?score zillions of runs on dead pitches, the opposition is so bored that they simply give their wickats away?.

Mahela Jayawardhene says “we need to play Sri Lankan brand of cricket”.

Tilakratne Dilshan says “we need to play our brand of cricket, we can beat any team in any conditions”.

Perfect bells rang to boost the already demoralized team, short of victories, short of confidence and of course short of their salaries.  They aint paid a single penny from the world cup. Perhaps the Lankan board (or interim committee) have gotten bored of this kind of articles and media statements from the statesmen of Lankan cricket, that they have decided to bar the players from their salaries.

Every test series defeat means some kind of article from Mahela Jaywardhene in the media and that contains usual stuff “We showed character”, “we need to do different”, “challenge is upon us”, “we need to cross finishing line”. And blah blah.

But when it comes to the action in the middle to let the ball and bat talk, this folks smell snake. They collapse, sometimes 7 for 19, sometimes 6 for 24. Yet they show the character.  All articles, this folks articulate “we had one bad session, lost the test in that”.  As if there were no other tests in those series to try win and square the series.

“I'm just highlighting that in six Test matches we fought well and competed”

Yet they won nothing. If they compete well, they win. If they give up, don’t show their character, they lose. That’s what happened to them.

“As it stands now, we've had different batsmen performing at different times. In England, Prasanna Jayawardene got a hundred; Sanga got a hundred right at the end; and Dilshan got a good hundred at Lord's. Against Australia I got a hundred and Angelo Mathews got a hundred. We've had different guys performing individually, but now we need to perform as a unit and get big runs in the first innings of a Test match. The batting unit has to try and take more responsibility, especially the senior guys.”

Everybody in SL gets hundreds, but they are meaningless and more of personal thing, but they don’t win the games for their team in countries outside dead low pitches of SL.

Now even in SL, they aint the supreme kings. They lost to Australia, drew against West Indies. They forgot how to take 20 wikats since their old workhorse retired.  The others Herath, Randiv, Mendis (both Ajantha Watch and Jeevan) aint good enough to run down the opposition to take 20 wickats.

As expected they folded out for 180 in first innings in Centurion, though I feel they got more than what they deserved.  Again a collapse, 6 for 24. They collapse in ODIs, they collapse in Tests. In ODIs they collapse to the likes of Hafeez and Afridi. Says a lot about their character and mentality.

The worst thing. After every drubbing, the Lankan fans on all sorts of forums blame India and IPL for every single loss their team suffers.  Accept the fact that their team isn’t good enough to win anything.  And yes another excuse they always produce is that they are in transit. What transit?

Did they have a mass exodus like Australia had or India would have in few months ? Only Murali retired, but that’s good a year and half back. Vaas was finished years ago, Malinga never played a bunch of Tests in a cluster, the other bowlers were simply not good enough to step in the shoes of the decent bowlers Murali and Vaas were. The batting line up has remained same for years – Dilshan moving up and down, Paravitrana,   Jayawardhene himself. Sangakara, Samaraweera, the other Jayawardhene and of course overrated Angelo Mathews are around since ages. So what kind of transition are they talking about? Even in ODIs they have same lineup almost every series – the likes of Chamara Silva, Kapugedra,  Kandamby,  Karunaratne,  the guy who scored a 100 in England and then was dropped after 2 failures, keep coming in, going out.  

And yes read somewhere the Sri Lankan brand of cricket is

“score zillions of runs on dead pitches, the opposition is so bored that they simply give their wickats away”.

Perfectly summed up!!

Viru's 219 and what it means to Indore

What a player. What a player.

219 is now a  benchmark for a captain's innings and that benchmark would be bettered very few times in the World cricket, at least in ODIs. 

A man who was out first ball duck in Motera scores a double hundred in Indore's Holkar stadium. The man who was best bet to score a 200 in ODI and he took 12 years to get there, but when he got there, he got in style when he cut Pollard for a four to go past his idol's 200*. What a player, if I can chant in Tony Greg style.

Virender Sehwag, the Indian captain for this series and the terrific Delhi opener has scored a 200 in ODIs, which is scored only for 2nd time in history of ODI cricket. And both of those scores of 200+ have come in the state of Madhya Pradesh, not famous for many things. But now its on the world cricket map. Indore is on the world cricket map to have hosted this incredible match which saw highest individual ODI score and highest ODI total for India. 

India's 419 is its highest ODI total ever making it only team to go past 400 4 times. The other teams have either not crossed this mark or at max done it 2 times. 

Virender Sehwag has scored 219 in ODIs as his highest score, 319 in Tests. And he also crossed 8000 runs in ODIs and he is 20 runs away in Tests. Too much for a man who didnt have a good technique and was dismissed as flop star in 1999?

Dilip Vengsarkar almost ruined the career of this incredible batsman in 2007 when he dropped Sehwag from the team to Australia in favor of Boss DK. Thanks to Anil Kumble who got the man back for Perth test and since then its been a revamped Sehwag.  The likes of Sehwag make the game more interesting to watch in the era flooded by T20 bandagwons and for this precise reason and the ODI highs India has seen this year, the ODI cricket must stay on. 

Sehwag makes everything in record book look obsolete and its not long before Sehwag gets a double double hundred in Tests too eclipsing Brian Charles Lara, another cricketing great.

South Africa would be relieved team today passing on the buck to West Indies to leak the highest ODI score.   Both 200 scores have come in MP. Gwalior and now Indore. Indore is now redeemed in the cricketing world and after the 1997 fiasco when a match was abandoned due to bad pitch, the cricket is truly back in the city of Poha Jalebi. 

Indore has had a rich cricketing history in India unfortunately, it didnt get its share of matches or didnt give country many players. CK Naydu, the first Indian captain, Narendra Hirwani, the current selector and famous 16 man are the 2 most famous cricketers from this city besides some domestic giants. And yes Indore is also the city where great Rahul Dravid was born!! But thats it. 

The pathetic Nehru stadium was a blot on Indore and this excellent cricket stadium in the heart of the city makes a grand return of cricket in the city of Indore. Like every other city in the country, the city of Indore has rejoiced on every great cricketing milestone of India and people have congregated in the heart of city -- Rajwada in thousands, lacs waving tricolor and chanting India India. Be it 2011 World cup wins (QF, SF and then final) or 1996 win over Pakistan or Dhaka win in 1998 or Lords 2002, people in this city have always celebrated with rigor and highest enthusiasm. Its not like Mumbai which boos its own heroes or is indifferent to the cricket in the town. Or like the other big centers where the crowd interest is dwindling. 

Holkar stadium today wrote the name of Indore with bright golden letters on world cricket map -- city to host highest ODI score in history of 40 years. And what a pity, I am not around in my own hometown to witness this epic moment in the history of Indian cricket and of course, the history of Indore.

Virender Sehwag well done, we Indoris are proud of you and thank you to redeem our city's cricket and bringing back the glory and respect it always deserved.

Indore ODI

Cricket returns to the Holkar land once again after 3 years. In a new stadium, first day nighter ever in the history of city famous for its eating culture. Called as Mini Mumbai, given the diversity it has in its population and also famed for its poha jalebi world wide, Indore has hosted few ODIs on the older and pathetic Nehru stadium before. I had a chance to watch 3 of those ODIs, Australia playing in all of those,Steve Waugh playing in all of those. 1987 World Cup ODI, Aus vs NZ, 1996 Titan Cup Aus vs SA and 2001 India vs Aus when Tendulkar scored yet another ODI 100 and reached 10000 run milestone.

India goes in the 4th ODI as favorites despite losing the 3rd game which they should not have. And they are 1 win away from taking the series. Previous 2 ODIs on this new ground (Holkar stadium, much apt given the Holkars have ruled this city before Freedom and  the Ranji team has had a glorious past), India beat England twice. Sreesanth took a 6-for in 2006 and Robin Uthappa made best Indian ODI debut then.

India's top order has been sluggish with lack of runs for Sehwag, Gambhir and Patel. Patel has been a disappointment and he is hampering the run flow on the top. Expected to bat longer or provide brisk start, he has failed to provide both. Him batting on top means Gambhir continues to bat at 3, his World Cup slot. He has failed to score much runs at 3. I think he should move back on the top as in the future he would be opening once again with Sehwag, now that we know Tendulkar would not play any ODI in the future.

And so does Sehwag who has been off color with the bat this series.

And so does Suresh Raina who was in prolific form in Ranji, but has no runs in ODIs.

Rohit Sharma is in pristine form, Kohli has got runs, but besides 2 no other batsman is so confident to take the team through.

The bowling attack is confused once again. Umesh Yadav is flying to Australia early, so he isnt playing remaining 2 ODIs.  Vinay Kumar is so flummoxed in the slog overs when hit that he forgets how to bowl yorkers. 99 runs in 2nd ODI and then 73 in last 5 in 3rd one say pitiful figures about this useless lad from Karnataka, once famed for providing 2 of best modern day bowlers to India (Srinath and Kumble).  Irfan Pathan is back for two ODIs and it is heartening to see him back. And if he gets a chance to play and he performs, nothing better than that.

Ideally he should have been on the plane to Australia for tests, but again some cryogenic freeze in Srikanth's non existent brain made a nod to Abhimanyu Mithun ahead of Pathan. Now the pace attack in Australia reads Yadav, Aaron, Mithun, Sharma and provisional Zaheer Khan. So if the latter 2 break down, the 3 inexperienced lads are expected to take 20 wickets for India along side IPL Ashvin 'who cant run sala' and Pragyan Ojha. All of whom test experience hardly adds to 50 tests.

India needs its openers (Sehwag, Gambhir) and Raina to fire immediately and seal the series in Indore, which has been a happy hunting ground for India in last 5 years.

Leaving anything to the 5th ODI would just make things difficult and India wont want to lose a home ODI series in land where it was crowned World Champions 8 months back.

India go 1-0 up

India won the first one dayer in Cuttack after a lot of drama and a batting collapse which should not have happened. 212 was a very easy to achieve target even though 3 of the World Cup winners were not present in the team. 

Parthiv Patel has been very lucky to be getting a lot of chances recently (his 4th consecutive series post world cup), but he hasnt seized a single chance to cement his place in the team. He got a start today and threw it again. He can bat aggressively, we all know that but he needs to convert those starts to substantial scores. 

Gambhir should have batted for longer period and he must be very angry with himself to have let gone a very good chance to bat longer in a ODI. Ditto for Kohli, Raina and the captain himself who continued his trend to hit the very first ball to boundary he faces. 

The move to promote Patel as opener was inexplicable given that the best openers were  around to bat. I think Gambhir and Sehwag should resume opening together from Vizag ODI.

Jadeja, a changed player (till now) supported Rohit Sharma (who is redeeming himself) for a good 83 run partnership before the brain fade returned to haunt Ashvin yet again.  He has got a  ridiculous running. His running in Mumbai Test cost India a golden chance to whitewash West Indies and yet again today he showed he is useless when it comes to running. 

Probably when he bats a burning cracker should be put up his ass to keep him on his toes. Or probably a sight of Mumbaikar makes him nervous enough to complete a 2nd run. 

Rohit Sharma fell just before the victory and in the end it was left to the 2 worst batsmen in the side to complete the job. They played out 15 dot balls amongst themselves and in the end with the help of Darren Sammy, they got India home.

It should have been Kemar Roach to bowl that over instead of Sammy, but then he is captain and the decision to bowl himself backfired. 

India won its 10th game in row in home soil  and are now 1-0 up in the 5 game series.

7/19

7/19.

It isnt a typical Lankan bowling figure against an ODI minnow say a Chaminda Vaas or a Murali or even a Dilhara Fernando or the much hyped Angelo Mathews.

This isnt even a McGrath figures against a top class batting side in his pomp.

Its not even an Indian collapse to their old West Indian nemesis. 

Not even new age Australian collapse to South Africa on a swinging, seaming pitch. 

And fuck its not even a typical Pakistani collapse (until 2010). 

This is a Sri Lankan collapse against a  spirited Pakistani team in the hotbed of Sharjah Cricket stadium. Chasing 201 in 50 overs and when scoreline reads 3/148 and your 2 best batsmen are on crease, the odds are that the batting team shall win this game 10 on 10.

But thats not the case with this Sri Lankan team which is under a superb free fall post World cup final 2011. 

Shahid Afridi's one of the best all round performances in ODI history ensures that SL lose their 7 batsmen for 19 runs and go onto lose the ODI series. 

What is now going to be the excuse from Mahela Jayawardhena in his next syndicated column in Cricinfo remains to be seen. 

The SL captains are known to inflate the praise on their teams even in the darkest defeats and they rarely praise the opposition for outclassing them. Same has been observed in this series too against Pakistan.

Even when the wickets were falling, Sanath Jayasuriya who is pathetic in commentary was quoting "Unfortunately Sri Lanka has lost the series".

Their batsmen aint performing, the much hyped Angelo Mathews isnt performing. He did not score runs in the 3rd ODI when it was a stage well set for him to repeat the Australian heroics of last summer. But he didnt. 

The openers are failing, Dilshan's ideas aint working. 

Whats the road ahead for Lankans ? Their next trip is to South Africa. They are touring the country after 9 years.  What's going to be the fate of the so called good team from subcontinent is anybody's guess when this Lankans, so good in their own home turf(doubt if that is true now) are going to face Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.

Probably the soul of Lankan cricket is dead with the retirement of Muralitharan and Vaas, and they are unable to come to the grips with it.

Vinod Kambli's exaggerated fixing claims

Put your head in shame Kambli

Rewind back to 1996 World Cup Semi final in Eden Gardens. 

India vs Sri Lanka. 

SL unexpectedly in the semi finals riding on the back of  hitting from Jayasuriya and Kaluwith'rna.  India on home pitches making a smooth transition to the semis beating the defending champions in Quarter finals. 

A little understatement of the journey of Lanka to the semi final was the fact that they had won most of their games chasing in that tournament. In the quarters they had demolished England on the back of 44 ball 82 from Sanath J.

In Delhi's league game, they had chased down 271 in 48.4 overs thanks to some nasty hitting from the 2 openers and other Lankans. 

So the common sense suggested that the Lankans should be put into bat cos they had a decent bowling lineup, nothing great about it. 

Azharuddin, the Indian captain did the same and invited Lanka to bat first. A dream start followed. Lanka lost both of its openers in first over from Srinath, thanks to some intelligent field placing from Azhar. Lanka then recovered to 251 for 8. India were cruising to a win when Tendulkar was batting tremendously as he had done entire world cup. 

Once he was out, the team lost composure and the scoreline read 8/120 in 35th over.  Manjrekar, Azharuddin, Jadeja, Tendulkar, Siddhu, Mongia were back in the hut and our hero Mr Vinod Kambli was on crease. Crowd trouble began and later on Clive Lloyd awarded the game to Lanka and they made it to their first final and later won it. 

So no signs of match fixing. Not a suspicion even.  Common sense from Azhar made him put Lanka to bat first and that was a correct decision given the way Lankans had chased the targets earlier.  4 quick wickets before 100 on the board vindicated his decision. While chasing Tendulkar made the target look even small. But then the disaster ensued. 

Now after Sir Condon opened his mouth over the tall claims of fixing being rampant in the international cricket in 90s and 2000s, Mr Vinod Kambli, after 15 years of quietness opens his mouth and doubts that the semi final game was fixed. 

Just cos Azharuddin had his name dragged in match fixing episode in 2000, Mr Kambli tries to put the blame again to Azhar for losing that game. And an ugly debate follows. Mr Kambli, the self styled victim, who had earlier blamed Tendulkar for not helping him much in his chequered career, now goes after Azharuddin. He talks of how his career was ruined after that game. 

He says that everyone was stunned by the decision to bowl first rather than bat first. He also said Wadekar, then coach, knew everything. None of his team mates and coach have confirmed his gibberish. 

