Cristory Blogs

Afghanistan has came into the tournament with a gameplan and apart from the last game against India, thier plan was not disrupted by any team.  Follow CriStory on Youtube here Follow CriStory on Facebook here Follow CriStory on Twitter here To say that Afghanistan were the second best team after India in this tournament can be debatable but justifiable. They won both of their Super 6 matches convincingly, lost 2 matches in last overs, one while defending, the other in chasing and finally tied a match against India who were not at full strength but were still pretty solid. In the 2 lost matches, they were perhaps lacking the experience of being in such crunch situations and on both occasions, were undone by 2 superior quality players in Shoaib Malik and Mustafizur Rehman.  Hashmatullah Shahidi is the top scorer for Afghanistan in Asia Cup 2018 Afghanistan has came into the tournament with a gameplan and apart from the last game against India, their plan was not disrup

On the day when the next best score was 26, Virat Kohli scored 149. You might be tricked into thinking that he had it easy. Believe me it was not. At least the 1st 100 balls were not. But as the day progressed, his batting evolved in what will be considered the best innings of his test career so far. Indian openers started well and it looked like India will impose a big total on England. But then Vijay lost his concentration, KL played a loose shot and Dhawan brought out his inner self. Suddenly in the space of 18 balls, India were 3 down. English seamers were looking good on a wicket where Indian seamers worked very hard to extract very less a day before. Battle of Kohli versus Anderson has already started but India made to lunch without any more harm. Although things changed after the introduction of Stokes. Of all the people, Rahane was having jitters. He was not able to pick the correct line from Stokes whose angle threw him off. Then in Stokes 4th over Rahane dabbed to a slig

Asia Cup is to played from 15th to 28th September with 6 teams and 2 stages. But could the scheduling and format have been much better? The Schedule for Asia Cup 2018 has been finally announced. The tournament is to be held between 15th September to 28th September between 5 Teams in India, Pakistan, SriLanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and 1 team coming through Qualifier. Qualifiers will also be held in September prior to the main tournament and the participating teams will be Oman, Nepal, UAE, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. This time tournament will again revert back to ODI format after it was played in T20 format in the year 2016 in sight of match practice for World T20 Championship. Main Tournament itself will be in 2 stages with both rounds to be held in round robin format. In 1st round, teams will be divided into 2 groups with 1st group consisting of India, Pakistan and a team from Qualifier and 2 group of Bangladesh, SriLanka and Afghanistan. 2 teams will qualify from

While earlier it was believed that it was a thumb fracture that is keeping Wriddhiman Saha out of 5-test series against England, now it is reported that it is actually a posterosuperior labral tear on his right shoulder that will now require a surgery and a long rehabilitation. Saha has been the 1st choice Wicket Keeper for Indian Team since the retirement of MS Dhoni from test matches in the start of 2015. But the relapse of the shoulder injury will now keep him out of the game for upto 4 months. He was ruled out of the 3rd test in South Africa in January this year due to a hamstring injury. Later in the month, when he reported in NCA, he complained of pain in his right shoulder. Ultrasound then confirmed a tear in the shoulder. An ultrasound guided  steroid injection was given to him and followed by a rehabilitation program. Palying for SRH in IPL, on May 7th against RCB, he fell on his shoulder and was injured again in right shoulder. A second injection was given to him resul

Virat Kohli finally loses a Bi-lateral ODI series, a trend started since beating England in the start of 2017, same series before which Dhoni relinquished the captaincy and Kohli was finally made captain in all the 3 formats. Since then Indian Team has been riding high on success winning 7 bilateral series in succession(they have won 2 more series prior to that under Dhoni's captaincy). This series was also started with at 8 wicket drubbing of English team currently ranked no 1 in ODI rankings. But whatever went right in that 1st ODI didn't work in next 2 ODIs. Top order failed and the spinners were dealt with relative ease. Although this is not the 1st time that India's middle order looked worse and bowler were toothless on a flat pitch. Everyone remember Champions Trophy 2017 final where both these things happened but loss against Sri Lanka in group stages was also equally worrisome where bowlers failed to defend a 320 total. Similarly, that 1 loss against South Africa