Watch Sri Lanka vs New Zealand Live Streaming Score, 2nd Test, Colombo (SSC). New Zealand are slated to play two test matches and two Twenty20 Internationals against Sri Lanka.
ICC T20 World Cup Twenty20 Live Cricket Streaming Links. The ICC World Cup Twenty20 is scheduled from June 5th to 21st in England. The world T20 campaign features world’s best players representing the countries, to showcase their skills to play the short format of T20 cricket on global platform.
India’s campaign in the T20 World Cup 2009 begins with their warm-up match against the Kiwis. I would have to say that though it is good to get acclimatized with the conditions before the start of any major tournament, the Indians could have done with some rest rather than playing warm-up games and they are carrying a few players with suspect conditioning. Further, they do not even have a second keeper so Dhoni with his uncertain back situation should not be very pleased with this.
On the other hand, the New Zealand team must be happy to get familiar with the format, since not a lot of their players have regularly played international T20 or for that matter the IPL 2009. I guess the best thing would be for India to try and play as many players they think would not be needed immediately at the start of the tournament to keep them warmed-up for the remainder of the World Cup.
The slight gloom was apparent on MSD’s face as he walked to the podium to collect the trophy for winning the series one to nil. I guess one could understand his reaction, considering how close India had come to walking away with a more comprehensive-looking two to nil margin victory. But then again, the way the Indians played or I should say outplayed the opposition in this match, it would be fair to say that they are the winners with no possible argument to it. Agreed, that a one-zero victory after a few yrs in the record books won’t be able to interpret the situation that how well India played and came close to walking away with a much bigger victory margin. However, the main purpose of the Indian team of winning a test series in Kiwiland has been met and that would be good enough to balm-up any brooding souls in the dressing room.
The last morning started with just one question on everybody’s mind — will the weather hold its end of the promise to allow the Indian bowlers a reasonable chance of packing-up the remainder of New Zealand batsmen. I guess, in an island nation you can never trust the rain Gods too much and that is exactly what happened — with just two wickets remaining and Vettori being the only batsman who could have actually batted on for some time, the skies opened-up. It was Tendulkar’s dibbly-dobbly bowling that took surprise wickets under the clouds as the pitch was beginning to moisten-up. Well, what is done should be dusted away and Dhoni’s men have once again delivered. Now, the focus would be shifting to the more maddening format of the game — the T20s with the IPL and the World Championship of this format coming up. It would be nice to see youngsters like Virat Kohli and Dhawal Kulkarni getting a look-in.
Obiously, we are talking about saving the match for New Zealand.
If it rains and play is disrupted for a few hours then New Zealand has a fair chance of saving the test. The forecast for today was a cloudy weather with some rain. The forecast is almost the same for tomorrow. It is difficult to say whether the New Zealand batsmen are praying for rain, as there is no inside information on this. But it gives a kind of pleasure to imagine that some NZ players are praying fervently for continuous rains tomorrow to avoid another defeat. At least what they couldn’t do with the bat and ball could be made up with kneeling before the good Lord, some of them might be thinking so. Given the fact that most cricketers cross their hearts and look up towards the sky many times during matches, this is highly probable.
But one man would be thinking something entirely different. McCullum must be thinking of playing for the whole day if need be. He is definitely going to bat tomorrow, if there is no rain. He must be preparing himself mentally to come in at any time tomorrow and last till the end of the day’s play. If he shows signs of grit then he has ready company in Vettori. Vettori is a tough customer and would like to stave off another defeat. He would be looking up to McCullum to drop anchor. Both can ward off the Indian bowlers and bring some respectability to the way they lose the series.
The possibilty of a New Zealand victory is very remote unless the batsmen get intoxicated with some brew similar to that prepared by Getafix and start treating the last day as a T20 match. But then again the target is not 200 in twenty overs. It is 450 runs in approximately 90 overs, which is tilting more towards impossibility than possibility. Possible because India scored 375 runs on the first day in 90 overs. But hey, there are still 75 runs more. So possibility is low. Impossible because scoring that many runs in a day by a team hasn’t been done so far. Though the aggregate runs scored by both the sides may have crossed 450 on a single day, a single team has never done this trying to win on the last day. And NZ has lost top four wickets. So we are fixated around a draw brought on by NZ or an Indian victory. Things depend on McCullum and Vettori whether they fight and force a draw or submit themselves to a deserving Indian win.
As Indians we are interested in India winning the series. If it is 1-0, good. If it is 2-0, better.
Well, this is what amazes me about the second day’s play between the Kiwis and the Indians. It never looked like the pitch was threatening enough to eat-up nearly 12 batsmen within a day’s duration. The entire Kiwi first innings and one wicket of the Indian team towards the start and end of the day’s play got rolled down. How did it happen, I really don’t know but I am sure the pitch isn’t really that conducive to fast bowling. And that brings me to Zaheer Khan who bowled magnificently to take another fiver but it has to be said that just like Sehewag’s shot selection, the ones showcased by the Kiwi batsmen too was very average. Yes, Zaheer was splendid as he moved the ball and was very hostile, particularly when bowling to the bowlers who had bounced him yesterday. He was ably supported by Ishant and Harbhajan. While the young lad, Ishant, seems to be improving with every game, Harbhajan looks like getting into his old groove.
