Bangladesh Beat England At Cricket World Cup

Cricket World Cup 2011, played at Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong. Home side got the target of 226 runs in 49 overs.

According to details Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field first. Both English openers Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior failed to score today and turned back to pavilion after scoring 18 and 15 runs respectively. The third English wicket fell on 53 when Ian Bell got dismissed by Mahmudullah on 5. He faced 23 balls for this score. After losing three early wickets Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan played very sensible cricket and added 107 runs in the fourth wicket partnership. The innings of Morgan ended on 63.

Trott became the fifth wicket of home side; he scored 67 runs on 99 balls. Ravinder Bopara contributed his role by adding his 16 runs to his side’s total. On 209, the seventh wicket of English team fell, when Graeme Swann goes caught and bowled by Saqibul. He scored 12. Tim Bresnan was dismissed by Rubel on 2. Paul Collingwood goes runout on the second last ball of final over. He scored 14 on 13 balls. At the end the final score of English team was 225 in 49.4 overs. Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak and Saqibul Hasan finished the innings of 2, 2 players.

Following the target of 226, both openers Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes took an aggressive and confident start and built up the opening partnership of 52 runs. Iqbal got clean bowled by Bresnan on 38. Junaid Siddique goes runout after scoring 12 runs. Soon after, Raqibul Hasan was taken by Shahzad, he can’t opened his score account. On this stage captain Saqibul Hasan played very sensible cricket along with Kayes and added 88 runs in the fourth wicket partnership.

The innings of Kayes ended on 60; he faced 100 balls for this score. The fifth Bangladeshi wicket fell on 162 when Saqibul Hasan was dismissed by Swann on 32.
Wicketkeeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim contributed his role by adding his 6 runs to his side’s total. Naeem Islam turned back to pavilion on duck. On this stage Mohammad Mahmudullah and Shafiul Islam played great cricket and with the mutual partnership of 58 runs got the target on the last ball of 49th over. Mahmudullah was not out on 21 while Shafiul Islam on 24.

Ajmal Shahzad was the most successful bowler from English team, who finished the innings of 3 players.

Cricket World Cup 2011: Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe to reach quarter finals

Sri Lanka (327-6) beat Zimbabwe (188) by 139 runs

Tillakaratne Dilshan smashed 144 before taking 4-4 to help Sri Lanka to victory.
Together with fellow opener Upul Tharanga, who hit a career-best 133, Dilshan put on a new World Cup opening stand of 282 to guide Sri Lanka to an imposing 327-6 before a packed 30,000 crowd at Pallekele stadium.
Zimbabwe made a fighting reply with Brendon Taylor (80) and Regis Chakabva (35) through a solid 116-run start before the innings fell apart, as they lost their last their last nine wickets for just 63 runs.
Dilshan, who bettered his previous best of 4-29 against India at Dambulla in 2005, also became the 11th all-rounder, and the second Sri Lankan behind Sanath Jayasuriya, to score a hundred and take four wickets in an ODI.
The result meant Sri Lanka, with seven points from five matches in Group A, become the first side to enter the last eight.
New Zealand, with six points from four matches, Pakistan (six from four) and defending champions Australia (five from three) are virtually certain of filling the three other qualifying places from the group.
Sri Lanka owed their total to Dilshan and Tharanga who set the ball rolling after they were put into bat on a batting-friendly pitch, just failing to beat the world record first wicket stand of 286 runs.
Tharanga, who also featured in a that stand, with Jayasuriya against England at Leeds in 2006, hit his 10th one-day hundred, while Dilshan notched his ninth, and second in the World Cup.
Their stand was also the fourth highest partnership for any wicket in ODI history.
Dilshan, 34, smashed one six and 16 boundaries during his attractive 131-ball knock, cutting loose as early as in the second over, hitting paceman Tinashe Panyangara for three boundaries and a six.
The 26-year-old left-hander Tharanga, whose previous best of 120 came against England at Lord's in 2006, hit 17 boundaries during his 141-ball innings, as both the openers batted without trouble.
Dilshan reached his hundred with a quick single towards cover off Elton Chigumbura, taking 95 balls to reach the three-figure as a capacity 30,000 gave him a standing ovation.
In the 33rd over, Tharanga hit Tinashe Panyangara for another boundary to create a new World Cup record for the first wicket, beating the 194 set by Pakistan's Saeed Anwar and Wajahatullah Wasti, against New Zealand at Manchester in 1999.
Tharanga soon joined Dilshan as century maker when he drove Raymond Price towards extra-cover to reach his first World Cup hundred.
Tharanga was the first to go, miscuing a drive off paceman Christopher Mpofu in the 45th over, while Dilshan fell to a lofted shot off spinner Prosper Utseya in the next.
Mpofu then chipped in with wickets of Mahela Jayawardene (nine), Angelo Mathews (nought) and Chamara Silva (four) to finish with 4-64 in an otherwise hapless Zimbabwean bowling show.
Sri Lanka now face New Zealand in their last match in Mumbai on March 18 which will decide where they finish in the group.
Zimbabwe, with two points from four matches, can still make it to the quarters (on better net run-rate) if they win their last two matches, the first of which is against Pakistan on Monday and the next against Kenya on March 20.

