December 2011 cricket schedules

December 2011 cricket schedules

December 2011
01 Thu	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Brisbane, 1st Test - Day 1 Pakistan in Bangladesh ODI Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dhaka, 1st ODI
02 Fri	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Brisbane, 1st Test - Day 2 West Indies in India ODI Series, 2011/12 India v West Indies at Visakhapatnam, 2nd ODI
03 Sat	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Brisbane, 1st Test - Day 3 Pakistan in Bangladesh ODI Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dhaka, 2nd ODI
04 Sun	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Brisbane, 1st Test - Day 4
05 Mon	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Brisbane, 1st Test - Day 5 West Indies in India ODI Series, 2011/12 India v West Indies at Ahmedabad, 3rd ODI
06 Tue	Pakistan in Bangladesh ODI Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Chittagong, 3rd ODI
07 Wed
08 Thu	West Indies in India ODI Series, 2011/12 India v West Indies at Indore, 4th ODI
09 Fri	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Hobart, 2nd Test - Day 1 Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Chittagong, 1st Test - Day 1
10 Sat	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Hobart, 2nd Test - Day 2 Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Chittagong, 1st Test - Day 2
11 Sun	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Hobart, 2nd Test - Day 3 Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Chittagong, 1st Test - Day 3 West Indies in India ODI Series, 2011/12 India v West Indies at Chennai, 5th ODI
12 Mon	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Hobart, 2nd Test - Day 4 Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Chittagong, 1st Test - Day 4
13 Tue	Trans-Tasman Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v New Zealand at Hobart, 2nd Test - Day 5 Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Chittagong, 1st Test - Day 5
14 Wed
15 Thu	Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Centurion, 1st Test - Day 1
16 Fri	Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Centurion, 1st Test - Day 2
17 Sat	Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Centurion, 1st Test - Day 3 Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dhaka, 2nd Test - Day 1
18 Sun	Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Centurion, 1st Test - Day 4 Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dhaka, 2nd Test - Day 2
19 Mon	Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Centurion, 1st Test - Day 5 Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dhaka, 2nd Test - Day 3
20 Tue	Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dhaka, 2nd Test - Day 4
21 Wed	Pakistan in Bangladesh Test Series, 2011/12 Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dhaka, 2nd Test - Day 5
22 Thu
23 Fri
24 Sat
25 Sun
26 Mon	Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v India at Melbourne, 1st Test - Day 1 Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Durban, 2nd Test - Day 1
27 Tue	Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v India at Melbourne, 1st Test - Day 2 Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Durban, 2nd Test - Day 2
28 Wed	Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v India at Melbourne, 1st Test - Day 3 Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Durban, 2nd Test - Day 3
29 Thu	Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v India at Melbourne, 1st Test - Day 4 Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Durban, 2nd Test - Day 4
30 Fri	Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 2011/12 Australia v India at Melbourne, 1st Test - Day 5 Sri Lanka in South Africa Test Series, 2011/12 South Africa v Sri Lanka at Durban, 2nd Test - Day 5
31 Sat

Australia v New Zealand

Australia v New Zealand, Group A, World Cup 2011, Nagpur

All-round Australia seal easy win

Mitchell Johnson

Shaun Tait. Brett Lee. Mitchell Johnson. The hostile fast men from Australia made an imperious statement in Nagpur. They breathed fire and New Zealand didn't have the heart, and at least today, the skills, to extinguish them. Nathan McCullum and Daniel Vettori revived New Zealand from a disastrous 73 for 6, but a below-par 206 was not enough to avoid a crushing defeat. A flamboyant Brad Haddin and an imperious Shane Watson hit entertaining half-centuries to charge Australia home.

It was a shambolic effort from the New Zealand top order. Some of the deliveries didn't deserve wickets but New Zealand were in the mood for self-destruction. They handled the best bowler on view, Lee, with caution and gave him just one wicket but imploded against Tait and Johnson. Both bowlers bowled enough tight deliveries to lure the batsmen into mistakes with deliveries that had some teasing width. It remains to be seen how they will fare against a better batting line-up. Will today's wicket-taking deliveries be smashed for boundaries or will the batsmen continue to err on perceived pressure-releasing balls? Today, though, their efforts were enough to blow away New Zealand's top order.

Brendon McCullum, who unfurled couple of fierce upper cuts against Tait, threw his bat at a full delivery well outside off, but edged it to third man. Jesse Ryder, who laced a few classy pulls against Johnson, stabbed a delivery that held its line outside off, to the wicketkeeper. James Franklin, looking out of place at No. 5, chased a wide delivery from Johnson to give Brad Haddin another catch. Scott Styris edged a wide and short delivery from Tait to Haddin and Ross Taylor played all around a full delivery from Tait to lose his off stump.

Everything that one expected from this Australian pace attack was visible today. It was expected they would either blow away the opposition or leak runs on flat tracks. Eleven fours came in the first 12 overs but the wickets too kept tumbling. Lee strangled the batsmen with his nagging line and length, Tait slung them in full and fast, Johnson went round-arm to catapult pacy deliveries and Watson was accurate enough to let the vagaries of the up-and-down track to do its bit.

The pitch played its part in the dismissal of Martin Guptill, which proved to be a turning point of the innings as well. Guptill had just begun to get going after taking 19 deliveries to get off the mark, when he was late to get on the front foot to a delivery from Watson that shot through low under the bat to bowl him. When Guptill fell in the ninth over, New Zealand were 40 for 2 but it was the beginning of the end. By the 17th over, after the fall of Taylor, they were tottering at 73 for 6.

