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Indian master blaster Sachin Tendulkar created history on Wednesday by slamming the first ever double century in the history of ODI cricket. Batting first after India had won the toss, Tendulkar batted his way into the annals by breaking a 13 year old record – which had earlier been equalled – by scoring a double century.

India were buoyed by Tendulkar’s presence at the crease and ended with 401/3 in the fifty overs – their third ever total over 400 in the ODIs – and enhanced their chances of winning the series. They already lead 1-0 after having won the first ODI that was played at Jaipur earlier this week.

India had lost Virender Sehwag early, but in the company of Dinesh Karthik who scored 79, Yusuf Pathan, who made 36 off 23 and MS Dhoni who went on to smash a 35-ball 68, Tendulkar batted like a true magician to get to that most coveted landmark.

The 2nd ODI between India vs South Africa (IND vs SA) will begin at the Sawai Mansing stadium in Gwalior on Wed, Feb 24 2010. The Day/Night match start time is 2-30 pm local (09.00 GMT). The match will be telecasted live on DD National and Neo Cricket TV Channel. Watch Live streaming and Live scores

India won the 1st ODI by just ONE run, watch the HIGHLIGHTS HERE.

Sachin Tendulkar valiantly saved the boundary by a full stretch dive in the final over of the match and saved a run, which won the match for India. In fact India should have won this match easily.

South Africa will look to win this match and level the series, wheras India will want to win the match and win the series.

Gwalior has been a happy hunting ground for India, winning seven out of nine ODIs there.

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• Live Scores – Ball By Ball Commentary

Pitch and Conditions :

The curator of the Gwalior pitch has guaranteed a 300-plus batting surface. The spinners may get some assistance as the match progresses. The forecast for Wednesday is sunshine, with a maximum of 28 degrees.

The teams are as follows :

SR Tendulkar, V Sehwag, V Kohli, MS Dhoni*†, SK Raina, YK Pathan, KD Karthik, RA Jadeja, P Kumar, A Nehra, S Sreesanth

HH Gibbs, LL Bosman, JH Kallis*, AB de Villiers, AN Petersen, JA Morkel, MV Boucher†, J Botha, WD Parnell, DW Steyn, CK Langeveldt

Quotes

“Each of the 16 players in the squad is capable. Winning or losing, we will try to get the best combination. The quicker we get the combination the better. Rotation will go much longer than this tour.” South Africa coach Corrie van Zyl

“You have to see the status of player before the World Cup. Injuries keep coming on. We will try to rotate players so that the best 11-12 players are there at that time.” MS Dhoni

India innings (50 overs maximum)		R	B	4s	6s	SR
	V Sehwag	run out (Langeveldt)	46	37	6	2	124.32
	14.2 Langeveldt to Karthik, hits a length, straightens, Karthik pushes it back, kisses Langeveldt’s fingertips as it passes, then hits the stumps with Sehwag outside the crease, sad but true 89/2
	SR Tendulkar	run out (Gibbs/Parnell)	4	5	1	0	80.00
	1.5 Parnell to Sehwag, short outside off, slashed off the back foot into the covers where Gibbs slides to his left and intercepts, Tendulkar sets off and gets sent back by a hesitant Sehwag but turns around and looks on as Parnell collects the ball and has plenty of time to break the sticks 10/1
	KD Karthik	c Petersen b Langeveldt	44	56	5	1	78.57
	18.2 132.6 kph, gone! Surprised by the short ball, Karthik top-edges a hurried pull to Petersen at mid-on, easy catch off the splice of the bat and that’s the third wicket down 116/3
	MS Dhoni*†	c Morkel b Kallis	26	29	2	0	89.65
	23.1 130.3 kph, Dhoni is gone! that is a big breakthrough, a short of length ball outside off, Dhoni seemed to be into his shot a touch early, his drive lobs towards mid-off where Albie pouches it low 138/4
	V Kohli	c Gibbs b Morkel	31	46	1	0	67.39
	36.2 135.2 kph, fantastic catch from Gibbs to break the partnership, it was a fuller delivery than the previous one, Kohli chipped it to the on-side, Gibbs leaps to his left from short midwicket and plucks a low catch 204/5
	SK Raina	c †Boucher b Kallis	58	63	6	1	92.06
	43.4 131.4 kph, full outside off, Raina wafts at it, gets a thick outside edge, easy catch for Boucher, and India’s chances of reaching 300 takes a hit 260/7
	YK Pathan	c Kallis b Parnell	18	13	2	1	138.46
	39.3 137.5 kph, this time Yusuf doesn’t get hold of it, it was a low full toss outside off, Yusuf was looking to hit it towards leg, the bat turned in his hand and flew towards extra cover where an overhead catch is taken, timely strike for South Africa 231/6
	RA Jadeja	c †Boucher b Kallis	22	20	1	0	110.00
	45.5 130.8 kph, South Africa continue to make regular breakthroughs, Jadeja goes in a similar manner to Raina, it was pitched up and outside off, Jadeja looks to drive, gets an outside edge to the keeper 274/8
	P Kumar	run out (de Villiers/Langeveldt)	13	14	0	0	92.85
	49.2 from Langeveldt, the comedy running finally results in a wicket, a back of length outside off, Praveen swats it to long-off, he wants the second and is on his way, Nehra then sends him back, a great throw from de Villiers from the deep, Langeveldt does the rest 292/9
	A Nehra	not out	16	17	1	1	94.11
	S Sreesanth	not out	0	0	0	0	-
	Extras	(lb 7, w 13)	20
	Total	(9 wickets; 50 overs)	298	(5.96 runs per over)

