New Zealand Vs India 3rd ODI Preview

Less than 6 hours are left in the start of 3rd ODI of the ongoing series between New Zealand and India. It is going to be a really crucial and important match for both the teams. At the one side, the Indian team would be thinking of bouncing back considering their poor performance so far while on the other hand New Zealand needs just one win to clinch the series. This match will also play a crucial role in deciding whether India will regain the No.1 spot in ODI or not.

Team India:

It has been a very disappointing performance by the Indians so far. None of the Indian player has played up to the expectations yet except Virat Kohli, M.S. Dhoni and Mohammed Shami. Both the openers have also failed to make an impact. The top score is 32 runs for the Indian openers till now that too by Shikhar Dhawan. The middle order of the Indian team is also not too strong. The batsmen Rahane, Raina needs to occupy the crease for a little more longer. India has chased in both the innings and both the time, they couldn’t save wickets from falling and eventually lost both the matches. Virat and Dhoni both led the Indian chase well but fell just short both the time.
The bowling department also need some improvement. Only Mohammed Shami has been able to pick up the wickets so far. All the other bowlers are just struggling to get wickets. If India needs to win the match then they should work on their middle order, batting at the end overs of the game.
Players to Watch Out For: Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shammi.

New Zealand:

The confidence level of the Kiwi players would be very high after winning the two games continuously. They have also dethroned the Indian team from their team ranking.  Now, the Kiwis would be looking to win the game,and clinch the trophy. This series has proved to be a good deal for them in every prospect. Their new player Corey Anderson has come out as the  new savior for the Kiwis. Kane Williamson has also went on to complete 50s in both the matches.
The bowling of Kiwi team has also been satisfactory especially their ability to take wicket towards the end of the Indian team’s batting.
Players to Watch Out For: Kane Williamson and Corey Anderson.

India U-19 World Cup Squad Announced

The BCCI has announced the squad of Team India for upcoming Under-19 Cricket World Cup. The World Cup will be played from 15th February to 28th February in UAE. Vijay Zol has been selected as the captain of the team. He was also the captain of the team when they toured UAE for the U-19 Asia Cup earlier.

Team India is also the defending champion of the tournament as they won it last time by defeating mighty Australia in the finals. The team was led by young Unmukt Chand then, who also struck a beautiful century to lead from the front. The responsibility and expectations are very high from Vijay Zol to continue the legacy.

The Indian team has been placed in Group A of the World Cup. The group also includes team Pakistan, Scotland and Papua New Guinea. Team India will open its encounter against the arch-rivals Pakistan on 15^th February at Dubai International Stadium, Dubai.

The rest of the groups are as follows:

Group B: Australia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Namibia.

Group C: South Africa, West Indies, Canada and Zimbabwe.

Group D: New Zealand, Sri Lanka, England and United Arab Emirates.

The 15-member Indian squad is:

Vijay Zol (c), Akhil Herwadkar, Ankush Bains, Ricky Bhui, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Kuldeep Yadav, Amir Gani, Karan Kaila, Chama Milind, Avesh Khan, Monu Kumar and Atit Seth.

Coach: Bharat Arun.

ICC World Test Championship Qualifying Period Announced

The ICC has announced the qualifying period for the much awaited World Test Championship which is to be held in 2017. The qualifying period will be from 1^st May, 2013 to 31^st December, 2016 and the top 4 teams during this period will be eligible to play in the Championship which is to be held in England. The announcement was made during the launch of logo of Championship.

In the launch event held in Abu Dhabi, ICC chief executive David Richardson announced, “The qualification pathway for the ICC World Test Championship will be through the Reliance ICC Test Team Rankings, with the qualifying period being from 1^st May, 2013 through to 31^st December, 2016.”

The concept behind the brand icon i.e. the logo of Championship was also explained by the Richardson. He said, “The ICC World Championship logo represents a journey that all the Test playing nations will embark upon over the next four years. It represents the global nature and the epic nature of the event.”

The release further stated, “The ICC World Test Championship logo has been created by Bulletproof, a global agency based out of London and New York. The icon is designed to be moving, physical, three dimensional forms that can adapt and reflects its environment. Its beauty lies in its simplicity, a global icon for the future of Test cricket.”

The South African captain, currently the No.1 Test team, Graeme Smith was also present at the event. He said, “It’s fantastic to have a pathway clearly identified for the ICC World Test Championship and to know that the top four teams will have a chance to battle it out to be crowned the ultimate champions. It adds new meaning for all the Test teams when it comes to rankings and importance of the game.” 

Sachin Tendulkar Should Retire After 200th Test

Whenever there is a discussion going on about Team India or the history of Indian Cricket then it is impossible to think about a discussion which doesn’t include Sachin Tendulkar. It is hard to imagine the Indian Cricket without Sachin Tendulkar. He is known as Master Blaster, God of Cricket by his millions of fans. He is the person who taught India to play cricket and converted a simple game of bat and bowl into a religion of India which is equal to the Bollywood. The Bollywood stars are treated as God from the very beginning but it was Sachin Tendulkar who brought the same feeling to Cricketers also in India. Now, the cricketers are treated as God in India but now the performance of God himself is in doubt and various questions are looming over him and one such question is whether Sachin should retire after the 200^th Test or not??

 If we take a look at the performance of Master Blaster in last few years, then it can be easily observed that the God of Cricket has certainly lost his touch and he is not the same batsman who he used to be 20years ago or we can say 10years ago. There has been a drastic change in his performance over last few years. In last two years, Sachin has scored just 549 runs at an average of 26.14 in 22 innings of 13 Tests and the most amazing and shocking part is that he is yet hit a Test century in these 2 years.

The last century that Sachin hit was against South Africa in Cape Town on 4^th January, 2011 and if we talk about his last Test century in front of home crowd i.e. in India then the gap is even more. He struck his last century in India against Australia at Bangalore on 11^th October, 2010 i.e. nearly 3 years. All these stats clearly shows that there is something wrong with his batting technique or it is just his age which is taking toll on him.

So, now coming back to the question that whether he should retire or not, I will say that yes, he must.

He should go for the retirement as soon as the 200^th Test is finished because it will be an ideal and perfect moment for him to do so. He has to make way for the future of India i.e. for the youngsters like Ajinkya Rahane. I am not saying that these youngsters will come to Indian side and will start making runs and hit centuries from the first day but even if they will hit runs just like the way Sachin has hit in last 2 years or lets say they will play even worse but at least they will get the valuable experience which will help them hone their skills and get the required exposure and environment which is needed for any player to become a world class player and it will surely help in laying the foundation of new Team India.

I know all of the Sachin fans and lovers reading this are thinking of killing me or kidnapping me but I would like to say one thing to them that this is the reality they have to accept. They have to accept that “Every story has to come to an end one day no matter how good or bad it is” and hence He has to do this if not now then some other day but it will be good if he does so just after 200^th Test.

Yuvraj Singh-One Man Army

 Yuvraj Singh is the person who is known as The King of Sixes, Punjab Da Sher, Yuvi & many more other names by his fans and cricket experts. He is among one of the pillars of Indian Cricket today. He is the demolisher or I can say the name which defines him clearly according to me is "One Man Army". He has that extraordinary ability to change the game single-handedly no matter what it takes to change whether is it batting, bowling or fielding.


He is always there on field like Light which is ready to strike every time. He can destroy any bowling attack with his batting power, he can also make batsmen to dance on his tunes with his bowling and he can make any batsmen to regret his choice of hitting the ball in his direction by his lightening fast fielding. You can say he is a complete dynamite package which when explodes, destroys everything that comes in his way.
He showed his talent right from the beginning when he was selected the Man of The Tournament in U-19 Cricket World Cup in 2000 which was won by India. When he got selected for Senior Team, He couldn't get to bat against Kenya but in next match against Australia, which was a Power House at that time, he showed the world what he is capable of by hitting 84 runs off 80 balls and was selected the Man of the Match. He was also the star in India's victory over England in NatWest Series final at Lord's in 2002 which
is still one of the most historic wins by India ever.

After that, he never looked back. No one his six consecutive sixes that he hit to Stuart Broad of England at inaugural ICC T20 World Cup at Durban in South Africa in 2007.There are many more innings of him which can never be forget.

Besides on-field, he is also a fighter off-field. He was diagnosed with Cancer in 2011 and he went to Boston in USA for the chemotherapy. It was one of the most difficult for him in his entire lifetime but he fought hard and defeated the Cancer and returned to India in April.

After this, he was selected for ICC T20 CWC held in Sri Lanka in 2012.Though, India couldn't make it to the knock-outs but he was the highest wicket taker for India in the tournament. After he also scored a double hundred in Duleep Trophy in which he scored 208 off 241 balls.

He is a true fighter and One Man Army for sure. I wish him best of luck for his future and hope that he will continue to entertain all of us just like he has did for last 10 years.

Day 2:Cook 's Ton Puts England In Total Control

Team India started the Day 2 of the ongoing 3rd Test in the hope of taking their score to some respectable total but couldn't managed do so as they got out in just first of hour of the morning with M.S.Dhoni being the last mam to fall.He hit a half-century before his dismissal.He made 52 runs off 158 balls which helped India get past 300 runs,as they made 316 runs in total.Monty Panesar again proved like a headache for India as he picked total 4 wickets with 2 wickets in the morning today itself.Now,It was upto the Indian bowlers to take back India into the game but English openers had some other plans in their mind for Indian bowling attack.

Both the openers,Alastair Cook and Nick Compton,played sensibly and maturily especially Cook.Indian team got the chance of dismissing him early but Cheteshwar Pujara dropped his catch in slips off the bowling of Zaheer Khan when was just at 17 runs but after this he didn't looked back and went on to hit his 23rd Test century which makes him the leading century maker English batsmen in history surpassing Walley Hammond and team-mate Kevin Pietersen.He also completed 7000 Test runs and he is the youngest batsman to reach this milestone surpassing cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar with an age of 27 years and 347 days.

On the other hand,Nick Compton reached his maiden half-century but got out soon after as he was given leg before wicket off the bowling of Pragyan Ojha.He was the only man to got out for the English Team today as at the end of the day's play,Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott were not out at 136 and 21 runs respectively.

Brief Scores:-

India: 316 all out (105.0 overs)

S.Tendulkar: 76 (202)                                M.Panesar: 4/90 (40.0)

G.Gambhir: 60 (169)                                  J.Anderson: 3/89 (28.0)

England: 216/1 (73.0 overs)

A.Cook: 136* (236)                                 P.Ojha: 1/65 (19.0)

N.Compton: 57 (137)                               I.Sharma: 0/35 (15.0)

Anderson Helps England Take Control Of Day 1 Of 3rd Test

The 3rd Test of the series between India and England at Kolkata's Eden Garden here today. The Indian captain M.S.Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first.English team came into this match with only 4 bowlers.Both the teams made only changes as England brought in Steven Finn in place of Stuart Broad and India brought Ishant Sharma in place of Harbhajan Singh.

Both the Indian openers started well by adding 47 runs for first wicket as Virender Sehwag got run out.Indians were at good stage once till they lost their 3rd wicket in the form of Gautam Gambhir.He made 60 off 124 balls.After his dismissal,no other batsmen could perform well except Sachin Tendulkar who struck his first half-century in nearly last 10 Tests.He got caught behind off the bowling of James Anderson.He made 76 runs which also included 13 fours.He was the sixth wicket to fall.

After his dismissal,Dhoni and Ashwin tried to hold on for rest of the day but Ashwin was clean bowled by Anderson in 89th over after England took the second new ball.At the end of the day's play,Dhoni and Zaheer Khan were at the crease 22 and 0 runs respectively.James Anderson was the hero of the day as he took 3 wickets

Brief Scores:-
India: 273/7 (90.0 overs)
S.Tendulkar: 76 (155)                             J.Anderson: 3/68 (21.0)
G.Gambhir: 60 (124)                              M.Panesar: 2/74 (35.0)