Sehwag, Gambhir Come Good In Different Hue

While the Indians were scything from side to side the Aussie batting line-up at Mohali for a win inside four days, made likely by their new opening pair, the just-discarded duo of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir was taking fresh guard together some 300 km away in Gurgaon.

Just a handful of people at the secluded 'green' TERI Gram - built on power-saving techniques - witnessed the duo's spine-tingling start to a 161-run chase in the Syed Mushtaq Ali national T20 opener against Punjab.

Clad in Delhi's yellow and blue, away from fans and media with Sehwag even dumping his spectacles, they, as MS Dhoni insists in media session, 'expressed themselves'.

Bright start

Sehwag found the meat early next to paceman Sandeep Sharma, glancing one to fine leg and then clearing mid on; an edge to third man fence finished the over.

Gambhir, deciding not to play the sheet fasten he is known for, survived jitters. Siddharth Kaul got some bounce that left Gambhir missing a couple of swats and after that mistiming one.

Through the early part, while Viru blaze away to a 26-ball 36, the Gauti rushed into his shots. He was dropped twice, survive a run-out chance once.

But he soon found his groove at what time a full delivery was creamed through cover. From thereon, Gambhir waited, saw and shattered.

After Sehwag was caught small of his crease in a rather clumsy manner, not grounding his bat even after reaching the crease, and Unmukt Chand holing one to bottomless point for a duck, Gambhir took charge and guided the pursue as Puneet Bisht went berserk.

The Viru-Gauti unite realized 76 in just 8.3 overs.

When Sehwag last played in nationwide T20s - just last season - he was eye return to India team from injury.

Since then, he has been axed from the T20 squad, then as of the ODI squad and finally from Tests. This time though, he seem to be eyeing a return - as a pair with Gambhir.

BriefScores

Punjab 160/7 (Gurkeerat 57, M Sidhana 35, V Sood 2/24, P Negi 2/36, P Awana 1/37) 

lost to Delhi 162/4 in 19.1 overs (G Gambhir 68*, V Sehwag 36, P Bisht 32)

J&K 108/7 (S Khajuria 61, I Khan 2/16, A Sakuja 2/23) 

lost to Services 109/5 in 19.2 overs (N Verma 39*, R Paliwal 22) 

by five wickets.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Hindustan Times.

Praveen Kumar Ready To Turn A New Leaf

Few would disagree that Praveen Kumar was the one who brought back the venomous effect of swing bowling back in the Indian bowling sphere. His stint with the Indian team has, however, been interspersed with injuries.

That hasn’t affected his morale, stresses Praveen. “I won’t say that I contain been unlucky with injuries. Only the elbow injury had worried me for a while. Although I have missed a lot of big tournaments like the World Cup because of injuries, I don’t have any regrets,” Praveen told Mail Today on Monday.

Althoughthe 26- year- old paceman has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons, he’s ready to move on and give his best in the upcoming Indian Premier League. He also said that the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Trophy is a perfect open pad for the IPL. “For the moment, I am looking forward to the IPL and am working hard to make sure Kings XI Punjab do well in the tournament. I am presently playing in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy and am bowling in the right areas. It is absolutely a good preparation ahead of the IPL,” he said.

On Kings XI Punjab’s prospects, Praveen said so as to he was looking forward to work under new coach Darren Lehmann, who was the coach of the erstwhile Deccan Chargers. He also said that although momentum is key in a rivalry like IPL, they have to take one match at a time.

“I have heard a lot of positive things about Darren Lehmann from the Hyderabad players and am excited to play under him. We did well last year and only just missed a playoff berth. In the IPL, we have to take one match at a time,” he said.

The Deodhar Trophy in Guwahati saw a overabundance of former India players like Gautam Gambhir, Munaf Patel and Dinesh Karthik taking fraction in the limited overs tournament. And Praveen did his reputation no harm by bagging the wicket of Gambhir and bowling a stingy spell, which included two wickets at the cost of 28 runs in seven overs.

Praveen is, however, not overtly concerned at his lengthy absence from the international scene, “My job is to perform and I know I will be rewarded if I keep drama well at the domestic level. Personally, I have always enjoyed live at every level, be it domestic, international or Twenty 20,” he said.

India Squeeze Out Another Win By Australia In 3rd Test Match 2013

A six-wicket victory over Australia at Mohali gives thehosts a 3-0 lead in the series.

MOHALI: Australia resists like a girl with an attitude, but gave in eventually to a relentless suitor as India won the third Test by six wickets to go 3-0 up in the series. The fourth plus last match will be played in New Delhi from March 22 when India wills effort to win four Tests in a series for the first time in their history.

