Daily Sports News

Ricky Ponting Australian captain uttered his team needs to be the best to beat New Zealand in the Champions Trophy. Australia won against England in the semi final.Ponting mentioned his team requires playing the best game in the final champion’s trophy.

Ponting added saying team will not be happy until they the peak the achievement. Australia has won three World Cups and the reigning Champions Trophy holder. This year tournament some of their revival team is out of the tournament so it would be interesting to watch as well as play the game against New Zealand. Ponting was fined 20% of his match fee for a slow over rate against England and his teammate fined 10%. Ponting uttered saying winning the game gives a lot of satisfaction. He said this is the first time in few years we have not been ranked the number one team as if for now we are probably world’s number three or four. Aussie team is happy the way we played one-day cricket over the last three to four weeks. The record in these events speaks for itself and expectation has always high. New Zealand beat Pakistan in semi final. Daniel Vettori the captain of New Zealand said his team is hungry to win the competition. He added saying once you reach the immense level you realize an immense desire to go all the way.

James Taylor batsman of Leicestershire honored with the Young Cricketer of the year by the Cricket Writers Club. Taylor 19-year-old accepted his prestigious award in London.He became the youngest Leicestershire player since George Dawkes in 1983 and is likely to be added in winter’s England Academy programmer to be added to the England Under-19 honor he won earlier this year.

Taylor played in this abundant season with his bat scoring 1,177 runs in 16 matches with an average of 58.88. He scored three centuries, six half centuries, and 207 highest score not out. He became the first teenager to make a double century for the county. Former winner included are Fred Trueman, Sir Ian Bothman and Andrew Flintoff. David Smith county chief executive uttered as a special moment for the club and a special story, lot of people can be proud of James achievement.

Australia defeated England in the one-day international series, even though England reached its highest total in five matches with 299 all out. Australia to 302-6 with 10 balls remaining. A superb century from captain Ricky Ponting scores of 126 from 109 balls, which include 14 fours and 3 sixes, gave Australia a four wicket win and lead of 5-0 against England.

Just two games victory away for Australia to retrieve the world’s number one ranking. Michael Clarke partnerships also hits 52 and Ponting stayed until his team scored 261 but later Owais Shah caught him out then later Cameron White and Mitchell Johnson guided the team. Defeat uncovered England inadequacy with poor fielding and loose bowling. Ponting uttered to the reporters Aussie is playing some good cricket now. Sixth match of series will be held on Thursday at Trent Bridge and the last series on Sunday at Riverside.

The English football team was having a field day against Andorra but the same couldn’t be said for their cricket team. Well, it was the opposite as they were completely outplayed, as South Africa won the match comfortably by 7 wickets.

The home side never got going and was all out for 111 as they lost their last seven wickets for 33 runs!!!!!!! For a side which appeared to be doing so well in the series against the Windies before the start of the T20 World Cup, this is a total shocker. South Africa gave an all-round performance, as they bowled, fielded and batted well, proving once again why they are favorites for the trophy. This puts S.A in a commanding position and their pace attack seems to resemble that of the Windies which struck fear in the heart of every opponent. This leaves England in a precarious position because they have to beat India and West Indies if they are to progress and even so these two victories doesn’t guarantee them a position in the semis…..

Steyn took Bopara with an inside-edge from the batsman hitting the stumps. K.P on the other hand started with boundaries off his first two deliveries but hit an Albie Morkel full toss straight to Vd Merwe who caught it in an extraordinary fashion. This came in the 6th over and England’s score at the end of it was 25-3. This is the lowest score in the powerplay section in T20 history! The English batting managed to put up an insignificant total of 111 as the rest of the batting fizzled out….Wayne Parnell, the new weapon in S.A’s pace arsenal ended up with 3/14. As S.A began their batting they looked out-of-sorts as Smith top-edged Broad to James Foster, who had to dive to take the skier, and Herschelle Gibbs looked out of sorts – and could have been run out twice. And the batsmen struggled against the English spinners as the required run rate went up for more than a run-a-ball.

It was good for the English until Kallis decided to crash their party. Any pressure on S.A disappeared then, and even Gibbs made a few shots to the rope and Swann over the rope for a maximum as they seem to call it in this format of the game. Then it ended as Kallis cut Anderson to the point fence to end up with 58 from 49 balls. The English pace attack seems to be toothless and their over dependency on Swann isn’t paying them any dividends either. They have ways to go if they are to succeed in the shorter format of the game.

It is a feeling of deja vu with memories of 92 World Cup coming back to haunt to Australia as they are out of a major ICC event, in the very first round mind you, for the first time in 15 years barring their loss to INDIA in the inaugural Champions Trophy which was a knockout tournament by the way. But now coming back to yesterday’s match which went to the last over, a farcry from their thrashing at the hands of the Windies just last weekend, thanks mainly to Australia’s wagging tail & incredible slogging by Mitchell Johnson & later by Brett Lee giving them a respectable total of 159 for 9.

The day started off brilliantly for Sri Lanka as Angelo Mathews struck in his very first over getting rid of the dangerous David Warner. Australia’s top scorer of last match not was able to replicate his earlier success in the tournament & instead getting out on a duck with Tillakaratne Dilshan taking a simple catch at point. An over which was a precursor of things to come & the radical changes that Sri Lanka put in against Australia which the latter was simply not prepared for. Kumara Sangakkara in his very first match as captain was to excel with his batting being the cornerstone of Sri Lanka’s innings during their successful pursuit of 160 at the end of the day. Sri Lanka knowing the importance of slow bowlers, having witnessed their stranglehold over batsman in the earlier matches, left the likes of Nuwan Kulasekara & Farveez Maharoof in the process as was evident with Sanath Jayasuriya coming on to bowl the second over of the match.

Lasith Malinga, their premier fast bowler, came on to bowl only as a second change after which Ajantha Mendis was introduced in the powerplay. After getting a single run of the very first over Ponting & Watson took the attack to the opposition smashing debutant Udana & Malinga for 15 runs in each of the fourth & the fifth over respectively. Enter Mendis, who got rid of Ponting as he tried to smash him losing his leg stump in the process. This started a period of 10 overs in which Australia lost 5 top order wickets adding just 47 runs. Mendis picked up Watson in his next over as he tried to sweep him but fell leg before wicket on 22. Mendis took care of the top order with Mike Hussey was trapped lbw before Johnson took over his possible role as an allrounder remaining unbeaten in the end.

Some might say that Sangakkara was the man of the match but Mendis was the X-factor in the match which went Sri Lanka’s way.

The most smashing and deadly batsman of Australian Team, Andrew Symonds is no more in Cricket Australia (at least for the t20 World Cup). This was the shocking news for all the Cricket fans of the world when read on the front page headlines.

Andrew Symonds is a total versatile personality. He is one of the best record holders of Australia and the worst record holder for the discipline and manner records. Since four to five years he is continuously in and out of the team. You must not have forgotten these incidents:

• The drinking issue before a match against Bangladesh which cost him too dear and was sent back from the 2005 Australian Tour to England.
• The world famous issue of abusing language and racism with Harbhajan Singh in the Perth Test.
• The 2008 Bangladesh Series, when he was sent back as he preferred Fishing rather than attending the compulsory Team meeting.
• November 2008, when he was found drunk with the members of the Australian rugby league side and the controversial incident of Hotel in Brisbane.
• January 2009, when he used some problematic language for the Kiwis Wicket Keeper batsman Brendon McCullum in a radio interview.
• Recently, just 2 days back he found guilty of alcoholic issues and other disciplinary violation. The team management sent him back to Australia and he is out from the T20 World Cup, England.

All these and many more incidents show that Symonds actually is a nick name of Controversies. He was continuously in and out since four years. Even though the entire team backed him up in the entire incidence and brought him back in the team, he made disappointed to them all the time.

The person who stood beside him in all the problems and backed him falling against the whole Cricketing nations, the Captain Ricky Ponting also said with a very low voice that, “Symonds has let the team down.”

He is a wonderful stroke player and the whole world was eager to see the blasting batting of Symonds after he performed tremendously in the recent IPL T20. He was the champ even in the finals for the Deccan Chargers whom he joined in later half of IPL. He was the real Key player to lead his team from the last position in 2008 to the top position in 2009.

Ricky is not the only person who is let down, the former Australian bowler, Geoff Lawson utters in an interview to BBC Radio 5 Live, “Nobody’s perfect, but he’s been given lots of opportunities and there’s a limit to how many mistakes you can make in the context of professional sport.

“There was lots of criticism anyway that he wasn’t playing well enough to be selected for the tour.

“I don’t think he’ll play international cricket again.”

The last sentence can really be a hurting statement for all his fans, but even the Cricket Australia Chief James Sutherland seemed to be of the same opinion last night.

“In isolation the breaches are not serious, but in the scheme of history, they are enough to be the final straw. We will take the offer of a Cricket Australia contract we made to him off the table and reconsider our decision over the coming days,” he said.

“In the last 24-48 hours he has broken a number of team rules.

“In the context of commitments Andrew has made to his team-mates and to Cricket Australia in the last six months, it’s the last straw. Unfortunately, it’s a constant balancing act and it’s just tipped too far.”

Thus Sutherland indicated that the last incident may prove the dead end for the glorious Cricketing career of Andrew Symonds.

Ricky Ponting was also found upset with the incident when he addressed the press conference soon after the removal.

“Andrew is very disappointed and understandably upset. I’m disappointed in Andrew and I’m disappointed for Andrew. I’m quite sad about it.”

“We’re a little disappointed with the events of the last 24 hours and losing one of the best Twenty20 players in the world is disappointing, but he broke a number of commitments that he made to himself and the team. They were not commitments forced upon him by us. He’s let himself down and the team down.

