If it isn't today then it should have been.

The Husseys did it for the Aussies, while the Pathans did it for the Indians.

From 101-3, the Husseys took the Australians to 216 leaving them less than 30 to get off the next 34 deliveries.

The Pathans bettered that.

Chasing 172 in 20 overs, India looked down and out at 115-7 in 15.1 overs.

But such is the confidence of this Indian team that despite losing Jadeja on the 1st ball of the 16th over, Yusuf Pathan smashed 17 off the next 5 deliveries.

Imagine that.

The Pathans added 59 off only 25 deliveries to take India home with 4 balls to spare.

A day for the Husseys. A day for the Pathans.

A day for the Brothers!

vs Pakistan: 10-0-68-0

vs Sri Lanka: 10-0-80-1

vs Sri Lanka, Final:

10.6 Pathan to Jayasuriya, 1 run, 114.6 kmph delivery off the scrambled seam, outside off and Jaya retains the strike with a dab to Ishant at third man

10.5 Pathan to Jayasuriya, no run, 127 kmph delivery and outside off, cut hard but straight to point. A deep point is in place now

10.4 Pathan to Jayasuriya, FOUR, And again. Yummy little short-arm cut over point. Typical Jayasuriya. Great to watch. A tad short in length and outside off, Jayasuriya went back to carve it up and over

10.3 Pathan to Jayasuriya, FOUR, 113.02 kmph drifts down leg and Jayasuriya tickles it to fine-leg boundary. Ten runs from the first three balls. Jayasuriya is going after Pathan.

10.2 Pathan to Jayasuriya, 2 runs, a 99.02 kmph slower one and Jayasuriya dashes down the track and is a touch early into his lofted shot but clears the covers. Sehwag ran back but couldn't reach it.

10.1 Pathan to Jayasuriya, FOUR, 125.3 kmph gentle seam-up delivery outside off and Jayasuriya blasts it off the back foot through covers.

Why is he playing?

That said, Lankans seem to be in trouble. Not cause of Pathan though.

The Venue

The 9th edition of the Asia Cup gets underway in Pakistan from Tuesday.

This is the 1st time that the Asia Cup is being held in Pakistan with the previous editions held in Sharjah (1984, 1995), India (1991), Sri Lanka (1986, 1997, 2004), and Bangladesh (1988, 2000).

The Teams

Besides the 4 Asian test playing nations, the top two Asian associate nations, Honk Kong and the UAE, are also part of the tournament as they were in 2004.

The 6 teams have been divided into 2 Groups:

Group A: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, UAE
Group B: Pakistan, India, Honk Kong

The Format

Round 1 will take all of 3 days to complete with each team playing against the other in its Group.

Group A matches will be held in Lahore, while Group B will be based in Karachi.

The top 2 teams from each group will move forward to Round 2 where they play against each other in a Round-Robin format over a week. All matches will be held in Karachi.

The top 2 at the end of the Round-Robin stage will contest the final, which will also be played in Karachi.

The Champions

Sri Lanka are the defending champions having won the Asia Cup in 2004 at home. They have won the title on 2 pevious occassions as well - 1986 and 1997.

India have won the most Asia Cup titles with 4 victories in 1984, 1988, 1991, and 1995.

Pakistan have won it only once in 2000.

The Performers

Batsmen

Among the top 10 run scorers in the Asia Cup, only Sanath Jayasuriya and Mohmmad Yousuf will be playing this edition.

Jayasuriya tops the batting charts with 842 runs in 20 Asia Cup matches at an average of 46.77.

Yousuf is 10th on the same list with 392 runs in 9 matches at an average of 78.40.

Jayasuriya also tops the centuries list with 4 Asia Cup 100s, while Shoaib Malik is the only other player with more than 1 Asia Cup 100 - both his 100s came in the previous edition, a time when Malik used to bat at number 3 (Hint).

Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan are the only other centurions playing in this edition of the Asia Cup.

Bowlers

Sanath Jayasuriya is also the highest wicket taker in past Asia Cup with 20 wickets in 20 matches at an average of 30.25.

His team mates, Vaas and Muralitharan, are also among the top 10 with 18 and 16 wickes respectively.

