Yet another Lanka tour to Bangladesh

At the time when I sign it was free, now it is a problem because Sri Lanka has put a tour to Bangladesh...

Yet another tour to Bangladesh. So Murali is going to skip Australian T20 domestic tourney.

Yeh log nahi sudharenge.

Koi na deshis, dikha do inko u have character and can beat them.

Yeh log bechare garib cricketing nations ki maarte hai and NZ, England ke samne bheegi billi.

India's exit

So Australia scampered through to the semis killing Indian hopes.

Alright.

Thats the cost of the defeat to former Indians and now Pakistanis.

Exit out of the champions trophy.

Pakistan showed a lot of Sangakara's character to take the battle in the end and spared Ponting not chewing his all nails else he would have got an upset stomach-- julaab.

Lol.

Match was a bit amusing. Australia 4/171 to 8/206. Hajmola khai lekin baat hajam nahi hui.

One game they score 302, next they score 205. Ummmmm. Iqbal Kasim and Sarfaraz Nawaz could be thinking to open their mouth here. I wont be surprised if there are some murmurs in next few days over return of something Lahore Badshahs did.

And Indian channels were bemused over Pakistan's gaddari. Lol. Gaddari ? Kyu bhai ? Why would Pakistan lose for India ? Never in million years. Younis Khan ke against there would have been a fatwa for losing it for "mohajirs" and.......

In the end its India who go out n Australia go in semis.

Dont worry, its very soon for India to take a revenge of that rain curtailed game.

4-2 for India.

For a change, now I would root for England.

There have been suggestions on Dhoni to be sacked. People are furious on his decision to bowl himself or blame bowlers. Yup. An Indian captain is an easy object to be fixed. If he wins he is lucky, if he loses sack him. And make whom the captain ?

A man who is yet to lose a bilateral ODI series or a single Test match yet should be sacked.

Dancing baby made other 30s in 80 balls. He thought he is back to the Tests opener role. Lol.

I now hope this was the last tournament he plays for India and stops jumping for the ball like a dog like he did today morning when the ball seemed to go to the best slipper in the world.....

Niki ben, now Dancing baby is all for you.

Its a 12 ODI home season now. First time in 2009, first time since PC made shambolic announcement on not to provide security for IPL. I wont write the obvious issue here for security reasons here.

December comes and lot of character descends on Indian soil. When the tour would end the character rich men would be bare losing Tests 0-2 and ODIs 1-4 or 0-5.

For now its a month long break for the team to go back to the nets and work out the glitches.....One tournament exit wont make India a bad team.

And for those who are now asking what Gary would now suggest India on "sex", let me say he didnt say that except that some idiot journo in the media twisted what he said.

Dancing baby put me to sleep with his batting, so much so that even 8 or 9 hours after he got out I am yawning.

Drug Peddler is back!!

Drug peddler took 2 for 34 in 8.

Butt's mission accompalished.

He has now established ICL guys, drug peddlers and a beatman in the team. Beatman is right now battling fitness issues. But he would even be back soon!!

No wonder if Salim Malik is back too some day as player or coach or head of some academy!!!

Neehra

Neeeeeeeeehraaaaaaaaaaaa you beauty!!!!

Me fir se team me aa gaya Niki!!!!

Dancing baby is back as an opener........Hmmmm

For him we should lower the bar like we say a batsman scored X 100s and Y 50s..

We should say 60s and 30s for KKD/DK/DB.

Then yes likes of Rohit Sharma and Dancing Babes would be among the greats of the ODI. And they would thrive when ODIs would be split. 20-20 you see. Just that they would have to bat for 2 times.....

206

Guys head back home.

Just 206 needed for Australia to win and go to the semis.

Younis Khan confirms India;s fears.

I dont feel everything was usual when they batted. Strong hunch that something was unusual. A slight bit.

There should never be a dependency on anyone for your aims and success. It always bounces back.

And thats what precisely its happening....

Something unusual about it

What a day is tomorrow. To see my team through to the semis I would need to wish my second favorite team lose to a team which is my second least favorite.

Juggling of numbers.

I have no hopes. I have assumed India is out.

Less hurt. Less frustration. Less agony.

If Australia go through they are my favorites, if they dont then its India.

But the onus of the early exit would lie on 3 individuals and they would be RP, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh.

Not many Indian fans support Pakistan except if you live in those pockets in India where.....but tomorrow would be an exception.

And there are signs that Younis wants to play India in final. Of course, thank you. But dont expect Manmohan Singh to ask his team to lose it to your team again.

30th Sep is never so complex.

Get over it ASAP....

Semis are decided!!

Ok the semi spots are clear.

England and Kiwis go through. Thats it. Kiwis wont go farther.

Sri Lanka is out. Lol.

Pakkies are through.

India is out. Australia are through.

Tomorrow innings break India would know if they are to win the game and still go home or if they are out even if they win.

That is if we have a full game.

Game on to Videocon!!!

Indian journalists, the assholes they are, quizzed Dhoni if he would try suggesting Pak to field their best team to try beat Australia ?

Laughable.

Man of the hour

Man of the hour :

Let me tell you who is not.

No Samarweera or Bug bear...

No Mendis who was huge last year this tem.

No Younis Khan or Boom Boom womanizer.

No Fab Four group member. No Indian either.

Its somebody unfamiliar. Somebody who won the Ashes yet wasnt given the credit. Who was disgraced by every blogger all over the world.

I bet my 10 cents on his team and his team is in the semi finals.

He is Andrew Strauss.

One day he recalls a loser when he was out.

Second day he denies a real hero a runner when he needed the most.

Graeme Smith is second. Angelo Matthews is first.

I would beat the heat out of Strauss for denying Smith a runner.

