sports blog

The 100 run partnership between Kallis and AB de Villiers took 119 balls.It was loaded with 6 boundaries and two extras.

Kallis is out.Geeves took the first wicket of this match.Kallis trying to pull him goes down the throat of Hopes at mid wicket.kallis made a well compiled 70 runs with five boundaries.

Jean Paul Duminy to crease and Geeves has tightened things up by mixing the pace up like Bracken does.Geeves is making the batsmen really work hard to put him away.

Hopes has induced aedge from AB de Villiers but the edge flew wide of wicket keeper Haddin.AB de Villiers went for the drive which was not there and was lucky to survive.A geat effort from Haddin.The miss pinched when AB de Villiers stuck abundary of the last ball.

Batting powerplay has not been taken so far maybe waiting for Morkel who has an impressive strike rate of 101.Hauritz finding the edge of AB de Villiers only to see the ball racing to third man boundary.

40 overs has been finished and it is the last 10 overs for the proteas to go for kill with seven wickets in hand.

Batting powerplay for South Africa taking at 40 th over.Johnson to start the attack for Australia in this crucial powerplay.Johnson for the third spell for the day.It is 195/3.
Johnson starts with a leg bye to Duminy.The first three balls were answered in singles.Hauritz took the catch of AB devillers who holed out to the fourth ball of Johnson over.The ball was bowled at aslow pace of 135 and Villers was quick to the stroke and paid the penalty.Morkel to the crease.Johnson was the crafty in the first over of the power play.

Hauritz from the Wynberg end and the second over of power play.Hauritz has kept things quiet for the five balls.Flood lights on.South Africa reached 200 runs in 41st over.43rd over to begin.

Hopes to attack.Surprising move considering the fact that Hopes had gone for over 7 runs per over in his six over spell.The first two balls has been worked for singles .Duminy went after the bowling in the third ball and the miscued shot fell short of Hauritz.Five balls and just five runs.The last ball was also worked to a  single and Australia will be happy with three overs of batting powerplay.

Geeves to bowl the fourth over of power play.Skiddy short of bowler and Duminys hit once again falls short of Clarke.Duminy lives dangerously.Morkel welcomed with a wide.A short ball well over the head.Geeves replies with a good ball allowing just a single.Geeves has come back stronger once his nerves were settled.Duminy hits the first six of the match by hitting Geeves out.The last ball was a risky shot with a boundary.

Johnson takes his second wicket of powerplay and his third by removing Jean Paul Duminy.Duminy hits two boundary and a six in his short cameo of 32 runs.

The powerplay has yielded 38 valuable runs for South Africa but it was Australia all the way as they took two prized wickets of Ab de Villers and Jean Paul Duminy.

Dhoni and Team India,are back to their home country.In the third one day international played at Newland between South Africa and Ausralia,South Africa has won the toss and is batting first.

The ground is supposed to favor the team batting first if we look at the stats.South Africa has the repuation of defending 201 runs against Sri Lankain this ground .South Africa has chased the highest run in this ground of 227 runs against Zimbawae in 1998.

The average run in this ground is 235 runs by the team batting first.This is the first time Ponting has lost the toss to Smith in llast seven outings in one days.

The five match series is locked 1-1 before the third match. The first match in Durban was won by Australia.The result was an emphatic win of 141 runs.The second match in Durban,Australia was crushed.

South Africa has not made any changes to the team that won in Durban.Australia has made a change to Durban team.Brett Geeves replaces Ben Laughlin.

