Team India will be looking to get past the disappointment of losing Shikhar Dhawan in their World Cup 2019 campaign and start fresh as they face New Zealand in their next game at Trent Bridge in Nottingham tomorrow.

India were beaten comprehensively by New Zealand in their first warm up match last month with Trent Boult destroying the famed Indian batting lineup. Coach Ravi Shastri and the rest of the support staff will have to find out ways of dealing with the New Zealand pacers and find answers for the batsmen to tackle the swing in Nottingham.

The weather forecast says that conditions will be overcast with rain being a certainty, so it can be safely assumed that the bowlers will have the upper hand in the game in favourable conditions.

Moreover, India will be without the services of Dhawan for the next few matches at least, if not for the rest of the tournament, after the in-form opener fractured his left thumb and got ruled out for 3 weeks on Tuesday.

Virat Kohli and the Indian team management will have to think of a new strategy now in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, who had hit a century in the last match against Australia which India won by 36 runs at The Oval.

India are trailing 3-4 against New Zealand in the head-to-head record in the World Cup with their last win coming 16 years ago in the 2003 World Cup which was also the last time they had met in a World Cup.

India however, are ahead in the overall head-to-head record against the Kiwis in one day internationals with 51 wins out of 101 meetings. New Zealand have 44 wins to their credit so far.

The Indian team are now focusing on the new opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Rishabh Pant will be playing tomorrow’s match and has been selected over Vijay Shankar for the No.4 spot.

New Zealand Team

The New Zealand team has been in a good form recently. They have played three matches and won all while chasing with bunch of overs remaining. They have played the underdog teams of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. New Zealand fielded first in all the three matches and bowled out all the teams. The Zew Zealand team has three bowlers who are in a really impressive form.

Lockie Ferguson – 3 matches, 8 wickets at an average of 12.38

Matt Henry- 3 matches,7 wickets at an average of 18.00

Jimmy Neesham-3 matches,6 wickets at an average of 12.67

Adding the wickets of these three bowlers tells us that 21 wickets of the 30 wickets taken by the Zew Zealand team unit were contributed by these in-form players. The batting order for them has also been consistent with Martin Guptill and Coling Munro opening the batting with Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor showing-off their experience in their middle-order.

Tom Latham, Jimmy Neesham, and Colin De Grandhhome have yet not contributed much while batting in the lower order but can be dangerous in death overs. New Zealand team will be looking at their tough matches against India, Australia, England, and the (not in-form) proteas team.

Indian Team

The Indian team has an extremely good bowling and batting attack. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul opening the batting Virat Kohli will be coming at No.3. The No.4 spot was concerned but mos probably Rishabh Pant will be playing in the team. The finishers don’t need any introduction . MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya have a uncompatible batting form.

The Indian bowling attack consists of the No.1 ODI bowler Jasprit Bumrah and king of swing Bhunveshwar Kumar. The middle overs are managed by one of the most successful spin pair of Yuzvendra Chahla and Kuldeep Yadav. Hardik Pnadya and Kedar Jadhav are the 5th and 6th bowling choices.

GAME PLAN

India batting first

The openes should get settled and provide ther best form and a good start. Captain kohli is expected to score a 50 plus score as per his records against New Zealand. Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni, and Hardik Pandya are expected to accelerate the innings with Kedar Jadhav sigle handedly scoring through the lower-order. The target must be to put 320+ runs on the board.

India bowling first

The first 10 overs are the most crucial for both the batsmen and the bowlers. Getting a good start is the positive aim. While bowling the Indian team needs to get 2 wickets in the first two overs and then atleast 4 wikcets in the middle overs from over 10 to over 40. Our bowling in death has been impressive of the spot bowling by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.

This is the end of the blog from the preview. The India vs Pakistan blow will be a must write. I will be posting it on the day of the match as I will be travelling.

be on the new opener pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.

The aussies will be clashing against India on the 9th of June. This will be a blockbuster with both teams having not lost any match yet. India had their recent match against South Africa which they won easily while chasing. Australia had their recent matches against Afghanistan and West Indies. They won against Afghanistan by chasing and West Indies by setting a target.

This is a blog about the preview of India vs Australia match on the 9th of June

THE AUSSIE FORM

The Australian team had their first match against Afghanistan in which they won while chasing. The Afghans were put into bat first. Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins provided Australia a great start by getting the wickets of both the openers in the first two overs. The Afghan middle order collasped except the fact that Rahmat Shah scored 43 runs of 60 balls and Gulbadin Naib added 31 runs of 33 balls.

The lower order played a good hand with Najibullah Zadran scoring 51 runs of 49 balls and Rashind Khan scoring a cameo of 27 runs from just 11 balls which consisted of 3 sixes and 2 fours.

The Australian bowling attack had done a really good job by ristricting Afghanistan at 210 runs. Pat cummins and Adam Zampa thrashed the top order and the tail-enders while Marcus Stoinis took 2 important wickets of two set batsmen. The Afghan captain Gulbadin Naib and the highest scorer from the Afghanistan team Najibullah Zadran.

