On-going series

Yesterday, second test match between India and West Indies ended up in a draw. India were very close to  the victory but unfortunately they could remove remaining 3 wickets. As of now India lead the series West Indies by 1-0. One more test match to go and it will be played on 10th of July at Windsor Park, Roseau, Dominica. This will be the only chance for the West Indies to level the series and for that they have to win the match. Indians are already in safer zone as they have won the first test match. If West Indies wins the match, the series will end up in a draw else it will Indians who will be returning home victorious. Indians have got higher chances of winning this series.

ODI series is currently being played between England and Srilanka. England won the first match and the second match was won by the visitors. Third ODI match was played today at Lord's, London. England won the toss and they batter first. They had put up a total score of 246 runs in 50 overs. Opener, Alastair Cook put up his century and scored 117 runs which helped England to put this score. In reply Srilankans chased the target successfully in 48.2 overs. Dinesh Chandimal put up his century and remained unbeaten scoring 105 runs. He was chosen as the man of the match who helped his team to victory. Now Srilanka leads the series by 2-1 and 2 more matches to go.

Final ODI match between India and West Indies

Today, India and West Indies are playing their 5th and final ODI of the India tour of West Indies. India has already won the series by winning first matches and are into safer side. West Indies won the fourth match and they are eagerly seeking to win this match as well. Indians want to finish the series in a grand style.

The match is going on at Sabina Park, Kingston - Jamaica. The toss was won by West Indians and they chose to bowl first. Indians opened their batting innings with Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel. Right from the start of the innings, they played very slowly wasting many deliveries. Indians lost 2 wickets very quickly and were suffering to put up a partnership, even Manoj Tiwary failed to stay long. Later, Rohit Sharma came in and partnered with Virat Kohli and put up a very good partnership of 110 runs which was very much required partnership at that point of time. Kohli scored a magnificent 94 runs and failed to put up a century. Rohit Sharma also departed after scoring his half century. After the break of this partnership, Indians again started to feel pressure and the runs started to slow down. Finally they ended up scoring a total of 251 runs loosing all the 10 wickets in 47.3 over (Ind - 251/10, 47.3 over). Andre Russell took 4 wickets. 


The total looks pretty ok for me. This can be defended easily. Now the pressure is on West Indies side. 
They will have to put up few good partnerships if they want to win this match and end up 3-2.

Cricket Updates

Currently, The World Champion India has toured West Indies and have already played 1 T20 match and 4 ODI matches. India has won T20 match and 3 ODI matches so far. Hosts, West Indies team has won only one ODI match.

On the other hand World Cup finalist, Srilanka has toured England and have already played 2 Test matches. Already hosts have made a mark of winning, they won the first test match. Second match ended up in a draw.

Tomorrow, there is lots of action that is gonna take place. England and Srilanka will be playing their 3rd and final test match. If England wins or match is drawn, England will be the victorious one in the series. Srilanka cannot win the series but they have chances to draw the series by winning the 3rd test match.

India and West Indies will be playing their last and final ODI match of the series. India have already won the series, now its the time to show up their conquering power and glory. West Indies are looking to finish the series with 3-2, so that they can have some smile on their faces. Once the ODI matches are over, they will be playing a test series which consists of 3 test matches.

After touring the West Indies, India will be looking for their next prey which will be England. England team is very confident in winning all the matches that will be played against the visitors (India).

2nd ODI: Australia vs Bangladesh

On 11th April, second ODI match of the Australia tour of Bangladesh was played at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Bangladesh. The toss was won by the hosts and they chose to bat first.

Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes opened the batting innings for Bangladesh. Both the openers failed to stand for longer time as they could not resist the Aussies bowling attack. At one point of time, they lost 5 wickets and scored only 88 runs in 27 overs. Later on, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah put up a partnership of 79 runs that helped Bangla's to end up with a decent total to defend. They successfully played for 50 overs and scored a total of 229 runs with the loss of 7 wickets (BAN - 229/7, 50 over). Mushfiqur Rahim was unbeaten scoring 81 runs. Mitchell Johnson picked up 3 wickets.

Aussies needed 230 runs in 50 overs with a very good batting line-up. Shane Watson and Brad Haddin started to play for the team. Shane Watson right from the start of the innings played very aggressively but Brad Haddin kept his calm and gave strike to his partner as much as possible. Brad Haddin did not make it big as he was back to pavilion after scoring only 8 runs in 19 deliveries. Later on, Ricky Ponting joined the party and gave a good company to his partner. It was Shane Watson's day. He cruised in to score 50 runs in just 26 balls and then got his century in 69 delivers. After this, Shane Watson became even more aggressive. He scored 85 runs in just 27 deliveries thereby adding his total score of 185 runs in just 96 deliveries. This was an unbelievable batting performance given by any batsmen so far. He hit 15 fours and 15 sixes in the match. Shane Watson created a new world record for the most number of sixes (15 sixes) in a match. In just 26 overs, Australia managed to chase their target successfully scoring a total of 232 runs with the loss of 1 wicket (AUS - 232/1, 26 over). Shakib Al Hasan was the only bowler whose economy rate was less than 6 (5 runs per over).

Australia won the match by 9 wickets. Man of the match was Shane Watson for his brilliant performance.

If the total was more, then Shane Watson would have broke the record of Sachin Tendulkar and become the highest run getter in a match and would have been in the history book.

ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 2 match 2

The second match of the day was played between Srilanka and Canada at Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Hambantota, Srilanka. Srilanka won the toss and elected to bat first.

Srilankans gave a pretty good start with the openers Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan. Both put up a partnership of 63 runs in 11.5 overs. After the first break, Srilankans came back even stronger with Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayewardena who scored 92 runs and 100 runs respectively. This helped Srilankans to put up a very good total against the Canadians. Srilanka managed to score a total of 332 runs with the loss of 7 wickets. Jimmy Hansra was the only bowler to manage to give a run rate of less than 6 runs per over. He bowled 9 overs with an average of 5.22 runs per over.

Canada needed 333 runs to win the match which was supposed to be an almost impossible target for them as they were facing one of the strongest team. Right from the start of the second innings, Srilankas picked up wickets which kept pressure on the Canadians. They could not resist the Srilankans bowling attack and kept on loosing wickets regularly. By 36.5 overs, Canada managed to score a total score of 122 runs and lost all its 10 wickets.


Srilanka won the match by 210 runs. Man of the match went to Mahela Jayewardena for his quick century.

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ICC World Cup 2011 updates: Day 2 match 1

On the day 2 of the ICC World Cup 2011, 2 matches were played.

First match was between New Zealand and Kenya which was played at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Toss went into the favor of Kenya and they elected to bat first. They gave a very slow start, with an run rate of around 2 runs per over. Even this slowness did not stop NZ from picking up wickets. First wicket was fell in the last delivery of the 7th over. Kenyans started to loose wickets regularly but could not score enough. They some how managed to put up a total of only 69 runs before loosing all the 10 wickets. By 23.5 overs, Kenya lost all 10 wickets and ended up scoring 69 runs. Hamish Bennett picked up 4 wickets, Tim Southee and Jacob Oram picked 3 wickets each.

The total was just an cake-walk the kiwis. By 8 overs, Kiwis chased the total successfully. They scored 72 runs with no loss. Martin Guptill scored unbeaten 39 runs and Brendon McCullum scored a unbeaten 26 runs. New Zealand won the match by 10 wickets.

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