Murray On Top of the World

Murray On Top of the World

  

Andy Murray wins ATP World Tour Finals to Claim No:1 spot in ATP Rankings.

What a year it has been for Britains no:1 Andy Murray.  From helping Great Britain win the Davis Cup to winning his second Wimbledon title to becoming world number1, Murray could not have asked for anything better.
Credit must go to coach Ivan Lendl as he and Jamie Dalgado had have a massive impact on Murray's most successful year thus far. Murray's court tantrums have been a rarity this year, i think that's what's been a big change since Lendl's return. Gone are the smashed rackets and foulmouth phrases, gone is the arguing with the court umpire's, are we starting to see a different Andy Murray? I think so.
After loosing to Djokovic in the French Open final, Murray has not looked back and is a much fitter and stronger player both mentally and physically. long may he achieve more success in the future. i suppose his next target would be to remain the no:1 player for as long as possible, however  this will not be straightforward for Murray as there will be a certain Novak Djokovic breathing down his neck and will be desperate to reclaim his place as world no:1.

Can Murray continue his dominance into 2016?

Will Djokovic reclaim his place at the top of the rankings?

Will someone else burst onto the scene in 2017?

All is to be revealed. 

Mourinho tantrums

Is Mourinho loosing his invincibility and Cool

Hothead Mourinho Kicks Water Bottle 

During Manchester United's  draw against West Ham, Jose Mourinho was once again sent to the stands following a water bottle kicking incident. A frustrated Mourinho was not happy with midfielder Paul Pogba's tackling incident which ultimately led to a caution for the record signing midfielder from PSG. However, this is not the first of many touchline incidents in which the 'Special One' has been involved in, in each club Mourinho has managed, there has been at least 1 or 2 incidents in which Mourinho has either had a falling out with the opposing manager i.e Arsene Wenger or the Referee. 

in terms of his new role as Manchester United boss, it has not been a great start for him. United are currently in sixth place after 13 games with just 5 wins, 5 draws and 3 defeats. Coming back to Mourinho, many people are starting to wonder if the 'Special One' is losing his invincibility which has lead him to success in every team that he has managed so far including Premier League rivals Chelsea. 

This is probably Mourinho's worst start as the manager of a new club. i can garuntee you that he has not had as badder start to a season with a new club. the water bottle kicking incident pretty much sums up how his new roll as Manchester United manager is going. I'm wondering if the fallout with the physiotherapist at Chelsea in which Ambramovic sacked Mourinho may have had an impact on his new role as Manchester United's manager, or could it just be a sign of nervousness?

Manchester United face a tough trip to Everton this Sunday. it will be interesting to see what sort of mood Mourinho is in and if it will have an impact on today's clash against the Toffees.

AP greatest All Time X1

  My Greatest All Time X1

Sachin Tendulkar

One of the greatest cricketers or certainly India's greatest cricketer of all time. who would of though that a 16 year old boy for Mumbai, India would go on to smash records such as the highest ever run scorer in test cricket and the first man ever to achieve 100 international centuries including the first ever double 100 in a one day international. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar would be number 1 on my list.

Adam Gilchrist

Adam Gilchrist is certainly up there with the greatest wicketkeeper batsman of all time. Along with his attacking stroke play, he has to be one of the best one day opening batsman ever. He also was quite a chirpy guy behind the stumps and liked to get stuck into the opposition as most Australian cricketers like doing.

Brian Lara

The most elegant left handed batsman of all time. Brian Charles Lara was a joy to watch, especially with his magnificent stroke play off both the front and back foot.  He still holds the record of the highest individual score of 400 not out in a test innings.

Virat Kohl

What a cricketer this guy is turning out to be. The number 1 one day batsman India's Virat Kohli has to be in most people's all time X1. This young man has loads of talent and is already stating his authority in international cricket especially in the one day game. I'm glad that he has moved up to number 4 in the test rankings, he deserves it. You have also got to admire the wristwork of this guy, it is just pure class. He reminds me of an ex-Indian cricketer called VVS Laxman who was a master at using his hands to manoeuvre the ball into gaps in the field . The superstar from Delhi has to be in many people's all time XI.

Joe Root

Ever since the retirement of Graham Gooch, Their hasn't been an English batsman who has been as consistent and hungry as Joe Root. this guy is just scoring runs for fun in test cricket as well as the one day and 20-20 format. I admire his back foot punch, I think its the it's the best back foot punch I've seen since the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar. I also think that this guy is capable of becoming one of England's greatest cricketers of all time, this young man from Yorkshire cannot be left out of most people's team including mine.

MS Dhoni (C) WK

One of the most successful captains and wicketkeeper batsman of all time, especially in the one day and T20 formats. Like Kohli and Tendulkar, this guy is also a superstar in India. There is even a Bollywood film being made about him. Unfortunately, he does not have a roll in the film.



Andrew Flintoff

This guy in my opinion was the  greatest all-rounder I have seen in my life so far. For me, he was a terrific cricketer in all three departments, especially with the ball. I still remember that spell that he bowled at Edgbaston against the Australians. He took  4 wickets for 79 runs including Ricky Ponting who was one of the greatest batsman in the world. Since his retirement, he has become a kern boxing fan. When he retired from cricket, he then went into a boxing career but his boxing career was not a successful one.

Shane Warne

S.K Warne was the greatest wrist spinner of the game. This guy could spin the bowl a mile. I still remember watching videos of that ball in which he bowled Mike Gatting around his legs. He was the highest wicket taker in tests with 708 wickets, only to be beaten by 800 wickets from Sri Lankan legend Mutiah Muralitharan.

Mutiah Muralitharan

This guy has to be the greatest off spinner of all time. The highest ever wicket taker in test cricket with a total of 800 test wickets, Mutiah  Muralitharan was a magician. The way his bowling action was, the release of the bowl from his hand looked like he was flicking out gold dust. He also had the habit of staring at the batsman with those big white eyes.

Shoaib Akthar

The Rawalpindi Express train. Shoaib Akthar was the fastest bowler that I've seen in my life so far. Man was he fast or what, he could bowl balls at the speed of 100 miles an hour. He has also had great rivalries with some of the greatest batsman in the world including Tendulkar and Lara.

 James Anderson



England's Misereable 2016 European Championships

What went wrong for England in the Euros?

England crash out of Euro 2016 following 'shock' defeat to Iceland

 

Yet again, another disappointing campaign for Roy Hodgson and his men at the 2016 European Championships. At the start at the tournament, there were huge expectations that Hodgson’s group of young and highly talent players along with a highly experienced and dedicated captain Wayne Rooney could potentially reach the semi-finals of the 2016 tournament. However, this did not prove to be so after Hodgson’s men crashed out of the Euros after a humiliating 2-1 defeat to Iceland.

Shortly after the game, Hodgson himself was forced to resign as England manager as he thought that the team needed somebody other than himself to guide the team in a new direction. Many people including pundits such as former England and Arsenal striker Ian Wright and Bournemouth Manager Eddie Howe.

But in the end, the FA decided to go with the highly experienced Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce who proved to be a pretty good choice but was unfortunately sacked just 4 weeks after his first game against Slovakia in a group match for the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers.

The door is now open for another individual to take up the role of guiding the team in a new direction. Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho stated that he felt sorry for Allardyce as he was one of his good friends and that his relationship with Allardyce will always remain positive and will not change despite what has happened in the past few weeks which meant that he was very loyal to him as a friend.

Ex-England manager Steve Mclaren said that he did have some sympathy for Allardyce however he believed that ‘football needs to become more transparent in the sense that the any personal issues from managers should be kept private and confidential rather than these issues appearing in the media.’ Allardyce himself stated that he felt guilty and admitted that it was ‘a silly thing to do.’ What an opportunity wasted.  

We now look ahead to the future and see what plans caretaker boss Gareth Southgate has up his sleeve in this low and frustrating time for English football and its fans. Who knows what will happen next.

Will captain Wayne Rooney be under pressure to keep his place as captain?

Will any of the players be under pressure to keep their place in the team?

Will England ever become a major force in international football?

All is to be decided.

