India Vs South Africa Test Series draw as 1-1

Indian Cricket team made the test series draw against South Africa after completing the fifth day of the third test for 166 runs.

The toss winning Indian side asked South Africa to bat first. In the first Innings, South Africa scored the considerable 362 runs which includes Kallis century. Kallis scored hefty 161 out of 291 balls and made their side comfortable for the first innings. Indian bowlers took the wickets at regular intervals. Sree santh took five wickets and Zaheer khan took 3 wickets.

India who had started their first innings scored 364 for all out. Sachin who hit his 51st century has brought the India score to 364 which paved the way for the India to cross the follow on mark. Dale Steyn took five wickets for the team South Africa.

South Africa who started their second innings on the fourth day scored 341 and set the difficult target of 340. Kallis, though he got injured scored 109 combined with the partnership Mark Boucher.

India who started their second innings, from the starting itself, India tried to draw the series. Sehwag, who was not performing well this series was out initially but later Dravid and Gambhir slowly played their innings. Later India was 166 for 3 wickets and the series was draw for 1-1.

India stays top in ICC test rankings

After defeating the Srilanka in the third test match of the series Micromax Cup held in Srilanka, the Indian cricket team continues to be in top position in ICC test ranking.

In the three test matches against Srilanka, the host team managed to won the first match and second match, though there were many centuries, end up in a draw. India want to win the third match in order to level the series against Srilanka. Many injuries have already affected the Indian cricket team and this made India to be on the weeker side.

However, the India managed in third test to win the match and made the series draw by 1-1. VVS Laxman showed his brilliant performance on the field in the second innings of 3rd test and paved the way for victory for India.

Sehwag, who showed his fantastic performance in 1st innings and also he joined in the 7000 run mark bandwagon in this match.

Sachin, the master of records have once again proved his buoyancy on the field by winning the title of most capped player in test matches.

At last Dhoni, who proved his excellency in his captaincy and brings Indian cricket team back to Victorious path.

India, all the best for World Cup 2011.

Muralitharan: I will miss bowling to Sachin

Srilankan Ace Spinner Muralidharan after his retirement announced that he is going to miss bowling to our Little Master Blaster Sachin in his cricket career.

Muralitharan achieved his 800 wickets in Test cricket matches in his 18 years career in the cricket. He is not only achieved his mark but also guided Srilanka to a thumping 10-wicket win against India at Galle.

Murali quoted "I am going to miss the dressing room environment. The challenges of five-day cricket and first and foremost bowling to great players like Sachin Tendulkar. I will miss this,". [Source: ndtv.com]

Murali however does not think that his decision was not correct and also the decision was not premature one. He said that it was the perfect time to retire from the Test cricket.

Murali to his surprise, achieved his 800 wickets after he took wicket in his final ball in the test cricket against India.

Muralitharan said he felt overwhelmed by the love and respect showered on him by great players like Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Wasim Akram and Sourav Ganguly.

Muralitharan a real gentleman not only in cricket but also in his real life.

Congrats Murali!!!

Indian team squad for Srilanka Tour

Indian cricket team selectors have selected the 16 men squad for the next month Srilanka tour for the test match. Yuvraj Singh have been included in the 16 men squad, thanks for the selectors. Yuvaraj Singh was dropped from the team squad of Asia Cup because of his poor performance shown in Caribbean land and in Twenty20 World Cup.

Ace batsmen Rahul Dravid also comes back after he missed the test series against South Africa. As usual Sachin will be back in his position and VVS laxman on his way back to test match. Wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha have been included in the team at the expense of Dinesh Karthik.

Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth will handle the area of pace bowling while spin will be handled by Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra.

The first test will be played in Galle from July 18. The second and third tests will be played from July 26-30 and Aug. 3-7 in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.

Squad: MS Dhoni (wk & capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag (vice-capt.), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, M Vijay, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Wriddhiman Saha (wk)

Muralitharan plans to retire from Test Cricket in 2010

The ace spinner Muralitharan have decided to retire from the Test Cricket match this year 2010 and decided to retire from other forms of International cricket after the end of Cricket World Cup scheduled on next year 2011.

The 37 year old Murali have taken a world record of 792 wickets in 132 Tests, having eigth more ticekts to reach a mark of 800 wickets in Test matches. Till date, he had a successful career of 18 years and he may withdraw from the test matches after playing against West Indies in this October. He needs only eight more scalps to become the first and only player to take 800 wickets.

He has also taken 512 wickets from 334 ODIs.He is going to play for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League starting this March 12th.

Muralitharan is one of the best bowlers in the game.

Sri Lanka's Test schedule for 2010 is completed by three Tests in India in July, although that series is yet to be confirmed. Muralitharan said his aim was to reach the 800 Test wicket mark before retiring.

Hats off Murali!!!

India retain No. 1 rankings, assured of ICC prize money

The dramatic win in the last minutes of the second test against Proteas, Indians retained their number one spot again in the ICC test cricket rankings. India made the series draw against the South Africa after winning the thrilling test held at Kolkata. South Africa defeat India in its first test held at Nagpur.

India after the thrilling moments at Kolkata test, won by an Innings and 57 runs that was the one of the big margin in the field of test matches. This winning bring ends to the test as the visitors got within touching distance of forcing a draw, losing the last wicket with only 13 minutes of play remaining. After winning this spectacular match on Thursday, India once again retained their number one status on ICC test cricket rankings, which also entitles them to USD 175000 given to the team that was number one on the chart at the yearly cut off date of April 1.

Dhoni's men ended Australia's seven year run of number one spot at the annual cut off date.
Moreover India reached the top spot after they won the match against Sri lanka by 2-0 in the home series in December last year.

India vs Srilanka 3rd Test

The 3rd test between India and Sri Lanka is going to be held at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai. Srilanka won the toss and they have elected to bat first.

Today match,India's awesome opener Gambhir will not play in this 3rd test. TamilNadu Player M.Vijay replaces the position of Gambhir.

In today’s match, it is expected that express bowlers will give good support to both team. The 2nd test massive win by India aganst Srilanka increases confidence among Indian players. But Srilanka wants to taste their first win against Indian team in test match in India.
Indian Team: Captain MS Dhoni, R. Dravid, V.Sehwag, S. Tendulkar, Murali Vijay, Y. Singh, VVS Laxman, Sreesanth, H. Singh, Z. Khan, Pragyan Ojha.

Sri Lanka: Captain K.Sangakkara, T. Paranavitana, P. Jayawardene, Tillakaratne, T. Samaraweera, M. Jayawardene, Chanaka Welegedara Angelo Mathews, R. Herath, N. Kulasekera, M. Muralitharan.

Bangladesh celebrate rare test victory

Bangladesh savored only their second victory in 60 tests on Tuesday after their team defeated West Indies in the first test in Kingstown, St Vincent. Four years and six months after their first Test win, Bangladesh bagged a historic second victory when they beat West Indies by 95 runs.They won their first test match against Zimbabwe at home.

Victory was still uncertain when Bangladesh fans went to bed as the team had only 80 overs to bowl out West Indies after setting a fourth-innings target of 277 runs on the final day.Bangladesh wrapped up a 95-run win, taking the lead in the two-test series against West Indies.

Only all-rounder Dave Bernard of West Indies team with an unbeaten 52 runs, his second half-century of the match, showed any resistance as no other batsman scored over 20 in the innings.

Man-of-the-match Tamim Iqbal's impressive knock of 128 on Sunday made the game beyond the hosts as Bangladesh claimed a first overseas Test triumph.