Kohli's scorching ton ensures win, keeps final hopes alive

After two fruitless months in Australia, India decided to free their minds ahead of what could have been their last game of the tour. And it worked. Nobody at the Bellerive Oval gave them a chance of chasing down Sri Lanka’s gargantuan 320 for four, let alone doing it in less than 40 overs to earn the bonus point and keep alive their hopes of making it to the finals.

However, the Men in Blue did it in style thanks to Virat Kohli, who blasted an unbeaten 133 off 86 balls. With cameos from the other four specialist batsmen, India did the unthinkable by achieving the target off just 36.4 overs.

The victory meant India will prolong their tour by at least three days. But if Australia beat Sri Lanka in the last league tie of the CB Series in Melbourne on Friday, it will be India who will face the hosts in the best-of-three finals.

Victory with a bonus was the only way for India to stay alive and it didn’t come as a surprise when skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni put Sri Lanka in to bat. However, once Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara had feasted on the Indian attack, it looked near-impossible that they would knock off the required 321 runs in 40 overs to earn the bonus point.

Read more »

Offended India's last attempt to stay alive

On a tour of much disappointment for India, Tuesday's contest next to Sri Lanka offers them a chance, albeit an extremely difficult one, of prolong their fight to stay alive in the tri-series. Going by recent results - three straight defeats - the bonus-point win that India need to entertain any hope of qualifying for the finals seems a long shot.

Their bowling attack is weakened due to injuries, their batsmen have struggled, there's been talk of a communication gap between players, their captain wasn't even aware the team stood a chance of qualifying going into their final league game and they are up against opponents who've peaked impressively.

There is much at stake for India in what might or might not be their last match of the trip. A shot at a place in the finals aside, there'll be those in the team who'll be under pressure to keep their spots in the ODI side as the selectors meet to pick the squad for the Asia Cup on Wednesday. The misery of the India teams of the 90s when touring overseas has returned to haunt this side and Tuesday's contest is as much an opportunity to restore some pride, to slightly repair a damaged reputation - something that, if achieved, will mark a significant rise from a spate of on-field problems that has let the team down.

A bonus-point win is only the first step - India's fate will then hinge on the result of Sri Lanka's game against Australia on March 2 - but it will be a sign of determination to fight back, a strong urge to reach the finals and give some back to a team that's been responsible for the misery inflicted on them over the last two months.

Sri Lanka are well-equipped to thwart any such turnaround after three straight wins, the third a hard-fought one against Australia in Hobart, the venue for Tuesday's game. Both Tillakaratne Dilshan and Mahela Jayawardene have scored at the top, their young middle order has been productive, and the bowling largely consistent and free of injury. A defeat is a possibility, a cataclysmic fall that will concede a bonus point a very distant one.

Read more »

Sachin Tendulkar must stop ODIs, say 57% in TOI survey

After former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, is it time for the world's most run-maker to bid adieu to one-day cricket? As many as 57% of respondents in a TOI online poll have answered with a 'yes', indicating that the public anger over Team India's dismal performances Down Under also extend to Sachin Tendulkar's poor ODI form.

The poll went online on TOI's website on Tuesday afternoon and by 9.30 pm on Wednesday, almost 47,000 people had responded. The question asked was, 'Should Sachin retire from ODIs?' While 19,127 voted 'no' (41%), as many as 26,813 votes were polled in favour of the question. Around 2% (817) people were undecided.

The surprising results came a day after Sachin's former opening partner Sourav Ganguly had not explicit that the maestro should reconsider his ODI future and concentrate on Test cricket.

Ganguly said it was up to Tendulkar to decide if "he's still good enough to play in the ODIs". The former Indian skipper said, "I think Sachin deserves to decide on his own if and when to leave international cricket or one-day cricket... I don't think the selectors have got the right to ask him to go."

Read more »

After knock at Gabba, stressed India turn up in Sydney

The Indian team had arrived in Brisbane riding high on confidence. They had good reason to feel good about themselves. They had two wins and a tie below their belt and it felt it was only a matter of time before they improved their standing as World Champions. In its place, they flounder badly in both their matches against Australia and Sri Lanka and now face the view of a quick exit and an early return home.

The bashing at the Gabba, however, didn't seem to influence the players much except that the signs of a divided house were reflected from the manner in which the team travelled from Brisbane to Sydney on Wednesday afternoon. They simply tried to sport a smile to anything was happening.

Call it coincidence or whatever; it was surprising to see the players dotted in different places in its place of being together as a group which is more often than not the case on team flights.

MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina was seat next to each other in one of the front rows. A few rows back Sachin Tendulkar had Zaheer Khan for company and seat at the back them were Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. Irfan Pathan was all by himself in one corner bang away at his laptop, while Parthiv Patel sat in the company of media manager GS Walia and was busy understanding the sports page of most important English daily here.

