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India’s dream of a World Cup triumph at home is one step closer after their bowlers throttled Pakistan’s batsmen to set up a 29-run victory in the semi-final in Mohali. Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat at Motera Cricket Stadium, Mohali against Pakistan in the Semi-final of the World Cup 2011 on Wednesday. 

Virender Sehwag gave India a magnificent start before Sachin Tendulkar survived a series of close calls to reach his half-century, and by the halfway mark he was the key to India posting a decent fighting total on a good batting pitch.

But that was not to be as Sehwag got out on 38 runs played with his usual gusto and Tendulkar also helped in building up the Indian innings with lady-luck sitting on his right shoulder.

Tendulkar was on 60 with Virat Kohli on 9, and India had reached 140 for 2 at the halfway point of their innings, with 300-plus total in sight. Pakistan had only them to blame for Tendulkar’s good fortune, after Misbah-ul-Haq put him down at midwicket on 27 and Younis Khan spilled a regulation chance at cover when Tendulkar had 45.  Read the rest of this entry »

Ricky Ponting won the toss at Motera, Ahmedabad in the quarter final  of the World Cup 2011 and elected to bat on Thursday. Ponting silenced his critics with a swash-buckling century made with grit and determination. In reply to his century Sachin made a half century and in the process completed his 18000 runs in Cricket, but it was Yuvraj Singh who ultimately matttered the most so far as the outcome of the match was concerned.

Yuvraj Singh

Despite Ponting’s century, Australia were able to score 260 runs only. R.Ashwin Harbhajan Singh did not give anything away to the opposition and Zahir Khan stuck at will.

For Indian batting, Tendulkar had made the base by his half-century required for the rest of the team to stand on but it was Yuvraj alone who stole the show. With his single handed determination India managaed to eliminate the Aussies in the quarter final. India has now  been set up with a spine-chilling encounter with Pakistan in the semi-final.

India was heading into the jaws of defeat upto the 40th over but by then Yuvraj had ensured the turn-around of things for the Indians. Suresh Raina gave him ample suppport and in the 41st over Bret Lee was bludgeoned to the fences for 14 runs. Read the rest of this entry »

Netherlands won the toss and elected to bat at the Feroz Shah Kotla Grounds,Delhi on Wednesday in their Gp B encounter against India. Their openers started very well and the Indian attack looked very feeble in front of their batting. They lost their first wicket after posting half a century on board, which is their highest opening wicket partnership, and were 86 for 2 at the  half-way stage.

Yuvraj Singh

India defeated Netherlands at the Feroz Shah Kotla with more than 14 overs to spare though the margin of victory couldn’t mask a lacklustre performance from the home side. The Indian bowling was just about tidy against some dour Netherlands batting, and their bunch of big hitters came unstuck for a while against the left-arm spin of Pieter Seelaar in a low-intensity match.

In the Netherlands batting, there were a couple of avoidable run-outs as well, but the dismissal that was most embarrassing for Netherlands was Alexei Kervesee’s; he swiped a long hop from Chawla, expertly picking out Harbhajan Singh at deep midwicket.

Sachin Tendulkar became the first man to reach 2000 World Cup runs with a hat-trick of boundaries in the fifth over, and Virender Sehwag backing that with three more fours in the sixth. Read the rest of this entry »

M.S.Dhoni won the toss and asked Ireland to bat first at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium,  Bangalore on Sunday in their encounter in the World Cup 2011.  Dhoni was proved right by Zahir Khan who took two early wickets, clean bowling Paul Sterling for a duck and got the edge of Ed Joyce for Dhoni to do the rest. The score card read a dismal 9 for 2 after 4 overs.

Yuvraj Singh

Earlier  Ireland  has successfully  chased  327 against England and this could also have prompted Dhoni’s decision to bowl first instead of setting a target.

Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan were bowling in tandem and Dhoni’s decision of  removing Munaf Patel at that moment and asking Yusaf Pathan to bowl with the almost new ball was very surprising.

Part-time spinner Yuvraj Singh grabbed a five-wicket haul as India restricted Ireland to 207 in their Group B encounter when he rattled the Irish batting with his slow left arm bowling.

