India draws first blood, courtsey Yuvraj

Who have thought that West Indies will reach as closer as 319 runs in reply to India 339/6? At end of 42nd Over of West Indian innings the match almost looks like in the hands of India with West Indies requiring another 75 runs in the last 8 overs with three wickets in hand.

But West Indies wicket keeper batsman Dinesh Ramdin (29 runs of 26 balls) and D.Bernard (19 runs of 20 balls) kept West Indies in hunt with 44 runs partnership of just 32 balls for the eighth wicket before comeback man Ashish Nehra removed Bernard to bring India right back into the game. He also removed Dinesh Ramdin to close the match for India.

No body thoughts that West Indies lower order batsman will fight till the end. Despite of loosing wickets at regular Interval they were always ahead of India scores. But in the end it was Yuvraj inning that made the difference. With help of Yuvraj Singh brilliance India collected 62 runs without loosing a wicket in batting powerplay on the other hand West Indies manage 36 runs for the lost of three wickets in their batting powerplay and in the end this was the vital difference between two teams.

Earlier after electing to bat first India were struggling at 32/2in the 8th over. Once again Indian top orders were tested by short pitch stuff from West Indies pace attack. After giving India a steady start opener Gautam Gambhir (13 runs of 14 balls) and Rohit Sharma (4 runs of 12 balls) got out by short pitch delivery.

Yuvraj Singh joined D.Karthik to rebuild the innings from 32 for 2. His approach made up for the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina and allayed fears of weakness in the batting order. Yuvraj revived the Indian innings by adding 135 with Karthik for the third wicket and then 86 runs in just 57balls with Captain M.S.Dhoni(41 runs of 46balls), both partnership that laid the platform for only the second ODI total in excess of 300 in Jamaica.

In the end Yusuf Pathan (40 runs of 38balls) and Harbhajan Singh (19 runs of 13balls) played well to get pass India total close to350 runs mark.

Yuvraj Singh was declared Player of the Match for his blistering knock of 131 runs of just 102 balls.

Match Summary (India won by 20 Runs)
India – 339/6 in 50 Overs

Yuvraj Singh- 131 Dinesh Karthik– 67

D. Bravo– 10-0-66-2 D.Bernard- 8-0-50-1

West Indies– 319/10 in 48.1 Overs
S.Chanderpaul- 63 R.Srawan– 45
Ashish Nehra– 7.1-0-49-3 Yusuf Pathan- 8-0-56-3

India tour of West Indies 2009 Cricket Schedule

Just after the completion of 2^nd edition of twenty20 World Cup in England, Indian team will tour Caribbean for four match ODI series against the West Indies. The first two ODI's of the series will be played in Jamaica while next two ODI's will be played in St Lucia.

India will play their first one day international on 26^th June 2009. And the rest of three one day internationals will be played on 28^th June, 3^rd July and 5^th July 2009.

All the matches will be telecast in India by Tensports TV Channel.

India Vs West Indies Schedule (All timing are mentioned in GMT+05:30)

Timing	Teams	Venue
Fri 26 Jun 20:00 PM	1st ODI – India v West Indies	Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica
Sun 28 Jun 20:00 PM	2nd ODI – India v West Indies	Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica
Fri 3 Jul 19:00 PM	3rd ODI – India v West Indies	Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia
Sun 5 Jul 19:00 PM	4th ODI – India v West Indies	Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia

Indian Squad: MS Dhoni (Captain/WK), Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Yusuf Pathan, M Vijay, S Badrinath, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik (WK).

West Indies Squad for first two ODI's:Chris Gayle (Captain), Denesh Ramdin (WK), Lionel Baker, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Runako Morton, Ravi Rampaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor.

Sachin Tendulkar wants India fans to be ‘mature’ after World Twenty20 failure

India’s cricket fans are putting more pressure on the team with their emotional reaction to defeat and need to get behind the players during tough times, according to the batsman Sachin Tendulkar

As the winners of the first World Twenty20 two years ago, India were one of the favourites for the current tournament but a three-run loss to England, their second Super Eights defeat, left them with no chance of reaching the semi-finals.

