We would feel sorry for Sangakara after this world cup is over

I just digged out the archives of 2007 world cup and was pained to see 2 defeats to BD and SL that knocked the steam out of the Indian campaign and that ended the world cup campaign of Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble. 17 March and 23 March were painful days in India's world cup history. 

13 March 1996 is one such painful day in the history where SL rolled through final at India's expense in Eden Gardens.

And then there was this article from ever fucktard Kumar Sangakara

"India at home and India overseas are two different teams.

To be honest, though, I feel sorry for India's cricketers. They'll now face a torrent of criticism and abuse in the coming weeks. Fanatical fans will no doubt be burning effigies as I write. The huge expectation places their players under enormous pressure. And when that expectation is raised a degree or two, it can easily have a crippling effect."

In Sri Lanka, the general public seem to have a more easy-going perspective. Yes, most Sri Lankans are passionate about sport, especially cricket, but we also seem to understand that sport is sport. I am not sure whether that more balanced attitude is the product of two decades of civil war, or merely reflects the more happy-go-lucky style of an island nation. The attitude of our fans makes it easier for us. Yes, we still get our fair share of criticism. There can be mud-slinging in the media too. But our houses are not stoned when we lose and we can still walk down the street without fearing for our safety. I am grateful for this and really don't envy the situation of India and Pakistan's top cricketers.

This is right time to ensure Sangakara and his men are steamrolled in this world cup ruthlessly and also to ensure he is never able to speak such a crap again. We would then need to feel pity for Sri Lankan cricketers. Yeah they are easy going people who killed their own countrymen who spoke Tamil for 20+ years and were subjected to inhuman war crimes in the war zone over past few years. Something that never happened in India or even in Pakistan.

Its time India or some other team beat SL huge so that none of their overrated players are able to write articles full of venom like this. Once they lose, the normal fans of SL who are no more than waterboys in the world cricket would come out and stone the houses of idiots like Sangakara. Fucker!!!!

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!!

Champions League update thus far

CLT20 is on in full flow and thats the Cricket Ka Asli Muqabla.  There are lot of new faces in the commentary boxes and thats a welcome sign. Saurav Ganguly is in the box and so are Shastri, Gavaskar -- India's finest. Good respite from the likes of Arun Lal, Shiva and company. On the flip side we also have Pommie Bangwa and Russell Arnold. The results so far are as expected.

1. Out of the 10 playing teams 3 are from India and 2 of them have won the first games emphatically when they were supposed to struggle and flaunder in this conditions. The critics forget that it was in South Africa, that India has had their best run in the ICC editions of the World Cup and World T20. A world cup final in 2003 and World T20 win in 2007. So how the teams would struggle is beyond comprehension. This point of view has been pastered on us by Sanjay Manjrekars of the world who refuse to see anything silver lining in the dooms.  Sachin Tendulkar the batsman continued his good form and that pretty much almost covered his unusual errings in the field as captain. Kumble and MSD led their respective teams to victories with ease and they should be good for the semis if they continue to play the same way they did in their first games.
2. Wayamba is as useless as Mahelangakara's character rants. They failed miserably against Warriors and a lot of  that blame has to go on Mahila who fell for a duck. I guess the major reason they failed to win was that the character juice supply was in short and a lot of that did not arrive from Lankan godowns.  Only positive point of their team was old Kulatunga and young Pareira (there are so many Pareiras playing for Lanka, its difficult to track them all) with their positive batting. The praise ends here.
3. Australian teams have had mixed bag so far. South Australia RedBacks beat Lions (SA) by 19 runs on day 2 of the tourney and Victoria, the Aussie version of Tamil Nadu lost their opening game to Warriors who look  good to go the semis route at least.
4. Windies and Kiwis teams had horrible outings in conditions that should have suited them ideally.

As of now given the form RCB, CSK, Warriors and one of RedBacks/Lions look good to go the distance to the semis.

