Orble - The Cricket Blog

The Cricket Blog

follow this blog

2 followers

10 daily readers

rank of 380

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

World Cup: India v Bangladesh live score

February 19th 2011 05:07

After months and years of much talk and hype, the cricket World Cup is finally here and India take on Bangladesh in the first game of the tournament today.

You can watch the India v Bangladesh live here

Far too much has been made out of the manner in which this has been treated as a grudge game, with the fuel added to the fire by Virender Sehwag who said that the Indians will be out to take revenge against a side which lost to Bangladesh in the previous World Cup.

It remains to be seen whether the Indians will be able to live up to their early-tournament promise when they beat both, Australia and New Zealand in the warm-up games. The batting looks to be in strong hands while the spinners will obviously play a part.

It is the pace bowling department which will struggle a little on tracks which offer anywhere between very little to nothing at all for them.

Bangladesh's batting has relied heavily on Tamim Iqbal, but that has also allowed the pressure to be taken off the other players. It will remain to be seen how the bowling holds up against the Indian batting.

India will go in as favourites for the game but expect Bangladesh to grit it out in the middle.

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Cricket Diaries - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Batting has let Australia down in Ashes

January 5th 2011 14:45

Two days remain for the Ashes series to get over. In fact, the Ashes is over - won by England. It is the series result that remained of some importance. Unfortunately for the stand-in (or the new, permanent?) captain Michael Clarke, the Australian performance in the fifth and the final Test match seems to have been as under-par as the rest of the games.

Australia v England 5th Test at Sydney Live Score and Highlights

With two days to go, even if Australia were to top their best performance of the series - in WACA - it looks highly unlikely that they can win it at Sydney. And that will mean that the series would be lost, at least 2-1. If not 3-1.

A lot has been said about the Australian bowling in the series but one gets the sense that the batting has been a major letdown. Much more than the bowling.

After all, the bowling attack was coming into the Test after not having played too much together. Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle were both coming off sizable periods of off-cricket due to injuries. Mitchell Johnson had been struggling with his form while there was no spinner of note.

As compared to that, if one were to cast one's mind only a year or so back, the likes of Watson, Katich, Ponting, Hussey and Clarke had forged a decent line-up. Marcus North was a suspect at number six but Australia's problems in the series were more to do with the manner in which one of their opener and the numbers three and four had batted in the series.

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Cricket Diaries - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Usman Khwaja looks like an encouraging prospect

January 3rd 2011 09:21

The first day of the Sydney Test match seemed to have begun well for the Aussies but the rues of the summer continued to haunt them. From 105/1 at one stage, they had collapsed to 134/4 on a track that did not seem to assist the pace bowlers as much the two before it.

Michael Clarke's elevation to the captaincy did not get too much for the side, as he failed to keep a cut shot down and was easily caught in the gully. This, when an innings of 50 from him would have worked wonders for the Aussies whilst stalling the quick fall of wickets.

Instead, the only silver streak for the Aussies was the batting of Usman Khwaja, who looked quite composed on debut. His stance reminds me of Mark Butcher while his batting is quite clean with no eccentricities. He made a well-compiled 37 and could have been not-out tomorrow, the first thing in the morning had it not been for the sweep off Graeme Swann that landed in the hands of square-leg.

Australia is definitely not out of the game yet as Michael Hussey's still there but whether a score of 250-300 will be enough at SCG remains to be seen.

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Cricket Diaries - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Clarke replaces Ponting as Australia captain

December 30th 2010 08:44

Okay, so a part of my previous questions was answered. Ricky Ponting will not be captaining the side for the fifth Test match at Sydney, while Michael Clarke will be handed over the reign.

The only thing going in Ponting's favour is that he has not yet been sacked. At least not officially. The reason afforded is that his finger injury has worsened. Much like his form. And he needed that rest

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Cricket Diaries - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

10 Questions after Ashes loss for Australia

December 29th 2010 02:14

The Ashes have been lost. For the first time in 24 years in Australia.

Now, a few questions that need to be answered

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Cricket Diaries - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Ponting will be lucky to escape match-ban

December 27th 2010 12:57

In one of my prior pieces here, I had said that the Ashes this year needed some spice; there was too much love between the two sides in the first couple of games. It took only an Adelaide loss for the Aussies to come out firing all cylinders, both with the bat/ball and the verbals.

Ricky Ponting has never had the best of the sportsmanship in recent time as has been evidenced by the manner in which he has been reprimanded by his own board. So much so that the cricket board had afforded him special instructions to keep his players on a leash. Which is probably why, the cricket was getting a tad dull

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Cricket Diaries - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Australia v England 4th Test at Melbourne Preview

December 25th 2010 09:26

Australia play England in the fourth Ashes Test at the MCG.

1. England need to get Ian Bell earlier. Anywhere between number three and five, but definitely not at six

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Cricket Diaries - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Why should a team have the right to complain about cricket pitches?

December 23rd 2010 05:33

It is strange that the MCG curator has had to come out to defend his actions of changing the track that will be used for the fourth Ashes Test match at Melbourne. Follow the Australia-England 4th Test score live here.

The common refrain, especially coming from the English media is that the Melbourne track was changed to dish out a pace-filled pitch after the kind of performance that was exhibited by England at a similar one at WACA. They cried foul over this change

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Cricket Diaries - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

List of 416 players named for IPL 4 auctions

December 22nd 2010 07:38

416 players were named for the IPL auction! For the entire IPL auction list, click here

If each side were to pick 20 cricketers in all, that would mean that there are 200 cricketers needed, out of which 12 are already picked from the previous year while there will be at least four cricketers that need to be picked up from domestic cricket as well. This reduces the demand to not more than 150 from the auction list. (You can follow the IPL 4 auctions live here

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Cricket Diaries - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Is Michael Hussey the modern-day Steve Waugh?

December 18th 2010 08:12

So, almost three days into the third Ashes Test match between Australia and England at WACA and the Aussies seem to have made a comeback. And with the target that the Australians have set the visitors thanks to Michael Hussey's brilliant century, it looks like 1-1 is on cards.

Not for a moment I think that England cannot chase the target of 391 down much like how South Africa had made the 400 plus total two years ago

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote