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The reigning champions Chennai Super Kings(CSK) have once again won the title as Champions of IPL 2011.

Chasing a mammoth victory target of 206 runs, Bangalore could manage 147/8 as Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets.

Ashwin had Chris Gayle caught behind by MS Dhoni for a duck as Bangalore got off to a disastrous start.

Ashwin struck on the fourth ball of the RCB innings to give CSK the first breakthrough.

Ashwin struck again in his next over when he clean bowled Mayank Agarwal by a carom ball.

Shadab Jakati then dismissed AB de Villiers and Luke Pomersbach in his successive overs.

Jakati first trapped de Villiers plumb in front of the wicket and in his next over took an easy return catch to dismiss Pomersbach.

Virat Kohli hit a six and a four in his 32-ball 35 before he was trapped plumb in front of the wicket by Suresh Raina.

Ashwin then took his third wicket by taking a return catch to dismiss RCB captain Daniel Vettori for a first ball duck.

Earlier, Murali Vijay’s 52-ball 95 and Michael Hussey’s 45-ball 63 powered Chennai to 205/5.

Sreenath Aravind dismissed Vijay and MS Dhoni off successive deliveries but that was little consolation for RCB as the damage had already been done.

Vijay’s knock was studded with 6 sixes and 4 fours and he was caught by RCB captain Daniel Vettori at mid-off.

On the next delivery, Aravind had Dhoni caught by Virat Kohli at long-on. Dhoni, who came in at number three, hit 2 sixes in his 13-ball 22 before falling to Aravind.

Chris Gayle dismissed Albie Morkel and Suresh Raina off successive deliveries to place CSK at 199/4 but Dwayne Bravo hit the last delivery for a six to take CSK to 205/5.

Hussey put up a 159-run stand with Vijay before Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad had him caught by Abhimanyu Mithun at long-on off a full toss.

The Vijay-Hussey stand is the highest partnership for any wicket for CSK in IPL.

Hussey hit 3 sixes and 3 fours in his 45-ball 63 before falling to Syed.

Hussey reached his fifty off 40 balls and alongwith Vijay brought up CSK’s 150 in 14.2 overs.

Vijay hit a 29-ball fifty and alongwith Hussey brought up CSK’s 100 in 10.3 overs.

Vijay’s 50 is the second fastest half-century by a CSK batsman.

Vijay and Hussey brought up Chennai 50 in the fifth over and apart from the big shots, the highlight of their partnership was their superb running between the wickets.

The start came after Chennai captain MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat.

Chennai are unchanged for the sixth game on the trot and Bangalore have also retained the eleven that beat Mumbai Indians on Friday.

Img Src : in.reuters.com

New Zealand, today, defeated the inform South Africa team to enter the semi finals of the ICC World Cup 2011.

Thanks to the defeat, South Africa is all set to pack their bags home. che, this is annoying and disappointing. After so much of commitment by the south african team in this world cup once again they lost in the bigger picture of the game.

South Africa have now failed to win a knock match for 6 consecutive world cup games. This is harsh!

The third quarter final match between New Zealand and South Africa was played today at Mirpur with New Zealand batting first.

The start was terrible as NZ kept on losing wickets. Not until the out of form Jesse Ryder joined the crease, as they say, one innings could change everything. This is what we would say about Jesse Ryder.

The Star of the match  Jesse Ryder batted sensibly hitting the ball all around the stadium scoring 83 runs before getting himself out for the bowl of  Imran Tahir. Ross Taylor contributed along with Ryder scoring 43 runs under his name.

In the end New Zealand managed to score 221 for 8 in 50 overs.

The task was considered very low that people started saying South Africa will walk away with a win. Even  i thought the same.

As they saw, anything can happen in a cricket match, this match is a sure example for that.

Thanks to Kallis innings, South Africa reached 108 runs at the loss of 2 wickets but when he got out, the beginning of  ‘Great South African‘ collapse took place as batsman entered the crease and getting themselves out for cheap runs.

The highlight of the match would be when De villiers  was run out thanks to the wrong call by the new batsman  du Plessis. As villiers was about to leave the field, four New Zealand players taunted du Plessis so much that he lost his nerve only to be stopped by the rushing on-field umpire and de Villiers who stopped a major clash.

Angered Du Plessis played a crucial knock. At one point it looked like South Africa could escape the loss and achieve the knock out success.

NZ bowler Oram made sure they didnt by spoiling the South Africa chances by taking crucial back to back wickets.

South Africa could manage only  172 after losing all 10 wickets.

The Man of  the Match was awarded to Jacob Oram who took 4 wickets for 39 runs.

New Zealand will now meet the winners of  Sri Lanka Vs England in the Semis.

ICC World cup 2011 can never get bigger and better after what we witnessed today. Pakistan convincingly defeated West Indies in the quarter finals of the ICC world 2011 thereby becoming the first team to enter the semis.

Boy, Oh Boy, i could not forget the match. This is one of those matches where i kept on creeping the google search engine at work to know the score board. I am sure that thousands, may be millions, among you would have done the same from work.

Coming back to the match held today at Mirpur, Bangladesh, West Indies batted first. I reckon west indies players would do all in their power to forget their defeat today,but  if they remember the loss  then it will be very very tough  for them to mentally cope up.

Captain Shahid Afridi turned out to be the star for Pakistan team as they damage the west indies batting completely. Besides Chanderpaul who remained unbeaten on 44, no other batsman had any clues on the Pakistani bowling attack.

West Indies lose all their wickets for 112 .

Pakistan kick start their batting with Kamran Akmal and Mohammed Hafeez, who won the match by the massive opening partnership and more importantly Pakistan maintained their dominance by not losing even a single wicket .

In the end, Pakistan won the match in the 21st over with 10 wickets remaining.

Mohammed Hafeez was named the man of the match.

India, today, defeated Netherlands in the world cup match held at Delhi. With this win, India is now virtually into the quater-finals of the ICC World Cup 2011.

The result of the match held today was not surprising as world no 1 test team India was predicted to win convincingly against the Netherlands.

However, Netherlands gave India the upset scare when they took 4 Indian wickets in quick succession.  That was the time of the match where each member of the audience were on the edge of the seats.

Netherlands made the fans believe that they can also win the match. Their dreaming of winning against India was however halted by Indian Star batsman Yuvraj Singh who scored his back to back half century along with a solid bowling contribution  that made him man of the match once again.

The match begin today with Netherlands batting first.  Although Netherlands fought against India, they could not hold against the Indian attack as they crumble their wickets. Netherlands at the end of their innings scored 190 .

When India started their batting, the local fans prayed to see India hit the runs in boundaries.

Indian batsman Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar didnt disappoint the fans as they batted through the overs hitting boundaries all over the field.

The slopping of Indian Innings began after the first wicket fall. India lost 4 quick wickets all of a sudden that made the match very thrilling.

At the end though, the partnership of Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni, took the team home. Yuvraj singh was awarded Man of the Match for his brilliant half century and wickets with the bowl.

India Vs Netherlands World Cup match is currently live with India slowly proceeding towards the winning margin.

India’s  score as of now is 140/5 for  25 overs. India need 50 runs more to win the match.

India started the match with dazzling performance only to lose 4 quick wickets for 100 runs. Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar batting very well, but they couldnt carry on as they both departed for  39 and 27 runs.

Netherlands who scored 189 runs are putting in their best efforts to scratch the game.

The batsman who are currently at the crease are Yuvraj Singh and M S Dhoni.

Get the Live Scorecard of India Vs Netherlands by Clicking here

Ireland defeated England in the group state match of the ICC World Cup 2011 held today in chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore, India.

Ireland has scripted history by successfully chasing down 328 runs thereby becoming the first nation to make such run chase.

Boy, i dont know where to start. I am thrilled to the core.

Kevin O’Brien and Alex Cusack are the deserving candidate to be praised. Both the cricketers have scripted their names in the history of Cricket.

Kevin O’Brien became the first man to score a fastest hundred in the world cup history. He scored 100 for just 50 balls. Holy cow! Thats just brilliant.

Exciting isnt it!

The match started with England elected to bat. The England batsman didn’t disappoint as they whack the ball all over the ground. Trott, Pietersen and Ian Bell scored a marvelous half centuries taking the England  score to 327 for 50 overs.

In reply, the Irish started the innings very badly as they score very slowly and wickets going down regularly in the other end. At one stage, Ireland were 111 for 5 in  24.2 overs.

When everything seemed lost, there came a hope for Ireland with the coming of Kevin O’Brien and Alex Cusack. Man, they batted superbly. Hats off gentleman.

Kevin O’Brien scored fastest century in the world cup history taking out Matthew Hayden of Australia. He scored  100 runs of 50 balls. Alex on the other end played a sensible 47 runs  before getting run out.

The match then became very interesting as the new batsman John Mooney played a sensible innings along with Kevin O’Brien.

When all seemed set for Ireland, Kevin got run out when the Irish score was 317 for 7. In the end though, the day belonged to Ireland as they scripted history today.

Ireland successfully defeated England to open the points in the point table.  Kevin O’Brien of  Ireland was awarded man of the match

The ICC World Cup 2011 opening match between India and Bangladesh has now been concluded with India securing a convincing 86 run win over the minnow Bangladesh.

The match was scheduled to be a day and night match. Bangladesh won the toss and choose to field.

Virender Sehwag was the star batsman for India, by  scoring 175 runs. Virat Kohli, remained all of us about the young talent in the Indian team by scoring an unbeaten century in his debut world cup match.

India managed to score  370 for 4  in 50 overs.

When Bangladesh came to bat, they made sure not to disappoint the local fans by scoring in boundaries. At one moment, it felt as though Bangladesh will do the impossible run chase only to be halted by Indian spinners Harbhajan Singh and Yusuf pathan.

Pace bowler Munaf patel took the limelight by taking 4 wickets.  But Bangladesh opening batsman like Tamim Iqbal deserve the credit for the good show.

In the end of the match though, Bangladesh managed to score 283 for 9.

A hard fought battle by Bangladesh team only to lose it in the end.

The match was exciting and i hope we folks more often come across such matches in the coming season of the world cup 2011.

Virender Sehwag was awarded the Man of the Match for his brilliant 175