Ireland skipper William Porterfield contributed with 75 runs while Niall O’Brien, who played second fiddle to his captain in the 113-run stand, also scored 46. Read the rest of this entry »

Sachin Tendulkar

Zaheer Khan bowled exceptionally well and helped India snatch a point from England after a pathetic display from Indian bowlers and fielders led to team’s failure in defending a huge target of 338 as the Group B match ended in a tie at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore on Sunday.

Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat on Sunday in front of a packed  stadium against England in their second World Cup fixture. Sachin Tendulkar delighted the spectators there and millions watching all over the world, with his five sixes and struck his 47th ODI century. This was his 98th century in International cricket.

When Sehwag was going great guns, Sachin was suppporting him with calm and ease and almost stood there watching Sehwag score. Sehwag got 35 runs though he could have been out twice during this period. Read the rest of this entry »

Virender Sehwag slammed the highest score by an Indian against Bangla Desh in the inaugural match of the ICC World Cup match played at Mirpur. Bangla Desh won the toss and elected to field first keeping the dew factor in mind which might fall in the second part of the game so also that they find run chasing easier.

Sehwag started the tournament with the usual flurry of shots. He sent the first ball of the match to the long-on boundary. Shafiul offered Sehwag width again and watched the final ball speed to the cover boundary. In his second over, Shafiul erred by offering Sachin Tendulkar two deliveries on the pads: both were flicked to the boundary. 

In between those overs, Rubel Hossain had conceded two boundaries as well, and India raced to 36 after four overs. That  forced Shakib to turn to his premier spinner, Abdur Razzak, in the fifth. Read the rest of this entry »

New York. The External Affairs Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, told reporters today that the Indian students of California-based Tri Valley University, which has been shut down on charges of massive visa fraud, should be absorbed into other US universities and not victimised.

“The student who came in good faith, they should not be victimised, and it is necessary they should be absorbed into other universities in the United States and allowed to pursue their studies,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

Foreign journalists were beaten with sticks and fists by pro-government mobs on the streets Cairo last Thursday and dozens were reported detained by security forces in what the U.S. called a concerted attempt to intimidate the press. They include journalists from India also who are working for various TV news channels and newspapers and have travelled in recent days to Egypt to cover the latest developments taking place there. It is learnt that more are planning a visit in coming days.

Indian Government has now issued an advisory on travel of Indian journalists to Egypt. Read the rest of this entry »

India has still not beeen able to settle the issue of attacks on Indian students in Australia and is now facing similar humiliation in the United States. The US authorities have confiscated the passports of Indian students of the Tri-Valley University, California and have now radio-tagged them for exposing that the University is a fake. Indian authorities have condemned this inhumane act and the MEA has asked that stern action be taken against the erring officials.

The Tri-valley University in the US has been found to be dud then how can the Indian students be penalised for no wrong-doing on their part? They have been radio-tagged like criminals on parole. These people had gone to US on valid visas and had the status of a ‘student’ and suddenly they are being termed as ‘illegal visitors’ for  no fault? Actually it is the racket conducted by the Americans who are running a fake uaniversity and the Indians are being held to take over the responsibility for this mess. Why? Read the rest of this entry »

India won the toss and asked South Africa to bat first who scored 250 for 9  wickets.  Rain had curtailed the match on Sunday at the Centurion and the Indians had been required to score a revised target of 268 in 46 overs.
 
If there was a fight-back by India, the lone crusader was Yusuf Pathan who launched an unparalleled assault to demonstrate that India meant business and that it shouldn’t be a cake-walk for South Africa but his knock could not provide the much needed victory to India.

Yusuf blasted a century off 68 balls and at that stage less than 50 runs were required for India to win the match and chaos was evident in the South African team. But after completing his century Yusuf gave a catch and was out much to the relief of South African team as well as the spectators.

The bowlers ran through the India’s top six in the batting order and apart from Parthiv Patel, 38 runs,  there was no one to shoulder the responsibility. Read the rest of this entry »