Archive for February, 2010
England won the first ODI against Bangladesh played at Dhaka on Sunday by six wickets. Tamim Iqbal’s century won him the match of the match, but with no-one to support him through the entire duration of the innings, the Bangladeshis lost quite easily.
Iqbal’s 125 came off 120 balls, but apart from him, the highest score belonged to Naeem Islam, who got to 25. The rest of the hosts capitulated rather easily to Graeme Swann’s 3/32 in his ten overs, in which did not conceded a single boundary.
In reply to the Bangladeshi total of 228 all out, Alastair Cook played a nice captain’s innings of 64, while Paul Collingwood scored an unbeaten 75 to guide the visitors through. Naeem Islam also picked up three wickets, but again, there was no support for him from the other bowlers.
The second game of the series will be played on Tuesday.
When Brendon McCullum smashed his 116 not-out against Australia at Christchurch in the second T20I, he became only the second cricketer in the history of T20I cricket to slam a century.
The first ever batsman to score a century in T20Is is Chris Gayle, and he still holds the record for the highest individual score in T20Is. He had scored 117 against South Africa at Johannesburg in Wanderers in the ICC World T20 in 2007.
Gayle’s 117 had come off 57 balls, whereas McCullum scored his 116 off 56 balls.
The third-highest score in a T20I by an individual batsman is an unbeaten 98 by Ricky Ponting, who has retired from T20I cricket, followed by Tillakaratne Dilshan, Damien Martyn, Loots Bosman and Hershelle Gibbs – all of whom have scores of 90 and above.
Gautam Gambhir’s 75 in the final of the ICC World T20 in 2007 is the highest individual score in T20Is by an Indian.
The Australian players may decided to come for the Indian Premier League after it was found that the security threat issued by the extremist elements not very creditable. However, what could still work against the players is that the IPL has yet to provide commitment regarding the security at all the venues.
Tim May, the head of the international body for cricketers, said that while it was found that security threat was not creditable, there could still be mass withdrawals if the security plan did not get implemented as it was promised to the players.
May said that their understanding was that BCCI had done it before and that they could provide that kind of a security. However, he did add that if the situation did not improve there was a good chance that the players may not still agree to tour.
He said, “We would love to tell the players it is okay for them to go. But we can’t give that assurance at the moment, because no one will say definitively that the security plan will be implemented at each of the venues.”
New Zealand beat Australia in a thrilling second T20I encounter at Christchurch on Sunday via the Super Over. The match ended in a tie after the stipulated twenty overs and went into the Super Over, in which New Zealand chased down the target of seven that was set for them.
Batting first, the Kiwis were propelled to a total of 214/6 thanks to a whirlwind of a century by Brendon McCullum. McCullum’s unbeaten 116 came off only 56 balls and consisted of eight sixes and 12 boundaries and was supported by the other wicket-keeper in the side, Gareth Hopkins. Hopkins made 36 in 17 before falling on his stumps and getting out hit-wicket.
The Aussie reply was typically brash, with Dave Warner smashing a 10-ball 20 and Brad Haddin getting to 47. David Hussey did not trouble the scorers too much and at 132/3 in the 14th over, the Aussies needed 85 off 39 balls.
Cameron White joined Michael Clarke and smashed a 26-ball 64 to get to within three runs of a win off the last ball but the team managed to score only 2.
The match ended in a tie, went into the Super Over and saw Australia scoring only six runs. New Zealand knocked off the requisite runs off four balls only. McCullum was the obvious man of the match.
This was Australia’s first loss of the summer, and the two teams now play in ODIs and Tests.
Chasing 366 for a win at Ahmedabad was never going to be easy for the Indians, and especially not so in the absence of some of their main guns. No Sehwag, no Tendulkar and no Yuvraj in the batting line-up meant that the Indians capitulated to a 90-run loss in the third and the final ODI, yet going on to win the series 2-1.
Murali Vijay showed his ample repertoire of crisp strokeplay at the top of the order, while Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma held out well to give hope to those fans trying to look into the future of Indian cricket with knocks of 57 and 48.
However, the mounting asking rate and the lack of personnel in the middle order meant that the Indians fell ample short of the victory – 90 runs – and were bowled out for 275 in the 45th over. Dhoni scored nine.
AB de Villiers’ stunning, almost daredevilish century that came off 59 deliveries, that turned the game around for South Africa and propelled their total from what looked like a 300 plus one to 365 won him the man of the match while Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the man of the series for the series-turning double century.
South Africa gave one back to India by smashing 365/2 in the fifty overs thanks to centuries from Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers and half centuries by Hashim Amla and Loots Bosman.
Batting first after winning the toss, the South Africans began well thanks to Bosman’s hard hitting 68 off 47 balls. Amla continued with his good batting form, which made his exclusion from the first game of the series even more puzzling, and got to 87. But it was the unbeaten 173-run third wicket stand between the two centurions, Kallis and de Villiers that got them to this total in the end.
The 173 runs came off 17.1 overs only making it one of the quickest partnerships of this magnitude.
With most of the Indian mainstream players resting from the game, the senior-most bowler was S. Sreesanth who ended with 83 runs off nine overs, while Tyagi and Mithun, both went for 7.4 and 7.9 runs per over.
Loots Bosman smashed a 36-ball half century as South Africa took full toll of the weak Indian bowling in the third ODI between India and South Africa at Ahmedabad. He went on to score 68 before succumbing to temptation of hitting another six off Yusuf Pathan in the 16th over of the innings.
At the other end, Hashim Amla was on 43, when the reports last came in, and South Africa were 113/1 in 15.4 overs.
Bosman innings of 68 came off only 46 balls and consisted of four sixes and seven other hits to the fence and fulfilled his nickname of Hammer that he has come to live with!
Jacques Kallis was the new batsman at the crease.
The South Africans have won the toss and elected to bat first in the third and the final ODI at Ahmedabad. The Proteas have already lost the series 0-2, and will look for a consolation win against India before both the sides get into the T20I mode.
It is apparent that the Ahmedabad wicket is a dry one, given that both the captains, Jacques Kallis and MS Dhoni made a comment on the same during the toss. However, given that the dew will be a factor while India bats second, it remains to be seen whether they will be affected by the same.
India is already with Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, both of whom are rested. Apart from the pair, Ashish Nehra has also been given a break. Murali Vijay and Abhimanyu Mithun will make their debuts in the game.
India’s XI:
M Vijay, KD Karthik, V Kohli, RG Sharma, MS Dhoni, SK Raina, YK Pathan, RA Jadeja, A Mithun, S Sreesanth, S Tyagi
South Africa’s XI:
HM Amla, LL Bosman, JH Kallis, AB de Villiers, HH Gibbs, MV Boucher, J Botha, RE van der Merwe, DW Steyn, M Morkel, LL Tsotsobe
Former Pakistani pace bowler, Waqar Younis has been offered the role of the coach of the Pakistani cricket team. The contract has been offered to him by the PCB till December 2011, and it is widely expected that Younis will accept the offer.
The Pakistan Cricket Board chief, Ejaz Butt, confirmed that they would like Younis to join the team and the offer has been made. He also added that they were waiting for the former bowler to get back with a reply soon. If Younis did take up the offer, he would be the side’s fourth coach in three years, in a list that has late Bob Woolmer, Geoff Lawson and Intikhab Alam as the three previous coaches.
There is also a good chance that former Pakistan batsman, Ijaz Ahmed, will join the team as a fielding coach and the two – Ijaz and Waqar – will work in tandem with the Pakistani boys.
It is believed that Younis has some minor issues with the contract that was offered to him, and the contract is currently under a review. However, there is nothing major in the contract that could stop Younis from becoming the coach of the side, and replacing Intikhab. Surprisingly, not a word about Alam has been spoken by the cricket board, given that his contract as a coach has yet to finish.
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has given the green signal for Dave Warner’s switch-hit on Saturday, saying that he felt it was within the purview of the game.
Earlier, there had been a controversy regarding Warner’s ability to switch-hit as the umpires had disallowed him from playing that stroke in the first T20I between Australia and New Zealand on Friday. Both, his captain Michael Clarke and Vettori gave a clearance to Warner to continue using the same tactic and that it should not be a problem.
However, the players are generally divided in their opinion about whether or not the law related to switch-hit is legal, with some citing the example of how bowlers could not bowl with either hand once they had chosen the way they were to bowl. The bowlers, according to some experts, should also be allowed to take advantage of the rule.
Vettori did add that the switch-hit rule was valid till the wide rule and the LBW rule was also valid for the same.
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