England In West Indies: 5th ODI Preview : Match on

With the series hanging in balance at 2-2, the decider one day between England and West Indies was still in doubt. The West Indies Cricket Board had been locked in crisis talks with the Players' Association, with the threat looming, not only of a boycott of Friday's fixture, but - going forward - a mass withdrawal from the tour of England which commences later this month, and clashes head-on with the lucrative Indian Premier League. Chris Gayle in a statement with the media cleared all doubts, "The Final ODI will be played at St.Lucia" said Gayle.


West Indies would have had to make 11 team changes if the controversy wouldn't have ended. Thanks to the decision by the players, it was down to only one. Tall, Left arm Orthodox bowler Suleman Benn has been named in the playing 11 in place of Nikita Miller who hurt his back trying to smash the ball out of the ground off a free hit during the last match. His omission was something of a surprise to England, given his starring role in the Jamaica Test victory, as well as two Twenty20 triumphs, starting with the Stanford Superstars in Antigua last year.

West Indies Playing 11: 1 Chris Gayle (capt), 2 Lendl Simmons, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Darren Sammy, 8 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 9 Lionel Baker, 10 Sulieman Benn, 11 Fidel Edwards.

As for england, there couldn't have been a possible change, their bowlers did well in the last match, the batsman have been doing well. Pietersen and Flintoff will play in the final ODI, after doubts were raised of whether they would be fit as both were nursing injuries on the hands. Pietersen was forced to leave the field after the injury while Flintoff require heavy strapping to continue in the match. Scans revealed no fractures or significant damages to the fingers allowing them to be a part of the series decider.

England 11 (Which hopefully will eb unchanged) 1 Ravi Bopara, 2 Andrew Strauss (capt), 3 Kevin Pietersen, 4 Owais Shah, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Dimitri Mascarenhas, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 James Anderson.


It's been an exciting series so far. WI could have led the England team in the sixes department with a score of 23-3, but thanks to complex logic of the Duckworth Lewis England managed a win in the second match after rain forced play to abandon the match. The series is tied at 2-2 and if the weather stays good, we should have a exciting finish with both teams playing for reputation over the other. Do join me for review later this week.

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Kunal Janu
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England In West Indies: 3rd ODI Review : WI win after Humiliating innings from England

March 27,2009:Dwayne Bravo, A man whose return to the WestIndies team has already sparked the members of the team took 4 wickets to dismiss England for a humiliating 117 all out in 41.3 overs. Fidel Edwards took 3 While Pollard and baker chipped in with 2 and 1 wicket respectively. Mascarenhas scored 36 in what was a below par batting performance from the touring side. Earlier, West Indies won the toss and elected to filed after a delayed start due to rain.



The match was reduced to a 44 overs per side affair as England kept losing wickets at the start of play. First it was Strauss who handed a catch to Gayle in slips off Edwards, then it was Bopara who handed a catch to Sarwan off Edwards. England at 17-2 off 6.4 overs never really took off. They lost Pietersen soon to bravo who handed a catch to Pollard. Owais shah soon followed as he lost his wicket in the very next over to baked out caught by darren Sammy. Flintoff returned after a long time but was out for a duck and survived only 6 balls before he was out caught by Edwards off the bowling off Bravo.

Wickets kept tumbling as Collingwood was out lbw to bravo leaving England at 54 for 6 off 19 overs. Mascarenhas joined Prior who could only add 14 to the partnership after Prior went to Pollard scoring only 7. Broad followed Prior 2 balls later out caught behind to Pollard. Batty and Mascarehas restored some pride taking england past the respectable 100 run mark. But the Duo could only last as long as 116 when Batty was out caught by Sammy off Bravo. He scored 17 off 47 before he lost his wicket. Mascarenhas tried hard, but lost his wicket and England's 10th to edwards caught by Bravo in the deep. England all out for 117.

WestIndies started in blistering fashion as Chris Gayle scored some fantastic runs to take WI past 50 in the 6 over off the match. Gayle would have wanted to long till the end, but lost his wicket when he was on 88 bowled to a straight Anderson delivery. With WI at 98 for 1 and most of the job already done, Sarwan, Chanderpaul and Simmons did the mop p job and took Wi to victory in the 15th over. WI Lead the 5 match ODI series 2-1.

Score Card Courtesy: CRICINFO






Andrew Strauss , the England captain, has said his team's defeat in the third ODI against West Indies in Barbados was "pretty humiliating and fundamentally pretty embarrassing". West Indies dismissed England for 117 and then routed them by eight wickets after chasing down the target with 176 balls to spare."There are 11 guys in that dressing room right now feeling pretty down on themselves," Strauss said. "It wasn't a contest, we didn't play well. There wasn't enough thought in the way we batted, but we have to take it on the chin."We didn't react well to the wicket. We all made the same mistakes. The crucial thing is you learn from your mistakes but, if we're honest with ourselves, we have done that kind of thing batting wise too often."

