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The opening encounter of the defending champion Australia once again proves this fact that the minnows are a total mismatch in an internationally acclaimed tournament like the ICC Cricket World Cup. After Bangladesh, Kenya and Canada, now it was the turn of Zimbabwe to get humiliated in front of the top notch teams like Australia.

However, it was not a one sided game in the initial stage. The Zimbabwean bowlers maintained a good line and length and restricted Australia with a score of only 262. The trick to initiate the attack with the left-arm orthodox spinner Ray Price proved to be utterly beneficial for the Zimbabweans. It once again proves that how the Australian batting line up struggles in the turning pitches of the sub continents.

Apart from Shane Watson and Michael Clarke none of the Australian batsmen seemed to appear comfortable in front of the Zimbabwean spin bowlers. The run rate also suffered as the strike rate of most of the batsmen is surprisingly low. However, it was Shane Watson who played a patient knock of 79 runs from 92 balls and contributed a lot in assisting the team to reach the 250 mark. He was being well supported by Clarke, who once again exhibited his ravishing skills and played a knock of 58 runs by facing only 55 deliveries.

Coming to bat, it never looked like that Zimbabwe would be able to achieve the target. The fiery pace attack of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson are perhaps too good for the Zimbabwean batsmen. Although, the opener Charles Coventry gave some hints to dominate the Australian bowling line up, but he also fell prey to the same.

Johnson conducted an excellent spell of 9.2 overs and snatched four important wickets at an economy rate of only 2.03. Tait and Jason Krejza shared two wickets each while Lee picked up the vital wicket Coventry. This disciplined bowling performance from the World Champions literally left no stone unturned in order to secure the win of Australia. Zimbabwe got all out by scoring 171 in 46.2 overs.

Shane Watson was being declared as the “Player of the Match” due to his matured an immaculate innings. When most of his other mates are failing to cope with the slow bounce of the Motera Stadium of Ahmedabad, it was Watson who stood there upfront and the lead the innings in a proficient manner. The innings consisted of eight fours and one six with a strike rate of nearly 85.86.

Truly speaking, it never appeared that Zimbabwe could make any sort of impact on the mere result of the game. They have been outperformed in every single aspect of the game, which once again proves the difference in the quality of the two teams. However, it would be interesting to see how Zimbabwe performs in their upcoming match against Canada on 28th February at Nagpur. On the other hand, Australia is all set to take the challenge of their arch-rivals on the aforesaid venue on 25th February.

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Get informed about Cricket World Cup 2011 and Final Cricket World Cup 2011 matches.

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The ongoing Live Cricket World Cup 2011 is the 10th cup which is being hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In Cricket World Cup the match format is of One Day International (ODI), and first world cup was played in the year 1975 in England. The International Cricket Council is the organizing committee for this International game, which provides a common platform for the teams all over the world to compete with each other.

This is the first time in the cricket history, when Bangladesh is co-hosting the matches. In between these three hosting countries, India is hosting most of the matches, Sri Lanka is hosting few of the matches as well two are being awarded to Bangladesh. The headquarters of the organizing committee is in Mumbai coordinating this international event. There are various big matches which are to be played in this tournament, and some of them are between India vs South Africa on 12th of March, Pakistan vs Australia, England vs South Africa, India vs West Indies on 20th March, and then there are four quarter finals, two semifinals and then the FINAL, and you can easily watch any of your favourite match in the Cricket WorldCup 2011 live in HD on various blogs and websites.

The event is the most appealing and hot topic of the present scenario, where all the teams have made game more interesting by giving tough competition to each other, making the ways for themselves to take the cup to their home. Each of the participating team has given their best performances, and is all set to give up their best and whole hearted effort to make this event a successful one.

Since the cricket match is the most entertaining and lovable game, therefore special arrangements have been made by the hosting countries to take special measures to maintain the integrity of the game from any kind of unwanted actions. For this seasons Cricket Cup various extra measures have been adapted for the comfort and leisure of the team players, so that they can pay their full attention to their game and can enjoy as well on their tour.

