World Cup T20 till now

World Cup T20 started with hosts India taking on New Zealand. The Kiwis are an excellent T20 side, India has lost all 4 matches earlier it played against New Zealand. The opening match took place between the two teams in Nagpur. The pitch was far from being an ideal T20 wicket. Indian bowlers bowled well, managed to restrict the Kiwis to 126 in the stipulated 20 overs. 

However when it was India's turn to bat things took a wrong turn. The kept deteriorating fast and the amount of spin generated by the spinners kept increasing. Its amazing how New Zealand knew in advance that the pitch would be a turner and had picked three spinners in their side. Although in terms of calibre the Kiwi spinners are average, but the pitch offered so much assistance to the spinners that even low quality spin bowlers were able to turn the ball square. 

The famed Indian batting line up was not able to stand up to the Kiwi spinners on that wicket and were all out for a paltry score of 79. 

The next two matches were complete run feast. The Pakistan batting side, whose performances in Asia cup was below average suddenly came to form this afternoon in Eden Gardens and on that flat wicket, were able to score 201 against Bangladesh's bowling attack. After many days Shahid Afridi got among runs scoring a quick fire 49. Before him Mohammed Hafeez and Ahmed Sehzad scored quick fifties. The Bangladeshis were not able to score the required runs against the mighty Pakistan bowling line up and lost the match.

The second match played this evening between England and West Indies was another run feast. The track in Wankhade was flat one and England scored 183 batting first. It was a good total, but luck was not with England. The dew on the ground was pretty heavy and they were not able to get the wicket of Chris Gayle. Gayle was in wonderful form and he scored 48 ball century today. The innings was a treat to watch as he hit the English bowlers all around the park. 

Gayle hit 11 sixes, some of them were so huge that they ended up in the second tier of the stands. Gayle has tremendous power in his arms and wrists coupled by the heavy bat he uses, it imparts great momentum to his shots. People come to watch cricket matches to see sixes and fours being hit. Gayle is able to provide them in plenty. This explains why he is such a popular cricketer in India. In fact for Gayle, the Chennaswami Stadium in Banglore is his home ground. He is player who is capable of winning not just a single match but tournaments for his team. Dropping such player from the West Indian side was the stupidest decision that West Indian selectors could have taken. 

Looking at the way West Indies have played, they are surely one of the favourites for this world cup. Pakistan are always unpredictable but the are definitely capable of winning the world cup as well, if their batsmen keep performing consistently. 

Soccer(Football) can become popular in India

When you talk about sports in India, only one sport would come to your mind, cricket. Indeed Cricket is the most popular sport in India, the people of the country follow the sport with great passion. No other sport in India comes close to cricket in terms of popularity. Having said this though it is not true that other sports in India cannot do well. 

India has population of over 1.25 billion people. Most of the population is below 25 years in age. In the last few years leagues of other sports have started that includes hockey and soccer. India is ranked very low among the soccer playing nations.

India has enough talent and the sport is quite popular in certain states of the country. India can potentially become a future soccer giant if proper training and exposure is given to young talents. 

Soccer is very popular in the states of West Bengal, Kerala, Goa and North East states of Assam, Sikkim, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya. The combined population of all these states almost same as the population of Brazil.

The state of West Bengal is twice as populous as Argentina. So considering the love that people have for football in this parts of the country, if young players get good training and then get good amount of experience of playing with teams that are ranked higher in FIFA rankings, it can result in India producing a world class soccer team in the future. 

Indian Soccer League, in its first and second season has also given an opportunity to Indian players to play with world class players. The quality of Indian football has also improved. If the soccer talent in the above mentioned states get enough opportunity, the country can produce world class soccer players. 

Soccer is game that can be played by all sections of the society, regardless their income. Unlike cricket, this game does not require any expensive gears. The only thing you need is pair of soccer shoes and some inexpensive shin guards and then you can play the simple but beautiful game that is loved by most people in the world. 

If the game is properly marketed and promoted, it will achieve great popularity among the common masses of India. 

Asia Cup Final

As expected India won the last match of the Asia Cup. However the win was not a cakewalk. The match was shortened by rain. It was only because of the good drainage of the stadium that we were able to get a match. The match was shortened to 15 overs per team. 

Dhoni won the toss and put Bangladesh in to bat. Obviously in shortened matches the side batting second has the advantage of knowing the score that it has to get. Indians bowled well till the 11th over, the Bangladesh scoring was in check. But once Mahmudullah came in to bat , he scored runs fast, right from the word go. He scored a super fast 33 of 13 balls. 

Mahmudullah is in excellent form and one can't help thinking that he is batting too low in the order, he should have been given more overs to bat, Bangladesh would have scored much more runs if he had batted at number four or number five. Mahmudullah scored lots of runs of Nehra and Pandya's bowling. Bhumrah bowled beautifully, he gave only 13 runs of his 3 overs.

For the first time in the series the pitch was a complete pata wicket. The bowl swung for the first few overs when Indians were batting other than that it was simply a batting paradise. In this match for the first time in Asia Cup Dhoni decided to open the bowling with Ashwin.

The first five balls that Ashwin bowled were great, a few of them were his newly developed slider that he balls of one finger. The slider swings a lot in air. The last ball of the first over was also an attempted slider, however it ended up being too full outside the off stump. Batsman Saumya Sarkar was able to hit that ball for a boundary. Ashwin was the other economical bowler in this match. He conceded only 14 of his allotted 3 overs. 

Indian start was not good. India lost the wicket of Rohit Sharma early in the second over. After a first few quite overs Dhawan and Kohli went after the bowling and were able to bring down the asking rate from around 9.5 runs per over to 8. The Bangladeshi bowlers bowled pretty well but the class of Shikhar and Virat made sure that India managed to keep up with the asking rate. Kohli played some crisp cricketing shots for boundaries, he scored runs very fast without taking too many risks. 

Shikhar took a few calculated risks and scored 60 of 44 balls. He was out caught brilliantly by Saumya Sarkar at point, had Sarkar missed the ball it would have gone crashing into the boundary. Dhoni came in to bat at 99/2 in 12.4th  over. In the next two balls 3 runs were scored. India needed 19 runs of the last two overs. This is when the Dhoni show began, Al - Amin(whose bowling action seems suspect) came in to bowl. The first ball that Dhoni faced was hit over wide long on for a six. 

In the fourth ball of that over Dhoni was on strike again, he hit the ball for a one bounce boundary over wide long off. Now India needed 5 runs of 7 balls. Dhoni hit the next ball for a six over mid wicket. Thus India won the match by 8 wickets with 7 balls to spare. 

It was a wonderful final which saw the best two teams competing in the final. Bangladesh has outplayed Sri Lanka and Pakistan in this tournament. Bangladesh can be proud of their performance. Their performance has been at par with the best since the World Cup. There is immense passion for cricket in Bangladesh and it is great to see that the nation is emerging as a power house of cricket. 

Alternative if Pakistan does not play the T20 Cricket World Cup

There is some controversy regarding Pakistan refusing to send a team to play the T20 cricket world cup. The less we talk about Pakistan's recent performances the better. The batsmen and fielders performances have been really pathetic(The only thing that has saved Pakistan from disgrace is their bowling unit).  So even if Pakistan does not play the T20 World Cup it won't make much of a difference.

In a situation where Pakistan indeed does not play the World Cup, how can ICC make up for it? Every country has players who are good enough to play for the national side but they are unable to make it to their national squads. So ICC can consider creating a cricket team out of all players of the Test playing nations who are currently not a part of the their respective country's playing XI.

We can call such a team World XI. It would not only make up for the absence of Pakistani squad, but it would also give an opportunity to the lesser known but talented players. It would be wonderful to see players from different countries playing together in a World Team.

The players in such a team would be pumped up since that would be a wonderful opportunity for them to prove that their respective boards have done a great mistake by not picking them in their national teams. If the World XI does manage to win the world cup , it would be an achievement that the entire cricket loving world would cherish. 

ICC and BCCI should not give into dirty and pedestrian publicity tactics of PCB. The World Cup can happen without Pakistan.

Asia Cup final

Tomorrow India and Bangladesh play the final of the Asia Cup. It promises to be an exciting match. India won all four matches in the league stage of the Cup. Bangladesh lost to India but it was able to beat the other three teams that  included Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 

The league match between Bangladesh and India was won convincigly by India. India lost early wickets in that match however after Rohit's catch was dropped, he went hammer and tongs after Bangladeshi bowling. On a lively wicket, Indian were able to score the higest total of the tournament. 

Bangladesh is a highly spirited and improved side. India cannot take it lightly, but India does stand a good chance to win the match looking at its current form and performances, of the last 9 matches India played, it has won 8. Tomorrow's match promises to be thrilling encounter, although Bangladesh will have home advantage, India will go into the match as all out favorites. 

Asia Cup - Bangladesh in the finals, India win all four league matches

It was like stealing candies from babies, India effortlessly beat UAE in a match of very little significance in the ongoing Asia Cup tournament. The Emiraties had no answer to India's tight bowling. They were able to garner only 81 runs in their allotted 20 overs, losing 9 wickets in that process. The match turned out to be an opportunity for India to give an opportunity to the players who were in the bench. It was nice to see Bhuvaneswar Kumar getting his swing back, Harbhajan Singh also bowled well.

The match played day before yesterday was really exciting. The Pakistani batting disappointed once again. They were able to manage only 129 runs of 20 overs. The pitch did help the bowlers but it was not very bad, it was a 160 run pitch. Pakistan fell short by at least 31 runs. 

Pakistanis had a strong bowling line up. However they decided to play an extra batsman leaving out Wahab Riaz. Fast bowling is Pakistan's strength, it was not a smart decision to do away with Raiz as it turned out the replacement medium paced all-rounder went for runs and did not create any impact on the Bangladeshi batsmen. 

Mohommad Aamir again bowled beautifully. Pakistan did pick up wickets at regular intervals but when it mattered their fielding and bowling let them down. When Mortaza, the Bangladesh captain came to bat, he hit the first ball he faced powerfully towards long off, Mohommad Sami could have stopped the ball however he ended missing it and it went for four, giving 3 runs too many. The next ball was an excellent bouncer however Mortaza was able to connect his bat to the ball and it went for a boundary.

When two boundaries were hit back to back, Aamir started bowling away from the stumps, Mortaza missed both the balls. The penultimate over was bowled by Mohommad Shami, however he ended up bowling two no balls in the over. The first no ball was caught at long on, the fielder threw the ball in the air thinking that Pakistan got a wicket, however the batsmen were able to sneak an extra run. 

There was one more no ball in the over. The combination of no balls,free hits and not getting the wicket of the no ball cost Pakistan lot of runs in the over. The first ball of the last over was a full toss and Bangladesh won the match. 

Had Pakistan played Wahab Raiz and Mohommad Shami not bowled those no balls, the story of the game might have been different. It was great moment for Bangladesh cricket as it was apparent from the reaction of the 40,000 odd crowd in the stands. They have made it to the finals where they face India. The entire cricket loving world is looking forward to the final of the tournament. 

Asia Cup - Some exciting T20 cricket ahead

India won the match against Sri Lanka today and has made it to the finals of the Asia Cup. With only one match remaining in the the league phase against minnows UAE, India seem on course to win all the matches in the league phase. Sri Lanka are now out of Asia Cup, since they lost two matches - one against India and the other one against Bangladesh. 

The only two teams that can join India in the finals are going to be either Bangladesh or Pakistan. Looking at the way in which Pakistani fast bowlers bowled against India, there seems very little likelihood of Bangladesh batsmen being able to stand up against them. Although UAE's performance against Pakistan was quite commendable. They managed to garner 129 runs against such a strong bowling line up.

Pakistan seems to be the most likely team to qualify for the finals. But Bangladesh has done upsets in the past. In fact just a few months ago, Bangladesh whitewashed Pakistan in a one day series held in Bangladesh. Tomorrow, the match between the two teams will take place, a win for Bangladesh will guarantee them a position in the finals. 

If Bangladesh wins tomorrow, it would be a great moment in the history of the cricket crazy nation. If Pakistan wins then it would set up a great India vs Pakistan encounter. One thing is for sure, we will definitely get some exciting T20 cricket.