Deja-vu

Another game for KXIP, another defeat and another utterance of word “character” from the world’s richest man in character.  Its amazing that despite having oodles of character and showing it aplenty on the field, the lad chose to pick an Englishman over an Indian selected in World T20 and an express just retired from Tests but selected in T20 Australian to bowl 17^th and 19^th over to virtually seal a defeat for the side.

Showing of character elsewhere leads to victories, but supposedly for this men it leads to defeats.  First to their countries and now their franchisees.

Change of captain in both franchisees (2009 and 2010) led them to be the wooden spoon holders, both were southpaws who were replaced and those who replaced were wicketkeepers. And one of those who was replaced this year is natural successor for the man who was replaced in 2009 in his national Test team.  The coaches who replaced the respective men were Aussies.  One of the replaced men in 2009 led the charge for his team to be # 1 in Tests and when he quit the international game, the 2010 replacement took over his place.

The 2009 replaced man was a mentor to the man replaced in 2010.

Prediction

Actually it's waste of time to write on kings Punjab yet blabba king forces me to. He admits they ve been irresponsible and rightly so. Yet another defeat for them and yet another win for god of world cricket .

An indian captain should win ipl and right now god and jumbo look good to

 do so.

Weekend tidbits

Here are a few tidbits on the IPL games over last 2 days :

KXIP vs. KKR

·         Sangakara is not only finding leading a team difficult but he is also finding new ways on how not to lead a team. He was dismissed in a very bizarre way in the game against KKR on Friday and that also earned him a one match ban. All high talks snuffed out.  All plans and minutest details asked by Sangakara as mentioned by Irfan Pathan are now leading to defeats. Plus his handling of Indian players is looking absurd.  He has mishandled Yuvraj Singh, may be with an eye to earn an advantage for his national team in the upcoming World T20.

·         His ex captain was yorked by Angelo Matthews.  Heavens, even he is quiet now. And makes sense. What would he speak?

KKR vs. DD

·         KKR now come back in fray with a victory and now one win over Daredevils should make them in top 4 or 5. Next 6 games at Eden’s would make them hopeful for a strong 2^nd half of the ongoing IPL.

·         Joke to see Dinesh Karthik taking on Sourav Ganguly in today’s IPL game.  The dancing guy takes on India’s greatest captain. Antics? Dance steps?  His batting form is back to what he does the best. One big innings and then string of 10s and 20s.

CSK vs. RR

·         Suresh Raina was out bowled to Shane Warne while going for a wild slog. What was Raina thinking? Is Warne just another Indian spinner ? In the end classics got the better act and Shane Warne showed the class he has so famously shown us for last 19 years.  The attempt to catch a ball off M Vijay was awesome.

·         Y Pathan is proving to be a more hyped affair of IPL – 3. He is shining with the ball and heck even opening the bowling for RR. If that’s not all he is even running out the players. To add more hoopla he is the vice captain of the RR. Wonder if he would do the same magic for Indian team?

·         Badrinath should now be rechristened to Collapsinath. He ran out Dhoni once more by colliding against him and in a older game also he had ran out somebody by colliding. Not remembering the instance, but he should know and learn the art to run singles. Defense or slogging is not the only way to play cricket.

·         M Vijay surprisingly hit 24 runs of Nerwal’s over. 6 6 4 and 4. Wow man, never seen a test batsman hit cleanly like this.

·         The run of CSK here shows that it’s not just captain who makes a team win, but the 10 other players also play a big role in the fortunes. And if India is getting accolades under Dhoni, then it has to be attributed to the players of the ODI and Test teams.

DC vs MI

·         A match that lived up to the expectations. Was one of the best games of the tournament.  MI had just won one of the 4 games vs DC in last 2 editions. Today they won their 2^nd and this was attributed to the roommates – Sachin and Harbhajan.

·         Harbhajan the batsman was on the anvil and he played one of the breathtaking innings in the tournament. And he hit every one who bowled to him. Clean hits. Did we miss seeing that Harbhajan hit Symonds too brutally.  May be he remembered the scenes of Sydney 2008 before him in a flashback.

·         Sachin Tendulkar celebrated the wicket of Adam Gilchrist in first over like he never did before. I never saw him celebrate a wicket like he did in 21 years of watching him. Pure vintage moment.

·         Zaheer Khan yorked Rohit Sharma to end DC innings.  Experience ruling over raw crude force.