Wishing the participating teams a whole lot of good luck, let’s keep our eyes open to welcome the winning team this year. Most probably, India should win this world cup, as the team looks perfect, and they have the potential to beat any team in this Cricket world cup 2011.

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You can watch all the cricket matches live in High Definition video on http://sharmaekant.blogspot.com/ — Ekant Sharma

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A Preview with History of ICC Cricket World Cup

Started since 1975, cricket world’s biggest event World Cup event is here with some severe competition, magic and entertainment for the cricket fans.

The mega event is organised by the governing body International Cricket Council (ICC), with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which held in a gap of every four years. Many reports and the stats have declared that the ICC World Cup is the world’s fourth largest and most viewed sporting event.

Word Cup History

The success and popularity of the domestic one-day competitions in England and other parts of the world, as well as the early One-Day Internationals, prompted the International Cricket Council (ICC) to consider organising a Cricket World Cup. The inaugural ICC Cricket World Cup was hosted in 1975 by England.

Australia has won the World Cup for maximum four times ” with three in a row. They won in 1987, 1999, 2003 and 2007 but it is unlikely that the team may repeat the same performance this time as well.

West Indies, who were a dominant force in the international cricket for some time have fallen into a big slump, and are now ranked at the ninth position in the ODI rankings by the ICC. They have won the ICC World Cup event for two times in 1975 and 1979.

Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka ” all the Asian giants have won the cup for one time. But other major countries like New Zealand, England, South Africa and others haven’t won it once.

The ICC cricket World Cup would be held between 19 February and 2 April 2011 in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Pakistan was also supposed to be holding the World Cup matches, but due to security reasons, they were stripped off all their matches.

This time, there are 14 countries that would be participating for the tournament, including India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, England, South Africa, Australia, West Indies, Ireland, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Kenya, New Zealand and Canada.

India, South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka are the major teams in this World Cup tipped to be winning the tournament. India’s hopes are high this time as they will be hosting the world cup and their master batsman Sachin Tendulkar is likely playing his last world cup.

In 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup there will be 42 league matches, four Quarter Finals, two Semi Finals and a Final. Finals to be held on 2nd April at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

Dileep Venkatkrishna –

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Dileep Venkatkrishna is an associated editor of CricketCountry.com ” Indian fan site with Cricket India

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With the ICC Cricket World Cup only a few days away, India has seen a spike in tourism. Many people are traveling to the nation, and the games may prove to be as successful for India as the FIFA World Cup was for South Africa in 2010, according to the International Business Times.

Though the first game of the World Cup will be held in Sri Lanka, the majority of the matches, including the final, will take place in India. As the games begin on February 19 and end on April 2, globetrotters have a long window of time to visit the country to catch a match.

Tour packages to the games, which allow travelers to see all of the matches in India, are nearly sold out. There will still be tickets available for the semi-finals and the game that will decide the ultimate winner.

“The response has been great. Most of the inventories for India matches, semi-finals and finals have already been sold out,” Rajiv Duggat, chief operation officer of one of India’s leading outbound travel operators, told the news source. “We have kept some inventory to be offered later.”

Many of those who are planning trips to India for the tournament will be sure to have someone at home who will be able to send money to India in case travel funds are running low.

Despite the fact that the games have yet to begin, many companies within the tourism industry have already begun to see a spike in revenue. Hotel companies and airlines are among those who have seen profits increase in the past few days.

The travel company Cleartip has seen a 100 percent spike in air travel sales and a 120 percent increase on hotel bookings for February 27, compared to last year’s rates, Tarique Khatari, vice president of business development at Cleartip, told the news source. On that date, the Indian team will take on England’s team, a highly anticipated match.

“The travel business overall is growing, and the World Cup is giving a boost to it,” he added in his comments to the news source.

Those who aren’t able to make it to India, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh for these games can catch all of the action and watch every Cricket World Cup game online .

