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. 

Bangladesh Cricket Team has something to prove this World Cup

Bangladesh cricket team has developed a lot, the team performance has improved but they are yet to prove something to the fans and the world. This nation has yet to win any major ICC event or event made it to final or semi finals. It was only in the 2007 world cup that they defeated India in group stage to reach super eights and then defeat South Africa.

However after that the team is still to show the cricketing skills the team is capable off.  Lets take a look at the Bangladesh cricket team for the world cup. It seems they have a quiet good number of ODI specialists in the team. Selectors seems to have done a nice job by picking a balanced team for the 2015 world cup that stars in less than 10 days from today.

Here is the list of the Bangladesh squad for the world cup:

1. Mashrafe Mortaza
2. Al-Amin Hossain
3. Anamul Haque
4. Arafat Sunny
5. Mahmudullah
6. Mominul Haque
7. Mushfiqur Rahim
8. Nasir Hossain
9. Rubel Hossain
10. Sabbir Rahman
11. Shakib Al Hasan
12. Soumya Sarkar
13. Taijul Islam
14. Tamim Iqbal
15. Taskin Ahmed 

Bangladesh cricket team is one of the team that consists of young players in the squad. Only one player (Mashrafe Mortaza ) is above 30 year and his age is also 31 years. So its quiet a young team.

Most of the teams performance and success in world cup will depend upon the performance of players like Shakib Al Hasan who is one of the most experienced player who also possess experience playing in various T20 franchise and that experience might help him at the world cup stage. Batting will depend mainly on the openers and top order which inlcudes Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rehman. However the dilemma is that no Bangladesh batsmen have scored a century at world cup so far.

Our best wishes to the Bangladesh cricket team !

India & South Africa Announces preliminary 30 men squad for world cup

Both India and South Africa cricket boards have announced the list of 30 probables for the world cup. While India have given preferences to young players with current good form and excluded many experienced players who were part of 2011 world cup winning team. South African cricket squad of 30 probables on the other hand looks quiet balanced and experienced.

Here is list of 30 probables for South Africa:
AB de Villiers (capt), Hashim Amla (vice capt), Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, Marchant de Lange, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Imran Tahir, Rory Kleinveldt, Ryan Mclaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Andrew Puttick, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Mthokozisi Shezi, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk, David Wiese.

Here is list of 30 probables for India:
MS Dhoni (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Saha, Sanju Samson, R Ashwin, Parveez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Kuldeep Yadav, M Vijay.

We will not discuss about the players at this stage but once the final squad is announced.

NZ Visa, no worries for Indian cricket fans

With less than 80 days to go for the ICC world cup 2015 to start, there is a very exciting news for all the Indian cricket team fans who wish to visit New Zealand and watch the matches live from the stadium. All the Indian tourists who hold a valid visa for Australia can now get a free visa on arrival for New Zealand for the the duration of the world cup to watch the matches. Indian cricket team will play two group stage matches in New Zealand vs Ireland and Zimbabwe on 10th and 14th March respectively (More on 2015 world cup match schedules here - http://icccricket.blogspot.com/2014/07/2015-cricket-world-cup-match-schedule.html) and if Indian team performs well and qualifies for the next round there can be a good turnaround of Indian cricket team fans visiting New Zealand.

Country tourism department is expecting 33% increase in the tourists.David Craig the Tourism New Zealand general manager for Asia was quoted saying "Last year (July 2013-June 2014) we had about 30,000 Indian visitors and we expect about 40,000 visitors this fiscal ending June next," Overall there are quiet good number of matches being hosted by New Zealand, including a quarter final and semi final match. This means tourists from various participant nations are being expected to visit the country for matches.  The Tourism New Zealand is taking this as the opportunity to establish and increase the popularity of New Zealand as a preferred tourism destination in the world.

100 days to go for ICC world cup 2015

Yes the countdown has begun. Its just a matter of 100 more days and the tournament will be open. The world cup trophy is already traveling across the globe and soon it will reach the host nations Australia ans New Zealand. You can check the match schedule here and plan which match you want to watch. For those who want to support their team in person, there is an option to watch the match and city travel packages. You can check various packages at ICC official website.

India are the defending world cup champions but given the team form, fitness and experience level of player in foreign pitches I feel that it'd be a hell of a task for the defending champions. Indian team don't have the coach and senior players to defend the title. Sachin, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Nehra are not in the squad. Thus a lot es expected from the youngsters. Will they be able to cope with the pressure? We will get to know from the single opening match itself when India will play against Pakistan. This might be the first time that Pakistan will defeat India in a world cup match or they might have to keep waiting.

