Story India's Journey with Funknath[ICC 09]-IndvBang-Game Over!

[Funknath]

India's Journey with Funknath


Today BCCI appointed India's newest coach, Funknath. He will be coaching India and will take India to highest glory. His first challenge is to win the T20 World Cup in England. India will be facing their neighbor minnows Bangladesh in their first match of their T20 World Cup Campaign. Then they will be facing another minnow team that is Ireland. India should be careful about Bangladesh as they have caused an upset two years back. India should be also careful about Ireland and can create an upset if they can somehow repeat their performance they showed in the 2007 World Cup. After the T20 World Cup ends India will be visiting the Caribbean for a ODI series comprising of 4 ODIs. Then India will return back home and will be hosting number 1 team in the world, Australia in 7ODI Series. After the Australian leaves the Sub-continent a bigger rival comes to India and they are the Sri Lanka. India will face Sri Lanka in 3 Test and 5 ODIs. After a long and tough series with Sri Lanka, India will be touring the Bangladeshis for 2 Test and 3ODI which India will be looking forward to whitewash. India has another tough challenge coming up in 2010 when the South Africans visit the Indians for 3 Test and 5ODIs. Can India finish this season on a good note? Stay tuned to find out. ​

 

[Funknath]

India's 15 man Squad for T20 World Cup 2009

Mahendra Singh Dhoni(c)(wk)

Virender Sehwag(vc)

Sachin Tendulkar

Gautam Gambhir

Harbhajan Singh

Zaheer Khan

Suresh Raina

Yuvraj Singh

Ishant Sharma

Amit Mishra

Rudra Pratap Singh

Yusuf Pathan

Manoj Tiwary

Rohit Sharma

Yalaka Venugopal Rao

Team India will be lead from the front by Wicket-keeper batsman M.S.Dhoni and his deputy will be the aggressive opening batsman, Virender Sehwag. Sehwag's opening partner will be the sensational left handed batsman Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir has shown his talent previously and will show it again in T20 World Cup. Then the middle order consist of experienced Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar has proved in the domestic level that he can too play T20. His inclusion will add a lot to the team strength. Other than Tendulkar the middle order consist of the man to hit the fastest half century in T20 history, Yuvraj Singh. Suresh Raina , Rohit Sharma and captain M.S.Dhoni will be the batsman who will looked forward to score runs in the last few overs. The bowling will consist of RP Singh, Zaheer Khan and two spinners Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh. India will be looking forward to Khan and Harbhajan Singh as their main wicket takers and will hope that RP Singh and Amit Mishra will assist Harbhajan and Khan. India will be fielding 7 batsman and 4 bowlers and will rotate between the bowling of Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma as the 5th bowling option for the team. The bench will be comprising of Bengal's superstar batsman, Manoj Tiwary. He will be hoping to get chance in a match and he will surely prove his worthy of getting his place in the playing XI. Others who will be sitting in the bench are Yusuf Pathan, YV Rao and injured Ishant Sharma. Due to Ishant Sharma's injury for 2 weeks, India will be fielding 2 spinners and 2 pacers instead of 1 spinner and 3 pacers. Will India miss Ishant Sharma's presence? Stay tuned to find out.

​

 

[CG123]

Nice start mate. Your batting line-up is bound to be strong, and that will probably be your strength.
Good luck with your first match.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Very good start mate, good squad for the World Cup and hopefully we can win it again. Looking forward for more..

 

[Funknath]

Welcome to the 1st encounter of Group A between defending champion India and Bangladesh. Bangladesh has created upset previously and can create the same upset once again today against India.

The Pitch will be favoring the batsman as its poor for bowlers. There will be some spin in the pitch. The outfield will neither be slow nor be fast. Its going to be sunny throughout the day with the afternoon having few clouds in the sky. The captain should choose to bat first after winning the toss and put a good total.

