England won the Second Ashes Test

Yesterday was a historic day for the England, as they won their first test after 75 years in world famous cricket ground at Lords. Andrew Flintoff , who announced retirement from test cricket one day before has sent five of the crucial Australian batsman's. This Ashes victory saw England take a 1-0 lead in the ongoing s five-Test cricket series. England gave Australia a huge target of 522 runs, but Flintoff provides some disciplinary bowling and took five wickets for 92 runs. Off spinner also bowled well and taken four wickets. England captain Andrew Strauss told that "winning a test match at Lord's is always a special moment". Earliar today Australia resume their play at 313 at 5 but Brad Haddin back to pavilion at the 10Th ball of the day as Collingwood took an excellent catch at second sleep. Finally Australia is all out at the score of 406.

Michael Clarke Gives Australia a Ray of Hope

Michael Clarke, who has managed to survived some nasty new-ball swing bowling by the England bowlers, gives Australia a ray of hope as he completed his unbeaten century. Brad Haddin,who is 80 not out also contributed heavily as the make unbeaten stand of 185 for the sixth wicket. If England manage to win this test cricket match then they will register a win at the historic ground of Lord's, where they never won a test match against Australia for last 75 years. If England win the match they will able to take 1-0 lead in Ashes. If Australia manage to win this test match then it will be a record for them as previous best was 418 for seven made by the West Indies against Australia in Antigua in 2002/03. Michael Clarke reached the landmark in 159 balls, he made his first fifty, for just 58 balls but his second fifty came in 101 balls as he concentrated hard.

Pakistan needs more time said Younus Khan after Test defeat

Pakistan captain Younus khan told that, the reason behind the Pakistan defeat in the test match cricket series was inexperience and his team not able to play enough matches. He also mentioned that Pakistan only played few numbers of cricket matches in recent past and his team most of the cricketers are young stars so it will take time for them, after the test match lost against Sri Lanka by seven wickets. The loss gave Sri Lanka a 2-0 victory over Pakistan with one match to spear in the going series. The final test will be played on 20 July. As the security situation in Pakistan is not good so, every team is reluctant to visit Pakistan, They played only four matches in last 18 month's. They played all the four test match against Sri Lanka , the second of which was abandoned when armed gunmen opened fired on the Sri Lankan Cricketers injuring seven of them and six police personnel's and two civilians also killed.

Bangladesh Historic Test Win Over West Indies

Bangladesh recorded their second ever Test Cricket win against West Indies in the first Test in Kingstown. Bangladesh debutant off-spinner Mohammed Mahmudullah send half of the West Indies side only of 50 runs and West Indies defeated just before of 40 minutes of day's play. Bangladesh's previous test cricket win was against Zimbabwe in the year 2005 in their home soil.It is their first ever overseas win, was a cause of celebration. Tamim Iqbal, who scored century in the second Inning was the founder of the Bangladeshi Inning told that the win means a lot for them. Bengal's Tigers second win came after their 60Th test since becoming a full Test-playing nation nine years ago. West Indies gave chance of seven new players for the test, but most of them couldn't deliver their best.

The Glorious History of the Ashes

The Ashes is a cricket series that happens between England and Australia every year and a half to three years. The teams have been meeting on opposite shores since 1882 when a topical newspaper at the time said that England cricket was dead following a defeat by Australia.

Australia and England actually met for the first time in 1877 but it was not until the 1882 match when Australia won in spectacular fashion at the Oval that the series was given a birth into mainstream sport. It was this year that was to signal the start of the most intense rivalry in sport and even today any Australian or Englishman will say that they would like nothing better than to stuff the other.

The Ashes are a symbol of this death and the urn that is permanently housed in the Lords Cricket Ground Museum is one of the most treasured prizes that are available in top-level sport. Needless to say replicas of the urn are always made for each series.

There have since been many squabbles between the English Cricket Board and Cricket Australia with the latter wanting the urn to be held in the country that possesses it in the statistics. It is no secret that CA have made this argument as the Australians have held the Ashes for greater periods of time than the English have done.

Ever since the Ashes began the sides have always played a series of five test matches, which has resulted in many memorable series e.g. the bodyline series and the 2005 series. Australia have been the more dominant of the two sides and currently hold the trophy heading into the 2009 series.

Australia and England have never gotten on in a cricket sense. The evolution of so many factors that are present in the modern game have originated when these two teams have met. For example it was between England and Australia that the banter known as sledging developed. This has been used by cricket players ever since as a way of unsettling the batsmen of an opposition side.
The real bitterness between the two sides developed during the 1932-1933 series when England’s bowlers used a series of bodyline tactics to get out many Australian batsmen. They used tactical and aggressive bouncers to try and hit the batsmen, which resulted in much hard feeling and is still held by some to be the most defining hatred of any Australian player towards the English.

It can also be said that the hatred that was generated between the two during this series has also been carried over into other sports. For example whenever the English and the Australians meet in a game of Rugby Union the rivalry is just as fierce and it is because of the Ashes. The Ashes started the great duel between the two and is the reason that it has carried on along different parallels for such a long time.

Needless to say that many great players have featured during the history of the Ashes. Arguably the greatest batsman of all time, Don Bradman, would regularly put England to the sword scoring many hundreds as he maintain the high class average that he had the ability to display through his entire career.

His centuries as well as memorable performances from the likes of Sir Ian Botham and Bob Willis in later series have all led to the memory of many great sporting moments that have had us all glued to the edge of our seats.

In 1989 Australia won the Ashes back and held the urn for the next 16 years. It was not until 2005 that the beauty and history of the event was once again opened up and captured the imagination of the public concerned. The 2005 series was hailed as the best Ashes series of all time and owing to the fact that it was broadcast on English domestic television means that it is the first instance of test cricket that some have ever watched.
Many former players will put the Ashes down to a simple battle of wit and pressure. The Ashes has produced some legends of the game and the 2005 series showed that even in the later part of his career, Australian legend, Shane Warne, could still prove a thorn in the side of the English.

Warne made his debut in the 1993 series between the sides and his first ball ever in the test match arena was to become known as the greatest ball ever bowled. Warne pitched a ball to England batsman, Mike Gatting, which turned square and clipped the off stump, signalling the start of one of the greatest careers ever in the game.

Warne bowled out England four times on his own in the 2005 series despite Australia losing but he bowed out in grace when his country won back the urn just two years later, thumping England 5-0.

Even when England were being beaten so comprehensively in each series that was played between the two teams there was always an air of anticipation and excitement that the old enemy could be overcome and this is exactly the same with the 2009 series that is about to start, which pretty much renders the last result useless.

There are few better spectacles of sport for the spectator to just sit back and take in and because the Ashes is such a long series the drama can go on for weeks and even months. It is a strange game but some will say that they would not trade a single second of it for any amount of limited overs cricket that is currently available.

There is also the history of the grounds that is involved in any Ashes series. Whether it be Perth in Australia or at Lords, the Home of Cricket, the venue that gets to hold an Ashes match always seems to be buzzing and this series will be no different. Although the first venue for the 2009 series has been heavily criticized it can be guaranteed that the place will be jumping, as the majority England crowd will look to get right on top of the Australians and bring back the Ashes to their country of origin.
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Magnificent Dhoni Steers India Home

A brilliant captain’s knock by Mahendra S Dhoni ensured that India got the better of West Indies in a rain affected third One-Day international match played at St. Lucia. India beat the hosts in a convincing fashion, notching up a 6-wicket win in a match that was hugely affected by the rain. The Duckworth-Lewis method was used to draw up the final total, which India managed to pull off with just a single ball to spare. This victory meant that India now have an unassailable lead in this one day series and would be looking forward to another series victory on foreign soil.

Winning the toss, the Indian captain decided to field first as the hosts got of to a great start with Chris Gayle hammering Ishant Sharma to all parts of the field. However, constant rain interruptions and delays ensured that India were able to restrict West Indies to 185 runs. Ramnaresh Sarwan played a brilliant knock of 62 to ensure that West Indies put up a competitive total. Rain was now a big factor in the match as India was set a revised target of 195 runs in 27 overs using the D/L method.

Keeping the rain factor in mind, the Indian openers did not waste time and put on a solid opening partnership of 84 runs with Dinesh Karthik scoring 47 runs and Gambhir scoring 48 in the Indian innings. Once Karthik was run out to a brilliant piece of fielding by Rampaul, the Indian captain took centre stage. However, due to constant rain interruptions the target was revised to 159 runs of 22 overs. Requiring just 64 runs in the last nine overs of the match, the Indian batting line up faltered as Gambhir and Yuvraj made the long walk to the pavilion in quick succession.

With 11 runs to get in the last over of the match and the departure of Rohit Sharma, the whole onus was now on Dhoni to take India home. The Indian captain took control of the match by hitting a massive six of Taylor in the second delivery of the last over to ensure that India went on to win the match. Although the match became a T20 affair, the Indian team can draw some positives from this win. The hosts will consider themselves a touch unlucky due to the D/L method being brought into play. Now the complete focus shifts to the next ODI as the hosts would definitely want to pull one back and even the series.