India vs England - 1st Test Match.........

The biggest test match of the summer, the series everyone has been waiting for, and what a first test it was.After a delayed start due to a wet outfield, India won the toss on an overcast day at Lord’s and no doubt put England into bat.

Coming into the test match fresh of the back of a hundred for Strauss in a warm up match against the tourists and awesome form for Alistair Cook in recent months, England would have hoped for big opening stand and a much bigger total. However not by a coincidence, both openers were dismissed in exactly the same way as they were in 2007, Cook given out LBW and Strauss caught on the pull, England needed someone to step up to the task. Jonathan Trott did what any batsmen needed to do to succeed, and that was be patient and disciplined. He worked Ishant Sharma well of his hips clipping the Indian fast bowler for plenty of singles and the occasional four through the leg side, as well as playing strongly through the off-side Trott made 70 of 228 balls. Along side Trott was Kevin Pietersen, a man under pressure, a batsmen who searched for form in the same way he kept searching for balls outside his off stump. However his inings in the 1st test at Lord’s was a class apart from recent performances. KP battled hard and bored the crowd with a very disciplined first 50 and he started to find his feet on day 2. As dot balls turned into 2’s and 2’s into fours KP’s innings became more and more fluent and his hundred was met with huge celebrations both from the batsmen and from the capacity crowd. When Trott got out trying to work a straight one from Kumar onto the leg-side and missed, meaning he was plum in front and given out lbw, Bell came to the crease and played well for his forty five before edging one into the Indian captain’s gloves. Morgan came and went immediately for 0, having faced just one delivery. It was now an in form Prior’s turn and he entertained as always scoring 71 and with KP still in at the other end they both picked up the rate and KP made it passed 150 and was getting closer to 200. Graeme Swann’s cameo innings of 24 allowed KP to get even closer to the 200 land mark, but then he was dismissed it meant Tremlett had to support KP all the way to 202*. England declared on 474 for 8.

Despite England’s first innings dominance nothing should be taken away from Praveen Kumar’s brilliant 5 for 106 of 40 overs, an outstanding effort from him having to fill in for an injured Zaheer Khan meant he bowled the same amount of overs as full Pro 40 innings and 10 less than a whole ODI innings. 

India’s batting included a very respectable 49 from young opener Mukund, he played with maturity at the top of the order.

Broad got a duck in the first innings and everyone must have thought his bad form was continuing with bat and ball but Stuart had other ideas getting rid of both openers as well as the big wicket of Tendulkar for 34. However the wicket of Dravid no-one could get. The wall as he is called played like a wall, impossible for the Bowlers to get through and impossible for England to move he stood at the crease for 5 and a half hours scoring a magnificent 103*. That seemed to be the only real positive for India as England had no troubles bowling out the rest of the side and Broad in particular will be proud, finishing with 4 for 37. Tremlett got 3 wickets Anderson 2 and Swann just the 1. 

Moving onto England’s second innings India took initial advantage tearing through England’s top order and having them 57 for 5. Morgan got a start and got out for 19 but Prior and Broad played with no fear and with healthy strike rates both over 80. Matt Prior punished an understandably tired Indian Bowling attack whilst Stuart Broad played stylish shots to support him. Broad made 74* and Prior 103* which brought about a declaration on 269 for 6 meaning India needed 457 to win. Going back to England’s top order Cook and KP made 1 and Bell made a duck, Strauss 32 and Trott 22. With the ability they have England will be very disappointed with the low score and very pleased that Prior and Broad showed their ability with the bat. 4 wickets for Sharma the highlight of the Indian bowlers. Indian’s batsmen however was lacking an injured Gambhir meaning that Dravid was promoted to the top of the order and he made 36 before edging one to Prior of Anderson’s bowling. Broad got the other opener and India looked troubled. India’s top 8 all made double figures but only Raina was really causing any threat to England’s victory chances with 78. most people ruled out an Indian victory when England declared late on day 4, but it wasn’t completely over until James Anderson woke up on day 5. Anderson exploited any weaknesses in the batsmen, and got the huge wicket of Tendulkar, meaning that Anderson has now got the batting wizard out 6 times. The tourists’ innings ended with Stuart Broad getting Sharma LBW, and England went 1-0 up in the series.

