Come what may we win!!

2 poor umpiring decisions, scratchy 50 from Blabba King and superb 93 from Kadambi were not enough from preventing India to register a comfortable win in the end by 17 runs. 7th in row, 6th win over Lanka in 9 games since painful 07 defeat in World Cup.

Superb performance by Ishant Sharma with the ball along with Zaheer along with mean Pravin Kumar. Spinners worry, but as long as India win thats ok.

Another clinical performace though batting leaves a lot to be desired for India and got to replace rookie Lankan umpires with neutral ones. Elite SL umpire is even worse than Gamini Silva and Dharmsena. Another ridiculous thing to see was no dislodging of bails on as good as 3 occasions.

Fire fire Sachin in the belly. He would very soon fire to shed out his frustration on ridiculous dismissals. Sri Lanka, well for them the first step to recovery is to get rid of their captain who has stalled and rotten in ideas. And then get some better fast bowlers than Tushara or Kulasekhra. Unless then 5-0 is a realistic possibility. 10 in row. Vow!!

Gamini's fun continues.....

Gamini Silva and Kulasekhra get one more ridiculous dismissal in form of Yuvraj Singh. Wot shit. Thats against spirits of cricket. Inside edge into pads is lbw ?

BEsided what is Yusuf Pathan doing in the team ?

India making mockery of last batting power play.

Last 4 wkts is brittle show. No hitter..Pravin Kumar ? LMAO..Some ridiculous umpirring and some poor suicidal batting would let India down.And why on earth MSD has walked ? Is he mad ? Another bad decision was on way and this was in India s favor. Ridiculous........Perhaps he wants to be HERO letting his team down. Shame Shame.

I will give you out even if ball pitches outside leg or off and misses any stump...Tendulkarasinghe, you suck, so u gotta be given out in illegal way

Fuck Fuck You Gamini Silva and Nuwan Kulasekhra (damn if it s coorect spelled or wrong, two hoots).Ball pitched outside off stump, going far down leg side. And fuckin Gamini Silva gives Tendulkar out.Whats going on ? A joke ? Fuckin illiterate SL umpires conspiring with another retard Jaywardhena to dismiss Tendulkar cheaply ?

Blabba King, win by fair means. Not by getting fuckards who dont know rules of the game, who are a disgrace to the spirits of cricket. Lankan Umpires are the worst of lot. Did we forget BC Cooray ?

Australian woes and IPL

Aussies have fallen so deep in their own mess that a new comer Tsotsobe has now taken 2 wkts in 21 balls. And 2 of the best batsmen in the team for now. Marsh and Ponting. This is for sure a worst summer for Australian cricket. This when they are to play Ashes.

So the scapegoat would now be IPL and the loss of form in Ashes would be attributed to IPL.

May be Aussies would do it, may be English would do the same.

Who so ever wins would not, whosoever loses would.

IPL, the BCCI’s spoilt brat is the favorite whipping kid.

2007 had two world cups. Traditional world cup and world T20.

Australia won by beating SL in the final .

Skippers : Ricky Ponting and Mahela Jayewardene.

Both are beleaguered. One has had worst summer as captain. One is having worst run in his ODI career.

India beat Pakistan in World T20 final.

Skippers : MS and Shoaib Malik

Shoaib Malik is sacked.

MS is now skipper in all forms of game. Going strong in ODIs, tests and T20s. Even IPL too.

Morkel takes up Pups. Aussies @ 3/37.

Asif banned for one year from IPL. Perhaps he should now plan for an acting career. Cricket is not for him.

Sreesanth's friend in Emerald Isle

Jumping jack just got in to Lasith Malinga....Where is he ? Dancing in some reality show to fitness or working on nets to come back ?

Sri lanka 's Sreesanth

Resilience of Dravid

Silently and quietly Rahul Dravid is resuccrecting his career in the domestic arena of Indian cricket. And that augurs well for Indian cricket and not so well for his critics. The great batsman scored a second consecutive hundred in a domestic game. He scored a hundred in Duleep Trophy today.

Go on mate J

KP's IPL price

Will Kevin Pieterson beat the highest paid cricketer MS in the IPL auction ? Perhaps he would. Good price for losing the England captaincy job.

India vs SL -- 1st ODI review

Thushara to Tendulkar, OUT, not the best decision unfortunately but Tendulkar has to go, the ball pitches marginally outside the leg stump and straightens and hits him fairly high on the pad as he tries to work it to the on side, Kumar Dharmasena thinks about it for a while before raising the finger, this is Dharmasena's first decision in ODIs

If you cant get Tendulkar out by bowling get a crooked debutant empire to give him out. Good debut for Dharmsena as umpire. May be he was taking his revenge for being hit by Tendulkar when the dude played.

Mendis & Murali negated. 20 overs 99 runs 1 wkt.

The new 2^nd numbered bowler in the ICC rankings negated. 0/32 in 7.

Mahela Jaywardhena, itching to plot a revenge against India flopped again. 11 in 19 balls with no boundaries. Somebody said he relishes India for return to the form. Negated.

Sanga and Kadamby – negated.

Tendulkar effect – negated.

Winning streak of SL – negated.

Yuvraj effect – negated for a while. May be one down next game.

