India beat Pakistan, yet again..!

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Let's go to Mumbai..!

Nothing satisfies Indians more than beating their old rivals Pakistan. Add to it the situation- World Cup semifinal, presence of the top political leaders from both countries, business tycoons, bollywood starts and the most important entire subcontinent which counts more than 140 crore population expecting only their team to win..! Mohali was turned into battle field with thousands of army personnel, special commandos, surface to air missiles around the stadium. But in the end 11 Blue Commandos won the war for country without a single drop of blood..! This can go in history as one of the biggest wins of Indian Cricket Team, no doubt.

While India started their world cup campaign with favorite's tag, Pakistan, it seemed at that point, was just to show presence. But during the course of tournament, India could not find it as smooth as they would have expected. On the other hand, Pakistan played with aggression complemented superbly by bowling, led by inspiring captain Shahid Afridi, outplayed teams like Sri Lanka, Australia with ease. That is why, at the time of semifinal, it was going to be a crunch game- and it proved to be!

I know there is no need of post match explanation. I am sure, each and every Cricket Lover in this entire universe would have watched it ball-by-ball. I also heard Government declared half-working day in Pakistan..! Only 3 points I would like to raise here for Pakistani think tank:

• When India were on 141 for 4, Tendulkar playing tentative, why didn't they attack in field with more men saving singles and catching? (and please, you cannot drop Sachin Tendulkar 4 times and still hope he should not make runs..)
• Why Misbah played at 5th and out of form Younis played up the order? (was Misbah too late to attack Indian bowling?)
• Timing of batting power play was utterly wrong, or the think tank simply forgot to have it?

These are the questions which they need to answer to Pakistani fans. But having said everything, I must agree, Pakistani players showed tremendous courage to fight against Indians. Indians played their natural game according to situation. Tendulkar played such an innings which he himself would NOT be proud for. But runs count, and his knock of 85 stood out as others failed to occupy crease.

MS Dhoni must be on cloud nine after this win. His heartbeats must have returned to normal by now. Dhoni, smart Dhoni accepted it was mistake not to play R Ashwin, rather he failed to read wicket. India can party for a while. But with the Final on 2nd April, they cannot simply sit and relax.

"We will do the job in Mumbai" are the words of Sachin in post match presentation..! Imagine, Tendulkar- (almost) 38 years of age- playing his last world cup match (?) in career- a final- that too in Mumbai- his home town- and scores a 100th international 100, wins the match- Cup for country... and

Quarter to Semifinals

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5 days or merely over 100 hours from now and we will be discussing about semifinals. But in those 100-plus-hours, action we are going to encounter is enormous. No team can afford to put a foot wrong. If they do- simply put- their world-cup 2011 will be over. That is why Yuvraj said ‘this is what you play for- your moment of life!’

As imagined, before the start of world cup, all small teams are out of quarterfinals. Though team like Ireland, Bangladesh created some excitement in group of death- B. But that was not enough to qualify themselves for quarter finals. So, expected 8 teams will be fighting for place in semifinals. Take my words; this is going to be super week for all of us.

Now, I thought why shouldn't I put my feet in Paul- the octopus’s shoes and start predicting the results. Yes, yes, I know Paul was god-gifted. But nothing wrong in guessing- using brain (and heart- when it comes to India..!)

Let’s start:

Pak vs WI:

Pak team is on song… Momentum is with them, high on confidence after beating Aussies. They have passion do to the best for their country this time, even more than anytime in past. And versus West Indies- rather dull performed, low on moral, but talented and unpredictable side. My guess: Pak wins. Cheer up Pakistani fans…!

Aus vs India:

Cricket Lovers’ turns 1…!

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Hurrayyyhhh…!!! What a hot and happening past one year for Cricket Lovers it’s been! It saw 200 being made in an ODI innings, IPL and Champion League entertaining cricketing communities like never before, Australia loosing to England in precious Ashes series and then counter attacking England to win ODI series, India squaring Test series against South Africans and fighting hard for the most closely contested ODI series. Pakistan rising like a phoenix to beat New Zealand just before the World Cup and now the Cup that counts- World Cup 2011..! The year saw players turning into Gods, youngsters becoming heroes, match winners getting paid like anything in IPL auctions. Well, well, well… lots of excitement. This truly is a special year for any Cricket fan. That’s why we call it Cricket Lovers’ year..!

While all those events were unfolding and getting the highest TRP rating on TV, your blog, Cricket Lovers’, was following and updating it for you on internet. To be honest, it was our first attempt of blogging. We, therefore, learnt a lot of things during last year or so. We understood the taste of readers, what they want, when they want, how they want. Started on 14^th March 2010, graph of viewers visiting blog is gradually increasing day by day.

As we write this post to Celebrate 1^st Anniversary of blog, we would like to highlight some major facts with you all.

• Total visits to blog are 4829 (See on top right corner of blog). With Indian viewers topping list with 2342 visits, No. 2 being US with 673 visits and other countries from where viewers accessed blog are-UK, Pakistan, Australia, UAE, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka Canada etc.
• For first few months, blog was limited only to specific group of people. But now blog has reached a stage where it top-lists certain Google Search queries. That is why Google provided various Ads of following companies on blog:
  Club Mahindra, Nokia, Quatar Airways, Tata Sky, Airtel, LG, Vodafone, Lays, American Express, HeroHonda, Mentos, cleartrip.com, hindustantimes.com etc., to name a few,
  which you can click to know more about interesting offers they make.

• One website approached us to have our writings on their website. We are in discussion with them.

Wish us Happy Anniversary...!

This wouldn't have happened unless You, had show such an intensity to visit, revisit and again revisit blog..! Rest assured for the content in blog as we will get up with something interesting every time we post to make it an enjoyable place for both readers and us. At the same time, we’re curious to know what you want to read, your feedback, suggestions, criticism related to blog, anything… well almost..! And, not to forget, encouragement also..! We will indeed give a thought to whatever you write us back.

Our goal for next year will be to continue posting quality material on blog, with consistency, to reach up to maximum new viewers keeping current viewers intact. Let’s again make the coming year of Cricket Lovers’..!

Do Visit again- Simplify- Add to bookmarks…NOW! 

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Cricket World Cup 2011 Updates: Tie, Upsets, Hat-trick, Records.

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We are now towards the end of the First round of the World Cup and already we have seen many exciting games of cricket, few upsets and crowed and cricketing fans are really enjoying the tournament. Every team is trying their best to reach at the quarter finals and that too grab the top two positions in the group. The reason being, if you are in top two, then in the quarter finals, you are playing with bottom two in the other group.  In this article let us see major highlights of the World Cup 2011 so far:

Major highlights of the World Cup so far:


9. England Survived against West Indies:


It was a great game of cricket, in fact it was do or die for England and again England fought a closed game and they managed to Win it by 18 runs. Batting first, England managed to score moderate 243. West Indies started their inning with very attacking manner, as if they wanted to finish the game in just 35-40 overs. But, when spinners came, suddenly WI started loosing wickets and game shifted in England's way. But, again 7th wicket partnership brought WI into the game, but England spinners did well towards end and claimed 7 wickets between Swann and Tredwell and won a close match for England. This win has survived England's hope for the quarter final berth.

Group 'B' has very interesting results in this World cup. SA beat Ind, Ind beat Bangladesh, Bangladesh beat Eng, Eng beat WI, WI beat Ireland, Ireland beat England and England beat SA. It means all teams are unpredictable, they can beat any team and they can loose against any team. Is this group become a 'Choker's Group'?   

8. India - South Africa Close contest:

It was bound to be the best contest in the tournament as it was not India Vs SA, but it was World's best batting attack Vs World's best bowling attack!
India started this game with immense determination and Indian openers dominated  World's best bowling attack for almost 41 overs of an inning. Thanks to Virendra Sehwag and none other than Great Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar was in supreme form and he took attack to the opposition since the beginning. His hook shot to Steyn  was superb, it reminded me the similar shot he had played to Caddik in the past. Now a days he plays this shot very rarely, but this time playing against World's best fast bowler was something special and treat to watch. His straight drive to Morkal was again the trade mark shot from he master. It was an awesome inning I guess, where he made 111, completing his 99th international century and 48th ODI century.
But, when he departed, India collapsed and lost 9 wickets for just 29 runs! Can you imagine? and India could set a target of only (?) 297. (At one time, it looked like India were targeting 360-370 at least.)
Thanks, to the 'Power Play' which happened to be the best bowling spell. But, it was just a poor performance from Indian batters who were attacking each and every ball in the power play and that too against Steyn and Morkal. Result was simple, the great collapse!

When Pro teas chased, it was also not a convincing chase. They also struggled a lot and at one point of time, it looked like that, the match was escaped from their hands, but Pieterson did it well and scored 13 runs in the last over of the match against Nehara and won the match for South Africa.
One should not blame Indian bowlers, as average score on that track was 316 and India managed to score 20 runs short from the average and that too when they were in a position to score, 40-50 runs more than the average score.

A great lesson to Dhoni and Co and there must be special preparation going on on how to play in Power plays, especially batting power plays. At the time of post match presentation, Dhoni said a right thing, " In Power plays Players should play for their country and not for the crowed'" Brilliant statement ! but, the timing was little late, if he could have said it when he was batting on the other end and watching how everyone got out, then result could have been different. Anyways, ifs and buts have no meaning and post match analysis, was on right track i guess.

7. England Beats SA:

Who says low scoring games are boring? This was a really nail bitting low scoring game and ultimately England held their nerves and Won it by just 6 runs. England batting first managed to score only 171, thanks to Ravi Bopara for his 60. After a flying start 63-0, at one stage it looked like South Africa will steal the game in no time.  But, from 124- 3, SA collapsed to 127-7. What a turn around by England. Towards end Steyn batted beautifully but was not enough to win the game and SA again showed their weakness of loosing games in pressured situation. I think, this upset has kept Group B table wide open for top two spots. India would like to claim either of the top two spots so that they will have to play against slightly less powerful opponents in the quarterfinals.

6. Ireland fought well against India:

India beat Ireland by 5 wickets but this was not a comprehensive win at all. Indians were obvious favorites for this match but team having the strongest batting line up were required to use their all 7 batsmen to chase 207. Credit goes to Irish bowlers and their wonderful fielding who saved at least 30-40 runs in the game.