Zimbabwe Botches Up. SL Prevail.

Zimbabwe botched it up to kick Lanka out of the tournament. What were they thinking. 43 off 5 was not a huge target. They must be kicking themselves up. They would have saved us further torture having to see Sangakara blabber. Were they  playing a ODI in 5 overs ?

Or they had a myopic vision failing to see the hovering cloud cover ?

All is still not yet lost for them mathematically but they'd certainly rue that they botched up a guhe chance to kick Lankans out of the tournament.

All the more pitiful to see Jayasurya coming at 7 and holding onto what he does the best. Any day he is a better batsman than Kapudegra, Mathews, Silvermal and Sangakara, but the ego makes him come at 7. He should feel he's had enough of Sanga and call it quits. And Mahela scored a 100. IPL form continues.

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.

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.

3 Idiots and Sri Lanka

Today Sri Lanka would beat Bangladesh and Sangakara would sing "All izzz well".

And when Jayasurya would retire after the axe, Murali would sing "Behti hawa sa tha wo, kaha gaya use dhoondo".

Sangakara's honeymoon as captain was all but over. It took him so long before he could garble on the pitch fiasco in Kotla.

Jayawardhena is being dropped or rested on the name of some injury he picked up in the ODI series.

He would be making up with his wife in the annals of the house singing another song from the 3 Idiots movie "Doobi Doobi ".

May be Sangakara needs to watch 3 Idiots and then say "All izzz bell". What if Ian Bell comes listening this ? Somebody called me ? Sangakara would be puzzled and then would resort to his carpet clinging adjectives to pacify Bell that it was Aamir Khan who called him.

Who gets run out first ?

Two chances in 2 balls gone this time out for run out. No catches spilled  though.

Jaya and Dilshan competing with each other to get run out :P

20 yrs of Sanath

Today a month later than Sach, his MI opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya completes 20 years in international cricket.

And thats an awesome achievement for the Matara Marauder.

First true star of Lankan cricket, he spent 6 years in wilderness till 1996 when he took the world by storm with his explosive innings.

True that I have hated him going after hapless Indian bowlers and overjoyed when he was dismissed, but that cant take away the credit and the accolades the man deserves.

He is one of the modern day ODI greats.  He changed the way openers batted in those 15 overs of ODI field restrictions. However thats incorrect. It was Tendulkar in 1994 who first used those conditions in his favor against Kiwis by hammering 82 off 49. And before him it was Mark GreatBatch in 1992 world cup who batted explosively.

Such a poor thing that Sangakara does not value Sanath's importance. Poor creature, GOD make him well soon

Grab the series in Edens

Cricket returns to Eden Gardens in 3 years. Well ODIs return to Eden in 3 years. And cricket in 2 years. Oh international cricket. Last time a team played in Eden was Pakistan which almost managed to save the game.

Sachin and Jayasurya are the lone survivors of the 1996 World Cup semi final traumatic game in Eden Gardens and it would be apt for India tomorrow to win the series 3-1 to sooth the balm of that painful day.

Though this 2 things are irrelevant, yet India should beat the team which defeated us (actually no) back then.

Its been said that half of Eden would be closed for renovation, yet 50 k spectators would freak out the Sri Lankans who are used to band baja music back home in their stadia.

Grab the win guys.

Sanath

would bat at 6 or lower order in ODIs. Ridiculous. The way he has played in both T20s shows that he has firepower left in him.

And he is playing against his favorite opposition -- Indians. 6 hundreds against them in ODIs. Something which cannot be discounted even if he is 40 and hasn't been in prime form last few games or more.

Sangakara cannot get more dumb than this. He is losing out on the only chance that could see his team win the ODI series. What does he think that the new opening pair of (i don know who) will give his team good starts and then likes of Kapu or Kandamby besides the loser duo of himself and Blabba would do the job for his team ahead of Sanath?

Freak. Brain freeze for Sangakara.  Brain-checkup needed.

Reputations are being destroyed

........and truly in this waterloo battlefield for Muttiah Muralitharan. The only way out for him is now to retire. An ageing or tired Murali is now a liability for the team and that reflects in his figures. 1 for 90. Well he could return tomorrow and wipe out the tail, but then it wont alter the notion thats being formed about him that Murali is a spent force and javelin throwing is now a thing of past.

Murali is no Sachin or Warne to be coming of age with growing up.

Or even Dravid.

He was dropped earlier in ODIs and if he continues bowling like this, the bugbear would drop him. And that would be a humiliation for the man who has served SL cricket for 17 years and is the sole famous Lankan on the earth.  He'd certainly not like to be humiliated like Sanath Jayasurya who now would bat at 6 like pre 1996 days.

Go in sunset with dignity Murali. Whatever be the views on your action, the world would still rememeber you as highest wicket taker in the world.

@BugBear : FYI&A.

Call it a day Jaya

He is 40. He has played 440 ODIs and scored 13300 runs. Latest news is that he has lost his opening slot for Upul Tharanga, whatta loser the captain of that team is.

Before the bug bear Sangakara further humiliates Sanath, he should gracefully retire than playing down the order. He's got all what he wanted.

Time for him to quit gracefully. And yes any day Sanath is trillion times better than character man of Lankan team, the fake IPL player Mahela Loserwardhene.

Age is just a number

Old timers are enjoying the week right now across the globe. Jaya and Tendulkar along with Dravid in subcontinent. Ponting in England.

Who said cricket is for youth ?

Perform and keep persisting.

Age doesnt matter. Its just a number. Much for hysteria of the buffoons who know nothing on the game and for whom sustaining the limelight is the only purpose.

How does it matter if you are 25 and keep scoring 20s and 30s remain in the team but a batsman who has had just 5 bad ODIs is dropped for 2 long years. And the man who scores 10700 ODI runs, only 3rd or 4th man in the history to have 10k runs in both formats goes out just cos he is 34. Was 34.

A 40 year old man scores a 98 in the game against India and the 32 year old scores just 1 and 17 and 31 year old hits himself out. And 37 year old takes 5-for in almost every 2nd or 3rd inning and a 26 year old fails after the initial hyesteria.

The top 4 wicket takers are the ones who blossomed in the later years of their careers. The drug abused blonde star who took 40 wickets in losing cause took close to 400 wkts in 2nd part of his career. A jaw broken bowler took 350 wkts in his last 5 years of career when people had written him off.

A 36 year old batsman has scored 9 international hundreds since May 2007 and 7 90s. Out of which many were wrong decisions.

Age is just a number. Fold the number and flush it in the commode of your loo.

Sanga and Mahela's characterstic fixation on 'character'

Mahela and Sanga's Obsession for character stumps me. I mean there should be a cap on the usage of character in every match interview -- pre or post or presentation or cricinfo articles. Every single media interview and you would find this lads using word 'character'.

It gives me an impression that SL team is richest in character and other teams are studs or sluts :D. Almost with no character.

And if you compare this lads' performance with others then this 2 greats on flat pitches lack character which is shown by ageless Sanath Jaisurya or Dilly Dolly Dilshan or for that matter Kadamby. In my view Mendis, Mahela and Sanga are characterless and useless characters in richly characterstic SL team which has the most interesting caricature in the world cricket -- Malinga who also shows a huge character in growing his hair in weird styles, yet he performs. He shows character in giving 81 runs or even 3 or 4 wkts.....

Not the types who puke character and score 1 and get out on a teesra of a chautha grade bowler or get hit wicker :).

I need somebody with huge guts and highest character to show character and put a tape on Sanga / Mahela's characterstic mouth when they utter character.

Bhaiya Sanga aur Mahila ki maane to baaki sab teams charitraheen hai aur Lanka ki team sushil saumya saubhagyawati team hai.

Lol.

An incredible victory

MS heeded to my call and sent DK packing to fishing and a raving party with the remains of LTTE. And the result was up to see. An opening partnership of 95 which set the platform for a win.