Line up :-

India
G.Gambhir
V.Sehwag
S.Tendulkar
Y.Singh
S.Raina
R.Sharma
M.S.Dhoni(c)(wk)
H.Singh
A.Mishra
Z.Khan
R.P.Singh

India will be looking forward to a good start from their openers, Sehwag and Gambhir. They will be relying on Sehwag to give them an aggressive start in the first 6 overs. Tendulkar , Yuvraj , Sharma, Raina and Dhoni will be relied on to take India to a good total which should be above 180. Out of the 5 middle order batsman Yuvraj will steal the show with his big shots and if he can bring that the 2007th edition of the T20 world cup's Yuvraj to this one then Bangladesh has no chance of stopping Yuvraj to score another sensational 50. Bangladesh bowlers should be careful of the two big hitters in the form of Yuvraj and Sehwag. Zaheer and RP Singh will be opening the bowling for India and Dhoni will rely on them to take early wicket and put pressure on them. India should be careful of Bangladesh's youth All-Rounder, Shakib Al Hasan. He has proved the whole world what he can do. Harbhajan, Mishra, Yuvraj and Rohit should bowl economically in the middle overs and will try to take some wickets in regular intervals. Overall India has a strong line up and their strength will be their strong batting line up.

Key Players- V.Sehwag, Y.Singh and Z.Khan

Bangladesh

T.Iqbal
S.Al.Hasan
M.Mahmudullah
M.Hasan
M.Islam
M.Ashraful(c)
M.Rahim(wk)
A.Razzak
M.Mortaza
K.Hossain
S.Rasel

Bangladesh has many a times proved the world that they can also play cricket and can defeat team stronger than themselves. They have defeated India once and they will be happy to beat them again. Bangladesh will be relying on their openers Iqbal and especially Shakib Al Hasan, who is the best batsman in the whole line up plus they also have another youth in the form of Mahmudullah who can also score runs and India will be aiming for these two wickets. Captain Ashraful can also bat and will try to cheap in some runs. Bangladesh will be worried about the rest of the batting line up as they can be bundled up very quickly by a strong Indian bowling line up. The bowling department will consist of Rasel, Hossain, Mortaza , Razzak and Hasan. Bangladesh will look forward to good performance from Mortaza , Razzak and Hasan. These three bowlers can produce huge wickets but they should be careful about the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag as their opposition batsman. Overall Bangladesh doesn't have a team which can produce a win in their favor but you can't say anything right now because they have shocked us before and they can do it once again

Key Players- S.Al.Hasan and A.Razzak

India won the toss and has elected to bat first.


For Readers-

Your chance to grab a prize. Just predict the runs India will score in their Innings and first 3 to answer correctly will win vcash.

Your Options are-

A)130-150
B)150-170
C)170-190
D)190-200

Prizes-

1st-10,000vcash
2nd-7,500vcash
3rd-5,000vcash

You have time till the next update...so post your guesses quickly.

​

 

[CG123]

I'll go B)150-170.
I'm thinking a score around 150, but I'll back you to just get over that.

 

[Bibu07]

Looks nice for a start..

 

[AbhishekS]

Nice start Funky
Anyways, my prediction is Option C: 170 - 190

 

[nakul]

Good start to the league and India will score B)150-170.

 

[Funknath]

Nice start Funky
Anyways, my prediction is Option C: 170 - 190

Looks nice for a start..

I'll go B)150-170.
I'm thinking a score around 150, but I'll back you to just get over that.

Thanks everyone for your comments btw I have added some writings below both teams line up do check it out

 

[hedger_14]

I'll go with B) 150-170. What about below 130 and above 200 though.

 

[Funknath]

I'll go with B) 150-170. What about below 130 and above 200 though.