Ind vs SA will play the 1st ODI at Jaipur.

Watch Live streaming and Live scores of the 1st ODI  between India vs south Africa (IND vs SA) which will be played at Jaipur on Feb 21 2010. The  Day/Night match start time is 2-30 pm local (09.00 GMT.

The match is telecasted live on Neo Sports TV Channel.

After the intense 2 tests which each team won a piece, the focus now shifts to the 3 ODI series.

Reportedly  there will be unprecedented security to this match due to the terror threats to disrupt this match: the Indian Air Force will be manning the skies and the police department has divided the city into five centers – the airport, the route leading to the hotel and stadium, the team hotel, and one each inside and outside the stadium.

continue reading…

Watch Live streaming and scores of the first Twenty20 between Pakistan vs England (Eng vs Pak) which will begin in dubai on Feb 19 2010, Match Start time 1800 (1400 GMT), 7-30 pm India time.

England and Pakistan have only played two Twenty20s, each team winning one a piece.

Pakistan after the drubbing from Australia in all formats of the game in the recent tour to Australia will look to win both the t20 games.

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This game being a day night fixtures we can expect very hot shirt-soaking temperatures and a dry surface in which the batsman can score plenty of runs.

The probable teams are as follows

Pakistan: 1 Imran Nazir, 2 Imran Farhat, 3 Umar Akmal, 4 Shoaib Malik (capt), 5 Khalid Latif/Shahid Afridi, 6 Fawad Alam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Yasir Arafat, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Saeed Ajmal

England: 1 Jonathan Trott, 2 Joe Denly, 3 Kevin Pietersen, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Luke Wright, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 Ryan Sidebottom.

Quotes

“It’s an opportunity to utilise the time before the World Twenty20. We have two matches against England and they are a good side. We have in our team some youngsters who are very talented and they are getting their opportunity. I’m hoping and I’m sure they will do well.” Shoaib Malik, Pakistan’s stand-in captain

“Pakistan are a very strong Twenty20 side and we’re going to have to be right on our game to beat them. It might be a good time to play them, but you never quite know what you’re going to get on the day so I think we’ve just got to concentrate on our own game and see what we get on the day.” England captain Paul Collingwood

The Indian news channel have decided to boycott the Indian Premier League 2010 after both parties failed to reach a consensus for their differences.

According to the IPL, the news channels had failed to keep their side of the promise and illegally broadcasted some of the clips before the stipulated times. Hence, the IPL changed the rules around to

1. Reduce the duration of match footage that news channels can carry to 30 seconds per bulletin and seven minutes a day.
2. Repeats will also be allowed only three times a day, ( earlier four), and
3. Match footage can be telecast with a thirty-minute delay from the end of the live telecast (earlier five)

The first IPL season was boycotted by the international news agencies over certain contentious clauses in the media accreditation guidelines, including a bar on supplying photographs to cricket-specific websites such as Cricinfo.

