Kiwis are in the town

Kiwis are in the town for a full fledged series incl 3 Tests and 5 ODIs. 

They are inexperienced lot with 3 only players having a worthwhile experience in Tests - Baz, Danny and Ross Taylor. 

Its their 3rd tour in 11 years but first in 7 years. 

They toured India in 1988, 1995, 1999, 2003 and now. Last time they won a test in India was in 1988 in Mumbai when Hadlee was around. 22 years on they have not won a Test in India, but they have not lost that badly either.

0-1 in 1995 and 1999. 0-0 in 2003.

This time around they do not have personnel to win a test, let along a Test series. There are exciting batsmen in the team but are they good enough to post big scores to pressurize Indians. 

As Danny said tonite in the press conf in Ahmedabad a scoreline of 2 draws (1-0 in either side) would be a kind of job well done for his young side. 

NZ have not been a formidable Test side in past few years and now they have ceased to be a good decent ODI side as well. 

A 3-0 and 4-1 victory for Indians would be a cakewalk and little less than it wont be acceptable.

Hopeless Afridi;s men

At current form Pakistan would be happy avoiding last place standing in their group in the upcoming World Cup. Their batsmen do not have patience to last long in the crease. Be it Tests, ODIs and T20s. Their only saving grace bowlers do not have time off bowling no balls after authorized by spot fixers. 

And then there are buffoons like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxGPZ0rw4wM

They have lost all 3 games in their own backyard in Abu Dhabi -- the land of Sheikhs and blood suckers. I cant forget the horrendous experience in Dubai Airport last year en route to Washington. The fuckin sheikh cop almost detained me when  I asked why was he asking me to go around the metal detector many times. 

That apart, the Pakistanis have not been able to find a XI that can win the games from hopeless situations. Something they did when previous generation of fixers played. At least they fought off the field, they united on the field to win. And thats what made them exciting. 

Today's Pakistanis are hopeless bunch of losers. For one Younis Khan you have Maliks, Akamals, Amirs, Afridis, Wahabs, Butts, Asifs and of course Ijazie's.

And then there are few blogs which are yet hopefuls they can win the world cup. Yes they can if they find miracle and get some batsmen who are honest and willing to stay on crease and make runs. Not gift their wickets on the platter to the opposite team. 

Today even a Bangladeshi team can beat Pakistan by 10 wickets or 200+ runs in ODIs if there is a series.

Ashes Noise

The 2 old worn out super powers of Cricket -- England and Australia are busy planning mind games and tactics for Ashes something which has lost relevance in last decade.  England are no 4 in the test rankings and Australia are no longer the dominating ones. Yet the media and cricket pundits from this 2 countries make us believe that the Ashes is the cricket series which would save the cricket world from the evil clutches of Asian cricketing bloc.

No wonder the English authors call Australian preparation to the Ashes as bulls hit as they have been playing 2 Tests and 3 ODIs in India and 3 ODIs home vs SL.  No first class games as they say for preparing for the Ashes. Few players are playing but then English media wont look at them.

What ideal preparation does England have? They won 3-1 in a series with Pak which nobody knows if all Tests were rigged or fixed or how many of them were clean and how many of them were not.

Then they went for a boot camp in Germany only to return with injured James Anderson, their best bowler in swinging conditions. Australia does not have swinging conditions like SA and England.

KP is in the worst form of his life and he is doing everything except what he should do -- make runs.

So is that an idealistic build up to the Ashes?

There are many in England team who believe they have best chance to win in Australia in 24 years.  They have been making tall claims on the back of batting prowess of Strauss, Cook, Trott, KP, Collingwood, Morgan, Bell.  Except Strauss and Trott none of this batsmen are in any kind of form. They just managed to get through the Pakistanis because the latter were busy rigging the game.

And do not forget they did not win a single Test on the last tour to Australia.

Johnson, Bollinger, Siddle, Hilfy should be handful for Australia to run through the feeble English batting lineup 2 times every Test. And the batting of Katich, Watson, Ponting, Hussey,Clarke, North and Haddin / Paine may not be like the Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, Martyn, Gilchrist of 2006, yet this line up is strong enough to post a total of 400 plus and leave England reeling with the walking wickets like Cook, KP, Collingwood and Bell / Morgan.

In short, the Ashes would not be that important a cricket series as it used to be may be in 1980s or earlier. Its the contest of Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka thats more important for the life of Test Cricket to be longer. 

Summer of 1986 : India vs England in England

My first tryst with the cricket watching goes back 24 years in 1986 when India toured England and later had Australia touring India. That was a span in Indian cricket when the team was on top as it won 2-0 in England, drew 0-0 with Australia at home including a memorable tied test in Chennai, 2nd one in the history and probably the last one till date (not sure but I guess there was one England Zimbabwe Test drawn too).

I was just 7 then and I was introduced to cricket watching by my father.  Before 1986 I vaguely remembered the Benson & Hedges world series win when Ravi Shastri was declared champion of champions and had won an Audie. That was 1985 and earlier that year around January India had toured Australia and had lost a ODI on Jan 26, 1985 or 1986. That was republic day for India and Australia day (later Australia thumped India again on this day in 2000). I remember coming from school and heading to my uncle's place for my cousin's 4th bday celebrations.

Those days DD used to transmit the live cricket and the level of commentary was too good for today's commentary in DD. There was Dr Narottam Puri and some Akash Khanna (not sure his name, but he was bearded and presented World of Sports every Sunday at 4 PM on DD).

My first series of following cricket was the 1986 England tour when Kapil Dev was captain. India had just landed in  England sometime in May and Kapil had given an intentful statement 'Hum yaha jeetne aaye hai".  I joked with my father on the breakfast dining table 'wat if he loses'.  That was not to be, India won the Test series 2-0 and the ODI series was drawn 1-1.

T20 was good 18 years below its invention and only time somebody heard of T20 was in the club cricket when teams play 10/20 over games with tennis balls (at least in India or may be in Stan)

I remember Gavaskar and Srikanth(yes Cheekanth) opening the batting for India with Dilip Vengsarkar in the middle order. Azharuddin was then 1 yr old in Indian cricket and was an excellent slip fielder. I remember he took a diving catch to his left in 2nd slip published in newspapers then. Gooch had caught Maninder Singh in 2nd slip after English keeper (not remember who he was) dropped him, then Gooch dropped him and then keeper dropped again and in next attempt Gooch kicked the ball through his feet and Maninder got out.

There were few England players : Fowler, Redford, Lamb, Ellison (he was a keeper?), Graham Dillie (I thought he used to come running from boundary to deliver), John Embury, Phil Edmonds(both were baldies), Gooch of course, Ian Botham did not play. And the captain David Gower.

Without referring to any literature, I remember India had Sunny, Cheeka, Azhar, Vengie, Shastri, Chandu Pandit, Raju Kulkarni (lol), Chetan Sharma, Roger Binny,  Madan Lal etc.

The ODIs were referred as Texaco trophy. The ODIs were played on Saturday and Monday. India won first ODI by 8 wickets and lost the 2nd one. Gavaskar hit the boundary and was out caught in the slips. 1-1.

Later on I followed every tour India made and every tour India had.

In 1986 after Australia toured India in came Lankans and they were thrashed 2-0 with India making its highest score of 7-676 (broken 18 yrs later in SCG) and Azhar out for 199.  Sri Lanka then had even more unpronounciable names than now. Laebroy, Ratnayke brothers, Mendis, Ranatunga, Roy Dias, Don Anurasiri etc etc.

1987 was a year when Sunil Gavaskar retired from Tests in Bangalore after an epic 96 vs Pakistan and later that year India almost won the world cup only to lose in the semis.

There were many tours that happened listing down below:

1987 : India vs Pakistan in India

World Cup in India

India vs West Indies in India

1988 : India vs New Zealand in India

1989 : India vs West Indies in West Indies. India lost horribly in ODIs and Tests

          India vs Pakistan in Pakistan

1990 : India vs New Zealand in New Zealand

          India vs England in England

          India vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka

And so forth....

The summer of 1986 was memorable for me as  I began the tryst with cricket which is still ongoing with same intensity as it was in 1986. 24 years of watching cricket and supporting India. 21 years of those one thing has been constant and unchanging -- Sachin Tendulkar.

Defeat : The never changing result for Butt's men

Its gloom and despair for stani fans. The team they support is just not able to win anything. Change of personnel, change of fast bowlers, change of venue. One result is common. Defeat.

The young players do not have any kind of patience and temparament to play as per situation and install some sense. All they do is slog and hit wildly. Result is they perish. And what comes is defeat.

They dont look good to go beyond the league stage of the world cup next year at this point of time.

Period.

Chuck the rotation policy

The ODI series between India and Australia ended in a farce with 2 games being washed out due to rains. That meant India won a ODI series against Australia in India after 1996.  14 years back India had beaten Australia 2 out of 3 times and 3rd one was a washout. South Africa had beaten Australia 3 times too. Titan cup.

The result of 1-0 means waste of 2 games to try out few names to close the problematic # 7 spot in the final XI for the world cup.

Questions need to be asked of the scheduling committee of BCCI who awarded the games to Kochi and Goa at this point of time when the monsoon retreats from India. The games were a waste of time and also money for the hopefuls who thought to watch the game in this 2 cities.

Goa and Kochi are unusual choice of venues for any form of cricket. For one they are not pure cricket stadias. At least that stands for Kochi. The usual Nehru stadium (pathetic to see every 2nd stadium being named on Nehru  Gandhi family when they did not have to do anything with the game of cricket) is a football stadia which converts to cricket stadium when the game is scheduled once in few years when the rotation policy shouts Kochi.

There have been voices raised on the validity of rotation policy this days when more often than not the venue results either in a wash out or a mockery of the game. Mohali Test was witnessed by few 1000s in 5 days and it has hosted 2 tests in 2 years.

Kolkata and Bangalore including Chennai have been awesome venues for Tests but they do not host the tests that often.

Kolkata hosted one test in 2007 and then in 2010. Before that the test was hosted in 2005 against Pakistan, 2002 against Windies and of course the epic of 2001.  5 tests in 10 years. Pity the best stadium of the country and the oldest one hosts just 5 in a decade.  Thanks to the political equations within the BCCI.

Mohali on the other hand hosted one in 2010, one in 2008, one in 2008 (two in 2008 thanks to Mumbai), 2005,  2001,2004 vs England. More than 6 tests to spectators apathy. Given the fact that Mohali is another one of the best venues in the country but the spectators lack apathy to it for Tests.

Wankhede stadium is one of the poor maintained venues with no regards for spectator comfort, yet it hosted almost regularly Test matches. Now its racing against time to schedule the World Cup games including final.  I have always thought Kolkata was a better choice than Mumbai to witness a World Cup final. Imagine the atmosphere if India wins the final. Mumbai would be no less but in terms of headcount Kolkata would be a demoralizer for the opposition. And if Sri Lanka is the opponent in the final, some sledging from the crowd would be good enough to drive Sangakara mad and gift the game to India.

Long story short: give up the rotation policy and have a select few venues host the Tests and ODIs.

Few options:

Tests : Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kanpur, Delhi

ODIs:  Mohali, Jaipur, Indore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Dharmsala, Cuttack, Vizag, Nagpur

Leave out Rajkot, Vadodara, Gwalior, Kochi, Guwahati, Pune, Jamshedpur etc as this are not only the ones which win the rights due to political connections, but this are also poor in terms of facilities and comfort for spectators. Esp Pune.  For 12 months of the year the stadium witnesses the political rallies, local plays and other non cricketing events. MCA has been saying that they are building a new stadium in Mahalunge (for IPL 4) but that is 20 km outside city and given the state of public transport (lack of it and pathetic auto rickshaw system and no connectivity with the exteriors) there would be very few who would go all the way down to Mahalunge or the spot where the stadia is being built.

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Kohli at 7

No 7 slot is sealed.

No Jadeja, No Pathan, No Pathan, just Kohli.

A superb placed and timed 100. Sorry paced.

The line up:

Sehwag

Tendulkar

Gambhir

Yuvraj

Dhoni

Raina

Kohli

4 bowlers

Ojha

Harbhajan

Zaheer

Nehra or

Praveen

Super effort from Kohli. Something the likes of Vijay should learn. Seize the opportunity when it matters.  Playing great in T20s and CLT20s when they dont matter counts for nothing, playing well for country amidst limited opportunities matter and thats what Kohli has done today.

Awesome.

Vizag rants

With Dhawan gone first over its going to be one of Srikanth lads coming in for the opening slot. It could be Srikanth Kris himself or it could be Anni Srikanth. Dhawan was always a scapegoat and nothing more. Srikanth has had his agenda fulfilled. Soon the Mumbai-Delhi or Delhi-Delhi pair wont be opening for India in ODIs and Tests anymore. Its going to be Srikanth-Srikanth pair henceforth.

Srikanth son and Srikanth croonie.

India's ODI display is poor and pathetic. The bowling today at the end overs was simply club standard led by R Vinay Kumar who bowled full tosses in the slog overs. Where did the hunger for success and excellence go? Perhaps easy road to India team is one reason why this lads dont value their India cap any more. They are happy playing for Srinis, Mallayas, Zintas and all.

Vinay Kumar would be on his way out after this ODI and Munaf Patel might come in. A loser traded for loser. WHy is Sreesanth not in the ODI team? Has he played too much cricket? He just played solitary Test. Does Srikanth look at him as a mere Test bowler?

2010 is a poor year for India in ODIs. On one hand we have excellence of Tests and triumphs to boast of, on the other hand we have Jadejas, Vijays, Dhawans, Vinays and Rohit Sharmas to tolerate of in LoIs.

And if this are future of Indian cricket god save Indian cricket once the greats retire.

Though there are big names to come still in the batting, but the Australian bowling attack is rookie and inexperienced. And thats the difference. They have hunger to excel, our Vinays and all are duds. Rants on Srikanth but he hardly listens. On the name of rest and young, he is giving away India caps as if some Chennai restaurant sells off Vada Sambhar or a Delhi stall sells off Golgappe and chat.

Equanimity, Bugbear, Roll Over n die chasing. Nanga is back!!!

Sangakara is back with his daily dose of shit and rants. 

Today he explains how to tackle captaincy pressure in Australia.

"We come from a slightly different cricket-playing scene [than in Australia] where we get to see that almost every day," he said before laughing loudly. "If it does happen it's not the end of the world. It's an opinion expressed and if you're playing at this level you are able to handle it with equanimity

So guys the new word for the day is equanimity. Wow. Sangakara is now a part time English teacher. 

Roll over and die. This was his first word  to teach us. 

Bugbear, this was 2nd. 

Equanimity is 3rd 

It seems that Sangakara failed in the GRE test and he still carries those chits with him. And randomly he picks those to teach us new words. 

Ah so much for the humility Mr Yehali Sangakara. 

""We're trying a few new guys, but we're settled to a great extent," Sangakkara said. "There are still a few places up for grabs and we need to have guys ready and able to take up that spot. We have a lot of younger players who have come in, and a lot of experienced players who do not feature in our squad. It's an interesting time for us."

Who are the new guys? Jeevan Mendis. Dinesh Chandumal, Muralitharan,Machinda Vaas.. Figure out the above sentence.  He always says huge stuff about his players yet his team never wins outside those flat Samwarweera chap wickets of SL. He has character stocks and all that crap, yet his team never wins in India or never tours South Africa. Chickened out? Gandu player totally.

He's gonna lose 0-3 in the ODIs. I bet Sanga's ass. He is just pissing Australians off and they would bounce back by making Lankans run chase the leather as bugbears with equanimity and then roll over to die chasing. 

Sangakara!!!!!!!!!!

How Colors Big Boss can help getting rid of Ijaz Butt

I am going to be nasty here.

Veena Malik is creating some flutters on crappy Big Boss 4 and it seems she has been nominated for ouster.

What should be done is to prevent Malik from being ousted and have Asif invited on wild card entry just like Khali and then the chemistry and physics of the house would be awesome. Flies would fly and the entertainment would be unparalleled.

More bites for media channels, tabloids and more yearns for Bravery awards. More expose on drug peddlers and possibly an expose on who in Pak team is a drug addict and who deals with it. And if that happens soon a lot more would be barred from entering UAE.

Colors should help world cricket fraternity by bringing in Mohd Asif in the show and have a solid ground created for sacking of Ijaz Butt as he cannot afford another controversy/scandal in next 30 days. Good riddance from Ijaz Butt.

Rocking idea.

Turmoil

Turmoil in world cricket.

PCB as usual. They celebrate the news that Oval ODI was not fixed. What a joke.  Ijazie should really dress himself as a joker everyday to the work and press conferences.

Kiwis are unexpectedly reeling under a 0-4 whitewash. Oceanic cricket is in turmoil. Aussies lost 0-2, Kiwis 0-4.

Deshis are on an unexpected high, thanks to Siddons and Shakib. Great stuff for them. Only if they maintain their consistency and hunt down Sri Lanka every time they play. They would do a great service to the cricket world.

India has its own demons of ODI cricket where the selectors are hell bent to rest players at a very wrong junction of time. India are now just 12 ODIs away from the opening game against BD in the world cup and they have only 10 ODIs to play with the core group of players for the world cup. How many of the core players would actually play those 10 ODIs is still a question given that the selection committee is a buffon and a basket  case.

West Indies have a new captain and a vice captain. Enough said on them.

England are all about Ashes and they are not giving a damn to the world cup. They wont win it anyways.

Australia has its own set of problems with the seniors coming floppers in the Tests and the ODIs being only strong point for them at the time.

Entropy level right now in the world cricket is high and the men in focus are usual jokers and clowns in PCB.

Jadeja Special : He could be out

Ravinder Jadeja could be on his way out if MS words on the eve of the series opener are something to go by. He gives some hint of what is to follow.  This is what he has to say for Saurabh Tiwary, the chota Dhoni.

He has got exposure against the best bowlers in the IPL and CL T20. I think it is an ideal opportunity for us to give him a place in the final XI and let him play the kind of cricket he plays.

He backs himself and he is hard working and spends his time at net sessions. He is good character to have. With proper guidance and with little more exposure to international cricket, he can be really successful.

He is reckoning that Tiwary would play at 6 or 7. That is if he plays at 7, he could kick out Jadeja. And we would welcome it with 2 legs and 2 hands.

Vijay, Dhawan, Raina, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Kohli -- they should be the top 6 with the 3-6 not in any order. Finally its a toss up between Jadeja and Tiwary. Kohli would not/ should not be dropped.  Further words from Dhoni says that Jaddukha could be kicked out soon:

When he [Jadeja] came to the side, he was more of a batsman than a bowler. But in the last few seasons he has really done well with the ball. He has not so far contributed well with the bat. For a player like him, he has to contribute with both.

Jadeja Jadeja

Yes Cheeka

Bribing selectors

No Cheeka

Show me your bank account

Na na na na.

Ok pretty lame attempt.

If we see no Jadeja and if Tamil Nadu intruders (Srikanth's croonies) perform nothing like it. The ODI team is now a limping unit with poor results since that disastrous Zim tour.  Now only 13 scheduled ODIs remain and selectors have missed a bus to really identify the couple of slots that need to be finalized.

3 against Australia, 5 against SA and New Zealend.

This is the time to pick up right team. Right guys.

Ravinder Jadeja Special on Dusshera

Sir Ravinder Sinh Jadeja aka Useless Singh Jadeja is 2nd highest wicket taker for India in ODIs. He would be batting at # 7 tomorrow and would be specialist spinner for India.

Thanks to the falling standards of Harbhajan anybody who can choke runs and take a wicket or 2 is now a specialist spinner.

I expect Jadeja to score blobs in every game and getting hit for 70,80,90 runs in every game.

And then he is tossed out of the game for good. 

He is one lad who is going to make fans walk away from the cricket.

Game set match Australia on 10/17

ODI series begins Sunday and its a Dusshera day.

Traditionally Indian team has won on a festive day. Same cant be said on this Dusshera day. Srikanth has punctured the hopes and aspirations for a 3-0 win in ODIs too. May be he wanted a 3-0 win on Pongal / Onam day but that day the Indians would be in SA and Aussies would be playing Ashes.

1987 India beat Australia in the last league game of the world cup and 1996 Srinath Kumble scripted a superb 8th/9th wkt partnership and won after Sachin made super 80 odd on their home ground. That was Titan cup.

What about this one ?

Embarrasment in order.

Vijay

Dhawan

Raina

Kohli

Yuvraj

Dhoni

Jadeja

Ashvin

Nehra

Praveen

Munaf

does not give any confidence that this team would compete with the top ranked ODI team on any day. If there were one of Tendulkar / sehwag and Zaheer in the bowling Australia would have been a rollover in ODIs too.

But for Srikanth and his thought process....

Undisputed # 1

Win or lose toss, India wins the Test.

Compare that to SL, they have to prepare flat pancakes to ensure their team bats on and on and at the end one bowler balls unchanged to win a Test.

For India it does not matter where we play -- pancake, featherbed, sporting, fast, bouncy, slow, low. We win every game.

Our captain has not won last 10 tosses and India has lost just 2 of those Tests.  They have won 3 consecutive Tests chasing. 

They would win their next 3 Tests once again.

We have had no fixed opening batsmen, no fixed middle order, no fixed bowling attack thanks to injuries, yet everyone who comes in even as stop gap rises to occassion, shows his character and wins the Tests for India.

Mithun, Ishant, IPL Ojha, Pujie, Bijoy,  Raina....

So we are undisputed # 1 in Tests. Sharda Ugra make a note of it. 

Thank You BD

Bangladesh has done a great favor for India.

They have deflated Kiwis in the ODI series much to the dismay of Kiwis. They have lost all 3 ODIs and would arrive in India demoralized. They are next Test opponents for India. They arrive to India after 7 years for a full Test series and there should be no doubts that a 3-0 result beckons for India, even though they have lost the ODIs, the Kiwis are not a  formidable Test side anymore.

2-0 and now a 3-0 against Oceanic opponents.

India has just began its era of dominance. Wow.

2-0

Thats it. India won 2-0. Superstition worked. India are the masters of Test Cricket at the moment. They have removed the pitch equation out and are winning in every kind of scenario. As SP said, they dont even have a fixed eleven that goes around every Test they play. Hats off to the architects of this classical triumph. Everybody contributed. That has been the punch line of the team of 2000's since initiation by great Saurav Ganguly.

India just for the 3rd time in their history won all tests of a series. Previously they had trumped SL and England in 1990s.  Australia lost 3 in a row after 22 years and all tests of a series in near 28 years.

What a domination they have had.

The result line of 2-0 does not indicate the close fight the 2 best Test playing teams had.  No team can lay claim except for today's play that it won the entire day. Thats the beauty of Test cricket. Even contest between two teams, bat and ball. 400+ runs were scored in first innings of both tests and yet this produced results. A slap to those who say India has  flat wickets. Well India is not a SL who aims to produce featherbeds to aid its spinners.

None of the spinners got 5 wicket haul in any of the 4 innings of the series and that says the story that the pitches offered assistance to both pacers and spinners equally. Neither team had quality spinners as like in the past, yet the 2nd innings in both Tests saw a low score affair.

Zaheer Khan showed he is a masterclass with the old ball and reverse swing comes not better to anybody but him. Sreesanth had a decent Test and he should be the 3rd pacer when team plays abroad. And very soon he would be back to the land which got him the recognition as a Test fast bowler -- the Saffaland.

Zaheer, Ishant, Sreesanth forms a decent pace trio who could give some tough moments to SA in SA provided the batsmen counter Dale Steyn effect in his homeyard. But thats later.

For the moment lets savior the epic win in an epic Test series so shortened due to over emphasis on Ashes and crunched schedule. Who needs T20 when we have the stuff like this 2 Tests.

Australia fought hard but they are now a human team and unless they dont find the master class of Warne, Gilly and McGrath again sometime soon, they are going to lose more Tests than they ever did when they dominated Tests scenario for over a decade.  It was a forgettable Test tour for Hussey and Clarke, though Katich gave good starts he failed to convert them to big ones.

Ponting and Watson had a consistent successful series. North saved his place for the Ashes for a while though.  The bowling looked worrisome. Hauritz was tore apart, Hilfy tried hard, Johnson had Dravid only to his credit.  Bollinger had a super semi 5th day in mohali before stomach injury forced him out. Peter George had a okish debut. Not sure if he would play when Bollinger, Siddle return.

For India there were too many gains.  First and foremost they had a magical Tendulkar at his best. What do we say more about him except that he is a true GOD of cricket for all times.

Raina, Vijay had good series with the bat. Vijay would be around for a while as GG is injured. Raina for time being seems to have edged out Yuvraj out of contention Now as Laxman would return in next Test series against NZ and even if Raina fails miserably in those 3 tests, Pujara would be the man to replace him at 6 in SA series (if at all). So now there are 3 men competing for Ganguly's slot -- Pujara, Raina, Yuvraj.

Till Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar are around Pujara would not get too many opportunities, but he proved his class in classic 4th innings 72. He had composure, he had attitude, temparament and hunger to prove himself on the highest stage. He could not have scripted his debut better. A match winning 72 in company of Best Batsman ever, aggressive 72 which did not let the pressure of chasing 200 on a  5th day pitch after Sehwag fell. What else would one want. Bloggers across India had rooted for Pujara and they are happy lot today. Find any Indian blog and that would be telling glorious tales of Pujara. He is just 22 and a long career beckons.

He might not get too many chances in next few months but within 1 year he would be the man of Indian cricket. The next big thing for India though one Test is too early to assign a tag to him. And its not fair to call him next  gib thing right now.

All in all a very satisfying win for India. A superb advertisement for Test cricket and expressing pity and shame that this was just a 2 Test affair. Damn Ashes.

Well played India and Australia and well behaved Ricky Ponting.

Madras Brigade out to destroy Indian cricket

Sachin Tendulkar's decision to rest for the ODI series is not welcome and its time he plays some ODI cricket to get match practice before the World Cup begins. He has not played single ODI in 2010 after he scored 200*. Who rested Sachin is a question. Did he ask for it or did Srini/Cheeka combo pushed him aside to accomodate Vijay. Having an opening combo of Dhawan and Vijay is absurd. Its like havig Devang Gandhi and Vikram Rathore / Pankaj Dharmani / Sujith Somsundar open the batting in wretched 1990s.

Neither of the 2 players are going to be around for the world cup. Whats the use of having such players?

The run up to the 2007 world cup was better than this one even if india performed disastrous. They had a series in Malayasia in Sep 2006, series in Feb 2007 against SL, WI.  The final call was between GG and Uthappa with later emerging victorious.

