The 2019 Cricket World Cup

The 2019 Cricket World Cup
Rugved Joshi

                 

After a much needed break from  IPL ,Cricket is back for another promising season,The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.It is the 12th edition of the Cricket World Cup, scheduled to be hosted by England and Wales from 30 May to 14 July 2019.

Due to change in format every team will face all the participants atleast once in round robin which makes it even more interesting.

World no.1 and the host England are  favourites to win the cup and are willing​ to end there 50 over world cup drought.They will hope their power hitting batting order will be on top of their game and some improvement in bowling will make them invincible. 

Not far behind are the defending champions Australia.They will be high in confidence after series win in India.Also tbe return of likes of David Warner and Steve Smith back into the squad will be a huge boost for them.

India's reliance  on top order and especially on  Virat Kohli is a concern and will expect more from lower order for improving their chances,while bowling department will be spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah and spin twins Kuldeep and Chahal.South Africa will be desperate to remove there infamous tag of 'Chokers' under captaincy of Faf du plessis.Veteran Dale Steyn and Ever improving Rabada will be tough opposition to face,but South Africa will hope for a better batting display from their batsman.

With lengthy schedule the team with the best consistent performances will have the best chance to lift the trophy.

Talking about the pitches it is going to be a runfest and it will be  no suprise that 300 + targets will be chased down easily. The England vs Pakistan series was a great example with both teams making 300 scores in almost all occasions.So, keeping this in mind bowlers will have no margin for error in England and Captains have to be smart in there field placements and bowling changes.

Here are the top performers to look out for -

1.Top teams 

A.England 

B.Australia

C.India

2.Top Batsman

A.Virat Kohli

B.Jonny Bairstow

C.Faf du plessis

D.Fakhar Zaman 

3.Top hitters 

A.Chris Gayle

B.Jason Roy

C.Hardik Pandya

D.David Warner

E.Jos Buttler

4.Top Fast bowlers

A.Kangiso Rabada

B.Jasprit Bumrah

C.Chris Woakes

D.Michel Starc 

5.Top spinners

A.Imran Tahir

B.Rashid Khan

C.Yuzvendra Chahal

D.Sunil Narine


                                 

Artistic gymnastics National championship,Pune

Artistic gymnastics is the base of all disciplines in Gymnastics hence it is the most prestigious and important discipline in Gymnastics.It is really sad that this gymnast train so hard but due to federation disputes they are the one who suffer.But,due to intiative of Maharashtra amateur Gymnastics association as well as late. MLA Ramesh Prabhu's RYP centre the nationals finally happened.It was relief for junior gymnast as junior nationals happened after an astonishing gap of 4 years.

 Finally, 55th junior and 57th senior  artistic national championships were held in balewadi,Pune.
Players from all over the country came with a great enthusiasm to participate in the Competition .
Teams from services,railways, Uttar Pradesh,west Bengal and  host Team Maharashtra were the favourites to clinch  medals.It is really intresting to see how every player sets a different target for a Competition.Some play to win,some play to establish themselves amongst top players,some participate to learn and gain experience.
So,the Competition began with senior team championship and allround Competition.

          Yogeshwar Singh performing on still rings

In men category services team clinched gold while railways and Maharashtra gave them a fight to finish 2nd and 3rd respectively.
While India's rising star Yogeshwar Singh from SSCB clinched gold in allround with his compatriot Abhijeet Kumar finishing second.Railways Aditya Rana won the bronze.Veteran gymnast and Arjuna awardee Ashish Kumar couldn't bag a medal in Allround Competition but later won gold and bronze in still rings and parallel bars respectively .Honorable mentions where Siddhart Verma who proved his supremacy over pommel horse after winning yet another gold in this event. Also audience where flattered watching ujwal Naidu's hand double front but some execution deduction saw him settle for silver on vaulting table.

Shraddha talekar on uneven bars

In women's catogery
Maharashtra team survived a scare as they beat railways just by a margin of 0.05.

                     Pranati nayak

 Railways Pranati Nayak clinched gold in allround Competition after a stern fight from  Maharashtra's​ Shraddha talekar and west Bengals papiya das.
Papiya das was impressive on floor exercise with high difficulty and acrobatic skills.While Maharashtra's dwija Asher won a convincing gold on uneven bars.
Pranati Das from Railways was also amongst medal winners in apparatus finals.

In Junior category, Men's events where highly dominated by Uttar Pradesh while Maharashtra where runners up.

           Junior women's allround winners 

On the other hand Maharashtra's junior women's team was too strong and clinched team gold with ease while Uttar Pradesh were runners up.Maharastra's Purva kirve and Soham Naik won  couple of golds each while Raj Yadav and Ankur Sharma dominated in men's medals section.The duo also won hearts after attempting a Kovacs on horizontal bar with Raj Yadav even succeeded in his attempt and became first gymnast to perform a Kovacs in National championships.

           Raj Yadav performing kovacs

So, with increase in participation,  new high elements being performed,the quality level of Gymnasts improved  and new talents dominating the Competition it was a victory for Indian Gymnastics.It is safe to say that if such Competition happen every year Indian Gymnastics will definitely reach new heights.

Rugved Joshi