Australia national cricket team
The Australia national cricket team is the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, having played in the first Test match in 1877. The team plays One-Day International and Twenty20 International cricket, participating in both the first ODI, against England in the 1970–71 season and the first T20I, against New Zealand in the 2004–05 season, winning both games; the team draws its players from teams playing in the Australian domestic competitions – the Sheffield Shield, the Australian domestic limited-overs cricket tournament and the Big Bash League. The national team has played 820 Test matches, winning 386, losing 222, drawing 210 and tying 2; as of March 2019, Australia is ranked fourth in the ICC Test Championship on 104 rating points. Australia is the most successful team in Test cricket history, in terms of overall wins, win-loss ratio and wins percentage; the Australian cricket team has played 932 ODI matches, winning 566, losing 323, tying 9 and with 34 ending in a no-result. As of March 2019, Australia is ranked fifth in the ICC ODI Championship on 102 rating points, though have been ranked first for 141 of 185 months since its introduction in 2002.
Australia have made a record seven World Cup final appearances and have won the World Cup a record five times in total. Australia is the first team to appear in four consecutive World Cup finals, surpassing the old record of three consecutive World Cup appearances by the West Indies and the first team to win 3 consecutive World Cups; the team was undefeated in 34 consecutive World Cup matches until 19 March at the 2011 Cricket World Cup where Pakistan beat them by 4 wickets. It is the second team to win a World Cup on home soil, after India. Australia have won the ICC Champions Trophy twice making them the first and the only team to become back to back winners in the Champions Trophy tournaments; the national team has played 116 Twenty20 International matches, winning 60, losing 52, tying 2 and with 2 ending in a no-result. As of March 2019, Australia is ranked third in the ICC T20I Championship on 120 rating points. Additionally, the team made the final of the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. On 12 January 2019, Australia won the first ODI against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground by 34 runs, to record their 1,000th win in international cricket.
The Australian cricket team participated in the first Test match at the MCG in 1877, defeating an English team by 45 runs, with Charles Bannerman making the first Test century, a score of 165 retired hurt. Test cricket, which only occurred between Australia and England at the time, was limited by the long distance between the two countries, which would take several months by sea. Despite Australia's much smaller population, the team was competitive in early games, producing stars such as Jack Blackham, Billy Murdoch, Fred "The Demon" Spofforth, George Bonnor, Percy McDonnell, George Giffen and Charles "The Terror" Turner. Most cricketers at the time were either from New South Wales or Victoria, with the notable exception of George Giffen, the star South Australian all-rounder. A highlight of Australia's early history was the 1882 Test match against England at The Oval. In this match, Fred Spofforth took 7/44 in the game's fourth innings to save the match by preventing England from making their 85-run target.
After this match The Sporting Times, a major newspaper in London at the time, printed a mock obituary in which the death of English cricket was proclaimed and the announcement made that "the body was cremated and the ashes taken to Australia." This was the start of the famous Ashes series in which Australia and England play a series of Test matches to decide the holder of the Ashes. To this day, the contest is one of the fiercest rivalries in sport; the so-called'Golden Age' of Australian Test cricket occurred around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, with the team under the captaincy of Joe Darling, Monty Noble and Clem Hill winning eight of ten tours. It is considered to have lasted from the 1897–98 English tour of Australia and the 1910–11 South African tour of Australia. Outstanding batsmen such as Joe Darling, Clem Hill, Reggie Duff, Syd Gregory, Warren Bardsley and Victor Trumper, brilliant all-rounders including Monty Noble, George Giffen, Harry Trott and Warwick Armstrong and excellent bowlers including Ernie Jones, Hugh Trumble, Tibby Cotter, Bill Howell, Jack Saunders and Bill Whitty, all helped Australia to become the dominant cricketing nation for most of this period.
