Saturday, February 16, 2008

Ganguly Speaks Out : Was Considering Retirement from ODI's

NEW DELHI, February 16: Surprisingly sidelined for the One-day cricket tri-series against Australia, Sourav Ganguly has confessed that he was anyway considering retirement from the limited overs version in next 7-8 months.

Ganguly said he had realised that he would not play in the 2011 World Cup, to be co-hosted by the Asian cricketing nations, but when selectors asked him he had expressed his wish to play in ODIs for a few more months as there were not many limited overs' games scheduled this year.

"They (selectors) just asked me whether I wanted to continue One-day cricket. I said, yes definitely, at least for the next 7-8 months," Ganguly said.

"There is not much of One-day cricket this year. This is Australia series then India goes to Sri Lanka for Test and One-day, so there is five One-days there and there is Champions Trophy in September and rest of the year is full of Test cricket.

"So I wanted to play till September then probably take a call because at some stage you would not have gone out to play 2011 World Cup," he told the Times Now .

Ganguly said although he did not discuss the issue with anyone else he felt he was not dropped on the ground of his form. "I was a bit surprised because I didn't expect it... But, all I can say for sure is that it is not on the basis of form," Ganguly said.

The former skipper said he was "irritated" by whatever was being written about him in the media in last couple of years, since he was dropped from the team and lost the captaincy.

"It's very irritating. I need to be treated as a player and that is every player's right. And, to be honest that's the fact, for last. Since 2005, after I got dropped and I lost my captaincy, a lot of things have been interrogated which is not required for anybody whether it's me or who has played for 12-13 years or a newcomer. It is not required and does not happen anywhere in the world. I need to be judged on my cricket," he said.

Sourc : cricket.indiatimes.com

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Sri Lanka Won by 8 Wickets against India

Yet another rain delay further curtailed the India-Sri Lanka match of the Commonwealth Bank triangular One-Day Series here Tuesday, with Sri Lanka being set a revised target of 154 from 21 overs in reply to India's 195 in 29 overs which Lankans scored easily with a loss of 2 wkts only.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Australia Crushed to defeat by India in 4th ODI of Series

Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth ripped through the heart of Australia's vaunted batting line-up to help India dismiss Australia for 159 off 43.1 overs in the fourth one-day international of the triangular series in Melbourne on Sunday.

Sharma ended with figures of 4-38 while S Sreesanth cleaned up the tail to finish with 3-31.

Even with such a low score, the world champions threatened to snatch an improbable win in their triangular series one-day international. India was 5 down for just 102 runs. But Rohit and captain Dhoni played well in the middle to ensure a five-wicket victory for India.

Here is the scorecard for you.