Who will play in the Semi Finals?

Expectation around the Twenty20 World Championship is high at this moment but the concentration is at IPL games because only three matches are left. At this moment, Mumbai Indians cricket club has already been qualified for the semi finals by achieving 20 points from 13 matches when one still left. it may be the second highest point comparing the last two season.

In the first season, champion Rajasthan Royals pursed 22 point in the group round match and Deccan Chargers squeezed 20 points. It is found that the points of the next 3 teams are same and if Rajasthan Royals could win against Kolkata Knight Riders that is kicking off at Eden Gardens then Rajasthan has to have change to jump in the semifinals.

Last two years, Mumbai Indians was in very bad condition as well as in the 7^th and 5^th position in the premier round tournament. But this year Sachin is in good batting form and his teammates are also doing very well that is why the club is expecting title this year.

The next day’s matches will make finalize who will play in the semi finals. Delhi Daredevils and the defending champions are will have to compete in a do or die match on 18 April. Those who will lose will deprive of playing in the semis. So we have to wait for next day.

Source: cricinfo

Twenty20 Warm-up Games time Schedule

The twenty20 world cup championship is knocking at the door. Before starting game almost all the teams play warm up matches so that they could suite with the weather of the visiting team. It found that the Indian cricket team will not take part in the warm up match.

All the 12 matches will be held in the three official days at St Lucia, Barbados and Guyana stadiums from 27 April to 29 April.

The third season of the Twenty20 will be staged from 30 April. The inaugural will kick off between Sri Lanka and New Zealand. The twelve teams will contest by dividing in four Groups. Here is the complete list of the team of Group round.

GROUP STAGE

Group A: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia

Group B: Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Zimbabwe

Group C: South Africa, India, Afghanistan

Group D: West Indies, England, Ireland

It is found that all team will play 12 matches in 3 days when Sri Lanka will just play single game and the defending team will be appear in two games but no game for India. The main cause would be the 45 days Indian Premier League.

WARM-UP GAMES

27April 2010 Windwards XI v Pakistan, St Lucia

27 April 2010 Barbados XI v Bangladesh, Barbados

27 April 2010   Australia v Zimbabwe, St Lucia

27 April 2010 Ireland v New Zealand, Guyana

27 West Indies v Afghanistan, Guyana

28 April 2010 Sri Lanka v South Africa, Barbados

28 April 2010 Bangladesh v England, Barbados

28 April 2010 Ireland v Afghanistan, Guyana

28 April 2010 West Indies v New Zealand, Guyana

29 April 2010 Windwards XI v Australia, St Lucia

29 April 2010 England v South Africa, Barbados

29 April 2010 Pakistan v Zimbabwe, St Lucia

Warm up match: England vs Bangladesh and South Africa

England will be one of the team in the Group D who will be appear against the host country West Indies and Ireland in upcoming Twenty20 World Championship in West Indies. But that Englishmen will play two warm-up cricket matches and both the games will be hosted in Barbados. The first game will be against Bangladesh and second one against South Africa.

 The first game will be taken place on 28 April alongside Bangladesh and the next day on 29 they will meet against South Africa at the Barbados play grounds.

28 April 2010, Bangladesh v England, Barbados

29 April 2010, England v South Africa, Barbados

source: BBC

Mahela Jayawardene is satisfied for his team’s performances: ICC World Twenty20

Mahela Jayawardene,t he former skipper Sri Lanka, is playing on the side of King XI Punjab where Kumar Sangakkara is playing the role as captain.  The defending runner up middle order batsmen is becoming experienced playing in the IPL T20 and is getting ready for the ICC World Twenty20 which will be organized by ICC and the host has been selected as West Indies for 2010 and the gala opening ceremony will be held in Guyana on 30 April.

Mahela Jayawardene has given some open comment on the upcoming championship. He thinks that Twenty20 cricket is an open games and difficult to find any favorite team. By supporting his nation he added the previous success in England. He also praised his teammate Tillekeratne Dilshan’s performance congratulated his achievement for this year as the ICC World Twenty20 Performance of the Year 2009 award in Johannesburg.

He also is expecting that his team will do best in the June’s carnival in West Indies. Sri Lanka is in group B where they have to appear alongside New Zealand and Zimbabwe that have strong all-round team. He is also mentioned that his leader Kumar Sangakkara is in a good form and Angelo Mathews and Ajantha Mendis. Lasith Malinga will add extra strength for the team.

Source: cricket.yahoo.net

Brendon McCullum will play for Twenty20 competition at Sussex this year

New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum who is one of the important batsmen for the national team even for the twenty20 formatted Indian club cricket tournament played on the side of Kolkata Knight Riders. Now, he has signed with the Sussex cricket club, the English Twenty20 competition the will be started from June after World championship 2010.

After Tillakaratne Dilshan withdraws is contact with the 2009 champions Sussex, McCullum has been named on the side of the English club. Dilshan has cut up the contact because he has to play a cricket tournament along with USA and Zimbabwe in late May and early June.

