Australia defeated West Indies and won the series by 2-0

Australia defeated West Indies in second test by 177 runs and won the series by 2-0. Australia won the first test in Hobart by inning and 212 runs. West Indies got out at 282 runs in second inning of the second test at Tuesday.

Celebration after series win.

Before this, Australia declared his second inning at 179 runs after loss of three wicket and took a lead of 459 runs. More concerning, West Indies bowlers could take only six wickets in the match and allowed Smith’s men to pile on 551 runs in the first innings.

West Indies scored 146 runs for loss of four wickets up to tea session. For the sixth wicket, Captain Jason Holder and former captain Dinesh Ram din had a partnership of 100 runs, , but all-rounder Mitchell Marsh broke the partnership with some fiery pace bowling and took 4-61 to complete the triumph.

Due to sudden fall of last 4 wickets, West Indies lost the match before 1.3 overs of the game.  West Indies batsmen battled hard in sublime conditions but were bowled out for 282 in the penultimate over of the day.

Even though Darren Bravo and opener Rajendra Chandrika batted doggedly after lunch, there was no stopping the Australian pacers as Peter Sidle, Mitch Marsh and James Pattinson got into the act.

Holder scored 68 runs in 86 balls and Ram din scored 59 runs in 90 balls, which is the best score in last two years for him. Spinner Leon was declared as the Man of the Match who took 7 wickets. All-rounder Michel Marsh took four wickets for 61 runs in second inning.

Bravo (21 off 61) batted stoically for over 22 overs before falling victim to a peach by Sidle – caught behind by Peter Neville.

Carlos, who scored 59 runs in first inning, got out at the delivery of Leon. Marsh send Captain Holder back to pavilion who was caught out at mid-off by Hazelwood.

Hazelwood had Darren Bravo caught behind for 12 on the first ball of the last over before lunch, but a TV replay showed the bowler had over-stepped his crease.

After dismissing Roach, pace man James Pattinson ran in from long leg to complete a fine catch after Jerome Taylor slogged Marsh high into the sky, and the Australians celebrated finishing their work a day early.

The no-ball was the third to deny Australia wickets in the match, with James Pattinson reprieving fellow pace man Carlos Brathwaite twice on day three, allowing the Barbadian to score 59 on debut.

Smith scored 70 runs and became the highest scorer of the year in test cricket. He has scored 1474 runs in this year with an average of 73.70. England’s batsmen Joe Rout is at second position who scored 1372 runs this year.

Having beaten New Zealand 2-0 at the start of the home summer, Australia captain Steve Smith celebrated his second series win in charge following the retirement of Michael Clarke.

“We probably let ourselves down a little bit, obviously with the no-balls,” he told reporters after winning the game.

“I don’t think we dropped our level, it was a tough wicket to take wickets on. You really had to grind it out and work extremely hard,” he further added.

“We got the job done.”

West Indies captain Jason Holder, who top-scored for his side with a defiant 68, said the loss “hurt” but he was comforted by his team’s improvement from Hobart, where they were thrashed by an innings and 212 runs and roundly condemned for a perceived lack of effort.

“We probably showed a lot more belief when we went into bat,” Holder told reporters after losing the match.

“Obviously our bowlers still need to be a lot more disciplined,” he further added.

Real Madrid Out Of the Kings Cup

Game Disciplinary committee of Spain has taken a very strict action against Real Madrid team for allowing to play Denis Cheryshev in a game and hence Real Madrid team is now out of the Kings Cup Tournament to be played.

Denis Cheryshev is facing a ban of one match and was supposed to not play the match played in the beginning of this month. But Real Madrid selected Denis in the team squad in the beginning of this month and allowed him to play the match and Denis also scored a very first goal in the match, which was won by Real Madrid by 3-1.

Disciplinary committee of Spain rejected the appeal of Real and finally took a decision to throw out the Real Madrid of the Kings Cup. Apart from this decision, Disciplinary committee of Spain also ordered club to submit a fine of six thousand Euro due to above offence.

