First TIE of World Cup 2011

It was a hard day today in the history of World Cup Cricket 2011. India vs England was the first tied match in the history of World Cup Cricket 2011. After winning the toss Indian captain MS Dhoni elected to bat first. And to prove his decision was not wrong Indian opening batsman gave India a flying start.India lost Shewag earlier but Master Blaster batsman Shachin Tendulkar had written another historic innings of 120 runs with 10 boundaries and 5 over-boundaries. Among others Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Sing scored 51 and 58 runs. And finally India managed to score 338 runs, a huge total!

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Schedule of ICC World Cup 2011 (Group Round)

Date	Teams	Venue
Feb 17	Opening Ceremony	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
Feb 19	Ban vs Ind	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
Feb 20	SL vs Canada	Hambantota
Feb 20	Ken vs NZ	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Feb 21	Aus vs Zim	Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad
Feb 22	Eng vs NetherLands	Vidarbha CA Ground, Nagpur
Feb 23	Pak vs Ken	Hambantota
Feb 24	SA vs WI	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Feb 25	Ban vs Ireland	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
Feb 25	Aus vs NZ	Vidarbha CA Ground, Nagpur
Feb 26	SL vs Pak	Colombo
Feb 27	Ind vs Eng	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Feb 28	Canada vs Zim	Vidarbha CA Ground, Nagpur
Mar 01	SL vs Ken	Colombo
Mar 02	Eng vs Ireland	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Mar 03	Pak vs Canada	Colombo
Mar 03	SA vs Netherlands	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali
Mar 04	Ban vs WI	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
Mar 04	NZ vs Zim	Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Mar 05	Aus vs SL	Colombo
Mar 06	Ind vs Ireland	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Mar 06	Eng vs SA	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Mar 07	Canada vs Ken	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Mar 08	NZ vs Pak	Pallekele
Mar 09	Ind vs Netherlands	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Mar 10	SL vs Zim	Pallekele
Mar 11	Ban vs Eng	ZA Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong
Mar 11	WI vs Ireland	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali
Mar 12	Ind vs SA	Vidarbha CA Ground, Nagpur
Mar 13	Canada vs NZ	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Mar 13	Aus vs Ken	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Mar 14	Ban vs Netherlands	ZA Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong
Mar 14	Pak vs Zim	Pallekele
Mar 15	Ireland vs SA	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Mar 16	Aus vs Canada	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Mar 17	Eng vs WI	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Mar 18	NZ vs SL	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Mar 18	Ireland vs Netherlands	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Mar 19	Ban vs SA	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
Mar 19	Aus vs Pak	Colombo
Mar 20	Ken vs Zim	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Mar 20	Ind vs WI	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

World Cup Cricket 2011

World Cup Cricket 2011:
World Cup cricket 2011ficture has been scheduled finally. The three South Asian countries will host the tournament. The countries are Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. The opening ceremony will be held in Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur in Bangladesh on 17 February 2011. Also the first match between Bangladesh and India will be held in the same venue on 19 February. Out of total 49 matches in the tournament, India will host highest 29 games including a quarter final and the tournament final. Sri Lanka will organize 12 matches including a quarter final as well as a semi final, while Bangladesh will stage 8 games including 2 quarter finals. Except the opening game, India will play all of their group stage matches at home; while Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will play the group stage matches in front of their home crowd.

Tournament Format:
There are 14 teams who will be participating in the tournament including 10 test playing nations and 4 associate member countries. The test playing teams have automatically qualified for the tournament, while the 4 associate members have come through the qualifying tournament held in South Africa earlier this year. The four associate members are: Ireland, Canada, Netherlands and Kenya.

The format of ICC World Cup 2011 is not same to that of the previous world cup that took place in West Indies in 2007. All of the 14 teams are divided into two groups of 7 teams each. In the group stage, each team will play against all other group members once in a round robin league system.

In 2007 world cup, there was a ‘Super Eight’ phase involving 8 teams who qualified through group stage, and four best teams from ‘Super Eight’ progressed to the semi final. However, there is no super eight phase in 2011 world cup. In stead, top four teams from each group in terms of points achieved will qualify for the quarter final. There are four quarter finals scheduled to take place on 23 March, 24 March, 25 March and 26 March. That means knock out stage starts just after the group stage. Four winners of the four quarter finals will get into the semi final of the tournament. The winners of the semi finals will meet each other in the tournament final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 2 April 2009.

Group A: Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya
Group B: India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands.

Tournament Venues:
All of the 49 matches will be held in 13 different venues across the three countries. Except two new venues in Sri Lanka (Hambantota and Pallekele), the rest of them are test venues including India’s 8 well-known test grounds. Here, I am giving the names of the venues:

India
• MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai,
• Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad,
• Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur,
• Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi,
• Eden Gardens, Kolkata,
• M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore,
• Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh,
• Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Bangladesh
• Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka
• Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong

Sri Lanka
• Hambantota,
• Pallekele,
• R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo