Laxman was trapped before wicket by Mendis. The other players were soon dismissed and India managed 269 runs in the second innings and gave a target of 307 to Srilanka.

Sri Lanka was slow in second inning. Score was 37 at lose of four. Samaraweera and Dilshan provided some resistance to the innings and took team’s total past 100. At the Srilankan score of 113, Ishant Sharma dismissed Dilshan and provided the crucial breakthrough. The entire Srilankan team returned to pavilion by scoring 136 runs. Harbhajan finished with four wickets in the second innings as Sri Lanka was all out on 48 overs.

The third Test will start in Colombo on Aug. 8.

Tags: cricket match, Harbhajan, India, Sehwag, Sri Lanka, Test Match

IPL Twenty-20 is the latest cricket fashion which is rocking in the cricket world nowadays. After 56 matches, the semis of the league are going to start today with the battle between Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals. It is getting popularity among the cricket fans but the same is surrounded with lots of controversies and gossips since its start.

Before the start of the IPL, the issue of boycotting the coverage by the media gave a major jolt to this league. The IPL was reported to have sold the new media rights to the Twenty20 tournament to an unnamed US web company in a $50m deal. BCCI had said that all photographers covering IPL matches were mandatory required to upload photographs on IPL’s official website at their own cost which was later rejected to soften media norms for IPL.

After a lot of pressure mounted by the issue, the matter is resolved but it was just a starting. Eligibility of Shoiab Akhtar for IPL made the headlines after this issue. PCB has banned Shoiab Akhtar for 5 years to represent Pakistan but as a professional player he was likely to be eligible to play for Kolkata Knight Riders. BCCI didn’t want to create any problem so asked him to get permission from PCB failing which he was not allowed to play for KolKata Knight Riders. Only a week after PCB has stayed the order by a month and new enquiry will take place after that. Due to this he is now available to Knight Riders for selection.

Anyhow, these gossips were just trailers only. The big picture came into light with a new controversy. Harbhajan-Sreeshanth slap row was a biggest jolt to the IPL as well as to the cricket history. It was a shocking incident of slapping by Harbhajan after the Kings XI Vs. Mumbai Indians clash in Mohali on April 25 which left the cricketers embarrassed. The incident flamed up when the BCCI asked the short tempered Harbhajan to explain the action. Frustrated with his lose, Bhajji slapped Sreesanth and the incident is caught by cameras of media. The issue was bounced high by the media thereafter. Finally the issue came to an end on May 14 when Bhajji was banned for 5 ODIs and was warned by the Cricket Board of a life ban for any further misconduct on his part. That was one of the very toughest times for the career of the 27-year-old off spinner Harbhajan.

Later BCCI also banned an umpire to stand in a match on this topic. The umpire has made any comment on the Sreesanth’s behavior and he got the reward.

Sehwag was no more left away from controversies. The match between Delhi Daredevils and Deccan Chargers was stopped at a very crucial point in the 19th over when Shewag complained to the umpires that the crowd is throwing stones at him. Sehwag was very upset with the incident which wiped off the happiness of his victory in the match.

Shahrukh-Ganguly tashan was one more sensational gossip of IPL. A reported rift between Kolkata Knight Rider’s owner Shahrukh Khan and skipper Sourav Ganguly came in light after the team’s poor performance against the Rajasthan Royals which cost them their chance to feature in the top four teams. The two have also conflicts over various issues like team selection, team combination and player selection. Shahrukh Khan and Captain Sourav Ganguly had different opinions about team composition and players to buy during the auction. The other major reason for the rift is Shahrukh’s faith in coach John Buchanan that saw him giving more powers to the Australian in team issues surpassing Ganguly. The King Khan further upset Ganguly by announcing that Buchanan would be taking control of the team next season. Bid for the players in the auction was another issue between them. The two however now says that there are no differences between them and all issues are resolved now.

Shahrukh was also warned by the BCCI to follow Code of Conduct in cricket. The Anti Corruption Unit officials had cautioned the actor about going into the dressing room and the team dug out during the IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings. BCCI supported the law against Srk also. King Khan was highly disappointed by this issue and the warning. He even said that he would keep him away from IPL now. But later he was permitted to cheer the team from dug out.

