Kohli Shines Once Again In India's Win Against Paksitan

India defeated Pakistan by 8 wickets with 3 overs still to remain in the must win Super Eight game for them.Virat Kohli was once again the man who scripted the win for India and with this win India continued their winning streak against Pakistan in any World Cup match.


Team India captain M.S.Dhoni went with 7 batsmen this time.He won the toss and elected to bowl first.Irfan Pathan gave the first blow to Pakistan by trapping Imran Nazir in front of wickets in just second over of the innings.After his departure,Pakistan sent Shahid Afridi at top of the order to boost the run rate but he couldn't accomplish the task.He did hit 2 fours but finally gave his wicket to Balaji as he looke to clear the boundery but got caught by Suresh Raina.After this Pakistan lost 3 more quick wickets and their score was 59/5 at one stage but both Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik played sensibely and added 47 runs for sixth wicket which was also the highest partnership for them in the match.This partnership was broken by R.Ashwin as he got rid of Shoaib Malik.After this none of the batsmen could do well and Pakistan was bowled out for 128 runs in 19.4 overs.

In reply,India too lost the wicket of Gautam Gambhir early as he gave a return catch to Raza Hasan on the second ball of the innings but Virat Kohli and Virender Sehwag took the charge of the chase from here onwards and added 75 runs for 2nd wicket.Meanwhile,Virat Kohli also completed his half-century.The partnership got broken when Virender Sehwag was caught out by Umar Gul on the bowling of Shahid Afridi as he looke to go for a six.After his departure,Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli took India to home with 18 balls still remaining.Virat Kohli made 78* off 61 balls and he was adjudged the Man of the Match .

Brief Scores:-
Pakistan: 128 (19.4 overs)
Shoaib Malik: 28 (29)                                       Laxmipathy Balaji: 3/22 (3.4)
Umar Akmal:21 (31)                                         Ravichandran Ashwin: 2/16 (4.0)

India: 129/2 (17.0 overs)
Virat Kohli: 78* (61)                                         Raza Hasan: 1/22 (4.0)
Virender Sehwag: 29 (38)                                  Shahid Afridi: 1/34 (4.0)

India To Face Pakistan In Super 8

Team India is going to face Pakistan in most anticipated match of Super Eight of ICC World T20 2012 here at Colombo.It is a must win game for India if they have to remain in this comeptition but it will not be an easy task for them after seeing the current form of Pakistani team which is still unbeaten in the tournament.

Team India is also facing problems over playing seven batsmen instead of five bowlers.It will be interesting to see what combination does Dhoni plays in the match.He was also criticised for his decision for not playing Virender Sehwag in the last match against Aussies which India lost badly.One major matter of conecern for Indian team is their batting as none of the batsmen have shown their form except Virat Kohli.

If we talk about Pakistani team then it looks much more confident than Indian team and if we see the way they defeated South Africa in the last match it clearly shows their level of confidence is very high.Their batsmen are in great touch especially Mohammed Hafeez,Umar Akmal and Nasir Jamshed while their opener Imran Nazir has also played some great knocks in the tournament.In bowling department they have Saeed Ajmal who is still the mystery bowler for all the bastsmen around the world.They have also defeated India the warm-up game earlier before the start of the tournamaent so they certainely have an edge over Indian team.

It will certainely be an exciting match with it's special moments but I personally think that Pakistan has more chances of winning it than India.

Super Eight Fixtures Of Indian Team

The league stage of ICC T20 Cricket World Cup is over and all the top 8 teams have qualified for Super Eight Round.In Super Eight stage,all the 8 teams have been classified into two groups of 4 teams each with top 2 teams from which group qualifying for semi-finals.

In the group of Team India the other three teams are Australia,Pakistan and South Africa.The schedule of Indian Team for Super Eight is given below:

  Date                 Fixture                Venue           Time (IST)
28 Sept        India vs Australia         Colombo        7:30PM
30 Sept        India vs Pakistan         Colombo        7:30PM
02 Oct         India vs South Africa   Colombo        7:30PM

Pakistan defeated India by 5 wkts in the much awaited warm-up game of ICC World T20 2012 here at Colombo.It was the last warm-up game for both the teams before the start of real battle as the World Cup gets underway from tomorrow.

India won the toss and elected to bat first.Both the Indian openers added 41 runs for the first wicket but it was Virender Sehwag who hit most of the runs.Gautam Gambhir  made only 10 runs and he was clean bowled by Umar Gul.Soon after,Sehwag too followed him after he was caught by Afridi on the bowling of Saeed Ajmal.But after this,man in form for India Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma added 127 runs for third wicket.Both of them hit their half-centuries and helped India reach 150.Rohit fell just after completing his half-century as he was trapped lbw by Saeed Ajmal in the 19th over of the innings.Finally,India set a target of 186 runs off 20 overs for Pakistan to win the game.

Pakistan started their chase steadily with both openers playing cautiously but they lost quick wickets.First to go was Imran Nazir who made 13 runs.After him,Nasir Jamshed got run out without even facing a delievery.After this,Mohammed Hafeez and Kamran Akmal added 51 runs for third before Hafeez got out.Soon after his departure,Pakistan lost their middle-order batsmen quickely with Pakistan's score changing from 84/3 to 91/5 in 11.3 overs and it looked that they already lost the match but Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik had other plans in store for Indians.Both of them played very aggressively and added unbeaten 95 runs for sixth wicket and took Pakistan to win.Kamran Akmal sealed the win for Pakistan with a huge six off Irfan Pathan's bowling in 20th over.

Brief Scores:
India: 185/3 (20 overs)
V.Kohli: 75*(47)                                        S.Ajmal: 2/22 (4.0)
R.Sharma: 56 (40)                                      U.Gul: 1/31 (4.0)

Pakistan: 186/5 (19.1 overs)
K.Akmal: 92* (50)                                    R.Ashwin: 4/23 (4.0)
M.Hafeez: 38 (29)                                     Y.Singh: 0/11 (1.0)

Kohli Gets ICC ODI Cricketer Of The Year Award

Indian batting sensation Virat Kohli won the ICC ODI Cricketer Of The Year at the LG ICC Cricket Awards Ceremony held at Colombo yesterday.He defeated M.S.Dhoni,Lasith Malinga and Kumar Sangakkara for this award.



After winning the award he said, "I think I have tried to keep things as simple as possible and it worked for me on the field.This year has been a learning curve along the way from the seniors in the team. It's been an all-round effort and I'm very happy to have won this award."

He played 31ODIs last year in which he scored 1733 runs with 8 centuries and 6 half-centuries.He averages 66.65 in this and he also got his highest ODI score of 183 this year which he scored against Pakistan in the Asia Cup.