PAKISTAN BEAT INDIA IN 5TH ODI BY 31RUNS-INDIA WON THE SERIES:

wahabuddin khan`s report
Pakistan won the best for the last as their batsmen piled up 306-6 and then bowled out India for 275 to win the fifth and final ODI in Jaipur on Sunday. Shoaib Malik and Mohd Yousuf struck fluent fifties to boost Pakistan's total, while India capitulated in front of the Pakistani bowlers led by Sohail Tanvir, who bagged four wickets. Batting first, Pakistan's new opening pair of Salman Butt and Imran Nazir settled quickly.when a slower Santh delivery prompted Nazir to slap a simple return catch, Pakistan were struggling on 77-3 in the 17th over.Then Yousuf and Malik came to the crease, and the experienced pair mixed the occasional boundary with a series of ones and twos to rebuild Pakistan's innings.Yousuf was twice lucky to remain at the crease, firstly when he was trapped in front by Yuvraj only for the appeals to be waved away by umpire Billy Doctrove, and then when his top-edged sweep fell between the fielders at square leg.But, he and Malik - who heaved two wonderful sixes over mid-wicket and six fours in an aggressive knock - had soon moved Pakistan to 245-3 with eight overs remaining.
Kartik returned to the attack to have Malik cleverly stumped, and Yousuf fell in similar fashion to Yuvraj two overs later, but Misbah-ul-haq (22) and Fawad Alam (31no) took up the baton.The pair put on 38 in 4.5 overs, sharing two sixes and three fours, and even after Misbah fell to a brilliant caught-and-bowled to Irfan Pathan, Alam saw Pakistan past 300.It was always going to be a tough total - despite the batsman-friendly surface in Jaipur - but Pakistan got off to a fabulous start with four wickets in the first 12 overs. Tanvir was the hosts' main tormentor, the seamer trapping Gautam Gambhir plumb in front in the fourth over, and inducing a rash swipe from Virender Sehwag in the 12th.

That came after the seamer had snared the precious wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, the Little Master edging to slip just as he looked like getting into his stride.Rao Iftikhar was the other early wicket-taker, Robin Uthappa falling to a simple catch at first slip two balls after he had been dropped by the same fielder, but Sharma and Yuvraj built something of a recovery.With the dewy conditions playing havoc with the spinners' grip and the seamers increasingly ineffectual under the lights, the pair milked the ones and twos in putting on 81.However, minutes after reaching his maiden half-century, Sharma fell for 52 when he dollied Malik to long-on - and Yuvraj followed suit when he was given out caught behind off Umar Gul on 50 despite the ball appearing to come off his shoulder.While Dhoni remained even the asking rate of over nine an over did not seem totally out of India's reach, but the wicket-keeper soon took one liberty too many when he skied Malik to mid-wicket.The hosts were never in the race thereafter and Malik took his third wicket with his off-spinners when Kumar holed out at mid-wicket, before Kartik skewed Iftikhar to backward point to end his enterprising knock of 16.Pathan (44 off 39 balls) produced some late fireworks, but he was left with far too much to do and home resistance was finally ended with a ball to spare when Tanvir clean bowled the left-hander to finish with figures of 9.5-0-53-4. Indian skipper Dhoni said the early strikes by Tanvir left his team struggling and praised Malik and Yousuf.
"Pakistan exploited the conditions," he said. "Our top order batsmen played the kind of shots they would not on a normal day."

2009-Twenty20- World Cup Groups announced

Defending champions India were placed in an easy group A alongside Bangladesh and Zimbabwe for the 2009 ICC Twenty20 cricket World Championships in England.The grouping for the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup was decided in a two-day ICC board meeting, which concluded on Wednesday.The early decision on the matter was taken on the request of hosts England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who want to proceed with the venue event bidding process which would allow match tickets to go on sale at the earliest.
Since not enough matches have been played in the shortest format of the game to allow viable official rankings, the board decided to group teams on the basis of their finishing positions in the inaugural edition of the championship this year.
ODI World Champions Australia have been placed in group C along with Sri Lanka and West Indies.

