Third Test Day 1 Plunders by Rain

Rain played spoilsport as only 31.1 overs were possible on the opening day of the third and final cricket Test against between India and West Indies here on Wednesday.

Sent into bat, the hosts were 75 for three when the heavens opened up shortly after the lunch break, and it stayed that way till the day's play was finally called off at 4.15 pm local time.

Darren Bravo was batting on 22 while Shivnarine Chanderpaul was unbeaten on 17, with the two adding 40 runs for the fourth wicket in 14.2 overs.

Before that, the Indian Players had West Indies in a spot of bother, picking up three early wickets.

In-form pacer Ishant Sharma struck twice while Praveen Kumar chipped in with one as West Indies went to lunch at 64 for three at the Windsor Park.

After Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to bowl with the hope that his players would get the team some quick wickets, Ishant and Praveen lived up to the skipper's potential by removing Adrian Barath and debutantes Kieran Powell and Kirk Edwards.

Ishant showed no after-effects of a facial injury he suffered on Wednesday, returning figures of two for 23.

While Kumar gave the team its first breakthrough by having Powell caught at second slip by VVS Laxman, Ishant, bowling the bouncers to good effect, sent back Barath and Edwards.

Ishant, who distressed the hosts with a 10-wicket haul in the drawn second Test at Kensington Oval, looked in good nick here as well.

Munaf Patel, playing in his first Test of the three-match series at the cost of Abhimanyu Mithun, bowled efficiently, though without success.

If Praveen and Ishant began with maiden overs, Munaf, who returned to Test cricket after two years, did even better as first change by bowling three maidens on the hurry.

Earlier Powell, who got his first Test runs -- a three off a push into covers against Ishant -- didn't get to score any additional .

Barath, after being disconcerted with a caught behind appeal down the leg side by Ishant, edged a pull onto his stumps off the very next delivery.

Ishant picked up his third wicket when he had Edwards who was unlucky to be judged caught behind by debutant Test umpire Richard Kettleborough of England as the rising delivery hit his helmet, and not the bat, on way to Dhoni.

West Indies would now look to Bravo and veteran Chanderpaul to bail them out.

This is Chanderpaul's 133rd Test match, the highest by any West Indian cricketer. Courtney Walsh, with 132 Tests under his belt, held the previous record.

The two had added collected their runs in a rather secure manner on a pitch that didn't live upto its reputation of being quick and bouncy.

Bravo had struck three fours in his blow and Chanderpaul one, before the climate intruded.

sarcastically, the day had begun in complete contrast as a bright, sunny day greeted the two sides.

West Indies began vigilantly on a pitch that was fairly humid but did not offer much sideways movement to India's pacers.

But West Indies still lost three wickets early in the day and found the going so tough that only two boundaries both by left-hander Bravo were scored in the two-hour session.

While Munaf is the only change in the Indian line-up, West Indies made two changes, with Powell and Edwards being preferred over Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

India Tour of West Indies

Though India won the series the 5^th ODI is an important one for the Indian Team. West Indies's win in the last game came a little too late to retrieve the series for the hosts, but the win combined with the fact that they have finally been granted the wish of playing the visitors on a bouncy track mean that India will have to put in a solid performance to get back to their winning ways in the fifth ODI here on Thursday . Raina had conceded that the line-up's shot selection was poor and the application to forge partnerships was lacking in the game, which India wound up losing by 103 runs. Now Indian fans will be hoping their team returns to being a focused unit and finishes off the one-day series with a bang.

However, there's good news for the Windies' pace hit - they will finally get to play on the bouncy track of Sabina Park, which will no doubt favour their attack. They would like to avoid off their woes, which have left Andre Russell leading the Windies' table- with a mere four wickets in four matches. Meanwhile, India will have to practice hard in order to neuter the challenging effect of the short ball.

The visitors will accordingly be inclined to look to the tremendous form of middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma, who is averaging a phenomenal 200 (which also happens to be his aggregate) in the series thus far. Opener Parthiv Patel is not far behind at 141 runs in the one-day leg of the tour. But the other Indian batsmen will also have to play their part in taking India's innings forward.

However, more than the batting, it is India's attack that appears truly menacing. The first time in the tour that it fell apart was at the loss of the Windies' innings in the last match. How much the spinners will be able to get out of the quicker track is a point of dispute. If they are successful on this surface, it will promise well for them going into the Test series.

Indian leg-break Amit Mishra may have picked up a chart-topping 9 wickets in four matches at an average of 17.00 thus far. Meanwhile, his team-mate Munaf Patel, who has garnered just one wicket less than him, is expected to be in his element on this strip. A lot of the team's fortunes will pivot on how well he bowls at the start and the end of the innings.

Finally, the Windies will have to bring about a transformation in their batting. With a sadly lop-sided line-up where very little substance has been coming from the top-order, the middle and latter order are shouldered with the burden of stabilising, consolidating ahead.
But the final game of the ODI series clearly looks like one between the West Indies bowlers and the Indian batsmen.

Kochi Tuskers win over Delhi Daredevils

Kochi Tuskers bounced back and defeated Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets at Ferozeshah Kotla in IPL 4 yesterday.

Both the teams were badly in need of a win to stay in disputation in the tournament but Tuskers were the one who recorded

Their first win in four matches.The tuskers restricted the Daredevils to 140 for six on a good batting surface and chased down

The target in only 15overs Brendon McCullum provided the explosive start, slamming 37 off 19 balls while Parthiv Patel (37 not out) and Brad Hodge (24 not out) completed the chase.

Prasanth Parameswaran (2-29), who had played only six first class games before making his IPL debut with the Tuskers Monday, was the pick of the bowlers. His two-wicket haul included the prized scalp of opposition captain Virender Sehwag (15).

Tuskers, who suffered a 38-run defeat to Daredevils in their home game Saturday, now have eight points from nine matches and are at sixth place in the points table. Things look tougher for Daredevils after their fifth loss at home in six attempts. They are eighth in the table after nine matches and will now need to win all their five remaining games to advance through to the next stage.

The Tuskers found home away from home a wicket that was prepared to suit the Daredevils. After bowling well on a true surface, the Tuskers raced to 61 in the first five overs of their chase. They stuttered in the next five as they lost three wickets for 29 runs. But Hodge and Patel made sure that there were no further blips.

The Daredevils, put in to bat, suffered a major blow in the second over as little known Parameswaran sent Sehwag packing off the third ball of his spell. The dangerous opener, after hitting Paremeswaran for a six off his very first ball, edged a wide one to be ccaught behind by Patil.

The Delhi franchise has so far relied heavily on the opening pair of Sehwag and Warner (13) for winning their games but that ended when the latter mistimed a pull off a skiddy S. Sreesanth (1-24) delivery. And when Naman Ojha (13) was was caught behind off R.P. Singh, the home side was left reeling at 43 for three in the seventh over.

Venugopal Rao (40) and Yogesh Nagar (18) forged a 54-run stand for the fourth wicket but expectedly the run rate took a beating while resurrecting the ship and they departed while trying to increase the scoring rate.

Travis Birt (27) provided a late grow with some novel stokes and took the team to a adequate total but victory still eluded the Daredevils.

Rajasthan Royals beat Pune Warriors

Rajasthan Royals Ross Taylor struck 47 to achieve a six- wicket victory over Pune Warriors in IPL 4 on Sunday.He scored 47 for 35 unbeatably and smashed four boundaries and two sixes and ended up a 52 run partnership unbroken with Ajinkya Rahane

To chase Pune Warriors with three balls to spare it was RR’s third straight win and they have now reached the top of the table

While with their sixth consecutive loss Pune slid down to the bottom. Rahul Sharma took three wickets for 13.

Alfonso Thomas gave Warriors the breakthrough when he had dangerous opener Shane Watson caught behind.

Sharma put the Royals' chase off-track by dismissing Rahul Dravid and Johan Botha in his successive overs that saw Rajasthan reeling at 59/3 in 10.1 overs. Sharma dismissed Dravid by taking a return catch and then trapped Botha perpendicular .

Ashok Maneria played a brisk 22-ball 29, smashing three sixes to give plunge to the Royals' hunt .

He put on 33 runs for the fourth wicket with Taylor before he was was caught by Thomas at deep mid-wicket off Sharma.

Taylor and Rahane then saw the team through.

Sent in, Warriors were given a good start by Robin Uthappa (35) and Manish Pandey (30) after losing Jesse Ryder early.

Botha got the better of Ryder when he danced down the wicket only to be stumped.

But once Uthappa was dismissed caught behind off Warne, the middle order crumbled. Uthappa hit 7 fours in his 21-ball innings.

Yuvraj Singh was run out by Siddharth Trivedi (2-28), who then had Manish Pandey caught by Taylor at deep mid-wicket to lessen Pune Warriors to 93/4.

Deccan Chargers victory over Kochi Tuskers

Sharma’s fiery performance given Deccan Chargers a win of 55 runs in the IPL at the Nehru Stadium yesterday.Sharma grabbed the Man of the Match with 5 for 12 and reduced Kochi Tuskers batting to

11 for six in four overs. Ravindra Jadeja , Thisara Pereira and R Vinay Kumar were the only Kochi batsmen who could get to double figures before their innings wrapped up in 16.3 overs while chasing Deccan Chargers 129 for seven.

When Mahela Jayawardene decided to bowl first and restricted the Chargers to 129 for seven in 20 overs, he would have nursed hopes that the Kerala side would get the thrust back after its disappointing loss to Rajasthan Royals. But Sharma had other ideas as he bowled with pace and also in the right areas to obstruct the Kochi batsmen on a wicket that had a lot in it for the pacers; the former Indian pacer bowled to a field of two slips and ditch in his first three overs, quite unusual in a T20 match.

He became only the third bowler in IPL 4 to take five wickets in a match after Lasith Malinga and Harbhajan Singh. The Tuskers were bowled out for 74 in 16.3 overs, the lowest total in this IPL.

Dale Steyn struck in the first over to eliminate opener Brendan McCullum, who edged to wicketkeeper and skipper Kumar Sangakkara. In the next over, Sharma struck thrice in four balls to get relieve of Parthiv Patel, Raiphi Gomez and Brad Hodge to leave the home team at two for four wickets. Patel was caught behind by the skipper while Gomez and Hodge were castled by Sharma's in-hesitant deliveries. All the four batsmen went back to the dugout without opening their accounts.

Sharma struck again in his next over when he trapped Kedar Jadhav plumb in front of the wicket and five balls later, got Kochi Tuskers' captain Mahela Jayawardene (4) caught behind by Sangakkara to leave them reeling at 11/6.

Jadeja and Perera added 36 runs for the seventh wicket before Manpreet Gony struck in the 11th over to have Perera caught by Cameron White in the covers.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra got Jadeja caught by Daniel Christian at deep mid-wicket while Steyn wrapped up the innings by rattling the stumps of Vinay Kumar and Rudra Pratap Singh off successive deliveries.

Chennai Super Kings win over Pune Warriors

Chennai Super Kings achieve victory over Pune warriors with 25 runs in the IPL season 4 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Monday.

Chennai Super Kings bat first and was stuttered to 142/6 with the opener Michael Hussey making a 48 for 61

And then came up with a good bowling and fielding restricting the Away team to 117 for 9 with skipper like

Yuvraj Singh(34) playing all alone for the defeated.

It was the third win for Super Kings in six matches and this moved them up the table with six points while the

Warriors slid on fourth place in five outings. The Warriors gave themselves a chance to win as Jerome Taylor and Alfonso Thomas struck decisive blows after Hussey and Murali Vijay had put on 64 runs for the first wicket.

The left-hander, who scored his only World Cup century here about a month back, just couldn’t find his magic touch and Chennai Super Kings reaped the harvest. Yuvi scored 34 off 43 balls as Pune Warriors fell 26 runs short of the 143-run target after having the upper hand for a major part of the match.

Yuvi survived a plumb leg-before decision, missed full-tosses, missed out on singles at a time when it seemed that the left-hander could run away with the game. Dhoni knew if his Team India lieutenant got going, there was no chance at all. But the canny skipper also understood that Yuvi was struggling in the Chennai humidity and he made sure that the boundaries were not given away.

The CSK fielders had a brilliant performance on the ground saving boundaries and made Pune fight for every run.Shadab Jakati pulled off at mid –off in the 19^th over to bring an end to Yuvraj’s innings. Ashwin and Suraj Randiv too played well.