Smith is a real hero. Forgot his heroics in Sydney last innings ? Out with bat in a broken hand ? Time and again he has been the lone ranger in his team's wins and defeats.

So the man of the moment is Gream C Smith. Poorna wont like it. But she has to. Real heroes are liked by everybody.

And I noticed my blog isnt so popular in Sri Lanka. I have noticed in google that they say something about me in their local language.

What do i say ? Something which Dancing baby adores :

'Naan oru thadava sonna nooru thadava sonna mathiri" Sri Lanka s a boring team to watch and so is their cricket in the backyard where no body cheers on boundaries but just a boring band keeps playing....

Raj and Prabhu can decode wot i wrote in the quotes above. Rajanikanth dialouge which says If i say it once, its like saying it 100 times. Lol. That I think would be my punch line of the blog.

Btw, the man of the hour is Graeme Smith for his heroics yet again.

Request to Younis!!

Alright I praised Younis Khan for his candidness and honesty in the interview in cricinfo,

Damn that was edited and made readable by cricinfo staff.

Real Younis Khan when he speaks was on the envil in the game against us with Sanjay Manjrekar.

Boy he made a mess of the language. No grammar, no nouns, no verbs, just boling...

My humble request : please dont try to be a Sangakara. Be yourself. if you dont know English, bhaiya Urdu / Hindi(Whatever u call in ur country) usme baat karo.

Please.

Fast bowling needs immediate attention

Its all over almost for India in the CT, thanks to the rains. Feeble chance yet to qualify for the semis if India beat WI and Pak beat Aus and there is some luck with India. But we dont have that luck, something Pakistan had in 1992 World Cup or Lanka in their botched up 1996 World Cup when they had 3 defaults in the so called World Cup win. Find out instances when we have been benefitted from such instances. I dont recall any in 23 years of watching and following the game.

There was little we could analyse on the game except :

1. Ishant Sharma is not a limited overs bowler. No ODIs and no T20s.
2. Harbhajan Singh should no longer be # 1 choice in ODIs. Who will replace him dont know but this lad no more.

Ashish Nehra is to stay.

Hunt for some new fresh bowlers. fast bowlers to be precise. Do not fall back on tried and failed ones like Munafa, Irfan or anybody like Dhawal Kulkarni who cant step up the gas beyond 125 kph.

What happened to the Royals fast bowler who was discovered by Shane Warne? Whatever his name was, is he cleared of the chucking ?

Why not now do a review of IPL fast bowling successes and give them a lot of chance in the upcoming 12 home ODIs in bid to find a good backup pair for Zaheer Khan and hopefully Ashish Nehra in 2011 WC ?

5 bowlers every time wont be a luxury to go with in the ODIs. WI is an easy option, but I would fancy return of a batting allrounder in the game rather than Ishant Sharma. Who ? No YP. Then who else ? 2 lame ducks. Dinesh Karthik for whom I say

"Naan oru thadava sonna nooru thadava sonna mathiri" that he is no longer a useful batsman or a keeper.

Or Abhishek Nayar ? Dont know. He played decent in the only 1 or 2 ODis he played in Windies.

Something needs to be done real quick about the fast bowling department. And yes no comeback for Sreesanth please.

Blurting it over

I followed yesterday's crap match on my iPhone. Being away from a goddamn TV and away from laptop in a superflous 6 Flags entertainment park in New England, MA, I had my heart in the game. Between every ride I checked cricinfo score for a good news. Sitting at the back of my colleague's car I was my way on glory when it was 3/65 and Malik, Yousuf played together.

I thought this 2 lads would have their egos killing each other and another wicket was around the corner. Damn that was too much to ask for. The greens didnt press self destruct button. I believe MS and his team had got a dossier from Manmohan Singh and his supremo to lose the game for goodwill and enable his government to go for "peace talks" with the mischieveaous country again after............

I had got the defeat in my stride. Goddamn, yes. It was all good. Till I read Megha's post. That kicked me again. Manmohan Singh is to be blamed for this defeat. He wanted the world to show we can lose it to them in every single occasion.

Losing to Pakistan and Sri Lanka is a shame for India. India almost set the Sri Lankan agony alright by thumping them in 9 of the 12 games. But this lads from Pakistan, many of which even hadnt played India made mockery of players in Blues.

What is RP Singh doing in here ? IPL - 2 and WCT2007 are gone. Reputations are afresh. England 2007 is gone too 2 years back. RP Singh of 2007 and 08 is no more existing. Let Dhoni figure out what he has to do with Amit Mishra. He is not being played by many teams around and he excelled in the only game he played in Lanka series. Plus he has had a needle over Aussies as his maiden 5-for came against them.

And somebody please pray that India meets this Pakistan once again in the finals and someone out of the team assumably Gautam takes out the fire and agony out of that womenizer Pathan Shahid Afridi.

And let Sachin take the heat out of the pie-chucker, the cousin of Kasab -- XXX Ajmal whatever. Losing to Pakistan is a shame anywhere. We wont mind losing to Kiwis or Windies or even England, but no losing to Pakistan.

Sangakara christened as BugBeeeer

Sanga learns a new word called "bugbear".

Only if he could have new ways to win in a game that mattered than saying huge words and looking like an ass in the field.

He better "brush up" his skills else the day wont be too far when they languish in the bottom of the ICC rankings in ODIs.

Weird bugbear.

Sri Lanka thumped.....

Wow man. Sri Lanka lost and now are out of the tournament almost. Character demolished. Great stuff Dannie boy. That gives you a blinker of a chance to get to the semis. Beat England who today should beat Saffa.

If Saffas lose today, Kiwis just need to beat England and if they lose, they go in a tussle with the Lankans and Saffas on NRR which they should have edge on the hosts and characterless men now made bare in back to back defeats....

Keep blabbering Sanga Silva and Mahela Jaywardhene.

I am relaxed that this guys now would shut their ass up and go sit in the corner with mouths taped.

And adios to Sanath Jayasurya.

Day after

So to all Alis, Arafats, Junaids and all such jubilant Pakistan fans who dropped bi on my blog and waited for the next post, so here it goes.

To start with congratulations to Younis Khan for a memorable win.

And as of now the game we lost, the blame goes to the bowlers -- RP Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma.

Sachin failed, Kohli failed and Yusuf Pathan now has reached the stage where somebodys gotta go to him and say "Dude thanks a ton. Your T20 skills are too good, unfortunately they dont work in ODIs. Out you go. "

Lad hasnt performed since ages and now he is hurting one place in the team. Not sure how good Nayar kid would be, but still that should be the end of Pathan for now.

Harbhajan Singh now has pathetic record of 10 wkts in 15 games. Horrendous.

In the touring party the other fast bowlers are Praveen Kumar. Who is no different than Ishant Sharma in non swinging pitches.

The fast bowling looks like a worry.

And for the critics of Dravid, here is why he is important to the side even now when the IPL stars have loomed large : hhe has patience and persistence. 76 in 102 balls were the difference why India lost by 54 runs and why not by 85 runs.

Still all is not yet lost for the team. Beat Aussies tomorrow which is a possible task if the team gets its combination right.

And why did Kohli come on 4 instead of 5 or 6 ? This are some of the problems which need an urgent fix. Throw the fast bowlers who are just on the reputation of IPL or tests. We need bowlers who could take wickets on any pitch. Something like Srinath and Zaheer do / did.

All is still not lost.

And yes this post would be a disappointment for flamed readers from the neibhourhood who....

Indians made Ajmal Kasab look like a King and the Umar Gul was punctured by 55 runs off his 6 overs. Aamer was made to look like a Wasim Akram.....

The unforgettable 96 QF!!

1996 Quarter final between India and Pakistan in bangalore. Whadda match .

Best remembered for Ajay Jadeja's clobbering of Waqar Younis, Javed Miandad's last international game, Chakarram's last minute exit fuelling match fixing and the famous spat between Aamir Sohail and Venkatesh Prasad.

Tension was greatest in that game. Pakistanis had stepped on Indian soil after 7 years (1989 Nehru Cup) and this was for World Cup.

I remember dancing out to glory on my scooter till Rajwada and the atmosphere then was electric in the night. Entire city was on roads. Loud cheers of "Bharat mata ki jai" and what not.

And 3 of the 4 victories in World cups have come under Mohammed Azharuddin. The tension was just unparalleled. And damn the next game the ............ruined Indian world cup party!!!

England prevail

over feeble Sri Lanka who are spineless on lively tracks. Who are flat track bullies. Give them hard bouncy pitches. They fall like pack of cards.

One more win to England and they are through to the semis.

Good going lads. Keep it up!!

England with a chance to win the game....

So in the end SL did live to their tag of lambs abroad. Make the pitch green and put in more bounce, all the character in SL high flyers -- JayaSuraiya, Mahela and Sanga Prasad evaporates and the lesser folks like Kandamby and Matthews take the center stage and fight a losing battle. 212 could still be a winning target against England just cos they have no KP and Freddie and the Lankans have Mendis who is venom only when a team plays him first time. But then the hype and lullaby surrounding this team's first win is all gone.

Kandamby is their Bevan and Yuvraj in making. Or even Hussey. The lad is underrated, doesnt speak much about the usual processes in their cricket. Quietly delivers. And thats so kewl. Mahela Jayawardhene, the worst speaker, is back to his scoring spree. Thats how he is keeping his place in the team. Amazing man. This lad had 3 ducks in row against BD and Zim last year in ODIs.

England could still lose this game. If they negotiate the Ms well, they could win it but someone will have to bat through. One of Colly and Straussy would need to do it. England are my favorite team after India and Australia.

Jimmy did fire and Swann didnt. Yet Lankans fell for 212. I wont judge England on their recent 1-6 scoreline against the Aussies. They have to win just 3 more sessions of play and they are through to the semis. I am fancying them and Saffers to reach the semis. If England win today, they would make the group interesting should SL beat Kiwis and England beat one of the Kiwis and Saffas.

Yenjai the game and cherish the wikaats Mendhis and Murali, the Jack do not take.

SA trump NZ

Saffers have got back to the track and they are now in contention for the semis. Their next opposition is England, whom we all know the worth of in the ODIs. I would still bet my money on England to go through.

England and New Zealend can beat each other and if any one of them upsets or both upset Sri Lanka, then their result would be keen for knowing who goes through to the next round.

Kiwis are crap. They just have no heart to fight.

Years back Stephen Fleming in a TV ad in India had said "Bada he to Better hai". They should now say "Bada format he to hum bekaar hai". They won the T20s in SL, but lost ODIs and Tests. Thats the same story here.

Wayne Parnell who had a good series against Australia got a 5-for and AB, Amy's favorite saw them through.

Purna would be the happiest fan today on a Saffa win. Aint you lady if you reading this ? Yeah Herschelle Gibbs didnt play but then he should be back in the all important game with England.

Go England go.

The Number 1..........

side in ODIs is INDIA.............

We are on top. Good feeling this. Not sure how long. But as long as it gets. My whinning on India has grown a bit more being away from India....

Jaao veero, trophy leke aaaoooooo...........

"I 've had to stop smiling"

'I've had to stop smiling'

A refreshing and candid read from Younis Khan. I rate him and MS as the 2 of the best speaking captains. Very honest, very candid and refreshing.

