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M.S.Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat first on a newly laid pitch at the Dambulla Stadium on Wednesday.  New Zealand tried their best to reach the final of the tri-Series, but India were in a victory mode and never relented all through the game, and India beat New Zealand by 108 runs. Batting first they amassed 223 runs, almost half of which were scored by Virendra Sehwag, and then the Indian pacers wrecked havoc on their batsman and budled them out in a meager score of 118 runs. 

Virendra Sehwag

After the loss of four quick wickets, M.S.Dhoni gave Sehwag  the required support by rotating the strike and played the sheet anchor role at the other end, while Sehwag plundered his century. Dhoni and Sehwag put on a 107 runs partnership. Once Sehwag was out, the Indian tail was wiped out quickly by the New Zealand bowlers.

 Sehwag  also managed to hit his 1000th ‘four’ in ODI cricket. New Zealand bowlers bowled very well and took the wicket of Dinesh Kartik with India at no score and Virat Kohli also gave the faintest of nick to the wicket-keeper. Both these batsmen were caught fishing outside the off stump. 

Even though the New Zealand bowlers had managed to capture 4 quick wickets by sheer bounce and quick bowling, it was Sehwag alone duly supported by Dhoni, who gave India a fighting score.  (more…)

Dwayne Bravo led the Mumbai Indians in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and after winning the toss at the Eden Gardens Kolkatta chose to bat on Monday. Mumbai batting first meant that Kolkatta cannot defeat Mumbai by a huge margin today as they will only have to chase the assigned target. 

As Mumbai made a mess of their batting in Sachin’s absence, they gave a target of only 134 to Kolkatta to win. It was a slow pitch in the Eden Gardens and Mumbai could only muster 133 runs for the loss of eight wickets. It was the grit and determination of Saurabh Tewary and Ambati Rayudu who brought Mumbai’s total to some element of respectability, if it can be called so. 

Saurabh Tewary made 46 runs off 37 balls and puctuated them with 4 fours and one six. Ambavati Rayudu made 27 runs of 15 balls and hit 3 fours and a a six. It appeared that Mumbai had fielded a ‘B’ grade team in this inconsequential match today.  (more…)

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kolkatta Knight Riders by seven wickets in a thrillling encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium Bangalore on Saturday. Rahul Dravid and Uthappa slammed half centuries to ensure a victory over Kolkatta by seven wickets. Anil Kumble won the toss and elected to field. The Kolkatta Knight Riders reached to 61 runs in the six overs. 

Ganguly and Chris Gayle hammered Praveen Kumar to 21 runs in the fifth over itself. Dale Steyn, despite the speed which he is able to generate, he was also not accurate in his bowling and both openers gave a good start to Kolkatta. 

Robin Uthappa

Brendon McCullum (45), Chris Gayle (34) and Sourav Ganguly (33) batted very well for Kolkata but the rest of the batsmen failed to produce any partnerships. 

At one stage Kolkatta were appearing to cross 180 plus in this innings but accurate bowling by Bangalore bowlers in the middle overs got three quick wickets to halt their flow of runs. Ganguly failed to read a slow ball from Vinay and was caught at square leg for 33. Manoj Tewary slashed one to point and was caught White off Kallis for 0.  (more…)