Archive for the 'Cricket' Category

Glamour has become an integrated part of IPL whether in the form of cheer leaders, hosts of cricket related shows or owners of the teams. Check out babes of IPL who rocks.

Cricket’s first lady: Mandira Bedi

Mandira Bedi gave cricket a whole new dimension when she first hosted Extraaa Innings in noodle strap sari blouses below stylish saris. The Punjabi hottie has so far held her own in the IPL season 2 among the more distinguished cricket pundits. And why is Mandira all covered up while hosting the shows? "I did go strapless the first day. It’s very cold here now. The day the sun shines, I’ll go back to my ‘minimalist’ self," retorts Mandira.

The Queen among the ‘Kings’: Preity Zinta

Preity can constantly be seen cheering her team, Kings XI Punjab. And she just might be the most vivacious of all the IPL owners. A big hug is generally reserved for the star players of the day from her team. When asked about her favourite player from the team, says Preity "I don’t have any favourites as such but love the way Yuvraj Singh hits those big sixes."

Her ‘Royal’ Highness: Shilpa Shetty

 

The Champions deserve the best. And that is Shilpa Shetty. The Royals have a new owner and the glam quotient associated with the RRs has reached the sky. Though she owns only 11.7% stake, she more than covers it up with her starry presence. Why Royals? "They were considered the underdogs-just like I was. That’s also why I backed them from the word go," replies Shilpa.

The sibling: Shamita Shetty

Shamita Shetty’s presence at this year’s IPL doesn’t come as a surprise, considering the fact that the more famous of the Shetty sisters, Shilpa, is the part-owner of the Rajasthan Royals team. And together with mother Sunanda Shetty, they make for a happy Indian family at this year’s IPL in South Africa.

 

The distractions: Cheerleaders

Although there have been calls for banning the cheerleaders at IPL, the fact remains that they are the biggest attractions at all IPL matches, besides the cricket of course. The picture of scantily clad beauties dancing to the tune of fours and sixes has warmed many a hearts already. " I don’t know much about cricket. I come to watch the cheerleaders," says a SA spectator. That says it all!

Source: India Times

 

It looks like Bollywood’s love affair with cricket is not limited to the ongoing Indian Premier League. Rather, the players seem to be besotted to tinseltown’s heroines — or is it the other way around? There have been quite a few link-ups between the two in the past. We take a look at some of the recent and most prominent ones:

Lakshmi Rai and Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Recently, there were reports of Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni dating south Indian actress Lakshmi Rai. According to the grapevine, the model-turned Tamil actress met Dhoni when he was leading the Chennai Super Kings in last year’s IPL matches, and the two have become an item. Of course, Rai denied the rumours.

Isha Sharvani and Zaheer Khan

The pretty Isha, who acted in films like U Me Aur Hum and Luck By Chance, was reportedly dating the 30-year old left arm pace bowler, Zaheer  for two years before calling it quits in 2007. Rumours of the two getting back together were doing the rounds when they were spotted at a gym. However, nothing came out of it as Isha is now reportedly seeing a London-based filmmaker.

Kim Sharma and Yuvraj Singh

Kim is famous for her role in Mohabbatein while Yuvraj is the dashing left-handed batsman, who can also bowl a mean spin. The two dated for four years before calling it quits. According to reports, the two split because Yuvraj‘s mother disapproved of Kim and her lifestyle. There were also rumours that the Kim was seeing Vivek Oberoi which then led to the split.

Deepika Padukone and Yuvraj Singh

Yuvi makes the list again — this time, with Deepika, who is now dating Ranbir Kapoor. What gave rise to the link-up rumours was that the two were seen together on a number of occasions during the India-Pakistan one-day series. Deepika also attended Yuvraj‘s birthday party right after the India-Pakistan Test match in Bangalore.

Karishma Kotak and Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj seems to be quite the ladies man. He has been spotted many times with London-based model Karishma Kotak, best known for her work as a Kingfisher calendar girl. If the rumours are true, we wonder how long will this hottie, who made her acting debut in Shankardada Zindabad, a Telugu remake of Lage Raho Munna Bhai, hold Yuvi‘s attention.

