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).

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.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a chance to regain the top slot in the batting list while his team can climb up to the second place in the ICC’s ODI championship table if they do well in the Asia Cup starting June 15 in Sri Lanka.

Dhoni slipped to third behind Australia’s Michael Hussey and South Africa’s AB de Villiers in the rankings for batsmen after deciding to skip the tour to Zimbabwe where Sri Lanka won the triangular series after defeating Zimbabwe by nine wickets in the final.

As a player loses half a per cent of his ratings points for every ODI he misses, Dhoni conceded 16 ratings points and slipped to third position, the ICC said in a statement.

However, he still has the number-one ranked Hussey and second-placed de Villiers firmly within his sights as he trails the Australian by eight ratings points and the South African by just two ratings points.

With India scheduled to play a minimum of three ODIs in Sri Lanka, a couple of good performances with the bat will help Dhoni regain his number-one position.

Also aiming to maintain his upward movement will be Virat Kohli who achieved career-best ranking to date after good performances in Zimbabwe last week.

Kohli scored 168 runs to jump to 13th position after a leap of seven places.

Also moving up the order after the Zimbabwe series was Rohit Sharma. Sharma’s series aggregate of 260 runs has given him a lift of 44 places and puts him in 47th position which he shares with Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal.

However, Suresh Raina, who captained India in Zimbabwe, had a disappointing series and he slipped to 20th after scoring 83 runs in four matches.

In the rankings for ODI bowlers, Sri Lanka boasts two bowlers inside the top 20 while Pakistan has two and Bangladesh and India have one each.

Harbhajan Singh represents India in the top 20 in 11th spot whereas Pakistan’s captain Shahid Afridi is seventh and his countryman Saeed Ajmal is in 18th spot.

In the ODI Championship table, India will start in third place after dropping behind South Africa following their three losses in Zimbabwe.

However, it can regain the number-two spot if they win both their matches against Bangladesh and Pakistan.

If they manage to achieve this, they will join South Africa on 119 ratings points but will be placed higher after the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point.

India’s status as the number one one-day team proved shortlived after the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side slumped to a 139-run defeat against Sri Lanka in an inconsequential match of Compaq Cup tri-nation cricket series here on Saturday.

Although India were already assured of a place in Monday’s final of the tri-nation series after their big win over New Zealand yesterday, Dhoni and his men needed an unbeaten run in the tournament to maintain their number one ODI team status.

However, Sanath Jayasuriya and Thilina Kandambi combined with the bat and then Angelo Mathews ignited fire with the ball to take the hosts to the convincing victory.

Chasing a formidable 308 for victory India were bowled out for a paltry 168 in 37.2 overs as only six batsmen could manage to reach double figures.

Earlier, opting to bat Sri Lanka rode on Jayasuriya’s blistering 98 off 79 balls and Kandambi’s unbeaten 91 down the order to score 307 for six in their alloted 50 overs.

Needing 308 for win, India’s makeshift opening duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik (16 off 23) started the innings on a positive note adding 32 runs in the first six overs before Sri Lanka pulled back with the wicket of Karthik.

Trying to glide a leg side delivery to the fine-leg boundary, the Tamil Nadu wicket-keeper gloved a simple catch to Kumar Sangakkara off left-arm seamer Thilan Thushara’s bowling in the sixth over.

From there on both Tendulkar and new man in Rahul Dravid found going tough although the the master blaster managed to find the fence in between.

Tendulkar hit some elegant flicks and glances to score his boundaries before Nuwan Kulasekara got the vital wicket in the 14th over with India scoreboard reading 67. He struck five fours in his short but classy 33-ball 27-run innings.

Vice captain Yuvraj Singh made his arrival in style, clobbering Kulasekara for four over mid-on in the very second ball he faced but thereafter went to a shell as he played and missed Lasith Malinga on several occasions.

Boundaries were far and few as Dravid and Yuvraj kept the scoreboard ticking with ones and twos before the right-hander cut loose in the 19th over, hitting a four and a six of Dilshan’s consecutive deliveries to pick 13 runs off the over.

