Honest assesment of Sri Lankan Test cricket

An eye opener on where SL stands right now in world of Test cricket.

An honest analysis by a Lankan scribe devoid of any jingoism and any over the top adjectives.

http://sundaytimes.lk/091213/Sports/sunday_Musings.html

Just plain questions which need answers and there seems no body who could answer them.

The most honest line in the entire article is :

"As for poor Ajantha Mendis it looks as if he has run out of ideas like how Sangakkara has forgotten to translate his talk into walk as captain of Sri Lanka. ".

How would this be taken by Lankan fans who hate anything Indians and do not shy describing anything Indian as spiteful and shameful.

Who handled the pressure best

"We have to wait and see how India comes out of this loss (against Australia), especially at home. We are under no pressure. We have not won a Test here before and we are here to change things here. The pressure is on India to keep their home series record intact,"

Sangakara said before landing here for Tests.

And how well did India come out of the ODI loss to Australia.

Down under

Dany scores a hundred.

Yusuf goes for a duck.

Farhat makes a 100, saves his career.

Pak openers make a century partnership.

Yusuf prepares himself to come at 3 in wake of solid partnership opening.

Akamal junior ponders where he would bat 3 ? 4 ? 5 ?

Kiwis head towards another victory. Pakistan to other test series defeat.

What next ? 3-0 mauling in Australia and that means another olive bunch for Mr Ex-Cricket.

England vs SA : Preview

England and  South Africa are heading for another tussle which would see a lot of needle from the crowd and the Saffa players.

Thanks to the half the number of players in  England team from Saffa land. Most prominent among them to be Strauss, Trott and Kevin Pieterson.

Graeme Smith has already predicted that crowd would rally against KP owing to later's outburst against quota system in SA cricket.

Given the backdrop and given the lovey dovey relations Smith, Strauss enjoy and Smith, KP enjoy, this series could be acrimonious as India - Australia 2008. Actually that would be good for Test cricket.

Need crowd to rally behind some players and get the atmosphere vibrant.

English are the favorites for the series win as they come post an Ashes win. Saffers havent played Test cricket in 9 months and a lot of their players havent played first class either. They have been jerks in the ODIs they played so far. So England would be favorites to go in the series starting 12/16.

Players to watch for :

England :

1. KP
2. Strauss
3. Trott
   
4. Swann   : can he spin in fast conditions ?

South Africa

1. Graeme Smith : Best test player and the man to lead. How he plays in 4th innings would be a big factor when Saffa chase. He has been the best in the 4th innings in last few years.
2. Ntini : Only the 7th fast bowler to play 100 Tests and 3rd Saffer fast bowler. How he plays would be a big factor cos he hasnt been that effective off late.
3. AB  : Bloggers' favorite and supposedly the "cutest" one. 

My prediction : England to win with a selfish motive that if Saffa win India dont remain on top.  

Indian Dream team

The modern age dream team for India :

1. Sehwag
2. Gambhir
3. Dravid
4. Tendulkar
5. Ganguly (C)
6. Laxman
7. Dhoni
8. Kumble
9. Bhajji
10. Zaks
11. Sharmaji

Awesome combo. Best ever in the history of the Indian Tests

Sepia Tinted Judgement

India is not being given the credit it deserves in the Tests. They have won everything after SL loss and  they have won against Australia without dropping a Test and England, the supposed romantics of the game and the custodian of the game.

I am not a fan of rankings which sees sea change in the positions over the results.

For example SL has won 60 tests and lost 69 tests.

22 of this tests are against BD and Zim.

Whopping 12 against BD.

England, besides winning Ashes this year against a transtioning Australia hasn't won anything. SL keep winning at home and losing abroad.

Few blogs, I have read that the Indians are the # 1 by default or some formula. Whatever it is, the results show up in their favor. The form shows up, the wins show up. Take out Bucknor out of Sydney 2004 and 2008, India wins both of them which denied them 2 series wins in Australia.

Unfortunately we dont have a system in place which counts what ifs in the game for all those poor umpiring decisions which have  gone against India this decade. Had that not been the case, India would have won even more games than they have.

Win now!!

I hope India arrests the slide in the T20 form and wins something substantial in the Mohali game. Time now to arrest the slump.  The country thats accused to devalue the game is struggling in the format and is number 1 in the format its supposed  to be skeptical to.

Weird.  English authors and Geoff Boycott just cannot digest  that India is # 1.

Hajmola needs to be packed and shipped to this pack of werewolves.

Geoff Boycott

People like Geoff Boycott continue to live in their old fascinating world of Yorkshire which has not produced a quality cricketer for England since Darren Gough and for them they continue to believe that anything Indian is superficial.

Denial is always harmful as  you cannot accept the truth.

Boycott is skeptical of Sehwag's true value and doesnt believe India is # in Tests.

India loses to SL for one just reason

Usual suspects are back and the usual results -- losses are back.

Why even Yusuf Pathan, the duck king is playing. Dhoni is bit too fascinated over this guy's IPL 1 pyrotechniques.

Long gone. Time to think beyond him and of course Rohit Sharma.

Fresh blood and fresh youngsters in T20 and then sneak them to ODIs.

A good article on Strauss

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/436402.html

A very good article on how Andy Strauss turned the tide for himself.