That should be the end of DK for long time to come unless he doesnt get his boots going. Just like Rohit Sharma.

Alright so GOD scores 44th 100. Rahul comes at 2 and MS comes at 3. Yuvraj at 4.

India go hit 319 for 5 and win a tri0-series final in years. Last one they won...........ahem ahem ahem dont remember. Got it, CB series 2008, their best ever tri-series win after 2002 Lord's.

Finals jinx resolved. A tight slap to those who say Sachin doesnt play in finals. Go fag yourself. A whacking fatak (Kaminey isshtyle) to those idiots who say Sachin cant score a 100 in a final.

And a note to the critics of Bhajji . He got a 5-for just for 3rd time in his career. First against other team than England and though it was tail enders whose wkts came to Bhajji, it would lessen the chances of Mishra to sneak into the team.

A final well won and a sweet revenge for the humiliating 139 run loss on Saturday. Would like to see the character of Mahela now who has now got 3 failures in the series and SJ got back to runs about whom he had talked something like pressure on him...........Only thing he would keep playing and he wont be thrown out.

And as again Mendis was neutralised and dusted.

SL's patchy ODI form.

Sangakara has made some very optimistic outlook towards the ODI world cup 11. Unfortunately their record since jan 1, 2008 isnt very good. Out of 38 games they have played in this duration they have won 19 and lost 17. The only major team they have had success against is Pakistan by winning 3 out of 4 and losing 1. They won 6 against Zim and as usual 3 against BD out of 4. Against strong teams their record is pathetic. 5 wins and 10 losses to India in SL and Australia. 2 losses to WI and 3 losses to Australia with a solitary win.

Every series they go in they have lotsa debutants. Lot of players get axed and lot many come back. But barring ageless Jayasuriya and to an extent Sanga himself, no batsmen has been able to do well for SL in this span.

So how could this team be considered a contender for the home world cup? Of course unless they turn around the tide and play well. Another worrying aspect for them is they have not won a single bilateral series against strong team at home. 2 series loss (2-3 and 1-4) to India and 2-3 loss to England in 2007 isnt a pretty picture for a team which had a formidable record at home. The management speaks of tough decisions. If the same is being followed, then the first one to get kicked out on that terms is Mahela Jayawardhena himself out of the ODi team. Hell he had 3 ducks in row against ZIM in the tri-series last year.

He doesnt play well against Pakistan. And besides in current season out of 16 games he has made 212 runs at an average of 14. Last 3 seasons he averages 14.13, 36.2 and 25.15. Pretty low for a man who speaks so loud on consistency and team building ethics. So when there are so many talented youngsters knocking the SL ODi team, why doesnt this man gets dumped unless he scores substantial in whatever domestic cricket SL has ?

Whats the point in negative cricket ?

Sri Lanka needed 309 runs on day 5 for a clean sweep of Pakistan. They had 7 wickets in hand and 2 of their best batsmen of the year on crease.

2 and half sessions on day 5 SL need another 1o9 runs to win with 6 wickets in hand. In the day so far SL has scored just over 200 runs for a single wicket loss. Proves that they didnt want to go for the target, set the world record and win the series 3-0.

Negative cricket all round. In first hour of last session Younis Khan kept bowling himself and fawad Alam when he should have bowled his 2 best spinners. Pitch looked flat, yet Younis should have on his 2 best bowlers of the Test match. The players had lost the shoulders, they were lethargic and usual bugsy Akamal wasnt even chirping.

16 overs on and 106 runs to win. The equation was 133 runs in 36 overs which is quite gettable this days on final day of the Test match. Run rate just little under 4. Achievable given captain is on the crease. When the captain himself is content in playing negative cricket, there is hardly anything the team can do or the fans can expect to see the test cricket being kept alive.

Such Tests are disgrace for the health of longest format. It takes us back to the days of India Pakistan cricket when either team didnt want to lose just for saving the heads being rolled and saving the careers. Lose pathetic cricket.

