The Axe Fell on Rahul Dravid
Oct 16, 2009 Sports
Yesterday itself I came out with a blog that the Indian team for the Australian series is soon going to be announced. And it was announced yesterday itself. Probably I am a little late in blogging this topic because I went in the mode of depression. I mean, how these selectors can drop Rahul Dravid after giving him chance in just few matches. Atleast they should have tried him for the Australian series and would have taken certain decisions.
A batsman of his caliber can not be dropped like this. Meanwhile he is performing brilliantly in the Champions Trophy that is going on side by side. In addition, he is looking in form, hitting sixes, and brilliant strokes all over the ground. Watching him bat again reminded me of his earlier days when he used to bat like a wall.
The best part is the Yuvraj and Sehwag managed to make their ways into the team and that will give more strength to the team, but this should not have been dine at the cost of the most consistent batsman of Indian team.
Here goes the team: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c), Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Munaf Patel, Sudeep Tyagi.
Tags: Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, Champions Trophy, Gautam Gambhir, Indian Team, Ishant Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c), Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Rahul Dravid, Ravindra Jadeja, Sachin Tendulkar, Sudeep Tyagi, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh
Wish the Best of Luck in Your Own Style to Team India!
Jun 5, 2009 Entertainment, India, Sports
Hey friends, I am creating this post for you people to wish a warm Best of Luck to the Team India. As you all are aware that 12 cricket playing nations India, Bangladesh, Ireland, Pakistan, England, Netherlands, Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sctland are going to fight for the World Cup in the Twenty 20 cricket format which is beginning today at England.
As you all are aware that Team India is the defending champions and other 11 countries are going to challenge them for the trophy. India is placed along with Bangladesh and Ireland in the Group A, while Pakistan, England and Netherlands are placed together in Group B. The most toughest group of the tournament is the Group C which contains Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies, while the Group D is containing New Zealand, South Africa and Scotland.
At the moment Team India is looking highly capable of retaining the Title. The team at the moment is a bunch of some highly talented youngsters along with some multi talented guys and captained by the Mr. Cool M. S. Dhoni. If you look at the top order then dashing opener Virender Sehwag is there with much talented Gautam Gambhir. This opening pair is the best of all the teams which are playing there. If you give an eye on the middle order then you can truly find India as the World Champions. Middle order of team India is having the firepower in the form of the King of Six Yuvraj Singh, most attacking batsman Suresh Raina, very dependable Rohit Sharma and the skipper himself. Along with them the team has the superb all rounders like Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja and Irfan Pathan. Now if you see the bowling attack then it too have the balance which is very much required for a World Champions team, the seam attack department is there in the hand of Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, highest wicket taker in the IPL 2009 Rudra Pratap Singh and much reliable Praveen Kumar, and then the spin attack is there in the hand of Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha. Remember the team has two batsman who can bowl brilliantly at crucial time, I am talking about Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma, Both has shown their talents in the IPL 2009 by taking the hat-trick in the tournament. Yuvraj Singh took 2 hat-tricks while Rohit Sharma took 1. Now if your team is having these type of players how can you assume them not to retain the trophy. Only thing which can damage the performance of the team India is the overconfidence, which they will have to take care of.
So friends, here is the space where you can wish the best of luck to your favorite Team India especially in your own style. You can post the comment here and this will show them how much you love them and how much you care about the world champions.
Tags: Australia, Bangladesh, Best of Luck, Best of Luck to Team India, Bhajji, Dhoni, England, Gambhir, Gautam Gambhir, Gauti, Harbhajan Singh, India, Indian Cricket Team, Ireland, Irfan, Irfan and Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, King of Six, M S Dhoni, Mahender Singh Dhoni, Mahi, MS Dhoni, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh, Sctland, Sehwag, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suresh Raina, T20, T20 World Cup, T20 World Cup 2009, Team India, Twenty 20, Twenty 20 Cricket, Twenty 20 World Cup, Twenty 20 World Cup 2009, Virender Sehwag, Viru, West Indies, Wish the Luck to Team India, World Champions, World Cup 2009, Yusuf, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan
Can India be able to retain the World Champions Title?