Probably the team had checked-in in dissimilar groups, but to see the players session aloof in different instructions didn't make for a pretty sight.

There was the customary chit-chat and sharing of jokes among the young team as they waited for the flight gates to open and followed the queue to enter the aircraft. The seniors followed their own path. A few also choose to have a quick bite before boarding the flight. The only familiar sight was that of the fans who swarmed the players with requests for pictures and autograph.

One hopes that the prospect of their fans will push these players to raise their presentation levels and they live up to their billing as World Champions.

The team will take a break on Thursday before recurring to the nets on Friday and Saturday. Rains have been forecast for Sunday when India is scheduled to play Australia. India indeed will also need some divine help besides a top-class show on the field if they are to stay alive in the competition. For now though, all eyes will be on the Sri Lanka-Australia match at Hobart on Friday.

Read more »

Abundance to ponder for unsettled India

In his second coming as captain, Mahela Jayewardene has overcome observers with his leadership and on-field strategies. Sri Lanka needed him to end his lean run as a batsman, something he did with the half-century next to Australia after pushing himself up to the top of the order. In his 11 innings as opener, he averages 67.90 which is twice his career mean. Sri Lanka has made stuttering starts in recent matches - 20 or less for the first wicket in 12 of their past 16 ODIs. Jayawardene wants to correct that by taking over at the top.

Virat Kohli has recognized himself as the best of the next generation of Indian batsmen, moving ahead of the likes of Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina. He had an exceptional 2011, scoring more runs than anyone else in ODIs, but hasn't hit those heights in this series. With Dhoni missing and much of the batting line-up struggling for form, he needs to make the runs befitting his new-found status.


Team news

India has several questions to ponder. Either Rohit Sharma or Suresh Raina will probably have to make way for Parthiv Patel. The bowling combination will also have changes, with the four-quick policy likely to be discarded.

India: (probable) 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Virender Sehwag (capt), 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rohit Sharma/Suresh Raina, 6 Parthiv Patel (wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Irfan Pathan, 10 Vinay Kumar/Zaheer Khan, 11 Umesh Yadav

Sri Lanka has no reason to make too many changes. The only batsman with a question over his place is Lahiru Thirimanne and he didn't get to bat in the previous match. Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara are Sri Lanka's first-choice fast bowlers. With Thisara Perera turning in a Man-of-the-Match presentation in Sydney and Farveez Maharoof making a superb comeback, Sri Lanka could again go in with a pace-heavy attack.

Sri Lanka: (probable) 1 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Lahiru Thirimanne, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Farveez Maharoof, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Rangana Herath

Pitch and conditions

The Australian fast bowlers thrived at the Gabba, and the same surface will be used for Tuesday's game. There isn't good news on the weather front - thundershowers are predicted in the afternoon and evening.

Read more »

MS Dhoni suspended for one ODI due to slow over-rate

MS Dhoni has been suspended for one ODI and India fine for the team's second over-rate break in ODIs in less than a year. India were establish to be two over’s short during their 110-run beat against Australia in Brisbane, after time allowances were taken into thought. Match referee Andy Pycroft also fined Dhoni 40% of his match fee and the team's other players were fined 20% each.

This was India's second over-rate infringe this tour. Dhoni was suspended from the Adelaide Test earlier this year for a slow over-rate in the previous game in Perth, where India had gone in with four fast bowlers. Today, at the Gabba, the visitors played four steamers again. Ravindra Jadeja's left-arm spin was not employed in the game, prompted, as Dhoni said, by the presence of several left-handers in the Australian side, though it could have better the over-rate if used.

The latest suspension is a effect of two "minor" over-rate offences in ODIs within a year- the first one being during the 2011 World Cup final in Mumbai. The grounds for the decision to take such an action against any responsible captain were laid at the ICC's annual conference in Hong Kong last year where harsher penalties were called for next to teams failing to meet their over-rate targets.

"At its meeting in June 2011 in Hong Kong, the ICC Executive Board had discuss the issue of slow over-rates and accepted the recommendation of the ICC Cricket Committee that a captain of an international side should be suspended for one match if his side is guilty of two minor over-rate offences in the same format over a 12-month period," the ICC said.

A 'Minor Over-Rate Offence' is when a side is found to be upto two overs short in an ODI or a T20I and upto five overs short in a Test.

The on-field umpires Steve Davies and Billy Bowden, third umpire Bruce Oxenford and fourth umpire Paul Reiffel laid the charge, to which Dhoni plead guilty and accepted the suspension. "Dhoni also acknowledged that he had been kept informed of the position regarding over-rates on a regular basis throughout the match and therefore accepted the decision," the ICC release stated.

