As anticipated, the political masters of Pakistan have finally directed its national cricket team to lift the boycott and play India on 15 February, 2026, as scheduled in Colombo . The Masters must've thought the money at stake is too lucrative to continue indulging in such kind of grumpy politics. Of course, they had imposed some pre-conditions that included making the 'handshake' a mandatory protocol, but the ICC looked the other way. So, the PCB takes it as protecting the 'spirit of cricket'. The Indian cricket board , the sponsors, the TV channels and millions of fans who do not necessarily mix patriotism with sports, if it's cricket in particular, must be deliriously ecstatic that all the revenues and hype and excitement shall be there for harvest thr oughout the ICC Men's T20 World Cup-2026 , co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka . Most of the Indians fans must also be ecstatic to have their heroes go on vanquishing the enemy neighbor and humiliating t...
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| Kumar Strikes For India! |
After losing the ODI Cricket Series against Pakistan and then the high scoring first one day international against England in Rajkot Team India at last found its winning ways in Kochi today when they crushed England by 127 runs and drew level at 1-1 in the five-match series. The victory came thanks to a positive MS Dhoni (72 off 66 balls) batting well with 7 fours and 2 sixes, and captaining his team well, and of course, the flyer from the Player of the Match all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who made 61 in just 37 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes. India plundered 108 runs in the last ten overs and 68 off the last five thus neutralizing their tentative finishing blues of late and posting a competitive 285/8 in allotted fifty overs on a pitch that promised to help the bowlers in the second session. Though the Indian opening pair struggled again, the team progressed predictably to 174/4 off nearly 40 overs and the worries about Virat Kohli continued despite his 37 runs, India finally did well winning the toss. For England Finn and Dernbach captured 2 wickets each while Chris Woakes, playing his first match in India replacing injured Brisnan, did not have a memorable experience.
Shami Ahmed who replaced off-color Dinda struck first for India capturing Bell caught by Dhoni with the score reading 4/1. Then India’s exciting newcomer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar dealt England deadly blows by capturing three top order batsmen bowling non-stop 10 overs for just 29 runs to reduce England to 73/4 in the 15th over—a position England could not recover from. Though Kieswetter and Patel tried to build a partnership the guiles of Ashwin and Jadeja did not allow that. England crashed to paltry 158 with 14 overs to spare. There were two umpiring blemishes in terms of lbws, but fortunately these were shared evenly by both teams. While ominous looking Yuvraj Singh (32) suffered the first, England captain Cook (17) jolted his team with his. The Scorecard:
If Team India can stick to its newfound confident ways the five-match ODI Series would really promise to open up with England led by top-form Alistair Cook never willing to do the double of Test and ODI Series win against India in India. The teams next go to Ranchi , Dhoni’s hometown, for the third one day international on 19th January.
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