On the other hand, Argentina star striker Lionel Messi, who play for the best football club of Spain, took part in the practice session for the club after getting his recovery from his injury. Barcelona has to play his next match against Real Betis at Wednesday.

According to the news agency AFE, Messy did not participate in the practice session of the club at Sunday. He has been awarded this year by the award of best football player of the world. In order to participate in the award function, Messy was in Dubai at Sunday.

Messy will play his 500th match against Bettis. Barcelona is at the top position of the league with 35 numbers, while Atletico Madrid is at second position of the league. Real Madrid has got the third position in the group.

Manchester United coach refused to resign

English Premier Club Manchester United coach Louis van Gaal stated on Tuesday that he is not going to resign from his present post of club in spite of the fact that the team under his guidance is unable to get a single match winner knock from the last eight matches played by Manchester United.

Manchester United coach Louis van Gaal

In a match of United Premier League, which was played between Manchester united and Chelsea, none of the team could score a single goal due to which match got drawn and once again Manchester united could not get their first win in the last eight matches played by them.

With this draw match, Manchester United is at the sixth position of the United Premier League. Before this, Louis van’s team was unable to qualify for pre quarter final of the European Champions League.

On behalf of coach of Manchester United, news channel BBC wrote “When players are performing such under huge pressure, it is not possible to even think about resignation from the coach post of Manchester United.

The last few days has been proved to be very tough for the Netherland’s star Louis van. Due to the various predictions about his position in his team for the past few days in media, he left a press conference in between the discussion and did not answered the questions asked by reporters.

His team got an unexpected loss against stoke city by 2-0, after which various questions and predictions about position of Louis van in Manchester United team came forward in media.

Now, it will be very interesting to see whether how much time he takes to have a positive improvement in the performance level of the players of his team because his team could not get evan a single match win in the last eight matches played. 

Louis Van will be searching for a come back win for his team with the help of which he can get a solid answer for all the questions and prediction about his ability to guide his team in the past few days of his career.

Gautam Gambhir refused to shake hands with Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Former Indian opener star batsman Gautam Gambhir refused to shake hands with present Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni after winning a match in Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament by 99 run, which clearly indicated that both has few hesitations for each other.

The live video of this incident got viral very quickly over the internet as it is an incident which indicates a lot of hidden misconceptions and issues of Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni with few senior players of team India during the golden era of Indian cricket, during which team India won its second World Cup title in 2011.

Gambhir and Dhoni were good friends till the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and even Dhoni had declared Gautam as one of the best attacking opener batsman of India. Gautam played a tremendous inning in the final match of ICC World Cup Tournament against Srilanka, which was played at Wankhede stadium. With the help of that marvelous inning played by Gambhir, team India got a stable start and scored a good total against attacking pace unit of Srilanka.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni also played a marvelous inning in that final match and was declared as the Man of the match, but many Indian supporters stated that it was Gambhir who came and gave a fluent start for Indian inning to get a good total. Many others examples are there of the contribution of Gambhir towards various series wins of team India at Indian ground as well as in abroad countries where pitches are more favorable for fast bowlers.

After ICC World Cup 2011, priorities of Indian captain got changed and MS Dhoni started preferring youngsters over seniors and he justified his decisions about selection of youngsters in team India after giving a press conference statement in which he clearly stated about his plan of creating a new team India for world cup 2015 tournament.

His relationship with the other senior players of team like Sehwag, Gambhir and others turned cold. Sehwag, Gautam and many other senior players got out of the team and this lead to generation of  various controversial statements about MS Dhoni in media regarding team selection and preference given to youngsters over senior players.

Controversies of MS Dhoni with his former best friend Yuvraj Singh has also become a part of the periodic floating news in Indian media. Yuvraj’s father clearly gave a statement that MS Dhoni is completely responsible for the fact that many Indian senior players are out of the Indian cricket team.

But Yuvraj refused to accept the facts stated by his father about Dhoni in India and stated that he is still a good friend of MS Dhoni and he has a massive respect for present Indian captain. Now, Yuvraj is back in T-20 squad for upcoming T-20 World Cup Tournament and it will be very interesting to see whether how both players deal with each other along with all these controversies.

