Sachin hits 40th Century

Sachin Tendulkar finally gets the evasive hundred of the series which kept eluding him during every stint in the middle in every inning he played except in the 1^st innings of Bangalore Test. And with this he gets many firsts :

· First to score 40 Hundreds and 90 50+ scores

· First to score 10 hundreds against Aussies in modern era, 2^nd after Jack Hobbs

· First to score 17 hundreds at home after Sunny’s 16.

· First to score 5000 runs in 1^st innings of Test matches.

· Scored his 3^rd of the year and 5^th at Nagpur. All 3 Hundreds have been against Aussies. Has scored 800+ runs against them in 8 Test matches with a staggering average of 65+.

If India could build on 5/311 with a good partnership between Saurav Ganguly and MSD and target a score around 400-425, the match would favorably tilt in India’s favor.

Kudos to Sachin for his great 100 and perhaps it was last time we saw Saurav and Sachin – easily India’s best partnership batsmen (17000 runs added together in Tests and ODIs) batting together.

All pics courtesy : www.cricinfo.com

Nagpur Test, Day 1, Session 1

India made a mockery of a great start by Sehwag and the new kid on the block Murali Vijay by loosing 3 quick wkts in the last 30 minutes leading to the lunch. That in a way washes off the great work done by the openers and give Aussies a way to crawl back in the game after they seemed lost in the woods for first 90 minutes of play. And the wrecker in chief wasn’t Lee or Johnson, but the Tears in Heaven boy Jayson Krejza who got 2 surprising wkts of Dravid and Sehwag.

Ideally I would have loved to see Sehwag continuing his innings to convert to a big 100 along with Dravid, but the former captain seems to have lost it. A 0 isnt helping his matters anymore. I am not sure if this is the way he would like to go out. And I am also sure he is not contemplating retirement. That would be premature and devastating for India. A break after this test looms and he should play Ranji games to regain the rhythm and be back with the runs…

Vijay has had a decent debut and he would be a kid to watch out for, unfortunately no opener seems in the mood to retire or loss of form…So he might need to wait for his chances after Nagpur… Post lunch session we expect VVS and Sach to build up a good partnership and score runs so that we could put Aussies under some pressure. At 3/122, its advantage Australia…And too disgusting to see wkts going to Krejza…

Successors to Australia ? Srilanka ? Really ?

Lawrence Booth writes his two cents on successors to Australia as he presumes the team would loose its aura after Nagpur Test….And he comes up with a hilarious suggestion – Sri Lanka as successors to the Australia…

Which leaves us with perhaps the most credible alternative: Sri Lanka. Their nucleus of top players may be small, but it is unrivalled in its quality: Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene score most of their runs; Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis take most of their wickets. So what a shame it is that Sri Lanka’s next scheduled Test match was May in England, a tour that will almost certainly not now take place…

A team which rarely wins outside SL and rarely plays quality Test sides, a team who has most batting records against its name playing with minnows of game is worthy successor to world champions…It can’t get more cynical than this……A team which has never won in Australia and India, has never won a series outside Sri Lanka against a major Test opposition cannot be worthy successor to Australia and more so than India who has now won in every country except NZ in the new millennium.

Yousuf Banned!!

Its a pity that Pakistan have afforded to loose their best Test batsman to the clutches of ICL....The format PCB thought would not suit Yousuf finally took away him alongside....Shoddy handling of its best batsman in tough times....Pretty well indicates where the priorities of PCB lie....To add to the woes they have now made Salim Malik head coach of the cricket academy......

Good for us....We wont experience many difficulties now in whitewashing them in the next series.....Shame shame Yousuf, you left your country for money!!!

Vijay who ?

Vijay who ? Heard of him ? Who is he ? Yeah right he made some double hundred against MH in Ranji game? But what are his credentials besides that ? Big one. K Srikanth hails from TN as does he. So obvious he s gonna be in and now every sundry from TN would get in as replacement in the national team......As did Wasim Jaffer during days of Dilip Vengsarkar......Meanwhile Damith, a Sl blogger names me Buzz Singh Bedi for naming Murali as Chuck :))

And yes we are on course for another ICC vs BCCI showdown. Gambhir was found guilty without even given a chance to present his view and legal assistance. Bias again and perhaps ICC learnt its lessons from Bhajji - Symmo affair to avoid the hearing horse crap :)

Gilly gets it right finally on Murali

I don’t disagree with Gilchrist’s assessment of Muralidaran. He has been a controversial bowler and yes he chucks. ICC has bent few many rules to accommodate his chucking bowling action. Otherwise why do you need to change the rule from 4 degrees to 15 degrees. Just to accommodate this looser from Sri Lanka who will end up with close to 900 wkts. Thanks to playing more against minnows and hardly against top teams. What has been his record in Australia and India ? He took 4 wkts in 2 Tests last year down under. 200 wkts against minnows and compare that to Warney or Anil. Anil has taken wkts everywhere except Lanka. Warney has wkts everywhere except India….And not many wkts against the minnows….

