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Hyderabad Heroes started their campaign on a winning note in a power-disrupted inaugural match of the rebel India Cricket League's second season defeating last year runners-up Lahore Badshah by 18 runs.

In the end, in an anti climax resulting due to a massive power failure in Hyderabad resulted in the match being awarded to the Hyderabad Heroes, who won the match by 18 runs (VJD method). Local lad Ambati Rayudu won the Man of the Match for his half century.

Badshahs captain Inzamam, won the toss for the Badshahs & elected to field, wanting to take first advantage of the fresh pitch. The Badshahs struck early getting the dangerous Abdul Razzaq early in the second over, cheaply for 13 (7 balls) in the second over.

Prize money:

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) today announced the prize money corpus of Rs.13.72crore for its October 2008 edition of ‘ICL 20s Indian Championship’ at a press conference held in Hyderabad. The Winners of this tournament stand to gain Rs. 2crore; while the Runner-up will cash in Rs.1crore. The incentive for individual performance during the 41 match tournament will be an impressive Rs. 2 lakh for Man of the Match and a huge Rs.40Lakh for the Man of the Series. Per match winning in the league stage will be Rs. 25lakh and the loosing semi-finalists will stand to win Rs. 50 Lakh.

Image © ICL

Dilip Vengasarkar on Friday said he would refrain from responding to Sourav Ganguly's outburst against the selectors till the end of the current series against Australia as it could divert the team's focus.

"I won't answer him now as this is not the right time because India are in the middle of a Test series (against Australia) and it might affect the focus of the team," Vengsarkar said.

The Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir gave a good start to the second innings rattling up 68 for no loss in 18.1 overs before a sharp shower forced play to be called off a little early. Sehwag was on 43 and Gambhir was giving him company on 20 at stumps on day two which saw the Australians consolidating their position in the match. Zaheer Khan was the pick of the Indian bowlers with 5 for 91 while fellow paceman Ishant Sharma took 4 for 77. With the three days left in the match, the Indians will have to bat out of their skins to counter the Aussie total since they may have to bat on a last day track in the fourth innings. Watson, who played his first Test innings in three years, just faced 14 balls.

The Australian captain has made a century on the first day of the first test in Bangalore. he Australian captain had only made 172 runs in eight previous Tests. Ponting departed for 123 and Zaheer Khan removed Michael Clarke in the final over - brought India back into the contest.

Ishant Sharma said in the post match conference that "The wicket was slow and you need to have a lot of patience on such wickets. Restricting the Aussies to less than 300 runs will be a good achievement." He added "If we can get a couple of early wickets in the morning (tomorrow) we can contain them. The first one and half hour will be crucial for both teams," he said.

"No doubt Ponting is a great batsman but nobody can keep performing well all the time. Today he played well but I think we did well by snapping up two late wickets," he said.

Posting made his 36th Test hundred in his 200th innings.
© Getty Images

Sourav Ganguly has said he will retire after the upcoming Test series against Australia. "Just one last thing lads, before I leave, I just want to say that this is going to be my last series," Ganguly said after taking the last question of his press conference. "I've decided to quit. I told my team-mates before coming here. These four Test matches are going to be my last and hopefully we'll go on a winning note." He said "To be honest I didn't expect to be picked for this series," Ganguly said. "But once I was chosen, I started preparing. Even when I was left out of the Rest of India squad, which was a bit of a surprise for me, I was still training with the Bengal boys.Over the last few days, he found it difficult to sleep, wondering again and again, why he was invariably the first player to be targeted. Memories of the bitter past resurfaced, and the man who led India to their most Test wins and had made one of the most memorable comebacks in the history of the game.
Ganguly also dismissed speculation over a "voluntary retirement scheme" for the senior members of India's squad. "I don't think it's ever possible that anybody can offer you a VRS. You cannot do that to players like [Anil] Kumble, [Rahul] Dravid, [VVS] Laxman, me, Sachin [Tendulkar] or anyone. Ganguly, 36, has scored 6888 runs in 109 Tests, with 15 hundreds. He played 49 Tests as captain, the most by an Indian. n 311 ODIs, he scored 11,363 runs at 41.02. He captained India in 147 ODIs. His last ODI was against Pakistan in Gwalior on November 15, 2007. He is one of only three players to complete the treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODIs, other two are Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar. Since his recall in December 2006 and till the end of the home series against South Africa earlier this year, Ganguly scored 1571 runs at 50.67, including a maiden double-century.

Pakistan's pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar said "It is a sad day for Indian cricket that he has decided to retire. But he has taken a brave decision and he will go as one of the 'icons' of Indian cricket."
Despite his poor run against the Lankans, he never expected to be on the chopping block again in the Tests. He was not the lone batting failure in Sri Lanka, and when he heard he would likely not be selected for the Australia series, he was extremely upset.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly said on Tuesday that he would retire from international cricket at the end of the upcoming four-test series against Australia. “I have decided to quit and told my teammates about it. Australia series will be my last series,” said Ganguly. 

Virender Sehwag said that they will win the series by 3-1.
"If we are playing on spin friendly tracks, the series might be in our favour 3-1," Sehwag told CNN-IBN on Monday.

