India vs Pak: Who will win this time?

It's time for India vs Pakistan! The last time these two teams met was at the World Cup semi-final at Mohali, where the hosts and eventual champions India outplayed the visitors. A lot of things have happened in the year after that, and the situation is very different from how it was back then. Pakistan have become a much more consistent team, and India have been jolted by losses abroad.

The Asia Cup encounter is more important for India than it is for Pakistan, as the latter have already qualified for the final. India, coming after a shock-loss to Bangladesh, will have to play out of their skins against their arch rivals in a high-pressure game.

India and Pakistan have faced each other nine times in the Asia Cup, each winning four games. They will meet on Sunday again. India's attacking batsmen and Pakistan's spin wizardry promise to make this an exciting contest. Let's take a look at the previous nine games.

- 5th Match scheduled to begin at 13:30 IST, Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka

India squad

MS Dhoni(c & wk), Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Gautam Gambhir, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Sachin Tendulkar, Manoj Tiwary, Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma, Rahul Sharma

Pakistan squad

Misbah-ul-Haq(c), Sarfraz Ahmed(wk), Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Younis Khan, Abdur Rehman, Asad Shafiq, Hammad Azam, Nasir Jamshed, Wahab Riaz, Umar Akmal

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9:21 AM

Tendulkar Hits Hundreth 100

DHAKA - Sachin Tendulkar finally ended his year-long wait to score a record 100th international century but that failed to stop India stumbling to a shock five-wicket defeat by Bangladesh which threw the Asia Cup tournament wide open on Friday.

Tendulkar, who had gone 33 innings without scoring an international ton since chalking up 111 against South Africa last March, stroked a single off left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan to square leg in the 44th over to reach the landmark.

While the Little Master's achievement sparked celebrations among his team mates in the Shere Bangla National Stadium and brought the roaring crowd to their feet, Tendulkar simply raised his head skywards before kissing the Indian logo on his helmet.

"I am not God. After scoring 99 centuries, I needed a year to score another. It shows scoring a hundred from 99 is tough," a hugely relieved Tendulkar told reporters.

"It has been a test of my character and patience. Somebody who has not gone through this will not understand this. It has been really challenging.

"It was a tough journey. Now that it is out of the way things can come back to normal."

Tendulkar's determination to get the milestone out of the way may in the end have cost India the match as uncharacteristically he got bogged down in the 80s and it took him almost 15 overs to get the final 20 runs needed to cross three figures.

After a jittery innings featuring 12 fours and a six, he eventually perished for 114 after edging Mashrafe Mortaza's delivery to the wicketkeeper.

With the Indians still buzzing at Tendulkar's feat, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib gatecrashed the visitors' party with their quickfire knocks and overhauled the 290 victory target with four balls to spare.

Tamim Iqbal (70), Jahurul Islam (53) and Nasir Hossain (54) laid the foundations for the win by notching up fifties before Shakib scored 49 off 31 balls and Mushfiqur added an unbeaten 46 off 25 to help Bangladesh cruise past India's 289-5.

CLOSE DECISION

After Hossain and Shakib added 68 off 48 balls for the fourth wicket, India appeared to have snatched back the momentum when they dismissed Shakib in a close stumping decision.

However, skipper Mushfiqur tore apart the Indian attack, belting two huge sixes off seamer Irfan Pathan in the 48th over.

With Bangladesh needing 16 off 12 balls, Mushfiqur hit a four and a six in the first two balls of Praveen Kumar's next over to wrest control of the match.

Although Kumar went on to dismiss Nasir soon after, it was too late for India to salvage the contest and their defeat revived Bangladesh hopes of reaching next Thursday's final.

Pakistan top the standings with nine points while India and Bangladesh have four. Sri Lanka, who play the hosts in the final round robin match on Tuesday, have yet to win a match.

Sent in to bat first, India lost opener Gautam Gambhir (11) early on before Tendulkar added 148 runs with Virat Kohli for the second wicket.

Kohli missed out on a third consecutive one-day hundred when he was bowled by left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak for 66.

