India in England 2011, Schedule

England will host Test, Twenty20 and ODI series against India in 2011, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced Thursday.

London Lord's ground will stage its 1st Test during a four-match test series between England and India that will be followed by a Twenty20 international and five ODI internationals.

Date	Match Details	Time	Place
Jul 21 - 25	England v India, 1st Test	-	Lord's, London
Jul 29 - Aug 02	England v India, 2nd Test	-	Nottingham
Aug 10 - 14	England v India, 3rd Test	-	Birmingham
Aug 18 - 22	England v India, 4th Test	-	London
Aug 31 - Wed	England v India, Only T20I	-	Manchester
Sep 03 - Sat	England v India, 1st ODI	-	Chester-le-Street
Sep 06 - Tue	England v India, 2nd ODI	-	Southampton
Sep 09 - Fri	England v India, 3rd ODI	-	London
Sep 11 - Sun	England v India, 4th ODI	-	Lord's, London
Sep 16 - Fri	England v India, 5th ODI	-	Cardiff, Wales

Sri Lanka in England 2011, Schedule

England will host Test and ODI series against Sri Lanka in 2011, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced Thursday.

Hampshire's Rose Bowl ground will stage its 1st Test during a three-match test series between England and Sri Lanka that will be followed by a Twenty20 international and five ODI internationals.

Date	Match Details	Time	Place
May 26 - 30	England v Sri Lanka, 1st Test	-	Cardiff, Wales
Jun 03 - 07	England v Sri Lanka, 2nd Test	-	Lord's, London
Jun 16 - 20	England v Sri Lanka, 3rd Test	-	Southampton
Jun 25	England v Sri Lanka, Only T20I	-	Bristol
Jun 28	England v Sri Lanka, 1st ODI	-	London
Jul 01	England v Sri Lanka, 2nd ODI	-	Leeds
Jul 03	England v Sri Lanka, 3rd ODI	-	Chester-le-Street
Jul 06	England v Sri Lanka, 4th ODI	-	Nottingham
Jul 09	England v Sri Lanka, 5th ODI	-	Manchester

Panicky Pakistan end England with winning streak

Pakistan won the 3rd Test at The Oval by beating England by 4 wickets - the hosts lead the four match series 2-1 in Test Series.

Pakistan's triumph was their 4th at The Oval - but only their first over England since Lahore in December 2005 - and sets up a mouthwatering contest next week at Lord's for the 4th and final test.

Chasing 148 to succeed the tourists had reached 115 for 3 at lunch with experienced person Mohammad Yousuf 22 not out and looked well set for an easy victory.

England given a twinkle of hope just before the break when Graeme Swann had skipper Salman Butt caught at slip for 48, to give him his 2nd wicket of the innings.

Swann blocked up one end with his off spin but at the other runs were coming freely as Butt and Imran Farhat looking determined to finish things early got Pakistan past 50 in the eight over after they had lost opener Yasir Hameed to the fourth ball of the innings and the first he had faced.

Pakistan were directly put on the back foot when Hamed edged James Anderson to second slip, Swann wanted two attempts to hold on to the chance and leave Pakistan 5 for 1.

Farhat made 33 before he was leg before to Swann, the only bowler who gave skipper Andrew Strauss any control whatsoever. Butt nearly saw his team home, making his 48 runs from 64 balls but he was neatly caught by Paul Collingwood, again off Swann, just before lunch.

Mohammad Aamer recorded his Test best figures of 5-52 to give Pakistan a good chance of pulling one Test back in the series.

England who lost six wickets for 26 runs in a frantic period on Friday night could only add one run to their overnight total of 221 with Steve Finn getting off the mark.

Winning Ashes 5-0 “absolutely possible”: Ricky Ponting

Australian captain Ricky Ponting said Monday it was "absolutely possible" that his team could reclaim the Ashes with a 5-0 sweep against England later this year.

Ponting, who lost the Ashes for a 2nd time as a skipper in the 2-1 series defeat in England last year, said the Australians had learnt from their mistakes and were a better side than the last Ashes contest.

