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It's bad news for Team India. An injured Yuvraj Singh is out of the T20 World Cup at the extremely crucial juncture — on the eve of the big semi-final against West Indies on Thursday. Coming at the all-important No 4 position, Yuvraj's absence will be a huge headache for skipper MS Dhoni who will now have to figure out whether Ajinkya Rahane or Manish Pandey, Yuvraj's replacement in the squad, will be better placed to carry on the game for India in its quest to reach Kolkata for the big Final. Yuvraj sustained the ankle twist injury during the match against Australia at Mohali where he was seen hobbling in uncontrollable pain till he got out. Doctors say that he has developed a liquid bubble on the ankle joint due to the injury and will be out of action for at least a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, Rahane who is otherwise a rock solid bat well versed in the T20 format, has been out of sorts for some time. Pandey, on the other hand, has made waves with run mounts in IPL b...

West Indies are dangerous, unpredictable, explosive in fits and starts and have among their ranks the single most potent match turner in the game — Chris Gayle. He can score a 49-ball century with 11 sixes all his own, and without premise; he can tear apart any opposition; he can demoralise any bowling attack on any surface and in any scenario. Top this with the 2012 champions being in the top of their form, enjoying their cricket, winning and showing a cool balance, and India have yet another match at hand — a high pressure, do-or-bye blockbuster. But India have things which no other teams can boast of - they have top ranked Virat Kohli in super duper form, they have the coolest thinking captain in the world in MS Dhoni and they sport the tag of being the best chasers from a corner. Other than that, they also have Ravindrachandra Ashwin who has, in the past, got WIndies' best weapon Gayle walking out of the middle cheaply more often than any other bowler, four times out of n...

Kohli apart, there are a host of issues that the Indian batting needs to tackle India may well have been out of their home Cup, riding a wave of bewildering incapacities and  battling all sorts of unexpected blues of the bat, had it not been for the incredibly sterling performance by Virat Kohli. With his dazzling show at Mohali, the star batsman saved India's playing 11 from the ignominy of having to hand over the flight tickets for the Mumbai semifinal to the Australians. The Kohli surge notwithstanding, there is not much that can be tabled as an explanation for the way India has been struggling in every Super 10 match, even to lesser teams like Bangladesh. The grit to fight it out has been good to see but needless on analysis, especially when it has so openly pivoted on a poor opening pair show and a sluggish middle order. Be it Dhawan, Sharma or Raina — none has behaved like an able soldier of a No 1 ranked team in the tournament. POINTS TO PONDER Vulnerability to spi...

Virat-Dhoni 67-run partnership knocks off Australia in 160-run chase MOHALI: Kohli — Virat, dependable, unstoppable, undaunted. MS Dhoni - cool, collected, sure-footed, bullet-fast — the two saved a billion lives yet again to push Team India into the semifinals of the T20 World Cup. Coming on the head of scratchy performances by openers, a cramped up Yuvraj in the middle and a listless Suresh Raina, the victory had amazement and doggedness written all over it. It was the best among the three struggles India got into - even better than the one-run win over Bangladesh, because this was Australia — all fiery and capable — that Kohli's kaleidoscopic display of excellence shoved aside, in the end with consummate ease. The rising star scored 82 runs in 51 balls,hitting nine boundaries and 2 sixes to finish off the match with five balls to spare. In the last but one over, he pressed on the accelerator to score 16 runs with two boundaries and a six.But what was most delightful...

MOHALI: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was lavish in his praise for the brilliant Virat Kohli but had a word of caution for the other batsmen, who he thinks "need to step up" in the next two matches of the World T20. India's top-order has been woefully short of runs with none among Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina getting significant scores on a consistent basis. "The others (batsmen) have to step up now. We can't keep relying on him. I think the others are contributing but we need to step up our game. Barring Virat, we have been 60-65 percent in terms of our batting," Dhoni said at post-match presentation ceremony. Dhoni has praised Kohli's temperament and match-winning prowess a million times and it was no different on Sunday also. "It's not the first time I've enjoyed it(from the other end). He is been playing brilliantly over the last few years. He has kept improving his game. He is very hungry to score runs for the...

