Not so far the best - Pakistan

Pakistan had not been the best in  recent past, losing both the ODI's and  tests against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and their bad run continues in their make shift home UAE. Australia's tour to the UAE has been a good start, they had won all the three ODI'S against Pakistan. This tour saw, Zulfiqar Babar, 35, making his debut. 

The Mighty Aussies looked comfortable. Pakistan looked belligerent with their pace attack, still they could have included Aizaz Cheema to their pace attack who had a good CLT-20 for Lahore Lions. Hafeez getting injured provided further setback for Pakistan, who missed the ODI's and the t-20. Having had a good CLT-20 Shoaib Mailk's inclusion needs to be overlooked, a solid middle order player who could provide resistance to Pakistan's batting line up that had been facing a collapse. Younis Khan's exclusion a vital decision by the selectors. With the World cup ahead, Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan's experience might help winning games for Pakistan 

This tour so far for Pakistan, Umar Akmal and Sarfraz Ahmed were under the spotlights. Misbah had been struggling all through this year, never had a good run unlike 2013, being Pakistan's highest run getter. The captaincy remains a question mark for Pakistan, Mishbah or Shahid Afridi. Unlike India, opening had been a worry for Pakistan. Ahmed Shehzad need to score runs on a consistent basis for Pakistan with just a 50 in this odi series as an opener. While his partner Sarfraz Ahmed would remain the right choice as an opener. With the World cup ahead, Pakistan would hope to sort out all their issues and would try bringing back Saeed Ajmal.

The Aussies, started off this tour with a t-20 win. Warner looked in great touch coming back to the side, scoring a half century. Aussies never looked like they missed their usual captain Micheal Clarke. Steven Smith, who embarked as Australia's key test player, notched up his maiden ODI ton against Pakistan in the first ODI. Batting at No.3, he scored a breezy 101 taking Australia to 255 and visitors winning a game by good margin. A captaincy material and a successor to Michael Clarke in the future, Steven Smith. Sean Abott makes his debut as well with the wicket of Shahid Afridi on his debut game and more to come from him, hoping to see him play for Australia in lot more games to come. Bailey looks like a complete leader. But, when it comes to scoring runs, he remains on the back seat, his  poor form with the bat would always remain sceptical for the selectors. Maxwell, another big name played a gentle knock in the second ODI scoring 76. Maxwell this series, though had not scored much, remained Australia's wicket taking bowler along side Nathan Llyon and Mitchell Johnson. The third and the final odi was the talk of all social media websites, when Australia turned tables for one run win. A match to remember, when Maxwell bowled a double wicket maiden in the last over of the game, Pakistan need just 2 runs from 6 balls and they failed to score chasing 231.

first try for a video blog!

  

Always wanted to try a video blog on cricket and he is my genuine first try! sorry for the poor audio and video quality! :) This is all about the Northern Knights.

Been Long time!! When Facebook and Twitter ruined me!

From India's Eng tour to Champions League!

Looked like I had forgotten the art of writing posts here in my own blog! I had made this blog exclusively for cricket alone and I always dreamed of writing a post when ever a match or a series concludes. I had even planned to write a post on India's tour of England, I wanted to put every match on that tour together and write a huge post! England Tales! Yes, I had even decided on the topic to be written.