Pak bowlers are not even trying something different. No banter, no sledging (very unusual for a Pak team) and no lifting up the spirits.

Rather than Pak, it would be SL who would need to be blamed for this boring Test match -- the dead rubber, who bothers about the victory right now. Series already in pocket, man of the series and man of the match awards would come this team's way and the averages would have been bulged up too. Whats the use of this century of Sangakara when its not even attempting to scare Pakistan that they are going to lose 0-3.

I remember Nagpur Test match of 2006 series between India and England when in last innings India needed 300 odd to win and batsmen knew it wasnt possible to win, yet Tendulkar and Pathan (I) managed to score runs at T20 pace then scaring Flintoff....Although Test was a draw, yet India attempted to make a match out of it.

Negative Test cricket has been foray of Lanka ever since they began their inception. It was at its pinnacle in 90s when Jaya was in peak of his form, yet they couldnt convert those drawn Tests to victories. Remember 1997 series when India and SL played out 5 boring draws. Every time India would score fast on day 2 losing wkts and scoring 500 odd runs. And then SL would carry on batting for the rest 3 days. Remember 952 ? Even today's retiree Vaas scored a 50 and debutant Mahela scored a 80 odd runs after 576 runathon by SJ and RM.

Unless SL dont give away this tendency to play negative Test cricket, they wont be counted in top test teams of the world, no matter how many batsmen they have over 50+ or bowlers over 700+ or how many clean sweeps they achieve over BD or Zim or SA or Eng at home.

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.

Matara Mozart

Sanath Jaisurya -- the man just doesnt fade away. Another peerless performance today from the ageless wonder. He is to SL what Sachin Tendulkar is to India. Time and again, he is bailing his team out of danger, giving the starts with the bat and ball. So many players came and gone, this man just doesnt fade away. Upul Tharanga and so many partners went with him. Kalu is long happily retired, Attapattu crossed over to ICL, but SJ just goes on and on.

I must say I hated him whenever he hit those nasty hundreds and triple hundreds against us. I overjoyed whenever he went out quickly most notably during the 1996 Semi final. Generations of captains went in. Azhar, Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid and Kumble. Now MS. This man still there.

Take a bow. Take a bow. He along with the GOD are the only links now from the 1980s. Hail them as long as they are around.

Meanwhile SL look good to go to semis at least way they have played. Look good today to win as well since no Gayle today and without him WI just seem a touch better than Holland or Ireland.

Same mistakes

Not sure if Mumbai Indians learnt from their mistakes. They have Bravo and Surya as the opening pair. It should have been Surya and Tendulkar.

Tendulkar rips Mendis apart!!!!!!

Sachin on fire. He almost murdered Ajantha mendis's confidence. And whatever remained Jayasuriya finishing off.

Huge sixxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to Mendis.......Go get it man...2008 revenge getting even sweeter :) Am I not njoying it. Take a bow, take a bow.....A blow job given to Mendis and Dinda and Sharma....Vintage batting....Splendidgiri nikal gayi.......Mendis ki hawa nikal gayi!!!

Wah bhiya kya ballebaaji...........Oye Balle Balle Sachin paiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!

Aa jao Hodge bhaiya, hume to Aussies pasand hai......Aapko bhi uda denge!!!

Dada used to laugh when he partnered GOD for batting. Today he would be laughing too for his ex ODi partner and 5th wkt partner in Tests secretly to have a go at weird Dildo and Boochie Boo!!! Triple Nelson @ strategic break!!

Fuck you Laxmi Shukla. Wrong decision!!!! Wrong wrong wrong!!! Fuck fuck fuck!! You fuckin whore umpire.......Poor decision!! Throw Laxxmi Shukla and umpire in the sea!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that GOD is gone, getting ready for DADA blitz!!!!!!!! DADA rock on!!!! Give a slap on the face of Boochie boo and SRK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Men vs San and Ten

Chance for Sachin Tendulkar to set the record straight against Ajantha Mendis.....Would be del.ico.us prospect to see Mendis being spanked all over by Ten and San :)