·         This match was supposed to be a home game for Deccan, but the crowd at DYP supported Sachin led team. This is something that nullifies the concept of city based loyalties. The crowd throughout India would savior innings by Sehwag, Ganguly, Dravid, Tendulkar, Gambhir and bowling efforts from Kumble, Harbhajan, Zaheer. Blame it on the Indian team performance in the decade. This stars are pan Indian stars, not just city based.

·         The IPL is an Indian venture that’s supposed to be killing the Test cricket and the country is Test Cricket’s best ranked team. Irony could not get more stronger than it is.

Pathan.....

Yusuf hit 73 off 34 balls. Alright that would matter if he would play the same inns for India and consistently....

Why is Woodanga underperforming ?

The reason why Sanga is underperforming as a captain and as a batsman is to get a dimple beer hug from his co-owner Preity Zinta of Bollywood. And then he would go up to her and ask her the same famous Dil Se dialogue which she asked to KKR owner SRK......

Innards of a KXIP game

They are going to be knocked out today with the 5th defeat in 6th game. And boy Yuvraj Singh is going to be even more disinterested in the proceedings. Instead he should use the remaining games as platform to regain some form and show that chopping him off as captain was ill planned move.

Piyush Chawla will have extra motivation to bowl good if he plays next month in the world T20. But will Woodanga play him ? Woodanga as in Sanga as he is inline to make KXIP wooden spoon holders.

Blabba and Woodanga have not fired. They have looked pedestal. So will they own up and not play the game or being the friends and in bad form they would continue to play ?

Prediction : Another KXIP defeat.

Poor team selection

The team has been announced for world t20 and to say in one word it’s a disappointing selection.  There are many players who are in with a questionable form, there are many who are injured and there are many who are dropped and many more who are not even considered despite strong performance in ongoing IPL bandwagon.  

The culprits:

Praveen Kumar : Except a IPL hattrick, he has nothing to show against his name and he finds a place in the team. The pitches in Windies wont offer swing, so this pehelwan from Meerut is not going to have any impression in the opening spell. And if he is going to be an one change bowler, then he is wasted. Irfan Pathan would have been a better choice given his form with the bat in the ongoing IPL.

Rohit Sharma: What has he done ? He has not played a ODI in long time and has not fired in IPL for Deccan too. Why is he in the team ?

Ashish Nehra : Injured his ribcage. Would he be fit ? And if he would be, then would he be match fit? When he would return to play ?

Piyush Chawla : Out of blue selection?  How come this lad came in ? And from where ? Mishra and Ojha forgotten!!!

Dinesh Karthik : Has not set IPL on fire and in his captaincy DD have lost 3 and won 1. (lost 2).  Cant bat, cant keep and cant stand straight without a dance. In the team thanks to Kris Srikanth.

Missing Links:

Irfan Pathan: He should have been in the team as batting allrounder. He is more consistent than his maverick brother and offers variety than the dibbly dobblies of Yusuf.

Robin Uthappa: Man in the form and the architect of the superb run for RCB in IPL 3

Manish Pandey : First Indian to score an IPL 100 and Ranji top run getter. Solid opening partner for Kallis in IPL 3 for RCB.

Saurabh Tiwary : Chota Dhoni not needed as long as Bada and original Dhoni is around

When this performances are not to be counted what is the use of the chief selector sitting around in every Chennai game? Is he just as a brand ambassador for a franchisee or also a part time job to have a look at other impressive performers in whatever game he sits in yellow color jump suit?  We are once more carrying too many injured players and flop players in the squad no different from 2009. The core – Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Dhoni, Raina  would be omnipresent but then wont other slots be given to players in form and with some consistency on the display ?

Another poor team selection and perhaps time for Kris Srikanth to quit his job and take over a role in upcoming Kochi franchisee of IPL.

Suicide

They committed suicide on the field , yet they are alive. He wants passion but he does not want to play n score runs. He is a cracked Jack. He fools around to get a hug from zinta instead gets a bug beer.

IPL Performance Meter

19 games on the IPL has been set to blaze and there have been some awesome displays of batting, bowling and captaincy. The notion that the age plays a big factor in T20 is led to rest and buried deep somewhere in the trenches of Mahim creek in Mumbai. 