In many ways, Taylor's dismissal captured New Zealand's iffy batting effort. It was a full delivery on the off stump line and instead of driving it in the 'V', Taylor, who averages just 28.86 since March 2009, played a messy across-the-line waft to lose his stumps.

Luckily, for New Zealand, they found in Nathan McCullum, someone in good form - this is his third fifty in four innings - and in the mood to play risk-free cricket, to save them the blushes. He played the situation well, using his dab-nudge routine to collect the singles and putting away the occasional long hops from the spinners as boundaries. The fifty came with a steer to point but for the main part, he nurdled the ball to the leg side - 33 runs came in that region - to keep the score moving. He came in at 73 for 6 and by the time he fell in the 42nd over, trapped lbw by a skidding delivery from Johnson, he had pushed New Zealand to 175 for 8. Nathan McCullum was well supported by Vettori, who bided his time before playing the big shots in the end overs to push the score past 200. Vettori fell in the 45th over, edging an attempted pull off Lee and he will be left musing yet another debacle from his top order.

In contrast, the Australian openers oozed intent in the chase. Haddin punctuated his violent hits with some sweetly-timed drives to waltz through to a half-century while Watson heaved, slugged, muscled, thumped and carved his way to a merry fifty. The best shot of the day came from Haddin when he unfurled a gorgeous drive against Nathan McCullum. Haddin leaned forward to an off break to caress it through extra cover, a shot out of the Damien Martyn school of batting. The openers' brutal effort was the perfect icing on the cake after the stirring show from the fast bowlers.

Match Timeline

Australia v New Zealand

Australia v New Zealand, Group A, World Cup 2011, Nagpur

Can Ponting lead Australia out of their spin woes?

Match Facts

February 25, Nagpur
Start time: 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT)

Ricky Ponting

Big Picture

It's almost as if there is malicious glee that follows Australia's so-called decline. Ashes lost? Yay! Ricky Ponting accidentally breaks a TV set? What irresponsible behaviour! Australia are struggling against spinners? Wonderful! In some ways, it's human nature to gloat at Goliath's fall. At the centre of the storm is Ponting, trying hard to regain his batting form, trying to hide the Ashes blot in his CV with another World-Cup triumph. In Australia's previous victorious campaigns, Ponting has led from the front with the bat but this time a question mark hovers around that possibility. Australia's campaign in this edition of the World Cup could well revolve around Ponting's form at No. 3. He got couple of hard-earned fifties in the warm-up games and looked to be slowly progressing towards recovering his touch.

The bowling is led by another ageing campaigner, Brett Lee, who is scripting a remarkable comeback. Much has been written about Australia's attack which stands out for its naked violence. The feeling is that they will either scythe through the opposition or fail to control the run-flow on these batting tracks.

On the other side, there is New Zealand, who are playing this game under the grim background of the Christchurch earthquake. "For a lot of the guys, coming to training has allowed them to take their mind off things," Daniel Vettori said. New Zealand have had a poor build-up to the World Cup, but they started the tournament with a crushing win against Kenya. Their batting line-up looks quite strong with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor and Scott Styris and it's their bowling which looks a bit iffy. Will their seamers be able to adapt to these tracks? Much will depend on spinners Vettori and Nathan McCullum, who is likely to open the bowling with the new ball. New Zealand will hope that the pitch will take some turn and they can poke at Australia's vulnerability against spin on these slow tracks. It should be an interesting battle.

Form guide

(Most recent first for the last five completed games)
Australia: WWWWL 
New Zealand: LWLLL 

Watch out for…

Shane Watson's revival began here in India during the inaugural edition of the IPL. He adapted brilliantly and transformed himself into a smashing opener and took that form and confidence to the international stage. On Indian tracks, he likes to get on the front foot and scythe through the line. With Brad Haddin yet to learn the art of converting starts and with Ponting yet to get a regain his form completely, much will depend on Watson to set a solid platform.

Nathan McCullum is not a bowler who causes sleepless nights to batsmen but he could play a crucial role if Vettori decides to give him the new ball. He is accurate and spins the ball just enough to pose some problems. How he handles the pressure of bowling against Watson, Haddin and co might well decide how New Zealand fare with the ball.

Team news

New Zealand have chosen their playing 12. Kyle Mills, Kane Williamson, and Luke Woodcock will miss out.

New Zealand (probable): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Jesse Ryder, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 James Franklin, 6 Scott Stryis, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Hamish Bennett, 11 Tim Southee

Australia (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 David Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Steve Smith, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Jason Krezja, 10 Brett Lee, 11 Shaun Tait.

Try picking the XIs for tomorrow's game by playing Team Selector.

Stats and trivia

• RT Ponting is the player who has played the most World-Cup games. He has played 40 matches, going past Glenn McGrath's 39 appearances. He has also led Australia 23 times, the highest by any World-Cup captain. Imran Khan is second with 22 games. Australia are yet to lose a world-cup game under Ponting.
• In the game against Zimbabwe, Ponting became the fourth batsman in the World Cup to be run out on five occasions. The others are: Inzamam-ul-Haq (9), Asanka Gurusinha (6) and Javed Miandad (5)
• Australia have faced New Zealand 123 times and have won 84 games. In India, these two teams have played against each other seven times, with Australia victorious in all seven.
  Quotes
  "Nothing really changes from any team you're playing in the subcontinent, you try and bowl straight at the wickets and you know you're going to have to score a lot of runs. There's no mystery to what we're going to try to do, but the key when you come up against these big teams and big players is having the presence of mind to execute time and time again. That's the toughest thing when you're coming up against good players."
  Daniel Vettori on facing Australia

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo