Arindam's Sports Page

FIFA World Cup 2010 - Facts and Stats

2010-07-17T23:49:00.000+05:30

WINNING FACTS

Spain became the first side ever to win the World Cup after losing their opening match.
First time to win outside their continent since Brazil in 1958.
Managed only 8 goals in 7 matches, 3 fewer than the previous lowest total in a winning campaign.
Only the second reigning European Champions to lift the World Cup after West Germany, who won the 1972 Euro and 1974 World Cup.
Didn't concede a single goal in all 4 knockout matches, becoming the first team to keep a clean sheet en route to winning the Trophy.
The 2 goals conceded by Spain in the entire Cup equaled the joint fewest allowed in a World Cup by the winning team (France in 1998; Italy in 2006)
32 years after Argentina's Daniel Bertoni scored the last extra-time goal against Holland in a World Cup final, Iniesta repeated the feat

ROLL OF HONOUR

Golden Ball (Best Player of the World Cup) - Uruguay's Diego Forlan
Golden Boot (Top Scorer) - Germany's Thomas Mueller
Golden Glove (Best Goalkeeper) - Spain's Iker Casillas
Best Young Player - Germany's Thomas Mueller
Fair Play Award - Spain

WORLD CUP IN NUMBERS

16 - Most goals scored, by Germany
00 - Fewest goals scored, by Algeria and Honduras
01 - Fewest goals conceded, by Portugal and Switzerland
12 - Most goals conceded, by North Korea
37 - Oldest scorer, Mexico's Blanco vs France
20 - Youngest scorer, Germany's Mueller vs Australia
13 - Number of times team beating 3rd placed team has won Cup
164 - Total goal scored in 64 matches
03 - Mins, Fastest goal scored from kick off, by Thomas Mueller vs Argentina

Who Won The World Cup - Spain, South Africa or Octopus Paul?

2010-07-12T23:01:00.000+05:30

FIFA World Cup 2010 just ended yesterday. World got their new champion - Spain. Yesterday Spain played their first world cup final and they just made it to one out of one... 100% record of winning world cup final match against the Netherlands' 0% record (zero out of three - 1974, 1978 and 2010). - it's like BULLS EYE . Spain became the first European team to win the world cup outside their continent. Espana el genador.

Another winner of this world cup is the host South Africa. They are simply superb in organizing the biggest tournament of the world football. They proved whole world wrong by their modern and technologically advanced show. "The world has seen this country in a different light" - said South African President Jacob Zuma.

The third and final winner is Paul the psychic German Octopus. He won by 8-0. He predicted the winner of seven matches played by Germany and the final between Spain and Netherlands and every time he was 100% correct. Aquarium employees presented him with a golden cup.

Mark Webber Collides With Team Mate And Misses The Hat-Trick

2010-06-03T00:48:00.000+05:30

Mark Webber missed the hat-trick of victories; He had been heading for his hat-trick after starting on pole position, but unfortunately collided with his team mate Sebastian Vettel 18 laps from the finish. Vettel started the race level on points with Webber at the top of the standings but paid the price for trying to pass the Aussie down the inside on lap 40. The two cars collided, Vettel's right rear tyre deflated and he spun off into retirement while Webber went off track but managed to come back. McLaren completed the one-two finish after that incident. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton celebrated his first win of the season in Turkey on Sunday. Seven time world champion Michael Schumacher missed the podium finish by only one positon, in the next race we could see Schumacher on the podium after a long time. Lets hope for the best.

To see the result of Turkish Grand Prix:
Turkish Grand Prix Result

Driver standings after seven races:
Drivers' Point Table

Team standings after seven races:
Constructors' Point Table

Next Race:
Canadian Grand Prix (Montreal) : 11-13 June'2010

Mark Webber - On A Hat-Trick Of Victories

2010-05-30T15:22:00.000+05:30

Aussie Mark Webber's excellent form continues; he completed an impressive hat-trick of pole positions on Saturday when he clocked the fastest time for Red Bull in qualifying for Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix. The 33-year old drivers' championship leader, winner of the last two races in Spain and Monaco, in the best form of his career and looking forward to complete a hat-trick of race win on Sunday. He has now claimed four pole this season, and the Red Bull team have taken all seven pole this season.
Michael Schumacher claimed the 5th position in the starting grid for the first time this season, may be we could see Michael on the podium on Sunday.

To see the result of Monaco Grand Prix:
Monaco Grand Prix Result

Driver standings after six races:
Drivers' Point Table

Team standings after six races:
Constructors' Point Table

Mark Webber Wins Spanish Grand Prix

2010-05-12T20:07:00.000+05:30

Mark Webber secured his first victory of the season and the third of his career on Sunday when he cruised to a magnificent triumph for his team Red Bull in the Spanish Grand Prix.
Webber crossed the checkered flag 24 seconds ahead of home hero two-times champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Ferrari. Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren looked certain to finish second until he crashed due to a tyre puncture on his penultimate lap of the 66 laps contest.
Michael Schumacher finished fourth, his best performance of the season so far.

To see the result of last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix:
Spanish Grand Prix Result

Driver standings after five races:
Drivers' Point Table

Team standings after five races:
Constructors' Point Table

Next Race:
Monaco Grand Prix (Monte Carlo): 13 -16 May

Chennai Becomes The Super King Of IPL

2010-04-28T23:53:00.001+05:30

Chennai Super Kings have become the king of IPL-3, they did an upset to win over favorites Mumbai Indians in the final. Starting from the toss, everything was favoring CSK. The date of final was 25th (Numerological number 7), 7 is the lucky number for CSK's captain MS Dhoni... whatever Dhoni did that day was clicked. Dhoni won the toss, elected to bat first. After 12 overs struggling at 68/3, then Dhoni came and with Suresh Raina put up a very good partnership of 72 runs from just 35 balls. Finally they finished the innings at 168/5, the highest score ever in an IPL final. Despite Mumbai Indians' captain Sachin Tendulkar's responsible 48 off 45 balls with an injured finger and Kieron Pollard's late storm (27 off 10 balls), MI finished their innings 22 runs behind CSK. When everything was working perfect for CSK, on the other hand nothing was going MI's way. They dropped Suresh Raina twice, finally he finished with an unbeaten 57 off 35 and took the match away from MI. Opener Shikhar Dhawan played eight balls before falling for a duck. Abhishek Nayar, promoted to No.3, slammed 27, but took up too much time. Harbhajan Singh at No.4 lasted for two balls only. In form batsman Saurabh Tiwary out for a two ball duck. Kieron Pollard, in the most bizarre decision of all, finally came out to bat at No.8 when MI needed 55 off 18 balls. He tried his level best and smashed a whirlwind 27 in just 10 balls before falling to a trap planned by Dhoni and bowler Morkel. What was Pollard doing in the dugout for 17 overs???
Chennai Super Kings, the most consistent team of IPL, finally lifted the trophy in the third attempt.
Final Positions of the teams as follows:
Winner : CSK
Runner Up : MI
No.3 : RCB
No.4 : DC
No.5 : DD
No.6 : KKR
No.7 : RR
No.8 : KXP
IPL3 is over, we will have to wait for almost a year for IPL4... it will be bigger than this, 10 teams, 94 matches.

Who Will Be The King Of IPL 2010

2010-04-25T13:22:00.002+05:30

Finally, after six weeks of exciting cricket, we've come to the final day of IPL-3. Countdown has begun for the grand finale between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings on Super Sunday. It's a battle between two champions, two gladiators, Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Billions of people across India and other cricket loving countries of the world are getting themselves free for three hours and fifteen minutes to watch the final encounter of this extremely popular tournament.

Chance of Sachin Tendulkar to play the final is the million dollar question now. The legend, who turned 37 on Saturday, had split the webbing of his right hand during the semi final clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar's unavailability could put Mumbai Indians one step behind in the race of number one. MI have been the most consistent team of the tournament, losing only 4 matches out of 15, they will be playing their first IPL final.

On the other hand, MSD's Chennai Super Kings will be playing their second IPL final after 2008. They barely limped into the semi final courtesy a late blitz from their captain MSD against Kings XI Punjab. But after that they just thrashed last year's champion Deccan Chargers in the semi final. Dhoni is a master at playing smart cricket and don't hesitate to take bold & unexpected decisions, and somehow has the knack of making every decision work.

I am also waiting for the big final to watch, it’s almost seven hours to go.

Defending Champion On Top After Shanghai Win

2010-04-24T17:36:00.002+05:30

After Ferrari and Red Bull, it was the time for McLaren to finish 1-2. Defending Champion Jenson Button calmly steered his way through the chaos of a wet Chinese grand Prix for his second win of the season on last Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton finished 1.530 seconds behind his compatriot and team mate Jenson Button. It was the first British one-two since 1999.
Once again, seven time world champion Michael Schumacher disappointed us by getting only one point from a wet race, who used to be the master of that condition. We will have to wait for some more days, and I'm sure very soon we will see 'Michael's Magic'.

To see the result of last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix:
Chinese Grand Prix Result

Driver standings after four races:
Drivers' Point Table

Team standings after four races:
Constructors' Point Table

Next Race:

Spanish Grand Prix (Catalunya) : 07-09 May

IPL Season 2010 - All Set For Semi Finals At DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

2010-04-20T00:59:00.001+05:30

Finally we have got the four semi finalist for this year's IPL. 56 league matches are over. Mumbai Indians comprehensively tops the table with 20 points. Then Deccan Chargers at the 2nd position with 16 points, they played some fantastic cricket for the last couple of weeks and won 5 matches in a row to ensure a place for semi final... really hats off to them. For the last two semi final berth, there was a fight between four teams; all the four teams (RCB, CSK, DD & KKR) ended with 14 points. But CSK & RCB made it to the last four with better net run rate.

This is the final point table after the last match of the league.

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	14	10	4	+1.084	20
DC	14	8	6	-0.297	16
CSK	14	7	7	+0.274	14
RCB	14	7	7	+0.219	14
DD	14	7	7	+0.021	14
KKR	14	7	7	-0.341	14
RR	14	6	8	-0.514	12
KXP	14	4	10	-0.478	8

KKR played their best cricket for the last couple of games and defeated two strong teams Rajasthan Royals and table topper Mumbai Indians; still they couldn't find any place in the final four courtesy crucial lose against Kings XI Punjab after scoring 200 runs in 20 overs. Delhi Daredevils again disappointed, in the final match yesterday against Deccan Chargers, they couldn't chase down even 145 runs at their home ground. On the other hand, if you see the performance of CSK, they chased down a difficult total of 192 against Kings XI Punjab and qualified for the semi final courtesy superb finish by their captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
So, two big semi finals are coming up; first on 21st, between Mumbai Indians & Royal Challengers Bangalore and the second on 22nd, between Deccan Chargers & Chennai Super Kings.

KKR In Semis??? Hope For The Miracle

2010-04-17T16:16:00.000+05:30

It's really disappointing once again for KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders). After the failure in first two seasons, KKR was expected to perform a lot better in this season, but somehow it didn't happen. It looks like the same story repeats once again for KKR, they didn't click as a unit.
KKR started off the season in a perfect style, beating the defending champion DC (Deccan Chargers) and the last years runner-up RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore). Everything was looking like perfect for them, the team combination, the captaincy, the coaching... everything. But after the returning of some key foreign players, the team had to reshuffled and team lost the momentum thereafter. Till date when they are ready to play their crucial encounter against double R (Rajasthan Royals), they haven't found the right combination.
Their tour to South India was really heart breaking, they not only lost both the matches against RCB and CSK, but they had worsen their net run rate also.
It looks like we'll have to wait for another year to see KKR in the final four.
But...
Is there any chance for KKR to reach the semis this season???
The answer is YES.
As one of the big fans of KKR, I still find a very dim light in the darkness. But for that, the team has to do everything right, the players need to keep all the basics right and give their more than 100% on the field. KKR has to take one match at a time, they have nothing to lose at that moment. Whatever the worst thing could possible, already had happened. They are almost, you can say 99% out of the race now. But that remaining 1% can change many things.
KKR should learn from DC, how they have been playing and winning matches from a situation where they had to win all five remaining matches. DC has won their last four matches after losing five in a row and kept their semi final hope alive.
Cricket is a game of uncertainty, specially the T20... anything can happen. We had witnessed many miracles in the past... may be one more is waiting, nobody knows. So, don't lose hope... cheer for KKR.
KKR need a 'Chak De' speech from SRK

Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo

How the Team stand after 51 matches

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	12	9	3	+1.116	18
RCB	13	7	6	+0.467	14
DD	13	7	6	+0.066	14
DC	13	7	6	-0.363	14
CSK	13	6	7	+0.270	12
RR	13	6	7	-0.421	12
KKR	12	5	7	-0.632	10
KXP	13	4	9	-0.490	8

Mumbai Indians - The First Semi Finalist of The IPL-3

2010-04-12T01:23:00.000+05:30

Finally IPL-3 has got its first semi finalist after 45 matches. Yes, the Mumbai Indians are the first semi finalist of this season's IPL. They are still at the top of the table with 16 points in 11 matches. They have reached the semi final of the IPL for the first time in three occasions. Today they have defeated Rajasthan Royals comprehensively by 37 runs. Mumbai Indian's captain Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 89 not only brought him the Orange Cap back but also knocked the Rajasthan Royals out at their home ground, Jaipur for the first time in IPL history. Now, only 11 matches to play before semi final; the points table looks very tight. Only one team, KingsXI Punjab is already out of the race; but the remaining six teams... my goodness, really it's a very tight situation out there...any three teams can make it to the last four out of these six. The KingsXI Punjab has already started spoiling the party of many teams...and many more to come. Today they have defeated Delhi Daredevils quite comfortably by 7 wickets. The next 11 matches are going to be really interesting. This is the beauty of IPL.
IPL-3 ... superb... really the best tournament... no doubt about that.

Look at the points table after 45 matches

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	11	8	3	+1.040	16
RCB	11	6	5	+0.443	12
DD	11	6	5	+0.206	12
RR	12	6	6	-0.288	12
CSK	11	5	6	+0.107	10
KKR	11	5	6	-0.417	10
DC	11	5	6	-0.539	10
KingsXI	12	4	8	-0.484	8

Red Bull Is Back To 1-2 Finish Business

2010-04-08T20:35:00.000+05:30

It was a Red Bull day in Malaysian Grand Prix on last Sunday. It was their first one-two finish of the season. Sebastian Vettel celebrated his sixth career win after two frustrating races in Bahrain and Australia. Not so good result for Ferrari and McLaren. McLarens & Ferraris started on the back four rows of the grid but Hamilton and Massa finished as 6th & 7th after starting from 20th & 21st places of the grid respectively.
Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher once again failed to perform with his non Ferrari team. He had to park his car on the side of the track after 10 laps.
Force India's Adrian Sutil finished a creditable 5th, his best finish of the season and earned 10 points for his team. Excellent job 'Force India'

To see the result of last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix:
Malaysian Grand Prix Result

Driver standings after three races:
Drivers' Point Table

Team standings after three races:
Constructors' Point Table

Magician Warne Does The Miracle For Rajasthan Royals

2010-04-06T01:47:00.000+05:30

Today we have witnessed one more exciting match of this season's IPL, between RR (Rajasthan Royals) and defending champion DC (Deccan Chargers). RR clinched an unbelievable victory from nowhere and maintained their IPL record of always defending a 150-plus total. The score was 112-3 in 13.4 overs, DC was cruising towards victory, only 48 runs away from their 4th victory with 7 wickets in hand; then the old magician of cricket history Shane Warne started showing his magic. Warne produced his T20 career best figure of 4 for 21, Rohit Sharma's heroic 44 ball 73 went in vain. DC ended their innings just 3 runs away from the victory on the penultimate ball.
This year's IPL is really going well, it has been getting more and more interesting as the day progresses. After 36 matches completed, only one team is sitting almost safe i.e. MI (Mumbai Indians). And another team is also tension free, they are almost out of the race for semi final, i.e. KingXI Punjab. The rest six teams are really fighting with each other for the semi final, keep on changing their places almost after every match.
Yesterday we had witnessed the biggest upset of the tournament so far when KingsXI Punjab successfully chased a huge total of 200 against KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) and spoiled their party. The Gayle storm which was seen during the first innings, completely overshadowed by an unbeaten 110 run off 59 balls by Mahela Jayawardene. KKR lost the match after scoring a record 33 runs in one over.

Brief Score of match between RR and DC:

Rajasthan Royals 159 (Watson 58, Fazal 36, RP Singh 3-17) beat Deccan Chargers 157 (Rohit 73, Warne 4-21) by two runs

Brief Score of match between KingsXI Punjab and KKR:

Kings XI Punjab 204 for 2 (Jayawardene 110*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 200 for 3 (Gayle 88) by eight wickets

Current Standings after 36 matches:

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	8	7	1	+1.412	14
DD	9	6	3	+0.397	12
RCB	9	5	4	+0.428	10
RR	10	5	5	-0.394	10
CSK	9	4	5	+0.042	8
KKR	9	4	5	-0.444	8
DC	9	3	6	-0.743	6
KingsXI	9	2	7	-0.504	4

Jenson Back in The Podiums, Lewis Ready to Conquer Sepang

2010-04-02T12:43:00.000+05:30

Sepang Circuit - Malaysian GP

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton is trying to forget his difficult last weekend in Australia by setting the pace in today morning's first practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
2008 champion Hamilton timed a superb 1m 34.921s in the hot and humid conditions here in Malaysia, well ahead of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg (1m 35.106s). Last year's world champion and last weekend's Australian Grand Prix champion Jenson Button was third with 1m 35.207s.
Seven times world champion, come back man Michael Schumacher is still far behind his old form, he ended the first practice session in 4th position with 1m 35.225s. It's a matter of time only, I'm sure very soon we'll see Michael Magic; who knows, it could be in this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

To see the result of last weekend's Australian Grand Prix:
Australian Grand Prix Result

Drivers standings after two races:
Drivers' Point Table

Teams standings after two races:
Constructors' Point Table

Podiums - Australian GP

Indian Team For World Twenty20

2010-03-28T20:44:00.000+05:30

Finally 15-member squad for the upcoming World Twenty20 tournament in West Indies has been anounced by Indian selectors. The team is almost the old one, the only new face is Karnataka paceman Vinay Kumar. The players who have been dropped from the last T20 World Cup squad are Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha and Irfan Pathan.
Piyush Chawla has been selected as the second spinner along with the main spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Missed out players who are in good form are Manish Pandey, Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Robin Uthappa and Murali Kartik.
Once again the fitness of the players are going to play the big role in the World Cup.
The tournament is scheduled for April30 to May16.
IPL-3 will be ended on April25, that means the players will go to West Indies straight after tiring IPL.
What is the reason for organising IPL just before World Cup? The same thing happened in last year also.
One of the reasons could be to select more talented, more fresh and fit T20 players for World Cup. But when the time comes for selection, the selectors always stick to the old team forgetting the word 'FITNESS'. They shouldn't forget that the fitness plays an important role in T20 cricket.
Lets hope for the best, we have match-winning batsmen like Sehwag, Gambhir, Dhoni, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh.
'Oh God, please keep them fit for another two months... atleast upto May16'

The Final 15 is:
MS Dhoni (Captain & Wicket Keeper), Virendra Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar and Rohit Sharma.

For schedule and fixtures of World Twenty20 Cup please click below.

Fixtures of T20 World Cup 2010

Catches Win Matches - Catch of The Century Taken By AB De Villiers

2010-03-26T17:02:00.000+05:30

This was the catch taken by South African AB de Villiers in the 20th match of IPL-3 between DD (Delhi Daredevils) and RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore). This catch might be the catch of the century; AB de Villiers had really taken a blinder.
On Monday, during the 17th match, between KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) and MI (Mumbai Indians) we had seen Sourav Ganguly to take an awesome catch. But this catch is better according to me, because it was taken just before the ball was going over the boundary. De Villiers jumped back to take that amazing one-handed catch, the ball appeared to have passed him and gone for a six.
Yesterday DD ended their loosing streak as well as RCB's winning streak after defeating RCB by 17 runs.
In the other match (match no.21) in Mumbai, MI (Mumbai Indian) marked their fourth win in five matches by defeating very strong CSK (Chennai Super King) by 5 wickets with one over to spare.

Brief Scores:
Match No. 20 (RCB Vs. DD)
DD 183 for 4 (Jadhav 50*, Warner 33) beat RCB 166 for 9 ( Pandey 39, Kohli 38*) by 17 runs

Match No.21 (MI Vs. CSK)
MI 181 for 5 (Dhawan 56, Tendulkar 72) beat CSK 180 for 2 (Raina 83*, Badrinath 55*) by five wickets

Mongoose Bat - Does it really have the potential to revolutionise Cricket?

2010-03-24T16:23:00.000+05:30

Mongoose bat - a new generation bat, specifically designed for T20 Cricket was launched in India on the eve of IPL -3 by Matthew Hayden, former Australian Cricket Player and an ambassador of Mongoose Cricket Ltd., (the manufacturer of the bat).
The handle of the bat is 43% longer and the blade is 33% shorter than the conventional bat. The manufacturer claims that this bat provides 20% more power and 15% more speed.
Creator of the bat Marcus Codrington Fernandez, Director, Mongoose Cricket Ltd. declared that Australian Andrew Symonds and West Indian Dwayne Smith have also signed a contract with them and will be seen with this bat during the IPL.
According to Fernandez, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) had declared the bat legal and permitted its use in India and worldwide. At present, 100 bats in two categories will be launched in India and all of them would be signed by Hayden; price of the bat is between Rs.17000 and Rs.23000.
Matthew Hayden thinks the Mongoose has the potential to revolutionise cricket. The bat allows you to hit the ball harder without changing your technique. Its increased leverage and lighter weight letting you swing it faster and with more power.

"I was a bit skeptical at first but after hitting with it, I reckon it will take the world by storm." - Stuart Law, the former Australian player.

Does the bat really have the potential to revolutionise cricket? We have already seen Matthew Hayden playing with that bat in IPL-3, but we haven't seen the magic of Mongoose till date.
We'll have to wait and watch.

Source: Wikipedia

Super Over Produces Kings XI's First Win

2010-03-23T01:37:00.000+05:30

Wow... yesterday we witnessed the most exciting match of the tournament, between CSK (Chennai Super King) and Kings XI (Punjab). Both the teams ended their innings at 136 after 20 overs, and finally Super Over came into the picture as the decider. This was the first Super Over of the IPL season 2010. The first ever Super Over of the IPL was played between KKR (Kolkata Knight Rider) and RR (Rajasthan Royals) in 2009.

Kings XI Punjab pulled the match off while chasing a moderate 10 runs in 6 balls. Kings XI recorded their first win of the season when Yuvraj Singh played an audacious reverse sweep off the fourth ball of Muralitharan's Super Over.

Score of Super Over:

CSK: 1-W-2-6-W
(Morkel 1*, Raina 8, Hayden 0)
Bowler: Juan Theron

Kings XI: 6-W-0-4
(Mahela 6, Yuvraj 4*, Pathan 0*)
Bowler: Muralitharan

Chak De Phatte (Off The Field)

2010-03-21T08:26:00.000+05:30

Most dashing and exciting cricketer Yuvraj Singh might not be having a great time on the field but he certainly seems to be hitting big shots off the field. He is the master of hitting big sixes, he always hits sixes; we love to watch Yuvraj hitting biggies. Whenever he fails on the field, he makes it up off the field like the way he was doing at the IPL nights party here in Bangaluru, after losing to Royal Challengers Bangalore on March'16. Spotted dancing with model Anchal Kumar, Yuvraj Singh introduced her as childhood friend. Yuvraj, one of the most eligible bachelors of the country, always being linked to various Bollywood actresses, including much publicised affair with Kim Sharma and Deepika Padukone; he does everything in style... 'shaan se'

!!!chak de phatte, Punjab da puttar!!!

IPL-3 Is Getting More Interesting

2010-03-18T01:18:00.000+05:30

9th match of the DLF IPL 2010 has just finished. It was completely one team show, only Mumbai Indians... Mumbai Indians ... Mumbai Indian (MI). They have completely outplayed opponent Delhi Daredevils (DD) in all respect, batting, bowling and fielding. Superb 98 run victory has lifted MI to the top of the points table and DD slipped to the third spot. Once again we witnessed another blistering innings by master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, he rewarded as player of the match for his 32 ball 63.
With the joining of Bravo and Pollard in the team, MI looks very strong team in every departments; batting, bowling and also in all rounder category. Young Indians of the team (Tiwary, Rayudu, Tare, Satish) are also looking in very good touch. Overall they are one of the strongest contenders of playing the final this year.
Yesterday Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) dream run had been stopped by Dhoni's Chennai Super King (CSK).
An unbroken 109 run partnership in 65 balls between captain Dhoni and Badrinath just took the match away from KKR.
So, the IPL-3 is getting very interesting, teams win one day go to lose on the other day... still long way to go, anything can happen. But my intuition says, KKR & MI will make it to the final this year. Let's see...

The current standings after 9 matches:

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	2	2	0	+2.55	4
KKR	3	2	1	-0.64	4
DD	3	2	1	-1.19	4
CSK	2	1	1	+0.60	2
DC	2	1	1	+0.50	2
RCB	2	1	1	+0.11	2
KGXIP	2	0	0	-0.42	0
RR	2	0	0	-0.80	2

Men In Red Are Back With A Bang

2010-03-15T23:09:00.000+05:30

Formula one season 2010 begins with a great show by Ferrari. Double world champion, 28 year old spanish Fernando Alonso started his Ferrari career with a remarkable note by winning the Sunday's season-opener in Bahrain. His team-mate Felipe Massa also enjoyed his come back race after his head injury at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix by fiinishing second. Ferrari is back to the number one and back with a bang... recorded their 80th one-two finish.

William's Nico Hulkenberg was the only rookie among the five to finish the race. Indian driver Karun Chandhok was the first among the nine drivers who had to retire from the race before finishing line.
Come back man, seven time world champion Michael Schumacher finished sixth just behind his team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Ferrari is heading the constructors' championship standings with 43 points, 22 points ahead of number 2 McLaren Mercedes.

Click Results of Bahrain Grand Prix for final result.

Aussies The New King of World Hockey

2010-03-15T01:18:00.000+05:30

The 2010 Hockey World Cup ended on Saturday with another great final between the top two teams of the world, Germany and Australia here in New Delhi. The crowd of New Delhi witnessed 38 exciting matches played between 12 countries in 14 days (from February 28 to March 13) at Dhyan Chand National Stadium. Ric Charlesworth's Australia defeated the defending champion Germany by 2-1 and lifted the Hero Honda FIH World Cup for the second time. They had broken the dream of German players to complete the hat-trick of titles.
Host India ended the tournament with satisfied 8th position.
But their archrival Pakistan ended with disappointed last position.