The likes of Raina, Sharma, Sharma I, Pathan Y,  Harbhajan Singh have flopped and the likes of Kallis, Tendulkar,  Kumble have prospered.  Rahul hasn’t got chance to spend time in the middle.  MSD, Gambhir are out to injuries. Yuvraj is still finding his feet in the return to the international cricket (IPL is a domestic event).  And the discards like Pathan I, Robin Uthappa have showed enough flair and “character” to be in the fray for the selection to the T20 WC next month.

The TN imports in the national squad – Vijay and Dabri have flopped.  ICL imports Rayadu and Chota Dhoni have prospered.

Will this performance be good enough in the eyes of Cheeka to make some out of the box selections for World T20 so that the crown is snatched back ?

Sachin classy

It was Sachin Tendulkar all the way again on Brabourne Stadium in the game against KKR last night. His super 71 ensured MI went back on the top of the table. Today if RCB wins against  Dhoni less CSK, they should be back on top.

KKR now seems to have lost the momentum and were defeated 3^rd time in as many matches. Perhaps their failures have to do with their captain’s inability to scale up to the rigors of the format. Sourav does not seem to be loving the format and his form is a cause of worry for KKR. However he has come back infinite times and he would do so too this time.  It was not just Ganguly who struggled to score runs, but also Chris Gayle playing his first game. He just could not find boundaries. 100 in 15 overs is very much ODIsqueue batting.

Zaheer Khan was the pick of the bowlers alongside Malinga and add Bhajji to the lot, the MI attack seems formidable.

Sachin later ripped apart Ishant Sharma and showed him a very poor reflection of his indifferent limited overs format form.   There were few eye gazes between Zaheer and Sourav. The mentor and the student. And another student of Ganguly, Harbhajan finally scalped him and was joyed.

MI looks to be a different team and provided they select right XI they should be strong contenders to reach the semis.

My predictions for 4 semi finalists given current form :

Mumbai Indians

RCB

Deccan Chargers

Chennai Kings

Kings XI would finish last. And Sangakara would then be sacked as a captain. 

A super mediocre show on 2nd IPL weekend

The two games on Sunday were a thriller effort but also a show of mediocrity.  Both the teams chasing the decent targets lost the plot by their own mistake and thanks to the agile captains on the other end, the Daredevils and Kings were caught napping.

Daredevils now have an action item to take for some serious thoughts over their team combination and the choice of captain in Gambhir’s absence.

They have lost 3 games in row, something they have never seen happen in recent memory.  The opening pair is not clicking in the way it should even if Sehwag is feeling absence of Gambhir, his Karbon mobile ad partner.  Their bowling barring Nannes is thin and batting after Karthik is superficial. They had the game in the hands until Warner got run out and then other folks just did not know how to score runs. Karthik made some runs, but he got some big hits too late.  Question marks on his captaincy too after he let DC score 171/6 from 101/4 in 14.

So they have their task cut out if they have to cut their slide further. They now stand at 6.

In the other game Chennai Super Kings gifted the game to Punjab Kings by virtue of boneless batting. Till Patel was in the crease, their victory and Kings defeat never seemed in doubt, but once Patel got out, the likes of Dabri and Vijay, TN regulars could not take Chennai home. As a result it was a super over and Yuvraj Singh got his side home by a 4/6 off Muralitharan.  How much CSK misses MSD is up for everybody to see.

Delhi and Chennai have poor bowling attacks so they don’t look good enough to last the distance. They have stronger batting than bowling but that wont be enough to see them go through the finals.

Sangakara finally spoke with lot of “zest” as his lads displayed act of character for first time and they did not roll out to die while chasing and hence did not become a bug bear.

Pune Peshwas or Pune Patekars

Pune Peshwas or Pune Poddars is going to be the new franchisee in IPL 4 along with Kochi. 

Kochi ? Ludicruous. 

Why not Ahmedabad or Indore or Solapur ?

IPL is just going crazy, bigger and greedy....Only fear is that it should not lend international cricket irrelevant.  

Delhi mongoosed by CSK

Delhi were mongoosed by Hayden and they have made a mess of their campaign, thanks to

1. 
   
   Gambhir's injury
2. 
   
   Karthik's captaincy
3. 
   
   veterans's cullinary skills
4. 
   
   Poor team selection

They have now lost 2 of 4 games and are out of top 4. They are good team but are hampered by loss of form of Dilly, AB and Gambhir.  Sehwag is the only consistent performer but he is not getting the runs as he would want to. Plus in bowling except Nannes none inspires confidence.

Add a captain in Karthik, the recipe is disastrous. Karthik is an overrated player who is evaluated eons ahead of talent he has. I doubt if he has any. His modus operandi is simple. When dropped make tonnes of runs in domsetic cricket, when it comes to back playing for India / IPL go back to not scoring runs. The chief selector would take care of everything.

CSK displayed their best performance in absence of MSD and buyoed by awesome Hayden they now sit at 3rd place.

Pig Poker leads in defeats tally

When Yuvraj Singh led KXIP in first 2 IPLs, the team did a fair bit of perfornamce by reaching semis in one and missing out on the other. But since the pig faced poker has taken over, the team has forgot to fight. Thats his trait. The team he leads succumbs to losses every time.

Only saving grace this time is he is not speaking anything crap which would only make fun of the pig already loitering in the mud of defeats. He is failing to win the games, he is failing to make runs, he is failing to speak and he is  not even sledging.

Sangakara is stuck by failures and would be consigned permanently to failures.....KXIP management must now be realising its folly in making pig poker a captain which has led them to 3 back to back defeats.

Bangalore score a thumping win...

In the end the game between modern legspinner giant led teams proved to be more than an one sided affair. Kumble was ruthless in attacking his own countrymen whereas Warne could do nothing thanks to the depleted team he has got in his kitty.  Kallis, Pehelwan Kumar and Kumble himself cashed on poor Royals batsmen and ensured the Royals were all out for 92 with last 6 wkts just falling for 11 runs. Pravin Kumar took a hat trick, the first one of IPL-3.  Kallis continued his redemption in T20 and now he stands wearing the orange / purple cap whichever it is for highest run maker in the tourney. He is yet to get out in this tournament.

The best thing about Kumble’s captaincy was the barrage of short balls he had for the Royals batsmen including Yusuf Pathan and no wonder most of them fell for it.  The bowling changes were spot on and most of them worked. His plans worked more than what he could have expected them to. 

Royals are now likely to finish last in the table at the end of league games cos it seem that they don’t have the firepower anymore to match the magical and inspirational words from Warne. On the other hand Bangalore are gaining strength to strength, thanks to the astute captaincy of Kumble and awesome all-round display from Kallis.

At the end of almost first week, the Bangalore Challengers stand 2^nd in the table with Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians leading the way. Its an irony that the first 3 teams in the points table are the teams led by 3 of the Fab Five of Indian Test team and this teams contain 4 of those Fab 5 players.  No matter they are not playing in same team but seeing them all in action is what is the best thing about IPL.

IPL's greatest service to Indian cricket(A wish)

If we could sniff out huge great great huge Pommie Mbangwa and what a good hitman Laxman Sivramkrishna (yawn, what a big name) of the commentary box alongside their sponsors booting jingles -- Karbon Kamal Katch, Citi moment of Success, DLF maximums and other fucking words, the IPL would be a good thing to watch.

Also if the producers of the broadcasting channel stopped focussing on dumbasses like Zinta, Shetty and other Bollywood asswols who know nothing about the game yet keep dancing on every 2 runs taken or a 6 being hit, the IPL would glow even more.

But thats foolhardy thinking.

At least what IPL could do good for Indian spectators is improve the basic watching facilities in the top grounds. Almost the same grounds on which the IPL is being played would host world cup games next year (sans Mumbai's 2 grounds), so if this IPL could lead to improved facilities, that would be the greatest service IPL would do for the Indian cricket. I am not even talking of the moolah the stakeholders would rake in.

What a pity that Eden Gardens with a capacity of 100000 people would not host a World Cup final instead a shoddy stadium situated behind the slums of Marine Lines railway line Wankhede would host the final just cos Sharad Pawar is the BCCI henchman.

Timeless Tendulkar ensures 2nd win for MI

Sachin's masterclass ensured that the Mumbai Indians beat Delhi by whopping 98 runs....

He was awesome and treated everybody with disdain, though Mishra had last laugh he was taken apart....For Delhi the start was never on with Dilshan opening and Gambhir injured.  The side kept on losing wickets regularly and with Sehwag back in the hut quickly it was never going to be easy for the overhyped Karthik and others to go out and try for a win.

The worrying aspect for Team India (nobody is thinking on that line yet) is 3 of its players are now injured including the captain, Gambhir and Harbhajan. The list is only supposed to grow further.