For having a chucker in action still we got to blame the fat skinny racist fool Arjuna Ranatunga who took the racist angle in every cricketing decision against Muralidaran. Whenever Murali was in any controversy, the fat man would come in and twist it to racial angle and then gather sympathies for the chucker. Every time Ranatunga accused ICC of racial abuse whereby he himself got this theory going and unfortunately BCCI supported SLC in this. Votebank politics.

Bret Lee, Rajesh Chauhan, Shabbir Ahmed , Johan Botha, Harbhajan Singh were found guilty of chucking too, but they or their captains never cried foul on racism or being singled out. Then why Murali ? And when the controversy over Murali potboiled, he threatened to take the team out of the ground (1999 CU Series vs Eng)..Muralitharan is against the spirits of the game and its very unfortunate that this team gets the spirits of cricket award every year. F***k.

And why does SL have a history of producing illegal bowlers ? Murali, Bandara, Malinga and one more bowler who debuted in Post WC series in 2007. SL are the worst team to watch and play against. They want India to bail them out of the financial troubles, but then they also plead ignorance about IPL being single seasoned and then start horse crap against it.

Gilly is right at least on Murali’s point. I second him….But then can anything be done ? 756 wkts cant be neutralized…Heck he would even become highest wkt taker in ODIs….Is he worthier than Akram or even Younis ?

Malik facing the axe and ire from Inzamam

With Inzy bhai dismissing Shoaib Malik’s captaincy ishtyle and Yousuf gone, the Pakistan team looks in even more trouble. Security situation in Pakistan, inept Board, musical chair game with Coaches is further hurting Pakistan cricket. And no new maverick player seems on the horizon except the old flawed Shoaib Akhtar who always deceives and cheats back. No Tests until India series in Jan 09 and very few ODIs till then puts up a question mark before the team if it can stand the might of a resurgent India which wont have 2 of its greatest cricketers, yet would be good enough to beat them comfortably.

A 3-0 or 2-0 unless curators prepare a flat wkt like Faislabad and Lahore 2006 is the result on the wall. Meanwhile here is what Inzy bhai said about Malik :

“He may be an organised and intelligent cricketer but I can't say the same thing about his captaincy. He has not been fair with senior players and has let them down on several occasions. He has not been open and honest with them and they have conveyed their unhappiness to me. It is very unfortunate the way Malik has handled his responsibilities as a captain and relations with senior players who need to be treated with respect.”

Sahi he Inzy bhiya….Sau(100) chuhe khakar billi haj ko chali……You made Yousuf defect to ICL and now you talk high morale grounds….Kuch hajam nahi hua bhiya

Kapil loves Kumble....

"I love Anil Kumble, very few cricketers compare with him."
Kapil Dev comes over all emotional on hearing of Kumble's retirement

Yeah really Dev praji, you along with Dilip Vengsarkar were the first nasty seniors to humiliate him in the dressing room in the England tour of 1990 when AK made his debut and when DK was sliding down the hill after the disastrous West Indies tour. That was that generation of Indian cricketers who got respect to the cricket in India and in the world which had this snooty attitude towards the juniors and then this is the team, unarguably India’s best ever Test side in its 76 years of history which backs the juniors and makes them comfortable……

Isnt that the difference between your generation sans SMG and this generation Mr Kapil Dev ?

Yousuf Bhai Chale ICL

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/icl2008/content/current/story/376797.html

Cut the crap and take a side.....ICL or IPL or Pakistan national team....Dude you changed ur religion to be a captain and now you switch your loyalties to play T20.....Dood mia, you are Pakistan's only Test level batsman left after Inzy bhai retired.....Your exit means we are good for a 3-0 win next series against you without much of effort..............

Pakistan cricket never improves and never learns...........Lets see how Butsy reacts after this kick on his Butt.

Adios Jumbo!!

For sure this news has been a shock to me and delight for the likes of Sumit of Cricketkeeper blog that Anil Kumble has finally decided to retire instantly from the Test cricket. End of an era, end of 19 years of winning the games single handedly and moreso the end of gentlemen spirit of cricket in India. End of tremendous mental strength and ability to evade pain and yet play for the sake of the team....

On the other hand a decision taken instantly to let team go with 11 best fit players in the last Test with a chance to seal the series albeit now with a new skipper and not so good heir apparent. Not many players are able to do that. Anil has been one cricketer who has been India's greatest match winner....

Adios Anil and tonnes of thanks for the wonderful memories of 619 wkts and 134 Test matches and countless winning spells in the Tests home and abroad....

A detailed post to follow......