Tendulkar, however, could not be denied and scored his first ever ODI century against Bangladesh to complete his set against test playing nations.

India face arch-rivals Pakistan in their final round robin game on Sunday.

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2:26 AM

Asia Cup Match 2 - India vs Srilanka; Will India fire in familiar territory?

Another ODI between India and Sri Lanka. Before you cringe in disgust, the mitigating factor in favour of the latest match is that it is not part of another hastily arranged bilateral series. The teams have no option but to meet once, at the least, in the Asia Cup.

One silver lining, if it can be called that, for India on the disaster that was their recent tour of Australia was their performance against Sri Lanka in the Commonwealth Bank series, which culminated in that record chase led by Virat Kohli in Hobart. Out of four meetings between the two sides, India won two and tied another.

India know that will count for little; Hobart and Mirpur are two different worlds as far as conditions are concerned. For the record, they are the defending champions in this tournament. India go into this series with several questions to answer. Among them is the role and future of Sachin Tendulkar in the ODI side. At least the rotation policy at the top of the order that was employed in Australia has become dormant for the moment with no Virender Sehwag in the squad.

The middle order comes with its list of young batsmen with much to prove. Are Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma the men who will perform for India in the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand? Their presence in the squad shows that the selectors believe they will; the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, unfortunately, is not the place for them to prove they can.

In a way, India are in a cannot-win situation. If they do well in this tournament, it will be said that they are back to doing what they are best at - making merry on flat subcontinent pitches. If they do not, the talk will be that if they cannot do well even in these conditions …

Sri Lanka are in a much better position. This was not a statement you could have made before the CB series. What a difference the change of captain has made. Under Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka looked rudderless and stagnant. Under Mahela Jayawardene, they seem to have found their way again. What's more, Dilshan has rediscovered himself as a batsman too.

Jayawardene has said that his appointment is short-term and his immediate goal is to make Sri Lanka win again. He started well in the CB series with Sri Lanka narrowly losing out in the finals to Australia. Back in familiar conditions, and considering how rusty Pakistan and India have looked in ODIs recently, Sri Lanka will go in to the tournament as favourites.

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12:18 AM

Jayawardene succeeds where Dhoni fails

The value of good captaincy may be debatable but there can be no disputing that strong leadership improves a cricket team's performance. Sri Lanka'sMahela Jayawardene is a good example.

His vibrant leadership during the CB Series inspired and took his team to the brink of a tournament victory. From the moment Jayawardene elevated himself to the top of the Sri Lankan order, his team became a threat. He also led the way with some brilliant fielding, but just as important as his individual contributions, it was his faith in his players and the respect he has earned that have elevated the level of Sri Lanka's play.

Good captaincy can be seen in the moves a skipper makes on the field but strong leadership is harder to quantify. It mostly involves work done behind closed doors but the rewards are reaped on the field.

Jayawardene showed enormous faith in Lasith Malinga following a horror night in Hobart. And his lead bowler continued to contribute despite a niggling injury. The rapport between the two was obvious when Jayawardene hugged Malinga after his outstanding finishing effort in the must-win match against Australia at the MCG.

In the end Sri Lanka fell just short of winning the trophy, but without Jayawardene's strong leadership and shrewd captaincy, it's doubtful they would have even reached the finals.

Compare Sri Lanka's playing-above-themselves competitiveness with India's under-performance throughout the Australian tour. There's no doubt India had a more talented line-up than Sri Lanka, but other than Virat Kohli's electrifying night at Bellerive, the Indian team was unable to live up to its reputation.

MS Dhoni is a good captain, better in the short forms of the game than Test cricket but a solid skipper nonetheless. However, he has been unable to inspire his team on two lacklustre tours and consequently eight overseas Tests have been lost on the trot. There may have been extenuating circumstances in England, where injuries took their toll, but the Australian tour was an unmitigated disaster

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11:17 PM

India beat Australia in 4th ODI at Oval

India weren’t perfect today. But they beat Australia the hard way. And nothing satisfies a team more than a hard-fought win when it is going through a rut.

A pale-looking MS Dhoni got off to an agonisingly slow start of three runs in 17 balls. But he caught up with the pace at the end, capping off a tight chase for 270 by getting India the 13 needed in the final over from Clint McKay.

It helped India burst past some glass ceilings – they had never beaten Australia in an ODI in Adelaide, and had never chased more than 242 against the hosts in their country. More importantly, the win would take the attention away from the howls of protest after Sachin Tendulkar was rested today.

Gambhir Shines

The chase was set up by Gautam Gambhir’s 92 and a couple of thirties from Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina. But each time they seemed at ease, Indian batsmen got out to rash shots to complicate matters.

Virender Sehwag (after adding 52 with Gambhir) got out to McKay trying to flick a loose ball on the leg. Virat Kohli was caught at the cover boundary trying to hit a six. And Rohit, having looked in total ease, played a ridiculous chip shot to be caught at long-off.

The win was in sight before India nearly botched it the chase by playing out two quiet overs from left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty in which Raina yorked himself, and Ravindra Jadeja holed out to midwicket, leaving the game precariously balanced.

Monster Six

Dhoni biffed McKay’s second ball into the banks behind long-on, one of the biggest boundaries in international cricket. The hit may have easily been about 120 metres long. Dhoni swung the next ball, a waist-high full-toss to midwicket, where it was caught by David Warner. The no-ball was called, leaving India three runs to get from three balls.

He swung it to midwicket again, taking three runs, coolly collecting a souvenir stump and walking off the park. At the award ceremony, Dhoni said he had hit a longer six in his pre-India days. It put in the shade a pull shot by Rohit for six – probably the most authoritative shot an Indian batsman had done on this tour of Australia.

India Raise Fielding Standards

India did two things well today. They fielded well, and bowled tightly in the last 10 overs (conceding 57-4), displaying a real urgency to keep Australia’s score down. India scored four run-outs in the second T20 in Melbourne. Today they had three, plus a sharp catch by Virender Sehwag to dismiss Hussey.

Sehwag’s catch was crucial. Australia looked set for a score close to 300. Sehwag’s tumbling effort at square leg cut short Hussey’s stay at 72. But the run-outs of David Warner and Daniel Christian were also crucial in keeping Australia under check.

Forrest Shines On Debut

The merits of the rotation system is another topic. The fact is that Australia have come out of their worst slump in years on the basis on really good selections. Today, the right-handed Peter Forrest came in for Mike Hussey, who has been given a week’s rest.

Forrest in only 26 and has played just 37 First Class games. This is in sharp contrast with Hussey, who was 30 and nearly 15,000 First Class runs down before he wore the Baggy Green. But like Hussey when he appeared on the scene, Forrest looked ready for the big league.

On his international debut, Forrest looked at ease – off the front-foot, off the back-foot, against pace or spin. You’d expect an Australian batsman coming out of Brisbane to be really good against pace bowling. But Forrest impressed with his footwork against Indian spinners too.

Twice he walked down to Jadeja and Rohit – that walk is rarely seen in the stand-and-deliver era – and lofted them over the straight field for six. If you could find one blemish in the innings, it was that Dhoni didn’t consider exposing Forrest to Zaheer Khan, and gave a long run to his spinners, none of whom were particularly impressive today.

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4:03 AM

Brilliant Australia blow India away in Melbourne

The most gripping day of the Melbourne Test ended in an anti-climax with Australia crushing India by 122 runs.

Australia had their backs to the wall at the start of Day 4, but their positive intent and perfect execution of bowling plans laid low their opponents. India were bizarrely defensive with the ball and showed no stomach for a fight with the bat chasing a stiff 292.

One of Australia’s finds of the season, James Pattinson, and Peter Siddle made the most of India’s trigger-happiness with the bat. They bowled in the right areas — Pattinson’s high pace in particular troubled every batsman — and India obliged them with outside edges.

This was the sort of wicket were the home team also made the same mistakes with the bat. But the key to winning this game was building partnerships. Australia had several; India, none.