Victor Trumper became one of Australia's first sporting heroes, was considered Australia's greatest batsman before Bradman and one of the most popular players. He played a record number of Tests at 49 and scored 3163 runs at a high for the time average of 39.04. His early death in 1915 at the age of 37 from kidney disease caused national mourning; the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, in its obituary for him, called him Australia's greatest batsman: "Of all the great Australian batsmen Victor Trumper was by general consent the best and most brilliant."The years leading up to the start of World War I were marred by conflict between the players, led by Clem Hill, Victor Trumper and Frank Laver, the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket, led by Peter McAlister, attempting to gain more control of tours from the players. This led to six leading players walking out on the 1912 Triangular Tournament in England, with Australia fielding what was considered a second-rate side; this was the last series before the war, no more cricket was played by A
Wankhede Stadium
The Wankhede Stadium is a cricket stadium in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The stadium now has a capacity following renovations for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Before the upgrade, the capacity was 45,000; the Wankhede has been host to numerous high-profile cricket matches in the past, most notable being the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final, in which India defeated Sri Lanka by 6 wickets. The stadium witnessed the last match of Sachin Tendulkar's international career. Additionally, it has hosted many other matches in both the 1996 as well as 2011 Cricket World Cup; the stadium is the host to the match in which Ravi Shastri hit six sixes in an over. As of 19 July 2017, it has hosted 20 ODIs and 5 T20Is. Mumbai has seen Test matches played at three different grounds; the Bombay Gymkhana ground hosted the first Test in India, in 1933–34 against England. After World War II, the Cricket Club of India Ltd's Brabourne Stadium – second ground of the city – was used for 17 Tests; the Wankhede Stadium was built after disputes between the Cricket Club of India, which owns the Brabourne Stadium, the Mumbai Cricket Association over the allocation of tickets for cricket matches.
This became severe after the Test between India and England in 1973. At the initiative of S. K. Wankhede, a politician and the secretary of the Mumbai Cricket Association, MCA built the new stadium in South Mumbai near the Churchgate station, it was built in approx. Six months and opened in time for the final Test between India and the West Indies in 1975. Since the Wankhede stadium has taken over from Brabourne Stadium as the main cricketing venue in the city, it was named after the Association’s President Barrister Sheshrao Wankhede in 1974. It staged its first Test in the 1974 -- 75 season. Clive Lloyd scored an unbeaten 242 and in Pataudi's last hurrah, India lost by 201 runs; the Test featured a crowd disturbance after a fan who rushed onto the ground to greet Lloyd was treated by the police. India's first victory here was posted against the New Zealand two seasons later; the stadium has been a witness to great innings like Sunil Gavaskar's 205 against the West Indies and Alvin Kallicharan's 187 in the same game in the 1978–79 series and all round heroics like Ian Botham's century and thirteen wickets in the Jubilee Test in 1979–80, which England won by ten wickets.
The highest score by an Indian at the Wankhede Stadium is Virat Kohli's 235 against England in 2016-17. Incidentally Ravi Shastri's six sixes in an over off Baroda's Tilak Raj in Ranji Trophy, en route to the fastest double-hundred in first-class cricket were recorded on this ground in 1984–85, his unbeaten 200 in 113 minutes off 123 balls with 13 fours and 13 sixes at this ground, is the fastest double century in first-class cricket since. A The Wankhede Stadium was built in 1975 and the first Test match played was between India and West Indies from 23 to 28 January 1975; the Stadium was built at a time when only Test Matches were played and with the advent of One Day Cricket and Twenty 20 Cricket, the demands of a Stadium from spectator point of view have changed. Since ICC World Cup Cricket 2011 was to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka, Mumbai was selected to host the final, it was decided to redevelop the Wankhede Stadium to suit the modern facilities and comfort of spectators; the Managing Committee shortlisted M/s.
P. K. Das & Associates and M/s. Shashi Prabhu & Associates to jointly draw up a project for the redevelopment of the Wankhede Stadium. While redeveloping the Stadium, major changes were at the North end and the South end with better facilities to the spectators in terms of bucket seating, large number of toilets and food courts. While MCA undertook the redevelopment of Wankhede Stadium, the ground was not available for domestic and international cricket till February 2011. In order to ensure that MCA did not miss out the turn of Test and ODI matches and to develop a healthy working relationship with the Cricket Club of India. One of the highlights of the stadium is the suspended cantilever roofs; the Teflon fabric roof is lighter in heat resistant. There is no beam support for the roof to ensure. On the roof there are exhaust fans which suck the hot air from the stands and allow the breeze from the West to flow in; the stadium has 20 elevators for South stands. The seaside situation of the Wankhede stadium means that the swing bowlers get a fair amount of assistance during the early part of each day.
