Ireland Cricket Team got the chance to qualify for the next round of ICC world cup

Stage is all set for the Ireland cricket team to make a mark in the world cricket. The team made a perfect start of the world cup by beating West Indies cricket team by 4 wickets. So far Ireland is the only team in world cup 2015 to chase a 300+ target successfully. Now they are playing against UAE and are in control of the game as they have already got 4 wicket bowling first. Current scorebard as you can see above says United Arab Emirates 106 for loss of 4 wickets in 28 overs. Now if they can restrict the UAE team to somewhere around 250 to 280, then the Ireland team has a chance to earn 2 more points and this means they will move to the top of points table below the defending champions India.

If Ireland wins today they can dream of qualifying for the quarter finals for the first time. After today's game Ireland will left with another 4 matches to play in the world cup and they need to win a minimum of 2 matches to qualify for the quarter finals.  Here is the details of world cup matches for Ireland:

• Ireland v West Indies at Nelson - Feb 16, 2015 - Ireland won by 4 wickets
• Ireland v United Arab Emirates at Brisbane - Feb 25, 2015 - Match being played today - Current score at the live scoreboard widget at top of the blog
• Ireland v South Africa at Canberra - Mar 3, 2015
• Ireland v Zimbabwe at Hobart - Mar 7, 2015
• India v Ireland at Hamilton - Mar 10, 2015
• Ireland v Pakistan at Adelaide - Mar 15, 2015

If Ireland manage to beat Zimbabwe, then the last match for the team which is also the last match of the group stage can be a virtual knock out game for them. The match against Pakistan if they manage to win it, definitely the team will qualify for the quarter finals. 

Lets first hope that Ireland win the world cup match today. Good luck to the team for today and remaining of the world cup matches. 

India Tour of South Africa - Live Match Today

Today is the final match of the three day ODI series between India and South Africa. South Africa has already won the series by winning the first 2 matches convincingly. Poor batting in the seaming conditions has always been the weakness of Indian batsmen and it was once again showcased in the first two one day matches. When Indian team left for the tour it was in great confidence with 3 top scorers in ODI and some of the most attacking batsmen in the line up but when they played none of the batsmen was comfortable against the speed of the South African bowlers.

Today is the last match and both the team might want to win this last match as it will allow the team to go into a positive frame of mind for the upcoming test series. SA however can be more happier if they are able to manage a clean sweep again the number one ODI team.

For me it doesn't matter if Indian team win this match or not as it won;t make much difference, for me Indian team has already lost the test series as well. I'd be more than happy if team India is able to draw atleast one test match on this tour of South Africa.

Match has already began and South Africa has choose to bat first after winning the match. Two changes in the South African line up, they have rested Kallis and Dale Steyn.  India team recalled Yuvraj Singh in the team once again and Rihane has to sit our this time.

Best wishes to both the team, the one who plays good cricket gonna win today.

Mumbai & RCB play important matches today to keep in the top of points table

Mumbai & RCB play important matches today to keep in the top of points table. Firs Mumbai Indian will play against the Pune Warriors team who might be full charged after the victory in last match that came after more than 10 consecutive defeats. Match will be played at Mumbai but it won't make much difference and there is nothing like home advantage. Mumbai was about to get defeated by Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings unless the magnificent catch by Pollard turned the things in the favor of Mumbai. Mumbai might be looking as a strong team but most of the Mumbai Indians matches end up as very close T20 encounters thus we might expect a very competitive and entertaining IPL T20 match today.

If Pune team wins the match today they will move in the top 5 teams in the points table which means they can fancy the chances of qualifying for the playoffs. On the other hand Mumbai might be looking to win the match and stay in the top 3 teams so that they can easily go for the playoffs without taking much pressure in the last games of the team.

Match between Mumbai and Pune will begin at 4pm and you can read the live scoreboard at this blog or watch the match at youtube or your TV sets at Setmax and other channels.

Second match in the IPL today will begin at 8 pm and will be played at Chennai between the hosts Chennai Super Kings and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Both the team like to play attacking game and area mong the favorites to win the IPL 2013. The mach would be more like Gayle vs Super Kings as if Chennai gets to take the early wicket of Chris Gayle they have won half the match already. It'd be interesting to see the Ashwin vs Gayle encounter.

IPL Match Today - Bangalore v Mumbai Live Score Board

Match between KKR and Daredevils was not as exciting but its just one match and IPL has lot more to offer. Yesterday KKR won the match at home ground. There were good batting performances from both the team captains.

Today in IPL one match will be played between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians. Both the team are full of cricket stars and also both teams have been performing well in the IPL. As I've written in previous post, this year it'd be virtually impossible to find IPL team that are without any injured players. Same is the case for the Mumbai Indians team, they will be playing today without the lethal bowler Lasith Malinga. As per team management Malinga is expected to miss the opening match due to injury and he'd be fit to play for the remaining IPL matches.  Interestingly team is being lead by one of the most successful captains Ricky Ponting from Australia, who knows how to lead a team to victory.

The RCB team on other hand is a team  that would be lead by a new captain who is being looked upon as future captain of team India. Yes you are right, Virat Kohli will lead the team this IPL and I am little doubtful about Kohli's captainship. Lets wait how he'll lead the team today.

Like Mumbai RCB to will miss the experienced Zaheer Khan from the opening match due to injury.

Highlight of the match today: Harbhajan Singh and Ponting playing together after the Syndey incident. It'd be nice to see Ponting and Sachin batting together if this can happen today.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar makes impressive debut despite India loss

Though India lost the first T20 match of the two match it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar who made a dream debut in twenty twenty format for the team India. In his spell of 4 overs he swung the ball both the ways and bowled like someone who have played lots of T20 matches for India and not the one who is playing his first international match.

It was very much interesting to see that he bowled with a plan like the way got the wicket of Umar Akmal. Four out swinging balls and then once coming in beating the batsmen and hitting the wickets. All the expert commentators from both Pakistan and India were full of praise for the new bowler and see a future for him in team India.

Who cost the match for team India
No doubt it is the batting dept. which is costing the matches for team India from some recent times and yesterday also  batsmen let the match go from the hand. Thanks to some superb bowling efforts else Pakistan should have easily won the match in 15 overs or less.

2nd T20 match between India and Pakistan
2nd T20 match between both the teams will be played at Ahmedabad on 28th December and Pakistan team has all the chances to beat  India and win the series. It'll definitely do some good for Pakistan cricket team which is still facing some hard times. On the other hand team India can only play to win the last T20 match and show their worth in the shorter version of the game at least. They are now nowhere a lethal team in tests be it playing at home or outside.

Lets wait and see how the T20 match series between India and Pakistan ends on 28th.

ICC World Twenty20 2012 Match Today

Today on the fourth day of the tournament called ICC World Twenty20 2012, two matches will be played. Before I start my overview of the matches to be played today a sad news for the supporters of Zimbabwe cricket team. Zimbabwe team lost their second consecutive match in the tournament, this time to South Africa. This defeat means end of the gates for the super 8 stage of twenty twenty world cup 2012 for the team. Thus Zimbabwe is officially the first team to be knocked out from  ICC World Twenty20 2012 Match.

Another team is on the verge fo exit from the tournament today. Afghanistan plays against the defending champions and current number one team in T20 i.e. England. If Afghanistan looses the match today then this means they;ll exit the tournament. However given the way the Afghan team played against India, I am sure the match against would be very very interesting and not a dull one sided affair like the match played yesterday between South Africa and Zimbabwe. My best wishes to the defending champions and the Afghanistan team.

Second match will be played between Bangladesh and New Zealand. Both the teams have not won any major international tournament and would like to make a solid start in the tournament by winning the match. Bangladesh team might have the home conditions advantage but New Zealand had some enough practice with the recent outing to India and the practice matches. With Pakistan as the other team of the group it'd be important for Bangladesh and New Zealand to win this match.

So stay tuned for all the major updates about  ICC World Twenty20 2012 Matches !

Live T20 world cup warm up matches today

Teams have started arriving at Sri Lanka now and many of those are playing practice matches already. Today in an interesting T20 world cup practice match Sri Lanka defeated West Indies team comfortably. However interestingly for the both the team star players for T20 were missing from the fields. For West Indies batting opened without Chris Gayle and for Sri Lanka bowling opened without Lasith Malinga.

Perhaps both the teams don’t want to risk their match winner players to get any kind of injuries and save them for the actual matches. Also these are the kind of players that don’t need any kind of match practice they already have that experience in T20, one is the batsmen with top strike rate another is the most economical bowlers with highest number of wickets in this format of cricket.  Still from the warm up match played today I was little concerned about performance of West Indies team they are being considered at potential winners of the T20 world cup 2012 but they gave a below average performance in the field.

In another warm up match played today Ireland defeated Zimbabwe comfortable. First the Irish batsmen batted strongly giving Zimbabwe the target of more than 8runs per over to win the match and then restricting them reaching the target. Ireland is one of the non-test playing team that’s looking for a test status. A good performance in Sri Lanka at T20 world cup will enhance the chances of this team producing some world class cricketers.   Let’s see if any of the associate members of ICC will make it to the next round of the world cup T20. Since there is nothing certain of T20 game we can see some surprises for sure.

If you want to see how your country team is perfrming in the warm up matches then you can catch al the live action here at http://icccricket.blogspot.com/ . In case you aren’t aware of the T20 world cup warm up matches schedule please take a look at the list below:

• 13 Sep 2012 9:30AM  Ireland  vs Zimbabwe  
• 13 Sep 2012 9:30AM  Sri Lanka vs West Indies 
• 15 Sep 2012 9:30AM  Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka 
• 15 Sep 2012 9:30AM  Australia  vs New Zealand 
• 15 Sep 2012 9:30AM  Bangladesh vs  Zimbabwe 
• 15 Sep 2012 9:30AM  India  vs Sri Lanka 
• 17 Sep 2012 9:30AM  Australia vs England 
• 17 Sep 2012 9:30AM  Bangladesh vs Ireland 
• 17 Sep 2012 9:30AM  New Zealand vs South Africa 
• 17 Sep 2012 2:00PM  Afghanistan  vs  West Indies 
• 17 Sep 2012 2:00PM  India  vs  Pakistan 
• 19 Sep 2012 9:30AM  England vs Pakistan

England Look for clean Sweep - India Vs England Live Test Match

England team already won the series, achieve number one rankings in ICC test rankings and leading series 3-0. Imagin what frame of mind the England team may be at this point of time, certainly they might be looking for winning the fouth and final test to make it a clean sweep. I'd no doubt about that.

On the other hand India cricket team is all lost, there's nothing good goin for them at the moment however if they need to be back in the number one position they had to begin the process by winning this test.

Latest update is that England won the toss and elected to bat first. Parveen Kumar is not playing for India and R.P Singh makes a comeback in the team after a gap of three years.

Lets see what team India can do in this match.

Also I am posting few wallpapers of what happening in the cricket work in recent days.