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With Team India out of the World T20 Championship, Its time for us to look back and see what exactly went wrong. Starting off, India came to England with the tag of favorites attached.The squad was full of young guns which had already been tried and tested at the recently concluded IPL. Problem no. 2, they had not played together and represented different sides at the IPL. They could not co-ordinate well as it was evident from their first loss in the tournament at the hands of a relatively low ranked New Zealand by 9 runs in a practice game. New Zealand kept up their perfect T20 record against India as they beat the World Champions by 9 runs in the first official warm-up game for either side heading into the T20 World Cup in England. India struggling with injuries and fitness before the tournament, put out a competent eleven to combat a New Zealand side who had already spent a week in England, and had played a couple of practice games against the likes of Bangladesh and Netherlands. Two of India’s biggest match winners, Sehwag and Zaheer did not feature in the tie. Apparently, people were informed at later stages that Sehwag had carried a serious shoulder injury from the IPL and would not be able to play the rest of the tournament. He returned with media speculations of Dhoni playing dirty.

India gathered its strength after the match and made a strong reply against the arch rivals, Pakistan in a replay of last version’s final. India bulldozed Pakistan by 9 wickets and 3 overs to go in the practice game. The match received huge crowds. Probably bigger than what any games received or will receive through the tournament with tickets being blacked outside the stadium and doctors making big bucks by issuing medical certificates to the people of Indian and Pakistani origin. And in return, everyone  got the action worth every penny spent. Rohit Sharma showed the fire that he had carried throughout the IPL by scoring 80 odd at a quick rate. Towards the end of the tournament Rohit apparently lost some his steam in the super 8 stage and the absence of Viru was felt evidently.

India faced Bangladesh in their first official game of the tournament. The Bengal tigers known to be big killers on their day showed what they are capable of by restricting as they restricted India to 121 for 2 at the end of 16th over. Then a violent knock by Yuvraj(41 off 16 balls) helped India to reach 181 in 20 overs. Bangla batsman Junaid kept hitting sixes at will but to his disappointment wickets kept felling at the other end. India defeated Bangladesh by 25 runs with Man of the match Pragyan Ojha(4/21) making a memorable debut as he spun a web around the tigers.

In the other game India met Ireland and defeated them without any fuss. India won the toss and put Ireland to bat in the rain reduced game. Ireland posted 112/8 off the 18 overs with Zaheer Khan doing a major damage by taking 4 wickets. India in the end reached the target quite comfortably and handed an 8 wicket defeat to the Irish team.

India was breezed out by a Bravo Blitzkrieg in the first super eight game that they played.Dwayne Bravo (4-38 and 66 runs of 45 balls) single handedly handed a 7 wicket defeat to the defending Champions. Batting first India set a relatively small target of 154 for the West Indians. West Indies achieved it quite easily with 8 deliveries to spare. Bravo was aptly named Man of the Match.

India played England in the next game of the Super 8 Stage. Batting first England scored 153/7 with Petersen scoring a run a ball 46. India choked while chasing the relatively small target with the famed batting order fumbling. English bowlers hit the right button by bowling short deliveries. Jadeja tried to break free but holed in the end. Yuvraj played a cameo 17 off 9 balls. Dhoni and Y Pathan tried to save the game for India but in the end could not help.

India is finally out of the tournament with West Indies and South Africa quallifying for the semis. Advertisers are ruing a loss of big bucks as India Started off as tournament favorites. Ironically, Indian women’s cricket team qualified for the semis giving the cricket thirsty nation something to chear about.

The defending champs Team India received a shock on their campaign to retain the World T20 Championship with Sehwag pulling out due to shoulder injury.

Sehwag was suffering with the problem after he recieved a shoulder injury while playing the IPL for Delhi Daredevils. Of late there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the so called spat between Viru and Dhoni.

Dhoni faced a hostile media when he announced the news and lost his cool and blamed the media for blowing the matter out of proportions. It is to be noted that Sehwag had missed the 2 practice games against New Zealand and Pakistan and one league game against Bangladesh due to this injury. In his place Rohit Sharma opened for India.

BCCI has confirmed that Sehwag’s Delhi Daredevils teammate, Wicketkeeper-Batsman Dinesh Karthik,  will be included in the squad to replace Sehwag. This may reduce a bit load off captain Dhoni as he now has a spare wicket keeper. However every Indian and the Indian Cricket team will miss Sehwag as his explosion at the top of the order gave the team a platform to build up on and created terrors in the mind of bowlers round the globe. Sehwag also doubled up as a part time off spinner and would have proved really handy in the current english conditions where it has been observed that slower bowlers have a major part to play. India has already qualified for the Super 8 stage of this World Cup.

Source: cricinfo.com

Sharukh khan the owner of Kolkata knight riders is disappointed with his team performance.  The Kolkata knight riders have lost 4 out of their 5 matches, there only win came against kings X1 Punjab.

The defeats have left Sharukh khan wanting to return home. Sharukh has cited the forthcoming elections as a reason for homecoming. But the actual reason for his return is the dismal performance of his team. Sharukh was definitely expecting better performance from his boys. There were also talks about a possible rift within the team as Brendon Mc Cullum was chosen over Saurav Ganguly for the captaincy.

Lets see in the how KKR fare in the forthcoming matches and whether Sharukh returns to South Africa after exercising his right to vote.

Source: BollywoodMantra

The match between Kolkata knight Riders and Mumbai Indians saw Knight Riders getting out for a mere 95-9. The Mumbai Indians made a total of 187 runs in their allotted over. Sachin tendulkar was the star batsman for the day with 68 runs. Watch the highlights below:

The 2nd match of the IPL saw a major upset. Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble sent the Rajasthan Royals crashing to defeat with a 5 for 5 bowling figures

The bangalore boys gave crushing 75-run defeat to the defending champions who were bowled out for a paltry 58.

Watch the match highlights below:

After days of uncertainty regarding the IPL the venue has been shifted out of India. There were some chances of the IPL being canceled due to forthcoming elections. The 2nd season of IPL has been facing trouble since the beginning and has been made into a big political issue with the state governments giving the go-ahead and then backing out.

The IPL chief and commissioner Lalit Modi expressed regret at the IPL being moved out of the country but added the format and timings of the matches will remain the same.

The franchise owners supported the government decisions saying that the elections are a bigger issue than the IPL matches.  The fans on the other hand are dejected with the IPL being shifted. Some are also of the opinion that the tournament will lose its Indian feel. Players like Andrew Flintoff said that he is disappointed that he won’t be able to play in India.

The final decision of the venue will be taken on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. There have been speculations of the venue being either South Africa or England. This is good news for all the NRIs living there as this will be a once in a life time opportunity for them to see a live IPL match. So cross your fingers and be ready for some good action!