Your franchise pays so much money for you, you should at least make the semi-finals. After that you can say it is a lottery.

India Sri Lanka 2nd Test Day 2 India Loses plot is to put it mildly. The mediocrity of the Indian batting by Dhoni Yuvraj and Sachin combined nutralised much of the bite in Sehwag and Gambhirs batting on Day 1 . India badly needed to reach the 700 mark because its psychological and because its the only way to win this match.

Sri Lanka Won the GamePlan on Day 2

Indian Game Plan for Day 3 : get atleast 6 wickets and be in a position to force a follow on SriLanka

Sri Lankan Game plan Day 3 : Be no more than 6 wickets down and be in a position to avoid the follow on by Stumps day 3

Rahul Dravid batted well for his 144 surpassing Alan Border in the process. I shudder to think what will happen to the batting line up after Rahul, VVS and Sachin retire from test cricket

Well I can write a lot of analysis and paralysis, but I will let you watch and decide

India sri Lanka 2nd Test Day 1

India 417 for 2 (Gambhir 167, Sehwag, 131, Dravid 85*) v Sri Lanka

Game Plan for India: put up a score of 750 and put the maximum pressure on Sri Lanka, deny them the batting track atleast till end of 2nd day

Game Plan for Sri Lanka: Slow the run rate, go negative if required, frustrate the batsmen

It was clearly India’s most prolific Test day.  A record for most runs by India on a Day. The Delhi Duo Gambhir and Sehwag each scored centuries @ Green Park stadium,Kanpur.  Once the 1st Hour was negotiated it was easy sailing for India. Gautam Gambhir scored his 8th Tests century.

First time India scored over 400 in a day, Sri Lankan spinners proved ineffective. I have a feeling that it will be a easy pitch to bat on till well into the 3rd Day.

Sehwag made the most of the one reprieve that he got and Gambhir was immaculate, drawing comparison with Gavaskar from his delhi batting partner.

Video Highlights Part 1

Video Highlights Part 2

Video Highlights Part 3

Video Highlights Part 4

Video Highlights Part 5

Part 2

Part 4

India australia1st ODI 2009 Hero honda cup video

Part 1

Part 2

[youube NOZVm1A1UFw 450 300]

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Champions Trophy finalists Australia and New Zealand were placed in the same group when the 2011 Cricket World Cup draw was released here Wednesday.

Pakistan, surprise semi-final losers to New Zealand in the Champions Trophy, and co-hosts Sri Lanka are the other major forces in Group A which is completed by Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya.

India, who will host most matches in the quadrennial tournament, South Africa, England and the West Indies are the top-eight teams in Group B with co-hosts Bangladesh, Ireland and the Netherlands completing the line-up.

Group A : Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka,Pakistan,Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya.

Group B : India,South Africa, England,West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands

In the last edition Bangladesh had knocked India out of the tournament. Each team will play 6 matches to qualify for the second round

A senior Sindh minister today accused India of influencing umpires to get Pakistan ousted from the Champions Trophy semifinal in South Africa.

Muhammad Ali Shah, the minister for Sports and a member of the Pakistan Cricket Board governing council, suspected India’s role in the sub-standard umpiring, leading to Pakistan’s defeat against New Zealand.

“Definitely, it is clear that India were miffed at not qualifying for the semi-finals after Pakistan lost to Australia and they took their revenge in their own way. They influenced the umpires to favour New Zealand,” Shah told reporters.

Australian umpire Simon Taufel had wrongly adjudged Umar Akmal leg-before-wicket at a crucial stage of the match and even admitted to the mistake and apologised later.

Shah said he would not refrain from pressing the PCB to see that the International Cricket Council impose at least a one-year ban on Taufel.

Match-fixing has returned to haunt Pakistan cricket with the parliamentary committee on sports summoning PCB chief Ejaz Butt, captain Younis Khan

Younis Khan and coach Intikhab Alam to seek explanation for the team’s Champions Trophy loss to Australia after allegations of deliberate underperformance.

A senior parliamentarian, who heads the national assembly standing committee on sports, has accused the team of deliberately losing to Australia in the Champions Trophy in a group match.

Jamshed Khan Dasti said the standing committee would summon Butt, Younis and Alam shortly to explain the team’s performance in the Champions Trophy.

“There is evidence that the team lost the match to Australia on purpose. It underperformed. Then against New Zealand also there are signs the team didn’t want to win,” Dasti alleged.

“We have been told by some respected and senior people and we are also trying to collect evidence that there might have been some hanky panky in the match against Australia and New Zealand,” Dasti claimed.

Pakistan’s last-ball defeat to Australia put India out of the Champions Trophy while their defeat to New Zealand in the semifinal came as a surprise to many.

Dasti lashed out at Butt and the team for disappointing the nation.

“I can say we lost to Australia on purpose. And the team’s performance against New Zealand was zero. We will get to the bottom of this whole affair and find out the truth the nation must know the truth of what happened in South Africa,” he said.

Dasti said the standing committee would not allow corruption in cricket.

“We want to see changes in the board and Butt must go because as it is he is too old for this job,” he added.

Dasti said he would issue a notification in two days time summoning the captain and coach and board Chairman to explain themselves before the committee.

“We have heard a lot about match fixing allegations some people are telling us things and we also sense team didn’t perform well on purpose. So we want to find out the truth,” he said.

Neither Younis nor Intikhab were available for their reaction to the serious allegations by Dasti which is likely to set off a whole new controversy in Pakistan cricket.

Indian players sharpen their swords after the war is lost!!!

These words pretty much summarized Indian cricket teams campaign for the Champions trophy

Australia has all but qualified for the Champions trophy semis as we speak.  That means the India west Indies match will be reduced to a mere statistic soon and India will have to pack their bags