Victorious Asians- Men In Blue!

Fifteen years is what it took India to win back the Asia Cup Title. What better time than this time where the belief of the supporters in the team was in complete doldrums after the defeat in Zimbabwe. It was the bowling attack that made the difference. Zaheer bowled peach of a delivery to get rid of the dangerous Sangakkara. The ball kissed the top of the stumps while Sangakkara tried to leave the ball. Dilshan’s wicket was very important as he always makes it big when it matters a lot. Nehra didn’t allow Dilshan to trouble at all by claiming his wicket for a duck. Angelo Matthew followed his team mate by giving his wicket to the same bowler at the same score of duck. Nehra applied brakes at the right time and it was too late for the tail enders to guide the Lankan’s to the shore. His 41/4 wrote the script of Indian victory and he also bagged the Man of the Match award

It was clearly seen that Sri Lanka depends heavily on some of the senior players. The younger lot has to do lots of catching up as the middle order does not seem to provide a solid support.

Dinesh Karthik grabbed the opportunity with both the hands. He replaced injured Viru for this match and scored a brilliant 66 runs at the right time.

This victory is going to be remembered for a long time as the eventful match against Pakistan was also played in the same series.Well played team India. continue the winning streak as we have the big debacle coming up to be played in India- World Cup 2011

Photos: Courtesy: Cricinfo.com

Roaring King Harbhajan!

Six of the second last ball reminded us of the 1986 match against Pakistan  Sharjah. It was Javed Miandad then who hit six of the last ball of Chetan Sharma and winning the match and ruining Sharma's career . Harbhajan Singh was super charged when the ball crossed the ropes and with that India registered victory against Pakistan. It was a very exhilarating match like all India Pakistan match. Bhajji has always shown his potential with the bat and is a true match winner. He was roaring like a Lion King and one could not miss the tussle between him and Shoaib Akthar

Pakistan could well have made runs in excess of 280 but credit goes to Indian bowlers who restricted to 267 runs. It came down till the last over where Harbhajan Singh came to the party and hit a six when 3 runs were required of last 2 balls.India has now qualified for the Semis  along with SrilLanka. 

Clash Between The Asians!

In the midst of the Football World Cup, lets revisit the other super game thats Cricket.
The Asia Cup has started featuring Bangladesh, India, Pakistan & Srilanka. India will take on Bangladesh in Dambula today i. e, 15th June 2010. Tamim Iqbal from Bangladesh has shown some super form in Test Match against England in England. A century at Lords has already made him special. Talking about India's form, the series in Zimbabe was a series to forget. The seniors are back in the team, so lets hope for a explosive start. It will be good opportunity for Saurabh Tiwari to show his exploits with the bat for team India. He has already impressed everyone with his performance for Mumbai Indians.
The match to watch out is on Saturday- 19th June 10  as India take on their arch rival Pakistan.

So while everyone is glued to Football World Cup, lets stay tuned to Cricket as well.

Vuvuzela!

Vuvuzela- That’s the name of horn which is making sound at FIFA World Cup 2010.Also known as “lepatata” (Tswana name) it’s a 3 ft 3 inches instrument creating lot of controversy on distracting players on field with noise. FIFA as of now has not yet decided to ban the instrumentbut there’s been lot of eyebrows raised by the players.

Coming on to game updates – last weekend - Argentina started their campaign with 1-0 win over Nigeria and Korea beat Greece 2-0 in Group B. England one of the strong contenders this time started off well with captain Gerrard leading from the front strikes early for his side, but soon US team counter attacked and it was a suicide goal from English Goal-keeper slipping ball into his own net. The game which could’ve easily gone in England’s favour, ended in a draw England 1 -1 USA. In another match Slovenia managed to beat Algeria 1-0. These were results from Group C.
Group D results saw Ghana beating Serbia 1-0 followed by Germany thrashing Australia 4-0.

Group E kicked off really well with Japan beating Cameroon 1-0 and Dutch team enjoying Danish party, The Netherlands beat Denmark 2-0.

Group F had defending champions Italy taking on Paraguay. Match ended in a draw 1-1 with some great moves and fighting spirit shown by Paraguay team.

Today 15th June Matches –

New Zealand facing Slovakia @ 17:00 IST – Group F

Portugal vs Ivory Coast @ 19:30 IST – Group G (Group of Death)

Samba boys Brazil vs N. Korea @ 23:50 IST - Group G.

Goal Goal Goal!

Goal is the word for the  entire month.


By the time most of us will hit for a lovely weekend in the evening, celebration in Johannesburg city would have been already started. Its time when 32 countries will battle it out to record their name in history and kiss the trophy- The FIFA World Cup

Small update on today’s games:
Host South Africa will play their first game against Mexico with almost entire nation backing them up. SA will be all charged up to earn pride for their country against Mexico.Undoubtedly Mexico has upper hand over SA but there will be no shortage in excitement and cheers.
 Game time: 19:30 IST

The big match from Pool A will be at 12:00 midnight. Last time runner up France taking on two times champion Uruguay.This will be a contest to watch out for in this Pool.
With France leaving behind all controversy and injuries, they would want to start on a winning note.On the other hand Uruguay do have a strong line up to challenge any team in the world

Player to watch out for:

Henry, Gallas, Evra -France
Perez, Sebastian Fernandez & Silva- Uruguay.

So gear up and shout loud- Goal!
ShamsnWags.

Soccer Mania

With the 19th Edition of the Football World Cup to kick start from 11th June 2010 and 30 days of utter craziness with billions and billions of people following each and every match, its time for ShamsnWags to keep their favorite Red Cherry aside and chase the Golden Ball. It’s an undisputed fact that Football is a game that is played and followed globally.
It’s going to be an exhilarating contest with every team pushing hard to lift the trophy.Right from the famous ‘Hand of God’ by Diego Maradona, to the infamous ‘Head Butt’ in last edition by Zidane, football has seen some super incidence in the ground. Not to forget killing of Andres Escobar from Columbia for hitting a self goal.
Though people still vouch for the teams that have won word cup on numerous occasions like Brazil, Italy, Argentina, the likes of Spain, Portugal & Holland are all set to break this trend
Going back to our child memories, in 1986 when Argentina won the WC, that time for Shams football meant Maradona. Now the time has changed and we are following football very closely which includes team formation, recent form of players.
Let’s have a look at some of the Key Players:
Lionel Messy (termed as Modern Maradona), Carlos Tevez –Argentina
Kaka- Brazil
Cassilla Vila & FernandoTorress – Spain
Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal
Thierry Henry - France
Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard & Frank Lampard - England
Lucas Podolski -Germany.
Didier Drogba -Iveorycost

For Shams the favorites are England & Spain, for Wags its Brazil & England.
Which team do you support? Do write in your feedback.

Shamsnwags
Photo Courtesy:
http://sgfsoccer.com/