Dhoni effect – multiplied with a power of 2. Hits another cool 50 without being flashy and hitting the ball in “helicopter” and “dhobi – pachad” style. He is one batsman who is challenged for technique and effectiveness. He is one batsman poor in technique but millionaire in attitude and flair. But in the long run that doesn’t matter. The runs you churn out for your team in the situations is something that matters. His 4000 runs mostly have been saving grace for the team as has been 22551 runs from Sehwag and Tendulkar combined.

There you go. India win with 6 wkts with 11 balls to spare. An easy comprehensive win. 6^th in row for India. 2 away from their best record (8 in 2003 World Cup). All the high talks from Jayewardene flop and the dirty players go on an off day.

Questions rise again on effectiveness of SL as a team against strong teams or teams at par with it. There is a fact that SL have gone down the performance levels even though they can falsely breathe easy that they have won 6 of their last 7 ODI series. This team doesn’t spread the fear amongst the opposition as the one in 2007 did. That had no Mendis. This one has Mendis and Murali. But they were negated.

Perhaps they are being done in by the lack of ideas and innovation by their skipper. He is unable to perform with bat and sadly he doesn’t ball. He speaks high, he fails to match that with his words. He is proving more to be liability on the field for the team. Perhaps he should take a break or maybe he should leave the job. SL might need Jayewardene as batsman, but the skipper in his form has outlived his sell by date in similar proportion suggested by Straight Point for Ponting. A good leader would accept the problem areas and try to work on them. A false inflated ego won’t help in turning back to the problem. There is a problem. SL doesn’t seem to be a very good team on the field even though they might lose Jaysuriya before 2011 WC. He would be 40 this year. He continues to excel against India and score runs against us. We hate you man. But unfortunately the SL selectors don’t love you enough.

SL have had some problems with the captaincy post 2003 WC when SJ resigned. Choice of Hashan Tilakratne as skipper in his fading twilight of career was shocker and he didn’t deliver. Promptly after 0-3 rout to Australia, he was shown the door. Attapattu, the next skipper hadn’t had much success against stronger teams. Yeah they continued to whip minnows and Pakistan, but he failed against stronger teams like India (2005), Australia (2004) etc. Mahela showed some spark in 2006-07 in his honeymoon period, but then he has now ran out of ideas. He deserves a break.

The only worry for India would be the spinners. Ojha didn’t impress and was negated easily. Other question for MS would be who goes out when Sehwag returns. May be Pathan. He isn’t the allrounder India hoped him to be post IPL. And Sehwag can bowl 10 better overs than Pathan. Sharma might not go as he had a NO against his name today.

Going by the way India played today another whitewash or a 4-1 win is on the cards.

Dilshan and Jaya spat ?

SL loose their first wicket in TM Dilshan. Dude ticks the ball and runs for life whereas man from Matara not keen.   Dilshan keeps running towards the pavilion. May be some fireworks in the dressing room, may be Dilshan would hit Jayasuriya with the bat  for running him out for a DUCK.

 

And any bet on whether Mahela Jaywardhena would score a 50 today ? I bet he would.  

 

Munaf Patel sharing the new ball ? Heck what ?

Younis Khan

Malik was sacked after the 1-2 loss to Sri Lanka. And MoYO would be happy with riled up joy. Yeah like school boy. And so would be Shoaib Akhtar and critics of Malik, who unfortunately cudnt deliver the results against stronger opposition barring the Kitply Cup win.

What about Younis Khan ? Is he ready now ? Are his terms satisfied and acceptable to PCB and new coach ?

And will appointing Khan get rid of the imminent problems in Pak cricket ? Time will tell.

BTW focus is on the 1st ODI :)

Win the toss and bat 2nd MS!!

Being MJ critic!!

This days there are 2 cricketers who are targeted bhery bhery much across the blogs. And they happen to be 2 captains of the teams. And those 2 teams are the finalists of the 2007 world cup. Australia and Sri Lanka. I am critic of Mahela Jaywardhena, so much so that Damith termed me as “riled up school boy” on calling MJ blabba king. He might be a good batsman or a good skipper, but his repetitive comments piss me off. Ok there are good players, some new players, some old players in the team who fail or deliver in a given match or series. Going blind over the performance even if it’s against a minnow and calling it of highest order is ridiculous. For me he sounds more like Amar Singh of Samajwadi Party, the political group famous for absorbing big Bollywood film stars in its lineup.

Second one who is being criticized across blogs is Ricky Ponting. I admire him. Poor guy has been under fire from all ends. He is unable to cope up with the sudden attention in the negative way bestowed on him. Ok there are few well known critics for Ponting, Homer and JRod along with Damith one of them. Nobody goes and says them “riled up school boy”. But why me ? I criticize Pakistan, I m judged, when I criticize SL for being a minnow basher, I am judged.

But guys like Damith, when they say huge things about some fabulous Indian players like Ganguly and Kumble who were triggered to the retirements after that painful Lankan test tour, they feel they have right to say anything they can. And if they feel so to say they feel, I hold the same right. After all free speech counts for something.

“Arm ball came here and predicted a whitewash, using his favorite line of the ‘minnow bashing’ team going to get a taste of their own medicine. He hasn’t been seen around these parts since the 2nd match”.

Dude, I was away on the long weekend and net connectivity wasn’t as frequent as I was with my family, so I didn’t visit too many blogs. Don’t worry, I d be there if you miss me so much. But I m not biased. I try to see the game from my eye and eyes vision differ.

