Run Rain in Hamilton from Sehwag's bat!

Though the weather disturbed the proceedings in the form of rain, Sehwag did not stop whenever he got an opportunity to score runs. He did not bother whether it was a good ball or bad ball. He punished everything and scored the fastest hundred by an Indian overcoming Azharuddin's record.

Azharuddin quick century (in 62 balls) against New Zealand in Baroda in 1988. The second best was by Sehwag in 69 balls, against New Zealand in Colombo in 2001.

In the 4th ODI in Hamilton, he scored 100 in 60 balls which had 13 boundaries and 4 sixes. He was never under pressure when on nineties. He smashed a huge six of Vettori to move to 103.

When rain stopped play, he was unbeaten on 125 in 74 balls with 14 fours and 5 sixes. His rain pouring runs gave India the 3-0 lead and the first ever series win in New Zealand. India were ahead by 84 runs when the match was called off and India won by Duckworth-Lewis method.

2nd Test: SA v. Aus: Australia take Revenge, beat SA by 175 runs! Wins Series 2-0!

Congratulations to the Australian team for the way they bounced back after the series loss at home ground. They lost the home series against SA, came back to SA for a 3-test series and won the first two. They also regained their first the number 1 spot in the ICC Rankings.

Hughes, the debutant scored century in both the innings to give Australia the sound start and also to put a good total on the board.

Australia scored 352 in the first innings and curtailed SA to 138, thanks to Johnson and McDonald. They picked 3 wickets each to give 214 runs lead to Australia.

Hughes scored 160 in the 2nd innings, much improvised innings compared to the first, very confident hundred. In the first innings he scored 115 while his other partner Katich scored 108.

SA was set a target of 546 was 244 for 2 at the end of day 4 with Kallis and DeVilliers on the crease. They played for more than 3 hours and built 164 runs in 313 runs to end day 4. With the last day's play, they needed 302 runs with 8 wickets in hand in 90 overs.

But, Australian bowlers picked wickets at regular intervals and tasted the victory again. They removed Kallis and DeVilliers within the first hour itself. Duminy resisted for sometime but could not prevent the defeat. Boucher scored 25 in 107 balls that he faced. Morkel scored 24 in 78 balls.

Katich produced good deliveries to take care of the tail-enders. He picked 3 wickets in his 11.2 overs.

The skipper Greame Smith did not bat as he was injured during the match. He had a broken finger and did not come into bat as he knew that he cannot avoid the inevitable.

PH Hughes was declared man of the match!

Tour: Australia to South Africa
Match: Test No. 2
Date: March 6-10, 2009
Venue: Durban
Captains: GA Smith and Ricky Ponting
Umpires: Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and BF Bowden (New Zealand), Third Umpire: SA Bucknor (West Indies)
Toss: Australia won the toss and decided to bat first
Match Result: Australia won by 175 runs
Series Result: Australia lead the 3 match series 2-0
Man of the Match: Hughes of Australia

Score:
Australia 1st Innings 352 all out in 107.4 overs (PJ Hughes 115, SM Katich 108, Ponting 9, M Hussey 50, M Clarke 3, MJ North 38, Haddin 5, McDonald 4 not out, Johnson 0, Siddle 0, Hilfenhaus 0, Extras--20 (b 6, lb 4, w 2, nb 8), Steyn 25.4-3-83-3, M Ntini 19-4-58-2, M Morkel 24-4-81-1, JH Kallis 15-4-49-2, PL Harris 21-5-66-2, JP Duminy 3-1-5-0)

Fall of Wickets: 1-184 (Hughes, 43.5 ov), 2-208 (Ponting, 51.4 ov), 3-259 (Katich, 67.1 ov), 4-266 (Clarke, 70.1 ov), 5-329 (Hussey, 100.6 ov), 6-348 (North, 104.5 ov), 7-348 (Haddin, 105.3 ov), 8-348 (Johnson, 105.4 ov), 9-352 (Siddle, 107.2 ov), 10-352 (Hilfenhaus, 107.4 ov)