Now come to the colorful part of IPL. Cheerleaders, which are new in Indian cricket, gave a new color to the game but on the same side it gave rise to a hot debate among the politicians and the officials. Vijay Mallya, the owner of the Bangalore Royal Challengers, started the trend of keeping the cheer-leaders with the team and others followed. There was a lot of hue and cry about the dressing of these cheer leaders. They were finally made to wear so called decent looking clothes by the moral brigade of Mumbai. Political leaders also gave their comments in the matter. Some protested it while others found nothing insane in the dancing of cheerleaders. But still the cheerleaders are cheering the viewers and fans of cricket in the play.

Another issue which rose on cheerleaders was the racial abuse directed towards two dark skinned cheerleaders hired by the Kings XI Punjab team. They have alleged that they were asked to sit out just before the April 19 match of the IPL played in Mohali because they were not white. Cheerleaders Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson were banned from performing at a major cricket match in India.

Shane Warne and Ganguly’s views on field leaded a new controversy in IPL. Rajasthan Royals’ skipper Shane Warne lodged a complaint against his Kolkata Knight Riders counterpart Sourav Ganguly for resorting to time-wasting tactics during their IPL match and refusing to accept the fielder’s word on a “clean catch”. Ganguly dismissed the Australian’s claim that he had violated the spirit of the game by indulging in delaying tactics and refusing to accept the fielder’s words on a ‘clean catch’.  Later Shane Warne and Sourav Ganguly fined 10 per cent of match fees. Shane Warne fined for his comments in press conference. Ganguly fined for his on-field behavior.

Recently a complaint has been filed against Kings XI Punjab co-owner Ness Wadia for allegedly publicly insulting and using derogatory language against Mohali police chief Ranbir Singh Khatra during Friday’s IPL match between the Punjab team and Deccan Chargers at PCA stadium, Mohali.

The police officer lodged a complaint with Mohali deputy commissioner that Wadia had used “insulting” language on him. The complaint also encircled IPL commissioner Lalit Modi for smoking in the Long Room of the PCA stadium in an earlier IPL match.

One more issue is in the air. Despite loosing the semi final berth Mumbai Indians are hosting the semi finals and final in Mumbai, since the owner of Mumbai Indians has bid the highest value for the team. So this issue has created some sort of flame. Skipper of Rajasthan Royals Shane Warne is not happy with this. He was looking for hosting the semi finals in the top two teams place.

So these are a few colorful events from the cricketing world of India, but I am not sure where the cricket in between these issues is?

Tags: Controversies, Cricket, Ganguly, Harbhajan, Harbhajan Srresanth Row, India, IPL, Slap, Sreesanth, T 20, Twnty 20

While investigating the recent slapping row between Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth, BCCI-appointed Commissioner Sudhir Nanavati on Tuesday said that he was shocked after watching the video footage of the incident.

“What I saw was shocking but it has made my job easier. It will also help me in my further investigation,” he told reporters after viewing the footage of the incident at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai with IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi, Board Secretary Niranjan Shah and Joint Secretary M P Pandove.

The incident happened after an Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab on April 25 when after the defeate Harbhajan Singh allegedly slapped Sreesanth on the ground in frustration and left the player in tears.

Nanavati was asked by the board to probe the incident after Harbhajan was banned from the rest of the IPL by its disciplinary committee.

Nanavati took the statement of match referee Farookh Engineer and will also speak to Mumbai Indians coach Lalchand Rajput, who was allegedly standing behind Harbhajan when he slapped Sreesanth after the match.

The Ahmedabad lawyer will submit his inquiry report on the matter to Board President Sharad Pawar on Monday.

Umpire Amish Saheba, who was suspended for a match after criticizing Sreesanth’s behavior in an interview, had denied making any statement against Sreesanth when asked.

Nanavati is expecting to complete his investigation by Sunday and send the reports to the BCCI chief on Monday. Nanavati had also summoned Harbhajan and Sreesanth to Ahmedabad this weekend.

“I have summoned them. They have been told to come either on Friday or Saturday. Harbhajan will be coming on Friday. Sreesanth is yet to confirm a date,” he said on Monday.

Tags: Bhajji, Harbhajan, Harbhajan Singh, Mumbai, Slapping, Sree, Sreesanth

After the Harbhajan Sreesanth row, all are thinking about the Hummer plans of Harbhajan Singh. The legendary off spinner from India has announced to media that he was going to buy a Hummer, from the whopping Rs. 3.4 crore he had been paid to join the Mumbai Indians franchise at the IPL auction.

Harbhajan Singh has announced this after coming from Australia after winning the CB Tri-series.

Now after the row with Sreesanth he has been removed from IPL and this ban has cost him almost Rs 2.6 crore, so how will he going to purchase the Hummer, a tank like vehicle famous in US.

This incident has ignited the memory of the 1983 world cup final, in which India defeated West Indies and clinched the single world cup. In this match West Indies were so sure that they are going to win the match. Malcolm Marshall was so excited that just before the final was played, on June 25, he put a down payment on a BMW car. Rest of the story is buried under the history.

Tags: Bhajji, Cricket, Harbhajan, Harbhajan Singh, Harbhajan Sreesanth, IPL, Sreesanth

Harbhajan and Sreesanth row has added a new dirty scar to Indian Cricket history. Harbhajan Singh has been banned on Monday for the remainder of the current IPL season after Farokh Engineer, the match referee, found him guilty of slapping Sreesanth at the end of Mumbai Indians match against Kings XI Punjab on Friday, 25th April, 2008.

Cricket known for the gentleman’s play is no more left gentle. Harbhajan-Sreesanth case in IPL has assisted to loss all the respect of the Indian Cricket. The behavior of players was said to be terrible. The two are getting an image of aggressive and volatile players of India. If the two are on the field, there will be no surprise if anything unpredictable happens.

The two are always associated with controversies. Problems and trouble always run behind them to create cricket crisis. The behavior of both players had come under the scanner during the recent South Africa series in India, too when Harbhajan apologized to the South African batsman Ashwell Prince for abusing him during the third Test of the series in Kanpur last month.

Telling about his views on Sreesanth the South Africa coach Mickey Arthur said, “Sreesanth was just Sreesanth. Perhaps our players lost a lot of respect for him on the tour. He constantly abused AB de Villiers and it was very personal. But considering the general spirit in which the series was played, we didn’t feel strongly enough to complain.”

Arthur admitted that the behavior of Harbhajan and Sreesanth during the India series “was not great”. “When there are two such volatile players on the field, anything can happen,” Arthur said criticizing on the impulsive nature of the two players.

Recently the BCCI has also asked to give an explanation from umpire Amiesh Saheba for his remarks which he made to ‘Mumbai Mirror’. Saheba, one of the on-field umpires during the match in Mohali has been withdrawn by the governing council of the Indian Premier League from his next two matches.

He told the tabloid that he and his fellow umpire Aleem Dar had warned Sreesanth and he said that the fast bowler was “disliked in the Indian dressing room”. “Sreesanth was sledging Mumbai’s batsmen right from the start, “He was over the top throughout the match and was acting like a petulant schoolboy.

Saheba commented on irritable nature of Sreesanth and said “He is one of India’s main bowlers, and yet, he is not doing anything to get rid of that schoolboy image of his. His colleagues are not too happy with that.”

And now Harbhajan is paying a big loss for his mistake. The ban put on him is for 11 matches, including last Sunday’s game, extendable to 13 if Mumbai progress to the semi-final and final. He is fined 100% of his match fee for Friday’s game. He will now be paid only for the first two matches of the IPL.

However the assault was totally found unprovoked in the video tapes but Sreesanth was let off with a warning. Harbhajan has offered an apology and both were found embarrassed in front of the cameras after the hearing.

The incident gave a big jolt to Bhajji’s team. Sachin was out of the team because of his injury and after successive four loses, and now Harbhajan is also not there. The incident also gave trouble to the team’s coach. Video tapes revealed that Lalchand Rajput, the Mumbai Indians coach was right behind Harbhajan when the incident took place. He didn’t take any step to restrain him and has been fined 50% of his match fee.

