World Cup Update

So with Brazil winning 3 - 0 in their game against Chile we have the following Quater-Finals lined up ..

Brazil vs Netherlands on 2nd July

Gemany vs Argentina on 3rd July

Germany had great game against England beating them 4 -1 , so did Argentina which won 3 - 1 beating Mexico.

Earlier Today Netherlands giving a display of their total football to beat Slovakia 2-1

Both these Quarter-Finals would be brilliant games , with all the four sides winning all their games en-route comfortably.

Games Coming Up :

Spain vs Portugal

and

Japan vs Uruguay

Spain have been consistent but Portugal have been at their striking best , Japan has played with guts and skill so have Uruguay. So these two games will decide the who goes further to the quarter-finals.

Well football keeps us on our toes..

So what your predictions..

Whom do you think will make it to the semis..

World Cup: Australia Need A Win

World Cup is into it 12th Day.

Had a great time watching Portugal score 7 Goals , though one could feel a bit sorry for the Korean Side. Portugal meet Brazil in their final Group encounter on 25th June. That would surely be an exciting game, with the two countries winning both their matches played as of now.

Australia and Serbia enter their decisive Group D match on Wednesday ,for both the teams a defeat would bring an early end to their World Cup campaigns.

Australia, which will be without Harry Kewell and Craig Moore through suspension, will welcome back Tim Cahill from a ban. A win will be enough for the Socceroos to progress to the second round, but would depend on the outcome of the simultaneous Ghana-Germany game.

Defender Aleksandar Lukovic will be back from suspension and join Serbia. It will definitely reach the round of 16 if they win, while a draw would be enough provided Ghana beats Germany.

This is the fun of world cup , which is always so unpredictable.

Todays matches are :

Mexio vs Uruguay

France vs South Africa

Nigeria vs Korea Republic

Greece vs Argentina

So see you on the field, or at @VIVSportings

World Cup Points So Far

These are the Current Points Standings of Teams

We are Excited ... Are You??

The Ashes 2010: Expect the Finest England - Australia

England's Ashes 2009 Glory

In 2009, England had captured the Ashes 2-1 at home, triggering an extensive run of fanfare for Andrew Strauss and his men. The hosts won at Lord's (by 115 runs) and at the Oval (by 197 runs) while Australia took honors at Leed's, winning the test by an innings and 80 runs. The tests at Cardiff and Birmingham ended in draws. Strauss himself, along with spinner Graeme Swann played critical roles in the England wins as Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson chipped in with good returns.

Ashes 2010 And Expectations

This year, England are expected to run a strong batting order led by Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, with Jonathan Trott tipped to bolster his position as a stable one down bat. The recent test match look-in for Eoin Morgan sets the stage up for him Down Under. Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom and Tim Bresnan could front the seam attack, with Swann lending variety with spin.

In the Australian ranks, skipper Ricky Ponting could look at Ashes 2010 as a series to reclaim supremacy over the traditional rivals, in what would be one of his last few Ashes outings. Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke and Simon Katich will be the other big guns in the line-up. It will be interesting to watch Shane Watson as he tries to make the grade as a test batsman of international class. Doug Bollinger has been rising in reputation and along with Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle, could lead a bowling attack potent enough to unleash serious pace on Australia's seaming tracks.

Ashes 2010 Fixtures

Cricket Australia has announced dates for the five tests under Ashes 2010, to be played between November 2010 and January 2011. The following is the match fixture: (The dates are subject to change, according to Cricket Australia. For tickets and other details, log on to Cricket.com.au)

First Test: Nov 25-29, 2010 (Brisbane);

second test: Dec 3-7, 2010 (Adelaide);

third test: Dec 16-20, 2010 (Perth);

fourth test: Dec 26-30, 2010 (Melbourne);

fifth test: Jan 3-7, 2011 (Sydney).

Let the Action Begin.......

The Ashes - Over the Years

The Ashes started a long time back in 1882 & the craze for the Series is still the same, may be more as compared to that time. "The Ashes" comprises five Test matches, two innings per match, under the regular rules for international Test-match cricket. If a series is drawn then the country already holding the Ashes retains them.

The series is named after a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, in 1882 after a match at The Ovalin which Australia beat England on an English ground for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.

During that tour a small terracotta urn was presented to England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump. The Dowager Countess of Darnley claimed recently that her mother-in-law, Bligh's wife Florence Morphy, said that they were the remains of a lady's veil.

The urn is erroneously believed by some to be the trophy of the Ashes series, but it has never been formally adopted as such and Bligh always considered it to be a personal gift. Replicas of the urn are often held aloft by victorious teams as a symbol of their victory in an Ashes series, but the actual urn has never been presented or displayed as a trophy in this way. Whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum at Lord's since being presented to the MCC by Bligh's widow upon his death.

Since the 1998-99 Ashes series, a Waterford Crystal representation of the Ashes urn has been presented to the winners of an Ashes series as the official trophy of that series.

LIST OF ASHES SERIES

Series	Season	Played in	Tests played (sched)	Tests won by Australia	Tests won by England	Tests drawn	Series result	Holder at series end
1	1882–83	Australia	3	1	2	0	England	England
2	1884	England	3	0	1	2	England	England
3	1884–85	Australia	5	2	3	0	England	England
4	1886	England	3	0	3	0	England	England
5	1886–87	Australia	2	0	2	0	England	England
6	1887–88	Australia	1	0	1	0	England	England
7	1888	England	3	1	2	0	England	England
8	1890	England	2 (3)	0	2	0	England	England
9	1891–92	Australia	3	2	1	0	Australia	Australia
10	1893	England	3	0	1	2	England	England
11	1894–95	Australia	5	2	3	0	England	England
12	1896	England	3	1	2	0	England	England
13	1897–98	Australia	5	4	1	0	Australia	Australia
14	1899	England	5	1	0	4	Australia	Australia
15	1901–02	Australia	5	4	1	0	Australia	Australia
16	1902	England	5	2	1	2	Australia	Australia
17	1903–04	Australia	5	2	3	0	England	England
18	1905	England	5	0	2	3	England	England
19	1907–08	Australia	5	4	1	0	Australia	Australia
20	1909	England	5	2	1	2	Australia	Australia
21	1911–12	Australia	5	1	4	0	England	England
22	1912	England	3	0	1	2	England	England
23	1920–21	Australia	5	5	0	0	Australia	Australia
24	1921	England	5	3	0	2	Australia	Australia
25	1924–25	Australia	5	4	1	0	Australia	Australia
26	1926	England	5	0	1	4	England	England
27	1928–29	Australia	5	1	4	0	England	England
28	1930	England	5	2	1	2	Australia	Australia
29	1932–33	Australia	5	1	4	0	England	England
30	1934	England	5	2	1	2	Australia	Australia
31	1936–37	Australia	5	3	2	0	Australia	Australia
32	1938	England	4 (5)	1	1	2	Drawn	Australia
33	1946–47	Australia	5	3	0	2	Australia	Australia
34	1948	England	5	4	0	1	Australia	Australia
35	1950–51	Australia	5	4	1	0	Australia	Australia
36	1953	England	5	0	1	4	England	England
37	1954–55	Australia	5	1	3	1	England	England
38	1956	England	5	1	2	2	England	England
39	1958–59	Australia	5	4	0	1	Australia	Australia
40	1961	England	5	2	1	2	Australia	Australia
41	1962–63	Australia	5	1	1	3	Drawn	Australia
42	1964	England	5	1	0	4	Australia	Australia
43	1965–66	Australia	5	1	1	3	Drawn	Australia
44	1968	England	5	1	1	3	Drawn	Australia
45	1970–71[8]	Australia	6 (7)	0	2	4	England	England
46	1972	England	5	2	2	1	Drawn	England
47	1974–75	Australia	6	4	1	1	Australia	Australia
48	1975	England	4	1	0	3	Australia	Australia
49	1977	England	5	0	3	2	England	England
50	1978–79	Australia	6	1	5	0	England	England
51	1981	England	6	1	3	2	England	England
52	1982–83	Australia	5	2	1	2	Australia	Australia
53	1985	England	6	1	3	2	England	England
54	1986–87	Australia	5	1	2	2	England	England
55	1989	England	6	4	0	2	Australia	Australia
56	1990–91	Australia	5	3	0	2	Australia	Australia
57	1993	England	6	4	1	1	Australia	Australia
58	1994–95	Australia	5	3	1	1	Australia	Australia
59	1997	England	6	3	2	1	Australia	Australia
60	1998–99	Australia	5	3	1	1	Australia	Australia
61	2001	England	5	4	1	0	Australia	Australia
62	2002–03	Australia	5	4	1	0	Australia	Australia
63	2005	England	5	1	2	2	England	England
64	2006–07	Australia	5	5	0	0	Australia	Australia
65	2009	England	5	1	2	2	England	England
66	2010–11	Australia	5

Summary

Totals up to and including the 5th Test of the 2009 series in England.
	Played	Won by Australia	Won by England	Drawn
All Tests	305	122 (40%)	97 (31.8%)	86 (28.2%)
Tests in Australia	152	76 (50%)	53 (34.8%)	23 (15.2%)
Tests in England	153	46 (30.1%)	44 (28.7%)	63 (41.2%)
All series	65	31 (48.4%)	29 (43.8%)	5 (7.8%)
Series in Australia	32	17 (53.1%)	13 (40.6%)	2 (6.3%)
Series in England	33	14 (42.4%)	16 (48.5%)	3 (9.1%)

By the above list we can see that The Ashes is a fiercely contested competition. England won the first eight series in a row and only lost one in the first twelve. Australia then won four series in a row, before England reclaimed the Ashes in the 1926 series. The contest after 1934 has been dominated by Australia who has held the Ashes for long periods of time, including from 1934 to 1953, from 1959 to 1971 and from 1989 to 2005. The longest period of time that England has held the Ashes after 1934 was from 1953 to 1959.

England currently holds the Ashes after regaining them on 23 August 2009. Overall, the Australians have won 31 series, England has won 29 and there have been 5 drawn series. A total of 65 Ashes series have been played; the next will be played in Australia in 2010/11.

More to come on what to expect from Ashes 2010