MicroMax conquered

India won a final and Asia MicroMax cup. Wow. Good one. Both are rarity. Asia Cup after 15 years when none of this players debuted for India and when Azharuddin was still the biggest name in Indian cricket.  India won despite making a mess of final 10 overs scoring just 49 runs and losing 1 wkt.  Scarier part of it is to have hit just one boundary. And who hit it ? Our hero Ravinder Jadeja. 

Everybody got starts, none of them made big except Dinesh Bhai.  The 66 he made were at right time. Today the Test selection is due and he would know that one innings of substance means his place for next series is secured. So wont be surprised if he makes the cut into the Test side as well as backup keeper.  Not only Chennai-ites are fan of Dinesh Bhai, but also Chinese and Anon readers who don’t forget to shower their piece of praise in the comments section.

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina got starts, none made big. 2 of this 3 would go out when Yuvraj and Sachin return.  Amazing to see Jadeja being given chances after chances despite failing with the bat. He was a batsman who could bowl, now he is a bowler who never bats.   He would continue to play and in all probability would be part of World Cup 15. 

Bowling was good. Nehra, Praveen and Zaheer were among wickets. Fielding was decent too.   Nehra showed glimpses of that memorable Durban night of World Cup 2003.

All in all good win for MSD who grabbed 3^rd multinational trophy in as many years (CB in 2008, Compaq in 2009 and Asia Cup in 2010).

Hopefully World Cup in 2011.

Gearing up for another drubbing

It’s the final day and yet another ODI against Sri Lanka. Yawn.  Limited overs watching in India seeing India play is a painful experience this days.  Half of the side is incompetent and incapable. Most of the lot of that half are either in the team due to regional affiliation to the selectors or due to the over confidence in their limited ability from the coach and the captain.  The remaining lot are just putting in formal efforts to bowl 10 overs just cos they got to.

A lot has been said on few players like Jadeja and Karthik who continue to play every tournament India plays despite their failures and chances provided to them.  No other players in recent memory have got chances as many as this 2 players. Yet they continue to baffle us all with their failures.

Dinesh Karthik fails most of the time he plays and when he succeeds never goes past 50.  Are we getting him in the team to make 20s and 30s. There was a time in Indian Test cricket history in 2000s when one of the Fab 5 – VVS Laxman continued to make 20s, 30s and 40s. He was dropped. This was after he had made miraculous 281 vs Australia in the greatest Test series India ever played.  If Laxman can be dropped, then who the heck is Karthik? Well he is a Chennai-ite hailing from same locality of Srikanth (some unpronounceable locality).

Jadeja is another player hyped and low on substance.  MSD feels he is one player who can be turned to an all-rounder.  A player with a bowling average of 44 and batting average of 33.08 is an all-rounder, that’s baffling. Contrast that to Irfan Pathan who has bowling average of 30s and batting average of 25+ in ODIs. Yet he has not played any game since Feb 2009.  Any day Irfan would be a better all-rounder than what Jadeja could turn out to be( I am damn sure he would never graduate as an all-rounder). His innings in Asia Cup against Pakistan and Sri Lanka depict his limitations as player and moreso his mental approach to the game. Against Pakistan he was not sure what he was trying to do to Ajmal and against SL he began the collapse which turned out to be a hat trick for Maharoof – a player not even regular of SL side.  He bowls and bowls economically, but does not take wickets. What’s the use ? Do we need a restrictive bowler or do we need a bowler who can take wickets ? If Pragyan Ojha could bat a bit, he would be better “all-rounder” than Jadeja.

Fast bowling is another worry for India. Zaheer Khan, Pravin Kumar and Ashish Nehra do not sound fearsome. That’s an ordinary attack. Any one can hit them for runs. Ashok Dinda, high on fire, zero on wickets. He would glare everybody who hits him for fours, but he won’t try to give them a reply a fast bowler typically does – get him out. Dinda sees eye to eye and when it comes to bowling chickens out. Another Sreesanth, just that a little less hyped up and less on theatrics.

Suresh Raina is yet to achieve the consistency of a finisher. He was damn consistent in IPL. But in ODIs he is far away from it. This scorelines wont get him near to the Test spot which is up for grabs for upcoming SL series.  Ditto for Rohit Sharma.  He continues to be careless and temperamental in batting.  He plays his strokes, he has all shots in the book, but he does not have patience.  This players are high on IPL run lists, but low on ODI runs for India.

I am not sure if this players would be around for long to play for India with the intensity as demonstrated by the seniors and their prodigies – Sehwag, Yuvraj,  Harbhajan etc.

Saurabh Tiwary is another passenger on the tour with no chances provided to him.  Ditto for R Ashvin who is warming the benches.  He is being ignored in attempts to give as many chances to Ravinder Jadeja who is ……………

A Mithun, N Ojha, SST,  R Ashvin are in the company of those players who did not get any chance to be in the middle except carrying drinks or towels. In short they were just passengers. No doubt that next series India plays, this players would be dumped and the culprits would continue to play and India would continue to lose.

MSD says Jadeja is a specialist spinner and most usually as 5^th bowler after 3 pacers and one spinner (or 2 pacers + 2 spinners). IMO there is no need to play Jadeja as an allrounder. Play an extra batsman and have Sehwag, Yuvraj, Raina, Sharma bowl quota of 10 overs.   

Something like this lineup would be good:

Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina, Kohli / Sharma, Harbhajan, Zaheer, POjha / PKumar, I Sharma / A Nehra

The inconsistency just boils down to 2 slots – 6 and 7. With Dhoni being the floater and given the match situations – Dhoni, Raina  and Kohli / Sharma can bat at 5,6 and 7.   Once Uthappa is fixed he could be one good player at 7 too.

Meanwhile for now lets enjoy another drubbing at the hands of character rich Sri Lankan team.

Fuckass Boss DK

I hate to see Dinesh Karthik's swollen face on the TV and as i said previously I wont watch any game the fuckass plays.

Enough said.

World Cup football updates

World Cup football is getting interesting.

In today's games Greece beat Nigeria 2-1 and Argentina beat Korea South 4-1. That means Argentina are almost through to Super 16. And Korea South has now got an opening to beat Nigeria in the third game and expect Argentina beat Greece.

Permutations and combinations.

Who said they always happen in cricket.

Tomorrow England would play crucial game to their world cup ambitions.  They are always an overhyped team in finals. They never played a semi-final since 1990 and their star players -- David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen play good for clubs and underperform for England. Something similar to IPL.

France play Mexico later tonight to keep alive their hopes in the finals. They have been poor starters. They failed to score a goal in 2002 finals and crashed out in first round as defending champs. In 2006 they drew first 2 games and then had to beat poor Togo to go through the second round.

By the way cricket is far better game than football. Imagine teams slugging out 1 whole day and ending up draw. Cricket has ties and they are far more thrilling and interesting than draws of football. Imagine the thrill of Sehwag, Tendulkar in full flow as compared to occasional brilliance of Kaka, Mama, Chacha, Fufa, Messi, Lampard, Klose, Ballack and Rooney.

Kevin Pieterson would be far better than the Rooneys and even Strauss is a better leader than Rio Ferdinand or Terry.  Strauss has got Ashes, Rio has got nothing.

Ok enough of it.

India score a face saving victory

Main observations in today's win over Bangladesh in MircoMini Asia Dambulla cup:

1. New ball bowling is a worry for India. The way Zaheer and Praveen bowled was not the prettiest of the sight and certainly not the greatest of signs we are looking forward to win the 2011 world cup. Ok they are coming after a gap of 1 month almost, still they gave away a lot of boundaries to Tamim and Keyes.  Nehra was off color too though he picked up 2 wickets in his 100th ODI.
2. Ravinder Jadeja continues to edge a specialist spinner to play in the final XI.  Much said.
3. Sehwag was unusual hero with the ball instead of bat. I had tweeted him to get a 100, instead he got a  4-for, 2nd cheapest in the history.
4. Gambhir's return to form or lets say runs is a good sign.
5. Sehwag should fire in the big game vs Pakistan, which we should not lose in any situation.
6. Rohit Sharma is back to his original ways. 2 centuries now seem fluke. The lad just does not seem to learn from the past.  If he does not mend up his ways he should probably kiss goodbye to his India career chances and look forth to Deccan Chargers only.
7. Dhoni was back among the runs.
8. Sehwag would be on hattrick next game. He should come to bowl when Afridi comes to bat and he should be hattrick victim.
9. Great to see DK and MV not opening batting for India.

Ok I stop.

Fevicol jodi of the match

Micromax Cup -- triseries in Zim.

Micromax T20 Cup -- T20Is

Micromax Asia Cup.

Fevicol Jodi of match....

Characterless bakra of the tournament -- Sangakara forever

Collapsistan back in business

At 4/46 Pakistan are back to do what they do best....

Collapse...when the calypsos are on in the stands of Dambulla in Dambulla cup.

Move away Windies, Pakistan are new Collapssos.

They should be rechristened to Collapsistan. Or may be UTurnistan or BanButtistan.....

Whatever they are stubborn. They have decided they wont play to win. Who knows now some of their kids would swear on name of Ijaz Butt to edge out Afridi as captain.

Who knows Kamran Akamal is behind this with secret backing of YoYos and open backing of Shoaib Mirza.

Pakistan is a funny cricket team besides being butt of all jokes.

Hail Undakat

Hail Jaidev Undakat for a 13-for on debut. Good show and he needs to be wrapped and handled with care for future given the fast bowling resources in the country.

Thank You Murali Vijay

Thank You Vijay and sorry.

Move on.

Grown up beard could not make difference to your shreded fat ass luck, neither being dropepd for subsequent Asia cup tour hurt you enough to make amends and give your critics a shot in their ass.  You continued to under perform for whatever reasons and its good enough for people to mark you tried, tested and failed mode.

This should also end your test career for now just like Mohd Yusuf.  We dont see the zing and the fire in your belly to play for your country, that we saw for your franchisee. That money might get you the sprawling villas in Chennai, but that wont echo in the great Chennai cricketers who played for India.

That does not matter to you though.

Spare us with further torture and move on. Find some role in Tamil movies. You are good enough to give the oldies a run for their money. 

T2OIs with Zimbabwe : Who cares

In the euphoria of World Cup football and Asia Cup we forgot that there is a T20I set to follow with Zimbabwe and this team would play 2 times more.

So to save some pride we hope that the Indians would win at least something against Zimbabwe and end this disastrous tour on a decent note. 

One more time for Bossa DK and YuM Veejay to take strike for India and then they are back to play for local sides in gullies of Madras. So guys hit it big. Make 50s so that Srikanth would fit you back in the team should one of the players get injured. 

Go make hay in the sun while it shines. Who knows you might never turn up for India again.