Match was umpired by; Billy Bowden and Asad Rauf who were excellent.

Man of The match for his 202* was KP.

England do the Double.....

England grab yet another trophy but not without a very good effort from Sri Lanka who lost the series 3-2. Going int the final game it was 2-2 and all the games had been very one sided either by England or by Sri Lanka.

The 3rd ODI was at the home of cricket, Lord’s and the game was set up well with a brilliant century for Cook at a strike rate of 83 and a KP scored a solid 40 before getting caught of the bowling of Mendis and a couple of Cameo innings from Bell and Bresnan gave England a total of 246. Two wickets for Malinga, Lakmal and Mendis. England probably would have felt they were 20-25 light on that wicket but it allowed Sri Lanka to pace they’re innings nicely. Chandimal batted brilliantly for his century as well as 79 from Jayawardene at the top of the order Sri Lanka cruised to victory with 10 balls and 6 wickets to spare. Swann took 2 wickets and Bresnan and Dernbach taking one.

The 4th ODI went England’s way, with a 10 wicket victory. Dernbach and Anderson both taking 3 wickets and Broad and Bresnan both taking 2 England bowled out the visitors for 174, Sangakkara paced his way to 75 and Matthews getting 39 of 49 balls the only real contributors to the innings. England’s openers went about the task of chasing 171 (D/L) with aggression after the rain interval. Cook hitting well through cover and point and Kieswetter batting in his usual fashion with a couple of big hits at the end preventing Cook from getting his 100, he fell short on 95* and Kieswetter got 72* both at over a run a ball. 

The 5th and final ODI was the decider, series level at 2-2 could England snatch it? Having won the toss England chose to bat and put up a decent total of 268, Morgan and Trott the main contributors with Morgan missing one having already charged down the wicket he was stumped in a similar way to Captain Cook who made an entertaining 30. Trott’s dismissal was an unlucky one having dragged a leg side ball from Randiv towards the stumps Trott tried to kick the ball away and was unable to stop the ball from hitting the stumps. Randiv bowled well finishing with 5 for 42. Pressure now on England  try and defend their total. Sri Lanka’s reply didn’t get off to the start they would have hoped for, both openers falling for just 4.

Sangakkara was the first  batsmen to get a start but he soon got out for 48. England looked like comfortable winners but when Chandimal, Mendis and Matthews getting brisk 40’s and Matthews and Chandimal both getting 50’s the game was balanced. However all three playing lofted shots all three were caught. With none of the tail being able to contribute they were bowled out after 48.2 overs. Both spinners only getting a wicket each, Anderson and Dernbach both getting 2, and 3 for Bresnan as well a runout the tourists fell 12 runs short.

Here comes the rain.......

England’s 1st series of the summer was some what dampened as rain continued to fall all throughout the test match. England’s hopes were held high and would have hop to have won by 2 or 3-0 but the rain also prevented a promising Sri Lankan side get back into the match.  The final test match was the first ever test match at the rose bowl and if not for the rain it would have been perfect. England won the toss and chose to field. Anderson returned to the side after injury and bowled well with swing and accuracy. The star of the show in the 1st innings was Tremlett who bowled over Sri Lanka with a tremendous 6 wicket haul. Sri Lanka could only score 184 and wicket keeper Jayawardene was the only batsmen who could put together any kind of innings, scoring 43. England’s bowling was solid all throughout the 1st innings and have been all summer so far. England’s batting has also been brilliant this summer and with Pietersen returning to form, and India will need to be aware of both England’s batting and bowling. England’s 1st innings entertained a brilliant century from Bell and the good form continued for Morgan, Cook and returning to form Pietersen who all got 50’s. England looked as though they could really emphasise the development they have made so far by winning the third and final test but rain stopped them in they're tracks. Throughout the match rain inconsistently affected play and the players were on and off the field with no real rhythm being built by either side. In total England scored 377 for 8 declared, which gave them a 1st innings lead of 193. Lakmal took the most of Sri Lanka’s hard fought wickets with a 3fer but England still looked strong. Huge downpours of rain only allowed 5 wickets to fall in Sri Lanka’s 2nd innings before the test was announced as a draw mid way through the final day. However the rain should not take away anything from a mouth watering century from Sangakkara, his first in England. He smacked the ball all over the debut test match ground and truly deserved his ton. Samaraweera also will be pleased with his 87*, but I’m sure both batsmen would have preferred to have hit form earlier in the series. 

