didn't think Oram was so close to a century!, great batting in the last 2 balls. Nehra really did kill it for the Indians. It will be extremely hard for India now as they cant afford to lose their next match. While for NZ it becomes slightly easier to but they have to keep their focus they've got matches against the inform English and the unpredictable Pakistanis.
ah!didn't expected this game will go into the hands of NZ's.But Oram just took the game away from us.Nehra-Fail
I guess if Zaheer would have been preserved for last over, it would have been the other way around.
Anyways India can't afford to loose any matches now, especially in their country.
Other thing which we can expect is - Nehra will be still in the team XI selection if this would have happened in real life. Our excellent supporting pacers - Nehra, Munaf Patel, RP singh and Balaji. [ on a sarcastic note, ofcourse. ]
A good news here, Riz has joined me to carry this forward. I'm not getting time for this but he will hopefully carry on with me chipping in with an update or so. So, a story by Shan & User then only User is now by Riz & User. See the common thing?
ICC Battle For Supremacy Indiav New Zealand Match One, Delhi
: Welcome back to the Feroz Shah Kotla. We have just witnessed history in the making as New Zealand have upset the hosts in this close encounter! Just before we go down to the post match presentations, we have Sourav and Stephen here with us to share their thoughts on the match. So Stephen ecstatic that the Kiwis won?
: More than ever mate! What better way to start of our campaign by defeating the hosts? The start that our openers provided meant that New Zealand were able to afford the loss of wickets at regular intervals without sustaining too much damage to the run rate.
: Sorry Sourav, the post match presentations are about to start we'll get your views, in a short while. Lets go down to Ravi Shastri now for the presentation.
: Thanks User. I'm here with Mr. Arun Jaitley, the President of the Delhi & District Cricket Association who will be presenting the man of the match award. But first I would like to call MS onto the stage. So MS dissapointed with the effort?
: Obviously yes, we were in control for most of the match during the first innings and most of the batsman got a start but couldn't carry on. I felt that my wicket was crucial to the game as we could've made a 300 plus score if I had batted the innings.
: Yes, not only that but the bowlers weren't getting their line and lengths right and were made to pay especially at the start Kumar and Nehra really took a hammering.
: We felt that the opening pair for the kiwis was vital to break as Ryder showed us that today. As for the bowlers everyone has their bad days the problem now is that the bowlers have to learn from their mistakes and come out strong for our next game.
: One last question, should Nehra have bowled the last over, considering how he had bowled in the match, and with a over left for Pathan?
: As I said before everyone has their bad days. With 16 to win of 6, I felt that Nehra was the best option but unfortunately it wasn't to be.
: Thanks MS, better luck for your next game. I would now like to call the winning captain, Daniel Vettori! So Dan, pleased with the efforts?
: Yes definitely. The team played well as a unit and we came out on top thanks to that knock from Oram.
: What a knock that was. Anyway how crucial were those early overs for New Zealand in both their batting and bowling?
: Very, as we all know that the tone of the match is set up in the early overs. The early wicket of Sehwag really put India on the back foot as Sehwag can do alot of damage in a short amount of time. While Ryder and McCullum got us of to a flyer which meant that me and Jacob had a chasable score at the 40 over mark.
: Thanks Dan, I would like to call upon Mr. Jaitley to present the man of the match award. This award goes to none other than Jacob Oram, with 2 wickets and 95* of a 107 balls including 9 fours and 5 sixes. So Jake how do you feel? winning a crucial game for your side.
: I feel great!, nothing beats the joy of winning. I just hung around and and batted sensibly while we were crumbling. When Dan came to the crease we built a partnership trying not to get out. Thanks to Jess the RPO was never a problem.
: What about those last 2 overs? Your must've been dissapointed with only 4 runs coming of the 48th over leaving you to get 16 of 6 balls.
: Thats my fault for giving Daryl take the strike. I was pretty nervous when I was facing the last two balls as 10 of 2 is neigh on impossible. Luckily I middled the ball hoping it would go for six and it did. Which meant the last ball had to go for four, with long on a little wide I decided to just swing straight down the ground and the ball just won the race.
: Thanks Jacob, and Mr. Arun Jaitley for joining us today. That concludes the Post-Match Presentation back to you User in the commentary box.
: Thanks Ravi, well the man of the match was a very easy choice in the end. Here is the final scorecard of the kiwi innings.
: As you can see there, the openers took the game away from India and then Oram's sensible knock really set the game up. Dhoni probably missed a trick by not bowling Pathan or maybe even Sehwag in the last over.
: Thanks Sourav, the final result; New Zealand win by two wickets. Thats all the time we have for today, join us in the coming days as the tournament progresses. We leave you with a little package of Oram's terrific innings. In our new segment 'Master Blaster of the Day'.
A fantastic innings there from Oram. he should have looked to score a century, and Ryder you man! That innings was quite amazing. and Riz, Good luck! hope you would either make your own story.
New Zealand
B McCullum 105
J Ryder 189
K Williamson 15
R Taylor 75
S Styris 19
J Oram 310 (MOM)
G Hopkins 25
D Vettori 131
K Mills 65
D Tuffey 77
N McCullum 15
India
V Sehwag 5
S Tendulkar 147
G Gambhir -7
Y Singh 135
S Raina -15
M Dhoni 164
I Pathan 129
H Singh 37
P Kumar -1
Z Khan 59
A Nehra -15
ICC Battle for Supremacy Sri Lanka v South Africa Match Two, Colombo
:Hello and Welcome to another installment of Battle – Off the Field here on Star Cricket. Today we come to you from the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo for this Group B fixture as Sri Lanka kick off their campaign with a much anticipated match against the Proteas. As usual our hosts for the day are Sourav Ganguly and Stephen Fleming, we’ve also brought a local into the mix; the recently retired former Sri Lankan captain, Marvin Atapattu. So Marvin what are the chances of a home victory?
: I would say we can win, if we apply ourselves and can play smart cricket.
: Looking at the squads, the selection of Jayasuriya in the squad was a bit of a surprise to me, after being out of the picture for so long he suddenly gets the call up?
: Yes, he has played very well domestically scoring quick runs at the top of the order and he would like to repeat his heroics from the 1996 World Cup.
: Ha-ha, yes Sri Lanka would be hoping for that to happen too, we’ll leave it there for now guys; let’s get down to User for the weather and pitch report.
: Thanks, as you can see it’s a beautiful day out here and the weather forecast for the day expects it to stay that way for the whole day, so we should get a full game. Temperature wise its hot and humid, thermometer reads 26*C but it feels more like the high 30's due to the humidity which is quite high at 95%. However there is a slight breeze which is expected to pick up towards the evening, so that should provide relief to the players.
: As far as the pitch is concerned; it’s low and slow, a few cracks are already opening up and the pitch is expected to turn. As you know this is a day game so the dew virtually non-existent. The spinners should enjoy this track while the seamers might get the odd ball to swing and seam in the first 10 or so overs. If I won the toss I would bat, you want to make the most of the good batting conditions before the pitch starts to open up in the second innings.
: Thanks for that report User, make sure you’re wearing sunscreen we don’t want that fair skin to sizzle out there.
: Ha-ha, don’t you worry about me mate, I’m wearing plenty.
: Now guys who do you think is going to win and why?
: I think that South Africa are the inform side, arguably they have the best batsmen in the world and to back it up they have the best seamers in the world. Saying that this pitch isn’t suited for fast bowlers and herein lies their weakness their spin department isn’t the strongest by any means. Sure they have Botha but in sub continental conditions you really need 2 frontline spinners. The selectors could’ve chosen Imran Tahir, he’s been in terrific form for his county side and he is a attacking leg spinner, not many of those around these days. So, Sri Lanka to win.
: As Sourav said, their spin department lacks depth, but you cannot ignore the fact that their batsmen have been in terrific form. Let’s look at the top 10 run scorers in ODI’s last year.
: As you can see, Amla and de Villiers are on top. Unfortunately Amla is injured and wasn’t selected in the squad but look at the matches column for de Villiers; he has only played 16 ODI’s making 964 runs at a average of 80.33 and a strike rate of 102, that’s exceptional in ODI’s. So my final verdict South Africa will win.
: Thanks for your views, as you can see we have a full house here at the Premadasa Stadium. We'll take a short break and be back with the all important toss.
It should be a pretty tight match, both sides are normally relatively close in the world rankings, and both have some top quality players on show.
KUTGW guys, only another 23 games to go including this one.
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Our excellent supporting pacers - Nehra, Munaf Patel, RP singh and Balaji. [ on a sarcastic note, ofcourse. ]
