Correction:: India wins Guwahati game

There is a correction in the post below courtesy Golandaaz (thanks for pointing it out): Ok Sreesanth, if he takes wicket off first ball next game he plays he would be 3rd Indian to take a hattrick in ODIs after Kapil Dev and Chetan Sharma.

Kapil Dev took it against my favorite Sri Lankans in 1991 and Chetan Sharma took it against Kiwis in 1987 World Cup (first World cup hattrick).

Chetan Sharma's hattrick was just the 3rd in the ODIs then after Jalaluddin and Bruce Reid. (Courtesy check from wikipedia).

India wins Guwahati game

India won the first ODI in Guwahati by comfortable 40 runs. This margin could have been even bigger one should the 9th wkt partnership of 67 runs had been shortened. Yet next game in Jaipur, the Mallu lad Sreesanth would be on hattrick and if he gets wicket on first ball he would become 2nd bowler to take a ODI hatrrick for India. Kapil being the other one.

India had lot of positives from the game in all the aspects:

• Gambhir looked comfortable batting until he chased a wide delivery that got him out.
• Virat Kohli is soon maturing to a wonderful ODI batsman, with his 2nd consecutive century he is a certainity for the World Cup. He has gone past the likes of Vijay, Rohit Sharma and of course Sir Ravinder Jadeja in the utility to the team.
• R Ashvin was a very good bowler on this day and should he get more chances and he encashes them he would be good wicket taking bowler for India in ODIs.
• All bowlers bowled well in tandem with even Yuvraj Singh coming good with his off spin.

Nehra's ommission from the original squad was baffling and still its not sure if PK returns who would go out. I'd reckon it should be Munaf, as he has not been in the frame all this while and Nehra is India's most successful ODI bowler since June 2009 with 55 wickets in 37 games.

Kiwis now have lost 7 games on the trot in the subcontinental conditions and at this point of time Vettori/Taylor would be a huge fan of Mr Speakit Sangakara who every day gives us a new gyan on the cricketology and latest from his repository is "WC 2011 is going to be most  competitive and there is no clear favorite". So if going by this form, Kiwis are not the favorites for the world cup in subcontinent, but since this would be most open and competitive World Cup, the Kiwis can still surprise anybody. I would be happy if they surprise Sri Lanka every time they play.

Ashes ke Bahane

Its all set for the Ashes. Gaba awaits the action on Thanks Giving day. The closest fought Ashes would begin that day when Ponting's hurt men would take on Strauss's roaring soldiers.

Everywhere its being said that the roles are reversed, the Aussies are new Poms and Poms are new Aussies.  In the fact that the Aussies are yet to win a Test after they sent Afridi to retirment, they are going in Ashes test on the back of 3 back to back defeats. Some thing which none of this players have witnessed before.

As for England, they have improved a lot since the dark days of 90s and early 2000s when they were the worst team playing test cricket. Collapses, ego and paper tigers in Atherton and company made them a natural loser in every Ashes series they played. Since Vaughan took over, the tides have changed. They have won 2 Ashes series post 2004 and lost one 0-5. They drew in South Africa, lost in West Indies, India.

They have a lot of batsmen who are in good form. But its the bowlers who are in better shape than the batsmen.. The batters still have Cook, Pieterson, Trott, Collingwood who have had horrid times off late in Tests, so its the bowling attack that gives England the competitiveness that was lacking in them all this years.

Swann, Finn, Anderson and Cribber Broad make the attack for England.

Johnson, Siddel, Hilfy and Doherty form the attack for Australia. Nowhere in comparison with the great attacks that have taken the field in the past, but the guys are honest triers and work hard. Esp Hilfenhaus, he is the most improved bowler in the tests around.

I would still bet Australia to win this Ashes. 5-0 is a dream, but a 2-1 or 3-1 victory would not be ruled out.  Gabba and MCG are sureshot Australian wins, while Perth may be English win. Draws  could be the results on Adelaide and SCG. But we never know.

The next 3 months are very exciting for Test cricket, for its great Lanka taking on rejuvenated Windies and bottom rung of teams India taking on South Africa and England taking on Australia.