      So a very much rain affected test to end  very much rain affected series. England’s new ODI and T20 captain were in charge now and having won 1 trophy, England would have hoped to have won the one T20 international as well. Starting with the one and only T20, England’s new captain made some very bold changes to the side. Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, England’s 2 in form batsmen, both scoring runs but not in the side, in stead the return of Lumb and Kieswetter. They both opened the batting and together could only manage 6, trying to hit the ball far too hard they both got caught. England looked good whilst Morgan and KP scored fluent 40’s but then the only thing left to come was a little cameo from Bopara. England finished on 136  for 9 off they’re 20 overs. Sri Lanka’s reply was dominant and assured, and without Dilshan it was even more impressive. Jayawardene got 72 and Sangakkara got 43 as the Sri Lankan’s cruised to a 9 wicket win. Not a very good start to his T20 captaincy career, but hopefully Broad can bounce back. The 2 Odi’s to have gone so far have been completely opposite, one comfortably won by England and the other by Sri Lanka. The first ODI was at the Oval and with yet another rain affected match, D/L was used meaning England won by 110 runs. Kieswetter scored 61 and Morgan fell 5 short of his half century, Contributing to an England a total of 229. This game also saw the return of Tim Bresnan who returned from injury and took a wicket as well as scoring a useful 23. James Anderson the top bowler, he got 4 wickets and Graeme swann got 3 which comfortably saw England home. No-one really got going with the bat for Sri Lanka, someone needed a 50 if they were to have any chance of winning.  The second ODI was easily won by Sri Lanka with a margin of 69 runs. England could only limit Sri Lanka to 309 for 5, Jayawardene batted absolutely magnificently for 144 of just 150 balls. Sangakkara scored 69 and they both looked a class above England. In reply England put themselves in with a chance with a   good 40 for captain cook and a nice 50 for Morgan. Bell and Trott both got 30’s but no-one could put the pieces together and get a hundred. Sri Lanka bowled England out for 240 including 3fers for Lakmal and Randiv.

If England are going to win this series then someone needs to push on and get a big score, too many batsmen getting in and getting out.

Summer finally arrives....

Summer has finally arrived which brings about the end of the fantastic football campaign of 2010/11 and the start of a action packed summer for cricket. Manchester United paraded around Manchester with just the Premier league trophy having lost in the champions league final and noisy neighbours City pick up their first trophy in over 30 years. So plenty of time for transfers to be made and Henderson to Liverpool and De Gea and Jones to Manchester United are the headline transfers so far but surprisingly City have stayed quiet so far. Arsenal should look to sign a more experienced player but whether or not they will is up to the Gunner’s boss. 

Onto Cricket and a fantastic test match to kick of England’s summer. Action packed last few hours saw England shake up Sri Lanka who thought they would have a comfortable 50 overs to get some batting practise and it would have been if anyone could actually stay at the crease. England were short of their star test match bowler Jimmy Anderson. Horrific performance from Sri Lanka. Eoin Morgan showed the selectors why he should be playing with a very nice 50 and the 2 run machines continued to score, Trott and Cook both getting hundreds for fun and Trott’s double hundred was brilliant to watch. Rain made the test match look out of sight and when England let Bell go out to get his century sent the crowd a message that even England couldn’t have possibly expected to win. After the break England bowled line length and with pace and bounce, and the reward payed of especially for terrific Tremlett who picked up a 4fer and swann bowled brilliantly again. The second test match was the opposite, what i would a game of two halves. Yet again Cook continued to do his job and it’s almost as if he is expected to get a hundred and what he gets after that is what matters. This time he fell short by just 4 and even cook could not believe it. England showed strength in depth, Prior batted quickly and efficiently and is outstanding with the tail. Even Stuart broad made 50 and showed signs of that test match 100 against Pakistan. Sri Lanka’s bowling line up was straight but didn’t cause enough problems on England’s in form Batting line up. Then England’s bowling for the rest of that day was terrible they bowled well wide of the stumps and Paranavitana said thank you very much as he marched his way to a calm and composed 50. Dilshan’s innings as always was a brilliant innings to watch he raced to 100 and punished the poor bowling. He very nearly made his first test double century but fell touching distance away for 193.  The following day both Jayawardenes nearly made 50 but England’s bowling was much better. Steven Finn was top quality as was swann taking 7 wickets between them. After that the test match fizzled out, batting continued to be good but the bowling needed to be good right from the start from both sides to get 20 wickets in less than 6 sessions.  Sri Lanka dismissed the out of form England skipper for 0 but his opening partner produced yet again scoring a brilliant ton. 50’s for: Pietersen in what he’ll hope is a return to form but yet again he got out to left arm spin, Bell who was not out and seems to be in good form, and Trott who recovered form his first innings blip. England declared on 335 for 7 leaving Sri Lanka needing 342 to win in pretty much 1 session. England took 3 wickets including 1 for Jonathan Trott but not quite the heroics of Cardiff to win the match.