The Indian team for the ODI series against South Africa was announced on Tuesday. Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh have been ruled out of the series due to injuries, whereas Harbhajan Singh has opted out for two games because of his sister’s marriage.

MS Dhoni continues to lead the side, whereas Sachin Tendulkar will play in the series again after missing out on the previous series. Abhishek Nayar makes it back to the side as a batting all-rounder, but one of the biggest news is that Yusuf Pathan has been selected again.

Amongst the bowlers, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi and Praveen Kumar make it back to the side in the fast bowling department, whereas Harbhajan is replaced by R Ashwin.

The team:
MS Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Abhishek Nayar, Yusuf Pathan, Amit Mishra

Watch Live streaming and Live scores of the 2nd cricket test match between India vs south Africa to be played at Kolkata  from February 14-18, 2010.

Match start time 0915 (0345 GMT).

Well ….South Africa look to dent India’s pride at home.South Africa is touring India to play 2 test matches and 3 one day

international matches and have already won the 1st test match at Nagpur.

With the great Indian Wall Rahul Dravid not playing this match , India will find it very very diffiicult to win this one. continue reading…

Pakistan will be playing cricket matches in the United states.USA

It was announced on Friday that Pakistan may play its home games in the
USA. The Pakistan Cricket Board said that they have reached an
agreement with the USA Cricket Association (USACA) to play some games
every year starting from this year in USA.

The PCB head, Ijaz Butt, met up with the USACA chief executive Don
Lockerbie to discuss the feasibility behind having such games.

However, with a population of more than 20 million Asians in USA, it is
only natural that such an initiative will bring in the people.

Pakistan has not hosted a game at home since the early part of 2009,
when extreme elements attacked the Sri Lankan side on tour. Since then,
no other side has accepted to tour Pakistan, and only recently,
Pakistan played its home games in New Zealand, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Cricket might me included into the Olympics as the International Cricket Council (ICC) has been approved by the International Olympics Committee.

However, for cricket to be a part of the 2020 edition of the Olympics, it will have to ward off competition from other American sports like golf and baseball, which are also trying for an entry into the Olympics.

This induction means that cricketers can take part in IOC organised events.

Some of the strongest supporters of cricket to be played in Olympics have been the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Steve Waugh, Stephen Fleming, Kumar Sangakkara, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh.

The first and the last time cricket was played in an Olympics was in 1900. Great Britain had beaten the hosts France to win the gold.

The
3rd and final ODI between Bangladesh and New Zealand will be played in
Christchurch on Friday, Feb, 10 2009, Start time 14.00 (01.00 GMT)

Bangladesh
haven’t won a match in New Zealand yet, the only time the two met at
Napier in a ODI was in 2007, when the home side won by 102 runs.

New Zealand have won against Bangladesh with ease in each of the matches played  so far in this series. The tpitches in New Zealand have neutralised Bangladesh’s primary weapon – spin,  forcing the visitors to use a 3 pace attack.

New
Zealand will take this series as a practice series for the big home
contest coming up, the trans-Tasman clash with Australia.

In this match New Zealand won the toss and elected to field,.

Pitch and conditions

Napier always supports batting, teams batting first have scored close to or above 300 over the past 6 years.

The atmosphere is expected to be great for playing cricket, the maximum temperature predicted at 22 degrees.

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• Live Scores – Ball By Ball Commentary

New Zealand:
(probable) 1 Brendon McCullum (wk), 2 Peter Ingram, 3 Martin Guptill, 4
Ross Taylor, 5 James Franklin, 6 Neil Broom, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel
Vettori, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Ian Butler, 11 Andy McKay.

Bangladesh:
(probable) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Junaid Siddique/Imrul Kayes, 3 Mohammad
Ashraful, 4 Aftab Ahmed, 5 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 6 Mahmudullah, 7
Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 8 Naeem Islam, 9 Shahadat Hossain, 10 Shafiul
Islam, 11 Rubel Hossain.

Quotes

“You need
to have multiple guys who can bowl at the death. You almost want all
your seamers to [be able to] bowl then, and it’s a real focus area to
improve on.”
Mark Greatbatch highlights one area where New Zealand can get better.

“We are bowling well with the new ball but we need a lot of improvement in our batting, and our fielding.”
Shakib Al Hasan is satisfied with at least one aspect of Bangladesh’s performance.