Australia have slipped to 4th, narrowly ahead of England, in the Test rankings after their 1-1 drawn Test series against 6th ranked Pakistan in England last month.

But Ponting, who met Cricket Australia officials in Melbourne on Monday to map out preparations for the November-January Ashes series, is unconcerned.

"It's absolutely possible. There's no reason why not," Ponting told reporters at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when asked about a 5-0 Ashes sweep. "It's all in our hands. It's how well we play and how well we take charge of different situations.

"We've learnt from a lot of the mistakes that we've made. There's no doubt we made some mistakes in the last Ashes series in England that probably at the end of the day cost us the series.

"We know now that we're a more experienced and probably a better team now than we were then. We put that together plus we're playing in our conditions, we hope to win this series and win it well.

"I've got confidence in the squad of players that we've got that they are going to be good enough to win an Ashes series."

I have never taken anything for granted: Sachin

Sachin has played five cricket World Cups in a career spanning over 20 years and Sachin Tendulkar says he has never taken anything for granted in life and always depended on his hard work.

Sachin, who gears up for his 6th World Cup to be held in the sub-continent, said he can't thank the massive more for all that he has achieved in his life.

"I'm very lucky to have played in five World Cups so far. God has been very kind to me to have given me good health and with that, fair amount of runs as well. I'm very happy and very grateful with whatever has come my way," said Sachin on this week's ICC Cricket World Cup Radio Show.

"I treasure each and every moment as I have not taken anything for granted. I have worked hard for everything I have achieved and will continue to do so. I'm just very happy, excited and extremely thankful to the Almighty," he added.

Flat pitches made Ind-SL series dull: Akram

Former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram feels apart from Sachin Tendulkar's fabulous form the just-concluded Test series between India and Sri Lanka turned out to be a rather "dull" matter due to placid tracks.

Akram was disappointed with the way the fast bowlers were hammered during the three-match test series in Sri Lanka.

"Fast bowlers got murdered and it was not fun at all, believe me. The 1-1 draw is a fair result but it has to be said that apart from two or three brilliant performances, it was a dull series," said Akram.

But the former left-arm pacer praised Tendulkar for his performance in the series, during which he also became the most capped Test player in the world.

"Sachin was tremendous in the series. He scored those runs in the hour of need. Also, his double ton in the second game at the SSC, that helped India save the Test, was one of the highlights of the series," Akram said.

"Laxman got an amazing hundred under pressure, India were struggling at 62 for four and his contribution went a long way towards the successful Indian chase. Experience is very important in Test cricket and Laxman executed it by staying right there till the end," he added.

Akram was felt a strong batting line-up gave India the decisive edge in the series.

"India have got a very strong batting attack with Rahul Dravid and Sachin coming in at three and four, Laxman comes at five, Suresh Raina at six and Mahendra Singh Dhoni at seven.

So this experienced line-up augers well for them," he said.

Besides, Akram said dashing opener Virender Sehwag once again redefined aggressive batting in the series.

"Sehwag is a phenomenal player. It does not matter whether he is playing Twenty20s or ODIs or Tests, he never changes his game and that's where his strength lies. He has such strong and quick reflexes.. He judges the line and length of the ball to perfection and plays positive attacking strokes," he said.

"He has almost single-handedly changed the approach of an opening batsman. Instead of the conventional thinking that openers have to weather the new-ball storm, Sehwag takes the attack to the bowlers and forces them on the backfoot," he added.

Virender Sehwag - Fastest Indian batsman to reach 7000

Virender Sehwag became the 6th Indian batsman to score 7000 Test runs during his unbeaten knock of 97 on the 2nd day(04/08/2010) of the 3rd Test against Sri Lanka. Sehwag reached the milestone during the final session of play when he scored a single off Lasith Malinga.

Virender Sehwag, who was playing in his 79th Test, became the 38th batsman overall to have scored 7000 runs in Test cricket.

Sunil Gavaskar was the 1st Indian to complete 7000 runs in Test cricket many years ago, while the other Indians in the list include Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. Virender Sehwag also became the fastest Indian to have reached the landmark of 7000.