Bhajji could also face further punishment from BCCI, which announced a separate probe into the incident and appointed lawyer Sudhir Nanavati to investigate the charges against Harbhajan, who is on its payroll as a centrally contracted player.

Within 15 days, Nanavati will submit his findings from which BCCI will decide on further action against the bowler. If he would be found guilty, he could be banned for life or five Test matches or 10 one-day internationals.

Although Sreesanth is the main bowler and Harbhajan is a good Indian spinner, the two should take care of their impulsive behavior. There is a need to learn from the past incidents and to remain cool and intellectual on the field.

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Tags: Bhajji, Cricket, Gopu, Harbhajan, Harbhajan Slapped, Indian Cricket, Slapped Sreesanth, Sree, Sreesanth

Mumbai Indian stand-in captain Harbhajan Singh on Saturday downplayed the controversy regarding him allegedly slapping S Sreesanth to bring the Kings XI Punjab pacer to tears, saying the issue “had been sorted out”.

Sreesanth said the incident as “shake hand on a wrong side” and said he would not file a complaint against him.

“Not exactly (slapped), it was a shake hand on a wrong side. I don’t want to file any complaint against him,” said Sreesanth who was seen bitterly crying on the ground last night.

After the Punjab team won the tenth IPL match on Friday night against Mumbai Indians by 66 runs, aggressive Harbhajan allegedly hit Sreesanth when the pace man said something to him but later Bhajji apologized him in the dressing room of the home team.

Harbhajan said that all things are sorted out now. Sreesanth, on his part, also said everything was “normal” between him and Harbhajan.

“A lot of things happen in a family. We are part of one family. I think a lot of things which are coming out in the media, whatever has happened we have sorted out all, everything is fine now,” Harbhajan said before leaving for Mumbai with his team this morning.

“Everything is normal, there is nothing between us,” said Sreesanth.

Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar, who missed the IPL matches because of his groin injury, gave no comments regarding the issue.

Harbhajan had preferred to maintain silence on the issue in the post match conference but Punjab team captain Yuvraj Singh had described the incident as “ugly”.

“I do not know what exactly happened but one does not want to see such things happening.” said Yuvi.

The pace man was seen crying bitterly on the ground at the end of the IPL match.

Harbhajan is known for his short tempered nature. There were lots of controversies associated with his name. Many times he loses his temper and got involved in offensive incidents on cricket ground. He must take care of his temper and should remain calm with players and on the cricket ground.

Tags: Harbhajan, IPL, Sachin, Slap, Sreesanth, Yuvraj

Sachin Tendulkar is not 100 per cent fit for the upcoming IPL tournament and feared to be a part of his Mumbai Indians team.

Groin injury is troubling Sachin which made him to miss the last two tests against South Africa also.

Sachin Tendulkar, Captain of Mumbai Indians, on Thursday said that his participation in the team’s opening match in Mumbai on Sunday is still doubtful. He said that final decision will be taken before the start of the match against Banglore Royal Challengers on Sunday.

“Whether I will be fit for the first match or not, we will assess before the start and depending on my condition we will take a decision. As of now we haven’t made any decision,” Tendulkar said in Mumbai at the launch of the team.

Sachin is much excited to lead Mumbai in IPL and looking forward for the challenge.

“It is a great challenge to captain Mumbai and I am looking forward to it. There will be challenges and there will be obstacles but those are the challenges we are looking to embrace and go out and give our best,” Tendulkar said.

Harbhajan will be the vice-captain of the team. It is first time Harbhajan is elected as vice captain for any match.

Harbhajan said he would continue to play in his aggressive style despite being pitted against some of his team mates in the IPL. The off-spinner says I will be more aggressive than before.

Australian cricket player Shane Warne has now retired to be the new face of 888.com. Visit here to see if his cricket skills match his poker skills!

Tags: Harbhajan, IPL, Mumbai, Sachin, Tendulkar

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

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