Cricket Weekly

In the first week of Cricket around the world, matches were played with different teams in different countries. Sri Lanka toured New Zealand, West Indies toured Australia, England touring South Africa, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan are playing in UAE, and Big Bash league in Australia.

Sri Lanka lost Test Cricket & ODI cricket series in New Zealand. Both series were dominated by New Zealand in form batsman Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson. Sri Lanka tried best to give good challenge but team without retired legends is still looking for good combination of players. In another Australia remain unbeaten this year in test cricket and their complete team work won test cricket series against West Indies.

Australian Openers, captain and their bowlers are in tremendous form and players in all three cricket formats are in good form. England cricket team is showing a winning determination in South Africa to win Test cricket series. Ben stokes created records in second test match. England won the first test match and now lead the series. South African Skipper has stepped down as Captain.

Afghanistan won ODI cricket series against Zimbabwe in UAE in a thrilling finish in last match. They now are close to win T20 Series too if they win last match. In Big bash League; Adelaide Strikers is on top now followed by Perth scorchers, Melbourne Stars, and Sydney Thunder. In coming week, Pakistan will tour New Zealand for T20 and ODI series. India will tour Australia for T20 and ODI series. 

Bangladesh outplayed India

In a three match series against India, Bangladesh played their best cricket and won the series by 2-1. Fifties from Shikhar Dhawan and MS Dhoni set up a good score in the last match and gave them the consolation of avoiding a 3-0 Banglawash. However, Bangladesh made an encouraging start but lost too many wickets till 30^th over to stay in connection and their winning streak at home is also stopped by India.

Indian bowling didn’t go well in the series. Fast bowlers failed to make any impression whereas part time bowlers shine in only winning match. There will be a lot of questions in dressing room on many players who failed to perform in this series. Even in test match except openers, other key batsman didn’t bat for long. Consistency is what is missing in team right now. Better combination of bowlers and middle order batsman is also missing.

For every single spot there are options of two players, which is at times difficult for captain to choose. In upcoming series in England and Zimbabwe, Indian team has to play a good cricket. In current series, Mustafizur Rahman picked 13 wickets, which is most by a Bangladesh bowler against India. Shikhar Dhawan scored 158 runs, most by any batsman.

This is the first time Bangladesh had won series against India. In next week, Bangladesh will play against South Africa. India will play against Zimbabwe. All eyes will be on Indian batsman especially Virat Kohli. His performance is questioned from World Cup 2015 and he will have to perform to show his ability as a captain.

World Cup 2015 - Records Breaking Match

This year in World Cup 2015, both bowlers and batsman are giving great performances. Ten days are passed and tournament is already flooded with lot of records. World Cup first match started with 300+ scores and most of the matches are ending in 300+ scores in first innings. New Zealand, Australia, India, and West Indies are giving great performances. West Indies have scored 300+ in all matches and so did India.

New Zealand beats England with 37.4 overs spare, it is the worst defeat for a test nation. Tim Southee took seven wickets in a match, which is the best bowling for New Zealand in World Cup. McCullum smashed fastest World Cup fifty against England. Ireland chased down 300+ score against West Indies. Pakistan were reduced to 1 for 4 against West Indies, the worst start in any of the World Cup match. Eoin Morgan is the only man in World Cup 2015 to play for two different countries. He played for Ireland in 2007 and now for England as a Captain.

Finally, on 24^th February 2015, many World Cup records were broken. West Indies firing machine Chris Gayle finally turned all faces towards him in a single match. He struck first double-hundreds of World Cup in in just 138 balls. He scored 215 runs, the highest by any batsman in World Cup. He broke Gary Kirsten record of 188 runs against UAE. He is the now the fourth batsman to scored double hundred in ODIs. His double century came after exactly five years, Sachin Tendulkar scored first Double-hundreds against South Africa.

Sixteen number of sixes smashed by Chris Gayle in his innings, joint most by any batsman in ODI. AB de Villiers and Rohit Sharma have also hit 16 sixes. Gayle runs tally is above 9000 in ODIs and became second West Indies batsman after Brian Lara to achieve this feat. This was his 22^nd century, equal to Saurav Ganguly and Virat Kohli. 372 runs scored by West Indies in their innings, their highest in ODI. This is also the highest score by any team in ODI in Australia.

Gayle and Samuels scored 372 runs partnership for second wicket, which is the highest any wicket partnership in ODI. The previous record was 331, between Sachin and Rahul Dravid. 298 balls faced by Gayle and Samuels, the most for any ODI stand. The partnership record for second wicket is also broken by them. Earlier record was for 165 runs between Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammad Azharuddin in 1987. Zimbabwe scored 3 number of 275+ scores in this World Cup, the most ever for them in single edition of World Cup.

These are some of the records broken in a single match and until now in this edition of World Cup. We may see more records breaking performance in remaining matches. Stay Tuned for all.