Cricket - The Gentleman's Game

I always believe that "Catches win Matches". In the game of Twenty 20 every ball is so important and the players always need to be sharp at field either to steal a run from the opposition or to throw their body at the ball to stop a single. Here is one of the instance, where the bowler bowls with such an accuracy and speed and the batsman slashes hard at the ball. It requires such an concentration to pull a blinder like this when you field at the slip. This blinder of a catch was taken by the Indian, Dinesh Karthick at slip to get rid of the South African Skipper Grame Smith, the bowler was RP Singh. For me, this is one of the best ever catch considering the situation of game, where India was defending a little more than 150 which was so easy for the formidable home side to chase. Look at the catch and know the importance of it. Eventually, India won the match convincingly. Thanks to Rohit Sharma, brilliant half century and he was declared the MoM. You will al...

Wicket Keeper :  The wicket-keeper (also spelled wicketkeeper and often shortened to keeper) in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike.  The wicket-keeper is the only member of the fielding side permitted to wear gloves and external leg guards.The wicket-keeper may also wear a helmet with a mesh face guard to help protect from injury. Keep's Functions: The most common dismissal effected by the keeper is for him to catch a ball that has nicked the batsman's bat, called an edge, before it bounces. Sometimes the keeper is also in the best position to catch a ball which has been hit high in the air. More catches are taken by wicket-keepers than by any other fielding position. The keeper can stump the batsman by using the ball to remove the bails from the stumps, if the batsman has come out of his crease during a delivery. When the ball is h...

One Day Internationals :  A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, and now a days it is fifty over per side, earlier it used to be 60 overs per side. The international one-day game is a late twentieth-century development. The first ODI was played on 5 January 1971 between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . When the first three days of the third Test were washed out officials decided to abandon the match and, instead, play a one-off one day game consisting of 40 eight-ball overs per side. Australia won the game by 5 wickets. That's the small history of how the one day international game evolved. From then, the game has improved vastly along with the aggression of the batsman to score run against the bowler. Here are listed the five fastest half centurions(50 runs) in one day internationals Sanath Jayasurya : He scored the f...

Cricket, There are few unknown facts about this game and I have listed down here, and I assure this post will get updated frequently as I collect interesting updates. OMINOUS OLYMPICS Cricket has only ever appeared in the Olympic games twice. The first time was in 1896 in Athens; however, there were not enough teams to truly compete so the competition never occurred. Once again, in 1900, cricket made a reappearance in the Paris Olympics but only 2 teams were able to compete: Great Britain and France. The winner, Great Britain, received the gold medal.  FIRST FACE-OFF Geoff Boycott was the first cricketer to face a ball one-day cricket history. Graham McKenzie was the bowler. SUNNY GOES LOONY It has been stated in the past that Sunil Gavaskar was so ill-tempered that his parents had to take him to a psychiatrist to get checked out. We can believe this one for sure! BORROWED CENTURY Shahid Afridi’s epic 1996 37-ball century, the fastest in one-day history at t...

Yeah, Every time we hear the term body line bowling, it reminds of the England tactics used against Australia for the Ashes. History of Body Line Bowling: England toured Australia in 1932, England were worried because they couldn't get Sir Donald Bradman out, everything they tried, Bradman had the answer too. So the England players devised a tactic in which they would bowl short and aim the bowling at the body of the batsmen, then they would set a field with 5 or 6 men short on the leg-side, they would do this, because when the batsmen had no choice BUT to fend off the short ball (or they would get hit in the head or body), and when they fended off the short ball, the fielders would be ready to take the catch. This tactic worked as England beat Australia. BUT still all the England players were hated in Australia, and the relations between Australia and England worsened. Bodyline is NOT short pitch bowling, short pitch bowling is called a bouncer !!!!! In 1935,...

Irfan Pathan, India left arm medium fast bowler made his debut against Australia at Adelaide and he made an impressive start to his career. He was considered to be the best talent after Kapil Dev a bowler who can swing and seam the ball. Irfan Pathan came into limelight during the test series against Pakistan, their arch-rivals. He also started contributing with the bat and was used as a pinch hitter in the few matches and the result was in the favor of the home team. Coach by then, Greg Chappell helped him turn a better batsman but by then, the focus of Irfan Pathan lost and he is still missing the clever swing that he had, which trouble most of the top order batsman. As a Cricket follower and a fan of Irfan Pathan, I wish he comes back with the same old swing that he possessed few years back. Just a reminder of his best swing bowling for the audience to enjoy.

Aaqib Javed of Pakistan bowling the most clever ball in a cricket match. Aaqib Javed is a great Pakistani bowler who has bowled alongside with Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. This was bowled during the world cup 1992, against the New zealand and the batsman who got trapped to this clever bowling was Mark Greatbatch, He was a well known Pitch-hitter who tried to accelerate the scoring rate. Watch this clip to know, how clever a bowling it was...! You will also be interested watching Curtley Ambrose best bowling 7 wickets for just one run Kevin Pietersons switch hit for six

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who sworn in as the Rajya Sabha member on June 4 2012, has taken the first political move, which is as good as his straight six. Sachin Tendulkar has opted not to stay in the Bungalow(5, Tughlaq Lane) allotted to him by the Indian Government. The allocated Bungalow was opposite to that of Rahul Gandhi's, the Congress General Secretary. Sachin quoted " I am not keen on staying in any government bungalow, when I will be in Delhi for only a few days. I feel this would be a waste of tax payers money and it would be better if the bungalow is allotted to someone else who needs the bungalow more than me ." The God of Cricket also added, " He will stay in the Hotel every time he is in Delhi " and re-iterated " The   honour of being nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP matters much more than the perks and privileges like being given a government bungalow " After this, there are few things that pops into my head, 1. Can Sachin...

Mohammed kaif is one of the best fielders India ever had and his catching and fielding abilities helped him to be in the Indian team for a long time. Look this run out where Collingwood, the best fielder himself, getting baffled by the presence of mind from Kaif. This in turn shows Kaif is one of the best cricketing mind with reflexes supporting it. You will also be interested watching, Kaif taking a blinder of a catch against Pakistan in Karachi 

India vs Pakistan is always a match that excites cricketing fans, This match happened in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. India scored a mammoth total of 349/7 in 50 overs, with Rahul Dravid being unlucky to get out on 99. In reply to Indian innings, Pakistan had their skipper Inzy leading from the front scoring 122 supported by Mohammed Yousuf and Younis Khan. The match was so intense that, Pakistan need 10 runs from 8 balls and whole of Pakistan crowd was going cranky supporting the home team, until the catch that got rid of Shoaib Malik. Watch this clip to feel an adrenaline rush. You will also be interested watching : Sachin Tendulkar best catch 

Sachin Tendulkar, Nothing wrong calling him the GOD OF CRICKET , with his immense contribution to the game of cricket with his all round skills. Watch this clip to see, Little Master takes a blinder to get Shahid Afridi out. You will also be interested watching Sunil Gavaskar walk off Sachin's First 100 vs Australia

The unbelievable event of Adam Gilchrist bowling happened in the titans of cricket 2011, this was an indoor tournament and Pakistan emerged as winners of this tournament. The funniest part of this was, the likes of Shoaib Akhtar,Steve Harmison,Andrew Flintoff,Jason Gillespie & Sreesanth missed hitting the stump and Gilli got it perfect. His bowling action resembles like Steve Waugh, but look at the way he enjoys after hitting the stumps. You might also be interested in viewing MS Dhoni bowling Shane warne Funny bowling

Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar took oath as member of the Rajya Sabha making it clear that his focus would be on cricket until he quits it . However, he insisted that he does not want rumours to spread that he has stopped playing cricket for Parliament. 39-year-old Tendulkar took oath as member of the Rajya Sabha in the presence of Chairman Hamid Ansari and Union Ministers Rajiv Shukla, Harish Rawat and V Narayanasamy. Sachin spoke to reporters  after taking the Oath, "...I am here because of my cricketing career. I cannot take any focus away from my cricket. That is where it all started for me. I will focus on my cricket and as and when I stop playing cricket, I don't know, when I will start attending to other things. "I don't want rumours to start that I have stopped playing cricket. I will let everyone know when I will stop playing cricket," he said when asked how he would assuage people who raise questions whether he would be able to do ...

Now a days, It has been a trend to measure the distance of SIX hit by a batsman in the ground which excites the audience as well gives a tough competition between power hitters of the game. Latest IPL, saw the huge six from Dhoni , which was 112 meters and followed by Gayle  Storm which was 111 meters Here you watch, the smallest SIX in cricket, which might take years to score one like this.  You have to believe your eyes and keep your volume high to know, it was a SIX, that's the magic here...!  Check that out...!

Curtley Ambrose devastating spell cleaning up the strong batting line-up of Australia , this is considered to be one of the best test bowling effort.  Can you imagine a bowler claiming 7 wickets and just conceding a single run ?! Yes, here the West Indian pacer does it. I don't think any modern day bowler can bowl this aggressively. Definitely a good lesson for all upcoming fast bowlers to follow such consistency of Curtley Ambrose. Famous comment that goes as  " The best way to play Ambrose is to not to connect the ball with bat "

We all know how clever and an intelligent is the Indian cricket team  Captain Cool - MS Dhoni on field, Here is a better demonstration of making the best decisions on field according to situations in the IPL Please also check to the glossary of cricket terms , which most of us aren't aware of. Interesting information here http://www.instagc.com/707763