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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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One more senior player left the team at a time when team was facing criticism from all side. Anil Kumble, popularly known as Jumbo, the number one wicket tacker for Indian team in cricket history and number three till today, has announced the retirement from test cricket with immediate effect. He is not going to play in the fourth test match between India and Australia in Nagpur.

Kumble and Saurav Ganguly

In his absense Mahender Singh Dhoni, the ODI skipper of Team India will lead the team. The desicion of retirement came as a shock to the lovers of Kumble. He was facing criticism from all side due to his lack of performance in the on going Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Saurav Ganguly, one more former Indian skipper and great south-paw batsman has already announced his retirement from the cricket. Nagpur test is going to be his last appearence. The desicion of Kumble’s retirement was once again due to the pressure created by some sections of media on these senior players. It is true that new people are coming ahead with good performance, but still the way in which these senior players are forced to announce retirement is not good.

Dada, and then Kumble, both were served Indian team from last 15-20 years. There contribution to the team’s present status can never be justified by a few bad performances. But some section of media never allowed them to settle down. I am really feeling bad about the way in which these giants are saying bye to international cricket.

In his career, Kumble played in 132 test matches while he took 619 test wickets. He led the country in 14 test matches. He was behind Muralitharan (756) and Shane Warne (708), in case of number of test wickets is concerned.

Tags: Anil, Anil Kumble, Australia, Dada, Dhoni, Ganguly, India, Indian Skipper, Kumble, MS Dhoni, ODI, Saurav Ganguly, Skipper, Team India, Test Team

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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

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

Mohammad Kaif is back in the Indian team after a gap of 2 years, when he last played a test match against West Indies in 2006. Kaif has replaced the injured master blaster Sachin Tendulkar for the upcoming second test match between India and South Africa.

The 2nd test between India and South Africa is scheduled to begin from 3rd April to 7th of April in Ahmedabad. Sachin got the groin injury while playing in Australia. It got more painful on the fifth day of the first test between India and South Africa in Chennai. On the last day Sachin was coming in and out on the field.

Indian skipper Anil Kumble ‘Jumbo’ has confirmed his injury, adding that he has a tummy problem too.

Team India selectors has picked up Mohhamad Kaif for his place, while they ignored the in form Indian opener Gautam Gambhir. Gautam Gambhir has done quite well in the recent tour of Australia.

Over all no one is understanding why this decision has been taken by BCCI.

Tags: India, Kaif, Kumble, Sachin, South Africa, Tendulkar

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

After South Africa posted a huge score of 540 in its first innings on Second day of the first test at the M A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Thursday, India also replied the rivals with strong bat. India ended the day on 82 without any loss in 21 overs.

Virender Sehwag scored a sparkling half-century of 52 including 6 fours and a sixer. A brilliant start by Jaffer and Sehwag lead to a score of 82.

South African team has scored 304 runs at a loss of four on the first day. The team was dismissed all after making 540 runs today.

In the first session of the play, South Africa scored 100 runs on the board on the loss of single wicket in form of the overnight batsman De Villiers. He made 44 runs and bowled out at the ball of S Sreesanth and catch by Dhoni.

Hashim Amla had given his second highest test score of 159 with a marvelous century against India. Amla, 85 at Wednesday’s close has boosted SA to reach the target of 540. He completed his century after making 14 fours at 173 balls. He struck 20 boundaries from a total 262 balls of his play.

After Hashim, 70 runs by Boucher also helped to achieve the score. The other low order African batsmen couldn’t do much for the team.

From Indian team, Harbhajan emerged as the pick of bowlers claiming five wickets at 165 runs in 44.5 overs. Anil Kumble finished with 2 for 106 balls from 45.

Watch the full coverage of the day two of the first test between India and South Africa.

Tags: Amla, Harbhajan, India, Jaffer, Kumble, Sehwag, South Africa

After scoring 304 runs at a lose of four wickets in the first test against India on March 26, opening batsman Neil McKenzie told that South Africa will be looking to add another 100-150 runs on Thursday to push for a possible win in the series.

McKenzie who contributed sparkling 94 runs was happy with the start of the team scoring huge inning score but conceded that a lot of cricket was left in the match. But he is confident of getting big score by the remaining quality batsmen of the team.

“Still a long way to go. We have no illusions. Once the wicket gets to wear down, it will be difficult to bat on. I think another 100 to 150 runs tomorrow will be a good total and anything above that will be a bonus,” McKenzie, who added 132 for the opening wicket with Captain Graeme Smith, said after the match.

“We have dependable batsmen in Mark Boucher and AB De Villiers. If one of them comes up with a good individual score, it should be enough to fight our way for a possible win.” He added.

McKenzie said that it was a challenge to face high class spinners like Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh but his previous experience of conditions in the sub-continent helped him to fight but was a little disappointed

“I had toured the sub-continent (before). It is all down to experience,” the opener said.

“Paul Harris is a quality spinner, maybe not to the standards of Kumble or Harbhajan. If the same level of bounce that was there this morning continued in the Indian innings, Nitini and Morkel can be penetrative and trouble Indian batsmen,” he said.

“RP Singh bowled well in Australia but the Indian seamers did not get assistance from the wicket here today, though they played well as a unit,” he added.

The docile nature of the pitch rendered India’s pace bowlers largely ineffective, McKenzie said.

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

Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble have beaten the top batsman of the world by snatching 600 test wickets in his 18 year long carrier. No other bowler of the country has won more test matches than him.

Board of Control of Indian Cricket (BCCI) has presented ‘Golden Ball’ to honour Anil Kumble, the Indian captain in upcoming series against South Africa. All the players from India and South Africa are present in the function. Sharad Pawar presented ‘The Golden Ball’ to the test captain.

Pawar said,” Kumble have taken away 604 test wickets till date and Board is going to present ‘The Golden Ball’ to him for this achievement. Kumble is the first Indian Player to snatch more than 600 wickets in test matches. I believe that every Indian should proud of him. Board is also happy for his achievement and hence ‘The Golden Ball’ will be presented to him. 37 year old Kumble have variety of records in his lap. In 1999, he had made a record of taking away all the ten wickets of Pakistan in test cricket in Delhi. He became the second bowler who took off all the wickets in a single turn.”

Kumble has crossed the target of 600 wickets this year while Australian tour. For the time being he is after Australian Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralidharan of Sri Lanka in top bowlers list.

Tags: Anil Kumble, BCCI, Cricket, Kumble, Muttiah Muralidharan, Shane Warne, Sharad Pawar, Spin, Team India