Same players are not around this time.

We have just ST, VS, MS, ZK, Harbhajan from that side playing 2007 world cup.

There is no vision, no plan, no strategy to world cup 2011. All we have is a foolish and f**k agenda to promote regionalism and quota system in Indian cricket. I fear the 2-3 years when Srini would be at helm of BCCI would be worst for Indian cricket. Just like Ijaz Butt is for Pak, Srini is for India.

Somebody sue Srini and Cheeka to have a well laid plan to destroy Indian cricket. Charge them on severest of the count and jail them in Chennai jail may be in Jayalalitha's house and have them wear her sarees and bangles.

Australia would win the Bangalore Test

A 2 Test series is always less for such exciting and enthralling contests between 2 of the best Test playing teams. Damn Ashes, this rivalry is the best in the world in Tests.  A Mohali repeat seems to be in the offing for the final day's play in Bangalore.

That would depend on 2 factors:

1. How soon the tail is wrapped up. Mitch is there nd he is another Gillespie. Frustrating but effective,

2. Sehwag factor.

If the target is in the range of 225- 250 then a quick fire 50 - 70 from Sehwag would win it for India. And if Sehwag drops out soon then expect India to apply a safety first approach. They have teh men to defend and they also have the men to go all out in absence of Sehwag (given he falls early). Which way India applies is yet to be seen. The Australian attack is not the best ever they had, yet they cannot be discounted.

Zaheer Khan would be the key in the first session of day 5 as he would look to reverse swing to bounce out the tailenders.

Move aside meek people and T20 fans, this Test series is like oyester in the sea/desert. Much wanted and we are greedy to have more, more, more of it.

Lets kiss our world cup chances bye

Cheeka is at it again.  He has declared a virtual D class ODI team to  take on the mighty Aussies in the ODIs. Australia is number 1 in the ODIs and the world cup is just 4 months away. 

There are no openers in the team who would play the World Cup.

Tendulkar, Sehwag and Gambhir are out.

Sehwag has an injury? Gambhir is going to have a surgery. Tendulkar as usual is pick and choose. Surprising he has not played a ODI since 200. So is he willing to play the world cup ?

So in absence of this 3 lads Dhawan and Vijay are the openers.

Cheeka has pure regionalistic mindset. He replaced a Delhi guy with another Delhi guy. Whaddyaloser.

Middle Order: Raina, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Kohli

# 7 is as usual reserved for Sir Ravinder Jadeja and the great fact is he is going to be second specialist spinner.

A spinner who chokes, strangles and checks but does not take wickets.

Ashvin is other one.  No IPL Ojha and Bhajan.

Fast bowlers:  Munafa, Nehra, Vinay and Praveen

Where does Munaf come from? He was not even in the Challengers.

This selection proves that the this selection panel is no good than what Pak has. Ijaz Butt has an say there, Srini has a say here.

How many of this players are going to make it to the world cup team? Dhawan? Vijay? Munaf?

Jadeja still continues to be in the team.  No other player has been given so much chances. Bhaiya wo khelta nahi he, to kyu team me bana hua he?

Damn. This is a 3-0 win to Australia gifted on platter.

Lets kiss our world cup dreams good bye.  Whaddaunfortunatestuffdataworldcupwinningbuggerisruiningteamsworldcupchances.

Challengers Update : Gains and Losses Audit

Challengers trophy is done with.

India Blues won the final emphatically by 140 runs.  Yuvraj Singh did not shine with the bat, captaincy skills were not on testing fireburner. Few names have been come up as potential selections for ODIs. But overall picture looks gloomy.

Challengers were a good option for out of favor players to make in to the reckoning again.  A few of them were:

1.  Irfan Pathan
2. Yusuf Pathan
3. Robin Uthapps
4. RP Singh
5. Piyush Chawla

And a point to prove for

1. Bosseshwar
2. Badrinath

Out of the first 5, IP did not get a single game. Poor he.

Robin Uthappa ended on the poor side as loser. RP Singh got wickets but on inconsistent basis. There is not quite an opening in the pacers list for the ODIs. PK, Zak, Ishant, Nehra and Sreesanth should be the top 5 from whom the top 3 would be picked for a game.

Piyush Chawla has a tough competition for leg spin ? Not quite. No leg spinner n the fray. Amit Mishra is not quite in the fray for the ODI slot. So 3 spinners who make the cut most of the times are Harbhajan, Ojha and to an extent Ashvin. All 3 are off spinners. More often than not the 5th bowler is Sir Ravider Sobers Jadeja so there is very little scope for Chawla to sneak in.

Yusuf Pathan was as usual inconsistent. So he is stuck off.

Bosseshwar was again his usual self. Did nto make runs, dropped catches and in short made a good case to ask himself to be left out to act in regional filims.

Badrinath, never an ODI player, never he would be.

What about the # 7 spot ? It remained well in illusion once again.   Sir Jadeja flopped, did not make runs and take wickts on consistent basis. So if Dhoni persists with him would be a sham.

Expect more jadeja bashing and jokes on blogs and twitter.

So who stood out :

Consistent basis only Rahane was the one who carried great Irani form to this tourney and except the finals he was a good prospect to be given a look in.

Most of the slots for Indian team are booked :

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are taken up.

ST, VS, GG, YS, SR, MS in the order.

Reserves batsmen: Kohli, ? , ?

Spinners : Bhajan, Ojha, Ashvin?