India’s captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, bore the brunt of fans’ anger and security at his home in the eastern city of Ranchi had to be beefed up after scores of fans burnt his effigy, shouted slogans and accused him of underestimating England. India lost all three of their Super Eights games.

“I feel there is very high emotion among the people when they react. But do these reactions help us to play better? Not really,” Indian media quoted Tendulkar as saying.

Team India Reluctant to Play against Pakistan: Afridi

Even though the teams did not meet in the main tournament, they featured in a completely sold-out warm-up match. “I was a bit disappointed. It didn’t appear to me by the attitude of the Indian players that they want to play against us,” Afridi told Geo TV after he arrived home on Wednesday.

“On the face, they said they would like to see cricket between the two countries but I think in their hearts they thought otherwise. Their attitude and behaviour while playing against us showed this,” Afridi said. Pakistan and India have froze bilateral cricket ties since the Mumbai terror in November 2008 with the cancellation of India tour of Pakistan earlier this year.

Afridi added that he still believes that cricket could heal relations between the neighbouring countries and bring the people together. “I always say use sports to foster good relations and remove misunderstandings,” said Afridi who was at the peak of his career in the T20 World Cup with both - bat and ball.

He said Pakistan has proved critics wrong by winning the World T20 title when everyone counted India and South Africa as favourites. “I think our performance is a lesson for other teams. We are World champions and I hope teams will now come to Pakistan.”

Pak Players Demand for IPL Fee Hike after T20 World Cup Win

After IPL organisers announced that the Pakistani players would be welcome to play next season of IPL in 2010 but subject to the clearance from both governments, sources in the sports management company representing players like Misbah-ul-Haq, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul and Kamran Akmal said they are unlikely to play on their old contractual terms of $100,000 each.

“These players are now iconic figures after winning the T20 World Cup and it makes no sense that they should settle for old terms when other players are being paid in millions,” the source said.

The Pakistani players could not take part in IPL Season 2 this year after the Pakistan foreign ministry advised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) against sending players to India after the Mumbai terror attacks.

The franchisees then thought of either terminating or suspending the contracts of the Pakistani players who had represented them in the first season.

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has said that the franchisees are free to play their Pakistani Players in next season of IPL, provided that the governments of both the countries give the clearance.

On the other hand the Pakistan Cricket Board has announced a cash award of Rs 2.5 million for each member of the squad that clinched the Twenty20 World Cup title in England.

The announcement came from the PCB chairman Ejaz Butt a day after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani had hosted a dinner in honour of the Pakistan squad and also announced a cash award of Rs. 10 million for them. “The team deserves a lot of praise for their hard work and efforts,” Butt said.

Butt made the announcement during a special visit by the players to the Parliament on Thursday on the invitation of National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza.

Pakistan outplay SL for T20 World Cup

The result could not have been better than this for both Pakistan cricket team as well as for their nation. It was not a nail biting final like last time but it has given lots for Pakistani fans to cheer about for years to come. After Imran Khan, Younis Khan became the first captain to lead his team to win a major ICC Events.

This was Pakistan first major title in the 17 years. They last won the major event in 1992 World Cup under captaincy of Imran Khan in Australia.

Chasing the target of 139 runs to win, Pakistan chased down the score easily with six balls to spare to beat Sri Lanka by 8 Wickets and become ICC World Twenty20 Champions. Shahid Afridi once again played a match winning knock of unbeaten 54 runs of 40 balls and picked up one wicket in the game.

From the moment tournament most runs scorer T.Dilshan got out in the first over, Pakistan had a grip on the match. After deciding to bat first Sri Lanka lost their first wicket in the very first over of their inning and that to of Dilshan. From there on they lost their momentum and at one stage they were struggling at 70/6 in the 13th over.

But thanks to skipper Kumar Sangakkara (64 runs of 52 balls) and Angelo Mathews (35 runs of 24 balls) partnership of 68 runs of 42 balls which helped Sri Lanka to put decent fighting total on the board.

