Why India hates DRS

In the 3rd Test match between India and Sri Lanka at Colombo in 2008,
Anil Kumble looks frustrated and watch out for Sachin’s reaction. priceless!

Yuvi: 'Pure Inspiration' - Sachin Tendulkar

"When I saw my wife discussing medical terms with Yuvraj, I realised what he has been going through. He is like my younger brother and I would ask God why it (the illness) had to happen to Yuvraj," Tendulkar said in an emotional tone.

Yuvraj, in his typical funny manner, recollected how he met Tendulkar for the first time.

"My first conversation was when I was looking at him in awe at the dressing room when suddenly he said 'please pass on the biscuits," Yuvraj said.

To this Tendulkar said, "I have not got those biscuits till now."

  Sachin Tendulkar today said that he was scared of breaking down in front of Yuvraj Singh when he met the left-handed batsman in London after his treatment in the United States for a rare germ cell cancer.

"When I went to meet him in London, I was telling my wife (Anjali) that I don't want to break down when I see him. I met him and gave him a tight hug. We enjoyed a meal and from the way he (Yuvraj) ate, I was convinced that he is back on track," Tendulkar told a select gathering during the release of Yuvraj's book "The Test of My Life'.
It was a poignant evening today with the likes of Tendulkar, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and latest batting star Virat Kohli recollecting stories and their emotional experience during Yuvraj's fight with cancer.

On a serious note, Dhoni said that he knew about Yuvraj's situation even before he told him about it.

"When his test reports came, someone told me he has cancer. I just said 'are you sure'. The person repeated that Yuvraj has cancer. I was shocked," said Dhoni.
Recalling India's World Cup triumph in 2011, Yuvraj said, "Dhoni does not talk too much while batting. But when he got out against Australia in the quarterfinals, while going back he said shaabash Yuvi jitake aana."

On a lighter vein, Dhoni remembered how Yuvraj greeted him in the Indian team back in 2004-05.

"Are bhai kya chal raha hain, phir chhake maarnese kuchch nahi hota, match jitaanese jyada appreciation milta hain," he said.

"First I used to refer to him as 'aap' and from then it came down to 'tum' and now it is 'tu'," Dhoni said.

Yuvraj Singh's 'The Test of my life' is innate honesty

'The Test of my life' is an honest and poignant account of the vulnerabilities and darkness that consumed India's world cup hero.

It is easy for a book to perpetuate a myth. Or attempt a portrayal of heroism and triumph against the odds when a man has just emerged from a frightening ordeal. More so, if that man is Yuvraj Singh- celebrity cricketer and the very embodiment of machismo, with a dedicated fan following thirsting for every little nugget of his life. While chronicling Yuvraj's battle against cancer, the authors could so easily have spun the story as a cleverly disguised marketing exercise, designed to enhance his 'brand value'. Instead, they chose to tell the truth with all its frailties and un-sexiness and deserve plaudits for doing so.

'The Test of my life' is an honest and poignant account of the vulnerabilities and darkness that consumed India's World Cup hero through his battle with cancer. In less than 200 riveting pages the book invites us into the inner world of a man who experiences the extremities of a roller coaster in the space of weeks- and finds his own method to tackle the challenge.

The greatest triumph of 'The Test of My Life' is its innate honesty. Yuvraj bravely reveals his anxieties as the battle against cancer took over his life. Asking his doctor before chemotherapy begins if he will be 'able to father a child in the future' and if he 'could maybe preserve his sperm' before treatment begins. He bares the terrible loneliness of staring out of his window in Indianapolis with the town buzzing ahead of the Super Bowl. Just days before he was the central figure in a grand sporting moment too- India's World Cup triumph. Now he was a mute witness to another sporting spectacle unfolding- unsure of what lay ahead.

Hashim Aamla pays 5 hundred Dollars fine for not wearing logo of wine Company on his shirt True Muslim

Did You Know ?

Hashim Amla gives 50% of his match fee as penalty because of not sticking the castle lager tag on his Jersey , Which Is Against His Religious Views , i.e., Of ISLAM !!

Hashim Amla does not wear a Castle logo on his cricket shirt, said that he did not pocket a cent from his match fee.
Promoting beer & liquor is against the teaching of Islam and as such Amla became the first player to be the exception.
who was granted permission by South African Breweries and Cricket South Africa not to wear the Castle logos on his clothing.

"Since Hashim understands his religion well, his beliefs are staunch and knows what is right and wrong. At the outset he made the decision not to wear the Castle logo on his clothing, which went public, and at the same time he also took the decision that the money earned from the Tests, sponsored by Castle, were forbidden for his use

INTERVIEW WITH HASHIM AMLA

Your religion is clearly important to you but just how much?
The importance of my religion has increased as I have got older. I couldn’t put a time frame on it but I have found that following the Islamic way of life has a lot of beauty to it. Although I was born into a Muslim family I wasn’t always practicing. The more I have understood the differences in the various faiths I have adopted as much of Islam as possible. I’m certainly no saint but the discipline of the Islamic way of life has helped my cricket without a doubt. I don’t drink and I pray five times a day, which gives stability to my daily routine.