MI have begun well and for them to go ahead in the tourney the man himself would need to play big.

14 years back Sachin had scored a 137 on Kotla in a world cup game against Lanka only to be overwhelmed by Kalu and Jayasurya. Yesterday Jayasurya fell early but Tendulkar kept on going.  Timeless Tendulkar.

KKR lose one and RCB win one

KKR were brought down in a game against Chennai Super Kings a match in which Dhoni dominated right from the 15th to the final ball of the 20th over. 

33 ball 66 ensured that CSK posted 165 runs and quick wickets of the heroes of the 2nd KKR game ensured that the CSK were never in the chase. 

In the end they tasted their first defeat of the season and leaving  the skipper Ganguly much to be desired. He looked out of sorts , something which would baffle his old time followers like me.

In the other game veteran Kallis showed he is a T20 pro too with his best IPL score of 89* with the help from Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappam.

RCB ensured that they win their first game of the season and dent the hopes of KXIP who have now lost 2 games under the inspirational captaincy of pig faced poker.

Sangakara, what a change he has brought in the team. Despite scoring 200 in the game and the other team which never crossed 200 in its 30 odd games chased it out with 7 balls to spare.......

Sangakara truly is a genius and hero of men.

And the other flip side of their campaign is that Yuvraj Singh is seemingly looking out of sorts. May be loss of captaincy to a fake Punjabi would have made a curd out of his mind.

Delhi win their 2nd game on trot

Royals have got their campaign seriously derailed after 2 back to back losses. Sehwag's explosive batting ensured DD won 2nd game on trot. However they are still not the team they would want to be. The opening pair is njot just clicking, thats the best opening pair world has got at the moment.

Royals would need to let go of guys like Asnodkar who are still encashing on IPL 1 fruits.  They need Smith to fire and bat long. And they need a fast bowler who could take wickets.  Not just speed.

If we could just send out the Shetty couple to the sand islands of Rajasthan, that would spare us the pain and disgust of watching her showing off her ugly teeth.

Predictions for IPL day 5

Today's predictions :

CSK vs KKR : KKR

KXIP vs RCB : RCB

The legends of Indian cricket would prevail over a team led by a poker and MSD.

Yousuf Pathan's consistency problem

Yousuf Pathan is now dismissed on 0. He made a 100 last game, fastest in the IPL and 2nd fastest in T20. If this game was an ODI he would have equalised Shahid Afridi's record.

But thats the problem of Yousuf Pathan and basically the problem of Indian selectors too. You cannot always rely on Pathan to score as per needs of the game.  He would score either big or none at all. And thats why he has low and poor average in games he plays for India. Perhaps that would matter years later.  IPL runs or India runs would matter, tthats what needs to be decided by Pathan. Lest he does not get some degree of consistency, he is not going to be the first XI names to be chalked in the team.

Day 3 of IPL 3 : DC and KKR come good.

KKR are going through a dream run having won 2 consecutive games in the 3rd season of the IPL despite not having Shane Bond and Chris Gayle in the lineup.

And the star of their campaign is the tantrum thrower Angelo Matthews who is a surprise package of the IPL 3 so far. Kumar Sangakara must be secretly happy on his success so far.

In other game Deccan Chargers derailed Chennai Kings campaign.  Except Morkel and MS none of the Chennai batsmen cud run amok and that ensured a 31 run victory for DC.

Symonds after the slow start top scored with 50. And Chaminda Vaas showed why Kumar Sangakara is an ass. 5 wickets in 2 games, each of them in opening spell is reminding us of WC 2003.  Vaas we know of and what he has done in last 16 yrs.  Something SL selectors fail to understand. If Vaas continues his success in the remaining games will Sangakara and selectors turn their mind and include the lad in the World t20 ?

Deja-vu

The franchisees of the IPL would now be relieved on seeing the quantum of the punishment handed over to the hot Pakistani players who would have been the part of IPL if signed. Especially the bugsy Akamal brothers and the disgruntled ball biter Shahid Afridi.

Would the supporters of Pak players in IPL bother to speak a little bit of their mind please?

Delhi Daredevils win their first game with simple execution

The other game of the day was between the Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils.  Delhi won the game in the end despite losing three of its best batsmen cheaply and in a trifle. Thanks to the cool headed Gautam Gambhir, the team won with a ball to spare. This was other close fought game -- a rarity in IPL's Indian versions.

