BALL SWINGER

England team is hugely overrated!!!

2011-07-30T22:50:00.000+05:30

England team though won the first match comprehensively lacks enough guts to stay fighting and become the no.1 team in the world. They lack quality batsmen and bowlers but the english commentators and experts think that its the best team already!!! Oh! common people have some sense!!. England have been in the slump for decades and they r putting more pressure on the team already!!. The effect can be seen in the second test match where they r suffering to even put a good fight.!!! Lets see what they can do in the remaining days...

RCB win their first match!!!

2011-04-10T08:34:00.000+05:30

RCB beat the Kochi Tuskers Kerala by 6 wickets to start their campaign. KTK batted first and got a rolicking start with Laxman and McCullum putting on a 80 runs stand for first wicket. At one point they looked like they were getting to 180 runs but some quality bowling from Zak and Vettori controlled the total for 161 runs. Jadeja and Hodge contributed 23 and 27 runs respectively. For RCB Vettori took 1 for 17 in 4 overs.!!

Chasing a good target, the new guy Agarwal started well with his 33 from 24 balls for RCB. Then Kohli picked it up from there and made 23 runs. Then what happened was pure class by AB de Villiers. He scored 54 runs from 40 balls which had 5 sixes and a 4 to take RCB to an easy win with 8 balls to spare.

The jinx for Deccan Chargers continues

2011-04-10T08:27:00.000+05:30

The DC have not won a match at their home venue and it continues to be so with Rajasthan Royals beating them by a comfortable 8 wickets.
Batting first DC could only manage 137 runs helped by some lusty blows by Christian and Ravi Teja....The contributions were in 20s and no one got past that mark. The RR bowlers under Shane Warne were spot on with Siddharth Trivedi taking 3 wickets for 15 runs for his MOM.
Chasing this, RR never looked troubled and helped by Joan Botha's unbeaten 67 runs off 47 balls they won it in the nineteenth over. They had some useful contributions from Dravid and Taylor.

Sangakkara quits Captaincy.

2011-04-05T18:20:00.001+05:30

Kumar Sangakkara gave up his captaincy as a fall out of the world cup final loss against India with an eye for better prospects for Lanka in the future world cup.
Sangakkara told that he is resigning from captaincy from odi's and t20 internationals and thinks that it is for the best to see the new captain and groom him for the 2015 wc. He made it clear that he is unsure of playing in the 2015 wc as he will be 37 years old by that time and told that he has discussed with the selectors and he will continue to be available for all 3 formats of the game as a player.

India are the World Champions !!!

2011-04-04T00:36:00.001+05:30

It had been 28 years since Kapil Dev from India lifted the trophy and a billion dreams for more than a decade finally came true as India, where Cricket is a religion won the world cup 2011 and walked all the way to the glory. The coveted trophy was lifted by the Indian Captain MS Dhoni after India won the match by 6 wickets against Sri Lanka.
The start to the match was not as smooth as one would have hoped as toss happened twice. First time, the referee dint hear the call from the Sri Lankan Captain Sangakkara and the coin was tossed again by Dhoni. It was second time lucky for the Sri Lankan camp as the Captain won the toss and chose to bat first. Its not the first time the Captains made mistake in reading the pitch. Sri Lanka went in with Randiv, Perera and Kulasekara, making 3 changes, dropping Mendis and Herath and missing Angelo Matthews due to an injury. India went for Sreesanth instead of Ashwin. Both teams suffered for the changes.
Batting first, Sri Lanka were off to a terrible start, starting too slow because of some quality bowling by Zaheer Khan and were scoring at 2 runs an over. This forced Tharanga for a mistake and he got out to Zak edging one to Dhoni. Dilshan dint last too long either. What followed this was pure class of Sangakkara and Jayawardena who put on a 62 runs partnership scoring quickly. Sanga got out trying to cut a wide delivery from the man with the golden arms, Yuvraj Singh. He made 48 runs. Mahela was not going to go that easily. He carried on with ease and was getting runs at will. His knock was probably the best knock of the tournament. His deft touches kept on going for boundary and he was in his class today. He helped Sri Lanka to get to 274 runs in the end. They made 68 runs in the batting powerplay and Mahela made 103 from 88 balls. Kulasekara and Perera helped him in the process. Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh took 2 wickets each.