Set a target of 133 in a minimum of 27 overs, India hit the Promised Land for the loss of Murali Vijay (26), Cheteshwar Pujara (28) and Virat Kohli (34) and Sachin Tendulkar (21). For a brief while it appeared that Australia may confine India to a draw. Thirty were desirable in fifty-six balls when Kohli flicked Peter Siddle to short mid-wicket.

Tendulkar and MS Dhoni (18*) played through a stage of quiet as the requirement escalated, and the maestro’s sharp run-out by David Warner gave Australia one more look-in to enforce a draw. But Ravindra Jadeja walked in to cream limits against Siddle, setting an example for his skipper to follow: Dhoni decided things with three fours off Mitchell Starc and after that uprooted a stump as a souvenir.

The win at Mohali was mainly set up by Shikhar Dhawan’sblazing 187 on debut that was scored across two sessions on Saturday and made up for the time lost on account of the first-day washout. Dhawan was named Man of the Match, but did not come out to bat on Monday as he has injured his hand while fielding. India were also served well by Jadeja's left-arm spin, that claim six wickets - three in each innings - in the match. Jadeja has dismissed Michael Clarke five times in this series.

Cricketers Reaction over Longest Six by Shahid Afridi

Few Interesting Comments from Players n Personalities All Over the world about shahidAfridi After the Match ( Read Below ) !!

Lala constructed a World Record by hitting all time huge six of 158 meters, in the history of Cricket.

Scott Styris tweeted: That was a ludicrously big six from Afridi!

Most Sixes In Odi Record

AFRIDI (308)

JAYASURIYA (270)

TENDULKAR (195)

GAYLE (193)

GANGULY (190)

PONTING (162)

CAIRNS (153)

DHONI (152)

Longest Six By Shahid Afridi Video

“De Villiers is like a drummer. He is brutal. Amla is like a violen. He is subtle. Shahid Afridi is like a base drummer.” Pat Symcox

“There are not many players with over 200 SIXES, but there is just one with over 300 and that’s Shahid Afridi.” Pat Symcox

“Thank godness I was not part of the South African XI today. When Shahid Afridi was batting, they had their faces red.” Pat Symcox

When Shahid Afridi is hitting, you can only pray and do nothing else.”

Cricket for me is basically fun – Samuels

Marlon Samuels was pleased to return to internationalcricket with a four-wicket haul that helped restrict Zimbabwe to 211 in the Barbados Test, saying he might be called "comeback kid" after the number of comebacks he has made in his vocation. For him, he said, cricket was all about enjoyment, and that showed through in his eagerness to contribute in all departments.

"Cricket for me is basically fun, with bat, fielding, bowling. Whenever I get a chance to bowl I enjoy it. They call me 'lucky arm' now, I've been picking up some wickets recently. I'm just having fun and enjoying being back in global cricket," Samuels said at the end of the first day's play in Bridgetown.

Zimbabwe chose to bat, and seem to building a solid platform at 100 for 2, before the introduction of offspinner Shane Shillingford turned the innings. They lost eight wickets for 111 runs, with Shillingford and Samuels claim seven between them.

Samuels struck with his primary ball, bowling Craig Ervine for 29. "He just pushed the wrong line and missed it. He had wanted me to bowl to him in a do game, I told him I didn't want to bowl," Samuels said with a laugh. "So I finally got to bowl to him and got him out first ball, it was great."

The Zimbabwe batsmen, he said, might have been a bit complacent after seeing off the pacy trio of quicks - Tino Best, Kemar Roach plus Shannon Gabriel. "After Zimbabwe faced our fast bowlers, maybe they became a bit relaxed next to our slower bowlers. Everyone was looking [for us] to blast out the Zimbabwe batsman, but that didn't occur today.

"There was some wonderful bowling by Shillingford. He show that the slower you bowled on the wicket you could also get some rebound as well and he did a great job."

But the day was not all rosy for West Indies, as they lost two wickets inexpensively in reply (including nightwatchman Roach), going to stumps on 18 for 2. The pitch demands that their batsmen work hard on day two, Samuels said: "A couple of balls be very quick and a couple held up, so it's a pitch where you have to apply yourself plus runs will come. If you work hard as a batsman you'll get some runs.

"Runs on the board are already on the plank. So we need to get past it [Zimbabwe's total] first and then we'll see where it goes from there."

Samuels is back for West Indies following two months out due to a facial injury; he was struck on the face by a Lasith Malinga delivery at the Big Bash League in Australia in early January. The time away helped him reassess his game, he said. "It was time for me to sit rear and relax with the family, and reflect on what I've been doing around the world. I used the time to reflect on my work and put myself back in a position to achieve the goal I set out to get in international cricket."

