World Cup Title for West Indies

A Sunday night here at the Eden Gardens turned surreal for the 49,818 fans, who embraced Darren Sammy’s men as their own and found ecstasy in a last over of pulsating thrills. The West Indies, known for its hoary past, won the ICC World Twenty20 title.

Marlon Samuels (85 n.o., 66b, 9x4, 2x6) anchored the chase and Carlos Brathwaite (34 n.o.) mocked the 19 runs required from the final six deliveries. The burly Brathwaite’s riposte — 6, 6, 6 and 6 — stunned England and forced a hapless Ben Stokes, the bowler, on to his haunches.

The West Indies won by four wickets, scoring 161 for six in 19.4 overs while in pursuit of England’s 155 for nine. In racing towards the victor’s podium, the West Indies became the only squad so far to win the World Twenty20 title twice, having secured it last in 2012.

Strangely, the initial fireworks that the West Indies witnessed were the ones engineered by the event managers as its top-three fell in quick succession. Johnson Charles and Chris Gayle could not resist their suicidal big-hits against Joe Root’s off-breaks while Lendl Simmons was trapped by seamer David Willey.

At 11 for three, the West Indies suffered the batting horrors. Samuels, however, proved to be the bulwark, and also survived a scare on 27 — being adjudged caught behind off Liam Plunkett — before the cameras pointed out a bump-catch by Jos Buttler.

A lot hinged on Samuels and when he rolled his wrist just a fraction to nail a four past backward square-leg, the West Indies may have sensed a second-wind. At its half-way mark, the Windies was 54 for three in 10 overs and staring at a required rate of 10.

Samuels’s partner Dwayne Bravo, largely sedate, suddenly exploded with a six off spinner Adil Rashid but in trying for an encore, miscued and retreated.

Samuels and Bravo added 75 runs off 69 balls, for the fourth-wicket, offering hope before the West Indies stumbled again. Samuels, with two spectacular sixes off Plunkett, continued to promise an oasis.

In 2012, when the West Indies ambushed host Sri Lanka and won its maiden World Twenty20 title, Samuels’s 78 was a key cornerstone.

History was going to be repeated, just that it came through in the last over as Brathwaite held centrestage.

Earlier, Root’s 54 (36b, 7x4) and to some extent Buttler’s 36, offered some stability in a rather lukewarm England innings. Having elected to field, the West Indies skipper Sammy found vindication within the first two overs as his counterpart Morgan had to hurriedly stride in at number four.

Morgan had to paper over the cracks suffered due to Jason Roy’s frozen feet against leg-spinner Samuel Badree and Alex Hales’s tame shot off Andre Russell, which found the short fine-leg fielder.

At eight for two, England needed its leader to prosper. With Root being fluent, as evident from fours through covers and past mid-on, Morgan had to bide his time.

Morgan struck a lofted four off left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn but his tentative approach against Badree proved fatal. Gayle caught at first slip and England slumped to 23 for three in 4.4 overs.

If the world was crumbling around him, Root did not reflect any angst.

He rocked back or pressed forward to punch or drive and along with Buttler, strung a 61-run fourth-wicket partnership off 40 deliveries.

Just as Root batted without fuss, Buttler bruised Benn with three massive sixes.

The rest of the England line-up, did not inspire similar confidence and credit is also due to the fielding skills of Sammy’s men as diving catches perhaps meant that Morgan and company suffered a poor appetite at the interval.

It was an agony that continued well into the night.

Time after Injury Was Toughest, Irritating: Shami

Indian fast bowler Mohammad Shami,himself, revealed the torture he suffered due to the injury and said that he was completely in bed for the first two months of his injury.

This knee injury ruled him out of cricket for nearly nine months following India’s exit in the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Shami said after a good come back in team India squad for the upcoming Australian tour of Indian team, “The doctor had told me not to get out of bed for two months. It was the most difficult phase for me. I was not allowed to keep my feet on the ground. I was only allowed to get up from my bed and go to the bathroom.

“And the second thing is I couldn’t play. When I left the crutches and met the team before the tour of Bangladesh, I felt like I was alive again. I had not seen the dining room even for those two months.

I started feeling good again when I started light running and my cricket. I felt like I was back to my world. It is very difficult to be mentally strong during this period,” he said.

Having recovered from his injury, Shami played for Bengal in a few domestic matches, claiming three wickets in the two Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day matches.

He also got back his rhythm in Mushtaq Ali Trophy T-20 matches, claiming five wickets in two games.

“It was very important for me to get back my rhythm and get some matches under my belt. I wanted to start from where I had left before my injury. I was feeling comfortable as I was able to bowl with the same pace and hit the same line and length,” he said.

MS Dhoni also welcomed come back of fast bowler Mohammad Shami after his knee injury, but said that we have to keep a close look at the burden faced by him.

“Shami has been a very good bowler for us, especially if you see the period before he got injured. He has been equally effective for us with the new ball, in the middle overs and in the death. He has been very consistent in his performance.”