Shriya Saran and Sreesanth

We’ve heard that men love the chase but in this case, it was apparently the woman, who did all the chasing. Apparently, the south siren was so smitten by the cricketer at a fashion week party that she went out of her way to impress him. Shriya fussed over the cricketer and never left his side during the even

Sayali Bhagat and Shoaib Malik

Now this one is confusing. According to some, the 25-year old former Miss India Sayali fell in love with the Pakistani cricketer. The two then embarked on a long-distance relationship. But Shoaib has denied the romance, called the relationship a friendship. Then, there is the matter of a film that the two are supposed to be doing together by Wilson Louis. The film is a love story between a cricketer and a model. The two are said to be playing themselves in the movie.

Sameera Reddy and Ishant Sharma

Last year’s IPL matches wasn’t all about cricket. On the sidelines was the blossoming romance between Sameera Reddy and the right arm fast bowler Ishant Sharma. According to a national newspaper, the two met during some of the IPL matches and hit it off very well. Sameera, however, denied the news.

Geeta Basra and Harbhajan Singh

The actress, who made her debut opposite Emraan Hashmi in The Train, was apparently spotted entering the cricketer’s room in a Mumbai hotel, thus fuelling rumours that Geeta and Harbhajan were seeing each other. Like many others before her, Geeta dismissed the rumours as baseless.

Sanjana and Virat Kohli

She is a Kannada and Telugu actress while he’s the Bangalore Royal Challengers batsman. They have apparently been spotted together on many occasions. But the couple, who know each other for the past one year, say they’re just good friends.

Source: Rediff

You must have seen Dhoni attending college in Pepsi ad, but now also in real life he is set to enroll for a graduate course at St Xavier’s College, Ranchi, with Office Management and Secretarial Practice as his majors. This decision of Dhoni has disappointed teachers and students of Gossener College where he had enrolled for a bachelor’s course in commerce in 1999 through sport’s quota.

Dhoni wants to be a normal college student and is open to ragging as well. He is willing to attend classes regularly. Teachers and students of St Xavier’s College are excited. Dhoni ki ye padhai kitne world cup layegi only time will tell.
 

  

Watch Pepsi ad of Dhoni

India’s One-Day International (ODI) captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has bagged the International Cricket Council‘s (ICC) ODI Player of the Year 2008 Award. While, his Deputy Yuvraj Singh has been selected for the inaugural International Twenty 20 Performer of the Year Award.

There were eight individual prizes for this year’s LG ICC Awards and ODI Player of the Year was one amongst them. Dhoni has also been picked up for the ICC ODI Team of the Year by the ICC selection panel. Dhoni competed neck-to-neck with team-mate Sachin Tendulkar, Australian fast bowler Nathan Bracken and Pakistani player Mohammad Yousuf to capture the award. Whereas, Yuvi got the award for his amazing consecutive six sixes in single over.

Dhoni played 39 ODIs during the voting period and scored 1,298 runs at an average of 49.92 with striking rate of 82.46 runs per 100 balls. He hit one century and nine fifties during the period. While wicket-keeping, he accounted for 62 dismissals (42 catches and 16 stumpings), which is twice as much as the second best. Moreover, he is ranked one in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODIs currently.

However, Yuvraj’s award highlights the most impressive performances by players in Twenty 20 internationals during the 12-month voting period. For the first time six sixes were hit in single over by any player in Twenty 20 international over. However, Herschelle Gibbs did it in an ODI during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in West Indies and Garry Sobers became the first batsman to do it in a first-class match way back in 1968.

 

 

The Emerging Player of the Year award has been given to sensational Ajantha Mendis, who impressed the world by his storm. The 23-year-old spinner took 26 wickets at an average of 18.38 in just three tests. Also, he claimed 20 wickets at an average of 10.25 in eight ODIs played during the voting period. The Sri Lanka team received the Spirit of Cricket Award in the ceremony.

England’s captain Charlotte Edwards has won the Women’s Cricketer of the Year award. She played 18 matches for England scoring 492 runs at an average of 54.66. She took 15 wickets at 19.03 during the voting period. Australia’s Simon Taufet has been the Umpire of the Year for the 5th consecutive year.
 

It’s Official now that Pakistan’s cricket captain, Shoab Malik, is dating former Miss India and Bollywood actress Sayali Bhagat. They were seen together at a Mumbai hotel when media caught them and all their efforts to hide became useless.

Sayali, who made her debut in Bollywood opposite Emran Hashmi in The Train wanted to keep their relations disguised at this point. "We need more time because we are just getting to know each other," said Sayali.

They met in Delhi last year when they had come on the occasion of a store opening. Then, they kept in touch through e-mails and phone calls. The actress admitted that it is not easy to meet when Shoaib is in Pakistan. "It’s so flattering, he makes special trips just for me and showers me with attention. I am in love, I guess," Sayali revealed further.

 

 

Sayali was little perplexed about the relationship and said, "Our religion is not an issue, I am more concerned about the distance between us." But, according to Sayali their romance might face political interference. "I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but I believe when you want something from the heart – the whole universe conspires to get it for you. I hope that happens for us." Is that SRK talking at the back from the sets of OSO?

So, the two hearts have come closed again but this time it is between two people of different professions, from different countries and with different religions. Let’s see, where does this conspiracy take them?
 

It’s a great day for Indian Sports in China, but a bad day for Indian Cricket. While , Abhinav Bindra proved that Indians can also clinch gold medal at individual events in Olympics after 108 years since the Olympics Games commenced, the star Indian cricketers staged a poor performance on Sri Lankan soil.

While young cricketers are eagerly waiting for their turn to prove their potentials, the seniors are neither performing nor leaving the space for the young blood. The 1-2 test series loss to Sri Lanka once again indicates that we need to take some hard steps to restructure the Team India, and especially against the famous five of Indian cricket – Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble. If these three ex-captains and one current, are capable of deciding others’ fate then why not their own destiny? 

It’s the high time that we reconsider the interest of the country and not of an individual. Though, they have performed pretty well for past many years but a sharp decline in their performance is evident. The country can not afford to repay for their individual persistence by loosing the precious cricket series one after the other. So, these players got to reassess their performance during recent matches and must take some urgent steps in the interest of the team and the country.

These players have a glorious past and some astonishing records in their names. The cricketers all around the world used to get frightened from these guys. The time was a history, and it seems impossible to repeat this experience. Now, they are seen struggling with the pad and not the bat. The Sri Lankan players put them into all sort of troubles and our seniors could never respond with a bang. Simultaneously, the performances shown by the seniors are now damaging the morale of other young cricketers as well.

No one can deny the contribution of the senior players to the Indian cricket. Also these players are still capable of creating new landmarks. But it is necessary to perform consistently to guide the young cricketers as well. Many young boys like Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary and S. Badrinath and are waiting for their turns to prove their abilities, but how will they get the opportunities when there would be no space for them in the team.

So, dear seniors! This is a moment to introspect and take the right decision considering the benefit of the nation as well as your own self-respect.

 

His life was full of cheers, excitement and balle-balle before the Jharkhand Police recently decided to assign an all-female group of body guards to deflect the crowds from reaching him. More precisely, the female body guards will prevent girls from kissing Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the famous Captain of contemporary Limited-Overs Indian cricket Team. He used to receive unexpected hugs and stunning kisses from his female fans, was enjoying every bit of life. No other guy can boast of getting similar treatment except for some of our bollywood actors. But now the news is a sheer disappointment for all his female fans.

Dhoni, an ideal of millions of global cricket fans was living a life full of glamour and success just a few months back. But, since the time he has become the Captain of Indian Cricket Team, his joy seems to have turned into misery. He is already surrounded by the “Z – class” security cover and now he has to bear the ‘suraksha ghera’ of the female body guards. This decision to protect MSD with female body guards came into effect due to some incidents in which he was forcefully hugged and kissed by some crazy female admirers. These fans somehow overpowered all security obstacles and gripped Dhoni squeezing him in desperation.

You can imagine the agony of the star cricketer, who is always under a scanner wherever he goes and whomsoever he meets. Dhoni has everything which anyone may want from life. But, what he can not claim now like an ordinary person can, some moments of seclusion and personal liberty. On the other hand, it is a major setback for all his fans as well. Now, his admirers have to struggle even harder just to get the precious autographs of their star skipper.

So, Mr. Dhoni we wish you all the happiness and success in life along with Kuchh Pal Fursat Ke.

Share your views with us regarding Mahendra Singh Dhoni‘s security concerns and their effects on his personal life and his fans.

