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South Africa vs West Indies Preview
West Indies take on South Africa in their Champions Trophy 2013 game on Friday.
After being outclassed by India, in their 2nd fixture of the tournament, West Indies now look for a must win against the resurgent South Africa, who took advantage of a dismal Pakistani batting lineup, and kept their Champions Trophy hopes alive, with a big win over them.This 9th matchup of the ICC Champions Trophy will be played at Cardiff, tomorrow.
West Indies started off very well in their last game, but lost the plot in the middle phase of the innings, and even a late surge from Darren Sammy wasn’t enough against the long and talented batting lineup of India.
South Africa boast a somewhat similarly strong batting lineup, and West Indies bowlers need to come up with a special performance tomorrow, otherwise they will go back home.
Kemar Roach and Sunil Narine remain the key bowlers for West Indies in tomorrow’s game; especially Narine’s unorthodox style is very likely to trouble African batsmen.
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings Preview
After losing their previous game, the Royal Challengers Bangalore will now host a crucial match, which is very important for their place in the playoffs, against the Chennai Super Kings, tomorrow. This 70th fixture will be played at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore.
After being thrashed by the Kings XI Punjab in their last game, even after making 174 runs, the Royal Challengers move into the next match, with a lot of pressure. Although, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli were very good with the bat, poor bowling and superb hitting meant the Kings XI chased down the target in 18.1 overs.Zaheer Khan’s return has been welcomed by Royal Challengers, and it will help the team to be more effective as a bowling unit, however, other bowlers should also take some responsibility and learn from the mistakes they did in their last match.
The batting is still their main weapon, and the trio of AB De Villiers, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli will be the key for their matchup against the Super Kings tomorrow. The trio needs to deliver in the very important game tomorrow; otherwise it might mean that Royal Challengers do not make it to the playoffs.
Sydney Thunder vs Sydney Sixers Preview
Big Bash League is set for the second Sydney derby this season, albeit with much less hype surrounding this one. Thunder will play Sixers on Sunday with the two sides having only disappointing thus far in the season.
Thunder have lost all their five matches while Sixers' only win came against Thunder in their first match.Having won the Champions League to double the BBL title last year, Sixers had high expectations to do well this year as well. They started off on the right note but fell away terribly after that. In their last outing, against Hobart Hurricanes, the team was beaten in the final over though it was not as close as it looked.
A middle-order collapse has become a regular feature that upsets the team's rhythm and only Brad Haddin and Steve Smith have impressed with the bat regularly. The bowlers too have not put on any fireworks display and the lack of match winning spells has been a cause of concern.
Sydney Sixers vs Hobart Hurricanes Preview
Big Bash League serves its first double-header on Sunday as two matches are scheduled to be played. The first match will see a desperate run for points with both Sydney Thunder and Hobart Hurricanes hoping to resurrect their derailed campaign.
Melbourne Renegades outclassed Hobart Hurricanes in the last match in what was a disappointing day in the field for the losing side. Being dismissed for 102 left no chance for them to be in the game and the bowlers could not stop the opponents from achieving the target in 14 overs.George Bailey, the captain, had no clear answers for the several questions posed at him but did suggest to his players that time is running out for them. Ricky Ponting top scored in the last match with 25 but the overall batting effort has been a disappointment. Only one half-century has been scored in the three matches so far. Scott Styirs and Owais Shah, the experienced names on their side, will need to deliver the goods.
Sydney Thunder have had similar worries in their campaign as they are struggling this season as well. Despite having Chris Gayle and Azhar Mahmood in their team, the sort of impact expected of these players has been absent.
Sydney Thunder vs Adelaide Strikers Preview
Adelaide Strikers take on Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League encounter to be played on Thursday.
With non favorable results in the last matches, both teams are eager to resurrect their act and get the campaign back on track.In an amazing development, all matches played thus far have gone in the favor of sides batting second. With the first dozen matches set to be completed tomorrow, the league organizers would be hoping for something out of the blue to pull the crowds' dwindling interest back. As two sides with problems of their own come head to head, it could possibly be just the twist of events.
With two points from two matches, Adelaide Strikers are fifth on the points table. They won their first match but could not achieve the same result in the meeting against Brisbane Heat. Sydney Thunder have met the same fate in both their matches and are still looking for their first win.
Strikers posted 185 in their last match but shockingly enough could not defend it. Captain Johan Botha shuffled his bowlers around but could not succeed in penetrating through. There are still some positives for the team going into the match. Callum Ferguson and Kieron Pollard's form would be pleasing for the team management as the duo totaled 100 runs between them in the last game.
Sydney Thunder vs Melbourne Renegades Preview
The excitement builds with close finishes and controversial incidents in the Big Bash League and the fans will be expecting more of it when Sydney Thunder collide with Melbourne Renegades on Friday. This will be the teams' second match and will be played in Sydney.
Following their win in the opening match against Melbourne Stars, the Renegades are second on the points table. On the other hand, Sydney Thunder were beaten by city rivals Sixers and are currently languishing second from bottom. A win for Renegades will see them top the group for now while Thunder will be left playing catching up too early in the season.Renegades raced to an eight-wicket win with ten balls to spare in what turned out to be an easy win in the end. The credit for the victory went to Aaron Finch, the captain, who played a whirlwind knock of 111 from 65 balls with the help of 12 fours and four sixes. The expectations will be high once again, specially with Faf du Plessis having come into the limelight recently. du Plessis was also named South African T20 skipper yesterday and will look to get his form going before returning for national duty.
Bangladesh vs West Indies Preview
West Indies have been dealt a severe blow that leaves behind wounds that will take time to heal. What was expected to be a walk in the park turned out to be an embarrassment as the visitors lost the ODI series to Bangladesh. The teams meet for the final time on the tour in a one-off T20.
The match seems to have far more significance than it would have otherwise had. West Indies would be keen to avoid any further slip ups, specially in a format that they are world champions of. In what was seen as the new beginning of a new chapter in West Indies cricket came to an abrupt reality check.Bangladeshis are currently busy celebrating the triumph that sent the entire country into raptures. But the players are focused on finishing the year on a positive note with one more win. Mushfiqur Rahim, the skipper, knows that his team would be expected to win on Monday and is pushing his players to show the same courage and grit in the game.
In terms of the team, the hosts are likely to include big hitting Zia ur Rehman in their line up. There are doubts over fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza's fitness.
West Indies would have preferred to have fresh in their minds the memories of the T20 triumph two months ago. But it will the bitter memories of the ODI series loss that will be circling their heads.
Bangladesh vs West Indies Report
The West Indies batsmen once again struggled against the Bangladesh’s spinners. And, the result was a massive defeat by 160 runs, which was also Bangladesh’s biggest win in ODI internationals.
Bangladesh put up a good total on the scoreboard with a century and a half-century from Anamul Haque and the skipper Mushfiqur Rahim respectively. After that, the spinners, especially Abdur Razzak and Sohag Gazi, defended the total with superb bowling. Both the spinners took 3 wickets each and bowled out the visitors at 132 runs.Darren Sammy elected to field first expecting to utilize the moisture on the wicket. His decision appeared to be right as Tamim Iqbal and Naeem Islam went back to the pavilion within 21 runs.
However, Sammy was run out of his luck after that. Mushfiq and opener Anamul rescued Bangladesh by putting a Himalayan 174-run partnership on the scoreboard. During this partnership, the visitors could not put minimum pressure on the batsmen lest taking any wicket. They came back to the match for a while when Rampaul dismissed Mushfiq and Nassir within a short period. However, Anamul, another newcomer Mominul, and the two huge sixes from Mashrafe Mortaza at the end of the innings helped Bangladesh to put 292 runs on the scoreboard. Rampaul took 5 wickets for 49 runs.
