India lost all their four Test matches, three ODIs and the one-off T20I to England and will look to come hard at their opponents. However, it will be interesting to see whether they can dole out the same dose at the English side at home – especially given that at the start of the season, the pitches will be much in favour of the Indian slow bowlers.

What could affect the Indian bowling is that they will need to use two new balls and that will not only reduce the chances of a slow bowler but also that of early reverse swing.

On the other hand, England will hope to get going with experienced Kevin Pietersen set to prove the selectors’ decision to drop him from the ODIs wrong.

This will be South Africa’s first series after the Cricket World Cup, whereas Australia have already played a couple of series, including the one against Sri Lanka. They had won both, the ODI and the Test series against Sri Lanka, but incidentally, lost the two T20Is to the Sri Lankans.

The side has a similar look to what had played in Sri Lanka, with Cameron White leading the team. White is in dire need of some runs as he looks to ensure that he can get going. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see how the likes of Patrick Cummings go.

South Africa will be led by Hashim Amla, who has had a good time with the bat recently. Dale Steyn will be missing from the attack, as will AB de Villiers.

Murray won only his fourth ATP Tour title of the year, winning in three sets, 3-6 6-2 6-0.

Interestingly, Murray had gone into the match against Nadal having losing only one match of the last 23 that he had played. However, in the three matches that he had played against Nadal, he had lost two of them.

And the start to the match began in a similar fashion as he lost the first set with a break of serve.

It was in the second set that Murray bean to show signs of a comeback, before closing it at 6-2. By that time, Nadal had totally fallen behind the opponent and Murray wrapped it up in fine style, winning it six to nothing.

Rooney was red-carded and will now face anywhere between one and three games out of the tournament depending on what the UEFA thinks about the penalty.

Rooney had angrily kicked at Montenegro’s Miodrag Dzudovic, which had got him a straight red card. This will mean that given that England’s next game is going to be played straight away in 2012 at the Euro Cup, he will miss the Euro’s opening game at least. If the UEFA decided on banning him for three games, he will miss the entire first round of the competition.

Interestingly, England’s manager Fabio Capello has already said that Rooney will not play in any of the England friendlies that the side will play in their preparation for the tournament.

Mumbai Indians batted first after they had won the toss and lost wickets early. Sarul Kanwar and Aiden Blizzard departed in quick succession and after some brief resistance, even Ambati Rayadu left.

However, Mumbai Indians problems were compounded after the fourth wicket partnership was broken. At one stage, they were 105/3 and once the fourth wicket fell, they kept losing wickets like maniacs and were soon pegged back to 109/7.

This was followed by a brief resurrection from lasith Malinga who made 16, but once he was gone, the side was bowled out for 139.

140 was said to be an okayish score, but once T Dilshan was dismissed by Lasith Malinga, the rest of the side failed to read the pace of the pitch. Kohli played 19 balls for his 11 runs, and Gayle scored only 5 from 12 balls.

Harbhajan picked up three wickets to win the man of the match award.

Ireland had gone into the match having won all their four games in the league stage, including the one against the Wallabies. Having beaten Australia, they had had a good chance of getting to the semi-final, having not to face South Africa in the quarters.

However, the Welsh side did well to take an early lead before going up 10-3 at the half-time.

The Irish came back strongly in the second half with a try and a resulting conversion that tied the score at 10-10. Little did they know that they wouldn’t score a single point after that.

Wales stormed through to the rest of the half with a couple of tries and a convert and that left the Irish side out of the tournament.

Bangalore were able to chase down a total of more than 200 and they did that thanks to the broad batting capabilities of both, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli, who guided the side to a win.

On the other hand, the New South Wales were earlier propped by a superb century from the bat of the opening batsman, Dave Warner, who got to his second successive century. This meant that the side got off to a good start and his partnership with Daniel Smith ensured that the side would be getting to 200 runs.

Fortunately for the Bangalore side, they were able to get going too, through Chris Gayle, who went on to score 92.

Now, the Bangalore side will take on the winner of the game between Mumbai and Somerset in the final.

However, it must be said that the Pumas could have gotten the better of England, but their opponents ran away with a narrow win.

On the other hand, the All Blacks won all their four league games, but what was interesting to note was that they won all of them rather easily. First they went past Tonga and then crushed a hapless Japanese side. France were laid off easily before they beat the Canadians in another one-sided encounter.

Having not been tested in the tournament so far will be the most difficult bit for the side, given the ruggedness of their opposition, the Pumas. New Zealand should still win this one.