Irfan Pathan is the only other player from those taking part in this edition to feature in the top 10 with all his 14 wickets coming in the previous tournament.

All matches will be day-night and will start at 10:00am GMT (4:00pm PST, 3:30pm IST, and 2:00pm UAE time).

Coming Soon on Well Pitched:

Asia Cup 2008: The Form Book
Asia Cup 2008: Getting to Know the UAE

The 3rd Quarter of the Indian Premier League is over. In 30 days, 42 matches have been played.

Initially, when I started doing these quarterly reports (Q1, Q2), I did not know that the matches were evenly distributed with 14 games over every 10 days. But thats how it has perfectly panned out and it only seems logical to compare how each of these 10 days were.

RR, RCB, and DC have had consistent quarters in the IPL, while the fortunes of the other teams have fluctuated throughout. KXI and CSK strenghtened their positions during Q3, while MI continued its strong resurgence by becoming the only team to win 6 consecutive games in the IPL.

KKR and DDD who began their campaigns strongly are dangerously lingering in the 5th and 6th positions, yet the RACE to the Final Four remains open. S. Rajesh of Cricinfo pointed out a possibility that even at this stage, RR can miss out.

Thats how open and unpredictable this tournament has been and thats why the viewers have been hooked.

Some people questioned that the length of the tournament, 45 days to be exact, would be taxing on the viewers who would lose interest. Nothing like that has happened and Q3 was witnessed with the same packed crowds and large number of TV viewers as Q1 and Q2.

With Q4 expected to be the most exciting quarter of the IPL, and the RACE to the Final Four in its concluding stages, expect the interest of the viewers to remain high, if not higher than the preceding quarters.

Here's a look at the top performers of the IPL at the end of Q3.

Leading Batsmen
1. Gautam Gambhir (DDD) - 465 runs in 11 innings at 46.50
2. Virender Sehwag (DDD) - 338 runs in 11 innings at 37.55
3. Rohit Sharma (DC) - 337 runs in 10 innings at 37.44
4. Sanath Jayasuriya (MI) - 336 runs in 10 innings at 42.00
5. Adam Gilchrist (DC) - 335 in 11 innings at 33.50

The top 3 batsmen remain the same as Q2, however Gambhir and Sharma exchange places. Gambhir has looked impressive throughout the tournament and now has over a 100 run lead over Sehwag, the 2nd highest run scorer in the IPL.

Jayasuriya breaks into the top 5 for the first time, while Gilchrist drops from 4 at the end of Q2 to 5. I reckon Jayasuriya in the last 3 games has batted the way he did in 1996, which by far was his best cricketing year with the bat.

Its interesting to note that only a single run separate each of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th ranked batsmen. And only 2 runs separate the 5th from the 6th (Shane Watson, 333), which is separated by only a run with the 7th (MS Dhoni, 332).

Graeme Smith, Shaun Marsh, and David Hussey make up the top 10. Marsh has batted only 6 times for his 297 runs, which is quite remarkable.

While Gambhir is leading by quite a big margin, there isn't much difference between the other batsmen in the top 10.

Leading Bowlers
1. RP Singh (DC) - 15 wickets in 11 matches at 23.86
2. Shane Warne (RR) - 14 wickets in 10 matches at 18.78
3. Irfan Pathan (KXIP) - 13 wickets in 10 matches at 18.69
4. Sreesanth (KXIP) - 13 wickets in 10 matches at 22.61
5. Zaheer Khan (RCB) - 13 wickets in 10 matches at 24.61

Irfan Pathan, who topped the charts at the end of Q1 and Q2 drops from the top spot down to number 3, which he shares with team mate Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan.

The Indians continue to dominate the bowling list as they did in Q1 and Q2, with RP Singh over taking his Indian team mates to the number 1 spot at the end of Q3.

From the list at the end of Q2, Ashish Nehra drops out, while Sreesanth breaks into the top 5 for the first time. The slap has definitely done him a lot of good.

Shane Warne, who had dropped from 3rd to 5th between Q1 and Q2, is now in the 2nd spot. My bets are on him topping the charts at the end of Q4.

The 6th in the list, Watson has 12 wickets, while the bowlers from 7th to 11th (Tanvir, Kulkarni, Bravo, Chawla) each have 11 wickets apiece.

