Story India Diary [ICC 2009]

crickap

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ICC World T20
The 2009 cricket season started with the ICC World T20 in England. The whole of India hoped for a successful title defence. We were drawn in a group with Bangladesh and Ireland and progressed unbeaten into the Super Eight where we were in a group with Australia, Pakistan and New Zealand. India progressed to a semi-final berth against England by beating Pakistan and New Zealand although losing to Australia. In the final, Australia restricted India to 155 and chased down the runs with 4 wickets in hand.

2009-10 season
This was followed by an ODI tour of the West Indies which ended 2-2 and a home ODI series against Australia which India convincingly won by the margin of 6-1.

Sri Lanka's tour of India ended in a complete whitewash for the tourists, India winning the three match Test Series 3-0 and the ODI Series 5-0. A second string side sent to Bangladesh managed to win both tests and the ODI series 2-1 before South Africa toured India. India won the hard fought test series 2-0 with one draw but in the ODI series, India won all five games against the best one-day team in the world.

2010-11 season
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home was the first series in what was going to be a tough but perhaps pivotal year. India won the first two test matches but lost the last one by an innings. But in the ODI series, India proved to be by far the superior side winning 3-0. This was followed by a tour to Pakistan and 3-0 whitewashes in both the Test and ODI series.

Having beaten Australia and Sri Lanka and South Africa at home and Pakistan away from home, India went into the World Cup high on form and expectation.

2011 World Cup

India were drawn in a group with West Indies, England, Sri Lanka, Bermuda, Ireland and Zimbabwe from which four teams would qualify to the quarter finals.

India have developed a well settled one-day side over the last couple of seasons. Gambhir, Tendulkar and Sehwag occupy the first three spots although the opening pair is not set in stone. The middle order is made up of Yuvraj at No.4, Uthappa at No.5 followed by Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan. As for the bowlers, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh are joined by either Amit Mishra or R.P.Singh depending on whether they go with three fast bowlers or two spinners.

India Team for the World Cup
1. Mahendra Dhoni (C)
2. Yuvraj Singh (VC)
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. Virender Sehwag
5. Gautam Gambhir
6. Harbhajan Singh
7. Robin Uthappa
8. Zaheer Khan
9. Ishant Sharma
10. Amit Mishra
11. Rudra Pratap Singh
12. Yusuf Pathan
13. Suresh Raina
14. Rahul Dravid
15. Munaf Patel

Praghyan Ojha was surprisingly omitted from the team while Rahul Dravid was a surprise inclusion to add experience to the batting line up. Rohit Sharma and Murali Vijay were other promising youngsters who missed out. Munaf Patel was preferred over Ojha as a fourth seamer was thought to be more necessary than a third spinner.

India vs West Indies (Eden Gardens, Kolkata)

We decided to go with Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Uthappa, Yusuf, Harbhajan, Mishra, Zaheer and Ishant Sharma.

On a wicket that was offering turn, we won the toss and batted first.

Taylor dismissed Gambhir early and followed it up by dismissing Tendulkar for a duck. But Yuvraj (116*) and Sehwag (92) put on 166 runs at a brisk pace to take India to 272/5 in 50 overs. In reply, the West Indies lost two wickets in the first two overs - Gayle caught behind off Ishant Sharma and Chanderpaul bowled by Zaheer. Barath and Morton who had played some attractive shots followed and West Indies were 69/4 after 15 overs. Mishra picked up 5-30 as West Indies collapsed to 125.



 
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crickap

School Cricketer
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Location
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Online Cricket Games Owned
India vs Sri Lanka Mumbai

For the second game at Mumbai, we go in unchanged on another pitch that is expected to take turn later in the day. Once again, we win the toss and elect to bat. After the early wicket of Sehwag, Gambhir and Tendulkar kept the scoring rate above 4.5 an over. But some excellent spin bowling reduced India to 140/6 before rearguard action by Pathan (36*) and Mishra (28) took India to 213/8 in 50 overs and although Sri Lanka were favourites, there was still fight left in the game.

Kapudagera's was the only wicket to fall in the first 15 overs to Zaheer Khan but Sri Lanka could only manage 41 runs. The pressure mounted and the spinners bowled excellently to bowl Sri Lanka out for 100.



 

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