Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Team India, the fancied one to lift the tri nation’s cup in Bangladesh meet the hosts in the last league match at Sher e Bangla Stadium on Thursday. This is the time where the Indians need to avoid complacency and register an emphatic win to keep the momentum going. Bangladesh although weakest of the test playing nations, has caught oppositions complacent and off the boil. In the last World Cup in Windies, Indians were already thinking about taking on Australia in the finals and were knocked out in the first round itself, courtesy a defeat to the hands of Bangladesh.

Indian performance was pretty good in their last win over Pakistan. Batsmen looked in good touch, bowlers bowled good line and length and fielders demonstrated great commitment.

It would be a good idea to bring in a couple of players like Uthappa and RP Singh into the eleven to keep the hunger alive. They would look to impress and get a chance in the final. There is immense pressure on the likes of Rohit, Uthappa, Raina and Pathan, one of whom will make way for Sachin when he returns. Bowlers need to perform as well because Zaheer and Sreesanth will get in the team eventually and two of these will need to make way. It would even be a good idea to go into this game with five bowlers adding another spinner Ojha.

Bangladesh on the other hand would like a show a bit more commitment to give their fans something to look forward for the future. The way Ashraful went about in his innings was simply very sorry to watch and hope he shows a bit more intent this time round.

Dr. Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

In sports like soccer and basketball club format has been in for a long time. Team mates in the English Premier League sides or NBA squads are pitted against each other when playing for their countries but it’s a first timer for cricket.

Some players playing on opposite sides will know each others’ weaknesses and strengths. Whether this will have as huge an impact as has been speculated remains to be seen. These are all world class performers and such things can only raise the level of the game.

Let’s look at some of such interesting combinations in the second one day international of the tri nation’s series in Bangladesh between India and Pakistan.

Virender Sehwag v Shoaib Malik

Interestingly both of them are right handed batters and right arm off break bowlers. While Sehwag is a more attacking batsman, Shoaib is a more secure and compact type of batsman and a more regular bowler. He started his career as more of a bowling all rounder but has developed into a batting all rounder. Even after knowing everything about Sehwag there is not much that oppositions can plan because on his day he would thrash the best of bowlers and go down to some sheepishly tame dismissals on others.

Sehwag is likely to open the batting and having seen him all this while he has only a chance of one in ten of being still on crease when Malik comes to roll his arm over. We may still get to see some action between the two if Sehwag bowls to Malik or if this that one of the ten days for Sehwag.

Yusuf Pathan v Sohail Tanvir

This would be an interesting battle. Yusuf Pathan is an attacking batsman with not the best techniques on show. Tanvir could apply himself or share with his mates some strategy to knock or contain Pathan.

On the other hand Tanvir has an unconventional bowling action and Yusuf could share a trick or two with his mates on how to pick his bowling, specially the well disguised slow yorkers.

Rohit Sharma v Shahid Afridi

Shahid is in excellent bowling form and Rohit is an excellent player of spin. He would have faced Afridi many a times in the nets during their stint at Hyderabad for Deccan Chargers. Shahid would definitely know a ball or two that Rohit doesn’t like as much as others. Afridi has shown that he gets out within ten balls if bowlers bowl on a good line and length but Rohit must have noticed couple of very weak points in his game.

Praveen Kumar v Misbah-ul-Haq
Praveen Kumar has bowled very intelligently in the last six months. He bowled an excellent last over in an IPL match for Bangalore against Chennai where he gave just one run with Suresh Raina on strike leading his side to a 13 run win. Misbah didn’t have the best of time at IPL failing to contribute substantially. Praveen must surely have grabbed a thing or two about his batting and batting technique.

© IPL Cricket forum

The tri nation’s tournament opener opened the chapters of the same old sorry story for Bangladesh. How many times has it happened that Bangladesh captains have been lured in to bowling first on a seemingly fresh and lively pitch and have ended up being batted out of the game by the half time. Bangladesh need to realize that whatever the conditions may be the only chance they have of winning against top teams is batting first posting a decent score and hope that their spinners come good. Even on a lively pitch, Bangladesh pacers don’t have the potency to bowl out good oppositions for totals that they could chase.

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Tri Nation Series

Team in Review: India

India start as the firm favorites to take away this trophy. But they have to cope with the absence of an experienced batsman like Sachin or Rahul in the team and the absence of bowlers Harbhajan, Zaheer and Sreesanth.

The bowling although still looks strong enough but what will test them is a few quick wickets where somebody will have to rise to play the role of Rahul Dravid of holding one end up that Rahul did so brilliantly well. Gambhir will probably take on Sachin’s task of staying on the wicket and playing a long innings.

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Medium Pace Bowler Manpreet Gony who played for Chennai Super Kings in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) has been selected to play as a replacement for Sreesanth who dropped out for back injury.

IPL was Gony’s first exposure to International Cricket and the Bangladesh Tri Nation Series will be his debut in International ODI.

Gony had an impressive run in the IPL and played an important role in the journey of Chennai Super Kings to the IPL Final. Gony played a Total of 16 matches in IPL and bagged 17 wickets conceding 443 runs at an impressive economy rate of 7.38. His best was 3/34 against Bangalore Royal Challengers.

© IPL Cricket Forum