The Groups:

Group A: India, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe

Group B: Pakistan, England, Associate 1

Group C: Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies

Group D: New Zealand, South Africa, Associate 2.

Shoaib Akhtar And Sanjay Dutt meeting ON Sunday:

Sanjay Dutt who had a bitter experiences this year has added another admirer to his fan’s kit . It is none other than the Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akthar of Pakistan team .Yes it is said that Shoaib Akhtar is a very big fan of “Munnabhai” and watches all his films. It is also said that the Public relation executive of Shoaib Akhtar is making all arrangements to the meeting of Akhtar and Sanjay.It is said that Shoaib will meet the star inYerwada jail and the Rawalpindi express wants to give a special gift to Sanjay and also the million prayers offered for him by the Pakistanis . If all goes well than the speedster will be meeting Sanjay on Sunday and may be under whole media coverage . So let us hope that he gets the permission and than all can witness the meeting of controversial cricket child with one and only Munnabhai

Sri Lankan Bowler Maharoof To Miss England Cricket Series:

HOBART, Australi — The beleaguered Sri Lankan tourists will be without seamer Farveez Maharoof for this month's home cricket series with England, skipper Mahela Jayawardene said Saturday.The former under-19 skipper suffered a left ankle injury while bowling on the opening day of the second Test here against Australia and sat out Saturday's second day's play.Jayawardene confirmed that the 23-year-old paceman will be out for up to five weeks and was definitely out of the series against England, which gets underway in Sri Lanka late this month.The Sri Lankans are under the pump against the rampant Australians, losing last week's first Brisbane Test by an innings and 40 runs and on the end of another massive Australian innings of 542 for five declared here on Saturday.Jayawardene had to make do with a threadbare strikeforce of just three bowlers and paid dearly.
Lasith Malinga finished with 1-156 off 35 overs, Dilhara Fernando 2-131 off 26 overs and Muttiah Muralitharan 1-140 from 46 overs."Farveez had a scan yesterday and he's got crush fracture in his ankle and it looks like he will be out of the England series," Jayawardene said Saturday."He'll be out for at least four to five weeks, it could be a bit more than that depending on how he will feel especially because he is a fast bowler and he needs to put his weight on that ankle."He'll be definitely out of the England Test series."

Australia's Gilchrist hits unprecedented 100th 6 in test cricket

HOBART, Australia: Adam Gilchrist became the first batsman to hit 100 sixes in test cricket, belting a ball from one of the game's premier bowlers out of the ground in typically swashbuckling style.Now he wants the ball back to keep as a memento.Last seen, it was rolling down a street adjoining Bellerive Oval, with some children chasing it.The 36-year-old Australian vice-captain hit consecutive sixes against Muttiah Muralitharan over mid-wicket late Saturday in the second test against Sri Lanka, the second one going right out of the stadium to notch 6 No. 100."We haven't got the ball back which is a bit frustrating," Gilchrist said. "I'm not a massive collector of memorabilia but I think there's probably a few little bits and pieces every cricketer has stashed away that means something to them."
Unlike baseball, where home run balls can remain in the hands of fans and can be worth a lot of money to the person who catches it, the cricket ball is supposed to be returned to the field before the game continues.If a ball is genuinely lost, a replacement with similar wear and tear is selected by umpires. After a cricket ball has been used for 90 overs, it usually goes to the player who achieved a significant milestone with it."That's a unique little item and I'd love to get it back," Gilchrist said. "There aren't many things that you do in life that you're the only person ever to have done. With that in mind it would be nice to have the ball that notched that 100."

