1st ODI: Ind v. NZ: India win by D/L method!

India beat New Zealand to take 1-0 lead in the five match ODI series. Rain interrupted the match several times and the officials had to reduce the over on each occassion. Understanding the weather, Dhoni decided to bat first after winning the toss.

The overs were reduced to 38 overs a side and India scored 273. Sehwas was at his best with blistering knock of 77 in 56 balls with 11 fours and a six. Though the ground was small compared to other grounds in Australia and India, one really has to score. Sehwag started the ODI series well for himself and the Indian team.

Tendulkar departed early on 20. Dhoni scored unbeaten 84 in 89 balls with 6 fours. He played the captains innings and lead from the front. Though Yuvi was run out for 2, Raina played master innings. He scored 66 in 39 balls with 5 fours and 4 sixes.

The three blocks of powerplay were for 8, 4, and 3 overs. Raina's knock really turned the match with the Indian team scoring quick runs in the third power play which had 3 overs limit. India scored 40 runs in the 3rd powerplay in which Raina scored 25 runs and Dhoni scored 14 runs. In the last 10 overs, India scored 109 runs which really gave India winning score.

New Zealand was given a revised target of 278 in 38 overs. In the 21st over, rain intervened and the target was reduced to 216 in 28 overs which is next to impossible against the Indian bowling attack. New Zealand never looked winning and India was on top from the beginning.

During the presentation, the captians said:

Vettori: "Disappointing result and some serious lack of execution cost us. We bowled pretty poorly and Raina's innings, in particular, took the game away from us. We put ourselves in a difficult situation while batting second and the revised target was never within reach."

Dhoni: "The important thing was to get a good start, and when you manage that you'll often end up setting a good enough target for the bowlers to defend. Raina batted really well, and so did Sehwag. There were times in the Twenty20 games when we went all guns blazing and lost too many wickets doing so, but our overall approach has been very good. Praveen Kumar bowled well too, he's a street smart cricketer, has some good variations and bowls according to the conditions."

Dhoni was declared man of the match for his wonderful batting.

Scoreboard:

Tour: India to New Zealand
Series: ODI
Match #: 1
Date: Tuesday March 3, 2009
Venue: Napier
Captains: Daniel Vettori (NZ) and MS Dhoni (Ind)
Umpires: AL Hill and RE Koertzen; GAV Baxter-third umpire
Toss: Indai won the toss and decided to bat
Match: India won by 53 runs by D/L method
Man of the Match: MS Dhoni off India
Additonal Information: Match reduced to 38 overs a side; In the 21st over of NZ innings, the target was revised to 216 in 28 overs

India 273 for 4 in 38 overs (V Sehwag caught Taylor bowled Vettori 77, Tendulkar caught McCullum bowled Butler 20, MS Dhoni 84 not out, Yuvaraj Sing run out (Vettori/Guptill) 2, SK Raina caught O'Brien bowled Elliott 66, Yousuf Pathan 20 not out, Extras--4 (b 1, lb 1, nb 2), KD Mills 7-0-69-0, IE O'Brien 8-1-52-0, IG Butler 8-1-42-1, JPD Oram 2-0-19-0, DL Vettori 8-0-42-1, JD Ryder 3-0-27-0, GD Elliott 2-0-20-1)

Fall of Wickets: 1-69 (Tendulkar, 9.4 ov), 2-121 (Sehwag, 18.2 ov), 3-131 (Yuvraj Singh, 22.4 ov), 4-241 (Raina, 34.6 ov)

New Zealand (target revised in 21st over: 216 in 28 overs) 162 for 9 in 28 overs (JD Ryder caught Sehwag bowled Kumar 11, BB McCullum caught Harbhajan bowled Kumar 0, MJ Guptill caught Gambhir bowled Harbhajan 64, LRPL Taylor caught Tendulkar bowled Y Pathan 31, GD Elliott run out (Dhoni/Sehwag) 11, JDP Oram caught Dhoni bowled Yuvaraj 0, NT Broom st Dhoni bowled Harbhajan 2, Butler caught Patel bowled Zaheer 0, Mills caught Sehwag bowled Harbhajan 0, Vettori 26 not out, O'Brien 3 not out, Extras--14 (lb 10, w 3, nb 1), Zaheer Khan 6-1-19-1, Praveen Kumar 6-1-28-2, Munaf Patel 2-0-14-0, Yuvaraj 6-0-42-1, Yousuf Pathan 4-0-22-1, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-27-3)

Fall of Wickets: 1-0 (McCullum, 1.5 ov), 2-23 (Ryder, 7.4 ov), 3-81 (Taylor, 15.5 ov), 4-111 (Elliott, 20.5 ov), 5-111 (Oram, 20.6 ov), 6-132 (Guptill, 23.3 ov), 7-132 (Broom, 23.4 ov), 8-132 (Mills, 23.6 ov), 9-132 (Butler, 24.1 ov)

T20: SA v. Bang: SA win by D/L Method!

South Africa win the only T20 of the series by beating the tourist Bangladesh by 12 runs. The match was reduced to 14 overs a side due to rain.