Englaned vs India 1st Test Review

Stalemate at Rajkot

1st Test at Rajkot drawn as Kohli and Ashwin deny England victory

Having scored a mammoth total of 507 in the 1st Innings, England were unable to push for victory in the 1st Test at Rajkot. England's top order batted really well in the first innings, especially Joe Root, Ben Stokes and the debutant Hasab Hameed. You could also say that they were helped a little bit by some sloppy fielding by India. I felt sorry for both of India's seam bowlers Shami and Yadav. I thought that they bowled really well but the fielders let them down, especial the fielders in the slips, who dropped a total of 6 catches in the first innings, including the wicketkeeper. Out of India's three spinners, I thought that Ashwin and Jadeja bowled really well, but Mishra was disappointing as hs e bowled far too many bad balls in the 1st innings, especially a handful of full tosses. I also thought that Moeen Ali and Zafar Ansari's contribution down the order was really good as they put more pressure on the Indian team, especially the spinners.

 

During India's first innings, I thought that Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin played a good innings. I thought that they were solid in defence and were not afraid to use their feet against the spinners. As for the spinners, I thought that Adil Rashid was magnificent in both innings, especially with the pace he bowled at. Rashid looked like getting a wicket on every ball that he bowled and caused problems for the Indian batsman who are supposed to be masters of batting against spin bowling.  I thought that the Indian skipper Virat Kohli was very unlucky in the first innings as he got a short ball from Rashid and unfortunately treaded onto his stumps as he was trying to play pull shot of the short ball which Rashid bowled.

 

I also think that Ashwin's innings of 70 in the first innings was really crucial as he took his time and ensured that India got a good first innings total on the board.

As for England second innings, once again I thought that both Hasab Hameed  and skipper Alistair Cook batted really well, especially against the spinners. I thought that their footwork against the spinners was really good and they did not allow the Indian spinners to settle into a good rhythm in terms of line and length.

 

India's second innings did not start well as Guatam Gambhir yet again failed miserably with the bat as he poked at a short ball outside his of stump and gave an easy catch to Root  at gully off the bowling of Chris Woakes. Pujara was the next man to come to the crease and was soon given out LBW to Adil Rashid but Pujara surprisingly did not review the decision where the replay showed that the ball was clearly going to miss leg stump according to hawk-eye. when skipper Viart Kholi came in, I thought he looked really positive in terms of the way he batted, he was not afraid to play his shots on a day 5 pitch in which was turning and bouncing. After Rahane was dismissed, Kohli along with Ashwin, Saha and Jadeja ensured that India were able to hang on for a draw.

 

In terms of the test match as a whole, I thought that both teams were a bit naïve in terms of trying to win the match, but there are still 4 test matches left to play. The 2nd test match starts on Saturday in Vishakapatnm, it will be interesting to see what type of pitch we get down there. I would assume that India will want a dry pitch in which will assist their spinners as the game moves on.

 

What will happen in Vishakapatnam? Tune in next Saturday to find out.

 

written by

 

Amar

India vs England 1st Test Day 2

Stokes puts England on top despite India Fightback

 

Ben Stokes put England in Control on day 2 of the first test match against India.

After dismissing Moeen Ali for a wonderful 100, India had hopes of finishing of England's innings for under 350 runs, however, due to some blistering batting from Ben Stokes who scored 128 runs, England took home the initiative. Yet again, you have to say that India were let down by their performance in the field, especially when Wriddhiman Saha grasped a chance to get rid of Ben Stokes in the first half an hour of the morning session. Stokes then took advantage of that missed opportunity by India and started smashing the Indians all over the field. The Indian fielders looked warn out after spending more than a day and a half in the field. Zafar Ansari also played a little cameo along with Ben Stokes scoring a solid 32 runs but at a slower pace. England were soon bowled out on the stroke of tea with the score on 537. India needed a solid start from openers Murali Vijay and Gautam Gambhir, both batsman looked solid in terms of the way they played the England bowlers. There was some spin for Moeen Ali and Rashid who looked the most likely to get a wicket but the Indian openers got through the evening session with the score on 60-0.

 

England made the pitch look like a flat road, but you can never judge a pitch until both sides have batted on it.

 

So what will happen tomorrow?

Can India build on this solid start?

Can England take early wickets and put pressure on the Indian batsman?

We shall soon find out.