MOHALI: So. India stares another do-or-die situation. Third one in a row. It's just out of a virtual life-taking one-run, last-over victory against Bangladesh, a much lower ranked team in this tournament. And now there's Australia, waiting to explode, with hopes of avenging the 0-3 loss to India just the other month. And, what could be more plumb for the Aussies than a cornered India, on home ground and at a venue where the visitors have just made a mess of Pakistan with consummate ease. As pressure goes, this one will be as taut as it gets. Will MS Dhoni be able to take it head-on, this time too? Focus, adaptability and individual preps will count, says Virat Kohli and it does make sense because India's batting line-up needs just that, and a whole lot of self belief that they seem to have strangely lost in the run-up to the home Cup. As forms go, it will be a battle razor's edge. Both teams will be fighting for a place in the semis, both lost their openers to the...

MOHALI: Ram Rabu, all of 30, has been busy at work – following his idol MS Dhoni to all parts of the world. He met Dhoni seven years ago on a cold wintery January night in Dharamshala after braving the freezing winds deep into the evening before Dhoni walked out of the stadium and decided to lend him an ear. After enquiring about his life, Dhoni told him to wear at least a T-shirt in the biting cold instead of the bare-chested body paint he had on himself “only for Dhoni.” “Life changed after that night and here I am cheering for Bharat desh and Team India,” Ram Babu tells you amid a huff and puff. Though not as powerful as the diminutive and more famous Sachin fan who has been media’s kodak moment for quite sometime now and in all parts of the world, Ram Babu is fast catching up with Dhoni fables and travelogues all his own. Though he could not make it to the front stands in stadiums during the 2011 World Cup matches “as I had to buy my own tickets in black most of the time”, he...

 India beat Pak by 6 wickets in a gritty, incredible chase KOLKATA:  Writing an obituary for India and history for Pakistan would have been a national emergency issue, so it was a huge relief that the Men in Blue fought as never before to beat an upbeat Pakistan in what looked like a mission impossible. They fought to live another day in the toughest of circumstances — on a turniing and gripping pitch with Mohammed Sami and Wahab Riaz on fire. For the nation at large, and the team in particular, this was the moment of the tournament, more special because it was snatched out of a murky den of defeat, although, in the end, India made it look easy, winning the marquee match against Pakistan by six wickets and much within the allotted 18 overs. From here on, India still need to fight with grit but the relief of winning against Pakistan will make them more positive. They meet Bangladesh at Bengaluru and then the Aussies in Mohali and if all matches are won from here o...

Singing sensation AB The loudest cheer went for Amitabh Bachchan's baritone singing of the national anthem with close to 60000 spectators on their feet and chanting alongside Big B. Dressed in a black tuxedo, Bachchan arrived much before time at 5.45 in his black Merc and tight security. But the legend had to wait for a long time before the proceedings began at the Eden Garden as the skies decided to open up at the wrong time even as the legend sat patiently in the President's box along with his son Abhishek Bachchan and chief minister Mamata Banerjee as also Pakistani singer Shafaqat Amanat Ali Khan who was dressed in a band gala and was there to sing the Pakistani national anthem. Finally, at 8.25, after Khan had done the honours for his country, Big B sang beautifully, almost in slow mo and the entire crowd was enchanted, applauding loudly at the end. Moment of the legends Before the AB moment, legends of the game from both sides of the border were fecilitated by Mam...

Cornered India meet Pakistan in high-octane, must-win clash KOLKATA: Irony of ironies. It's an India-Pak match. In a World Cup. On home ground. And India have never lost a World Cup match against Pakistan. Yet, it is India and not Pakistan which is in a corner, a very tight one at that. The pressure is huge and 90 per cent of it in the Indian dressing room, all thanks to the dismal loss against New Zealand at Nagpur and India staring an early ouster. Pakistan, meanwhile, is in fifth gear, cruising after handing in a 55-run defeat to Bangladesh with Shahid Afridi coming into his own after a long time, scoring a 19-ball 49 and taking two crucial wickets. Mohammad Hafeez is all fired up and it was not long ago that comeback boy Mohammed Amir had left the Indian batters all shaken and stirred in his opening spell. Top this with the worrying statistic that India has never won a limited over match against Pakistan at Eden Gardens, and the heart-in-the-mouth game promises to bre...

