CRICKET BLOGS

It’s because everyone thinks that Swanny and Harbhajan Singh are brilliant spinners simply because they play for better International Sides (England & India respectively). Shakib Al Hasan plays for Bangladesh and is currently the best All-rounder in the world and has got better economy rates than both of them in ODI’S. So who is better - Be Honest please!!!

IMO:
Australia:
1.Simon Katich
2.Shane Watson
3.Ricky Ponting
4.Michael Clarke
5.Michael Hussey
6.Marcus North
7.Brad Haddin
8.Mitchell Johnson
9.Nathan Hauritz
10.Ben Hilfenhaus
11.Doug Bollinger
12th-Ryan Harris
England:
1.Andrew Strauss
2.Alastair Cook
3.Jonathon Trott
4.Kevin Pietersen
5.Paul Collingwod
6.Ian Bell
7.Matt Mrior
8.Graeme Swann
9.Stuart Broad
10.James Anderson
11.Steven Finn
12th-Tim Bresnan

Tamim Iqbal once said that its his goal to score century against all the Test nations. England scratched off the list. Today he made a delightful century,103 off 100 balls. A century in lords, his name would certainly be on board!!

Well Played Tamim Iqbal. Now he has a century each in ODI and Test.

Congratulations Sri Lanka, Cricinfo neatly summarizes:
"Kumar Sangakkara set up the chase and Angelo Mathews took them to the final lap before Chamara Kapugedera sealed the finish in style by hitting a six off the last ball. It was that close and dramatic. The captain and the two inexperienced men he had backed heavily in the past had come through when it mattered at the big stage. "

However, Aussies seem to have figured out the winning formula pretty early.

The bowlers have been the key!

1. England ..can they challenge the Aussies?

2. Pakistan, seems impossible with the batting!

3. From Sri Lanka, can Jaywardane, Matthews, Sangakarra & Member of parliament do it?
EDIT: Good point MBTM, we should all watch IPL instead!
I disagree, Australia & England have played some fantastic and consistent cricket this T20, they cant be called second tier!

what a wonderfull drama packed year 2008 has been for cricket. The year has seen the begining of a decline of Australian dominance, the rise of South Africa, the millions of dollars spent on Indian tournaments, A complete revamp of the 2007 world cup second-runner-up New Zealand team, the growing isolation of Pakistan, the West Indies team left looking like swiss cheese after many retirments, England losing out on 20 million, Bangladesh having its first win over another test playing nation in years, the struggling Sri Lankens…

So what are your predictions? where are these teams heading in 2009?

thanks for your time

tamim iqbal is on the top of his game, he is improving all the time and deserves to be in the ipl. which ipl team should sign him, imagine tamim and sehwag opening, too aggressive batsmen who go agressive from the start. tamim playing impressive against england and was about to be the fifth batsmen to get 100 before lunch until the umpire helped england out by getting him out which was the wrong decision. watch out for him in the t20 world cup at 21 he is already one of the best.

can ipl teams still bid for him for this years one
with tamim being bengali reckon kolkata kr would propably be a good option.
playing in the ipl he could learn from others with experience and become better as the bangladesh team are all young

I think pieterson the most overrated cricketer.I had never seen him getting runs after 2005 ashes.had pretty poor tour in india..IPL very low performance ..Poor 20-20 world cup…now poor ashes too…its not just he is not getting runs.he is struggling lot against average bowlers…getting too across to the wicket..As engish people say he is not a good batter ..pretty average one surely not better than YOusuf,sehwag,Yuvi ,dhoni,sangakara,jayawardene,clarke,hussey,synonds ,hayden,gilly, etc..I beleive a player should be consistent enough to be regarded as a grt one

pretty low strike rate of 64 in test cricket…how can u call him aggressive?..its not hitting abt a towering sixer
once a 100 ball matters..

then flintoff ..he just took 2 five wickets haul and a career average of 33.36 .(both odi and tests).there r no of bowlers better than him in international cricket …i agree he hits the deck hard …difficult to get away..but for sure not a grt bowler or a wicket taker…

As england never produced grt crickters after 1980(Ian Botham the last) they R celebrating pretty average players as grt ones? Ur comments….

Indian players have been playing too much cricket this year and barely have they been rested. Gary Kirsten also has mentioned to the affect. With barely 20 days left and sill IPL matches underway, will it be enough time for the players to be rested and also to get used to England conditions? Remember even the IPL games are short, players have been injured - Zaheer (shoulder) and Sehwag(who just came back) - Dhoni playing with back problems and no backup for him. How do you think Indian players will cope the pressure?

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/129665.html

I saw this T20 match (the ground was behind my school!), I think it was the first domestic T20 tournament in England …one of the sixes Symonds hit must have been over 150m…it was flat and around 20-30m in the air…but it just kept going and ended up well out of the cricket ground. Our school used to play this ground….and it had a 400m athletics strip around it…so you could roughly tell how far a batsman hit a ball. The biggest six I saw a school kid hit was around 65m…Symo’s six was easily twice the length of that one.

I remember thinking, this man is going to be the next big ball thumper of world cricket…enter Symo into the 2003 world cup, and my predictions came to fruition :).

I saw Yuvraj hit a biggie against England in the recent T20 WC at Lord’s….it was high and handsome…but nothing compared to this one.

They are losing to everyone.

Test Matches
They Have made a World Record of Losing Against Australia , They Lost Against South Africa (Both Home and Away) , They Lost Against SRI lanka , They were losing in newzealand when rain Intervened to save them , They Also have lost 2 out of last 4 series against India with one series Draw and one win. Lost against England in england too .

ODIs
Lost Both home and Away against INDIA ( In fact Pakistan has lost 3 out of last 4 Bilateral series between the two countries)
Lost Against SOUTH AFRICA (Home and AWAY)
LOST against Newzealand recently in 2-1.
Slaughtered By Australia everywhere (Home , away , neutral what not)
Lost against Sri lanka in the ODI series after T-20 World cup also lost at home against SL before.

The only team they have won against in both tests and ODIs is Windies and other teams like Zimbabwe and bangladesh.

Don’t tell me they are Isolated or anything , their record is pretty crap even at home and before Isolation and during the last 3 or 4 years.

They are doing well in t-20’s but could not back up their performance in other forms like India did after t-20 success in 2007.

What is the reason for Such Humiliating and Horrible performances?

Trivia: Pakistan lost 10 games in a row before winning the last t-20 against England recently.

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