South Africa:

1)Graeme Smith (capt), 2)Herschelle Gibbs,3) Jacques Kallis, 4)AB de Villiers, 5)JeanPaul Duminy, 6)Mark Boucher (wkt), 7)Albie Morkel, 8)Roelof van der Merwe, 9(Johan Botha, 10)Parnell, 11)Dale Steyn

Australia: 1)Ricky Ponting (capt), 2)Michael Clarke, 3)Brad Haddin (wkt), 4)David Hussey, 5)Mike Hussey, 6)Callum Ferguson,7) James Hopes, 8)Mitchell Johnson, 9)Nathan Hauritz, 10)Nathan Bracken, 11)Brett Geeves

Match in detail

South Africa lost both the openers Smith and Gibbs.Smith was caught by Haddin of the bowling of Johnson for 8.Gibbs made 22 runs before being caught by Hopes of the bowling of Bracken.

Kallis and AB de Villers has steadied the ship with both forging more than 50 run partnership for the third wicket.kallis has reached his 72nd ODI fifty and he has the record of having scord 16 centuries.

Kallis looking for another big one.Austraila has given nothing away on the field so far and credit to Kallis to find the gaps and gather runs.

South Africa is going steady now by gathering more than 4 runs per over.DeVillers is using the feet against spinner David Hussey well and he has joined the party for South Africans.

Johnson is back for the second spell.His first spell was impressive.The figures read 5 overs with two maidens and giving 6 runs for a wicket in the form of Smith.It seems Johnson likes Smith curry more than anything else.

Ponting looking to break partnership with his key bowlers.Bracken bowling with shortened run up with Haddin keeping up to the stumps.AB devillers has looked positive converting singles to couples by taking the first run faster.

Ab devillers has broken the shackles by hitting a boundary of Hopes who replaced Bracken.Australia has been creating pressure for sme time and the debutant bowler Geeves is under pressure.DeVillers has reached his 17th fifty and has scored three century in his career.

Australia is using up their stock bowlers and the double pace of the pitch ensures that South Africa is at drivers seat now with just losing two wickets.Both the batsmen are set and they are using the pace of the ball to their advantage.The run flow has ben stemed by both Bracken and Johnson but without getting abreak it is advantage South Africa.

The highlight of Indian team was the performance of Gautam Gambhir.Gambhir scored 445 runs with an average of 89 with the highest score of 167 recorded in the thid test.Gambhir was named the Man of the series.Gambhir was the leading run scorer for India.
Shewag the opening partner for Gambhir did make starts but could not carry on.Shewag could muster only 140 runs at an average of 28 only.Shewag was the captain of the Indian team in the second test played at Napier in the absence of Dhoni.
Dravid had an impressive tour to New Zealand.The man known for his ability to play overseas did not disappoint.Dravid made 414 runs with an average of 62.80.His highest score was 83 scored in the first innings of the second test played at Napier.Dravid in this series went past Wughs record of highest test catch.
Sachin was the second highest run scorer for India with 344 runs at an average of 68.80.Sachin bowled in the second innings of the final test to take two wickets.
Laxman scored 295 runs with an average of 73.75.He scored a century in the second test at Napier and had two half centuries to his name.Laxman and gambhir bailed out India on the final day of the second test played at Napier.
Yuvraj had a quiet series with mustering only 125 runs with an average of 31.25.

Dhoni scored 155 runs at an average of 77.50.

Harbhajan was the pick of the bowler from both sides and he scored 60 runs  in the third test.Harbhajan took 6-63 runs in the second innings in the first test which helped India go 1-0 in the series.Zaheer had a good time with bat and ball.Zaheer had scored 51 not out in the first innings of the first test and Zaheer scored 33 runs in the first innings of the third test.

Ishanth had a quiet series.He started with four wickets but could not sustain pace.He was struggling bowling to the wind but sure this experience will help him in good stead.Munaf Patel had lost the pace and he has become slower.Munaf Patel had slowed down but was able to keep things tight.Patel did the job assigined by Dhoni.

Karhik had a poor match in the second test both with bat and keeping.It has to be seen how he grabs the next oppurtunity.