Fausto Gortaire –

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Fausto Gortaire is a writer specializing in international affairs for Xoom.

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The cricket world cup is just few days to go and the tournament warm-ups kick off from Saturday. The cricket world cup tenth mega tournament will start with India vs Bangladesh matches on 19th Feb hosted jointly by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and total of 49 matches will be played. Luckily for the Indian fan, the India-Australia matches will be shown live on television and should make for an interesting viewing given the way the two sides are mountain up.

There are 29 matches out of 49 matches will be played in India including one quarterfinal, semifinal and final, 12 matches played in Sri Lanka including one quarterfinal and semifinal and eight matches will be played in Bangladesh including two quarterfinals.Cricket has measured as a faith in India and people are crazy about cricket, particularly in the time of the world cup. With cricket world cup coming in the year 2011, the game would mount to new levels. There are fourteen countries will participate in this cricket world cup 2011 tournament. All fourteen teams have divided in two groups and each group contains seven teams. All seven teams from each group will play with each other. Four winning teams from each group will enter in the quarterfinals and four teams will reach the semi finals. The two winners of semifinal will meet in the final on 2nd April 2011 in Wankhede stadium, Mumbai.

Knowing about score of cricket world cup 2011 is high in the wish list of fans and so is the world cup schedule. The cricket world cup schedule completed will pull on 19th February, where India will take charges against Bangladesh in purpose of comeback of last world cup defeat. The battle of cricket world cup trophy would go on till 2nd April with final at Wankhede stadium, Mumbai, where best two would show last soul of do or die. India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will host all matches of 2011 cricket world cup tournament and will be the hosts with Mumbai hosting the final of the cricket world cup 2011.

Cricket fans from all around the world can visit our site and find out the detailed icc cricket world cup dates , so that they know about the time and venue of the matches. Cricket world cup held every four years, it is the fourth largest and one of the most eagerly awaited and viewed event of the sporting world. It has widely considered to the height of achievement in this sport. The excitement amongst fans is previously clear as the first phase of tickets was put for sale in Mumbai on 1 June 2010. Priced affordably at approximately 20 US cents, the organizing committee is anticipating reaping in bumper sales and not diminishing the ecstasy of fans. There are various websites offer online cricket world cup tickets for fans of cricket. The people also can confirm online live score of all matches of cricket world cup. If you want to distinguish more about cricket world cup 2011, must visit our web portal.

Manohar Prasad –

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123newyears a popular web portal which focus on cricket world cup schedule and more….

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The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup begins on Saturday, February 19, and will last until Saturday, April 2. The best of the best cricket players from 14 international teams will go head-to-head during the tournament, and one team will rise to the top in the final game.

The 14 teams competing for the championship include Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, England, India, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Zimbabwe. The first game will be between India and Bangladesh, and will take place at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

It’s likely that many people in India are planning on traveling to Bangladesh to witness the first match. Those living abroad who want to show their pride in their team will send money to India to help family members pay for travel and celebration expenses.

There are 13 different venues for the 2011 tournament, each with its own unique style and fan base. The Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Sri Lanka is being built exclusively for the event, and will play host to two different matches.

The winning team will be awarded the official ICC Cricket World Cup trophy, which stands 60 centimeters high and is made from silver and gold. It features a golden globe supported by three columns, each representing the main aspects of cricket – batting, bowling and fielding. The winning team will also receive a cash prize of $3,000,000, while the second place team will receive $1,500,000.

The Indian musical trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Ly was recruited to record the official song for the event. Titled Ghumake, the tune celebrates the game of cricket and the men who have made the sport what it is today.

The World Cup also has a new mascot this year – Stumpy, an elephant. His name was chosen in an online poll, and the creature is described as being young, determined and thoroughly excited by the game of cricket.