Now let discuss the finalist of the previous world cup. Yes the Sri Lankan cricket team, it seem that the Sri Lanka cricket team might be the one with most experienced player both in balling and batting. The team has the reputation of making it to the finals in both sub-continent and abroad conditions. This is the team to have played most number of world cup finals and remember they are the winner of ICC T20 world cup as well. This time Sri Lanka might target making it doubles of T20 and ODI world cup.

The team who have won most number of world cup is the co-host of the tournament. Yes I'm talking about Australian cricket team, but this team recently have a decline in form with many cricketers  retiring from ODIs. No matter the Aussie team is not in good touch these days still the team will have the advantage of home conditions and its always a hard task to beat Australia in home conditions.

Other teams to watch this world cup are Pakistan, South Africa and co-hosts New Zealand. The 100 days countdown will sound more interesting when you watch the video below:


This is the official TV commercial for the ICC cricket world cup 2015.

Lasith Malinga to Undergo Ankle Surgery Before World CUp 2015

The leading strike bowler for Sri Lankan cricket team Lasith Malinga has to undergo an ankle surgery. Malings has been suffering from some problem with his ankle from quiet a long time. The orthopedic surgeon he has been consulting has advised the fast bowler that he must undergo a surgery reason being that the ankle has detoriated to the extent where surgery is the only treatment option. Methods like cortisone injections and load monitoring which has worked till now might not help any further.

This means the the surgery will keep Malinga out of action for around 16 weeks and he is expected to recover and be available for training in January.  Malinga said that he is hopeful and give his best to be fit and play for the team in the upcoming cricket world cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. "I will do everything I can to be back for the World Cup" is his statement to the press. However at the same time he suggested that Sri Lanka cricket board might groom some your fast bowler so that team has someone prepared to play in his absence.

According to physicians is everything goes well, the fast bowler can get a chance to play few games against New Zealand in Sri Lanka teams tour to NZ and find his form and fitness. Sri Lanka is to play the world cup opening match against New Zealand on Feb 14. See the complete match details of 2015 world cup here.

We wish Lasith all the best for the operation and hope he will recover quickly and play for Sri Lanka in the world cup. It'd be nice to see Malinga Slinga yorkers in world cup. Wonder what a slinga is take a look in the view below:

ICC World T20 Semi Final Match Today

Indian will play against South African in the second semi final match of ICC T20 World cup tournament. The Indian cricket team has relied heavily on the spin balling attack and has remained unbeaten in all the 4 matches played in the tournament so far. However knock out stage is a different ball game.

South Africa cricket team has never won any T20 world cup and this might be a golden chance for them. South Africa has a very lethal balling attack and it could hamper the Indian solid batting line on any day. The result from the yesterday match are sufficient to support my statement, everyone was expecting the defending champion West Indies to win the match against Sri Lanka but they are our of the tournament now. Same thing can happen to team India today.

For team India it could be difficult to choose between Dhawan and Rahane for the opening slot. Might be captain Dhoni could surprise everyone with some changes in the pace attack or in the batting order. This captain cool is highly unpredictable at the knock out stages with his strategies.

So lets wait a few hours more for another interesting and exciting match of T20 cricket. The live scoreboard can be seen right above.

Have a great day - http://icccricket.blogspot.in

T20 Dhamaka - India Vs Pakistan in ICC World T20

Are you ready for the T20 game of the tournament. Yes I'm talking about the twenty twenty match between India and Pakistan to be played tomorrow. This match could perhaps be the most watched match and unexpected crowd might turn up for the match.

India and Pakistan matches are always a cracker and T20 adds more excitement to that. Pakistan team has shown the T20 caliber in the past by featuring in the two finals, winning one. Indian cricket team on the other hand not matched to the expectations after surprisingly winning the inaugural T20 world cup in 2007. They have some good match winners like Yuvraj, Dhoni etc but Indian cricket team has played very less T20 international matches recently. However the Indian coach, captain and the BCCI is banking on the experience of IPL.

Both India and Pakistan are in a difficult group with Australia and West Indies the other teams in the group. It'd be nice for both the teams to start the tournament on a winning node. A win not only means a good start but might make is easier for them to qualify for the next round of the T20 world cup.

You can watch the live score of India Vs Pakistan T20 match at this blog.

Good luck to both the teams.

In the midst of IPL Ricky Ponting breaks test record

Its IPL, IPL and IPL everywhere in India and other majot cricket crazy nations. However in the midst of IPL mega events former Australian cricket team captain Ricky Ponting became the secong highest run scorer in test cricket. Playing in the test series against West Indies Ponting crossed the record which was once held by Rahul Dravid. Pontring crossed 13,288 runs in test cricket at the score of 23 and thus he is now the second highest run scorer in test matches. Since Rahul Dravid has retired from all form of international cricket Ponting is now behind to Sachin Tendulkar only. Sachin Tendulkar who is also celebrating his 39 birthday today is highest run getter in tests with 15,470 at the average of 55.44.

