KP and Moores blown off the hook!!

England coach Moores and skipper KP have resigned….

Courtesy : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/4158986/Kevin-Pietersen-resigns-as-England-captain.html

And http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/385633.html

This is perfect example of Hindi saying

“Na maaya na mili Raam”

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!!

Mahela Speaks on winning the biggest series of his career!!

"We knew it was going to be tough considering the conditions we were given. We knew we had to adjust. We were in trouble at times but the guys showed a lot of fight and character.

"[Tillakaratne] Dilshan in the first innings showed that when we were 75 for 4 and that is something we encourage the boys to do, to be the best they can. I am very proud of the players. We are a good unit and we have very good standards. We just need to continue working hard and improving. At the moment we are fourth in the rankings and we should try and push ourselves further up."

Contrasting Test matches

Down Under :

Australia declare with a lead of 375 with SAfs given 3 and a half sessions to try and sweep Aussies 3-0. An interesting Test match in line with no Smith and no spinner in Aussie ranks. Hussey and Katich slow down the pace. Ponting and Haydos fall for speeding up the things. I feel Hayden should continue his career. They don’t need another rookie in Saf in February. Punter declaration a perfect example of Test cricket, how it should be. No liking for milestones and whatever. Just try to play for lost pride and revive some reputation by winning a dead rubber Test match.

In the days when Aussies would have their luck, they would have won MCG and WACA test. And today rather than fighting to avoid 0-3 defeat, they would have been glaring for a 3-0 series win over the SAfs. Game of cricket is a great leveler. Just last year, the Aussies were on a rampage killing the spirits of the game in the same venue by appealing against everything and anything. Of course the recipients were Indians and the umps were Benson and Bucknor.

I have been an Aussie follower since the 1991 days when India toured them and the commentary, quality of grounds almost took me by surprise. Since then after India, I have been following them. And I want them to win the Test and go for a kill in South Africa. Perhaps all they need to do is remind the Safs of the WC 99 and 07 defeats.

Saf opening with Morkel proved to be disastrous. They should remember that there is no Smith this time. Perhaps selfish Kallis holds the key as he also needs few runs to get past 10k runs.

Neighborhood :

Updates : Sri Lanka won by 475 runs -- fifth highest margin ever. Yet another record, yet another milestone against poor cricketing nations all set to loose their Test status. Guess what follows next ? A tri-series against BD and Zim...Needless to say how many more records would tumble......

SL lead Bangladesh by 620+ runs and yet are batting on and on. Perhaps waiting for Kapugedra 100 and Vass 50. Inexplicable tactics this. They just play for records and figures. They feast on minnows. They boost their batting and bowling averages against the likes of BD and Zim. When they would find no other team to tour, they would happily tour BD and Zim. Set milestones and then listen the MJ blabber that they found out lot of positives and build upon the team. Only to loose against the good teams. This team for sure kills the spirits of the game. No wonder this team holds most of highest batting score records in T20, ODIs and Tests, yet don’t look to be the top on the rankings.

Perhaps 421 BD scored would have scared the insecure SL skipper. What are they going to achieve out of this ? Simple record of victory by highest margin. Few useless 100s and cheap wickets. Or rather wikats. Here are some of the reactions out of SL fans :

Anika: "Surely, 623 runs is about 150 runs past where they probably should have declared. What happens if it rains or some bad light interferes. Mahela is only increasing the chances of a draw."

Hamish: "Mahela should take a leaf out of Ricky Ponting's book and make a sporting declaration. And you wonder why people are defecting to the 20/20 version of the game."

Anandha: "Mahela is a different captain. He may wants his batsmen to have some good batting practice because there will be a few back-to-back to cricket ahead for SL. I don't blame on him giving opportunities to his batsmen to have a go with the bat."

SL fans are used to the negativity their team propogates. I remember the 952 they scored against us in 1997. That was a torture. Indians lost their wkts for fast scoring rate. SL went on batting and batting and batting. Even Vaas scored 71 and MJ debuted in that test match. Attapattu was the only one to have missed out as he was bowled first ball to Nilesh Kulkarni. What was the usage ? Just batting records. 2^nd innings, Murali and Mendis would run through the hapless Bangaladeshis and then they would celebrate the rise in rankings.

Disgusting and irritating to see this Lankans bat and play…………Perhaps they should take a leaf out of Ponting’s book.

Sachin Tendulkar hits a 100 being sick!!

He was feverish

He was weak,

He was running temperature,

He was determined

He was focussed

he was in his 20th yr

He had 67 of them before

One more was in the offing

He had an aim , a mission

Make his team go to the final

He did with precision,

5 sixes and 17 fours

Sachin Tendulkar for you bloggies

hits a 100 despite being sick!!!

Welcome move by BCCI!!

A very good move to end the 2 Test series farce….beginning India Vs New Zealend.

Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI's chief administrative officer, told Cricinfo the Indian board is yet to exchange any official written communication with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in this regard. "What is official so far is that we have requested New Zealand to accommodate an extra Test to the series in March," Shetty said. "We are waiting for a response from their side."  (From cricinfo)

Will the BCCI critics applaud this request from a board which is known to kill the Tests and promote T20 / ODIs ?

SCG Test, day 2 last session!!!

Doug Bollinger has been a bit tad unlucky not to have got a wicket today....

Hauritz is getting slight turn.....

Amla is irritating....

Smith is retired hurt and looks to have his fingers plastered, may not bat again....Effectively Safs are 2 down for 116....

Ponting seems to have lost his captaincy zing a great deal!!

445 is good enough to post pressure on the Safs and now Mitch comes back...

Pitch seems to be typical Indian one with occasional bounce and more turn!!

SCG test, Aussies make a good start

Australia look good to be on the course of revival and the path of 4-0 drubbing to Safs in remaining 4 games of the series home and away.

445 is a good score after what it looked at 4/143 with Hayden, Hussey and Ponting contributing just 61.

Hauritz was magical today with the bat with quick fire 45 along with Mitch's 64. He is one man who is in the thick of action right this summer. Highest wkt taker in India, this series and no fluke with the bat. And as Soulberry suggests affordable than high ego Andrews of the world....

The ball has already started keeping low. A good 4th innings total could see Safs choke to the usual ways, but then Aussies will have to bowl well in 1st innings and then unlike Perth and MCG, bat well in 2nd innings.


Meanwhile Boulinger is troubling McKenzie with short pitched stuff. Looks to have a good quick action. Right now i m at a loss to remember whose action Boulinger resembles.....

I assume, the talks of replacement of Aussies as number 1 team might just be baseless and a bit too early :)

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.

My 2009 wishlist!!

I wish all readers of this blog and cricket bloggers and their families a very happy 2009. My wishlist for the year includes :

• India take the crown from the Aussies in both forms of the game. We are already T20 kings.
• Australia stage a comeback in Sydney and trumps Safs 3-0 in SA.
• England loose Ashes to Australia after a hard fight.
• India skip the tour to Bangladesh and instead tour SA.
• Lets have a game of India vs SA and see who wins. The winner takes the crown of Australia as Test champs.......
• Pakistan play some quality cricket so that whenever ties resume, they shud challenge us for the game else its whitewash for them!!
• SL stop playing BD, as now they would know cheap victories and wkts wont come easy!!
• Sachin Tendulkar score 9 100s to reach 50 test hundreds and 14000 runs.

Many more to follow.............

Have a great 2009!!