Cricket

West Indies bowlers bowled their heart out and almost dominated the opening day of the first Test against India. In fact, if it was not for the valiant counter-attack worth 146 runs from Suresh Raina (84) and Harbhajan Singh (70), India would have ended the day on an extremely embarrassing note. Instead, the visitors managed to claim a wicket and keep Darren Sammy’s side 212 runs behind at close of play.

India did manage to win the toss but it was Ravi Rampaul who snared the openers early on to seize the early initiative. Murali Vijay (8) became his first victim while debutant Abhinav Mukund (11)was cleaned up soon after.  India’s top-order looked ill at ease as VVS Laxman (12) surrendered to Devendra Bishoo and Virat Kohli (4) edged one behind off Fidel Edwards. The break for lunch would not have left the Indians with much of an appetite with the score on 69 for 4.

Though Rahul Dravid did manage to add 40 runs to his Test statistics, it was ended abruptly by Bishoo with India now totering at 83 for 5. In walked skipper MS Dhoni and played all of a single delivery before he was sent back by Bishoo who now looked unforgiving.

It was now that Raina and Harbhajan got together and the duo looked edgy at first but soon settled in. Harbhajan raced to his half-century despite coming in after his partner and his eventual score of 70 came off just 74 deliveries.

Raina played the mature innings and helped himself to 82 runs off 115 deliveries but once Harbhajan departed, it was mayhem once again. India lost four of it’s remaining wickets for 16 runs as Edwards cleaned up the tail to finish with four wickets.

West Indies replied with a chase that would better be termed as painfully slow rather than watchful. Ishant Sharma  rose to the occasion with the ball and eventually got rid of a tentative Lendl Simmons (3). The other opener in Adrian Barath (26*) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (2*)  denied the Indian bowlers any further success and finished the day with the team score on 34, 212 still remaining before a lead can be mounted.

The quarterfinal clash between Australia and India, on Thursday, is not only about who stays in the hunt for the title but also about two of game’s modern day greats Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting squaring off in a World Cup game for what appears to be one last time.

The two ageing warriors would like to stamp their superiority and propel their side to the last four stage on March 24 at Motera’s Sardar Patel Stadium.

Neither of the two is expected to be around in 2015 when the next edition is scheduled to be held Down Under.

In the previous meeting between the two sides in the World Cup, that took place in the summit clash of the 2003 edition in Johannesburg, Ponting came out trumps with his unbeaten century took the game away from India even before the Men In Blue came out to bat.

Ponting’s blistering 140 not out, in only 121 balls with a staggering eight sixes and 4 fours, had propelled Australia to an imposing 359 for two.

Chasing the huge Australian total, Tendulkar could score only 4 and despite Virender Sehwag’s run-a-ball 82, India fell well short of the target and Australia walked away with cricket’s most coveted prize for the second edition running.

On Thursday, in front of a vociferous 50,000-strong crowd, the Indian master has the chance to make ample amends for what happened eight years ago and also step into the record books as the first batsman to have scored 100 centuries combined in both forms of cricket – Tests and ODIs.

Tendulkar has had a very good tournament individually, with superbly crafted tons against England and South Africa at the league stage, though both efforts could not power India to victories, with the first match tied and the second ending in a narrow defeat.

Ponting, on the other hand, has had a horrendous run with the bat. In six matches, he has mustered a miserly 102 runs with 36 being his best effort at a poor average of 20.40, less than half his 358-match career average.

Ponting’s ODI average in India against the hosts is also an impressive 44.86 from 24 games, but the second and last of his two hundreds in this country was notched eight years ago in Bangalore.

The Tasmanian has looked a pale shadow of his domineering style and is under tremendous pressure to keep his captaincy though teammate Michael Hussey felt otherwise.

Hussey brushed aside reports in Australia that Ponting’s captaincy was at stake, at a media conference here today and said the entire team was backing the struggling skipper.

“No worries at all. He has been fantastic, best man for the job and has been for a long time. He’s certainly got the full support of all team members,” Hussey said.

Ponting has also been lambasted in the media for losing temper on the field of play and off it too, as well as for not walking after clearly edging behind the stumps while Tendulkar did the exact opposite a day later and was hailed for his sportsmanship.

“He’s been criticized over minor things. They have been blown out of proportions. He’s been playing well and just like a champion rises to the occasion at the right time, on Thursday we will see the best of Ricky Ponting,” Hussey said in his skipper’s defence.

