While Indian Cricket
made all the wrong headlines thanks to the IPL Spot Fixing scandal the Indian
Cricket team in England and Wales for the
on-going ICC Champions Trophy-2013 played the best of cricket so far. India became the first team of the tournament to
sail into the semifinals outplaying West Indies
in their second Group-B match on 11th June. Earlier in the
Championship opener on 6th June India
edged out South Africa
by 26 runs in a toughly competitive and high-scoring encounter. In both matches
Shikhar Dhawan, the sensational new-find for India, made brilliant back-to-back
centuries contributing hugely for the team victories. In fact, this is Shikhar’s
3rd consecutive hundred if we take into account his brilliant Test century against Australia
in Mohali after which he got injured. With Rohit Sharma this opening duo seems to be
doing extremely well at the moment and cricket fans would hope they make the
pair Team India
has been looking for after the failures of the Sehwag-Gambhir duo. India’s
powerful batting display in English conditions has won special praise.
The other
semifinalist from Group B is likely to be decided in the crucial encounter today
between South Africa and West Indies—both teams with one win each. In a virtual
quarter final the winner will go straight into the semis. There is a worry of
rain over the match and in case the match is abandoned both teams would be
locked at 3 points each making net run-rate coming into play.
The scenario in
Group A is far more complex. Sri Lanka
on the brink of elimination fought for dear life last night and convincingly
beat a strong England
by 7 wickets with 17 balls to spare. Chasing a big target of 294 runs Sri Lanka won
in style thanks to a scintillating unbeaten century by Sangakkara. The England-New
Zealand tie on 16th June is set to be another quarter final where
the winner would go straight into the semis. However if New Zealand is defeated they would still stick
on for the last match of Group A between Australia
and Sri Lanka on June 17.
If Australia win Sri Lanka
will be eliminated and New Zealand-Australia will be tied with 3 points each
making net run-rate decide the second team to go into the semis.
Unfortunately for
the sub-continental cricket fans Pakistan got eliminated very early
due mainly to their uninspired performances. They lost both their matches
against West Indies and South
Africa. However, the much-awaited
blockbuster encounter between Pakistan
and India
is yet to be played. Whatever the stakes for both teams and the lack of it an India-Pakistan
match is always a mouth-watering prospect. Pakistan
is eliminated no doubt, but they would love to exit with the satisfaction of
beating India.
And India
would like to make its slate clean winning all group encounters and play the
semifinal with tremendous confidence. The respective fans would not settle for
anything less than a win. Stay tuned tomorrow for the big one!
The Teams
As They Stand Today the 14th of June:
|
Teams
|
Mat
|
Won
|
Lost
|
Tied
|
N/R
|
Pts
|
Net
RR
|
For
|
Against
|
|
New Zealand
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
+1.048
|
139/36.3
|
138/50.0
|
|
England
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
+0.289
|
562/100.0
|
518/97.1
|
|
Sri Lanka
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
-0.517
|
435/97.1
|
432/86.3
|
|
Australia
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
-0.960
|
221/50.0
|
269/50.0
|
|
Teams
|
Mat
|
Won
|
Lost
|
Tied
|
N/R
|
Pts
|
Net
RR
|
For
|
Against
|
|
India
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
+0.979
|
567/89.1
|
538/100.0
|
|
South Africa
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
+0.410
|
539/100.0
|
498/100.0
|
|
West
Indies
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
-0.086
|
405/90.4
|
406/89.1
|
|
Pakistan
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
-1.108
|
337/100.0
|
406/90.4
|