Kumble had figures of 1/10 in 4 overs against Guyana. Harbhajan could not take a wicket in the game against Lions.  When Kumble played Harbhajan often got wickets owing to the pressure built by Kumble from the other end. Since Kumble retired, Harbhajan has struggled in Tests and that has impacted further his ODI and T20 bowling.

Kallis is continuing his good run this year in CL as well and he came good with bat and ball in the game vs Guyana. Dravid had a 33 which was solid and flair of typical Dravid in his peak in ODIs. Unfortunately he grassed a few dollies which prompted few to call for his axing and a well tracked farewell. Uncalled for.

Sachin had a good outing in first game as batsman and his other big names failed. Dumniny, Pollard, Rayudu, Sathish were miserable. Except Malinga none came good in bowling. Sachin is too good a player to repeat his captaincy mistakes in the second game tomorow.

Indian players have had a good outing so far. Unexpectedly Junior Cheeka had a 42 which should fast track his place into national colors. That there are other deserving players than him to get the India cap is another story, he has that advantage of having DAD at high position backed by Nambiarulu Srinivasan, the CSK owner and powerful BCCI sachiv.

So if he finds a place in the ODI team as a replacement for great Sobers in making RavinderSing Jaddukha, it sould not be a surprise as Cheeka would have ensured a good entry behind the door.

Dabri had a good outing again and like his Chennai friend DK he would now come into contention for every team India plays and once in he would be back to usual scoring pattern of 10s, 20s and 30s.  Its good. It keeps our community (bloggers and twitterers) busy guessing who # 6 in Tests and # 7 in ODIs would be. Not to forget that the jokes would continue too.

PS : Thanks SoulBerry for mentioning that this blog is one of the good ones for IPL and CLT20. It means a lot when this blog has more distractors than admirers. Appreciate a lot.

CLT20 : RCB Preview

AirTel CLT20 kicks off on Sep 10th in South Africa in their earlier summer and 10 teams play in the 2nd edition of the premier tournament. No England and Pakistan teams here due to clashes with the domestic season and political reasons respectively. For England's absence blame it on the lack of the FTP window for IPL and CLT20.

There are 3 teams from India, 2 each from SA and Aus, 1 each from WI, NZ and SL.

Its MI, CSK and RCB for India. Only RCB made it to the first edition in 2009 where they failed to make it to the semis.

Let me start a series of preview for the teams I know of -- 3 IPL teams.

Starting with the team I shall support : Royal Challengers Bangalore. Just bcos its led by legendary Anil Kumble.

The squad of 15 is :

Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, R Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Dillon du Preez, B Akhil, Abhimanyu Mithun, Nayan Doshi.

There are foreign players in Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Kallis, Preez. No Boucher. Kallis, Taylor, White were eligible for playing their home teams too, but RCB has eased out its wallet to retain this key players.

I presume CLT20 also allows IPL teams to play 4 foreign players and in that case the RCB has 5 foreign players to chose from. Not sure about du Preez who he is and what his credentials are. This could be the starting XI for RCB in their first game:

*
Kallis
*
Pandey
*
Uthappa
*
Taylor
*
Kohli
*
Dravid
*
White
*
Praveen
*
Steyn
*
Kumble
*
Vinay Kumar / Mithun

White and Kumble would be the spinners. Kallis, Steyn, Praveen and one of Vinay and Mithun would be the pacers. Having Steyn and Kallis in the team and playing in the home conditions actually helps RCB.

Prediction : I'd assume RCB would make it to the semis given the golden run they had in SA conditions in 2009 IPL.

They are in group B ranked 4th with Mumbai Indians as top rank team.

The other teams are Guyana (WI), MI (India), South Australia (Australia), Lions (SA).

Aftermath

India’s fourth or fifth string team lost to the enthusiastic and committed Zimbabwe second time in a week. How pathetic it is. Who owns up this defeat ? Skipper Raina, coach Kirsten or selector head clown Srikanth?  It was pathetic to see that there was no intent or will to score runs from the openers. What was Murali Vijay thinking ? He is a star ? IPL is long time over kid. If you cant play against Zimbabwe, there is a little chance you could play against anybody else.  56 ball 21 in PowerPlay overs with no boundaries whatsoever. Ditto for his Tamil Nadu skipper Dinesh Karthik, who by far should have been dumped in the dustbin of Marina Beach or Golden Beach in Chennai for his hyped talent, zero on delivery.