And sour grapes aint for me dude. If you bank on the series record wins for your team after India defeat, then let me remind you that 3 of those wins are against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. And let me not remind you the manner in which they have come. Contrast that to the Indians. They are afresh after a 5-0 win over Poms in ODIs and 3 Test wins over Aussies and Poms in the best of the season for them ever since I can remember. Going through a home season undefeated is hugely a big thing yeah ? And then we don’t have blabba kings in the lineup. Yeah there is a Bhajji to an extent, but then barring his M comments and slap to Sreesanth, he is not as loose speaker than few others. Yes I can compare Sreesanth to MJ, but then who needs Sreesanth anymore ?

India hasn’t chip chopped the bowling attack in last one year or so in both forms of the game unless its been injury reasons. Ishant and Zaheer now form the crux of bowling attack in both forms and unless one of them is rested for the heavy workload, no reason why they won’t form the best of the new ball pair for India after Srinath and Prasad did it for brief duration in 1996 – 97.

Fingers crossed, I m tensed for the outcome of the game tomorrow. If India wins, then we were fresh, if we lose, we are rusty, Blabba King gets more hyper and more pressure on “dirty players”.

But then Indians aint a good starters when they come from long break (1 month here though). So maybe I have claimed them to be underdogs.

Record balancing against Mendis!!

5 months back he had torrid times in his favorite country and against his favorite opposition. 13 hundreds and close to 3500 runs against them. 95 runs in 6 innings and people said he was finished. Game over dude, go away. The new kid on the block BAW Mendis got better of him and critics jumped to the conclusion that M&M have made him their bunny.

LMAO.

Didnt they remember that in his hey days and Bigger M's hey days, he dominated Big M like no one did. Forget BCLara. ODIs or Tests, this man got better of him everytime they played. Be it 1997 or 2005 or 1993 or even 1994. When Arjuna's men killed Test cricket in that ultra boring 952 test match, this man hit Big M for runs to enforce a result. But unfortunately the fat man s team was hell bent for records....

Remember Shoaib Akhtar, Andy Caddick, Henry Olonga, Glen McGrath and Shane Warne. For once they dominated this man and the next game they didnt get any chance to show the domination.

This ODI series, this man is gonna do the same.

This man is Sachin Tendulkar.

Blabba King takes Indians on

Yeah come on Blabba King, come whip us

http://cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Jayawardene_eyes_India_after_Pakistan_rout/articleshow/4029452.cms

For sure you are gonna hurt us even more than we did to you!!

3-2 or 4-1 or 5-0 ? Take your pick Mate :)

And did we say that we are T20 champs....So bet on the result for the T20. Lets see what "dirty players" do to us.

"Sri Lanka would whip India in the series."

Story of Two Teams.

Team A : Lets call it Team of Superstars -- selfish and greedy, ageing and young, T20 suckers.

Team B : Romantics favorite, famous for killing wins and unethical bowlers, also famed for 2 Ms. Sorry ji, 4 Ms.

Lets start with Team A.

Team A chopped out of 2007 world cup in 1st round. Fans go berserk, burn effigies, mourn the death of cricket in that country. Few months down the line, the team is rejuvenated, the young guns replace the ageing warriors. They falter at the start, loosr 2-4 to australia at their own home, then win 3-2 against their fiercest of rivals.

They have a skipper with long hair, longer than Vaas at one point of time and that wud put the likes of Meg Ryan to shame. A flamboyant then vice-skipper famed for hi-fi life ishtyle, a bowler with longer hair than his skipper called a mole, a temperanmental bowler who gets offended by Jelly beans, a spinner who is interested in ads than bowling...A batsmen who is greedy since 20 years and still going strong, proved all to all but yet open to debate for a place in the team. A opening batsman who has lost respect from bowlers round the world and so has his hair along with a serious Gauti who is match referee s fav for one sided verdicts....

A team wins in Australia for 1st time, loses a couple of finals but then beats a Team B in its own den overcoming 3 Ms. And then beats Poms 5-0 on trot. Then goes on a break. Ranked 2nd in world with Chokers who learnt now to unchowk....

Team B : Famous for 4 Ms. Mendi, Murali, Mahela and Minnow bashing

They are romantics favorite. They take "wikats" like house of cards. They bash minnows like a daemon crushes its victims or a "aaloo (not Inzy)" gets crushed in a hotel for sabji. They cry foul over IPL being played in Country of team A. Mahela fishes for runs, yet fails. Fails to hit a boundary for 11 games. 4 ducks in 11 games , yet finds himself in form and then team almost looses to minnows. But then some miracle happens and they beat Pakistan 2-1.

Murali completes 500 "wikats". Sanga shouts "Alle - Alle". Mahela screams "Form ale ale". Murali screams " 500 500." Mendis screams "50 50 50. Now 100 100 100."

Team A now plays Team B in a series in Team B country. Over the discussions who is better prepared and who is favorite to win the tropy, the "fans and experts" in team A country say "Team B is better prepared, balanced and has better bowling and batting attack". One of those experts is Arun Lal and Sivramakrishnan (caste caste :))...

Team A is India, Team B is Lanka.

