Cricket is a cruel game, or is it not? Sri Lanka, who at the beginning were rated as the favorites for the Asia Cup couldn’t even manage a single victory by the end of it.

Earlier in the morning, Mushfiqur Rahim decided to bowl first after winning the all-important toss. Mahela and Dilshan walked out to open the innings, on the other hands Mashrafe and Nazamul began the proceeding with the ball.

Didn’t take too long before Sri Lanka’s big three were back in the dressing room already. Lankan batting pillars (Mahela, Sangakkara, Dilshan) batted really casually and got out to some pretty ordinary deliveries.

Three quick wickets earlier on in the innings dented Sri Lankan hopes to get off to a flying start. As expected, a relatively inexperienced middle order couldn’t have propelled right away. Both Thrimanne and Kapugedra took their time to steady the things. After putting on a 88 runs stand of 136 balls, the pair uncoupled when Thrimanne was finally dismissed in an unfortunate fashion.

Pakistan have been struggling in the limited overs’ formats of the game since the test series against England. The game against Bangladesh was a clear sign that the middle order is not in great shape and Pakistan would have to do more than just good in the matches against Sri Lanka and arch-rivals India to win themselves the Asia Cup. It looked as if the team bowling is ten times better than the batting and that they needed to raise up their game today to compete with the Sri Lankans who have just had a pretty decent tri-nation series at Australia. Pakistani batsmen have struggled to chase totals, either small or big. Most of the batsmen have had their hearts in their mouths when they have heard about Sri Lanka winning the toss and batting first. All relied on the bowling department to contain Sri Lanka under a total of 200.

Sri Lankan openers started with a flurry of boundaries. Aizaz Cheema was on the receiving end as his first two overs went for 22 runs. He came back with a reply and got both the openers. Both were caught while trying to muscle the ball for boundaries, first Jayawardane (12) at point by Muhammad Hafeez and then Dilshan (20) at mid-on by Saeed Ajmal. Umar Gul took the third wicket of Dinesh Chandimal, who nicked one to the first slip and was caught brilliantly by Younis Khan for a duck. Hammad Azam too got himself a wicket when the left-handed Thirimanne tried to cut him but was caught at point by Umar Akmal at a score of 7. Sri Lanka were struggling at 65-4 with almost all the top order back in the hut. Sangakarra and Tharanga held the sinking Sri Lankan ship and formed a huge partnership of 96 runs.

I don’t know why Pakistan cricket team and board are just satisfy on less rewards, why not they go for bigger achievements?

Winning six ODI series in a row is an achievement and beating World No. 1 England in all three tests is another but still I feel Pakistan is standing very far from topsides of the world, especially in ODI. Look at the big teams who are ruling cricketing world; Indians are world champions though they lost badly in CB series but their batsmen showed their class in an important clash against Sri Lanka at Hobart. Kohli and Co. did miracle to achieve the 300 plus target in just 36 overs to show their commitment to the team that they are eager to qualify for finals. Similarly World Cup runners up Sri Lanka played their best cricket in Australia where they beat hosts 4 times with big margins but on the other hand Green Shirts struggle to beat a team like Bangladesh!

If you watch the last few overs of Bangladeshi innings you can find our captain and his teammates with worried faces, supports were praying for victory what is this ? does we need duas for beating a team like Bangladesh?? Though Pakistan beat Bangladesh but for me it’s a pathetic show by green shirts and shameful “victory” for many reasons.

Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews has been

ruled out of Asia Cup due to a calf injury he sustained Down Under. Shaminda Eranga has been called up as Mathews' replacement in the ongoing Asia Cup.

Day Two of the Asia Cup and it was a Box Office game between the tournament front runners, Defending Champions India and Sri Lanka at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium Dhaka. Head to head, India and Sri Lanka had previously met 17 times in the Asia Cup, with Sri Lanka winning 9 times and India were victorious in 8 games. All was in readiness for a thrilling encounter between the Asian giants.

Sri Lankan Captain Mahela Jayawerdena won the important toss and sent India to bat first. On a pitch that according to Sunil Gavaskar had 600 runs in it, it was a brave decision by Mahela as the Indian batting lineup is one of the strongest in the world and the pitch was also tailor made for batting.

Indian innings was opened by Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar. Indian innings suffered an early blow at the start as Little Master Tendulkar got out in the 5^th over of the innings when the score was just 19, Tendulkar managed just 6 in his first innings in the Asia cup since 2004, and He was removed by Lakmal. Virat Kohli was the next man in and He in company with his Dehli team mate Gambhir added momentum to the Indian Innings.

According to a Sunday paper in the United Kingdom, the International Cricket Council has started a investigation into allegations of corruption in cricket around the world. It claimed it has evidence which was passed onto the ICC, who were seeing if it is conclusive enough to convict players. 

The Sunday Times investigator, Mazhar Mehmood, alleged to have spoken to a Indian bookmaker who made some startling revelations. There were apparant claims that English County, Bangladesh Premier League and the Indian Premier League were all targets of fixers as they sought to make money out of match fixing.

KheloPakistan.com are proud to present an exclusive interview with young left arm fast bowler; Sadaf Hussain. Sadaf is a 22 year old from Chakwal. He has been a top performer in first class circuit since last 2 years. Amazing thing about Sadaf is his height and seam presentation. Sadaf is 6'3" tall. Sadaf has been close to a Pakistani call-up for sometime, and managed it in 2011's tour to the Caribbean. He didn't manage to get a game, but here talks about his upbringing, that call-up and his career thus far.

Whether you are in the field for 3 hrs, a whole day or five days in a row, the off field training that you  have done will differentiate you from being ordinary or extra ordinary. Benefits of gym training are multi layered; it provides strength, conditioning & stamina and injury prevention. Metal sharpens metal; to get the best of your abilities you must hit the gym hard, love your time in the gym, only if you are enjoying your time in the gym you will come back day after day to sharpen you skills.

Let’s be smart about it, I am not saying to spend hours & hours in the Gym, whatever your goals are? a trainee doesn’t require more than 60 minutes in the gym. Over dosage of something that is beneficial maybe harmful and when you are playing around with dumbbells the notion “more is better” doesn’t stand true. Spending a lot of time in the gym and doing needless amount of exercises will wreak havoc on you joints & muscles. Right amount of time with high intensity is all you need to reap the benefits of gym training. The key is to keep the Gym sessions short but intensity levels high.

Another point I would like to emphasize upon is that; you must not believe a buffed up muscle freak in the gym to lift huge amounts of weight for long periods of time; most probably because that guy is on anabolic steroids and can lift big and cricket being a member of WADA, you cannot afford this.