But Malinga broke the dangerously-looking 38-run fourth wicket stand as Yuvraj edged one to Sangakkara.

After that the famed Indian batting line up crumbled like a pack of card as they lost five wickets for mere 25 runs as Angelo Mathews wreaked havoc, picking three six wickets for mere 20 runs in his six overs.

Suresh Raina’s misery with the bat continued as he made a duck. He gave a catching practice to Sangakkara in the very first ball he faced off Mathews.

Dravid was the next to follow, bowled by Mathews as the right-hander went for an extravagant drive.

In his next over and innings 28th, Mathews struck twice, first castling skipper Dhoni’s stumps and then Yusuf Pathan handed a regulation catch to Sangakkara, thereby dashing India’s hopes with the scoreboard reading 130 for seven.

Mathews’ rampage continued unabated as he disturbed both Harbhajan Singh and Asish Nehra’s timbers.

The duo of RP Singh (19 not out)and Ishant Sharma (13) did make a last ditch effort to take India’s score to some respectability by adding 29 runs before Ajantha Mendis wrapped up the proceedings.

Earlier, Jayasuriya returned to form with a blistering fashion. The 40-year-old left-hander, who had failed to score a half-century in his last eight previous outings, smashed 13 boundaries in his innings.

However, after the good start Sri Lanka were struggling at 176 for five at one stage but Kandambi and Chamara Kapugedara (36) rattled up 83 runs for the sixth wicket to pour water on India’s hopes.

The duo batted sensibly dealing mostly on singles with occasional fours and saved their last for the final power-play.

A direct hit by RP Singh separated the pair at the fag end but Kandambi batted with vigour and punished all the Indian bowlers with utter disdain.

His 91 came off just 73 balls which included 11 shots to the fence as the last four overs yielded 46 runs.

Sri Lanka got off to a flying start with Dilshan (23) and Jayasuriya relishing batting on a good track.

Dilshan hit a flashy square cut to fence off Nehra in the first ball of the match and then sent an exquisite straight drive to boundary ropes, to start the proceedings in a brilliant fashion.

With Both Nehra and RP Singh not making any impact, Dhoni brought gangling pacer Ishant into the attack as early as in the fifth over of the innings.

The lanky bowler soon produced result, dismissing Dilshan, who played a casual drive to give an easy catch to Dhoni behind the wicket.

Jayasuriya was unperturbed and severely punished RP Singh, fetching 15 runs from his over, en route to his half-century, which came off just 45 balls.

The hosts were cruising comfortably but some exceptional glove work by Dhoni resulted in the fall of Mahela Jayawardene (17) off Yousuf Pathan and then Harbhajan Singh trapped Kumar Sangakkara (5) to make it 102 for three.

Jayasuriya continued with his aggressive batting as he hit Yuvraj Singh for successive boundaries. He survived a run out chance and together with Angelo Mathews (19) put up 70 runs for the fourth wicket before his heartbreaking dismissal.

Mathews too joined him soon when he gave charge to Raina, got foxed by the spin and Dhoni stumped him.

Air India Blue beat Indian Revenue by 140 runs in a match of the Corporate Cup tournament at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) stadium on Thursday, sealing their place in the semi-final.

After winning the toss, Air India Blue got a flying start from their openers – Maninder Bisra and Chandan Yadav, who accumulated 71 runs in the first 11 overs before the game was stopped due to rain.

Rain wasted over an hour of the play and the game was reduced to 42-overs a side.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni came to bat first down at the departure of Yadav, who scored 74 runs. Dhoni played a quick-fire innings, remaining unbeaten on 106 runs of just 61 balls. Maninder, who studded his innings with 7 sixes and 14 fours, also remained not out on 152 runs.

The team scored 362 runs for the loss of one wicket in 42 overs.

The lone wicket-taker for Indian Revenue was Rakesh Badrapur.

Playing under floodlights, Indian Revenue could only score 222 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 42 overs. Amesh Shrikande and Ankit were the highest scorers for them with 121 and 33 runs respectively.

Indian Revenue’s Avik Chowdhary, who got man-of-the-match award for scoring 110 runs against ITC Wednesday, was run out by Mohammed Kaif on 24.

Things were not going good for Indian Revenue team as their leading batsman Hekin Shah was retired hurt after a bouncer hit him directly on the nose.

After preliminary first aid, Shah was immediately shifted to Fortis hospital in Mohali.

RP Singh and Mohit Singh grabbed two wickets each for Air India Blue.

With this win, Air India Blue has registered their place in the semi-final match Sunday. In the points tally they are leading with six points, whereas Indian Revenue and ITC have managed with only four and two points respectively.

Dhoni was adjudged man-of-the-match and received a trophy and a cheque of Rs.50,000.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan have both been nominated in three different categories at the ICC Awards 2009. The two men feature in the long-lists for the awards, which will take place at a glittering ceremony in Johannesburg on 1 October. In addition, there are 18 players who are nominated in two distinct categories.

The list was announced at a function in Mumbai, on Wednesday, hosted by former Indian all-rounder Ravi Shastri and attended by current India opener Virender Sehwag – who himself is one of the players nominated for the ODI Player of the Year award – and ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat.

This year’s ICC awards includes eight individual prizes and also features the selection of the Test and ODI Teams of the Year and the award to the side that has adhered most to the Spirit of Cricket.

Apart from MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh were some of the other top players to make the list in different categories.

Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh were the other Indian nominees for the prestigious Cricketer of the Year award.

VVS Laxman joined the trio of Dhoni, Gambhir and Harbhajan to be in the line for the Test Player of the Year award while Yuvraj and Sehwag were also in the fray for the honour of ODI Player of the Year.

Zaheer Khan was nominated for Twenty20 Performer of the Year.

“The ICC awards are an opportunity for the ICC and FICA to acknowledge and celebrate the remarkable performances of the world’s top players,” said ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat.

“It is also a chance for followers of our great sport to reflect on some of the great cricketing feats they have witnessed over the past year. This will be the sixth time the awards have been handed out and yet again there are so many great performances to recall. Selecting the winners will no doubt test our selectors and voting academy,” he said.

The long-lists of nominations were made by a five-man ICC selection panel chaired by former West Indies captain and current chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee Clive Lloyd.

The panel also includes former players such as India’s Anil Kumble, Pakistan’s Mudassar Nazar, England’s Bob Taylor and New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming.

The individual player awards will be selected by an academy of 25 highly credentialed cricket personalities from around the world. The academy includes a host of former players and respected members of the media, representatives of the Emirates Elite Panels of ICC Umpires and ICC Match Referees.

The Spirit of Cricket Award was voted on by all international captains as well as all members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees. The Umpire of the Year Award was voted on by the captains and the match referees based on the umpires’ performance statistics.

Tillakaratne Dilshan is yet to win an ICC award but he has a good chance this year as he is named among the nominees for the ICC Cricketer of the Year, Test Player of the Year and the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year.

MS Dhoni is a previous winner at the ICC awards having been named as the ODI Player of the Year in 2008. He was also named in the 2008 ODI Team of the Year. This year he has been nominated in the Cricketer of the Year, Test Player of the Year and ODI Player of the Year categories.

The Emerging Player of the Year nominees include Australia’s new finds Philip Hughes, Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle as well as the New Zealand duo of Martin Guptill and Jesse Ryder. India is represented in that category through leg-spinner Amit Mishra while there is also a place for Kemar Roach of the West Indies and England seamer Graham Onions.

To qualify for that award a player must be under the age of 26 and have played fewer than five Tests and/or 10 ODIs at the start of the voting period.

The Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year award serves to recognise and reward the efforts in all international matches of the outstanding cricketers from the teams outside the ICC Full Members. This year, Ireland boasts the most number of nominees with seven names on the list. This is followed by the Netherlands with three and Canada with two names while Kenya and Scotland claim one player each.

