India’s warm-up match causes concern over the team’s performance as they are placed among the toughest teams in Group A with Australia, Pakistan and West Indies. Though Champions Trophy has kicked off today, India have their first match on September 26 against Pakistan in Centurion. India lost their only warm-up match to New Zealand and there seems to be uncertainity over opener Gautm Gambhir’s fitness.

India after staying on top of the ICC rankings and clinching the triangular series in Sri Lanka recently, Indians were humbled by 103 runs by a side that had lost to a local team in its previous match.

It is still not sure if Gambhir, who missed warm-up match, has really recovered from his groin strain. Also the other concern is about the bowling attack of Ishant Sharma and R P Singh from whom the side would expect some timely breakthrough during the tournament.

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Sachin Tendulkar is back to the top-10 ODI batsman list in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for the first time in 10 months after scoring his 44th one-day century against Sri Lanka at the finals of the Compaq Cup 2009 in Colombo on Monday.

Tendulkar soared five places to 7th in the latest rankings which was released today. India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni grabbed the top spot from Yuvraj Singh to lead the table among ODI batsman.

Meanwhile, Yuvraj Singh leapfrogged Jacques Kallis of South Africa, Jacob Oram of New Zealand and Andrew Flintoff of England into second place after scoring 80 runs and picking four wickets in the tri-series.

Sri Lanka’s veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya has moved up four places to 17th spot after a tallying a total of 141 runs in the tri-series.

Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir dropped two places each after both missed the series due to injuries.

New Zealand’s Ross Taylor slipped five places to 22nd and Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardena slipped seven places to share 37th spot with Australia’s Brad Haddin.

Among bowlers, New Zealand’s Kyle Mills dropped two places to fourth, allowing Daniel Vettori and Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh to move up the order.

Comeback man, New Zealand’s Shane Bond, finds himself in eighth position in the rankings, while Thilan Thushara, Ishant Sharma and Lasith Malinga have all jumping six places each to 24th, 33rd and 42nd positions respectively.

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Indian Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is under threat from his deputy Yuvraj Singh. This is just for the top slop. Dhoni’s number one ODI batsman’s tag could be taken by Yuvraj if Yuvi performs better in the upcoming series.

India is preparing to leave for Sri Lanka for the tri-series which has New Zealand as the third team. Dhoni is the number one batsman in the chart with 44 rating points separating him from second placed Yuvraj. Besides Dhoni and Yuvraj, India have two more batsmen in the top 20. Little master Sachin Tendulkar occupies the 12th position with a place in the top 10 well within his sights, while opener Gautam Gambhir shares the 17th spot with New Zealand’s Ross Taylor.

In the team chart, India trails number-one ranked South Africa by just one ratings point but if it wins all the three matches (including the final), it will gain two ratings points.

However, if India loses one match in the tournament, it will stay on 126 ratings points while defeat in two matches will drop it to 123 ratings points.

Among other, Kumar Sangakkara is the only Sri Lanka batsman inside the top 20, sitting just outside the top 10 in 11th position. Mahela Jayawardena is in 30th position while Tillakeratne Dilshan is 32nd.

In the rankings for ODI bowlers, Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Kulasekara is feeling the pressure from New Zealand duo of Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori. With only 36 points separating Kulasekara from Vettori, a change at the top of the order looks inevitable.

The 23rd placed Harbhajan Singh is the highest-ranked Indian bowler in the absence of 16th placed Zaheer Khan.

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Indian Teams warm-up match against New Zealand ended with the Kiwi’s winning by 9 run. The Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni refused to go much into the team’s defeat.

Dhoni preferred to look at the positives and said he was not unduly worried about the loss. He was happy with a couple of batsmen who got them good starts. He also admitted that the team had lost wicket during crucial moments but was happy that few new things that they tried worked well for them.

Dhoni also said they missed a few key players but was happy about Ishant Sharma who returned to form with the four wicket haul on Monday.

Laid low by food poisoning, Yuvraj Singh didn’t play while Virender Sehwag also skipped the match due to fitness reasons. Dhoni assured they would all regain fitness before India’s next warm-up match against Pakistan on Wednesday.

Kiwi Captain Daniel Vettori was excited after the win which he attributed to team effort.

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The Last Season of T20 World Cup was won by India. In the upcoming season of ICC T20 World Cup 2009, 12 teams are going to participate in the tournament and all the teams are divided in to four groups as given Below :
Group A : India, Bangladesh, Ireland
Group B : Pakistan, England, Netherland
Group C : Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies
Group D : South Africa, New Zealand, Scotland

The ICC T20 World Cup 2009 will be starting from Friday, June 5, 2009.

The tournament ends on Sunday, June 21, 2009 with the Final match at London.