India let momentum slip

In the morning session, Mike Hussey, Pattinson and Ben Hilfenhaus thrived with MS Dhoni’s conservative field settings that allowed them to pick easy singles and score the occasional boundary.

India, 230 runs behind at the start of the day, let the momentum drift. No team has chased more than 250 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground since 1961.

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir fell cheaply. The contest practically ended when Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli fell within a few overs of each other in the noon session. What came to hurt India bad was their conservative tactics against the Australia lower order.

Their last four wickets added 119 runs in the first innings and 92 in the second. In a low-scoring game such as this, 211 runs were a lot to give away to the tail-end. To Australia’s credit, they fought tooth and nail and the 60 runs they added this morning caused a seismic momentum shift.

Pattinson took seven wickets in the game, and batting at No. 10, was unbeaten in both innings in making 18 and 37. But this wouldn’t have been possible had Dhoni applied greater pressure on him his partners.

Former Australia captain and commentator Ian Chappell in particular was critical of Dhoni’s methods. Today, he described them as “... ridiculous... an absolute blue print on how to lose a Test match.” India proved him right.

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1:59 AM

West Indies beat India in 3rd ODI

Ahmedabad, (Reuters): Rohit Sharma's sparkling 95 was in vain as West Indies beat India by 16 runs in the third One-Day International to stay afloat in the five-match series at Ahmedabad's Sardar Patel Stadium on Monday.

Having dropped Sharma on 33, West Indies skipper Darren Sammy redeemed himself with a direct throw in the 44th over as India, chasing 261 for a third successive win that would have sealed the series, folded for 244 in 46.5 overs.

Sharma's 100-ball knock, which included 10 hits to the fence and a six, was his third successive half-century in the series which his team lead 2-1.

Ravi Rampaul (4-57) derailed India's chase almost as soon as it began by removing the scoreless duo of captain Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir with his first two deliveries.

Sehwag edged to depart caught behind while Gambhir was trapped leg before, leaving India tottering on eight for two wickets.

Barring opener Parthiv Patel (39), none of the Indian top order batsmen could do justice to their reputation and it was Sharma's 91-run seventh-wicket stand with Ravichandran Ashwin (31) that took India near the target.

West Indies were put into bat and Marlon Samuels top-scored with a sedate 58 but it was the unbeaten 79-run stand between Sammy (41 not out) and Andrew Russell (40 not out) off 5.4 overs that helped West Indies to overcome a sluggish start and post 260 for five.

The visitors lost opener Lendl Simmons (1) in the third over and were also denied the service of another in-form player, Darren Bravo (26), when the batsman retired hurt with a hamstring problem.

Samuels tried to steady the innings but the run rate nosedived, prompting him to go after Umesh Yadav in the 19th over, hitting the bowler for a couple of fours and a six.

West Indies lost three cheap wickets to slump to 181 for five in the 45th over before Sammy paired up with Russell to provide the late surge to power them past 250.

Sammy hit Abhimanyu Mithun for two sixes and as many fours in the 49th over, while Russell struck two fours and a six off the final over sent down by Yadav.

West Indies milked 93 runs off the last seven overs and 43 off the last two. Indore hosts the fourth One-dayer on Thursday.

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10:39 PM

Tendulkar likely to play the last two ODIs against WI

His 100th international century eagerly awaited across the nation, veteran Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar is likely to play the last two one-dayers against the West Indies.

Tendulkar, who failed to reach the milestone despite coming close at least twice during the Test series, might be selected for the last two matches of the ongoing ODI series when national selectors meet on Monday.

India leads the five-match rubber 2-0 with the third ODI scheduled here on Monday.

Tendulkar had been rested from the squad for the first three matches but sources say the 38-year-old wants to play the remaining two matches of the series scheduled on December 8 and 11 in Indore and Chennai respectively.

The Kris Srikkanth-led selection panel will meet on Monday to pick the squad for the remainder of the series besides picking injured pacer Praveen Kumar's replacement for the upcoming four Tests against Australia.

