Tuesday 30 June 2015

Modi's Letter to ICC about ‘corrupt’ players

lalit-modi icc


Ex-Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi reportedly sent a confidential letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) revealing the names of some top international cricketers who were involved in corruption in the IPL T20 tournament.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday confirmed receiving the letter from Modi. The letter ts dated June 2013 in which Modi has claimed that certain players received illegal payments equal to the amount of Rs 20 crores each from an Indian real estate businessperson. ICC CEO David Richardson has received the names of the so called alleged players and the bookie and has promised that ICC will look after into the matter.

“The players are in close contact with real estate tycoon (name withheld). He is also a big punter and also book maker. I had banned him from bidding for any IPL teams… Reliable sources have informed me that he has paid in cash and kind (flats) to the above three in tune of 20 cr each,” Modi said in the letter.

“The ICC confirms that Mr Modi’s confidential e-mail, which was received in June 2013, and which has recently been published on Twitter, was provided to the ACSU at the time. The ACSU handled that information in accordance with its standard operating procedures, which included sharing it with the BCCI’s anti-corruption unit,” the ICC statement read.

The letter is almost two years old, but has been revealed to public only now. ICC has assured the BCCI that it would carry out investigations since the players involved in the case are all internationals.

The news first came out from Twitter when one of the social-media website users with the handle @shyamswami158 posted an image of the letter in a tweet sent to Modi, asking,"Whadya hav to say about this @LalitKModi ? Wat was @ICC response ..... This is shocking!!!!" Modi's response to the tweet from @shyamswami158 was: "Ask @Icc @Bcci @Ipl why ask me. This is highly confidential. You should not be tweeting this". Later, ICC confirmed about the letter.

Netherlands vs Nepal 1st T20: Netherlands won by 18 runs

Nepal tour of Netherlands, 2015

Netherlands vs Nepal T20

The first T20 match between Netherlands and Nepal was played on 30th June as a part of 4 T20 match series. Netherlands won the match by 18 runs. Nepal could score 116 runs in 20 runs while chasing down the 135 runs target set by Netherlands.

Netherlands won the toss and opt to bat and the decision was not at all wrong. The team managed to score 134 runs in 20 overs with the loss of 5 wickets. Opener Stephan Myburgh (67) was the highest scorer for Netherlands team.

Netherlands Squad: Stephan Myburgh, Michael Swart, Ben Cooper, Wesley Barresi, Timm van der Gugten, Paul van Meekeren, Peter Borren, Mudassar Bukhari, Michael Rippon, Pieter Seelaar, Ahsan Malik 

Netherlands Score Card



Nepal team started with openers Subash Khakurel (2) and Gyanendra Malla (24) and could only score 116 runs in 20 overs by losing 7 wickets. The team could not win the match, but played really well from the perspective of a rather new team.

Nepal Squad: Subash Khakurel, Pradeep Singh Airee, Gyanendra Malla, Paras Khadka, Sharad Vesawkar, Binod Bhandari, Rajesh Pulami, Sompal Kami, Basant Regmi, KC Karan, Avinash Karn

Netherlands Score Card



Rahane to lead India in Zimbabwe Series

India tour of Zimbabwe 2015


India tour of Zimbabwe 2015

Ajinkya Rahane has been chosen to lead the Indian Cricket side for the upcoming India tour of Zimbabwe. Dhoni and Kohli are amongst those who will be resting for this tour. Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin have also been not included in the team as they demanded to rest for the time. Harbhajan Singhhas been selected to play in the ODI matches of 3-matches series.

The squad was chosen in Delhi for the upcoming India tour of Zimbabwe 2015. Ravindra Jadeja is also not the part of the team. Most of seniors players will be on rest for the series and BCCI has given a chance to a lot of players to comeback in the series including Robin Uthappa and Murali Vijay.

Indian team is set to pay 3 ODIs and 2 T20s against Zimbabwe in the series scheduled from July 10 to July 19.

India Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Murali Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan Singh, Axar Patel, Karn Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma

The selection committee has also picked the team for the upcoming tri-series against Australia 'A' and South Africa 'A' for which Cheteshwar Pujara has been named captain.

