ICC Champions Trophy-2013 Groups and Fixture

ICC Champions trophy is the most awaited event of this year. The exciting thing about it is that it will be the last champions trophy to be played and every one is excited that who will uplift this trophy. The ICC Champions trophy is starting from June-6-2013. Top eight teams of ICC rankings are participating in this mini world cup.

Before the start of this tournament some warm-up matches will be played. Since England and New Zealand are playing against each other in English conditions so they will not play any of them. According to the fixtures Srilanka will play three warm-up matches and South Africa will be playing only one warm-up match. The other teams Pakistan,India, West Indies and Australia will play two warm-up matches. Some of the warm-up matches will be telecast live on Sports channel.

The warmup matches will definitely give some sort of help to sub-continent teams as they struggle playing in English conditions. The exciting fixture will be the match of Pakistan vs South Africa. Because they will be playing against each other in the group matches. And recently they have played against each other so it will create a healthy contest between these two teams. Though South Africa looks more consistent then Pakistan in the past. But in big tournaments Pakistan team looked more confident then South Africans.

Teams are divided in two groups. Both Groups look balance. In Group A England can give tough time in their conditions where as the past record of New Zealand and Australia in Champions trophy is also very good. In Group B South Africa looks the strongest of all whereas India and Pakistan are considered to be one of the best ODI teams in the world. West Indies in the recent past has become one of the toughest competitor. They have got many individuals who have played eminent role in IPL for their team like Gayle, Pollar, Bravo, Rampaul, Sunil Narine and Dwayne Smith and all of them are in the team so they will give a tough competition to others. To me Group-B is the toughest under recent performances of the teams whereas Group-A looks toughest if we consider team performances in past champions trophies.

The first Group match will be played between India and South Africa in Cardiff on June/6/2013 wheras another Group B match will be played on the very next day. There is no gap in the group matches. The top two teams of both the group will reach in to semi finals which will be played in Oval and Sophia Gardens. The final of this last ICC Champions trophy will be played on June/23/2013 in Birmingham.

Umer Gul Dozed New Zealand And South Africa

After a fabulous performance by Umer Gul against South Africa picking up five wickets and give only six runs.He has now become the highest wicket taker in T-20 international. He has shown this performance against New Zealand in World cup 2009 and restricting New Zealand at 99. Today South Africa were chasing a huge total of 196 against an experienced bowling lineup of Pakistan. Although they got a good start but when the bowl was handed to Umer Gul then he dozed South Africans.


And after winning against South Africa they move up to third position along India in ICC T-20 ranking. Although they lost their position in ICC test ranking few weeks ago after Pakistan were white washed by South African in test cricket.

So, South Africa won the test series by 3-0 and Pakistan won T-20 by 1-0. Now it comes to ODI's in which both the teams look balance against each other, not an easy task to choose the one out of the two like the way it was in Test and T-20.

Lets see how both the team comes up against each other in ODI format?
It will be a good ODI series between the two sides.

Alarming Condition For New Zealand

It has been a long time for New Zealand to win a series comprehensively against any top team in the world.

They in the past were tough one to crack but at present its a different situation for them. This Year they have lose in ODI's against two big teams WI and South Africa by margin of 4-1 and 3-0 respectively. This really make them to be least favorite in this year T20 world cup final, despite being the semi-finalist in the last ODI World Cup. 

They have got one of the best players in the history which creates pressure for opponent teams. Although right now they have a good quality side on paper but somewhat they are not pumping up. They need to win some matches against tough sides to get that momentum back. One more thing which might hurting them is the frequent changes of coach, Mike Hesson as appointed as the fifth coach for New Zealand in last four years. But seeing the record of Mike Hesson it looks like he might be the game changer or could be the great conditioner for New Zealand team. As this guy has the experience to coach New Zealand-A team which will really be a key factor for them. There batsman such as Martin Guptill, Macullum, Ryder and others they need to put some effort or else it would be the alarming condition for them.

Is New Zealand Cricket team lost the passion of cricket unlike the Asians?

OR

Is New Zealand lost the professionalism unlike the Aussies and Britian players?