Ricky Ponting may have achieved a rare record but he is going in poor form in the series and has failed to get some good runs against West Indies in the ongoing series. This means that Ponting will once again be under pressure of retirement from tests.

Now lets post some updates from IPL

In the IPL two matches will be played today, first between Delhi Deardevils and Pune Warriors at Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune. Last time both the team played in IPL 5 at Delhi and Pune won the match by the match winning performance of the captain Saurav Ganguly. Hopefully Delhi will be looking to take the revenge along with maintaining the top position in the IPL points table.

Second match will be played between Kolkata Night Riders and Deccan Chargers. Deccan has been quiet unlucky team to loose all the 5 matches they have played so far, few of them were close ones. Hopefully we will see Deccan team tasting the first win of the tournament today. Watch all the live score updates enjoy the T20 mela called IPL.

276 Runs target for India - ICC World Cup Final

As said in my previous post Last 10 deciding overs of Sri Lanka Batting Sri Lankan cricket team really batted well in the last 10 overs and posed a competitive total for India to chase. At one point it seemed that India can restrict Sri Lanka ubnder 250 runs but a stunning century by Mahela Jayawardene made them score 274 runs. Indian chase will totally depend upon how the top 4 batsmen will score today specially the openers. India chase is about to begin in few minutes and I'll catch you with more updates soon . Just wait for few more hours to know who is the ICC worlc cup champion 2011

World Cup Semi Final - India vs Pakistan Scoreboard

Let me tell you some strange statistics about the big match today. India has never been defeated by Pakistan in a wold cup match so far in the history but at the same time Pakistan has been never defeated by India at PCA stadium Mohali in a one day match. Thus all the stats goes nil, any on the team can win todays match. Chandigarh, Mohali and Panckula the tri-city region near the Mohali stadium has been packed with the cricket lovers, all the hotels in the region are fully reserved from last week and city is under tight secutiry for this match.

The team who will win today will play against Sri Lanka in the final of the 2011 cricket world cup. Please note that all the three Asian teams India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have appeared in world cup finals twice each and have one once and defeated once. Interestingly the second time all the three teams were defeated by Australia.

But this time one of the tree team will have the joy of winning the world cup twice and also equaling the record of two world cup wins by West Indies.

Latest News is that India have won the toss and started well, despite loosing Virendar Sehwag early. Though Sehwag got out on the score of 38 he provided a quick start India score is 68 for 1 in 9 overs.

Ireland Vs Netherlands Match Preview

Well both Ireland and Netherlands will play the last matches for the world cup. Even though both the team will fly home after that match as they fail to qualify for the nest round. Still there is difference in the way both the teams play, Netherlands team was unable to cause any impression against the other teams whereas Ireland team not only give a tight competition to the opposition teams they also chased the highest score in world cup tournament so fay by defeating England.

A win here for Ireland will further enhance there chances of getting more support for the team. Interestingly Ireland will also play against Sri Lanka after the world cup when Sri Lankan team will be touring England for one day and test series.

On the other hand in a deciding match between West Indies and England, the West Indies team came back strongly after a very good start by the England team. England was looking good till the 25th over but after that the team collapsed and they might somehow be possible to post a total of 250 runs which England team is capable of defending in a must win match.

India Vs south Africa Match Live Updates

Today will be the real test of team India as they take on South Africa in the world cup group matches. Though India have already qualified for the quarter finals it wil be very much important if team India can attain the top sport in the points table so that they have to play relatively less competitive team in the quarterfinals.

Lets wait and watch as the match will begin in one hour from now. It'd be interesting to see which players will be choosen for playing 11 for the Indian team.

Yesterday I was expecting Ireland to win the game against West Indies but one decision changed the game for Ireland and Bangladesh win over England made the tournament matches more intersting oncxe again. Now Englan and Bangladesh both will have to win the next matches so as to secure the place for the next round.

Does MS Dhoni follows my ICC Cricket Blog

Yes, question arise from the fact that in my previous post titled "World Cup India Vs Ireland Match Live Score Updates" I just posted that I want to see India chase against Ireland and same thing happened today. Indian captain M S Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first. He said he expected the track to be more helpful to bowlers inthe noon than in the evening. I am not sure if this is true but I am sure that Irelands successful chase of 300+ socre against England might have some influence on Dhoni's decision to bowl first.

In the mean while England bowlers failed to cause any early blows to south African batting line up. Though South Africa had a slow start as they score just 38 runs in 9 overs but keepoin in view thy don't have a hug target to achieve this will not bother the captain, coach or the team.