Indian Hockey

Indian Hockey has once again displayed the absence of consistency .India thrashed Malaysia 3-0 one day and the next day India was held to 2-2 draw.india needs to defeat pakistan to enter the final .malaysia has already booked a place in the final of Sultan Azlan Shah cup.New Zealand is slated to play Malaysia in the final league match.

Tennis

Russia’s Dinara Safina will replace  Serena Williams as world number one, despite never having won a Grand Slam title.The 22-year-old Safina, after maria sharapova becomes another Russian to hold this no 1 spot.Dinara Safina is the sister of Marat Safin. Serena  had held no one spot for last 11 weeks and Serena had held no one spot for 72 weeks total in her career.The reason of Serena losing no one was that she was beaten by  in first round losing points. .Serena Williams suffered a shock 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to 95 th ranking in world, Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic in Marbella.

Indian score today and New Zealand score card
Batting: New Zealand 2nd Innings
Batsmen New Zealand (167/4 in 56 ovs) Runs
Tim McIntosh (wk) c R Dravid b Z Khan 4
Martin Guptill lbw b H Singh 49
Daniel Flynn b Z Khan 10
Ross Taylor batting 69
Jesse Ryder c R Dravid b H Singh 0
James Franklin batting 26
Brendon McCullum
Daniel Vettori (c)
Tim Southee
Iain O’Brien
Chris Martin
Extras: b - 6, w - 0, nb - 3, lb - 0 9
Total: (167 for 4 in 56 overs) 167 Run Rate: 2.98

Fall Of Wickets
1/30 (Tim McIntosh, 10.6 ov.), 2/54 (Daniel Flynn, 22.3 ov.), 3/84 (Martin Guptill, 31.2 ov.), 4/84 (Jesse Ryder, 31.4 ov.)

Bowling: India
Bowler O M R W
Zaheer Khan 15 4 50 2
Munaf Patel 11 5 18 0
Ishant Sharma 6 1 33 0
Harbhajan Singh 17 5 36 2
Yuvraj Singh 1 0 4 0
Virender Sehwag 6 0 20 0
Fall of wickets
Zaheer Khan started the wicket taking for India by removing the opener McIntosh for four runs.Dravid entered the record books with this catch.Daniel Flynn who came at the fall of wicket did not last long and was bowled to Zaheer of inside edge.
harbhajan started the downslide from the other end.Harbhajan was able to extract the spin around the wicket and was able to get LBW plumb in front.The ball was pitched just shade a line outside and
wnet on to hit the off stump.Ryder was welcomed with a short pitched ball by Harbhajan and the next ball was out to an unplayable ball and nicked one short to Dravid at slip.
Dravid is way ahead as the highest catch taker in tests with nearest playing competitors in the form of Ricky Ponting (148 catches in 131 Tests), Jacques Kallis (147 in 131) and Mahela Jayawerdene (142 in 102) .
From India V.V.S.Laxman is the second from India with 111 catches in 105 matches.Azharuddin and Gvaskar had taken more than 100 catches for India.Gavaskar took 108 catches and Azharuddin took 105 catches for India.

Pakistan has announced 30 probable for twenty 20.Three players are from rebel Indian Cricket League in the form of Abdul Razzaq,Rana Naved-ul Hasan and Imren Nazir.They should get clearnace from ICC to get play in World Cup.
Squad: 1.Younus Khan (capt),2. Salman Butt, 3.Nasir Jamshed, 4.Khalid Latif, 5.Shahzeb Hasan, 6.Umar Amin, 7.Ahmed Shahzad, 8.Misbah-ul-Haq, 9.Faisal Iqbal, 10.Fawad Alam, 11.Shoaib Malik, 12.Shahid Afridi, 13.Sohail Tanvir, 14.Yasir Arafat, 15.Kamran Younus, 16.Shoaib Akhtar, 17.Umar Gul, 18.Rao Iftikhar, 19.Aizaz Cheema, 20.Mohammad Aamir, 21.Wahab Riaz, 22.Imran Ali, 23.Abdur Rehman, 24.Danish Kaneria, 25.Yasir Shah, 26.Kamran Akmal 27. Sarfraz Ahmed

England 30-man squad for the ICC World Twenty20, June 5-21: The surprise is the absence of Strauss who has withdrawn stating that his game style does not suit Twenty 20.

1.Kabir Ali, 2.James Anderson, 3.Gareth Batty, 4.Ian Bell, 5.Ravi Bopara,

6.Tim Bresnan,7. Stuart Broad, 8.Paul Collingwood, 9Steven Davies (wkt),  10Joe Denly, James Foster (wkt), 11.Andrew Flintoff, 12.Stephen Harmison, 13.Robert Key, 14.Sajid Mahmood, 15Dimitri Mascarenhas,

16 Eoin Morgan, 17Graham Napier, 18Samit Patel, 19Kevin Pietersen, 20Liam Plunkett,

21Matthew Prior (wkt), 22Adil Rashid, 23Owais Shah, 24Ryan Sidebottom, 25Graeme Swann,

26Chris Tremlett, 27Shaun Udal, 28Chris Woakes, 29Luke Wright.
England has named unchanged team that won the Womens one day cricket for Women twenty 20.
England squad:
1Charlotte Edwards (capt), 2Caroline Atkins, 3.Rosalie Birch, 4.Katherine Brunt, 5.Holly Colvin, 6.Georgia Elwiss, 7.Lydia Greenway, 8.Lauren Griffiths, 9.Isa Guha, 10.Jenny Gunn, 11.Danielle Hazell, 12.Laura Marsh, 13.Beth Morgan, 14.Ebony Rainford-Brent, 15Nicola Shaw, 16.Anya Shrubsole, 17.Claire Taylor, 18.Sarah Taylor (wk).

Another feather in the cap of India.India has created another impact while travelling.There has been lot of talk about pitch in the thir test and India secure in their abilities has given it back to New Zealand in their own soil.Hats of to them.
India is in driving seat.It has been confirmed that India will win the series in New Zealand after 41 years irrespective of what happens on the final day of the third test.There are only now two possiblities.One a draw making India win the series 1-0 or India winning once again to take the series 2-0.New Zealand has lost every chance of squaring the series and it is celeberation time for Indian seniors,dravid,Laxman and the great Sachin Tendulkar.The last time India won in this part was in 1967-1968.
Tendulkar,Dravid,Laxman and Shewag has tasted victory in all test playing nations and this may be the start for conquering Australia and South Africa.
It has been positive for India all the way.Harbhajan has donned the cap left by Anil Kumble and he has hustified the tag of leading spinner in a responsible manner.Harbhajan has already taken two wickets in this second innings and if every thing falls in place Harbhajan will rip apart New Zealand team.
Zaheer Khan has been Indian stock bowler in all forms of games for some time and he looked menacing today also by opening New Zealand.
Rahul Dravid broke the record of Mark Waugh (181) for most catches in Test cricket on the fourth day of the third and final Test against New Zealand at Basin Reserve in Wellington today.
Tim McIntosh was caught in the third slip by Dravid of the bowling of Zaheer Khan.Dravid made scores of 66, 8 not out, 83, 62, 35 and 60 in this series.Dravid missed a century and this may be the last time we will be seeing the great Dravid,Sachin and Laxman in New Zealand.dravid has been to International arena for more than 12 years and this is agreat achievement.
There will be alot of critics saying that India did declare late.But the idea from this point was to win this series and they have made sure that.
New Zealand has struggled of late and they have not been able to dominate sessions of late.
India started the day with Dhoni and Yuvraj and Dhoni was in a mood to score runs quickly.Yuvraj joined the race before he was caught and Harbhajan did not make score board tick.Dhoni and Zaheer took the lead to more than 600 runs and Dhoni reached half century.Dhoni declared and India had five and half session to bowl New Zealand out.
There is every chance that rain may spoil the party for India.New Zealand has lost four wickets with the dangerous Ryder back.New Zealand is still hanging with the help of Ross Taylor and Franklin.Ross Taylor has compiled a well made 69 unbeaten runs and he should look forward to three figures.New Zealand will be looking forward to survive the final day though they have stated that they do not need the help of rain to survive.Will nature listen and help us cricket lovers to get a good days play.

India were 349 for 5 in their second innings at close of third day’s play in the third and final cricket Test here on Sunday.

India have now taken an overall lead of 531

Gambhir has stuck his sixth test century in this series.He is now the leading run scorer of having scored more than 400 runs.This is the second test series he is doing it this season.Earlier he had amazed more than 400 runs against Australia.Gambhir has become the first Indian to score more than 300 runs in three consecutive test series.In New Zealand Gambhir has scored 445 runs with an average of 89 .Gambhir has scored two centuries and this isthe first time a left handed batsmen from India scoring more than 150 runs in New Zealand.Gambhir joins the elite list of Azharuddin,Dravid,Sachin of having scored two century in New Zealand..
Dravid scored his 57th half century.Dravid was the consistent batsmen for India.Dravid could not convert his fifties into hundreds and maybe this will be the last time he will be playing in New Zealand.What a miss to this great wall of India.
Dravid was well set up by New Zealand.Dravid has the habit of sweeping to fine leg but not fine and that was set up by Vettori.Vettori started the over making Dravid sweep and that was kept down the ground.The next ball was played back.The third ball was made for a sweep and Dravid went for it.The moment the ball left Wicket keeper McCullum and first slip Ross taylor had moved leftwards in anticipation of a sweep in air.That was what happened.The edge was well taken by McCullum with the reaction time just 34 seconds.Dravid had amassed 314 runs in this tour.
Sachin was the next batsmen in.Sachin was maybe playing in New Zealand for the last time.Sachin was also well teken care of with some good planning by the New Zealand.Vettori gave a good under arm ball and Sachin showed the value of experience by keeping it down.The next ball drew Sachin to the shot to a ball that left him and was caught at slips by Ross Taylor.Sachin failed for the first time in New Zealand by scoring just 9 runs.
Sachin had amassed 344 runs in this tour and this is the first time he had crossed 300 runs in New Zealand.
Laxman the quiet achiever ,came to the crease and was in amood to play strokes.Going for strokes he gave chances one early and one in 49.Laxman compiled his second half century of the test series and made 61.
Laxman was out to a unplayable beauty of Ian O’Brien.Brien withthe new ball got the one to nip back and see the ball hit the top of the off stump.What a delivery!
That has bought Dhoni and Yuvraj to te crease before bad light stopped play.Both had looked in omnious form and India can look forward to bat half an hour tommorow morning.The play is scheduled to start an hour before the scheduled time and India is sure to win the series 1-0 or 2-0.
Indian bowlers has the ability to ball consistently at good length and line causing trouble.

Has Indian team planned to destroy new Zealand mentally?The plan to bat tommorow may be the right indication to that point.They have kept the New Zealand on field for the last eight days.Credit should be given to New Zealand for having spend on the field without having a substutute.Today was the first day in which a sub in the form of Jeetan Patel came to filed for Chris Martin.The fielding of New Zealand was outstanding.They were athletic and
V.V.S.Laxman scored is fourth test half century against New Zealand today and that was his 39 th half century.He was only the third Indian batsman to be cleaned up in the series, after Dravid and Yuvraj  got bowled out in Hamilton.Laxman has made  295 runs in the three-match series which was better from his earlier record in the previous series.

