I think, it is very difficult to say what the truth is. If it is really the same as Viru is saying, then it is really a bad news. Everyone would want tht politics should not get involved in the games. Ranji matches are really important as far as the domestic cricket is concerned and should be looked at with great respect. And now after Virender Sehwag, as you said it's the turn of Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma etc. to threaten to quit the Delhi team. The reason according to them is fairly obvious. These guys are unhappy with the Delhi Cricket Association's sports committee. The reason being that they interfered in the selection process and took undue part in corruption. Now that is what these players feel. And it's the most arguable thing. No one knows if that exactly happened or not. These are surely not good things to happen. Cricket is adored in India like anything. And when players like Viru and Gambhir say such things, they surely dishearten fans like you and me. Let's hope that all goes well with the Delhi team and that the "Daredevils" remain in the Delhi team and give the dues for which the spectators pay for come to see their favourites play.

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Yuvraj really saved the day for the Indians. His impact is not new to Indian cricket and on Indian cricket. Some years back it was Sunil Gavaskar, then the Record Master, Sachin Tendulkar ruled and is still doing so, showing his vintage form. And as his career is coming to a glories end, his place will not be empty - so thinks Yuvraj. From his sensational partnership with Mohd. Kaif against England in the Natwest Series while chasing a near impossible 320+ score, to his 6 sixes in an over in the T20 World Cup match against England, from mind boggling catches to sensetional piece of fieldings to run batsmen out, we all have seen what Yuvraj is capable of. A true one day specialist and a one man army.
A one day specialist, a one day specialist ! How long will we hear this? And really, who wants to hear it? If he is a one day specialist, then does this mean he is no good for Tests? How good he is at one dayers - and even better in the shortest form T20 - we all have seen. And how important he is in Tests , this fact he has proved himself. And each cricketing buff has seen it, and knows it. He was ignored for the Tests all these many months shows in the fact that Yuvraj has played only Test in more than 12 months now. There was a time when Sachin Tendulkar was understood in the team. That was because of his merits. No one ever questioned his inclusion. Again because that was because of his merits. But had he not been included, then the selectors were surly questionable. First Sachin was ''selected'', then the captain + 9 others. Such an impact this little Champ possesses. The same can and should happen now the Yuvraj. He has proved himself time and again. With his bat doing the talking, he silenced his critics. He literally made them dumb. His exquisite cuts, drives and pulls are a cooling stuff to the eyes. Ears love to hear his bat coming hard to the ball. His fielding abilities are second only to the great Jonty Rhodes. Known as the Indian Jonty Rhodes, he has proved his point at point all the time. His back to back centuries agaisnt England in November can be remembered at this stage.

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I think India has the guts to come back again strongly as they did in exactly the same WC 2 years back. According to Dhoni, when India is under pressure, they perform well. India needs to win the second of their Super 8's match against the Englishmen on Sunday to keep their hopes alive of remaining in the competition and defending the title that they had won two years ago in style in South Africa. If they have to win the match against England, they will have to dominate every area of the game and will have to perform like complete pros. The unexpected 7-wicket loss to West Indies should provide as an eye-opener to Team India. There are a lot of concerns for India to handle and rectify to remain the competition. The short-pitched bowling from West Indies was the backbone reason why India lost to West Indies. The Indian batsmen just could find no answer to these rising deliveries. Dhoni himself has been a failure with the bat. In the last game he played an innings suitable for Tests. The first and the final overs too are proving too costly and runs need to be curtailed especially in these overs. On the other hand, England too needs to win the match to remain the competition. They too have lost a match in the Super 8's. And if they don't win against India on Sunday, then they are virtually out of the tournament - they have just huffed and puffed into the Super 8's. The England captain Paul Collingwood has already issued a warning to India and they are going to play tough cricket. Well, not only England, but also India has to play tough cricket and win both the remaining matches to think of defending the title.

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India succumbed to the pressure and lost to West Indies in a crucial Super 8's match - the first for India. India's batting was let down for the first time in this tournament and the bowling just was not enough to defend the total of 153. West Indies won the match by 7 wickets. M S Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. But he did not get the start that he had in his mind. The makeshift opener in Rohit Sharma failed to a rising delivery from Edwards. He attempted a pull shot just the very next delivery after hitting a boundary. One down Raina came in at his usual spot but could not do what he usually does. He did not trouble the scorers much and was castled by Edwards again. And again this was a short-pitched delivery. Both Sharma and Raina were castled by Edwards for the individual scores of 5. The team total read 2 for 27 in around 4 overs. Yuvraj then walked in to give company go Gambhir. Bravo was the first change bowler for West Indies. And it worked straight away. 2 runs later, Gambhir was yet another victim of a short-pitched delivery from Bravo. Simmons took his second catch to send Gambhir back. Simmons ran some 8-10 meters back and took a stunning catch almost single-handedly. The Indians were searching for some space and were poorly placed at 40 for 3 in 6 overs. Yuvraj and Dhoni tried to steady the ship caught in the hurricane created by the pace trio and batted cautiously. Such slow was the batting of the Indian skipper that he managed only 11 from 23 balls. Yuvraj on the other hand as usual tried to make things happen. He took some risks early on. And they paid. Playing safely, he started to increase the run-rate that had fallen miserably which at one stage was over 7. Bravo removed Dhoni's gloomy innings when Fletcher caught him on the square boundary. Then walked in Yusuf Pathan. When the Indian total was 75, Yuvraj hit the first six of the Indian innings and then things started to happen. In the meantime, Yuvraj got a life from Fletcher when he could not hold on to a seemingly easy diving catch again on the boundary line. Otherwise it would have been difficult times for India. Fours and sixes started raining and except Irfan Pathan all the remaining batsmen scored good to take the Indian total past the 150 run mark. Yuvraj hit fiery 67 off 43 while the injured Yusuf braving his shoulder injury hit 31 in little time. Harbhajan hit 3 fours off the final 3 balls of the India innings. But it was a whirlwind innings from the Mumbai Indians' team member Dwayne Bravo who his 66 off just 36 balls to dampen the Indian hopes of a surprise win. He hit 3 huge sixes. After getting Gayle and Fletcher speedily out quite early in the innings, the Indians might have fancied their chances. But the speed-breaker called Bravo came between the Indians and the win and made sure that not only the wickets remained intact but also the scoreboard was kept moving. He along with Simmons took the score to the three figure mark.

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Bangladesh bites the dust this time. After Australia and Scotland Bangladesh is the third team to bow out of the second edition of the T20 World Cup. So, till now Australia and Bangladesh are the two Test playing nations to go out of the tournament.
After putting up a decent performance against India, Bangladesh seemed to be doing all wrong. In the score of 137 for 8, Bangladesh never really had any partnership going. The best among the partnerships was that of only 25 for the second wicket. And out of the total of the 8 wickets to fall, 7 were sent back inside the 100 run mark - 94 to be precise. All this shows how disciplined the Irish bowling attack was against a team that is ranked higher than theirs.
Ireland's 6-wicket win ensures that Bangladesh is out of the T20 World Cup. Ireland had earlier scored an upset win over Pakistan to send them packing in the 2007 World Cup. Bangladesh having been beaten by India earlier has been again beaten by Ireland.
When wickets were falling in a hurry one after the other, it was only due to Mashrafe Mortaza's late flourish of 33 that, the Bangladeshi score got some respectability. In the tournament having already noticed an upset from match 1 itself, the Bangla team might have long understood that the score was not a safe one. And if Netherlands could beat England - their higher ranked opponents - Ireland can do this to us too. And the fear came true when Ireland overhauled their total of 137 in just 18.2 overs for the loss of only 4 wickets.
O'Brian brothers did the trick for Ireland. Niall and Kevin almost single-familedly one the match for Ireland. Niall socred a 25 ball 40 which had 3 sixes to boast of while Kevin's unbeaten 39 came off only 17 balls.

