ASIA CUP CRICKET - SOMETHING FOR CRICKET FAN

Dear (s)


For the die hard cricket fan, there is more cricket on the anvil. After the thrashing gotten in the 3 Nation tournament where the Indian team failed to qualify, the team for Asia cup stands announced.



After eliminating India, Zimbabwe finished the league at the top – Lankans set up a modest 237 and Zimbabwe were home losing only two wickets. Not much for the Indian fan to follow. But after that debacle, there is imperative need for a shake up with some players assuming their selection for granted. Sachin reportedly had sought to be excluded; Yuvraj & Yusuf Pathan axed and Saurabh Tiwary, the Jharkhand clone of Dhoni who impressed one and all playing for Mumbai Indians in IPL 3 got the maiden call. Alongside Dhoni, Virender, Gambhir, Bhaji, Zaheer, Praveen, Nehra all come back. Dinda and R Ashwin could retain their places. Tiwary played some courageous innings clobbering bowlers all over the park ; this show after a successful Ranji season has earned him the place in the National squad.



The Squad for the Asia cup where India plays 3 matches (Bangla, Lanka and Pak) is MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda, R Ashwin, Saurabh Tiwary.


The schedule of the tourney is :

For those who evince interest, Asia cup is ODI tournament established in 1983 with formation of Asian Cricket council aimed at promoting goodwill amongst asian countries. The first tourney was held in Sharjah, in UAE in 1984. All matches of Asia Cup have ODI status. Indians have had a very successful run; Lankans have the enviable record of having appeared in all Finals of this version. Here is something about the first version in 1984, played on round-robin format.


In the first match, Pak scored 187 ; Saadat Ali top scoring with 61. Arjuna Ranatunga took 3 for 38. Roy Dias’s unbeaten 57 ensured victory by 5 wickets. Manoj Prabhakar made his debut and had two wickets. In the second match, Lankans were bundled out for 96 with Chetan Sharma and Madanlal claiming 3 apiece. Indians surpassed the target without losing a wicket in 21.4 overs with Suriner Khanna scoring 51 not out. In the third match, India scored 188/4 in 46 overs with Khanna scoring 56, Sandip Patil 43 and Sunil Gavaskar unbeaten 36. Pak got only 134 with Binny and Shastri claiming 3 each. With two wins, India finished Winners of the inaugural tourney.



Regards - Sampathkumar S