Nothing happened, yes, I mean it, nothing ever happened. All  I managed to write a small post from my facebook account and tweeted for 140 characters. If at all I had written a blog post on England's fabulous victory against India in the 5 test match series, I never wanted to write anything wrong about Dhoni's men. I knew this has been the transition phase for team India in tests. No sachin, No Dravid, No Laxman and No Kumble. In spite of all this, India managed to win at the Lords, Bhuvi was considered as the new hero and he had found a reputation in him and he was excellent all through the series. I never wanted to mention about India's loss in rest of the test matches. Virat Kohli would be just him and not Sachin Tendulkar and Pujara would be himself and it would be too harsh to compare him with Rahul Dravid, just a series they had failed to get runs. Gambhir made a come back and he was just back to the pavilion in quick time and he never came back strongly, a funny thought, no this was the fact. Dhoni needs some appreciation for bringing back Gautam gambhir in the top slot since he had no other options and Dhawan was failing. Murali Vijay Looked solid enough to face 300 balls and a run out changed his game for rest of the test series. Varun Aaron had pace and it was too late to bring him as a spear head, agreed Ishant's 7 wicket haul at the Lords made every one feel wow, and the next game he was out and injured. England's fear of facing the short ball was over and they sensed their win and India never made a come back. Dhoni finally did find the art of scoring runs in away test series, he was gutsy to face the swinging deliveries and yea Dhoni did face the new ball. Rahane the little wonder had taken a lot of lessons from Rahul Dravid and he was the only technically sounded batsmen. Inclusion of Stuart Binny wasn't justified.  Rohit Sharma did score couple of centuries against West Indies and that was a known tale, rewind South Africa series. Okay, Ashwin should have played majority of matches and he had a better technique than most of the current test batsmen in India. Okay, Stopping here! we're done! :)


ODI's brought back the smiles on the Indian faces. No, Rephrasing. Raina brought back the smiles on Indian faces and he was all pumped up. He came, he scored runs, took catches, wickets everything possible and won man of the series and Virat Kohli was still struggling to get on the double figures and Anderson managed to pick his bunny as many times as he can. Zak-Smith and Anderson-Kohli. India looked a better side and Cook never looked to win the ODI series despite scoring well in later part of the test series and his captaincy raised eye brows for the World Cup 2015. Rohit Sharma has broken his hand and Murali Vijay had to replace and he never played the 50 over game here. Rahane's 100 and Dhawan's unbeaten 97 were unforgettable, they had teared apart the England bowling attack. Dhoni's consistency at the ODI's a known thing and not forgetting, India even lost the ODI's in 2011 at England.

The T-20, a much different side for England, new leader. Almost the same side for India. Morgan had literally set up the game for England and a come back for England in the shorter format. Virat looked in touch, Scored a half century and that never helped India winning this game.

What else? Most of the Players are off to the Champions League and MI, the defending champions are out of the league. Northern Knights looks impressive, Kane Williamson the player to watch out for along with Trent Boult. The pink colored Knights never mind missing the big hitting Corey Anderson, he opted playing for Mi and  Mi never had an idea to play him! just found a seat at the dug out!

So as Barbados, the winners of the Caribbean Premier League under Pollard's captaincy and Pollard never looked playing for his home team despite the team had qualified for the main draw!

Southern Express looked promising and failed to win a single game and Lahore Lions had got the visa to play in the main draw! well done Hafeez, the professor.

KKR-CSK, the opener, Dhoni's 101m six set up the score for CSK. KKR never looked chasing. Nehra was on a hattrick! Oh yes, I was alive when this happened. Andy Russel stepped in and he changed the course of the game. He had been so successful coming down the order for Jamaica in the CPL and had to repeat the same for KKR. He came, he hit and got out and KKR still had the super cool Tendo at the other end. A player of such caliber, Tendo needs to be playing for Netherlands. He deserves one. A win from No where to KKR when Piyush Chawla scored the winning runs.

Bailey's team against Bailey! Looks interesting, yes the Hobart Hurricanes led by Bailey in Big bash league was up against the most successful IPL team, the Kings 11 and Bailey Preferred Kings 11 over Hobart. Not a very good start for Sehwag, a first ball duck, Maxwell's cameo, Thisara Perera's first outing for Kings 11 saw the IPL runner's up winning the game under the much needed guidance of Bailey.

Ok! done done done!! Blog has been Updated. Yay!! Happy Blogging me, happy blogging all!! :) Bye!

It's Renovation time! for my Blog and Team India!

Been long time, Yea, and lot of cricket been played! and lots being spoken

India losing at SA, India losing at NZ, ex cricketers and experts take on Dhoni's defensive strategy on test cricket! Duncan Fletcher's silence! Virat Kohli's career best ODI and Test Ratings and Much more on Indian cricket! 