Howzat!Bhuvneshwar's triple blow leaves Aussies in danger.

Australia tour of India 2012-13, India Vs Australia 3rd Test at Mohali - Mar 14-18, 2013.
Australia are in the danger of losing the Third Test at Mohali after losing three top order wickets in 21 overs before stumps on Day 4. The visitors were jolted by Bhuvneshwar Kumar who used both conventional and reverse swing to take all the three wickets to fall to give India hopes of a victory. The visitors finished the penultimate day’s play at 75 for 3 with a deficit of 16 more runs to score.

Australia with 21 overs to bat through lost the big wicket of David Warner in just the third ball of the innings! Warner didn’t move his feet and chased a widish away swinger from Bhuvneshwar Kumar with a rash square cut and got caught behind. Kumar who shifted ends for a second spell, struck again in the 8^th over by trapping Ed Cowan lbw infront of leg and middle with a late inswinger that kept low.
Just when Kumar’s spell for the day was coming to an end, he surprised everyone with a magic delivery that uprooted the off stump of Steven Smith. It was a length ball that was angling in towards middle but deviated away with low bounce after landing on the surface to beat the frontfoot defence and smack the off stump. Apart from Kumar, Ashwin produced quite a lot of magic deliveries but was unlucky not to get amongst the wickets. For the Aussies, Phil Hughes who has been struggling to get going in this series rode his luck and scored a chancy 53* from 68 balls with 9 fours and a six. Never ever was Hughes comfortable at the crease but he was severe on anything that was wide outside off and collected boundaries in a hurry. At Stumps, Australia have night watchman Nathan Lyon (4* from 17 balls) with Hughes. Clarke could not come out to bat yet because of his lower back trouble.

Hayden sees the hidden tiger in Sachin Tendulkar

A tiger resides inside the ”little” frame of Sachin Tendulkar, feels former Australian batsman Matthew Hayden, who saw it when he started playing against the Indian veteran.
“I probably first heard Sachin’s name in the early ’90s. The one thing that always stuck in my mind about Sachin was that his size never ever matched his status,” Hayden wrote in a book ‘Sachin – Cricketer of the Century’ by Vimal Kumar.
“He was an incredibly slight man for someone who was such a huge brand within the game. It wasn’t until I really played against him that I understood that there was a tiger that lay within him: he was a very competitive little man,” he said.

Hayden also recalled an interesting incident from the 2008 Test series in India: ”My favourite Sachin moment was at the Mohali Test where he broke the world record for the most number of Test runs. There was so much excitement around the ground that the fireworks actually stopped play for the better part of 20 minutes, whilst the smoke cleared away,” he recalled.
Writing in the same book, former Australian coach John Buchanan compared Tendulkar with Australian great Ricky Ponting, who happened to be a contemporary of the Indian: “Statistically, Tendulkar has a better record than Ricky Ponting. If Tendulkar is far more orthodox, far more classical and technical, Ricky is a little more unorthodox,” he explained.
Buchanan, however, felt it was difficult to choose between Tendulkar and Ponting:  ”Sachin definitely is a better player of spin bowling, more so on the challenging and spin-friendly wickets of the sub-continent,” he said.
“I would have loved to see Ricky’s domination over spinners in the same way as Sachin’s, and vice versa, the Master’s audacity on the front foot like the Tasmanian’s against the best fast bowlers. Only if these two qualities were exchanged in their respective games could either of them have bettered Sir Bradman’s Test average,” he added.
Buchanan praised Tendulkar’s mental toughness: “Sachin has an exceptional ability to relax and can switch on and switch off with ease without any fuss. To get away from cricket and can come back recharged year after year for decades has been really marvellous. The Master has been the greatest exponent of doing that.”

Sachin played his last ODI exactly an year ago

Exactly an year ago, on 18-03-2012, Master played his Last ODI against Pakistan. Nobody Could have predicted that the last match of the tournament for India will become last match of most celebrated and accomplished cricketer of the world.
Anyways Master made a Ruthless 52(48) in the match, with 5 fours and this upper cut six. 

Result: India won by 6 wickets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bowler	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Wides	No-Balls		Econ
Tendulkar	1.4	0	12	0	0	0		7.20

List of ODI Awards for Sachin Tendulkar  Tendulkar is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsman in world cricket history. He holds the world record for the most number of Man of the Series (MoS) and Man of the Match (MoM) awards in ODI matches. Tendulkar also holds the record for most number of MoM awards in Cricket World Cup matches (9 MoM Awards in 45 games). In terms of frequency of Man of Match awards, Tendulkar averages an award once every 7.31 matches - 62 awards in 453 matches (as of 7 July, 2012). This average stands behind Viv Richards (MoM award once every 5.58 matches) and Gordon Greenidge (MoM award once every 6.00 matches) for cricketers who have appeared in at least 100 matches. Tendulkar has won a world record of 62 ODI Man of the Match Awards in his career.Tendulkar has won a world record of most ODI MoS awards over his year's career.

