 clipped from espnstar.com
Torres, voted man of the match by UEFA, said: "This is good not just for Spain but for football, because the best team won and that is not always the case."
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 clipped from www.euro2008.uefa.com
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Cricinfo - The transformer tags: gauram-gambhir
There is nice article in cricinfo magazine today. Talks about Gautam Gambhir and his achievements in the last two years. He has been very instrumental in India's big wins and also Delhi (his home side) to win Ranji after a long long time.
To me he looks like a match winner every time he comes on to bat. He is one of the very few people in Indian cricket team who is a product of strong domestic cricket foundation and hard work at the international level.
The shots he plays against spinners clearly proves that he has played some quality spin at home and he knows how to clobber them. His shot over the extra covers is the one not many people play that consistently in international cricket. Here is a quick snapshot of what he has done recently and may have been easily forgotten.
| Gambhir's ascent |
| · Gambhir has been the second-highest run-getter in ODIs in 2008: his 649 runs have only been bettered by Salman Butt. |
| · He topped the run-scoring charts for most part of the Indian Premier League, but was pipped by Shaun Marsh into second place. He hit the most fours - 68, but cleared the boundary only eight times. |
| · Gambhir scored 440 runs in the CB Series in |
| · He led from the front in |
| · All four of Gambhir's hundreds for |
| · With 227 runs, Gambhir was |
Kitply cup organizers really were hoping a big success with possible 2 encounters between India and Pakistan. As much boring was the whole series as those two encounters. Does not make any sense of such series where each team played 2 matches to enter the over hyped finals. When final did come India played as if they don't wanna win. I am sick of these India pakistan series. There is always some sort of arrangement about who will win and loose. Well nothing makes sense. I am done with matches between the 2 countries.
Photos from Timesofindia.com
There were a lot of expectations before the semi-final between Royals and Daredevils. Everybody was looking forward to a contest between an explosive batting side versus simple the best side in IPL. In the end, Royals showed that their consistency is just no fluke. First scoring 192 against the likes of McGrath and Asif and then bundling Delhi out for 80 odd runs, proved that they thoroughly deserved this victory.
There are a couple of points I want to mention before we forget about this very forgettable match (for Delhi fans atleast). Why did Sehwag chose to ball after winning the toss? I always thought, on a good batting track, in a knock-out game, one should always bat. Asif came in after injury/rest so the bowling was always going to be tough. I know it could have gone either way and Warne admitted in the end about his bowling decision, had he won the toss but it is just that defensive frame of mind that allows you to send opposition in and make total mess of it. Batting second is never easy in a pressure situation. The other thing was the bowling changes. Mahroof was first change but could have been used as the opening bowler. He had the best chance to rattle top order of Royals. In the end, opening stand made a lot of difference. Veeru himself did not bowl a single ball in the match. What is the use of his huge experience. As far as I am concerned, its the bowling that let Delhi down and not the batting. In a semi-final like this, 160 would have been enough leave alone 190 plus. Well its all over for Delhi now. They can take rest, play international cricket and come back strong next time. Till then, good bye to them.