 

 

IND VS ENG 1st TEST DAY 1

 

 

India fight back against England after Shoddy first session 

After Alistair Cook won the toss and elected to bat, he and his  partner Hassan Hameed were looking to get the England looking to get the England first innings off to a good start. They were gifted a good start due to some shoddy slip fielding by India. Alistair Cook was given a life on the second ball of the first over when he nicked a ball from of stump to Ajinkya Rahane who failed to cling onto that opportunity. A couple of balls later, Cook again nicked a ball to Murali Vijay at first slip who also couldn't cling on to the ball. Cook's new opening partner Hassan Hameed also had a life as this time Indian skipper Virat Kholi also dropped a chance at third slip off Cook, this was not a morning to remember for the Indians, especially the first hour of the session. However, when Kohli turned to his number one spinner, Ashwin struck immediately by trapping the England skipper lbw in which young Hasan Hameed asked him to not use the Decision review system as hawk-eye clearly showed that the ball was going to miss leg stump. Joe Root came into bat and looked in sublime form. he and Hameed put on a 3rd wicket partnership of just 32 before Hameed went back to a full ball by Ashwin and was plum in front LBW. A few overs later, Ben Duckett nicked a ball from middle stump of the bowling of Ashwin where Ajinkya Rahne took a fine low catch to dismiss Duckett for 13. Moeen Ali scored a patient 99 not out and will be hoping to get  his 100 early in the morning. Joe Root also looked in sublime form as he scored a lovely 124, however it is still debatable as to whether or not Umesh Yadav took that caught and bowled chance cleanly as he looked like he was juggling with the bowl before he flicked it over his shoulder.

India's seam bowlers, I thought were unlucky. I thought that Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami were excellent with the new ball. It's just a shame that they were not getting enough support from  the fielding. it could have been a different game if they had taken all their catches. Ashwin and Jadeja also bowled really well but Amit Mishra was appalling as he bowled to many full tosses.

At the end of the 1st day England are 311-4

so what will happen next?

Can England kick on to make a big score to put pressure on India?

Will Moeen Ali get his 100?

Can India take some early wickets to put preasure on England's tail?

We shall find out tomorrow morning to see how the second day unfolds

England's Tour to India

 

Trial by spin Continued

England's trial by spin continues against the might of India.

After a disappointing series against Bangladesh, England will be looking to set things right against India. This however, will not be easy as India are ranked the number 1 test team in the world. History shows us that England have never been great players of spin, however on England's last tour of India,  Alistair Cook's men proved the critics wrong as the beat Mahendra Singh Dhoni's side 2-1 to claim their first ever series win on Indian soil.

India, under the leadership of new test skipper Virat Kohli are bang in form winning 10 of 17 test under his captaincy. The 28 year old is determined to continue his 7 match winning streak against England on Wednesday at the Surashrastra Cricket Association Ground in Rajkot. 

This will be the first test match ever to be held in Rajkot and both teams will be keen to start of this mouth-watering series on a high. it will also be interesting to see what kind of pitches we get in all 5 tests, I would think that they would produce dry spinning pitches given the fact that England historically have never been great players of spin. Also the fact that England rely on Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson to take most of their wickets is going to take a lot out of them in terms of energy. This is where England will miss Graeme Swan as he had the control as well as the skill to take wickets in all conditions. I think that this is where England may struggle in terms of their spinners being able to keep the runs down at the same time as trying to take wickets. This could mean that the seamers may have to do a lot of bowling during the 5 test matches, which could take a lot out of them in terms of energy. In terms, of India, Kohli will be hoping that his 3 top quality spinners: Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra and the number 1 spinner in the world, Ravichandran Ashwin will be the most likely to put pressure on the English batsmen.

The key batsmen for England on this tour are the Captain Alistair Cook and the no: 4 batsman in the world, Joe Root. Cook's experience on this tour will be important as he is the most experienced batsman in the side and has been a part of England's last three tours of India where he made his debut in Nagpur on the 2006 tour. 

Will England prevail once again on this tour or will India end their 8 year wait for a test series win against England. All will be revealed in the next couple of weeks.

 

 

Redemption for Pep

 

Guadiola gets his redemption

Pep Guardiola gets his revenge from his ex-team as City stun Barca with a 3-1 win at the Etihad.