Though the final cricket game is weeks away, many fans of the sport are speculating about how this year’s tournament will turn out. The Cricket Blog speculates that the semi finals will include Australia, South Africa, England and India, with India emerging as the ultimate winner. However, ABC of Cricket predicts that Australia will come out on top, and that the finals will include Pakistan, India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka or possibly the West Indies.

Fausto Gortaire –

About the Author:

Fausto Gortaire is a writer specializing in international affairs for Xoom.

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here is no bigger or better occasion in cricket than a World Cup. The wait for the next World Cup begins the moment a World Cup ends. Teams are built and careers are often decided based on World Cup. New talents are unearthed for the World Cup and many veterans have chosen World Cup as the occasion to retire. Such is the charm of the event that it captivates everyone. As the event is drawing closer, everyone from the players themselves, the coaching staff, the media, and the fans are fastening their belts and gearing up for the event. The mother of all the contests in father of all the tournament is a clash between India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan have met each other and they have not met so far in a Semi-Final or Final of a One Day Cricket World Cup tournament. It cannot get better than a final between India and Pakistan in 2011 edition. I believe if India and Pakistan meet in the final of One Day Cricket mega trophy, it will beat every other biggest event in terms of number of viewers and popularity all around the World.

It will be an off day for everyone in India and Pakistan if India and Pakistan meet in Final of this spectacular event. The emotions will fly high. The happiness and grief will be unmatched. The emotions will be oscillating quite frequently. The faint hearted are better advised to stay away. But the whole drama could also come down to toss. India has won all the contests played between the two arch-rivals in the mega event, although Pakistan has better overall record outside this event. The chances for an Indo-Pak clash in the Final in this event are reasonably good as they arch-rivals will meet only during the knockout stage because of their placement in different groups. It will be a huge occasion for both the teams. The team that would win would rise to ultimate super stardom. The players who would perform well become an all-time national hero. Who knows! We might just witness the ultimate rivalry on the biggest stage of the World Cricket.

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Warm-up matches for the 2011 Cricket World Cup will be taking place from February 12 onward, which means that anticipation is heavy in the air for one of the world’s most intense championships.

There will be a total of 14 qualified teams competing for this year’s world cup – Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and the West Indes.

As India will be one of the co-hosts of the match, the country will be facing Bangladesh on February 19 for the first game in Dhaka. All eyes will be on this competition, because many spectators are wondering whether India can break what has been a long-standing host nation jinx, according to The Times of India .

The curse started in 1987, when Kapil Dev couldn’t lead the team through to another successive win. When India hosted the World Cup again in 1996, the same thing happened – the team got to the semifinals and was defeated by Sri Lanka.

But this year, the Indian team is hoping that the third time is the charm and they plan to come out strong against Bangladesh, who is another co-host for the cup this year.

Many fans of the sport will send money to India before the games in order to place bets and give contributions to a relative who is eager to enjoy the festivities. This year, India is seeded second in the tournament and is part of Group B.

After Bangladesh, India will be facing another round of tough opponents – South Africa, England and the West Indies. However, there may be some relief found in the matches against the Netherlands and Ireland, who are seeded 13th and 11th, respectively.

Team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni seemed optimistic, but cautious.

“I never predict what will happen in cricket. We believe in each other and we believe in the process. We will take each game in the right frame of mind,” he told the news provider.

England has recently suffered before the opening matches with the loss of Eoin Morgan. The 24-year-old batsman broke his middle finger during a match in Australia and will be unable to play any matches during the World Cup, according to Bloomberg news . He has been replaced by Ravi Bopara, who played with England in the World Cup four years ago.

Fausto Gortaire –

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Fausto Gortaire is a writer specializing in international affairs for Xoom.

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The 10th world cup will be hosted by three South Asian countries, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This will be the first time experience for Bangladesh to host a world cup cricket on its own land. The tournament will follow the International One Day Cricket Tournament Format. There will be fourteen national cricket teams to participate in the tournament. India, one of the host countries and South Africa seems to get good preparation through the Ind vs SA matches during the 2010-11 Test series and ODI matches. The first match of the World cup tournament between India and Bangladesh will be played on 19 February 2011 at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, in Mirpur of Dhaka, Bangladesh and the tournament will end in the early April 2011. Pakistan was denied of its appeal to co-host this ICC Cup because of the 2009 attack in Lahore on March 3, 2009 on Sri Lankan team convoy that lead to the death of 5 policemen and injuries to 7 cricketers and a member of the coaching team.

The participating countries of this 10th ICC World Cup are:
3 Countries of African cricket Association South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
4 Countries of Asian cricket Council– India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh.
2 Countries of Americas cricket Association West Indies and Canada.
2 Countries of East Asia- Pacific Australia and New Zealand
3 Countries from European Cricket Council England, Ireland, Netherlands.

The venues of this tournament are:
India: Eden Gardens (Kolkata, Capacity 82,000), Feroz Shah Kotla( New Delhi, Capacity 48,000), Sardar Patel Stadium (Ahmedabad, Capacity 50,00), M.A. Chidambaram Stadium(Chennai, Capacity 46,000), Wankhede Stadium( Mumbai, Capacity 45,000), Punjab Cricket Association Stadium (Mohali, Capacity 35,000), Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium (Nagpur, Capacity 45,000), M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bangalore, Capacity (42,000);
Sri Lanka: R. Premadasa Stadium (Colombo, Capacity 35,000), Pallekele International Cricket Stadium (Kandy, Capacity 35,000), Suriyawewa Stadium (Hambantota, Capacity 37,000);
Bangladesh: Chittagong Divisional Stadium (Chittagong, Capacity 20,000), Ser e-Bangla Stadium (Dhaka, Capacity 35000).

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Check out our cricket blog at Ind vs SA. We target articles about cricket between India and South Africa Ind v SA.

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In news that will shock nobody, the West Indies have announced an extremely talented side to head to the Cricket World Cup 2011 in the subcontinent. Like so many Windies teams in the past fifteen years, this squad holds an extraordinary amount of promise, but it is completely unsure whether they will even make it into the second phase of the tournament.

Joining captain Darren Sammy in the squad are names such as Chris Gayle, Dwayne and Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Shiv Chanderpaul, Kemar Roach and the returning Ramnaresh Sarwan. However, whilst this list represents a potentially outstanding core, the West Indies are likely to be as brittle as ever. Much of the problem stems from the problems surrounding central West Indian contracts, which seem to be less than assured, and have seen key players represent T20 franchises before the national team. Furthermore, a lack of comptetitive cricket in recent times, partly due to a washed out series in Sri Lanka, means that the Windies have had hardly any time to ‘gel’ as a unit.

Another prospective problem, as noted by cricinfo, is the recent form of key player Ronny Sarwan. Once a mainstay in the team, Sarwan has been out for a time with injuries and poor form. Although he is now over 30, Sarwan is still one of the key players, averaging over 43 in ODI’s. The plight of the team is further hindered by the bowling stocks, which do feature Roach, but also include the likes of Ravi Rampaul and un-tried Andre Russell (hardly names likely to make top batsman shake in their collective boots). It remains a mystery to me why Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor remain out of the side, but if you paired them with Roach and the fine spinner Sulieman Benn, you would have a very respectable bowling line-up.

These problems aside, the Windies could still prove to be competitive. It’s a tired clich, but on their day they can beat anyone. It is a long time since Ian Bradshaw and Courtney Browne hit the winning runs to give the Windies the 2004 Champions Trophy, but with the right amount of luck, and astute planning and selections, there’s always an outside chance that they could find themselves holding aloft a major trophy again.

West Indies Squad: Darren Sammy (cpt), Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith, Sulieman Benn, Nikita Miller, Carlton Baugh (wk), Andre Russell, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Shiv Chanderpaul, Adrian Barath

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For insider information and latest online cricket bets visit the home of cricket betting, World Cricket Bet.

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