India to face England in Junior Hockey World Cup today in Lucknow

After defeating Canada in their opening match, India now faces tough challenge in the form of England.

England won their first match against South Africa, scoring four goals and conceding two.

Indian coach, Harendra Singh said after the first game that the team played in first gear mode but against England they have to shift to second gear as they are a strong opponents.

The strategy of Team India in this tournament is to take one game at a time, and step by step progress further.

©TheIndianExpress

India has not won this tournament since last 15 years and they will be hoping to end this drought this time.

India defeated Canada 4-0 in the inaugural match of the tournament and are full of confidence. But they must not get buoyed with the performance as there is still a long way to go.

England has also not won this tournament in their history, so they will give their all to beat India in their own backyard.

India, unlike England, will have full home support and the English coach is aware of this fact. But he still hopes his team will perform with full confidence against India.

Key players from the Indian side are forward Mandeep Singh, defender Harmanpreet Singh, captain Harjeet Singh, penalty corner specialist Varun Kumar and goalkeeper Vikas Dahiya.

A look at the various results so far in the Tournament-

 NEW ZEALAND vs GERMANY (1-2)

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In their quest for the 3rd consecutive world cup, Germany had to sweat it out for a win against New Zealand.
The Kiwis gave a tough fight but in the end the experience of the champion team took them to victory.
Germany went down by a goal inside opening 5 minutes but Germany didn't panic and made a flurry of attacks on the Kiwis goalpost. They equalised in the 24th minute and got their reward of winning goal in the 51st minute.

Germany are currently top in their pool.

NETHERLANDS vs MALAYSIA (7-2)

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The Dutch side thrashed Malaysia with their fast paced game. Malaysia got their entry in the tournament at the expense of Pakistan.

Malaysia scored their first goal in the 59th minute when they were 6-0 down.
It was a completely dominating performance by the Dutch.

Their next match is against Belgium, which may well be pool topper decider.

ARGENTINA vs AUSTRIA (1-1)

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Argentina were held for a draw by Austria, who qualified for the first team for this tournament.

Led by an Indian coach, Austria stunned Argentina as the match ended on a draw.

First half remained goalless but in the second half Argentina took the lead, but Austrian team equalised after 16 minutes through penalty corner.

The performance of Austria certainly grabbed a lot of eyeballs and it will be interesting to watch how they fare against other teams.

BELGIUM vs EGYPT (4-0)

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Belgium faced a weak challenge in the face of Egypt and cruised to a comfortable victory with two goals in each half.

All four goals were scored by four different players.

SPAIN vs JAPAN (4-1)

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After losing their first match against defending champions Germany, the Spanish side came hard at Japan.

They hit 3 goals in the first half. In the second they played defensively according to their strategy.

Lucas Garcia scored two goals for Spain.

©sportskafun.blogspot.com

Australia complete 3-0 whitewash of the Kiwis

David Warner once again proved to be a task too much for the kiwis at the MCG today.

©CricketAustralia

In the final ODI of the Chappell-Hadlee series, New Zealand were playing for their pride as they had already lost the 3 match series.

Australia won the toss on a sunny day in Melbourne and Steve Smith chose to bat. The decision seemed to backfire as the Aussies lost two early wickets, opener Aaron Finch's(3) poor run of form continued, while Steve Smith(0) could not even open his account. Trent Boult took both the wickets.

©AFP

George Bailey and David Warner steadily continued the innings to build a partnership in order to recover from the early losses, they managed to add 62 runs.


After Trent Boult, it was the turn of Colin de Grandhomme, who struck twice in a single over to remove George Bailey(23) and Mitchell Marsh(0). With the two wickets in quick succession, New Zealand felt like they can restrict Australia to a low total but David Warner was still there in the middle.

©CricketAustralia

Warner and Travis Head, took Australia out of the trouble and added 105 runs for the 5th wicket, meanwhile David Warner completed his century. His 7th in calendar year 2016. The menace of Warner didn't let New Zealand bowlers escape as he hit them all over the park.

Wickets fell on the other side at regular intervals but Warner stood tall, he went on to cross 150 mark with the help of 13 fours and 4 sixes.
Warner could have finished the innings on unbeaten 156 only to get run-out by Trent Boult on the last ball of the innings.

Australia scored 264/8 in 50 overs.

New Zealand started there innings confidently as the openers, Guptill and Latham, added 44 runs for the first wicket. Latham(28) was the first one to depart, on a Pat Cummins delivery. Captain Williamson and Guptill took the responsibility on their shoulders to score some runs, but Williamson(13) couldn't do much as he got out LBW on James Faulkner delivery. Williamson even challenged the decision but it was turned down as the three reds stopped his innings there.

©CricketAustralia

Guptill(34) was the next one to go. New Zealand were 79/3 when Guptill was dismissed. After his wicket, New Zealand added just 68 runs and lost 7 wickets as Australia bowled them out for just 147 runs.

Trent Boult was the last one to bite the dust as Australia claimed a 117 run victory.

Australia completely dominated the Kiwis in the Chappell-Hadlee series as they completed the clean sweep.

David Warner was awarded Man of the Match and Man of the Series.

His words after the match - "It's a team performance. Credit to the bowlers for coming out and executing the plans. Us as batsmen, we had to relay the message and they did extremely well. My first coach of cricket until I was about 16 or 17 passed away, my condolences to his family. I would like to hope my form is getting better, but I need to keep hitting the nets and work harder."


©sportskafun.blogspot.com

Australia beat New Zealand by 116 runs to clinch Chappell-Hadlee trophy

Australia posted a huge total of 378, courtesy David Warner(119) and quick fire  76 by Mitchell Marsh at the end.

Steve Smith(72) and Travis Head(57) too dented the Kiwis bowling attack as Australia scored plethora of runs.

Apart from toss, which was delayed by 30 minutes due to rain, nothing went New Zealand's way at Maluka Oval, Canberra.

Australia started their innings firmly and didn't allow Kiwis any early breakthroughs.

David Warner hit his 11th ODI ton, 6th in 2016 and 1st vs New Zealand. He had a partnership of 145 runs with skipper Steve Smith for the 2nd wicket.
David Warner was dismissed by C Grandhomme.

After his dismissal Steve Smith and Travis Head progressed the innings without any fall in run rate. They hit respective half centuries in the meantime.

In the later stages, Mitchell Marsh made a brutal attack on the Kiwis as he hit 7 sixes in his 40 balls 76 runs and helped Australia cross 350 runs. 

Australia scored 78 runs in last 33 balls.

For New Zealand, only Mitchell Santner had an economy of less than 6. He picked up one wicket. 

Tim Southee had 2 dismissals to his name.

New Zealand began their innings with an aggressive batting from Martin Guptill, but lost their first wicket at 40 runs when other opener Tom Latham was caught and bowled by Josh Hazlewood. Guptill too managed to score only 45(33). He was caught behind the wickets off a beautiful Pat Cummins delivery. 

Captain Kane Williamson and Jimmy Neesham tried to take the team out of the trouble as they added 125 runs for the 3rd wicket. 

Neesham got out when the score was 177 runs. Kane Williamson fought at the other end but the soaring runrate pressure didn't help Kiwis to really challenge Australia.

Kane Williamson was the 6th one to depart and after his wicket, New Zealand just added 26 runs and were all-out for 262 runs in 47.2 overs.

David Warner won the Man of the Match and with this victory Australia clinched the Chappell-Hadlee trophy.

©sportskafun.blogspot.com

Cricket Updates

Centurion Smith leads Australia to victory

Australia beat New Zealand by 68 runs in the first ODI of Chappell-Hadlee series

Captain Steve Smith had a great match, as along with the century he also picked up two good cathches.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat, they put up a huge total of 324 for the loss of 8 wickets. 

In reply New Zealand fell 68 runs short, despite Martin Guptill heroics.

Man of the Match Smith, scored 164 runs with the help of 14 fours and 4 sixes. He dismantled the Kiwis bowling attack single handedly.

However Australia didn't make a positive start as opener Aaron Finch got out on duck off Matt Henry's delivery. Henry had bowling figures of 2/74.

Smith had two lifelines in Trent Boult's over and he didn't fail to punish the Kiwis. Smith was dropped on 13 by wicketkeeper Watling and on the next ball an LBW appeal was turned down by the umpire. 

New Zealand made a blunder by not reviewing the decision, had the decision been reviewed, he would have been back in the pavilion.

Smith got a 3rd lifeline too, this time on the score of 152 when Colin Munro dropped his catch. David Warner(24) dragged the ball onto his wickets off debutant Ferguson's delivery. 

George Bailey(17) was caught behind the wickets off James Neesham bowl and Mitchell Marsh(01) got run-out.

Smith and Travis Head(52) helped Australia reach a big score.

New Zealand didn't start well and lost some early wickets.
Martin Guptill held onto one end and scored his 11th ODI century. But no other kiwi batsmen partnered him.

Only Munro(49), Neesham (34) and Matt Henry(27) were the only three to reach double figures.

Indian Women Cricket team won Asia Cup T20

India defeated Pakistan by 17 runs in the final to put their hands on the trophy for 6th time

India won the toss and elected to bat. Mitali Raj, the star batsmen, with her innings of 73 not-out helped India reach 121 runs in 20 overs for the loss of 5 wickets. 

Apart from Mitali only Jhulan Goswami(17)  managed to reach double figures.
Anam Ameen was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan with the figures of 2/24.

Indian bowlers put up a brilliant display as they restricted Pakistan for 104/6 in their 20 overs. 5 batsmen reached the double figures in Pakistan innings but nobody managed to cross 25 runs.

Bismah Maruf was the top scorer for Pakistan with 25 runs.

Mitali Raj won both, Player of the Match for her 73 runs and Player of the Tournament for scoring 220 runs in 4 matches.

BCCI President Anurag Thakur congratulated the team on their achievement.

No matches for MS Dhoni until New Year

Dhoni last played on 29th October against New Zealand in Vizag 

Indian ODI and T-20 skipper will play an international match in two and half months when he will step on the field against England in January

The first match of the series will be played in Pune on 15th January

There is a protocol for injured players that when they have to prove themselves fit for selection they must have played in at least one first class match. But Dhoni is exempted from this protocol as he has already retired from the test format.

Dhoni played Vijay Hazare trophy for his preparation of ODI and T20 series against Australia in 2015. However this time the Tournament starts from 25 February, almost one month after the beginning of series against England.

The Superintendent of Senior Selection Committee MSK Prasad said on Sunday, "We don't have any information whether Dhoni will play any Ranji trophy match or not. It's notable that he has already retired from test cricket. We have information that Dhoni is practicing consistently with Jharkhand team."

Secretary of Jharkhand Cricket Association, Rajesh Verma has made it clear that 'Dhoni is mentoring Jharkhand team and will play Vijay Hazare trophy with them.'

Well MS Dhoni fans are eager to watch the cricketer on the field in an International match.

©sportskafun.blogspot.com