Red soil is used to prepare the pitch. Pitch has always been a slow turner. Most of the time it is made result oriented, it has traditionally been full of runs, but it does help the spinners during the last couple of day, in the Test played on the ground, against Australia in 2004 the ball spun viciously from early on and this, coupled with low bounce, helped India win in under three days though a whole day was lost to rain. The pitch has created many exciting games here with the test between India and West Indies in 2011 ending in draw with both side tied on equal runs; the most recent test match at the stadium was between India and England in 2016, when nearly all wickets taken by spinners. Still the pitch was full of runs, witnessing 4 centuries, including a double century of Indian captain, innings total 400 and 600+ in first inning of the teams.only Capacity: 33,108 Floodlights: Yes End names: Garware Pavilion End, Tata End Curator: Sudhir Naik. Wankhede Stadium is the home ground of Mumbai Indians team in Indian Premier League.
Wankhede Stadium is the home ground of Mumbai Ranji team. Architect – PK Das & Associates, Mumbai & Shashi Pr
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a British Jamaican cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team. One of the fastest bowlers to have played Test cricket, he was nicknamed "Whispering Death" due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease, his bowling was smooth and fast, he used his height to generate large amounts of bounce and zip off the pitch. He was part of the fearsome West Indian pace battery, together with Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, Sylvester Clarke, Colin Croft, Wayne Daniel and the late Malcolm Marshall that devastated batting line-ups throughout the world in the seventies and early eighties. Early in his Test career, in 1976, Holding broke the record for best bowling figures in a Test match by a West Indies bowler, 14 wickets for 149 runs; the record still stands. During his first-class cricket career, Holding played for Jamaica, Derbyshire and Tasmania. In June 1988 Holding was celebrated on the $2 Jamaican stamp alongside the Barbados Cricket Buckle.
Michael Holding was born on 16 February 1954, the youngest of four children to Ralph and Enid Holding who lived in Kingston. The family was passionate about sport, only a few years after Michael was born his father enrolled him as a member of Melbourne Cricket Club at Kingston. At the age of three he was diagnosed with asthma, but by his early teenage years he no longer needed an inhaler, he led an active life, playing sport in the wooded areas near his home. Though his family would watch the cricket at Sabina Park, Holding preferred to play Catchy Shubby Cricket than watch. In late 1975 the West Indies team embarked on a six-Test tour of Australia. Earlier that year the West Indies had defeated Australia in the final of the inaugural World Cup, the teams were considered to be the best of their day. Fast bowler Bernard Julien was out of form and his place in the team was given to debutant Michael Holding who opened the bowling with Andy Roberts, he picked up a groin strain in the second Test and bowled as fast as 97 miles per hour, quicker than Jeff Thomson, Australia's fastest bowler.
According to Wisden in his debut series, Holding "had shown himself to be Roberts' natural opening partner and indeed was timed to be faster than Thomson and Roberts", considered that when West Indies captain Clive Lloyd chose to give Julien the new ball rather than Holding it was a mistake that cost the West Indies the match. Australia won the series 5–1, though Holding's 10 wickets in 5 matches cost on average more than 60 runs each, Wisden believed that he had performed well enough to establish himself in the side and had the potential to bowl faster still. India visited the West Indies in March for a four-Test series; the defeat by Australia had left Andy Roberts exhausted, so he was rested for the matches against India and Holding took over as leader of the West Indies bowling attack. He finished as his team's leading wicket taker with 19 wickets at less than 20 runs each and helped his team to a 2–1 victory; the West Indies toured England in 1976, though Holding was unknown in the country the British press picked up on his performance in Australia and there was a sense of anticipation about his bowling.
An early psychological blow was landed by the West Indies in a warm up match against the Marylebone Cricket Club when Holding struck Dennis Amiss on the head, leaving a wound that needed stitches. Amiss was a veteran player and to open for England in the forthcoming Tests and seeing him struggle against Holding's pace was a warning of things to come. In the lead up to the series England captain Tony Greig was confident of his team's chances, saying in an interview "I like to think people are building these West Indians up, because I'm not sure they're as good as everyone thinks. You must remember, that the West Indians, these guys, if they get on top they are magnificent cricketers, but if they're down, they grovel, I intend, with the help of Closey and a few others, to make them grovel." The comments outraged the West Indians, to the team the use of the term "grovel" in particular "smacked of racism and apartheid". The West Indies fast bowling attack consisted of Roberts, Wayne Daniel, Vanburn Holder.
The first three used the bouncer liberally, England's John Edrich and Brian Close suffered in particular. In the first innings of the fifth Test, played at the Oval, Holding took 8 wickets for 92 runs which remained the best bowling figures of his first-class career and were the best bowling figures by a West Indies bowler at the ground, he took a further 6 wickets in the match to finish with 14/149, which remain the best match figures by a West Indian in a Test match. The West Indies won the five match series 3–0. According to an urban myth, during a Test match between the West Indies and England when Holding was to bowl to English player Peter Willey, the commentator at the time, Brian Johnston, described the action as "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey"; however Wisden states that there is no record of Johnston or anyone else saying this In a limited-overs international between England and West Indies on 26 August 1976 at Scarborough, Michael Holding's return from long-leg deflected off the nearer wicket and scuttled along the pitch to break the far one
India national cricket team
The India national cricket team known as Team India and Men in Blue, is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test, One Day International and Twenty20 International status. Although cricket was introduced to India by European merchant sailors in the 18th century, the first cricket club was established in Calcutta in 1792, India's national cricket team did not play its first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord's, becoming the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status. In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played. From 1932 India had to wait until 1952 20 years for its first Test victory; the team, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players such as batsmen Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath, all-rounder Kapil Dev and the Indian spin quartet of Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Bishen Singh Bedi.
Traditionally much stronger at home than abroad, the Indian team has improved its overseas form in limited-overs cricket, since the start of the 21st century, winning Test matches in Australia and South Africa. It has won the Cricket World Cup twice – in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev and in 2011 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. After winning the 2011 World Cup, India became only the third team after West Indies and Australia to have won the World Cup more than once, the first cricket team to win the World Cup at home, it won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. It was the joint champions of 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, along with Sri Lanka; as of 19 October 2018, India is ranked first in Tests, second in ODIs and second in T20Is by the ICC. Virat Kohli is the current captain of the team across all formats, while the head coach is Ravi Shastri; the Indian cricket team has rivalries with other Test-playing nations, most notably with Pakistan, the political arch-rival of India.
However, in recent times, rivalries with nations like Australia, South Africa and England have gained prominence. The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match played in 1721. In 1848, the Parsi community in Bombay formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Europeans invited the Parsis to play a match in 1877. By 1912, the Parsis, Sikhs and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year. In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for the England cricket team; some of these, such as Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji were appreciated by the British and their names went on to be used for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy – two major first-class tournaments in India. In 1911, an Indian team went on their first official tour of the British Isles, but only played English county teams and not the England cricket team. India was invited to The Imperial Cricket Council in 1926, made their debut as a Test playing nation in England in 1932, led by CK Nayudu, considered as the best Indian batsman at the time.
The one-off Test match between the two sides was played at Lord's in London. The team went on to lose by 158 runs. India hosted its first Test series in the year 1933. England was the visiting team that played 2 Tests in Calcutta; the visitors won the series 2-0. The Indian team continued to improve throughout the 1930s and'40s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. In the early 1940s, India didn't play any Test cricket due to the Second World War; the team's first series as an independent country was in late 1947 against Sir Donald Bradman's Invincibles. It was the first Test series India played, not against England. Australia won the five-match series 4–0, with Bradman tormenting the Indian bowling in his final Australian summer. India subsequently played their first Test series at home not against England against the West Indies in 1948. West Indies won the 5-Test series 1–0. India recorded their first Test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Madras in 1952.
In the same year, they won their first Test series, against Pakistan. They continued their improvement throughout the early 1950s with a series win against New Zealand in 1956. However, they did not win again in the remainder of the decade and lost badly to strong Australian and English sides. On 24 August 1959, India lost by an innings in the Test to complete the only 5–0 whitewash inflicted by England; the next decade saw. They won their first Test series against England at home in 1961–62 and won a home series against New Zealand, they managed to draw another series against England. In this same period, India won its first series outside the subcontinent, against New Zealand in 1967–68; the key to India's bowling in the 1970s were the Indian spin quartet – Bishen Bedi, E. A. S. Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan; this period saw the emergence of two of India's best batsmen, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath. Indian pitches have had the tendency to support spin and the spin quartet exploited this to create collapses in opposing batting line-ups.
