Serious Test Business

It’s the Test Cricket season at the moment. With 3 test series and The Ashes started yesterday, looks like we have serious stuff to witness.

India vs New Zealand – Retaining #1 position

Before the start of the battle it was considered to be a series of dominance and survival. Dominance from the Indians as they were high after recent series win against Aussies and survival for Kiwis as they had embarrassing tour of Bangladesh. But as it says Cricket is unpredictable game. With the return of Brendon Mccullum as specialist batsmen and promising character of McIntosh and new players Kiwis had different plans for India tour. Though first test in Ahmedabad went into a draw with Harbhajan Singh showing his batting skill on final day and scoring his maiden test century, the match was mostly controlled by the Kiwis. McIntosh scored his debut test century while Chris Martin displayed wonderful spell in India’s second innings taking first 4 wickets for just 10 runs and finishing 5-15. This was an alarm bell for the Indians not to be complacent.

Second test in Hyderabad had almost same story with Kiwis again showing their determination while batting first and scoring 350. Indians started of well with opening partnership of 160 runs with Sehwag missing his ton by 4 runs and some relief for Gautam Gambhir to be back in action after last 8 innings failure. Though the middle order collapsed, thanks to Harbhajan Singh who bailed out India by with his second test century and importantly getting a lead of more than 100 runs for his team. But the Kiwis stood still and Mccullum smashed brilliant double century with shots all over the ground and tearing Indian bowling attack apart.

Third and final test in Nagpur proved why India is #1 Test side in the world. Right from day 1 Indians dominated the match and finished off on 4^th day second session to win series 1-0. Batting first The kiwis lost half of their side for 80 odd runs with Indian pace duo Sreesanth & Ishant bowling good line and length. The kiwis were  restricted to 193 in 1^st inning on day 2 and were  outclassed by Indian batting line up who scored massive 576-8 (dec) taking healthy lead of 373 at the close of third day.The Kiwis were bowled out for 198 in second innings and lost the match by innings and 198 runs. The main highlight of the match was that the  Indian bowlers got  back in action and brilliant 191 runs by “The Wall” Rahul Dravid in first inning.

ODI series between two countries will start from 28^th November’10 in Guwahati with senior players – Sachin, Dhoni, Sehwag, Zaheer & Harbhajan rested. Gautam Gambhir will lead the side with Riddhiman Saha as wicket keeper and return of Yuvraj Singh & Yusuf Pathan in middle order.

South Africa vs Pakistan

The other test series between South Africa and Pakistan in Abu Dhabi ended 0-0 with both test match draw. It seems problems and controversy will never go away from Pakistan Cricket with players involved in match fixing probe and the team playing home away from home series (Dubai & Abu Dhabi destination) to finish off their Calender schedule. The series saw some great performance by Kallis and Amla fro SA side while Younis Khan and Misbah holding the battle and ensuring safe draw from Pakistan side.

Sri Lanka vs West Indies

West Indies on the other hand is touring Sri Lanka with rain affected 2 test ended in draw. The main highlight of 1^st match was 333 runs by Chris Gayle displaying strokes all over the ground. The second test in Colombo has 3 days till now with rain taking away most of the day’s play and some batting practice for skipper Sangakkara hitting century followed by Samarweera scoring half century.

The Ashes

There’s so much to say and write about The Ashes.

The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is international cricket's most celebrated rivalry and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. The series is named after a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, in 1882 after a match at The Oval in which Australia beat England on an English ground for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain The Ashes. * source Wikipedia & Cricinfo.England currently holds The Ashes, after defeating Australia 2–1 to regain them in the 2009 Ashes series which took place in England and, for the first time, Wales.

The 1^st test started yesterday 25^th Nov’10 in Gabba, Brisbane. England batting first was restricted to 260 on day 1 with some brilliant performance by Aussie’s pace attack. Peter Siddle became 9^th bowler to take hat trick in The Ashes history, claiming wickets of Alistair Cook, Matt Prior and Chris Broad. He finished with total 6 wickets in the innings. Day 2 ended earlier due to bad light having Australia on 220/5, Mike Hussey and Brad Haddin on crease.