Dhoni was suspended for slow over-rates more than years ago as well. He had to sit out of two ODIs during a home series against Sri Lanka, as a result of which Virender Sehwag had to take over. India will now take on Sri Lanka on February 21 without Dhoni, their most consistent batsman this series with scores of 44*, 58* and 56 in his last three appearances.

Read more »

MS Dhoni deliver nerve-shredding tie

Sri Lanka 236 for 9 (Chandimal 81, Jayawardene 43, Vinay 3-46, Ashwin 2-30) tied with India 236 for 9 (Gambhir 91, Dhoni 58*, Thisara 2-45)

When all else are losing their minds in frantic finishes, what is cricket's coolest customer MS Dhoni thinking?

"It's important to be blank," says the Indian captain.

After orchestrating a win and a tie within 48 hours in Adelaide, Dhoni offered revealing insights into his run-chasing expertise.

On Sunday night in Adelaide, Dhoni was instrumental as India smacked 13 runs from the final over to defeat Australia.

On Tuesday night, Dhoni again expertly guided India against Sri Lanka but, needing four from the last ball, his shot was saved on the boundary - he ran three for the tie.

Some, including his team-mate Gautam Gambhir, say he shouldn't wait until the last over to try to win games.

But Dhoni merely points to his successes. "Why fix something that is not broken ... this is working for us," he said after the tie with the Lankans.

Dhoni, batting No.7, said he doesn't "have the luxury of batsmen behind me". "So if I go in, more often than not I like to finish the job," he said. "Some people like to finish the game early and take a bit more risk in the middle overs ... but I have a different perspective about it.

"We all can easily play the big shot. The difference is it always has to pay off.
"If it doesn't pay off, what do you say, the shot wasn't needed.

"So I am never in a hurry to finish it in the 48th or 47th over. If it goes to the 49th over or the 50th over, I'm quite happy."

But what goes through his mind in the tense final moments when he holds his nation's fortunes in his hands? "Basically, it's blank," Dhoni said. "They bowl yorkers at your toe, stumps and outside off.

"So if you get set up for a ball that you suppose will be right at the stumps and it's an outside off yorker, it's a really difficult ball to hit. "It's important to be blank.

"And you back yourself - if you're not backing yourself to get those four runs, then it will be tougher to get those four runs ... you have to back yourself."

Read more »

Commonwealth Bank Series, 2011/12 / Points table

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR
Australia	7	4	3	0	0	19	+0.553
Sri Lanka	6	3	2	1	0	15	+0.426
India	7	2	4	1	0	10	-0.887

Read more »

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Cricket's Mr Finisher

India 6 for 270 (Gambhir 92, Dhoni 44*) hit Australia 8 for 269 (Hussey 72, Forrest 66) by four wickets

India weren’t perfect today. But they beat Australia the hard way. And nothing satisfies a team more than a hard-fought win when it is going through a rut.

A pale-looking MS Dhoni got off to an agonizingly slow start of three runs in 17 balls. But he caught up with the pace at the end, capping off a tight chase for 270 by getting India the 13 wanted in the final over from Clint McKay.

It helped India burst past some glass ceiling – they had never compressed Australia in an ODI in Adelaide, and had never chased more than 242 against the hosts in their country. More highly, the win would take the concentration away from the howls of protest after Sachin Tendulkar was rested today.

Read more »

Australia Won by five-run victory

Australia 231 (Clarke 57, Mathews 2-37) beat Sri Lanka 226 (Mathews 64, Doherty 2-24) by 5 runs

Innings Dot balls 4s 6s Last 10 overs NB/Wides Australia 183 22 3 44/4 0/5 Sri Lanka 166 18 1 55/3 0/6

Read more »

Afridi sets up victory against spirited Afghanistan

Pakistan 198 for 3 (Younis 70, Farhat 52) beat Afghanistan 195 (Sadiq 40, Nabi 37, Afridi 5-36) by seven wickets

Read more »

Indian cricket star being treated for cancer in USA

Yuvraj Singh is undergoing chemotherapy to treat a cancerous increase that may have been bothering him even while he twisted his World Cup heroics last year.

The growth in his chest was initially consideration to be benign, but has recently been diagnose as wicked, and he traveled to the United States on Jan. 26 to seek treatment.

"It is a rare growth and is cancerous, but it has been detect in stage-one," Singh's physiotherapist, Jatin Chaudhary, was quoted as saying Monday by the Press Trust of India.

"Doctors had to decide whether to continue medicine or go for chemotherapy, but since parts of the cancer are just above the blood vessel of his heart, there was a danger that while running it could rupture. But it is 100 percent curable," he said.

Dr. Nitish Rohatgi, an oncologist in New Delhi's Max Hospital who has been co-coordinating with Singh's doctors in the United States, said the cricketer had been respond well to treatment.

"His growth is curable and he has been responding well to chemotherapy that is being administered since the end of January," Rohatgi told a news conference in New Delhi on Monday. "The chemotherapy will continue till the end of March and we are confident he will be cured."

Yuvraj Singh's mother Shabnam said in November that her son perhaps carried the illness through the World Cup in March and April last year, saying that the all-rounder suffered from constant "bouts of coughing and vomiting" during the competition and medical tests exposed a "golf-ball size lump over the left lung."
India's sports minister Ajay Maken has promised help to Singh.

"Wish Yuvraj a speedy recovery! Asking officials to find the quantum and nature of help necessary. Government should and will help him," Maken posted on Twitter.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has wished Singh "a speedy recovery" in an e-mailed statement, in which it also asked the media to admiration the privacy of Singh and his family members.

The 30-year-old Singh, man-of-the-tournament during last year's home World Cup-victory, last played for India during a home test series against the West Indies in November.

Singh has played 37 tests, 274 limited-over’s internationals and 23 Twenty20 internationals.

He played a large part in India winning the World Cup for the first time since 1983, playing in all nine matches at the 2011 edition and causal 362 runs at a standard of 90 and taking 15 wickets at 25 with his left-arm spin.

Singh is also famous for outstanding six sixes in an over off England pace man Stuart Broad during the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007.

Singh's absence on India's current tour of Australia has been noticeable. India was trounced 4-0 in the test series and won just one of two Twenty20 matches before lose its opening one-dayer against Australia by 64 runs Sunday.

Read more »

The Victorious winning India T20 vs. Australia

India 2 for 135 (Gambhir 56*) beat Australia 131 (Finch 36, Praveen 2-21) by eight wickets

From fervently opposing T20s in 2006 to being asked to stop the T20 overkill, the irony the BCCI finds itself in is blatant.

India finally broke all the way through for their first win of the tour thanks to a dazzling display in the field. Ravindra Jadeja provide the spark - and did no harm to his probability in Saturday's IPL auction - with a pair of run-outs as Australia's batsmen were constricted by intense pressure from the fielders, and were dismiss in the 20th over for 131.

From being World Champs in 2007 to No. 7 in the T20 rankings, the slide has been alarming. In a format where the better team is not always definite a victory, India has won a little more than 50 per cent of their matches till date.

In 33 matches as well as the Melbourne T20 on Friday, India have won 17 and lost 14. Not figures that reflect brightness, but absolutely more than average.

However, if we put their performances post the 2007 T20 triumph into standpoint, the bald patches become ever more visible, In 24 matches since, they have a win percentage of less than 50, including the ouster from the group stages of the 2009 and 2010 edition of the T20 World Cup in England and West Indies in that order.

Read more »

England clutch into lead as wickets fall over

England 104 for 6 (Strauss 41*, Rehman 3-23) lead Pakistan 99 (Shafiq 45, Broad 4-36) by 5 runs

PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf has assured that temporary coach Mohsin Khan will not be left "jobless" even if the board decides to replace him.

"We are thankful for his giving and we always praise his good work. Even if we make a decision to replace him as coach he will not be left jobless, as we will utilize his expertise in other assignments," Ashraf told the 'Express' from Dubai.

Mohsin apparently avoided meeting Ashraf in Dubai, as he was unhappy with reports about the board wanting to put back him with Australian Dav Whatmore after the current series against England.

The newspaper reported that Mohsin it appears that was upset with the board for the way it was treating him and had avoided meeting the chairman while he had a communication with the players in the stadium.

Mohsin also didn't be present at the official dinner hosted by the PCB chief for the national team, the report said.

Ashraf, however, deprived of Mohsin had any grievances with the board over the coaching issue.

"I don't think he is distress with us. He didn't come to the dinner because he was not feeling well and had informed us about this. As it is, any decision about who should be the coach is completely up to the board chairman," he said.

The former Test opener has guided Pakistan to series win over Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England in the last four months and is upset that in spite of his results the governing body has been negotiating with what more, who is scheduled to reach Lahore later this month to apparently sign an agreement with the PCB.

The chairman, meanwhile, established that he had a one-to-one meeting with captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, in Dubai in which the senior player informed him about the problems faced by the players and also request him to increase salaries of players in the new central contracts.

"Misbah convey some issues to me which I have certain will be looked into when I get back to Pakistan. He also request that the board should give increments to the players which we will look into before presentation the central contracts," Ashraf added.

The PCB, due to its financial condition, has not given any increments to players for the last few years and Ashraf said any decision on giving cash bonuses to the team for winning the Test series against England would also be taken after the series.

Read more »