Whose ashes is it???

England today has recorded their first victory in Australia in the currently happening Ashes series after twenty four years and they have done it in style by an innings and 71 runs.This was the second of the five test series, first having ended in a draw.Skipper Andrew Strauss of England was euphoric and said "We have got some great momentum in the series and we have to keep it going.We know its got a horrible way of biting you if you pat yourself on the back too much."Australia resumed their second innings on the last day at 238/4 and lost their last 6 batsmen for 66 runs in the first session.6 for 66 is the omen against the Aussies???

This contest takes us back to more than a century when the celebrated rivalry between England and Australia began in 1882. The ashes series is of 5 test matches with 2 innings per match.In 1882 when Australia beat England at Oval , the entire British media were shell shocked and went to the extent of stating that the English cricket had died. The Sporting Times went to the extent of stating the body of English cricket will be created and ashes taken to Australia. The nest tour of England to Australia in 1882-83, the media dubbed as the quest to regain the ashes.During that series to Australia, a group of Melbourne women presented an urn

containing the ashes of possibly a ball.From then on, there has been the contest between Australia and England have been to gain the Ashes trophy.

An interesting event during the 1993 Ashes series in now called the ball or the Gatting ball.This was a match played at Old Trafford, which is traditionally favors spin bowling.Share Warne , an all time

Aussie leg spinner was an inexperienced player having played only 11 test matches up to that point.He, bowled his first ball to Mike Gatting of England who was a renowned , world class player of spin bowling.The leg break delivered by Sharne Warne turned so acutely that Gatting who came forward to take it with bat and pad together found the ball turning more than expected to knock off his bails on the of- stump.Very few such balls have been bowled where the ball has traveled far more than the normally expected spin.

These are some of the interesting stories connected with the rivalry between England and Australia in cricket.

And now cricket...

The first ODI between India and New Zealand resulted in a 40 run emphatic run for India.Considering that most top players like Sachin, Dhoni, Sehwag ,Harbhajan Singh were rested, the win is more noteworthy.From the stand point of New Zealand , where without their skipper Vittori due to back injury.Although it was an evenly contested match the result looked one sided.Virat Kohli scored a century which was commendable.The standing skipper Gautam Gambhir also contributed with his bat.From the point of view of bowling, Yuvraj Singh, Sreesanth and Aravind took three wickets each to wrap up the honors equally.As usual the Indian squad went through their jitters losing 4 wicktes for 24 runs towards the end.

The scores were

India scored 276 (49 ov)
Fall of wickets1-44 (Vijay, 7.1 ov), 2-92 (Gambhir, 15.2 ov), 3-180 (Yuvraj Singh, 34.2 ov), 4-220 (Raina, 40.4 ov), 5-250 (Kohli, 43.6 ov), 6-256 (Saha, 45.1 ov), 7-256 (Ashwin, 45.3 ov), 8-257 (Nehra, 46.4 ov), 9-275 (Pathan, 48.2 ov), 10-276 (Sreesanth, 48.6 ov)

New Zealand scored 236 (45.2 ov)
Fall of wickets1-32 (How, 6.4 ov), 2-46 (Guptill, 9.6 ov), 3-113 (Williamson, 25.1 ov), 4-131 (Styris, 29.3 ov), 5-136 (Elliott, 30.3 ov), 6-144 (Tuffey, 31.4 ov), 7-157 (Taylor, 33.3 ov), 8-169 (Hopkins, 35.3 ov), 9-236 (McCullum, 45.1 ov), 10-236 (Mills, 45.2 ov)

In the religion called cricket where the most awaited festival called world cup is fast approaching in February, it is definitely on every cricket buff's mind as to how India would fare in the world cup.We definitely have to wait and watch....

http://manahyd.com/2010/11/29/india-vs-new-zealand-1st-odi-highlights-ind-vs-nz-1st-odi-score-ind-vs-nz-first-odi-cricket-match/

The Hoopistani....SIMPLY EVERYTHING!!!

As I kept searching for sports journalists who ardently blog at the same time hoping to find one who would also have the love for the game basketball,as I do , I came across this blog that instantly made me feel I had landed in the right page ...that had exactly what I was looking for....http://www.hoopistani.blogspot.com/ of Karan Madhok, a former journalist for the Times of India and a lifelong basketball fanatic as he calls himself. The blogs name as I first came across, before entering the page expected it to be something totally different from what I got to see and read in a couple of seconds from then, that left me totally astounded. It said basketball, India, philosophy and everything else in between and OH MY GOD...it really had everything that a basketball enthusiast would actually want to know, read and learn. SIMPLY EVERYTHING....It had the A-Z of basketball...

The first thing that actually made me sit up and read this blog was the passion with which Karan Madhok has written each of his posts, the burning passion for the game and the effort to promote the game by his writings made me realize that the words “the pen is mightier than the sword” were very true. The simple and straight forward way of putting across ideas is another striking feature that I feel is another quality that he has which genuinely fascinated me to read the blog. He has dealt with the game both from the national and international perspective and has through a lot of articles brought out the glaring dissimilarities of how basketball or for that matter any sport as such is viewed in India and other countries, of course not including cricket in the purview at all. The fact that not just writing or in other terms blogging whatever one feels like for other people to read, he actually authenticates it by genuinely getting the concerned people to share their views on the same, which I think is the inherent habit of any journalist.

It is truly startling to read such a blog because of the content and class that is being delivered all on one platform.