Fastest World Cup Centry by Obrien

Fastest World Cup Centry by Kevin Obrien helped Ireland win the match against England. This match Ireland team break lots of records including mentioend below:

1. Fastest century in worl cup history
2. Highest 5th wicket partnership
3. Highest socre chased in world cup

I must also admit here that this was the most interesting match in the 2011 world cup so far, next best can be rated as the one between India and England played at the same venue last Sunday. England team is having trouble with macthes against under dogs as they had problem with match against Netherlands as well but they somehow managed to escape the Ryan ten Doeschate's onslaughter.

I can now defintely agree with the post match statement od Ireland captain who said the team still can qualify for the nest round of the tournament. They do have thre chances at the same time India and England will definitely have to work harder in comming matches so as they can qualify easily to the next round. India will play Ireland this sunday and this game wll be interesting one to watch now.

World cup match today: Today in world cup Netherlands is playing against the strong South African team who already have scored 284/4 in 46 overs. Now we will have to see if Netherlands can do the same thing as the Irish team did yesterday.

Good luck to the Netherlands team.

Player of the day : Kevin O'Brien

In the mean time South Africa have scored 351/5 in 50 overs and thus set a target hard for Netherlands to achieve.

World Cup Updates - Nations start declaring 15 members squad

With just 30 days left for the world cup to start. Masimum number of the particiapting nations selecting commitees have declared the team for the world cup. Few nations like Canada were quick to declated the teams and that I have already posted on the ICC cricket Blog.

Blow the the teams of other nations who just declared the 15 members world cup squad:

1. NewZealand World cup squad:
Daniel Vettori, Hamish Bennett, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Jamie How, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Luke Woodcock.
Players to watch for: Daniel Vettori and Jesse Ryder

2. England: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Ajmal Shahzad, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy
Players to watch for: Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood

3. Ireland world cup squad: William Porterfield (capt), Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, Niall O'Brien (wk), Kevin O'Brien, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Nigel Jones, John Mooney, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe, Gary Wilson (wk), Andrew White, Ed Joyce.

4. India world cup team: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin
Players to watch: Sachin, Sehwag, Yusuf Pathan

5. Australia squad : Shane Watson, Brad Haddin (wk), Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Cameron White, Tim Paine (wk), Steven Smith, John Hastings, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Brett Lee, Shaun Tait, Doug Bollinger.
Players to watch: Hussey brothers

6. South African team for the world cup: Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers (wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk (wk)
Players to watch: Hamla, Duminy, Kallis, Steyn

Match 5 England v Netherlands - World Cup 2011

The counter for the ICC Cricket World Cup says 30 more days to go. The fifth match of the tournament will bre played against England and Netherlands. This is a group B match and will be a day night match to be played at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur. Nagpur pitch is like most Indian pitches flat and the can be considered to be a high scoring game untill Netherlands who is relatively a less experienced team get bowled out to a small total batting first. I will rate this match equally as both the teams dont have any exceptional record and world cup. I wish Netherlands team good luck for the world cup a better show here in the tournament may be good fo rthe team and promotion of the game of cricket in teh nation.

England are already the T20 world champions and wil eb looking forward to win the cup they have never won earlier. England team confidence must alsol be higher after winning the Ashes but more can be predicted by the one day serices of seven matches they will play against Australia.

Will birng you more updates, keep visiting.

Match 3 world Cup - Sri Lanka Vs Canada

The third co-host of the ICC worlc cup 2011 wil l play there first match agains Canada on Feb 20th. For most of the cricket fans this is going to be a one sided match where Sri Lanka will have the advantage of home condition but Canadian fans can remain positive for the Canada cricket team as in cricket any team can beat the number one team on the given day.

It's stil not clear about who will be the 15 memebers representing Canada team however I am sure there will be some people from Indian/Asian roots in the team and they can prove to be the main reason for Canadas success in the tournament.

Count Down to Cricket World cup 99 days to go

Now its less than 100 day to go for the most competitive cricket event to stat. You can keep the watch tickling in the front of this blog. Now as its around three monts left for the event to start, you will definitely see more updated about world cup being posted at this ICC Cricket Blog.

ICC has also started the promotion of the event and first step in thei effort was to appoing the great cricketer Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar as the ambassador for 2011 Cricket World Cup. Sachin has been the souce of inspiration not only cricketers in India and abroad but to the sports person in other games as well. By playing this world cup Sachin will equal the record of Pakistan's Javen Maindad to play six world cup tournaments.

Countdown to the ICC Cricket World cup 2011

Countdown to the ICC Cricket World cup 2011 has begun and with around 4 more months left for the tournament I today added the world cup 2011 countdown timer to my ICC Cricket blog. I am sure all the cricket overs will like this script. You need not to calculate number of days left for the world cup you can see automated and live countdown timer.

At the same time sports lover can also watch the highlights of Commonwealth games 2010 that are currently being hosted in India.