In five duels against Australia in World Cups, Tendulkar’s best effort thus far has been a splendid innings of 90 in a league game at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in 1996, and his average against them is a modest 28.20 spread over four World Cups.

Thursday’s match provides both these stalwarts, among the all-time great batsmen in the game, a last chance to impose their stature in head-to-head battles in the premier ODI tournament.

As a player who wears his heart on his sleeve, Harbhajan Singh brings with him that extra zing which often works superbly for his team but riles the opposition.

The gutsy bowler has worked his way up to stardom after starting as a nervous, fidgeting 18-year-old, and having to endure doubts over his talent and abilities.

He may lack the loop and flight of a traditional slow bowler, but it is no mean feat that Harbhajan has managed to become India’s most successful off-spinner in all three formats of the game.

With 246 wickets from 217 one-day internationals, the ‘Turbanator’ is a key cog in India’s wheel in the 50-over game.

His worth, though, should not be measured in terms of wickets or runs — because it is his fierce competitiveness that makes him the dangerous opponent that he is.

It also makes him the perfect team man to have when the chips are down, despite a string of unsavoury controversies, including the ‘Monkeygate’ and ‘Slapgate’ episodes.

His confrontation with Australian Andrew Symonds in 2008 led to one of the ugliest controversies in cricket — he was initially charged with a racial insult which was reduced to abuse on appeal.

Later that year, he was banned for 11 matches during the inaugural Indian Premier League season for slapping his India team-mate Shanthakumaran Sreesanth before the full glare of TV cameras.

He has since made up with Sreesanth and is set to share the dressing room with Symonds in the fourth season of the IPL, that comes close of the heels of the World Cup.

Harbhajan showed little pretension when asked what goals he had set for himself in this World Cup, given the huge role spinners are expected to play on low and slow wickets in the sub-continent.

“This is my third World Cup and I am more experienced now,” Harbhajan, 30, said.

“My target is to take wickets and bowl as the situation demands. There is no new ball that I will experiment with nor am I going to bowl any magic ball.

“The wickets will get slower as the tournament progresses. You have to have variation in your attack. You just need to be sure of what you are doing.”

Cricket

Title aspirants India will have revenge on their minds when they launch their 2011 Cricket World Cup campaign against co-hosts Bangladesh in the tournament-opener here on Saturday, fully aware that any slip-up could prove costly.

Minnows Bangladesh had ensured India’s early exit in the first round of the 2007 edition at the Caribbeans and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men will be eagar to settle the score and kick start their campaign on a positive note at the Sher-e-Bangla National stadium.

Tipped as one of the favourites, the current world number two side, boasts off an exceptionally balanced team, but such a pool of talented players will also pose a few selection questions for skipper Dhoni.

Dhoni though seems to have sorted out his problem of plenty in the batting department when he tipped Virat Kohli ahead of Suresh Raina after their second warm up match against New Zealand.

“The number four slot is very important for us. Right now it is a slot war. It is the number four slot where Kohli needs to bat with Gautam Gambhir at number three,” Dhoni said.

“Kohli is sort of a player who likes to spend little bit of time early and then go after the bowlers. Still, there is a bit of chance where Virat may get an edge over (Suresh) Raina seeing the current form he is in,” he added.

Dhoni also hinted that he would stand by Yuvraj Singh as his ability to spin the ball away makes him an asset to the team even though currently he is a bit short of runs.

“We are playing with four bowlers. A part-time spinner is really important especially if it is a left-arm away going spinner. That’s the one big advantage he (Yuvraj) has got over others,” Dhoni said.

The explosive batting line-up will be marshalled by Sachin Tendulkar, who would be participating in his sixth World Cup this time around and the senior batsmen will look to give India a flying start with Virender Sehwag.

Gautam Gambhir will be next, while the middle-order also looks rock solid with Kohli, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan – all capable of playing big-shots and also rotating the strike.

In their second and last warm up game, India scored a mammoth 360 against New Zealand and it will give a lot of confidence to the batsmen, especially skipper Dhoni and Gambhir, who hit an unbeaten 108 and 89 respectively.

Kohli and Raina also cracked half-centuries against New Zealand and Dhoni would be hoping his boys continue the good work.

In the bowling department, Dhoni will have to pick his options carefully since India is going with a four-pronged attack.