Gilchrist was unbeaten on 67, including three 6s and seven boundaries — when Australia captain Ricky Ponting declared the innings closed at 542 for five, giving Sri Lanka 12 overs to bat before bad light stopped play on day two.It was his 130th test innings — but first in 10 months — in a career spanning 92 matches. His first six in test cricket was at the same venue, when he helped steer Australia to a comeback win over Pakistan in 1999.Nobody else has come close to Gilchrist's rate of clearing the boundaries in the test arena.West Indies great Brian Lara hit 88 sixes in his 131-test career, one more than New Zealander Chris Cairns notched in 62 tests.Viv Richards, another West Indies great who earned the nickname "the Masters Blaster," hit 84 sixes in his 121 test matches in the 1970s and 80s.Earlier in the week, Gilchrist was voted Australia's greatest limited-overs player. He has hit 141 sixes in 275 limited-overs internationals and has a batting strike rate of 96.66 per hundred balls in the shorter format.Gilchrist said he had only really thought about the 100 milestone when he hit Lasith Malinga for sixes earlier in his innings on Saturday."I went 'oh, that's right — it's coming up'... it came into my mindset a bit," he said. "The sixes at the end were very natural free-flowing shots, not trying to bludgeon the ball over the rope."Despite his reputation for big hitting, Gilchrist said he usually finds he hits more sixes when he's concentrating on trying to bat properly and not just slog the ball.And he knows a good shot as soon as he sees it."There is a nano-second, just a moment in time when you are the only person in the whole world who knows that you've hit it right in the middle," he said.

This is Cricket: The Basics of Batting -video

This is Cricket - Bowling covers the basics of bowling-video

Pakistan's Muhammed Asif to miss India test series:

KARACHI - Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif has failed to recover from an elbow injury and will miss the test series in India, the Pakistan Cricket Board said on Friday
"He is still struggling with his elbow injury and is going to be sent to Australia for a complete check-up and rehabilitation process," chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed told Reuters on Friday.
"He will leave in a week's time and hopefully he will be fit before our next important series. Asif's absence from the Indian tour has been a setback for the team."Pakistan and India play three test from November 22.Selectors have called up leg spinner Danish Kaneria, batsman Faisal Iqbal and fast bowler Mohammad Sami for the three tests.They will replace Imran Nazir, Fawad Alam, Rao Iftikhar and allrounder Shahid Afridi who were in the one-day squad and are due to return home after the fifth game on Sunday in Jaipur.India has an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series after winning the fourth match in Gwalior on Thursday.

Pakistan's Muhammed Yousuf asked to face hearing after ICL U-turn:

MUMBAI- Pakistani batsman Mohammad Yousuf has been asked to face an arbitration hearing over his decision to pull out of a rebel Indian Twenty20 league.Yousuf had signed up with the lucrative Indian Cricket League (ICL), which has not been approved by national boards, but then changed his mind and joined the Indian Premier League(IPL).The IPL is the Indian board's multi-million dollar professional Twenty20 league launched to counter the rebel version.Yousuf has been asked to attend the hearing in Mumbai a day before Pakistan begin their first test against India in New Delhi on November 22.India's Essel Group, the promoters of the ICL, confirmed they had sent the batsman a legal notice for arbitration."We will not let him set a bad example," Ashish Kaul, executive vice president of the Essel Group, said on Friday.The inaugural tournament of the ICL will be played from November 30 to December 16. The league has attracted several big names including Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq."The Pakistan Cricket Board will be handling all these matters.

Cricketers At Gwalior Fort - photo gallery

Pakistani and Indian cricketers enjoy during the visit to the historical Gwalior Fort on Wednesday,14th Nov, the eve of the fourth ODI of the series.

Shahrukh And Harbhajan Singh--A Pretty Event.

Recently when Harbhajan Singh was at the event held in Lucknow to celebrate the Indian and Pakistani teams SRK did the jig with Dia Mirza and called up the leggie Harbhajan to do the same steps he did. However the spinner landed in a tangled web and said that he could not complete the intimate step of holding Dia and looking into her eyes.
What followed shocked and thrilled others as SRK said that he would play Dia’s role and Harbhajan was to play his. This ended with Harbhajan holding SRK and staring into his eyes like long time lovers. A pretty funny sight it was.