ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 7

On the day 7 of the ICC World Cup, 2 matches were played. First match was between Australia and New Zealand at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, India. Australia won the toss and let the Kiwis to bat first.

Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum opened the batting innings for the Kiwis. The start was pretty impressive for the Kiwis, but this did not last long when Brendon McCullum gave a catch to Jason Krejza and departed after scoring 16 runs from 12 deliveries. After this Kiwis started to loose wickets quickly. It lost 7 wickets in just 17 overs scoring only 73 runs, when all hopes faded Jamie How and Nathan McCullum put up some good partnership and so did Daniel Vettori. From 17 overs, they sustained till 45.1 overs and lost all 10 wickets. This was a good comeback for them and ended up scoring 206 runs in total. Mitchell Johnson took 4 wickets and Shaun Tait took 3 wickets that help Aussies to destroy Kiwis batting lineup.

Australia opened its batting innings with the openers Shane Watson and Brad Haddin. They both started off very well and put up half centuries scoring 62 and 55 runs with a partnership of 133 runs. After the fall of the openers, Ricky Ponting could not stay long enough to finish off the innings. Later Michael Clarke and Cameron White stood till the end and completed the required runs and returned back victorious. By 34 overs, Australia scored a total of 207 runs with the loss of 3 wickets. 

Australia won the match by 7 wickets. Man of the match went to Mitchell Johnson for his brilliant bowling performance.

ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 3

On the Day 3 of the ICC World Cup 2011, Australia and Zimbabwe played their first World Cup 2011 match facing each other at Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera, India. Australia won the toss and elected to bat first.

Right from the start, Australians felt pressure and were struggling to score runs. But they did not loose a wicket till the end of 19th over. Brad Haddin departed at the last delivery of the 19th over scoring only 29 runs of 66 deliveries. Australian opener Shane Watson and Michael Clarke helped the team to put up some runs and increased the run rate to just over the 5 runs per over. Shane Watson scored 79 runs of 92 balls and Michael Clarke 58 runs from 55 deliveries. This helped Australia to end up scoring a good total of 262 runs with the loss of 6 wickets in 50 overs. Graeme Cremer was very economical bowler for Zimbabwe as his economy rate was 4.1 runs per over and he also picked up a wicket.

Zimbabwe needed 263 runs to win the match against Australia. Zimbabwe gave a good flying start and managed to score at the required run rate until the fall of their 1st wicket that was in 5.4 over. After the first fall, Zimbabweans started to loose wickets at regular intervals and their run rate dropped eventually. When 7th wicket fell, Graeme Cremer came in to bat and partnered Prosper Utseya. They both played well where Aussies were struggling to break the partnership and were really pissed off. After a long struggle, at 40th over, Aussies managed to break the partnership and removed remaining wickets. Zimbabwe ended up scoring a total of 171 runs for the loss of 10 wickets in 46.2 overs.

Australia won the match by 91 runs. Man of the match went to Shane Watson for hitting 79 runs, took 2 catches and bowled well with an economy rate of 2.33 runs per over.

You might also like,

Opening ceremony of ICC WC 2011
Bangladesh's historic win
Airtel Champions League winner

2nd test match: India vs Australia

On the fourth day, India finally ended up its first batting innings with a total of 495 runs loosing all 10 wickets. At the start of the day, India were 435/5 with Sachin Tendulkar batting on 191 and MS Dhoni on the crease. Sachin Tendulkar scored his sixth double century of the test career. Finally, Peter George an new entry for the Australian team claimed Sachin Tendulkar's wicket. India lost its 6th wicket when it reached 486 runs in total. After the fall of the master blaster, India lost remaining 4 wickets adding only 9 runs to the total. India in the first innings managed to score only 495 runs in total (495/10). India were leading Australia by 17 runs in the first innings.

Soon, Australia started their second innings with the openers Shane Watson and Simon Katich. First wicket partnership resulted in 58 runs. At this point, Australia lost its openers. Ricky Ponting took the charge and started to play well with the support of Michael Hussey and Tim Paine. He scored his half century and departed when their total was 181 runs. Ricky Ponting was the 6th wicket to fall for Australia. He scored 72 runs in 117 deliveries which included 7 fours and a six. Indians by the before the end of the day managed to take one more wicket who was Tim Paine. At the end of the fourth day, Australia have scored 202 runs with the loss of 7 wickets (202/7). Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Hauritz are still batting with a score of 7 runs and 8 runs. Australia is leading India by 185 runs in the second innings.

1st test match: India vs Australia day 3

Yesterday, Australia lost its remaining wickets and ended up scoring a total score of 428 runs. Shane Watson was the top scorer who had score 126 runs 338 deliveries that included 10 fours and no sixes. Another batsmen who helped the team to put up this good total was Tim Paine. He played a magnificent knock of 92 runs from 196 runs that included 12 fours with no sixes. Zaheer Khan took 5 important wickets for India.

India soon opened their first innings with the openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. They both started off well with the bat and put up a partnership of 81 runs. By the end of the day, Mitchell Johnson came up with another blow who took the wicket of the most dangerous batsman i.e, Virender Sehwag. Play was called off and India ended up on day 2 scoring 110 runs with the loss of 2 wickets. Rahul Dravid was not out with a score of 23 runs and Ishant Sharma with 0.

On Day 3, they both put up a partnership of 45 runs before Sharma fell for Doug Bollinger. There was some good play in the middle order. Sachin Tendulkar played well with Suresh Raina. They both departed to pavilion and failed to get a century. Sachin Tendulkar got out after scoring a good score of 98 runs and Suresh Raina departed after scoring 83 runs. After the breakage of this good partnership, Indians wall was broken down into pieces. They soon lost its remaining 5 wickets in a very quick interval. At the end of the Day, Australia managed to take all the 10 wickets. India landed up scoring 405 in their first innings thereby Australia leading India by 23 runs. Mitchell Johnson took 5 wickets that helped them to sweep the Indian team and get the lead.

Napier Head Clash !!!!!

Hello friends, I have come up with another interesting article.

Australian player Mitchell Johnson has been fined 60% of his match fee for head butting Scott Styris’s helmet on Wednesday at McLean Park in Napier while playing their first Napier ODI match.

In the46th over of the New Zealand’s innings, there was a verbal combat between these two. Later Johnson, appeared to head butt Scott Styris's helmet.

Mitchell Johnson has been charged with a Level 2 offence according to the ICC Code of Conduct for Players. This code relates to “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players in the course of play”. However as Scott Styris was also involved in the verbal combat which led to the physical contact, even he has been fined with 15% of his match fee.