Tendulkar's last international century came on March 12 during a World Cup group league match against South Africa at Nagpur.

It has been more than eight months that the entire nation has been waiting with bated breath for the elusive century.

The last missed opportunity came in the third Test against Caribbeans when Tendulkar was dismissed six runs short of the milestone.

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12:40 AM

India look to seal series against Windies Today

Ahmedabad, Dec 5 (IANS) India would look to seal the series against the West Indies when they they clash in the third One-dayer at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera here Monday.

For the visitors, it will be their last chance to keep the five-match series alive. The Carribbean team has given a good account of themselves in the two ODIs but inconsistency has brought their downfall.

After losing the second match, despite bouncing back in a stellar fashion, West Indies captain Darren Sammy's blank expression said it all. 'We just can't get over the line though. Sooner rather than later we can get that final push.'

'We'll keep our head up and come strongly at the Indians again,' Sammy said.

For that, West Indies will have to sort out their batting problem that has troubled them througout the Test and ODI series. Another inexplicable collpase at Visakhapatnam left them tottering at 5-163. Lendl Simmons and Ravi Rampaul bailed the team out with gritty knocks. Rampaul smashed an unbeaten 86, hitting the Indian bowlers all over the park.

India had a shaky start with stand-in captain Virender Sehwag, Parthiv Patel and Gautam Gambhir leaving early. But Virat Kohli and Rohit sharma played with maturity to see the team home. Kohli hit his eighth ODI century while Sharma again showed that he has learnt his lessons after being dropped.

Another high point for India was the bowling of the pacers. Youngsters Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar and Varun Aaron bowled with pace and swing, exploiting the conditions, and pinning down the West Indies batsmen.

Sehwag may not be scoring runs, but his captaincy has come as a whip of fresh air. Quite like his batting, he has been aggressive with his captaincy. He always had fielders in catching positions that put pressure on the West Indies batsmen. There were no easy runs on offer.

Teams:

India: Virender Sehwag (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Parthiv Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Abhimanyu Mithun, R.Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma

West Indies: Lendl Simmons, Adrian Barath, Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo, Danza Hyatt, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy (captain), Andre Russell, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Anthony Martin, Sunil Narine, Kieran Powell, Jason Mohammed.

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10:26 PM

Team India left to SA for Champions Trophy

Mumbai: Team India today departed for South Africa to play the ICC Champions Trophy that starts from September 22.

The team left by the Dubai-bound flight from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport, Mumbai, and from Dubai, they will be taking a connecting flight to Johannesburg.

The ‘Men in Blue’ returned from Sri Lanka on September 15 after lifting the Compaq Cup in the tri-series that also included New Zealand.


The victory has made them the favourites for the Champions Trophy, which will see the participation of eight teams; India, Australia, England, West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa.

The team will play a warm-up match against New Zealand on September 20. Placed in Group A along with Australia, Pakistan and the West Indies, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men will open their league engagements on September 26 against Pakistan.

Gautam Gambhir, who was forced to quit the tri-series mid-way due to a groin strain, has been given a clean chit for the Champions Trophy, which will indeed prove to be a big boost for the team.

India will miss the services of opener Virender Sehwag due to his shoulder injury.

The Squad: MS Dhoni (c/wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh.

Coach: Gary Kirsten

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10:57 PM

Toss will be crucial in finals: Dhoni

Colombo: After slumping to a humiliating defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said toss will play a vital role in Monday`s final of the tri-nation series against the hosts here.

India lost to Sri Lanka by 139 runs last night in their second match of the tournament, thereby ending their brief stay at the number one position in the ICC ODI rankings.

But Dhoni said it was just an off-day for the team in the office and feels whoever comes out lucky with the toss of coin at the R Premadasa wicket tomorrow will have an edge in the title clash.


"In venues like this, toss plays a crucial role. If you win the toss then 60 per cent of the game is in your favour," Dhoni said.

The Indian skipper said his side`s bowling department needs to pull up its socks and avoid giving away a good start to the Sri Lankans, a mistake which proved costly for them yesterday.