He has worked really hard during his rehab. It will be interesting to see how he shapes up. I will try to manage him well because the World Cup is just round the corner,” Dhoni said on Tuesday in Mumbai.

Shami elaborated his feelings about his life after injury, “Injuries are very irritating for me and any other cricketer. It’s very difficult to mentally come out of an injury. I just hope it never happens to me again in my life.”

Despite playing through pain due to a knee injury, the Bengal medium-pacer emerged India’s best bowler in the tournament, claiming 17 wickets in seven matches.

Following the a long spell on the sidelines, the 25-year-old pacer is back in the Indian squad for the forthcoming One-Day International and T-20 series in Australia, and will be hoping to repeat his performances Down Under. 

But once again Shami is out of the Indian team due to injury at Australian tour and will not be able to play in the upcoming ODI series. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar will replace him as fas bowler in Indian squad.

Dhoni's Team India heads to Australia with one eye on World T20

For an International One Day Series of five matches and a T-20 series of three matches, Team India departure to Australia on Tuesday. Team India will play a one day series and a T-20 series at this Australian Tour.

Before departure, MS Dhoni attended a press conference. Looking dapper in black blazer,Mahendra Singh Dhoni strutted around the precincts of a suburban hotel in the city on Tuesday evening, greeting friends and well-wishers from the cricket fraternity with such alacrity it was clear he hadn't met most of them in a very long time.

MS Dhoni attending a press conference before departure.

Indian captain MS Dhoni praised a lot about the bowling strategies of dangerous spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and said, “Ashwin is a very different type of bowler. 

Whenever he bowls, he does with a lot of caution and thought process about his bowling is continuous in his mind. He is very positive at the field while bowling. I always told him to just focus on his bowling, not on anything else.

Ashwin is a very sensible player. He got few downs in his performance and he was criticized also for experimenting a lot of things, but I am happy that he has got a great comeback.

“He has played a very valuable and important role I Indian bowling squad for a long time. I always has a full confidence over him. I am much dependent upon him. I have used him at all the moments whether it is the start of the game or last 10 overs of the match. Whenever fast bowlers are not doing well, Ashwin make it easy task for the team”, he added.

Ashwin ended his year with the title of the top test match bowler in International Cricket calendar 2015 and became the first bowler to achieve this title for the first time. In 2015, he played 9 test matches and got 62 wickets, in which he got seven times five wickets or more than that in test cricket. The best performance for him in last year was taking 7 wickets for 66 runs.

Dhoni is heading Down Under with a clear motive. The idea is to get his bowling unit together and assess who will be ripe for the picking when the time comes to dominate at home. "We always knew that we would be playing three T20s there. Conditions will be different when we play the World T20 at home but it's good to have this opportunity (in Australia).

"We have ample opportunity to try different players in different slots and try different bowling combinations. We will be in a better position by the start of the World T20 regarding what our playing XI should look like and what will be the best strategy," Dhoni said on the eve of the team's departure.

Dhoni also praised all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and young spin bowler Axer Patel for having a great performance in domestic cricket.

Dhoni said that there will be a tough competition for a place of spinner between Jadeja, Ashwin and Patel outside India.

“Ashwin is our best spinner and it’s good to have Jadeja back in the team. Two spin all-rounder will fight for one place in the squad”, he added.

He also welcomed come back of fast bowler Mohammad Shami after his knee injury, but said that we have to keep a close look at the burden faced by him.

“Shami has been a very good bowler for us, especially if you see the period before he got injured. He has been equally effective for us with the new ball, in the middle overs and in the death. He has been very consistent in his performance.”

He has worked really hard during his rehab. It will be interesting to see how he shapes up. I will try to manage him well because the World Cup is just round the corner,” Dhoni said on Tuesday in Mumbai.

For the Australian Tour, few new faces has been included in the team named as Manish Pandey, Rishi Dhawan Gurkreet Singh Man and Barindar Sharan. These players have got place in One day squad, while in T-20 squad, Hardik Pandya has got entry for the first time.

One Day International Captain of Indian cricket team MS Dhoni said that he will think about his retirement at the “right time”.

When asked about his retirement plan from limited over game, he did not give a clear answer of this question, but about his life after his retirement from the test cricket, he said “Now I don’t play test cricket, but with the help of this break I get few more time to prepare myself for one day cricket. I always believe in present. I have no answer about my future. This Australian Tour is the most important thing for me. I have not any thought for myself after the World Cup to be held in March April in India.

Great VVS Laxman stated about MS Dhoni, "I definitely see Dhoni playing till 2019 World Cup as he is super-fit," said Laxman, before proceeding to elaborate on his point.

"The reason is that I have never seen him miss a match due to an injury. May be, he has had those odd finger injuries here and there," continued Laxman, adding, "I have no doubt he will be available till 2019 World Cup.

"I am happy that he has played seven matches in Vijay Hazare Trophy as he must have needed some preparation under his belt."

Dhoni last played a One-dayer against South Africa on Oct 25 last year, after which the next two months saw him participate in a domestic tournament - other than the IPL - for the first time in eight years and enjoy a rare break from the frenzied international cricket circuit.

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.”