Super Yusuf Steals Heart of Crowd, But Rajasthan Lose The Contest

2010-03-14T17:28:00.001+05:30

Wow... what a brilliant innings. Yesterday the crowds of Mumbai witnessed a blistering and unbelievable century by Yusuf Pathan. The first century of the IPL-3 comes from the bat of most exciting player of T20 cricket. Yusuf Pathan walked in the ground when RR (Rajasthan Royals) were struggling at 40 for 3 in 6.3 overs, chasing MI's (Mumbai Indian) 212. He thrashed almost everything outside the boundary rope and completed the fastest century of the IPL history (100 in 37 balls) and put up a near match winning partnership of 107 runs from less than 8 overs with Paras Dogra (41 runs in 29 balls) before being run out in very unfortunate fashion. Pathan hit 9 fours and 8 big sixes during his super show in Mumbai.

Pathan's Run Out

When captain Shane Warne started sensing a thrilling victory, then the most unfortunate incident happened... run out at non-striking end. Pathan's century was in vain and finally RR lost the match by only 4 runs.

Brief Score:

Mumbai Indians 212 for 6 (Rayudu 55, Tiwary 53, Mascarenhas 2-34) beat Rajasthan Royals 208 for 7 (Yusuf 100, Dogra 41, Malinga 2-22) by 4 runs

Changes Bring All Luck For KKR

2010-03-13T10:33:00.000+05:30

Changes bring all luck for SRK's KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders). Last year's bottom most team defeated defending champion DC (Deccan Chargers) in the inaugural match of the new season of IPL (IPL 3) here at Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai. New management (Coach Dave Whatmore, Bowling Coach Wasim Akram), new captain Sourav Ganguly (regained captaincy from Brendon McCullum), and last but not the least new color of their dress (changed from black to blue) bring the success of most popular team of IPL, ShahRukh Khan's KKR. After losing the first two wickets within first four balls of the match and after struggling at 31 for 4 in 5.1 overs, everybody sitting in the stadium and watching television back home expected the same result what we saw in the IPL 2. But wheel of fortune turned towards KKR after 14th over of their innings, they scored 80 runs from the last 6 overs without losing a wicket. The fifth wicket partnership between Angelo Mathews (65 not out from 46 balls) and Owais Shah (58 not out from 46 balls) remained unbeaten and put up a very good fighting total (161 for 4 in 20 overs).
Like the first half, once again we had witnessed how the wheel of fortune turned towards KKR from DC in second half of the match also. DC captain Adam Gilchrist almost took the match away from KKR with the support of first VVS Laxman and then Herschelle Gibbs from the other end. The turnaround started when Gilchrist pulling the first ball of the 12th over bowled by part timer Brad Hodge straight to deep square leg. After that wickets kept on falling in regular intervals and suddenly DC started feeling pressure at 128 for 5 in 16.2 overs from a very comfortable position of 99 for 1 in 11 overs. Suddenly the field placement, bowling changes every single decision of captain Sourav Ganguly started looking perfect.
Last season we had seen KKR to lose many close finishes but this time they held their nerve and clinched the match.
Last time change of color of dress put Deccan Chargers from bottom to top... lets see what it brings this time for Kolkata Knight Riders... who knows??? May be the champion of IPL season 2010

Kolkata Knight Riders 161 for 4 (Mathews 65*, Shah 58*, Vaas 2-22) beat Deccan Chargers 150 for 7 (Gilchrist 54, Langeveldt 2-26) by 11 runs

!!!All the best KKR and SRK!!!

Count Down Begins for Cricket's Biggest Carnival

2010-03-12T01:40:00.000+05:30

IPL is back to home again. Much awaited DLF IPL 2010 (IPL 3) is going to start only after 15 hours from now. The whole country is ready for the biggest carnival of Cricket (T20 cricket) once again. Everybody will be busy in front of television (live on Set Max) for the next 45 days, many will go to the stadium to see the big guns of world cricket playing together for the same team.
60 explosive matches, 12 great venues, 8 exciting teams and plenty of beautiful cheer leaders.
Full schedule and fixtures of the tournament as given below:

Match No.

Day / Date

Timing (IST)

Match Between

Venue

Fri-12