English women on top

English women maintained their supremacy in world cricket as they beat New Zealand by six wickets in the final of Twenty20 World Cup at Lord’s here on Sunday. They had won the One-Day International World Cup beating the same opposition earlier this year in March.

The game had no trappings of a final and was heavily loaded in the home side’s favour after New Zealand was all out with just 85 on the board. Fast bowler Katherine Brunt was the chief tormentor. She ran through the top order to return with astonishing figures of 4-0-6-3 that strangled the White Ferns.

Only four Kiwi batters could get into the double figures with Amy Satterthwaite top-scoring with a painstaking 19 churned off 42 balls. Nicola Shaw and Jenny Gunn were the other English bowlers who proved too good for their rivals, scalping two wickets each as the New Zealanders paraded to the pavilion.

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India beat New Zealand, end 41 year wait

The Indians paid dearly for their overcautious approach as rain robbed them of a victory in the third and final Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve here on Tuesday.

However, having won the first match in Hamilton, India secured the series 1-0, the first in New Zealand since 1967-68.

It rounded off a good tour for captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni though — India had earlier won the one-day series 3-1, their first in the shorter version of the game in New Zealand.

The scoreline should have read 2-0 in Tests but the defensive decision to bat on despite a 531-run lead on the fourth morning costed India heavily.

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Pakistan provide surprise again

It’s no secret that Pakistan are an unpredictable outfit. It’s how they manage to reiterate the point time and again that never ceases to surprise.

They had to win Wednesday’s encounter to stay in contention for a place in the Asia Cup final, their coach was caught in the middle of an ugly war of words with the local media and their captain — under pressure to retain the top job — had collapsed during a fitness test before start of play.

Then, after India had elected to bat first, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir tore into their bowling attack with such ferocity that 10 overs into the day’s play, a defeat looked almost a certainty.

But this is Pakistan, the team that can never be written off.

They pulled things back after the initial onslaught to restrict the Indian total to 308 — Dhoni & Co looked set for bigger things after the torrid start — and then, they chased it down with enough conviction to leave anyone who was watching wondering why they had been written off.

Incidentally, Pakistan’s eight-wicket win has made India’s match against Sri Lanka on Thursday a virtual semi-final now. The kind of form the Lankans have been in, Dhoni & Co will have to get everything right to keep their hopes alive. A loss, on the other hand, will see Pakistan take on Lanka for the title.

Start to finish

But first, the chase. Salman Butt’s 36 off 31 balls set the ball rolling, flashes of brilliance bringing runs from both sides of the wicket. The young opener pulled and drove as Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for once, hesitated in continuing any of his attacking pairs for longer than two or three over spells. Ishant Sharma, visibly exhausted, went for as many as 16 in his first over, allowing Nasir Jamshed, in the process, to settle down alongside Butt.

India’s brightest spark while resisting the chase came when Gautam Gambhir ran Butt out. Then, 10 overs later Jamshad succumbed — retired hurt to a bout of cramps, while Mohammad Yousuf was bowled round his legs by Piyush Chawla soon after.

That was as far as India got though. The openers had given their team a great start and once the platform was set, Younis Khan got his bat to do the talking until the winning runs were scored. Khan was unbeaten on 123 as Pakistan strolled to an eight-wicket victory with 27 deliveries to spare.

Dhoni’s fireworks

Earlier, Mahendra Singh Dhoni had cashed on an excellent 88-run opening stand provided by Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, and despite a brief collapse, led India past the 300-mark along with Rohit Sharma.

Strengthening the middle-order has been one of the big talking points in recent times, at least as far as Dhoni goes. The Indian captain, among other things, has repeatedly spoken about finding ways to improve the run-rate between the 30th and 45th over of the innings, using innovating stroke play to get runs when the powerplays are not on and including batsmen who could stem the rot in case of a top-order collapse.

Yesterday, Dhoni himself played all those roles as India put up 308 for seven in their 50 overs.

However, as things turned out, it was never going to be enough. Not once Pakistan had decided this was the day they were going to provide the surprise.

Spinners tighten grip on Pakistan

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first in the first One-Day International against India in Guwahati on Monday.

After ensuring a solid start, Pakistan lost the wicket of Kamran Akmal in the 11th over when Irfan Pathan broke through for India by trapping him in front of the stumps.In fact, Zaheer Khan struggled a little bit with his line and length in the initial stages of the match as the Pakistan batsmen, particularly Salman Butt, helped himself to a couple of boundaries while from the other end R P Singh bowled a good line and length.

The introduction of one change bowler Irfan Pathan further tightened the visitor’s run rate as the new batsman Younis Khan found runs hard to come by.From the other end Butt was gaining in confidence and completed his quick-fire fifty. However, soon after reaching his half-century, he was run out after a mix-up with Younis, as Pakistan fell to 69 for two. Pakistan opened with their wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal and regular opener Salman Butt while India opened their bowling with the left arm duo of Zaheer Khan and Rudra Pratap Singh.India rested Praveen Kumar, Rohit Sharma and S.Sreesanth from the playing eleven while Pakistan left out Sohail Tanvir, Imran Nazir and Fawad Alam from the eleven.

The teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Robin Uthappa, and Rudra Pratap Singh.

Pakistan: Shoaib Malik (capt), Shahid Afridi, Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikar and Abdul Rehman.
image and article source:www.cricketnext.com

UNDERARM BOWLING INCIDENT

An infamous incident involving an underarm delivery occurred on February 1, 1981 when Australia was playing New Zealand in a One-Day International, the third of five cricket matches in the final of the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.New Zealand needed six runs to tie the match from the final ball, with eight wickets down. The Australian captain (Greg Chappell) ordered the bowler (his brother, Trevor Chappell) to bowl underarm: rolling the ball along the ground to avoid the possibility that the No. 10 New Zealand batsman (Brian McKechnie) would score a six from the last ball to tie the match.Australia won the game, but the New Zealand batsmen marched off in disgust, and since that day the underarm bowling incident has been a source of discussion, both heated and jocular, between Australians and New Zealanders.It was described as "the most disgusting incident I can recall in the history of cricket" by the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Rob Muldoon, who also observed that "It was an act of cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow". Even the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, called the act "contrary to the traditions of the game".Brian McKechnie bears no ill will over the incident[2] but both Chappell brothers have publicly stated their embarrassment over the incident and, over 25 years later, are still reluctant to discuss it.As a direct result of the incident, underarm bowling was banned in limited overs cricket by the International Cricket Council as not within the spirit of the game.

SOURCE:- www.wikipedia.com