Yet another gala nite organised by the ICC or was it, the 2010 ICC Awards had the makings of a special kind. The sheer emergence of India as the no.1 test playing nation and some super performances had seen Sachin, Sehwag dominate the nomination list for the top honors. So was 2010 gonna be the year when Sachin was finally receiving something new, after he has claimed several man of the match/series honors across the lengths of his playing career, apart from that the top honor he received from the state and central government, the wax statue at Madame Tussads and most recently the the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force. Ah! the list can go on... So, easy to say the focus of the awards nite was certainly the little master.
Dutchman Ryan Ten Doeschate won the associate player of the year hands down. England's 21 year old, 6 ft 7 in fast bowler Steven Finn was named the Emerging player of the year, ahead of the likes of Umar Akmal and Angelo Mathews. It was surprise indeed. T20 performance of the year was a close one with two big knocks from Mahela Jayawardene and a match winning effort from Mike Hussey but, it was Baz who stole the honor for his whirlwind knock against the aussies. The Kiwis took the Spirit of cricket award, where I felt the Lankans deserved to have played India so so so many times their spirit needs to be applauded the most. Umpire Aleem Dar won the Simon Taufel award of the year, and Billy Bowden dint even get a nomination. Sachin bagged the people's choice award needless to say.
ODI team of the year : Ponting©, Tendulkar, Shane Watson, Michael Hussey, de Villiers, Paul Collingwood, Dhoni, Daniel Vettori, Stuart Broad, Bollinger and Ryan Harris.
Test team of the year: Dhoni©, Sehwag, Kumar Sangakkara, Graeme Swann, Tendulkar, Hashim Amla, Simon Katich, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, James Anderson and Doug Bollinger.
AB De Villiers won the ODI player of the year after scoring 855 runs @ an average of 71.25. phew! Virender Sehwag took home the Test player of the year honor with 1282 runs to his name and figures that will blow your mind. Shelley Nitschke was named the women cricketer of the year. So, with 2 big awards already out of the way Sachin had the biggest baddest award left to fight for. So, it was Sachin, Sehwag, Swann and Amla fighting for the top honor of the nite and Sachin swept it and made it one more happy moment for the millions of Sachin fans. Another feather added to the humble man's cap. Take a bow!
The Winners:
Associate Player of the Year - Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands)
Emerging Player of the Year - Steven Finn (England)
People's choice award- Sachin Tendulkar (India)
Spirit of Cricket Award - New Zealand
Umpire of the Year - Aleem Dar (Pakistan)
T20 performance of the year- Brendon Mc Cullum - ( 116* v Australia.)
ODI player of the Year - AB De Villiers (South Africa) 855 runs, 71.25 avg, 103.38 S.R., 4 100's
Test player of the Year - Virender Sehwag (India) 1282 runs, 85.46 avg, 97.34 S.R., 6 100's, highest score - 293
Women's Cricketer of the Year - Shelley Nitschke ( Australia)
Cricketer of the Year - Sachin Tendulkar (India) 1828 runs, 9 100's (Tests + ODIs)
October 6, 2010
September 20, 2010
Australia tour of India '10 - Test Squad announced
Following multiple attacks on Indians down-under which were claimed as a "friendly bash" by the Aussie govt. and described as "racist attack" by the Indie counterparts, which then led to Emraan Hashmi going ding-dong with blonde chicks in his latest flick aptly titled "Crook". Now, the selection committee of the B.C.C.I. have announced no free perks to the visiting Australian team. In a very rude yet, not so shocking announcement it was cleared that Yuvraj Singh will not be a part of the Indian test team for the upcoming 2 test match series. Meaning, Chappelli and co. will have to come up with new lines at the last minute to ridicule the fitness/form of the Indian team. No more "MRF BLIMP" jokes to be poked on Yuvi. Alas.. the selectors over looked Bhajji, Zak and their ponchos! So 1-1 already.
Cheteshwar Pujara(Che) gets his maiden call up to the test squad after being in the Saurashtra NEWS radar forever. Same guy who played for KKR in the IPL, now you remember? Also, Free! Sreesanth was also named in the squad, we are now waiting for an injury update on the same. The regulars in the Indian team since 90's SRT, RD, VVS did not fail to make it either. Sehwag - Gambhir should look forward to their re-union after both being out regularly due to injuries. Captain MSD, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay seamer Ishant and trio of spinners Bhajji, Ojha & Mishra named in the test squad. Why three spinners? No one has an answer to that one. Balanced squad I guess, 3 seamers + 3 spinners that is, if you count Bhajji as a spinner.
Notable absentees: *drums roll* Dinesh Karthik and Subu Badrinath. Aaaah! Who would have guessed?
India squad: MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth and Amit Mishra.
Board President's XI (Vs Aus): Gautam Gambhir (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Jaidev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Sreesanth, Ravindra Jadeja.
Rest of India squad (Vs Mumbai): Yuvraj Singh (capt.), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, S Badrinath, Saurabh Tiwary, Parthiv Patel (wk), Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, R Vinay Kumar, Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun and Ravindra Jadeja.
Cheteshwar Pujara(Che) gets his maiden call up to the test squad after being in the Saurashtra NEWS radar forever. Same guy who played for KKR in the IPL, now you remember? Also, Free! Sreesanth was also named in the squad, we are now waiting for an injury update on the same. The regulars in the Indian team since 90's SRT, RD, VVS did not fail to make it either. Sehwag - Gambhir should look forward to their re-union after both being out regularly due to injuries. Captain MSD, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay seamer Ishant and trio of spinners Bhajji, Ojha & Mishra named in the test squad. Why three spinners? No one has an answer to that one. Balanced squad I guess, 3 seamers + 3 spinners that is, if you count Bhajji as a spinner.