Other Stats
Highest Team Score: 240-5, CSK vs KXIP.
Highest Individual Score: 158*, Brendon McCullum (KKR) vs RCB.
Best Strike Rate (min 100 runs): 204.34, Brendon McCullum (KKR).
Most Sixes: 20, Sanath Jayasuriya (MI)
Best Bowling Performance: 6-14, Sohail Tanvir (RR) vs CSK.
Best Economy Rate (min 10 overs): 5.77, Saurav Ganguly (KKR).

The highest team and individual scores, and the highest strike rate have remain unchanged since Q1. Plus it took 2 quarters for someone to surpass McCullum's number of sixes, all of which were hit during Q1.

Sohail Tanvir's figures remain untouched, even though Balaji, Mishra, Ntini, and Shoaib Akhtar have come close. Overall there was better bowling on display during Q3 than the preceding quarters.

Ganguly is a surprise with the best economy rate - he has bowled 17 overs for only 104 runs, and he's picked up 5 wickets as well.

Another 10 days to go for the group stage. Another 14 matches, which will not only decide the RACE, but also the top performers.

Stay tuned for Q4 results.

27 matches of the Indian Premier League have been completed in 20 days. Every team has played the other team apart from KKR vs DD - apart from these 2, all teams have played 7 matches each.

Match 28 and 29 are today and another 29 matches will be played over the next 20 days before the knock outs.

The results have been unpredictable as I highlighted in the post below.

Here's a look at the top performers of the first half of the IPL.

Leading Batsmen
1. Rohit Sharma (DC) - 258 runs in 6 innings at 51.60
2. Virender Sehwag (DDD) - 247 runs in 6 innings at 49.40
3. Gautam Gambhir (DDD) - 225 runs in 6 innings at 45.00
4. Adam Gilchrist (DC) - 223 runs in 7 innings at 37.16
5. Robhin Uthappa (MI) - 211 runs in 7 innings at 42.20

At the end of Q1 there were no Indians in the top 5, however now 4 of the top 5 run scorers are Indians. Moreover, all of them who are part of the international ODI and 20-20 side.

At the end of Q1 results, I pointed out that Sehwag, R. Sharma, and Uthappa have done well in bursts but haven't been consistent to be in the top 5. Now they are all there.

Interesting to note that 2 of the top 5 are from a team who have won only 2 matches out of 7 in the 1st half of the group stages.

Brendon Mcullum and Matthew Hayden who topped the charts during Q1 have since left the IPL, as has Symonds who was in 5th place at the time. Kumar Sangakkara and Shane Watson who were at 3rd and 4th at the end of Q1, have dropped to 7th and 6th respectively.

Despite not having played the last 3 matches, Hayden and McCullum remain in the top 10 highlighting the lack of runs from other big names still playing.

Leading Bowlers
1. Irfan Pathan (KXIP) - 12 wickets in 7 matches at 14.50
2. Zaheer Khan (RCB) - 12 wickets in 7 matches at 17.66
3. Ashish Nehra (MI) - 10 wickets in 7 matches at 16.80
4. RP Singh (DC) - 10 wickets in 7 matches at 19.00
5. Shane Warne (RR) - 9 wickets in 7 matches at 19.22


Just like the batting, the bowling charts are also dominated by Indians with the top 4 wicket takers all Indian internationals. What more they are all left arm pacers!

Irfan Pathan continues his run at the top at the end of Q2 - he was there at the end of Q1 as well. And you can't leave Shane Warne out of any top 5 bowling list, however he drops from 3 at the end of Q1 to 5.

Ajit Agarkar, Shahid Afridi, and Harbhajan Singh who were 2, 4, and 5 at the end of Q1 are now at 10, 15, and sitting at home respectively. Agarkar was definitely not going to continue his run at the top, while Afridi has just taken 2 wickets during Q2 compared to his 5 in Q1.

There are another 2 Indians in the top 10 in Manpreet Gony and DS Kulkarni. And there's another left armer as well in Sohail Tanvir sitting at number 8. Shane Watson at 6 makes up the top 10.

Shane Watson at number 6 in the run charts and the bowling charts! Who would have thought. Surprising some part of his body hasn't twisted, torn, pulled, or broken yet.

