A 75 years long wait for England at Lords finally comes to an end

A 75 years long wait for England at Lords finally comes to an end as they win the second Test match against Australia since 1934 .
Strauss and Flintoff turned out to be the key players helping the team with a remarkable victory, on the contrary the Aussies after their descent performance in the first test showed a poor play in all departments.
Even though at some stage when Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin were batting fabulously it felt like they may claim a record chasing victory but the fifth days play changed the scenario of the game with Freddy and Swan bowling well. What Australia needed was few more contribution from the top order batsmen, Though there were three bad decisions from the umpire which helped the English bowlers to send back the top orders,most shocking out of three was Strauss claiming a clean catch and umpire not referring to the third umpire, Seems like the Aussies got back what they did against India.
The News of Flintoff retiring shocked everyone leaving behind a question who is going to fill the gap of the great allrounder for England? Injuries throughout the carrier made the mighty to make a sorrow decision.
In the third match for England, playing Harmison in place of Stuart Broad might be a good option as Broad might be good in saving runs in onedayers and twenty twenty but bowling in England pitches needs either pace or swing and Broad lacks in both the department. For Aussies Huges need to work more on playing bouncers before he joins back the great Australian side.

Worsening went more worst for Aussies

A Terrible start of the second Test Match for Australia, as the first day was highly Dominated by the Englishmen. Batting first their openers gave them a dream start as Cook Just missed the century, while the skipper remained not out on 160 at stumps.
On the other hand the Aussies unlike their standards committed every single mistake in cricket one would hardly think of.Right from the beginning things were going against them as their frontline bowler Johnson went for 6.5 runs per over, Not enough, the different comedy of errors were displayed like the Skipper, one of the greatest fielders missing a ball between his gates, No ball bowled which finds an edge but still not sticking the keepers gloves, over throws, Missed runout chance, extreme wide down the legside going to the fence, If that wasn't enough the worsening went more worst when their only genuine spinner Nathan Hauritz damaged his finger during a caught and bowl chance and left the field.
Things settled a bit when they were able to get the middle orders quickly. Second Day the England will look to add 150 runs more to the total while the Aussies after learning from their mistakes would want to get the tailenders back quickly and give a good start like Cardiff.

Who says Test Cricket is Boring?

What a terrific last days play, the history was repeated in Cardiff,when Monty Panisar & James Anderson were able to take the flesh out of Lions mouth.In the last Ashes series same situation occurred when the tailenders were able to save the match for Australia ,but this time the revenge was taken by the Englishmen.
What an inspiring innings by Paul Collingwood following the do or die sitution,who fought bravely almost till the end and single handedly saved the match.
And also lets not take the efforts of physio who was four times on the field spending as much time as possible.
But friends that's what Ashes is all about, everything is fair after all they are fighting for the precious cup.
The Aussies even though may not have won the match but they carry the upper hand with their fabulous batting and bowling performance. Their Skipper has started to produce and crossed the eleven thousand mark. No doubt that they are going to bounce back in the second match at Lords starting on Thursday.

The First day of Ashes ends up balanced.

The First day of Ashes played at the new venue Cardiff in Wales, ends up in a balanced day's play as both the team placed themselves in a comfortable position at stumps.

With a less promising start, the Englishmen managed to recover as Petersen and Collingwood stayed calm in the middle adding over hundred runs to the total.

All Petersen, Collingwood and Prior completed a well made half centuries each.
For Australians, seamers did the damage with outswingers of Helfenhaus, bounce of Siddle and Nippy Johnson contributed couple of wickets each.

The second days play is going to be interesting as England would like to add seventy to hundred runs more to the total and Australians would look for a good opening start.

Ashes cup seems to be long crawling walk for the Ausies

The Aussies are facing a big problem with their opening slot as Huges fails in both the innings of warm up match against England Lions. Harmison picked his weakness by dropping short deliveries in both the innings, Huges failed to keep them down and perished in same fashion in both the innings falling in the slip cordon.
With Ponting struggling with his form, Symonds out of team and retirement of most of the star players Ashes cup seems to be long crawling walk for the Ausies.
On the other hand both the English openers score a century they seem to be fully prepared to retain the precious cup.
Beauty of Cricket at its Best with Rain falling outside and sitting inside with a cup of tea and hot bhajias, watching a Test played in England, It doesn't gets bigger than this..
FOR ALL TRUE CRICKET LOVERS
Enjoy Friends The Ashes....

Batting's class,perfection,style,elegance of Vaughan coming to an end

Michael Vaughan's announcement of retirement from senior cricket is going to be a major setback for the limited class, perfection, style, elegance which persists in current international cricket.After Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman he is the only batsmen who plays all the shots in the book in a copybook style. His elegance speaks with every shot he plays, especially the straight and cover drive whenever displayed is soothing to the eyes.

The result of disciplined bowling claimed a comfortable win for the Westindies in the second match as the Indian batsmen with less foot movement were trapped behind the wickets.
The Indian batsmen seems to be still in twenty twenty mood where all type of shots count but a fifty over game is different where shots have to be played with the merit of the ball. This was clearly absent as the Indian batsmen dint come in the line of ball and played away from the body.
"If you wanna sit then shit otherwise just get out of the pot" Rohit Sharma should better understand this with batsman like Abhishek Nayar waiting to step in. Just check the record of Sharma's past ten matches in international cricket which tells that he needs to really work hard to secure his place.

Finally India has Won thanks to the massive innings of Yuvi

Finally India has Won.. although the Windies came much closer to the target than expected the given target just proved sufficient by twenty runs, Thanks to the massive innings of Yuvi scoring a century with thick grass on outfield is really terrific, he indeed is in a good form.
Before World cup I thought Ashish Nehra should have been in the side with the fabulous Bowling figures throughout the IPL.
The moment I saw the Six hit out of Dhonis willow the words struck my mind "what if he had done it against the Englishmen when the country actually needed it". I don't understand where the helicopter shot went during the world cup.
Bad Patch for Rohit Sharma in International cricket still continues.
We are still waiting for Ishant Sharma to Produce..

T20 Format a Praise Or Curse?

As the World is moving faster and to catch up with its pace a new format of cricket has emerged in the form of shorter version keeping in mind the limited time available with viewers, which has added more of entertainment and slog hits right from the start of the Match and has completely changed the games scenario.

So is this the cricket which the Englishmen thought of when the invented this game, had they ever dreamed of cricket changing in such a way? is very hard to understand.

But if we have to judge its significance in current era then we have to look it from different perspectives.

If we see it from a viewers perspective then major people will appreciate this form of cricket, as from their sight its full of sixes and fours no matter who has hit the ball and how correctly it was hit they only want the ball to land in the stands.
If this wasn't the method of T20 then who would have ever imagined Harbhajan singh being tagged as an allrounder. This form of cricket has also encouraged female spectators to join the crowd as this does not requires a high IQ the only thing matters is bat hitting the ball and they join the crowd cheering unless knowing what has happened.

Knowing it from a players perspective one would hardly encourage this game as its very limited to prove themselves with their actual skills, as batting for five to ten overs or bowling just four overs may not reflect how good a Batsmen or Bowler he is.

With the growing trend of T20 cricket there wont be two long until we may find a maximum attendance of 10% for a Test match. The signs of which were already been seen while the Master Blaster was reaching his Milestone in Test cricket.

The underdogs treated Pakistanis turned into cashcows.

The World cup fever is over and the underdogs treated Pakistanis has turned into cashcows, how silently they reached towards the cup as if a lion towards the prey was watchful.
Though i supported Srilanka and felt they could defend the small total with the 'M' power was quickly turned into a wrong prediction with the way Afridi played the match winning innings. Dilshan's failure was the main setback for the Lankan's as he was the only batsmen for them in this cup who assured them a comfortable total.
Things went more worst to them when their peak bowlers were not able to take wickets and conceded plenty of runs.
Eventually what matters is the fact and the fact is that the Pakistanis have won and they are taking home the cup.