Notable absentees: *drums roll* Dinesh Karthik and Subu Badrinath. Aaaah! Who would have guessed?
India squad: MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth and Amit Mishra.
Board President's XI (Vs Aus): Gautam Gambhir (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Jaidev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Sreesanth, Ravindra Jadeja.
Rest of India squad (Vs Mumbai): Yuvraj Singh (capt.), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, S Badrinath, Saurabh Tiwary, Parthiv Patel (wk), Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, R Vinay Kumar, Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun and Ravindra Jadeja.
July 22, 2010
Quick Updates : India Vs Sri Lanka Test #1
Ah! thus we witnessed yet another Indo Lankan encounter , but this was a very special one for obvious reasons. Needing 8 wickets to reach a tally of 800 wickets, there can be only person who can be sure of making it, and rest is history now. It has taken him almost 7500 overs to get to this near impossible record. Well, this is not the only record, his record list goes on and on . The one thing which baffles me is how does Sri Lanka produce unorthodox bowlers, Murali, Mendis, Malinga and many more to come.
Getting back to the test, Sri Lanka elected to bat and the bad times started for India. Sri Lankan were milking the impotent(not literally!!) Indian bowling. Their bowling was so pathetic on day I that the rain Gods got angry and came down so hard on day II and the day was called off without a ball being bowled. At the start of day III, Ishant was at his very best and 3 wickets fell quickly. Enter Herath and Malinga , they made the bowling look miserable yet again. They sent the ball screaming to the boundary. Lankans declared at 520-8 at tea on day III. Paranavitana, Sangakkara notched centuries while Malinga and Herath scored their first international half century. MSD's captaincy skills were hitting an all time low. A draw was expected considering the strong Indian batting line up, but not to be. Unlike the Lankan innings, wickets kept falling at regular intervals, Sehwag yet again at his aggressive best scored another century and UV scored a fluent 52. But, was done in by the man of the moment, Mooorali. After yet another batting collapse, Indians were bowled out for 276 and couldn't avoid the follow on and they were batting again.
Sehwag and Gauti were removed quickly. I dont remember when Gauti had actually earned a pair in a test match. Wall and Tendlya came to the crease and steadied the ship. Dravid almost had built a great wall of India but, Malinga found cracks in it. Sachin was again a treat to watch, a river flowing smoothly which was blocked by ... once again, Malinga. Both of them put on a century partnership, and broke the record for most number of century partnerships. Indians were 5 down at the end of day IV. MSD fell early on the final day. Final day's play was all about survival for the Indian team, surprisingly none of the senior batsmen nor the captain had the game for it. Laxman along with the tailenders showed heavy resistance. Although, Laxman was more keen on getting to the non-strikers end and exposing the likes of Bhajji, Ishant, Mithun to the potent Lankan attack. Murali was made to literally plead for his 800th wicket, which was the last wicket of the Indian innings. So, with that Ojha entered the record books edging Murali to his favourite slip fielder. Indians were bolwed out for 338 and set a target of 95 . Dilshan and Paranavitana raced away to the target and won the match by 10 wickets. A fitting end to the LEGEND's career. Malinga was the obvious choice for the man of the match for denting the Indian batting line-up with his swinging yorkers and bouncers and his cracking 64(75). So Lankans lead the Micromax series 1-0 with two more to go. We will surely miss the Lankan lion, Chennai Super King, Smiling Assasin, 'Muthiah Muralitharan'.
Getting back to the test, Sri Lanka elected to bat and the bad times started for India. Sri Lankan were milking the impotent(not literally!!) Indian bowling. Their bowling was so pathetic on day I that the rain Gods got angry and came down so hard on day II and the day was called off without a ball being bowled. At the start of day III, Ishant was at his very best and 3 wickets fell quickly. Enter Herath and Malinga , they made the bowling look miserable yet again. They sent the ball screaming to the boundary. Lankans declared at 520-8 at tea on day III. Paranavitana, Sangakkara notched centuries while Malinga and Herath scored their first international half century. MSD's captaincy skills were hitting an all time low. A draw was expected considering the strong Indian batting line up, but not to be. Unlike the Lankan innings, wickets kept falling at regular intervals, Sehwag yet again at his aggressive best scored another century and UV scored a fluent 52. But, was done in by the man of the moment, Mooorali. After yet another batting collapse, Indians were bowled out for 276 and couldn't avoid the follow on and they were batting again.
Sehwag and Gauti were removed quickly. I dont remember when Gauti had actually earned a pair in a test match. Wall and Tendlya came to the crease and steadied the ship. Dravid almost had built a great wall of India but, Malinga found cracks in it. Sachin was again a treat to watch, a river flowing smoothly which was blocked by ... once again, Malinga. Both of them put on a century partnership, and broke the record for most number of century partnerships. Indians were 5 down at the end of day IV. MSD fell early on the final day. Final day's play was all about survival for the Indian team, surprisingly none of the senior batsmen nor the captain had the game for it. Laxman along with the tailenders showed heavy resistance. Although, Laxman was more keen on getting to the non-strikers end and exposing the likes of Bhajji, Ishant, Mithun to the potent Lankan attack. Murali was made to literally plead for his 800th wicket, which was the last wicket of the Indian innings. So, with that Ojha entered the record books edging Murali to his favourite slip fielder. Indians were bolwed out for 338 and set a target of 95 . Dilshan and Paranavitana raced away to the target and won the match by 10 wickets. A fitting end to the LEGEND's career. Malinga was the obvious choice for the man of the match for denting the Indian batting line-up with his swinging yorkers and bouncers and his cracking 64(75). So Lankans lead the Micromax series 1-0 with two more to go. We will surely miss the Lankan lion, Chennai Super King, Smiling Assasin, 'Muthiah Muralitharan'.
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