Ballots best means of releasing tickets - Lorgat

Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, shook off the World Cup ticketing fiasco, saying that the ticket ballot which is about to be instituted for the finals and semi-finals was the best way to deal with the heavy demand for the ruling body's "flagship event".

"It is a much fairer way," Lorgat said. "It will avoid the kind of physical risks we want to avoid and I am confident that will be a much better system to release tickets." The lack of a centralised ticketing system in the Indian arm of the three-nation World Cup has exposed two major issues: the lopsided availability of public tickets as well as a delayed distribution system by local associations, which has led to anger from fans and disgruntlement amongst sponsors.

Speaking in Bangalore, Lorgat described the police baton-charge on the crowd queuing outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium as, "unfortunate" but that "you have to accept that the rush for tickets is an indication of how popular this game is. Those are scenes we would not like to see, none of us would like to see that. It is also a fact that the local police and the local associations know best how to handle it. It is something we have no control over."

Lorgat said the letter written by the ICC's legal head David Becker to ICC president Sharad Pawar in his capacity as the chairman of the central co-ordination committee, "was not an issue". He said he had spoken to Pawar and the tournament director Ratnakar Shetty, several times since the letter became public and was sure the issue would be resolved.

"From time to time we turn to the President or in this case the chairman of the central co-ordinating committee, Mr Sharad Pawar, to intervene or to assist us with issues we are having difficulty with. In the past, whether it was issues related to visa or any other, the good offices of Mr Pawar have been very supportive and he has assisted us to sort out those issues. I'm sure that in this instance as well having turned to him for that sort of support, we will get it... Professor Shetty is entitled to react in the fashion that he did but I have no qualms about that."

He said that contrary to common perception, and the tone of the Becker letter, "there's no sponsor who wants to walk away. In fact many are wanting to come in. That's again a reflection of how fortunate we are and the strength of the game, but yes, we do have challenges with managing the requests of sponsors and their needs to receive physical tickets so that they can distribute it further to the public."

Lorgat did point out that the hosts of every ICC event were in charge of the sale of tickets and that the ICC sets and agrees on certain policies with them "well in advance" along with "several commitments" It is a fact of life that we have commitments to the sponsors who support us over a long period in our cycle. It is a fact that local hosts have a commitment whether it is to local organisations, whether it is to clubs, whether through the BCCI."

Lorgat said the diverse distribution of tickets through various means across Indian venues mean that they find their hands of cricket lovers. "What is unfortunate is that there is a few number that go to the public as a general sale, but whether it is through the clubs, through associates, through ICC channels they do arrive at the door of the public."

All through his media conference Lorgat repeated made the claim that the ticketing crisis and the official ticketing website crashing when tickets for the final went on sale, proved the 'strength of the game', and that the supply would never be able to catch up with demand. "This is how wonderful the growth in our sport has been. It is a reflection of the popularity of the game. It certainly negates those naysayers about the demise of 50-over cricket; it shows you what the flagship event means. Sure we need to find better ways of being able to distribute tickets, but the reality is if tomorrow [we had] a 100,000-seater, we would still not have enough tickets to satisfy the demand."

When asked when a centralised ticketing system would be put in place by the organisers of the 2015 World Cup, Lorgat said, "If my memory serves me correctly, that's exactly how the 2015 will work in any event in Australia and New Zealand. These are the reflections we will have to consider and look at improving the mechanisms in future."

With the World Cup being the first use of the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) in an ODI, Lorgat said that he thought the "bold decision" had been a good one. The future of UDRS in ODIs, he said, would only be made after a review of the feedback of the World Cup experience at a ICC cricket committee meeting in May. "That expert committee will consider all of the feedback and will decide on the way forward in so far as one-day cricket is concerned."

Cricket World Cup 2011: we will raise our game for India, says England captain Andrew Strauss, after Holland scare

Andrew Strauss knows England must improve quickly and significantly if they are to prove a match for hosts India in their second World Cup match.