The aussie openers made most of the score by adding a partnership of 96 runs. Aaron Finch scored 66 runs of 49 balls while David Wrner finished the innings by scoring 89 runs of 114 balls. The rest was done by the unneded extras and 20 runs scored by Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja respectively. The Australians had a good start to the tournament.

The next match was against the fiery West Indies. Australia batted first with Aaron Finch and David Warner not providing a good start. The top order added just below than 25 runs with only Steve Smith getting settled and scoring decent 73 runs of 103 balls. The middle order did not make much out of the stand given by Steve Smith but the lower order did an excellent job. Alex Carey added 45 runs of 55 balls and the part time batsman Nathan Coulter-Nile played a match saving knock of 92 runs of just 60 balls.

The West Indies bowling attack kept taking wickets throughout the match with Carlos Braithwaite taking 3 wickets and Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas, Sheldon Cotrell taking 2 wickets.

The West Indies had to outperform to chase the target of 289 runs. They were not provided a good start just when Mitchell Starc took the wicket of Chris Gayle. The middle order of the West Indies team was confident and played a good hand with Shai Hope contributing 68 runs from 105 runs, Nicolas Pooran scoring 40 runs of 36 balls, and Jason Holder scoring 51 runs of 57 balls.

The West Indies team fell short by 15 runs when neither Andre Russell nor Carlos Braithwaite played a match winning innings. The Australian bowling attack had an decent overall performance but Mitchell Starc finished with the surprising figures of 10-1-46-5, bowling 10 overs, 1 maiden, conceding 46 runs and taking 5 wickets. Pat Cummins took 2 wickets which were the crucial ones of Evin Lewis and Shai Hope.

India’s form has recently been consistent with a good bowling attack and a supportive batting middle order. In the match against South Africa India was put on to bowl with Jasprit Bumrah getting both the destructive openers in the powerplay which put all the pressure on the proteas middle-order. The wrist-spin and chinaman pair of Chahal and Kuldeep broke through the middle-order by Chahal scalping 4 wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar got the tail-enders. The proteas middle-order was destroyed but the lower-order played an extremely good hand as Andile Phelukwayo played a slow innings of 34 runs of 61 balls, Chris Morris scored 42 runs of 34 balls while Kagiso Rabada in the end got settled and scored 31 runs of 35 balls.

The Indian team was given the task to chase 228 runs which was chasen by ease as Rohit Sharma scored a century and made more than half of the runs. The middle-order consisting of KL Rahul and MS Dhoni contributed slow 60 runs of 86 balls which were enough to make all the runs until Hardik Pandya hit 3 fours and India won.

THE GAME PLAN

The plan for India to win must be to get some quick wickets specially of Steve Smith and restrict Australia under 260 runs. Shikhar Dhwan will be required to make a good contribution in this match which would add a bit more extra runs. The middle-order must get settled and then start accelerating after 35 overs.

I would like all of you to take a look at my recent blog of the review of India vs South Africa which was written on your demand. My new blog will be coming a day before every match the Indian team plays.

Team India has kicked off their ICC World Cup campaign today against South Africa in Southampton where the weather was chilly. Although the build up to the contest has been overcast by occasional showers. The weather today remained clear whereas the predictons were of rain expected later in the evening.

It was however largely overcast throughout the day with maximum temprature hovering around 18 degrees. It was still far cry from the temprature in the high 40s that most of the India is bearing. In the last couple of days, India’s practice sessions were cut short by passing showers.

This is the review of the match INDIA VS SOUTH AFRICA on the 5th of June

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first which was a favourable decision for India as per the pitch and weather reports. The openers were facing difficulty in shot selection in the first few overs due to Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s magical swing. Bumrah was up with his task in getting out both the openers in the powerplay by pressurizing them.

Now, Faf du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen had to excelerate the innings which was unpossible when Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav got back in form with a crucial spell. Hardik pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled few snorters to Faf du Plessis making the ball bouce at full lentgh and getting converted into a boucer which even knocked out Faf’s bat from his hand.

Then came the turning point… An over from Yuzvendra Chahal in which he took the wickets of both Faf du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen by taking the pace off and giving much flight than before. The proteas were not dependent of Jp Duminy and David Miller but the chinaman Kuldeep Yadav got the ball to spin by bowling a quick stock ball and trap Jp Duminy on the leg-stump.

REVIVAL VIA MILLER AND ANDILE PHELUKWAYO

Miller and Phelukwayo had taken their side to 134-5 after 35 overs, but they had to get another gear here to even try to make a match of this one.On cue, the tempted middle order pair Chahal and Kuldeep were back to bowl.

This was it.. Miller tried to charge down the pitch to get the innings get going but ended up hitting the ball straight back to the bowler. Another dipping ball from Chahal after two overs got the wicket of Phelukwayo. BOOM BOOM Chahal eneded with the figures of 10-0-51-4, 10 overs, conceding 51 runs and taking four crucial middle order wickets.

CHRIS MORRIS GETS IN A SLOW CAMEO

Chris Morris started bashing the ball for few sixes over the mid-wicket and mid-on region of Chahal and Kuldeep. Kagiso Rabada on the other end played a good hand of 31 runs of 35 balls while Morris scored 42 runs of 34 balls.

