Cricket Live

Many cricketers on the sub-continent are given interesting names and one young Sri Lankan bowler is Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslo Mendis. Known as Ajantha Mendis to the cricket world, the mystery spinner is playing in a team which also includes the world’s most successful bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan. And whilst the men are poles apart in terms of Tests played, the young Mendis already has a record. He is the first Sri Lankan bowler in the history of Test cricket to take 8 wickets on debut. (more…)

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s will be the second cricketer after the legendary Sachin Tendulkar to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. The wicketkeeper batsman who led India to T20 World Cup glory last year will receive the country’s highest honour for a sportsperson. (more…)

Kevin Pietersen has been appointed as the captain of the English cricket team following resignations by both Micheal Vaughan, the test captain and Paul Collingwood, the limited overs international captain.

It came as absolutely no surprise as Petersen has been scoring consistently over the past few years and is a key member of both formats of the game. (more…)

Shortly after South Africa toppled England, another South African in another part of the world was being hugged by the players of the team he now coaches. Gary Kirsten’s India has just enjoyed an emphatic win over Sri Lanka in Galle. Last week in Colombo, the local team handed India a serious thrashing. Now the tables have been turned and all hinges on the third and final Test in a few days time.

The second Test result illustrates the major changes in fortune which are possible in sport and certainly in cricket. What price is form? In Colombo Sri Lanka was dominant and although the Galle Test was even at times in the early days, by journey’s end India had inflicted a crushing victory. (more…)

They say cricket is a game for gentlemen but that doesn’t stop the odd fiery encounter. And when South Africa defeated England by five wickets at Edgbaston on August 2, 2008 to claim the series, the result was not without incident.

A window in the grandstand was reflecting light and the South Africans complained that the ball from Andrew Flintoff’s high bowling action was difficult to pick up. Officials were consulted and the tourists even took matters into their own hands and had one of their players hold a white towel in front of the offending glass. It wasn’t a white flag of surrender and it didn’t stop the South African captain playing arguably the best innings of his career. It was certainly his most valuable. South Africa has won a series in England for the first time since their entry back into cricket following the apartheid regime. (more…)

Ishant Sharma, the new Indian fast bowler, has great raw pace. He is the arguably one of the fastest bowlers to have played for India ever, and the youngster is just 20 years old.

He surely has a long way to go and could, in the future, go on to be one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket.

While browsing through the net I found a picture that claimed to be Ishant’s fastest ball ever! (more…)

The 4th One Day International at The Oval between England and New Zealand was a thriller of a match, spiced up with a bit of controversy too.

The match was decided on the last ball of the 50th over. New Zealand needed just 3 runs from the last over with 1 wicket in hand, the match could have gone either way. Mills scored a single off the first ball and it was down to the Number 11 Gillespie to take New Zealand home. He failed to score of the next 4 balls! (more…)

India played great cricket on Day 2 of the Adelaide test match to post a score of 526.

Highlights of the day 

The Sachin - Lee battle was a treat to watch.. In the end Lee won the battle as Tendulkar mistimed a pull off a short delivery which ballooned in the air, Hogg took a easy catch to end a great innings by the champion cricketer.

Kumble - Harbhajan partnership. With the score reading 359 for 7 with both Tendulkar and Dhoni back in the pavilion, India could have easily been bowled out within 400 runs.. But the 107 run stand between Kumble and Harbhajan helped India post a huge total. (more…)

The first innings is always crucial against the Australians. The only team in the last 5 years that has challenged Australia is India, largely due to their formidable middle order, which has been fairly consistent in this series as well.

With India looking for their second consecutive win against Australia, which would level the series 2- 2, the first innings is most important. India have done reasonably well on the first day scoring 309 runs for the loss of Virendra Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. The wicket of VVS Laxman was crucial and Australia got him in the last half hour of the third session on day one.

From an Indian point-of-view, (more…)

As Rahul Dravid fell with the score reading 82 for 2.. There was a roar around the stadium, they all stood up to greet arguably the greatest cricketer ever.. In came the legend Sachin Tendulkar to play what could possibly be his last test Down Under and he couldn’t have scripted it in a better way!

What a great knock.. There are no words to describe an innings as (more…)