South Africa 1st Innigs 138 all out in 57.3 overs (McKenzie 0, Smith 2, Amla 0, Kallis 22, DeVilliers 3, Duminy 73 not out, Boucher 1, Harris 4, Morkel 2, Steyn 8, Ntini 0, Extras--23 (b 10, lb 12, nb 1), Johnson 16-5-37-3, Hilfenhaus 11-2-28-1, McDonald 12-4-25-3, Siddle 13.3-6-20-2, North 4-3-6-0, M Clarke 1-1-0-0)

Fall of Wickets: 1-0 (McKenzie, 0.3 ov), 2-0 (Amla, 0.5 ov), 2-3* (Smith, retired not out), 3-6 (de Villiers, 5.3 ov), 3-56* (Kallis, retired not out, 24.5 ov), 4-62 (Boucher, 26.6 ov), 5-104 (Harris, 41.4 ov), 6-104 (Kallis, 41.6 ov), 7-106 (Morkel, 43.3 ov), 8-138 (Steyn, 57.2 ov), 9-138 (Ntini, 57.3 ov)

Australia 2nd Innings (lead by 214 runs) 331 for 5 wickets declared in 94.4 overs (PH Hughes 160, Katich 30, Ponting 81, Hussey 19, Clarke 23 not out, North 0, Extras--18 (b 12, lb 2, nb 4), Steyn 15.4-1-75-1, Ntini 15-2-55-1, M Morkel 14-1-60-1, Kallis 8-0-21-1, Harris 31-8-68-0, Duminy 11-1-38-1)

Fall of Wickets: 1-55 (Katich, 15.6 ov), 2-219 (Ponting, 64.3 ov), 3-260 (Hussey, 78.5 ov), 4-330 (Hughes, 93.1 ov), 5-331 (North, 94.4 ov)

South Africa 2nd Innings (546 target) 370 all out in 132.2 overs (Amal 43, McKenzie 31, Kallis 93, DeVilliers 84, Duminy 17, Boucher 25, Harris 5, M Morkel 24, Steyn 7, Nitni 4 not out, Smith absent hurt, Extras--37 (b 9, lb 15, w 3, nb 10), Johnson 33-9-78-1, Hilfenhaus 24-4-79-1, Siddle 28-12-61-3, McDonald 16-3-47-0, North 20-6-36-1, Katich 11.2-1-45-3)

Fall of Wickets: 1-63 (McKenzie, 22.2 ov), 2-80 (Amla, 28.5 ov), 3-267 (Kallis, 85.5 ov), 4-279 (de Villiers, 88.6 ov), 5-299 (Duminy, 101.2 ov), 6-307 (Harris, 105.2 ov), 7-345 (Boucher, 125.3 ov), 8-363 (Morkel, 130.5 ov), 9-370 (Steyn, 132.2 ov)

2nd T20: Ind v. NZ: McCullum gives last ball victory to NZ

Last over required 12 runs. New Zealand has 5 wickets in hand with the McCullum brothers on the crease. Pathan brothers won the T20 for India against Sri Lanka last month and this time McCullum brothers did it for New Zealand.

Dhoni believed in Pathan because he took 2 wickets in his previous over which was 18th of the innings and gave away just 5 runs. With 23 required of 12 balls, in T20, you can always bet it in favor batting team unless the wickets in hand is less than 3. In this case, the Kiwis had 6 wickets in hand.

Yuvi picked 7 runs in the first three balls including a four before picking NT Broom caught by Irfan Pathan. Brendon scored boundary in the last ball to reduce the target to 12 in the last over.

Irfan had a good chance to prove his capability to deliver in the last over, but this time, it went against him. First ball was a leg bye by new batsman McCullum. The next two balls were singles.