The Super Kings fielders displayed a refreshing change as they displayed a lot of commitment while throwing themselves about to save precious runs, so much so that the Warriors batsmen found the boundary line just twice in 10 overs.

Dhoni then came up with another master move, bringing on Bollinger for just one over and the left-arm seamer obliged by dismissing Manhas, caught behind.

Thereafter, the Warriors' chase lost whatever little momentum they had and the Super Kings delivered the death blow when Shadab Jakati dived to catch Yuvraj off Morkel, bowling the 19th over, to leave the Super Kings winners by a country mile.

Rajasthan Royals beat Kochi Tuskers

Rajasthan Royals gained a comfortable eight wicket victory over Kochi Tuskers in the IPL 4 season yesterday .

They chased a target of 110 runs with an easein 14.1 overs and given a defeat to the Kochi Tuskers at Sawai Mansingh Stadium.Shane Warne as usual well performed along with paceman Siddharth Trivedi never allowing

Kochi tuskers to settle down for a good score.The bowlers were supported by some good fielding and catching.

Shane Watson and Rahul Dravid shared 71 runs and has taken away the game from Kochi Tuskers and reached

The target in 14.1 overs itself. This became a very important victory for Rajasthan Royals after three consecutive losses and now they have got second place in the rankings with seven points.

It was again Warne who has given a marvelous performance to lift the team .

Nothing went right for Kochi Tuskers after they were put in to bat. They missed hard-hitting Brendon McCullum who sat out with a sore shoulder.

Johan Botha got the important wicket of captain Mahela Jayawardene with 26 runs on the board. VVS Laxman made 32 but was run out.

Warne then dismissed Brad Hodge and Kochi Tuskers were reeling at 42/3.

Parthiv Patel (32) and Ravindra Jadeja (22) tried to stem the rot and added 48 runs for the fourth wicket. But Warne came back to remove both Parthiv and Jadeja off successive deliveries to end the crucial partnership.

Kochi Tuskers then caved in, with Trivedi bowling well in the final overs.

Mumbai Indians vs Deccan Chargers

Mumbai Indians defeated hosts Deccan Chargers by 37 runs and recorded their consecutive victory in the IPL 4.

Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds unbroken partnership of 102 runs off 65balls helped them scored 172 runs

And ragged the hosts and came out winners of 37 runs winners.Malinga’s yet another excellent performance made him heads the list of tournament’s leading bowler and 16 wickets from six matches.Deccan Chargers Amit Mishra

With eight wickets stood second in the list.

With this consecutive third win Mumbai Indians stand at the top of the table and Tendulkar with 269 runs in six games got the orange cap back from Paul Valthaty of Kings Punjab.Mumbai Indians were brilliant on the field and took three

Run outs.Kumar Sangakkara was emitted by Malinga in 14^th over From there on,making 80 runs off 39 balls was

Always going to be a toughest task when Daniel Christian was stumped by Jacobs off Munaf Patel ,the team’s fourth Loss seemed predictable.

Tendulkar and Jacobs has given a good start but their dismissal led to another two immediate wickets with the score being 70/4 only.But Sharma looked at ease smashing five fours in his 34 ball innings helped Mumbai Indians team gets to a strong total.Symonds,on the other hand showed his spark with four fours and a six.

Their partnership’s 87 runs helped them achieve a victory.

Mumbai Indians Vs Chennai Super Kings

Chennai have a good captain yes,he is Dhoni one man who can make a lot of difference.It might not be

Predictable that Chennai might win this match but the side looks stronger just because of Dhoni.On the other side Mumbai Indians who has either stronger and well experienced Player like Sachin Tendulkar

It’s really unpredictable who will win this match it is going to be an exciting one with such strong defendable players. After Sachin Tendulkar took on the man who shone brightest for India in the World Cup recently, he now will face the man who shone brightest in the final. MS Dhoni showed what 'seizing the moment' was all about with an image frozen in time of ice-cold eyes watching the ball sail into the stands and deliver the World Cup to India. Sachin Tendulkar said there was little doubt that was the greatest moment of his career. In the light of that, it is hard to see how these two would compete with full intensity against each other, but then they are both hard-nosed professionals and competitors who hate to lose. Once the game starts, winning is all that matters, no matter which game it is.