ChinmayC Blog

Bangladesh has ceased to be a minnow for most of the Test playing nations after their consistent display in the recently concluded World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Bangladesh almost reached the semi-finals of World Cup-2015 beating several teams including England in their march forward. Of course, Team India stopped them in the quarter finals, but not at all in an easy manner with the aftermath of the match really getting bitter.  Then in the recent tour of Bangladesh by Pakistan the hosts created history by winning the ODI Series roundly and convincingly. Therefore, requests from several key cricketers of Team India for a ‘much needed’ rest was not paid attention to by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and full-strength Team India squads were deemed fit. Selection Committee of the BCCI today in Mumbai announced the Indian squads for the one-off Test and three one-day-internationals (ODI) for the upcoming India Tour of Bangladesh in June, 2015. Virat Ko...

Earlier, commercial breaks were not as intrusive as we could anticipate the time and quantity of their coming perfectly thanks to the limited opportunities available. Doordarshan was the only television channel, entertainment-public service-news all combined, for us to confront them.   We knew that maximum ad time would be for the Sunday evening Hindi feature film and we used to utilize those commercial breaks to entertain ‘silent’ guests, discuss the movie on air and make tea. The virtual breaks that were intrusive even then were the songs of Hindi or Bollywood movies that caught us unawares as always forcing us to take a break and go out of the theater into the lobby.   However, with the advent of cable television and the flood of private entertainment and news channels intruding-annoying-agonizing breaks have become a part and parcel of our existence—you like it or not. There emerged a rich variety of how the commercial breaks began to be presented to us. Maybe at the inne...

Jonathan Carter For West Indies Pakistan and West Indies rose to the occasion and ensured their places in the knockout stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup-2015. Notwithstanding the minnows both teams were facing they had to take the games seriously. In the first match West Indies without Gayle did win with a big margin as required for a better net run-rate against UAE. Chasing a modest target of 176 at Napier today West Indies won by 6 wickets with nearly 20 overs to spare making it almost impossible for the loser of the other match between Pakistan and Ireland to come up on better net run-rate and their place in the Quarterfinals was ensured except for a tie or no result in the other match. Sarfraz Ahmed's Century For Pakistan Pakistan bowling that has been responsible for the team’s great comeback stuck to their job and restricted Ireland to 237 in 50 overs despite a century by Porterfield (107 off 131 balls). Pakistan without Younis Khan did not take any chances in the chase and...

India have hit a resounding six of six consecutive wins in the ICC World Cup-2015 beating Zimbabwe by 6 wickets in their last league match in Auckland today. However, the margin of India’s victory was not as comfortable as it looks. Chasing a very competitive total of 287 set by Zimbabwe India were under intense pressure at 92 for the loss of 4 top order batsmen in the 23 rd over. Thanks to a rollicking unbeaten partnership of 196 runs between Suresh Raina and skipper MS Dhoni victory was finally made easy with 8 balls to spare. Man of the Match Raina raced to a brilliant hundred, his first century in World Cups, making 110 not out off 104 balls with 9 fours and 4 sixes. Raina was helped by a simple dropped catch before he made his half century and was initially living dangerously giving somewhat catching practice to the Zimbabwe fielders. Dhoni gave him solid company making a professional 85 runs not out off 76 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes—the winning shot being a six from him. Ar...