India A squad: KL Rahul, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara (C), Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Naman Ojha, Vijay Shanker, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Shardul Thakur, Varun Aaron, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Gopal, Baba Aparajith

Monday 29 June 2015

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2nd Test, Day 5: Sri Lanka won by 7 wkts

pak vs SL test 2 day 5

Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, 2015

Sri Lanka won the 2nd Test match on the fifth day of the match against Pakistan. After 4th day's game, Pakistan gave a target of 153 runs to its opponent, which Sri Lanka team chased in just 26.3 overs with 7 wickets remaining. Dhammika Prasad has been chosen the Man of the Match for his 7 wickets and 35 runs innings. The series yet has 1 Test match left.

With this win, Sri Lanka also records their first win in past 6 years at P Sara Oval, Colombo and they are now equal in the series with 1-1. The captain must be happy with the performance of his team. For Kumar Sangakkara, it was the last match of the series, as the player has already announced his retirement from Test cricket and will be playing last two Test matches in India series.

Sri Lanka team has shown its true colors in the game from the beginning of the first day when they bowled out the whole Pakistan team for just 138. The last day was also not bad as the team played really well to chase the target of 152 runs. They managed to chase down the score in just 26.3 overs with 7 wickets remaining.

SL 2nd Innings Score card



The 3rd and final Test match of the series is scheduled to start from 3rd July, 2015 at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele. If Sri Lanka wins this match, it will be their first Test series win since April 2006 at home.

Stay tuned!

Sunday 28 June 2015

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2nd Test, Day 4: Pakistan lead by 152 runs

Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, 2015

pak vs SL test 2 day 4


The fourth day of the Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2nd Test is finished and Sri Lanka is now in quite good position after 4th day's match. Pakistan started playing at 171/2 on fourth day and lost their remaining wickets in 59.4 overs composing 158 runs in total on fourth day. The match was stopped because of the rain. Pakistan is now in lead with 152 runs.

Sri Lanka will resume the game on the fifth and last day on Monday. It looks like an easy to chase target with all 10 wickets remaining for Sri Lankan team.

On 4th day of the game, Azhar Ali (64) and Younis Khan (23) were on the crease for opening the Pakistan side. Whereas Ali managed to stay for long and contributed 117 runs of 308 balls for Pakistan score board, Younis Khan was caught at the personal score of 40 runs or 67 balls. Pakistan team managed to score 329 in total after losing all their wickets in 118.2 overs. Now, the team is leading over opposition by 152 runs.

Pak 2nd Innings Score Card



Sri Lanka will start its 2nd inning today and have a pretty good chance to win the Test match as the target score is mere 152 runs with 10 wickets remaining.

You can check the live score in the left-side panel. Stay tuned with us for more updates

Saturday 27 June 2015

Sangakkara announces retirement from Test after India Series

Kumar Sangakkara

The legendary Sri Lankan player Kumar Sangakkara has announced that he would retire from Test cricket after the second Test match of India-Sri Lanka Test series scheduled in August 2015. He will also not play the third Test match of the ongoing Pakistan Test series and the two Test matches against India would be his last. Sangakkara is already retired from ODI format of Cricket.

Breaking the long silence about the rumors of retirement, the Sri Lankan player confirmed the news in a special press conference held after the third day's play of the second Test of Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2015. Sangakkara also mentioned that he was intended to retire from all forms of cricket after the 2015 Cricket World Cup, but was convinced to play 4 more Test matches by the Sri Lanka's previous selection committee.

"I've had the time of my life playing for Sri Lanka. It has been a great honour. Growing up as a kid, watching players like Aravinda de Silva play for Sri Lanka and then one day to get a chance to play with them. I've thoroughly enjoyed playing every format, but donning the whites for Sri Lanka has been a different feeling altogether. There have been so many ups and downs. I've had bad days as well but the good times outweigh the bad. I know, it's disappointing to say goodbye to something you've done for over 15 years, but I know this is the right time to leave," Sangakkara said.

Sangakkara has been one of the best ODI & Test players of all-time. He currently holds the third position in the ICC Test Batsmen Ranking and second in the ICC ODI Batsmen Ranking. His list of records is quite  long. He debuted his Test career in 2000 and in just 15 years, he managed to score 12271 Test runs, which is also the fifth-highest of all-time in Test cricket format.

The 37-years old Sri Lankan player hit 38 Test centuries that include 11 double-centuries, just one behind Sir Don Bradman's record of 12.

Sangakkara, during the announcement, indicated that he never played for personal records, but always for the country. "If that (personal milestones) is the only driving ambition, then it is time to say 'thank you very much'. I've prided myself in doing well individually, but I should be able to look at my teammates in the eye and say I really went out there for the country and not individual records."

We wish the great player Kumar Sangakkara a very well and successful future ahead.

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2nd Test, Day 3: Pakistan trail by 6 runs

Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2015: Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2nd Test, Day 3

The third day of the 2nd test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan is officially finished after 62.1 overs played today. Sri Lanka in total scored 315 runs in their first inning. Pakistan played 59 overs on third day and managed to score 171 runs losing 2 wickets. The team is still trailing behind the opponent by 6 runs.

Starting from what left after the day 2 of 2nd test, Sri Lanka team played for 3.1 overs on third day before the final wicket fell down in the form of Dushmantha Chameera (2 of 16). The team scored 11 runs today making a total of 315 runs.

Sri Lanka Score Card after 1st Inning



Pakistan team has started playing their second inning in the test. Apart from the opener Mohammad Hafeez (8), all 3 players did well today. Other opener Ahmed Shehzad scored 69 out of 154 balls before he was caught by Chandimal on a ball by Dhammika Prasad. Azhar Ali (64) and Younis Khan (23) are still Azhar Ali (64) and Younis Khan (23) are not-out and will continue the Pakistan's inning tomorrow. The team scored 171 runs with the lose of 2 wickets in 59 overs on third day of the Test.

Pakistan Score Card 2nd Inning


Tomorrow's game will be quite exciting to watch as Pakistan is playing well and is looking forward to give a competitive score of around 300-400 runs to Sri Lanka for their 2nd inning.

Stay tuned for live score.

Batting Powerplay No Longer a part of ODIs

ICC Annual Conference 2015


At the Annual Conference 2015 of the International Cricket Council, ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson, on Friday, announced that the batting powerplay system has been removed from the One Day Internationals (50-over format). He also announced some other significant changes in the ODI formats after discussing the recommendations made by ICC Cricket Committee at the Conferencein Barbados.

The batting Powerplay was one of the systems being followed in One-Day International until now. From now on, there will be no batting powerplays in any innings of any International 50-over match that means, no restriction to field setting like before. Although ICC also announced that from now on, five fielders will be allowed to field outside the 30-yard circle in the final 10 overs of both innings while maximum of two fielders outside the circle for first ten overs and maximum four fielders outside the circle for overs 11 to 40. That means, No compulsory catchers in overs 1-10 in ODIs.

Also, all No balls, including 'over stepping by the bowlers' will result in free hits in both ODIs and Twenty20 formats.

All new rules will be in effect for any series starting starting on or after July 5.

"We have thoroughly reviewed the ODI format after a very successful ICC Cricket World Cup. There was no need to make any radical changes to what has proved to be a vibrant and popular format but we wanted to take this opportunity to make the format simpler and easier to follow for the public as well as maintaining a balance between bat and ball," Richarsdon said at the press conference.

Friday 26 June 2015

Sachin Tendulkar voted best Test player of 21st century



In an online poll conducted by Cricket Australia’s website, India's legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been voted as the 'Test player of the 21st century.' The poll was conducted by the website cricket.com.au, which is the official website of Cricket Australia to list out best 100 Test players since 2000.

The former Indian cricket player Sachin Tendulkar received the higher number of votes in the poll to become the best test player of 21st Century. Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara held the second position in the list receiving second highest number of votes. Third position has been occupied by the former Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist.

Sachin Tendulkar is certainly one of the best cricketers of all-time and now, this online poll has crowned him as the best Test player of this century.