Pacers: Zak, Ishant, Nehra, Praveen, Sreesanth?

May be 5 pacers are one too many for Indian conditions. So one pacer can be replaced by an extra batsman in reserve. So who is he going to be ? Rahane should be one of them.

Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa should now be considered close cases.

On the exteriors the gains out of the Challengers does not stand to be too many. If there is going to be one batsman to be picked, on the current form Vijay would sneak in. What would he do as opener when team already has 3 of them?

Tough questions but the selection panel is too good to answer them. Srikanth would push some extra characters from Tamil Nadu C team in the reserve slots. He has to find new incumbents to fill up those slots as Dick Karthik is proved useless.

Curious case of Vijay

Vijay scored a 100. First at international level. Ok congrats da.

I'd stop right here.

He is not going to be a permanent fixture in the side. For now. Whenever Gautam Gambhir gets fit, Vijay would be dropped.  Yes even after making a 100.  And that could be as early as first Test against NZ.

Vijay has been a fixed slot as reserve opener ever since his debut in 2008. That coincided with the dropping of Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik as openers and return of Gambhir to form in 2008 SL tour. The drop happened in 2008 Aus tour when Sehwag returned in style. That also coincided with the change in the helm of selection committee. DBV went out and Cheekanth came in. So did Vijay after he was in an epic opening partnership with Mukund.

Vijay has since then played T20s and ODIs for India too in 2010 with no success. He flashed in IPL and CLT20 this year. His temparament was monumental in whatever success and opportunities he had thus far. He has been decent in the Tests thus far.

Though he has got opportunities right now just cos he is from Tamil Nadu and Srini, Sreekanth hail from same state. Going on, he would need to exhibit similar patience and commitment as he did today to rightfully earn front door place and not a back door entry just cos he can blabber in same language as chief of selectors and BCCI president elect.

He was painfully slow today going from 87 to 100 and was stuck on 99 for 13 deliveries. In this process he not only slowed down the runs but also slowed down the runs that are scored in the end of the day.

On day 4, India would need to bat quicker than they did on day 3.  They have the men -- Tendulkar and Dhoni to do it. If they bat well and secure a close to 100-150 run lead Vijay's time would not harm us, but if it does then his eating up of balls would surely hurt the team. And that would be a difference in a 1-0 and 2-0 series victory.

Sachin Tendulkar

No words come to the mind to praise the GOD of modern day cricket on his epic 191* on day 3 of Bangalore Test. Not only he better his previous 177 against Australia 12 years back, but also he crossed 3000 runs against Australia in 31 Tests and scored 11th 100 against them. Most runs against an opposition by an Indian.

For most part of his career, Australia has been a formidable Test team. They dominated the world Tests scenario from 1996 to 2008. Since then they have declined a bit, but they still continue to be one of the very few good teams that play positive, aggressive Test cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar is a modern day epic. Whatever is said about him by lesser mortals like us is always going to fall short of what he deserves as a mention.

May be my share of acronym for him would be a Sachinesque or Tendulkarasque batting for whoever in the future repeats some share of his batting achievements.

Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab are out of IPL for now.  Equal amount of outrage and welcome. Journos writing for Yahoo, ToI would cry foul and tears.  Few twitterers would mock and joke along. Test Cricket and ODI lovers would give a damn. I belong to the same category. 

I believe even though being indifferent to ouster of this teams, this could clean up the IPL image a bit. Given the misdeeds of Lalit Modi spoilt the image and landed the IPL in mess, this cleanup act should act as a stern warning to the other franchisees to get their act right. I am no expert on legal stuff, so i wont say a word on what's right and what's wrong. 

So here is what would happen:

1. Shilpa Shetty would cry in public. Earn sympathy on twitter and news channels. Curse the media, would get sympathetic tweets from few players of her team. Even more she would get some hugs from SRK, her sister, Karan Johar and other fashion designers who made money out of IPL but didnot know a name of player of the RR and laws of the game. 
2. IPL franchisee owners would cry foul over BCCI. Already there are slavery talks. Get out this franchisee owners. 
3. Preity ZInta would stop hugging and kissing her players. 
4. We would get rid of Sangakara for good.
5. Shilpa Shetty would cry on tv.
6. Raj Kundra would sue BCCI.
7. Shilpa Shetty's name would now be extinct from cricketing circles.

BCCI would be unfazed and carry on with the IPL4. Modi or no Modi, the real stars are the players who have been the part of teams. And until they do not perform the IPL would not die. Cut out this set of people and bring in. Show would go on.

Kudos to Sachin Tendulkar

Bows to the GREATEST RUN MACHINE of the game to have completed 14000 runs in Test cricket. 31000 runs and 94 hundreds. Awesome.

His runs would be as insurmountable as Don Bradman's average of 99.94.

Challengers Trophy : India Green vs India Blue

India Blues have almost won a game must win against Greens by a huge margin and for sure they would take on the same team in the final now that Blues have won a game with huge margin. 

Fuckass's team is out almost. 

Fuckass as in Dinesh Karthik. What a chutiya player. 

Yuvraj continues to fail with the bat. Jadeja follows Yuvi Paji too. He took 2/42 and made 8 runs. Too much for an allrounder in making. 

What a player. I guess Yuvraj and Jadeja did not have Poha Jalebi in the breakfast in the morning. Thats staple diet for all Indori people. 

A man who stands tall amidst all this crap of Challengers (reason being Srikanth's croonies now occupy all the slots in Challengers teams) is Ajinkya Rahane. A scoreline of 84 and 95 must earn him a cap for India Australia ODIs if Challengers are a criteria at all. For selection of course. 

India blue have won and Chutiya's team is out of the tournament. 

No other players other than Rahane made any contributions to be good enough to count in the fray. Rahane should get a look-in to the XV, if not XI for now. 

Yuvraj has got one final chance to get some runs under his belt before team for ODIs is declared. With Jadeja failing, he should be out of the contention for good. 

And Chutiya should never ever play for any India team again. Get rid of this rat for good. Fucker.

Challenger update : India Red vs India Blue

Challengers trophy began today in Indore. Indore, the land of Pohe Jalebi holds a special place in my life. Its the best city to be in.

Ok enough on that.

It was India Blue vs India Red today and India Red won by 3 wkts.

India Blue made 9/251 in 50 overs.

Main contributors:

Rahane 84*, Manoj Tiwary 40, Saha and unfortunately Jadeja 58.

Sudeep Tyagi starred with the ball.  YP got 0/37 and Dinda got 2.

Player Watch:

Focus on India Blue :  Rahane, Yuvraj and Jadeja.

Rahane came good again in ODI after a 5 day game. 191 in Irani trophy followed by 84  off 95 balls. Fairly good.

Yuvraj Singh made 6 off 10 and lost the game in captaincy after a high of Irani trophy win.  Damn he was caught by Bosseshwar.

Jadeja made a  50 again in a losing cause. Does he have a premonition that he would lose, so he should make a 50. Loser.  1/42 with the ball.  Got Pathan with e ball.

India Red won by 3 wickets with 8 balls to go.

Contributors:

Yusuf Pathan with a fiery 63. 5 fours and sixes. Good stuff but one solo performance wont be good for him to regain his place in India team. Would prefer anytime over Jadeja though.

Cameos from Abdi and somebody Mishra.

RP Singh disappointed, Chawla got spank and Jaddu got 1/42.

Players Watch :

Focus on India Red : Bosseshwar, Kohli, Pathan

Kohli flopped, Pathan was usual self. Bosseshwar continued pretending he is playing Test cricket or some crap 5 day game vs Pudducherry club,  27 off 57 runs with just a 4.  What a crap player he is. Enough said.

Player who stands ou : Rahane, makes a good claim to a spot in Indian team. Few more innings of substance should see him knocking door strongly. But will Cheeka and Srini bother to look?

Randomness in Fixistan continues

Madness continues.

Randomness continues.

A day before the selectors name squad for ODIs. They chose Afridi and Misbah. And 14 others. None of them are ending in Asif, Amir or Butt. They dont name anybody as captain. So Ukkumal expects he could be the captain. And yes Mr Dhadhi (beard) MoYo is selected too.

A day later Afridi is named captain for ODIs and Misbah is named for Tests.

Phew. Reasons behind not naming Afridi captain on day 1 is "not so good reviews on captaincy by management in England" and "public comments" which did not go down well with board. Who in the board? The face of the board. Mr Butt.

On day 2 everything goes well and Afridi's sins are washed away. He is back as captain.

More drama.

Test squad is named. No Younis, no Kakkumal, no 3 fixers.

Misbah is captain. A man who has not played a test in almost 11 months is  captain now.  Here is the list of captains:

1. SL : Younis Khan

2. NZ : Dhadhi Man

3. Aus : Dhadhi Man

4. Aus : Afridi

5. Aus : Butt

6. Eng: Butt

7. SA : Misbah

8. NZ : ?

No one knows who would be next captain next series. Who knows Butt Ijazie would declare himself fit to play and take over the captaincy against NZ.

All the talks and calls for culling of Ijazie have gone down and he continues to operate in his own way.  Thats in our favor. We get more laughters and more fun.

Preview : Bangalore Test

The second Test between the 2 best teams playing positive Test cricket starts tomorrow morning India time. And this would be the last one for lot of players in the country on both sides.

After an epic first, the expectations would be high on this series decider.

India has a strong record when they take the 1-0 lead. In last 20 years they have given up the lead only 4 times last being against England in 2006.

There are going to be a few changes in the Indian team and the hero of 9th wicket partnership wont be there. The Delhi lads give way to Southie guys. Vijay replacing Gambhir and Sreesanth replacing Ishant.

Laxman is in some kind of doubt starting tomorrow and if he does not play it would be a toss-up between Pujara and Mukund to occupy his slot. Conventional logic says Pujie should make his debut but we never know with Srikanth at helm and Srini's power could see Mukund make his debut too. (Kidding).

India has got some stupid record in Bangalore with not having won a test in 15 years. This is a great chance for them to rectify the record asap. They've lost to Australia twice, drew once and lost to Fixistanis in 2005.

Possible lineup:

India : Sehwag, Murali, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman / Pujie, Raina, Dhoni, Zaheer, Bhajan, Sreesanth, Ojhie.

Aus : Watto, Katto, Punter, Pup, Mr Cricket, South, Paine, Mitch, Hauritz, Hilfy and Georgie Boy.

It would be one more chance for Marcus North to slide his batting going down south and ensure his berth remains safe for Ashes...

All in all it should be a cracking contest between India and Australia once again and then the rivalry would take a break for one year and then it would kick off once again in 2011 down under. Not sure if the 3 greats would make it that tour.

Now that Mr Character Sanga Singh is injured he should watch this game closely to learn how to play positive cricket.