Thats a sea change frm the character rants and projection of how good we are and process oriented from Lankan chaps. Fit in Sanga or Mahela, they would just sound shit.

Contrast this in the above interview where Osman Saimuddin asks Younis about the extreme nature of Pakistan -- sublime to ridiculous. And the chap candidly admits that this is in the inherent nature of the country.

Ditto for MS when he quotes about the fan and media pressure.

One more place where YK goes candid is the reason why he was not willing to accept captaincy post 07 world cup loss. Another place he is awesome is when he suggests how much he had to pump every player for the Australia series which in the end burnt him out and he lost the focus.

I mean in this era of self marketing who would admit the mistakes openly. That takes a big heart to do that. MS, Younis have it. Thats why they are the best of speakers and make it a refreshing read.

I dont bother about the lose twangs like Gayle or Ponting here. Strauss is not even considered. Vettori is too good a man to rip him apart on this area. He is a work man who is trying hard to carry his team on his own shoulders just like Sachin did in 90s.

Who captains Bangladesh, I dont know. Is it Asharhalf or Shakib or is it 650 million dollar baby who was KKR'ed ? I have said the best, I have said who I dont care and I say the worst speakers are Sangakara and Mahila Jaya.....

Pakistan beat West Indies in a mess up

It was a good scoreline. Pakistan won by 5 wkts. They messed up. 134 was not a huge score. Not at all. Yet the big guns made a mess. In the end the kid Akamal and the Boomer chewing gum saw it in the end that their team gets through the upset.

Misbah, Yusuf, Malik failed and thats just going to raise more brows in their country. Beating West Indies could have been a walk in the park for the Greens, but they are Pakistan. Lest they mess, they wont be the team they are. Mavericks...Their next game is against the Indians. And its not a Friday. Its a Saturday. 2003 / 3/ 1 was also a Saturday. It was Centurion then, its centurion now.

Tendulkar, Dravid, Nehra, Harbhajan were then in blue. Younis, Yusuf, Afridi were in green.

Got to see an agression in Pakistan team, the agression they showed under Wasim Akram, not under Imran Khan. Under Imran Khan, the players were more like soldiers who have taken to whites to fight the "war" against India.

Under Inzy, the Pak team mellowed and that basically gave the likes of Asif and Akhtar a chance to go wild, my view. Dare somebody do that under Akram or Imran, the player would have ended his career. Today serial offenders like Yusuf, Asif, Akhtar continue to play and get away.

Chuck out a few losers from Pakistan team and they should be a good team back to the glory of 90s. And yes PCB too.

Don't write off blues

Writing off India in ct is a huge stupidity based on their 2006 record in this country. They are the best odi team since 08. Yes bowling is freak n now no yuvraj n sehwag means more pressure on tendulkar dravid n ms. This guys have 58 hundreds n close to 31000 odi runs.

Throw in gg n Raina batting looks fairly Gud even if no Vs n ys play. There hv been talk of emotions hurt n revenge from Pakistan over weekend clash. Indians hv been quiet n I guess they wud answer those calls on field

This is in reply to the post from Dilip where he reckons India would be kicked out in the first round itself.

Sent from my iPhone

Correcting Afridi

Afridi....

So far, luck has been with India. Hopefully, it would all change this time around

Me : Not quite. 2003 wasnt luck. 1999 wasnt luck. 1996 wasnt luck. 1992 wasnt luck.

Afridi :

If they claim themselves to be the best, I would say we are also best. Every team knows its strength. We have a very balanced side. Still, I don't take any side lightly

Nope, India doesnt boast to be the best. They have shortcomings. Bowling is the main worry. They dont have fit Gambhir which makes Dancing baby a default entrant to the team. No Zaheer too.

Few days back Younis Khan had said "ab humara haq hai jeetne ka".

Alright, play it on the field. Better team on the field wins. Past records, political tensions and emotional stuff doesnt matter.

How well you play for 100 overs would matter on 26. And its not a Friday. Last time when India beat Pakistan in a world cup was a Friday. And in 1980s every Sharjah encounter between the two teams was a Friday affair for unknown reasons.

SL win the first game in lottery

........as in D/L method. Plenty of character shown. Bhar bhar ke. I guess character was distributed for free in the flight from Colombo to South Africa. Dilshan continued his form in ODIs, Jayasuriya continued to count one more failure and ticking Mahila to write him off and say that pressure is on the senior pro to perform and show his character.

BAW WAW Mendis took 3 wkts or 4 to prove that Saffers cannot play spin. Is Mendis back ? Ask Pakistanis or Indians. Answer aiwai mil jayega.

Unfortunately for Saffers, time wasnt theirs as AB and Dale Steyn said. Mahila, supposedly an abundance character man sparkled once in a million times and his time was today. So the next games now he would be back to his scoring pattern.

Sanga Singh who is now the "aaankho ka dulara" for every sub continental cricket writer (exclude Indians) was among runs too. I havent digged his post match interview. I saw the scoreline in the office on my iPhone and first word i said was "Damn" when SA scored read 4/121 in 21 overs.

A lot of euphoria has been generated around the statements made by Sanga Singh and people call them as mind games. Whatever they are, they are most boring and repititive. He should learn some new stuff before saying the same stuff which in a short is " We are trying to win every game , have a process and have a long term goals". Give us a breather man. We aint robots to listen to the same shit every time you open your mouth.

Learn something from Dhoni who would be ruthlessly honest in stunning the team, media and fans by quoting that bowling was bad, batting was good, XX player was fine or bad. Ah man. India boosting. Yup.

Saffers, as Q says are hopeless in multi team tournaments. I believe this is one game SA played with SL after 2003 tie game which kicked them out of the tournament and ended Pollock's captaincy.

If thats true 6 years and no game in SA. Alright thats true. SL havent toured SA since 2002. Amazing. Have toured Bangladesh 3 times and Zimbabwe 2 times. No wonder they have inflated averages.

South Africa wont be affected that much as they next play England and New Zealand. SA and SL should be good to go to the semis, though I would hope England and NZ show a bit more character in taking out the character out of the SL team.

Bowling worries India

India's bowling is a worry.

And their best bowler in the warm up game is not going to play the most important game of the CT. Not because he is a lowly bowler on talent, but because his captain doesnt put that trust in him.

This is South Africa and there is place for just one spinner. And that spinenr is going to be Harbhajan Singh who is fresh from a 5-for.

RP Singh had a fabulous T20 world cup in 2007. How far he goes this time is not very sure as he is not seeming to be in good form. He was clobbered for 66 runs in 8 overs by Neil Broom.

Ishant Sharma has been on and off. Praveen Kumar well I am not sure if he would be playing. Ashish Nehra seems to be the best bet to rely on right now.

Zaheer Khan seems to be missed big time in this tournament. A country where he has been tremendously successful except the match on 3/23/03 against Australia, the biggest match of his career.

Possible bowling line up looks like : Nehra, Ishant, Harbhajan and RP.

Batting more or less looks settled. Tendulkar, Gambhir to open with Dravid at 3, Yuvraj at 4, MS at 5, Raina at 6. 7th spot seems to be in a bit of doubt. I would rather give the benefit of doubt to Yusuf Pathan in the first game and then may be try Nayar in the game against dummy Bangladesh.....

If the bowlers do their job half decent, the Indians would be good to live up to their reputation as the best ODI team in last 2 years. They have now won 6 trophies on trot. No other team can boast of the same record.

Warm up game pointers

Dancing baby cant play in a warm up game tooo.....He opened with Dravid and hit a IPL style 20 and got out thinking he was playing a T20 and his job done.

He has played his quota of the game on the tour. He is not getting any game once the main tourney starts and in the match of the tournament -- vs Pakistan there would be no Praveen Kumar, RP Singh and no Dancing baby...

Bowling looks now a worry too :D

Go long Yusuf (Indian)

Yousuf Pathan is the next man whose place in the final XI should be in danger. Ages since he performed. And T20 specialists must perform if they got to go longer in longer form of the games.

Go long Yusuf.

Pre-condition for new cricket era in Pakistan

"
For me, we're at the beginning of a new era for Pakistan cricket. It will be a nomadic, often difficult time, but it is a period that will require wise leadership, long-term strategies, and a large supply of patience."

Not untill Ijaz Butt is ousted..........

CT practice updates

SL's character men failed to show it against Pakistan to lose it by 108 runs. Mahela flopped, Sanga flopped.

Yusuf flopped.

Mendis flopped.

Akmal bros clicked, so did Misbah and Naveed Al Hasan. Who s he ? Is he Rana ? ICL man ?

Other hand NZ lost. West Indies lost.

Perhaps BD would have been better......

Australia would win in another practice game vs England C in England to begin their defence of the title and finally lose it to India in the semi final.

Preview to CT -- 1.

The CT is back. The days of 2000, 2002 are back too. The instances when the Blues reached the finals. No wonder this time around too they are one of the most strong contenders for the elite title.

I predict a India - South Africa final .

Not to forget historically Indians have done too good in ODI tournaments in SA and also their greatest win in T20 came in 2007 in SA itself.

If acclimatising to the conditions go, then nobody better than Indians do it after of course the home team. They just played IPL - 2 here 5 months back :)

Everybody in the Indian team played the IPL and one of them reached the finals. Didnt they. Sachin, Yuvraj, Dravid, Harbhajan and Nehra would cherish the 2003 memories. Especially Nehra when he rocked England in Durban.

India plays Pakistan in Centurion on 26th Sep, the same ground where they royally thumped Pak in 2003 and sent Waqar, Wasim and Anwar out of the cricket career.

The magical 6s to Shoaib from Sachin and Sehwag. The 6s to Wasim Akram. Who can forget that. So who is this time ? Gul ? Or Aamer ?

Let the CT begin. !!

Indians in ICC awards contention pisses off Pakistan fans

They dont have a single nomination in the ICC awards that matter. They had a media men in the jury that selected the nominations. Perhaps Ijaz Butt was kicked out off his butt when he tried to sneak in to the jury. Or for that matter Rashid Latif or Javed Miandad would cry foul that the jury is biased and pro-India. Pro - India means automatically anti-Pakistan. Thats what they have lived with all 62 years of their existence.

As a result our glorious neigbhours are pissing off in their pants to see so many Indians in the nominations.

Sehwag and Gambhir along with MS in ODIs. MS and GG in Tests. Fair call. Not cos they are bloody Hindustanis, but they excelled in all conditions.

Our glorious padosis never stepped in whites entire 2008 for a very crap reason "security". Go ask the Zardaris, Butts and Gilanis who is responsible for the security in their country. Is it ICC or is it MMS ? Ask Fazalullah and others to back out a bit.

Hop across every blog and you find this stani army character ranting about how drugs should be allowed in the game and how Indians are "fixed" to win awards.

No surprise this comes from a supporter of a team which has all above characterstics : drug peddlers, fixers, selfish players, fighters and what not. All this combine to play with sole honest person Younis Khan and they are called Pakistan national cricket team.

Drug abused : Asif

Drug peddler : Asif

Fighter : Asif and Akhtar. Afridi and Malik.

Selfish : Misbah and Yousuf. One of them changed religion to grab the captaincy of the team, alas he never succeeded.

