Best Photo of ICC World Cup 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Labels: Australia, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, India
posted @ 10:15 AM,
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The Future of Australia - Pakistani Born Usman Khawaja
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Usman Khawaja showed in his poised Test initiation against England on Monday that he could play a leading role in the revival of Australia’s cricket fortunes.
Pakistan-born Khawaja, the first Muslim to play for his adopted country, captivated a nation downcast by its national team’s Ashes downfall with his accomplished knock of 37 in the final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Far from being intimidated by the occasion, Khawaja, 24, whipped six runs off his first two deliveries and defied the English attack for two hours and 95 balls to star for the transitional Australian team.
“I'd like to play cricket, especially for Australia, as long as possible but I'm taking Ricky Ponting's spot, who is probably the greatest Australian batsman bar Don Bradman, so I'm just enjoying this Test match right now and trying to savour everything I can.”
Labels: Australia, Pakistan, Usman Khawaja
posted @ 11:08 AM,
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Tendulkar - The First Man To Score 14,000 Runs
Monday, October 11, 2010
India’s Sachin Tendulkar passed another major milestone but a dogged century from Australian Marcus North put the touring side in control of the second test on Sunday.
North’s career-best 128 was the cornerstone of the Australian first innings which folded for 478 at tea on day two, but not before their lower half had added 193 runs to their overnight score of 285 for five wickets.
In reply, India made a feeble start, losing the explosive Virender Sehwag (30) and bail-out specialist Rahul Dravid (one) in quick succession. Tendulkar remained unbeaten on 44 with opener Murali Vijay (42) at the other end with India still trailing Australia by 350 runs.
“It’s going to be extremely important tomorrow that we have a very big partnership,” Tendulkar told Neo Cricket channel after the second day’s play which ended with India on 128-2. “A couple of partnerships will bring us back in the game and put us in a decent position. Right now it’s one of those challenging phases.”
Playing his 171st test, Tendulkar became the first batsman to amass 14,000 test runs in the 27th over of the Indian innings, hitting off-spinner Nathan Hauritz for a boundary. Earlier, North’s 149-run sixth wicket stand with fellow overnight batsman Tim Paine (59) defied the Indian bowlers in the morning session and took the visitors past the 400-run mark.
North mixed caution with occasional aggression, slog-sweeping Pragyan Ojha for the first six of the innings before retreating into his defensive shell. Paine’s was a more eventful knock in which he was caught behind off a Shanthakumaran Sreesanth no-ball and was dropped by Suresh Raina off Ojha before the left-arm spinner returned to settle the score.
North completed his fifth test century in the next over and eventually fell to Harbhajan Singh after a resolute 240-ball knock with 17 boundaries and a six in it. “I got a start last night, so I needed a big score,” North said. “It’s a very good batting wicket, so it will be nice to get a couple of early wickets tomorrow. They have got a partnership in Vijay and Sachin but we will come out very hard tomorrow.”
Labels: Australia, India, Sachin Tendulkar
posted @ 3:04 PM,
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Pakistan makes it two in a row against Australia
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Teenage quick Mohammad Aamer took three wickets as Pakistan beat Australia by 11 runs in the second Twenty20 international at Edgbaston here on Tuesday to complete a 2-0 series win.
Australia, chasing 163 to win, were dismissed for 151 with 18-year-old left-armer Aamer taking three wickets for 27 runs in his maximum four overs — the same figures as he returned during Pakistan’s 23-run win here on Monday. The man-of-the-match struck early to remove openers David Warner and Michael Clarke before having Mitchell Johnson lbw late on to the delight of a pro-Pakistan crowd.
With just one wicket standing, a target of 19 off the last over proved beyond Australia and Shaun Tait was run out with two balls left. Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi and fellow spinner Saeed Ajmal kept the pressure on with three middle-order wickets.
Labels: Australia, England Tour, Pakistan Cricket, T20
posted @ 11:30 AM,
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Cricket Australia may try forty-overs one day cricket matches
Friday, June 11, 2010
The cricket board of Australia, the Cricket Australia, is said to be thinking on the lines of scrapping off their 50 overs, domestic competition and introducing a forty overs one. what is surprising is that they are planning to do it as soon as next year, which means that just before the start of the 2011 edition of the World Cup, they would be looking at having changed their domestic one-day set-up. They have also said that the format could well be a two innings, twenty overs an innings, to be completed in one-day.
This means that there will be two T20 games played one after the other, with the runs and wickets unchanged over the two innings.
The issue with this is that the fifty overs World Cup will be played in 2011 in February in the sub-continent, and having a 40-overs competition before such a competition may cause an issue for the Aussie players. There are already question-marks being raised over the future of the 50-overs World Cup as it is currently played and with the introduction of these changes in Australia, much like how it is in England and South Africa.
The President of the Australia’s cricket association, Darren Lehmann said that while he was happy to make changes to the format in order to look at the future of the game, it had also to look at how it affected the players given that the World Cup was so near the Aussies domestic season.
Lehmann said, "Maybe reducing the overs to 40 per side is not a bad start, whether we can do two 20 over innings is something we need to discuss. My personal preference is to go to 40 overs per side, but I'm open to all ideas to improve the game."
A Cricket Australia spokesperson has already said that there was nothing to worry about the World Cup given that the Aussie cricket team would have had their fill of international fifty overs game by then.
Earlier, South Africa and England have implemented the forty overs cricket in their domestic structure as well.
The rules involved in the South African forty overs competition, or the Pro40s as it is known as are as follows:
45 to 40 overs:
Earlier, the competitions used to be of 45 overs, but in the last October, this was changed to 40 overs a side. This made the games much more quick and much like the same manner in which the fifty overs game was played.
12 a side:
This format also allowed the teams within the domestic set-up to go ahead with 12 members in the side, instead of the customary 11. 11 players can bat, and at any particular time, there can only be 11 to bowl and field. This 12th guy can bat or bowl and sit out for the rest of the time. This one is especially good for those players who have a difficult time fielding, thanks to the lack of fitness!
PowerPlays:
20 overs of the 40 will be Powerplays, but three and four fielders outside the circle for the two blocks of five each.
Rain rule:
To ensure that the game remains quick, the overs will begin to deduct as soon as the players go off the field for the rain. Usually, there is a one to two hours of buffer time, but this will not exist in the Pro40s. After every 20 overs of the innings, there will be a strategic time-out, which seemed to have come from the second edition of the IPL. [Via]
Labels: Australia
posted @ 11:17 AM,
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Women's World Twenty20 Final Won by Australia
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
With the White Ferns needing 14 off the last over, Perry - backed up by fine fielding from Rene Farrell and Shelley Nitschke - didn't give up a boundary and the pace bowler finished with impressive figures of three wickets for 18 runs from her maximum four overs.
Victory came just hours after Australia's men's team had lost in the corresponding final to arch-rivals England. The result was tough on Sophie Devine, whose 38 not out off 35 balls rescued New Zealand from a top order collapse to give them a shot at victory just a year after they were beaten in the final to England at Lord's.
New Zealand, chasing a modest 109 for victory after holding their rivals to 103 for six, slumped to 29 for four inside eight overs. “We believed our total was going to be enough,” said Australia captain Alex Blackwell. “I know our bowling attack has the level-mindedness to get through whatever challenge was in front of them,” she added.
Perry, the player of the match, said: “From all the games we've played against New Zealand, they never give up and nor do we so we were all expecting it to go down to the wire.”Also an Australian international football player, Perry said of her final over: “It's a fantastic opportunity to win a World Cup for your country rather than lose it. That's how you have to approach things like that.
“I feel very grateful to Alex for believing I could do it and I felt I had the support of my team which was really obvious in the fielding of Rene and Shelley down on the boundary.”Australia men's captain Michael Clarke put aside his own disappointment to watch the women's final along with some of his team-mates and Blackwell said:
“That was fantastic, to have Michael Clarke and a lot the boys watching us. “I think that really helped us stay in the game and fight to win this world cup for Australia.”New Zealand captain Aimee Watkins was left to rue her side's batting after fine work by the White Ferns' attack.
“It's obviously disappointing. We bowled really well and I thought after that we deserved to win the game. But we lost early wickets, had too many dot balls through the middle period and we dug ourselves into a hole. We just left our launch too late.”By the time Rachel Priest was out, New Zealand were in dire straits at 36 for five.
However, Nicola Browne (20) helped Devine add 41 for the sixth wicket. And when she exited, Devine kept going, striking Farrell for four and six off the last two balls of the 19th over. That left New Zealand with 14 to win, off the final over from Perry. A single got Devine back on strike and she then took several twos to leave the target down to seven off the last two balls.
Another two left the Kiwis needing five off the last ball but they could only manage a single. Earlier, Browne rocked Australia with a new-ball burst of two wickets for 11 runs during an innings where the top score was Leah Poulton's 20. Browne forced opener Ellyse Villani (six) to spoon a drive to cover and then dismissed Australia captain Alex Blackwell for nought, with the aid of a fine catch in the gully by Devine. In the end, Australia were grateful for a late stand of 27 between Sarah Elliott and Lisa Sthalekar.
Labels: Australia, T20, Women Cricket
posted @ 11:45 AM,
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Pakistan's Strategy - By Imran Khan
Friday, May 14, 2010
Former captain and leg endary all-rounder Imran Khan says Pakistan should adopt a ‘wicket taking’ policy rather than just focussing on prevent ing opponent teams from scoring runs if they want to retain the ICC World Twenty20 crown. Imran said skipper Shahid Afridi should adopt the same strategy which was adopted by the 1992 World Cup winning Pakistan squad, which was to look for wickets. “This is what Aussies have been doing and this has made them a great team,” Imran, a vete ran of 88 Tests and 175 One-day Internationals, said. Pakistan take on Australia in the second semi-final of the World Twenty20 at St Lucia on Friday. Imran suggested Pakistan should use fast bowler Mohammad Asif as an at tacking bowler and not as a ‘run stopper’. He felt batting was Pakistan’s main problem in the ongoing tournament, as apart from opener Salman Butt no other batsman has fired so far.“Since Pakistan’s batting has not been up to the mark, Afridi should al ways look to bat first rather than chasing,” Imran, a breathtaking fast bowler of his era, ad vocated. He also suggested some changes in the batting or der, saying Afridi should bring himself and Misbah-ul-Haq up the or der so that they can accu mulate maximum runs when ball is new and hard
Labels: Australia, Imran Khan, Pakistan, T20
posted @ 2:36 PM,
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Guess - Who will Win Today?
Vs
Labels: Australia, Pakistan, T20
posted @ 10:30 AM,
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Australia Punished Pakistan Team
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Shane Watson top-scored with 81 as Australia punished lax Pakistan fielding to win their opening World Twenty20 match by a convincing 34 run margin here on Sunday Man-of-the-match Watson's innings was the cornerstone of Australia's 191 all out, made after captain Michael Clarke won the toss.
But the all-rounder was dropped twice and Watson made defending champions Pakistan pay by striking four sixes and seven fours in his blistering 49-ball innings. Together with David Hussey, he put on 98 in under nine overs for the third wicket. Hussey dropped on 18 at long-off by Salman Butt, a relatively easy chance, went on to make 53 off 29 balls with five sixes and two fours.
Hussey was especially severe on seamer Mohammad Sami, striking him for 28 runs in the 16th over with the batsman striking four sixes, including three in a row. Pakistan lost Kamran Akmal for nought to the first legitimate ball of their reply when he sliced Dirk Nannes to Steven Smith at short third man.
Salman Butt (15) miscued an attempted hook off fast bowler Shaun Tait and was caught by David Hussey before left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson's second ball proved too much for Mohammad Hafeez, who pulled straight to deep square leg. Australia, holding their catches, had reduced Pakistan to 34 for three inside five overs and they never looked like recovering from such a start.
Tait then had the satisfaction of bowling Pakistan captain and hard-hitting batsman Shahid Afridi for 33 before finishing the match by bowling Saeed Ajmal off the last ball. Misbah-ul-Haq top-scored for Pakistan with 41 but that was never going to be enough by itself.
Labels: Australia, Cricket, Pakistan, T20, World Cup
posted @ 1:26 PM,
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