muttiah muralitharan - 800 test wickets

Sri Lanka off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan became the first bowler to claim eight hundred wickets in Test matches, taking 5 for 63 in the first innings and adding 3 for 128 in the second innings of the first of three Test matches against India.

Having confirmed that this series will be his last Test matches for Sri Lanka, Muralitharan started the game already holding the record for wickets taken in Test matches with 792.

The 800 wicket milestone was reached in only 134 Test matches and will surely overshadow the heavy defeat inflicted on India who were forced to follow on and ended losing the match by 10 wickets.

Thirty eight year old Muralitharan will continue to torment the Indian team during the next two Test matches after which he will retire from the long game claiming that after 19 years of international bowling he is ‘getting tired and getting old’ adding, “There are a lot of good spinners waiting for their chance, and hopefully they can become like me one day.”

The bowler whose unique bent arm bowling action, caused by a defect at birth, has courted controversy over the years and led Australia’s Prime Minister Jon Howard at one time calling the Sri Lankan a ‘chucker’, a comment that he later apologised for.

Indeed it was Australian spinner Shane Warne who fought hardest with Muralitharan to claim the title of Test cricket’s leading wicket taker, but even when Warne retired, his 708 wicket haul required 145 Test matches to be acheived.

Muralitharan passed that number in 2007 taking his 709th wicket against England when his bowling claimed Paul Collingwood on the bowlers home ground in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

But the world has not seen the last of the King of Spin, he will continue to play limited overs cricket at international level and is almost certain to be involved in next spring’s World Cup which will take place in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India.

virender sehwag

India’s unbelievable blitzing of Sri Lanka in the third Test, by an innings and twenty four runs has moved them to become the world’s top ranked Test team for the first time.

And how they deserve to have reached such a pinnacle, made all the more fitting by their recent performances in the final home Test match against Sri Lanka.

Virender Sehwag’s blistering innings of 293, deservedly earned him the man of the match and man of the series awards as India won the series 2-0.

Captain Sachin Tendulkar said of the current Indian team;

“I would not hesitate to say this is the best team I have ever played with, if you look at the batting line-up, right from the number one batsman to the number seven batsman which is Mahendra Singh Dhoni, it’s a solid line-up.”

I think the process of getting to the number one spot really started when (coach) Gary Kirsten and Paddy Upton took over, along with Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh.

The aim of the whole team then was to get to be the top in the world. All credit to Kirsten, he handled the team brilliantly and credit also to the other players who have been a part of this team over the last 18-20 months.”

When they are in full flow, India are a true delight to watch, possessing some of the most in form batsmen in world cricket at present, if they can maintain this level of cricket they will be at the top of the rankings for a long time to come.

rahul dravid

Rahul Dravid’s 144 runs for India in the second day of the second test against Sri Lanka in Kanpur took him past Australian Allan Border’s 11,174 runs in Test cricket and into fourth place in the all time scorers list.

Dravid sits behind his Indian team mate Sachin Tendulkar, West Indies’ Brian Lara and the current leader Australian captain Ricky Ponting on the list.

It was also Dravid’s 28th test century, coming in an innings in which India’s two opening batsmen had already scored well over a century each themselves, Sehwag getting 131 and Gambhir a brilliant 167, as the home side built an impressive lead.

India did finally succumb to the bowling of Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath who claimed five of the last six wickets as India finished on 642 all out. It might have been worse for Sri Lanka but at last the wicket appeared to be showing signs of some turn and the spin bowler Herath was able to take advantage.

Things did get worse for Sri Lanka as they came out to bat, Zaheer Khan took the wicket of Tillakaratne Dilshan, before Sri Lanka had scored a run. But the visitors rallied and finished the day on 66 for 1, with both  Paranavitana and  Sangakkara on 30 not out.

Sri Lanka braved the early menace of India’s Zaheer and quickly took a hold on the game, particularly off the superb batting of Dilshan who managed an excellent 112 to put his country back into the match.

It was the second consecutive century for Dilshan since being elevated to opener for his country and it is his tenth test hundred.

Dilshan had formed solid partnerships with both Paranavitana (35) and Sangakkara(31) during the day, before Zaheer snared both Dilshan and Sangakkara leaving Sri Lanka on 194 for 3.

Samaraweera and Mahela then picked up the gauntlet for Sri Lanka by putting on an unbeaten 81 runs between them and ending the day with the scores:

First Innings

India – 426 all out    Sri Lanka – 275 for 3

The match looks quite finely balanced ahead of the third day and you wonder which way it will twist next. Both India and Sri Lanka have put on some excellent displays with the bat, you have to wonder if either side can conjure some magic with the ball.

rahul dravid

Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni assumed control for India in the first Test match against Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad, after Sri Lanka’s Chanaka Welegedara claimed three wickets in his first four overs with the new ball to leave the hosts reeling at 32 for four.

In only his second Test match,  Welegedara made the most the moisture in the pitch in the morning to prise out Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar cheaply, while Dammika Prasad added the fourth Indian wicket of WS Laxman.

Dravid joined by Yuvraj managed to take stock of the situation and piece together an innings worthy of the best as weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s bowling became evident during the day with their inexperienced attack.

