Long list of nominees of ICC Cricket awards

Here is the list of Nominees posted by the ICC. The ICC Cricket Awards will take place in October in Bangalore.

Long-lists of nominees (in alphabetical order; each category will be reduced to a short-list in due course)

Preview CL: Royal Challengers Bangalore

Much was spoken about this team in IPL 3. There was a surprise package from the RCBians IPL 2 and Inaugural Champions League. This CLT20 2, The Royal Challengers of Bangalore look boosted in the presence of the Foreign Trio of Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor and Cameron While who have preferred playing for the Men in Red than their home teams.

CL T20 squads come in for all teams

One of the costliest players bought in the IPL, missed season 3 of IPL due to a knee injury. Yes, it is Andrew Flintoff, he will miss the Champions League 2nd Edition this Sepetember too. Chennai Super Kings will miss the English all rounder Flintoff. But, the Giant who recently retired from the Test form- Muttiah Muralitharan is in the action for the Champions League.

Juan Theron in SA T20 squad

The South African cricket Board has named the T20 squad for the Caribbean tournament starting April 30th. Juan Theron is the only new and uncapped player.

Good signs for South Africa is that Graeme Smith who went back home from IPL suffering an injury will be alright and will lead the team in the Cup.

However, Wayne Parnell and Justin Kemp who got themselves injured in the IPL won’t get a chance to play in the T20 World Cup.

In Parnell’s absence, Juan Theron who impressed everyone by leading the bowling attack of KXIP from the front in IPL and won the match for them has been given a place in the squad.

With the presence of Rory Kleinveldt, the all rounder adds depth to both bowling and batting. He was a part of the Under 19 team and is in fine form now.

The Coach of South Africa told:-

I am delighted that we have Graeme Smith back from injury to lead us in this campaign. At the same time it is sad to lose players of the calibre of Wayne Parnell and Justin Kemp.

Rory Kleinveldt will be a good like-for-like replacement for Parnell. He is capable of opening the bowling or operating at first change and he has also been a regular death bowler for the Cobras which is an important area for us. Rory also gives us some good batting options down the order

Rusty Theron has impressed everybody both with his skills and his temperament both in domestic cricket and in the Indian Premier League. He was a key player for the Warriors in doing the domestic limited overs double.

South Africa are placed with India and Afghanisthan in the Cup.

SQUAD:-

Graeme Smith (capt), Jacques Kallis, Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Juan Theron, Roelof van der Merwe

Preview: KKR vs RCB

Preview: KKR vs RCB

Kolkata Knight Riders VS Royal Challengers Bangalore

Venue: EDEN GARDENS, KOLKATA

Date: 14^th March, 2010

Time: 3pm

Kolkata Knight Riders
With ‘Miracle-Coach’ Dav Whatmore at the helm and Bengal’s dearest Dada running affairs on the pitch, the Knight Riders would want to put last season’s horrendous run behind them and start afresh. After winning the 1^st game, they will try to prove that the win was not just a fluke. Sourav who failed to score in the last match will try to shut the crtics’ mouths. Owais Shah and Angelo Mathews need to keep up the form they showed in the match against DC. Bowling seems to have improved thanks to the tips and tricks of the legendary Wasim Akram. Team’s bowling comprises of pace batteries like Ishant and Langaveldt and if they hold up, we may see a resurgence of the Dark Knights.
KEY PLAYERS: Sourav Ganguly, Angelo Mathews, Ishant Sharma, Charl langaveldt

Royal Challengers Bangalore

This year, Bangalore boast of a very strong team indeed, with fantastic hitters of the likes of Ross Taylor, Cameron White, Kevin Pietersen and new signing Eoin Morgan, and the dependability of South Africans Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher. They also possess possibly the best of the local batting talent, in dynamic and ambitious youngsters Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa, apart from stalwart Rahul Dravid. Skipper Anil Kumble leads the bowling attack that also boasts of the likes of test No.1 Dale Steyn. On paper they look strong enough to do an encore of last year’s final appearance. With an inspiring captain at the helm, one cannot rule out them going all the way.