Match No     Match                                         Day         Time     Venue
1                England v Netherlands         5-Jun-09     17:30     Lord’s
2                New Zealand v Scotland      6-Jun-09     10:00     The Oval
3               Australia v West Indies        6-Jun-09     13:30     The Oval
4               India v Bangladesh                 6-Jun-09     17:30     Trent Bridge
5               South Africa v Scotland        7-Jun-09     13;30     The Oval
6               England v Pakistan                  7-Jun-09     17:30     The Oval
7               Bangladesh v Ireland             8-Jun-09     13:30     Trent Bridge
8               Australia v Sri Lanka              8-Jun-09     17:30     Trent Bridge
9               Pakistan v Netherlands         9-Jun-09     13:30     Lord’s
10            New Zealand v South Africa 9-Jun-09     17:30     Lord’s
11            Sri Lanka v West Indies       10-Jun-09     13:30     Trent Bridge
12           India v Ireland                        10-Jun-09     17:30     Trent Bridge
13           D1 v A2                                       11-Jun-09     13:30     Trent Bridge
14           B2 v D2                                       11-Jun-09     17:30     Trent Bridge
15           B1 v C2                                       12-Jun-09     13:30     Lord’s
16          A1 v C1                                        12-Jun-09     17:30     Lord’s
17          C1 v D2                                        13-Jun-09     13:30     The Oval
18          D1 v B1                                         13-Jun-09     17:30     The Oval
19          A2 v C2                                        14-Jun-09     13:30     Lord’s
20         A1 v B2                                         14-Jun-09     17:30     Lord’s
21          B1 v A2                                         15-Jun-09     13:30     The Oval
22          B2 v C1                                         15-Jun-09     17:30     The Oval
23         D1 v C2                                         16-Jun-09     13:30     Trent Bridge
24         D2 v A1                                        16-Jun-09     17:30     Trent Bridge
25      1st Semi-Final                              18-Jun-09     17:30     Trent Bridge
26     2nd Semi-Final                             19-Jun-09     17:30     The Oval
27         Final                                             21-Jun-09     15:00     Lord’s

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Virender Sehwag blasted 38 from just 16 deliveries to help the Delhi Daredevils ease to a 10 wicket Duckworth-Lewis victory over the Kings XI Punjab in a rain-affected Indian Premier League clash in Cape Town.

Daniel Vettori (3/15) sent down a miserly spell of bowling earlier to help reduce Punjab to 104 for seven – with Karan Goel (38) and Ravi Bopara (22) the main contributors – in their innings, which was initially reduced to 12 overs.

In response, Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag made a flying start reaching 24 in just 1.5 overs, before the game was reduced even further with a total of 54 needed from six overs.

And needing 30 from 25 balls after the resumption, the pair showed no mercy and helped their side overhaul Punjab’s revised total with more than an over to spare, Sehwag the destroyer with his innings including three sixes and four fours.

Earlier, the game was reduced to just 12 overs aside on account of the sporadic drizzle around Newlands and after winning the toss, Sehwag asked the opposition to bat first and the innings was that of two tales.

First, Goel and Bopara helped their side to a racing start in which they put on 67 in just six overs before the former was out, caught by Vettori at mid-off – Yo Mahesh the bowler.

Bopara went first ball after the break when he was trapped leg before wicket by Vettori’s first delivery, followed by the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara (eight) when he top-edged the same bowler to Dirk Nannes running back from short fine-leg.

Yuvraj Singh (16), Piyush Chawla – both run-out – and Mahela Jayawardene (6) all went in the final over from the New Zealand captain, in which the 100 also finally came up.

Aavishkar Salvi then bowled a miserly final over conceding just six runs at the cost of the wicket of Irfan Pathan (6) as Punjab set their opponents 105.

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Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders appointed New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum as captain of the team.

McCullum will replace Sourav Ganguly for the second edition of the tournament, which kicks-off in Cape Town on Saturday.

KKR meet Hyderabad Deccan Chargers in their opening match on April 19.

McCullum’s appointment comes in the wake of Knight Riders coach John Buchanan pitching for multiple captains for the tournament.

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The World Cup champions Australia slipped to third place in the one-day rankings on Wednesday, their lowest since the International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced ratings in October 2002.

On Monday Australia collapsed to their seventh defeat in nine matches against top-ranked South Africa this year and now lies third in the rankings behind India.

However, Australia will climb back to second if they win the last match in Johannesburg on Friday.

South Africa won Monday’s fourth game by 61 runs to clinch the five-match series 3-1 with a match to spare.

Australia held the top spot for all but 10 months of the duration, including 52 straight months from October 2002 to January 2007, ICC said in a statement.

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Chris Gayle reached the Kolkata Knight Riders’ base in Bloemfontein on Sunday. The West Indies captain had missed the first edition of the Indian Premier League because of an injury.

Ishant Sharma is the only player who is yet to join the Knight Riders camp. The pacer, who failed to submit his visa application due to the long weekend after returning from New Zealand, will submit it on Tuesday.

Sunday was a day off for the players and most of the players visited a sanctuary close to Bloemfontein. Some also engaged in a game of table tennis.

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With the Indian Team’s first Test Series victory in Kiwi soil after 41 years, Sachin Tendulkar has praised India’s coach Gary Kirsten for his excellent role. India have been on a roll since they beat Australia late last year with their confidence right up, and Tendulkar felt Kirsten’s allowing the team to be themselves was key.

“A lot of credit has to go to coach Gary Kirsten who has allowed the natural instincts of players to flourish,” he told the Mumbai-based tabloid Mid-day. “A lot has got to do with what’s going on in a player’s mind and Gary has played a huge role there.

“Along with Gary, the support staff Venkatesh Prasad (bowling coach), Robin Singh (fielding coach), our physio Nitin Patel and Paddy Upton (mental conditioning coach). It’s the huge effort from all of them that has created this environment.”

India, not having won a Test series in New Zealand for more than 41 years, achieved their goal. This came after they beat Australia and England at home in Test series. Crucial to these wins has been the balance and belief of the side, said Tendulkar.

“We’ve got some seriously talented players. The secret to this success is the players are playing their natural game. That can only happen if the atmosphere is good and the mind is free of any kind of pressure,” he said.

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