South Africa opt to bowl after rain delay

South Africa chose to bowl against India

Graeme Smith won a crucial toss after an hour's rain delay on a green track in Kingsmead and, to nobody's surprise, chose to bowl. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel will be relishing the chance to bowl on this juicy pitch under overcast conditions, and look to repeat their Centurion demolition job. South Africa have gone in unchanged, resisting the temptation to field an all-pace attack by retaining Paul Harris.

India's batsmen need to show more backbone than they did on the first day of first Test, and their task became harder when opener Gautam Gambhir was ruled out due to an injured left hand. In his place comes M Vijay, who made a century and an important 37 in his previous Test, but the conditions in Durban couldn't be more different than the sluggish tracks of the Chinnaswamy. Cheteshwar Pujara, who starred in that Bangalore victory over Australia, gets his second Test cap, at the expense of Suresh Raina, who has been in abject form. The only other change is fast bowler Zaheer Khan returning to lead the attack.

Intermittent showers are predicted through the day, and India's task could be made harder by a stop-start day of cricket.

India (probable): 1 M Vijay, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Cheteshwar Pujara, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Sreesanth

South Africa: 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Ashwell Prince, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Paul Harris, 9 Morne Morkel, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe

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Cricket World Cup 2011 Fixture,Schedule

Cricket world cup is always a great attraction to all cricket loving countries specially in South Asian Countries. This time Three Asian countries co-hosting the tenth cricket world cup which is scheduled to start on 19th February 2011 in Mirpur Bangladesh. This World Cup is co-hosted by India,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Here is the schedule or Fixture of World Cup Cricket 2011. You can also download this fixture from the link mentioned below.

http://worldcupcricket2011.in/fixture-schedule-cricket-world-cup-2011

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Australia collapse for 98

James Anderson and Chris Tremlett destroyed Australia's batting line-up for 98 in less than two sessions on Boxing Day, as the Australians were dismissed for their lowest Ashes total in a home Test in 74 years. The frailties in the batting order were exposed as every man but the not-out Ben Hilfenhaus was caught behind the wicket, unable to handle a little bit of movement off the pitch.

Anderson and Tremlett finished with four wickets each, and Tim Bresnan collected the remaining two, more than justifying Andrew Strauss's decision to send Australia in on a pitch with a green tinge and some moisture. The bowlers hit the right lines and found some nibble off the seam, but several of the Australians would be disappointed to have played with hard hands at deliveries they could have left.

They lost four wickets before the first break and even a long lunch couldn't help them regroup, as the rest of the order collapsed after the resumption. In one particularly ugly patch for the home side they lost 3 for 0, as Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson all edged behind or to slip, and a few late runs from the tailenders Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle could not get the side to triple-figures.

When Matt Prior pouched the final catch, his sixth of the innings, the batsman Ben Hilfenhaus raced off the field immediately, knowing that he and his bowling colleagues have a mammoth task ahead of them to save the game. Five men reached double figures in the innings but Michael Clarke's 20 was the best score, and there was no repeat of Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin saving the day as they have in previous matches this series.

After lunch, Steven Smith was the first to depart when he prodded hard away from his body and got a thick edge behind off Anderson for 6. He was followed by Clarke, with a thin edge to Prior off Anderson when he wafted outside off, before Haddin edged to slip off Bresnan and Johnson was caught behind off Anderson.

Tremlett picked up the two remaining wickets, Siddle (10) and Hilfenhaus edging behind to Prior. It had all finished rather the same way it began, with Tremlett and Anderson causing problems by teasing outside off stump and keeping the batsmen tied down.

Shane Watson was dropped twice on 0; Anderson found the edge from the fifth ball of the match and saw Paul Collingwood spill the chance at third slip, and his next over Anderson watched on as Kevin Pietersen at gully couldn't cling on to a hard cut that flew over his head. Watson's luck ran out when he couldn't get out of the way of an excellent bouncer from Tremlett, and the ball lobbed off the gloves to Pietersen at gully.

The out-of-form Phillip Hughes cut the first runs of the match with a boundary through point, but fell for 16 when his attempted cover-drive was edged to gully to give Bresnan a wicket in his second over. That was followed by Ponting (10) edging a cracking ball from Tremlett to second slip where it was snapped up by Graeme Swann, who was required to bowl only two overs.

Tremlett got the ball to rise sharply and nip away significantly off the seam, and Ponting was doing well to even get bat on such a good ball. There was more bounce in the surface than the batsmen might have expected from the usually slow and low drop-in pitches, which helped Michael Hussey survive an lbw review when Tremlett's delivery was shown to be going over the top.

But Hussey didn't survive in the last over before lunch, when he edged behind off Anderson for 8. It was a fine bowling and fielding effort from England, who will retain the Ashes if they win the match, and provided their batsmen don't fall into the same traps that Australia's did, that is looming as the most likely outcome over the next few days.

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Southee's five help New Zealand end losing streak

New Zealand 146 for 5 (Guptill 54) beat Pakistan 143 for 9 (Southee 5-18 by five wickets

The youngsters shone for New Zealand as they defeated Pakistan by five wickets in the first Twenty20 at Eden Park. Tim Southee ripped the heart out of the Pakistan line-up with a brutal spell of five for 18 in four overs, and Martin Guptill's fearless half-century ensured the chase went smoothly for the hosts. The visitors had rocketed to 58 for 1 in 5.5 overs before Southee struck five times in nine deliveries to derail the Pakistan middle order, using his height and pace to torment the batsmen on the quick, hard surface and throwing in the odd slower ball to keep them guessing. Guptill then attacked the Pakistan bowling with style and chutzpah, to get his team off to a rapid start, and continued to attack throughout his innings, despite the clatter of wickets at the other end.

Martin Guptill began the New Zealand chase with gusto as he flayed Abdul Razzaq for 15 in his first over with two commanding strikes and a tickle down to fine leg, before hoisting Shoaib Akhtar for a giant six over square-leg. The pace of the Auckland pitch showed up three balls later as Jesse Ryder's thick edge off Shoaib flew to slip, standing almost at the edge of the circle, at shoulder height. Guptill continued to make merry despite the loss, hitting Shoaib for another six on the leg-side before the paceman struck again, this time to remove debutant Dean Brownlie for five.

Scott Styris played an audacious uppercut off his second ball for six, but was undone soon after by Shoaib, attempting an ugly slog across the line to an indipper that pegged back leg stump. Shoiab had another, and the aeroplane was on show for the third time in three overs, but although there were breakthroughs, Guptill's fireworks at the other end had boosted the score to 55 in five overs.

The Pakistan spinners provided some reprieve, but Guptill motored to his maiden Twenty20 half-century in 23 deliveries, having hit Wahab Riaz for consecutive boundaries and lofting Mohammad Hafeez for six over long on. The dazzling knock came to an end when he was run out attempting an ill-advised single on 53, after having pushed the Pakistan fielders to the limit with swift singles during the entirety of his stay.

Ross Taylor was content to cruise alongside James Franklin while the spinners operated, with his side well ahead of the required rate. Hafeez picked up his second wicket when he hurried one onto Franklin, but with 29 runs to get in more than five overs, the victory was all but secured. A couple of trademark slog sweeps later, New Zealand were within striking distance, and Peter McGlashan finished the job for the hosts with 2.5 overs to spare.

The Pakistan innings too was off to a rollicking start, thanks to some bloody minded batting by the Pakistan openers. Shahid Afridi, having promoted himself to the top of order, wasted little time unfurling his signature slogs, while Hafeez also swung across the line with abandon to propel Pakistan to 36 in 3.5 overs, before the wickets began to tumble.

Afridi was caught at mid-on by a backpedalling Ross Taylor, after New Zealand's other debutant, Adam Milne, had shelled a chance in the previous delivery, but Pakistan kept the foot on the pedal as they raced to 50 in five overs. A devastating spell from Tim Southee was enough to cripple the innings, as he blasted out five wickets in a staggering nine ball burst, which left Pakistan reeling at 68 for 6. Southee's barrage included a hat-trick - New Zealand's second in Twenty20 internationals which yielded the scalps of Younis Khan, Hafeez and Umar Akmal, as he superbly utilised the pace and bounce on offer, and varied his pace beautifully to lay the Pakistan middle order bare.

Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz were on hand for Pakistan, both scoring invaluable thirties as the tail enders pushed Pakistan towards respectability with some sensible batting and a flurry of boundaries towards the end. Southee's spell however, had done the damage, and 143 was always going to be challenging to defend on a pacy pitch with miniscule straight boundaries.

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