If they need to make into the semi-final, the whole thing that can go right needs to go right, and then some. They require Australia to lose to Pakistan, then they require to beat West Indies, and by such a edge that their net run-rate goes over Australia’s.

If Pakistan’s match next to Australia is even as much as washed out, India can kiss their movement goodbye. The saving grace for them is that by half time during their game they will know what accurately they need to do if Australia lose, that is.

A dissimilarity of 2.08 in India and Australia’s net run-rates looks huge on paper, but as it is based on the results of one match each it is not possible to clean out. It will be great difficult, though Pakistan and Australia will make for a rigid contest either way, so even if Australia lose India will need a huge win over West Indies. A perfect day is hard to define, but India fans will recognize what it is if their side makes it to the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy.

West Indies have no pushover in this contest, giving Pakistan and Australia a fright. They would love not anything better than to spoil a gathering on their way out. It won’t be a shock if they even wish for Australia to lose to Pakistan, so that they have a possibility to vigorously contribute in sending a team out.

South Africa, led by Roelof van der Merwe and Wayne Parnell with the ball and AB de Villiers with the bat, improved from their opening-game loss against sri lanka and to beat New Zealand in Centurion. New Zealand struggle to put up runs after being put in under somewhat overcast conditions, with van der Merwe starring with ten cunning overs while Parnell got five wickets. Ross Taylor played a accountable innings that gave New Zealand constancy after they were reduced to 92 for 3, but losing their last seven wickets for 51.

The pitch was the similar one used a couple of days ago when South Africa were mauled by Sri Lanka, but the result was very unlike. Early on it obtainable more pace and bounce than the path on which Tillakaratne Dilshan blaze away, but as the afternoon wore on stroke play became ever more tougher, particularly against the older ball. By the time New Zealand were halfway into their innings, after Parnell took two early wickets, the spinners found substantial bounce and the rough nature of the pitch made the ball grip the surface. van der Merwe and Johan Botha bowled with manage and the effort was complemented by the aggressive fields Graeme Smith set, which played a main role in suffocating the batsmen. Runs came at a drip with New Zealand running just 72 between the 15th and 35th overs.

Taylor had a few close shaves next to van der Merwe but overcame his nerves to play a considerable role. He was agreeable when cracking the ball in the arc between point and gully but more than those odd field perforations his contribution was precious for the manner in which he shored up the force of seeing New Zealand through difficulty. Grant Elliott had his moments of indecisiveness when balls from van der Merwe just about missed the edge of the bat, yet managed to cut the wall of fielders with some outstanding shots through cover.

The last five chop down for 11 runs in 18 balls, with Parnell nip out three in the batting Powerplay, and that determined the match. Taylor had carried the innings but the lack of  partnerships hurt them there were four stands of 30 or more. The bowlers did a great job, and the spiky turn the spinners achieved suggested that batting in the evening would be even extra hard fot the batsman.

India’s Champions Trophy operation has suffer a major slow down even before it has started with Yuvraj Singh fracturing his finger during a training session in Johannesburg. The injury will marginal him for six weeks. Virat Kohli will restore him in the Champions Trophy squad while Gambhir will take over as side vice-captain.

Yuvraj hurt his finger while fielding and did not take part in the net sessions that follow. He was attend to by the physio Nitin Patel before caption for a medical assessment, which the fracture.

India were snowed under with injuries going into the competition. Virender Sehwag did not journey to South Africa due to a shoulder injury, while Gambhir, who did not characteristic in the team’s only training match next to New Zealand, is nursing a groin strain. India’s competition opener is next to Pakistan on Saturday after that they will take on Australia and West Indies next week.

Ishant has impressed in Tests but struggle with his lengths in ODIs and has been normal recently in that arrangement on the slow pitches in India, West Indies and Sri Lanka. Srinath said that these hard times are the most excellent for him to learn about himself, about his bowling craft and develop.

Ishant bowling averaged 31.48 and picked up 27 wickets in his first 20 ODI. In 13 matches in 2009, he has pulled out up 19 wickets at 31.42. On Sunday, in a ICC Champions Trophy warm-up match, he gave away 49 runs off seven overs and picked up a wicket. There is a school of thinking that Ishant should be given sufficient breaks from ODIs to allow him to think on Tests so that India don’t risk losing a potent strike force in the longer description of the game.

This is piece and parcel of the growth of a bowler. The second period is forever going to be tougher for a cricketer. He has the fundamentals right and he will go on to turn out to be a very high-quality bowler for India. These hard times are the finest for him to learn about himself, about his bowling craft and develop. From what I hear, he has a great approach to learn and if he leftovers hungry, he will come out a improved ODI bowler and as a result, a better bowler overall.

Srinath, however, is concerned about the effects of too much censure on such a young bowler. It all depends on his approach I guess but a great deal criticism can hurt. At this developmental period, you can only expand the more you bowl and more you learn about yourself. There are concerns that Ishant, who has a delicate body and not a flat post-release routine where he almost stumble a bit, can get hurt with playing too many ODIs but Srinath believes that’s a risk that he has to take at this stage.

MS Dhoni, India’s captain, has admit that careless fielding and conflicting bowling were two areas he was worried about as the team ready to leave Mumbai for the Champions Trophy, which starts in South Africa on September 22. India newly spent a day on top of the ICC’s ODI rankings during the Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka and Dhoni required more reliability from his players in order to get back the No. 1 spot.  Dhoni said it is not that we are time after time doing well game after game. He recognized bowling as a trouble area, saying the bowlers had capacity to improve in the middle and final overs.

The other lacking regulation was India’s fielding. Previous this week, India won the Compaq Cup final against Sri Lanka credit to a century from Sachin Tendulkar and a five-for from Harbhajan Singh but their fielders drop two simple catches and wasted three run-out opportunities. Dhoni said that the fielders needed to be extra proactive and decrease every scoring chance for the opposition. If we can hack down as many as 20 runs from the opposite that will be a huge accomplishment.

We are in a tough group in Champions Trophy so it would be significant not to allow any slip ups and perform well right from the beginning. India are joint with Australia, Pakistan and West Indies in Group A and open their fight with a high-pressure encounter against their neighbours at Centurion on September 26.

Dhoni, however, said he was not worried by the pressure of hope. One of the reasons, according to Dhoni, India were doing well was that they weren’t worried by anticipation levels because they know that if they won the rest would take care of itself. We think about how well set we are for the games and focus on the small aspects like fitness, mental training.  On the topic of player fitness, Dhoni welcome the return of Gautam Gambhir after the starter had to pull out of the tri-series in Sri Lanka due to a groin injury. Gambhir undergo a fitness test in Mumbai in front of coach Gary Kirsten and trainer Nitin Patel. Not only can he give excellent starts but he can stay put till the last part of the innings.

India’s batsmen had struggled against the short ball on energetic tracks in England during the T20 in June as well as in the subsequent ODI series in the Caribbean, but Dhoni disagree when asked if the problem would persevere. The last time it happen was in the T20, where you barely have time to alter as you look to go after the bowler. What happens in a 50-over sport is you can select  and play after them.

Andrew Flintoff’s agent, Andrew Chandler, said that a wish to go bungee-jumping was a causal factor in Flintoff’s choice to turn down an ECB central agreement. Denying accusations that Flintoff is a mercenary for looking for a maximise his pay in the final years of his career, Chandler nevertheless queried the ECB’s judgement in offering an incremental deal worth £25,000 per year. Like he wouldn’t be permissible to contribute in hazardous sports and he’s perhaps doing a television series in which he may do bungee-jumping. Also he’s got three youthful kids and Andrew and his wife Rachel both spend sensible amounts of cash so he has to make abundance.

I don’t know what was in the ECB’s brain when they accessible him the contract they did. Because they most likely must have known that the money wouldn’t have made a lot of dissimilarity compare to the sums of money he was earn as a Test cricketer. But he is going to end up with the odd support deal that would be perhaps contradictory with an England sponsorship deal and he just wants to have the freedom of mind that he can do what he want to.

Chandler insist that Flintoff remained dedicated to carrying on his England career at ODI and T20 level despite snubbing the board’s contract offer, and was adamant that the circumstances would not cause any ill feeling in the England dressing-room.

I can’t see how not signing his agreement could jeopardise his place with England and I’ve seen reports that it will perform this in the dressing room. I don’t see what dissimilarity it makes whether he is receiving paid that extra money or not as long as he does what he wants to do.

Nevertheless, having at first targeted England’s tour of Bangladesh for his comeback series, Chandler now supposed it was unlikely that Flintoff would be back to full fitness by then, although a second season with the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL was a sensible aim.

Sachin Tendulkar has scored his risk-free 138 against Sri Lanka in the final of the Compaq Cup as one of his top innings. His 44th one-day hundred propel India to 319, which prove 46 runs is too much for Sri Lanka. His excellently paced innings fetch him his 59th Man-of-the-Match award besides helping him to yet another Man-of-the-Series award. It capped a victorious return for Tendulkar, who had to miss the one-day series against West Indies earlier this year due to a finger injury.

Tendulkar said India’s achievement was due to the present team having more match-winners than before. I think in this lot we have got match-winners and more huge hitters as such and you know the guys have deliver at the crunch moment. But they have been delivering pretty constantly and you know they are all brilliant guys. Tendulkar told that this team was amongst the top ones he had played since debuting in 1989. I would like to esteem the fact that I was lucky to be part of various generations. This is absolutely one of the top teams I have been part of it. We have always try to win but we have been able to make results in the last couple of years.

India’s triumph was only their fourth in ODI finals in 21 attempt since 2000, and their first trophy in Sri Lanka since 1998. MS Dhoni played his part in setting up the succeed with a quick 56 after promote himself to number 3. Dhoni said that, it feels huge to win a trophy in Sri Lanka after such a long time. Being the 2^nd placed team in world rankings we have performing well to maintain the quality.

