Cricket Prime Ten Movie Rating: four / five
Melbourne Stars has defeated Sydney Sixers in a match of the Big Bash League played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday. Stars won the match by 21 runs. This was the third victory for the stars in the ongoing League. They are currently at no. 2 in the points table with 8 points in 4 matches.
Earlier, the skipper of Sydney Sixers, Brad Haddin, won the toss and decided to field first. Melbourne Stars didn’t have a good start and both their opening batsmen were dismissed early. Glenn Maxwell came to bat at no. 4 and he played an absolute blinder. He was fluent right from the start and he timed the ball sweetly. On the other end, Brad Hodge was playing sensibly and rotating the strike. Both these batsmen added 118 runs for the third wicket. This partnership was broken by Moran who dismissed Hodge on the last ball of the 15th over. Hodge scored 51 runs off just 33 deliveries with 4 fours and 1 six.
Maxwell also departed soon. He tried to hit Moran over the log off boundary, but, he mistimed the shot and the ball went straight into the stands of Steven Smith. But, before getting out, Maxwell had done a lot of damage The Melbourne Stars ended up putting a score of 177 runs on the board in 20 overs.
The Sydney Sixers started brilliantly in reply and the opening pair added 74 runs for the first wicket. The skipper of Melbourne Stars, Shane Warne, gave Sixers the first blow by dismissing Daniel Smith. After the fall of the first wicket, the run rate of the Sixers came down and they also kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The Sixers managed to score only 156 runs in 20 overs for the loss of six wickets and lost the match. Shane Warne was the most successful bowler for the stars. He bowled four overs and took a couple of wickets.
Glenn Maxwell was declared man of the match for his blistering knock.
Cricket Leading 10 Movie Score: 4 / 5
The captain of the England Cricket Team, Alastair Cook, has backed the star batsman Kevin Pietersen and said that he would definitely regain his form pretty soon. In the first test match, Pietersen was in very poor form and he didn’t look comfortable against the Indian spinners. In both the innings, he was clean bowled by the left arm spinner Pragyan Ojha. But, Cook believes that this aggressive batsman will play a key role for England in the series.
In the press conference on Thursday evening, when Cook was asked about the poor form of Kevin Pietersen, the England skipper said, “I don’t think he is going through a bad patch. He had just one bad match and you guys have started to question his form. Just a few weeks back, he played a great knock against South Africa. Even yesterday, in the practice session, he was hitting the ball beautifully. He failed in just couple of innings and you guys have started saying that he is out of form. I don’t agree with this.”
“I have complete faith in the abilities of KP. He is a great player against the spinners. I have seen him smashing some great spinners. I am sure that he will play some fantastic knocks in this series. It’s just a matter of time.”
When asked if KP has got some technical problem against the left arm spinners, Cook said, “I don’t think he has got some kind of a technical problem against the lefty spinners. In the Ashes series in Australia, he had played the left arm spinners pretty well. He just needs to play his natural game. When he starts blocking too much, he tends to make mistakes. I have told him to go out there and play freely. Hopefully, we would see a great knock from him in this match.”
Cricket Leading 10 Video Rating: 4 / 5
One of the greatest batsmen of all times, Sunil Gavaskar, has said that the way Sachin Tendulkar has got out in the last two test matches against New Zealand; it’s not a good sign for him. On the second day of the second test match at Bengaluru, Sachin Tendulkar was clean bowled by Doug Bracewell when he was at 17. That was a good length delivery which nipped back after pitching in line of the off stump. Sachin tried to play it across the line and the ball went through his bat and pads to hit the stumps.
Sachin doesn’t get out like that too often. He generally has a very sound technique and he plays the ball with bat and pad together. But, in the last two test matches, he has struggled a bit against the New Zealand fast bowlers. His front foot is not going to the pitch of the ball and he is not playing the drives with fluency.
Sachin was clean bowled in the first test match as well. In that match also, the ball went through his bat and pads to rattle the stumps. As per Gavaskar, Sachin’s age has a lot to do with these kinds of dismissals. He is not young, he is 39 years of age now and his reflexes have become a bit slow.
Meanwhile, the former Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly, has said that Gavsakar’s statement has been taken in a wrong way. He didn’t mean to say that Sachin should retire from International cricket. He just said that it’s not a good thing to get out in that fashion regularly. As per Ganguly, Sachin is playing international cricket after a long time and he is not looking in touch due to the lack of match practice. He is a great player and he would not take much time to get back in form.
Cricket Top 10 Online video Ranking: five / 5