Warne knows what it takes to be Sachin

Names the Indian genius best cricketer ever.
Shane Warne announced the names of 10 cricketers who he thought were the best to have played the game till date and not much surprisingly he has named Sachin Tendulkar as the best he ever saw. Saying that the batsman was under pressure right from the day he started playing cricket Warne acknowledges his mental strength. Sachin has scored runs all over the world and continues to do so and never gets boggled down by wrong decisions of the umpires. The cricketer who comes second in the list is Brian Lara. Like Sachin he too has scored massive amounts of runs and is great to watch. Warne says that it was great to see Tendulkar perform so well under pressure when he came out to bat in India. Truly, Shane Warne is a big Tendulkar fan!

Sachin - The master blaster is back

Image Source : Hindustan Times
Hi people

Those who had access to watch yesterday's match were literally feasted to a mouth watering innings by Sachin Tendulkar. He looked confident right from the start and had a very positive approach to his game, looking to hit the ball whenever he could ; sometimes even hitting rash strokes but it was great to see him come back to his old form - the ones that the greatest of bowlers fear in their dreams.

Sachin should have silenced his critics for the time being who had been behind his life for so many days, demanding his removal from the team. I think we Indians need to be more loyal to our heroes. As long as they are doing well we love them and some even go to the extent of worshiping them but the moment they commit a fault - we are behind their lives and start treating them as criminals. The world cup debacle left many hearts shattered, but in retrospect some bad management decisions were also behind our poor show.

There is no point discussing them now, but one thing that many cricket experts have been pointing out in various news channels is that Sachin needs to be kept as an opening batsman only. That is his usual position and he can play his natural game when he is opening. Keeping his 3rd or 4th down doesnt let him play to his full ability. He is forced to come in the game when India is not doing well and then he is expected to last till the mid 40 overs and stabilise the innings and when he doesnt deliver , we want his head.

Come one people, lets give this man his due credit. He has reached another milestone by becoming the first man to attain 15000 runs under his belt and that is no mean feat. Some people think he is played for so long thats why his records so let me make some things clear by showing you some stats..

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	0

SR Tendulkar (India)	1989-2007	387	377	37	15043	186*	44.24	17569	85.62	41	79	18
ST Jayasuriya (Asia/SL)	1989-2007	395	384	18	12063	189	32.95	13317	90.58	25	64	29
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Asia/Pak)	1991-2007	378	350	53	11739	137*	39.52	15812	74.24	10	83	20
SC Ganguly (Asia/India)	1992-2007	294	284	23	10880	183	41.68	14763	73.69	22	68	14
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	1990-2007	299	289	32	10405	169	40.48	13086	79.51	19	63	16
RT Ponting (Aus/ICC)	1995-2007	280	272	32	10395	164	43.31	12950	80.27	23	62	16

Table Source : Wisden

. Now those who say that Ponting is a much better batsman. Think again.
He has played 100 matches less than Sachin and has scored about 5000 runs lesser. To equal his record he would have to score at 50 runs per match. His current average is 43.31 so I dont see him overtaking Sachin anytime soon .Moreover it takes a heck of a long time to play 100 more matches.

Sachin needs to do more to please his fans who are waiting for a century by him. It was disappointing to see him get out in the 90's in the last two innings and am really looking forward to his next.

All the best Sachin ... May you keep making India proud.

Cheers
Sparsh

England rediscovers the joys of Spin Bowling

Phenomenal success ofMonty Panesar has guided Enland to a 3-0 sereies win against West Indies. Monty Panesar picked up 23 wickets at 19 apiece to show once again that spinners can perform well in English conditions. His 2006 summer exploits against Pakistan further confirm the same fact.

So have England finally found a match winner in Panesar? It seems that they certainly have. An impressive part of his bowling has been to consistently attack the stumps which gives him maximum chances of picking up wickets in comparison to his teammate Ashley Giles who was critised for bowling a negative line. One thing is for sure that if panesar keeps bowling some of those perfect balls, which got him the wicket of Denesh Ramdin, he certainly is a very bright future for England.

Does this make him the best finger spinner in the world? Better that Daniel Vettori and Harbhajan Singh? This question is yet to be answered. But who knows if there is another wonderful performance in the forthcoming series against India, having some of the best players of spin bowling, the question will certainly have a positive answer.

Rain ruins Indias chances to win first test

Really poor luck for TEAM INDIA has meant that the first test is heading for a draw. Just when it looked that our team was gaining confidence and was going to win the test series 2-0 the rain interrupted.

Now if this test goes for a draw, than lets hope that we win the second test quite convincingly to continue the confidence and the spirit gained from the one-day series otherwise it would be really bad for our team to come back home without winning the test series.

Its going to be long 8 months for TEAM INDIA now as they have to play cricket for more than 100 days. Lets hope for the best and it would be really good if our team continues this momentum gained.