Above incident of ignorance of MS Dhoni by Gautam Gambhir has clearly indicated that relationship status of Dhoni with all other senior players, who are out from the team is not much great and obviously it is all due to the fact that Dhoni preferred new talented youngsters over other senior players of the team, who were out of their form at the time when they were not selected for the Indian team.

On the other hand, Virender Sehwag, who has recently called time on his international cricket career, has backed under-fire skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to stay on as India's limited overs captain till the next World Cup.                                                                      

Replying to queries about Dhoni, Sehwag said: "He should continue as captain till the next World Cup. If he does so, he can leave behind a good World Cup team.

 "And if he retires...you can imagine, even now when Dhoni is there, people have to think about who should bat at 5th, 6th and 7th position", said Sehwag."If Dhoni is not there, the 5th, 6th and 7th slots will become absolutely free and you cannot expect somebody to finish the match properly."

The explosive opener dismissed reports that it was Dhoni who was behind the decision to drop him from the Indian team. Asked if he believed Dhoni had a hand in dropping him from the team, the former India batsman told 'India TV' show 'Aap ki Adalat': "I don't think Dhoni would have done this. He is a nice man at heart. We senior players respect him, and when he first took over as captain, all senior players played under him, gave him guidance and nice suggestions, which he implemented during his captaincy and our team won in T20, ODIs and Test matches."

On whether he had tiffs with Dhoni, Sehwag said: "I don't think any such thing happened. It was all media speculations that Sehwag and Dhoni are at loggerheads. We stay in a hotel together and play matches, I don't think such things occurred.

It is obvious that all these controversies have added a blank spot at the tremendous career of MS Dhoni, who has won two world cup title in two different format of cricket and various other ICC Tournaments like Champions trophy and all.

Delhi’s cricketer Gautam Gambhir has taken the media on his radar for above news of not shaking hands after a match win in Vijay Hajare Tournament and tweeted few statements regarding various predictions of relation between MS Dhoni and Gambhir.

The news and videos regarding not shaking hands with each other after match were trending in the media and now, Gautam tried to clarify his stand for this particular issue at twitter. Gautam tweeted:

“This handshake made more news than the one between Pak PM Nawaz Sharif & Narendra Modi. Grow up media. “

Delhi’s captain Gautam Gambhir also presented a photo in which both players are shaking hands with each other, which proves above report of media to be totally rumor.

Gautam shaking hands with MS Dhoni.

In his tweet, he clearly mentioned “This handshake was more famous than the handshake between Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi. When this media will grow up?? Before publishing anything, facts must be well analyzed before publication”.

In another tweet, he wrote “For my electronic media friends, here is that photo in which we are shaking our hands after match win.”

Compton, Taylor dig England out of trouble on Day 1

With the help of  three wickets tone from South African pacer Steyn, South Africa made a great start In the first test match between England and South Africa at Kingsmead in Durban, on Saturday.

James Taylor (right) discussing few words with team mate Nick Compton. 

South African captain Hashim Amla might have hoped a little bit of help for bowlers from the wicket when he won the toss and sent England in to bat in overcast conditions. Initial phase of the game proved Amla’s decision to be correct when English team lost his three crucial wickets just at a total of 49 runs in 18 overs.

Steyn dismissed Alastair Cook and Alex Hales, the England openers, very early to the start of the game and hence it led the England’s first inning instability as they lost their two more wickets on the same day and England could have only a small total of 179 runs with a loss of four crucial wickets.

Steyn did not concede a run in the 3.1 overs he bowled before lunch. Off-spinner Dane Piedt took the wicket of Joe Root for 24 with his first ball of the match.

After rain delayed the start, only 27 minutes of cricket was possible before rain brought an early lunch, while there was a 22-minute rain break during an extended afternoons play.

Steyn, who had not played any cricket since suffering a groin injury on the first day of a series in India on November 5, found his rhythm almost immediately and had skipper Cook caught at second slip by Elgar for a duck off the fifth ball of his second over of the game.

James Taylor and Nick Compton compiled gritty half-centuries which lead English team to a total of 179 for four after the end of the game of first day at Durban.

Both these batsmen fought very well against the pace attack of South African pacers and hence restricted any further fall of wickets as both batsmen got a huge partnership of 125 runs for the fourth wicket.

This partnership of 125 runs for fourth wicket lead the England total score to 179 runs after the end of the game of first day. In the 64th over of the game of day 1, Steyn once again got the valuable wicket of James Taylor, who was caught by De Villiers. Dale 

Steyn broke this partnership to bring back the South Africans into the game.

James Taylor and Nick Compton dug England out of trouble on a rain-hit first day of the first Test against South Africa after having half centuries for each, but Taylor got out by Steyn at the end of the day. Nick Compton is still on the field with his marvelous inning in which he has added 63 after facing 179 deliveries, which also include 4 boundaries.

England’s first inning total is now very much dependent upon this tremendous inning played by Nick Compton. Nick would like to bat more on the second day of the game and English team would like to have a good total of at least 350 runs over this ground. We hope to have a good fight between bat and ball on the second day of the game.

India Won third Test against South Africa, Clinched off series by 2-0.

With the help of 12 wicket tones of Ashwin and 4 wicket tones from both Amit Mishra and Jadeja, Team India defeated South Africa by 124 runs in the third test match of the four test match series played at Nagpur and clinched off  the test series by 2-0.

Virat Kohli after winning match and series against South Africa by 2-0.

With this win, India have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the test series of four matches, with just one more game to go. In the second match, none of the teams could get a result and hence only a single test match has been left in the series, which means that Team India has clinched off this series before the last game.

From the bowling department of team India, Ashwin got the best performance of his test career as he took 7 wickets in the fourth inning of the match and 5 ones in the second inning of match, which collectively become 12 wicket tone from the most experienced spinner of India just for 98 runs.

Jadeja and Amit Mishra shared 4 wickets each and helped in packing up the South African batting line up at a least score for any team on Indian ground in first inning and something similar scenario was shown by the South African batsmen in the fourth inning of the match too.

Ashwin mentioned after contributing a great role in the match, "I thought the wicket slowed down a bit today, it was something that was expected because it was dry from underneath. Faf and Amla fought hard, so we had to do something special.

There were two teams out there, one was trying to fight and the other was trying to win - I feel that was the difference between the two teams. A batsman goes out to make a 100 and a bowler goes out to get a fifer, that's how I do it.

 I thought Mishra bowled a wonderful spell after lunch. We prized out the wickets of Amla and Faf. Mishra got us right back into the game with those two wickets and it was always uphill for them from there on. Any batsman who comes out there and trusts his defense will pose a challenge for a spinner”, Ashwin added.

Ashwin was awarded by the Man of the Match title for his 12 wickets just for 98 runs in the match.

Ashwin after taking wickets in third test match against South Africa.

Few unexpected and surprising records has been registered on the ground at Nagpur in the third test match of the series which are listed below:

This is the first instance in India, where not even one half-century was compiled during the four completed innings of a Test.

This is only the seventh occasion in the history of Test cricket that not even one batsman composed a fifty in a Test, where all 40 wickets fell.

On Day 2 of the third Test, 20 wickets fell. This equaled the record for the most number of wickets to have fallen in a single day in India. In 2004 in Mumbai, when India took on the mighty Australian team, 20 wickets had fallen on Day 3 of the Test.

This is the first time South Africa have lost a series away from home since they came second best against Sri Lanka in 2006.  The South Africans were then defeated 2-0 in a two-match series.

Interestingly, two of South Africa's lowest scores since they returned to the Test fold in 1992, have come against India. At Wanderers in 2006, they were bowled out for just 84. Of course, in the first innings of the Nagpur Test, they were bundled out for 79.

 South Africa could only muster 79 in the first innings of this Test. Unfortunately for the visitors that is now the lowest total notched up by any team against India. Previously, Sri Lanka were skittle out for a mere 82 in Chandigarh in 1990.