Bangladesh vs West Indies Preview
When faced with an opposition like Bangladesh, teams are often faced with the challenge of staying focused on their job. West Indies, unfortunately for them, were found wanting as the hosts went one up in the five-match ODI series. The second one-dayer will be played on Sunday in Khulna.
After a relatively successful couple of months for West Indies cricket in which they lifted the World T20 trophy as well as the test series against Bangladesh, they were served a rude yet fitting reality check as their batting collapsed under somewhat testing conditions requiring a display of patience. The outcome was especially more shocking after the ruthless win in the warm up fixture.To rebound, the team will not only need to improve its batting efforts but also the bowlers need to get in shape after being taken to cleaners. Once again, Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle will be the key men for captain Darren Sammy while spinner Sunil Narine will be hoping to work his magic similar to the exploits of his counterparts.
Bangladesh might be celebrating their win but they do not have much time to do so. After narrowly missing out on the Asia Cup title, Bangladesh ensured they crossed the winning line this time, culminating in a seven-wicket win with more than nine overs to spare.
We want to get into top five in Tests: Gibson
The West Indies coach Ottis Gibson hoped to build on the success of his side in 2012 by grabbing a spot in the top five of the ICC Test rankings in the next one year. West Indies is currently holding the 7th position, ahead of New Zealand and Bangladesh. The team will play a two-match away Test series against Bangladesh starting from November 13.
Among the last three Test series, West Indies lost in two and came victorious in one. At first, they lost by a 2-0 margin against Australia and then lost against England at the same margin in away series. However, they showed sheer dominance over New Zealand in their last Test series at home. They also emerged victorious in the limited-over matches. They were able to bring their good form in the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and to hold the title.Before the departure of the team to Bangladesh, Gibson expressed satisfaction over the team’s solid performance in 2012 and hoped to end the year on a winning note. He also expressed his hope to enter among the top five positions in the Test rankings over the next 12 months.
Australia vs West Indies Report
Australia were as best prepared as they could have been for their attempt to win the World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka, but their extensive preparations fell apart when the pressure was on.
Pakistan had used the recent series in the UAE against Australia to prepare a plan to defeat the same opposition, and the West Indies improved on these match tactics during the one sided semi-final. Although the Australians had put in some strong performances in the early stages of the competition, there was a feeling that their batting remained woefully thin of sufficient talent, once you looked beyond the top three in the order, Shane Watson, David Warner and Michael HusseyWhile Watson and Warner were smashing the opposition bowlers into submission, when chasing less than challenging targets, the Australians seemed a highly competitive side, and one which might have been considered to have an outstanding chance of lifting the trophy. But as the pitches at the Premadasa Stadium became lower and slower, and their opponents adapted to the Australians game plan, so errors crept into their game, both mental and physical.
The abject collapse of the Aussies challenge was made even more surprising, as they had been so thoroughly prepared, and were undoubtedly selected with the sole purpose of winning the tournament, there was no developmental nature about this squad, as personified by the selection of Brad Hogg who has already passed his fortieth birthday.
Early impressive displays against Ireland, the West Indies, India and South Africa, who were all compressively beaten may well have hampered the side as much as helped it. Such were the margins of their victories, that while the top order was getting lots of match practice, the other batsmen were left kicking their heals in the dugout. The Australians also took early wickets, which allowed their bowlers to dominate the latter stages of their opponents innings. Therefore, when the matches became tighter, the Australians were found wanting.
Australia vs West Indies Preview
It is difficult to know exactly where the biggest dangers to Australia's hopes of a first World Twenty20 trophy will come from, when they take on the West Indies in the semi-final.
After all, they have the tornado that is Chris Gayle at the top of the order, who is without argument the most destructive and valuable T20 batsman in the world, and if Gayle fails to deliver, there is also the destructive hitting of Marlon Samuels, and the all-round skills of Dwayne Bravo, while Kieran Pollard's scoring rate with the bat is a match for almost anyone in world cricket.While with the bowl, they could be faced with the swinging yorkers of Fidel Edwards.
Yet it may be the mysterious slow bowler, Sunil Narine who will hold the key. He has previously tormented the Australian batsmen in a ODI series in the Caribbean, in which he took 11 wickets in five matches, at the extremely impressive average of 14,45, and being hit for just 3.32 runs per over.
Australia's top order found it very difficult to score off of Narine, and when it came to bowler to the tail-enders, he was able to bamboozle them, and dismiss them almost at will.
Australia have already beaten the West Indies in this tournament, when they defeated them in a rain interrupted match, when Narine bowled two overs for 15 runs, but was shown an amazing amount of respect by his opponents.
England vs West Indies Preview
The Super Eights are truly getting underway with England and West Indies lined up to face each other in the second match to be played on Thursday. The match will be played in Pallekele.
The two teams have had different routes into the Super Eights with West Indies still failing to play a full game. West Indies lost to Australia by the D/L method despite posting a tall total and their match against Ireland ended in a no result. England, on the other hand, made light work of Afghanistan before India came hard on them to inflict the worst defeat.It is that defeat that is putting question marks in the heads of their supporters. Stuart Broad knows that the team needs to recover fast if it is looking to defend its title successfully.
In terms of the team, Tim Bresnan is likely to be dropped that puts the team composition into the mix. Samit Patel could be one replacement after finally making it to the squad following Andy Flower's tough fitness regime.
At the top of the order Craig Keiswetter and Luke Wright will look to provide a solid start with other West Indies bowlers having potential for trouble.
For West Indies, the word unpredictability is becoming synonymous with them fast but it is that very thing that Darren Sammy the captain is looking to avoid. He appeared relaxed during the press conference and even smiled at a few of the questions.
Australia vs West Indies Preview
With two matches to be played on Saturday, West Indies and Australia will clash in the second of the matches to be played. This will be also be the second match of the group following Australia's comfortable win over Ireland. West Indies will be opening their campaign as one of the favorites after a long time in their cricketing history.
It has been a largely fruitless past decade for West Indies with not much to boast about. This time though they enter with high hopes and as major contenders for the title. One look at the squad is enough to give the opposition a scare as the presence of several match-winners is never a good omen for the rivals. Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Samuel Badree and Dwayne Bravo are proven match-winners on their day and have excelled in various T20 competitions worldwide.
The only worry though is that as a team they have failed to produce such results and are the only test playing nation besides Zimbabwe to have lost more T20s than they have won.
With spin likely to play a major role, Narine and Badree will be the key as they would have chalked out their plans to exploit Australian batsmen's weakness against quality spin bowling.
For Australia, it is a question of answering their critics as they have not fared as well as was expected of them in the shortest format of the game. But they were ruthless against Ireland who were just one place below them in the ICC rankings.
Gayle to miss Sri Lanka Premier League
The inaugural season of Sri Lanka Premiere League (SLPL) loses much of its colors. It is going to be deprived of the dashing batting of Chris Gayle, one of the big attractions of Twenty20 cricket. Gayle has been ruled out of the league due to a serious strain in his groin. He was the captain and the icon player for the franchise Uva Next.
Gayle picked up this injury during his playing in the Bangladesh Premiere League (BPL) but the injury got aggravated during the second Test between West Indies and New Zealand in Jamaica. This injury also prevented Gayle to take part in the South Africa’s Twenty20 tournament for Dolphins franchise. The CEO of Uva Next, Tushar Bedi, said that it was a big blow for them to lose Gayle but they were still very happy with the current team and strongly hoped to win the competition at the end. The CEO also said that Gayle had a three-year contract with his franchise and hoped to get Gayle’s service in the next two years.
Lately, the tournament’s withdrawal list has been updated with the names of Pakistan’s Abdur Rehman and West Indies’ Fidel Edwards. The list has already included Shakib Al Hasan, whom Bangladesh Cricket Board did not permit to participate because of a minor injury problem. Another player from Bangladesh, Elias Sunny, is not also going to take part in SLPL while speculation is circulating regarding Marlon Samuel’s possible unavailability.