Ishant Sharma, the biggest beneficiary of Nagpur Test

India in the end won the Nagpur test by 3rd highest margin in its history and thanks to the man in the center, the bridesmaid of Indian cricket. Rahul Dravid. He is tenacious, he is patient and he is a rejuvenated wall.  He was a big factor why India were able to post a lead of 373 runs in the first innings. His return to form is a welcome sign ahead of the final frontier in South Africa.

India have a very good chance of a series win in South Africa with Smith injured and Indian bowlers showing up the promise on the day 3 and day 4 of the Nagpur Test.

Ishant Sharma's 7 wickets in absence of Zaheer ensured he was not missed much, this 7 wicket haul in the game would have given a tremendous surge in the confidence for Ishant Sharma to have his first real Test overseas after Australia 08.  Not to forget on those Australian wickets, Ishant gained a reputation of being a zippy bowler who can extract bounce off the track.

If he could make AB or Amla his bunny, India would only be benefitted from that. Now that Zaheer's bunny wont be playing the series anylonger as of now, the bunny for Zaheer can be Kallis, but Ishant would need to fire in SA. That done, he would go long way being the next fast bowling sensation in India after Srinath and Zaheer at least in Tests.

Shane Shillingford reported for suspect action in Chuckali's land

Ah well, the f**k irony is Shane Shillingford who troubled Lankans with his spin bowling in the Galle Test has been reported for suspect action.

And all this in a land where the biggest chuck and suspected action bowler bowled on and on for taking 800 wickets and other chucker is a reverted retard umpire in the ICC panel.

Nagpur wishlist

My Nagpurian wishlist:

1. An Indian victory within 4 days or at max 5. Not more tha 5 days please. In short, no flat wickets please.
2. Sachin Tendulkar's 50th 100.
3. Dravid scoring a 31st 100.
4. Harbhajan getting a 4-for.
5. Ishant Sharma getting bounce and wickets.
6. Dhoni fires with the bat.
7. Ryder, Baz, Mac get out cheaply.

Nothing short of all 7 wishlist items coming true.

Harbhajan : Now or never

A shame and a disgrace for the best Test team in the world. A team that blanks Australia 2-0 is content with 2 draws with a # 8 team in the world.  A team that wins Tests more often than it draws or loses is not able to win a single Test against hapless opposition which was blanked 0-4 by a minnow team.  Someone from the opposite camp is good enough every time to thwart the champions with a stubborn 100.

Be it Mac, Baz or Bewda Ryder, they are men of character and might not be blessed on talent, but high on temparament and attitude.

India is a  concerned unit right now. The bowling attack has not been able to take 20 Kiwis wickets in any of the 2 test matches so far. Pitches anyone? Not quite.  Look at the bowling attack -- Zaks, Santh, Harbhajan and IPL.

Except Zaks, noone is toothy enough to take wickets on consistent basis.

Harbhajan is happy making runs with the bat whereas he should be concerned on his dwindling bowling stocks. Few years back when he was young and better bowler than he is today, he consistently took 5-fors and 10-fors. Look at his numbers, 24 5-fors. Most of them coming in his early years of Test cricket. And at a time when he should have been doing a Kumble to the team, he is not even himself that he was in early 2000s.

Harbhajan the bowler needs to step up. Ojha is good for bowling marathon spells but not good enough to run through an opposition in a single sensational spell of spin bowling which we have witnessed in home Tests in last 2 decades. When Kumble was around, the visiting teams had tormenting times starting 3rd session of 3rd day. And now they are happy to bat out for a draw. And when there is an occasionally inspired spell of bowling from one of the visiting bowlers, India finds itself in a dock. Heavens gracious we have batsmen capable enough to bail us out of the hole, but tis the bowlers who put us back in the hole with their headless and mindless bowling.

Time is ripe to look elsewhere for the spinning options, if Harbhajan does not mend up his ways and takes charge as leading Indian bowler now that Zaks is out to a groin strain.

Chak de phatte Ulu de patthe Harbhajan!!