Indian captain Virat Kohli stated after his first Test series victory as captain on home soil, “It’s very pleasing to win the series after having lost the ODIs and the T20Is. They (South Africa) are a tough side to beat. The guys have shown great character.

We have been positive throughout the series. Sealing the series in Nagpur feels very good. Ashwin is a world-class spinner, probably the best in the world right now. He's one of the main reasons why we were able to win back-to-back series. He's a consistent performer and it's a pleasure to have him in the side.

We expected South Africa to string in a partnership or two. That's how Test cricket goes. We knew we needed patience with the ball. Mishra showed great character when it was tough going and he got two in two overs and I think that was the turning point today for us. It's a challenging wicket.

The batsmen from our side applied better in Mohali. We just need apply ourselves in our batting. Sometimes it is going to be bowler-friendly, batsmen might not get many runs. Wickets can be taken by the fast bowlers if reverse swing is put in the right place. Ishant bowled with a big heart today.

Delhi would be an opportunity for us to be more consistent as a team. Nagpur has been wonderful, the crowd was great. Hopefully we'll have similar support in Delhi as well", Kohli added.

For all those who questioned the pitch for the completion of three innings inside two days, had their 'rank-turner' concept go awry. Amla and du Plessis' determination showed how, if you adapt well, conditions can be overcome. With all decks stacked against them, the pair was involved in the biggest partnership of the series (72) for South Africa, and did something that only one other batsman had done - batted over 100 balls.

South African captain Hashim Amla mentioned after losing the match as well as series against India, "It's disappointing to lose. It was a tough match, we tried our best. I think the way the guys fought today was very good. We could have been bowled out for 100 odd in the second innings as there were many plays and misses and a few edges didn't go to hand. But tried to dig deep as long as we can. The pitch was a difficult factor."

A small fight back from South African captain Amla and Duplesis came into the picture of the game in fourth inning of South Africa as they got a strong partnership of 72 runs for the fifth wicket. Both batsmen showed the way to other ones how to play over such a track where ball got a lot of turn and spin.

Amit Mishra braked this dangerous partnership for the fifth wicket and got rid of Amla to end the partnership and also packed off du Plessis soon.

Vijay stated after winning the third test, "It's a great feeling (to win the series). I am very happy at the moment. One more game to go, hopefully we can put up a good performance in Delhi as well. We played our A game here. I thought the first day the wicket was better than how it is right now. Very happy for Ashwin. Still a long way to go. Hopefully he can keep his fitness and do well for India in the future."

Virat tweeted after the victory:  Nagpur has been wonderful and it is great to see so many people come out and watch a Test match.

It is very pleasing indeed and SA are a tough side to beat. The guys have shown character.

Ashwin tweeted after his best performance of the career:  A batsman goes out there to get a hundred and I go out there to get a 5-wicket haul.

Third Test Match between India and South Africa, Nagpur

Day 1 Summary:-

South Africa dismissed India for 215 in the first innings with nine overs more to play on Day 1 of the third Test match at the VAC stadium in Nagpur, on Wednesday.

After pack up of the first inning of the Indian batting line up, South African team also got initial shock and South Africans have lost its two early wickets very quickly just at a score of 12 runs in their first innings.

South Africa's Morne Morkel, celebrates with AB de Villiers, right, after taking the wicket of India captain Virat Kohli

Ashwin got the important wicket of Van, who got caught out by Rahane and Jadeja got wicket of South African night watchman Imran Tahir who could not defend his wickets on a perfect delivery from Jadeja, which made South African score 12 runs at the loss of two wickets.

South Africans are trailing by 204 runs from the first inning total of Team India in the third test match of four test match series of the tour and now, the role of second day of the game has become too much important because It's going to be spin, spin and more spin from India. This game is moving very fast and we can expect the result of the game at fourth day of the match.

The South African off-spinner Simon Harmer did most of the damage of team India in the first inning as he took four big wickets of strong Indian batting line up by just giving a total 78 runs, which packed up Indian inning just at a total of 278 runs.