India chasing a record total to win in the wc final, which only 2 teams had succeeded in the history of the wc finals, started on a bad note losing Sehwag and Tendulkar cheaply for 31 runs. Both were the victims of Malinga's super first spell. Then Kohli and Gambhir, the young brigade took the game ahead with a crucial match saving partnership of 83 runs at a good run rate and this took the total to 114 runs for 2 wickets and Kohli fell for a super caught and bowled by Dilshan. He made 35 from 49 balls. Then came Dhoni and played the winning innings of the match and cleared his due for a big one. Along with Gambhir, he put on 109 runs and this took the match away from the Lankans. Gambhir got out falling 3 short of a deserving century. Dhoni with Yuvraj saw through the innings for India. Dhoni made 91 runs from 79 balls. A true captains knock guiding the team to win. Dhoni got the winning runs by hitting a huge six. It was a deserving win and India looked totally dominant and they put on a message to the cricketing world- "Beware, the Champions are here"

Sri Lanka 274/6 ( Mahela 103*, Yuvraj 2-49)
India 277/3 ( Gambhir 97, Dhoni 91*, Malinga 2-42) won by 6 wickets.

Mumbai Indians

2011-04-04T00:35:00.006+05:30

Home Ground    : Wankhede Stadium, Brabourne Stadium
Owner               : Reliance Industries Limited.
Website             : http://www.themumbaiindians.com/

2008 : 5th position
2009 : 7th position
2010 : 2nd position

Batsmen

Tirumalasetti Suman
Aiden Blizzard
S K Yadav
Sachin Tendulkar (Captain)
Rohit Sharma
Sarul Kanwar

All Rounders

Moises Henriques
James Franklin
Rajagopal Sathish
Kieron Pollard
Andrew Symonds

Wicket Keepers

Aditya Tare
Davy Jacobs
Ambati Rayudu

Bowlers

Harbhajan Singh
Abu Nechim
Clint McKay
Dhawal Kulkarni
Munaf Patel
Ali Murtaza
Yuzvendra Chahal
Pawan Suyal
Lasith Malinga

Source : http://www.wikipedia.org

year	Played	Wins	Losses	win perc
2008	14	7	7	50.00
2009	14	5	8	35.71
2010	14	11	3	68.75

Chennai Super Kings

2011-04-04T00:35:00.005+05:30

Home Ground    : M A Chidambaraam Stadium.

Owner               : India Cements Ltd.
Website             : http://www.chennaisuperkings.com

2008 : Runners up.
2009 : Semi finalists.
2010 : Winners.

Batsmen

Suresh Raina
Murali Vijay
Michael Hussey
Subramaniam Badrinath
Vasudeva Dass
George Bailey
Anirudha Srikkanth
Abhinav Mukund

All Rounders

Albie Morkel
Dwayne Bravo
Scott Styris
Francois du Plessis
Suraj Randiv
Ganapathi Vignesh
Shadab Jakati

Support Staff

Coach : Stephen Fleming
Coach : Steve Rixon
Bowling Coach : Andy Bichel
Physical Trainer: Gregory King
Physiotherapist : Tommy Simsek
Manager : Radha Krishnan

Wicket Keepers

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain)
Wriddhiman Saha

Bowlers

Doug Bollinger
Ravichandran Ashwin
Sudeep Tyagi
Ben Hilfenhaus
Nuwan Kulasekara
Joginder Sharma
Yo Mahesh

year	Played	Wins	Losses	win perc
2008	16	9	7	56.25
2009	15	8	6	52.33
2010	16	9	7	56.25

Deccan Chargers

2011-04-04T00:35:00.004+05:30

Home Ground    : Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, ACA-VDCA stadium.
Owner               : The Deccan Chronicle.
Website             : http://www.royalchallengers.com/

2008 : 5th position
2009 : 7th position
2010 : 2nd position

Batsmen

Michael Lumb
JP Duminy
Shikhar Dhawan
Kevin Pietersen
Arjun Yadav
Chris Lynn
Dwaraka Ravi Teja
Ishank Jaggi
Bharat Chipli
Sunny Sohal
Jaydev Shah