Other Stats
Highest Team Score: 240-5, CSK vs KXIP.
Highest Individual Score: 158*, Brendon McCullum (KKR) vs RCB.
Best Strike Rate (min 100 runs): 204.34, Brendon McCullum (KKR).
Most Sixes: 15, Brendon McCullum (KKR) / Adam Gilchrist (DC).
Best Bowling Performance: 6-14, Sohail Tanvir (RR) vs CSK.
Best Economy Rate (min 10 overs): 5.80, Sohail Tanvir (RR).

I don't see these lists changing much between now and Q3 or even Q4, but stranger things have happened. Maybe Misbah will score a 150 or David Hussey will hit 2 back to back centuries and show the world what he is capable of. Maybe Cameron White will score a run too.

Steyn could pick up a 5 wicket haul, maybe batsmen will start going after McGrath and he'll pick up a bunch of wickets. Umar Gul has played only 2 matches for his 5 wickets so his next 8 could produce another 20 or so. And Shoaib Akhtar will start his campaign soon.

Here are the end of Q1 results. I'll be back with an update at the end of Q3 in another 10 days.

Before the start of the Indian Premier League the prospects of watching a team led by VVS Laxman and including Gilchrist, Afridi, Gibbs, and Vaas taking on a team led by Yuvraj Singh and comprising of Sangakkara, Jayawardene, and Irfan Pathan would have been nothing less than a Clash of the Titans.

The Deccan Chargers and the Kings from Punjab though have had less than ideal starts to their campaign.

Both teams lost their first few matches but have picked up recently with the Chargers winning their last one convincingly and the Kings winning their last two.

Its a downer that both teams have lost Symonds and Lee since the 2 going toe to toe, or for that matter, Lee bowling to Gilchrist would have been gruelling contests to watch. And Sreesanth also misses his chance of a bowl to Symonds.

But the match still involves some exciting stuff to watch out for:

• Adam Gilchrist and Herchelle Gibbs opening the batting - Pathan & Co. will be trembling at just the thought of this.


• Vaas bowling to the Lankan batting supremos - King Sanga and Jayawardene.


• A battle of the Indian bowling attack - Pathan on one side, RP on the other. Both have attacked for India before. They have for the U19 team as well. Here they are on opposing sides.


• Ajitesh Argal, India's U19 pacer could come in for Lee - he is an exciting prospect.


• RP bowling to Yuvi with Sanga behind the stumps. And Vaasy bowling to Sanga and Gilchrist behind the stumps.


• Will Sreesanth get into Gilly's face? Or is he a changed man after the slap?


• Everyones been waiting for Afridi to fire. After watching Symonds and Gilchrist blaze away, Afridi is raring to go. We could be in for a treat of he fires after Gilly and Gibbs.

This and Preity Zinta and a whole lot more at 2:30PM GMT.

(one of our readers and an ardent admirer of Ms. Zinta pointed out that I had been spelling her name wrong. I made a conscious effort to get it right this time round)

14 matches of the Indian Premier League have been completed in 10 days - thats 25% of the 56 matches to be played over 40 days in the group stage.

I think this is a good time to take a look at the top performers of the IPL thus far.

Leading Batsmen
1. Brendon McCullum (KKR) - 187 runs at 93.50
2. Matthew Hayden (KXIP) - 176 runs at 88.00
3. Kumar Sangakkara (KXIP)- 172 runs at 43.00
4. Shane Watson (RR) - 162 runs at 81.00
5. Andrew Symonds (DC) - 161 runs at 80.50

85% of McCullum's and 72% of Symond's runs have come from 1 innings. Plus their averages are inflated because of those innings being unbeaten ones. Hayden, Sangakkara, and Watson on the other hand have been more consistent.

The international players have performed better than their Indian counterparts - the first Indian to appear in the list of leading run scorers is Yuvraj Singh at 7 who only has a single 50 plus score in 4 innings.

Uthappa, Sehwag, R. Sharma, Raina, Y. Pathan, and Abhishek Nayar are some of the Indians who have done well in bursts but none has matched the top internationals.

Sachin hasn't played yet and the other 3 of the famous Big 4 - Ganguly, Dravid, and Laxman - haven't done anything of note.