India on driver seat

 

 Every time Australia have threatened to do well on this tour, India have crushed their hopes. India's progress has been relentless, and the waves crashed on Australia's dreams once more in a dramatic day's play at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium in Mohali on Saturday (March 16). Australia, powered by the an unlikely 99 from Mitchell Starc, put 408 on the board, but could only watch in shock and awe as India's openers made a mockery of this score. Shikhar Dhawan, in the most eye-catching debut ever by an Indian batsman, shredded Australia's bowlers to race to an unbeaten 185 as India romped to 283 for no loss from only 58 overs.

Dhawan was completely unstoppable, and Vijay had the good sense to merely keep his end up and rotate the strike, reaching a well-compiled 83 in an opening stand of 283. Dhawan (185*, 168b, 33×4, 2×6) had been severe on Xavier Doherty (46 runs from 30 balls) and Smith (20 from 12 balls) but none of the other Australian bowlers could claim to have been effective with India scoring their runs at 4.87.

Many consider Abhishek Nayar as a run-machine but on Tuesday (Wednesday, 13 March 2013) , it was not his bat that was doing the scoring. The Mumbai batsman, who is also a part-time right-handed spinner, bowled a 17-ball record-setting over with ten wides and a no-ball!

Bowling against South Zone in a Deodhar Trophy match on Tuesday, the 29-year-old West Zone cricketer was reportedly unhappy with his first wide of the 12th over, a marginal call. While the Mumbai Mirror in a report says that the player was not angry but 'visibly disturbed,' he followed it up with 16 more deliveries in the same over of the match being played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Guwahati.

Interestingly, Nayar scalped a wicket off the first delivery of the 'infamous' over when he rattled the stumps behind GH Vihari. It was the third delivery  which was declared as a wide and it set the ball rolling, quite literally. There was an unsuccessful appeal for an LBW off the next delivery which was followed by a barrage of wides.

The all-rounder with 98 first-class wickets was taken off the attack immediately after but was brought back for the 18th over which saw him bowl two more wides and a no-ball. He was quoted as saying after the match that he was a bit rusty but that he was happy with his overall bowling figures from the day's play.

Nayar was bought for a whopping Rs 3.5 crore by Pune Warriors in the IPL auction in February. Will he bowl for them during the upcoming T20 extravaganza?
                                                                                                 
                                                                                 

Fastest century in World Test history by a debutant

India opener Shikhar Dhawan on Saturday created history by scoring fastest-ever century on debut in Test cricket. The 27-year-old also became the 13th Indian cricketer to slam a century on debut, scoring 104 not out off just 85 balls against Australia in the third Test at Mohali.

 An awe-inspiring Shikhar Dhawan made the day his own by bludgeoning his way to an unbeaten 168-ball 185 -- the fastest-ever Test century by a debutant, as a dominant India left Australia bruised and battered in the third match of the series

What was amazing was that Dhawan, effectively, scored his hundred in just one session since he was not out on nought at lunch. Dhawan’s knock of 104 not out was studded with 21 boundaries as the Australian bowlers had no answer to the onslaught which took them by surprise.

The left-handed opening batsman didn’t play a single stroke in the air during his innings, and found boundaries at ease on both the sides of the wicket.

Earlier, Dhawan clobbered 12 boundaries to bring up his maiden half-century in Test cricket, during the third day's play at Mohali. Dhawan brought up his half-century from only 51 balls, reaching 54 not out.

 Centuries by Indian cricketers on debut:

Player	Year	Score
Lala Amarnath	1933	118
Deepak Shodhan	1952	110
AG Kripal Singh	1955	100*
Abbas Ali Baig	1959	112
Hanumant Singh	1964	105
Gundappa Viswanath	1969	137
Surinder Amarnath	1976	124
Mohammad Azharuddin	1984	110
Pravin Amre	1992	103
Sourav Ganguly	1996	131
Virender Sehwag	2001	105
Suresh Raina	2010	120
**Shikhar Dhawan	2013	104*

** Match still in progress

Dhawan is still unbeaten at Mohali at the time of writing this report, and it remains to be seen how far he will go.

Ricky Ponting will lead Mumbai Indians in the IPL VI season. MI bought the former Australian captain at a reserve price of $400,000 at the recent auction held in Chennai. According to a MI release the decision to name Ponting as captain was taken by MI chief mentor Anil Kumble, coach John Wright and Sachin Tendulkar. “Ricky has a lot of experience to lead a competitive and a high-profile side like MI in the IPL. Sachin readily agreed to my suggestion that MI is best served when he leads the batting unburdened by the rigours of captaincy. It was our idea (Sachin and mine) to bring in Ricky as the captain of MI,” said Kumble.

The release also quoted Ponting as saying, “It’s a huge honour and I thank Mrs. Ambani and the MI management for the faith they have reposed in my abilities. MI has the potent combination of Indian and international cricketers and I look forward to leading the team to play to its full potential.” MI is scheduled to start against Royal Challenger, Bangalore (RCB) at Bangalore on April 4.

IPL countdown starts

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