India vs Australia Cricket World Cup 2011: Good luck India

Sachin Tendulkar, who won the man-of-the-series award in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, is still 'hungry for runs'. He has already scored 326 runs in six innings of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 at an average of 54.33. Will India make history again?

SARDAR PATEL Stadium, Motera in Ahmedabad will host the second quarter final match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 between the world's top two ODI teams, Australia and India on Thursday, March 23.

 

This match has been pegged as a "Battle of revenge".

 

Since March 23, 2003, the two cricket champs will meet for first time in a Cricket World Cup match on March 24, 2011. In the final of the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup, played at New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, Ricky Ponting and his men defeated India by 125 runs.

 

However, in the last eight years, Australia team have been changed. In the ongoing Cricket World Cup Australians are without Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. From the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup final, only Ponting and Brett Lee are playing for the Australian side.

 

The other side from the 2003 finals, Indians still have the same opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sahwag. In the middle Yuvraj Singh is there and leading bowlers Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh are serving the country in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

 

Even as the second quarter final match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 between India and Australia that will be played tomorrow from 2:30 PM IST, millions of Indian cricket crazy fans have started praying for an Indian victory against the Australians. Good luck India!

Pakistan vs West Indies ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 first QF match

In the first quarter final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, group 'A' topper Pakistan will take on fourth placed team from group 'B', West Indies on Wednesday, March 23 at Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

THE MATCH will be played under flood lights and will start from 2:30 pm local time.

During the journey to the quarter finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Pakistan won against Kenya by 205 runs, won by 11 runs against Sri Lanka and against Canada by 46 runs. In its fourth match, Pakistan lost against New Zealand by 110 runs.

In the next two matches of the ICC Cricket World Cup, the Shahid Afridi-led Pakistan team has won against Zimbabwe by seven wickets under the Duckworth–Lewis (D/L) method and stopped the 34-match winning streak of defending champion Australia. Pakistan won against Australia by four wickets on March 19.

West Indies team under the leadership of captain Darren Sammy has won and lost three matches, each, on the way to the quarter finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. The Caribbean team started its campaign against South Africa with a seven-wicket defeat.

In the next three matches West Indies won against Netherlands, Bangladesh and Ireland by 215 runs, nine wickets and 44 runs respectively. The Caribbean team lost its last two matches against England and India by 18 runs and 80 runs respectively.

Pakistan and West Indies have played 114 matches so far with each other. West Indies have 64 matches and Pakistan 48 matches, whereas two matches ended as a tie. In Cricket World Cups, the Caribbean team is leading by lead 6-2 and in sub-continent conditions, the record favours Indies by 16-12 (Tie: 1).

 

However, the West Indies team have won only three matches out of the last 16 encounters against Pakistan.

At the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, considered as one of the best grounds in the sub-continent, the wicket is considered good for batsman. In the last five matches at this venue the first inning batting average is 240. 4, whereas second inning batting average is 158.8.

In the last five occasions at this venue, the team that has played first has won four matches, including the Pakistan vs Bangladesh ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 warm-up match.

 

Only the West Indies has won a match after batting second at this venue during the league match against Bangladesh.

Given below are the squads of the Pakistan and West Indies teams for the first quarter final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011:

Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal (wk), Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Ahmed Shehzad.

West Indies: Darren Sammy (Capt), Chris Gayle, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith, Sulieman Benn, Nikita Miller, Andre Rusell, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kirk Edwards, Devon Thomas (wk).

Highest wicket taker in Worldcup 2011

The following table contains the ten leading wicket-takers of the tournament.

Player	Team	Wkts	Mts	Ave	S/R	Econ	BBI
Shahid Afridi	Pakistan	21	7	10.71	18.4	3.48	5/16
Zaheer Khan	India	17	7	16.23	21.7	4.47	3/20
Robin Peterson	South Africa	15	7	15.86	22.4	4.25	4/12
Tim Southee	New Zealand	15	7	17.00	24.9	4.09	3/13
Imran Tahir	South Africa	14	5	10.71	16.9	3.79	4/38
Umar Gul	Pakistan	14	7	14.50	22.5	3.86	3/30
Kemar Roach	West Indies	13	6	15.00	21.2	4.23	6/27
Muttiah Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	13	7	16.15	24.4	3.96	4/25
Brett Lee	Australia	13	7	18.07	25.0	4.42	4/28
Harvir Baidwan	Canada	13	6	23.61	25.3	5.58	3/35

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