After a disappointing 4-0 defeat at the Camp Nou, Guardiola and City were desperate to get their revenge at the Etihad stadium this evening.  However the home side did not get of to the best of starts as the magician, Messi opened the  scoring after 21 minutes despite of some cagey defending by Guadiola's side. The home side however, did not give up and levelled the scoring through Gundangon 18 minutes later. the match was quite entertaining with both sides having plenty of chance to score.  In the second half Kevin De-Bruyne  perfectly executed a free-kick after 52 minutes to put the home side ahead. City had their tales up and began to put pressure on Barcelona by creating number of chances to put the game to bed before Gundegon put the match to bed with his second goal after 75 minutes.

I thought City were excellent tonight, the way they responded after going a goal down was brilliant.  no one stood out for me in my opinion, I thought it was a real team effort and every one played their part by pressing Barcelona, a perfectly executed game plan.

Even though we are only 3 months into the season, I think that including Arsenal and Liverpool,  Manchester City look like title candidates.  Bearing in mind that there are still 7 months remaining I think that in terms of being in form, it will be a battle between those three contenders, but after all, this is the league which is the best in the world, and over the last 4 years, we've had plenty of drama, so there is no clear winner yet.

This will test out Guardiola in terms of mental strength, will he conquer the Premier League, we shall soon find out.

Reported by

Amar Patel

Live Football Matches-Safety

Is watching football in stadiums in the UK and Europe Safe?

If you were watching the European Championships this summer, you may have noticed some angry Croatian fans throwing flames onto the pitch during a group match against the Czech Republic.  This is not the first time it's happened in a European game, there have been several incidents where we have witnessed these attacks in Europe, especially in places like Spain, Italy and Russia. What would be interesting to know is where do fans get these flames from and shouldn't it be illegal to take things other than food, drink and match day programs into the stadium? All we want to see is fans going into the stadium watch the match and enjoy themselves. If you had watch the game or even read about it, you may have noticed that there were some angry Chelsea fans fighting with West Ham fans.

The point I want to make is, should there be more stewards in stadiums during live football matches?  We just want to see a good game of football don't we?  Most stadiums around Europe have netting to protect the players from the fans, however in the UK, this is not the case. This raises the issue for the health and safety welfare of football players and fans who come two watch their teams play. This is where the FA and owners of each club need to think about a solution against this issue. The good thing is that nowadays each club has their own security, but I don't think it’s enough to handle crowds that have more than 30,000 people. Stadium expert Paul Fletcher says that if security problems continue to occur at the London Stadium, then it should be knocked down. This would be a disaster for the city as well as West Ham Football Club as it took 3 years to build and the fans had to be patient for the stadium to be ready so that they could go see their team play their home matches at this wonderful iconic stadium. I would say that most grounds in the UK are fairly safe in terms of security, but the quality of the stadium should be just on its facilities and how it manages the fans as well as the security of the players, manager, and staff. Grounds such as Wembley have a team of more than 100 crowd security members. This may be enough to handle a crowd of 90,000 people, but it’s about how the crowed react in the sense that if you had more than 50% of angry fans, it is more difficult to control them simply because there’s one of you and a lot of them, which is why you need to seek help from other people in order for y0u to manage the crowed appropriately but more importantly safely.

Coming back to the main point, what are your views on this story?

Do you think that watching live football matches in the UK are safe?

What is your opinion of crowd security in stadiums?

Do we need more or less security staff?

Give us your views!

When football changed forever

 