The final moments of the game

ODI no. 2689 Commonwealth Bank Series – 2nd final Australia v India2007/08 season

Played at Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, on 4 March 2008 – day/night (50-over match)

Result India won by 9 runs

India innings (50 overs maximum) R M B 4s 6s SR
RV Uthappa c Hopes b Clark 30 99 49 1 0 61.22
SR Tendulkar c Ponting b Clarke 91 176 121 7 0 75.20
G Gambhir c Johnson b Clarke 15 21 16 1 0 93.75
Yuvraj Singh c Hayden b Symonds 38 27 38 2 2 100.00
C,W MS Dhoni c Clarke b Bracken 36 52 37 2 1 97.29
RG Sharma c Symonds b Clarke 2 6 5 0 0 40.00
IK Pathan b Bracken 12 24 20 1 0 60.00
Harbhajan Singh lbw b Lee 3 7 3 0 0 100.00
P Kumar c Ponting b Bracken 7 7 7 1 0 100.00
Piyush Chawla not out 6 8 2 1 0 300.00
S Sreesanth not out 1 4 2 0 0 50.00
Extras (lb 5, w 12) 17

Total (9 wickets; 50 overs; 220 mins) 258 (5.16 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-94 (Uthappa, 20.5 ov), 2-121 (Gambhir, 25.2 ov), 3-175 (Yuvraj Singh, 34.6 ov), 4-205 (Tendulkar, 39.2 ov), 5-209 (Sharma, 41.1 ov), 6-237 (Pathan, 47.2 ov), 7-240 (Dhoni, 47.6 ov), 8-249 (Harbhajan Singh, 48.5 ov), 9-255 (Kumar, 49.3 ov)

Bowling O M R W Econ
B Lee 10 0 58 1 5.80 (1w)
NW Bracken 9 1 31 3 3.44
SR Clark 6 0 32 1 5.33 (1w)
MG Johnson 6 0 33 0 5.50 (8w)
JR Hopes 6 0 20 0 3.33
MJ Clarke 10 0 52 3 5.20 (1w)
A Symonds 3 0 27 1 9.00 (1w)

Australia innings R M B 4s 6s SR
w AC Gilchrist c wicketkeeperDhoni b Kumar 2 3 3 0 0 66.66
ML Hayden run out (Yuvraj Singh/Harbhajan Singh) 55 122 68 7 0 80.88
c RT Ponting c Yuvraj Singh b Kumar 1 9 7 0 0 14.28
MJ Clarke b Kumar 17 29 22 1 0 77.27
A Symonds lbw b Harbhajan Singh 42 81 56 2 1 75.00
MEK Hussey c wicketkeeperDhoni b Sreesanth 44 66 42 3 0 104.76
JR Hopes c Piyush Chawla b Pathan 63 105 80 4 1 78.75
B Lee b Kumar 7 20 12 0 0 58.33
MG Johnson c wicketkeeperDhoni b Sreesanth 8 9 6 1 0 133.33
NW Bracken c Piyush Chawla b Pathan 1 7 2 0 0 50.00
SR Clark not out 0 2 0 0 0 -
Extras (lb 2, w 7) 9

Total (all out; 49.4 overs; 230 mins) 249 (5.01 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-2 (Gilchrist, 0.3 ov), 2-8 (Ponting, 2.3 ov), 3-32 (Clarke, 8.6 ov), 4-121 (Hayden, 25.4 ov), 5-123 (Symonds, 25.6 ov), 6-199 (Hussey, 41.6 ov), 7-228 (Lee, 46.4 ov), 8-238 (Johnson, 48.2 ov), 9-247 (Bracken, 49.2 ov), 10-249 (Hopes, 49.4 ov)

Bowling O M R W Econ
P Kumar 10 2 46 4 4.60
S Sreesanth 9 0 43 2 4.77 (2w)
IK Pathan 8.4 0 54 2 6.23 (4w)
Harbhajan Singh 10 0 44 1 4.40 (1w)
Piyush Chawla 9 0 45 0 5.00
Yuvraj Singh 3 0 15 0 5.00

Toss India, who chose to bat first
Series India won the best-of-3-finals 2-0
Player of the match P Kumar (India)
Player of the series NW Bracken (Australia)

