Australia vs South Africa | 2nd Test | Melbourne

Who could have ever predicted that at the end of the 3rd day's play at the MCG, it would be Australia that would be trailing! Fascinating Test Cricket again - even after the 1st Test of the series turned on its head in the final quarter of the match only last week, no one expected this. Yesterday evening, Rickey Ponting must have been a satisfied captain - a lead of over 200 runs, and 7 South African wickets back in the pavillion already. The match looked well and truly in the bag.

Day 2 in the Boxing Day Test began with the overnight batsmen Duminy and Harris beginning cautiously - the runs never came at a brisk pace, but the important thing was that the final three wickets didn't fall in hurry. Duminy was brilliant, playing with the last three - Harris gave him good company to settle the mood for the day, and then Steyn hung on - not without ample support from the Aussie fielders. When the final South African wicket fell, the scorecard read 459 - a healthy lead of 65 runs. Duminy was the last batsman to fall, not before compiling a brilliant 166.

While the match is still alive and evenly poised, South Africa have already dented the Aussie spirit like no other visiting team has in the past so many years. The visitors are already 1-0 up in the series, and the onus is completely on Australia to try and set up a win from here, and it is in that Aussie hurry to win that South Africa will see their chances of going up 2-0. Now when was the last time you saw that kind of a scenario against Australia, in Australia? So don't miss live action tomorrow and the day after.

Mumbai Blasts derail India-England Series

The English Cricket Board's request for a postponement of the final 2 India vs England ODIs because of the terror strikes in Mumbai has been accepted by the BCCI. In all likelihood, the final 2 One Dayers would be called off, though a call on the 2 test series will be taken later.

The 2nd India-England Test Match is in fact scheduled for Mumbai, and the Taj Mahal Hotel, the scene of the crime might have been the hosts for the two cricket teams.

The fidayeen strikes have also jeopardised the holding of the Champions Twenty20 League which again had Mumbai as one of its venues. Rickey Ponting, the Australia captain and Shane Warne have both already called for the Champions T20 League to be shifted out of India.

Gavaskar was no angel : Ponting

The war of words never seems to end. Now it's Australia captain Rickey Ponting lashing out at Sunil Gavaskar.

"Sunny was no angel in his playing days", commented Ponting referring to an incident in the 1981 India vs Australia Test, when Gavaskar walked out protesting an lbw decision.

While Ponting pointed out Gavaskar in particular, the Aussie captain also lashed out at the 'hypocrisy' of many former cricket legends who he thinks expect current cricketers to behave in a certain way, while their own behaviour and talk during their playing days was less than exemplary.

Ponting was worried that over the last 10 years a certain image was getting formed of the Australian cricketers - that they walked onto the field with an intention of having a few words with the opposition.

He is worried alright, but instead of lashing out at Gavaskar, Ponting would do better to rein in himself and his colleagues if he wants this image to change. Only yesterday, Daniel Vettori just ahead of the Australia - New Zealand series called Ponting the most aggressive person on the cricket field who was always 'spoiling for a fight'. Vettori is surely no former cricketer, Mr. Ponting.

England begin India tour with a win in Mumbai

Even as India was engaged in the last test against Australia in Nagpur, England began their 2008 Test and One-Day tour to India with a win against a Mumbai side led by spinner Nilesh Kulkarni. Flintoff top scored for the visitors with a less than a ball 100. Owais Shah and Ian Bell contributed with half-centuries as England, batting first, piled up a score of 297. James Anderson took 3 wickets as Mumbai were restricted to 175 off their quota of 50 overs to hand England a 122 runs victory.

Performances in tour games don't mean much, as Krejza showed with a 12 wickets haul in his debut cricket test after having been overlooked for the first 3 tests after the mauling he received at then hands of lesser batsmen, in a tour game. But a win is a win, and a century is a century - and England, and Flintoff would be pleased with the way they have begun their India campaign.

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1st ODI Match : India vs England - 14th November 2008.
Click here for the Full Schedule of the India vs England Series

India Team for ODI Series vs England

At least one man in India will not be too displeased with the one Test ban that has come Gambhir's way. After having been selected to replace Gautam Gambhir in the India Team for the 4th Test against Australia, Vijay has now made it to the just announced India Team for the first 3 one day internationals against England.

Sachin Tendulkar has been rested for the first 3 ODIs on request while Badrinath, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan and Parthiv Patel - who were a part of the India Team for the ODI series against Sri Lanka have not found a place in the new squad. Ishant Sharma returns to the team and alongwith Zaheer Khan, R P Singh and Munaf Patel will form a formidable pace attack to choose from. T20 star Yusuf Pathan is in too.

The Full Team for the first 3 matches of the India vs England One Day Series 2008:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain, Wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Murali Vijay,Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Rudra Pratap Singh, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh

Live action begins 14th November 2008.

India vs England | Schedule | One Day Series | Test Series

Just a few days after the current 4 Test India-Australia series comes to a close, India begin another home series - against England. The series comprises a bit too much of one day cricket - 7 ODIs in all , while the number of tests is sadly only two.

Find below the full schedule of the India Vs England ODI series with match dates, venues and timings at which you can start watching live cricket streaming or the live telecast on TV. The touring England side will play a couple of practise matches against Mumbai - the venue for both matches is the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. The matches are on the 9th and 11th November.

1st One Day International : India vs England

Date: Friday 14 November, Venue: Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground, Rajkot

Live TV Telecast of the cricket match starts 9:00 am (India Time) / 3:30 am (GMT)

The India-England series can be viewed live on Neo Cricket.

2nd One Day International : India vs England

Date: Monday 17 November, Venue: Maharani Usha Raje Trust Cricket Stadium in Indore

Day schedule same as above match

3rd ODI

Date: Thursday 20 November, Venue: Green Park, Kanpur

Watch Live Cricket action from 9:00 am India Time ( Live on NeoCricket )

4th ODI : India vs England

Sunday 23 November, Venue: M Chinnaswami Stadium, Bangalore

Day Night Match :: Watch Live Cricket on Neo Cricket from 2:00 pm India Time, 6:30 pm GMT

5th One-Day International : India-England

Wednesday 26 November, Venue: Barabati Stadium, Cuttack

Day Night Match : Live on Neo Cricket, Timings as in the 4th ODI

6th ODI

Saturday 29 November, Venue: Nehru Stadium, Guwahati

Day Match : Live Telecast from 9:00 am India Time

7th One Day: India vs England

Date: 2 December, Venue: Feroze Shah Kotla, Delhi

Before the commencement of the 2 test series, England will play a 3 day practise match against a local team in Baroda.

The Schedule of the India vs England 2 test series:

1st Test: 11th - 15th November, Motera, Ahmedabad

2nd Test: 19th - 23rd December, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai ( not Wankhede)

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Click here for Live Cricket Streaming Links for the India vs England Series

Gilchrist Going Nuts - Now it's Muralitharan's Action

He is retired now, and doesn't know what to do when not playing cricket. Or, it is a desperate marketing strategy for his autobiography? Whatever be the case, the former Australian keeper who was often described as the 'greatest current all-rounder' now seems to be fast losing it.

True Colours : My Life already seems to be more about the lives of other cricketers rather than Gilchrist's own. First it was his bit about Tendulkar's lack of honesty during the famed Sydney Trial, now it is about Muralitharan's bowling action. Gilly believes that Murali has a suspect action, and the ICC bent the rules of cricket to accommodate the Lankan. His part about ICC bending the rules of the game to accommodate is a fair accusation, but if Gilly really had the balls to be honest, he should not have singled out Muralitharan and stopped there, but come out with the whole scary truth.

As Gilchrist rightly points out, the ICC did change the rules - the definition of what constitutes a 'legal delivery' was indeed modified. But the redefinition was not to accommodate Muralitharan - it was to ensure that two of Gilchrist's own team-mates, Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie amongst many other leading bowlers of the world were not outlawed alongwith Murali!

Following Hair's no-balling Muralitharan for throwing, the ICC initiated a study of the bowling actions of bowlers across the world. This study revealed some shocking statistics - as per the existing laws of cricket, more than 90 percent of bowlers were chucking, not bowling! Imagine a scenario where the ICC had to ban McGrath, Pollock, Gillespie and Brett Lee - the world of cricket would have gone topsy turvy, at least temporarily international cricket would have come to a grinding halt. That's what hurried the ICC into amending the definition of a valid bowling action. Both McGrath and Lee were going beyond the ten degrees limit, and on a regular basis - it was not even a case where only the doosra was a problem.

Surely Gilly knows about this - then why this distortion of truth?

Gilchrist calls that change of rule by the ICC to accommodate Murali 'horse-crap'. The truth is that it is he who is trying to bull-shit his way to a best-seller. I also fear that he might actually succeed.