"If you are bowling first, then the bowlers must ensure that the opposition don`t get off to a big start.”

"I think we are not bowling in the right areas. We are either too short or too full. Hopefully yesterday`s match would be a learning experience for us," Dhoni said.

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6:04 AM

Pakistan will beat India in Champions Trophy: Gul

UAE:Pakistan has never beaten India in an ICC tournament and pacer Umar Gul says his team is desperate to break the jinx when the two sides come face to face in next month’s Champions Trophy in South Africa.

“While every match will be important, the game against India, as always, will be special for both the sides. No rivalry can match that between India and Pakistan and I think the September 26 match will be something billions of people all over the world will be waiting for,” Gul said.

“For us, the match is also important for the simple fact that we haven’t beaten them in an ICC event and we’re desperate to break that sequence,” he added.

“I believe we have an excellent team for one-day cricket and it is the combination that makes us a quality side. The return of Mohammad Yousuf and Rana Naved has provided further impetus to the side which is bubbling with confidence after its victory in the ICC World Twenty20 in England in June.”

“But we’re aware that it is not going to be easy at all in South Africa and we’ll have to be at our best all through to win,” Gul said in an ICC news letter.

Pakistan is grouped with Australia, the West Indies and India. Gul said the Pakistani team is high on confidence after winning the World Twenty20 Championships in June but is also feeling the pressure of expectations.

“Although it is a different format, it is always good to go in as a champion side because it gives you that extra confidence which is vital in big tournaments. However, our victory in England has raised the bar of expectations and our supporters want us to win everything. That puts us under more pressure.”

India is the only country that has won all the three major ICC events – the 50-over World Cup (in 1983), ICC Champions Trophy (jointly with Sri Lanka in 2002) and ICC World Twenty20 (in 2007).

Gul believes it is Pakistan’s turn to add the one trophy which is missing from its cabinet by winning the eight-nation tournament to be staged from September 22 to October 5.

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5:54 AM

India is going to become top ranked ODI side

The Indian team has had the habit of disappointing their fans with the most horrible performances against the run of play. For some reasons they have not been consistent enough despite being in the possession of a quality outfit.

At times one gets the impression that the movers and shakers in the Indian Board are quite content in watching their team take the second position when they appear quite capable of being on top of the three.

The Indians don’t really look all that keen to attain the number one position. It’s hard to comprehend their reluctance to occupy the top slot. Be it a tournament or the rankings of the International Cricket Council (ICC) they make others feel that they are more than happy to be placed among the top teams rather than being the leading outfit.

There have been numerous tournaments over the years when the fancied Indian outfits have fallen away in the final after being in the driving seat throughout. I think they have lost more one-day finals than any other team.

The latest ODI rankings issued by the ICC, following the conclusion of the recent Zimbabwe-Bangladesh series show India just one point behind leaders South Africa. It very clearly means that Mahendra Singh Dhoni stands a very good chance of taking his team to the top of the points table if his team plays to its potential in the upcoming triangular series in Sri Lanka.

That’s a million dollar question. Will the Indians aim for the number one ahead of the Champions Trophy being held in South Africa next month or will they remain contended with the second spot.

We have seen it so many times the Indians giving it away against unfancied opponents. Neither Sri Lanka nor New Zealand have that kind of powerful team as India but one can’t be sure if Dhoni’s men would be pushing hard for victory.

If the Indians do go hard at both their opponents there’s very little chance of them not accomplishing the goal of winning the tournament and taking the number one position in the rankings. We need to wait a little to know that.

South Africa currently occupy the top position in the ICC’s ODI ranking with 127 points while India are just a solitary point adrift at second position. Australia are placed third with 119 points while England are number four with 111 points.


New Zealand (110), Pakistan (109) and Sri Lanka (104) are not that far behind on the next three positions but the West Indies have only 78 points to be at the eighth position.

Bangladesh, on a high of late, are fast closing the gap having accumulated 55 points to be ranked number nine. The tenth position is taken by Ireland with 27 points with Zimbabwe having slipped to the second last position on the list with only 26 points. Kenya remain at the bottom, not having gained any point yet.