Nannes was awesome in the bowling followed by Sangwan and Mishraji. That ensured KXIP never broke free with runs. Except Bopara the famed batting lineup of KXIP floundered on their home ground. It was pathetic to see the way Yuvraj Singh getting out. Despite not being the captain anymore, he is the side's best batsman even if a pig faced poker leads the team.

And his tyranns did not do any magic for the team. Not that it did for his national team too. Good thing was we did not get to hear the bullcrap from him as always has been the case.

Mahela Jaywardhene, Kaif and Pathan junior fell cheaply. In the end some hitting took KXIP to a decent 9/142 and when the bowlers eaked out Sehwag, Sangakara must have been the happiest man. He had been at the receiving end of some very brutal hitting from Sehwag in the test series in December 2009.

Finally some plain copybook sensible cricket from Gautam Gambhir ensured DD won its first game despite not showing the full calibre the team is capable of.

MI win a tense game despite Yusuf ton

Alright, the Sachin vs Warne dual never happened as Sachin fell to a poor LBW decision before Warne came on to bowl. Perhaps that played in Warne's mind too as he was off color too with 22 runs being taken off 3 overs.

MI survived a Yusuf onslaught by 4 runs thanks to the experience of Malinga and moreover Zaheer Khan. Tendulkar took a positive risk in keeping his 2 most experienced pros for the final 2 overs. And he would have felt the absence of Harbhajan strong and hard due to the injury he sustained while batting..

Yusuf Pathan was awesome in the 100 he made, 2nd by an Indian in IPL, but thats deceiving. If that would translate to big runs in the games that would matter in World T20 later and then ODIs if selected remains to be seen. But thats to be worried later, for now bows to him for making the hitting look so comfortable. And his hitting was cultured one, way better than Afridi's wild slogs when he has brain freezes and hits same shots in same direction before falling.

Batting for MI is worry. After Tendulkar and Surya there is nobody to carry the baton consistently. Yesterday they were saved the defeat by former ICL recruits, but they would need to rethink the policy to play just 3 internationals when they can play 4.

Dual between Sachin and Warne

The clock would stop today when the magical dual between Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne would take place in the IPL game between MI and RR.

What a dual it would be, even if it would be in T20 for just litle than 4 overs.

Last time the master duo faced each other was good 6 years back in 2004 test series in India which Australia won after 35 years and Sachin missed first 2 tests due to an injury to his tennis elbow.

This dual is the most enchanting of the modern era and is unparalleled. And the irony is that the dual happens in the same stadium where it began in 1998 when Tendulkar outclassed Warne on the way to his first FC double hundred that also set the ball rolling for domination of Warne by Tendulkar.

Gamechangers from Fake IPL player

The FIP has launched a book on the IPL with caricatures and fake names. IBN and its cricketing site cricketnext.com has gone shamelessly to organize a chat with him yesterday. 

I doubt if his book is going to be that big hit as his blog was.

KKR makes a winning start

KKR makes a good start to their campaign by a facile win against the defending champions Deccan Chargers. The change of guard in the captaincy for Knight Riders has done the trick.  And of course Cheater Angelo Matthews did the magic for KKR first with the bat and then with the ball.

Despite losing Ganguly and Tiwary quickly Owais Shah and Cheatero ensured KKR reach 161 and give something for their bowlers to defend something. With Gayle  and Bond to return soon, KKR would only grow stronger and stronger in the campaign.

For DC, the batsmen except captain Gilchrist disappointed especially the so called talented Rohit Sharma who fell to a ridiculous shot. Now if he cant even play T20, then what would he play ? T10 ?

All in all a pulsating cricket if we chuck out the Bollywood and other dust particles out of the IPL.

IPL 3 Teams preview

The chances of the 8 teams (I hate to use the word franchisees for 8 teams, purely for cricketing reasons) in IPL – III in my view are as follows:

·         Deccan Chargers :  Defending champions and cindrella team of 2009 edition. Led by Gilchrist and coached by Darren Lehman, this team boasts of off color cricketers currently. Gilly, Symmo and Vaas have not played that amount of cricket to be match fit barring the practice games. Gibbs is out of form and besides this big names, Laxman is not a t20 material. Rohit Sharma is playing his favorite format and would be the main batsman of the team. The other batters look pretty average.  Bowling looks weak in absence of Fidel Edwards, but Kemar Roach would be an interesting prospect when he is back to play the IPL post Zim series.  RP Singh has lost his zip and potency in between the 2 IPL editions.  Tough to repeat last year’s feat, probable place to finish : 5^th.

