Dancing baby partners Tendulkar

Dinesh Karthick returns again to the team once again as a replacement, once again replacing his captain of DD , once again temporarily. So is it a good thing or bad ? Bad. No other guy better than him ? Dude, he is not a fit for ODIs. Strike rate of 60s. Dancing steps. His partner would be none other than Tendulkar, and for sure he is going to get tad nervous walking with the man for the first time.

yeah expect a lot of dancing steps. He has to a replace Sreesanth as dance master of MIB and b he has hangover of that reality show.

Right in there DK, the middle. Thats your karma for at least today. Show your mettle. Show your worth. At least dont show us that ugly poke at the off stump delivery and the ridiculous shake of head when you are dispatched to the pavillion.

All the best babeh. Go score a 30. And dont run Tendulkar out.

Is Ponting era bygone ?

Ricky Ponting played 5 Tests in England. Lost 2, won 1 and gave away 1.

He doesnt play ODIs. Clark(e) wins 3 out of 3. So is Ponting misfit in the captaincy plans for Australia ?

He has already quit T20s. That means he wont return for IPL. Would he ?

Australia are no more a force in ODIs now. This is a separate story that they are 3-0 up against England, who are anyways crap in ODIs.

So whats the future for Ponting, the batsman and the captain ? He has easy meat in Tests down under this summer -- West Indies and Pakistan. Australia would brush this two teams up. Pakistan havent won a test against Australia in 15 years and WI havent won a test in Australia in 13 years.

So this 2 series wont be a true measure of his captaincy. Besides Australia would need to take a call on the likes of Mike Hussey and Ponting himself in the Tests. Ponting besides a 100 wasnt very successful in Tests.

The Ashes is over and till 2010-11 they have no bigger assignment coming up their way. So would Ponting be continued or sacked ?

A good call from Viru

Sehwag doesnt want to be the captain or the vice-captain of the team. He has been candid in accepting this and he wants to concentrate on the batting. I think this is a fair judgement. He is needed as a batsman more than a captain. He is India's next generation link. The one who has been a young gun in the peak of Fab Fives and then he would be the seniormost and most successful in 2 years from now when Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman leave.

He would be needed as a batsman -- the role of Tendulkar would be passed onto him. Mainstay in tests and also groom then the replacements. So I feel he has made a candid admission to relinquish the vice-captaincy and play just as a batsman.

This is another gem from Viru's cap and thats what makes him the uncomplicated person he is. Keeping the things simple as he bats.

Good stuff Viru!!

R.I.P Amy

Its sad and shocking to read about Amy's untimely demise in a car accident. Its just plain shocking that one of the best and ardent blogger is no more with us. She updated her blog more than once a day and it was refreshing to read her.

God Bless her soul and she rest in peace.

She would be really missed.

I m at loss of words. I wont say a word more.

Great Innings and Averages

Absolutely true. Dilip Premchandran on numbers and their relevance against the backdrop of quality of opposition the batsmen played. Spot on. Thats why we would always say Tendulkar, Dravid and Lara would be over the top than say a Inzy or a Ponting or even a Kallis. Who can forget the marvels of 114 in Perth, 148 in Sydney, 136 against a rampaging Saqlain and Akram, 117 in Melbourne, 241* in Sydney and again 154 in Sydney by Tendulkar. Or for that matter 277 in Adelaide / Sydney, 153 and 110 odd in 1999 series in wins scripted by himself -- Lara against Australia ? Not to forget that 1991 Australia team had awesome pacers too good for India and then in 1999 India were another rubbish team on tour to Australia with the Fab Four just had started playing together. Besides 117 from Tendulkar, the only other innings of substance by an Indian on 1999 tour was 167 by VVS which started his love affair with Sydney and Australia.

Lets not forget the 180 by Dravid in Calcutta and then 233 and 72* in Adelaide 2003. Laxman's 150 odd in Adelaide and epic 281 in Calcutta. Ricky Ponting's saving 156 in 3rd Test Ashes 2005 was another effort of greatness. Steve Waugh's batting efforts are full of valiance and bravery. Mohinder Amarnath in 1983 or Vishy in 1975 (perhaps). DBV in 1986 in England. This are landmark innings to quote just a few. And then contrast this with the innings by SL batsmen off late. Which ones would hold substance and weight ? Consider the opposition, conditions and match situations before judging a batsman quality. Many times batsmen dont score 100s but their efforts are as great as it can be. Who can forget Dravid's effort in 4th Test in WI when no other batsmen either side crossed 50. Gavaskar's last innings in Test cricket was in a losing cause. For that matter 138 by Inzamam which saved his career and got his captaincy in 2003 against BD. And JImmy Adams holding on with Walsh against strong Akram, Akhtar and Waqar in 2000 Carrib series. Does that count less than a great innings ?

