Delhi Daredevils holds top spot with 16 points in the Indian Premier League with 11 wins and five loses so far this year. Skipper Virender Sehwag has been playing great form right now and has been leading the batting order along with Australian David Warner, Mahela Jayawardene and Naman Ojha. South African pacer Morne Morkel, Andre Russell, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron leads blowing attack for Daredevils.

Kolkata Knight Riders holds in second place, after winning 10 matches and five loses so far in the fifth version of the Indian Premier League. skipper Gautam Gambhir has been showing best performance and leading scorer for in the team. Kolkata Knight Riders having strong batting top order with South African Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum and Manvinder Bisla, meanwhile Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan were struggling with the bat to their level in the IPL 5

Predications’:

Delhi Daredevils is looking hot favorite to win the match against Kings XI Punjab on Tuesday night at 14:30 GMT at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune on 22 May,

Kolkata Knight Riders key players:

Gautam Gambhir, Brendon McCullum, Sunil Narine

Delhi Daredevils Key Players:

Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Morne Morkel

Teams:

Kolkata Knight Riders:

G Gambhir (c), S Ladda, L Balaji, R Bhatia, MS Bisla, DB Das, M de Lange, BJ Haddin, Iqbal Abdulla, CS Jani, JH Kallis, B Lee, BB McCullum†, EJG Morgan, SP Narine, YK Pathan, JL Pattinson, SV Samson, PJ Sangwan, I Saxena, Shami Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, LR Shukla, RN ten Doeschate, MK Tiwary, JD Unadkat

Delhi Daredevils:

Virender Sehwag, Varun Aaron, Ajit Agarkar, Robin Bist, Gulam Bodi, Doug Bracewell, Unmukt Chand, Aaron Finch, Mahela Jayawardene, Glenn Maxwell, Morne Morkel, Shahbaz Nadeem, Yogesh Nagar, Prashant Naik, Naman Ojha, Irfan Pathan, Kevin Pietersen, Andre Russell, Aavishkar Salvi, Ross Taylor, Roelof van der Merwe, Venugopal Rao, Vikas Mishra, David Warner, Tejashwi Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Travis Birt, Colin Ingram, Manprit Juneja, Puneet Bisht, Pawan Negi, Kuldeep Raval

Kolkata Knight Riders holds in third place, after winning 8 matches so far in the fifth version of the Indian Premier League. KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir has been passing through good form and leading scorer for in the team. Kolkata Knight Riders having strong batting line-up with South African Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum and Manvinder Bisla, where Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan were not performing to their level in the IPL 5.

Mumbai Indian has climbed a spot to No. 2 in the 2012 Indian Premier League, after beating Royal Challengers Bangalore with 5 wickets at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Skipper Harbhajan will lead bowling attack along with Lasith Malinga and RP Singh. South African opening star Gibbs has return back into the team, where he is looking very strong in the Mumbai Indians top order.

Predications’:

As per the predictions, Kolkata Knight Riders is considered to be hot prospect to clinch victory against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday night, where the match will begin at 10:30 GMT at Wankhede Stadium.

Mumbai Indians Key Players:

Rohit Sharma, Pollard, Malinga

Kolkata Knight Riders key players:

Gautam Gambhir, Brendon McCullum, Sunil Narine

Teams:

Mumbai Indians:

Harbhajan Singh (c), AN Ahmed, Amitoze Singh, AC Blizzard, YS Chahal, JEC Franklin, HH Gibbs, DJ Jacobs, KD Karthik†, Kuldeep Yadav, DS Kulkarni, RE Levi, CJ McKay, SL Malinga, SH Marathe, SS Nayak, PP Ojha, MM Patel, NLTC Perera, RJ Peterson, KA Pollard, AT Rayudu, JN Shah, RG Sharma, R Shukla, RP Singh, DR Smith, TL Suman, P Suyal, AP Tare, SR Tendulkar, AV Wankhade, SA Yadav

Kolkata Knight Riders:

G Gambhir (c), S Ladda, L Balaji, R Bhatia, MS Bisla, DB Das, M de Lange, BJ Haddin, Iqbal Abdulla, CS Jani, JH Kallis, B Lee, BB McCullum†, EJG Morgan, SP Narine, YK Pathan, JL Pattinson, SV Samson, PJ Sangwan, I Saxena, Shami Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, LR Shukla, RN ten Doeschate, MK Tiwary, JD Unadkat

India won the match with bonus point. To enter into finals, Australia need to win against Sri Lanka in March 2nd match.

