What is the ICC Champions trophy?

This June we will get to watch the International Cricket Council 's second biggest event. The Champions Trophy runs roughly every two years and currently involves the 8 highest ranked ODI teams. It is an ODI tournament a bit like the World Cup but with less teams. It could be seen as a more elite tournament. 

There are two groups in this year's competition. Group A features Australia, England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Group B has India, Pakistan, South Africa and West Indies. It began in 1998, which South Africa won, believe it or not. 

The late Hansie Cronje captained SA to their
first ICC event win in the 1998 ICC CT. Image taken from
http://www.supersport.com/cricket/content.aspx?id=19234.

In their only ICC event win, SA beat West Indies in the final by 4 wickets with 18 balls to spare. Jacques Kallis was the man of the match in the final and was awarded player of the tournament. You can read about that final here http://www.icc-cricket.com/events_and_awards/champions_trophy/event_history.php.

I expect the tournament to be very exciting this year. The top four ICC ranked ODI teams are all within 4 points. As of 05 May 2013 the rankings are:

India      119 points
England  117 points
Australia 116 points

South Africa (4th) are on 113 points and Sri Lanka (5th) are on 108 points.

It has been a while since South Africa have entered an ODI tournament not being one of the top 3 ranked teams.

The history of the tournament:

1998      - SA
2000/01 - NZ
2002/03 - IND/SRI 
(Rain prevented a game being finished in 2 days, so the trophy was shared)
2004      - WI
2006      - AUS
2009      - AUS

This Champions Trophy starts on 6 June.

JP Duminy makes a return to international cricket. Image taken from http://en.wikipedia.org.

The biggest news for South African fans is that Jacques Kallis has asked not to play in the Champions League, and in his place JP Duminy has made a comeback to the squad, following a 6 month injury. The Proteas squad for the Champions League looks good. Here it is:

AB de Villiers (capt) 
Hashim Amla 
Farhaan Behardien 
JP Duminy 
Faf du Plessis 
Colin Ingram 
Rory Kleinveldt 
Ryan McLaren 
David Miller 
Morne Morkel 
Robin Peterson 
Aaron Phangiso 
Graeme Smith 
Dale Steyn 
Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

My only qualm about the squad is that I think Roelof van der Merwe has done very well recently and I think he should have been included ahead of Aaron Phangiso.

IPL6 is currently ongoing. It is in the second half of its progression. The final is on 26 May. Image take from http://ipl2013t20.blogspot.com/2013/04/watch-ipl-2013-live-streaming-season-6.html.

I said recently that the Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Sunrisers Hyderabad are the only teams capable of winning the IPL. It seems once again I have to eat my words. The Sunrisers Hyderabad are not looking as good as they were in the first third of the tournament. However the Rajastan Royals and Mumbai Indians look more like they are up for the challenge.

I don't want to make any sweeping statements and then be proven wrong. Let me just say that at this point the Pune Warriors India and the Delhi Daredevils have been unimpressive and are the only teams I seriously expect to not get near making the final.

If you would like to find out more about the ICC Champions Trophy go to http://www.icc-cricket.com/events_and_awards/champions_trophy/index.php or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_Champions_Trophy.

There's Only 3 possible winners in this IPL

The game is not over but I am sure the result is safe (although, the 438 game can testify against me). The Royal Challengers Bangalore made 263-5 against the Pune Warriors today in a T20 IPL game, a world record. Chris Gayle made 175 not out off 66 balls for the RCB, of course a world record. It took him 30 balls to reach 100 runs and 53 deliveries to reach 150. Gayle's innings included 17 sixes and 13 fours. Pune are currently 38-3 after 5.2 overs.

An innings like that shows that a great innings by a player can win a match. I believe this is especially true in T20 cricket. My summation from this is that right now there are only three brilliant teams in this season's IPL. Only these three teams have the kind of batsmen who can win games single-handedly while also having good bowlers, fielders and a good team spirit. From the current log you can probably determine which ones they are. 

Pos	Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Net RR	For	Against	Pts
1	CSK	7	5	2	0	0	+0.648	1058/136.1	997/140.0	10
2	RCB	7	5	2	0	0	+0.470	1046/133.0	1034/139.5	10
3	SRH	7	5	2	0	0	-0.104	910/138.1	921/137.4	10
4	RR	7	4	3	0	0	+0.588	1061/139.2	958/136.2	8
5	KXIP	6	3	3	0	0	+0.204	828/112.1	829/115.3	6
6	MI	6	3	3	0	0	-0.194	947/120.0	946/117.0	6
7	KKR	6	2	4	0	0	+0.021	860/118.4	843/116.4	4
8	PWI	7	2	5	0	0	-0.706	945/138.4	994/132.1	4
9	DD	7	1	6	0	0	-0.913	967/137.0	1100/138.0	2

The log can be seen at http://www.iplt20.com

The Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad are the best IPL teams right now. They are also the three teams with the best current form in the competition. Who are the batsmen who can win games in these three teams?

From Chennai there's Michael Hussey, MS Dhoni and Murali Vijay. 

From Bangalore there's Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli.

From Hyderabad there's Kumar Sangakkara, Cameron White and Thisara Perera.

All these teams have great depth, though the Sunrisers do not have as much. Nevertheless, I believe only one of these three teams will win the IPL. The other six lack the talent, belief, form or execution. The Rajasthan Royals are not bad right now but since they lost to Chennai yesterday by five wickets, after Shane Watson scored 101 for RR, I believe they are not in the same class as the other three teams. 

Chris Gayle of the West Indies today made 175* for RCB, the world record for the highest score by a batsman in a T20 game. It was also the fastest century achieved. If any person could do it he could. Image taken from http://www.supersport.com.