I scream in disgust when I see bloggers say or experts yell that Lanka is favorite to win the series. They suggest they have M & M. I say, the other 2 Ms negate the positives of other 2 Ms. Out of form Mahela and Minnows negate Murali and Mendis. How can a team who struggled against minnows be a favorite against a team which has beaten the strongest of teams in last 1 year. Just for the sake of limelight and sharing a same caste (tamil) SL become favorite ? Right mr Sivramkrishnan ? Ridiculous.

If SL won the last ODI against Pakistan, it was not for their superb bowling, but it was for disgusting batting from Pakies to do so.

Aint something fishy in Lahore ?

Was the 3rd ODI between SL and Pak a normal result ? Wasnt somehting fishy ? Especially the way Pakistani batsmen fell to a peddler at the best -- Kulasekra ? He is no way a bowler who is gonna create havoc amongst batsmen, let alone take a 6-for. At best a dibbly dobbly wobbly!!

Was there a cash price awaiting for them from Dubai ? Them as in Paki batsmen ? Something is not right. May be the alarm bell for Malik and those sack him calls would get longer and louder now.

Warner no Afridi!!

Calling David Warner a Shahid Afridi is a bit outrageous. The kid is just arrived on block and looks an interesting prospect. Should replace Mathew Hayden in the long run. Afridi is a huge waste of so called talent. The dude always looked same age even when he came in the age of "17" and even now after 13 years at 30 he looks the same as 17.

And may be today Herschelle Gibs would have averted a retirement or an axe......

Poms Hug IPL

Look who is coming for IPL, the 3 week window opens for somebody :)

The power of INDIA, the power of IPL, the Modi=ism rules even England now....

Welcome KP, Freddie, Broadie, Pauly and Shah to the mad world of T20 in India in the circus called IPL...

Uthappa and Zaheer swapped.

Cut to Jan 2008

India were the newly sworn champions of T20 in world cricket. Robin Uthappa was part of the winning squad and most notable contribution to the team was the bowl out hit in the league game against Pakistan. Zaheer Khan had missed the tournament owing to the rest he needed after grueling successful England tour. But he was India’s best Test bowler then too. Besides in Jan 2008 he was injured and had missed the Australian tour for 2^nd time in row (first time in 2003-4).

Then the IPL auction happened for the first time. Mumbai Indians, the richest franchisee owned by Reliance Ambani and captained by GOD snapped up Robin Uthappa for whopping $850,000 dollars. Robin Uthappa stays in Bangalore and Bangalore has its own IPL team led by Rahul Dravid, coached now by Ray Jennings and owned by a short headed business lampoon. Zaheer Khan, then a Test bowler was snapped up by Bangalore Royal Challengers for the amount of $ 450, 000 almost half of Uthappa.

Performance in 1^st season

Both have an average IPL season with Zaks laid low by injury and ending up with 13 wkts in 11 games (low by his current form). Uthappa scored 320 runs in 14 games. Both teams faired even poor finishing 6^th and 7^th in the league table.

Cut to Jan 2009

Robin Uthappa has fallen out of favor from the national ODI team. He leads Karnataka in the Ranji trophy and has had a good domestic season with 3 hundreds.

Zaheer Khan has emerged as one of the best Indian player of 2008 and one of the topmost fast bowler in the game today with exemplary skills in reverse swing. He led to England’s downfall in 2007 and 08 along with Australians in 2008 home series. Conquered Lankans in 2^nd ODI in SL which also triggered the horrendous run of Mahela Blabberer Singh in ODIs.

Today both were swapped by their ‘Home IPL teams’. Uthappa landed in Mallaya’s team and that might shed off the ‘Test team tag’ of Bangalore Royal Challengers. And Zaheer returns to Mumbai Indians. But the sad part is there is no money involved. Uthappa today costs $850,000 and Zaheer for all his fabulous displays in Tests and ODIs costs $450,000.

How much effect that casts over the fortunes of the IPL remains to be seen.

BTW who is my fav IPL team.

Sentimentally I have been fan of fab 4 in the Indian test team. So it should be : Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians owing to the fact that Saurav and Sachin are my most fav cricketers, but then the composition of rest of team isn’t very good. So I would cherish the idea of Saurav and Ricky Ponting (if He plays) firing along with Ishant Sharma. And Sachin showing up his class in T20s along with Sanath Jaisuriya. But my favorite team is no doubt the Delhi Daredevils. I would gun for it. Delhi Daredevils is led by none other than Veeru Sehwag and his partner in crime – Gambhir is part of the team too….

BTW an interesting trivia : India is the only team in the world which has same opening pair in all 3 forms of the game. Oji bole to sadda Veeru te Gauti……..Which other team comes close ? Nobody. Australia might with same opening pair in ODIs and T20s, but then they might have different Test opening pair. England could run close but not sure if Strauss would play and open in T20s. Pakistan, lol, they don’t play Test cricket anymore. Least said about Lanka, Bangladesh and New Zealand. West Indies have Gayle common link but the 2^nd partner is topsy turvy.

So its India all the way.

World T20 predictions

Semi-finals : India, Australia, Pakistan, South Africa

Finals : India, Australia

Winners : India

Too optimistic ji ? Koi gal nahi, India rocks ji…Wo din door nahi jab hum teeno forms me world champions honge!!!

Tale of 2 captains

Shoaib Malik comes of age....

