England Can End Year On High With T20 Win Over West Indies

England round off what has been a magnificent 2011 with a two match T20 series against the West Indies in which they will be looking to continue the winning ways they have found over the past nine months.

England of course are the world T20 champions having won the tournament for the first time last year when hosted by the West Indies. Indeed, it was the West Indies who inflicted England’s only defeat in that tournament which came in the opening Group stages, but it did not prevent Paul Collingwood’s men go from strength to strength, who beat Sri Lanka and Australia in the semi final and final respectively.

Unfortunately this latest two match series has been hampered from being a top quality event, due the ‘Windies’ having lost many of its first team players to the T20 Champions League which is taking place in India this week. Players out include the big hitting all rounder, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne and Darren Bravo and Lendl Simmons. Their absences have meant that the team has arrived with a number of unknown and untried players which should, in theory at least, make the job that much easier for England.

England however are also not at full strength; they have lost new T20 skipper, Stuart Broad through injury, the vice captain, Eoin Morgan is also out injured, while Kevin Pietersen, who won ‘Player of the T20 World Cup’ last year has been given time off. The absences of these influential players is by no means a disadvantage however, as it gives the England management to send in a number exciting prospects into the fray and it also provides an opportunity for highly influential spinner, Graeme Swann to take his first bow as an England captain.

England’s line up will include a very strong bowling attack, with both Jimmy Anderson and Tim Bresnan expected to be selected, along with Samit Patel, Jade Dernbach and of course Swann. Opening alongside wicket keeper Craig Kieswetter, will be his Somerset team mate, Jos Buttler, who ironically is also a wicket keeper/batsman and there should be places for Alex Hales, Johnny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Ravi Bopara, who played so well for England in the ODI series against India this summer.

The first of the two games takes place at the Oval on Friday 23^rd September, which is followed by the second, also at the Oval on Sunday.

Comparing the two teams it looks almost certain that England will have too much firepower with both bat and ball than the visitors, which probably will mean that the best bet would be to back England to win 2-0 with odds of 5/6 in the T20 Odds for this two game series. West Indies fans however will not be too discouraged by the betting and there will be many who will take advantage of the 7/1 against them winning the series by the same 2-0 scoreline.

England Cricketers Take Step To Becoming World's Number One Test Nation

It looked for all the money in the world that at 124/8 on the first day, England were going to get routed in the second test against India, then of course in stepped Stuart Broad ably assisted by his Nottinghamshire team mate, Graeme Swann.

The two proceeded to bash the ball around, knocking out a 73 run partnership, which gave the score a touch of respectability, but by no means put England into a winning position. The innings was eventually concluded at 221 all out with Broad making 64 and it was he who was to star again with the ball when India took to the crease in their first innings.

Before the Broad bowling show really began however India, inspired by a second successive test hundred by Rahul Dravid had gone well past the England total on 267 for 4, with Yuvraj Singh on 62. Broad charged down and delivered Yuvraj a peach off a ball which caught the faintest edge of his bat and was snapped up by Matt Prior behind the stumps. It ended a 128 partnership and began what was for Broad one of the most exciting spells of bowling he has ever experienced. Six runs later it was the turn of captain MS Dhoni, caught in the slips by Anderson, Harbhajan Singh went somewhat unluckily next ball LBW and Broad completed the hat trick by bowling Praveen Kumar with a jaffa.

To make matters worse for India, Dravid went next over off the bowling of Tim Bresnan and Broad rounded the Indian reply off by claiming his sixth wicket having Sharma Caught by Bell. India however finished at 288 all out and still had a very useful lead of 67 runs. Broad achieved his best test match bowling figures of 6 for 46.

With England needing a solid start to their second innings were rocked by the news that Jonathan Trott who had injured himself when fielding was in no position to bat when play resumed the following day. This meant that Ian Bell would take over at number three and he was soon needed after Cook was out early once again. Cook and Strauss put on fifty for the second wicket before Strauss was out caught in the slips after wafting outside his off stump.

Bell was joined at the crease by Kevin Pietersen and it was these two that batted England into a seriously strong position. Bell batted brilliantly, he was always at his fluent best and scored the lions share in what became a 162 partnership between the two for the third wicket before Pietersen got out on 63 caught behind.

Bell remained solid and was joined by Eoin Morgan and the two also went on to put on a stand of over 100 runs. However Bell was involved in a controversial run out decision after the final ball before tea. Believing that Morgan had hit the ball for four, Bell walked off the field for his well earned break, however, the ball had in fact not quite reached the boundary and was thrown back into the crease where the bails were removed and an appeal for a run out was made. Although this was clearly an unintentional mistake by Bell the umpire was not particularly keen to give him out so referred he the decision to the third umpire, Billy Bowden who decided that Bell was out, much to the chagrin of the England dressing room. However, during the tea interval England captain Andrew Strauss and Coach Andy Flower met with MS Dhoni and Indian coach where it was agreed that the appeal for Bell’s dismissal would be scratched, which resulted in Bell returning to the crease after the break.

It was a magnificent sporting gesture by Dhoni particularly as England were beginning to put themselves into an obvious winning position and Bell was already on 139 runs.

