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Dhoni and his men are in Caribbean to play ODI series with West indies. The series seems to be a much awaited tournament. Many of the Indian fans believe that Team India need to win the cup to settle the score with West Indies for their disaster exist of the world cup 2007 in Indies. Team India not only have to face Indies with also an great threat called “Swine Flu“.

There is a warning in west indies about the possible swine flu attack which is on rise lately in west indies. But the tour continues according to BCCI.

West Indies Skipper Chris Gayle earlier warned his team ‘not to take India likely‘. They may have lost the T20 World Cup but they are a strong team and we know that, Gayle added.

Dhoni on the other hand,requested his fellow team members ‘not to hide injuries’. The First ODI between the 2 nations will begin at friday,late evening Indian Standard Time.

ESPN  has finally made its stand by taking over the rights to show 46 games of the next season English Premier League.  This will be the first time for ESPN to broadcast live premier league football in UK.  ESPN took over from Setanta  which was unable to pay the bill for the rights.

This gives ESPN an opportunity to telecast the game shows. It has now won the 23 games per season which was due to show from 2010-2013 by Setanta. The two Packages namely Saturday teatimes and Monday evenings will be eventually sold to customers through Sky.

The amount for rights purchase by ESPN is still unclear. Meanwhile, the Scottish Premier League (SPL) has taken back its UK rights for 2009/10 “and beyond” from Setanta after the Irish broadcaster missed a £3m payment. The SPL said it was now “actively engaging in the process of selling our domestic broadcasting rights”.

ESPN said in a statement it had “reached an agreement for its coverage to be retailed by Sky to residential and commercial customers”, who will pay extra to view the games. It also has plans of making the medium of league available with other platforms and the talks with Virgin Media confirmed it.

“This move demonstrates our commitment to British sports fans and our ongoing commitment to delivering football to fans around the world across a variety of media,” said Russell Wolff, managing director of ESPN International.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said that ESPN had a “formidable worldwide reputation and experience in sports”.

“I am sure we will enjoy a long and fruitful relationship with them,” he added

Whew, this is getting much thriller and exciting as it becomes. The ICC World T20 tournament 2nd phase matches are finally finished. That is the Super 8’s is over and now its time for the Big daddy to play on. The teams that are qualified for the Semis are South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Pakistan.

Out of these four teams, Pakistan was never considered favourites at start of the tournament. But now they are among the hot favourites with the kind of play they showed. All the four teams are boosted and excited and to note they are in-form of their lives.

The first semi final will be played between South Africa and Pakistan on 18th June. The second semi final will be played next day between Sri Lanka and West Indies.

The winners of the semi final will encounter themselves in the Finals that will be played on 21st of  June.

This world cup in England is certainly onto successful tournament with good crowd turnover and rare weather delay. This world cup also had many favourite’s and inform players to participate. As a thriller, it has already seen many upsets caused during the Group league and Super Eight stage of the game.

Success Stories:

The most successful team that is entering the Semi Finals of  ICC T20 England are South Africa and Sri Lanka, both the teams continuing their winning streak.Ireland was the team that impress this World Cup by entering the Super Eight Stages beating the Bangladesh team. It was a kind of  Deserving Celebration for them.

Following it was the win by Netherlands towards England. Boy that was a coolest match ever. Netherland’s all round performance  did help them win. And as expected much of the teams enter the Super Eight stages like England, India, South Africa, West Indies, Ireland,New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Biggest Upsets of ICC T20 England 2009:

Many upsets occured in this ICC World T20 tournament. The biggest of them all was  AUSTRALIA  getting out of the tournament in group league itself. The misery doesnt ends here, Australia lost the 2 league matches. This is the first time Australia couldnt even win a single match in such a big tournament.

The next biggest Upset which is equal to Australian upset, was the favourite Indian team who are the defending Champions, cannot win even a single Super 8 matches. India lose all  the 3 super eight matches that was played in the tournament. Certainly the poor captaining decisions was the key to failure experts suggest. Presently the analysis work is going on for the shocking exit of Indian team from the World cup.

M S Dhoni

New Zealand and England are still chasing their dream to win the World cup crown. Cheez both the team have really worked hard for the tournament, but when the situation matters they are not getting the so called luck factor and lose their way in the tournament. Both the teams had pretty decent chance of entering the Semis, but couldnt make it.

Boy , what a close match it was. England has won the match that was played with India here today in Lords. By defeating India, England made sure that their Semi Finals hope is alive. India lose  its oppurtunity to enter semi finals and have a one more game to play with South Africa for pride. Certainly, Collingwood will be the  most happiest man today in earth and M S Dhoni will be the most regretting person alive in this Earth.

To speak of the Match, Luck favoured India in toss. India won the toss and Indian Skipper M S Dhoni decided to field first. England batting suffered a huge blow in the form of  Luke Wright who was sent to pavilion by R P Singh. The new man in crease is former captain Pieterson who along with Ravi Bopara made a successful partership. Pieterson managed to score 46 runs of 27 balls. Bopara on the other hand played a valuable inning building knock of  37 runs for 37 balls.

The rest of the England batsman couldnt compete with the Indian spin attack. England managed to score 153 for 7 in 20 overs. Now the part of second innings to come on with India to bat.

To frankly quote, England tactics towards Indian batting is admirable. They have closely analysed Indian batting and had just 1 plan that is , Bowl Short Pitched Delivery for all the batsman. IPL star Rohit  Sharma did not have answers for the bowling of  sidebottom and to follow him to the pavilion is another inform IPL batsman Raina, both getting out for very low score.

Gautam Gambhir and Jadeja killed any chance of  India winning the match by playing very slowly and not hitting boundaries.  Yuvraj seemed aggressive and did hit a ball for 6 ,but  he  was stumped beautifully by the wicket keeper James Foster for the bowling of  Swann.  Hopes was still on for India winning the match as  all the fan waited for Indian skipper Dhoni to hit six.  Out of form Dhoni cannot  hit a ball on air and was just hitting each and every ball on the ground. He was lucky enough to score 2 boundaries that came of  edge.

Yusuf pathan tried really hard to hit boundaries and he did managed to pick few here and there. As game proceeded , there was tension faces all over the ground. Both English and Indian fans were on the edge of their seats. In the end, India needed 19 runs of 1 over and Sidebottom came to England’s party.

Sidebottom did gave runs but managed to contain it in the last ball which he bowled. India managed only 15 runs at the last over losing by 3 runs to England. Their overall score was  150 for 5 in 20 overs. The Man of the Match is Sidebottom. England now have a very good chance of entering the Semis.

West Indies  convincingly beat India in the Super 8 match   played at Lords today. The match started with Mahinder singh Dhoni winning the toss and choosing to bat. For him though, only disappointment was available as the wickets fallen continuously. Even M S Dhoni cannot play his usual knock and was sent to pavilion soon.To admit, West Indies bowled Superbly.

India’s Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan came to party by contributing a crucial partnership between them. Yuvraj stole the show by smashing 67 of 43 balls and Yusuf  hit 31 of 23 balls. India managed to score 153 for 7  in their 20 overs. Not defendable score, yet manageable to play for.The star of West Indies bowling was Bravo who took 4 wickets for 38 runs.

The second innings started with an early blow for West Indies losing Fletcher for a duck. Dhoni brought spinners early in the play and the run rate was getting higher with the each ball the spinners bowl. Pressure was mounting and can be seen in Chris Gayle face. He tried to hit a 6 but was caught out by Zaheer for the ball of  Yusuf pathan.

At this stage, West Indies was thought to be out of the game until Bravo came and played a Bravo innings. He smashed each and every bowler and score 66 runs for 36 balls. Helping him at the other end was none other than West Indies former captain Chanderpaul who played a crucial knock . West Indies beat India with 7 wickets in hand  at  18.3 overs.  Bravo was declared Man of the Match award for his allrounder performance.

After a thrilling group league matches in the ICC T20 world cup England, the stage for the Super Eights is staged in.  Excitement is on the air with the Fans of all the qualified teams  are going crazy seeing their team in Super Eights. The Upcoming  Super 8’s match promises exciting contest as all the in- form team is in the group.

The following team is  available in Super 8’s like  England,South Africa,West Indies, India, New Zealand, Ireland,Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These teams are splitted in 2 groups as group E and group F. The top two teams of Eeach group will make it to Semis.

The group E consist of   India,South Africa, West Indies and England.

The group F consist of   Pakistan,New Zealand,Ireland and Sri Lanka.

Well, a promising treat is available for all the fans