THE WORLD PORTAL

INDIA-SOUTH AFRICA CRICKET SERIES, 2010

All cricket lovers in the world is eagerly waiting to see whether India keep its number one test ranking position in the coming series against South Africa. South Africa will be playing in India in February, 2010 and they will play two test and three ODI matches against India. Initially, this cricket series includes five ODI matches, but the request of BCCI, South Africa agreed to play two test and three ODI matches against India. So this is a extraordinary cricket series and it will be start from 6th February with a Test match. India and South Africa have faced each other eight times in which South Africa have won five times and India have won two times and drawn one. The last time, these two teams have faced other was in 2007/2008 season and that series was drawn 1-1. So this series should be interesting series. The players of the both the teams were announced. South Afican fast bowlers Makhaya Ntini and Friedel de Wet were dropped from the team due to the poor performance in the recent series against the England Fast bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe and spinner Johan Botha were included in the South African team. Indian players including Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Sreesanth will miss the first test in this series against South Africa due to their injuries during the Bangladesh tour. W. Saha, S Badrinath and Abhimanyu Mithun were included in the Indian test team.

India Squad : MS Dhoni(c), V Sehwag, G Gambhir, S Badrinath, Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, M Vijay, W Saha, Harbhajan, Z Khan, Amit Mishra, PP Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhimanyu Mithun.

South Africa Squad : G Smith (c), A Prince, H Amla, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, P Harris, Jacques Kallis, R McLaren, J Botha, Mark Boucher, M Morkel, W Parnell, Alviro Petersen, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

INDIA-SOUTH AFRICA CRICKET SERIES, 2010 : MATCH SCHEDULE

Date                 Match               Venue            Start Time

6-10 Feb 2010     1st Test           Nagpur        09:30 IST
14-18 Feb 2010   2nd Test         Kolkata       09:30 IST
21 Feb 2010     1st ODI (D/N)       Jaipur          14:30 IST
24 Feb 2010     2nd ODI (DAY)     Kanpur        09:00 IST
27 Feb 2010     3rd ODI (D/N)     Ahmedabad  14:30 IST

IDEA CUP 2010 TRI-SERIES WINNER - SRILANKA

Sri Lanka is the winners of  ‘Idea Cup 2010′. They gained this Tri-series cup by defeating India by four wickets on 13th January,2010. In the final match, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first. India all out with 245 runs in their innings and Sri Lanka won the match by scoring 249 runs with loss of 6 wickets. With this victory, Sri Lanka reached in sixth position in ICC ODI rankings by replacing Pakistan.

SRI LANKA IN IDEA CUP 2010 TRI-SERIES

Sri Lanka participated in ‘Idea Cup 2010 Tri-series’ cricket tournament along with India and Bangladesh which was held in Bangladesh from 4 January to 13 January, 2010. They reached for this tournament without their key players such as Sanath Jayasuriya, Chamara Kapugedera, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando and Ajantha Mendis due to their poor performances and injuries. Sri Lanka started this tournament with a victory against Bangladesh by 7 wickets. In their second match against India, they also won the victory by 5 wickets. In their third match against Bangladesh, they won the victory by 9 wickets. However in their fourth match against India, they were defeated by India by 8 wickets. The team Bangladesh was out from this tournament, because their failure of all matches. Then Sri lanka and India were reached in the final. In the final match, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first. Their pace bowlers Chanaka Welegedara and Nuwan Kulasekara were destroyed India’s top order batsmen and they fallen down at 60/5 in first ten overs. Then with the help of Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, India finally managed to gain 245 runs in 48.2 overs. Raina scored 106 runs including ten fours and a six from 115 balls and Jadeja gained 38 runs in this match. Their 106 runs partnership and Virender Sehwag’s 42 runs were helped India to gain respectable total of 245 runs. Sri Lankan bowler Welegedara took tree wickets and Kulasekara took four wickets in this match. In replay to the target score of 246 runs, Sri Lanka lost their player Tharanga in the very first over of their innings. India’s Ashish Nehra took his wicket. Nehra got himself injured in the second over and could not bowl again, which came as a big blow to India’s bowling side. Then the Sri Lankan players Dilshan, Sangakkara and Mahela Jaywardene used their great experience which helped Sri Lanka to gain the target score. Dilshan gained 49 runs and Sangakkara gained 55 runs. Sri Lanka’s veteran player Jayawardene played the lead role and he kept his wicket intact at a time when there were regular dismissals at the other end. He batted till the end of the match with unbeaten 71 runs. India’s Harbhajan Singh took 2 wickets in the final match. Sri Lankan players Nuwan Kulasekara was declared as “Man of the Match” and Kumara Sangakkara was declared “Man of the Tournament”.

Sri Lanka Squad: Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Thilina Kandamby, Thissara Perera, Suraj Randiv, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Chanaka Welegedara.