Story The Natwest Pentangular 2005 -- Begins April 24th

[aditya123]

West Indies V Pakistan , Match Summary

Hove, England , 26th May 2005

On a gloomy , grey day at Hove , the West Indies found nothing but gloom yet again at Hove as they crashed to their 7th successive defeat in this Natwest Pentangular . Pakistan electd to bat first on winning the toss and looked a confident lot after the record chase of 383 against arch rivals India the other day . Shahid Afridi continued his suprb form with a well made 93 and the others contributed as well on a seaming track . Yousuf Youhana made 60 to set West Indies a chaseable 235 to win . But as they say , to win matches , first you must beleive you can win and the West Indies at the moment look short of confidence . They started off incredibly well with a 179 run opening stand but somehow managed to let the match slip out of their grasp and finally fell short by 8 runs .
Let us now have a look at how Pakistan might be in trouble even if they beat the West Indies
This means that the Pakistani hopes now hinged on the India V Australia match at Southampton later in the day .
If India beat Australia with a bonus point, Pakistan qualify for the finals .
If India beat Australia (without a Bonus Point) , Australia would qualify because they have less lossesthan Pakistan .
If Australia beat India with a BPt and the West Indies beat India (Without a Bpt) , Then India and Pakistan would be tied with 28 points and India would qualify due to having a better NRR.

If the India V Australia match is tied or rained off, India and Australia qualify .

West Indies, on the other hand have nothing to lose as they go to The Oval for the last match of the league stage against India but more importantly, the cricketing world needs a strong West Indies and it would be great if they stand up and deliver a superb show at The Oval against India to break the jinx of 15 consecutive ODI defeats .

 

[aditya123]

Team Standings after Match 18

*Pakistan end up with 28 points after playing all their 8 league games .
*India already have an impressive 27 pts from 6 matches inspite of their shock defeat against Pakistan at Derby
*Australia have 27 points from 7 matches .



# IF INDIA BEAT AUSTRALIA (WITHOUT BONUS POINT) , THEN AUSTRALIA QUALIFY DUE TO HAVING SUFFERED LESS LOSSES/DEFEATS IN THE PENTANGULAR .

# IF INDIA BEAT AUSTRALIA WITH A BONUS POINT, PAKISTAN QUALIFY FOR THE FINALS

#If the India V Australia match is tied or rained off, India and Australia qualify .

 

[aditya123]

Rain Delays Start of crucia India V Australia Clash at Rosebowl,Southampton

Rain Delays Start Of crucial Australia V India clash at the Rosebowl ; Match likely to be a Twenty20 contest .

Rosebowl , Southampton , 26th May 2005
As India and Australia Prepared to take each other in a high tension clash at Southampton , the rain-gods seem to have other ideas . The result of this day-night clash would decide the finalists . A washout would ensure an India V Australia finals . India beating Australia with a bonus point would see India taking on Pakistan in the finals . Inzamam Ul Haq and his boys would desperately hope for a match to happen . At the moment , a full 50 over contest seems highly unlikely .

A few moments ago, Ravi Shastri had a chat with the match umpire David Shepherd :

Ravi : David , very frustrating to see the covers on . Any chance of us getting to see some play . If so , what kind of a contest . A 30 overs a side or 20 a side ?

Shep : Very Frustrating indeed . Iam not surprised by this anyway . In fact , we have been lucky not to have had any rain in the series so far . At the Moment , it is very difficult to tell when we would be starting play . In any case it would not be earlier than 3 hours time . The pitch is not a problem but the outfield is but we have state of art faci;lities at Rosebowl and hence there is hope that we will be able to squeeze in 20 overs a side contest at least . The groundsmen are doing a commendable job . In Our next inspection, it would be clear as to when we would be starting play if at all the rain stops .

Ravi : Thank You David . So stay tuned fot more updates on the start of this match . We`ll join you at the next inspection and hopefully we`ll have better news then !

Earlier in the Day , Ricky Ponting had a light warmup session ahead of th big game which may now turn out to be a 20-20 cracker !

 

[a47]

a 20-20 contest would mean touble for india, specially after their previous match.
anyways, lets hope that pakistan qualify, because they deserve to after that huge turnaround.

 

[gamerkid22]

awesome now sehwag will bat like a tiger.

 

[aditya123]

gamerkid, sehwag is out of the series with an ankle injury

 

[gamerkid22]

oops i forgot that . now its time for saurav ganguly to get back into form.

 

[aditya123]

Pitch Inspection and Update

Match To Start In 30 Mins ; Cut Short to a 20 over a side Contest

Groundsmen at Rosebowl working hard : Covers finally being removed !

