Venue/Date: Beausejour Stadium, St Lucia, 1 May 2010.India won toss and elected to fieldT20 debut: Murali Vijay (India)Player of the match Ashish Nehra Result: India won by 2 wkts. India cruised to an easy seven wicket win against Afghanistan at St Lucia in their ICC World T20 opener on Saturday. Chasing a modest total (116), the champions of the inaugural edition romped home with 31 balls to spare. India began on an aggressive note, Murali Vijay a boundary over mid-off followed by a maximum over deep midwicket off Dawlat Ahmadzai's first over. However, the bowler struck in his second over, having Gautam Gambhir (4) caught by Mohammad Nabi at cover point. Shapoor Zadran was miserly in his first couple of overs, giving away just six runs. Despite losing Gautam Gambhir early, Raina and Murali Vijay have kept the scoreboard ticking along at a good pace in pursuit of a victory. Samiullah Shenwari trapped Suresh Raina in front of the wickets to give Afghanistan more reason to cheer in their opening encounter against India. Vijay has carried on from where he left in the IPL while Yuvraj Singh seems like getting back to some kind of touch with India nicely placed for a win against Afghanistan. The Vijay-Yuvraj partnership then took over the proceedings, with the former hitting successive sixes over long-off off Nabi. Hamid Hassan got Murali Vijay to hole out to Shapoor Zadran in the deep after the opener cracked 48 to help India land on the door-steps of an easy win. In came captain MS Dhoni (15 not out) and he ensured an early end, smashing successive sixes off his Afghanistan counterpart Nowroz Mangal. Earlier, batting first Afghanistan were able to make 115 for eight. Ashish Nehra picked up three wickets and Praveen Kumar pocketed two as Afghanistan found themselves all at sea against India at St Lucia. That's the first one down for Afghanistan. Karim Sadiq tried to pull one away from Nehra but ended up gloving it to MS Dhoni behind the stumps. Mohammad Shehzad goes and Nehra gets his second wicket. The ball seemed to brush past the helmet on its way to Dhoni but India will take … [Read more...]
World cup Review: Sri Lanka Vs New Zealand
Venue/Date: Guyana national stadium in Georgetown in Guyana. 30 April 2010. Debut: Dinesh Chandimal and Chanaka Welegedera (both are from Sri Lanka). Toss: Sri Lanka, elected to bat. Result: New Zealand won by 2 wkts. Man of the match: Nathan McCullum. New Zealand chase was going smoothly with Jesse Ryder and Martin Guptill collecting baundaries after easly dismissal of Brendon McCullum but main hero of the match was his brother Nathan McCullum who scored 16 valuable runs in pressure situation and hit a six to finish the game with 1 ball left. Sri Lanka innings revolved around Mahela Jayawardene who seemed the only Lankan batsmen to time the ball perfectly and made his career best T20 score while debutant Dinesh Chandimal played an important innings too. Match review: The 2010 ICC World Cup T20 was off to the perfect start when two cricketing power houses - Sri Lanka and New Zealand - dished out a nerve wracking affair at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. The Kiwis won the match on the day after a good bowling performance that restricted Sri Lanka to only 135/6 in their allotted 20 overs. The successful chase from the New Zealanders was riddled with twists and turns as wickets and runs abounded in liberal proportions to keep the onlookers hooked on to the action in the centre.Opting to bat in the sluggish pitch, the Lankan openers found runs hard to score initially. Sri Lanka had Mahela Jayawardene to thank for their respectable score of 135/6. The classical Jayawardene stroked the ball to all corners of the ground with clinical precision during his breezy knock of 81 from 51 balls. Barring some help from debutant Dinesh Chandimal (29), Jayawardene played the lone hand as others struggled on the slow and low pitch. While his team-mates struggled to score runs in the slow Providence Stadium wicket, experienced Jayawardene's breezy 51-ball innings was a classic example of effortless sensible hitting. He also shared a crucial 59-run fourth wicket stand with debutant Dinesh Chandimal (29 off 23) to lay the foundation for the Sri Lanka score.Skipper Kumar … [Read more...]