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/pakvsl/content/current/story/387334.html

by making a frank and in your face comment on Shoaib Akhtar s commitment and fitness. Somebody got to do that to MJ blabberer too :)

Step Me down, Mahela!!

He said i am in form cos i scored 166 vs Bangladesh in Test match.

He said i am in form cos i got 4 ducks in 13 games against Zimbabwe and bangladesh.

He said i m positive and my team is winning and thats what matters....

He said i have M & M and they are best..........

He said i have jaisuriya, tere paas kya he ?

He asked Malik I come to you riding wins in Zim 5-0 and a tri-series in Bangladesh....What do you have Malik ? Akhtar ?

Malik said mere paas M&M nahi he, but mere paas form hain...jo tere paas nahi he Mahela....Me kam bolta hu, tu bahut bolta he......

Malik said mere paas Younis he, Miandad he, tere paas Arjuna he and thats the recipe for disaster!!!

Time for Mahela Jaywardhena to step down from cricket. His blabberings are bullshit. His team is going down the slide. His form has vanished and he is a poor show of himself. Such a captain is injurious to the health and morale of team. No team needs a non performing vocal captain. If you speak, then back it with action. Else keep your mouth shut, go to the nets and practise.

Wah Sehwag.......

A man with straight bat ...........

On Chappell

"The thing with him (Chappell) was that whatever you shared with him, it was promptly disclosed to media and selectors. He talked and that hurt the trust......."

On Ganguly

Yes, it was in Sri Lanka. I hit gold in the third match with that blistering century off 69 balls (against New Zealand). A lot of youngsters, including me, came to the fore under Dada. Remember, when he took over world cricket was reeling under the impact of match-fixing. He always backed us.For instance when I was Man of the Match against Australia early in my career, he assured me that I would play in at least next 30 One-day matches. Even when he promoted me as an opener, he told me to bat without worry as he wouldn't touch me for the next 30-35 games.When your captain backs you in this manner, your confidence is sky-high. He was also an extremely aggressive captain.

Totally unbiased, straight out of box, in your face attitude just like when he bats and puts the ball out of the sight.......

Finally...........

Cricket resumes in Pakistan......And they play against Sri Lanka....

Fancy a 3-0 win guys!!!

SL on slide down the hill.......

Mahela Jaywardhena looks like an IT project manager to me. An IT manager speaks and never acts. He churns on the buzzwords in every meetings and none of his team mates understand what he wants to say.

MJ appears to be in the same mould this days. He has lost his form in the ODIs. His team is struggling against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, the lowest of the ODI playing Test nations. He has had 4 ducks in last 13 games. Yet he is not finding the situation alarming and he blabbers on in his usual style.

Have a look

"We're still winning," he said. "There are periods when you go through tough times as a team and you need to pull through them. That's what character is all about. I haven't seen too many teams being 6 for 5 [as Sri Lanka were in the tri-series final against Bangladesh] and still winning. Even when we came here for the Asia Cup, we weren't favourites and we won it."

Not many teams go 6/5 against BD unless you are a non-Test playing nation....So if your team goes 6 for 5 then its a shame. Yet he finds positivity in negativity. Thats some attitude man....

"The wickets were tough in Bangladesh but we have to struggle through that and challenge ourselves," Jayawardene admitted. "But consistency is something we are working on. After the 2007 World Cup some new guys came in and we went through a transition. It has been patchy, especially if you consider the bowling attack we have. But Upul [Tharanga] and Sanath [Jayasuriya] are back and they bring some experience, but we can be much more consistent with our batting."

What transition man ? The batting looks almost same as 2007 WC with Sanath Jaisuriya still lingering on and MJ, KS and Kapu playing on with Silva the only man to miss out. And dont they have a new spin sensation BAW Mendis in their ranks ?

Post WC final 2007, SL has lost it in the ODIs. Out of 41 games since then they have won 22 and lost 17. Now take out 6 wins against BD, 6 against Zim and 1 against UAE. Thats 9 wins and 17 losses in 28 against strong teams.

Lost 6 to India, 3 to England, 4 to Australia in the duration. The only positive or neutral record they hold against is Pakistan -- 2 wins and 2 losses.

Thats an indicator for MJ to put his focus on and look to get the results than blabber on and see the white things than gray ones.

Inconsistent selections

The team is predictable to the Lankan series. But one question arises and an answer beckons for that. Ravinder Jadeja is in the team on basis of the domestic performance. Now the question arises :

1. What was the parameter for the selection ? ODIs or Ranji games ? The ODIs are yet to begin (Deodhar trophy).
2. And if Ranji games was a criterion for selection for ODI games, then what was fault of C. Pujara ? An average of 82.96 and 900 runs in the season isnt enough ? If thats not enuf then whats enuf ?
3. Why was Virat Kohli dropped out of the team without even a single game after the Sep SL series ? Too many delhi players ? What is Rohit Sharma doing in the ODI team ? He hit 2 100s in the Ranji final, but then has he played a considerable innings in a ODI since CB series ?

Answers beckon to this couple of inconsistent selections...

Unbeliveable scenes in the tri-series final

This is pretty much unbelievable.

Bangladesh 152 (49.4 ov) Sri Lanka 18/5 (10.5 ov)	Sri Lanka require another 135 runs with 5 wickets and 39.1 overs remaining	Sri Lanka RR 1.66 Last 5 ovs 13/2 RR 2.60 Required RR 3.44 Bangladesh RR (3.06) 3.04
Full scorecard

Minnow hunters now getting hunted……….

Point to note that now when would SL play next BD and Zim ? With same frequency as now or reduced frequency ? Now making batting records would be impossible for SL and not to mention the bowling records too…

Augurs well for Indians who are to play the SL next after Pakistan.

So a 3-0 for Pak and 5-0 for India to beat the SL……

Cricinfo obsessed with English cricket

Out of the 11 players highlighted below most of them are domestic English T20 stars yet the English team is a dud in T20s on the global arena.

 http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/386457.html

 Wonder why cricinfo.com is so obsessed with English cricket ?

 As expectedly every list on cricinfo.com contains most of English cricketers, perhaps they need to understand that English don’t longer rule the world…….Colonial hangover still persists!!

Why not more T20s ?

India is now going to play a 5 match ODI series in Lanka along with a T20 international.   IMHO a 5 ODI series isn’t needed. 3 ODIs and 2 T20s should suffice.  We haven’t played a T20 in a year as national team and we have to defend the title in June and July.   Ok IPL is there and 2^nd season of IPL would have been concluded by the time we go to England for defending the title, but as a team we should play a few games before the world championship. There would hardly be changes from the ODI team in the T20 team with an exception of Sachin Tendulkar.

In today  s scenario, Australia seems to have a great team in T20s at least given the precision with which they demolished SA in KFC cup. And with the rise of David Warner and Shaun Marsh, they have a rocking opening pair followed by solid middle order.  Aussies would for sure pose a great threat to us in the defense of the title.

So some match practice is essential and that won’t come by touring Lanka for 5 ODIs.  And the SL team isn’t a viable option to play with as they are below their potential and have struggled in both forms of the game. Occasionally they might go and set the record, but the consistency lacks.   

Today s loss to BD proves that even minnows don’t fear the likes of Lanka now. Mendis might be a rising star, but then he is not something who would spell the fear in batsmen mind something which great ODI bowlers do.

Haydos going?

Is he going ? If so, then not in a very good way!!

Aussies on roll, Saffers on hiding

No Graeme Smith,

some Botha vo that leading the team

Aussies on roll :)

Sneior Hussey takes a stunner,

Hussey bros having a ball

Saffers choke once more..............

Test series win -- a fluke and storm in the tea of cup :)

Meanwhile  a lot of mention about the IPL esp by Warney and Mark Nikolas (cholas)..

Warner, you beauty!!

Daredevils have him..............

After today s innings Aussies wont miss Hayden anymore in ODIs and T20s........

A wonderful find.........

66 off 30 balls.................

He is David Warner..............

Ladies and gentlemen, take a bow!!!

Birthday RD

Happy Birtuday RD.........

Badhaiyaaa, Mubaaarakaaaaaaa te pataaakhe te centuriya te hajaro runs balle naaal!!!

Botha who ? World goes round!!

Johan Botha, the once tainted spinner is leading Saffers in T20 and ODIs against Aussies in absence of Graeme brave Smith :)

Who is this dude ? And why not Boucher or Kallis ?

5-0 for the ODIs and 2-0 for the T20s to the  Aussies.........

Not to forget the Saffers lost 0-4 in their last ODI series to England who were thumped 0-5 by India who beat Australia in CB series :)

Morning bunch of cricket developments round the globe!!

Hayden bungled up in the Tests this season and he was persisted with entire season.

He was axed from ODI squad and the T20 squad……….

Now he wants to go back to his family, ease off and decide what to do next. Cling on or exit.

Similar to what Virender Sehwag had in 2007 when he suffered loss of form in ODIs and was sacked from Tests and in effective lost the chance of being the skipper for good.

Pieterson and Moores were shown the door in English cricket after the rift came out in open……

Guess this is the time to wash out the dirty linen in public…………

KP – Moores rift in England and Fraudlingam Raju in India…………

England go a step back in appointing Strauss the skipper for WI tour…..They don’t have anybody else who is sure to play all 3 forms of game except Pieterson…

3 yrs back we had a rift in skipper and coach, coach prevailed to screw us further and skipper was fired. Later on coach was fired and skipper returned back for a fairytale return and even fairytaler farewell.

And then we almost had a Pieterson style rift between MS and selectors over RP Singh!!

Graeme Smith is the man of moment and SAFs are the team of moment……Romantics’ favorite……Showered with accolades for beating world champs in their own den. But then was that domination ? Did they dominate right through ? Did they send fear and shiver amongst the opposition ?

Frankly speaking the lineup of McKenzie, Amla, Kallis, Prince / Duminy and DeVillers doesn’t sound scary as this one :

Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, TENDULKAR, Laxman and Yuvraj………

Put Smith in and yet this doesn’t sound scary J

Nope not convincing……

SAFs cant be long term Test champs even if they uproot the Aussies……

Fingers crossed for more surprising developments………

And yes across the border, Akhtar won the contract, but not sure how long he would be up there and even bigger question is how many matches he would play ? Injury, fights, ego battles and conflicts might create a roadblock for him!!!

Malik remains captain for another year when they play SL home and away, tour Australia later in the year and go to England to play T20 world championship!!! Let them get good amount of cricket!!! Yeah they should get…..

KP and Moores blown off the hook!!

England coach Moores and skipper KP have resigned….