The proteas lower order added more than half of South Africa’s runs by scoring 110 runs of 130 balls.Andile Phelukwayo, Chris Morris, and Kagiso Rabada were the players to watch from the proteas batting today.

This target to chase for India was like bread and butter. They had enough time to get settled and play throughout the innings as per their game play. The Indian openers recently have not been in form specially Shikhar Dhawan who has contributed only 24 runs in hs last 3 0DIs.

The Indian innings was started with a quick and fiery over by Kagiso Rabada. He’s got pace, bounce and seam movement going for him, and nearly had Rohit Sharma out. The Indian opener has been comprehensively beaten a handful of times by the extra-pace. He has looked slow to react to the excess pace and bounce off the pitch and ended up offering a couple of leading edges.

Shikhar Dhawan fails miserably against Rabada’s excess bounce. Rabada is fired up like there’s no tomorrow. the wait all this while has been for Kohli v/s Rabada duel, but today , so far, has been about the pacers tussle against Rohit Sharma. Rabada was acing it all until two short balls one on the off-side and one on the on-side were dispatched by Rohit Sharma into the stands.

India had started to seem more comfortable on the crease until Rabada was taken off the attack and Phelukwayo the all-rounder was introduced. Kohli was looking for his staple-strike strategy of rotation by pushing the ball in the third-man region, the extrabounce surprised him. He played the shot but ended up nicking the ball to the South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock.

The middle-order was decent with KL Rahul scoring 27 runs which were enough at that time of the game because there was no pressure and he provided a good middle over start.MS Dhoni is one of the finest cricket players India has produced, his form is never compatible to other players. Coming in at No.5 or No.6 he has an average of 40+. Rohit sharma played one of his finest innings in World Cups scoring a century. Both MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma guided the Indian team to a win which is an augury of great start and players will get confident. Hardik pandya at the end of innings paved the way for victory by hitting three fours.

I will be posting the Preview of India vs Australia match on 9th of June which will be a block buster. Please like,comment, and share.

Cricket World Cup, international cricket championship held at four year intervals that is the premier contest in One-Day cricket and one of the most watched sporting events in the world.

The 2019 ICC Cricket world cup is the 12th edition hosted in England.

This blog is a preview of INDIA VS SOUTH AFRICA match on the 5th of June.

South Africa has started their World Cup campaign with worst start in the last eight World Cups. They have lost their first two matches against England and bangladesh respectively. In both the matches the proteas were given the task to chase in which they were not up to.

In the first and the opening match against England the proteas were given the task to chase a fighting total of 312 includign three decent fifties by Jason Roy, Joe Root, and Eoin Morgan. When the English middle order could not provide much of the expectation Ben stokes played a crucial knock of 89 runs of just 79 balls at the tail end of the innings. The South African bowlers were a bit expensive but took wickets throughout the innings. Lungi Ngidi took 3 wickets, with Imran Tahir and Kagiso Rabada taking 2 wickets each.

The South Africans were not able to cope with total England had posted with only Quinton De Kock and Rassie van der Dussen scoring fifties. The top order and the lower order did not provide much runs while Ben Stokes heroics continued by taking 2 wickets and a magnificient catch. Jofra Archer also took 3 wickets which is a sign of making of legendary player.

South Africa had their second match against Bangladesh the underdogs with whom no one had any kind of expectation. Batting first they got a good start with Shakib al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim both scoring 70+ scores and working through the middle order helping Bangladesh to post a total of 330 runs. The end of the innings was handled by Mahmudullah who scored an aggresive knock of 46 runs from 33 balls.

This was a big task for the South African batting attack to achieve positively. They gave a good fight with almost every batsman till No.6 scoring 30+ scores including 1 quick half century by their captain Faf du Plessis and 3 40+ scores. This was not enough to chase a target of 331 runs and the proteas lost to Bnagladesh by 21 runs.

Now, coming to the Indian side which has the most expectations after the hosts England had a dissapointing start in their first warm-up match against New Zealand but payed back in their next match against Bangladesh by scoring 359 runs including the heroic centuries of K L Rahul and MS Dhoni at a stage when India were 3 wickets down in the first ten overs. Well, defending this total was an easy task for the Indian bowling attack.

Now, coming to the rest days the Indian team got before their campaign started were fun as they headed for a game of Paintball.co with the team.

INJURIES

Two days back during a practice session Virat Kohli hurt his right thumb but recovered fast and is fit to play tomorrow’s game. Kedar Jadhav is also back from injury and might get a chance in the team instead of KL Rahul despite his heroics against the Bangladesh team and getting fit perfectly at the No. 4 spot which India is most concerned about.

Pitches in England are hard and have good bounce which can make the Indian pacers to play the key role tomorrow. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah in the squad with Hardik Pandya the sight looks good but will India play with three spinners or play with two for bringing in the experienced Mohammed Shami?

This is an unawnsered question by the Indian unit. The bowlers will be picked as per the pitch conditions. This is it for our preview. I will be posting more blog previews of the matches the Indian team plays in this ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP.