SCARLET SCARF

(AUSTRALIA IS NOW FIVE TIMES CRICKET WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS) by Disha Mashelkar Australia defeated New Zealand in a not so thrilling finale by 7 wickets. New Zealand won the toss and chose to bat first but succumbed to the splendid bowling by Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and James Faulkner. New Zealand had put up a mediocre total of 183 runs on board which were produced thanks to the 111 runs partnership between Grant Elliot (83 runs) and Ross Taylor (40 runs). At one point when New Zealand was in a poor condition of 45 for the loss of 3 wickets many fans were disappointed. But they knew that cricket is a game of uncertainty where anything can happen. How can one forget that India had defended 183 score in the 1983 World Cup final? Australia took this world cup by heart seriously and when the first wicket of Aaron Finch went to Boult there was a flickering hope that New Zealand will not let it go easily! But very soon India’s fate killer in the semi-final alias Steve S...

(India v/s Australia) By Disha Mashelkar They slogged hard right from the first match, proving every cricket analysts wrong that they aren’t a favourite for the 2015 Cricket World cup. Everybody was gambling on the luck and chances of other foreign countries and on the ways those teams will they crush the Indian team in a sway. But in between of all the chaos of who will win the World Cup, He was quietly making a plan! Mahendra Singh Dhoni knew that it is going to be tough and bitter. His team had a miserable tournament in the overseas. First loss came in the test match against Australia followed by loss in Carlton Mid-ODI Tri-series. The support-staff was now at rigorous work and it was the Captain’s duty to helm the ship in the right direction in the middle of sledging Tasmanian seas. It was near to impossible especially when the Indian TV and Print media slaughter your morals and pressurize you from day one! But instead of succumbing to the high and low tides gushing i...

(India versus Australia) By Disha Mashelkar Today, India faces Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground in all new spirit. India, the defending champions has to prepare itself for the best of Australian attack who believe that ‘attack is the best defence!’ All over India different prayers have begun in the religious shrines and across the globe. India so far has been performing very well by winning all six group matches, winning their quarterfinal against Bangladesh and that is how the team India has made it to the semi-final. Indian fans seem to be very optimistic of winning this semi-final after watching India’s consistent team performance. But not to forget the Australian bowling attack which is powered by Mitchell Johnson, Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and many more. At the same time the all-rounders they have are remarkable in their performance. Rohit Sharma has special memories on this SCG, as he along with Sachin Tendulkar in March 2008 where he helped Team India beat A...

The last quarterfinal between New Zealand and West Indies at Wellington, recorded a batting world record. All thanks to the splendid batting effort done by Martin Guptill of New Zealand who scored  Watching the all over field strokes of Guptill right from beginning it was clear that West Indies are going to face a strong score on board! But out of the 200 runs on the scoreboard of the match, 150 runs had only come from the bat of Guptill which was definitely not anticipated by the cricket scorers and statisticians. He scored 237 runs not out. It didn’t take New Zealand much time to cross the score of 300 as the runs gushed in from the bat of Martin Guptill. This has once again proved that Black Caps have lot more to reveal than what they have done by far! The 143 run victory over West Indies has marked their entry into the semi-finals now.  Apart from them the remaining three teams who have made it to the semi-finals are defending champions India and one of the c...

-Disha Mashelkar Kumar Sangakkara has won the hearts of every cricket fan in this year’s cricket world cup. Sri Lanka has played four matches in this tournament of which, he now has four consecutive tons in the CWC2015, which is a record he made yesterday. In a match against Scotland at Bellerive, Oval, Sri Lanka defeated Scotland by 148 runs. The 195 runs partnership made between T Dilshan (104) and K Sangakkara (124) was spectacular; where both the players scored a handsome century. T. Dilshan also showed a power performance by scoring 104 runs which consisted of ten fours and one six! Both the key players managed to put up a mammoth total of 363 runs on the scoreboard looking at which Scottish players must have got into sweaty palms. It was not a bad chase by Scotland who scored 215 runs but was all out for 43.1 overs. Sri Lanka’s bowling department- Nuwan Kulasekara and Dushmantha Chameera both plucked 3 wickets each and gave a hard time to Scottish batsmen on the pitc...

Pakistan v/s South Africa By Disha Mashelkar South Africa faced Pakistan today at Auckland, New Zealand where the Proteas managed to win the toss but not the match! When the two greens (SA and PAK jersey colour is green) had come on the field, probably everyone had anticipated that South Africa will have a smoothly finishing win and will become the second team from Pool B to reach the quarterfinals. Pakistan’s Boom-boom man Shahid Afridi after a long time, started hitting all over the field and somehow managed to take his team’s score to 222 runs in46.4 overs (all out) when the rains took over and the match was reduced to 47 overs. Captain Misbah-Ul-Haq hit a half century and as usual his contribution was valuable to the team. Nobody must have expected that South Africa will lose all their wickets and thereby lose the match at the score of 202 runs in 33.3 overs! Surprisingly AB Deviller’s struggle of 77 runs went in vain when the captain finally got out to bowler So...

Team India Sails Smoothly in Quarterfinals (#CWC15 Cricket World Cup Special) By Disha Mashelkar Festival of Holi has brought good omen for Indian Cricket Team as it registered its fourth consecutive win in the 2015 Cricket World Cup (CWC) by defeating West Indies by 4 wickets today at WACA, Perth. India lost its 6 wickets but snatched the victory from the Caribbean’s (Thanks to the outstanding bowling by Mohammed Shami -Man of the Match and Captain M.S.Dhoni) in just 39.1 overs. (Score: WI 182 and IND 185/6) Today, with this win against West Indies, Indian captain M. S. Dhoni has surpassed Saurav Ganguly’s (India’s Captain from record of maximum victories registered away from India (58 wins). He now has 59 wins to his credit. He adds another feather to his cap as Team India from Pool B becomes the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals in this Cricket World Cup. The magical bowling performance by Mohammed Shami has now raised the brows of all the competing natio...