Courtesy : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/4158986/Kevin-Pietersen-resigns-as-England-captain.html

And http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/385633.html

This is perfect example of Hindi saying

“Na maaya na mili Raam”

What a gripping Test series!!

What a test match……..

It had everything of a classic suspense thriller of a Bollywood movie………

Villain in Ponting, an injured hero in Graeme Smith, Ntini as heroine who bore all the brunt of the sidekicks of the villain (read bowlers) and finally the villain won by 104 runs……….

Spirit of cricket was retained on the same ground where it was hurt and bruised a year ago………

Aussies remain number 1, the real winner today was CRICKET, TEST to be precise…….

Who needs IPL or ICL or T20 ?

Give me TEST CRICKET more, more and more!!!!!

And Graeme Smith – whadda man!!! Absolute hero!!!

Millions of applause to him!!!!!!

Adios Hayden!!

Mahela Speaks on winning the biggest series of his career!!

"We knew it was going to be tough considering the conditions we were given. We knew we had to adjust. We were in trouble at times but the guys showed a lot of fight and character.

"[Tillakaratne] Dilshan in the first innings showed that when we were 75 for 4 and that is something we encourage the boys to do, to be the best they can. I am very proud of the players. We are a good unit and we have very good standards. We just need to continue working hard and improving. At the moment we are fourth in the rankings and we should try and push ourselves further up."

Contrasting Test matches

Down Under :

Australia declare with a lead of 375 with SAfs given 3 and a half sessions to try and sweep Aussies 3-0. An interesting Test match in line with no Smith and no spinner in Aussie ranks. Hussey and Katich slow down the pace. Ponting and Haydos fall for speeding up the things. I feel Hayden should continue his career. They don’t need another rookie in Saf in February. Punter declaration a perfect example of Test cricket, how it should be. No liking for milestones and whatever. Just try to play for lost pride and revive some reputation by winning a dead rubber Test match.

In the days when Aussies would have their luck, they would have won MCG and WACA test. And today rather than fighting to avoid 0-3 defeat, they would have been glaring for a 3-0 series win over the SAfs. Game of cricket is a great leveler. Just last year, the Aussies were on a rampage killing the spirits of the game in the same venue by appealing against everything and anything. Of course the recipients were Indians and the umps were Benson and Bucknor.

I have been an Aussie follower since the 1991 days when India toured them and the commentary, quality of grounds almost took me by surprise. Since then after India, I have been following them. And I want them to win the Test and go for a kill in South Africa. Perhaps all they need to do is remind the Safs of the WC 99 and 07 defeats.

Saf opening with Morkel proved to be disastrous. They should remember that there is no Smith this time. Perhaps selfish Kallis holds the key as he also needs few runs to get past 10k runs.

Neighborhood :

Updates : Sri Lanka won by 475 runs -- fifth highest margin ever. Yet another record, yet another milestone against poor cricketing nations all set to loose their Test status. Guess what follows next ? A tri-series against BD and Zim...Needless to say how many more records would tumble......

SL lead Bangladesh by 620+ runs and yet are batting on and on. Perhaps waiting for Kapugedra 100 and Vass 50. Inexplicable tactics this. They just play for records and figures. They feast on minnows. They boost their batting and bowling averages against the likes of BD and Zim. When they would find no other team to tour, they would happily tour BD and Zim. Set milestones and then listen the MJ blabber that they found out lot of positives and build upon the team. Only to loose against the good teams. This team for sure kills the spirits of the game. No wonder this team holds most of highest batting score records in T20, ODIs and Tests, yet don’t look to be the top on the rankings.

Perhaps 421 BD scored would have scared the insecure SL skipper. What are they going to achieve out of this ? Simple record of victory by highest margin. Few useless 100s and cheap wickets. Or rather wikats. Here are some of the reactions out of SL fans :

Anika: "Surely, 623 runs is about 150 runs past where they probably should have declared. What happens if it rains or some bad light interferes. Mahela is only increasing the chances of a draw."

Hamish: "Mahela should take a leaf out of Ricky Ponting's book and make a sporting declaration. And you wonder why people are defecting to the 20/20 version of the game."

Anandha: "Mahela is a different captain. He may wants his batsmen to have some good batting practice because there will be a few back-to-back to cricket ahead for SL. I don't blame on him giving opportunities to his batsmen to have a go with the bat."

SL fans are used to the negativity their team propogates. I remember the 952 they scored against us in 1997. That was a torture. Indians lost their wkts for fast scoring rate. SL went on batting and batting and batting. Even Vaas scored 71 and MJ debuted in that test match. Attapattu was the only one to have missed out as he was bowled first ball to Nilesh Kulkarni. What was the usage ? Just batting records. 2^nd innings, Murali and Mendis would run through the hapless Bangaladeshis and then they would celebrate the rise in rankings.

Disgusting and irritating to see this Lankans bat and play…………Perhaps they should take a leaf out of Ponting’s book.

Sachin Tendulkar hits a 100 being sick!!

He was feverish

He was weak,

He was running temperature,

He was determined

He was focussed

he was in his 20th yr

He had 67 of them before

One more was in the offing

He had an aim , a mission

Make his team go to the final

He did with precision,

5 sixes and 17 fours

Sachin Tendulkar for you bloggies

hits a 100 despite being sick!!!

Welcome move by BCCI!!

A very good move to end the 2 Test series farce….beginning India Vs New Zealend.

Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI's chief administrative officer, told Cricinfo the Indian board is yet to exchange any official written communication with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in this regard. "What is official so far is that we have requested New Zealand to accommodate an extra Test to the series in March," Shetty said. "We are waiting for a response from their side."  (From cricinfo)

Will the BCCI critics applaud this request from a board which is known to kill the Tests and promote T20 / ODIs ?

SCG Test, day 2 last session!!!

Doug Bollinger has been a bit tad unlucky not to have got a wicket today....

Hauritz is getting slight turn.....

Amla is irritating....

Smith is retired hurt and looks to have his fingers plastered, may not bat again....Effectively Safs are 2 down for 116....

Ponting seems to have lost his captaincy zing a great deal!!

445 is good enough to post pressure on the Safs and now Mitch comes back...

Pitch seems to be typical Indian one with occasional bounce and more turn!!

SCG test, Aussies make a good start

Australia look good to be on the course of revival and the path of 4-0 drubbing to Safs in remaining 4 games of the series home and away.

445 is a good score after what it looked at 4/143 with Hayden, Hussey and Ponting contributing just 61.

Hauritz was magical today with the bat with quick fire 45 along with Mitch's 64. He is one man who is in the thick of action right this summer. Highest wkt taker in India, this series and no fluke with the bat. And as Soulberry suggests affordable than high ego Andrews of the world....

The ball has already started keeping low. A good 4th innings total could see Safs choke to the usual ways, but then Aussies will have to bowl well in 1st innings and then unlike Perth and MCG, bat well in 2nd innings.


Meanwhile Boulinger is troubling McKenzie with short pitched stuff. Looks to have a good quick action. Right now i m at a loss to remember whose action Boulinger resembles.....

I assume, the talks of replacement of Aussies as number 1 team might just be baseless and a bit too early :)

Lack of good bowling and 2nd innings failure costing Aussies dear!!

Diagnosing the Australia South Africa 2 tests give a picture that SA have dominated the poor Aussies in both the tests. However the closer look doesn’t reveal the same impression. First Test @ Perth, Aussies had a lead of close to 100. Target of 414 is usually a winning target or at the max a safe one. Australian batting collapsed in 2^nd innings, however Brad Haddin continued his form to score 90 to take lead past 400. Reason for loss : 2^nd innings failure and lack of depth in the bowling.

In MCG, the Aussies had SA on matt at the end of day 2 with score being 7/198. Steyn, Harris and Morkel aren’t very good tail enders to bat well. Yet Duminy took along this guys to score 459 runs in the end and gain a slender margin of 66 runs. Not big lead I presume. But again the Aussies collapsed in 2^nd innings. 181 is a decent score to chase. Australians had that attack in the past to defend the target. But again the lack of bowling depth did them in.

Two reasons come to the picture :

· Very ordinary 2^nd innings batting

· Very ordinary bowling attack

Australians haven’t been able to take 20 wickets this entire season barring Kiwis. And that has gone back to hurt them. They have lost 4 of those 6 Tests badly. 320 runs, 174 runs in India, 6 wkts and 9 wkts in Australia to South Africa aint miniscule defeats. More to do with the quality of pacers, injuries and the quality of spinners. Cameron White, Krejza and Hauritz have been the spinners who combined fall short of Warne . Clark(e) and Lee along with Symonds are injured. Johnson is fiercely one dimensional, much different than when he broke on the international scenario in 2006. Siddle, Boulinger are rookies. Bracken doesn’t find a favor in Tests. Gillespie is gone.

Add the form of the Aussie batters to the woes. Hayden is long been persisted with and unless he doesn’t score a big 100 in SCG, he should be gone next. Hussey has had a torrid year. Ponting managed 200 in MCG, but he is not in the runs as he always has been in 2000s. Clark has been slow and sluggish. Katich doesn’t instill fear in opposition like Langer did. Jacques should come back from the injury break. Not so long ago in West Indies, Aussies were spoilt for choice between Katich and Jacques for the opener’s slot.

South Africans have won all for one man – Dale Steyn in bowling and Graeme Smith in batting. Besides that, Kallis, Amla – the terrorist (Dean Jones quote), AB and McKenzie haven’t actually fired. Duminy is a revelation, but soon he would be fixed.

I would still bet Aussies to come back hard , win the Sydney test with fair and spirited game of cricket and then thump SAfs in their own backyard in Feb – Mar 09.

My 2009 wishlist!!

I wish all readers of this blog and cricket bloggers and their families a very happy 2009. My wishlist for the year includes :

• India take the crown from the Aussies in both forms of the game. We are already T20 kings.
• Australia stage a comeback in Sydney and trumps Safs 3-0 in SA.
• England loose Ashes to Australia after a hard fight.
• India skip the tour to Bangladesh and instead tour SA.
• Lets have a game of India vs SA and see who wins. The winner takes the crown of Australia as Test champs.......
• Pakistan play some quality cricket so that whenever ties resume, they shud challenge us for the game else its whitewash for them!!
• SL stop playing BD, as now they would know cheap victories and wkts wont come easy!!
• Sachin Tendulkar score 9 100s to reach 50 test hundreds and 14000 runs.

Many more to follow.............

Have a great 2009!!