Apart from heading the World ODI XI of ICC Mahendra Singh Dhoni also won the “Spirit of Cricket” trophy at ICC awards ceremony in London. MS Dhoni was the lone highlight for India at the ICC Annual Awards this year as Indian team performed really bad after winning the World Cup in subcontinent. English cricketers won most awards and prizes in a glittering ceremony.
In the first quarterfinal of the ICC world cup 2011, Pakistan a favourite team to win the cup now is going to take on two times world champion West Indies at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur in Bangladesh. Though there were no major upsets during the group stages because of the format of the tournament all expected teams entered the knockout stage but now as Pakistan is favourite to win the cup some hard hitting by Windies batsmen like Pollard and Gayle may turn the tables for them.
We had a bang of a start to the world cup when Virendra Sehwag of India hit Bangladeshi paceman Shafiul Islam to a four through covers on the very first ball of the opener match at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur on a nice February afternoon. With that the large crowd making sarcastic cheers realized that India is not going to repeat 2007 disaster, at least in sub-continent with superb battings tracks to play on and with world’s strongest on paper batting line-up.