Road Ahead for India

Update: This post was written when the scoreline of Ireland read 111/5 and I had no idea of what was to come. So the below article doesnt hold good in lighter sense for India, actually now they need to be very wary of Ireland.

India's next game is against Ireland and that is a good chance to give  the remaining bench warmers a go in the middle and see how they perform.

Raina in for Pathan at 7 or up. Nehra in for Munaf and Sreesanth in for Chawla. He is an overhead but at least has got pace. So he could scare Irish by making his trademark monkey faces and scowling sounds. May be that could get him some wickets.

Nehra should be playing remaining games if fit and if he is not, he should be replaced by a fit bowler. Who that remains a question.

May be this time try chasing under lights. Dhoni has actually won a toss, not necessary he would rest of the tournament.

Win big against Ireland, score heavily if batting first and then bowl out Irish for low total giving bowlers much needed confidence. Cos if we race to semifinals and the Lankans too reach to play us then we gotta set the Calcutta and Port Of Spain records right as in like Durban and show who'z the boss.

Well of course, the bowlers need confidence and this attack is not worse as is made out to be by the so called experts, this attack has won India more tests than lost and more ODIs than loss.

Well of course, the fielding wont be improved overnight, but they could at least field within their limitations, sprint hard and save some runs (1 instead of 2 would be OKAY).

Well of course, if the batters can bat all the way to 400 in couple of games and claim 443 to their name, that would be great.

Well of course

World T20 : Day One

Two games. NZ vs SL and WI  vs Ireland.

WI won the game as expected and look good to go super 8s. Ireland now face elimination and must now  expect England to lose both its games, far fetched thought that is.

In the opening game Sangakara was a changed man. He had grown a moustache. He was speaking with lot of mannerisms at the toss. Nothing different that he spoke, but the facial movements he made and the way he spoke was unique.  IPL Nights effect may be.

He chose to open with Mahela and Dilshan. Dilshan was scratchy in IPL. Bishop told us. We also saw. Sangakara did not. He was busy fighting with Yuvraj and trying to get close to his owner (IPL) in IPL. So Dilshan scratched around for 19 balls scoring 3. And then he got out.

Sangakara came and he scratched around. He got out too.

Mahela continued his good form. He made 81 in SL's total of 6/135.   Chandimal, the SL cousin of Dinesh Karthik made 29, Angelo Matthews made 3, Kapugedra made 11, Sanga made 4 off 11.  Jaya did not get a ball to face.

Cheap treatment. He has opened for 14 years or even more in ODIs, Tests and T20s. Needless for me to say his record while doing that. have a look at Dilshan. He is opening for 14 months may be ? He's been failure at top spot this year. For ego or some unknown reasons Sangakara is keeping Jaya off the opening spot.  And that would lead to a downfall soon. His captaincy skills are at display. His results are at display.

They must now win against Zim who are on fire after beating Pakistan and Australia in warmups. If they lose really they go home. End of captaincy for Sangakara may be.

NZ won a tense game and that would be a morale booster for them.

Concerning Batting for SL

Take out 27 from Jaya and 78 from Blabba ex King and SL scorecard looks a poor reading. 144/9 in 20 overs could still be a match winning score for the 3 Ms. But this is a worrying trend for them in the run to the finals. 150 for 7 in Pak game and now 144 for 9. Just 1 batsman in both games have fired.

If SL win today they go through to the semis.

India vs Ireland fact bax

India has won the toss and rightly would bowl first.

Last time India played Ireland in any international game was in 2007 when they capped on the successful tour of England after a disastrous WC'07.

Two players from that game would fancy today's game :

• ROhit Sharma made his international debut and DNB as Sourav cracked a match winning 50.
• But it was Gautam Gambhir who stole the limelight with a match winning 80 and cemented his place in the ODi series leading to his comeback. Mind you he had missed out the world cup berth to Robin Uthappa.

Ireland favorites

The way Ireland are going by, i fancy Ireland thump Deshis who like their former brothers in Pakistan have no plans and no objective, just mindless slogging.