KOLKATA:  Legendary gesture The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has planned big for the India-Pak match. For starters, they would be honouring eight stalwarts of the game on either side of the border just before play starts. From Pakistan, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Intikhab Alam and current team coach Waqar Younis would be presented mementoes of achievement. Imran Khan will be giving some tips to Pakistan team to how to deal with the pressure before the match. On the Indian side, the chosen four are Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Virendra Sehwag. Sehwag replaces Rahul Dravid who expressed his inability to attend. BigB's anthem moment National anthems of playing teams are routine before play in all World Cup tournaments but for this high octane match, it will be different. A legend no less than Amitabh Bachchan would be singing the anthem live at the Eden Gardens today before 60000 fans and two teams that would be declaring war after the handshakes in t...

KOLKATA: As psychological thrillers go in cricket, there can't be a bigger one than this, bigger than the Ashes, bigger than the World Cup Final itself. And, as R Ashwin says, a huge moment, more of a border rivalry for fans than just cricket. India are in their tightest situation in the longest time, facing elimination from the home World Cup if they lose to Pakistan today. Even though Pakistan's head coach Waqar Younis is relishing this spot India is in, saying "we will take advantage of this pressure on India," confident-as-always India's  centrepiece spinner R Ashwin flicked aside the bigness of the moment and the huge concern accompanying it. "If there is any team in the world that can bounce back from this scenario, it is India. We have been in similar situations in the past and know how to come out of it," he said, adding that emotions are for fans, players need to keep them aside. Known to be a thinking bowler who plans his moves in a d...

KOLKATA: India may have taken it easy at the nets on Thursday with practice being optional and a chunk of the team preferring to stay back in the hotel, except Raina, Rahane and Negi who spent some time at the venue. But on match eve, it was a full and prolonged drill for Team India which turned up in full strength to play, exercise and practice for close to three hours. Ashwin, who turned an arm for the batsmen, followed by Ashish Nehra, Mohammed Shami and Jaspreet Bumrah, explained earlier in the day why the Indians took the day off from training even as the Pakistanis sweated it out at nets on Thursday. "They're probably a little more hardworking than us," he quipped. On a more serious note, he said: "It was more about relaxing and nothing to do with who we are playing. We have been on the road for the last three months. The best thing we can do is to think of ourselves rather than sitting together and practising. Generally, after a game like that you tend to ...

NAGPUR: Indians are traditionally known to be good navigators of spin so it was shocking to see how they got caught in the web of a Kiwi trio of Nathan McCullum, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner, the last being not the least. Come on guys! We are the ones who have always had those delectable wrists. We have those scintillating drives to turners. We are the ones who have been the spin masters. We have the Ashwins and the Jadejas, as we had the Bedis, the Chandrasekhars and the Prasannas We’ve been masters of the Doosras and the Googlys. So how come some remote visitors who know only of pace could beat us in our own game in our own backyard in our own tournament? It’s a concern, this deteriorating quality of Indian batters in handling a good spin attack. Oh let’s not be modest. It’s a shock that we got completely felled by three lesser known spinners from another land — all nine of our willow wielders being scalped by the alien trio. Even if you were to ignore the reckless sweep by...

NAGPUR: Sitting gingerly on the dais, addressing his first major Press conference after decimating India, Mitchell Santner looked a little lost for words. The big geeky glasses casing his watery eyes made him resemble Daniel Vettori, albeit on a crash diet. Indeed, as it turns out, he has shaped up in the middle too like his legendary predecessor. With a four-wicket haul for just 11 runs, it’s quite a jump into the international circuit atop a till now callow career which started in the Northern Districts of New Zealand. A new-age hero overnight and the last part of his skipper Kane Williamson’s big gamble plan, Santner was someone who our openers could have planted on the ropes — instead the rookie spinner from paceland pasted them in the pavilion with such guile and gumption that it turned the complexion of the tournament. Considering that Santner was picked not as the first but third spinner by his skipper, more for his batting acumen than his wicket taking capacity, makes i...

Indian batters fall like ninepins, lose first Super 10 match to NZ despite modest scoreline of 126 NAGPUR: India, the tournament's No 1 ranked team, lost their first Super 10 match to New Zealand and so miserably that cricket journalists had a writing paralysis! This was the night Indian batters gave nine pins a complex, so fast they fell. In the biggest anti-climax of this year, India's much lionised willow wielders got axed for 79 while in some kind of self-induced stupor which no amount of post-mortem examinations will explain. Dhoni put up a brave face later in the night, saying "This is a wake-up call" from where the fallen will rise. Being packed off to their second lowest score — 79 in 18.1 overs — the lowest being in 2008 — 74 against the Australians — India now stare an uphill task against Pakistan in Eden Garden where their record is not great either. In Nagpur, meanwhile, a completely silenced 45,000-strong crowd mourned collectively as their fa...

Jay walker vs Tendulkar Nagpur may be simmering at 38 degrees but the city is surrounded by forested areas, at least three of them being wildlife sanctuaries. So, besides Nagpur’s legendary orange yield, there’s another “big” showpiece it dotes on. Some 60 km from the city centre, there lies the Umred Karhandia Wildlife Sanctuary where India’s biggest (tallest and longest) tiger lives. Famous as Jay, the biggest one in the wilds who walked out imperiously from the Nagzira reserve and walked 120 km through human populations in search of a mate, has no connection with cricket except for the fact that one Mr Sachin Tendulkar and family have been on his trail but not with much success. Just before the World Cup, the master blaster was here with his family hoping for a sighting of Jay but despite a number of safaris, the big cat remained elusive. Tendulkar then proceeded to the next sanctuary Todoba where cricket’s first  family had a bountiful of sightings, though not of the celebr...

Will it be yesterday once more, rather 2007 yet again for India at these T20 Worlds? Well, it’s been a long time. Dhoni, for one, is nine years older, has since chopped his flowing locks, gotten married, fathered a girl child, is no longer skipper of all formats, has lost the last 50 over World Cup of his career and may be at the helm for the last time in the shortest format too. Chennai Super Kings is no longer a name and the skipper has had a tough time surviving what fell out of the Pandora’s box during the last IPL. Top this with the growing form and profile of Virat Kohli and you have a completely different era, a different dressing room and different approach to T20 World Cup. So, will India fly sky high in 2016 or not? There’s home advantage to buttress that hope. There’s form, balance and a fit as fiddle squad too with quite some muscle warming the bench. Top that with the withered acumen of other competing teams, most of whom are in transition, and it looks good to go fo...

Mohammad Shami dominated the nets at VCA Stadium in Nagpur on Monday, bowling consistently for over an hour under the bright and searing sun. This despite the convention of Dhoni being squeamish about changing the playing 11 on match eve, moreso if it has been on a winning streak. Shami, back from a long injury absence which made him miss much of the cricket this year, was nevertheless swinging his arm in all earnestness, bowling to the stumps, alternating with Ashwin even as the team played some football in the middle and Kohli, Jadeja and others practised some throwing and took pretty accurate shies at the stumps. India’s bowling department has been in the midst of peans with pacer Jaspreet Bumrah and his unconventional bowling swinging the tide in his favour. Coupled with Ravichandran Ashwin’s permanent status in the team and Ashish Nehra’s experience factor, one will have to see if Shami will be able to make a cut in the playing 11. Kohli said as much when he conceded that ti...

Star India batsman Virat Kohli was a picture of confidence and diffidence on eve of India’s match against New Zealand, a team which has never lost to the hosts in this format. Much like his polished game which is flamboyant like his tattoos and yet as solid as the ground he struts, Kohli talked of how he and the team is confident of looking at the pressure like a challenge to be tackled. He also spoke of the role of openers and how the middle order has not got too many balls to play till now.  Meenakshi Rao  attended the pre-match media interaction. Excerpts: What is the spirit of the team like? We are pretty confident about the way we’ve been playing. We have won 10 out of our last 11 games and we are taking some good momentum into the World Cup. The Asia Cup was a good preparation for us. For a big tournament, getting the feel of playing the big teams, but this is going to be far more challenging. There are teams from all over the world competing and if you look at bot...