KEY PLAYER: Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey, Dale Steyn, Anil Kumble

SQUADS:

RCB: Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey, Srivats Goswami, Vinay Kumar, Bhuvanesh Kumar, K P Appanna, Eoin Morgan, Akhil Balachandra, A Mithun, Steven Smith, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Robin Uthappa, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Dillon Du Preez, Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, Roelof van der Merwe, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, S Sriram

KKR: Sourav Ganguly(C), Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge, Owais Shah, Manoj Tiwari, Rohan Gavaskar, Chirag Pathak, Cheteswar Pujara, Harshad Khadiwale, Wriddhiman Shah, Angelo Matthews, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ganapati Vignesh, Ajit Agarkar, Varun Aron, Iqbal Abdulla, Eklakh Ahmed, Ashoke Dinda, Ajantha Mendis, Charl Langeveldt, Murali Karthik, Ishant Sharma

Preview: Royal Challengers Bangalore

The team along with the Deccan Chargers who stunned everyone by making it into the Finals of IPL 2 from the nearly the bottom of the table. The Malaya owned team was called as the a Test team and not fit to play T20 in 2008.

But they disproved it when Anil Kumble took Captaincy from Rahul Dravid and Ray Jennings became the coach of the Royal Challengers. The Royal Challengers beat the 2008 Champs, Rajasthan Royals in the first match with a splendid passion.

Now, lets focus on to the 2010 IPL for them and what they have in store. Vijay Malaya picked up the T20 specialist Eoin Morgan in the IPL auction bazaar.

Steven Smith too signed up for the Bangalore team who will add a boast to the batting.

The batting of the Challengers is superb and packed with Kallis, Uthappa, Kohli, Ross Taylor, Cameron White, Manish Pandey and Kevin Pietersen. But Kallis, Pietersen and Taylor’s performances will be the most counted.

There’s not much in the bowling attack. South African Veteran Dale Steyn, Praveen Kumar, Dillon du Preez, Roelof Vander Merwe and Kumble will form the formidable attack.

But the Challengers team are South African based which helped them to enter the finals last year. Surely, they will be tested in Indian conditions.

Unfortunately for Bangalore, Ross Taylor will miss 7 matches and Kevin Pietersen will miss out 5 matches. So, its given a good opportunity for the other foreigners in the line up to show their talents.

KEY PLAYERS: Virat Kohli, Jacques Kallis, Eoin Morgan, Dale Steyn.

SQUAD:

Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey, Srivats Goswami, Vinay Kumar, Bhuvanesh Kumar, K P Appanna, Eoin Morgan, Akhil Balachandra, A Mithun, Steven Smith, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Robin Uthappa, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Dillon Du Preez, Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, Roelof van der Merwe, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, S Sriram

South Africa win!

Its indeed a great performance by the South African bowler Dale Steyn and both the test batsman Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla. Its a shame for a No.1 for best defeated by a inning and following on.

The result was obviously known a day back when India were struggling at 220-7. But although, today The Indian batsmen put a very good fight. They closed in all just were short of 6 runs to avoid innings defeat which would have saved some pride.

But, all has gone now. We can pat the backs of the South Africans. Meanwhile, it is my duty to elaborate on my team and some of the good performances by them.

First of all, Tendulkar’s hundred. He was the performer of the Day in India’s point of view. The master of cricket is always there to save a match for India.

He tried doing so but in the process there was not enough support for the Maestro. His hundred came under heavy pressure. It was even more than Blaise Pascal’s pressure capacity.

Hmm, Tendulkar is great doing that. But he tried his best. No support in the other end couldn’t make his efforts successful.

Dhoni gave him a partnership but that was not enough. Badrinath’s role too was small.

I was amazed with the batting of new Lad Wriddhiman Saha who missed out of a half century.

He tried his best to save the day as he scored a 36 runs. He had good support from Harbhajan and Zaheer Khan with whom he had 50 run partnerships.

Harbhajan played as if it was a One Day game. He soon got out for an Leg before scoring a cameo of 39 runs.

Zaheer’s support was excellent. He his 2 sixes in the process. It looked so that he would go on to score a fifty but was in a urgent and gave away his wicket cheaply.

As said, when a wicket falls other wickets start to fall. This happened so when Steyn came back to bowl. First Saha fell for a LBW, then the last wicket Amit Mishra.

At Last, India fell short by 6 runs to avoid innings defeat. Hope this never happens in Eden Gardens.

India perish for 223, Proteas enforce follow on

Its not that kind of batting that a World No.1 Team should have. With South Africa scoring 558 and declaring, India needed a minimum of 400 runs so that they can stay alive in the test. But, all expected became the reverse.

Resuming the innings, the Hosts started of at 25-0, but soon Gautam Gambhir perished for only 12 runs knocking a out going ball. This started the South African Proceedings, as Murali Vijay too fell just adding 4 runs to the total and bowler of a superb in-swinger which he had left.

Tendulkar, too didn’t add much to the total who added seven runs and perished of a outside edge. India were struggling at 56-3.

Rightly, the Indian middle order was exposed as Badrinath, Dhoni and only Saha were yet to come. But, the Debutant Badrinath played superb cricket. He is a great find for the Indian test team who will surely cement his place ahead of Yuvraj if he given many opportunities like this.

The Sehwag-Badrinath combine that had bailed India out in the second hour of the first session couldn’t quite carry on the good work through the post-lunch session. After scripting a perfect counter-attack and going on to score a blazing century, Sehwag perished to a loose shot.

However, debutant S Badrinath and captain MS Dhoni ensured that there was no more damage and took India to tea at 221 for 4.

But, after the tea it was disastrous. Unexpected things happened. What do you expect a team to do from 221 for 4? You won’t think this that India would perish for 233 losing 6 wickets in 41 balls.

THAT really happened and the pick of the bowlers was Dale Steyn who scripted his best bowling performance taking 7-51.

After tea, immediately Dhoni fell. It was unlucky dismissal for Dhoni and whoever sees it would feel sad of him. Paul Harris did the trick pitching on the foot marks in the leg side.

Adding one run after Dhoni’s dismissal, Badrinath too fell in a cheeky fashion. Then tumbling started, first W.Saha for a duck, then Zaheer, Mishra and finally Harbhajan Singh.

A world class team to fall from 221-4 to 233-10 is bad isn’t it?

Maybe the team is lacking the batting of Dravid and Laxman. This happens when there are no good reserves who are ready to take the position.

India were asked to follow on by Greame Smith and they did so. The were trailing by 235 runs after been all out.

After scoring one run, Gambhir fell clean bowled to Morkel. Sehwag bashed 16 runs and he fell to Steyn.

Tenmdulkar and Vijay had pressure more that 251% to save the test match. Till now they have been doing so scoring runs in snail’s pace. 66/2 in 23 overs of play. 2 runs per over is great to save the test!

World Championship of Cricket starts tomorrow!

And we are finally in awaiting for the match to begin. It has been 3 years since both the test teams have met each other. The last one was new to forget as India’s Nawab of Najafgarh went on to score another triple century ,they were rattled for under hundred in one innings and the final match got over in less than 3 days.

So, now whoz in with a chance to win the match. India is surely missing the Wall, his absence will cost a lot. With Dravid missing out, the other six batsmen are:

Sehwag, Gambhir, Vijay, Tendulkar, Badrinath, Laxman.

• The team still contains- top ordered explosive batsmen Sehwag and Gambhir who are in top form.
• Next position No.3, it will lack the experience of Rahul Dravid. So probably, Vijay or Badrinath or even Laxman will play in his absence.
• Tendulkar, no words to explain he is in great form. He should take responsibility for the whole team.
• Meanwhile, Laxman too is in good form just fresh after a injury. Oh! I just got in news that Laxman is not certain for the match but it is not the final decision. Lets see!
• Vijay and Badrinath are the domestic players who play for Tamil Nadu, both have a opportunity in their hands to perform well.

The Indian bowling attack consists of Harbhajan, Zaheer, Ishant, Mishra/Ojha/Tyagi.

• Zaheer and Ishant are the two spearheads for the Indian Attack. They should take early wickets to put the visitors in pressure.
• Harbhajan too, is important and he is the main guy to watch out for because he might make a difference.

• The other one place probably will be filled by a spinner because it is a spinning track or even Dhoni may try something else.

So, Lets watch out who performs well for the Indian team.

Players to watch out for India: Sehwag, Gambhir, Zaheer and Harbhajan. The key roles are given to these 4 experienced players.

While, The Indian batsmen have to face the speeds of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnel who have the capacity to bowl over 150 speeds.

The spinners Johan Botha and Paul Harris would be in need for the Proteas for most of the stages of the match. Their performance in recent times is not upt o the mark.

So, awaiting to see what happens. Till Next time- its Bye.!