A six-wicket win over Holland came after an, at times, embarrassing fielding performance at the VCA Stadium - where Ryan ten Doeschate hit a career-best 119 as the minnows set England 292 for six.
England recovered their composure, on the back of half-centuries from Strauss (88) and Jonathan Trott (62), to pass a testing target with eight balls to spare.
Even so, it is hard to envisage Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team being too concerned about the threat likely to be posed by England on Sunday after their lacklustre first attempt.
"I hope India will take us lightly after this performance," Strauss said, with half a smile.
He is optimistic that England will prove themselves capable of much better when it is required.

Millions tune into India’s Cricket World Cup opener

The opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup on 19 February, which saw India beat , scored an average television rating (TVR) in India of 7.47 and peak of 12.2, according to new figures from Tam Sports (C&S4+).
The average TV rating rose slightly to 7.8 in India’s six metro areas. Bangalore leads the pack with average TVR of 9.17 for the first match followed by Mumbai (9.14 TVR), Kolkata (7.7 TVR), Delhi (7.65 TVR), Hyderabad (6.43 TVR) and Chennai (4.94 TVR).
The figures show 33 million viewers in India watched the opening match from Dhaka on Star Cricket; 28 million watched the state channel Doordarshan 1; 25 million tuned into ESPN; and 17 million to Star Sports.

Of these viewers, 12 million watched on terrestrial television, and 76 million on cable and satellite, according to Indiantelevision.com. A total of 14 million viewers watched the initial cricketing action via digital transmission on either direct to home (DTH) satellite platforms or digital cable.
Fourteen million Indian viewers also tuned into the opening ceremony of the tournament on 17 February.
Broadcast rights holder ESPN Star Sports has also announced that requests for its live streaming of the Cricket World Cup on its website had reached over 3 million in the first four days of the tournament. Of these, one million were unique video viewers.
“We are indeed delighted with the ratings,” said Sanjay Kailash, Executive Vice President – Advertising Sales & New Media, ESPN Software India. “There have been lots of discussions and comparisons with rival properties over the past few months but the opening match of the tournament has clearly proved the fact that ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 is indeed the ‘The Cup That Counts’.

"In fact, the ratings of the opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup are substantially higher than the corresponding opening match of IPL 3 for starters,” he added. “And here we are talking of a larger time duration vis-à-vis a T20 match in IPL. We expect the ratings to go up even further as the Indian cricket team marches on in its quest for victory and we wish them all the best.”
The opening match between India and Bangladesh began at 2pm on Saturday 19 February, and lasted for 470 minutes. The ICC Cricket World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, runs until 2 April 2011.

Cricket World cup records:South Africa vs West Indies cricket Teams

* The two teams have played three matches against each other. In two matches, West Indies cricket team won while one was won by South African cricket team
* Except for the match in which South Africa bull dozed West Indies batting line up, all other matches have seen fierce battle between the two countries.
* An important quarter-final in 1996 Cricket World Cup and an opening match of 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup has been played between them.
* West Indian Cricket Legend Brian Lara has scored two centuries in the last two matches played against South Africa in the world cups.
* In a world cup match between the two teams in the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup, South Africa was fined 1 over for slow over rate which caused them to lose the match by 3 runs.
* Brian Lara, Jonty Rhodes and Allan Donald, all three legends have the part of these three matches.
* The best bowling performance was shown by South African fast bowler Meyrick Pringle when he took 4 wickets by giving 4 runs in 8 overs with 4 maidens in the 1992 Cricket World Cup match.
* South Africa was suspended from international cricket till 1991, so they did not take part in world cups from 1975 to 1983. The teams did not played against each other in the 1999 and 2007 Cricket World cup.

New Zealand Complete World Cup Rout Of Kenya

New Zealand opened their Cricket World Cup campaign by routing Kenya to pick up a one-sided ten-wicket victory in their Group A game in Chennai.

After Kenya were dismissed for a paltry 69 in 23.5 overs, New Zealand raced to 72 without loss in just eight overs to get their campaign off to a winning start.

Kenya won the toss but were quickly in trouble, losing Alex Obanda for six, although they managed to reach 40 before New Zealand's bowlers precipitated a huge collapse.

Hamish Bennett returned four for 16 by dismissing Seren Waters (16), Collins Obuya (14), Steve Tikolo (2) and Morris Ouma (1) to leave Kenya at 49 for five.

Jacob Oram then played his part, removing Jimmy Kamande and Thomas Odoyo - both for two - and after Tim Southee bowled Nehamiah Odhiambo and had James Ngoche trapped in front, both men failing to score, Oram completed figures of three for two when he had Elijah Otieno caught by Scott Styris for a duck.

Southee returned three for 13 from six overs and New Zealand were barely challenged during their run chase, scoring at nine runs per over as they finished off the job swiftly.