Indian spinners Harbhajan Singh and surprise inclusion Piyush Chawla have taken five and six wickets in the last two warm up games. Even R Ashwin and part-time spinner Yuvraj scalped two and three wickets respectively.

In contrast, the pacers have struggled with Ashish Nehra claiming two and Praveen Kumar’s replacement S Sreesanth taking one wicket, while Munaf Patel remaining wicketless in the warm up matches.

But with pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who didn’t feature in the two warm up ties because of a minor niggle, returning to action on Saturday, a much better performance can be expected from the seamers.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, have so far been content with an odd upset and have been generally looked upon as underachievers but the tigers would look to shrug off that tag when they lock horns with India at home.

Though they have just five victories from 20 World Cup matches to show, Bangladesh has the distinction of beating Pakistan on debut during the 1999 edition and ousting India and defeating South Africa four years ago.

Skippered by Shakib-Al-Hasan, Bangladesh have a few good batsmen in talented Mohammad Ashraful, the pint-sized dynamic opener Tamim Iqbal and wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim. Besides, captain Shakib-Al-Hasan, himself, ranks number one in the ICC’s all-rounders list and knows how to wield the willow.

Bangladesh won their first warm up match against Canada but lost to Pakistan in the second tie. However, their openers Tamim and Imrul Kayes have got runs under their belt in the two matches.

Though their pace attack will lack the fire-power of speedster Mashrafe Mortaza, 21-year-old pacer Rubel Hossain had claimed five wickets in the warm up matches.

Besides, Bangladesh also have some good tweakers in left-arm slow bowlers Shakib and Abdur Razzaq, who can get handy support from many other part-timers.

Bangladesh can also take heart from the fact that they came into the tournament after having made a clean sweep against New Zealand, a full-fledged test playing country and defeating Zimbabwe 3-1 at home, where they will play all their six league games.

TEAMS

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, S Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Ashish Nehra.

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Shahriar Nafees, Raqibul Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Naeem Islam, Mahmudullah, Abdur Razzak, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Nazmul Hossain, Suhrawadi Shuvo.

Match starts at 1430 hrs (IST).

Cricket

They said he couldn’t perform in international cricket. They said he was good only for IPL and domestic cricket. He proved them wrong tonight. Yusuf Pathan engineered an improbable win for India with a violent hundred, his first in ODIs, and perhaps sealed a World Cup berth for himself. It looked grim for India when they were tottering at 188 for 5 in the 34th over, after the fall of Rohit Sharma, but Pathan pulled off a heist. One game doesn’t guarantee a successful future of course but Pathan left his past behind with a potentially career-changing innings on a drizzly Bangalore night.  His century overshadowed a superbly-crafted 98 from James Franklin that had allowed New Zealand to reach a daunting total.

Pathan declared his intent with two brutal shots. The first came in the 37th over, when play resumed after a one-hour rain break that didn’t reduce any overs and left India needing 113 runs from 14. Yusuf launched a Daniel Vettori delivery into screaming fans beyond long-on and clubbed a length delivery from Kyle Mills over the roof at cow corner. A couple of quiet overs followed but Pathan roused himself in a violent 43rd over: he smashed Mills for three fours – a lofted hit overs cover and two flicks past short fine-leg – before crashing a length delivery for six over midwicket. And when he brought up his maiden hundred with a pulled six, off Andy McKay in the next over, the game was all but over. He found support in Saurabh Tiwary, who intelligently rotated the strike, and the pair gave India a 4-0 lead in the series.

It was an incredible effort considering India had lagged behind for a major part of the chase. McKay’s twin strikes to remove Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli in the 10th over and Nathan McCullum’s double-strike to dismiss Yuvraj Singh and Parthiv Patel, who hit his maiden fifty, had pushed India on the back foot. And when Tim Southee had Rohit Sharma hitting straight to mid-off, New Zealand would have been thinking about the win, but Yusuf crushed their hopes with a blinder.

As good as their batting was in the end overs, their death bowling nearly lost India the game. Franklin’s knock provided the perfect climax to New Zealand’s spirited approach; the openers attacked to take them to 91 for 2 in the 14th over and the middle-order adapted to the fall of wickets – rebuilding at a slower pace before Franklin’s final flourish.

Franklin looted 22 runs in the final over, bowled by Nehra, with some wickedly entertaining big hits: he smashed the second delivery to the straight boundary, the third over long-off, the fourth to midwicket, and the fifth to the wide long-off boundary. It was not, however, a knock of such fury and adrenalin from the start. He had built his innings with conventional shots, such as the one in 47th over, when he was batting with the tail and was under some pressure. He sashayed down the track to Yusuf Pathan, who had just picked up two wickets, and nonchalantly flicked him wide of the deep midwicket fielder. No manic rush or desperation, he simply carried on with his style, sweeping the spinners and flicking and square-driving the seamers to get to his fifty. Only in the final two overs did he explode. It seemed he had done enough to win the game for his team, especially after India’s top-order had collapsed, but Yusuf seized the day.

Cricket

An unassailable lead in hand, the rampaging Indian team will now push for a series whitewash when it takes on a grossly mismatched New Zealand in the inconsequential fourth one-dayer of the five-match rubber on Tuesday.

Stand-in skipper Gautam Gambhir has led from the front with back-to-back centuries to inflict one of the worst series defeats on the visitors in the two countries’ bilateral history which dates back to 1975-76.

The second string team’s exemplary performance in the absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh has also given a boost to the side’s World Cup aspirations.

The young players such as Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay and Saurabh Tiwary have made an impact and would have impressed regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni just a couple of months ahead of the World Cup being hosted in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Chairman of the natiolnal selection panel, Krish Srikkanth, said the youngsters have done well for themselves and their performance has shown that team’s World Cup preparations are going according to the plan.

“Youngsters in the team have proved that the bench strength is good. It is important that we keep winning all our matches up to end of the World Cup,” Srikkanth said ahead of the match.

“Overall, I am confident that the players will perform to their potential and keep the momentum. I am glad that the preparation for the World Cup is on the right track,” he said.

As for Tueday’s match, the Indian players are an upbeat lot and would be looking to keep the momentum going for a whitewash.

Despite being a second-string side, the Indians have proved themselves better on all counts against a short-of-confidence New Zealand, which came here after being hammered 0-4 by minnows Bangladesh.

The Indian line-up has not exactly missed the dashing Virender Sehwag or the reliable Sachin Tendulkar as the likes Virat Kohli have stepped in effortlessely against a rather ineffective Kiwi attack.

Kohli, who has been good nick in the domestic circuit, has been solid so far along with Murali Vijay.

The Indian bowling has been spearheaded well by senior pacer Zaheer Khan along with the spinners. Young off-spinner R Ashwin has, in fact, managed to make quite an impact but he has to be more economical in the middle overs.

The Kiwis, on the other hand, have been struggling and skipper Daniel vettori has to do a lot of head-scratching to find a way out of the slump that has gripped the team after a fighting performance in the Test series.

Vettori and his men would be desperate to regain confidence which has been dented severely by three defeats on the trot.

The key to it is a solid batting performance and the visitors will look towards Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum to give them the rare crackling start. Ross Taylor and Scott Styris can consolidate from there on.

Kiwi new ball bowlers Kyle Mills and Andy McKay and one-change pacer James Franklin have the ability to disturb any combination along with Vettori but the quartet has so far struggled on pitches which have always been a batsman’s delight.

India: Gautam Gambhir (Captain), Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and R Vinay Kumar.

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (Captain), Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Jamie How, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Andy McKay, James Franklin and Grant Elliott.

Hours of play: 2.30 pm to 6.00 pm, 6.40 pm to close of play.

New Zealand cricket team, on a tour of India to play three Test matches and five ODIs, arrived at the Sardar Patel International Airport on Saturday night.

“The entire team has landed at the airport here,” Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) Spokesperson Jagat Patel said.

New Zeleand team will be spending almost one and a half months in the country playing Test and ODI series. Their first test match is scheduled to be played at the Motera stadium here and will begin from November 4.

The team was welcomed by the GCA members here.

Daniel Vettori is the captain of the New Zealand team, while Mark Greatbatch is the team coach.

Prolific Indian opener Gautam Gambhir feels that the Indian Cricket Board should renew the contract of coach Gary Kirsten after it expires at the end of the Cricket World Cup next year.

“Gary is the best coach India has ever had. I have often said that and I keep on stressing that we need Gary. I don’t need to speak much about him. His fabulous record speaks for itself. He has been a great man-manager. So I believe that he should be retained after the World Cup also,” Gambhir said at the sidelines of a promotional event here.

