England takes 1-0 up against South Africa

England Bowlers Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad ran through the South African batting line up in the second innings which helped his team pull off an emphatic victory of an innings and 98 runs to spare in the second test match held in Kingsmead, Durban.

England captain Strauss who spotted the wicket might assist his seam bowlers on Day 1 asked the South African team to bat first. England bowlers who took advantage of the wicket had early break through with Prince (2 runs) and Amla (2 runs) got out to Andersen and Broad respectively and found themselves struggling at 10 for 2. Then Graeme Smith and Kallis came to the rescue of their team as they both played exceeding well despite the pitch assist to the seam bowlers. They both added 150 runs for the third wicket partnership before Swann bowled an beautiful delivery to dismiss Kallis for 75 runs.  Soon after the dismissal of Kallis, Graeme Smith threw his wicket as he tried to take a foolish run which cost his wicket when he reached 75 runs. Duminy followed his captain as he was trapped in front by Onions for just 4 runs. Soon after his wicket, bad light stopped the England’s progress as the Proteas ended the day 1 for just 175 runs with 5 wickets remaining in their hand.

South Africa who resumed Day 2 had good little partnership in the form of Mark Boucher and Morne Morkel of 53 runs before Boucher got out to Swann for 39 runs. After his dismissal, South African tails Enders were getting out at regular intervals. Dale Steyn(47 of 58 balls, 3fours and 3 six)  provided a little entertaining knock to the crowd which helped his team cross 300 runs and put a decent total of 343 runs on bowler friendly wicket. Graeme Swann was the pick of the bowlers as he took 4 wickets. England, who started their second innings, got a perfect opening partnership in the form of Strauss and Cook as they both pulled off 71 runs for the first wicket with Strauss got out to Morkel for 54 runs. Just as South African bowlers looked to dominate the England batsmen, bad light again came to play with England ended the day 2 with 103 runs for the loss of 1 wicket.

Day 3 completely belonged to the England batmen, with Alaister Cook who remained out of form in this season, came good and managed to score 118 runs. He and Paul Collingwood added 143 runs for 5^th wicket and helped his team gather a strong position of the match. Paul Collingwood who played outstandingly well was unfortunate to miss out on a century as he was dismissed for 91 runs by Duminy as England batsmen ended the third day’s play with a reasonable score of 386 runs for the loss of 5 wickets with a lead of 43 runs on the board.

England batsmen continued their good batting on a bowler’s friendly track with Ian Bell who had good read of the wicket top scored for his team as he went on smashing the South African bowlers all round the park in his knock of 140 runs before getting out to the comeback bowler Steyn. Finally England declared their first innings score when they reached 574 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Part time bowler Duminy and Morkel managed to pull of 3 wickets each. Trailing by 231 runs, South African batsmen went on clueless against the bowling attack of Swann and Broad as they both ran through the top and middle order batsmen of the Proteas and helped their team have strong position of winning the match with South African ended the play with 75 runs for the loss of 6 wickets.

On day5 it was just a formality for the England bowlers with the overnight bowlers Swann and Broad again continued to take the wickets from where they left as they both shared 5 and 4 wickets respectively to dismiss the South Africans at a meager total of 133 runs in second innings and secured an innings and 98 runs victory to their team. None of the batsmen played well with top score coming from the lower middle order batsmen Morne Morkel(36 runs). Graeme Swann who had a dream bowling spell on both the innings was declared man of the match. This victory ensured England take the lead in 4 match test series.

Will Pitches make it for World Cup?

It’s a sad way to end the recently concluded one day international series between India and SriLanka.  If a match which has been selected for hosting a world cup math is announced unfit and dangerous during an ordinary tournament match. Though India has already won the tournament for Indian fans every match is special. Fans showed their anger and frustration by tearing down advertisement banners. It’s a great depress for fans but we need to look the facts produced by officials. We saw uneven bounce which hit almost all the Lankan batsmen. If the match is continued there is higher chance for our batsmen too got hurt much and it will be affecting the forthcoming series in Bangladesh.  With India being the host of the next world cup and it’s an important issue that pitches like Kotla is included for hosting. The grounds should develop their pitches instead of developing their gallery first.

Time to test bench Strength

It’s the real time to test our Indian cricket team bench strength. This series turned out as an outstanding one for Indians and they won both test and one day cups and drew the series in shortest version of the game. The strong batting line up which is responsible for making India no 1 in test cricket and also helped in winning the one day Karbonn mobile series yesterday. Virat Kohli proved his talent along with the consistent Gambir and sealed the series. Kohli was in for Yuvraj has been consistent with his fifties in previous games too. With tremendous pressure he proved his talent. With this batting line up we can sure rule the game but our bowling still worse. Instead of trying out the same bowlers it’s time to test the players in bench. As we already won the series we can try out all the players in bench without worrying about the result of the game. The youngsters who are going to get chance for the last game should make use of the chances and cling in the squad.

Real Role Model

I like tell about the incident which happened to me recently. I was travelling with my office senior in an auto. We were held up in signal for long time at that time a beggar came and keep asking the driver for some help with money. The driver did not respond. On seeing this my friend gave the beggar two rupee coin and asked the driver in a anger way” why you could not  afford just a single rupee to help a beggar from your daily earning and he also added that “ you should have some kind heart at least on seeing the beggar’s disability to walk properly”. Later signal cleared and we continued our journey. Driver informed us as if we reached the destination point. My friend gave him a hundred rupees the driver replied as if he does not have enough balance to return. My friend asked the driver “go and get the balance from the nearby shops”. The driver moved out of the auto and took his helping stick and walked towards the shop. Till now we don’t know the auto driver is handicapped.  We felt ashamed for our talk and run towards him and stopped and we got our balance own. My friend apologized and we indeed saluted him in heart for making us realizes “Those people are not disabled but they are differently able and we should not support begging rather we should explain the heart of auto driver and support them!!!”

The Real Citizen

I would like to tell about another incident which happened during my vacation which is to be realized by all of us. I was helping my friend who a cameraman of a local cable and we were shooting live on the Independence Day in a school premise.  A good amount of crowd gathered for hearing the speech of chief guest.  The guest talked about respect for the nation to people and all went well.  At the end when National Anthem music started it started raining and all run for their shelter including chief guest. When we about to close our shooting due to rain we saw an old handicapped cobbler who’s shop is opposite to the premise standing in attention with his one leg supported by his stick in his hand. We could not believe our eyes and we continued shooting him. That great man ended with smile and salutes for the national anthem and continued his work. Those who spoke about respect to nation in stage could not even manage a slight drizzle and ran for shelter which made the people to run. But that cobbler taught us “IF YOU DON’T RESPECT YOUR NATIONAL ANTHEM HOW COME YOU RESPECT YOUR NATION”

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