Final Score:

SL – 320/4 (50.0 Ovs)
Ind – 321/3 (36.4 Ovs)

India won by 7 wickets.

India won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bat first. Sri Lankan finished their innings at 320 runs for the loss of four wickets and set huge target to India. Sri Lankan batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan* (160) and Kumar Sangakkara (105) remained as top scorers. After the dismissal of Sangakkara wicket, Sri Lanka lost two wickets Thissara Perera (3) and Angelo Mathews (14) quickly.

Indian bowlers Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja have got a wicket each.

To remain in contest, India needs to finish their 321 runs target in 40 overs. India started their batting innings aggressively but lost two key wickets Virender Sehwag (30) and Sachin Tendulkar (39) at 86 runs. However, Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli continued the same run rate. India lost its third wicket in the form of Gautam Gambhir at 201 runs in 27.3 overs. Young aggressive player Kohli has got good support from Suresh Raina and easily accomplished target in just 36.4 overs. Virat Kohli finished his 9th ODI century and remained as not out batsman with 133 runs. Raina also performed well with 40 runs at the end.

Teams:

India:

Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav

Sri Lanka:

Mahela Jayawardene (c), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews, Thissara Perera, Farveez Maharoof, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath

The home team, Australia has won the toss on Sunday elected to bat first and scored 269 runs for the loss of eight wickets in their allotted 50 overs., as David Hussey has shown a superb effort to make an half century with 72 runs from 76 deliveries, as India’s pick-up bowler was Umesh Yadav took two-wickets giving 49 his 10 over.

Indian’s have started their battling, as the opener; Gautam Gambhir has contributed 92-runs building some good partnership with Virat Kohli (18), Rohit Sharma (33) and Suresh Raina, whose 38 came from just 30 balls.
India was struggling at the end, as Australia bowlers took some quick wickets with Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Gautam Gambhir. However, Gambhir was given LBW to be the third of victim of Clint McKay’s, as he scored magnificent 92-runs.

Indian Skipper, MS Dhoni and Jadeja were reaching the target slowly. However, Jadeja went for big hit with 13-runs to win and was caught by Ponting off Xavier Doherty.

Dhoni has banged crucial six in the final over of the match, as India reached the target at 49.4 over won the match by 4-wicktes.

After being suffering with 4-0 test loss and T20 loss Wednesday, the men in Blue have made a tremendous display in the second T20 match to clinch victory against Australia and level 1-1.

Indian bowlers were ably supported by the young fielders like Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma. Indian fielders were got four Australian batsmen run out to hamper them with 131, as Praveen Kumar took 2-21 in four overs.

India in replay to 131 was given a solid start by the openers for the first time in the Australia. Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir provided good start for the first time in this tour. Duo added 43 runs for the opening wicket.

Sehwag was dismissed by Hogg for 23 runs. After Sehwag, Kohli played sensible cricket with Gambhir and added 54 runs for the third wicket. Kohli scored 31 runs.

Despite of two wickets down, Gambhir looked calm and composed and took India home comprehensively along with skipper MS Dhoni. Gambhir made unbeaten 56 runs to level the T20 series with 1-1.

Left handed batsmen said that the batting great Sachin Tendulkar 100^th ton will surley come on winning cause of India. Gambhir said that they let entire nation down with their disastrous performances and even expressed anger at criticism of veteran batsman V.V.S Laxman.

The 30-year-old said that Sachin Tendulkar’s hundredth hundred will come on Indians winning cause, He explained saying that the objective was to win the series, even thought Sachin scored his 100th 100 and they lost the match either Sachin or the team or nation will be happy. He insisted that they should not be hesitant to give credit to the opposition as they always kept un on the hook.

Gambhir defended VVS Laxman, who has been struggling with his form coming from England tour as well and it was rumored that the retirement of VVS is on the edge. Laxman has made a mere 102 runs from 6 innings at an average of 17. Why criticize one person? Why look at only VVS? He has been a legend. Nobody should decide on his retirement. Only he should, said Gambhir.

The Indian team confirmed opener Virender Sehwag would take over the captaincy from suspended M.S. Dhoni, who suffered a match ban due to slow over rate. Shewag will lead the Indian side in the last of four Tests in Adelaide. According to Gambhir, Wriddhiman Saha, who would be keeping wickets in the absence of MS Dhoni. Gambhir stated that captains don’t make a difference, but it is the 11 players on the field that make the difference.