When you dont set out in whites to play a 5 day game how do you expect to be in the nomination even if you send 100 talibani fighters to the ICC headquarters in Dubai to hold gun point over the jury and ask Pakistani players to be nominated ?

Get Freddied

Freddie Flintoff now is the inspiration of all evil practices in cricket.

He wanted it. He got it

He wanted it. He asked for it. He got it.



A tight slap.

I dont think he would be welcome back in the team after he had run-ins with Sachin, Rahul, Sehwag and even Dhoni.

Handle your success well, else wahi hota hai jo sreesanth ka hua. Na IPL, na Indian team, just a 2nd division county me khelte huye dikhoge.

Age is just a number

Old timers are enjoying the week right now across the globe. Jaya and Tendulkar along with Dravid in subcontinent. Ponting in England.

Who said cricket is for youth ?

Perform and keep persisting.

Age doesnt matter. Its just a number. Much for hysteria of the buffoons who know nothing on the game and for whom sustaining the limelight is the only purpose.

How does it matter if you are 25 and keep scoring 20s and 30s remain in the team but a batsman who has had just 5 bad ODIs is dropped for 2 long years. And the man who scores 10700 ODI runs, only 3rd or 4th man in the history to have 10k runs in both formats goes out just cos he is 34. Was 34.

A 40 year old man scores a 98 in the game against India and the 32 year old scores just 1 and 17 and 31 year old hits himself out. And 37 year old takes 5-for in almost every 2nd or 3rd inning and a 26 year old fails after the initial hyesteria.

The top 4 wicket takers are the ones who blossomed in the later years of their careers. The drug abused blonde star who took 40 wickets in losing cause took close to 400 wkts in 2nd part of his career. A jaw broken bowler took 350 wkts in his last 5 years of career when people had written him off.

A 36 year old batsman has scored 9 international hundreds since May 2007 and 7 90s. Out of which many were wrong decisions.

Age is just a number. Fold the number and flush it in the commode of your loo.

Sanga and Mahela's characterstic fixation on 'character'

Mahela and Sanga's Obsession for character stumps me. I mean there should be a cap on the usage of character in every match interview -- pre or post or presentation or cricinfo articles. Every single media interview and you would find this lads using word 'character'.

It gives me an impression that SL team is richest in character and other teams are studs or sluts :D. Almost with no character.

And if you compare this lads' performance with others then this 2 greats on flat pitches lack character which is shown by ageless Sanath Jaisurya or Dilly Dolly Dilshan or for that matter Kadamby. In my view Mendis, Mahela and Sanga are characterless and useless characters in richly characterstic SL team which has the most interesting caricature in the world cricket -- Malinga who also shows a huge character in growing his hair in weird styles, yet he performs. He shows character in giving 81 runs or even 3 or 4 wkts.....

Not the types who puke character and score 1 and get out on a teesra of a chautha grade bowler or get hit wicker :).

I need somebody with huge guts and highest character to show character and put a tape on Sanga / Mahela's characterstic mouth when they utter character.

Bhaiya Sanga aur Mahila ki maane to baaki sab teams charitraheen hai aur Lanka ki team sushil saumya saubhagyawati team hai.

Lol.

An incredible victory

MS heeded to my call and sent DK packing to fishing and a raving party with the remains of LTTE. And the result was up to see. An opening partnership of 95 which set the platform for a win.

That should be the end of DK for long time to come unless he doesnt get his boots going. Just like Rohit Sharma.

Alright so GOD scores 44th 100. Rahul comes at 2 and MS comes at 3. Yuvraj at 4.

India go hit 319 for 5 and win a tri0-series final in years. Last one they won...........ahem ahem ahem dont remember. Got it, CB series 2008, their best ever tri-series win after 2002 Lord's.

Finals jinx resolved. A tight slap to those who say Sachin doesnt play in finals. Go fag yourself. A whacking fatak (Kaminey isshtyle) to those idiots who say Sachin cant score a 100 in a final.

And a note to the critics of Bhajji . He got a 5-for just for 3rd time in his career. First against other team than England and though it was tail enders whose wkts came to Bhajji, it would lessen the chances of Mishra to sneak into the team.

A final well won and a sweet revenge for the humiliating 139 run loss on Saturday. Would like to see the character of Mahela now who has now got 3 failures in the series and SJ got back to runs about whom he had talked something like pressure on him...........Only thing he would keep playing and he wont be thrown out.

And as again Mendis was neutralised and dusted.

Send DK to a fishing party !!

Going down to Angelo Mathews is a big yuck. A man who is as sleepy as a Rajpal Yadav and perhaps can bowl no faster than 130 kph rocks 6 Indians for just 20 runs. Perhaps this is a mystery why new Lankan kids keep knocking bloody Indians. 7 for 30, 6 for 13, 6 for 20 have all come against us.

It hurts. Perhaps it would hurt Dhoni and Yuvraj even more than us lesser beings. So we can expect this lads to go all over on the Monday final and win a triseries in years and especially take care of this Angelo Mathews kid.

3 and 16 proves why dancing baby should cool off heels in the hell and not in the middle wherever Blues play and practice. He is a distraction and he is a misfit. A total misfit. I am not sure what he does to the people who gun for him to be in the team.

Alright, he did great stuff in IPL-2, the West Indies misfit tour, but how long he is going to eat the pancakes out of that booty ? He is got to show he belongs to that level, else he should be knocking the doors of those realty TV shows perhaps Big Boss or even Sach Ka Samna that he is a jerk and ridiculous when he steps on to the batting field with all his yawning mannerisms and good for nothing stay in the middle.

Go fish DK.

Dharmsena and Tendulkar

He was reported for illegal bowling couple of times. He is now a reporter, oops an umpire. He is notorious for poor decisions. he gave one today.

