Yuvraj Singh confirms engagement to British-born actress Hazel Keech

Few days after the news of Yuvraj Singh getting engaged to Hazel Keech started making round, Yuvraj Singh himself in a post via twitter has confirmed to getting engaged to Hazel Keech in Bali at a private ceremony on Diwali. Hazel Keech is a British born actress of Indian origin, she has appaered in movies such as Bodyguard with Salman Khan and the tamil remake of the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan starer Don name Billa along side Ajith Kumar. Yuvraj tweeted a photo of himself and fiance Hazel Keech saying that he has found a ‘friend for life’ in Hazel, and also that his mother Shabnam saw reflection of herself in her soon to be daughter-in-law.

India scores dramatic win over South Africa

India claimed a dramatic win in the dying minutes of the second test against South Africa on Thursday, squaring the series 1-1 and retaining top spot in the test cricket rankings.

India won by an innings and 57 runs, with that big margin disguising the nerve-racking ending to the test as the visitors got within touching distance of forcing a draw, losing the last wicket with only 13 minutes of play remaining.

South Africa's Hashim Amla, named man of the match and man of the series, remained unbeaten on 123. He lost his more accomplished batting partners at regular intervals on the final day, but shared some dogged, time-evaporating stands with the tail enders to push his team toward a draw that would have delivered a series victory and that No.1 spot in the rankings.

Harbhajan Singh (5-59) claimed the final wicket, trapping Morne Morkel lbw, prompting the Eden Gardens crowd to erupt in celebrations.

Last man Morkel had hung on valiantly, facing 60 balls as he and Amla batted for 76 minutes in their brave but ultimately fruitless 10th-wicket stand. South Africa scored 290 in its second innings after 296 in its first, compared to India's 643-6 declared in its sole innings.

After the spontaneous celebrations among the India players ended, many made their way to congratulate a disconsolate Amla, who batted throughout the final day and faced 394 balls in his innings. He finished with an aggregate of 490 runs across three innings in the two tests, only being dismissed once.

Zaheer leads India to easy win

India Vs Ireland ( ICC World Twenty20 2009 ) - Indian seamer Zaheer Khan took four for 19 to set up a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Ireland in the final group match of the Twenty20 World Cup on Wednesday.

Both teams had already qualified for the second round of the tournament.

Left-arm swing bowler Zaheer helped restrict Ireland to just 112 for eight after the match was was reduced to 18-overs a side following a rain delay.

Man-of-the-match Zaheer was well supported by spinner Pragyan Ojha, who completed figures of two for 18 from four overs.

Rohit Sharma (52 not out) and Gautam Gambhir (37) put on 77 for the first wicket for defending champions India who reached 113 for two with 15 deliveries remaining under the Trent Bridge floodlights.

Ireland Into Super Eight By beating Bangladesh

Ireland Vs Bangladesh ( ICC World Twenty20 2009 ) – Ireland beat Bangladesh by 6 wickets to enter Super Eight.

Ireland played an exceptional cricket on a day when require to make it to the Super Eight of ICC world twenty20. They have beaten test playing nation Bangladesh quite convincingly by 6 wickets.

The hungrier side was always going to come up tops and Ireland took a massive stride by keeping a reckless Bangladesh to 137. Bangladesh batted with the freedom of a team that believed they were already in the next stage and paid the price, stumbling after a shaky start.

Thanks to M.Mortza quick fire 33 runs of 16 balls that gave some respectability to Bangladesh.
Ireland didn’t got-off to good start but the O’Brien brothers make it possible for their team by playing some good cricket with bat. First it was N. O’Brien who smashed 40 runs of 25 balls and then K. O’Brien finished the game with blistering 39 runs of just 17 balls.

N. O’Brien was declared Man-of-the-Match for his quick fire 40 runs of 25 balls.

Ireland plays India at Trent Bridge on Wednesday in a Group A match but both teams have now advanced.

Captain MS Dhoni Vice Captain Sehwag and Media

Nottingham (ICC T20 WC, 2009): Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday dismissed media reports about the reported rift between him and Virender Sehwag.

Dhoni, who was slated to address a press conference on the eve of their opening match against Bangladesh in the World Twenty20 Championship, only read out a statement on the entire team's behalf which spoke about the harmony and unity among the team members.

His brief statement primarily dealt with media reports in India about the alleged rift between Sehwag and him and he firmly squashed it. However, he did not take any questions.

Dhoni's comments on Thursday on Sehwag's injuries and a reply "May be you should ask his physio to issue a press release" lent itself to media speculation of a rift between the two.

"This message is for the people of India and for Indian cricket fans worldwide and comes from the whole team," the statement read out by Dhoni on Friday said.

"Recent reports in the Indian media of a rift between myself and Sehwag amounts to nothing but false and irresponsible media reporting," it said.

Confident Team India set off to retain T20 crown

Despite concerns about pace spearhead Zaheer Khan's fitness and about the players' fatigue factor looming large, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Friday optimistic about India's chances of retaining the T20 World Cup in England.

"We have a very balanced side, very strong in batting. We bat right down to 8 or 9. This is not to say we lack in bowling. We have a strong bowling attack too," he told a press conference in Mumbai before departing with teammates for London by a Friday noon flight.

"We have some outstanding talents in our team and we need to focus on playing to our potential without worrying about the result. We have to give 100 per cent and hopefully we can defend the title," he said about the team's prospects in the tournament starting June 5.

ICC T20 Cricket World cup will be broadcast on ESPN

While all cricket fans anger to enjoy ICC T20 World Cup 2009, The next ICC T20 cricket world cup live match will be aired on Star Cricket Channel a power of ESPN in England.

While DD(Doordarshan) will be shown only India’s match including semi-final and final match of T20 World cup. DD has its own clarification panel. They will present commentary in Hindi both on Star Cricket and Doordarshan. Hindi commentary will be given by Sunil Vaidya on Doordarshan.

ESPN also broadcast the warm matched which have already started. They will broadcast live all Ten warm-up matches.

It has a big group of commentators including Nasser Hussain , Wasim Akram, Alan Wilkins, Harsha Bhogle, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ian Chappell, Simon Doull, David Lloyd, Kepler Wessels, Ranil Abeynayake, Athar Ali Khan , Ian Bishop and Jeremy Coney.

While Manjrekar and Bhogle are hosted of Star Cricket TV for ‘Cricket Extra’ and will be showing before and after match show.

Here are a list to TV channels broadcasting T20 world cup 2009 live:
* India — ESPN (Live) - English

* India — STAR Cricket (Live) - Hindi

* Canada — Asian Television Network -ATN (Live)

* South Africa — Supersport (Live)

* United States — DirecTV (Live)

* Australia — Fox Sports (Live)

* Australia — Nine Network

* Europe — Eurosport2 (Live)

* Middle East —Arab Digital Distribution (Live)

* New Zealand — SKY Network Television (Live)

* Pacific Islands — Fiji TV

* Pakistan — Pakistan Television Corporation - PTV (Live)

* Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (Live)

* United Kingdom — Sky Sports (Live)

Dhoni In Presentation Ceremony ICC World Cup Twenty20 Final

Dhoni In Presentation Ceremony ICC World Cup Twenty20 Final Talking about the expereince of ICC WORLD CUP T20

How he and his boys make the history

Dhoni And His Boys ready to handle the pressure

With the cream of IPL in his side, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni today said his men are more equipped than their counterparts to handle pressure situations associated with the shortest format of the game when they defend their Twenty20 title.

Dhoni said although other teams have players who featured in the IPL, his side has an upper hand in the biennial event starting here on June 5 as all the 15 members of the Indian squad have featured in the just-concluded IPL in South Africa.

"The best thing is that we will know more how to handle pressure, when in the last over you need 10 or 15 runs, everyone in our side has faced that situation. There are quite a few players from other countries but most of our players were in the Indian Premier League," Dhoni told reporters at the official press conference here.