Umpires AL Hill (New Zealand) and SJA Taufel
TV umpire BNJ Oxenford
Match referee JJ Crowe (New Zealand)
Reserve umpire TP Laycock

Match notes

* India innings
* Power Play 2: Overs 10.1 – 15.0
* India: 50 runs in 12.3 overs (79 balls), Extras 4
* 1st Wicket: 50 runs in 79 balls (RV Uthappa 23, SR Tendulkar 24, Ex 4)
* Power Play 3: Overs 15.1 – 20.0
* Drinks: India – 73/0 in 16.0 overs (RV Uthappa 25, SR Tendulkar 42)
* SR Tendulkar: 50 off 70 balls (5 x 4)
* India: 100 runs in 21.5 overs (141 balls), Extras 10
* Drinks: India – 144/2 in 30.0 overs (SR Tendulkar 72, Yuvraj Singh 15)
* India: 150 runs in 30.3 overs (194 balls), Extras 12
* 3rd Wicket: 50 runs in 56 balls (SR Tendulkar 14, Yuvraj Singh 36, Ex 2)
* India: 200 runs in 37.5 overs (239 balls), Extras 13
* India: 250 runs in 48.6 overs (306 balls), Extras 17
* Innings Break: India – 258/9 in 50.0 overs (Piyush Chawla 6, S Sreesanth 1)

* Australia innings
* Power Play 2: Overs 10.1 – 15.0
* Australia: 50 runs in 12.2 overs (76 balls), Extras 2
* Drinks: Australia – 53/3 in 14.0 overs (ML Hayden 19, A Symonds 12)
* Power Play 3: Overs 15.1 – 20.0
* 4th Wicket: 50 runs in 73 balls (ML Hayden 22, A Symonds 22, Ex 6)
* Australia: 100 runs in 22.6 overs (144 balls), Extras 6
* ML Hayden: 50 off 62 balls (6 x 4)
* Drinks: Australia – 138/5 in 30.0 overs (MEK Hussey 11, JR Hopes 3)
* Australia: 150 runs in 32.4 overs (202 balls), Extras 7
* 6th Wicket: 50 runs in 68 balls (MEK Hussey 34, JR Hopes 15, Ex 1)
* Australia: 200 runs in 42.3 overs (262 balls), Extras 8
* JR Hopes: 50 off 69 balls (4 x 4)
* Match Scorers: Venkat Raghav and Binoy George

Some still moments of the game

The happiest man of the series

All of their plannings failed in this series

Jai Jawan

The Payback Moment

Turbanator’s Revenge

Finally, the moment of JOY.

Source:cricinfo.com

If you thought cricket was big, wait for this. The IPL promises to be bigger than anything India has ever seen. We give the inside-out of this billion-dollar baby.

What is the Indian Premier League?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) on September 14, 2007. Based on the lines of the English Premier League (EPL) and the National Basketball League (NBA), the IPL is said to be the brainchild of BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi. The idea was first floated in 1996 but was shot down as the board felt it would go against the zonal system of domestic cricket. The project moved into top gear when the Zee group launched a rival Indian Cricket League on similar lines in April 2007.

The following are the bid amounts and winners for various teams in the Indian Premier League:

Vijay Mallya won the bid for the Bangalore team for $111.6 million.

Shah Rukh Khan won the bid for the Kolkata team for $75.09 million.

GMR Holdings won the bid for the Delhi team for $84 million.

Mukesh Ambani won the bid for the Mumbai team for $111.9 million.

India Cements won the bid for the Chennai team for $91 million.

Deccan Chronicle won the bid for the Hyderabad team for $107.01 million.

Emerging Media won the bid for the Jaipur team for $67 million.

Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia won the bid for the Mohali team for $76 million, reportedly.

Source:premierleaguecricket.in

You might be a big fan of Shahrukh Khan’s dance but, here a person who can dance better than him and he is not in bollywood. He is Sreesanth. This young lad showed everyone that cricketer can also dance. This time he showed his dancing skills out of the pitch. Enjoy the dance of Sreesanth.

Here is the video of Sreesanth dancing on the pitch/ground.

I think Sreesanth dances better on stage.But, his pitch dance is more entertaining than stage dance. What do you think?