When Football Changed Forever

This documentary on the history of club football is fascinating in the sense that it shows how things have evolved over the years in English football in terms its clubs and leagues. There was no Premier League back in those days so they had 3 divisions, division 1, 2 and 3.  Nowadays football is predominantly like money mania where clubs are investing huge amounts of money on players, fans, stadiums etc, whereas back in those days, money was not so much of an issue. The video starts of by showing Manchester United’s record breaking deal for Paul Pogba. It uses this news story to link in with the main subject of the program which is about the English football league and how money was being spent in those days. Football matches did not have as bigger crowds than we do now, this is probably because football matches weren’t as noisier as they are now in terms of atmosphere.  It’s fascinating to know the thoughts of ex-footballs from the 90s on how different the game is from when they started playing to nowadays. Also the fact that there was only one match being shown each week, it goes to show how things have change in terms of broadcasting football matches on television and radio, this is probably to do with money and the ownership of the broadcasting companies who have the rights to broadcast these football matches. Professional club football started with only 5 teams: The Arsenal, Crystal Palace Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United.  This is where the FA came into power and took over club football in England. The FA came up with a 3 divisions in which they updated over the years as they began scouting players and introducing new clubs. I think this documentary portrays the evolution of English football and how things have changed as time has gone on especially in terms of money and tradition in the sense that teams are now starting to invest more money into buying new players i.e. Pogba and new stadiums such as the Olympic Stadium.

To sum up this program, I think this documentary is useful for investigating and analysing the past and the present of club football, it shows the culture of English football and its history. It also shows that football is a fair sport and there are no underdogs in football and each team has the capability of winning football matches, which makes the sport more popular and interesting to watch.

 

Mourinho VS Guardiola Episode 2

Mourinho VS Guadiola

Episode 2 

Tonight Mourinho and Guardiola will stand toe to toe against each other at Old Trafford for the second time as United meet City in the Fourth round of the EFL Cup.

 

Having lost the home fixture 1-0 in the Premier League, Jose Mourinho's side will be looking for some revenge when the two sides come face to face in the English Football League Cup. City come into the tie tonight in red hot form, United on the other hand come into the game on the back of a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Jose's ex-team Chelsea. After the humiliation at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho said that he once again felt betrayed by his players-

"You come with a strategy, you cannot concede a goal in the way we did.'
"We were coming to have an offensive approach. We wanted to create chances; we showed that after the 1-0. The second and the third were counter-attack goals.
"It is one of those days when you give the advantage to opponents by doing nothing.'
Tonight United face Pep's Manchester City, who are looking in red hot form. Yet again it will be another test for Mourinho as he will be under pressure and desperate to get back to winning ways.

Who will prevail in this mouthwatering cup tie, all will be revealed tonight.
  

 



Unhappy Return to Camp Nou For Pep!

 Unhappy Return For Pep

It was an unhappy return to the Camp Nou for Pep Guardiola as Manchester City went down to a comprehensive 4-0 defeat at the hands of Barcelona in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. It was the magician Messi who opened the scoring after 17 minutes. City's new goalkeeper Claudio Bravo did not last the whole game as he was sent of in the 53rd minute for a hand ball incident outside the box. Messi added another to make it 2-0 in the 61st minute and went on to score a third in the 69th before Neymar finished the game off in the 89th minute.

City had themselves to blame as they squandered some great opportunities to get on the score sheet including a free header from John Stones which went sailing over the bar.

City were disappointing in my opinion. I was expecting a fascinating contest between these two footballing giants but Man City never really turned up.

We all know that FC Barcelona is one of the best clubs in the world and also have the luxury of producing world class players such as Messi, Neymar and Suarez, but I get the feeling that City gave them too much time and space on the ball to weave their magical footballing skills.

I also think the decision to swap Joe Hart  for Claudio Bravo has proved to be a huge mistake for Guardiola because Bravo is the sort of keeper who likes to use his feet rather than his hands. it will be interesting to see what England's no:1 does after his season-loan spell at Torino.

Have City made the right choice by giving the managerial job to Guardiola?

Can he deal with the pressure of the champions league?

All will be revealed in the next 8 months

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Jos Buttler confronting Bangladeshi players

Sledging and Confrontations in Cricket

During the 2nd one day international between Bangladesh and England, we witnessed a fierce confrontation between England's Jos Buttler and Bangladesh's Mashrafe Mortaza and Sabbir Rahman. Sledging is becoming quite a common think in cricket, the only question is, is their a barrier for sledging. When we look back at the incident yesterday between Jos Buttler and the two Bangladeshi players it seamed like Jos Butler was unhappy about something that Rahman was saying. 
Sledging in cricket makes the game entertaining, especially for Tv viewers. The only question is: Is there a boundary for sledging? We all love a bit of banter but should there be limitations put in place to stop this issue from getting out of control? Should umpires use cards as refferees do in some sports to calm the situation down, what do you think?