South African main pacer Morne Morkel took three wicket for 35 runs and other three wickets were equally shared by Rabada, Dean and Imran Tahir.

Murali Vijay again played a good inning at the top as he scored 40 runs and tried to give a slight stability to Indian first inning, but the two most important innings came lower down the order.

Ravindra Jadeja played a positive knock of 34 just on 54 balls, while Wriddhiman Saha scored a patient 32 on 106 balls, which formed a 48 runs partnership for seventh wicket between Ravindra and Saha, which helped team India to cross the 200-run mark.

After winning the toss, Indian captain Virat Kohli decided to bat first over this wicket due to the importance of role of spinners on this track in the fourth inning of the game.

The surface provided prodigious turn for the spinners from the first session of the match, which South Africa, currently the top-ranked Test team, needs to win to level the four-match series.

It all started early on in the day. The pacers were taken off after the new ball offered absolutely zip. And Harmer, Elgar started making things happen. And despite all this. Vijay was in a zone of his own. But by now, Morkel also had found some reverse-swing going. And bowled a corker of a spell aided by some loose stroke play from the Indian batsmen. India's lower order rallied courtesy a counter-attacking Jadeja and a steady Saha. Enabled the hosts to crawl over the 200-mark.

In the space of 15 overs after lunch, India lost four wickets for the addition of only 31 runs after being 85 for 2.

Morkel, lacking effective pace support at the other end in the absence of the injured Dale Steyn, was most impressive of the bowlers and his tea figures read 3 for 27.

Harmer, mostly bowling from around the wicket, also utilized the spin-friendly track well to have 2 for 65, while Elgar, the other wicket-taker, had figures of 1 for 7.

Both sides went in with an extra spinner, India opting for leg-spinner Amit Mishra and South Africa adding off-spinner Harmer to their line-up.

 Day 2 Summary:-

On the second day of the third test match between India and South Africa, spinners got tremendous support from the wicket of Nagpur as total wickets shared by spinners on the day is 17 wickets. 

Ashwin got 5 wickets and Jadeja got four wickets, which helped India to pack up the South Africans first inning just at a total of 79 runs, which is the least score of South Africa against India.

After South Africa, it was the turn of Indian batsmen who could not found the trick against Imran Tahir and Morkel as team India's second inning got packed up just at a total score of 176 runs. Imran 

Tahir got 5 wickets and Morkel got three, which packed up Indian batting line up just at a total score of 176 runs.

Now, India need 8 wickets to win this four match series and South Africa needs 278 runs to win the third test match at Nagpur as South Africa lost its two early wickets at just a total score of 32 runs in the fourth inning of the match. 
Day 3 Summary:-

With the help of 12 wicket tones of Ashwin and 4 wicket tones from both Amit Mishra and Jadeja, Team India defeated South Africa by 124 runs in the third test match of the four test match series played at Nagpur.

With this win, India have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the test series of four matches, with just one more game to go. In the second match, none of the teams could get a result and hence only a single test match has been left in the series, which means that Team India has clinched off this series before the last game.

From the bowling department of team India, Ashwin got the best performance of his test career as he took 7 wickets in the second inning and 5 ones in the first, which collectively become 12 wicket tone from the most experienced spinner of India just for 98 runs.

Ashwin got man of the match for his 12 wickets just for 98 runs in both innings.

Day 3 Summary:-

With the help of 12 wicket tones of Ashwin and 4 wicket tones from both Amit Mishra and Jadeja, Team India defeated South Africa by 124 runs in the third test match of the four test match series played at Nagpur.

With this win, India have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the test series of four matches, with just one more game to go. In the second match, none of the teams could get a result and hence only a single test match has been left in the series, which means that Team India has clinched off this series before the last game.

From the bowling department of team India, Ashwin got the best performance of his test career as he took 7 wickets in the second inning and 5 ones in the first, which collectively become 12 wicket tone from the most experienced spinner of India just for 98 runs.

Ashwin got man of the match for his 12 wickets just for 98 runs in both innings.