India Do A T20 To Lift The ICC Champions Trophy-2013!

It was a miracle of a match. Rains being a spoilsport in the most important encounter of the tournament the final between India and England in Edgbaston finally became a T20 match with one-day rules. England in the morning won the toss and looking at the weather decided naturally to field first. Then the rains, rains and rains. The crowds never gave up hope though. Some genuine cricket lovers of genuine cricket cursed the ICC for not keeping a reserve day for the all-important final involving the hosts England and the best undefeated team of the tournament India.

India started batting with the opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma making a relatively good start, though repeated rain interruptions did not help them much. England had them on the mat at 65/5 in the 14^th over. But thanks to the most incredible all-rounder for India in this tournament Ravindra Jadeja with Virat Kohli took his team to a fighting 129/7 in the allotted twenty overs. While not even the most optimistic really thought India would win India had England on the mat at 46/4 in the 9^thover Bopara and Morgan almost ensured an England win. Then the miracle of miracles.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni brought on his most expensive bowler of the chasse Ishant Sharma in the 18^th over saving his most precious spinners Jadeja and Ashwin for the last two overs when most cricket expert said the match would almost be over by then as England needed just 30 runs off three overs with six wickets remaining. Ishant was hit for a six...to make matters worse he bowled two wides next…and then…he took two wickets in two balls. England batsmen got into a maze giving India an extremely avoidable run out. With the unplayable spinners in operation England had a hard task hauling up the required 19 runs off the last two overs. Finally India won the match by a miraculous five-run margin and became the deserving winner of the ICC Champions Trophy-2013 played in England and Wales.

What a way to compensate for the domestic unrest regarding the IPL Spot or Match fixing scandal. That there was not even a single firecracker burst in Mumbai said volumes about people’s loss of faith in the game. But mind you, even the deftest and experienced bookies, betters, punters, brokers and fixers just could not have had a clue to this match of unpredictable twists and turns. More seriously, the tale of utter devastation and sufferings and loss of lives in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand following torrential rains and cloud bursts could be one crucial reason for the apathetic response to a most memorable Indian win.

The Scorecard!

That India now has the ICC Champions Trophy too in its bag is still some good reason to celebrate a little. At least some good to get over the ugly to some extent. In our opinion poll eighty percent voted for an Indian win. We thank all of you for participating.

Champions Trophy: England Vs South Africa! India Vs Sri Lanka!

On Monday the full semifinal line-up has finally been completed for the ICC Champions Trophy- 2013 currently on in England and Wales. On Sunday in a crucial Group A encounter England faced with elimination if defeated managed to beat New Zealand by 10 runs in a rain-curtailed match reduced to just 24 overs each side and booked a berth in the semis—the first team in that group to do so amassing 4 points. New Zealand with 3 points missed the bus thanks to their wickets falling in heaps, but stuck on to their hopes that Australia beat Sri Lanka and stay below NZ's much better net run-rate.

Mercifully there was no rain threat on Monday yesterday. Australia put Sri Lanka in winning the toss to be perhaps on a better position to track the required run-rate for a semis berth. For Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jaywardene played a superb innings of 84 runs batting tactically lower down the order and brought his team into real contention. Set a competitive target of 254 runs to win Australia pushed hard aiming to haul it up within 30 overs ensuring victory as well as place in the last four. But they lost too many wickets in the effort and when they were out of contention for semis past 30 overs the real agony began for Sri Lanka.

