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A 15-year title-drought came to an end as India, who displayed a clinical and magnificent performance, won the Asia Cup tournament after crushing defending champions Sri Lanka by 81 runs in the Asia Cup final on Thursday. 

Captain M.S.Dhoni elected to bat first after winning the toss,  India posted a fighting total of 268 for six. They then skittled out the Sri Lankan’s for only 187 in 44.4 overs. India displayed a scintillating performance in all departments of the game and won the Trophy at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on Thursday.  (more…)

Royal Challangers Bangalore beat Deccan Chargers by nine wickets in a totaly one-sided match. Deccan Chargers won the toss and elected to bat against Royal Challangers Bangalore at the D Y Patil Stadium Mumbai on Saturday.  Deccan Chargers struggled and slipped to reach to a total of 82 runs in the third-place play-off. 

Not many people came to witness the game and it was a dull atmosphere which prevailed through Deccan’s innings. Adam Gilchrist and Monish Sharma opened the innings for Deccan Chargers and Gilchrist departed early caught at square leg boundary by Kallis while attempting to hit a six off a full toss from Kumble. 

Apart from Anirudh who scored 40 runs for his team, no other batsman could contribute much to the Deccan Chargers score. Kumble opened the bowling against Gilchrist and got him out caught by Kallis in the first over. Praveen Kumar bowled well and mixed his cutters with slower ones, in a tight spell.  (more…)

INDIA ACHIEVES No.1 SPOT IN ICC RANKINGS

India have become the number one team in ICC Test rankings after winning the third and final Test against Sri Lanka by an innings and 24 runs.

After conceding a huge 333-run first innings lead, Srilankans were struggling at 274 for six at close on the penultimate day. Needing just four wickets to record an emphatic victory, the Indians took just 40 minutes to clean off the visiting team’s tail to record their second consecutive innings victory.  (more…)

PAKISTAN IN TURMOIL

The one-off T20 match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan was played at Premdasa Stadium, Colombo on Wednesday.

Younis Khan did not play the  T20 match as he had resigned from T20 Cricket after winning the T20 world cup for Pakistan in England in June.

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.  Shahid Afridi, on his debut as Pakistan;s T20 captain, slammed 50 runs of  37 balls and Imran Nazir chipped in with 40 runs off 28 balls. These two were ably supported by  Umar Akmal who contributed useful 30 runs to bring the Pakistan total to  172 for 5 in the allotted 20 overs. (more…)

Umar Akmal slammed an unbeaten 102 off 72 balls and Pakistan won the fourth ODI  by 146 runs on Friday to record their first victory over Sri Lanka.

Umar’s maiden international century was ably supported by Younus Khan  (89) as  Pakistan scored 321-5 after they elected to bat in the day-night match at the Premadasa stadium.

Younus and Umar came together to the crease when Pakistan’s score was 130 for four and shared between them a match winning partnership of 176 runs. (more…)

Mahela Jayawardene hit his first one-day century in two years as Sri Lanka thumped Pakistan by six wickets on Monday to grab a winning 3-0 lead in the five-match ODI series.

The former captain made 123 and shared an opening stand of 202 with Upul Tharanga (76)  Sri Lanka cruised past Pakistan’s huge total of 288-8 in the 47th over. They won the match by six wickets.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field. first.  Put into bat, Pakistan made good use of the pitch and Kamran Akmal made 45 during a 71-run stand for the second wicket with skipper Younus Khan (44) after opener Nasir Jamshed  was caught by Samaraveera off Thusara for 1 run in the second over. (more…)

Chamara Kapugedera scored 67 and shared an unbeaten 95-run partnership with Thilan Samaraweera to guide Sri Lanka to a six-wicket win in the second limited-over match against Pakistan at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Rangiri

Sri Lanka won the toss and had invited Pakistan to bat first.

Seam bowler Nuwan Kulasekera struck first ball of the match when he had opener Jamshed caught at slip by Jayawardene. (more…)

Pakistan captain Younus Khan won the toss and elected to field at the Rangiri International Stadium.

Sri Lanka recovered from an initial top-order failure and managed to post a fighting total of  232-9 in the first one-day international against Pakistan at Dambulla on Thursday.

 All-rounder Angelo Mathews (43) led the late surge, with the last four Sri Lankan wickets adding 101 valuable runs before the 50 overs ran out. (more…)

ENGLAND BEAT AUTRALIA AFTER 75 YEARS

In his final act at the home of cricket, Andrew Flintoff, who has announced his retirement after the series, broke England’s 75-year Lord’s curse with his first five-wicket haul. Flintoff, who bowled unchanged for ten overs from the Pavilion End took  three of the five Australian wickets to fall on Monday

The victory was England’s first in a Test against Australia at Lord’s in 75 years and they beat Australia by 115 runs. (more…)