England dominate to bring Ashes closer

England took the Aussie’s by surprise on the opening of the Boxing Day test. England seamer’s had set up the stage for them by dismissing the Aussie’s for just a total of 98. That brings England more closer to the Ashes victory. James Anderson and Chris Tremlett both taking four wickets thrashed Australia to put England in charge of the game straight away.

Australia seemed to have a bit advantage on the cards before the Boxing Day test started, but the confident England side showed them that they are not going to let go of the Ashes that easily. One of the interesting things that happened in this exciting game of cricket was that all the Aussie batsmen got out behind the wicket. It took just two sessions for Tremlett, Anderson and Bresnan to wrap up the Aussie innings.

England not only bowled well but to add to more troubles for Australia, the day ended with England reaching to a score of 157/0 with no wickets down and skipper Strauss and Cook both completing their half centuries and still holding the crease. That means now England is already 59 runs ahead of the Aussie’s in the first innings with all the wickets in hand, so England will be looking to put a huge lead on them and win this game of test cricket, the Ashes.

Australia can only hope for some miracles from their players to save the match from the jaws of defeat now. England are on the top and ready to get back the Ashes. This Ashes victory will not only help them improve their chances to regain Ashes but also help them to get into the World Cup 2011 preparation with whole lot of confidence.

Enjoy live cricket on www.criclights.com

Furious Steyn leaves India bewildered

India was expected to comeback strongly after losing the first test in Centurion, but their comeback was halted by some reckless bowling performance by Dale Steyn. South Africa won the toss and elected to field, and their bowler did justice to their skipper’s decision by bowling tight on the lush green pitch and testing the Indian batsmen.

Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who had his place under scrutiny, helped the Proteas in removing Sachin Tendulkar for just 25 and taking a wonderful catch of Laxman. Then Steyn was there to take care of rest and got four wickets in his bag. Pujara was bought in for Raina but couldn’t do much good as he also went to pavilion after scoring just 19 runs to Tsotsobe. The day started with the Indian openers struggling with the bounce and swing of the pitch.

The day ended for India with 183/6, with MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh still on the crease with 20 and 15 runs consecutively. The bad light stopped play to help India from losing any more wickets and get into more danger. Now that Indian Batsmen have failed to do the job they had to do, it now on for the bowlers to keep up and put up a better show to save India from another humiliating loss in test cricket.

The crowd must have expected a better and competitive game of cricket with two of the greatest sides clashing with eachother. India will be let with the task to get back into their winning ways before the World Cup 2011 begins so that they can have a good World Cup campaign. South Africa will try and keep things tight to not let India hang on for long. 

Enjoy live cricket on www.criclights.com

Biography - Andrew Strauss

The full name of Andrew Strauss is Andrew John Strauss. He was born in Johannesburg of South Africa in 1977. He is an English cricketer. He is a fluent left-handed opening batsman of his team who was famous for scoring off the back foot, playing cut and pull shots. He is well-known for the strength in fielding side at slip or in the covers.
He started his test career in 2004 against New Zealand at Lord’s Stadium of London. In that match, he scored 112 and 83 runs in the first and second innings respectively. His ODI (One-Day International) career began in 2003 against Sri Lanka at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium. He scored only 3 runs in that match.
Strauss has played a total 80 test and 113 one-day matches in his career. His highest scores are 177 and 154 in the test and one-day matches respectively. He has 19 test centuries and 5 one-day centuries. In test, his total run is 5955. For one-day, it is 3692. His overall batting average is 42.84 in test, and 35.50 in one-day. He also played 28 Tewnty20 matches scoring a total of 519 runs.

Enjoy live cricket on www.criclights.com

Biography - Paul Collingwood

The full name of Paul Collingwood is Paul David Collingwood. His nick name is Colly. He was born in Shotley Bridge of Co Durham in the year of1976. He is an English cricketer and right-handed batsman. He was the captain of England ODI team from 2007-2008. He is now the captain of England Twenty20 team. Collingwood is regarded as the batting all-rounder of his team and was one of the greatest fielders of his time.
He started his test career in 2003 against Sri Lanka at Galle International Stadium. In that match, he scored 1 and 36 runs in the first and second innings respectively. His ODI (One-Day International) career began in 2001 against Pakistan at the Edgbaston of Birmingham. He scored only 2 runs in that match.
Collingwood has played a total 66 test and 189 one-day matches in his career. His highest scores are 206 and 120 in the test and one-day matches respectively. He has 10 test centuries and 5 one-day centuries. In test, his total run is 4238. For one-day, it is 4978. His overall batting average is 41.14 in test, and 36.07 in one-day. He also played 52 Tewnty20 matches scoring a total of 855 runs.

Enjoy live cricket on www.criclights.com

Biography - Joe Denly

The full name of Joe Denly is Joseph Liam Denly. His nick name is No Pants. He was born in Canterbury, Kent in the year of 1986. He is a right-handed batsman and a leg-break bowler of England cricket team. He is a very new comer to the England cricket team. He is an exciting player who relishes short pitched bowling. He came to attention first during the England Under-19 tour of India in 2005. In that tour he made three half-centuries in three tests. He previously represented himself in the Under-17 level and in 2003, went to Holland as a member of the Under-18 team.
In his career he yet has not played any test match. He played a total 9 ODI matches up to now. He played his first ODI (One-Day International) match in the year of 2001 against Ireland at the Civil Service Cricket Club of Stormont in Belfast. He scored 67 runs in that match as an opener. His highest score is 67 in the one-day matches. He has only two half-centuries in ODI. He scored a total of 268 runs from nine ODIs in a batting average of 29.77. He also played 60 Tewnty20 matches scoring a total of 1341runs.

Enjoy live cricket on www.criclights.com

Biography - James Anderson

The full name of James Anderson is James Michael Anderson, and his nick name is Jinny. This English bowler was born in 1982 at Burnley of Lancashire. He is a right arm pace bowler of England Cricket Team. When he played his first One-day International match he had played only 5 matches in senior position.
Anderson made his test debut against Zimbabwe at Lord’s Stadium of London in 2003, where he got the total 5 wickets from both the innings giving 138 runs. He played his first ODI match against Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground in the year of 2002 where he hunted 1 wicket giving 46 runs.
He has played a total 55 test and 133 one-day matches in his career. He took 200 test wickets and 179 ODI wickets. He got ten and five wickets 1 and 10 times respectively in test match. In the ODI match he hunted five wickets only once. His best bowling figure in the test is 7/43 and in the ODI is 5/23.

Enjoy live cricket on www.criclights.com

Biography - Ravi Bopara

The full name of Ravi Bopara is Ravinder Singh Bopara. His nick name is Ruppy. He was born in Forest Gate of London in the year of1985. He is an English cricketer and a right-handed batsman. He is the second Sikh player in the England cricket team after Monty Panesar. Bopara has enjoyed his team’s success in the Indian Premier League playing for the team named Kings XI Punjab.
He started his test career in 2007 against Sri Lanka at Asgiriya Stadium of Kandy. In that match, he scored 8 and 34 runs in the first and second innings respectively. His ODI (One-Day International) career began in 2007 against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He scored only 7 runs in that match taking 1 wicket.

Bopara has played a total 10 test and 54 one-day matches in his career. His highest scores are 143 and 60 in the test and one-day matches respectively. He has 10 test centuries and 4 one-day half-centuries. In test, his total run is 502. For one-day, it is 1140. His overall batting average is 33.46 in test, and 28.50 in one-day. He also played 91 Tewnty20 matches scoring a total of 1807 runs.

Enjoy live cricket on www.criclights.com