Australia capitalized on the first innings collapse by New Zeland and are all posed to gain some advantage over them in the first innings as Australia are just 50 runs behind the visitors with seven more wickets in hand. The Australian players who were much dejected after their loss against India in an away series are having some ground to work as they are desperate to win this series to keep up their reputation in the world of cricket. Ricky Pointing was the highest scorer for Australia as he scored 79 runs in the innings before he was caught out. It was Bret Lee who damaged the top order of NewZeland as he was responsible for bundling out the visitors cheaply for 272 runs. Lee took four wickets in the innings. Australia had a shaky start to their innings, with Matthew Hayden suffering an embarrassing run-out in his 100th Test match after a huge mix-up with fellow opener Simon Katich. But it was Pointing who scored a quickfire that took away the confidence from the players.
England Cricket team’s tour of India has been cut short due to the terrorists attack that took place in Mumbai a couple of days ago. The English team were scheduled to play 7 ODI matches and 3 test matches. The ODI tournament was ongoing and India had already won the tournament winning all the five matches that took place. The English players wanted to leave the country as they did not feel safe to be in India in the current situation. The tour was planned to be cancelled of as a whole before BCCI, ECB and ICC met and decided that the remaining two ODI matches are to be cancelled but the test matches will be conducted later on. The dates for the test matches have not been announced and also the players were allowed to leave the country and return back after the dates were decided. England captain, Peiterson told the press that their players were not in a safe place and they could not play cricket in India in the current situation here. The players left for England yesterday.
By this time you all would have come to know about the terrorist attacks in Bombay – India on major star hotels. The normal life of many people has come to a halt due to these attacks. Even the India-England ODIi’s were expected to cancel. One of the papers says that England has planned to abandon the tour and fly to their country safely. Some say that the matches are postponed after the attacks. I came to know from one of the sites that the English players were in Taj Hotel when they arrived. The terrorist attack has led to a number of changes in the International Cricket schedule as the ongoing tournament between India and England had to be rescheduled and need to be rescheduled and also the Champions Trophy which is going to take place for the first time in the history of the game which was scheduled earlier to be held on December 3. The dates for the tournament was not announced and the English Cricket players were moved to a safer place with extra security protecting their lives.
England are desperate to win the final one day international against India and gain some pride as they have already lost the series to India and the most surprising part in this is that England were in winning situation in a couple of matches but Indian captain executed a brilliant gameplay to turn the match and make it favourable for the Indians. The English players came in to the series high after winning their series against South Africa and that too in a commanding manner. But they have been humiliated here as they could not even register a win in the Indian soil. Although India has the advantage of the home ground it is a bit of domination that is displayed from the results. The recent form of the two nations are given below.
India L-W-W-W-W
England W-L-L-L-L
With the series already won and there is not much in stake for India, it is expected that Dhoni is to rest most of his valuable players and to field a small and young team that can be tested for their options. England will also be testing their options. The match is scheduled to be held at the Barabati Stadium which hosted the day-night games during last month’s Challenger Trophy. The pitches are on the slower side so only low scores can be expected from the matches. No rain is expected on Wednesday, but dew could play a factor during the chase.
India has just finished winning the test series with Australia. The performance of India was splendid in the test series. They have won the world champions. Now Australia packed up to their home and now England has to India for a series. Today the first match in one day series started. And India had a terror victory in this match. India batted first and scored a huge sum to about 387. Yuvaraj scored about 150 in 75 balls (approx). And with the target of 387 England started to bat and with a short duration four wickets fell for a negligible sum of 40 compared to that the target. Kevin Peterson played good game for England today. He told the press that he didn’t have any complaints about the England’s defeat today and he believes that his team will bounce back.
Gambir was punished for elbowing Shane Waston. According to International Cricket Council (ICC) rules, Gambir will miss the forthcoming match. Hussey said that they are sort of hoping Gambir to miss the last test but he thinks Gambir will still play pending his appeal. He added that a process has been set in motion but if Gambir is not able to play, it would certainly help them. He still added that Gambir reminds him a lot of Justin Langer, a small and hard-hitting little personality but knows his game very well, lets the ball come onto the bat, strikes it through the offside fine and work it off his pads. Hussey felt that Gambhir was eager to pick up a clash with any of the Australian troupe to get into aggressive attitude. He said that Hussey is aiming for that and that was not their plan or whatever. He said that they wish to play a clean and healthy cricket. So let’s wait and see whether Gambir is in the game or not. Gambir had been the most run scorer in the series. So if the team misses him it’s like missing a strong power. I wish him to be in the game. Let’s wait and see what happens.
What are these playing doing by sleeping on the ground where they are supposed to be playing the game ? This is a picture of a funny incident that took place in the cricket game between India and Australia in New Delhi,India. Don’t mistake the players and the umpires to be lazy and sleeping on the field. They are lying down on the ground because of the intervention of the bees in the ground that stopped the match for a small period of time. The players and the umpires had to be patient till the bees cleared the field and made it a spot for playing. The players were stunned first by the entry of the bees but they could do nothing to it as the animal cannot be disposed that easily from a place. The match continued after about ten minutes of time and after that the players from both the team and the umpires where seen laughing over the incident which is a bit funny.
