Mumbai: India's middle order batsmen Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina today won the Ceat International Youngster of the Year and T20 Player of the Year awards respectively.

Left-handed opener Gautam Gambhir walked away with the Match-Winning Innings of the Year honour for his superb 97 in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka on April 2 at the Wankhede Stadium.

England batsman Jonathan Trott picked up two awards International Cricketer of the Year, as well as Batsman of the Year honours while his teammate and swing bowler James Anderson got the International Bowler of the Year award on the east lawns of the Cricket Club of India.

Two other Indian stalwart batsmen explosive opener Virender Sehwag and wrist-magician V V S Laxman were honoured with special awards for completing 10 years in international cricket and for their huge contribution to Indian cricket.

Former West Indian fast-bowler Courtney Walsh won the Lifetime Achievement Award for the 2010-11 season.

The awards were based on their performances as rated by Ceat Cricket Ratings for 2010-11.

All the nine award winners were present in person to receive the awards worth Rs. 5 lakh each and a trophy.

International Cricketer of the Year: Jonathan Trott (England)
International Batsman of the Year: Jonathan Trott (England)
International Bowler of the Year: James Anderson (England)
International Youngster of the Year: Virat Kohli (India)
International T20 player of the Year: Suresh Raina (India)
Lifetime Achievement Award 2010-2011: Courtney Walsh (West Indies)
Match-winning Inning of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India)
Special Award for completing 10 years in international cricket: Virender Sehwag (India)
Special Award for Contribution to Indian Cricket Award: VVS Laxman (India).

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Sportspersons who combine a colourful life with ability offer a charming story. That’s why the likes of John McEnroe and Mohammad Ali – great characters and great performers -- are widely admired.

Iron-jawed champions like Roger Federer and Michael Schumacher inspire awe, but not adulation. While their domination of their respective fields can stir emotions, sport needs characters now more than ever before. Virat Kohli might just have arrived in the nick of time. During the Champions League and in the recent five-match one-day series against England, there was no more animated person in the Royal Challengers Bangalore and India dressing rooms than the 22-year-old Delhiite. Every run by his team-mate was celebrated with uninhibited passion, every dismissal of an opposition batsman was a chance for him to prance around the field and lock the bowler in a bear hug. Off the field, Kohli is a casually dressed young lad, who loves life to the fullest – from gadgets to cars. But showmanship hasn’t come at the cost of his personal performance. Kohli has a remarkably mature brain that allows him to draw a line between personal and prof­e­ssional lives, making him a success as a cricketer. The brazenness began to gel with performance consistently in 2010, a year of transformation, and for the first time somebody, Ray Jennings to be precise, spoke about him as captaincy material. It could have easily been taken for a coach’s appreciation for his pet player had Kohli not scored 995 runs at 47.38 from 25 ODIs with three hundreds in that calendar year. The trouble with such a watershed year is that it places heavy expectations on a player. But Kohli responded marvelously in 2011, underlining the fact that the previous year was not a flash in the pan. This year, he has already scored 1138 runs from 29 one-dayers at 45.52 with three hundreds and has five more one-dayers against the West Indies remaining. His latest round of exploits came against England in the five-match one-day series. Kohli’s 270 runs at 90.00 played a massive role in India winning 5-0, making Alastair Cook, the England skipper, groan at the sight of Kohli walking in. Cook tried gamely to prevent him scoring through his favoured off-side, employing four fielders inside the circle in the fourth one-dayer in Mumbai. Kohli still found gaps to send the ball to the ropes, ridiculing the field placement. The series also saw Mahendra Singh Dhoni resorting to Kohli’s part-time medium-pace, delivered with an action similar to that of former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Harris, and he seldom disappointed his skipper, producing accurate short spells to keep the Englishmen silent. Now, he wants more bowling, think-tank permitting. “I get disappointed when I bowl because, people think my action is so funny and I am just having a walk in the park. I’ve always told them to give me the ball as I am not going to give more than eight runs an over in T20. I’ve that feeling that, batsmen can’t hit me. I take bowling pretty seriously, and I want to improve my bowling so that I can help in ODIs, and maybe in Tests too when bowlers are tired,” Kohli said. It’s that willingness to work on his skills and explore new areas for the benefit of the team has helped him become a dependable name in the middle-order in such a short time. Now, the challenge for him is to translate his success in the limited-overs format to Test cricket. Kohli had a modest beginning in the West Indies, making just 76 runs from three Tests at 15.20. Dhoni acknowledged the challenge ahead. “In Test cricket, patience is the key. Tests are played with red balls that swing much more than the white ones and for a longer duration. He will now go through a transition phase, and if you don’t play, you will never learn,” Dhoni said. Kohli has already shown that studiousness and flashiness can co-exist and produce enviable results. Now it might be the time for us to see him conquering the Test peak.

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Hyderabad: Former South African fielding great Jonty Rhodes on Monday reiterated that the quality of fielding in India has improved a lot over the years with several talented young players coming up.

Young Indian cricketers like Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Manjoj Tiwary have been brilliant and are an asset to the team, he told reporters here.

Rhodes has been roped in by the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) to train its budding players.

He is conducting a three-day coaching camp here from on Monday for the benefit of the HCA players.

Appreciating the ability of the young Hyderabad players, he said he would lay emphasis on the basics during his coaching, and also fitness and other aspects.

Hyderabad is currently languishing in the Plate Group of the Ranji Trophy and the coaching by Rhodes is expected to help the team return to the Elite Group.

HCA has already appointed former India left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi as the Ranji coach for the entire season and the Hyderabad side has a fielding coach in former India cricketer Noel David.

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India 223 for 4 (Kohli 86*, Raina 80, Finn 3-45) beat England 220 (Bresnan 45, Trott 41, Aaron 3-24, Ashwin 3-38) by six wickets

	Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina all but sealed the match with a 131-run stand for the fourth wicket

England's weakness against spin cost them for the third time in the series as they unravelled from a strong position to post an underwhelming total on a slow turning pitch. Their fast bowlers struck three early blows but Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina motored to a 131-run stand at close to seven an over, showcasing the difference between the sides and sparking another needless bout of words in the middle as England's frustration overflowed.

It was England's own batsmen who had let down their ragged bowlers down when they caved in against spin in the afternoon. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took 5 for 79 in 20 overs between them after Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen had built on England's quickest start of the series.

After Vinay Kumar had broken the 73-run stand between Trott and an uncharacteristically subdued Pietersen, Jadeja and Ashwin worked their way through a clueless England middle order, striking thrice in six overs. Tim Bresnan took the score past 200 with a run-a-ball 45, but England were dismissed with 23 deliveries remaining when fast bowler Varun Aaron bowled Bresnan to finish with three wickets on debut.

Disciplined pace bowling led by the impressive Steven Finn kept England in with an outside chance at the start of the chase. Kohli and Raina kept the runs coming, though, not allowing the score of 46 for 3 to tie them down in a partnership that steadily at first, and then emphatically, pushed England out of the match, making a 5-0 whitewash a very distinct possibility.

Finn and Bresnan had started with testing spells that kept the India openers quiet. The first five overs produced only 17 runs, leading Parthiv Patel to whip across the line and lose his stumps to Finn. Finn struck again in his next over when Gautam Gambhir inside-edged onto his stumps. His opening spell of 5-0-10-2 was followed by a sharp burst from debutant Stuart Meaker that induced Ajinkya Rahane into a poke outside off stump only for wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter to take a leaping one-handed blinder.

Scott Borthwick, the young legspinner surprisingly chosen ahead of Grame Swann, bowled with heart, but it was unfair to expect him to have the same effect that the experienced Swann could have managed. Kohli and Raina continued almost unbothered, picking off the singles easily and finding the boundaries with crisp shots. The duo's approach was in sharp contrast to England's tottering line-up.

Despite India being three down at the start of the bowling Powerplay, Raina took the chance and chipped Meaker just over mid-off for a boundary. His innings grew into a blur of scythes through extra cover and swings down the ground before Finn bowled him after a missed slog during a heated over. Raina had surged to 80 by then and with Kohli easing into elegant drives and cuts, India were runaway winners with almost ten overs remaining.

England's fate had virtually been sealed when their middle order tried to sweep and slog-sweep their way out of trouble. Pietersen was one of three batsmen to fall on the shots, though the substitute fielder Manoj Tiwary was responsible for sending him back with a diving catch after running across from deep midwicket.

Ravi Bopara missed one from Jadeja to be caught in front and Jonny Bairstow's disappointing series continued when he was bowled by a ripper that pitched on leg and turned to hit off stump. Samit Patel and Bresnan tried to salvage something from 145 for 6 but Patel slog-swept Ashwin straight to deep midwicket in another disappointing batting Powerplay for England.

Aaron, who had consistently hovered above 140kph on debut, came back to run through the lower order, hitting the stumps three times, the last of which straightened past Bresnan's outside edge to clip the top of off, with England well short of a challenging total on a turning pitch without Swann.

Things hadn't looked as gloomy for England when Pietersen and Trott accumulated solidly in a steady partnership that helped them recover after Alastair Cook and Kieswetter departed off successive deliveries. Though Pietersen went hard at deliveries and mistimed his strokes at times, Trott kept the runs flowing, cutting Jadeja three times to the deep point boundary. Trott welcomed Vinay's second spell with a cracking drive that beat the cover sweeper easily but was dismissed two deliveries later. Pietersen continued to find the field and the India spinners soon got on top decisively, yet again.

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