Vettori was the bolwer who took two wickets with Brien.the problem with New Zealand team is that every time they pitch the ball up in the right areas they get wickets.But they were not cnsistent and they never looked like they are going to rip India apart.The wickets were falling far between and India had managed two hundred partnership with Gambhir and dravid sharing 170 and Gambhir and Laxman sharing 106 runs.As every good batting display one batsmen in the form of Gambhir went to score or make a big score.
Batting: India 2nd Innings
Batsmen India (349/5 in 97.5 ovs) Runs
Gautam Gambhir lbw b I Brien 167
Virender Sehwag c R Taylor b C Martin 12
Rahul Dravid c B McCullum b D Vettori 60
Sachin Tendulkar c R Taylor b D Vettori 9
VVS Laxman b I Brien 61
Yuvraj Singh batting 15
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c) (wk) batting 16
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Munaf Patel
Ishant Sharma
Extras: b - 0, w - 0, nb - 4, lb - 5 9
Total: (349 for 5 in 97.5 overs) 349 Run Rate: 3.57

Fall Of Wickets
1/14 (Virender Sehwag, 1.6 ov.), 2/184 (Rahul Dravid, 48.3 ov.), 3/208 (Sachin Tendulkar, 54.6 ov.), 4/314 (Gautam Gambhir, 88.3 ov.), 5/319 (VVS Laxman, 90.3 ov.)

Bowling: New Zealand
Bowler O M R W
Tim Southee 12 2 58 0
Chris Martin 15.5 5 50 1
Iain O’Brien 22 6 77 2 0
James Franklin 13 3 50 0
Jesse Ryder 6 1 21 0
Daniel Vettori 29 4 88 2

Defending champions India has announced  30-man probable  for the World Twenty20 championships to be held in England in June.

India - 1.Mahendra Singh Dhoni2.Sehwag, 3.(WKT) Karthik, 4. Gambhir, 5.Murali Vijay, 6.Ajinkya Rahane, 7. Raina, 8.Badrinath, 9. Sharma, 10.Robin Uthappa, 11.Yuvraj , 12.Virat Kohli, 13.Yusuf Pathan, 14.Manoj Tiwary,15, Irfan Pathan, 16,Wriddhiman Saha, 17.Zaheer  18.Abhishek Nayar, 19.Ishant Sharma, 20.Amit Mishra, 21.Munaf Patel, 22.Ravichandran Ashwin, 23.Ravindra Jadeja, 24.Rudra Pratap Singh, 25.Pragyan Ojha, 26. Balaji, 27Harbhajan , 28Dhawal Kulkarni, 29Praveen Kumar,  30.Naman Ojha.
Sri Lankan 30 probables for World Cup are as follows
Sri Lanka - Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan (vice-capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Farveez Maharoof, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Lasith Malinga, Chaminda Vaas, Ajantha Mendis, Kaushal Weeraratne, Upul Tharanga, Isuru Udana, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Chintaka Jayasinghe, Nuwan Zoysa, Gihan Rupasinghe, Thilina Kandamby, Malinga Bandara, Dilhara Fernando, Indika de Saram, Thisara Perera, Gayan Wijekoon, Milinda Siriwardene, Lahiru Thirimanne.

Indian Hockey
Indian Hockey needs a surgery suddenly else they will be put under knife for sure.They have started their campaign in Sultan Azlan Shah in a disaster note by being held by debutants Egypt 2-2.

Zaheer celeberates five wicket

India 51-1 (16) in second innings
India lead by 233 runs
Zaheer Khan has taken 22 wickets against New Zealand which is behing Prasanna’s 35 wickets.
12 wickets fell in the second day and Dhoni has become the first Indian wicket keeper to take six dismissals.He becomes the first wicket keeper to take six wixkets in basin Reserve representing foriegn country.
The last New Zealand batsmen to score century in Basin reserve was Lou Vincent in 2005 with score 224.
Gambhir was the second highest run scoring left handed batsmen after Ganguly for India.In the year 2007-2008 Ambrose scored century for England against New Zealand.That was the last century in Basin Reserve.India can look forward to a century tommorow.
New Zealand avoids follow on and India needs to bat once again.Dhoni has taken 6 catches.Zaheer has taken five wickets last time he played here and it was a repeat.New Zealand all out and Zaheer has stuck
India openes with Shewag and Gambhir and with three days play India should look to shut New Zealand out.Shewag on the way with a boundary.
Chris Martin the best bowler for New Zealand has removed Shewag.The xtra bounce to Shewag and Shewag was planning to play pull shot and undone by the pace and takes the glove to first slip by Ross Taylor.There was puff of dust from the pitch also.
Dravid to crease and India should not lose a wicket here.Shewag had good strike rate in test match but is not having big scores under his belt.
Gambhir playing strokes at every oppurtunity given and India marching ahead.Unlike in the first innigs Dravid looking to score runs and has taken quick singles to rotate the strike.The left handed right handed combination is troubling New Zealand.
The difference between Shewag and Dravid was on display.Dravid is safety first and Shewag is hit first .Dravid just plays with straight bat.
Batting: New Zealand 1st Innings
Batsmen New Zealand (197/10 in 65 ovs) Runs
Tim McIntosh (wk) c Y Singh b Z Khan 32
Martin Guptill b Z Khan 17
Daniel Flynn c M Dhoni b Z Khan 2
Ross Taylor c M Dhoni b H Singh 42
Jesse Ryder c M Dhoni b Z Khan 3
James Franklin c V Sehwag b H Singh 15
Brendon McCullum c M Dhoni b H Singh 24
Daniel Vettori (c) c M Dhoni b I Sharma 11
Tim Southee c & b Z Khan 16
Iain O’Brien c M Dhoni b M Patel 19
Chris Martin not out 4
Extras: b - 9, w - 0, nb - 0, lb - 3 12
Total: (197 for 10 in 65 overs) 197 Run Rate: 3.03

Fall Of Wickets
1/21 (Martin Guptill, 6.6 ov.), 2/31 (Daniel Flynn, 10.1 ov.), 3/80 (Tim

McIntosh, 26.6 ov.), 4/98 (Jesse Ryder, 32.1 ov.), 5/120 (Ross Taylor, 41.1

ov.), 6/125 (James Franklin, 43.2 ov.), 7/138 (Daniel Vettori, 46.3 ov.),

8/160 (Tim Southee, 54.4 ov.), 9/181 (Brendon McCullum, 61.3 ov.), 10/197

(Iain O’Brien, 64.6 ov.)

Bowling: India
Bowler O M R W
Zaheer Khan 18 2 65 5
Ishant Sharma 14 3 47 1
Munaf Patel 8 2 20 1
Harbhajan Singh 23 4 43 3
Yuvraj Singh 2 0 10 0
Scoreboard India 51-1 (16) Runs

G Gambhir not out 28
V Sehwag c Taylor b Martin 12
R Dravid not out 9
S Tendulkar
VVS Laxman
Yuvraj Singh
*MS Dhoni
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma
M Patel
Extras: 2 b:0 lb:2 nb:0 w:0Total: 51-1 (16) | Curr. RR: 3.19FOW:V Sehwag (14-1, 2)New Zealand O M R W
T Southee 3 0 13 0
C Martin 4 2 13 1
OBrien 5 2 8 0
J Franklin 3 0 15 0
J Ryder 1 1 0 0