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I think India lived upto her expectations and reputation to win their rain affected final league match of 18 overs against the minnows - Ireland. The two architects of Indian win were Zaheer Khan and Rohit Sharma. A fine spell (4 for 19) from Zaheer Khan upfront landed Ireland in neck-deep trouble. He could have had a chance of taking a 5 wicket haul if he had finished his quota of 4 overs. After a tidy first over from Irfan Pathan, Zaheer got to work stright away. He finished his first over by bowling a fuller delivery that sent Bray's stump flying. He came back in his next over to force Porterfield to edge the very first ball to Yusuf Pathan who took a regulation catch at first slip. Botha then walked in with a responsibility of dening Zaheer a hat-trick which he succeded in. But Zaheer had the last laugh by getting Botha to edge the ball to slip where again Yusuf took another execellent diving catch. 5 of the Irish batsmen were sent back even before the team total had reached 50. Andrew White top scored with a cameo of 29 off 25 balls. Other than White, only 3 other batsmen could reach the double figures. Apart from Zaheer, Ojha was among the wickets again with figures of 2 for 18. Bhajji too cheaped in with a single wicket - his 'doosra' doing the trick for him. The Irish innings folded at 112 for 8. The Indian innings got off to a flying start yet again with the new pair of Gambhir and Rohit Sharma. Rohit Sharma seems to be having an affair with the opening slot as he hasn't yet failed. His unbeaten knock of 52 along with Gambhir's 27 ensured that he low scoring match would not spring up any surprises. Indians reached the target of 113 for the loss of just 2 wickets in 15.3 overs. Along with this win India finished the league with 2 wins out of 2. Both India and Ireland had already qualified for the Super Eight stage as both had beaten Bangladesh earlier. India now face the real test when they take on the West Indies on Friday and the England and South Africa on Sunday and Tuesday respectively in the Group of Death.

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India began their campaign to their World Cup defense in style at Notingham by defeating the 'giant-killers' Bangladesh. India playing without the services of the master Blaster Virender Sehwag put up a good score of 180 on the board before taking all the Bangladeshi wickets for 155 runs and thereby winning by 25 runs.
Rohit Sharma who has been giving company to Gautam Gambhir as an opener since the warm-up games again proved to be a scoring move. Rohit kept his good form going that he had set up in he warm-up games against the Kiwis - 36 off 23 balls and 80 off 53 balls against Pakistan - so much so that he even overshadowed his partner Gambhir.
After taking the score beyond the 50 run mark, Sharma was the first to go. Having scored 36 of 23 balls, he missed out on the opportunity to convert it into a big score. Gambhir on the other hand kept the scoreboard moving by excellent running between the wickets along with Dhoni - yet another good runner between the wickets - who promoted himself at the number 3 spot.
Soon enough Gambhir completed his half-century, but he didn't look quite in his elements as he always is wasn't relaxed and lost his wicket sharp on 50. Because the Bangladeshi bowlers were really bowling some good spells to curb the famed Indian batting line-up. Shakib Al Hasan proved to be a thorn for India as he was the most economical bowler who conceded only 24 runs from his quota of 4 - run a ball.
But as Bangladesh was making mockery of India by bowling tight line and length, in came Yuvraj Singh with some different plans in his mind. The man of the moment duly handled the pressure. Yuvi has always has his 'Raj' over the bowlers as he slammed 41 off just 18 balls that he faced. All the equations went in total disarray as Yuvraj batted India right into the match again. His 41 included 4 huge sixes, which were just watched in total awe by all the spectators along with the 11 on the ground. 67 runs were added in the 5 overs and 59 in the last 4.
The tone for a sure Indian victory was set right then. The newfound spinner for India in Pragyan Ojha spun a web around the Bangladeshi batsmen in which they got entangled. They could never really recover from his strikes. Ojha bowled a memorable spell of 4 for 21 to give India a winning start and the Man of the Match award for himself.

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