Game on...

So, India’s winning streak finally broke. Before the tenth match was won. Did you read my blog on it? While it’s really really ok to lose once in a while, the trouble is that it should not become a habit. Did you know Australia lost more than ten matches in a row before finally winning the previous match. It does happen a lot. Tomorrow is the fifth ODI. India have won three, thereby winning the tournament. Tomorrow’s match still matters. This is my lineup for tom Batsmen Virat Kohli David Warner A Rahane Rohit Sharma Bowlers Ashton Agar Y Chahal Nathan C Nile Pat Cummins All-Rounders Kedar Jadhav Hardik Pandya Wicket-Keeper MS Dhoni Alternate lineup Batsmen Aaron Finch Virat Kohli A Rahane David Warner Rohit Sharma Bowlers Ashton Agar Nathan C Nile Umesh Yadav All-Rounder Kedar Jadhav Hardik Pandya Wicket-Keeper MS Dhoni What do you think? Indu P.S. Please note that the above-expressed opinions are purely t

  Oh well. It had to happen sometime. Unfortunate. Especially because the team was on such a good winning trot. They were on the verge of winning their tenth match continuously. Now that is a really big deal indeed. Hence the loss would hurt a lot more. From Australia’s point of view, they are truly relieved indeed. One, they would have gone down in history as the team against which India won their tenth match on the trot. And they had their own losing streak to break. Relief times two. It’s hard to break that kind of habit you see. So what happened? The Aussies won the toss and decided to bat first. And did they bat or what? Finch began the innings with David Warner and that was the partnership to break. The Indians never stood a chance. They were on a roll. The first wicket partnership was 231. If anything can break the morale of the opponent and raise the team spirit, it is this opening partnership. The rest was a piece of cake. A 30 here and a 40 there. A mammoth total of

Back in 2015, when the two teams met, South Africa won one match and Bangladesh two. The other two matches were drawn. They meet now, more than two years later. Bangladesh is in fairly good form. I still cannot get over how well they played at the Champions trophy. They seem to enjoy the underdog title, play their best without the baggage of the expectations and come out really well. 28th September sees the first of two test matches being played in South Africa. The players of the subcontinent that you should watch out for and include in your lineup are Mustafizur Rahman, Kasigo Rabada, Mehidy Miraz, Mushfiqur Rahim and Aiden Markam. Philander is out. South Africa are at home. Home teams are generally stronger. There are exceptions ofcourse. Like how India dominated Sri Lanka. Well I do bring that up a lot, don’t I? My point is that South Africa cannot afford to take Bangladesh lightly. Bangladesh Test squad: Mushfiqur Rahim(c), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, S

India is on a roll. She has won all the matches she has played since she took over Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. We are not complaining. 28th September is the fourth ODI match to be played in Bangalore Chinnaswamy Stadium. Now India is looking at a different record. Ten consecutive wins in ODI. Ain’t that something? India has won nine matches on a trot. This match will seal the deal. The Aussies on the other hand have 11 away from home matches. Points to be noted before picking the lineup. As we mentioned on the app promo earlier, Agar fractured his finger and is out of the tournament. I think Shikar Dhawan is back but would India wanna break the winning combination? Cummins might be pulled back in. It might rain. Good Lord yes we are still on that. Well it is that time of the year in South India. India (possible) 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 MS Dhoni (wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra C

Venue is Dubai. The teams have arrived. I have seen a match at Sharjah once. It was an India Pakistan match. It was one of the best matches I have ever seen. Well, India lost that match. India actually lost three wickets before I even managed to enter the stadium. The queue was so long. I could hear the screams after every wicket fell. I am still saying I had fun because of the audience. It was fantastic. We had our own little song and dance cheering for our respective teams. Back to the venue, there are fans from all over the world there. Both teams are likely to have sufficient support. Sri Lanka come in after a rather disappointing session against India. Pakistan just played World XI and had mixed results. Pakistan might be in a better frame of mind than Sri Lanka. Pakistan Squad: Azhar Ali, Shan Masood, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Sarfraz Ahmed (captain, wicketkeeper), Usman Salahuddin, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Asghar, Mohammad

Tomorrow is the fourth ODI. Quick recap. 19th September - England won by 7 wickets 21st September - Match Abandoned 24th September - England won by 124 runs The match takes place at the Oval, London. England is booming with confidence. They are leading the series 2-1 and literally crushed the West Indies by a large margin. Moeen Ali came out of nowhere with a bolt of energy to hit 61 runs from 14 deliveries. England smashed 369 runs in 50 overs. West Indies were all out by the 40th over, getting only 245 runs on the board. Moeen Ali, as expected, was the man of the match for his 79-ball 102 runs. . Chris Gayle’s 94 was but in vain. Would have been nice to watch his century. He deserved it. My lineup for the fourth ODI Bowlers Miguel Cummins Liam Plunkett Adil Rashid Batsmen Evin Lewis Joe Root Jonny Bairstow Chris Gayle All-Rounder Moeen Ali Chris Woakes Wicket-Keeper Shai Hope If I could pick a third all-rounder, I would, Holder or Woakes.

This is a coincidence. The two matches being played - Top team of Zone A (Gujarat) meets bottom team of Zone B (Tamil Nadu) and Top team and Zone B (Patna) meets bottom team of Zone A (Delhi). Wonder how that worked out. Let’s check out the lineup for the two matches Tamil Thalaivas - Squad strength: 25 (22 Indian, 3 Overseas) Defenders – C Arun, Amit Hooda, Sanket Chavan, Rajesh, Anil Kumar, Anil Kumar, Mugilan, Sanket Chavan, T. Prabhakaran, Vijin T., Vijay Kumar, Muruthu M, Darshan J Raiders – Waleed Al Hasani, Dong Geon Lee, Bhavani Rajput, Ajay Thakur, M. Thivakaran, K. Prapanjan, Sombir, Vineet Sharma, Sarang Deshmukh All Rounders – Prathap, Chan Sik Park, Sujit Maharana, Ananthkumar Gujarat Fortune Giants - Squad strength: 18 (15 Indian, 3 Overseas) Defenders – Abozar Mighani, C Kalai Arasan, Fazel Atrachali, Vikas Kale, Manoj Kumar, Parvesh Bhainswal, Sunil Kumar Raiders –  Sukesh Hegde, Mahendra Rajput, Sachin, Amit Rathi, Dange Sultan, Pawan Kumar, Rakesh

Before you know it, world cup 2019 will be here in a jiffy. You should know that every match played counts. Every point won makes a difference to the position of the team in the ICC ranking table. Taking into consideration all the matches played so far, the following teams have automatically qualified for the 2019 World Cup. South Africa, India, Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka West Indies could have made the list. They missed the top eight ranks before the Champions Trophy and could not participate in the second most coveted cup of the ICC. When they lost to England in the very first match of the tournament, they had to step away giving way to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has been having a really bad time. They were completely dominated over by the visiting Indian Cricket team in all the forms of the game - test match, ODI and T20. They needed this piece of good news. September 30th is the deadline. All the teams that have made it to the top eight