Sussex manager Mark Robinson is happy to make a contact with Brendon McCullum at the same time is ashamed for leaving Dilshan this season. No doubt, that MaCullum is one of the best opening batsmen in the shortest formatted cricket tournament who hits 116 off 56 balls against Australia. He has a very good strike rate in the IPL 20. He has a very good strike rate of 133.19. The 28 years old is the highest scorer in Indian Premier League.

Source: The Guardian

Injury hits in Pakistan Squad: hope to recover soon

Mental satisfaction is the big factor to get any success that was happen on the side of Pakistan last world championship. This year, the nation is getting more support from the previous season.  After overcoming a huge problem, Pakistan selection committee has able the declared a squad and the skipper, it is one of the big success for them.

The team will be in the Caribbean inlands under Shahid Afridi’s leadership. Now, team is investing all the afforded to improve the weakness. But during the practices, some the squad team members hits by injury. Skipepr Shahid Afridi seems that it will not feel any serious effect during the T20 world championship.

The members are in camp under the new the coach Waqar Younisf who keens them in strenuous to improve the finding stander. Gul and Yasir Arafat and Fawad Alam is in injury including Afridi. All are hoping to be recovering before fly to West Indies. 

Amit Mishra in Indian Twenty20 World Cup 2010?

It makes me disappointed reading the news about Amit Mishra where he was emphasized as the world class spins bowlers. In the year 2008 he was appointed on the side of Rajasthan Royals but this year he was dominating the batmen on the side of Delhi Daredevils. May he is the most wicket-taker at this moment in IPL 2010. He did not play any T20i math yet. But he has a very good statistics who has played Test and ODI too. His best blowing in test cricket is 5/71 against Australia and in one-day international 3 wickets for 40 runs versus Sri Lanka.  His best bowling performances in IPL T20 is against Deccan Chargers 5/17. 

Most interesting thing is that the young man is not in the Indian Squad which has been announced for the Twenty20 World Cup 2010 in West Indies. It is true that India is best in this short formatted cricket tournament at this moment in spite of losing last year on the second round in England.

I have some question about Indian squad. Will the selection board brought some changes in their squads evaluating the overall matches of IPL Twenty20?

Indian Squad for Twenty20 World Cup 2010: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma and Piyush Chawla.

Important role of Spinner in ICC Twenty20 World 2010

The former pacer Waqar Younis who is the responsible coach of Pakistan cricket team, has said that spin will be the most turning point during the ICC T20 World Championship in West Indies. He strongly believes that the role of spinner would bring the second title this year.  At the same time he is satisfy about some spinners who are still in the present squad.

 “We have variety of all types of bowlers but I think we have an edge in the spin department and we will be depending upon our spinners to play a key role in team’s success to defend the title,” Waqar told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing training camp at the National Cricket Academy here.

In the last Twenty20 World Championship 2009, Omar Gul performed excellently and played the most important role to be the title. He was the highest wicket taker. This year, he was appeared in the English premier league T20 tournament and was signed with the Kolkata Knight Riders for IPL T20. 

ESPN Star Sports: Target to earn more revenue from Twenty20 World Cup 2010

Now, Twenty20 formatted cricket comes in the top of the all the cricket tournaments. During the inauguration ceremony, in 2007 in South Africa, its popularity does not decrease despite of launching more crickets in every year rather increased more and more. Indian Premier League is the big example.

ESPN is the telecast partner and casting all the matcher live in the TV channels. The upcoming Twenty20 World Cup will be held in West Indies from 30 April. This year, their eyes to earn huge number of profit, ESPN has declared earlier this week. ESPN Star Sports (ESS)’s target is to earn Rs 1.6 billion from the Twenty20 World Cup from advertising revenue.

Source: Indian Television

Rajasthan Royals closed the innings at 159 runs

Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals at Nagpur are meeting in a challenging tournament each. SR Watson is dominating the DC bowlers. He has earned 53 runs from 33 balls. But, the middle order batsmen could not make any strong base over the DC bowlers.

Fall of wickets: First wicket gone at 16 runs in 2.1 over, Ojha the second wicket was fall in 2.3 over 17 runs.  3-94 (Fazal, 10.6 ov), 4-103 (Pathan, 12.4 ov), 5-130 (Jhunjhunwala, 15.2 ov), 6-130 (Raut, 15.5 ov), 7-136 (Watson, 16.4 ov), 8-140 (Warne, 17.4 ov), 9-145 (Dole, 18.3 ov), 10-159 (Trivedi, 19.5 ov)

A match of run Festival and Mahela Jayawardene first century

Today, there are two matches in the Indian Premier League. The first one was between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders and other is still taking place at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi where Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore just has finished their first innings. Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to bat first. In the first match Mahela Jayawardene was crowned as the Man of the Match.

Mahela Jayawardene scored 110 runs from 59 balls when he sent the ball 14 in boundary and 3 times over the boundary. It was his highest score in Twenty20 formatted cricket and the third century in the season. Chris Gayle the West Indies batsman scored 88 runs from 42 balls. He also hits 6 fours and 8 sixes.