The T20 has started and yesterday Lancashire lost to Yorkshire in a battle of the roses it ws taken down to the wire but Yorkshire held strong. Finals day is at Edgbaston this year and Warwickshire will hope they can pick up some momentum and compete at their home ground in August.

So what’s in store for the rest of the summer, England have Jimmy Anderson back for the 3rd test at the Rose bowl and with Dilshan unlikely to be back due to a broken finger it looks as though England will clich the series with what i think will be a 2-0 win. In terms of the Indian series it looks like being a close call, England’s batting line up are in form and only Strauss is struggling for runs. England’s bowlers need to take 20 wickets and it hasn’t been a problem recently and hopefully won’t be a problem for the rest of the summer.

Tough Call....

Sorry for a long delay in between blogs. Today promises a huge deal, Manchester United against Barcelona. It’s Probably harder to pick a looser than a winner and by that I mean, both teams have several strengths but, the team with the most weaknesses is probably the team who will loose and it is unbelievably difficult to find the weaknesses. It’s easy to point out their strengths.

We’ll start with Barcelona, Messi is the first thing that springs to mind, pace agility and an unbelievable eye for goal, arguably the world’s best player and with Xavi and Iniesta behind him United are going to have to play their hearts out.

Messi has got to make runs at the Manchester United defence, we saw Torres do the same in his Liverpool days and had Vidic in all sorts of trouble. Never the less Vidic has certainly improved and after getting journalists player of the year it backs up the defender’s recent form. Xavi and Iniesta will certainly try to play their usual game and look to pass and challenge their Manchester United counter parts. Dani Alves has been amongst the bad press recently for his tendency to go to ground and it will make for a better game if everybody tries to stay on their feet today. Alves needs to be fit and not get lazy because Ji-Sung-Park will certainly be energetic and look to run forward and take advantage of any tiredness Alves may have, If Alves does not put a shift in getting back then Manchester United may have more than a 50-50 chance, especially with the ability Javier Hernandez getting on the line of the last defender and popping up in behind him when he leasts expects him. Defensively Pique has been sound and will be much more confident than when he was at United. David Villa may end up playing slightly out of Position today bu we’ll have to wait until kick off to find out for sure. Villa has a great goal scoring ability for Spain and has not yet been able to quite match that for Barcelona but he will still be a massive threat. He has skill and a very good finishing ability which maybe can’t be said for park. Park is certainly a work force and is good at moving the ball and setting up goals and he certainly can score big goals but i don’t think he can quite match up to Villa. Bojan, Pedro, Villa whoever plays Barcelona will have no problems going forward and producing chances but can Vidic, Ferdinand and Veteran Vandersar stop Barca actually scoring.

If we look at Manchester United then we’ll struggle to find players who can match Barcelona man for man, but that’s not what United will worry about. United have bags of talent but their in different areas. Two very good centre backs will give the reds confidence in defence and with Edwin Vandersar even more so. In midfield there will certainly be a demand for the ball all of united’s midfielders love moving the ball about and the wide men love to run forwards. United have the full squad minus Hargreaves to choose from so selection is not an issue. It’s already been revealed by Sir alex that united will look to attack and that they are very well prepared for tonight’s game. Up front Rooney and Hernandez are in great form and for Rooney he will look to brush aside his former team mate and get some early shots on goal to give him early confidence.  Hernandez needs to play as he has been all year get on to the shoulder of the last man and use his phenomenal movement to get him a goal, he is not going to get goals by muscling off defenders although for his size he is quite tough. Nani will probably end up on the subs bench because Valencia’s recent form has been good and his crossing ability is superb, in a game that United may end up getting just 4 or 5 crosses in they will have to be put on a plate for united’s front men. It will be interesting to see who Sir Alex picks  to play in the RB role. Rafael has been replaced by twin Fabio in the recent games, both of them love to get forward and like an early challenge or slide tackle to et them gong.

