World No. 1 batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul is the one on whom much could depend. Over the years, for the West Indies, he has performed many a rescue missions. However, in the batting order the 37-year-old left-hander generally prefers to bat no higher than five. From the West Indies’ point of view, the problem with that is that too often Chanderpaul comes in with the team already in trouble.

The hosts are at the top of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings. When the teams meet for the first of a three-Test series at Lord’s on Thursday, Matt Prior has insisted there is no way England will take the West Indies lightly. The West Indies are down in seventh place and they have won just two of 30 Tests since beating England in Jamaica in 2009.

However, England have lost four out of their last five Tests heading into Thursday’s match, after struggling against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, while the tourists do boast the world’s number one-ranked batsman in Shivnarine Chanderpaul. In the three-test series, the express pace of Fidel Edwards and Kemar Roach, along with the limpet-like batting of Chanderpaul will make West Indies dangerous opponents for strong favorites England.

This year, England lost 3-0 to Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. In this series, the English top batting order struggled badly for runs. There are still grounds for concern even though they fought back to draw 1-1 in Sri Lanka. Captain Andrew Strauss will be fully tested by the hostility of Edwards and Roach. The 35-year-old opener scored the last of his 19 test centuries 18 months ago.

Roach did not bowl on the last day of their warm-up match because of a twisted foot, as he is all set to play on Thursday. The highly promising Jonny Bairstow is likely to make his test debut batting at number six and Kevin Pietersen did return to form with a fine century in the second test win over Sri Lanka. England certainly has the bowling attack to expose the inexperienced Windies top order, if the batsmen can provide a solid platform.

The English side is favorite to win the test series. The best odds for the game have England (4/9) vs. West Indies (17/2).

The West Indies needed only one run from the final three deliveries. The last over was bowled by Brett Lee. Captain Darren Sammy and the last man Kemar Roach were in the middle. A mix-up between the two West Indies batsmen saw both stranded at the striker’s end as Lee broke the stumps at his. The West Indies team was in deep trouble. They lost 5 wickets with just 78 runs on the scoreboard. However, the hosts’ fight to level the scores and this will provide plenty of belief for Sammy’s men. This tie also showed Australia that they cannot afford to misstep quite so badly, as they did in the earlier matches.

Sunil Narine’s crafty spin troubled the Australians to the core. They completely failed to cope with it. The stand-in captain Shane Watson got a cautionary note after he fumed over the episode with a no ball that reprieved Andre Russell at a critical time. For future captaincy assignments on this tour, Watson needs to calm himself.

The five-match series is locked 1-1 going into the fourth and fifth matches in St Lucia. Many viewers back in Australia and in the Caribbean felt the Windies would be easy beats. After Tuesday’s thrilling match, Australia will probably leave Kingstown on Wednesday wondering how they are not 2-1 up in the series.

from West Indies side, Johnson Charles who scored 45 runs remained the highest scorer along with useful contribution from Kieron Pollard, Carlton Baugh and Andre Russel, who scored 36, 33 and 37 respectively. from Australian side, Shane Watson who took three wickets remained highest wicket-taker, along with Xavier Doherty and Clint Mckay who took 2 wickets each, while Lee and Nathon Lyon shared one each.

The next match between West Indies and Australia will be held on 23 March 2012. The betting odds for Australia are 4/9, while for West Indies 7/4.

England declared its first innings on 496-5 with a lead of 96 and a draw seemed inevitable after rain delayed play until 3 p.m. local time, but Sri Lanka had other plans, as they were bowled out for 82 at Sophia Gardens. Swann took 4-16 and Tremlett 4-40. The collapse of the Sri Lankan batting line up was spectacular as it took barely believable 24.4 overs on the final day in Cardiff to claim the test match.

Graeme Swann and Chris Tremlett shared eight wickets and Stuart Broad bounced out the last two batsmen. Considering the amount of time lost to rain, this was one of England’s more remarkable wins in recent memory. Sri Lanka was shell-shocked and in the final session, they could not handle the pressure, losing eight wickets. The tourists’ top scorer was Prasanna Jayawardene with a brilliant 112. Thilan Samaraweera reached 58, while Tharanga Paranavitana was out for 66.

England’s most effective bowler, James Anderson took 3-66 but was forced off with back and side injuries and may miss the rest of the test.