I will score above 130 and will not be able to score above 200 because I loose wickets trying to score at 10rpo

 

[nakul]

they have shocked us before and they can do it once again

We do remember that and so do we remember the faces of ganguly and dravid

 

[Pakistani Army]

Looking at the 15-man squad chosen for the ICC World Twenty20 I am quite shocked due to the fact that there are names there which I would have not expected to see. The 2 being Sachin & Mishra. This is a huge gamble by the BCCI. However they have included some young guns in Tiwary and Rohit who will have been influenced by the IPL played earlier.

India will have to be weary about Bangladesh as in the 2007 Cricket World Cup held in the West Indies, Bangladesh beat the Indians which sent them crashing out of the tournament. There is no doubt the Indians will want revenge.

Great works Funknath. The write-up and presentation are of a good standard. Regarding the predicta contest I will go with option B 150 - 170 :banana2

 

[Funknath]

India's opening pair Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag came to the middle. Their aim is to give India a good start. Bangladesh's opening bowler will be Syed Rasel. Gambhir will be facing the first delivery of the Indian innings which Gambhir defends. Sehwag and Gambhir has a talk between themselves and Gambhir returns to his position ready to hit the ball and score runs for India. Rasel delivers his second ball which Gambhir smashes it through short leg as the outfield wasn't fast the ball was stuck near the boundary ropes and the batsman got three runs. The over saw a four being smashed by Gambhir. Mortaza was going to bowl from the other end with Rasel. Mortaza was smashed for a huge six at the very beginning by Sehwag and a four through deep point by Gambhir. After 2 overs India were 21 for no loss. Rasel continued bowling but he still got punishment from the Indian batsman as he was smashed for 3 fours in the same position. Twice by Sehwag and once by Gambhir.

Sehwag and Gambhir has so far given India a glorious start and if they continue the same momentum throughout the match then they will score high runs and it will become a tough challenge for Bangladesh to chase it down. Mortaza is still on the attack but this time he didn't give much runs like he did in his previous over. India is playing sensible cricket here as because they are smashing one-two boundaries each over and is continuously rotating strike which is putting more pressure on the Bangladeshi bowlers. Rasel bowls a better over by giving a single boundary to the Indian team still he has been expensive as because India is hitting only one boundary but at the same time taking four singles so Bangladesh must give one/two singles to the Indian batsman. Bangladesh is desperately waiting for a wicket to fall and Mortaza comes to their aid. Mortaza takes the vital wicket of Sehwag and give back some joy to the Bangladeshi fans, but the Indian crowd became silent as Sehwag went back to the pavilion.

Sehwag's replacement was the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar. Many has said that he has become old to play T20. Many says that T20 is for youth but Tendulkar has come here to prove that even cricketers of his age can play T20. Neither Sachin nor Gambhir could smash a four in that over. With Sehwag's wicket fallen the run rate of the Indian team will soon be dropping unless Sachin and Gambhir continue what Sehwag left when he was out. Rasel finishes his quota of four overs with a brilliant over just by giving few singles or so. Sachin and Gambhir has to accelerate in order to take India to a defendable total. Razzak was Mortaza's replacement and he a nice welcome as he was smashed for a four at the very beginning of his spell but more trouble came to the India's dressing room when Sachin tried to take risky single and due to this India lost their second wicket in the form of Gambhir. Hard hitting Yuvraj came to the crease. Shakib Al Hasan was the new bowlers and pressure was starting to built in the Indian dressing room as Shakib bowled a terrific over by giving few singles. Razzak bowled the 10th over and finally India got some runs in this over. Yuvraj smashed a four and took a total of five singles with one wide ball. With ten valuable runs coming in the last over India's hope of scoring above 150 has become stronger.

India - 77/2 (10 overs)

G.Gambhir- 28(20)
V.Sehwag- 33(17)
S.Tendulkar- 9(13)*
Y.Singh- 6(11)*

S.Rasel-0/35(4)
M.Mortaza-1/25(3)
A.Razzak-0/16(2)
S.Al.Hasan-0/1(1)

Yuvraj and Tendulkar must become a little more aggressive inorder to take India to safe score. Can they do it? Stay tuned. ​