It's time for Renovation, Dhoni is still building a proper test team!

McCullum's record test score of 300, beating Martin Crowe's 299! History at Wellington!

U-19 world cup's, Lime Light on! Vijay Zol! Kuldeep, the leggie who had been brilliant and a hat-trick in a world cup match and Much spoken talent from the IPL, Sanju Samson! Deepak Hooda and Much more talents!

Ranji Winners, Irani Cup winners Karnataka 2014. Well done Vinay and Co!

Aussie Tour of South Africa, Mitchell Johnson's furious 12 for! he has taken at least 49 apporx wickets since his come back in 6 test matches he had played! The real pace machine! First test Aussie win in style!

SL tour to bangladesh! Sanga's triple century, last ball finishes to the T-20 between them! SL take test and T-20 series wins!

IPL's huge money on Cricketers! Yuvi, Corey, Neesham, McCullum for CSK! Yuvi for RCB, KKR's new bowling Line up! Delhi's new Army, MVJ goes to delhi and much more happened at the IPL auctions this time. MI leaving out Mitch! not a good option for them! Punjab's exiting new line up of players and SRH looks awesome with Aussie opening pair, Finch and Warner! Karan Saharma for 3.7 Crores! woo! Huge!

 Dhoni Out of Asia Cup due to an Injury! Kohli to lead!

  DK would be the replacement! Will be the new young team! Lead by Kohli! looking forward! Hopefully Dhoni should be fit for the t-20 world cup!










Timeless cricket had missed so so much of cricket! TC will be back soon!

 Till then! ... Renovation time for TC!! TimeLess Cricket!

India Lose Series Opener!

Before the start of Kiwi series. New Zealand, a confident side, They had won the test series and the T-20 against West Indies and had levelled the odi series against them. India had lost the ODI series and test series against the South Africans. Corey Anderson had scored the fastest odi century, Luke Ronchi, Ryder and Ross Tayler were in great form.

For India, The openers were not doing what was expected from them and they were struggling for runs. Dhawan/Rohit Sharma were not good as they  use to bat on Indian pitches. Much was depend on Virat Kohli and the Captain Msd to take the Indian innings forward.

The same scenario happened yesterday, India has a good batting side, every one says. Yes, we do, But how well we have been doing outside India recently? Having won the toss and decided to field at Napier, Bhuvi bowled so well, 10 overs 38/1.

Shami was moving the ball and picked up 4/55. Death bowling once again proved a problem for India. Corey Anderson and Luke Ronchi teared apart the Indian bowling in the end overs. Ashwin went wicketless and Jadeja managed to pick one at an economy over 6 runs. Ishant Sharma gave away 72 runs for the 9 overs he bowled.

Virat Kohli had scored 18 centuries over all and 12 had come during the chase and India won 11 out of 12 times when ever he scored a century during the chase. His 18th odi hundred was out from India's winning ways. India had lost the match despite Virat's majestic 123 of 111 balls. Virat and Dhoni looked set, and India was cursing towards the victory, a short ball from McClenaghan to Dhoni and the keeper had to dive to make his ground and catch taken, Dhoni out for 40. Kiwis needed exactly the wicket of either MSD or Virat Kohli and soon McClenaghan dismissed kohli, full toss outside off, straight forward catch to Ryder. Ryder had earlier dropped Kohli on 94. Back to back wickets for McClenaghan and NZ were right back into the game.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma had played 23 balls for the 3 runs he scored and Dhawan looked set before he was dismissed for 32. Raina pulled one and caught at deep fine leg. Rahane, played so well in South Africa out for 7. The middle order is depend on Dhoni and the top order would depend on Kohli. Even if they are getting runs, India needs one or two batsmen to fire. Rahanae is certainly the guy India would look for and Raina had been given lot of chances and seen as the future no.4 for the 2015 world cup.