Despite the huge total, India had to bear some nervous moments as Sri Lanka’s batsmen battled hard till the end. The home team were helped by some belated Indian fielding two catches were grassed and several run-out chances were missed. The fast bowlers were also off the bubble early on, wilting in the face of an attack from the Sri Lankan openers.

Andrew Flintoff is giving severe thought to becoming a outworker cricketer. Flintoff has previously received a number of offers, but his new knee surgery means he will be sidelined for at least six months. On Friday he was award an incremental agreement by the ECB, but the option of lucrative T20 deals will be very alluring. Flintoff ‘s freelancing would have follow the route predictable to be taken by Australian allrounder, Andrew Symonds, who is also eyeing several T20 opportunities all around the world after his national career caught up due to disciplinary issues.

He’ll play for Chennai super kings, he might play for an Australian team, a South African team, maybe one in the West Indies. If he hadn’t have been injured he would have almost certainly played in December-January in Australia. I was previously negotiating with them.  Flintoff is heading to Dubai for a three-month spell to aid his treatment from a right knee surgical procedure after was operate on a day after helping England regain the Ashes, his farewell Test series. He targeted a return to be full fitness before England’s one-day tour to Bangladesh next February.

The ECB award an incremental agreement to Flintoff and they hope will be key part of England’s limited-over sides when fit and has affirmed that he wants to play until the 2015 World Cup. But England coach Andy Flower had said that his players could take part in only three weeks of the 45-day IPL next year if they toured Bangladesh. Chandler said there was no section in Flintoff’s central agreement prevent the allrounder from playing all IPL matches. I’m not saying that he is not going to play for England because he almost certainly will do. But he is certainly going to play for different teams during the year.

When the agreement list was announced, Flower had warned that players’ workload needs to be manage and that contribution in lucrative leagues like the IPL will carry on to be an issue over the next few years. The amount of time England players were obtainable for the 2009 IPL season had been a major stick point between the ECB and the Indian board earlier this year before a cooperation was reached.

Pathetic as it now seems, England might gone above Australia in the ODI rankings had they manage to win this seven match series by at least five games to two. Three defeats later, and the boundary of their ambition would now come into view to be the avoidance of a 7-0 whitewash.

Even that is start to come into view beyond them. Two inept run-chases at The Oval and Lord’s were follow by an even inferior attempt to set a defensible target at The Rose Bowl, and the over-riding feeling as England’s longest home season winds to a close is one of frantic ennui.

The full houses for the first three matches cannot costume the opposition in the stands. The costly tickets were sold well in move ahead, at a time when the view of watching England vs Australia in an Ashes summer was still a tantalising one. Now, like the players, they are rotating up out of duty rather than hope. With the Champions Trophy threatening in South Africa in hardly a fortnight’s time, Lord’s last international fixture of 2009 is improbable to provide many lasting memories.

Australia, unavoidably, start favourites, because they have the inducement of a slice of history to drive them on no team has ever been beaten 7-0, although England themselves came close before their ODI tour to India was shortened last year. With Ricky Ponting slotting back into the captaincy fresh from a well earned week’s break, there’s no inquiry that Australia’s wish will be maintain. England, on the other hand, have taken the conflicting route where Paul Collingwood and James Anderson have been rested, a quite sure sign that the series has by now been surrendered.

This series is India’s 3^rd one-day series in Sri Lanka over the past 13 months. Where for decades India’s record at this time had been not anything to crow over they arrived for a tri-series in 2005 having won just nine of 33 matches a physically powerful one-day outfit has twisted that record around dramatically. They have won seven of ten matches since after that and in their last two series prove the past now counts for little, beating Sri Lanka 3-2 last August and 4-1 in February. In conditions of rankings, there’s plenty at stake for India in this series if they go winning into the final and win there, they will climb to No. 1 in the ICC’s ODI rankings for the first time.

India strutted their stuff at the two practice session they had as arriving two days after the competition began, and look confident. On the whole, the way of their training has been calm and self-assured even though Virender Sehwag, a critical cog in the batting line-up, is absent. Plenty of liability will be on Rahul Dravid, called back to the one-day team after two years. India’s middle order has been unstable against fast, short-pitched bowling and if a wicket goes down early, expect Dravid to walk out primary.

To beat a positive Indian outfit, New Zealand will have to shape up in discipline that let them down in the initial game. Their batting was rock by a excellent display from three bowlers of varying speeds and trajectories Ian Bishop called it one of the best one-day pains under lights he had seen but the request was perhaps to blame. The top order seem intention on attacking from the start. In the field, New Zealand unsuccessful to finish the job when Sri Lanka were 69 for 5 in 25.3 overs, and also gave them scope with singles and doubles in the field. That was astonishing given how competent they were in the T20s. A lost in tomorrow match will see them crash out of the tournament.