Bell however did not last too much longer and got out on 159, an innings that appeared to inspire those following on, Morgan was out for 70, Prior for 73, Bresnan made a superb 90 while Broad weighed in again with 44. England therefore finished on a huge total 544 which left India 477 runs to win. A total as it happened that proved far too daunting for them.

India’s last innings reply was poor with the visitors capitulating for just 158 runs with only Tendulkar (56), Harbhajan (25) and Kumar (44) getting into double figures. Bresnan took his best test match figures too with a fantastic 5-48.

England thus, from being in dire straits in the first innings came back magnificently and won the second test in just four days by a massive 319 runs. This has given them a 2-0 lead in the four match series and a huge opportunity to go top of the ICC World Rankings, the cricket odds have England an un-backable 1/20 to now win the series but can be backed to win 4-0 at 3/1 whilst 3-0 is the favoured outcome at 9/4. Needless to say Broad was voted Man of the Match after taking eight match wickets and scoring over 100 runs over the course of the test.

Hampshire Favourites As Friends Life T20 Reaches Quarter Final Stage

The annual Friends Provident T20 tournament has finally reached the business end with the draw now confirmed for the quarter finals. The four matches will all be played between 6-8 August to decide which four teams go forward to finals day at Edgbaston on Saturday 27th August.

The draw has seen the defending champions and winners of Group South Hampshire pitched against Durham Dynamos who finished fourth in Group North. The other three ties will see the runners up in group north, Leicestershire against the third place team from group south, Kent Spitfires, while group north winners, Nottinghamshire Outlaws will take on the fourth team in group south Somerset. The fourth match brings together group south runners up, Sussex against Lancashire, the third place team in group north.

It is completely understandable why Hampshire are the favourites to win the tournament for a second successive year after they dominated group south this season with 11 wins and only two defeats. They are drawn at home against Durham where they have remained unbeaten all season, which is as good a reason as any why Bookmakers have made them 8/13 odds on favourite to win a place through to finals day and current head the Twenty 20 odds.

Next best in the betting are the Nottinghamshire Outlaws who won Group North in equally convincing style as Hampshire had won Group South, winning eleven and losing only twice all season. They managed to make finals day last year but were knocked out by Somerset in the last four. Some of their success is down to several high scores achieved in the group and by some excellent batting from Adam Voges and Alex Hales who have scored 470 and 466 runs respectively this season so far. Darren Pattinson has also been an important player for them taking 22 wickets in 15 matches played.

To win their quarter final however they will need to avenge last season’s semi defeat as they will be taking on Marcus Trescothick’s Somerset in what looks to be the tie of the round, with very little between them in the betting.

Quarter Final Draw:

6^th August - Leicestershire Foxes v Kent Spitfires

7^th August - Nottinghamshire Outlaws v Somerset

7^th August - Hampshire Royals v Durham Dynamos

8^th August - Sussex Sharks v Lancashire Lightning

This year’s tournament has seen some remarkable individual performances, Leicestershire batsman Andrew McDonald finished as top run getter through the group stages with a massive 510 runs from 15 innings. He averaged over 63 runs per innings and had a very useful strike rate of over 127.

The highest individual score came from Kevin O’Brien of Gloucestershire with 119 runs scored against Middlesex which came off just 52 balls and included eleven sixes. This innings helped gave Gloucestershire a total of 254 off 20 overs, the highest total in the history of domestic T20 cricket. His superb knock should come as no surprise as O’Brien holds the world record for the fastest century ever scored at a World Cup, which came earlier this year when he thumped a hundred off just 50 balls against England.

Top wicket taker so far is Tim Phillips of Essex with 26 wickets at a very impressive average of 13.23. He had an economy rate of just over 7 runs per over and had best figures of 4/41. The best individual bowling figures in fact came from Arul Suppiah of Somerset when he took six Glamorgan wickets for just 5 runs off just 22 balls.

England look to secure Ashes victory with third Test win in Perth

England, cock-a-hoop after their victory in the second test in Adelaide last week come into this third test at the WACA in Perth hoping to secure the win that will see them retain the Ashes. They will do so however having lost key bowler/all rounder, Stuart Broad, who has been forced out of the tour following a nasty looking stomach muscle injury.

His absence means a change in the England attack with either one of Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad or Chris Tremlett coming in to replace him. These three will have the advantage of playing in the warm up game against Melbourne this weekend, where it looks likely that a straight shoot-out between the three will be the means in which the selection will be made.

England however in their wisdom have also released new ball bowler, Jimmy Anderson to return home to England to be present at the birth of his baby, a decision that many construe as naive. Anderson therefore will have to take two 24 hour flights within days of the test which could have serious repercussions for the team. A jaded Anderson will be nothing like the force he usually is meaning that England will hope that the baby is born sooner rather than later and that his return will be made in plenty of time for him to recover before 15^th December.

As it stands the only England change anticipated is the replacement for Broad, but it has been mooted that Bresnan, who is a genuine all rounder should come into the side as the automatic replacement for Broad. His presence will undoubtedly stiffen the England tail and that either Shahzad or Tremlett also come into the side at the expense of Paul Collingwood, who is probably the only England batsman who is not in obvious good form. Obviously, wicket-keeper, Matthew Prior would move up the order to number six, with Ian bell being given the much more responsible number five berth, with Bresnan coming in at seven.

The other batting alternative that has been suggested is that Collingwood is replaced by Eoin Morgan, who could come in at number six, with Bell once again being given the number five spot.

England have not won a test match at the WACA since 1978, when they were led by Mike Brearley, since then they have drawn twice but have lost on their last five visits to Perth. A record that does not auger well, particularly against an Australian side that will be looking to make a big comeback following the second test defeat.

Australia too will need to make a couple of changes due to an Achilles injury suffered by opener Simon Katich and the ineffectiveness of spinner, Xavier Doherty. It would appear that Katich, who, like Broad for England, will be out for the rest of the series will be replaced by Phillip Hughes of New South Wales. Hughes was dropped after playing two Ashes tests in England in 2009, due to his inability to deal with England attack. Prior to that series however, he was being hailed as the Virender Sehwag of Australian cricket due to his very attacking approach to the game.

Should Hughes be selected alongside Shane Watson, then it would mean that Australia will use two very attack minded players to open the innings – which could of course play right into England’s hands! It seems certain that spinner, Nathan Hauritz will be recalled to replace Doherty.

In the ashes correct score betting an England 2-1 victory is the favoured outcome with three tests remaining, followed by England 2-0 and 3-0 wins, a quite unusual circumstance the England team finds itself in and one in which fans are hoping the expectation levels won't get to the team.

Betting points towards a competitive ICC World Cup in 2011

Looming large on the 2011 international cricket calendar is the ICC ODI Cricket World Cup, which will take place on the Asian continent between 19^th February and 2nd April. The host nations this year will be India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, with Bangladesh hosting the opening ceremony and India the final. Pakistan, who was also elected to be a host, lost that right following the terrorist attacks that took place in Lahore during the 2009 Sri Lankan tour.

This will be the tenth time that the tournament has taken place, but it will be the first time that it will be hosted in Asia. The defending champions are Australia, who has won the tournament on the last three occasions and on four occasions since the tournament came into being in 1975. Other tournament winners have been the West Indies twice with India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka all winning once.

The Australians should, in theory at least, come into the tournament well prepared as they will arrive in the wake of their ODI series against England, which has followed the Ashes series played between the two countries. England too will be well set and looking to add the crown to their Twenty20 World Cup victory which they achieved earlier this year. The nearest England has come to winning the ODI World Cup was finishing runners up three times, in 1979, 1987 and 1992.

The format for the 2011 tournament has change from that of 2007; The 2011 ODI World Cup will see 14 competing teams, divided into two groups of seven, who will play each other on a ‘round robin’ basis. The top four teams from each group will go through to the quarter finals from which time the tournament will be decided on a straight knock out basis. The two groups of seven have been drawn as follows:

Group A

Australia

Canada

Kenya

New Zealand

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Zimbabwe

Group B

Bangladesh

England

India

Ireland

Netherlands

South Africa

West Indies

The World Cup has many startling records and record holders, none more so than that of Sachin Tendulkar. The Indian master batsman, is the highest run scorer of the tournament, with 1796 runs scored between 1992-2007. He also holds the record for the total number of runs scored in an individual tournament with 673 runs scored in 2003. The highest individual score however goes to South African, Gary Kirsten who scored a magnificent 188 in 1996 when playing against the UAE. The Highest average record however lies with Sir Vivian Richards of the West Indies, who averaged over 63 runs per match between 1975 and 1987.

As far as the bowling records are concerned it is Glenn McGrath, Glenn McGrath, Glenn McGrath and Glenn McGrath. The brilliant Australian seamer holds the record of most wickets taken with 71, he has the lowest average of 19.21 runs per wicket, he has the best bowling figures of 7/15, which he took against Namibia in 2003 and he also holds the record of taking most wickets in an individual tournament, which was 26 in 2007.

Adam Gilchrist, the former Australian wicket keeper, holds the record for the most dismissals with 39, while current Australian captain, Ricky Ponting holds the record of most catches with 24.

The highest team score in the World Cup was recorded by India in 2007, who smashed their way to 413 in 2007 against Bermuda, with Virender Sehwag top scoring with 114 of just 86 balls. The lowest score however was the embarrassing 36 that Canada scored in their match against Sri Lanka in 2003.

The cricket world cup odds ahead of the tournament have India as the clear favourites with Australia, Sri Lanka, England and South Africa not far behind. Only two point in the betting separate the the top five with India a 4/1 chance and South Africa and England 6/1. Add Pakistan to the mix at 8/1 and this promises to be a competitive tournament, one of which any of those teams will fancy their chances.

Is Graeme Swann the key to an England Ashes victory?

There are several cricketing plaudits who have tipped England to retain the Ashes in the latest series which starts later this month in Australia. However, most have added a caveat to their predictions by adding England will win provided Graeme Swann stays fit and bowls at his best down under.

It must have been very unnerving for them and for all English cricket fans for that matter therefore, when they learned that the brilliant off spinner had damaged a finger on his bowling hand during net practice at the weekend. The players and staff have been quick to confirm that the injury is not too serious and needed only minor strapping and that Swann was almost certain to play in the forthcoming warm up match against West Australia on Friday.

Swann is undoubtedly pivotal to England’s chances of bringing back the urn from Australia for the first time since 1987. Since making his Test debut against India in December 2008, the 31 year old has gone on to play in 24 test matches, taking 113 wickets for just 26.55 runs apiece, he is currently ranked as the best spin bowler in the world and the second best bowler in the world of any kind. He has become the real talisman of the England team over the last year or so.

He has taken five wickets in a test match nine times already, including twice against Pakistan in the recent 3-1 series victory in England. He also took a ten wicket haul earlier in the year against Bangladesh finishing with match figures of 10/217. His performances this year earned him the ECB cricketer of the year award.

In the 2009 Ashes series in England, Swann easily proved himself to be the best spinner of either side, taking 14 wickets at an average of 40, he also took seven Australian wickets in the recent five match ODI series also played in England, which the home team won by 3-2.

What makes Swann such a danger as well as a potential Ashes series winner is his ability to know when to attack. He appears to have discovered more ways to dismiss batsmen than other off-spinners, which he continues to prove time and time again. He has a phenomenal ability to bowl very quick off-spin without ever losing the spin on the ball, which only very few off-spin bowlers have managed to achieve; this quick ball has become a key weapon in his comprehensive armoury. He is also a great studier of batting technique and the Australian batsmen can be certain that he will have spent long hours looking for their weaknesses and that he will know when best to expose them.

Although Australia are odds on favourites to win the series, Swann is the favourite in both the England Top Bowler and the Series Top Bowler markets to take the most wickets. He is also a good looking bet to be the first England player to achieve a five wicket haul in the series.

It should also be noted that Swann, certainly at County level is regarded as a genuine all rounder who has proven himself as a good quality test batsman too. He averages over 25 with the bat currently, but against Australia in the 2009 series he averaged a very respectable 35.57 with a top score of 63 made in the fourth test. In fact Swann scored a total of 249 runs in that series which was only bettered by Andrew Strauss (474), Matt Prior (261) and Paul Collingwood (250).
It is easy therefore to see why so many plaudits are tipping Swann to be the Ashes series winner, it just needs the other England bowlers to be a trifle more gentle with him in the nets and avoid hitting those magic fingers, particularly on his bowling hand.

In the Ashes odds, Swann is the 5/4 favourite to be England's top bowler across the five tests and 7/2 favourite to out perform Australia's bowlers to be named top ahses series bowler and if he is to play as pivotal a role as many expect, then it may well just be worth a flutter!

Cricket : Mangoose Bat set to revolutionise world cricket

The revolution in the cricket world continues. First it was the invention of the T20 format and then the idea of test cricket during night, pink balls and now the latest to be added to the bandwagon in the Mangoose Bat. This bat has been made essentially for the Twenty 20 cricket. The founders of this bat claim that it generates 20% more power and 15% more bat speed than the conventional cricket bat. Former Australian batsman Stuart Law, appearing for Derbyshire became the first player to use a Mangoose bat in a cricket match when he used it in a county Twenty20 match against Durham. Law called on for the Mangoose bat after he had made 30 off 20 balls and he added a further 10 runs off the 5 balls he faced with Mangoose bat. As you can see in the above picture of the Mangoose bat, the handle is longer than a normal bat and the founders claim this has a larger "Sweet spot" as they say in cricket than the normal bat. The MCC found that it met all requirements under law six of regulations regarding the make-up of a bat but they are yet to arrive on a decision as they need to maintain the balance between bat and ball. A company spokesman said there was "every chance" the bat, with a starting price of 159 pounds, could make an appearance at the Twenty20 World Cup as negotiations were under way with other international players. Stuart Law has been contracted by its founders to test the bat.

Mangoose bat in IPL 2010:

Mathew Hayden became the first player in the Indian Premier League to use the Mongoose bat in the match against Delhi. Hayden, who plays for the Chennai Super Kings called on the Mangoose bat at the end of the third over after hitting four boundaries. And it was carnage from the moment he took the Mangoose bat as he destroyed the Delhi Daredevils. He hit a total of 9 boundaries(4 came from the normal bat) and 7 towering sixes as he blitzed his way to 93 off just 43 balls. After Hayden, Symonds is contemplating the usage of the Mangoose bat in the coming matches in IPL.

ICC World Cup 2011: Matches moved out of Pakistan

Pakistan has been stripped of hosting rights for the 2011 World Cup because of the "uncertain security situation" in the country, a statement released by the International Cricket Council said after its meeting in Dubai. Security in Pakistan was one of the issues that were thought would be discussed in the meeting and this decision comes as no surprise to many, given the recent developments in the country. This decision means Pakistan would lose its share of 16 matches in the ICC World Cup 2011, which will now be shared between co-hosts India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This is a huge blow for the game in Pakistan and also for the cricket loving people of Pakistan, who were hoping to the mega event staged in their country. But the security issue remains a huge concern after the recent attack on Srilankan cricket team. All that we can hope is peace returns to the country and cricket again is played on Pakistani soil.

ICC World T20: India announce 30 player probable list

2009 twenty20 world cup will be played from 5th of June to 21st June 2009. Opening game will be played between host England and the twenty20 world qualifier runners-up Ireland. And the defending champions India have announced a list of 30 probable players. And the notable omissions from the list are the two heroes of the world cup triumph. Joginder Sharma, who took the last wicket and Sreesanth, who took that catch to give India the cup are not in the list. Tamil Nadu captain R.Ashwin finds himself in the list along with Badrinath, Vijay and Balaji. Promising batsman Ajinkya Rahane has also been included. The selectors would pick the final set players from this bunch.

List of Probables:
Squad: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha, Harbhajan singh, Praveen Kumar, Dinesh Karthik, M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, S Badrinath, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, Abhishek Nayar, Amit Mishra, R Ashwin, RP Singh, L Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni, Naman Ojha.

Captain Cool:Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Achievements as Captain

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the poster boy of Indian Cricket has seen everything in his life. From being taken to his house in a police van after India's exit from 2007 World Cup to being adored by the whole country for leading the team to victory in the Inaugural World T20. From then on there was no looking back. He has transformed the Indian team into an World beating one and his understanding with coach Gary Kirsten is also one of the reasons for this success. But the most important aspect of the current Indian team is "they don't panic under tough situations and they enjoy each others success". When he was appointed captain for the world T20 many eye brows were raised and only later that all came to know Sachin Tendulkar himself had recommended Dhoni for the captaincy. Here are some the feathers in Dhoni's cap thus far.

Dhoni's Achievements:

• Team India went on to win the inaugural T20 cricket World Cup 2007
• First ever trilateral ODI series win in Australia versus Australia and Sri Lanka CB Series of 2007-08.
• First ever bilateral ODI series win in Sri Lanka (IDEA CUP) in August 2008.
• He captained Team India to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008 at home versus Australia. India went on to win the coveted 4 match Test series (2-0).
• Also Team India to win the RBS Cup 2008 at home versus England. India went on to win the coveted 2 match Test series (1-0) and the 7 match ODI series (5-0) with the rest of the remaining two ODIs being abandoned.
• Under his captaincy, India beat Sri Lanka for the second time to clinch the IBDI Fortis Wealthsurance Cup ODI series 2009 (4-1) and the only Twenty20 International, the first Twenty20 International match held in Sri Lanka. This is the second straight series win for Team India in Sri Lanka.
• On the Indian tour of New Zealand in 2009 under his captaincy Indians created history by clinching their first ever ODI series in New Zealand, the National Bank Series 2009 . Before this, Indians had just won a Test series in New Zealand 41 years ago. Team India have comfortably won the 5 match ODI series (3-1) with an ODI being abandoned due to rain.
• M.S. Dhoni is the first Indian Captain to achieve nine consecutive ODI wins (between 14/11/2008 and 05/02/2009). Earlier the record of having eight consecutive ODI wins were owned by Sunil Gavaskar (5)- Kapil Dev (3), Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.
• Previous captains Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly have said that under Dhoni India will reach greater heights and even all time great Richard Hadlee said that "Under Dhoni, India will become the world no.1 team" and he also said that by this 2-0 win that the Australian dominance in the cricket world had finally come to an end.
• As a farewell gift to former Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly who was set to retire after the Nagpur test against Australia, Dhoni asked Sourav Ganguly to lead the team for one last time towards the end of the Australian innings in the last test at Nagpur.
• Dhoni has already been compared to Australia's Steve Waugh for his captaincy skills. In the battle of nerves, the mental toughness accompanied with the cool temperament exhibited by Dhoni just resembles the times of Steve Waugh’s leadership.
• During the ODI Series 2009 in Sri Lanka, Dhoni had equalled the record of Zimbabwe's Andy Flower who has also played 46 ODIs in both roles of Wicket Keeper/Captain.
• Out of the 6 Test matches Dhoni has captained, the Indian Cricket Team has won 5 of them

This is just the begining. More to come from Mahi. The message from the Indian team to the rest of the cricket world is very clear - "Watch out we are coming at you"

IPL Season 2:Final Schedule

After lots of delays and speculation about the second edition of the Indian Premier League, the tournament is set to kick off on April 18th. The final date decided is a week later than the first decided dates. Here is the schedule for all the matches. The timings given here are in IST(Indian Standard Time).

Complete Schedule:
April 18: Mumbai Indians (MI) v Chennai Super Kings (CSK) (4 pm) in Cape Town
Rajasthan Royals (RR) v Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 19: Delhi Daredevils (DD) v Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) (4 pm) in Cape Town; Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) v Deccan Chargers (DC) (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 20: RCB V CSK (8 pm) in Port Elizabeth
April 21: KKR v KXIP (4 pm) in Durban; RR v MI (8 pm) in Durban
April 22: RCB v DC (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 23: CSK v DD (4 pm) Durban; KKR v RR (8 pm) in Port Elizabeth
April 24: KXIP v RCB (8 pm) in Durban
April 25: DC v MI (4 pm) in Durban; KKR v CSK (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 26: RCB v DD (4 pm) Port Elizabeth; RR v KXIP (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 27: CSK v DC (4 pm) in Durban; KKR v MI (8 pm) in Port Elizabeth
April 28: DD v RR (8 pm) in Centurion
April 29: KKR v RCB (4 pm) in Durban; MI v KXIP (8 pm) in Durban
April 30: KKR v RCB (4 pm) in Durban; RR v CSK (8 pm) in Centurion
May 1: MI v KKR (4 pm) in East London; RCB v KXIP (8 pm) in Durban
May 2: RR v DC (4 pm) in Port Elizabeth; CSK v DD (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 3: KXIP v KKR (4 pm) in Port Elizabeth; MI v RCB (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 4: DC v CSK (8 pm) in East London
May 5: KXIP v RR (4 pm) in Durban; DD v KKR (8 pm) in Durban
May 6: MI v DC (8 pm) in Centurion
May 7: RCB v RR (4 pm) in Centurion; KXIP v CSK (8 pm) in Centurion
May 8: DD v MI (8 pm) in East London
May 9: DC v KXIP (4 pm) in Kimberley; CSK v RR (8 pm) in Kimberley
May 10: RCB v MI (4 pm) in Port Elizabeth; KKR v DD (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 11: DC v RR (8 pm) in Kimberley
May 12: RCB v KKR (4 pm) in Centurion; KXIP v MI (8 pm) in Centurion
May 13: DC v DD (8 pm) in Durban
May 14: CSK v RCB (4 pm) in Durban; MI v RR (8 pm) in Durban
May 15: KXIP v DD (8 pm) in Bloemfontein
May 16: CSK v MI (4 pm) in Port Elizabeth; DC v KKR (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 17: KXIP v DC (4 pm) in Johannesburg; RR v DD (8 pm) in Bloemfontein
May 18: CSK v KKR (8 pm) in Centurion
May 19: DD v RCB (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 20: RR v KKR (4 pm) in Durban; CSK v KXIP (8 pm) in Durban
May 21: MI v DD (4 pm) in Centurion; DC v RCB (8 pm) in Centurion
May 22: Semi Final 1 in Centurion
May 23: Semi Final 2 in Johannesburg
May 24: Final in Johannesburg

Cricket:Sreesanth out of IPL Season 2

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth will miss this year's IPL due to a stress fracture in his back. He was one of Punjab's key bowlers last season with his 19 scalps making him the tournament's second highest wicket-taker. And his infamous slap gate controversy with Harbhajan Singh cannot be forgotten easily. So with Sreesanth out of this season's IPL we can assured that another Bhaji-Sreesanth row won't erupt. His injury comes as a serious setback for the Kings 11 team whose premier fast bowler Brett Lee is not in best of forms and also down with injury. Coach Tom Moody too said it was a huge blow to his team. It's been a year since Sreesanth last played for India and a string og injuries have kept him out of the national side. Whatever may be IPL Season 2 will be without the energy and enthusiasm of Sreesanth!!!

IPL:Squads for Season 2

The squads are as follows:

Royal Challengers, Bangalore:

Overseas players: Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Dillon Du Preez, Cameron White, Nathan Bracken, Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, Jesse Ryder and Roelof van der Merwe.

Indian players: Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Robin Uthappa, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, Wasim Jaffer, Manish Pandey, Srivats Goswami, R Suteesh, Pankaj Singh, Vinay Kumar, Bhuvanesh Kumar, Karan Sharma, Saurav Bandekar, Tinu Yohannan, Bharat Chipli, B Akhil, Devraj Patil, J Arun Kumar, KP Appanna, Sunil Joshi, Gaurav Dhiman, Jitendra Patil, Udit Patel, A Mithun, S Aravind, Kedar Jadhav, C M Gautam, Raju Bhatkal, Rajesh Bishnoi, Ishank Jaggi and Rohit Sabharwal.

Chennai Super Kings:

Overseas players: Muthiah Muralitharan, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Albie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming, Thilan Thushara, Andrew Flintoff and George Bailey.

Indian players: M S Dhoni, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, L Balaji, M Vijay, Joginder Sharma, Manpreet Singh Goni, Sudeep Tyagi, Viraj Kadbe, Shadab Jakati, R Ashwin, Abhinav Mukund, Anirudha Srikkanth, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Palani Amarnath, K B Arun Karthik, N Einstein and Suresh Kumar.

Delhi Daredevils:

Overseas players: A B de Villiers, Daniel Vettori, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, David Warner, Andrew McDonald, Dirk Nannes, Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof and T Dilshan.

Indian players: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Kartik, Manoj Tiwary, Rajat Bhatia, Mithun Manhas, Avishkar Salvi, Ashish Nehra, V Yo Mahesh, Pradeep Sangwan, Umesh Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Tejashwi Yadav and Amit Mishra.

Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad:

Overseas players: Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris, Andrew Symonds, Ryan Harris, Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Smith, Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa.

Indian players: VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Venugopal Rao, D Ravi Teja, T Suman, Arjun Yadav, D Kalyankrishna, P Vijay Kumar, Manvinder Bisla, Jaskarandeep Singh, Harmeet Singh, Sarvesh Kumar, Halahar Das, Syed Mohammed and Shoaib Ahmed.

Mumbai Indians:

Overseas players: Lasith Malinga, Jean Paul Duminy, Graham Napier, Ryan McLaren, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Dwayne Bravo, Mohd Ashraful, Kyle Mills and Luke Ronchi.

Indian players: Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jude Singh, Jaydev Shah, Rahil Shaikh, Yogesh Takawale, Pinal Shah, Ajinkya Rahane, Chetanya Nanda, Rohan Raje and Saurabh Tiwary.

Rajasthan Royals:

Overseas players: Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Shane Watson, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Morne Morkel, Robert Quiney, Tyron Henderson, Shaun Tait, Shane Harwood and Lee Carseldine.

Indian players: Mohd Kaif, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Sidharth Trivedi, Swapnil Asnodkar, Niraj Patel, Mahesh Rawat, Anup Revandkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Salunkhe, Naman Ojha, Sidharth Chitnis, Paras Dogra, Amit Singh, Ahad Malek, Raphi Vincent Gomez, Kamran Khan, Ashraf Makda, Paul Valthaty, Srideep Mangela, Mohd Arif, Gajendra Singh, Atul Sharma, Pratmesh Salunkhe and Pushkarraj Chavan.

King's XI Punjab:

Overseas players: Brett Lee, James Hopes, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Burt Cockley, Ravi Bopara and Jerome Taylor.

Indian players: Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, V R V Singh, Piyush Chawla, Karan Goel, Uday Kaul, Wilkin Mota, Ajitesh Argal, Tanmay Srivastava, Sunny Sohal, Ryan Ninan and Yash Gandhi.

India win maiden ODI series in New Zealand

India ended the ODI on a losing note after going down to the home side by 8 wickets but there was no denying them of a series win. This team his surely gonna go places. They lost the twenty 20 series and suddenly everyone started to raise their eyebrows but those were put to bed by some fierce performance in the ODI series. Had it not been for the rains, India would have sealed the series by the 3rd ODI. The top order functioned with precision with Sehwag taking the bowlers to the cleaners and when he missed out in the 3rd ODI Sachin Tendulkar took centre stage mauling the Kiwis all over the park. And the bowling department which could not perform that well in the first few ODI's did really well in the fourth match. And one of the reasons for India's truimph is also due to the performance of the part timers. New Zealand found Bhaji and Yuvraj quite tough to get away. One aspect which India were below par was their fielding. Ground fielding was quite Ok but catching was terrible and it was captain who lead in that by dropping some sitters and also few stumpings. Something for the team to really work on. One clear star of the series was Virender Sehwag, who hit first three balls he faced for sixes. He killed the bowling attack with atmost ease and the bowlers found impossible to bowl at him. And to cap a great ODI series, Viru also got the record for the fastest century by an Indian in ODI's. Now comes the test series, India have the experience of Dravid and Laxman coming into team and the Kiwis might find it difficult in the longer version also.

India - New Zealand 3rd ODI: India win by 58 runs

Sachin Tendulkar scored his first century in New Zealand and helped India take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the series with two matches left to play. Sachin was the real star on the day which nearly saw over 700 runs being scored. India lost Sehwag and Gambhir early but Yuvraj took control of the game with some hard hitting. He set the tone for Indian innings. India took the batting powerplay in 23rd over, a move that really paid off with India scoring 69 runs in those 5 overs. After Yuvi got out, Sachin took complete control and hit his 43rd ODI hundred. He and Dhoni pulverised the Kiwi attack. Sachin retired hurt on 163* and Raina took off as soon as he came and India ended with a massive 392 in 50 overs. Tim Southee had a terrible day as he conceeded 105 runs in his 10 overs. When New Zealand batted, Ryder and McCullum put on 166 for the first wicket before a flurry of wickets shifted the balance towards India. Ryder hit his maiden ODI century. Just when it seemed India would close the match, Mills and Southee took the Kiwis within striking distance. When Munaf Patel was removed from bowling by umpire Rudi Koertzen for bowling 2 waist high full tosses, the Kiwis would have been very upset as Munaf had totally lost the plot and was leaking runs. Yusuf Pathan, who came to finish that over picked up Mills' s wicket. And in the very next over Southee was picked up by Praveen to bring and end to the match. The small ground(combined with pitch) in Christchurch provided us the match which saw the maximum number of sixes hit. Next match is at Hamilton on Wednesday.

Brief Scores:
India 392 for 4 (Tendulkar 163*, Yuvraj 87, Dhoni 67) beat New Zealand 334 (Ryder 101, McCullum 71, Mills 54, Harbhajan 2-56) by 58 runs

Kid named after Sachin in New Zealand

When you hear that kids are named after Sachin Tendulkar one might think those kids are Indians but it isn't the case in New Zealand. Sachin Austin, a 9 year old New Zealand kid has been named after the great Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar. This indeed confirms Sachin's stature as one of the most respected and admired sports persons only in India but across the globe. And one must recollect that Sachin Tendulkar himself was named after the legendary music composer Sachin Dev Burman. And the name "Sachin" has crossed land, religion and countries. I happened to know about this today while watching the third ODI between India and New Zealand. Sachin Austin was asked who was he named after with Sachin Tendulkar standing near him and the kid said it was the greatest moment in his life. And it was on a day when Sachin had scored his first century in the country. I'm not sure how many of them are named after the Little master but the count will certainly be increasing.

IPL 2009:Mumbai to host Finals, semifinals in Chennai

The IPL fever has started to set in and IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, who is also president of Rajasthan Cricket Association, is finding himself in the news for all wrong reasons. He has been charged of funds misappropriation, something that is strongly denied by Modi saying the charges were politically motivated. And Modi has also gone on to say that matches of "Rajasthan Royals" might be moved away from Jaipur if the government did not co-operate. It must be recalled that Shane Warne had earlier said that he would not play if the matches were moved away from Jaipur. Meanwhile defending champions Rajasthan Royals who had the right to host the finals of this year's IPL have opted to host them in Mumbai. Runners up Chennai Super Kings had the rights to host the semifinals and they have opted to host both the games in Chennai. The finals may either be held in Brabourne Stadium(first choice for Royals) or D.Y.Patil Stadium.

West Indies v England, 1st Test

Jerome Taylor produced a spell of his life time and condemned England to a humiliating defeat by an innings and 23 runs at Sabina Park,Jamaica. England's second innings lasted just 33.2 overs and spanned little more than two hours. Flintoff was the only batsman to cross the double figures. England started they day brightly as they bowled out Windies for 392 but their misery started when they began batting for the second time, they were 11 for 2 before lunch and after that they crumbled. A simply astonishing end to a test match that had its share of controversies regarding the "Referral of decisions". In the end, its fair to say West Indies had the measure of England and emerged deserving winners.

Brief Scores:
West Indies 392 (Sarwan 107, Gayle 104, Broad 5-85) beat England 318 and 51 (Taylor 5-11) by an innings and 23 runs.

IPL Auction:List of players sold

Seventeen slots were filled in over two hours of the 2009 IPL auction in Goa. Here is a list of the players who have been bought at the auction (base price in brackets; all numbers in US$):

Pool A
Shaun Tait to Rajasthan Royals 375,000 (250,000)
JP Duminy to Mumbai Indians 950,000 (300,000)
Andrew Flintoff to Chennai Super Kings 1.55 million (950,000)
Kevin Pietersen to Bangalore Royal Challengers 1.55 million (1.35 million)

Pool B
Fidel Edwards to Deccan Chargers 150,000 (150,000)
Owais Shah to Delhi Daredevils 275,000 (150,000)
Paul Collingwood to Delhi 275,000 (250,000)

Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin and Chamara Kapugedara were unsold.

Pool C
Tyron Henderson to Rajasthan 650,000 (100,000)
Ravi Bopara to Kings XI Punjab 450,000 (150,000)
Thilan Thushara to Chennai 140,000 (100,000)
Jesse Ryder to Bangalore 160,000 (100,000)
Kyle Mills to Mumbai 150,000 (150,000).

Ashwell Prince, Phil Jaques, Andre Nel, Luke Wright and Nuwan Kulasekara were unsold.

Pool D
Dwayne Smith to Deccan Chargers 100,000 (100,000)
Jerome Taylor to Punjab 150,000 (150,000)
Mohammad Ashraful to Mumbai 75,000 (75,000)

Samit Patel, Shakib Al Hasan, Morne van Wyk, Steven Smith, Ashley Noffke, Gulam Bodi and Daren Powell were unsold.

Pool E
Tamim Iqbal, Jon Moss, Bryce McGain, James Franklin, Aiden Blizzard, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Michael Klinger, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Prasanna Jayawardene and Dominic Thornley were unsold.

Pool F
Mashrafe Mortaza to Kolkata Knight Riders 600,000 (50,000)
George Bailey to Chennai 50,000 (50,000)

Yusuf Abdulla, Daniel Harris, Kemar Roach, Aaron Bird, Michael Dighton, Michael Hill and Brett Geeves were unsold.

IPL:Second Auction, Chennai get Flintoff, KP lands in Bangalore

Even before the second auction of the IPL began, there was lot of talks that Kevin Pietersen was in talks with Bangalore and had met owner Vijay Mallya regarding the same. And rumours floated that Chennai was in talks with Flintoff, when he came to the city for the first test against India. And these talks were vindicated when both these players headed in the mentioned directions. Chennai got Flintoff for a whopping $1.55million and that made him the most expensive player in the IPL and he was joined by Kevin Pietersen who was purchased by Bangalore for the same price and they both have become the most expensive players in the IPL surpassing M.S.Dhoni's tag of $1.5million. There were little doubt concerning the buying of they both unlike Michael Clarke, who pulled out fearing that he may be not be bought. And when Flintoff came under the hammer, Chennai who had the full $2 million purse went all out and got their man. Though there wasn't much talk about Flintoff's destination, Chennai team later revealed that they had targeted Flintoff long back. I cannot wait to see Flintoff teeing off for my Chennai side!!!!!!!!!!!!