MOHALI: Thank Michael Clarke if you’re Indian. Fall at his feet if you’re Shikhar Dhawan. On Saturday, the Aussie captain allowed the Delhi opener to have a belligerent, record-breaking maiden Test by choosing not to appeal when Mitchell Starc had inadvertently ‘Mankaded’ him on the first ball of the innings.

Dhawan went on to smash an unbeaten 185 in just 168balls, the fastest hundred ever on debut and the highest score by an Indian debutant, and was 15 away at close from scoring the country's first double-hundred in a maiden Test. The blitz kept alive India's hopes of enforcing a result in the rain-curtailed third Test. 

Shikhar Dhawan Scintillates On Debut

The opener collars the Aussie attack for a record score at Mohali.

MOHALI: Thank Michael Clarke if you’re Indian. Fall at his feet if you’re Shikhar Dhawan. On Saturday, the Aussie captain allowed the Delhi opener to have a belligerent, record-breaking maiden Test by choosing not to appeal when Mitchell Starc had inadvertently ‘Mankaded’ him on the first ball of the innings.

Dhawan went on to smash an unbeaten 185 in just 168 balls, the fastest hundred ever on debut and the highest score by an Indian debutant, and was 15 away at close from scoring the country's first double-hundred in a maiden Test. The blitz kept alive India's hopes of enforcing a result in the rain-curtailed third Test.

The hosts, having endured an irritatingly prolonged wag of the Australian tail in the first session, took themselves to within 125 runs runs of their rivals by stumps. Not since Virender Sehwag (the man Dhawan displaced) in his pomp had India gathered Test runs at such a pace: 283 for no loss in 58 overs, in reply to Australia's 408. This was also India's third-highest opening partnership in Tests.

Power play

The impetus came mostly from Dhawan’s bat and he pierced a packed offside with spectacular stroke-play. Almost 80 percent of his runs came in boundaries (a scarcely believable 33 fours garnished with two sixes) mostly placed to perfection through a well-populated off-side field, but some also cheekily attained via the premeditated paddle against the spinners.

Dhawan reached fifty in as many balls, and just 35 more deliveries were needed to nudge aside Suresh Raina as India’s latest centurion on debut. His 150 came off 131 deliveries. The frenetic, unconquered opening partnership of 283 is the highest, by a long way, by an Indian opening pair against Australia. Murali Vijay (83*), who ensured a steady distribution of strike while his partner was going ballistic, deserves no little credit for that.

Two of Australia's own had earlier come tantalizingly close to three figures. Steve Smith stretched his overnight half-century to 92 before Pragyan Ojha got him with a beauty, ending a 97-run partnership that tormented India for one whole session.  The other relinquished maiden hundred was even harder on the heart.

Tail wags

Mitchell Starc batted like a man possessed for 99, presenting the full face of the bat, alternating conscientious blocking with intensive hitting that gained him 14 boundaries. He hit Ishant Sharma back over his head and cut and flicked R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Starc survived a streaky phase during which he edged a few and eventually the nerve of getting to a maiden hundred got to him one run away from the landmark.

Suddenly, Starc was all pins and needles against Ishant Sharma, who teased him outside off before snaring him with an outside edge for his highest first class score. This made Starc the fourth Aussie bat to miss out on a ton in this innings. The tail, however, had done enough by then to extend the score from an overnight 273/7 to 408 all out. With the entire first day lost to rain, it appeared that the visitors had done enough to ward off defeat in the third Test. Dhawan took two sessions to rubbish that notion.

Lele Wants 'Match-Winner' Sehwag Back In Team

Mumbai, Mar 12: Former BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele wants discarded Indian opener Virender Sehwag to be recall and made an integral part of the Indian team in all three format of the game for his match-winning abilities. "He is a batsman who has scored two triple hundreds and one near triple hundred in Test cricket. He's a match-winner and according to me Sehwag be supposed to be in the Indian team in all three forms of the game as long as he is fit and available," said Lele, at the CCI yesterday, while delivering the keynote address of the "Legends Club" on the 98th birth anniversary of former captain Vijay Hazare. The outspoken former official claimed how he had play a role in Sehwag getting a firm foothold in the Indian team through the ODIs early on in the Delhi dasher's career. "Selector Madan Lal used to bring up Sehwag's name consistently in selection group meetings chaired by Chandu Borde as the player used to score 40-50 regularly batting at 7 or 8 in domestic match and after a lot of persuasion was included in the squad of 15 in the ODI series against Zimbabwe," Lele recalled. "When captain Sourav Ganguly was banned from the Rajkot game for India owing to over-rate penalty, Madan asked me to try and convince Borde to give Sehwag a chance. I persuaded Borde to include him in the XI and the latter decided only on the condition that I take up the entire responsibility by saying he could not be contacted and I agreed. And Sehwag is still playing," said Lele. Lele also recalled legendary Sir Garfield Sobers' lofty praise of Sehwag's abilities during a talk show in Mumbai a few existence ago when he said he was the Indian player he liked most for his attacking play. "When I met Sandeep Patil before the Test series, I told him concerning Sehwag'smatch-winning qualities and he agreed," Lele added.

Howard Doesn't Know The Real Me – Watson

Shane Watson challenge Australia's team performance manager Pat Howard to research his standing as a team man among cricketers around the country and denied he had any major problems with the captain Michael Clarke on his near the start return home from the India tour.

Having left Chandigarh to spend time with his pregnant wife following his dumping from the side for the third Test alongside James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja, Watson declared Howard did not know him or the game well sufficient to make the contention that he only "sometimes" does the most excellent thing for the team. 

"All I can really say is go approximately and ask every person I've ever played cricket with and that will give you the best indication of whether I'm a team man or not," Watson thought at Sydney airport. "Pat Howard doesn't particularly know me extremely well. He's come from a rugby background and hasn't been in and around cricket very long. I think the best people to ask are the people I've played cricket with and they'll be able to give their truthful opinion."

As for Clarke, of whom Howard said he and Watson had to "sort their issues out", the vice-captain insist their relationship was strong. Watson also revealed he had spoken to Clarke immediately after landing in Australia following the ventilation of Howard's comments.

"The way relationships work, there's always ups and downs like there is in marriages, friendships and all," Watson said of Clarke. "I've been playing cricket with and against Michael Clarke since I was 12. We've got a lot of history as people. We're clearly quite different people in certain ways but very very similar in a lot of ways as well.

"In the end, like you do in every association, it goes up and down and things are going really well at the moment with me and Michael. With Pat Howard, he's only come on slat the last year and a half. Myself and Michael go a little bit further back than a year and a half."

Maintaining his view so as to the sanctions for four players having failed to send in feedback ahead of the third Test was extremely harsh, Watson noted how many bouts of injury and rehab he had battled through to keep playing for Australia.

"I, with a few other guys, took it as most important into the Test match and I got that extremely wrong, which meant that it's cost me a Test match," he said. "They obviously thought that was the right decision for the team at this point in time. I accept that I did the wrong thing with what I did, but I will always find it very hard to believe being suspended from a Test match for my country. 
 "I've miss Test matches and games through injury throughout my career. I feel like I've worked my absolute bum off to have an opportunity to represent my nation. When that's taken away from you, you think the actions must be very severe. That's where we differ on our opinions. I think it's very harsh. I expressed my extreme disappointment with the punishment. But everything happens for a cause in your life."

Watson's father has spoken of how a future without international competition may be contentedly filled by Twenty20 duty in the IPL and for other clubs, and the sometime allrounder said he would be carefully weighing up his love of the game and the harm this suspension has caused him.

"It'll give me a chance to reflect on what's really happened over the past couple of days and be able to absorb what's happened and have a think about where belongings are at," he said. "I absolutely love playing cricket. I love nothing more than being able to have the opportunity and privilege to represent my country. That's amazing that, when it was taken away from me with this suspension - well, the guys reverse in India know how much it hurts me."

For Cricket Sachin Tendulkar Is Maradona And Pele Put Together: Allan Donald

New Delhi: South African pace fable Allan Donald feels cricket would be a poorer sport once Sachin Tendulkar retires from the scene as the Indian veteran is "Maradona and Pele put jointly" for the game.

"Sachin Tendulkar's charm goes beyond the field. For cricket he is Maradona and Pele put jointly, it is as simple as that. Cricket will be a poorer sport when he quits the game. He has been unbelievably special," the 46-year-old South African has on paper in the upcoming book Sachin -- Cricketer of the Century, authored by Vimal Kumar and set to hit the stands later this month.

Donald said when he is asked about the greatest in the game, the first name that comes to his mind is Tendulkar. "Tendulkar's is the first name that comes to mind the instant you ask who is the greatest," he said.

Allan Donald said whenever he is ask about the greatest in the game, the first name that comes to his brain is Sachin Tendulkar.

"My granddad introduced Sachin to me through the Wisden Cricketer magazine. When he play for Yorkshire in county cricket, I saw him for the first time. He is the No. 1 player. I keep saying that and I don't think I will ever change my mind," he additional.

Known for his hostile speed and 'White lightening', Donald has a word of advice for international bowlers on how to get ready for the senior batsman. "You don't analyse Sachin two days previous to a Test. We always planned months in advance. We knew how extremely Indian teams depended on him.

"History will show you that right-arm express pace bowlers have been successful next to him. I spoke to Curtly Ambrose before my 1996 trip to India and he told me to by no means let Sachin leave the first 15 balls," he explained.