Following on Lankans!!

I am mighty pleased over the plight of Sangakara and his bravado men. They are following up. Whom? West Indies. A team nobody gave hoots to. They are making mighty talking giants Sri Lankans following on behind them.

And those big hundred makers, those run machines on the low slow dry lifeless pitches of Sri Lanka -- Sangakara, Mahila, Samaraweera and P Jaya were content with 50s. What a disgrace man. Cant believe they didnt make 100s on a so called hapless Windies attack.  Oh jeez, the character stocks of Lanka have gone to negative. And did you notice, ever since Chris Gayle made superb 333, the assertive, media frenzy, word lover, bugbear fan, austerity champ Kumara Sangakara has not spoken a word. He has gone to a hiding, the media headlines that screamed big  about his rants are now silent on his whereabouts.

Instead he is sending over Mendis to talk to media who is not being politically correct and he expressed fears that Gayle might go on and make a 400.  Nah, i m not seeing Sanga's comments anywhere.

Poor he. He had said before the start of the series that the spinners would be they key. But then who are the spinners for them? Mendis and Randiv. Mendis got a 6-for but well he leaked out 170 runs for those 6 wikats.

They are going to find winning test matches even more difficult now that the Murali king of chucking has retired. And they dont have Malinga too. Instead they have a Chanaka and Dhammika.  And yes Mahila, Kumara, Ajantha, Rangana too.

So if tomorrow on day 5, weather permitting, WI is able to bowl out Sri Lanka and chase down a small target, the Lankans would be a hurt lot and that would please me a lot cos they have tortured the cricket fans over the years with their negative brand of Test cricket ever since that ugly 952 Test.

India edge ahead on day 3

Harbhajan Singh is on a roll. Batting wise.

3rd consecutive 50.

69, 115 and now 85 not out. Good enough than Sangakara's scorelines.

Even better is his approach to shield his slapmate Sreesanth, who is restrained so far and has not seen Andre Nel in Arnel, Martin, Southee or Vettori yet.

Tomorrow few more (30-40) runs would put Kiwis to pressure and then IPL Ojha and Harbhajan himself can expect a quick wickets to ensure India does not chase bigger 4th innings total.

The middle order has not been able to impose itself on the inexperienced Kiwi attack -- Tendulkar, Dhoni and Raina have not been able to score as much as they want to...

VVS Laxman scored 74 in his first home test in 14 years of Test cricket. He has been on song off late and would continue to carry this golden run in 2011 too when India play away series in West Indies, England and Australia preceeded by West Indies at home.

Another interesting Test match looms with a realistic possibility of a result.

Cricketers are childish to Shahid Afridi

In eyes of Shahid Afridi, except himself, every one is childish.

MoYo
YoKha
Julfi
Yaseer Hameed
Amir
Butt
Butt
Asif Malik

All.

Virender Sehwag

Sehwag is bloody damn good. He is a different player from those boring openers around the world like Paravaraniratne or Taufeek Umar or Hafeez or Hashim Amla or Ali Cook.

He just does not give a freaking chance against him and when you get a chance, you dance high in the air counting how valuable his wicket is.

A 173, 1, 96 in a 3 Test series is freaking awesome. Playing as per conditions. Not a mindless slog as his opponents cast him to be.

Look at Micky Mouse Arthur, he is still getting nightmares from those 319 runs in Srikanth's Chennai that he has written in his autobiography.   He bloody ended career of bearded Saqi Mushtaq as his guru, the GOD did for Abdul Qadir back in 1989.

Sehwag is a unconventional batsman for the modern cricket which is full of players who like to poke out verbal diarohea in the public. Captains talk big things, the bowlers predict big things, an out of form Surd bowler takes himself to be an allrounder,a bowler good enough to bowl in nets at grade C club cricket thinks himself to be a test level bowler.

Sehwag is uncluttered in his mind. He adapts himself to the conditions, stays in a shell for time being and once he feels he has spent time good enough in the middle he comes back to his elements and then mercilessly slaughters the bowlers.

The opposition is so scared of his 100 that they feel they would go to mental asylum if he scores a 100. Evidence of this was evident in Lankan series when Randi bowled a no ball to him delibarately on behest of Dilli babu. Perhaps he forgot he plays for Delhi DareDevils and Sehwag is the king there.

Modern day cricket offers no good sight than Sachin and Sehwag in full elements. Those shots out of nowhere just give you a kick in the butt and you want more of Sehwag, Sehwag.

Just think how idiot Dilip Vengsarkar was who kicked him out and brought in Dinesh Karthik. Asshole.  Look where Bossadeshwar is and where Viru is.  DK is rotting in domestic cricket making single digit figures constitently and Viru, the king is making 100s consistently.

I second Ian Chappell when he says Viru is the most entertaining and rocking batsmen of modern era. And compare that with the likes of Sanga Nanga, Mahila Blabba, Amla Damla, YoYo Bobo. You would see where Viru is.

Champion batsman and a superstar.  Whaddyaplayer. Chuck de phatte Viru de bacche...

His 96 was one classic inning that has brought India back into the game in cyberabad after Zaheer and Bhajji rolled over Kiwis in the morning session.

Sri Lankan Ravans

Sri Lanka have been shoed off by Bangladesh for a Test series due to following reasons:

1. BD cricket is on a new high as I am after Smirnoff, after a 4-0 drubbing of NZ.
2. BD has refused to be part of all cricketing records against their names.
3. BD is tired of shit from Sangakara and the soft spoken Bong Babus do not want to hear the Sinhala tirades of Sangakara on how shit they are and how world class Lankan Ravans are.

So the Lankans are due to play just 5 ODIs before world cup in some locations like Hannumunakonte and some other unpronounciable locations (worse than Tiruvennavalli or Tiruvananthpuram orTircharipally) against disinterested West Indies team.

Sri Lankans play against disinterested teams and they beat them 2-0 or 3-0 and then their pig faced skipper pokes out a verbal diarrohea on how bloody good Lankans are. 

Cricinfo's Lankan page screams headline on what Mahila, the lady Jayawardhena says on how Malinga is valuable for their world cup campaign. Hell 101 wikats in 30 tests make him their 3rd highest wikat taker.

They dont have Murali and  they would struggle to bowl out Windies without their own help. Since Chuck retired, they have failed to take 20 wikats in a Test and would forever do.

And if Murali follows Younis and Yousuf, he could soon make a comeback in the tests for them.

Sanga baba is due for a press conference on how good his team would be when he would beat WI 3-0 and 5-0 and then celebrate as if they have beaten a # 1 team in the world . But hey that team are us and the Lankans can never beat us in a full series. Bwahahahahaa.

McIntosh steals thunder with a wonder on Day 1 in Cyberabad

India is struggling to take Kiwi wickets on regular basis and their inexperienced batsmen are making merry of the attack which bamboozled Australia 2 times in row. The Indians are posting a sorry figure for now and their great spinners mr Harbhajan Singh and IPL Ojha playing on his home ground so early in his career are totally ineffective thus far in the series.

Ojha has played a lot of cricket on the new stadiu in Uppal and he should know the nature of pitch, yet he starts with a sorry figure that makes us believe he is a disinterested fellow in Tests.

Harbhajan has taken his MoM award a bit too seriously for he has now stopped focussing on bowling. A good step at this point of time would be to give him a rude shock which could be well an axe for the nextd 4 Tests and instead take a rookie Ashvin. The wickets are not ocming and chances are they might not come again, but then if Ashvin gets more wickets, it would be a bonus for India.

Sreesanth is erractic and 2nd time in 3rd Tests he dismissed a batsman of a no-ball. Attitude and temparament anyone?  Beauty spells in hours and mostly erractic line. Perhaps he is coming in Tests again for free. He has not played first class cricket off late, has got injured, bowled at NCA and nets. And came back. He is putting Ishant Sharma out of the team.

Today would be a key day to decide if India wins this series 1-0 or 2-0.

India's nemesis Bewda Jesse Ryder is still on crease and old tormentor Dennie Bettori is yet to come.

And if Bhajji continues to bowl the line he is bowling right now, our spin stocks are as good as West Indies or Australia's.

Contract Haulers from BCCI

BCCI has declared the list of players that would be awarded the contracts for this year.

And the biggest surprise is that Yuvraj Singh has been relegated to Grade B and Raina, his nemesis has been promoted to Grade A.  Besides there is a drop of 17 players from 41 to 24 who have been awarded the contracts.  Grade D has been removed totally.

Likes of Munaf, RP and Dinesh Karthik have been dropped.

Coming back to the biggest shock, Yuvraj Singh.

I am of the view that this demotion is totally uncalled for and does not reflect well on BCCI's part for Yuvraj to be dropped. Agreed he had a tough indifferent 2010 owing to bad form, fitness issues, attitude issues and stuff like that.

He lost his place in the Tests and does not seem likely to get it in near future, but he is still a key player for India in next year's world cup 99 days away and the T20Is.

And Raina for a couple of blistering knocks in T20s , ODIs and Tests has not done that good enough to be in the elite company of players like Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag and Gambhir.

He still needs more maturity and more time to develop as a complete batsman ignoring strong temptation for that ugly hoik over square leg that often results in his dismissal.

For once, Yuvi needs a chance to redeem himself.

Zulqarnain 's Kabootar act

Pakistan cricket continues to be in bizzare state. Just that when the focus came on the strong performances in the just concluded ODI series which ended 2-3 for them, they were again in news for wrong reasons. Zulfi Haider fled the team to go to UK on pretext of some threats to him. Those threats are perceived to be death threats for his role in 4th game which he won for Pakistan amidst high voltage drama.

What went behind his sudden departure is not known and perhaps wont be known, but some statements that he has made indicate dangerous nexus between the Pakistan cricket and the spurious elements who have unethical interest in those cricketers.  Haider had guts to walk out of his career which just began and which was on hold due to one Kakkumal.

He has goen for now, but he might return sooner or later. You never know with this cricketers,  they might come back and play.

So they should not retire, they should just go off and come back when they want to. Just like Younis, Yousuf, Afridi, Miandad, Latif, Imran Khan did.

And one fallout of this sudden departure is that one more Akamal has found his way into the team. And its Adnan Akamal, perhaps middle one of the 3 brothers (or even more). All 3 keep. Ukkumal kept in 5th ODI.

When Kakku would be back, Akkumal would be gone.

Tough to keep count of Akamals playing, but one thing is for sure. No one provided as entertainment as Kamran Akamal does.

Motera Musings

India were out of the hole again and the revival was sparked by familiar face in VVS Laxman and new batting allrounder Harbhajan Singh who got a MoM award for batting. Surprisingly he made a 100 and a  50 in a same game to become 8th batsman in the history to accompalish this feat.

The Kiwis were no pushovers and to me following were the high points of this test match:

• Superb fast bowling spell by Chris Martin on 4th evening to give a strong chance out of nowhere to Kiwis to win the test match.
• Match turning partnership by Ryder and Williamson on day 3 to bring Kiwis in touch distance within India's first innings score.
• Spectacular collapse of India in 2nd innings to be at 5/15 with just 43 runs lead.
• The man called VVS Laxman with his awesome 2nd innings record. Enough said.

The low points:

• The Motera pitch : lifeless, dull and flat. Perhaps that prevented MS to declare when India were 200 up in the fourth innings lead and safely out of danger.
• India's impotent bowling attack. Barring Zaheer Khan and to an extent Ojha, the others were insipid. 
• Continuing bowling failure of Harbhajan Singh would soon come to a point where coach and captain would need to decide if he continues to be # 1 spinner in Tests.
• Gautam Gambhir's insipid 2010 run continues.
• Sehwag's 2nd innings record continues to be patchy.
• Sreesanth should now be relegated to dancing on reality shows. He is just no use to India's lineup. Ishant Sharma seems to be better bowler than this guy.

India would be disappointed that they could not beat Kiwis and continue their winning streak. On the other hand, the Kiwis would be more than happy to get the draw with strong performances from Ryder, WIlliamson, Baz and Martin. I just hope no more tests are scheduled in Ahmedabad in near future if it continues to roll out docile, Srilankan type pitches.

Self Beliefakara

As I feared, the man has started his rants.

Just that this time character is replaced by self belief.

"There's a lot to be taken out of the way we played these games," he said. "It's fantastic. We played the way we believed we could coming here. It was just a case of us fighting to convert every opportunity and tonight I thought it was a great all-round performance."

It means a lot," he said. "This is a stage we always wanted to get to where everyone does what is asked of them and you can't ask any more of the players. They have grown in stature and self-belief. Sri Lankan cricket seems to be in really good hands going forward

So what have they done really?

Just won 2 games on trot against a struggling Australian side that has half of its energy diverted to Ashes and the other half on who's going to be the Australian captain. How seriously they are viewing this series is evident from te fact that Ponting is taken out of the ODI side to play in a Shield game to prepare for Ashes.

And  the Nanga is going gung ho on a win against depleted side.

They have won 1 T20 and 2 ODIs. Thats it. They have not won a Test series or a single Test in Australia. So whats the hype and noise all about?

Why do we find only this guy shouting out loud in the media ? No other captain speaks as much as he does. Not even Afridi or a Ponting, He has got a fetish for the chirpy and vogue statements in the media. He makes it and makes an ass of himself.

West Indies would be blanked 0-3 and 0-2(3) in the ODI series and Test series back their home, thanks to the depletion they suffer from. Yet he would come out with how good the victory was.

Open cricinfo and his pig sized face would be up in the front climbing Sydney harbor or poking a tuchyap smile. Loser!!

Characterawardhene

Get ready to bear the talk how great Lankans are from their captain once Australia lose this one too.

Happy Diwali

Today is Diwali. 

Wishing all the readers, critics, silent stalkers and haters a very prosperous Diwali and a lightening year ahead. Especially to Lankan readers, may their darkness of mind go away and be lighten with hope and optimism for Indian victory and their team's loss in Eden Gardens in semis.

Have a safe and prosperous diwali. And a year of hope, happiness and prosperity for the country and its cricket.

Predictions

Sri Lanka and Pakistan play today but not against each other.

I bet Pakistan would play exciting cricket while Lankans would suck upto their negative brand of krikat by bowling negative line down the wikat.

I'd pick Australia and Pakistan as today's winners. 

And hope Nanga gets out on 0.

Hail Dravid for his 30th century

Dravid jokes are common on twitter and blogs.

Some of them being "comparison to Chandupaul" and "no privacy as he finds fielders".

You gotta give him some space of his own. He has had a horrible 2010 by his standards and he is trying hard to come out of it. Efforts were fruitful right away with him scoring his 30th 100 and moving to the elite group of 30+ 100s in Test cricket. He struggled initially but once he was set in, he didnt fall and he stuck another hundred at Motera. Last year around same time he had scripted a comeback from the hole when Welagedara something too 4 early wickets to reduce India at 4/32.

From what it is reported in the cricketing sites it seems that he is keen to end his slump and find form. There are evidences that he has found some bit of form, but he needs some space and he be left alone to find some runs which would be very valuable in quest to win first Test series in the Saffaland next month.

The tweeters and bloggers do not have patience on anybody except Sanga. They are ready to digest any rant and $hit from that guy but they aint ready to have some patience to see Dravid watch all the way to his 30th 100.

The day Dravid finds that he is no longer feeling a belonging sense to the topmost level, he would step down and none of us would ever need to put any pressure on the lad. He is that kind of man with highest integrity. But then such have been the 5 men who have transformed Indian cricket in the 2000s.

Its very crucial to have Dravid in the Test setup for another year or so when India plays in West Indies, England and Australia and those would be marquee series to save the # 1 ranking and also initiate the transition from the greatest middle order to an inexperienced one albeit talented one with couple of contenders coming good in the limited opportunities they have got in past few months owing to whatever reasons.

Patience in the T20 era is a bygone virtue and it lasts only with the selected few who are ready to watch the glorious men just for the love of the game. I am one of them.

Tracking Jadeja and Bosseshwar in Ranji

Here is tracking the usual culprits of Indian cricket in the premier domestic tournament.

I would be tracking the usual list of backdoor entrants and Srikanth's favorites along sides useless players in batting and bowling.

Beginning with the blog's favorite player:

Dinesh Karthik aka Bhosadeshwar:

The lad is Tamil Nadu captain and he continued to fail with the bat. He made just 4 off 10 balls and was once again out poking a ball outside off to the wicket keeper.  Failure again.

Subbu Dabrinath

Made 83 in the game against Assam and this innings wont be of much importance as there are 3 contenders for the no 6 spot in Test team.

Junior Cheekanth

Made 95 while opening the innings. So this indicates that he is going to replace Vijay as substitute player in Test team.  He could also return to ODI team as # 7 as he plays in the middle order for Chennai Super Kings in IPL.

Ravinder Jadeja

Most hated player in Indian cricket. Took 4/189 and made 40 runs. Enough.

Virat Kohli

Prospective Test player comes good with 173 in game against Bengal at Kotla and proves he is in good nick continuing ahead of the ODI century vs #1 team in world. Once he was out the Delhi lads lost 4 for 34 allowing Bengal tigers an entry again to the match.

Rohit Sharma

Fat, useless, junk.

Made 93 and then threw his wicket away to Sir Shree Ravinder Jadeja.

Che Pujara is not playing as he is on Indian duty.

Yuvraj Singh

Made 52 and 24 in the game against UP and those runs wont be enough to win his # 6 spot again in the Tests.

Irfan Pathan is not playing due to back injury.

That completes the day 1 of tracking the players I love and hate.

Lanka Win takes character stocks to high

I find it frustrating to find early morning that Sri Lanka won.

Damn. Australia cant win anything.

Sri Lanka won with 1 wicket with some "magical" innings from Malinga and the cribber tantrum thrower Angelo Mathews (I remember 2 times he threw tantrums when he collided with a player and when out threw bat and stuff).

Good job. Series win on the horizon.

But also on the horizon is the blabbering and rants from SangaNanga and Mahela Mahila in their press confrences and blogs respectively.

SangaNanga has already begun savioring the magical and awesome win vs Australia as he finds Australia a very great place to come to. Today MCG looked like it was a Sri Lankan ground. Yuck...those boring grounds when the fans just dance on the boring drumming and band playing in the background.

The problem with Sri Lankan assesment is that they think that every win in any format takes the to another plane/level in the game and their performers are world class.  They do not have a core set of players they stick to .

They chuck players too soon and bring new players every new series. They continue playing weak teams and if not weak teams, they have India playing them.  Their main batsmen continue to be SangaNanga, Mahela Blabba, Dilshan and in bowling only Randi is sure of a spot in the test team. Rest they keep chopping, frying, changing. Their next big thing soon become thing of past in a matter of series. Masaraweera, Mendha, Lahiru Timmu, Paragraph and so many others have come and gone. So tough to remember all their players except 5 or 6.

They'd still go the quarters or semis in the world cup cos they are going to play their most games at the Lankan backwaters where any foren team can hardly win thanks to the slow low wikats and strangling tactics by the bowlers who since their inception learn to bowl negative lines.

This team can never be an exciting team. Pakistan for all its fallacies and evils are still a team to watch cos we dont know what they'd come upto.

Loser Talk

2 back to back ODIs, 2 back to back exciting ODIs. Only difference in the winners.  Pakistan won on Sunday, Saffas won on Tuesday.

Pak won by 1 wkt, SA won by 2 wkts.

The results could have been alternate.  Yet both this teams choked once.

Now the 4th ODI ownwards the story would be normal. Pak thrashing by big margin.

There is such a talk in the bookie circle that next 2 ODIs Pak are going to lose big.  Also some bookies are believed to be betting on possible return of Shoaib Sania Mirza Malik in the ODI series for NZ.

One notorious lad for every series and then dump.

MoYo for England, Younis for Saffa, Malik for NZ. Who knows Butt junior might come up for World Cup had PCB imposed a ban on him, but its ICC.

SA have 7 ODIs to play before WC, India has got 10. NZ has got 10, Pak has got 7. Australia have got 8. England have got just 5. Sri Lanka have got 6.

Sri Lanka are quietly confident, Pakistan are loudly and quietly rowdy, Saffa are world known chokers, India are in league of its own, Kiwis are new Bangladesh, England is occupied with Ashes. Australia is caught up between Ponting and Clarke, with a desparation to win something.

Sri Lanka are expecting they would win 3-0 against Aussies and then every day we'd need to listen how good their players are coming up. I bet Thilina Masaraweera would play the world cup and none of Tharanga, Jayasurya, Chandimal, Lahiru Timmu(something), Maharoof would not be playing the world cup. Count Mendis Bow wow in that list too now that cheater Randi is the 2nd spinner who has grown leaps and bounds to become their main Test spinner since Chuck retired.

Ok enough of Sri Lanka bashing. Man I enjoy it.

Back home in Ranji trophy it was a battle of 2 losers. And biggest loser got the wicket of bigger loser.

Bigger loser, the fat man, the Borivli guy threw it away with a wild slog to the IPL cheat and ended up reprimanded from his captain who himself made yet another 100. Alas no Dilip Vengsarkar is watching you mian.

The biggest loser is strong contender for # 7 and bigger loser is contender for # 6 in ODI world cup team.

Biggest loser is next Gary Sobers, bigger loser is next Sachin Tendulkar.

Biggest loser took 4 for 189 runs in 56 overs. And he has got a double hundred too. 232*.

And he is also batting on 16 off 24. He would score big runs tomorrow and claim for # 7 spot in the upcoming Kiwi series.

He is Ravinder Useless Jadeja. Bigger loser is Rohit Sharma.

Ok so thats enough of bashing my 2 favorite cricketing entities:

1. Sri Lanka

2. Ravi Jadeja

Tomorrow its' Ijaz Butt's turn. His video blasting reporters on Lahore airport is ultimate one and my piece of entertaintment whenever I am deeply engrossed in work in the office. Thats good enough to make anyone laugh.

Champions of Negativity

It was pathetic to see Australia lose to Sri Lanka and their cheater take 3-25 to stifle Aussies on a bouncy wicket of reputation.

SL won and  promptly the verbal dosage of how good a Sri Lankan team is and how rich they are in character has begun from their 2 main batsmen.  Yuck!!! Every single game they win, their rants start and they are out to prove how good the Sri Lankan flavor of cricket is.

Surely they are good. But only in negative stuff.

Our and their # 7

Pakistan's # 7 is Razzaq, India's # 7 is Tiwary / NA/ Jadeja.

Yet India wins more often than Pakistan does. Tiwary and Jadeja are nobodies before the mercurial ability of Razzaq, who for unknown reasons was pushed off the main radar of Stani team.

Pakistan dont have a system to test a player for any spot, India has.

Pakistan selectors are subjected to whims of Ijaz Butt, India's selectors (for most part) have their own vision formed mostly after consulting coach and captain.

Pakistan's main batting lineup is as good as its civilian government, India's batting order is much like the democracy (however we still do not like the ruling party). Volatile and strong respectively.

But the fortunes of # 7 player decides the distance a team would go in the world cup.

Razzaq still does not know if he would be still part of this team in Kiwi series or in the world cup. For that matter no one knows if this XI would be the one playing its first game. Only constant thing in their cricket setup is the Ijaz Butt factor.

My point of view on this post is : Pakistan have found their # 7 for now through a gamble and India's selectors have not been able to find one throughout 2 years despite much hit and trial.

Virat Kohli after that 100 against Austalia needs a longer run in the team and he should edge all other contenders unless there is a real allrounder coming in. A real allrounder in India is just one : Irfan Pathan, but he is out injured his back.

So Virat Kohli must be given an experimental run in the spot he is likely to play in the world cup. Hopefully in the home series vs India.