Full list of previous Ashes hat-tricks                                                 

FR Spofforth		Aus	Melbourne	1878-79
W Bates		Eng	Melbourne	1882-83
J Briggs		Eng	Sydney	1891-92
JT Hearne		Eng	Leeds	1899
H Trumble		Aus	Melbourne	1901-02
H Trumble		Aus	Melbourne	1903-04
SK Warne		Aus	Melbourne	1994-95
D Gough		Eng	Sydney	1998-99

With so much of test cricketing action along with ODI’s,  Shams n Wags promises to bring you all the insights and happenings.

*source Daily mail UK

Murali's Test Retirement- End of Spin Era!

800tharan Kandy Man! World’s only player to achieve the feet on the last match of his career. 8 wickets to reach the mile stone and a person like him getting to the exact number in the last match is an interesting achievement in itself. One tends to be under great pressure while playing the last match for the country. There are whole lots of expectations and the emotions running through. Yet Murali held on to his nerves and made it sure that he retired on the 800^th winning note.

It’s an end of the spin era with the last legend spinner of the time calling it quits. First it was Warne, then Kumble and now Murali calling it quits. There’s no similarity in the bowling of Murali, Warney and Kumble. The only thing that was similar was the commitment towards the lovely game of cricket.

A little fact about Murali:

Muralitharan was born in the village of Nattarampotha in Kundasale (near Kandy), the eldest of the four sons to Sinnasamy Muttiah and Lakshmi. Muralitharan's father Sinnasamy Muttiah, runs a successful biscuit-making business. Muttiah Muralitharan is the first and only Tamil of Indian Origin to represent Sri Lanka International Cricket

Murali made his test debut on 28^th August 1992 against Australia. His bowling action was up in question twice where he was accused of having illegal bowling action. But eventually it was cleared by ICC. The perpetual smile on his face was the quality Murali possessed along with the great character and commitment for cricket

Muralitharan is the highest wicket-taker in both Test cricket and ODI’s with 800 and 515 wickets respectively. There is no one close to Murali at least in the test match who can achieve the feat.

It’s always better to call it quits when you are in prime form. As Sunil Gavaskar famously said, “When you retire, people must ask why and should not ask why not”

It’s about time for Sri Lanka to find a replacement for this legendary offie.

Shams N Wags salutes the little man Muttiah Muralitharan and acknowledge his contribution towards his country and the game of cricket.

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.

Champions Trophy 2009

We are inching towards the last debacle of World cricket calendar for the year.
Yes we are talking about the Champions Trophy. With 8 teams playing for the title and the top four team desperate to retain the top position, it’s going to have some exhilarating contests between the teams.Champions Trophy is also referred as 'Mini World Cup' and it’s played once in every two years.

The teams have been divided in 2 groups. Each team will be playing a match against the same group.
The group structure is as follows
Group A: Australia, India, Pakistan and WI
Group B: England, New Zealand, SA and SriLanka.
India is placed in one of the toughest group as it has the likes of Australia, Pakistan and West Indies. The Champions Trophy will kick start on 22nd September between SA and SL at the Centurion.India will take on Pakistan on 26th September at the same venue and believe us, its going to be as good as a final match. India has never lost to Pakistan in any World cup format and we hope that record remains intact.
Let’s hope to see some wonderful matches in this 50 over format which is talked about losing it's interest over the T20 format.

Posted by: Shams N Wags.
Photo source: livesports-streaming.com

Victorious-Thilan-Lanka!!

With Daryl Tuffey and Shane Bond back in the New Zealand side, the visitors did quiet well to restrict the Sri Lankans for a small total of 216. New Zealand heavily relies on Jesse Ryder who is a great opening batsman. But he didnt bother the scorers as he got out for a duck.The New Zealanders had knocked out the top order of Srilanka very cheaply. In came Thilan Samaraweera and anchored the boat with a steady innings along with Angelo Mathews and spoiled the party for New Zealanders.
Thilan scored his maiden century, and Angelo supported with a Half century.
Even the lankans bowled superbly with Lasith Malinga striking thrice in an over ensing up with figured of 6.0 overs, 28 runs and 4 wickets.
Sri Lanka won by 97 runs and Samaraweera was rightly adjudged as the man of the match.