Cheers
Vivek

Viru faces career-defining moment

The series is in the bag, but for Team India there is much to accomplish in the third one-dayer at Chittagong on Tuesday, especially for a certain Virender Sehwag, who faces a career defining moment. If he fails again, even skipper Rahul Dravid's patience with him may run out.

If you can't remember the last time India made a clean sweep in a one-day series, never mind; it's on the cards now. After taking a 2-0 lead in the series, India are now looking forward to a whitewash.

"one of our goals when we started the one-day series was to try and win it 3-0. We still have one game to play and that still remains our target," India captain Rahul Dravid told a press conference.

The injured S Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan have been rested for the dead rubber, meaning that Munaf Patel will be spearheading the attack, and RP Singh will likely get the nod ahead of Dinesh Mongia. There will be three openers to slot in - Sehwag, Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir.

A book could have been written about Sehwag's mysterious slump of form in one-day cricket. Time seems to have run out for Viru and now, only an extra-terrestrial innings in Chittagong can revive his one-day career.

"Someone of Sehwag's calibre, we truly do believe that he will go all the way and a bigger innings. He is getting starts but not carrying on. So, that's definitely something we know Sehwag should do and he himself knows that. He has got to now carry on and start converting those starts to more meaningful contributions to the game," Dravid adds.

This will also be the last game in charge for Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore, who would want to end his four-year run with a win.

Srilanka v Pakistan - Abu Dhabi Three-match ODI series !!

Srilanka and Pakistan are to play a 3 match ODI series in Abu Dhabi starting May 18. Both teams have announced their teams.

After all hoopla about changes in the team after the dismal performance in the world cup, Pakistan selectors have unearthed just 2 new faces to be included in the 16 man squad, Fawad Alam and Najaf Shah.
Drug tainted Mohammad Asif has also been included but there is no report released of him currently being drug free. What more he is now the vice captain !!
Salman Butt makes a comeback.
All in all the selectors have included 6 openers in the 16 man squad.

BTW, an official complaint has been filed against Imran Farath by chief of selectors Salahuddin Ahmed for the latters protests against being ignored for the series !! Dunno how on earth Farath felt he was worthy of a place in the team after all his failures. May be he feels he is good enough to be among the top 6 openers in the country !! :lol:

Anyways here is the Pak squad.

Shoaib Malik (capt),
Salman Butt,
Imran Nazir,
Mohammad Hafeez,
Yasir Hameed,
Mohammad Yousuf,
Shahid Afridi,
Fawad Alam,
Kamran Akmal (wk),
Abdul Razzaq,
Mohammad Asif,
Mohammad Sami,
Umar Gul,
Rao Iftikhar,
Najaf Shah.



The Lankans have dropped Attapattu for this series. He wasn't played in a single game in the World Cup !!
Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas have not been included in the squad so that they could play county cricket in England. :shock:

Lankan Squad.

Mahela Jayawardene (capt) Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Chamara Silva, Tillekaratne Dilshan, Farveez Maharoof, Dilhara Fernando, Malinga Bandara, Lasith Malinga, Malinda Warnapura, Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), Ruchira Perera, Ishara Amerasinghe, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Chamara Kapugedara.


Clear disadvantage for the Lankans without their top 3 players.

Afro Asia series ... Asian team announced

As you guys know soon the Afro Asia cup kicks off soon so here are the Asian squads announced for the tournament

The tournament will kick off with the Twenty20 international (June 5 in Bangalore) and will be followed by three ODIs, on June 6 and 9 (Chennai), and 10 (Bangalore).

Asia ODI team

1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Upul Tharanga, 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Sachin Tendulkar, 6 Mohammad Yousuf, 7 Yuvraj Singh, 8 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Chaminda Vaas, 11 Shoaib Akhtar, 12 Lasith Malinga, 13 Mohammad Rafique, 14 Mohammad Asif

Asia Twenty20 team1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imran Nazir, 3 Mohammad Ashraful, 4 Shoaib Malik (capt), 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Farveez Maharoof, 9 Abdur Razzak, 10 Mashrafe Mortaza, 11 Munaf Patel

I dont understand on what basis is Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh been selected, these are really funny selections

What do you guys say?

Pay back time for India?

Team India is set for its first encounter since the World Cup fiasco. The brigade reached Dhaka on May 7 to play three ODIs and two Tests against Bangladesh.

Captain Dravid and the team, emboldened by the rigorous conditioning camp at Eden Gardens, seem to have only one mission - a series win. Although skipper Rahul Dravid says he doesn't see this tour as a revenge series, it is quiet apparent that India will put its best foot forward. A series win will not just give India a psychological advantage, but also an improvement in rankings.

But, Bangladesh are no more considered minnows. They had been instrumental in India's first round exit from the mega event and have gained confidence after defeating South Africa in the Super Eights. Will it be pay back time for Team India?