Martin Guptill was unbeaten on 39 in 32 balls, hitting five fours and two sixes while opening partner Brendon McCullum made 26 not out in 17 balls.

Kenya's next match is against Pakistan on 23rd February while New Zealand are next in action when they play Australia on 25th February.

Dhaka prepares to host cricket World Cup

Bangladesh Thursday gave car owners here one week to give their old vehicles a fresh coat of paint to make them shine in time for the ICC World Cup tournament.

The car owners in Chittagong port town have to get their vehicles painted by Feb 28. Otherwise, mobile courts will take action against them from March 1.

World Cup matches will be held in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka from Feb 19 to April 2.

"Fitness certificate and route permit would be cancelled of those vehicles if found plying on the city roads after the timeline," Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain said at a meeting on 'maintaining traffic congestion and signal during the World Cup'.

As Bangladesh prepares to play host to the World Cup, State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku urged main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to cancel the strike called for Feb 7 "considering the country's image ahead of the World Cup", said Star Online, website of The Daily Star.

The coveted World Cup trophy arrived here Wednesday after making a long and spectacular journey in Sri Lanka and India.

A report from Chittagong said the host team began their practice sessions under lights after receiving consent from the International Cricket Council.

Fondly called Tigers, they have started their practice sessions at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium to get acclimatised to the conditions.

The practice sessions will help the Tigers understand the behaviour of the pitch and outfield condition and the local cricket organisers will also get a chance to test the floodlights before the first practice match between Canada and Bangladesh Feb 12.

"Pitches also have been prepared at the Women's Sporting Complex ground and MA Aziz Stadium for the teams that are participating in the World Cup for extra practice by the cricketers," said Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) director and Local Organising Committee (LOC) member secretary Dewan Shafiul Arefin Tutul.

Cricket World Cup 2011 Squads/ Teams

Squads for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in Asia: 
AUSTRALIA
Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke (vice-capt), Doug Bollinger, Brad Haddin (wk), John Hastings, Nathan Hauritz, David Hussey, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Tim Paine (wk), Steve Smith, Shaun Tait, Shane Watson, Cameron White. 
BANGLADESH
Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Tamim Iqbal (vice-capt), Abdur Razzak, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Naeem Islam, Nazmul Hossain, Raqibul Hasan, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Shahriar Nafees, Suhrawadi Shuvo. 
CANADA
Ashish Bagai (capt & wk), Rizwan Cheema (vice-capt), Harvir Baidwan, Khurram Chohan, John Davison, Parth Desai, *Tyson Gordon, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Jimmy Hansra, Nitish Kumar, Henry Osinde, Hiral Patel, Balaji Rao, Zubin Surkari, Hamza Tariq, Karl Whatham.
*Tyson Gordon is awaiting confirmation of Canadian citizenship, so 16 players have been named 
ENGLAND
Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wk), Ajmal Shahzad, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy. 
INDIA
Mahendra Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag (vice-capt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar. 
IRELAND
William Porterfield (capt), Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Nigel Jones, Ed Joyce, John Mooney, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien (wk), Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe, Gary Wilson (wk), Andrew White. 
KENYA
Jimmy Kamande (capt), Tamnay Mishra, James Ngoche, Shem Ngoche, Alex Obanda, David Obuya (wk), Collins Obuya, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Thomas Odoyo, Peter Ongondo, Elijah Otieno, Maurice Ouma (wk), Rakep Patel, Steve Tikolo, Seren Waters.
NETHERLANDS
Peter Borren (capt), Wesley Baressi (wk), Mudassar Bukhari, Atse Buurman (wk), Tom Cooper, Tom de Grooth, Alexei Kervezee, Bradley Kruger, Bernard Loots, Adeel Raja, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Swarczynski, Ryan ten Doeschate, Berend Westdijk, Bas Zuiderent.
NEW ZEALAND
Daniel Vettori (capt), Hamish Bennett, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Jamie How, Brendon McCullum (wk), Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Luke Woodcock.
PAKISTAN
Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal (wk), Younus Khan, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanvir, Ahmed Shehzad. 
SOUTH AFRICA
Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers (wk), JP Duminy, Francois du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk (wk).
SRI LANKA
Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), Mahela Jayawardene (vice-capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Rangana Herath. Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Thisara Perera, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga.
WEST INDIES
Darren Sammy (capt), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh (wk), Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Nikita Miller, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith.
ZIMBABWE
Elton Chigumbura (capt), Regis Chakabva, Charles Coventry, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Sean Ervine, Greg Lamb, Shingirai Masakadza, Chris Mpofu, Ray Price, Edward Rainsford, Tatenda Taibu (wk), Brendan Taylor, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams.