Congratulations to the Sri Lankans for making it to the final of CWC 2007. They outclassed New Zealand in all departments of the game, although you might argue that the last wicket partnership between Patel and Franklin was allowed to last a little longer than it should actually have.
Mahela Jayawardene played a fantastic innings Read the rest of this entry »
The host for the 2014 Asian games has been determined and it will be held in Incheon, South Korea. Incheon beat New Delhi ( India) by a margin of 7 votes.
All rounder Shoaib Malik has succeeded Inzamam Ul Haq as captain of Pakistan. Inzamam had announced his retirement from the game after Pakistan’s early exit at the World Cup and the tragedy of Bob Woolmer’s murder. Read the rest of this entry »
Ok folks, the World Cup semifinal list has been decided.
The list goes as follows
Australia
New Zealand
The Cricket World Cup is drawing to a close. We are nearing the end of the super eights and the semifinals await us.
Let us look at the possible semifinalists
Many people saw it coming after the first few games of the super eights, and now Brian Charles Lara has officially said that he will call it a day at the end of the World Cup.
I’ll come up with a fitting tribute to the man- but at this moment I simply wish to ask him one question— what made him take Power Play 3 between overs 44-49 against South Africa? Never in the history of cricket has that happened before, and it is very unlikely that it will happen in the future 
For a brief point in yesterday’s game, Trent Johnston would have felt that his side was in with a chance to emulate Bangladesh’s giant killing act against South Africa.
That point was when the Kiwis were at 189/7 and in a bit of trouble. Peter Fulton’s 83 had taken the Kiwis to 172/4 before he, Oram and Vettori fell in quick succession. Given Ireland’s batting, which in my opinion is one suited to chase anything upto the 230 mark, Johnston would have been thinking of a possible win at the back of his mind. However Brendon ” cool cucumber” McCullum made sure that those hopes vanished as soon as they had arrived, as he shared a partnership with James Franklin which was starred with many hits to the fence. The total 260- and the Irish had lost the plot.
Ireland’s batting lacks innovation. They are more of grafters and that is why I said that chasing something above 230 would be a difficulty for them. The same Irish team would have done quite well something like 10 years ago, but they need more exposure to ensure that they become part of cricket’s big league.
Along with his brother, Kevin O’ Brien showed signs of leading a fightback, before he was unfortunately run out. Niall O’ Brien crawled his way to 30 off 75 deliveries, and when he did try to give things a push , he holed out to Jacob Oram at deep midwicket.The rest of the batting went back as soon as they had come in, and Stephen Fleming will be very happy with the way things turned out. He equalled Azharuddin’s record for most world cup matches as captain in this game- and his side gifted him a win. Not very emphatic, but it was a win all the same, and I’m sure Fleming will be content
England haven’t been playing upto their potential in this year’s cricket world cup, but they are getting better as we head deeper into the tournament. The effort, unfortunately for Duncan Fletcher and his boys was not enough to get them past Sri Lanka.
The bowlers did an excellent job, with Mahmood picking up 4 and Flintoff 3. Sri Lanka were 160/2 at one stage, and they only managed to add 75 runs to that total.
Joyce and Vaughan fell cheaply, and Bell ate up quite a few deliveries. There was a stage between the 20th and 30th overs when England scored at just close to 3 an over, and that I believe, proved to be their undoing.
They lost Pietersen, Collingwood and Flintoff quickly, and were staring down the barrel when Paul Nixon and Ravinder Bopara came to their rescue.
Murali was mean in his first 8 overs, but went for a few in his last two. I don’t think manyEnglishmen will ever forget Paul Nixon’s reverse sweep for six. From needing close to 10 an over in the last six overs, England came to needing 3 from one delivery.Fernando stopped as he was about to deliver, unsettling Bopara, and the next ball he bowled crashed through Bopara’s stumps. You couldn’t blame Bopara for trying to heave it over midoff’s head, as there was no long off. It was a case of ‘you miss, I hit’ and Fernando emerged victorious yesterday at North Sound.
England were good, but not good enough. They will need to raise their game, for the next one is against the Australians, and defeat will almost certainly condemn them to a super eight exit