My Possible United team: Vandersar, Rafael, Vidic(C), Ferdinand, Evra, Valencia, Giggs, Scholes, Park, Hernandez, Rooney.

My Possible Barcelona team: Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Villa, Bojan.

My prediction is 2-2 and then 3-1 United in Penalties. I think United will take the lead early through Hernandez, Then just on Half Time go 2-0 up with a good finish from Park. Barcelona will naturally attack and then eventually score twice. Penalties well in the bast big players miss big penalties, Ronaldo in the Semi-Final agaist Barca, Ronaldo in the final against Chelsea, Terry against United so i think Messi and Villa will both miss their penalties and United will win.S

Apologies over the delay of this blog, but the focus point is quite simply the Modern day debacles of International Cricket.               

           All through the world cup people were saying players are showing signs of fatigue after a long, hard winter but surely now the ICC has learnt their lesson. The changes to the Schedule ahead of the next world cup means that 2 ashes series will be played in just 6 months. That may mean that the players will be less tired in the world cup and therefore increasing the quality but surely that will DECREASE the quality of the ashes. It was a fantastic ashes this year and it saw some brilliant performances but 10 tests and 14 ODI’s in 2013/14 will take a lot out of the players. Having said that this summer England host both India and Sri Lanka in 7 tests. Focusing on the next world cup a lot  of controversial decisions have been made. The ‘minor countries’ or the associate nations did not produce the most entertaining of games and in fact Ireland were the only team who caused any kind of upset. The ICC later went on to announce that the next wold cup will be slashed to just 10 teams. The fury produced in the Irish camp caused the ICC to have a rethink and as it stands now it looks likely for the Irish and a couple other nations to have a chance to take part, Brilliant news!!! It has not quite been 100 % confirmed as to how many teams.

             It is quite simply going to be an outstanding sumer in 2011. The fastest improving test nation in England playing two of the best teams in the world, who can’t be excited. The little master playing against England’s Hero Graeme Swann. England’s weakest point, well is their one? To split a hair i suppose it is the batting. There is still plenty of depth but possibly they rely too much on Johnny Trott. Trott always seems to be in form and constantly comes up with the goods. In terms of India, they certainly have the batting but in the bowling they are almost equal. A bit like England to be picky maybe India’s weakness is the lack of a quality second fast bowler to follow Zaheer Kahn, Ishant Shama is still a very good bowler. My prediction for the England team is: Strauss (c), Cook (vc), Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Morgan, Prior (wk), Broad, Swann, Anderson, Finn. Samit Patel has been in good nick recently and will be pushing for a place in the next few months.

Bresnan and Tremlett loose out to Finn in my opinion but i don’t think Finn will last the whole series. India will certainly Play Tendulkar, Yuvraj and Harbajan as well as Khan, Dhoni and Sharma. The rest of the team will consist of probably of Raina, Gambhir, Sreesanth, Dravid and the other spot is probably up for grabs. The Sri Lankan team will involve: Sangakarra, Dilshan (c), Samaraweera, Jayasuriya, Mendis, Welegedera, Tharanga, Herath, Randiv, Perera, Fernando. Certainly a weakened team but with the retirement of Maliga and with Matthews not being chosen Sri Lanka will have to fight hard to get their 1st win under new captain Dilshan. My prediction for the England series vs India is 1-2 in India’s favour. For the England and Sri Lanka encounter i predict a 2-0 victory for England.

           Around the world, Australian captain Ricky Ponting has retired and leaves the space open for Michael Clarke, it will certainly be an interesting year for them as they try to rebuild the great team of 2003-2007. Sri Lanka have their own problems as well, new captain and some fresh faces will make the team a bit more fresh. South Africa look strong and in my opinion one of the top 2 teams at the moment as the rankings suggest. Over to England, Andrew Strauss retires the ODI captaincy and Cook takes his place. Captaincy problems al round then but 2011 still promises an awful lot.