But we’re moving on and preparing as well as we can for Saturday’s game.

“It throws the balance of the side a bit and we’re going to have to re-jig it a bit, but we’ve got the flexibility in the squad to do that.” he added.

The Queenslander has a marvelous record of Cricket and people used to say that he could see the ball much faster than the speed of the ball. He was the player who could swing the ball wherever he wanted to loaf. He was a key member of Australian Cricket team as he is having a nice record of bowling also. He was a partnership breaker for his team.

Symonds, was born in Birmingham, England but in the very childhood was taken to Australia. He has played 26 Tests, 198 one-day internationals and 14 Twenty20 matches for Australia.

He has 1,462 Test runs at an average of 40.61, with a best score of 162 not out and taken 24 wickets at 37.33, with a best return of 3-50in his pocket.

In the 50-over format of the game, he has scored 5,088 runs at 39.75 with a top score of 156. His 133 wickets have come at 37.25 apiece with 5-18 his best showing.

In Twenty20 internationals he has smashed 337 runs off 199 balls with his average of 48.14 bolstered by his highest score of 85 not out. He has taken just eight wickets in his 14 games at 34.62.

Thus, he has a great career and everyone believed that he will bounce back heavily after the come back in the team.

But, the incidents happened were quite unlucky. He attended a dinner at a London hotel on Wednesday night with the rest of the squad but was absent from training at The Oval on Thursday, then caught for the alcoholic consumption.

The 25-year-old Cameron White will replace Symonds, he has an experience of seven Twenty20 internationals, scoring a total of 152 runs with a highest score of 40 not out.

Cricket Australia has already approached ICC about the replacement and most probably White will replace Symonds.

Australia start their World Twenty20 campaign against West Indies at The Oval on Saturday.

Schedule for ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup 2009

With just a miniscule 44 days in hand, IPL and Cricket South Africa has successfully managed to conjugate a spell bounding experience that was a treat to all the senses.

Akon, gyrated and lip-synched to his famous track ‘Smackdown’. He kept the audiences on their feet with his foot-tapping tunes and constant contact with the audience. In his third track, Akon went vocal for about 20% of the performance time. Post the Akon performance; one just got hypnotized by the tantalizing drum performances by skilled hands that effortlessly fused the Indian classic ‘..raghupati raghave raja ram..’ with mesmeric Afro background scores, that left every Indian humbled to the core.

Great troupe performances by dancers in African and space age attire and Indian dancers in new age attire who belonged to the renowned Shamak Davak gang.Adding magic to the moment were mammoth helium air balloons with artistically performing trapeze artists suspended in mid-air at ceiling level of the oval shaped stadium. The ongoing spectacle involved Technicolor light, sound and laser shows featuring humongous balloon displays with acrobats performing skilled acts. The fresh entry to the show was the competition among 10 gorgeous locals for the South Africa Bollywood beauty pageant. The winner of the pageant, Dune, received the crown from Akon. Akon wooed Dune with the song ‘u r so beautiful’.

The current reigning Bollywood queen Katrina performed live to the pulsating global hit ‘Jai ho’ along with countless Afro-Indian dancers and Shamak Davar troupe in the background. Live fire show performances to the throbbing music and beating drums were truly the icing of the cake. Amazing drummers providing syntillating back scores to the people having rotating fire circles in their hands and head. Drummers were beating with fire sticks on their drums and people rotating concentric fire circles. People carrying sticks of live fireworks in their hands, were constantly swaying them in circular motions.

Eddie grant, the singer par excellence was the next to perform to retro Afro tunes which truly reflected the spirit of South Africa. He sang in the Jamaican way the infamous tune ‘Give me hope joana’. IPL and Cricket South Africa have come with the novel initiative to donate part of its funds to the help educate and treat fund with constant and regular donations. Shaimak Davar sang ‘Vande Mataram’ solo initially and later fused tunes with Eddie Grant. Listening to this Afro-INDO Fusion, Katrina could not help but shake a leg with Akon or join in the singing. It was a visual extravaganza with the performers swaying the Indian Flag and the mid-air hot air spectacle of women acrobats.

The finale was an enthralling pyrotechnic show with display of about 1500 fireworks displays in all vibrant colours, forms and shapes lighting up the Johannesburg skyline.

The closing ceremony of the DLF IPL 2009 was chock-a-block with lots of entertainment, Akon, drumbeats, South African Bollywood beauty pageant and Phoenix fire dancers all culminating to make a life long impression. Winners ‘The Deccan Chargers’ took the grand trophy, cheque and the spoils. The Deccan Chargers and The Royal Challengers who were coincidently the second last and last teams in the last year, have significantly improved their performance by making it to the finals. But, it was eventually the Deccan Chargers who held their nerve in a tight situation to emerge winners. President of Republic of SA, Mr. Bindra, were among the heavy weights present at the presentation ceremony.

DLF IPL Final Highlight