Although England secured a brilliant win against Sri Lanka, there are few things England skipper Andrew Strauss needs to learn from this Test match. His decision to bat on for Ian Bell to reach his century could have easily spoiled England’s chances to win the first test. If at the close, England had got Sri Lanka nine wickets down, there would have been questions asked about the four overs wasted while that happened.

The 2nd test starts from June 3-7, 2011. The betting sites have England as the favorite. The odds for England (4/6) and for Sri Lanka are (39/5).

Muscling their way into the squad and helped by the weight of runs in both formats of the Ranji Trophy are Parthiv Patel, Rohit Sharma and S Badrinath.

Gambhir will savor the chance for another crack at the captaincy after regular skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was left out. He captained India to a 5-0 win over New Zealand in a one-day series last year. Against the West Indies next month, Gambhir is set to captain India for their six limited over games.

India’s cricket officials said that in the limited overs games, Dhoni along with Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan would not feature but the trio would return for the Test series.

BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said in a statement that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan have been rested and they will also be available for the test series. To undergo shoulder surgery, opener Virender Sehwag will also miss the ODI series and he remains uncertain for the tests.

With the three Test series beginning on July 10, the first of the limited overs internationals takes place on June 4 in the Caribbean.

S Badrinath has said that after three years in the wilderness, he was anticipating his selection for the ODI series against West Indies. After losing his central contract last season, he was disappointed but that motivated him to regroup and reset his targets.

As soon as bookmaker prices become available, sports betting odds for India vs. West Indies ODI Matches will be featured soon.

The Windies did just enough to creep ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis calculations, thanks to Dwayne Bravo‘s premeditated six over midwicket in the fourth ODI in Barbados. However, Pakistan would have been confident of defending their total of 248 for 9, had the match gone the full 50-over distance. The score of 248 for 9 was the highest yet recorded in a low-scoring series.

To sign off the white-ball action on a high at Guyana’s Providence Stadium, both sides remain keen, as very soon, two Test matches will follow.

When the final match is contested on Thursday at the Guyana National Stadium, Pakistan will be looking to give unshakeable proof that the West Indies were lucky to achieve a victory in the One-day International series.

Following victories in the first three matches, the visitors have an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the series, but they will want to sign-off with a strong performance to knock West Indies back down a few notches. For the fifth and last one-day international against Pakistan, the 13-man West Indies squad is unchanged.

The online sports betting sites have their odds in favor of the Pakistani team. The best odds for West Indies are 15/8 and Pakistan 18/35.

The 27 year old fast bowler from Galle hastily announced his retirement from Test cricket citing injury problems, under pressure from the Sri Lanka selectors over putting IPL over the country.

Malinga, 27, said he was fit to play one-day cricket but needed to carefully manage a “long-standing degenerative condition in my right knee”, who is currently playing for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

For Sri Lanka’s forthcoming tour of England he had made himself unavailable which prompted his board to ask him to return from the IPL to undergo rehabilitation.

Malinga said he had realized that the heavy workload of test cricket could lead to permanent injury and his decision to retire would help him achieve his goal of representing Sri Lanka in next year’s Twenty20 World Cup and the 2015 50 overs World Cup.

After he made himself unavailable for the Test series in England citing a knee problem, the SLC had asked Malinga to return from the IPL for rehabilitation. The BCCI’s priority is clear; IPL is at the top. It is at least bigger than the West Indies series or else the top players could have been rested for it. It seems as if playing for the country is no longer the best option for some players.

After the ICC decided against a qualification system for the tournament, the 2015 event in Australia and New Zealand will only include the ten Test-playing nations, which denotes no opportunity for the likes of Ireland or Netherlands to earn a place. The pronouncement has effectively frozen them out of the game’s showpiece event for eight years, even though for 2019, there is the hope of Associates and Affiliates finding a way back in through qualification.

The judgment is predominantly hard on Ireland, although it is tough on all the other Associate nations too. During the 2011 event, Ireland has demonstrated that they have been a cut above the rest of the second-tier teams. On their World Cup debut in 2007, they overwhelmed Pakistan, while in this edition of the World Cup; they had an outstanding triumph over England in Bangalore. They were more time after time competitive than either Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, even though they still finished sixth in Group B. The two main benefactors of ICC’s decision are Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Deutrom said that they will persist to fight this decision and they will not take this lying down, as they believe this is significant. Having administering plenty of behind-the-scenes developments in Irish cricket, he is predominantly annoyed to be dealt such a blow.

Ireland have augmented their funding through government and private sponsorship, improved their infrastructure and as a result, Deutrom fears whether all of those enhancements can be maintained without the appeal for a World Cup appearance.

One of the beneficiary team, Bangladesh will soon face Australia on 9 April 2011. The betting odds for this upcoming match are Australia (1/4) and Bangladesh (7/2).

New Zealand batted first and on the slow-moving track, they posted a total of 221 for eight. Jesse Ryder was the main scorer in the NZ team. He scored 83 in 121 balls. South Africa had a good start and they seemed finish off the game easily. They had reached 108 in 24 overs and had lost just couple of wickets.

Veteran Jacques Kallis (47, 75b, 3×4) and fluent A.B. de Villiers (35, 40b, 4×4) were in full command of the game. Unfortunately, the Proteas lost remaining eight batsmen for just 64 runs, thereby falling short of victory. They were bowled out for 172 in the 43.2 overs. Jacob Oram was declared the man-of-the-match, as he had claimed four crucial wickets.

Before the World Cup, the New Zealand team had been largely written off at home because of their pitiable performance in the 50 over format. In the previous six months, they had just won two of 16 one-day internationals.

Cricket writer David Leggat wrote in the New Zealand Herald that for the last few months, the NZ team had muddled along by building up an atrocious losing record and had arrived at the World Cup without a prayer.

In the first semifinal, New Zealand will face the winner of Saturday’s England-Sri Lanka encounter, while South Africa widened its unwanted record of being chokers at the World stage.

The sportsbooks are offering great Cricket odds for 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup quarterfinals. Sri Lanka is the favorites to win the match against England. The odds for Lanka are 8/15 and for England 13/7.

Captain Ricky Ponting believes that when they take on Pakistan in their final group encounter, Australia’s unbeaten World Cup record could be under real danger. With a seven-wicket victory over Group A opponents Canada in Bangalore, the three-time defending champions extended their serene run to 34 games without loss. Ponting expects a tricky encounter with Pakistan, even though four-time world champions have made a flawless start to this year’s event.

Pakistan for their final Group A match against Australia on Saturday is set to drop struggling opener Ahmed Shehzad. At the World Cup, in five innings, the teenager has managed just 44 runs and Kamran Akmal with Mohammad Hafeez, will now form a new partnership at the top of the order.

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis seeks a win over Australia in their final Group A fixture and wants his side to move into the World Cup quarterfinals in style.

For the knockout phase, both sides have already qualified and Younis Khan believes that the match in Colombo on Saturday is a chance to make a big statement that will send a strong message to other teams competing for the title.

The real fight will be between Australia’s solid and formidable batting line up consisting of Shane Watson (256 runs), Brad Haddin (237 runs) and Michael Clarke (191 runs) versus the Pakistan’s sharp bowling attack, courtesy leading wicket-taker Shahid Afridi (16 wickets) and Umar Gul (10 wickets).

Head to head, both teams have played each other 85 times. Australia has claimed 52 wins compared to Pakistan’s 29 wins. 3 matches had no outcome while 1 had ended in a tie. In the World Cups, Australia edges out Pakistan by 4-3.

The betting odds have Australians as favorites (4/7) to win while Pakistan is (17/11).

According to popular internet sportsbooks, the odds for England are 8/11 and West Indies are 11/8.

Ever since losing the opening game of the campaign to South Africa in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, the Caribbean side has found itself in a winning grove by scoring handsome victories over Netherlands, Bangladesh and Ireland. Besides Devon Smith (202 runs), the West Indies batsmen have not been in the greatest of forms.

Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan (nine wickets each) are being the only dependable bowlers, while English bowlers have really struggled against most opponents, other than South Africa.

England could present a stronger challenge, although their form has been depressing. Coach Ottis Gibson said his side would be looking to maintain their remarkable winning form.

During this tournament, the leader of the England attack, Anderson has looked more and more out of sorts. He has been powerless to stem the flow of runs against Bangladesh, in which England nose-dived to a pricey defeat on Friday.

Having played in Chennai earlier, England will have a slim advantage over the Windies. Since the venue is at MA Chidambaram Stadium, the English side will intend to replicate their last performance against South Africans. Good line and length balls were rewarded.

The pitch was not a very high scoring one. Batsmen need to look out for spin attack, as it will be the key factor, which will decide the outcome of the match.