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10:07 PM

India: 62 glorious years of Independence

On its 62nd year as an Independent nation, India has achieved many achievements. These span out into all sectors - whether in defence, space missions, life expectancy, literacy, technology, telecommunications, films or sports

ON AUGUST 15, 2009, India will become a 62-year-old independent nation, which has seen numerous troughs and crests in its recent history, but survived them all to become a major power in South Asia. For every Indian, it is important to understand what have been our achievements as a nation in the last 62 years. Often we discuss only the negative aspects of our country, belittling the countless positive achievements made by us since England left us to make our tryst with destiny on August 15, 1947.

In the last few years, India has made decent progress in several areas and produced world class scientists, engineers, bureaucrats, journalists, doctors, sports person, artists, industrialists and politicians, who have made a mark on the world stage.

First of all, we should salute our soldiers who battled for us, in 1962 Indo-China war, 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars, 1999 Kargil war and saved us from the jaws of the enemy many times. They are ever ready to provide us safety, security and tension free sleep. Our scientists have done extraordinary work and India has attained the capability to send satellites and rockets into space and we are now working on a Moon mission.

We have increased life expectancy from 32 years in 1947 to 65 years in 2009. We have built about 1.25 million miles of new roads in this short span of time. In 1947 our literacy rate was 12.2 per cent and it is up to around 70 per cent now.

In the industrial sector, we are marching ahead of many developed countries. We have increased our exports from a few million dollars at the time of independence to more than $125 billion now, with about $150 billion of imports. GDP growth was around 2.3 per cent in 1951-52 and has reached to more then 9 per cent at present.

The economy of India is the twelfth largest economy in the world by market exchange rates and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) basis. India's per capita income is $1016 and we currently account for 1.5 per cent of World trade as of 2007, according to the WTO. Our hard currency reserves have also grown from a mere $1.5 billion in 1991 to over $220 billion today.

India's information technology exports grew from a mere $150 million in 1991-92 to $31.4 billion in 2006-07, and is projected to reach $60 billion by 2010. The Indian IT industry is unique for several reasons. It focused on exports; benchmarked with the best global companies; followed the finest principles of corporate governance; created the largest number of jobs in the organised sector; and demonstrated that Indians, too, could succeed in the competitive global markets.

We are at the eighth position in the world Telecom sector. Total mobile phone users reached 362. 3 million in January 2009 in India and the total subscriber base of fixed lines are more than 50 million. Forty five million Internet user are in India and the number is increasing rapidly.

India is the world's largest producer of films, producing close to a thousand films annually. Indian cinema has found markets in over 90 countries, where our films are screened. Indian artists like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Lata Mangeskar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Amitabh Bachcahn are respected everywhere in world.

Now finally coming to sports, Indians are achieving new heights in every kind of sports. In cricket, the Indian team is one of the best teams in every format. Vishwanathan Anand is world's best chess player, Abhinav Bindra won a gold in Olympics, whereas Leander Pace and Sania Mirza gave new dimensions to tennis.

In these glorious 62 years after Independence, India has moved ahead and is still gaining in every field of life thus making every one say "I feel proud to be an Indian" and hum the lines "Honge Sabse Aage Hindustani."

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11:08 AM

Ganguly criticises cricket board

Soruav Ganguly took pot shots at the Board of Control for Cricket in India, saying its rules were not the same for all cricketers, here today.
To a query whether he could have served the Indian team well had he continued to play at the top level like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly said: "Yes, I had the ability. Had I played, I would have performed. But the rules are not the same for everyone." He also said the Cricket Association of Bengal president, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, was a 'legend' in the game's administration, amidst speculation that he is gearing up to take on the former BCCI president in the CAB presidential elections next year. "He is a legend in cricket administration, and he will be," Ganguly said. "I am reading lot of speculations about why I want to get into cricket administration. I am not going there to fight anybody. I don't have any such mentality," he added. He is anchoring a Bengali quiz cum reality show which he said was a new challenge to him.

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12:33 PM