Jun 2, 2009 Sports
The big question of the moment is about the performance of the Indian cricket team in the upcoming Twenty 20 World Championship. It is a well known fact that India is the winner team of the 2007 Twenty 20 world cup, and they are looking as the most eligible contender for the 2009 title at the moment.
I am the biggest fan of the Indian cricket team, but still I have a doubt. I am feeling that there is something which this present team is missing. My doubt is getting more strength after seeing the defeat of the Indian team in the practice match against New Zealand. This practice match was played between India and New Zealand at Lord’s, London, on tomorrow 1st of June 2009.
Team India won the toss in the match and asked Kiwis to bat first, with the help of some brilliant knock by McCullum and Taylor Kiwis made 170 runs for 7 wickets in the 20 overs. Although the first wicket partnership between Gambhir and Rohit Sharma was of 42 runs that too in only 5 overs, but once Gambhir became out, wickets of Team India fell regularly and then despite the briliiant knock of 45 by Raina and unbeaten 41 by Ravindra Jadeja, Team india fell short of 9 runs.
Although it was a practice match and the power hitter like yuvraj Singh did not bat in the match, also India gave rest to the dashing opener Virendra Sehwag, still the defeat is causing concern in the mind of the followers. It is also true that Team India will not face many problem in going to the next round as they are in a safe group. Indian team has got the place in Group A along with the weak teams like Bangladesh and Ireland, so they won’t have to worry so much, but this format of cricket is very unpredictable and Bangladesh is a team which has a few times defeated us at a crucial moment.
Another matter of concern for me is the sideeffects of Indian Premiere League. Many international players like Rickey Ponting ignored IPL, but almost all Indian players from the present team were a part of around a month long tournament. Hence, almost all of them are feeling tired. Another big concern is the injury of Zaheer Khan, which is again the outcome of the IPL. Although Indian skipper MS Dhoni is saying that these issues are not going to affect the performance of the Indian team, and even Sachin Tendulkar is having the feeling that India will retain the championship.
So let’s wait and watch how Team India is going to fair in the Twenty 20 World Cup 2009.
Tags: Cricket World Cup, Dhoni, Gambhir, Gautam Gambhir, India, Indian Cricket Team, Indian Premiere League 2009, Indian Team, IPL, IPL 2, IPL 2009, Jadeja, McCullum, MS Dhoni, New Zealand, Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag, T 20 World Championship, T 20 World Cup, T 20 World Cup 2009, T20 World Cup, Team India, Tendulkar, Twenty 20 World Championship, Twenty 20 World Championship 2009, Twenty 20 World Cup, Twenty 20 World Cup 2009, Virender Sehwag, Viru, World Championship, World Cup, World Cup 2009, Yuvi, Yuvraj Singh
Team India lost the First Twenty20 against New Zealand!
Feb 25, 2009 Sports
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Nothing went in the favor of the Indian Team and they failed to capitalize the superb start given by Virender Sehwag. Team India first lost the toss and forced to bat on the moisture pitch. Although Indian skipper Dhoni insisted that he was looking for batting first, because it was the strength of the Indian team.
So India started the innings with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. They two provided the superb start for the team. Sehwag hit 3 sixes in three consecutive balls which he faced. They scored 19 runs in the very first over, which was a record for any team in Twenty 20 Internationals. But suddenly Team India lost the wicket of Gauti at the last ball of second over. It was a blow to the Indian team by O’Brian.
Raina joined the ground with Sehwag, and we thought that this pair will build up a bit of partnership, but O’Brian provided the much awaited break through to the Kiwis, in the form of the wicket of Virender Sehwag. He dismissed Sehwag in the very first ball of the fourth over. Then in the sixth over Rohit Sharma departs in the ball of Butler. Following them Yuvraj and skipper Dhoni the two powerful striker of Indian team fell cheaply and this brought Team India to a total of 61 for the loss of 5 wickets in 7.5 Overs.
After them it was Yusuf Pathan who hit 3 consecutive six in the ball of McCullam but Oram took his brilliant catch at the boundaries and this caused the sixth wicket fell of India. Irfan Pathan too fell cheaply while the score was 101 in 13.3 over’s.
It was the turn of Bhajji and Raina then and they brought India to a respectable total of 162 for the loss of 8 wickets. Harbhajan Singh became out on the last ball of the inning.
Kiwis too started badly and only 2 runs was scored by them in the very first over of Zaheer, in which there was one wide too. Then in the first ball of the second over Ishant Sharma dismissed Ryder, the dangerous opener of New Zealand. Thus Kiwis score reached to 2 runs for the loss of one wicket.
Guptill was the man who bring India to the back foot and he made a quick 41 runs in just 28 balls, he hit 4 boundaries and 3 six. He fell at the score of 56 in 6.4 over’s. He was dismissed by Bhajji in his very first over. After this Taylor made a fantastic 31 runs in 28 balls, in which he made one boundary and 3 six. He fell at the score of 106, in 13.2 over’s. It was the last moment of joy for the team India. Taylor was dismissed by Zaheer Khan, the main strike bowler of Team India. He did the splendid job but then he was not able to take any more wickets.
Finally it was McCullam and Oram who wrapped up the match with 7 balls left. Kiwis defeated the World Champions by 7 wickets but still Team India has a chance to level the series, the second match is scheduled on 27th February.
Tags: Bhajji, Butler, Dhoni, First Twenty20, Gautam Gambhir, Gauti, Guptill, Harbhajan Singh, India, India in New Zealand, India Vs Kiwis, India Vs New Zealand, Indian Team, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Kiwis, McCullam, New Zealand, O'Brian, Oram, Pathan, Raina, Ryder, Shewag, Skipper, Skipper Dhoni, Taylor, Team India, Twenty 20 Internationals, Twenty20 Match, Vettori, Virender Sehwag, Viru, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvi, Yuvraj, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer, Zaheer Khan
Two Days Four Good News for India!
Feb 1, 2009 Sports
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The Saturday evening and the Sunday morning brought some good news to India, which brought smile to many faces of the nation. These news are related to sports world, though these are proving the increasing power of India. Here are those:
India is shining in Hockey: India started the campaign in Punjab Gold Cup with a victory over New Zealand with a margin of 2-0. In Chandigarh Punjab Gold Cup is going on in between four countries India, New Zealand, Holland, and Germany. Yesterday India defeated New Zealand with the help of the goals by Sandeep Singh and Shivender Singh.
Yuvraj Singh and Ishant Sharma provided 2-0 lead in Sri Lanka: With the help of the powerful performances by Yuvi and Ishant Sharma Team India defeated Sri Lanka in the second ODI Yesterday, which gave them a 2-0 lead in the series. It was the unfortunate decision which costs the wicket of Yuvi otherwise he was looking to build a century against Lankan who were already lost the first ODI against India. Later on Kandambi fight till the last over but that was not sufficient for them.
Yuki Bhambri provided the Grand Slam taste to India: This is really big news, first time a grand slam award to India that too in singles category. Although it is in junior category only but this little Yuvraj of Indian tennis has proved his potential and he has a huge aspect in the coming days.
Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi won Australian Opens Mixed Double Final: The Sunday morning came with huge news of Sania and Bhupathi winning the Australian Open Mixed Doubles title. They defeated Nathalie Dechy (from France) and Andy Ram (from Israel) in Melbourne by 6-3 and 6-1. This is the maiden Grand Slam title for the tennis sensation of India Sania Mirza, although this is the seventh title of Mahesh Bhupathi.
Thus a few good starts at the beginning of the year is clearly indicating that India is going to rule in the year 2009.
Tags: Australian Open Mixed Double Final, Bhambri, Cricket News, Germany, Grand Slam Victory, Hockey News, Hockey Victory of India, Holland, India Beat Sri Lanka, India in Australian Open, Indian victory in hockey, Ishant Sharma, Kandambi, Kandamby, Mahesh Bhupathi, Mixed Double Title, New Zealand, ODI victory, Punjab Gold Cup, Sandeep Singh, Sania Mirza, Second ODI, Shivender Singh, Sports, Sports News India, Sri Lanka, Tennis News, Yuki Bhambri, Yuvi, Yuvraj Singh
India will Play First One Day International after two months!
Jan 27, 2009 Sports
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Team India is visiting Sri Lanka for a short tour of five One Day Internationals and a Twenty Twenty match. They are scheduled to play the first ODI against Lanka in Dambulla on 28th January 2009. The match is scheduled at 10 AM local time.
Team India is playing limited over cricket match after a gap of around two months. It was the 26th November 2008, when India were playing against England team, and the same time a few terrorists attacked in Mumbai, thus England team returned back to the England without playing the last two One Day Internationals.
Though, in that series India defeated England by a margin of 5-0. Before that India defeated Sri Lanka in Lanka by a margin of 3-2.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka recently played in Bangladesh and then in Pakistan, and only lost the first match against Pakistan. Other than that match they won the 6 matches.
So the two team are almost equivalent and both the skippers are considering it as the toughest series. With the strong batting line up like Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, and Dhoni Team India is looking a bit stronger than Lankan team, on the other hand with M factors and with the absence of Harbhajan Singh Sri Lankan team is looking much stroger from the bowling point of view.
Both Mendis and Murali are running on a superb form and the absence of the senior off-spinner Bhajji Team India is looking a bit weak. Although, Sehwag and Gambhir has said that they are ready to face Mendis this time and they will perform well against them. One thing is sure that this series is going to create some excitement.
Please visit www.cricnews.in for more updates on First ODI between India and Sri Lanka, and also visit www.cricketupdates.in for the Live Updates of first ODI between India and Sri Lanka in Dambulla.
Tags: Ajantha Mendis, and Chanaka Welegedara, Angelo Mathews, Chamara Kapugedera, Chamara Silva, Dambulla International Stadium, Dhoni Brigade, Dilhara Fernando, Farveez Maharoof, Gautam Gambhir, India, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Jehan Mubarak, Kumar Sangakkara, Live Cricket, Live Cricket News, Live Cricket Updates, Live ODI, Live Score, Live Updates, Mahela Jayawardene, Mahela Udawatte, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Malinga Bandara, Munaf Patel, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nuwan Kulasekara, ODI Score, One Day International, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka, Suresh Raina, Team India, Team Sri Lanka, Thilan Thushara, Thilina Kandamby, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Virender Sehwag, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan
Is everything ok with Irfan Pathan and Dhoni?
Nov 24, 2008 Sports
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Big question at the moment of every Indian cricket lover is the same. Is everything ok with Irfan Pathan and the skipper of Indian team Mahender Singh Dhoni. A report from a news channel recently caused this havoc a few days back, that there is a rift in between the skipper and the national selectors.
Irfan Pathan and Dhoni
Skipper MS Dhoni offered his resignation a few days back on the issue of selection of Irfan Pathan in the team in place of Rudra Pratap Singh. Every cricket lover in India is worried about this question and they are praying to the God that it should not be true.
Although Team India has won the Hero Honda Cup against England last night only, cause they have taken a lead of 4-0 in the series and now a few players will sure to get the chance on the next three matches who are not in the present playing eleven. This type of the news of rift can only cause the demoralization of the players rather than doing any thing good for India.
People are aware from the fact that MS Dhoni and RP Singh are close friends, but Dhoni should also remember this thing that he is the captain of the Indian National team. He should not bring his friendships in between the selection procedure. We can understand that this might be a rumor of the media but if it is true then Dhoni should take a look at this, because this will hurt his image only.
If he was backing Yuvraj Singh during the day of the bad form, then too it was your friendship with him, but as Yuvraj regained his form and that too in a terrific way then no one will put the finger on you, but if you are supporting some one who is not performing well then every one is going to put finger on you.
We wishes Team India a good luck for the coming remaining three ODI matches of the Hero Honda Cup, while we would like to congratulate them too for defeating them by a margin of 4-0.
Tags: Captain, Dhoni, Dhoni and Pathan, England, Hero Honda Cup, India, Irfan Pathan, Mahender Singh Dhoni, MS Dhoni, Rdura Pratap Singh, RP Singh, Skipper, Team India, Yuvraj, Yuvraj Singh
Future of Saurav Ganguly!
Oct 1, 2008 Sports
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
Chennai Super Kings won by 33 runs in second IPL Match!
Apr 19, 2008 Sports
Chennai Super Kings have beaten Kings XI Punjabs by 33 runs while the second match of DLF Indian Premiere League (IPL) ends today in Mohali. Watch the full coverage of the match by clicking here.
Kings XI Punjab, co-owned by bubbly Bollywood actress Preity Zinta and her boy-freind Ness Wadia was leaded by Yuvraj Singh while Chennai Super Kings is owned by India Cements, captained by M S Dhoni.After winning the toss by Chennai Super Kings, Dhoni decided to bat first.
Hussey’s century lead Chennai stars to knock a big score of 240. He gave his fast century within 50 balls only. He knocked 8 fours and 9 sixes contributing a magnificent score of 116 runs in just 54 balls, not out.
Hussey got able support from Hayden, Raina and S Badrinath to build up partnership. Rana contributed 32 runs to the team. Oram (13) was dismissed by Pathan while Badrinath with 31 runs stay on the pitch along with Hussey till end of the 20th over. Of course he is the man of the match.
Openers Hayden (26) and Patel (15) were sent back to pavilion soon while captain Dhoni (2) was dull on the ground.
On the other side, Punjab batsmen start a steady start against a huge target of 241. The opener Goel gave 24 before he was dismissed by Gony. Hopes gave a little hope to win. He made 71 runs making his half century but was then departed soon.
Captain Yuvi tried his efforts but could make only 23 while chasing the big challenge and the team lost the momentum after his depart. Sangakkara making his half century contributed 54 runs but the team was unable to reach near the target.
Pathan (3) and Katich (21) were the last pair struggling to win but couldn’t catch the winning flags.
Dhoni and Yuvraj who are great friends off-field were playing like rivals on the field. Preity who was much excited for the match and for her team must get disappointed after the loss.
Tags: Chennai Super, Dhoni, IPL, Kings, Kings XI, Mahender Singh Dhoni, Mahi, Super Kings, Yuvi, Yuvraj, Yuvraj Singh
Vengsarkar upset with Yuvraj’s performance!
Mar 7, 2008 Sports
The chief selector of Indian team and the former captain Dilip Vengsarkar is very upset with Yuvraj’s performance. He asked the player to be consistent.
It was Vengsarkar who had placed the young blood in the team for the Australia tour and his decision is highly admired after winning the tri-series by the Indian team. The boys are highly confident and had done well. They outshone marvellous performance as new comers on the ground.
Vengsarkar said that Yuvraj has been in the team for 8 long years and if he couldn’t perform well then he himself is responsible for that.
“I am disappointed as I always had expectations from him. Yuvraj needs to be more consistent. He is a great talent but he has to perform to his potential,” said Vengsarkar of the middle-order batsman who scored 202 runs from nine matches in the tri-series.
Vengsarkar didn’t comment on the rotation policy to give chances to some players who are cooling their heels due to injury.
On the other side, Vengsarkar praised the Indian Captain. He said,”Dhoni has really matured as a skipper, he handled the situation very well. Most important, he believes in his players”.
But why Yuvraj is still in the team in spite of his below average performance on the ground is not understandable? Does his friendship with captain Dhoni is the only reason??
Related story: Dilip Vengsarkar is angry with Yuvraj Singh!
Tags: India, Team India, Yuvraj Singh
