RCB hold breath to win making tourney wide open!!

Whadda match we had. IPL thrown open again. RCB to number 4. Batting collapses, but they kept their cool and finally Taylor heroics see them through. Whosoever wins the next game, would be 4th and RCB would be 5th. They would keep the top 4 on edge and so would the intensity of IPL remain strong.

In a match where batsmen seemed to be in a rush to run to dug out, the Bangalore batsmen kept their cool and Anil Kumble who led the team so well in the earlier part was a happy man. Peerless Kumble.

Heart goes to MS. Fielding just doesnt get better, though the catches dropping reduced, the ground fielding remained poor especially last ball when Balaji ran the opposite way of the ball.

MS was innovative, he didnt give up and he led from the front. And finally in 129 runs, 63 from Hayden were crucial. What a form he is being in. Superb player.

Can I get rid of Pommie Mbangwa? He speaks as if somebody is keeping a gun over his neck and saying "shoot the shit". Following people suck :

1) Fernando as ever
2) Danny Morrison
3) Pommie Mbangwa and to an extent
4) Robin Jackman

MS is candid as ever. India is superbly safe in his captaincy. No captain can be as candid as he is. Way to go dude.

Appam Hammered!!!

Can somebody ensure we dont see him anymore swearing on opposition batsmen ? I loved Appam being hammered by Haydos. Should have been hit for 6 sixes and then a Bhajji like tight slap down his cheek. Fuck he irritates big time. He is a disgrace.


BTW whatta batting by Chennai Super Kings. So sad that the local lads of Chennai flopped and then Northie MS and Aussie Haydos played rockin innings. All for who said Badrinath is a bright star of Indian cricket. First ball duck to Pathan at his slowest speed.

CSK Vs BRC

Chennai are batting against Royal Challengers. Parthiv Patel and Hayden are the openers. For a change Anil is the leading wicket taker and Rahul is leading run scorer. Formats dont matter, greatness always excels. I think MS will need to come up the order may be at 3 or 4. # 5 is too down the order for him to get the freedom to play hiss shots. Steyn will need to get the wickets. And seeing Hayden he would be reminded of Aussies, so he would get that motivation. He has troubled Aussies entire summer.

With Albie Morkel back in the team, Amy would be very happy to see him :).

And Laxman Shivramkrishnan is back in the commentary box to torture all of us. Why in the world we need to listen him and Arun Lal. Praveen Kumar is a let down. He doesnt relish non swinging conditions. I am sure Rahul Dravid would hate Port Elizabeth. In 2007 New year test India had a first innings lead and they squandered the chance to win the series by treating Paul Harris as Shane Warne, slowed down the proceedings and ultimately lost the test and the series.

Kallis is being leaking runs. 3 in over so far. 20 runs off the over.

CSK cruising along. 104 in 10th over. Hayden on fire. Australia are missing him. Tactical time out to follow something which has been criticised by Sachin Tendulkar too. Ranjit Fernando is back too.

So the tactical break worked for bowling team once again. 2 quick wickets. Hayden and Patel gone. Thanks to dumbass Raina, well set hayden was run out. Run flow seems to have stopped for time being. KP bowlin gdecently. Damn Steyn drops Raina...Dhoni gone and that gives chance for showdown of KP vs Freddie. Raina is useless. CSK is not getting to that stage as it was planning to be at start. 180 is the expected score...

Expectedly BRC are chasing 180 and who opened ? Praveen Kumar. That is INSANE. He has opened. Whose idea was that ? He made a total ass of himself. Kallis is the new man and he is off the mark with a 4. Super batting by Kallis...And Fernando is sucking. Somebody make him quiet.

Strong start for Australia in Durban Test

Alright, its just 3^rd session in play for the Durban Test. But its already 2-0 for Australia and I am on course of a victory here on my bet for an Aussie series win. The score right now 2/234 perhaps shows which side the momentum is and even a 1-4 defeat in ODIs after the Sydney win hasn’t dented the Aussie juggernaut in Tests at least now. Hughes might just have edged Jacques and may be Warner from the opening slot in all forms of the game. Good start to the kid’s career with a duck, match winning 50 and perhaps the series winning 100. He came true to the words of Tugga (Steven Waugh) that Hughes would make good opener in the international cricket. Perhaps that has revived Aussie fortunes from the sluggish days of Haydos in home series. The opening starts have again raced back to 100s and perhaps 200s. Middle order has started coming good, though its too early to say anything for now. Hussey is hurting the Aussie fortunes, but then who knows he might click sometime soon too.

Warner no Afridi!!

Calling David Warner a Shahid Afridi is a bit outrageous. The kid is just arrived on block and looks an interesting prospect. Should replace Mathew Hayden in the long run. Afridi is a huge waste of so called talent. The dude always looked same age even when he came in the age of "17" and even now after 13 years at 30 he looks the same as 17.

And may be today Herschelle Gibs would have averted a retirement or an axe......

Haydos going?

Is he going ? If so, then not in a very good way!!

Morning bunch of cricket developments round the globe!!

Hayden bungled up in the Tests this season and he was persisted with entire season.

He was axed from ODI squad and the T20 squad……….

Now he wants to go back to his family, ease off and decide what to do next. Cling on or exit.

Similar to what Virender Sehwag had in 2007 when he suffered loss of form in ODIs and was sacked from Tests and in effective lost the chance of being the skipper for good.

Pieterson and Moores were shown the door in English cricket after the rift came out in open……

Guess this is the time to wash out the dirty linen in public…………

KP – Moores rift in England and Fraudlingam Raju in India…………

England go a step back in appointing Strauss the skipper for WI tour…..They don’t have anybody else who is sure to play all 3 forms of game except Pieterson…

3 yrs back we had a rift in skipper and coach, coach prevailed to screw us further and skipper was fired. Later on coach was fired and skipper returned back for a fairytale return and even fairytaler farewell.

And then we almost had a Pieterson style rift between MS and selectors over RP Singh!!

Graeme Smith is the man of moment and SAFs are the team of moment……Romantics’ favorite……Showered with accolades for beating world champs in their own den. But then was that domination ? Did they dominate right through ? Did they send fear and shiver amongst the opposition ?

Frankly speaking the lineup of McKenzie, Amla, Kallis, Prince / Duminy and DeVillers doesn’t sound scary as this one :

Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, TENDULKAR, Laxman and Yuvraj………

Put Smith in and yet this doesn’t sound scary J

Nope not convincing……

SAFs cant be long term Test champs even if they uproot the Aussies……

Fingers crossed for more surprising developments………

And yes across the border, Akhtar won the contract, but not sure how long he would be up there and even bigger question is how many matches he would play ? Injury, fights, ego battles and conflicts might create a roadblock for him!!!

Malik remains captain for another year when they play SL home and away, tour Australia later in the year and go to England to play T20 world championship!!! Let them get good amount of cricket!!! Yeah they should get…..

What a gripping Test series!!

What a test match……..

It had everything of a classic suspense thriller of a Bollywood movie………

Villain in Ponting, an injured hero in Graeme Smith, Ntini as heroine who bore all the brunt of the sidekicks of the villain (read bowlers) and finally the villain won by 104 runs……….

Spirit of cricket was retained on the same ground where it was hurt and bruised a year ago………

Aussies remain number 1, the real winner today was CRICKET, TEST to be precise…….

Who needs IPL or ICL or T20 ?

Give me TEST CRICKET more, more and more!!!!!

And Graeme Smith – whadda man!!! Absolute hero!!!

Millions of applause to him!!!!!!

Adios Hayden!!

Lack of good bowling and 2nd innings failure costing Aussies dear!!

Diagnosing the Australia South Africa 2 tests give a picture that SA have dominated the poor Aussies in both the tests. However the closer look doesn’t reveal the same impression. First Test @ Perth, Aussies had a lead of close to 100. Target of 414 is usually a winning target or at the max a safe one. Australian batting collapsed in 2^nd innings, however Brad Haddin continued his form to score 90 to take lead past 400. Reason for loss : 2^nd innings failure and lack of depth in the bowling.

In MCG, the Aussies had SA on matt at the end of day 2 with score being 7/198. Steyn, Harris and Morkel aren’t very good tail enders to bat well. Yet Duminy took along this guys to score 459 runs in the end and gain a slender margin of 66 runs. Not big lead I presume. But again the Aussies collapsed in 2^nd innings. 181 is a decent score to chase. Australians had that attack in the past to defend the target. But again the lack of bowling depth did them in.

Two reasons come to the picture :

· Very ordinary 2^nd innings batting

· Very ordinary bowling attack

Australians haven’t been able to take 20 wickets this entire season barring Kiwis. And that has gone back to hurt them. They have lost 4 of those 6 Tests badly. 320 runs, 174 runs in India, 6 wkts and 9 wkts in Australia to South Africa aint miniscule defeats. More to do with the quality of pacers, injuries and the quality of spinners. Cameron White, Krejza and Hauritz have been the spinners who combined fall short of Warne . Clark(e) and Lee along with Symonds are injured. Johnson is fiercely one dimensional, much different than when he broke on the international scenario in 2006. Siddle, Boulinger are rookies. Bracken doesn’t find a favor in Tests. Gillespie is gone.

Add the form of the Aussie batters to the woes. Hayden is long been persisted with and unless he doesn’t score a big 100 in SCG, he should be gone next. Hussey has had a torrid year. Ponting managed 200 in MCG, but he is not in the runs as he always has been in 2000s. Clark has been slow and sluggish. Katich doesn’t instill fear in opposition like Langer did. Jacques should come back from the injury break. Not so long ago in West Indies, Aussies were spoilt for choice between Katich and Jacques for the opener’s slot.

South Africans have won all for one man – Dale Steyn in bowling and Graeme Smith in batting. Besides that, Kallis, Amla – the terrorist (Dean Jones quote), AB and McKenzie haven’t actually fired. Duminy is a revelation, but soon he would be fixed.

I would still bet Aussies to come back hard , win the Sydney test with fair and spirited game of cricket and then thump SAfs in their own backyard in Feb – Mar 09.

A long Good Bye For hayden

Time to say Good bye Haydos......

Thanks for the memories and thanks for the entertainment!!

For us you would always remain the flesh in the eye for robbing us of the 2003 World Cup....

Great Leveller and 4 Batsmen on decline..............

Cricket is a game of great leveler. If a day you fly high, the next day in a test match you are back to ground. That’s what happened to Viru Sehwag. If he set up the historic Indian chase on 4^th day of Chennai Test, then today he fell for 0. A harsh irony indeed.

4 Strugglers are occupying the crease right now in different parts of world. They are :

1. Rahul Dravid

2. Mathew Hayden – has fallen. Perhaps has also fallen for last time. Is that the end of the Big Matt ?

3. Ricky Ponting – Duckling in the first innings : )

4. Jacques Kallis – Made a 63, but never looks intimidating against top class teams.

4 of this millenium’s prolific batsmen on their way out.

Hayden's 100 Tests and African dream!!

ML Hayden run out (How/McCullum) 24 36 5 0 66.66

Is Hayden playig his last Test ? That is the 100th and last. Hasnt done anything worthy since India tour and today he got run out 12th time equalling AB s record for Australia.....Batting woes continue for Australia and right up there in Africa, Graeme Smith readies himself to try and beat Aussies home and away.....

Can Graeme Smith manage to win a single Test in the 6 test carnival against Aussies ?

And as a last note on Mumbai terror : If I sound outrageous or angry on what happened which is a normal reaction , wont you guys even comment ? I am not sucker for comments, but yes some opinions sharing is always invited even if you dont quite agree to what I say. Lets agree to disagree if not agree to every opinion :)

Bunnies, replacements, excellence

Hayden is a

for Zaheer....3 of 3....Is that going to be Hayden's sommersault ? He wont even be given a VRS scheme.....

Meanwhile Ponting gets a new



in form of Ishant Sharma. 3 out of 5 times in last 3 Tests.....And Ponting back to his usual scoring patterns in India barring Bangalore 1st test.....

Hussey the key man today on 3rd day. If he is nailed earlier, a bright chance for India. And a good debut for Mishra, good signs for Kumble's replacement (not yet though)...The way he got Pup round the wkt was super....

Hats off to Dhoni, Sachin and of course Saurav for bonderful contributions and apologies to the bloggie buddies if my criticism for critics was a bit too harsh and if they took it to themselves (I know they didnt, but still).

Bangalore Test - Day 1, session 1

So that is lunch on day one of this Test series. It will go Australia's way because Ponting and Katich have smoothed over the loss of Hayden (who has incorrectly given out) for a duck rather well. It has not always been pretty, but it has been a crucial partnership. Ponting has moved along to 41, his second highest score in India, and Katich has offered solid support with 28. This is a batting pitch, make no mistake. Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma bowled well with the new ball but there has been little on offer for India's spinners. Not a lot of runs in the first session, but a good one to watch.

Incorrectly given out ? How many times has that been said for an Indian batsmen dismissed due to umpire mistake. Countless times we suffered, be it Australia or the SL series where refferals mostly went Lankans way.....Grow up cricinfo, stop being biased...

A session to Australia, but a mental block scored over Hayden by Zaheer Khan who continues his supremacy over lefties...A couple of wkts should do the trick for India. And full marks to Ponting, he is really determined to make amends to his patchy record in India...

Australia 1 India 0. Pressure mounts on Kumble :))))))))))))))))))))))))