·         Royal Challengers : Romantic favorite for the presence of India’s greatest bowler as captain and the most exciting young batsman of the country – Virat Kohli.  Not to forget RD. Not sure if he is fit enough to play, but he would be crucial to his team’s fortunes.  The team’s chances would hinge on the bowling form of Dale Steyn, the best Test bowler in the world today along with the bowling form of Anil Kumble who was 2^nd highest wicket taker last IPL.  Probable place to finish : Semis.

·         Delhi Daredevils :  The team that has the combination of Sehwag and Gambhir, the best Test opening pair in the world has to be given huge mileage to win a tournament. They would be keen to go past the semis stage they have been doing last 2 seasons. They’ve got the fire power to do so.  Sehwag, Gambhir,  Warner, Dilshan and AB.  The bowling looks a little bit weak, but with Sehwag in imperious Test form, the DD should fancy themselves to reach the semis and prolly even win the tournament.

·         Chennai Super Kings : The single most USP of this team is that they have got one of the coolest brains around in the world to captain them. Their captain, also the captain of best Test team of the world, has got the ability to keep his cool and emerge victorious in a lose situations. Much of the team’s chances would hinge on opening provided by Mat Hayden and then some batting in the middle order by the captain himself riding on good batting form this season (2 Test centuries and 2 ODI centuries followed by decent finishing innings in ODIs).  However it seems difficult for them to reach the semis stage. Probable place of finish : 6^th.

·         Kings XI Punjab : They had a change of skipper and blabberer Sangakara would lead them in this season. That would mean more jargons and little substance on the field.  They are having a lot of injury woes and for them going past semis stage is a bit of difficult thing to do. Yuvraj, Pathan and Bret Lee are injured in addition to Shaun Marsh.  

·         Rajasthan Royals :  Not much hope again.  Probable place : 7^th.

·         Kolkata Knight Riders : The team to watch out for. India’s best and greatest skipper is back to captain their side and they have gone for an overhaul in terms of the players in the team. However most of the foreign players wont be available for first few games, but with later games the team should put a good show to finish their best season, even in semis. Probable place : semis.

·         Mumbai Indians : The team which comprises of 3 Indian team players including the bowling captain and the premier spinner.  Add Jayasurya, Duminy and Pollard to the combo, the team looks formidable. However the  single most reason the team has to feel happy is the form their captain is in. He has hit 5 hundreds already this year including the first ODI 200.  Probable place : semis.

So my 4 teams to be in the semis :

·         Mumbai Indians

·         Delhi Daredevils

·         Royal Challengers

·         Kolkata Knight riders

PCB bungles again

The things in Pakistan cricket could not have turned more ugly and comical from what has turned out on Wednesday. The incompetent Ijaz Butt banned Yusuf and Yunis for life and then did a u-turn by terming it indefinete. The most important players of Pakistan in the formats that matter have been banned for indefinete period if we may call it, thats going to plunge the team to even more lower heights of performance on field.

The show stoppers -- Malik and Rana including Afridi and bugsy brothers have been let off with relatively easier bans / fines.  Butt has not bothered to explain the reasons behind the severe and stringent punishment handed out to Ys. Neither to Malik and Rana. And why were Akamal brothers let off just with the fine ? Did not Kamran Akamal make mockery of the PCB stance to drop him off the 3rd Test and instead have Sarfaraz somebody to play the test in public by giving out interviews to Oz media ?

What about Butt ? He goes scot free. He has been the man in the center of all the incompetence and drama thats been happening in Pakistan cricket all this years and he has got no stain on his resume.

This is not enough, there is more to follow and the things would only get murkier.   Only if PCB and its bosses had some balls to deal with this rut long back when it started, the things would not have come to this level. But then Butt has been known to show no logic and common sense. 

Lalit Modi openly denounces Test cricket

Modi says it. He has been the man to have promoted IPL beyond sane limits and now he says to save Test cricket it must go day night. 

BCCI is taming a man who is openly out to kill Test cricket. He is trying to make IPL a so called world class event at the cost of Test cricket. 

Time he is cut down to task soon!!