These players were responsible for the back-to-back series wins in 1971 in the West Indies and in England, under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar
Wicket
In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings. Firstly, it is one of two bails at either end of the pitch; the wicket is guarded by a batsman who, with his bat, attempts to prevent the ball from hitting the wicket. Secondly, through metonymic usage, the dismissal of a batsman is known as the taking of a wicket, thirdly, the cricket pitch itself is sometimes called the wicket; the origin of the word is from a small gate. Cricket wickets had only two stumps and one bail and looked like a gate; the third stump was introduced in 1775. The size and shape of the wicket has changed several times during the last 300 years and its dimensions and placing is now determined by Law 8 in the Laws of Cricket, thus: Law 8: The wickets; the wicket consists of three wooden stumps. The stumps are placed along the batting crease with equal distances between each stump, they are positioned. Two wooden bails are placed in shallow grooves on top of the stumps; the bails must not project more than 0.5 inches above the stumps, must, for men's cricket, be 4.31 inches long.
There are specified lengths for the barrel and spigots of the bail. There are different specifications for the bails for junior cricket; the umpires may dispense with the bails. Further details on the specifications of the wickets are contained in Appendix D to the laws. For a batsman to be dismissed by being bowled, run out, stumped or hit wicket, his wicket needs to be put down. What this means is defined by Law 29. A wicket is put down if a bail is removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the grounds by the ball, the striker's bat, the striker's person, a fielder. A 2010 amendment to the Laws clarified the rare circumstance where a bat breaks during the course of a shot and the detached debris breaks the wicket; the wicket is put down if a fielder pulls a stump out of the ground in the same manner. If one bail is off, removing the remaining bail or striking or pulling any of the three stumps out of the ground is sufficient to put the wicket down. A fielder may remake the wicket, if necessary, in order to put it down to have an opportunity of running out a batsman.
If however both bails are off, a fielder must remove one of the three stumps out of the ground with the ball, or pull it out of the ground with a hand or arm, provided that the ball is held in the hand or hands so used, or in the hand of the arm so used. If the umpires have agreed to dispense with bails, for example, it is too windy for the bails to remain on the stumps, the decision as to whether the wicket has been put down is one for the umpire concerned to decide. After a decision to play without bails, the wicket has been put down if the umpire concerned is satisfied that the wicket has been struck by the ball, by the striker's bat, person, or items of his clothing or equipment separated from his person as described above, or by a fielder with the hand holding the ball or with the arm of the hand holding the ball; the dismissal of a batsman is known as the taking of a wicket. The batsman is said to have lost his wicket, the batting side is said to have lost a wicket, the fielding side to have taken a wicket, the bowler is said to have taken his wicket, if the dismissal is one of the types for which the bowler receives credit.
This language is used if the dismissal did not involve the stumps and bails in any way, for example, a catch. Though note that the other four of the five most common methods of dismissal do involve the stumps and bails being put down, or prevented from being put down by the batsman; the word wicket has this meaning in the following contexts: A team's score is described in terms of the total number of runs scored and the total number of wickets lost. The number of wickets taken is a primary measure of a individual bowler's ability, a key part of a bowling analysis; the sequence of time over which two particular batsmen bat together, a partnership, is referred to as a numbered wicket when discriminating it from other partnerships in the innings. The first wicket partnership is from the start of the innings until the team loses its first wicket, i.e. one of the first two batsmen is dismissed. The second wicket partnership is from when the third batsman starts batting until the team loses its second wicket, i.e. a second batsman is dismissed.
Etc... The tenth wicket or last wicket partnership is from when the eleventh batsman starts batting until the team loses its tenth wicket, i.e. a tenth batsman is dismissed. A team can win a match by a certain number of wickets; this means that they were batting last, reached the winning target with a certain number of batsmen still not dismissed. For example, if the side scored the required number of runs to win with only three batsmen dismissed, they are said to have won by seven wickets; the word wicket is sometimes used to refer to the cricket pitch itself. According to the Laws of Cricket, this usage is incorrect, but it is in common usage and understood by cricket followers; the term sticky wicket refers to a situation in which the pitch has become damp due to rain or high humidity. This makes the path of the ball more unpredictable thus making the
One Day International
A One Day International is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs 50. The Cricket World Cup is played in this format, held every four years. One Day International matches are called Limited Overs Internationals, although this generic term may refer to Twenty20 International matches, they are major considered the highest standard of List A, limited overs competition. The international one-day game is a late-twentieth-century development; the first ODI was played on 5 January 1971 between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. When the first three days of the third Test were washed out officials decided to abandon the match and, play a one-off one-day game consisting of 40 eight-ball overs per side. Australia won the game by 5 wickets. ODIs were played in white kits with a red ball. In the late 1970s, Kerry Packer established the rival World Series Cricket competition, it introduced many of the features of One Day International cricket that are now commonplace, including coloured uniforms, matches played at night under floodlights with a white ball and dark sight screens, for television broadcasts, multiple camera angles, effects microphones to capture sounds from the players on the pitch, on-screen graphics.
The first of the matches with coloured uniforms was the WSC Australians in wattle gold versus WSC West Indians in coral pink, played at VFL Park in Melbourne on 17 January 1979. This led not only to Packer's Channel 9 getting the TV rights to cricket in Australia but led to players worldwide being paid to play, becoming international professionals, no longer needing jobs outside cricket. Matches played with coloured kits and a white ball became more commonplace over time, the use of white flannels and a red ball in ODIs ended in 2001. In the main the Laws of cricket apply. However, in ODIs, each team bats for a fixed number of overs. In the early days of ODI cricket, the number of overs was 60 overs per side, matches were played with 40, 45 or 55 overs per side, but now it has been uniformly fixed at 50 overs. Stated, the game works as follows: An ODI is contested by two teams of 11 players each; the Captain of the side winning the toss bowl first. The team batting first sets the target score in a single innings.
The innings lasts until the batting side is "all out" or all of the first side's allotted overs are completed. Each bowler is restricted to bowling a maximum of 10 overs. Therefore, each team must comprise at least five competent bowlers; the team batting second tries to score more. The side bowling second tries to bowl out the second team or make them exhaust their overs before they reach the target score in order to win. If the number of runs scored by both teams is equal when the second team loses all its wickets or exhausts all its overs the game is declared a tie. Where a number of overs are lost, for example, due to inclement weather conditions the total number of overs may be reduced. In the early days of ODI cricket, the team with the better run rate won, but this favoured the second team. For the 1992 World Cup, an alternative method was used of omitting the first team's worst overs, but that favoured the first team. Since the late 1990s, the target or result is determined by the Duckworth-Lewis method, a method with statistical approach.
It takes into consideration the fact that the wickets in hand plays a crucial role in pacing the run-rate. In other words, a team with more wickets in hand can play way more aggressively than the team with fewer wickets in hand; when insufficient overs are played to apply the Duckworth-Lewis method, a match is declared no result. Important one-day matches in the latter stages of major tournaments, may have two days set aside, such that a result can be achieved on the "reserve day" if the first day is washed out—either by playing a new game, or by resuming the match, rain-interrupted; the original DL-method however had a few inherent flaws. For example, Tony Lewis, one of the formulators of this method recognized after the match between India and Kenya during the 1999 World Cup held in Bristol, that the original method gave an unfair advantage to the team chasing scores above 350 runs in a 50 overs match. Hence, the method was revised and a new version was released in 2004. There was one more such change made, first implemented on 2009.
Off late, the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method is used, a modification of the DL-Method suggested by Prof. Steven Stern, it was first implemented during the 2015 World Cup. One of the major changes made to DLS from DL method was based on a historic analysis by Prof. Stern that a team with higher run rate in their initial stages has a greater chance to get to a high score than a team with slow initial run rate, but more wickets in hand; because the game uses a white ball instead of the red one used in first-class cricket, the ball can become discoloured and hard to see as the innings progresses, so the ICC has used various rules to help keep the ball playable. Most ICC has made the use of two new balls, the same strategy, used in the 1992 and 1996 World Cu
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Gloucestershire. Founded in 1870, Gloucestershire have always been first-class and have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England; the club played its first senior match in 1870 and W. G. Grace was their captain; the club plays home games at the Bristol County Ground in the Bishopston area of north Bristol. A number of games are played at the Cheltenham cricket festival at the College Ground and matches have been played at the Gloucester cricket festival at The King's School, Gloucester. Gloucestershire's most famous players have been W. G. Grace, whose father founded the club, Wally Hammond, who scored 113 centuries for them; the club has had two notable periods of success: in the 1870s when it was unofficially acclaimed as the Champion County on at least three occasions, from 1999 to 2006 when it won seven limited overs trophies, a "double double" in 1999 and 2000, the Sunday League in 2000.
Champion County – 1874, 1876, 1877. It is known that the related sport of "Stow-Ball" aka "Stob-Ball" was played in the county during the 16th century. In this game, the bat was called a "stave". See Alice B Gomme: The Traditional Games of England and Ireland. A game in Gloucester on 22 September 1729 is the earliest definite reference to cricket in the county. From until the founding of the county club little has been found outside parish cricket. In the early 1840s, Dr Henry Grace and his brother-in-law Alfred Pocock founded the Mangotsfield Cricket Club which merged in 1846 with the West Gloucestershire Cricket Club, whose name was adopted until 1867, after which it became the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. Grace hoped that Gloucestershire would join the first-class county clubs but the situation was complicated in 1863 by the formation of a rival club called the Cheltenham and Gloucestershire Cricket Club. Dr Grace's club played Gloucestershire's initial first-class match versus Surrey at Durdham Down in Bristol on 2, 3 & 4 June 1870.
Gloucestershire joined the County Championship at this time but the existence of the Cheltenham club seems to have forestalled the installation of its "constitutional trappings". The Cheltenham club was wound up in March 1871 and its chief officials accepted positions in the hierarchy of Gloucestershire. So, although the exact details and dates of the county club's foundation are uncertain, it has always been assumed that the year was 1870 and the club celebrated its centenary in 1970. What is certain is that Dr Grace was able to form the county club because of its playing strength his three sons WG, EM and Fred; the early history of Gloucestershire is dominated by the Grace family, most notably W G Grace, the club's original captain and held that post until his departure for London in 1899. His brother E M Grace, although still an active player, was the original club secretary. With the Grace brothers and Billy Midwinter in their team, Gloucestershire won three Champion County titles in the 1870s.
Since Gloucestershire's fortunes have been mixed and they have never won the official County Championship. They struggled in the pre-war years of the County Championship because their best batsmen, apart from Gilbert Jessop and Charlie Townsend, were rarely available; the bowling, except when Townsend did sensational things on sticky wickets in late 1895 and late 1898, was weak until George Dennett emerged – it had the fault of depending far too much on him. Wally Hammond, who still holds many of the county's batting records formed part of an strong inter-war team, although the highest championship finish during this period was second in 1930 and 1931, when Charlie Parker and Tom Goddard formed a devastating spin attack. Outstanding players since the war include Tom Graveney, "Jack" Russell and overseas players Mike Procter, Zaheer Abbas and Courtney Walsh. Gloucestershire was successful in one-day cricket in the late 1990s and early 2000s winning several titles under the captaincy of Mark Alleyne and coaching of John Bracewell.
The club operated on a small budget and was famed as a team greater than the sum of its parts, boasting few international stars. Gloucestershire's overall knockout record between 1999 and 2002 was 28 wins and seven losses from 37 games, including 16 wins from 18 at the Bristol County Ground; the club's run of success started by defeating Yorkshire to win the Benson & Hedges Super Cup in 1999 before beating neighbours Somerset in the 1999 NatWest Trophy final at Lord's. In 2000 Gloucestershire completed a hat-trick of one-day titles, winning all the domestic limited overs tournaments, the Benson and Hedges Cup, the C&G Trophy and the Sunday League in the same season; the club maintained its success winning the C&G Trophy in 2003 and 2004, beating Worcestershire in the final on both occasions. The club's captain f
_(cropped).jpg)