The umpires' favorite whipping boy is out in the town. They have denied lot many 100s and 50s for that kid of 20 yrs. Last time when the kid and his team toured the island he was given out 3 times in row.

SP says it "Kumara Dharmseena is out to get all those lbws with his finger which he couldnt get through ball".

India are now official bloody # 1.

Yo Baby.

We are # 1. Yup. Cant believe it. 34 wins out of 56 ODIs since 2007 debacle sees bloody Blue BCCI owned Indians go on top.

In the money power, in the financial clout, in the bullying, in muscle twist and now in game too. India are # 1 in ODIs.

Fair judgement. ICC rankings are still crap.

yeah I know people would have critical approach on ODIs, but who cares. When your team goes on top and whoop goes my heart.

Irrespective of dancing baby falling quickly or Dravid falling short of expectations. Yuvraj failing and Sach 4 short of 8x;s fifty, the Indians roasted Kiwis today and tomorrow would gulp Sri Lankans without even bothering about who the fuck Sanga, Blabba, Thilana or Malinga or whoever it is / are.

Bullying ? Yes.

Younis Khan and Umar Gul for sure would ejaculate out of the high they would get if they beat their own bitter and no 1 arch rivals, the b.b. BCCI owned Indians. And imagine if SL beats India tomorrow, how high the Sangas and Blabbas would fly.

Move aside SA, Australia long gone. Kiwis fried, Pakistan is nobody. Its India all the way. #1. Orgasmic. Nice, real and surreal as Hugh Grant says to Julia Roberts in Notting Drill (Hill).

Dancing baby partners Tendulkar

Dinesh Karthick returns again to the team once again as a replacement, once again replacing his captain of DD , once again temporarily. So is it a good thing or bad ? Bad. No other guy better than him ? Dude, he is not a fit for ODIs. Strike rate of 60s. Dancing steps. His partner would be none other than Tendulkar, and for sure he is going to get tad nervous walking with the man for the first time.

yeah expect a lot of dancing steps. He has to a replace Sreesanth as dance master of MIB and b he has hangover of that reality show.

Right in there DK, the middle. Thats your karma for at least today. Show your mettle. Show your worth. At least dont show us that ugly poke at the off stump delivery and the ridiculous shake of head when you are dispatched to the pavillion.

All the best babeh. Go score a 30. And dont run Tendulkar out.

Is Ponting era bygone ?

Ricky Ponting played 5 Tests in England. Lost 2, won 1 and gave away 1.

He doesnt play ODIs. Clark(e) wins 3 out of 3. So is Ponting misfit in the captaincy plans for Australia ?

He has already quit T20s. That means he wont return for IPL. Would he ?

Australia are no more a force in ODIs now. This is a separate story that they are 3-0 up against England, who are anyways crap in ODIs.

So whats the future for Ponting, the batsman and the captain ? He has easy meat in Tests down under this summer -- West Indies and Pakistan. Australia would brush this two teams up. Pakistan havent won a test against Australia in 15 years and WI havent won a test in Australia in 13 years.

So this 2 series wont be a true measure of his captaincy. Besides Australia would need to take a call on the likes of Mike Hussey and Ponting himself in the Tests. Ponting besides a 100 wasnt very successful in Tests.

The Ashes is over and till 2010-11 they have no bigger assignment coming up their way. So would Ponting be continued or sacked ?

A good call from Viru

Sehwag doesnt want to be the captain or the vice-captain of the team. He has been candid in accepting this and he wants to concentrate on the batting. I think this is a fair judgement. He is needed as a batsman more than a captain. He is India's next generation link. The one who has been a young gun in the peak of Fab Fives and then he would be the seniormost and most successful in 2 years from now when Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman leave.

He would be needed as a batsman -- the role of Tendulkar would be passed onto him. Mainstay in tests and also groom then the replacements. So I feel he has made a candid admission to relinquish the vice-captaincy and play just as a batsman.

This is another gem from Viru's cap and thats what makes him the uncomplicated person he is. Keeping the things simple as he bats.

Good stuff Viru!!

R.I.P Amy

Its sad and shocking to read about Amy's untimely demise in a car accident. Its just plain shocking that one of the best and ardent blogger is no more with us. She updated her blog more than once a day and it was refreshing to read her.

God Bless her soul and she rest in peace.

She would be really missed.

I m at loss of words. I wont say a word more.

Great Innings and Averages

Absolutely true. Dilip Premchandran on numbers and their relevance against the backdrop of quality of opposition the batsmen played. Spot on. Thats why we would always say Tendulkar, Dravid and Lara would be over the top than say a Inzy or a Ponting or even a Kallis. Who can forget the marvels of 114 in Perth, 148 in Sydney, 136 against a rampaging Saqlain and Akram, 117 in Melbourne, 241* in Sydney and again 154 in Sydney by Tendulkar. Or for that matter 277 in Adelaide / Sydney, 153 and 110 odd in 1999 series in wins scripted by himself -- Lara against Australia ? Not to forget that 1991 Australia team had awesome pacers too good for India and then in 1999 India were another rubbish team on tour to Australia with the Fab Four just had started playing together. Besides 117 from Tendulkar, the only other innings of substance by an Indian on 1999 tour was 167 by VVS which started his love affair with Sydney and Australia.