Gambhir is thus the latest among the Indian stars to join the bandwagon who want the South African to be retained as Cricket South Africa wants him to take over once he finishes his stint with the Indian team.

The opener also supported Kirsten’s idea of sending the top-order batsmen to South Africa, a week in advance so that they can get themselves acclimatised to the pace and bounce of wickets over there.

“We haven’t played much cricket in South Africa of late. So it will be a great idea if we go there a bit early to get used to the conditions. If such a thing happens, it may just work in our favour,” Gambhir said.

He also reiterated that one can’t continue his blazing form for life and there is bound to be ups and downs.

“Right now I am coming back from injury. It’s always a difficult thing when you come back from injury. Only when you spend considerable time out there in the middle, you get to know how it’s shaping up for you,” he said.

The Delhi batsman also feels that just because Bangladesh whipped New Zealand 4-0 in the ODI series, it did not mean that it will be a cakewalk for the Indians when they meet the Black Caps from November 4.

“You can never take any international opposition lightly. Just because Bangladesh beat them 4-0 doesn’t mean that we can take it easy against the New Zealanders. Their team consists of some proven match-winners who can turn a match head on. So we need to be very careful and can’t take things for granted,” Gambhir said.

On a lighter vein, he said that walking ramp is tough but not as tough as opening the batting for the country.

He also said that he hasn’t seen the likes of Yuvraj Singhs and Mahendra Singh Dhonis walk the ramp but said that a cricketer’s endeavour is to perform on field rather than score points off it.

The Proteas are keen to have their former star batsman Gary Kirsten as national team’s coach next year, but Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is reportedly among those pushing to have the South African’s contract as Indian coach renewed.

Kirsten had gained respect and popularity after taking over as coach of the Indian side in March 2008, a weekly said, adding that this was boosted by India’s victory against Australia earlier this month in Test series.

With Corrie van Zyl having announced his decision to retire as South African coach after the World Cup in March next year, Kirsten is one of those being eyed for the position by Cricket South Africa (CSA), according to insiders.

But whether Kirsten would be available when his contract with India ends after the World Cup, will also depend on India’s performance in the tournament.

Current Indian players, especially the senior members of the team like Sachin Tendulkar and Dhoni are believed to be so impressed with Kirsten that they might even put pressure on the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to offer him a new contract, the weekly reported.

It further said that Kirsten would be able to dictate his own pay cheque if India won the tournament.

Cricket India

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is looking forward to next year’s ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 which will be staged in the Indian sub-continent after a span of one and a half decades.

“The Cricket World Cup is the ultimate limited overs competition for a cricketer as it happens only once in four years. The entire cricketing fraternity eagerly waits for this event and when it starts, everyone gets deeply involved,” said Tendulkar, who will become the most capped Test batsman when he plays against Sri Lanka in his 169th match tomorrow.

“It’s a completely different feeling to be part of a Cricket World Cup where the atmosphere and the buzz is very special and to be staged in the sub-continent for the first time in 15 years is a magnificent feeling,” added the Indian batting maestro.

With the World Cup to be co-hosted by India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said winning the the show-piece event on home soil is his biggest dream.

“It can’t get any bigger than the ICC Cricket World Cup in which the best of the best enter with just one objective to take home the Cup that counts,” the Indian skipper said.

“It’s not only my dream to be a Cricket World Cup winner but it’s the wish of every member of Team India to put his hand on the Cricket World Cup trophy. We’ll work as hard as possible to turn our dreams into reality,” Dhoni said.

“This trophy has been eluding us for the past 27 years and I think we have a very good chance at home to break the drought,” he added.

With 200 days to go before the first ball is bowled in the World Cup, the ICC today announced the event mascot’s name as ‘Stumpy’ at the P Sara stadium here ahead of the third Test between India and Sri Lanka starting tomorrow.

The mascot, an elephant, has been named ‘Stumpy’ after an online selection process that drew proposals from thousands of cricket fans around the world.

The lucky winner will receive a cricket bat signed by the all-star quartet of Dhoni, Tendulkar, Sri Lanka’ captain Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena.

“This is another milestone in the build-up to our flagship event and it’s great to see the game’s best players like Mahendra, Kumar, Sachin and Mahela looking forward to the ICC Cricket World Cup with such enthusiasm,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said in a statement.

“As the excitement builds over the coming 200 days, we will see Stumpy throughout the cricket world, promoting the event and generating enthusiasm,” he said.