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The Indian Premium League auction has shown that the franchises have opted for youth over experience while buying players for their respective teams.  Yes, the big guns of yester-years had no takers and the lesser known players have been bought for huge sums.

Gautam Gambhir is the highest paid at $2.4 million. Yusaf Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma,  Saurabh Tewary and Yuvraj Singh have also seen an upward revision of their purse at the IPL door. As per IPL laws, only four foreign players are allowed in the playing eleven and the rest have to be Indians, as such the franchises need at least 70 Indian players who have an impact on Cricket. The franchises are, therefore, willing to shell out large sums of money to get the best out of the lot available.

Irfan Pathan, though side-lined earlier from India Test and ODI XI because of his inability to bowl consistently, has been bought for an exorbitant price of $1.9 million. (more…)

South Africa suffered one of their worst ever defeats at the hands of India in Durban on Wednesday. India made amends for the drubbing at Centurion with a sensational 87-run victory against South Africa in a low-scoring second cricket Test to level the three-match series 1-1.

VVS Luxman

India had set SA a target of 303, and the Indians put up a disciplined show to dismiss the hosts for 215 after the lunch break. This was their second win in a Test match in South Africa. The 123-run victory in the first Test at Johannesburg in 2006 was their first Test victory there. 

The Indians players jumped in joy and hugged each other after last man Lonwabo Tsotsobe was run out to bring about the moment of glory while coach Gary Kirsten and the other support staff stood up at the dressing room to applaud the players. 

This pitch was indeed bowler friendly and a batsman’s agony. S Sreesanth 3 for 45 runs, Zaheer Khan 3 for 53 runs and Harbhajan Singh  2 for70 runs did the job  for India while Ashwell Prince was the top scorer for the South Africans with an unbeaten 39.  (more…)

All that New Zealand did right was to have won the toss in the third and final Test played against India at Nagpur Stadium. Thereafter it was a pathetic display of cricket by New Zealand. After chosing to bat first, New Zealand were skittled out for a measely score of 193 runs.

Harbhajan Singh

India in turn, piled of a mammoth 566 for 8 declared which was studded by 191 runs by Rahul Dravid, 98 runs by Dhoni and the New Zealanders had an uphill task of scoring 373 runs in their second innings, and they failed miserably. 

Two Indian pacers and the spinning trio (Raina included) wrecked havoc for the batsman who could neither read the arm-ball nor could judge the turn well and surrendered their fight as soon as it had begun in asmuch as they lost the last nine wickets in just over a session of play.

India won the test match about an hour after the lunch break. Pragyan Ojha, Harbhajan Singh and Suresh Raina bowled and were adequately switched by skipper Dhoni, who in the end, called in Ishant Sharma, who cleaned up the tail by rattling the timber of Southee and Martin, twice in a span of two balls.  (more…)

Hyderabad. The second test between India and New Zealand ended in a draw on the fifth day on Tuesday. New Zealand had given India a target of 327 runs with not enough time left in the game to achieve it. India batted for 17 overs after tea wherein Sehwag was able to delight the crowd with a 50. Thereafter the two teams decided to call off the match.

Brendon McCullum

Brendon McCullum reaped rewards for his hard work and got third-highest score  in Tests in India. The game was headed for a draw the moment Zaheer Khan left the field again after bowling just three overs in the morning session.

New Zealand has now held India, the No. 1 side, to four consecutive draws.

India  had their chances to wrap up this match.  On one occassion, Cheteshwar Pujara dropped McCullum at forward short leg when the batsman was 148. Another chance India got to have a result in the match, was when  Kane Williamson was given out lbw erroneously to an off break which was sure to miss the leg stump but could not pressurize the New Zealanders later. (more…)

Harbhajan’s  shot over the midwicket fence helped India over-haul Pakistan’s score of 267 runs  in a thrilling encounter at the Rangiri stadium in Dambulla on Saturday in the 4^th ODI of the Asia Cup.

Harbhajan Singh smashed the penultimate ball from Mohammad Aamer for a six as India knocked Pakistan out of the Asia Cup with a three-wicket win on Saturday. He scored an unbeaten 15 runs off 11 balls and received the prize of the Lord of the Match.

Harbhajan Singh

Both India and  Sri Lanka are into the final which will be played on June 24  and the last two league matches are inconsequential.

Opener Gautam Gambhir hit 83 off 97 balls and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni chipped in with 57 during a third-wicket stand of 97 which lifted India to 180-2 in the 36th over.

But Gambhir’s dismissal at that stage, bowled by Saeed Ajmal, brought a middle-order collapse which saw four wickets fall for the addition of 39 runs only. (more…)

Harbhajan Singh steered Mumbai to an emphatic win with wham-bam 49 which later followed by a three wicket haul at the DY Patil stadium in Mumbai. The game made a dramatic turn around for the Mumbai Indians when he hit eight fours and two sixes in front of a jam-packed stadium. Zaheer Khan also took three wickets who was ably supported from the other end by Malinga who also took 3 wickets for   wickets. This was the third striaight win for MI and stay on top of the points table. 

Harbhajan Singh

Deccan Chargers won the toss and elected to field.

The pivotal role for the Deccan Chargers is always played by Adam Gilchrist, who unfortunately, went down to Harbhajan for a duck to Harbhajan caught by Sachin Tendulkar. That spelt disaster for the DC. 

Thereafter Rohit Sharma scored 45 runs  with two sixes and  three fours. The other contributors for Deccan Chargers were Monish Sharma 13, Hershelle Gibbs 27 and Suman 15.  (more…)

Four centuries in the first innings by Sehwag, Sachin, Luxman and Dhoni gave India  a formidable 347  run first innings lead over South Africa at the Eden Gardens, Kolkatta.. In the second innings for S.A., it was only Hashim Amla who played a defiant knock of 123 not out. But apart from his performance, none of the other batsmen were able to withstand the jugglery of the spinning duo Harbhajan(5 for 59) and Mishra(3 for 78).

India’s main strike bowler Zaheer Khan was resting with a knee injury sustained yesterday and India were down to three bowlers. They still managed to pull off a miraculous victory with less than two mandatory overs to spare. Harbhajan Singh,bowled exceptionally well and took five wickets in South Africa’s second innings. (more…)