The best test, as it has always been, is to check how the player did
against the finest team of his era. Sunil Gavaskar had 13 centuries against West
Indies, Sachin Tendulkar has 10 against Australia. Brian Lara had nine.
Inzamam-ul-Haq finished with one from 14 Tests.

Arm Ball renovates

We have changed. We as in I, the sole author of this blog. A 3 template GUI giving me more space to accomodate stuff I want to. First step to the change I want to make.

Vision of Arm Ball is now to be one of the most ardent fan of Indian cricket and rally behind the team every game it plays. We want to win every game we play and to get that done, we at Arm Ball would rally behind the Men in Blue.

Dont bother much. Picked up WE from Damith. A lot of stuff I pick up from sone other places like Prabhu suggests.

Ok in the left sidebars you see 3 images. The Indian victory in T20 WC 07, the GOD of cricket and the man who just lost his stumps. If you click on those images you get to the posts with the labels :

India
Sachin Tendulkar
Mahela Jayawardhene

This 3 entities keep Arm Ball going.

A lot more changes are in the store. Dont know if they would make sense to people or not. For me it would. I m a developer myself, but feel lazy to code a template which I want.

Alright then. Expect some more changes. And keep reading.

BTW most famous posts of this blog were :

FIP
Vinod Kambli on Tendulkar.

I want to make Ijaz Butt, Mahela Jayawardhene most popular here. Two comedy entities of World Cricket.

8 days to go for India to play its first game in 4 months. Actually 2.

A word or two about Sri Lankan character

We show character
We have character
We show it every Test
Against minnow, against weak team
We have character in plenty

We have character ,
We show character,
which goes missing
against strong team

We blabber character
We want to inhale character
We want to litter character
Our boys want to marry character

We show character in Galle
We show character in Dambula
We show uncharacter in Australia
We show character in conquering weaker teams
We are strong charactered

We conquered Fab Four who had feeble character
Character is our buzz word.
Mahela said it, Sanga says it
Mendis showed it, Dilly scooped it
Murali chucked it, Thushara spilled it
Thilana showed it with his 1000s.

Character humaari aan hai
Character humaari shaan aur baan hai
Just that character goes for toss
When it comes to going to India or South Africa
It comes in aplenty against Pakistan or Bangladesh

Such is our character, the Lankan character

Baz Woes

Baz just doesnt get seem to get rid of the Buchanan curse. His IPL'sque form continues in T20 too. Whatta a slide for the man who set the IPL rolling with a 73 ball 158 in first ever iPL game.

Build up to the first ODI off season

My team for first ODI :

1. Tendulkar
2. Gambhir
3. Dravid
4. Yuvraj
5. MSD
6. Raina
7. Pathan
8. Bhajan
9. Ishant
10. RP
11. Nehra

Bhajan would play. Doesnt matter if he is hot or cold. Choice could be between Nehra and Mishraji. We have already a lot of slow bowlers. Tendulkar can bowl. Besides Bhajan there is Pathan big, then there is Raina who rolled his arms with success in IPL - 2. Not to forget the Prince of Patiala and Parties -- Yuvraj Singh.

Batting order could be a floater. Dravid, not many people would remember was a best finisher India had before Dhoni floated and Kaif faded. So who knows. But then the purpose which Dravid is in the team would serve is at 3.

I doubt if SL bowlers have that capability to bowl short at Indians. Cos the most likely ones to fall to the short balls now comes late as 6. Raina bhai wont come on top for sure. And Kulasekra doesnt have ability to bowl short if he plays. And who is Thushara ? Is he going to bowl short ? And then I dont know who else would be SL fast bowler. They come in and go as fast as an actress changes her dress in a typical Indian movie (Hindi and regional included). Would Herath play ODIs too ? Would Dilly Billy Silly play his ice cream scoop shot against Indians too ?

What about Bond ? Shane Bond ? Is he still as strong as he was pre-ICL. Not sure. Only thing that would go against the Blues would be the off-season rustiness. Especially for likes of Bhajji, Yuvraj and captain who have spent more time in driving Hummers (one of them w.o number plate :D), partying, ads shoots and stuff like that. Indians havent been the best of the starters. Let me recall.

2008 : Post IPL, Indians started off well but lost 2 finals and then the dreaded botched biased partial Mendis series before they gathered their abilities to win ODI series and then set the ball rolling which hasnt stopped even as yet.

2007 : The break after WC was great infact. BD series win followed by SA series win (2-1), Ireland win, Scotland win, England test series win.

2006 : Was pathetic.

So off late not much data to say if Indians have been rusty or shining on the return. And with no Rohit Sharma, the contenders to fall to short stuff is pretty low. Forget Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj and MS falling to short stuff. Gambhir , hmm, well he wont. Raina and Pathan would bat lower down the order, so the short stuff wont worry them.

Good omens. Sri Lanka for ODIs is always welcome. Always a victory. 2008, 2009 and again a 2009.

Test Player 09

goes to Gautam Gambhir...............

Baat khatam, paisa Hajam.

End of the game babeh.