Match: T20
Date: November 5, 2008
Venue: New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
Teams: South Africa and Bangladesh
Captains: J Botha and Mohammad Ashraful
Result: South Africa won by 12 runs through D/L method
Man of the Match: Abdur Razzak (Bangladesh)

South Africa 118 for 7 in 14 overs (LL Bosman 28, HH Gibbs 18, JL Ontong 6, AB de Villiers 36, JP Duminy 6, JA Morkel 6, RK Kleinveldt 3 not out, J Botha 1, J Louw 1 not out, Extras--13 (lb 7, w 6), Syed Rasel 1 for 36, Shahadat Hossain 0 for 19, Abdur Razzak 4 for 16, Shakib Al Hasan 2 for 21, Naeem Islam 0 for 19) beat Bangladesh (target 122 in 14 overs) 109 for 8 in 14 overs (Tamim Iqbal 25, Junaid Siddique 4, Mohammad Ashraful 21, Raqibul Hasan 3, Shakib Al Hasan 4, Naeem Islam 15, Mushfiqur Rahim 12, Mehrab Hossain Jr. 6 not out, Abdur Razzak 0, Shahadat Hossain 4 not out, Extras--15 (lb 5, w 10), DW Steyn 2 for 18, J Louw 0 for 18, RK Kleinveldt 1 for 20, M Morkel 1 for 15, J Botha 2 for 15, JA Morkel 0 for 18)

3rd ODI: Ind v. Eng: Harbhajan, Sehwag and Bad Light help India Win!

As rightly predicted by Dhoni after losing the toss, bad light did come into play and India won by Duckworth-Lewis method. Even otherwise, India would have won easily as they needed 43 from 9 overs with 5 more wickets in hand when bad light stopped play.

After losing the toss, Dhoni said to Ravi Shastri, that in one-way it is good to lose the toss because towards the end of the day, the light may fade and bad light may come into play. As righly guessed by Dhoni, umpires awarded the light in favor of the batsman at the end of 40 overs when India were 198 for 5. India needed 182 at that stage as per Duckwork-Lewis method.

India made one change with Ishanth replacing RP Singh. England brought in off spinner Swann in place of Harmison.

Winning the toss in a delayed start match, England decided to bat first. The match was delayed due to bad weather and was reduced to 49-overs. The start was slow in the first six overs, but Bell and Bopara took it to more than 5 runs an over in 13 overs. Bell was out in the 15th over caught behind off Munaf when tried to steer the ball to third man.

Harbhajan picked 3 wickets including a beautiful doosra which deceived Collingwood. He was short of his crease and Dhoni stumped him quickly. When he dismissed Shah caught by Zaheer Khan, he reached the milestone of 200 wickets in ODI. He recently touched the 300 wicket mark in Test Cricket against Australia when he clean bowled Ricky Ponting in the fourth test.

England were all out for 240 in the last over. The start was not that good with Gambhir getting out for 14 when the score was 31. Raina once again failed, bowled by Broad for 1. An important innings is expected from Rohit Sharma to save his place in the side, but he got out for 28. He played well, looked solid, but edged the ball when tried to cut the short ball of Swann.

Yuvaraj Singh scored 38 with one six and got out Flintoff. India were 177 for 5 and needed 54 runs 13 overs. Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan added unbeaten 21 when bad light stopped play.

During the last few overs before play was stopped, India was ahead always in the D/L method. At the end of 40 overs, with 5 wickets lost, India should have scored 182 and they were ahead by 16 runs.

Kevin Pietersen was not happy and was seen discussing with the umpires. Finally he shook hands and moved away conceding defeat.

Harbhajan was adjudged as man of the match for his spell of 10-2-31-3.

Scoreboard:

Match: 3rd ODI
Venue: Green Park, Kanput
Teams: India and England
Captains: MS Dhoni and Kevin Pietersen
Toss: England won the toss and decided to bat
Match Result: India won by 16 runs by D/L method
Series Result: India leading by 3-0
Man of the Match: Harbhajan Singh (India)
Overs: Start delayed due to bad weather; match started with 49-overs a side

England 240 all out in 48.4 overs (Bopara 60, Bell 46, Pietersen 13, Collingwood 1, Flintoff 26, Shah 40, Patel 26, Prior 5, Swann 5 not out, Broad 0, Anderson 1, Extras--17 (lb 3, w 9, nb 5), Zaheer Khan 10-0-45-1, Munaf Patel 6.4-0-36-2, I Shrama 9-0-60-2, Yuvaraj Singh 10-0-54-1, Harbhajan Singh 10-2-31-3, Yousuf Pathan 2-0-7-1, Sehwag 1-0-4-0)

Fall of Wickets: 1-79 (Bell, 14.3 ov), 2-102 (Pietersen, 19.1 ov), 3-106 (Collingwood, 21.2 ov), 4-133 (Bopara, 28.5 ov), 5-167 (Flintoff, 36.2 ov), 6-203 (Shah, 43.4 ov), 7-231 (Patel, 46.4 ov), 8-231 (Prior, 46.5 ov), 9-235 (Broad, 47.5 ov), 10-240 (Anderson, 48.4 ov)

India 198 for 5 in 40 overs (India won by D/L Method: Target 182 in 40 overs) (Gambhir 14, Sehwag 68, Raina 1, Rohit Sharma 28, Yuvaraj 38, MS Dhoni 29 not out, Y Pathan 12 not out, Extras--8 (lb 5, w 3), Anderson 6-0-47-0, Broad 9-2-36-1, Flintoff 9-0-31-3, Swann 10-0-47-1, Patel 3-0-18-0, Pietersen 3-0-14-0)

Fall of Wickets: 1-31 (Gambhir, 6.5 ov), 2-34 (Raina, 9.1 ov), 3-107 (RG Sharma, 22.4 ov), 4-125 (Sehwag, 25.2 ov), 5-177 (Yuvraj Singh, 35.6 ov)