Showing posts with label Seals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seals. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

England Captain hundred seals 2-0 series win

England 496 and 209 for 1 (Cook 109*, Pietersen 74*) beat Bangladesh 419 and 285 (Shakib 96, Tamin 52, Tredwell 4-82) by nine wickets

What was at times a fluctuating contest turned into a comfortable victory for England as Alastair Cook finished his first tour in charge with a controlled, unbeaten 109 and Kevin Pietersen continued his return to form with a 74 to complete a nine-wicket victory and a clean sweep. England remain the only team to have an unbeaten record against Bangladesh, but have been made to work hard for their success by a home side that showed signs of development but still frustrated with fundamental mistakes.

It was particularly satisfying for Cook to guide his side home with his 12th Test hundred, having copped plenty of criticism for some naive captaincy through the tour. It was, as ever, more efficient than spectacular, as he picked off the generous offerings from a tiring Bangladesh attack. His toe-ended cut to bring up three figures and slog-sweep through midwicket to seal the result were both fitting as he proved captaincy would not affect his dogged batting.

Before a ball had been bowled on this tour Cook was left out of England's preliminary Twenty20 squad, but in every match since he's shown how his game has developed. Adding a touch of adventure to his steely temperament he ended as the leading scorer in the series after making a career-best 173 in the first Test and demonstrated an authority that had been missing during his struggle form form last year.

Needing 209 at almost four an over after Shakib Al Hasan's fighting 96 kept England in the field until after lunch, Bangladesh had a chance to squeeze the visitors, but they couldn't muster the resolve. Shakib looked exhausted, having made 141 runs and bowled 66 overs in the game. He wondered around the field with his arms folded and, rather than open with himself, allowed Shafiul Islam and Abdul Razzak to gift England an easy start.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Mumbai Indians's Captain Tendulkar Seals Easy Win

Mumbai Indians 156 for 3 (Tendulkar 71*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 155 for 3 (Gayle 75, Zaheer 2-27) by seven wickets


A graceful Sachin Tendulkar fifty was the highlight of Mumbai Indians' convincing seven-wicket win, which was set up by the bowlers who stuck to a strategy and restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to an underwhelming score at the Brabourne Stadium. Chris Gayle boosted Kolkata with a steady fifty, but the visitors will look back at the night and feel they pushed the pedal too late, despite keeping so many wickets in hand.

This IPL has revealed effective strategies used by teams to keep the batsmen in check. The tactic of bowling short at the body has worked well for Royal Challengers Bangalore, and today, Mumbai persisted with firing yorkers on the leg stump, cramping the batsmen for room. It was best highlighted in a passage of play in the Kolkata innings where they batted 37 balls without a boundary. Sixty-two off the last six overs was an improvement, but about 15-20 runs short.

The Mumbai openers began the chase in fifth gear by racing to 24 off two overs, all off boundaries. Shikhar Dhawan dented Shane Bond's confidence by smashing three boundaries off the first over, while Tendulkar gave Ishant Sharma a similar nightmare by fetching three more fours off the second, all crisply driven down the ground off the front foot.