Finally its Good News from Southampton ! The rain has just eased and the skies have cleared enough for us to have a 20 over a side contest . The groundsmen have done a commendable job . Their prime concern now is to keep the bowlers foot landing area dry after the covers are removed . They have superb drainage facilities at the Rosebowl and we should be ready to start in half an hour . The Toss and the pitch report will be ready in just a few moments !


Revised Match Conditions :
*20 Overs a Side
*maximum of 4 overs by each bowler
*Field restrictions for 7 overs .

In any case, The Crowd are already gearing up for what seems to be a popular form of the game with the audience

Crowd Building up very fast at the Oval : A Superb atmosphere ensured for the 20-20 contest!

 

[fardin]

what a game between pakistan and india

Great story mate I am really enjoying it keep it up.

 

[aditya123]

Match 19 : India V Australia, Rosebowl Southampton (Twenty overs a side game)

We Now Take You Over To Southampton For The Live Coverage :
TOSS AND PITCH REPORT

Pitch Report With Ravi Shastri :

Ravi : Finally we are just about to get underway ! The sky looks to have cleared up and the groundsmen have ensured that the outfield and pitch are in good shape.
A gorgeous looking pitch and its a pity that we cannot have a full 50 over match but looking at the weather an hour ago, we are lucky even to get this 20-20 cracker .
The pitch at Southampton is a hard one . We will see great carry and th ball will come on to tha bat . This contest being a Twenty20 contest , both captains would prefer the other making the decision . In short, it would be a good toss to lose !

TOSS With Michael Slater :

Michael : We are underway and its a Twenty20 contest . I think that this must b the most high profile 20-20 match ever played . It will decide the finalists of The Natwest Pentangular 2005 ! Its Ricky Ponting to toss . Rahul Calls Tails ......................And Heads it is ! Ricky , what have you decided ?

Ponting : We`ll have a bat . A score of around 160-180 should be defendable . It looks a superb surface to bat on .

Slater : A win would guarantee Australia a finals berth but a defeat today could bring the Mathematics into play . Not very often does Australia face such situations ?

Ricky : Not very often but the hallmark of Champion teams is to win when they are not playing at their best and we have done that over the years and hope we`ll continue .

Slater : Rahul, a good toss to lose ?

Dravid : We would have bowled anyway . We never know what a gcod score is in this 20-20 contests and it would be better to chase from what I saw in England last year when I played county cricket for Scotland .

Slater : Have the guys fully recovered from the shock defeat against Pakistan at Derby . Any Changes for this game?

Dravid : Yes they have . We have a place in the finals up for grabs and its not that difficult to be motivated after a defeat if that is the case ! We are going in with 5 bowlers today . Laxman is not playing . We have brought in Zaheer in place of Laxman .

Slater : Good Luck Rahul .
Thats the news from the centre .

Australia have won the toss and decided to have a bat !

 

[aditya123]

Australia blast 118 runs after 7 overs !

PONTING Scores 14 ball Fifty ; Australia 118/2 after 7 overs

The Indian bowling woes continued as the Aussies started off in typical Aussie fashion smashing the bowling all over the place . Balaji was hit for a six by Hayden right off the first ball but th Tamil Nadu speedster uprooted the off stump of the Queenslander right on the next ball . Ricky Ponting came in to join Gilchrist at 12/1 and he showed us yet again that he loves the Indian bowling ./ He smashed rookies Balaji and Pathan all over Rosebowl and scored 54 runs of just 18 balls before he was caught at square leg . Adam Gilchrist continued his merry way and he is 46 N.O . D.Martyn has joined Adam Gilchrist in the middle and he is 8* . India need some serious thinking to do if they have to restrict Australia to a achievable score o else this match is already out of India`s grabs !

---------------------------------A look at Ponting`s Blitz Kreig------------------------------

 

[gamerkid22]

OMG they may reach 300 going at this rate ................then for AUS what will be the difference between a 20 overs and 50 over match

 

[aditya123]

Adam Gilchrist is 46 N.O as well !

ADAM GILCHRIST looks dangerous from an Indian point of view !

 

[aditya123]

Australia score 224/9 of their 20 overs !

INDIA REQUIRE 224 RUNS TO WIN OF THEIR 20 OVERS !

The aussies smashed a formiddable 224 runsof their 20 overs thanks to quick half centuries by Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist . They seemed to hav lost their way in the middle overs thanks to an inspired spell by Z.Khan but all the batsmen contributed to post a huge target which would be competitive even in a 50 over match !

India would require Sachin Tendulkar to fire if they are to even have thoughts of winning this match ! The news from the Indian team management is that M.S.Dhoni might bat up the order and so would Yuvraj . First of all , India need Sourav and Sachin to fire on all cylinders

 

[The Champ]

big target that to achieve i think its too difficult