"Tendulkar, the Little Master who remains an iconic figure in the sport, was a runaway winner, while batting giants Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis were separated on countback, with the Australian just edging out his Protean counterpart," the website said.

The survey was taken by over 16,000 cricket fans and Sachin managed to get 23 per cent of votes to top the list while Sangakkara got 14 per cent votes to be at the second position. The top 10 Test players list includes only one Indian (Sachin Tendlukar), four Australian, three South African and two Sri Lankan cricketers.

Sachin Tendulkar currently holds the record for the highest number of runs scored in both ODI and Test cricket formats as well as the only player to have hit 100 international centuries.

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2nd Test, Day 2: Sri Lanka lead by 166 runs

 

Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, 2015


Day 2 of the Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2nd Test was quite usual with Sri Lanka team scored 234 runs of 86.2 overs and lost 8 wickets. Sri Lanka is now leading over Pakistan by 166 runs and 1 wicket left.

Sri Lanka started playing today morning at the score of 70/1 with Kaushal Silva (21) and Kumar Sangakkara (18) on the field. The second wicket got down in the form of Sangakkara when team was at 98 runs score. Sangakkara got out after making 34 runs. Angelo Mathews (c) was the highest run scorer today with his 77 runs inning in 153 balls. Rangana Herath (10) and Dushmantha Chameera (0) are still on the field. Sri Lanka team got only 1 wicket left.

Sri Lanka Inning Score card



Pakistani bowler Yasir Shah took 5 wickets today while giving 95 runs in 40 overs. Junaid Khan, Zulfiqar Babar & Hafeez each got 1 wicket in the match till now.

Tomorrow's game will start with Herath and Chameera playing for the last wicket. Pakistan team has to build a big score in their second inning if they want to stay in the match for the last day.

Stay runed!

The score cards here have been taken from the leading cricket website cricbuzz.com

Thursday 25 June 2015

Zaheer Abbas is the new ICC President


Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas has been appointed as the new president of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Abbas has replaced Bangladesh's Mustafa Kamal as the ICC president. Zaheer Abbas has joined his duties and thanked the ICC Board for giving him the opportunity.

"I feel truly honoured and humbled to be appointed as the president of the governing body of our great game," said Abbas.

The ICC chairman, Narayanaswami Srinivasan said: “Zaheer is clearly an iconic cricketer who always played the game with skill, flair and in the true spirit. He is a worthy ambassador of our great game.”

Zaheer Abbas has been a former player of Pakistan and Gloucestershire teams and has many records in his name. Zaheer has scored 5,062 runs in 78 Tests, around 2,500 in 62 ODIs and more than 34,000 runs in his cricket career. He also made 108 centuries and is the only Asian batsman with 100 first-class centuries.

Zaheer also played in the 1975, 1979 and 1983 ICC Cricket World Cups. He also played as a captain of Pakistan Cricket team in 14 Tests and 13 ODIs.

The International Cricket Council also accepted the Serbia Cricket Federation (SCF) as the 58th Affiliate Member of the ICC.

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2nd Test Day 1 Highlights

Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, 2015


The day 1 at the 2nd Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan was quite exciting with Pakistan being all out for 138 runs in just 42.5 overs and Sri Lanka playing on 70 Runs losing one wicket after 32 overs. Kumar Sangakkara and Kaushal Silva are still on the crease from Sril Lanka side who both will continue tomorrow's match.

Pakistan has already won the first match of the 3-Test match series against Sri Lanka. The 2nd Test match started on 24th June and is expected to conclude on or before 29th June.

Pakistan won the toss and captain Misbah chose to bat first, which was clearly not a good decision. The whole team got out at a score of 138 runs in just 42.5 overs. Sri Lankan bowlers did very good with the bowl. Tharindu Kaushal took 5 wickets including of the opener Mohammad Hafeez. Hafeez was the highest scorer from Pakistan team, who scored 42 runs of 75 balls.

Pakistan Innings Score Card

 


Sri Lanka team batted second and batted really well. Dimuth Karunaratne gave a good start to his team before he was caught by S Ahmed on a ball by Janaid Khan on a personal score of 28 Runs. Kaushal Silva (21) and Kumar Sangakkara (18) are not-out yet.

Sri Lanka Innings Score Card



There is still 4 days of match left and if Sri Lanka team manages to play whole day tomorrow and get a total score somewhere around 400, they can win this test easily.

Stay tuned!

The score cards here have been taken from the leading cricket website cricbuzz.com

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2nd Test, Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2015



Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2015: The 2nd Test match in the 3 Tests series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan is being played from June 25 to June 29, 2015.

Match: Sri Lanka vs Pakistan, 2nd Test

Match Venue: P Sara Oval, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Schedule: Thu, Jun 25, 2015 to Mon, Jun 29, 2015

Pakistan Squad of 11

Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Junaid Khan

Sri Lanka Squad of 11

Kaushal Silva, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kumar Sangakkara, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Kithuruwan Vithanage, Dhammika Prasad, T Kaushal, Rangana Herath, Dushmantha Chameera

The match started at 4:30 AM GMT. Pakistan won the toss and captain Misbah-ul-Haq chose to bat first. Pakistan has already scored 70 Runs after losing two wickets in 23.0 overs till Lunch break. The match will continue post-lunch. You can get the live score in the right sidebar.

In the 3-test match series between SL and Pak, Pakistan has already won the first Test match. This series also includes 5 One Day Innings (ODIs) and 2 T20 matches that will be played after Test series. The tour will end on August 1, 2015. Stay tuned with us for all latest updates from Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2015

Wednesday 24 June 2015

India vs Bangladesh 3rd ODI, India finishes with a Win

 

India tour of Bangladesh, 2015: Indian team finishes the series with a fantastic win although the team has lost the series by 2-1. The third and final ODI match between India and Bangladesh was played on 24th June, 2015 as a part of 3-match ODI series on India tour of Bangladesh, 2015 (find details). Team India won the match by 77 runs leaving the series at 2-1. Suresh Raina was given the Man of the Match award for his 38 runs score of 21 balls and bowling figure of 3/45.

Mustafizur Rahman has been awarded with the Man of the Series for picking 13 wickets in total.

India started batting first and managed a respectable score of 317/6 in 50 overs with 4 wickets in hand. Shikhar Dhawan (75), Dhoni (69) and Raina (38) took the team to a very good score to gave a challenging fight to the opposing team. Raina managed to become the Man of the Match.

Indian Innings Score card

Bangladesh vs India, 3rd ODI India

Bangladesh team also gave a good fight while chasing the score of 318 runs, but the score was too big for them to chase. The complete team got out at the score of 240 with 3 overs remaining. Sabbir Rahman remained the highest personal scorer in Bangladesh team with his 43 runs of 38 balls.

Bangladesh Innings Score Card

Bangladesh vs India, 3rd ODI ban

The score cards here have been taken from the leading cricket website cricbuzz.com

India vs Bangladesh 3rd ODI Preview, India will play to save its Pride



India tour of Bangladesh, 2015

After losing first two ODIs against Bangladesh on its Bangladesh tour, 2015, Indian Cricket Team is set to play the third and final ODI on 24th June at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka. The match will start at 14:30 (IST).

As of now, India will be playing to save its dignity and pride in the series. The team has already lost the series by losing 2 out of 3 matches. This will be the chance for Indian team to save the remaining pride with them. Indian team has already lost both 2 matches against Bangladesh showing poor team performance in this series. On the other hand, Bangladesh team has shown a great performance in both two matches.

Match: Bangladesh vs India, 3rd ODI, India tour of Bangladesh, 2015

Schedule: Wed, Jun 24, 2015 9:00 AM GMT (14:30 IST)

Venue: Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka

Teams
 
Indian Squad of 15: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(c/w), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Dhawal Kulkarni, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ambati Rayudu, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Stuart Binny

Bangladesh Squad of 15: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Litton Das(w), Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza(c), Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Rony Talukdar, Arafat Sunny, Mominul Haque, Jubair Hossain

The match will be interesting to watch as the Bangladesh team is full of confident by their recent success and is willing to win the final match of the series. On the other end, Team India is expecting to enjoy the game and will play without the fear of lose, in the words of captain M.S. Dhoni

Stay tuned!