Wicket Keepers

Kumar Sangakkara
Kedar Devdhar

All Rounders

Cameron White
Daniel Christian
Ashish Reddy

Bowlers

Dale Steyn
Harmeet Singh
Rusty Theron
Pragyan Ojha
Ishant Sharma
Manpreet Gony
Amit Mishra
Ishan Malhotra
Akash Bhandari
Anand Rajan
Ankit Sharma

Support Staff

Head Coach: Darren Lehmann
Captain: TBA
Manager: Goolam Rajah
Assistant Coach: Kanwaljit Singh
Assistant Coach (Fielding): Mike Young
Team Doctor: Dr.Mohammed Zahoorul Hussain
Physiotherapist: Dr Sean Slattery
Fitness Expert: Steve Smith
Masseuse: Ashleigh Joyce
Performance Analyst: Unni Krishnan

year	Played	Wins	Losses	win perc
2008	14	2	12	14.00
2009	16	9	7	56.00
2010	16	8	8	50.00

Delhi Daredevils

2011-04-04T00:35:00.003+05:30

Home Ground    : Firoz Shah Kotla.
Owner               : GMR Group
Website             : http://www.delhidaredevils.com/

2008 : Semi finalists
2009 : Semi finalists
2010 : 5th position

Batsmen

Virender Sehwag (Captain)
Aaron Finch
David Warner
Travis Birt
Venugopal Rao
Colin Ingram
Unmukht Chand
Robin Bist
Prashant Naik

All Rounders

Andrew McDonald
James Hopes
Irfan Pathan
Roelof van der Merwe
Robert Frylinck
Yogesh Nagar
Sridharan Sriram
Tejashwi Yadav

Support Staff

Head Coach: Greg Shipperd
Physiotherapist: Kirk Russell
Trainer: Rob Walters
Fielding Coach/Video Analyst: Trent Woodhill
Masseur: Randeep

Wicket Keepers

Mathew Wade
Naman Ojha

Bowlers

Morne Morkel
Ajit Agarkar
Ashok Dinda
Rajesh Pawar
Umesh Yadav
Shahbaz Nadeem
Vikas Mishra
Vivek Yadhav
Avishkar Salvi
Varun Aaron

Rajasthan Royals

2011-04-04T00:35:00.002+05:30

Home Ground    : Sardar Patel Stadium
Owner               : Emerging Media, Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra
Website             : http://www.rajasthanroyals.com/

2008 : Winners
2009 : 6th position
2010 : 7th position

Batsmen

Rahul Dravid
Ross Taylor
Aakash Chopra
Ajinkya Rahane
Ashok Meenaria
Faiz Fazal
Swapnil Asnodkar
Dinesh Salunkhe
Amit Paunikar

All Rounders

Shane Watson
Paul Collingwood
Johan Botha
Stuart Binny
Sumit Narwal
Ankeet Chavan

Wicket Keepers

Pinal Shah
Dishant Harendra Yagnik

Bowlers

Shane Warne
Shaun Tait
Abhishek Raut
Siddharth Trivedi
Pankaj Singh
Nayan Doshi
Amit Singh
Aditya Dole
Samad Fallah
Deepak Chahar

Coaches

Director of Coaching: Darren Berry
Performance Coach: Jeremy Snape
Team Manager: Sushil Tulaskar
Physiotherapist: John Gloster

year	Played	Wins	Losses	win perc
2008	14	11	3	78.57
2009	14	6	7	42.85
2010	14	6	8	42.85

Kings XI Punjab

2011-04-04T00:35:00.001+05:30

Home Ground    : PCA Stadium, HPCA Stadium.
Owner               : Priety Zinta and Ness Wadia, Karan Paul and Mohit Burman.
Website             : http://www.kxip.in/

2008 : Semi finalists
2009 : 6th position
2010 : Finished last

Batsmen

Shaun Marsh
David Hussey
Paras Dogra
Sunny Singh
Siddharth Chitnis
Mandeep Singh
Paul Valthaty

All Rounders

Abhishek Nayar
Piyush Chawla
Dimitri Mascarenhas
Ryan Harris
Love Ablish
Bipul Sharma

Wicket Keepers

Adam Gilchrist (Captain)
Dinesh Karthik
Nitin Saini

Bowlers

Praveen Kumar
Stuart Broad
Nathan Rimmington
Shalabh Srivastava
Vikramjeet Malik
Amit Yadav
Bhargav Bhatt

Coaches

Captain: Adam Gilchrist
Head Coach: Michael Bevan
1st Assistant Head Coach: Trevor Penney
2nd Assistant Head Coach: Dave Nosworthy
Physiotherapist: Patrick Farhart

Kolkata Knight Riders

2011-04-04T00:35:00.000+05:30

Home Ground    : Eden Gardens

Owner               : Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Jai Mehta, Red Chillies Entertainment.
Website             : http://www.kkr.in/

2008 : 6th position
2009 : 8th position
2010 : 6nd position

Batsmen

Gautam Gambhir (Captain)
Manoj Tiwary
Eoin Morgan

All Rounders

Shakib Al Hasan
Yusuf Pathan
Jacques Kallis
Ryan ten Doeschate
Laxmi Ratan Shukla
Rajat Bhatia

Wicket Keepers

Brad Haddin
Shreevats Goswami
Maninder Bisla

Bowlers

Brett Lee
Lakshmipathy Balaji
Jaydev Unadkat
James Pattinson
Iqbal Abdulla
Pradeep Sangwan
Mohammad Shami Ahmed
Sarabjit Ladda

Support Staff

Captain: Gautam Gambhir
Head Coach: Dav Whatmore
Assistant Coach: Vijay Dahiya
Bowling Consultant: Wasim Akram
Physiotherapist: Andrew Leipus
Physical Trainer: Adrian Le Roux

year	Played	Wins	Losses	win perc
2008	14	6	7	42.85
2009	14	3	10	21.42
2010	14	7	7	50.00

Sahara Pune Warriors

2011-04-04T00:34:00.001+05:30

Home Ground    : MCA Pune International Cricket Centre.

Owner               : Sahara Group
Website             : http://www.saharapunewarriors.com/

Batsmen

Graeme Smith
Callum Ferguson
Mohnish Mishra
Dheeraj Jadhav
Manish Pandey
Abhishek Jhunjhunwala
Harshad Khadiwale

All Rounders

Nathan McCullum
Angelo Mathews
Mitchell Marsh
Yuvraj Singh (Captain)
Jesse Ryder
Mithun Manhas
Harpreet Singh
Sachin Rana

Wicket Keepers

Robin Uthappa
Tim Paine
Eklavya Dwivedi

Bowlers

Alfonso Thomas
Murali Karthik
Wayne Parnell
Ashish Nehra
Jerome Taylor
Kamran Khan
Ganesh Gaikwad
Bhuveneshwar Kumar
Rahul Sharma
Shrikant Mundhe
Imtiyaz Ahmed
Shrikant Wagh

Support Staff

Head Coach: Geoff Marsh
Assistant Head Coach: Dermot Reeve

Kochi Tuskers Kerala

2011-04-04T00:34:00.000+05:30

Home Ground    : Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium
Owner               : Kochi Cricket Pvt Ltd.
Website             : http://www.kochituskers.com/

Batsmen

Owais Shah
VVS Laxman
Brad Hodge
Michael Klinger
Tanmay Srivastava
Deepak Chougule
Kedar Jadhav
Mahela Jayawardene (Captain)
Hrishikesh Kanitkar

Wicket Keepers

Parthiv Patel
Sushant Marathe
Brendon McCullum
Chandan Madan

All Rounders

John Hastings
Stephen O'Keefe
Steven Smith
Thissara Perera
Ravindra Jadeja
Raiphi Vincent Gomez
Balachandra Akhil
Yashpal Singh
P.Prasanth

Bowlers

Muttiah Muralitharan
RP Singh
Vinay Kumar
Sreesanth
Ramesh Powar

Support Staff

Coach: Geoff Lawson
Assistant Coach: Hrishikesh Kanitkar
Batting Coach: VVS Laxman

Super India beat Pakistan to book a date with the Lions!!!