Lets not forget the 180 by Dravid in Calcutta and then 233 and 72* in Adelaide 2003. Laxman's 150 odd in Adelaide and epic 281 in Calcutta. Ricky Ponting's saving 156 in 3rd Test Ashes 2005 was another effort of greatness. Steve Waugh's batting efforts are full of valiance and bravery. Mohinder Amarnath in 1983 or Vishy in 1975 (perhaps). DBV in 1986 in England. This are landmark innings to quote just a few. And then contrast this with the innings by SL batsmen off late. Which ones would hold substance and weight ? Consider the opposition, conditions and match situations before judging a batsman quality. Many times batsmen dont score 100s but their efforts are as great as it can be. Who can forget Dravid's effort in 4th Test in WI when no other batsmen either side crossed 50. Gavaskar's last innings in Test cricket was in a losing cause. For that matter 138 by Inzamam which saved his career and got his captaincy in 2003 against BD. And JImmy Adams holding on with Walsh against strong Akram, Akhtar and Waqar in 2000 Carrib series. Does that count less than a great innings ?

The best test, as it has always been, is to check how the player did
against the finest team of his era. Sunil Gavaskar had 13 centuries against West
Indies, Sachin Tendulkar has 10 against Australia. Brian Lara had nine.
Inzamam-ul-Haq finished with one from 14 Tests.

Arm Ball renovates

We have changed. We as in I, the sole author of this blog. A 3 template GUI giving me more space to accomodate stuff I want to. First step to the change I want to make.

Vision of Arm Ball is now to be one of the most ardent fan of Indian cricket and rally behind the team every game it plays. We want to win every game we play and to get that done, we at Arm Ball would rally behind the Men in Blue.

Dont bother much. Picked up WE from Damith. A lot of stuff I pick up from sone other places like Prabhu suggests.

Ok in the left sidebars you see 3 images. The Indian victory in T20 WC 07, the GOD of cricket and the man who just lost his stumps. If you click on those images you get to the posts with the labels :

India
Sachin Tendulkar
Mahela Jayawardhene

This 3 entities keep Arm Ball going.

A lot more changes are in the store. Dont know if they would make sense to people or not. For me it would. I m a developer myself, but feel lazy to code a template which I want.

Alright then. Expect some more changes. And keep reading.

BTW most famous posts of this blog were :

FIP
Vinod Kambli on Tendulkar.

I want to make Ijaz Butt, Mahela Jayawardhene most popular here. Two comedy entities of World Cricket.

8 days to go for India to play its first game in 4 months. Actually 2.

A word or two about Sri Lankan character

We show character
We have character
We show it every Test
Against minnow, against weak team
We have character in plenty

We have character ,
We show character,
which goes missing
against strong team

We blabber character
We want to inhale character
We want to litter character
Our boys want to marry character

We show character in Galle
We show character in Dambula
We show uncharacter in Australia
We show character in conquering weaker teams
We are strong charactered

We conquered Fab Four who had feeble character
Character is our buzz word.
Mahela said it, Sanga says it
Mendis showed it, Dilly scooped it
Murali chucked it, Thushara spilled it
Thilana showed it with his 1000s.

Character humaari aan hai
Character humaari shaan aur baan hai
Just that character goes for toss
When it comes to going to India or South Africa
It comes in aplenty against Pakistan or Bangladesh

Such is our character, the Lankan character

Baz Woes

Baz just doesnt get seem to get rid of the Buchanan curse. His IPL'sque form continues in T20 too. Whatta a slide for the man who set the IPL rolling with a 73 ball 158 in first ever iPL game.

Build up to the first ODI off season

My team for first ODI :

1. Tendulkar
2. Gambhir
3. Dravid
4. Yuvraj
5. MSD
6. Raina
7. Pathan
8. Bhajan
9. Ishant
10. RP
11. Nehra

Bhajan would play. Doesnt matter if he is hot or cold. Choice could be between Nehra and Mishraji. We have already a lot of slow bowlers. Tendulkar can bowl. Besides Bhajan there is Pathan big, then there is Raina who rolled his arms with success in IPL - 2. Not to forget the Prince of Patiala and Parties -- Yuvraj Singh.

Batting order could be a floater. Dravid, not many people would remember was a best finisher India had before Dhoni floated and Kaif faded. So who knows. But then the purpose which Dravid is in the team would serve is at 3.

I doubt if SL bowlers have that capability to bowl short at Indians. Cos the most likely ones to fall to the short balls now comes late as 6. Raina bhai wont come on top for sure. And Kulasekra doesnt have ability to bowl short if he plays. And who is Thushara ? Is he going to bowl short ? And then I dont know who else would be SL fast bowler. They come in and go as fast as an actress changes her dress in a typical Indian movie (Hindi and regional included). Would Herath play ODIs too ? Would Dilly Billy Silly play his ice cream scoop shot against Indians too ?

What about Bond ? Shane Bond ? Is he still as strong as he was pre-ICL. Not sure. Only thing that would go against the Blues would be the off-season rustiness. Especially for likes of Bhajji, Yuvraj and captain who have spent more time in driving Hummers (one of them w.o number plate :D), partying, ads shoots and stuff like that. Indians havent been the best of the starters. Let me recall.

2008 : Post IPL, Indians started off well but lost 2 finals and then the dreaded botched biased partial Mendis series before they gathered their abilities to win ODI series and then set the ball rolling which hasnt stopped even as yet.

2007 : The break after WC was great infact. BD series win followed by SA series win (2-1), Ireland win, Scotland win, England test series win.

2006 : Was pathetic.

So off late not much data to say if Indians have been rusty or shining on the return. And with no Rohit Sharma, the contenders to fall to short stuff is pretty low. Forget Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj and MS falling to short stuff. Gambhir , hmm, well he wont. Raina and Pathan would bat lower down the order, so the short stuff wont worry them.

Good omens. Sri Lanka for ODIs is always welcome. Always a victory. 2008, 2009 and again a 2009.

Test Player 09

goes to Gautam Gambhir...............

Baat khatam, paisa Hajam.

End of the game babeh.