Target is 9 runs of 3 balls with in-form Brendon in strike. Two continuous fours of the next deliveries--both of them were beautiful shot--one over midwicket and the other one over bowlers head.

Rohit ran backwards to catch the miss-hit shot by Brendon McCullum but couldn't take his hands on the ball. He scored unbeaten 69 in 55 balls with 8 fours and a six to give New Zealand 2-0 win.

Earlier, put into bat, India scored 149 for 6 in 20 overs. Once again Gambhir failed with the bat and Sehwag couldn't continue his form.

Yuvi scored a quick fire 50, but got out in the crucial stage of the game. Skipper Dhoni added 28 but consumed 30 balls for it.

Scoreboard:

Tour: India to New Zealand
Series: T20
Match #: 2
Date: Friday February 27, 2009
Venue: Wellington
Captains: Daniel Vettori (NZ) and MS Dhoni (Ind)
Umpires: GAV Baxter and AL Hill; EA Watkin-third umpire
Toss: NZ won the toss and decided to field
Match: NZ won by 5 wickets with 0 balls remaining
Man of the Match: BB McCullum off NZ

India 149 for 6 in 20 overs (G Gambhir caught BB McCullum bowled Butler 10, V Sehwag caught Vettori bowled O'Brien 24, SK Raina caught Southee bowled Butler 0, Yuvaraj Singh caught Oram bowled O'Brien 50, MS Dhoni 2 not out, Yousuf Pathan bowled Vettori 0, RA Jadeja caught Guptill bowled Southee 19, Irfan Pathan 15 not out, Extras--3 (lb 2, w 1), TG Southee 4-0-36-1, IE O'Brien 4-0-30-2, IG Butler 4-0-42-2, DL Vettori 4-0-21-1, JD Ryder 4-0-18-0)

Fall of Wickets: 1-29 (Sehwag, 3.3 ov), 2-36 (Raina, 4.3 ov), 3-47 (Gambhir, 6.1 ov), 4-92 (Yuvraj Singh, 12.4 ov), 5-94 (YK Pathan, 13.2 ov), 6-121 (Jadeja, 16.5 ov)

New Zealand 150 for 5 in 20 overs (JD Ryder bowled Zaheer Khan 26, BB McCullum 69 not out, MJ Guptill LBW Harbhajan 10, LRPL Taylor bowled Irfan Pathan 27, JDP Oram caught Dhoni bowled Irfan Pathan 0, NT Broom caught Irfan Pathan bowled Yuvaraj Singh 5, NL McCullum 1 not out, Extras--12 (b 1, lb 6, w 5), Irfan Pathan 4-0-41-2, Zaheer Khan 4-0-30-1, Ishanth Sharma 2-0-19-0, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-15-1, RA Jadeja 4-0-21-0, Yuvaraj Singh 2-0-17-1)

Fall of Wickets: 1-53 (Ryder, 4.4 ov), 2-69 (Guptill, 8.5 ov), 3-125 (Taylor, 17.2 ov), 4-125 (Oram, 17.3 ov), 5-134 (Broom, 18.4 ov)

Will be Fit Soon - Tendulkar

Tendulkar will be missed for the 4th ODI against New Zealand in Hamilton. Tendulkar was injured during the 2nd ODI when tried to pull O'Brien delivery which hit his abdomen. Though he experienced pain, he continued to play and scored more than 50.

The MRI scan done on India's premier batsman has revealed internal bleeding in his stomach.

"I had stiffness in the region before the third ODI, but I had stretched myself too far. But I should be ready to play in a couple of days time," Tendulkar said.

So, the in-form Sachin should be available for the final ODI to be played on March 14, 2009 at Auckland.

Gary Kirsten said that the team is not worried about Sachin's absence and will be able to manage the 4th ODI without him.

The expectation from the team is much more after Tendulkar's remark that this is the best batting line up in the past 20 years. The team is expected to perform without his presence on March 11, in the 4th ODI.

Fast Bowlers Lost Confidence - McCullum, Brendon

The New Zealand captain in the 3rd ODI and the vice captain of the New Zealand team accepted that the confidence of the Kiwi fast bowlers has been demolished by the devastating batting by the Indian batsmen.

"I suppose from their perspective it would have knocked their confidence a little bit. It could happen when you go around the park like we did in the last couple of games. It is not a nice thing to happen for fast bowlers," said McCullum.

"It is a skill issue of not being able to execute their plans. Or it maybe a mental issue with being apprehensive and almost trying too hard not to get hurt rather than just trying to grab the ball and do as well as you can."

"We just have to try and execute the plans that were set out for us. So far, in the last couple of games we haven't quite been exact enough with our execution."

"The mental approach against such a strong batting line-up can make you a bit apprehensive so we need to try and relax and implement the plans that we've got in place because we know they do work," he added

(excerpts from msn.co.in)

"We managed to put them under pressure. We saw some pretty big hitting in the end as well. Obviously, they will be a little wary, knowing that the wicket is good and the ground is pretty small."

"They will have to be exact in their plans. If we can get some momentum with the bat and put them under some pressure then there's no reason why we can't post a big score and possibly win," he said. Will Tendulkar's absence make any difference to New Zealand? "I am sure it does, but they have still got Sehwag, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Raina. So they still have a pretty strong batting line-up. We saw how well Sachin played the other day. To know that he will not be in the side will be a lift for our bowlers," he said.

"We will welcome him back with open arms, especially me. It will be great to have him back in the fold. His experience and skill will be handy," McCullum said.

"Jacob's progressing really well. It is just a matter of being a little bit cautious with his body. He is obviously gone through a lot of niggles and injuries over the last few seasons. So we just have to be a little cautious with that."

Tendulkar Injured and to Miss 4th ODI against NZ!

Tendulkar's injury got worsened during the 3rd ODI against NZ in Christchurch. During his firing knock of 163 not out, the injury aggrevated and forced him to retire-hurt. He missed the nice chance to become the highest individual scorer in ODI history.

While trying to pull O'Brien's shot pitch ball, he missed it and the ball hit his abdomen. He still continued to play and got out after 50.

"Towards the end I was hopeful I would be able to get it (200) if I stayed there to the 50th over, it was in the vicinity," Tendulkar said.

"In the previous game I got hit in my abdomen by O'Brien and the muscle was quite sore. When I was batting with 65-70, I started feeling a stiffness in that area. But towards the latter half of my innings I started getting a twitch and it kept getting worse. And I knew that I was effectively damaging it and I had reached a stage when I couldn't go on."

Kiwis were trying to stop Sehwag and Gambhir and they were successful with Gambhir so far. Now, they have all the opportunity in the world with Little Master staying in the pavilion.

But with Sachin's remark as the best batting line up in the past 20 years, India should not worry about it! Get well soon Sachin! We miss you!

IPL is on, Awaiting New Schedule!

After several rounds of outbursts and open statements through media, both the Government of India and the IPL cricketing body have come to a conclusion. The IPL is not postponed or cancelled as it would result in huge loss for the organizers, players in addition to several inconveniences.

"We are extremely grateful and thankful to Home Minister (P Chidambaram) that security will be provided for IPL matches. We will shortly have a new schedule out. The IPL is on," said Lalit Modi, IPL Commissioner.

Modi also said that the tournament will not be hosted outside India. He also added, "there have been lots of speculation, please discount those speculations. We are working through the schedule. It is a cumbersome process. There will be no matches in the cities on the day they go to polls and there will be no matches on the day of the counting (May 16) at all."

So, the IPL sports enthusiats should wait for some more time to see the schedule coming out! The whole world will be looking at the IPL to see how far the security is provided for the players, umpires, staff, spectators, press, media, etc.

Photo credit: Cricketnext.com