2011-03-30T23:46:00.001+05:30

India showed its might on the cricket field and won the high profile match against Pakistan in Mohali. India beat Pakistan by 29 runs to book a finals berth against Sri Lanka on Saturday in Mumbai.
The high profile match was presided by the Prime Ministers of both the countries and some high profile politicians from India and a majority of known figures from the Bollywood and Indian Corporate sector.
Dhoni to begin with, won the crucial toss and chose to bat first on a track that looked a bit pacy and good for batting. The team changes were, Nehra was back in for Ashwin.
Batting first, India got off to a terrific start with awesome Sehwag blasting Umar Gul all over the park for boundaries. The Indian run rate was above 8 and Sehwag was on fire. But he was short lived, and got out for a good one by Wahab Riaz for 38 runs which had 9 fours. Tendulkar on the other hand was calm and kept to scoring in his own pace. With Gambhir he put on a 68 run partnership but the wickets kept falling at other end. Gambhir made 27 and Kohli and Yuvraj dint last long. Yuvraj was bowled out for a naught after Kohli and these 2 quick wickets meant a slow run rate between Sachin and Dhoni in their partnership. Sachin Tendulkar looked a lot scratchy all the time and he could not read the spinners that well on a slow track. But surprisingly he almost had 6 lives including a survival on the UDRS, 4 catches dropped by the Pakistan fielders. He made the most of it though and made 85 runs. After these 2 got out, it was Raina who proved his selection once again and made a cameo of 36 from 39 to take India to 260 runs in 50 overs.

Pakistan have never had a good chase under pressure chasing big scores and they were susceptible under pressure as expected and lost the track in the end. They started rather well and were scoring at a good pace and looked like they had no problems at all until Akmal fell in the 9th over and then Hafeez and Asad Shafiq got on for a while for a good partnership and then Yuvraj Singh took 2 quick wickets in quick succession to kick start the Pakistan fall. Hafeez made 43 and Shafiq made 30 runs. Then Kamran Akmal looked most dangerous and made 29 from 24 balls when it was tough to play the Indian bowlers. Younus Khan on the other end was miserable and made 13 runs from 32 balls. In the end 260 was too much for the Pakistan team and a valiant effort in the end by Misbah proved to be a waste. The Indian bowlers, especially Nehra and Munaf Patel bowled well and all five Indian bowlers took 2 wickets each.

India 260 all out (Tendulkar 85,Riaz 5-46)
Pakistan 231 in 49.5 overs (Misbah 57, Nehra 2-33)
India won by 29 runs.
MOM : Sachin Tendulkar.

Sri Lanka beats New Zealand to enter the finals.

2011-03-29T22:35:00.001+05:30

Sri Lanka vs New Zealand Semi Final.

Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets to qualify for the finals and will await the result of India vs Pakistan match tomorrow to know their opponent.
Batting first, New Zealand got quite a slow start and were at a run rate of 4 all the time inside the power plays. McCullum got out trying to sweep the ball and then Jesse Ryder fell for Murali magic. Guptill looked solid for his 39 runs. After this Ross Taylor and Scott Styris put up a good partnership of 77 runs to take NZ close to a possibly good total and a cameo from Williamson made a 250 and above total possible. But Malinga had other plans and he took 2 wickets in the Batting powerplay to kick start the black caps doom. In the end they were all out for a modest 217 in 48.5 overs with Styris being the highest score with a responsible half century. He scored 57 runs in the end. The Black Caps lost last 6 wickets for 25 runs.
Muralitharan took the wicket of Styris off his last ball of his career in Sri Lanka. For Lanka, Malinga and Mendis took 3 wickets each and Murali took 2.

Chasing this, SL never looked troubled and they continued their domination as they did against England in the quarters. This time, Tharanga kicked off the counter attack and hit a massive six off Nathan McCullum and some fours to take SL to a blazing start. He got out after making 30 off 31 balls off a super catch by Jesse Ryder. After his dismissal, Sri Lanka never looked back with captain Kumar Sangakkara joining Dilshan in destroying the chances of the New Zealanders bid for a first finals appearance. They put on a 120 runs partnership with Dilshan scoring 73 runs and Sanga made 54 runs. Then they lost 3 wickets in 9 runs to have a little trouble and NZ tightened the screw. But in the end, Angelo Matthews and Samaraweera took them home and SL won by 5 wickets.

New Zealand 217 off 48.5 overs (Styris 57, Mendis 3-35)
Sri Lanka 220-5 (Dilshan 73, Southee 3-57) won by 5 wickets.

Poonam Pandey will go nude if India wins!!!

2011-03-29T20:49:00.002+05:30

Another reason for India to win this World cup!!! Hot Model Poonam Pandey has told that she will go naked if India wins the World Cup.

She told that she will strip if allowed in the field itself, in front of thousands of people! to cheer for the Indian cricket team. The kingfisher calendar girl is candid and has also offered a peep view for players inside the dressing room if allowed. Some motivation for team India!!!

Ricky Ponting quits as captain

2011-03-29T07:49:00.000+05:30

Today the Australian captained announced that he will not lead the australian side anymore either in the odi's or test cricket. He has stepped down from his captaincy and he will be available as a batsmen for both the formats of the game. After the world cup debacle, it was expected some drastic change will take place in the Australian side. From now on Michael Clarke will lead the side.
Ponting said on account of the 2013-14 ashes series and 2015 world cup, he does not think he is going to play that far and the team requires a new leadership. He thanked his teammates and he does hope to get a re birth in batting like Sachin Tendulkar.
Ricky has captained Australian side for 228 ODI's, the most by any individual. He has a winning percentage as 76.38% and that is second only to Clive Loyd's tally of 77%. He had won 164 matches, 50 losses, 12 no results and 2 ties. He took over Captaincy from Steve waugh in 2003-04 and has been successful in winning 2 world cups and 2 Champion ship league for the Aussies.

India vs Pakistan semi final

2011-03-27T19:19:00.003+05:30

A dream semi final of India vs Pakistan is what everyone wanted. On March 30,2011, in the world cup 2011, India will lock horns with the Pakistan side in what seems to be the most exciting semifinal for over a decade. Both teams have not played each other in the world cup since 2003 match at centurion where India beat Pak by 6 wickets with Sachin Tendulkar scoring a masterstroke 98 and Yuvraj guided them to a win with a superb half century. In fact the two teams have not faced each other in a odi match since Pakistan in India ODI series in 2007/08. The series was won by India 3-2.
Pakistan has been very much in the game and has been very competitive against India all along except in the World Cups. In world cups, both team have faced each other in 4 matches and all those have been won by India. Pakistan since the time of Akrams, Waqar's has been unable to register a win in the world cup tournaments.
The two teams have been always evenly matched up but all the time, India has had the upper hand. If u consider the 2003 wc itself, ask yourself a question, what was the thing you remember most being an Indian or a Pakistani?? Undoubtedly Sachins upper cuts and his six off the Shoaib Akhtars bowling. It would easily be one of the best innings of the master. His storm took Pakistan out of the world cup but India in the end failed to win the cup.
More than anything, any records or stats its the rivalry that kills and is the most fascinating rivalry in the world of cricket. People might have thought during the course of the bi lateral series in 2008 that the intensity of the two teams has fallen a little, but they will have to re think as this is touted by more than a billion cricket watchers in both these nations as the mother of all battles. There has been political tension since the Mumbai blasts which has added to the intensity of the rivalry. The talks of the two countries have failed but the battle on the cricket ground goes on.
The players from both the team admit that beating each other in the biggest extravaganza of cricket will be the most important thing and moment in their lives. Even MS Dhoni admitted that people might forget if they lose the cup but they think its more important to win the match anytime. The rivalry and tension between India has been there since 1947 independence and is still carrying on without any signs of it slowing down.
The mother of all battle is the most anticipated battle of this world cup and it will be the most watched match of the wc for sure. Whoever comes of the battle victorious, will be the champion, may not be in terms of winning the tournament but they will certainly be in the hearts of the people of the nation.
The serious aspect of cricket is that, both teams have looked awesome in the tournament so far and the intensity of the clash of the two nations just magnifies the moment and the match itself. The world cup just is getting better and better. Whatever you do, dont miss it.

Shaun Tait retires from ODI's

2011-03-27T19:04:00.000+05:30

Troubled Australian fast bowler has announced his retirement from 50 over format of the game to focus and prolong his career. He will from now onwards play only in the T20 internationals.
He had taken 62 wickets in 35 games in odi's with an average of 23.56. The economy rate was 5.19 with a single 4 wicket haul. The reason for retirement has been his body which has failed to coup up with his action which is one of the most stressful action in world cricket.
He told " This is not a decision I have taken lightly but I believe it is the one that will help me prolong my cricketing career through many T20 internationals available".
He also told that his goal was to help the aussies retain the ICC Cricket Worldcup but now that the involvment is finished he will now get a move on in a new direction to focus on the shorter format.
Shaun Tait had announced his retirement after being hit all over by the Indian batsmen in 2008 at Perth and had been in a state of depression before coming back last year.

Sri Lanka blast off to the semifinals.

2011-03-26T21:59:00.001+05:30

Sri Lanka beat England by 10 wickets to register a superb win and a semifinal spot where they will play New Zealand. The sub continent team had an easy outing without much problems against England as the opening batsmen of Lanka scored a century each to end the England's exciting campaign in the world cup.
Chasing 230 to win in a pitch where the average first innings total was 190, Sri Lankan openers had no problem in securing a win without losing a wicket and this marks a really big win in the quarter finals.
Dilshan and Tharanga scored a century each. Dilshan made 108 off 115 balls while Tharanga made 102 from 122 balls. The English bowlers were hit all over the park by the duo and Swann was the most expensive off the lot. The batsmen had no problem throughout the entire innings and a comprehensive win confirms that Sri Lanka, perhaps is the most favorite team along with India to win the cup.
Earlier, England won the toss and chose to bat first and they started terribly as they were slow to start with and lost 2 wickets for 30 runs. Trott made a superb 86 and along with Morgans half century took the total to 229. Sri Lankan bowling was not as deadly as it had been and they dropped 3 catches off Morgan in the field and allowed England to a 200 past score.
Nonetheless, the way they chased the total shows that 250 or even 300 would have made little difference as the Lankan boys are used to their pitch conditions and it is indeed a very tough task to beat them in their own backyard.

England 229/6 (Trott 86, Muralitharan 2-54)
Sri Lanka 231/0 in 39.3 overs( Dilshan 108*, Tharanga 102*) beat England by 10 wickets.

New Zealand pull off a Houdini!!! Oram and Ryder guide them to a superb win against SA.

2011-03-25T21:51:00.002+05:30

New Zealand vs South Africa

The Black caps won the toss and chose to bat first on a pitch where out of last 15 matches, the team batting second had won 10 times. South Africa would have believed this is the best chance they have got and would have backed themselves for a win. Probably only Allan Donald and John Wright were the only 2 guys in the world who would have thought NZ has a chance of winning!!!
Batting first, New Zealand had a bad start losing both their openers in 6 overs with 15 runs on board.Ryder and Taylor, the two most impactful players of the New Zealand played a calming battle and put on a 114 runs partnership to take new zealand to a position of some respect. Williamson finished it in style with 38 runs. Jesse Ryder scored 83 and Taylor made 43 runs. The NZ total was a below par 221 runs.
South Africa were on the spot and had the top hand for most of the match's course and looked set to win it with ease with partnerships between Kallis and Smith and then Kallis and De Villiers. Kallis made 47 runs and AB made 35 and it looked like they would run away with a win as they were 107 for 2 and needed just over a hundred runs for a superb win but the way they folded up was miserable. The main turning point of the match was the superb catch of Kallis by Oram off Tim Southee's bowling near the boundary just charged up the Black Caps and from then on it was NZ on fire. Then they tumbled and lost 6 wickets for 38 runs. They finally folded up for 172 runs. New Zealand won by 49 runs. Oram took 4 wickets and Nathan McCullum took 3. Jesse Ryder's 83 runs under a lot of pressure was worth gold in the end.
New Zealand's fielding was definitely the best so far in the whole tournament and this definitely was one of their best performances ever. Vettori was spot on with all the placements and it was like a fort South Africans could not get loose.

MOM : Jacob Oram.
South Africa have never won a knock out game in the wc since 1992.
This is New Zealands sixth wc semifinals in 10 appearances.

New Zealand 221 (Ryder 83, Morkel 3-46)
South Africa 172 in 43.2 overs (Kallis 47, Oram 4-39)
New Zealand won by 49 runs

New Zealand v South Africa

2011-03-25T12:26:00.000+05:30

This match is probably one of the predictable encounters in this quarterfinals. New Zealand have been in a woeful form in the past year and have been totally messed up in the tournament so far. It has been a long time since they have performed well both with bat and ball in a match against a serious opposition. The problems are a plenty for Vettori and his boys. Vettori is expected to be fit for the big day and that should ensure some confidence in the players. The silver lining has been Tim Southee who has been a revelation in this world cup and Ross Taylor has been scoring heavily every odd match. They desperately need some big innings from McCullum and Jesse Ryder has not been upto his potential. If these 2 players come good with the bat, they can manage the bowling and fielding and can put up a decent fight.
On the other hand South Africans have been very good in the tournament so far. They have showed some good nerves so far and hopefully they will continue their good run. It will make the tournament more interesting. The problem with South Africans has been their inability to read the games in the past, especially big games and big tournaments, the deciders. They have choked and have paid every little penny they can afford so far. But they are confident this time and the team is comprised of big match winners in every department. This will ensure they can perform well but they must keep their head clear if they want to go further. It will break every ones heart if they choke again.

India wins the battle but the war is yet to be won!!!

2011-03-24T23:24:00.000+05:30

The match between Australia and India in Ahmedabad was not less than a war. There was blood, aggression and it went pretty close. Probably the best even match in the whole world cup so far. India in the end were victorious and they finally ended the super run of the super aussies and they have been knocked out of a world cup after 16 years and 3 editions.
Australia won the crucial toss and chose to bat first. The wicket from the first ball itself had some spin and Ashwin opened the bowling for India. Australian openers played it safe and were absolutely great holding on to the wicket and scoring watchfully for almost the entire powerplay1 but Watson lost his patience and finally got bowled out by Ashwin trying a extravagant shot. Haddin scored a half century but the real performance came from the captain Ricky Ponting who was outstanding stepping upto the occassion and was absolutely superb and scored a century. He scored 104 runs and Australia foded up scoring 260 runs in 50 overs. The Indian fielding was absolutely wonderful which seems to happen once a very long time.
India chasing a good total started of really well with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag scored quick runs in the first 5 overs with Tait bowling all over!!. Sehwag got out making 15 runs. Sachin though continued his fine form and made yet another 50 and became the highest scorer this world cup. The real man of the match though was Yuvraj Singh who scored a super half century under pressure and saw India home. He also took 2 wickets while bowling. The best bowler for Australia was Brett Lee yet again as he bowled superbly to the end taunting the Indian batsmen.

Australia 260/6 (50 ov)

India 261/5 (47.4 ov)

India won by 5 wickets (with 14 balls remaining)

Royal Challengers Bangalore

2011-03-23T23:24:00.012+05:30

Home Ground : M Chinnaswamy Stadium

Owner : Vijay Mallya

Website : http://www.royalchallengers.com/
Captain : Daniel Vettori

2008 : 7th position
2009 : Runners up
2010 : 3rd position

Players :

Batsmen

Virat Kohli
Saurabh Tiwary
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Cheteshwar Pujara
Luke Pomersbach
Rilee Rossouw
Mayank Agarwal
KB Arun Karthik

All Rounders

Daniel Vettori
Johan van der Wath
Jonathan Vandiar
Asad Pathan
Amit Verma
Raju Bhatkal

Wicket Keepers

AB de Villiers
CM Gautam

Bowlers

Zaheer Khan
Dirk Nannes
Charl Langeveldt
Abhimanyu Mithun
Nuwan Pradeep
Sreenath Aravind
Bharath BN
Ryan Ninan
Abrar Kazi

Support Staff

Head Coach: Ray Jennings
Bowling Coach:
Assistant Head Coach: Sanath Kumar
Physiotherapist: Evan Speechly
Mentor : Anil Kumble
CEO: Brijesh Patel
Manager: Avinash Vaidya
Masseur: Ramesh Mane
Team Analyst: Prassana Agoram
Head Strength And Conditioning Coach : Basu S

Source : http://www.wikipedia.org/

year	Played	Wins	Losses	win perc
2008	14	4	10	28.57
2009	16	9	7	56.25
2010	16	8	8	50.00