What happened to Amit Mishra who got a 5-for on his Test debut substituting for Anil Kumble and fast tracking his retirement?  Why do our spinners fail to take wickets in ODIs and T20s whereas little known spinners of lesser countries are rich in wickets. Pragyan Ojha, another big IPL name, purple cap holder of IPL-3. He ended up with one wicket. Why ? Did he forget spinning the ball ? Or did he think playing a game or 2 for India is good enough ?

Ashok Dinda, poor fiery chap from Bengal, wrote highly by Sourav was other failure. His off cutters and Yorkers were safely negotiated, half volleys were spanked to boundaries by young Zimbabwe kids.  Umesh Yadav bowled only 4 overs.  Yusuf Pathan was never in sight bowling with his fire in his eyes.  He had chance to score runs on a flat track, which he always does in IPL, he gave away the chance.  Rohit, Raina fell to sharp fielding from Zimbabwean kids.  Jadeja was selfish enough to complete a 50 and fall.

Did not he think to accelerate or at least try for it? He was contend taking singles and rotating strike in 45-50 overs when India scored just 18 runs.

This team is pathetic. If they are called future stars, then lets stop watching cricket for good. Once the greats are retired from Tests and this lesser souls take over, we would be soon languishing in the lower bottom half of the Test rankings. But wait are they even good to play for India again ?

Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay,  Yusuf Pathan, Ravinder Jadeja should never play for India again unless they prove hard in the domestic cricket that they belong and not just IPL.  

The flat track bullies of Chepauk, Mr Vijay forgot that he is playing ODI and not a first class game.  He plays  faster than this in 4 tests that he has played for India and he had given impression that he is gutsy enough to play for India long time in Tests. Now that impression stands dusted. Not so long ago he was thought of future # 3 in Tests, a big spot held for 14 years by Rahul Dravid.

Unfortunately this kids don’t have work ethic, their seniors have.  Easy money from IPL, fast tracked selection by ex cricketers from their zone makes them believe that they have arrived on the international scene and hence they fail to do whatever it takes to succeed on the highest level.

Just need to illustrate the case of 3 Best ODI players India ever produced.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.

Success did not come to this lads instantly. Sachin took 78 games and 6 years for his first ODI 100 and thereafter no looking back. 45 hundreds more he scored in 16 years.  He had the promise, he showed it, he delivered it in his younger days. Remember the tour of 1991 to Australia, when bigger Test players (then) than him flopped, the guy scored 2 sublime 100s in Perth and Sydney.

Rahul Dravid, considered by many a misfit ODI batsman (even today) got off to a disastrous start to his ODI career in Singapore and Sharjah tournaments just after 1996 world cup, till 1999 world cup when he emerged as top run getter, his place was never fixed.

When Yuvraj Singh and Mohd Kaif along side Virender Sehwag arrived in early 2000s, Dravid was once again questioned if he belonged to the ODI arena. He remodeled his game from a # 3 to a # 5 or # 6 player as finisher and scored countless innings to win games for India. His partnerships with Yuvraj and Kaif are epitome to the fact.

Ganguly had a disastrous ODI debut in 1991 down under and for 5 years he did not play another game until one day he was selected in Test team to England post 1996 World Cup. The success story thereafter is known to everybody, how he evolved from a “quota selection” to become India’s best captain ever in the formats that matter.

Story of Virender Sehwag could be inspirational too. Dropped after disastrous ODI debut in 1999 and back in the team for Tests in 2001 and then dropped again in 2006-07 and bouncing back in 2008 Adelaide Test could be benchmark for this so called young kids of the Indian cricket team.  They ought to remember that T20s and IPL is not the only thing they need to play well in. Who remembers Swapnil Asnodkar and Kamran Khan now who shone in 2008 and 2009 editions? Do they even play first class cricket and get noticed? Nope, not at all.

Anil Kumble was mocked by Kapil Dev in 1990 England tour when he debuted. For next 2 years he did not play a Test until 1992 when he made a comeback to grab 6/59 in Wanderers Test in SA. And post 1993 he changed the story of Indian spin.

Can Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra, known for aggressive send-offs and fire in the bellies learn from the senior pro on how to take wickets and then show the aggression? Take wickets and then do whatever, all is forgiven and forgotten.

Heads would need to roll for this pathetic show.  Its not a show, the team just did not turn up. They just ran through the motions. They pretended that they are playing. The hearts were just not there, that were somewhere else.

Pitiful and shameful performance this.  That’s the least 2 cussing words I can use right now.

Road Ahead

Anil Kumble has been spot on for his evaluation of the T20 debacle.   He is right to say we have not handled pacers well. We’ve lost Munaf (he was fast only when he played tour game vs England), RP Singh (so successful in first winning campaign in World T20 and IPL-2), Sreesanth (disciplinary problems),  Ishant Sharma (poor in LoIs) and many others who shone in domestic tourneys but did not succeed.  Irfan Pathan destroyed by Greg Chappell is seeming to be lost forever. He is million times more useful than his showmaker brother Yusuf Pathan who shows fake aggression on taking wicket of a tail ender.

In one of the other diagnostic article on cricinfo there is mention of this batting line to cope up with the pressure of top side in Tests. Fortunately none of this batsmen boomed in by IPL glitz and glamor play for India in Tests. Neither does Vijay, Raina, Yuvraj or a Pathan appear to be in contention for any Test spot near future.  That rests with Gambhir, who is still a world class batter, Sehwag, the one who was missed, Dravid, who should be back for ODIs world cup, Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni. 6^th spot should be for a debutant sans Dabrinath and Vijay.

So the test team has conquered everywhere – West Indies, England, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.  Reason the work ethics of the top 5 of Indian Test batting line up has been different. The likes of Raina, Sharma lack patience. They come out and try to hit the ball out of park first minute they enter. There is no meaning of settling down or having a grip of situation in the middle. When its against a minnow it might work, but against  stronger team it just wont work.

T20 failure throws up a question on the composition of the ODI side which has to win the World Cup at any side. The oDI record for India is best amongst the top teams. That’s conveniently forgotten. Most of the players in XI chose themselves – Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj (??), MSD, Raina, Kohli.  The bowling attack needs an overhaul. Sorry to say but Harbhajan needs a kick up his back to remind that he is so called best Indian spinner after Anil Kumble. He can never be the bowler Anil was in his peak in 1990s home ODIs when Azhar used to bring him on in the 15 overs and he usually responded with crucial breakthroughs.

Shastri says groom a young captain for T20. MSD is not an old warhorse. And he is a good captain. Remember he is winning almost every ODI and Test series India is playing. T20s are being lost but that should not be that big a disappointment as losing a traditional world cup. We don’t want a repeat of 2007 when India failed to qualify in Super 8s in 15 years.  We need to have a look at the bowling attack and have 2 good fast bowlers who would have pace, take wickets and even though give runs. A figure of 4/55 would be much better than 0/45 and a speed of 140+ than 135.  There are a few players who need discard for good and besides the usual culprits mentioned on other posts of the blog – Pravin Kumar is one such bowler who would be ineffective on flat Indian pitches for WC.

Shastri, Ganguly and Gavaskar have been spot on with their comments, but the likes of Madan Lal or Jadeja, Maninder Singh are fool hardies.

MSD has won more than he has lost. So if he is reeled for this defeat then he has to be commended for other achievements too. If he has been stubborn for few players, then may be he would learn a hard lesson. If he is trying to do a Ganguly to Pathans, Jadejas, Vijays and Pravins then lets not forget that the players Ganguly nursed were awesome then (may be they are poor now), they were serious talents (Sehwag and Yuvraj prove this).

The golden generation of Indian batting prospered in short ball conditions, fast bouncy traks and slow pitches too. The same cannot be expected out of the likes of Rainas and others.  Simple, the work ethic is  the reason. The golden generation of Indian batting prospered in Tests, ODIs and IPL. The current generation excels in just IPL.  The players who made  500s and  400s in IPL flopped in the international format. The guy who made 600 in this IPL has proved what adaptability is and what work ethic is.  It’s a pity that the younger generation of Indian batsmen don’t want to learn from the illustrious men like Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly while sharing the dressing room..

Yuvraj Singh was a special talent and its delightful to watch him in full flow. When he scratches around he seems ugly. Off field reaons play a big reason in why he fails to deliver.  For the time being he is best suited to sit out the team till he solves whatsoever his problems are.

India’s next big assignment is the Sri Lankan Dambulla cup in June July. And that IMO should mark the beginning of preparation for ODI world cup, far bigger and important than the T20I world cup which keeps on coming every 2 years. 

All is not lost and in couple of months now we would be back to backing the team hoping that it learns from this mistakes, chucks out complacent IPL players and gets the dedicated hungry for success players. India can do it and we would still be able to achieve success in the ODI series lined up in next few months.  After all we are # 2 in ODIs and # 1 in Tests. Lets not forget that the personnel for the ODI and Tests, as next assignments would change and hopefully we wont need to see the same usual crop of retards playing for India and thus insulting the meaning of playing for country.

Improper balance of money and performance in IPL

Poor fielding, insipid captaincy, alleged rude behavior from Australian coach, Lankan camp in dressing room and lastly rift between 3 of the bigger players of the franchisee has led to yet another Bollywood team bite the dust in IPL.

Last season it was SRK's KKR and this time its Zinta babes KXIP who's left no tide unturned to make a mockery of themselves. 

Till there are coward owners like Ness Wadia who reportedly ran to BCCI's arms when Yuvraj contemplated moving to grandfather led team, the team cannot be expected to make tough decisions.

Whats the use of retaining a player who is not interested in playing from a franchisee ? Just money ? If so then no player would have contemplated moving to other team. 

This corporate and Bollywood bigots hardly know a thing or 2 about the game, all they know is money and returns. If they had knowledge of the game then the likes of Uthappa, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Praveen Kumar could not have been that pricey that they are.  Add RP Singh to that list for this season as well.

Anil Kumble is not even an iconic player for RCB and their iconic player has little to do this tournament, yet the man is more successful than all of this so called young new bright stars of Indian cricket.  The likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly are top scorers of IPL from country edging past the likes of MS, Yuvraj, Raina and Sharma who plays(ed) well only in IPL.

So whats their price tag all about ?  Performance or hype?  Sangakara is worth 675000 $, he has not even made 675 runs in 3 seasons included. Ditto for Mahela Loserawardhene. This lads are very good speakers, show a lot of sophasticated vocab when they speak, but when it comes to execute they show a forlorn face. 

The owners of the franchisees would need to evaluate the player potential before bidding for them in wild amounts. Kemar Roach, Andrew Flintoff, Mortaza, KP, Keiron Pollard and Shane Bond's performances have shown that they are not worth the price tag they have got. Murtaza was signed for 650000 $ but he has not even turned up to play a single game for KKR......

Seeing the mad money IPL generates there would be more such cases of splashing money on players who play one bright knock of 10 innings and then encash on that for the rest of the careers. Now if today Rohit Sharma does not get selected for a Test or ODi team for India would he care ? 3 seasons of IPL would have given him good enuf money to move from Borivali to Colaba or Nariman Point and own a posh flat over there.....

Punjab disgrace again!!

What was Bisla thinking when he scooped Kumble ?

Or When Sangakara gave up gloves to be as a fielder and ground a skier to kick it with his legs for a four, I m sure with this kind of pyrotechniques we would not see Sanga again in IPL next season ownwards.

7 defeats out of 8....What a captaincy by Sangakara.

RCB now jump back to the 2nd spot and almost seal the semi final place.

Its now between Deccan, Rajasthan and Kolkata to fight out for the possible 4th spot in the semis soon. And today's game is crucial for Deccan as they take on rampant Mumbai Indians.

Semis race hots up!!

With Delhi beating Rajasthan and Chennai beating Bangalore, the race for semi final spots has hotted up again. If that was not all yesterday Ganguly smashed his best T20 innings and won a game for Knight Riders to bring them on 5th spot. 

Mumbai and Delhi are almost there. Today Blore would step one inch closer to the semis spot by humbling Woodanga's team.

Watch out for Yuvraj Singh who is now hurt at the media reports over his insipid IPL performance this year which is actually good for India, he would fire in World T20.

Dhoni has a weak time at his disposal and he cannot always rely on Vijay or Callypso to bail his team out. If Dhoni would want to play good innings then Callypso would run into him and run him out. In this process he might earn captaincy of his home city IPL team......

For now its going to be Kumble's day today who would edge out speaking poker from Lanka who is posing himself as a Punjabi!!!!

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.

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 ?

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.

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.

Mishra gets dropped

Sounds weird, Mishra took 5 or 6 wkts in the game including 4 last 2nd innings wkts and today he does not find a place in the team. Pragyan Ojha comes to play for him. Looks weird.

Was Mishra in as Sehwag was the captain and now that MS returns, the Ojha guy is in and Mishra is out ? Choice of preferences ?

Murali is playing for India now in place of Lacchu pehelwan and this time he would play at 6 hopefully or one of the openers would shift. Seems unlikely.

Actually none of the 3 spinners combined post Anil era look as strong as the man himself was when he played.  Neither in skill and neither in toughness.

Aussie test woes

Another altercation down under and another non Aussie player stands a  risk of getting banned or facing a suspension.

The supposedly best batsman in the world Ricky Ponting retired hurt and did not come back again to BAT.

Tendulkar on the other hand got hurt on his nose while he was 16 and continued batting in blood soaked  t-shirt.

Anil Kumble came out with hurt jaws in Antigua 2002 and snapped Brian Lara LBW.

Australia after making 520 runs sees Gayle hit one of the fastest Test hundreds to see the Test going to a possible draw unless WI self destruct on day 3.

A 2-0 win looks a rare possibility now for the team which not so long ago was world beater.

Against WI, against whom its media called for a "hakal patti" from the Test playing nations.

If Australia go onto lose the Test or even draw this one to be able to win 1-0 then will similar calls be made ?

By the by significant achievement for black African players in Saffa with Ntini playing his 100th Test.

Australia now are in danger of falling to # 4 in the rankings should they not beat Windies in this Perth test and if they dont then they would not have won a test in Perth for 3 years now.  The trend started by Australia's test nemesis -- Indians.

Who can forget the Perth win in 2008 -- the greatest overseas win for the country, after what happened in Sydney.

India starts the trend, the rest emulates.

Till 2005 only India beat Australia regularly in Tests and since then England started doing the same thing. They got thumped 0-5 next Ashes, Indians won 2-0 after 2004 and 2008 loss (bad umpiring major culprit).  Saffers followed the suite only to be thumped later 1-2 in the home series.

India has Australia on woods in the Tests.  And the tags of 1-1 in 2004 and 1-2 in 2007-08 wont say the real story all cos of that umpire Bucknor.

By the by Yusuf has got his ICL mate in the test team -- Sami.  And that has created furore in Pakistan. And if weakened Australia draw the series with the Pakistanis, then you can imagine who would have helped Pakistan achieve the same as per Younis.

Bash India

All this years since Jaggu revolutionized cricket finances the world (read western) dreaded India as evil force and BCCI as masked daemon.

In short "Gangotri" of all evils.

When ICL came and IPL took T20 revolution a step further, the same forces got more vociferous in Indian bashing.

Now that India has won T20 World Cup, been # 1 in ODIs for a while and now are number 1 in Tests, the same forces crib on high runathons, results oriented picthes (2 of 3 Tests in India this year yielded results) and freelancings inspired from cash rich T20 leagues.

Who is the freelancer ? Any Indian ? Nope, the English man. The very English who have been the custodians of the game all this years.

Who is the highest paid cricketer in IPL ? Ten ? Viru  ? MS ? Nope. The same freelancer and his friend whose alter ego costed him the captaincy of the national side and IPL team almost out of the tourney before a desi took over and almost won the IPL.

Any Indian who defected to ICL from international cricket ? Nobody.

Any Indian who cries foul on UDRS ?

Any Indian who pointed fingers to the umps to raise the fingers to win 17th test in row thus killing the spirits of the game ? Nobody.

And yet anything Indian is filth.

PS : Inspired from SP's post "Growing racism". Just could not hold back.

UDRS noises

Ponting says UDRS isnt doing job its supposed to do. Murali wants UDRS to be forced by ICC. Well thats opportunistic.

Long back in 2008, when UDRS was first experimented in India - SL series, SL won the series 2-1 as most of the UDRS decisions went SL way and Indians were left baffling. i am not sure if Anil made any noise then about the effectiveness of UDRS, he is not even supposed to make anything known publicly.

26-3 in front of SL which is extremist score. 26 reviews went in favor of SL and 3 in favor of India.

No Lankan cricketer had a holistic view of UDRS that time cos they had won a series 2-1 and they had got a supposedly new super star in now flattened Ajantha Bakery Mendis.  And now the aura of M&M is demolished and bitten to dust along with a 0-2 series loss beckons, suddenly Murali wants UDRS to be enforced.

Losers crib, winners stay quiet. The same winners when they lose, they crib. Unfortunately for the first set of losers, the 2008 losers didn't crib and when the same side would be the winner again later tomorrow morning, the same people wont be asking to force UDRS.

Its all about the excuses and attitude, Lankans made a huge noise before they stepped here for their Tests leg of the tour and they also left a door open expecting they would lose for the excuses, now one more has come up in form of UDRS. They've got no right talking the business about UDRS.

They played poor cricket and they are worthy losers. Simple.

RCB through to Eights.

Alrighty. The Challengers are through to the next round. The so called pathetic Indian iPL teams went through. The flat track bullies of Uthappa and Kohli along with super Kallis and peerless Bumjo (AK) powered RCB to 2nd round albeit with no points.

2 Indian IPL teams now in Super 8. One Aussie.

Tomorrow one more Aussie team would be in the Super 8s. SL and NZ would end their campaign soon.

Character kings would have got some experience in India, so lets see how they play in their upcoming tour to this country.

Uthappa should find his way back to the team in Blue to play his original scoop shot which was hijacked by Dilly Billy.

Great stuff. Robin should play now in place of Yusuf Pathan in the ODIs and prolly in T20s too. Its just 6 months for the T20 WC and for India to regain their title. :P

Bangalore take on Cobras

Anil Kumble swings back into action today in CLT20. I fancy him to win the title which he could not in the IPL.

And he plays in his own home town, own home ground. One more time after 2008 when he last played Test against Australia and went wicketless.

Get in Anil, would be a pleasure watchin ya again. After all habits of 19 years dont go away in a year or so.

My money for CLT20...

Champions League...

4 days to go.

My money on :

1) Delhi Daredevils : Good platform for VS to get back to the form before the Aussie series. And then further demolition of Mendis and Murali in the series.

2) Royal Challengers, Bangalore : For historical reasons : Seeing Anil lead once more, if he plays. He fell short last time in IPL-2, perhaps playing in home crowd would motivate him to win the T20 award too.

Besides I dont have much info on the foren teams, but I have learnt that one of the teams has 11 international players and many players are from other IPL teams in that foren team. Notably one from KKR, one from Kings XI Punjab. Most prolly he was pissed off on not to have received Preity's hugs.

Another player supposed to play for that foren team is playing now for Delhi Daredevils, the same man who invented the ice cream Dilscoop shot. By the way he winning the T20 award of the ICC has sent angry signs in Boom Boom's country.

Dilli would be expected to repeat the heroics of World T20 for Gambhir;s team too. And if he does that the top 3 of DD would read a dangerous look. VS, GG and TD.