At 168/8 a win for Sri Lanka seemed a mere formality. However the last two Aussie pairs—AC Voges (49) and CJ McKay (30) for 24 runs for the ninth wicket and then McKay and XJ Doherty (15 not out) for the last wicket partnership of 41 runs—had better ideas and fought real hard for a honorable victory not bothering how improbable or impossible that looked. The hapless Sri Lankan bowlers tried every trick under the sun, but to no avail. The last dogged pair brought their team within 21 runs of an incredible win. The Aussies were in no hurry as there was a huge number of balls left. The vocal Sri Lankan supporters fell into deathly silence and the clueless Sri Lanka cricketers started appealing pitifully for everything. They knew that an Aussie win would eliminate them and put New Zealand in the semis. Finally when a desperate Dilshan leapt to his left to take a brilliant catch of his own bowling it was more relief than ecstasy in the celebrations! This pulsating phase brought out the excitement of cricket that could make you bite your nails irrespective of your team loyalty. Sri Lanka entered the semifinals for the sixth time in the last eight world cricket tournaments.

So then, England meet South Africa in the first semifinal to be played tomorrow, the 19^th of June at the Kennington Oval in London and India meet Sri Lanka for the second one to be played in Cardiff on Thursday the 20^th of June. The grand final between the winners would be played on 23^rd June at Edgbaston, Birmingham.

The first semifinal is evenly poised as both England and South Africa had to struggle to meet each other. While England would be enjoying the home advantage South Africa would try hard to shake off the ‘chokers’ tag this time. Playing their main attack bowler Dale Steyn is more or less confirmed. 

Labeled the best team of the tournament so far India enjoys an edge over Sri Lanka. Team India looks more balanced and stronger than Sri Lanka at the moment. In fact, India would have felt better to face their traditional rival rather than New Zealand—an unpredictable entity capable of turning the tables against any team on their day. Sri Lanka would hope for great knocks from Sangakkara and Mahela and for their attacking bowlers including Malinga prominently to fire. The sub-continental cricket fans are waiting for the big encounter with abated breath.

Champions Trophy: India Rout Pakistan Despite Rains And D/L!

India have demolished a listless Pakistan by 8 wickets with nearly three overs to spare in the ICC Champions Trophy last Group B match cut short and shorter by innumerable rain interruptions followed by Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) revisions. It was a huge occasion with the archrivals playing each other and crowds filled in to the brim in the Edgbaston stadium apart from millions of viewers glued in to their TV sets on Saturday. Everybody expected exciting cricket and they desperately wanted it to be of full fifty overs. Well, a poor batting display by Pakistan made it a one-sided affair and frequent rain interruptions dampened the excitement further. But Indian fans still have a cause to celebrate while the Pakistan fans can only feel sorry as their team let them down.

The match started as a full fifty-over encounter, but shortly afterwards rains made it forty-overs. Pakistan could not even last that many overs and got all out for a paltry 165 with two balls to spare. D/L method revised the target to 168 to win for India.

The Champions Indian opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma started in style and looked to be in no trouble at all when another rain interruption made the target 157 to win in 36 overs. Then a major rain interruption and D/L reduced the overs to just 22 and the target 102 to win. Dhawan missed his fifty by 2 runs and shone as ever making 48 entertaining runs in 41 balls. Rohit was the first wicket to fall for India. Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik took their team to victory never showing any sign of complacency. The terrific form of Karthik is a good sign for Team India. The Scorecard:

India kept its Group B slate clean winning all the matches and emerging as the top team. They have also bagged the unique honor of being voted the best fielding side of the tournament too so far. Who would be their rival in the semis is yet to be decided as the Group A is still wide open and no team has made it to the semis so far.

Rains have been playing the spoilsport of late in the ICC Champions Trophy matches. But for a change it proved lucky for the ‘chokers’ of big tournaments South Africa on Friday. For the first time since the 2003 World Cup disaster South Africa got a favor from the D/L calculations. It was again the case of just one ball in that match cut short to 31 overs each. At the end of 26 overs West Indies were ahead of South Africa as per D/L at 190 for five. If the first ball of the 27^th over was left alone West Indies could still have won in terms of losing less number of wickets. But Pollard played a wild shot and got out, and the rains came pouring down. D/L calculations ruled the match tied and South Africa sailed into the semis thanks to their better net run-rate. A thoroughly disappointed West Indies could not still blame Pollard because at that particular moment he could not possibly have anticipated rains.