Calling the series was a disappointing one for India, the left-hander said: He also said that the team would want to win the Adelaide Test as they want to take a win going into the ODI series.

India for the first time in the ongoing ODI series against West Indies has won the toss and elected to bat first. In the previous three ODIs, India batted second chasing the totals. But, in the fourth ODI at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore, Indian openers gave a flying start scoring rapid fifties. Sehwag and Gambhir have so far added 143 runs in 19 overs, with Sehwag batting on 77 off 56 balls with seven boundaries and four sixes.

On the other hand, Gambhir started his innings on a bit slow note than Sehwag, but he picked up his pace and followed his partner scoring 58 runs off 59 balls with 10 boundaries. Sehwag and Gambhir reached 50-run partnership in 9^th over, after Sehwag sent the ball of Andre Russell for a boundary on the second ball of the 9^th over and reached 100-run partnership, this time Gambhir sending the ball for four off Narine.

It seems that, both the openers are on roar and in a punishing mood, after they suffered loss in the third ODI with 16 runs short. In the on going fourth ODI, India has scored at the rate of 7.76 with 163 runs on board at the end of 21 overs. They have so far added 163 runs off 126 balls, both playing with aggression and gets a feeling that, India would score more than 350 runs with the present run rate.

After fall of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid took India over 100 in reply of West Indies’ first innings total of 590 runs.

Everyone at the Wankhede is keenly waiting for the Master to deliver his elusive 100, when India takes on the West Indies in the third and final Test. Indian batting maestro walked down in the middle to bat.

Earlier, Indian opener Gautam Gambhir scored half-century (55 runs in 99 balls) to rescue India after Virender Sehwag’s early departure. Pacer-blower Ravi Rampaul sent out Gautam Gambhir, who once again unsuccessful to unite on good start.

India received first shock as West Indies captain Darren Sammy dismissed Virender Sehwag for 37 runs in 50 balls. Sehwag failed to consolidate on good start and returned to pavilion, after giving flying start to India.

On the other hand, Rahul Dravid missed another Test hundred, as he was dismissed by Samuels for 82 runs in 149 balls. Rahul Dravid completed his 13, 000 Test successful runs, when he scored 21 runs in the match.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni told about the plans for the celebration of Tendulkar’s 100th century will firm up only, after Tendulkar reaches the landmark. Dhoni said at the beginning of the series against West Indies stating, let him get to the century and then we will decide how to celebrate it.

Sachin Tendulkar has only one Test hundred at the Wankhede stadium. Way back in December 1997 year, over Sri Lankan team, he scored 148 runs. After that, the venue bizarrely has not been a very happy playing ground for him. A century in this Mumbai Test can be a good way to make amends.

The India batsman suffered a concussion, while trying to seize a catch by Kevin Pietersen at mid-on the second day of the fourth and final Test at the Oval cricket ground in London last week. He had seemingly recovered sufficiently to take part in practice on Sunday but afterward complained of impaired vision.Gautam Gambhir did not open in both innings of the Oval Test series and came down late in the array, contributing little by way of runs. Since then, he has visited health center and got MRI scans done which have shown clean results, yet Gambhir’s form has not improved.

The team manager Shivlal Yadav admits that, He could not see the ball at times, when it came at complete speed. He will be taken to an eye consultant in Manchester on Tuesday (Aug. 30). Based on what the expert says, we will have to wait for the next step.India has been beaten with 4-0 points in the Test series, and lost their number one Test rankings position and is in danger of suffering a similar unbearable fate in the one-day series too, starting with the first match in Chester-le-Street on September 3, 2011.

So why has he quit ODIs, something which can easily lead to a higher price in the Indian Premier League (IPL)? He was bought for $500,000 in the IPL auction by Rajasthan Royals. If he was a regular member of the ODI team, his price would have been double, if not four times more.
Dravid’s target has been to prolong his international career rather than increase his IPL value. On Saturday, he declared he was retiring from Twenty20 Internationals as well. At 38, he is not getting any younger and his ageing body may not withstand the rigours of the international cricket if he were to play ODIs as well.

There is little rest for players like MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, who play all formats of the game. Unless they are injured, they would have to play non-stop for the next 10 months, one series followed by another, immediately followed by yet another. Sachin Tendulkar, who plays ODIs too, picks and chooses series.

So is it a right decision for the Indian Wall to take a Retirement form ODI?