Sehwag's return to the form

Sehwag showed return to the form glimpses and that rubbed off the Delhi Daredevils to post 3rd highest IPL score. KXIP chased it spiritedly but in the end fell short by 29 runs.  Valtathy failed and Marsh's efforts were in vain as none other batsmen except Gilchrist stepped up to the occasion. 

Agarkar, Irfan Pathan and Piyush Chawla have represented India at some point or the other and they all struggled today. So did Praveen Kumar.  Irfan Pathan did show some minuscule swing into the right hander in first few overs but the pace was too slow to have an impact on the batsmen.

Its a pain to watch Irfan Pathan in this avatar. Struggling for runs, struggling for pace, leaking runs. He has been one of the Dada's devils who had a great start to his career but thanks to Greg Chappell, he faded away in last 5 years or so. 

He took Pathan to so many so called experts that later was confused whom to abide.

Resultant he has not played for India in more than 2 years. 

Delhi prepared a green track for this game, though it didnt help its seam heavy attack, it helped its batsmen to post a formidable total.

They would want to continue to perform on the similar lines to ensure that they end up in the final 4 once again. They have the team to do it. Only thing they need to do is  fire collectively.

Boss dk

Is indeed crap. No runs at home and he is on trip to windies. Someone say him thank you very much n move on. He is one bugger we gotta digest and see his antics. India is not reaching semis this world t20

too.

Finisher finished off!!!

He wants to be a finisher and is not regretting giving up wicket keeping for India spot, yet he makes scores which would do a tail ender proud and a finisher embarrased. 

He wants to be a Bevan or a Hussey or Yuvraj or Dhoni on the back of few here and there T20 innings in a domsetic tournament, he is not even consistent there.

He has led his state to a defeat in Ranji and his franchisee to 2 defeats back to back when he led in absence of India opener.

He has opened, he was kept and he has done everything. 

And he has flopped in everything.

Dinesh Karthik!!!!

Weekend tidbits

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

KXIP vs. KKR

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

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

KKR vs. DD

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

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

CSK vs. RR

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

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

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

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

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

DC vs MI

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

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

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

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

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

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

A super mediocre show on 2nd IPL weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Delhi mongoosed by CSK

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

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

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

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

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

Timeless Tendulkar ensures 2nd win for MI

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

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

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

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

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

Delhi win their 2nd game on trot

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

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

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

Delhi Daredevils win their first game with simple execution

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

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

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

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

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

Dubbay Boys : Delhi Daredevils openers and Whistle man of Pakistan

Happy Dubbay to Daredevils skipper and India opener Gautam Gambhir.

Happy Dubbay to Dilscoop Dilshan Tilakratne Daredevils Delhi wale.

And happy dubbay to Rashid Latif, the cheapest Pakistan ex-player and the fallback guy to keep wickets for them whenever the team was swept following some defeat.

He was the whistle blower for match fixing. Surprisingly this time he is backing up Younis Resign Khan.

6 days later Beeru celebrates his 31st dubbay.

Devils get in to Super Eights

Indian batting coupled with Australian - Dutch bowling makes it an unbeatable combo. Finger spinners, mysteries demystified and the legend of the Pidge is established. What the world is missing.

He didnt bowl or train in 8 months. Didnt bowl in a game for close to 17 months, yet when he picks a bowl he is back to his self, we all know.

Pidge has just been a fantastic bowler over the ages. What do I say about him. He is just awesome.

And Sehwag has now cleared the fear about his injury. His absence was the prime reason India bowed out in the first rounds of back to back ICC tournaments.

Dinesh Karthik, the dancing babe, today slog sweeped Mendis to 3 sixes in 3 before evoking Yuvraj comparisons and putting Sangakara on mute who had just praised tough character of Mendis.

Oodi baba. Sangakara mention. And mention of character. Japanese would be pissed off.

Good to see Pidge playing and Veeru demolishing bowlers after 6 months. And yes Delhi Daredevils were 2nd team to be in the Super Eights. Ding dong :)

Delhi Daredevils

Opening with Dilshan isnt a good idea for Viru. Just on the basis of few Dilscoops and a few ODI innings here and there, very successful Viru - Gambhir partnership at the top was broken.

Well for whatever reasons.

And dancing baby runs out Sehwag. What the fuck.

A brilliant innings cut short. 61 off 40.

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.

Dancing baby partners Tendulkar

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

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

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

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

Semi-finalists and Rameez's commentary

Delhi and Chennai are almost there. Kolkata and Mumbai are nowhere. Rajasthan are on brink. Punjab are inconsistent much contrary to their fighting nature. Deccans are new South Africans in South Africa -- chokers. Bangalore are dark horses despite Kumble and Dravid are fair players and are no horses.

Saurav Ganguly has seen it all, done it all. Can he do it today ?

A shievering Shiva is down there for us.

A stammering Rameez is sucking us.

MS Dhoni, Mr Kewl. Yeah yeah the same man who beat somebody 4-1 and 3-2 in last 2 ODI series :)

Sorry for off the topic. Rameez 's verbal potshots. Sounding almost similar to Mbangwa. Huge time, big time, big time, huge time. Mbangwa style.

So the semis are eye wide open. Delhi vs CSK is tempting proposition for final. Batting might of CSK and misfiring Viru and Gauti. Question is who are going to be other 2 ?

1) Rajasthan are 13. If they win against KKR they go 15. Still no guarantee.

2) Deccan Chargers are 14 with positive NRR. 1 game left to play RBC on last day of league games. One win and they are 16. If they lose, they are on brink as well.

3) KXIP have a game against CSK, their final game after today. I fancy CSK. KXIP should win a game to be in race. If they lose they go out.

4) RCB, they have 2 games left. Must win both to get through. DD and DC. Can fancy beating DC. DD are beatable too. I believe they could make it. If RCB win both games they go in. DC depend then on Royals result against KKR, which they should win.

So my pick:

DD
CSK
RR
RCB

Rameez, you are now stinking. Ganguly, subcontinent player finds tough to go in SA, eyes blinking, trying to concentrate on job. He s got lot of nervous energy Siva.

My ass Kameez, did you even know Ganguly's record in SA ? 2003 success in world cup, 2006 Test series, 2001 tri series. Go check the record mate.

McCullum seems in good nick in chasing 189. Ganguly stuggling and Rameez stinking. Rameez Kameez go away.

Wishlist....

Veeru fires and smacks Appam out of the ground. Would love to see Appam Chut*** sledge Veeru and then the response Sehwag gives the overrated bowler. I guess in the past Appam had sledged Sehwag too and got the answer.

Appam is a adopted Punjabi, Sehwag is by birth Jat. So verbals would flow free and unbated. I also wish Sehwag goes out soon. Reverse superstition. You see. Did I mention somewhere that after Saurav and Sachin, Veeru is the man to watch hammering the bowlers. Absolute delight. Whatsoever duration. And the running between wickets is on.

Why didnt Viru open?

Why the fuck in the world didnt Viru Sehwag didnt open? Why why ? He is no middle order player. He likes the smell of new ball and smacks that hard. Missing the classic vintage Viru. Fire up mate. You due for one. 174 the target. Roy and Gilly the key. Go Delhi.

Delhi Daredevils

...prevail today over Deccans and maintain their top slot. Good thing about today is Viru is back. And he gotta be careful. He is more wanted in T20 WC than this tourney. I dont mind if he stays out of few more games. Is he gonna come # 4 like his mentor ?

Predictions for SUnday

Today's predictions:

BRC over Mumbai
Delhi over KKR.

Sachin to hit a 50 at least. Dravid a 40, Kumble to get a 2 or 3. DADA if he plays a big role from him as well.

Ahh dont bother, last line was a wishlist than a prediction.

And for those who doubt Rahul Dravid's ability in limited form of the game let me tell you he has got 10000 odd runs in 334 games at 40.05 runs per game, he holds record for fastest 50 by an Indian and he was the first finisher the country ever had in ODIs in Ganguly era.

Chak De Phatte

Oye Chak De Phatte
Dilli De Patthe :)

Rowdy'ism deflated. Right place pointed and in what a way. Feels orgasmic deliciouly heavenlicious!!!