ICC Cricket World Cup

Chasing Australia’s hard-earned 262-6, Zimbabwe were bundled out for 171 in the 47th over as Ponting’s men recorded an easy 91-run win in their World Cup opener at Motera. Australia in their first innings has scored 262/6 in 50 overs. The top scorer from Australia was Shane Watson who scored a brilliant 92 ball 79. The Australian innings started off with Shane Watson and Brad Haddin (29) taking the innings to 61 runs after which Haddin was adjudged lbw to a ball by Prosper Utseya.

The innings was carried on by Ricky Ponting (28) and Clarke (58) after the loss of Shane Watson’s wicket, until Ponting too lost his wicket. Finally White, Smith and Hussey and Johnson chipped in with scores to play out the fifty overs.

Zimbabwe started off their chase pretty well with Charles Coventry and Brendan Taylor hitting good shots to Brett Lee and Shaun Tait. However Coventry failed to keep up to his expectations and was caught off a bouncer by Lee at a personal score of 14.

Soon Brendan Taylor (18) was to follow who was caught in the slips off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson. Johnson took the wickets of Taibu and Ervine after which Jason Krejza picked up two more wickets. Despite some stubborn resistance from Prosper Utseya and Graeme Cremer, there was no coming back from there.

Mean while Sachin Tendulkar underwent a left knee scan today after there was a certain niggle due to an old injury recuperating. However Indian team manager Ranjib Biswal cleared the air and said that the scan has revealed that there are no problems and that Sachin would be available to play in the match against England on the 27^th of February in Bengaluru.

The ICC in its media release yesterday announced that the tickets for the semi-finals and the finals were to be sold from today i.e. the 21^st of February on ICC’s official ticket partner www.kyazoonga.com.

The semi-finals are going to played in Colombo and Mohali on the 29^th and 30^th March while the final is going to be played in Wankhede on the 2^nd of April.

Amazingly minutes after the tickets begun selling the site crashed due to the overwhelming response from fans round the world. The number of tickets being sold are also limited as only a fraction of the total capacity of all the stadiums are available for the public, part of which shall be sold online and the other part shall be sold off the counter in the stadiums.

In the words of ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat, “We have seen the tournament start amidst extraordinary scenes in Dhaka where the demand for tickets way outstripped supply yet tens of thousands of passionate supporters packed the streets around the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium so they could sample the remarkable atmosphere of the first match.”

So just in case you wish to watch the matches live and feel the electrifying atmosphere of the World Cup. Log on to the site and book your ticket. Hurry!

Tags: Australia, Cricket, Haroon Lorgat, ICC, ICC Cricket World Cup, News, Sachin Tendulkar, Tickets, Updates, World Cup, www.kyazoonga.com, Zimbabwe