"The Indian team is the only team that beat Australia in Australia twice. We beat them in Perth last time and before that in Adelaide. So, we are accepting the challenge and we will fight it out. Hopefully we will do well and reclaim the Border Gavaskar trophy," he added.

Sehwag said he was clear about his job which is to give a good and quick start to the team and then convert it into a big score.

"It is my responsibility and my job as an opener to give a good start to my team and if I get a start, I continue and covert that into a big one, the way I did in Australia and Sri Lanka. That's my job and I love to do that," he said.

"I am in good nick but I am looking forward to this series and hope I do well because it's against the Aussies and everybody knows it's a tough task to get runs against them," he added. We hope that whatever he has said, it becomes a realty.

It was yet another opportunity for experienced former India captain Sourav Ganguly to spend time in the middle ahead of the first Test against Australia in Bangalore later this week, but he edged paceman Bradley Scott to Watling at gully after making just six runs. New Zealand, who had lost the first Test, thus squared the two-match series 1-1. It was not as if the Kiwi attack was impressive but rather the Indian batting was poor.


The key wicket was that of skipper Suresh Raina who was caught short of the crease at the non-striker's end by a direct hit while attempting a sharp single.

Sachin Tendulkar And Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid's 10,000 Test runs were celebrated at Chinnaswamy stadium with Sachin Tendulkar unveiling a wall of 10,000 bricks. Tendulkar said Dravid truly deserved such recognition. A live electronic unit in the top corner on the right displays Dravid's current score -- 10,246 runs in Test cricket. The unit will keep ticking as Dravid scores runs in Tests played in India or overseas, Skyline group managing director Avinash Prabhu said at a simple ceremony, graced by former and present cricketers. Dravid is the brand ambassador for the Skyline group. His parents - Sharad and Pushpa - were present on the occasion.

Sachin Tendulkar has topped the list of world's best 100 Test cricketers named by Shane Warne in his book 'Shane Warne's century', which also features 10 other Indians.

Warne's list from among cricketers whom he had played with or against also includes Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri.

Shane Warne has described Tendulkar as a "genius" and "best in the business", one who has an amazing discipline, and puts the Indian ahead of West Indian legend Brian Lara.

"Tendulkar has a touch of genius about him. He is the best in the business. He is quick and decisive - he either goes all the way forward or back on the crease, but doesn't get caught in two minds.

"I have found it difficult at times to deceive him because he reads the length and the spin so quickly," said Warne of Tendulkar in the book.

Ganguly features in the 96th spot in the list.

Warne has shared a love and hate relationship with Ganguly. The two have had a few run-ins, the latest being during the inaugural edition of Indian Premier League, where they involved in a war of words and were both fined 10 per cent of their match fees.

Still, Warne considers Ganguly as an intelligent cricketer with interesting ideas on all subjects and one who has his own way of doing things.

"But he did have the knack of rubbing up opponents (and even teammates when he went to Lancashire) the wrong way without seeming to try very hard. If this was part of a deliberate strategy, then he got it bang on at times.

"He would also be late for the toss and then walk off on his own without waiting for Steve Waugh, our captain. To be a minute or so behind because an issue crops up is one thing, but more than that is just taking the mickey," Warne wrote of Ganguly in his book.

Besides Tendulkar, the top five include Brian Lara in second spot, followed by Curtly Ambrose, Allan Border and Glenn McGrath.

The list of 100 best cricketers also features nine Pakistanis, eight Sri Lankan players.

Piyush Chawla, tossing his leg-breaks up and getting serious revolutions on his googlies, put doubts in Ponting's head. Unsure of which way the ball would turn, or how much, Ponting defended with hard hands and drove half-heartedly, repeatedly spearing the ball off the inside edge. But the Australian captain is one of the best batsmen in the world, his average of just over 12 in India notwithstanding. The Aussie top-order developed cold feet against Chawla and their free-scoring flair was completely non-existent as they finished the day still 264 behind the 455 runs which Board President's XI had scored in their first essay. he Australians had a marginally better morning session. They tried to work on their reverse swing by not taking the new ball till the 105th over - the 16th of the second day. Lee, in particular, got the ball to move and one delivery to Pathan stood out: bowling from over the wicket, he curved the ball sharply from middle and off towards leg and hit Pathan on the pad. Pathan, however, used a simple technique to offer stiff resistance. He tried not to get the front leg in the way of the ball even if it meant playing away from his body.

Sourav Ganguly [Images] has been included in the Indian squad for the first two Tests against Australia [Images].

The former India captain, left out of the Rest of India squad for last week's Irani Trophy match, retained his place in the 15-man squad, announced by the new selection committee, under the chairmanship of Krishnamachari Srikanth, on Wednesday


Squad for first two Tests:

Anil Kumble [Images] (captain), Sachin Tendulkar [Images], Rahul Dravid [Images], VVS Laxman, M S Dhoni (w/k), Virender Sehwag [Images], Gautam Gambhir [Images], Harbhajan Singh [Images], Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Sourav Ganguly, Subramaniam Badrinath, Munaf Patel, R P Singh.