With the likes of Misbah, Gibbs, and Hodge coming in to the teams and Gilchrist and Greame Smith batting with form it will be interesting to see how the above table changes over the course of the IPL.

Leading Bowlers
1. Irfan Pathan (KXIP) - 7 wickets at 16.14
2. Ajit Agarkar (KKR) - 6 wickets at 10.50
3. Shane Warne (RR) - 6 wickets at 17.50
4. Shahid Afridi (DC) - 5 wickets at 15.40
5. Harbhajan Singh (MI) - 5 wickets at 16.40

Unlike the batting, 3 Indian bowlers dominate the top 5 wicket takers of the IPL. Thats a surprise.

Whats not surprising though is that 3 of the top 5 bowlers are spinners in Warne, Afridi, and Bhajji. Last year's 20-20 world cup showed that spinners in this form of the game are very potent attacking weapons and it is no surprise to see them high up in the list.

Afridi is the highest wicket taker in all 20-20 internationals and he was also one of the leading wicket takers of the 20-20 world cup, which also got him the 'player of the tournament award'. He has been in brilliant form with the ball for the Chargers and I reckon he will end up as one of the highest, if not the highest wicket taker in the IPL. Shane Warne will as well.

Indian bowlers have done better than their batsmen as another 3 in RP Singh, Rajat Bhatia, and VRV Singh feature in the top 10 list. Who said India's batting is its strength?

Watch out for Dale Steyn who joins RCB this week and Umar Gul who joins KKR. Steyn wrecked the Windies with scorching yorkers in a 20-20 game earlier this year, while Gul finished top of the wicket taking list at last years 20-20 world cup.

Other Stats
Highest Team Score: 240-5, CSK vs KXIP.
Highest Individual Score: 158*, Brendon McCullum (KKR) vs RCB.
Best Strike Rate: 219.60, Virender Sehwag (DDD).
Most Sixes: 15, Brendon McCullum (KKR).
Best Bowling Performance: 3-17, Murali Karthik (KKR) vs DC.
Best Economy Rate: 4.00, Mohammad Hafeez (KKR).

I'll update these lists and stats in another 10 days after the next 14 matches as the IPL reaches its half way stage. Will these players continue their run of form or will others rise to out-perform them?

The next 10 days provides cracking battles with the likes of Delhi and Mumbai bringing their historical Ranjhi rivalry into the IPL, Warne's high spirited Royal taking on Ganguly's Knight Riders, Dravid's Royal Challengers taking on old friend and team mate Laxman's Chargers, and a whole lot more.

And it all starts today with Indian captain Dhoni's Super Kings going up against the man Dhoni took over from, Dravid's, Royal Challengers.

This will be the farewell game for Hayden, Hussey, Oram, and Taylor, so keep an eye out for top performances from them. Misbah and Steyn could play as soon as tonight, and if that happens, the favorites CSK could be in for a tough one.

As always, tonight at 230PM GMT.

You gotta love what the Indians are doing in the 3rd test versus Australia. The visiting side has got the home side in a spot of bother at the end of the 3rd day of a very gripping 3rd test. Will the Indians end the Aussie winning streak at 16 just like they did back in 2001? Most of the cricketing world is hoping to see the invincible Aussies lose to make some in-roads to making the playing field somewhat even.

The spring in the Indian team really can be attributed to the inclusion of the talented all-rounder Irfan Pathan. It is mind boggling why he was not included in the first two tests. In my opinion he is one of the best all-rounders in the game today and he has proved it again in this test match.

Pathan's bowling has been spot on in this match - bowling aggressive and with a lot of variety. He was among the wickets in the first innings and has removed both the Australian openers in the 2nd innings to put India in a commanding position. But perhaps what really has put India in a commanding position at the end of day 3 is Pathan's gritty and fighting innings of 46 with all the batsmen around him falling. This really gave India the impetus to put up a sizeable lead and Laxman built on that and ensured that the visiting team put enough runs on the board to give their bowlers the marked advantage.

Pathan brings a lot of the intagibles that I was referring to in my last post. To add to that he is a really good bowler and a decent bat. Pathan should be an automatic selection in the Indian team in any form of the game!