The post lunch session saw Indians on fire and tumbled five wickets of New Zealand.It was Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan that wrecked the Kiwis with Ishanth chipping on.Harbhajan bowled 16 overs from one end and Zaheer and Ishanth from the other end.
Guptill was bowled to Zaheer Khan around the wicket.Flynn was welcomed back to test cricket with agem of delivery from a left handed bowler.Unplayable delivery that made the left handed batsmen play at it and get himself caught of Dhoni .
Tim McIntosh the wicket keeper opener was caught by Yuvraj Singh in first slip.Ryder the champion batsmen for the first time made amistake trying to play a shot to wide delivery that was shoulder height and Dhoni was glad to see the back of Ryder.Ross Taylor looked in omnious form and was out to dubious decision.The ball was going to leg side and Taylor tried to work it down to fine leg and Dhoni collected it.The replays was not convincing to show that Taylor edged it.James Franklin played a shot in the air and saw Shewag taking an excellent catch by lunging forward and grabbing a dipping catch.
Vettori joined McCullum and hopes of revival was there.
The best pahse of bowling was seen here.Ishanth and Vettori gave us the most entertaining part.The first over saw Ishanth start with abouncer which was ducked by Vettori.The second ball was ashort pitched ball and that was carted to boundary by Vettori.The third ball was a short pitched ball and Vettori just ducked away.The fourth ball was a short pitched ball and that was put over the ropes by
Vettori.The next two balls was well left by Vettori as both were well directed bouncers.In this over Vettori was forced to play on the back foot.
In the next over Vettori was given a short pitched ball to start with.The second ball was again a bouncer and the third ball was good length ball dragging Vettori forward and making him play and his fate was decided.
After tea up went the arms for Zaheer and India when he took his fifth wicket .Tim Southee in his act for taking some runs tried to pull a well directed short pitched ball and the ball went high in the air and Zaheer said his catch and took it .Zaheer in his career has not gone past five wickets and he has every chance to go past it here.
A well directed bouncer to Brien from Zaheer.Brien some how managed to take evasive action.Fast bowlers has got some good memories as Zaheer was bounced out by Brien That was agood didplay of bouncers by Zaheer and the lead is just over 200 for India.India can take huge psychological advantage by keeping the lead over 200 runs.India will not be asking New Zealand to follow on as India can bat on and extend the lead and just shut New Zealand out!
Harbhajan attacking at McCullum and Brien.New Zealand should look for runs now as some quick runs can unsettle India.Brien takes a couple and looks for settling which should not be allowed by India

harbhajan scored his seventh half century

India is on verge creating history.This is the highest score by an Indian in a days play.Dravid and Sachin has missed for the second time forging a hundred run partnership.
Gambhir and Shewag forged 73 runs opening partnership in 93 balls.
The best partnership was with sachin and Dravid who made 90 runs partnership.Dhoni and Harbhajan was involved in 79 run partnership.Zaheer Khan was involved in two 32 run partnerships.The first was with Harbhajan and the second with Ishanth before eventually holing out.Patel and Isanth has already made unbeaten 28 partnerships.

(Sachin Tendulkar, 42.5 ov.), 4/173 (VVS Laxman, 48.3 ov.), 5/182 (Yuvraj

Argentina vs Boliva
Argentina lost to Boliva 6-1.Argentinas biggest loss has come under the coach

of Maradona.Maradona’s men made amisery by arriving just two hours before to

Boliva where the match is played at an altitude of 11200 feet above sea.
Mardonas men trailed 1-3 at half time and did nt have any clue to what was

happening.Argentina was fresh from 4-0 drubbing of Venezuela.Argentina under

Maradona was playing its fourth match and this result would have puntured any

complacency that was creeping in to their ranks.Argentina slipped to fourth place in the 10-team group with 19 points from 12 games, the lowest of the positions in which they can finish and qualify directly for

South Africa in 2010.fifth place means they are  not out.They can play to become the fourth team from concaf region.
.
Paraguay have 24 points

Brazil 21 points

Venezuela is placed eight with 13 points

Chile has got 20 points.Argentia has got stiff choice from Uruguay and Colombia and they need to be aware of that.Ecudaor has come close with 14 points and the game has become tight.

Saina Nehwal
Saina Nehwal has reached eight ranking in world cup badminton.Diju and Jwala Dutta who reached the mixed doubles final has been ranked 10th in the world.The pair will be playing Asian Badminton championship in Korea.