Do Join me later for more action.

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England In West Indies: 3rd ODI Preview: Flintoff to return

With the five match one day series tied at 1-1, England would be wanting to thrust their authority on West Indies in an effort to take lead in the series. Good news came their way, when Andrew Flintoff was declared fit for the third ODI to be played today in Barbados, West Indies. Flintoff returns after recovering from the hip injury that forced him to miss the final two Tests of last month's 1-0 series defeat.



With the series squared at 1-1, Flintoff's return will be a boost for England after they were comfortably outplayed during their 21-run loss in the second match in Guyana. He had been close to selection for that game, having undergone intensive treatment since flying home for a week after the third Test in Antigua.

"I've bowled as near to 100% as I probably can do in a net because playing in a match brings a bit more out of you," Flintoff told reporters in Barbados. "I've been bowling for the last week, bowled 10 overs over the previous two days and done my training and work. I was close to playing on Sunday but we erred on the side of caution and I'll definitely be fit for Friday."

Flintoff will probably return in place of either Steve Harmison or James Anderson, even though both men showed impressive form during the second match. Another alternative would be to rest Gareth Batty, the specialist spinner.

England Captain Andrew Strauss would want his team to put up a better bowling and batting performance in this match after they lost by 21 runs in the previous match. The top 6 need to score a lot of runs and given the flat batting tracks in West Indies, A score of 300 is a below par score. Flintoff's presence will affect the way the team plays on the ground, but the man may not be in full power as he is just returning from injury. Flintoff will be wanting to get some bat on the ball and score some runs as the rest of the team will have to take winning responsibilities.

Uncapped Barbados batsman Dale Richards and Trinidad fast bowler Ravi Rampaul have been included in the West Indies squad for the third and fourth one-day internationals against England. Richards, an opening batsman, replaced Devon Smith who did not play in either of the first two ODIs. He was also in the squad for the first Test against England but had to withdraw because of a foot injury. Rampaul replaced the Daren Powell who has been out of form during the contests against England. Powell took only six wickets in the five-Test series at nearly 70 apiece and took 1 for 27 in five overs in the first ODI. Rampaul, who had played 30 ODIs, last appeared for West Indies on the tour of South Africa in early 2008.

Expect a close finish this time around as the teams meet each other in Barbados tonight. Match starts 7.30PM IST. Do come back for more news, reviews and previews.





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Kunal Janu
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IPL 2: Pietersen and Flintoff to lose millions by IPL's delayed start

Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are set to lose over a million dollars after the IPl was announced to start week later. Both players are now busy playin against the WestIndes with the series tied at 1-1. Andrew flintoff is said to return in the next match starting tomorrow. He was earlier sidelined on the bench following a back strain. Kevin Pietersen was sold to Royal Challengers in bidding carried out to add new players to the already available pool of international players. Pietersen was bought for about 8 million dollars roughly about Rs.7.25 Crores ranked as the costliest player of the tournament. Flintoff cam running second when he was sold for just a million rupees less to the Chennai Super Kings.




Rule changes came about for the second season of the IPL to make things more interesting. Each franchise is now allowed to have 10 international players as against 8 in the last season. lalit Modi announced this considering the fact that most Pakistani players refused to play in the IPL which led to a setback to teams like Rajasthan Royals and the Kolkatta Knight Riders who banked on these players. This rule change was of course announced well before the bidding process.

Amonsgst the other popular players selected are Tyron Henderson and Mashrafee Mortaza who went to the Rajasthan Royals and Kolkatta Knight Riders respectively. More drama was seen when Priety Zinta, owner Kings Punjab XI and Juhi Chawla, associate owner for the Kolkatta Knight Riders went about the proceedings raising stakes in million dollars for Mashrafe Mortaza. he was finally sold to the KKR for a whooping Rs.2.5 Crores. Hopefully Mortaza will provide as much entertainment during the matches as he provided during the bidding.

What makes IPL an interesting affair is the kind of rules it has. Player Transfers is a onfusing yet interesting rule where in a Team management can either suspend or terminate the contract with the player for the next season. A player suspended by a team continues to belong to the team until his three years with the team are complete as per the contract. A player if terminated from the team is put up as a potential player to be bought or transferred to another team at a certan cost. No player transfers have been seen so far, it will be interesting to know who gets transferred at what price:) For now IPL2 is set to start on April 18th in South Africa and hopefully it will provide the same entertainment as the first season.

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