Wi vs sl

One good enough reason for kumar sangakara to be fired is the way he
handled jayasurya so far - no eight with no chance to bat decent
duration. And for persisting with woeful dilshan. Wats more imp ego or
team cause , we hv gotta see.

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Ajamal drops 3 and earns Afridi fury. Akamal says Shabash Sahid bhai

This was a on field scenario during Pakistan England game yesterday when Ajmal had dropped 3 catches in the England innings.

Ajmal has just dropped. Afridi is furious. And bugger Akamal is chirpy behind the stumps.

Ajmal : "Sorry bhai. Wo ball choot gayaa haath se....."(Sorry skip the ball dropped)

Afridi : "Teri M.......Bh%$%$%$% Ch$^$^$&$ "(Abuses just what he gave to Gambhir during 2007 ODI face-off famously captured in you tube videos)

Akamal : "Shabash Shahid Bhai Shabash Shabash"

Afridi : "Dekhta hum tum dono ko dressing room me......"

And what followed in the dressing room was a furious altercation which would not come out in open as both Afridi and Akamal are on probation and Butt would ensure that this issue is nipped in the bud.

By the way England are "coming of age in T20" and Pakistan are continuing to show us they cant win anything despite change in personnel and captain.   By the way Akamal was at his irritating best when KP was racing away with the game and this rattu popat kept saying :"Shabash shabash".

Super 8s decided

Australia survived a BD scare last night and promptly got through to the Super 8s.  Hussey and Nannes set the victory for Australia after being 6/65 at one stage and then 7 odd for 90.  Nannes took best Australian T20 figures and ensured they did not do an encore of 2009.

Australia play India in their first super 8 game and that could be potentially the game of the tournament, as always India vs Australia is the most intense game in any format. Not to forget the 2007 semi-final. Australia winning means Pakistan also go through to the Super 8s to take on England today night.

South Africa, in a very rusty fashion got through Af and booked their place in Super 8s to take on Kiwis today.  Hopefully they would gather steam in Super 8s else they are going to find themselves on familiar pitch – not winning ICC trophy.

The groups look like :

Australia, India, West Indies, Sri Lanka

England, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand.  

Sachin joins Twitter

And has set Twitter ablaze with 30000 followers within single day. I m sure he is all set to create records here too which would be unbreakable.

Duckworth Lewis needs to be Ducked forever

The rain played havoc in last 4 league games which did not see a complete finish. If England were on receiving end on day 1 of rain drama, then on day 2 they were through to the Super 8s without actually winning a single game. Will Collingwood still make a fuss of D/L now that it helped his team.

NZ got through to Super 8s alongside SL who were lucky to be through.

If the rains continue to play decisive role in the tournament, much serious phase now, then its going to be a lottery. Whoever wins the toss wins the game cos when the team batting 2nd would come on, it would know how much runs it needs to score and at what rate unless you are Shaun Pollock and Mark Boucher, you'd expect to win 9 out of 10 times.

But then whats the use of deciding games on D/L which gives unfair advantage to team batting 2nd. Likes of England or Australia are not going to make consistent noises against the rule as they more often than not benefit from the rule. When they do not they make a fuss and when they do benefit they do nt speak a word on it.

ShippiSH!!!!

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.

Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina....you beauty!!!!

Has finally arrived after 5 years.

His first innings of substance after 81* vs England in March 2006.

Opening Pair

Vijay and Karthik opening the batting for India would have pleased Srikanth a mighty deal. Not so for the fans though. The results are out to see for every one.

Vijay out first ball duck and Karthik trying to clear the park. Useless stuff.  Why does he even play and get selected every time India goes in a world championship. Well its good. His failure now would count him out for good.

2/36 in 7th  over is not a happy reading. Delhi dashers are being missed heavily.

World T20 : Day Two. India wins

India began its World T20 campaign in a relatively sedate note. They did what they were expected to do. Albeit in a warmup fashion.  The IPL stars were sedate, the batting was not the way we have expected to see.

The fast bowlers bowled steady bouncers and got  5 wkts to short balls. Perhaps sending a message to other team highlighting the weakness of Af team against short balls.

Nehra was the man of the match for his  3/19. 

Noor Ali was only Af batsman who batted decently and his partnership with StanikZai was the only highlight of Af batting which struggled to pick up the tempo.

Harbhajan failed to get a single wicket and Jadeja bowled within his usual limitations to keep the run flows in check. Kumar and Zaheer were adequate although later bowled quite a lot of full tosses in hunt of elusive yorkers.

Gambhir and Raina fell early before Yuvraj and Vijay propelled the team to the win.  It seems Gambhir needs presence of Sehwag down the other end to play well. 4 off 6 is not what we expect of the best Indian batsman of 2008 and 2009. He is also the highest run getter for country in T20Is. And Raina though he got 67 runs in the IPL final against the likes of Zaheer, Harbhajan and Malinga, he failed to milk the weakest bowling he's faced till date in T20Is after 1 four and 1 six.

Still waiting for the day when he would display his IPL form in international format.

Yuvraj is slowly getting back to the groove. Vijay carried on his IPL form in this game albeit with a little low strike rate.  MSD hit 16 runs in 4 balls to secure a win that would seal super 8s spot but would leave a lot to be desired to top the group in the game against Saffers today.

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.