Pakistan started their run chase well with opener Kamran Akmal (37 runs of 28 balls) and S.Hasan (19 runs of 23 balls) gave decent start by putting 48 runs in 43 balls before Jayasurya broke through with his first delivery in the next over when he beat Akmal in the air with his left-arm spin and had him stumped for 37 off 28 balls.

M.Muralitharan then removed S.Hasan caught by Jayasurya to give Sri Lanka second breakthrough but Afridi and S.Mallik ensured no further hiccups. Both batted with calm and composure. They have put on unbeaten 76 runs partnership of just 57 balls which took Pakistan home amid loud celebrations from their fans in the stands.

Shahid Afridi was declared Player-of-the-Match for his super all-round performance both with bat and ball.

Tilakratne Dilshan was declared Player-of-the-Series for scoring the 317 runs in seven innings with an average of 52.83.

Umar Gul once again proved that he is the most dangerous bowlers when it comes to twenty20. Like 2007, he once again ended up with most number of wickets in ICC World twenty20 2009 with 13 wickets to his name.

T.Dilshan of Sri Lanka scored the most number of runs in the tournament with 317 runs with an average of 52.83 in seven innings that he has played.

Yuvraj Singh of India hits the most number of sixes (9) in the tournament.

Chris Gayle of West Indies hit the biggest six of the tournament with 105 meters.

Match Summary (Pakistan won by 8 Wickets)

Sri Lanka – 138/6 in 20 Overs

K.Sangakkara- 64* Angelo Mathews– 35*

Abdul Razzak– 3-0-20-3 S.Afridi- 4-0-20-1

Pakistan– 139/2 in 18.4 Overs

Shahid Afridi- 54* Kamran Akmal– 37

M.Muralitharan– 3-0-20-1 S.Jayasurya- 2-0-8-1

Sri Lankans sink 'Windies' ship to sail into final

Sri Lanka enters the Final of ICC World Twenty20 in grand style after beating West Indies comprehensively by 57 runs. It will be against Final between two Asian teams like last T20 World Cup where India played Pakistan and this time Sri Lanka will take on Pakistan at Lord’s on June 21^st.

T.Dilshan played a brilliant inning of the tournament to guide his team single handedly to par score of 158/5 in their 20 overs. Then a new man with the bowling speed of 80 mph Angelo Mathews picked up three wickets in his very first over of West Indians inning to break the back-bone of West Indies run chase. From 1/3 Bravoin the first over it was almost over for West Indies from there on to achieve the target against the quality bowling attack. Mathews took three for 16 in his four overs.

Chasing the target of 159 runs to win, West Indies inning started disastrously with all top three batters (Xavier Marshall, L.Simmons and D.Bravo) back in the pavilion without troubling the scorer and West Indies scores was 1/3 at the end of first over. Then it was Sri Lankan twin spinners (Murali and Mendis) who done the rest of the damage to West Indian innings by picking up five wickets in between them and conceded just 38 runs in the total eight overs bowled.

Chris Gayle who remained unbeaten on 63 runs of 50 balls was a single batsman who got pass double figure mark. Next highest scorer for West Indies was innings extra with 11 runs.

Earlier, Dilshan's knock was the centerpiece of Sri Lanka's 158 for five. His 57-ball innings, featuring two sixes and 12 fours, was the equal third-best in Twenty20 international history. Only fellow opener Sanath Jayasuriya (24 runs of 37 balls) and Mathews (12 not out of 6 balls) also made it into double figures.

It was only Dilshan inning who gave some respectability to Sri Lankan totals otherwise it could have been different story for them. Other than him no Sri Lankan batsman able to get going, once Jayasurya got out in 11^th over it was the start of a collapse that saw two more wickets (K.Sangakara and M.Jayawardne) lost for four runs in eight balls.

At the end of 19^th over Sri Lanka were 140/5 but Dilshan and Mathews collected as many as 18 runs in the last over bowled by Gayle to reach a formidable total and which was enough for West Indians.

T.Dilshan was declared Player-of-the-Match for his blistering unbeaten knock of 96 runs of 57 balls.