Based on the period between 13 August 2008 and 24 August 2009, the ICC Awards 2009 – presented in association FICA – will take into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game.

Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his deputy Yuvraj Singh will represent different Air India teams in the September 1-8 BCCI Corporate Trophy.

With Air India fielding two sides in the 12-team tournament, Yuvraj will play for Air India Red team, while Dhoni will represent Air India Blue.

Yuvraj will have the likes of Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina and Irfan Pathan in the Red team, which will be coached by selector Narendra Hirwani.

Apart from Dhoni, Air India ‘Blue’ team will also feature Mohammad Kaif, Harbhajan Singh, R P Singh and VVS Laxman.

Pravin Amre was named coach of the side. Despite missing the service of Virender Sehwag, the Oil and Natural Gas Commission will field a strong squad as well, featuring star players like Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar.

India Cements will not be a pushover either since they would have Rahul Dravid, S Badrinath, Hemang Badani, L Balaji and Sudeep Tyagi in their ranks.

With former India captain Sourav Ganguly skipping the event, Tata Sports Club will pin hopes on the likes of Rohan Gavaskar, Ajit Agarkar and Ramesh Powar.

Mohali hosts the first match of the tournament between Air India Blue vs ITC on September 1, while the final is slated for September 8 in Bangalore.

Dharamsala and Visakhapatna are the two other venues.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni continued to top the One-day batsmen chart with his deputy Yuvraj Singh occupying the second position in the latest ICC ODI Player Rankings released on Wednesday.

Apart from Dhoni and Yuvraj, Delhi dasher Virender Sehwag, at the seventh spot, is the other Indian to feature in the top 10 batsmen list.

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir are at the 14th and 17th spot respectively in the chart.

However, no Indian features among top 10 ODI bowlers with left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan languishing at the 17th spot in the list which is being headed by Sri Lankan Nuwan Kulasekara, followed by Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori of New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan continued to top the ODI all-rounders table, followed by England’s Andrew Flintoff in the second spot and Kiwi Jacob Oram at the third position.

India also managed to hold on to their second best ODI team status with 126 rating points.

South Africa tops the table with a point lead over India, while World Champions Australia is lying third with 119 points.

India’s cricket chiefs have forced a change in next month’s tri-series in Sri Lanka that will leave Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men playing two gruelling back-to-back matches.

The Indians were originally scheduled to play New Zealand on September 10 and hosts Sri Lanka two days later on September 12 in the preliminary stage of the series in Colombo.

But the Indian board had the New Zealand game pushed back by a day to September 11 so that top stars are available for the entire duration of a domestic one-day tournament ending in Bangalore on September 8.

“The change has been made at the request of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI),” Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said.

The Indian team will fly into Colombo on September 9, a day after the tri-series opens at the Premadasa stadium with a match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

India’s matches against the Black Caps on September 11 and Sri Lanka the next day will be followed by the final on September 14.

Dhoni’s team, currently enjoying a rare month-long break, will use the tri-series to warm up for the Champions Trophy in South Africa from September 22-October 5.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his deputy Yuvraj Singh retained the top two slots in batsmen’s list, while Team India managed to cling on to second position in the ICC ODI Rankings issued on Monday.

Dhoni held on to his numero uno status with 828 rating points while left-handed Yuvraj, who had managed his career best ranking last month, had 784 points in his kitty.

The Indian duo are followed by Australia’s Mike Hussey (767), West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul (759) and his skipper Chris Gayle (756) in the list.

Virender Sehwag (seventh), Sachin Tendulkar (14th) and Gautam Gambhir (17th) stuck to their respective positions.

Meanwhile, South Africa remained on top of ODI Championships table, followed by India and Australia at second and third.

Among the bowlers, injured left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan continued to be the only Indian in top 20 at 16th.

Sri Lankan Nuwan Kulasekara tops the bowlers’ list.