What will happen now is really not a huge mystery. India are going to try and bat for more than a day and ensure that the Kiwis crumble under the pressure of the lead as they have already given away 200+ runs in the first innings. Further, the pitch does seem to be eroding a bit near the off-stump of right-handers, though not in a very hazardous way. However, by the time the home team comes out to bat it would be the fourth day in all probability and by that time, the pitch would have scuffed-up quite a bit. So it does seem inevitable that Harbhajan is bound to create a lot of trouble when he comes on to bowl in the fourth innings of the match. This is going to be a learning curve for the rather young and inexperienced Kiwi team while the Indians look sure to end their drought of nearly 50 yrs since having won a series in this part of the world.
Sehewag and Gambhir collected more than 70 runs for the team during the first hour of the first day’s play during the third test match and every one in the dressing must have been feeling relaxed. However, soon Sehewag got himself out and before Gambhir and Dravid could carry on the innings, Gambhir too got out. It was left for Tendulkar and Dravid to steady the ship and they did a brilliant job of it. It was a special but short Tendulkar’s innings, as he opened out after the lunch break and played some breathtaking strokes. However, the batsmen at the other end didn’t seem to be in a mood to put their head down and dig-in at the crease to allow Tendulkar the luxury of having partners as he carried on to pierce the field through the off-side. As it turned out, there was nothing in pitch after so much controversy that had captured the headlines for more than a week.
In fact, the pitch appears better suited for batting and the slow bowler, so brown is its shade and footmarks are already beginning to appear. Laxman and Yuvraj were absolutely pathetic in the way they got themselves casually out to balls that had nothing in them to claim the wickets of major batsmen. It was ultimately left to Bhajji and Dhoni to do the rescue act. It was ultimately Bhajji who provided the entertainment factor for the day, while Dhoni played another one of his customary save-the-situation kind of innings. Much like Dravid, Dhoni too got out to a pull shot that had little power or any sense of authority to it. The Dhoni-Bhajji partnership ensured that the team crossed the 300-run mark after being reduced to about 200+ runs for the loss of six wickets. The way Bhajji has been batting in the last few test matches, it looks he must be having a better batting average better than that of Yuvraj. What is going on with this talented left-hander is something that is truly hard to decipher.
Watch India vs New Zealand 3rd Test Live Streaming Cricket Match from Friday 3rd April to Tuesday 7th April. After settling for a draw in the 2nd test match against New Zealand, the Indians now head to Wellington for the 3rd and final test.
We had one wall – Rahul Dravid. Cracks had appeared in this wall as Rahul Dravid, the Mr. Dependable, lost form inexplicably. You can expect a Saurav Ganguly or a Sehwag to lose form, but Dravid! Well, he has regained his form and contributed a solid 83 and 60+ runs when it mattered most. More importantly, he fended off 220 balls to score 62 runs, 8 balls more than Laxman faced to score 124. This is not to undermine Laxman’s superb innings. Dravid came at a time when staying at the crease took precedence over scoring runs. He would have continued had it not been for the stupid decision followed by the mantra, “when in doubt, give the Indian batsmen out”. With his stick-to-itiveness Rahul Dravid is enough to make any bowler cry.
Add to that a Gautam Gambhir. This aggressive batsman showed rare character by dropping anchor in the second innings and facing 436 balls. Facing that many balls requires a batsman to stay at the crease for nearly 11 hours, which means one and half cricketing days. That’s awesome, given the situation we were in.
The third wall that the New Zealand bowlers bumped in to was Laxman. With a total score of 200 runs he stood rock solid in the way of a NZ victory. Denying them any chance with his wristy stroke play he plodded on till the end. Sachin is one batsman who can be a wall, a canon, and a gun. His 49 runs in the first innings was scored rapidly and the 64 runs in the second innings was a guarded innings fitting the occasion. Yuvi also showed that he too can be a wall and posed strong hurdles for NZ bowlers. His 54 not out, that smacked responsibility is better than a century.
But the sixth wall is what fended off all attacks from the NZ bowlers. He didn’t even play in the match. Yes, he is none other than M S Dhoni. That incredible man has inculcated such strong sense of self belief in our cricket players that losing is an aberration, a draw is a victory, and winning is normal for us.
India has just started following-on in the second test match against New Zealand. While looking at their batting on the second day this doesn’t come as a real surprise but what is amazing is that this match is one of the few occasions where their man-in-charge, Dhoni, wasn’t present. And just look how the entire unit has just fallen apart. Everything including the captaincy, the fielding, one-dimensional unimaginative bowling and the listless batting performance. This has happened despite the presence of senior pros like Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman in the team. How this happened is a bit baffling. When Sehewag was calling all the wrong shots on the filed, couldn’t the coach and the senior players have intervened?
The pitch is easy to bat on, but not really a 600+ runs sort of a patch. The Indians have been over-confident and this was exemplified by the fact that now reports have started coming saying that the entire squad didn’t have a single net session in the 24 hours preceding the match!! They are trying to compete with South Africa and Australia as the new world champion of the game. However, if this is the way they are going to about doing things then I am really not sure for how long would they be called world championship material.
The most embarrassing aspect for them should be the way all the senior members have just folded-up in the first innings. Tendulkar was very submissive, Dravid played a horrible shot, Bhajji bowled hideously and Sehewag sent a very wrong signal being the emergency skipper by getting out in the way he did. They are trailing by more than 300 runs which is more than a substantial volume of runs. The only way to redemption — bat so long, so good that the Kiwis lose every feasible hope of evening challenging them from here on. Will they be able to do it? Tomorrow we will come to know.
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