"In IPL you have limited talent in your side, but here we have plenty of options. We have the cream of the IPL so there is less pressure on each and every individual," he added.Dhoni, however, warned his team-mates against complacency and said the defending champions cannot afford to take any side lightly.

"In Twenty20, there is no such thing as a weak side, any individual can take the game away from you. We also can't live on or relish the memories, we have to turn up and do everything from scratch again, it's not about the past," Dhoni said pointing to their triumph in the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa two years back.

Yuvraj Singh's 6 Sixes In Twenty 20 World Cup Against England - 2008

Yuvraj Singh hits a record 6 Sixes vs England in the Super 8's clash of the Twenty20 World Cup (2007).

It was held at Kingsmead in Durban.

He hits in Stuart Broad over, from England.

It is truly wonderful.

Flintoff just See the BIGGIES from YUVI............Can't Do Anything for that.

India-Pakistan Game The Big Draw For Fan: ICC WT20

Vs

As England gears up to host the second ever ICC World Twenty20, Seatwave, Europe’s leading fan-to-fan ticket exchange, is seeing explosive demand for tickets. In the past seven days the Twenty20 tournament has even out sold U2 by almost 3-1.

Pakistan is the team that fans most want to see with 29% of all tickets sold for days when they are playing. Moreover, the most popular match looks set to be Pakistan’s clash with India in the warm-up stage, before the tournament proper even gets underway.

Those two sides played out a thrilling final in 2007, India winning by five runs and fans are no doubt keen to avoid missing out should a clash between the two nations not materialise when the tournament gets underway.

The tournament is proving popular with fans across the world. Seatwave has sold tickets to fans in 17 different countries, excluding the UK. The majority of these sales have been in India but Seatwave has also sold tickets to fans from far-flung destinations such as Hong Kong, Australia and Saudi Arabia. In fact, 6% of all tickets sold have been to fans based abroad, and of those, 20% have bought tickets to more than one game – great news for the UK economy.

Joe Cohen, CEO and Founder of Seatwave said: “The Twenty20 England World Cup is set to be one of the sporting highlights of 2009 and fans are keen to watch their cricketing heroes in action. We expect sales to continue to rise until throughout the tournament as fans follow their team’s progress. The secondary market provides increased flexibility and access for fans which is why an increasing number of buyers are taking advantage of Seatwave.”

India to host 2011 World Cup final, 29 games

Mumbai will house the 2011 World Cup secretariat and India will host 29 of the 49 matches after the event's Central Organising Committee today reallocated the games following the ICC decision to drop Pakistan as a co-host of the tournament.

Accordingly, the opening match of the 10th edition of the quadrennial tournament would be held as scheduled in Bangladesh on February 19, 2011, while the final would be held in India.

The opening ceremony of cricket's showpiece event would also be held in Bangladesh on February 18.

"The Central Organising Committee, which continues to have Sharad Pawar heading it, has reallocated the matches by which India would host 29 games across eight venues, Sri Lanka 12 games across three and Bangladesh eight at two venues," ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat said here.

"Bangladesh would play host to two quarter finals while one quarter final each would be held by India and Sri Lanka who will also split the two semi finals equally. The final would be held in India (in March, 2011)," Lorgat said.

The reallocation of matches was necessitated by the ICC's decision to take away co-hosting rights from Pakistan due to security concerns in the wake of the terror attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore on March 3.

Pakistan was slated to host 14 ties, including a semifinal, while Lahore was named the home of the secretariat.

"The Central Organising Committee was also reorganised and will continue to be headed by Sharad Pawar with representatives from the three World Cup hosting countries and a representative of the ICC," Lorgat said.

The World Cup Organising Committee also relocated the Secretariat from Lahore to the BCCI's headquarters in Mumbai, besides appointing BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty as the Event Managing Director.

"Prof Shetty will be the Event Managing Director while I S Bindra, the special adviser to the ICC, would be a key person in the management of the World Cup. The secretariat will be in Mumbai in the offices of the BCCI", the ICC CEO said.