There was no respite for Sri Lanka when they did eventually snare Yuvraj (68) with the score at 157 for 5, as it was Dhoni who came on and quickly settled into his stride to continue to build the score alongside Dravid.

Dhoni fell for 110, with three overs to go by which time India had built up an incredible 381, ending the day on 385 for 6, with Dravid scoring an incredible 177 not out.

wankhede stadium mumbai

The 2011 Cricket World Cup final will be held at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai it has been announced today. The event is being co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

India’s cricket board have announced eight venues for the 29 matches that they will be hosting and have included Eden Gardens in Kolkata which will host four of the group games despite not being used for a one day international since 2007.

India have also named Mohali as one of the venues for the semi final games as well as hosting two group games. Sri Lanka who will host twelve games and Bangladesh eight, have yet to announce venues although the opening ceremony will take place in Dhaka in Bangladesh on February 18th.

Group stage venues: Ahmedabad (2 games), Bangalore (4), Chennai (4), Kolkata (4), Mohali (2), Mumbai (2), Nagpur (4), New Delhi (4), plus venues TBA in Bangladesh (6) and Sri Lanka (10)

Quarter-finals: Ahmedabad plus venue TBA in Bangladesh (2) and Sri Lanka

Semi-finals: Mohali plus venues TBA in Sri Lanka

Final: Mumbai

The full schedule for the tournament will be announced on November 9th in Mumbai.

The four contenders will now have to wait until the sixth annual LG ICC awards on October 1st in Johannesburg, to see who picks up the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for cricketer of the year.

Strauss is also still in the running for the Test player of the year award as are Gambhir and Johnson along with Sri Lanka’s Thilan Samaraweera. England’s Graham Onions makes the shortlist for ‘emerging player of the year’ and will fight it out with Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle from the Australian team and Jesse Ryder from New Zealand.

Strauss played a captain’s innings in each of the Ashes Test matches, leading from the front with the bat and setting an example that his charges were generally unable to maintain. He has performed better than any other England player with the bat in the current ODI series and I believe he deserves his place on the shortlist.

Pakistan 139-2 (18.3 overs) beat Sri Lanka 138-6 (20 overs) by eight wickets.

Pakistan were the surprise winners of the ICC World Twenty20 cricket competition.  They convincingly beat Sri Lanka in the final at Lords yesterday, and in a post match interview, Pakistan captain Younus Khan, draped in a Pakistan flag dedicated the famous victory to his former coach Bob Woolmer who died suddenly in Jamaica during the 2007 World Cup.

Khan took the opportunity to announce his retirement from Twenty20 cricket, and also pleaded for countries to reconsider the current boycott of playing cricket in Pakistan following the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in March, while on thier way to play in Lahore.

Following the attack, Pakistan were also stripped of holding the cricket World Cup in 2011.

England Women win the ICC World Twenty20

Meanwhile, England won the Women’s ICC World Twenty20 in style by bowling New Zealand all out for 85 and win by six wickets, also at Lords yesterday.

England Women’s cricket captain, Charlotte Edwards said it was the “proudest day of her life.”

The England Women’s cricket team add the World Twenty20 trophy to the Ashes and the World Cup.

The game has been fairly well established in the domestic game but perhaps we haven’t seen the best of it in international cricket as yet. Well, that is about to change as we look ahead to the ICC World Twenty20 that is being held in England next year. It should be quite an occasion and with these ICC cricket tickets on sale now, it is advised to snap them up as soon as you can.

There is no doubt in my mind that these ICC World Twenty20 tickets are some of the hottest tickets in town. It is a stage for all of the best cricketers in the world to shine in one of the most entertaining ways possible.

Twenty20 cricket may have received its criticisms in the past, but how can anyone say that this event will be anything other than a joy to be part of? I just hope England improve on their showing in the last tournament back in 2007. Any England fan that brought Twenty20 tickets for this particular Twenty20 tournament certainly wouldn’t have been in South Africa as long as they would have hoped!

Nest year’s tournament is to be held in June 2009 and will be spread across three venues – Lords, Trent Bridge and The Oval. There will also be a women’s tournament which will make the event all the more special.

With Kevin Pietersen at the helm and with home advantage, I would say England certainly have a good chance of success. They have started looking like an excellent 50 over side and hopefully this can be reflected in their Twenty20 performances. It would be a great confidence booster ahead of the Ashes if England could win it.

However, no matter how well the home nation does there is going to be some amazing cricket on show. The likes of India, Australia and South Africa have come wonderful limited over players and I’m sure there will be many memorable innings. So, my advice to you is to buy World Twenty20 tickets as soon as you can!

“It is important that we go for a win in the second Test. We want to win every match we play; this is the attitude whether we are playing at home or away,” skipper Mahela Jayawardene commented before tomorrow’s match in Port-Of-Spain.

His West Indies counterpart Chris Gayle is a proud man and won’t want to get in the record books this way. He’ll be hoping his batsmen perform this time around – Chanderpaul is due big runs.

With so much at stake I think it would be a brave man who bets against them squaring the series.