Please let me know what you think by writing a comment about the World Cup or Captaincy problems or just about Cricket in general........... Weekly Blog to follow very soon.......

            

It all Opens up.....

It’s been a massive week in all sports and it will be interesting to see what this weekend has in store.  The champions league saw a one sided first legs in both ties and Manchester United are going to have to combat the outstanding Messi. United are also closely trailed by Chelsea in the Premier league and thats where we shall start. 

         Manchester United will have to fight hard. A draw should seal the title for them but United never play for a draw. They will look for the win from the first whistle and will hope to bag an early goal. Chelsea will also hope to win and take over the league leaders, they're main threat, Kalou will try to beat Edwin Van Der Sar, and with his recent form is more than capable. United’s main threats are Hernandez and Rooney who have linked together well ever since Hernandez broke into the first team. I think Chelsea will play an attacking team to try and break through United’s strong defence. Possible team to play Man. United: Czech, Cole, Terry, Luiz, Ivanovic,  Malouda, Lampard, Essien, Mikel, Kalou, Drogba.

Possible United team to play Chelsea: Van der sar, Rafael, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Hernandez, Rooney. Prediction 3-1 Chelsea.

          Another big game is Wigan vs Aston Villa. Villa have never beat Wigan at home and will hope to do so today. Wigan need the points to keep fighting to stay in the league. Should wigan win and Blackpool fail to do so then Wolves will clamber out of the Relegation zone. It’s very tight down the bottom. Possible team: Habsi, Figueroa, Alcaraz, Gouhori, Boyce, Cleverly, Mc Arthur, McCarthy, N Zogbia, Watson, Rodallega.

Aston Villa: Friedel, Young, Dunne, Collins, Walker, Downing, Young, Petrov, Reo Coker, Heskey, Bent. Prediction: 1-1

         They are just the two biggest games of the day, One at the top and the other at the bottom. Chelsea are really closing the gap on the 18 time champions but United will fight hard. At the bottom West Ham, Wigan and Wolves are all fighting for survival.The race for the champions league places heats up as Liverpool enter contention, Tottenham play Blackpool in a game that could affect both ends of the table. The Champions league itself this year is heading for a grande Finale the best player in your against the best Manager in Europe. Barce beat United two years ago but united were the victors in the 2008 encounter. The Championship, well after QPR survive a point deduction possibility this morning they now have Premier League status, yet again Nottingham forest make the play offs and so do Swansea and i think it will be a Swansea-Forest encounter in the final. 

           Onto Cricket, the season is in full flow, the village cricket matches have started and summer is in the air. However what looks like 3 games heading for a draw in fourth day of the county championship. Middlesex look like drawing to Gloucestershire. Century for Taylor and Fifty for Marshall put Gloucestershire off to a good start and Middlesex replied with Fifty from Dexter and 87 from Rogers. A strong Gloucestershire reply saw a 93 from Gidman and a 72 from Cockbain. Surely heading for a Draw.

            The only positive result looks like its going to be for Northants, so far  2 Centuries altogether Stevens and Hall and several fifties all round keeping it poised. Unfortunately no one could bat well with Stevens in the first innings.

            The IPL hots up now. Valthathy is the under praised star so far doing brilliantly in the opening phases. Tendulkar looses his cap to Sehwag who now takes over as leading run scorer. Eoin Morgan is like a ball magnet always producing brilliant performances in the field and some good runs with the bat. Asked to play midweek at the top of the order and did well, interesting to see how the end of todays game goes. Lasith Malinga is brilliant and continues to wear the purple cap. I think the Mumbai Indians on the whole look set to win and thats the way it’s heading. 


Key Words: Malinga, Cricket, Ipl, IPL, Sports, Premier League, Mumbai, Wigan, Blackpool. County Championship.

          Special Blog on Cricket to follow Early next week..........

Big Bank Holiday....

   A look ahead at the weekend games, cricket, football and any other news in sports. After an eventful friday congratulations must go out to the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William on their marriage. But the weekends football also promises a lot a big game between Manchester United and Arsenal.  Manchester United completely dominated Schalke 04 and deserved their victory and will be hopping for a similar performance against Arsenal.  Arsenal are struggling defensively and that will need to change in order for them to beat Manchester United. United’s attack is going brilliantly and peaking as per usual at the latter stages of the season.  United have a lot of options for their team but my guess is: Van dersar, Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand, Rafael, Park, Carrick, Scholes, Valencia, Berbatov, Rooney. Manchester United also have anderson, Nani, Smalling, Owen, Hernandez to choose from but i think that the premier league top scorer will start with Rooney. must win for both teams as far as the Title is concerned.

Arsenal will have to combat United’s Attack and also break through their formidable defence. Arsenal's potential team to face United: Lehman, Eboue, Koschielny, Djourou, Clichy, Nasri, Fabregas, Wilshere, Walcott, Arshavin, Van Persie.

            Other games in the Premier League this week are Manchester City against West Ham, City’s fight for Europe continues and will expect to win the game this weekend.  The captain is injured but that shouldn’t matter in this game, City will have plenty of chances to score if they play anywhere near their best. West Ham’s main threat must be Denba Ba and Carlton Cole he has a good eye for goal and could cause an upset. Also this week sees the return of Andy Carrol to Newcastle, can he score against his old club? Liverpool are in good form recently under King Kenny and will hope to beat Newcastle. Liverpool have a fielded a slightly younger side in recent weeks and it will be interesting to see if the same happens today. Stephen Ireland is out injured for the season and Captain Nolan is expected to return. Possible Liverpool team to play against Newcastle: Reina, Robinson, Carragher, Skrtel, Flanagan, Cole,Lucas,Spearing, Kuyt, Carrol, Suarez.

Just the one change to the team is what i would expect.

Possible Newcastle team: Harper, Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Enrique, Barton, Tiote, Guitirrez, Lovenkrands and Ameobi. Harper Returns after injury and with No ireland a place is up for grabs.

The other big game this week is between Chelsea and Tottenham. Chelsea jump over Arsenal in the table and will be looking to do the same to Man United, although unlikely. Chelsea’s Malouda is in good form an hopefully can score against local rivals Tottenham. Fernando Torres has finally Bagged his first goal but does not look threatening but maybe able to get his second goal against Spurs. Tottenham are doing well this year, and have demonstrated this in the champions league. Huddleston, Bale and van der vart will be tottenham’s threat but what kind of game is Gomes going to have, a good one and Tottenham will fancy their chances a bad one and Tottenham will have to fight very hard. Possible Tottenham Team: Gomes,  Kaboul, Gallas, Akotto, Van der Vart, Huddleston, Modric, Bale, Defoe and Pavlyuchenko and the possible Chelsea team is : Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Luiz, Cole, Molouda, Lampard, Essien, Kalou, Drogba, Anelka. Certainly a strong team on both sides and an early breakthrough will be key.

            Onto Cricket now and Lancashire edged closer to victory over Sussex but couldn’t get the last wicket to secure victory and the match was tied. Panesar doing a similar thing to Lancashire as he did to Australia. 17 not out from 66 balls helping Sussex draw. Saj Mahmood was taken out of the attack after two beamers, one hitting Ed Joyce on the shoulder. Gary Keedy was brilliant picking up 8 wickets in the match and Glen Chapple got 6. Goodwin, Joyce and Arif all got centuries for Sussex and Nash got a 50. It was a game Lancashire should have won after the position they got into. If Saj Mahmood had been able to bowl surely he would have cleaned up Panesar. Lancashire 590 vs Sussex 290 and 459/9 dec.

              Middlesex hammered Surrey by an innings and 42 runs.Dexter and Simpson both got centuries in Middlesex’s 1st ans only innings but Batty picked up 5 wickets stopping the score from being even bigger. The only resistance from the surrey batting was Maynard 98 and Brown 47 were the only significant run scorers in surrey’s 1st innings score of 203. In their second innings England’s steve Davies who got 94 was  the main run scorer couldn’t do enough to get the draw. Middlesex wicket takers were Finn who got 4 and Roland Jones who got 6 in the match. Middlesex 445 vs surrey 200 and 201

             Warwickshire against Durham looked a very close game after the 1st innings both sides getting  bowled out well after passing 400. But a second innings disaster from Warwickshire allowed Durham to comfortably win the match. Blackwell and Viento both got 100’s for Durham and Porterfield, Troughton and Woakes all got 50’s for Warwickshire. Wicket takers were Onions who got 6 wickets for Durham and Brathwaite also got 6. For Warwickshire wicket takers were Woakes and Rankin who both got 3. Warwickshire 1st innings 429 and 2nd innings 137 Durham 1st Innings 465 and 102/2.

              So Lancashire top the county championship and in terms of performance rightly so. They have played well and seem to have the best all round side.

           IPL things remains the same really but a very poor performance from Tendulkar’s side Mumbai as they scramble to 94/8             

and see their total knocked of by Rajastan after 18.1 overs and the loss of 3 wickets. Mumbai top the table with a game in hand and with the best bowler and batsmen in IPL 2011 so far it’s quite obvious why.

            Next Blog coming soon....

It's just the start.

This week sees a champions league tie between manchester united and Schalke 04. This should be an entertaining tie and sir alex ferguson expects it to be a close game.  The first leg is an away game for united and as always  it will be important that they grab that vital away goal.  As it has been in recent weeks i think that the Hernandez and Rooney pair up front for united will be expected and with the Berbatov injury it is even more likely that the two will start together, the other option is Rooney up top on his own with Giggs or nani just behind him. Hernandez has had a brilliant season for united and could well be the difference not only in the semis but also in the final in Wembly.In defence united will hope to have rio and vida back together and i think it will be john O’shea and evra in the full back positions. Moving into midfield united have a few options, They could go with Giggs wide left and nani wide right and carrick and Sholes in th centre whilst the injured fletcher watches on or they could use the strength of anderson in midfield. Another alternative would be to put Giggs into the centre and Valencia shifted out wide. Schalke will have to try and press united and at the same time try and score a goal, they do not want to chase united at Od Trafford. The Schalke team that played on the weekend was Neuer - Hao, Matip, Metzelder, Escudero - Pliatsikas (Jurado, 46), Avelar - Farfan (Baumjohann, 46), Draxler - Edu (Karimi, 62), Raul it will be a challenging task for Schalke but champions league veteran Raul will hope to add to his impressive record.
         The day after is the big one el Classico. Madrid and Barcelona. Barcelona in the league madrid in the cup in europe its completely different. Ronaldo will hope to score early and lead his team from the front quality midfielder in Alonso, Ozil and Kaka will provide the quality but can madrid get past pique, Puyol and Valdes. Barcelona will provide their own threats up front with Messi, villa and if Bojan but it will be a very tough battle in midfield. Busquetes, Alves, Xavi will all have to b at their best if Barcelona are going to win.
            Onto Cricket now and the county games have started. Several games currently being played, Lancashire pass 115 without a wicket being lost against sussex, Warwickshire play durham in what will be a very close game and Warwickshire already 2 down for 1o3, kent play Gloucestershire who also pass 90 without loss and Worcs play notts who have them 92/3.
 Cook, Bopara, Panesar, Patel, Woakes, Onions are the players to watch when it come to the test series this summer. I think that Lancashire, Warwickshire and Durham will be fighting for the championship this year and it will certainly be close. England will need to focus on finding ODI players after such a inconsistent world cup. The test match squad is very strong and should beat Sri Lanka and give India a very close series. We haven’t seen much of Graeme Onions this year but he had a good ashes series in 2009. Will he get back in the squad? Who knows. At this stage of the season my team to face Sri Lanka is: Strauss (c)
Cook (vc) Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Morgan, Prior (wk), Bresnan,Broad, Swann, Anderson. Bresnan beats tremlett, Shazad, onions,
and Finn after a good ashes test and also a good world cup, he also adds batting depth. 
    The IPL in short- Tendulkar starts of well and has the orange cap and Malinga with an impressive 15 wickets has the purple cap. Lots to look forward too. England's T20 king Eoin Morgan is yet too have an impact, he has had no time in the middle so far. Kallis has also impressed so far. For the team they have Pune are yet to impress and it will be interesting to see who qualifies.
          Tennis, Is Murray peaking before Wimbledon? is his poor form behind him, not long left but i think Nadal is still the more likely to win.