Hello Friends,
How's the excitement building up for the men's ODI cricket world cup starting early next month? I am sure Indian fans can't resist the thought of bringing the cup home this time around specially after the impressive performances the team has delivered so far in this month in the build up to the big tournament. In the cricket world apart from India's dominance Australia's slump in form just before the marquee event, England's convincing series win over New Zealand to finetune their world cup preparation, South Africa's thumping win over Australia and an exciting finish to CPL with Guyana Amazon Warriors winning their maiden title made the headlines. In another world India made an impressive start in the Asian games happening at Hangzhou, People's Republic Of China. Let's take a look at the featured stories of this month.
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| Image Credit: Aravindan Premkumar/flickr.com |
Age is no bar as long as you are performing especially in professional sports. 44 years young South African leggie Imran Tahir proved it once again when he led Guyana Amazon Warriors franchise to its maiden CPL title earlier this month. A team that has contested five previous finals in CPL history proved lucky the sixth time in front of a packed home crowd. Post the win we saw an emotional Imran Tahir who led exceptionally well after being handed over the captaincy this year. He spoke about how people started sending jokes post his appointment as the captain of the franchise and also the support he received from his family & teammates to achieve this feat. There was a special mention for Ravichandran Ashwin who showed faith in this team before the tournament started. What this victory showed is Imran's determination to prove his critics wrong and hunger to succeed.
Throughout the series he was instrumental as a captain as well as an individual player. His team topped the points table after the conclusion of the league phase and eventually ended up as the champions. Every individual in the team performed at some point of the time during the tournament. Someone like Shai Hope who was not being considered as a T20 specialist so far ended up as the tournament's top scorer and another South African Dwaine Pretorius ended up as the top wicket taker. A team consisting of several allrounders flourished well under the able leadership of Tahir. Yet another collective performance saw them beating the heavy weight like Trinbago Knight Riders in the grand finale. Tahir's vast experience of playing franchise cricket across the globe and inspiring leadership proved to be a major factor in turning the fortunes of the Guyana based franchise. CPL over the years has been a platform for exciting cricketing action and witnessed some extraordinary individual brilliance too. But the eleventh season of the league should be remembered for the South African stalwart named Imran Tahir.
Aiming At the Glory
The 19th Asian Games has commenced last week in Hangzhou with the Indian contingent off to a great start by taking their overall medals tally to 24 after the conclusion of the fifth day. Among all the wins the most buzz was created by Indian women's cricket team who won the gold medal in their inaugural appearance of the competition by defeating Sri Lanka in the final. This win also raised the expectation from the men's cricket team who are going to start their campaign early next month. This year has been an exciting one for the Indian women's team with many firsts including their triumph in the under19 T20 world cup at the beginning of the year followed by a successful inaugural season of Women's premier league(WPL) and now gold medal in Asiad. No doubt Women's cricket in India has finally started taking those giant strides towards glory. It has been a long journey so far with lot of hiccups and disappointments along the way. But now it seems like they are on the right track to be one of the beasts soon in their craft. With India starting well in their campaign hopes for a record breaking medal tally across sports are bound to increase. Hopefully the players make us proud once again.
Stay Tuned for more at this space.
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