His Test career was well over before the world cup 1996 started. He last played test against touring Kiwis in the winter of 1995. Perhaps he might want to puke some shit about Courteny Walsh and Winston Benjamin too as those lads sorted him out in 1994 series and since then he never was the batsman who shone after a Bradmanesque average in 1993. He ended up with an average of 54 in 17 tests. After that world cup game he played 35 more games for India in different broken phases. He never could cement his place in the team permanently. He got chances under Azhar, Tendulkar and even Ganguly gave him one final chance in that 2000 series in Sharjah. And post that series, he never made it to the Indian team again. 

He came out of a poor family, to be precise, a scheduled cast family, rose to limelight on the back of that 664 partnership with Sachin in school cricket in Mumbai and the cricket pundits said he was more talented than Tendulkar. In 1992 - 94 his ODI average was more than Tendulkar. He got his first ODI hundred very soon in first few ODIs only. Tendulkar had to wait for 78 games and 6 years. He made 2 double hundreds in space of 2-3 months in few tests, Tendulkar had to wait 10 years for his first double hundred (against NZ in 1999). 

Success got in the head of Kambli and he couldnt handle it. Boozing, clubbing, breaking team curfew, going behind girls (he has had 2 hot wives and thats a big achievement for him given his bald looks) was his strength instead of being in runs on the field. Tendulkar managed success with maturity, never let his priorities  wander besides cricket field and thats why Tendulkar is at the stage where he is and today Kambli has to puke some shit to remain in headlines. 

He keeps saying some Ijaz Butt style statements, good enough to laugh at and  then forget. He has no moral standing of his own, he has no character, he has had a decent cricket career. He stopped playing first class cricket in 2003 or 2004 and then announced his retirement in 2010 or 2011. Who did bother if he is playing or not playing or what the hell he is doing. His image in the cricketing folklore is going to be of a spoilt brat who got his chances (much more than he deserved) but couldnt cash in on any of those. 

He was from Mumbai, the powerhouse of Indian cricket, yet he let that chance go to earn a big name for himself through cricketing records. Instead he chose the wrong way to be in the limelight. By making the fixing claims on that painful game of 1996 world cup, he has let his credibility down and it wont be wrong to label him as Ijaz Butt of Indian cricket.

Ricky Ponting : time to retire now

Ricky Ponting fell for a duck in the first innings of the ongoing 2nd Test vs South Africa. When he should have scoring a 100 to save his career, instead he has fallen for a duck.

And that should be it for his career. The curtain should fall on his illustrious, controversial and colorful career. Ponting the man who led Australia to its decline from the top, the man who led them to a world cup loss earlier this year, the man who lost 3 Ashes, none of the Aussie captains before him lost even one, the man who hasnt scored a 100 in 2 years, a 50 in one year, now should walk in retirement. 

The man who led Australia to all glories when he had a great team to his disposal, something which he got as legacy of Steve Waugh, failed to win a single game when those great players retired.  He lost in England twice, lost Ashes in Australia becoming first Australian captain to lose a series to England in 24 years, he lost to South Africa in 2008, lost to India twice 0-2. Actually he never won a test in India as captain. 

He had a very ugly role to play in the drama of Sydney test in 2008.  He never walked when he had nicked one to the keeper, but was prominent in appealing the catches which were not clean.  He believes he has been good in nets and he deserves chances to get that elusive big innings soon that shall redeem his career. But he is no Tendulkar or Dravid or even Lara.

The runs aint coming to him, his decline which seemed to be a small patch is now a terminal decline. And if he has to be remembered as a great Australian batsman, then he should retire on his own. Else the bloody Indians await and this time they certainly would want to win the elusive series in Australia, which they have failed to do so courtesy Steve Bucknor in 2008 and 2004.  And India would ensure that his career average shall drop even further.

Eden Gardens Test : Day 2

India have scored the highest score in last 11 games for themselves. And also crossed 300 first time after 10 innings. Something that reflects the torrid times the team had in England quite unexpectedly.  The 2nd day at Eden Gardens saw quite a lot of milestones:

1. Dhoni scored a hundred after 32 innings and 21 months on the same ground. Last one being against SA in that hard fought victory.

2. Laxman scored # 17, 5th in Edens and first in 15 months. He also became highest scorer in any ground in India.

And with a mammonth 631 on board, the bowlers did a good job in sending back 2 West Indian openers to hut for only 34 runs. And then bad light came to WI's help. Else few more wickets would have tumbled.

The biggest thorn in Indian flesh is going to be Shiv Chanderpaul and if he is accounted for soon, then India would have a very strong chance to win sooner than the case when Chanderpaul gets going with his irritating (though effective for West Indies) batting style.

There are few questions going to be asked after this Test is over for Yuvraj Singh -- how many more chances he is going to get to prove he belongs at the Test level. He is  the most talked about player right now in terms of players who are insecure or whose position in thet eam is not secure. There are too many incumbents around to take his place and Yuvraj isnt helping his own case with low scores like he has had in 3 innings so far. He might not be coming out to bat again in 2nd innings, but I feel he should be given a free run of 4-5 tests and then a judgement call be made if he belongs to the test level or not. He has rarely got more than 5-6 Tests at stretch to prove himself. Most of the chances have came after Sourav retired in 2008.

And since then Kohli, Raina and Pujara have been tried for # 6, none being successful to make that place his own for different reasons (form or injury whatsoever). Yuvraj should make it to the touring party to Australia where his left arm spin would be handy to break partnerships. India is not going to play 2 spinners in Australia and most probably its going to be a toss up between Harbhajan(experience), Ojha and Ashvin to occupy that slot of lone spinner. Sehwag has a dodgy shoulder and he doesnt bowl that much now as he used to say a couple of years back. So Yuvraj would be one handy person to turn to roll his arm over to break a partnership. Having said that, the primary responsibility of Yuvraj would still be to score runs and score big. And if fails over course of next 2-3 Tests then may be it would be apt to ignore for the future.

I also feel once the holy trinity of Tests is gone, Yuvraj would be one of the replacements, but again depending on how good he comes through this set of opportunities.

And as of Sachin's most awaited 100th 100, the only folks continue to be worried are the mediamen and those impatient fans. The man himself, as Rahul Dravid mentioned, isnt bothered about the impending milestone. The 100 would come when it has to. The media is continuing to create some needless pressure on the man who today completed 22 years in international cricket.

And Rahul Dravid continues to be in golden run of form when he has almost 1000 test runs and 5 hundreds, most by any batsman in 2011. He is all set to finish up with 1000+ runs and 13000 runs by the year end (2 more tests India plays before year end). He is just 21 runs away from the 13000 run mark -- 2nd Indian and 2nd in the world to do so when he reaches there.

More on Peter Roebuck

This is not right time to talk anything on slain Peter Roebuck, but I feel the issue behind his suicide was his own creation. Why does in the world he needs to be so desperate to have pleasure with a Facebook friend of his. When he returned back to the hotel after the dinner with the Australian team on Saturday night, he found SA police (who doesnt choke unlike its cricket team) detectives to question him on an alleged assault.  And the fear of detention (as pointed out by Jim Maxwell, fellow commentator) led him to jump out of the window to end his own life. 

The biggest question is was this desire needed for him to be fulfilled which led him in the trap of police and ultimately costed him his own life? Was it so important? Was it so worth that a life was lost for it? Was the cause so moral to have sought so much importance to end his own life? A life lost for such a futile issue which at best is attributed to inner instincts.  If you can control your instincts, then you can avoid pitfalls like what Peter Roebuck had. Its been an enormous loss. Loss of life, loss of a prodigy in cricket journalism, loss of a complicated soul who was so well respected among the followers of the game and those who play it and those who govern it. 

Was it essential for him to go and invite that Facebook friend for make up?  And that too in a foreign country when he doesnt (in the past context) have a phone number good enough to contact a lawyer or contacts whom he helped and coached in times of despair. 

From what has emerged out in the media, it seems his jump out of the window was out of despair and a strong desire to escape police detention. Perhaps if he had controlled himself, he would have been alive and a life would not have lost for a stupid reason what is being highlighted in the print and electronic media.

Stupid step by Peter Roebuck

In the end it turns out to be that Peter Roebuck committed a suicide in a fit of anger and rage on being quizzed by detectives on a sexual assault charge. What a vague loss of life? And for what ? A suspended sentence handed over good 10 years back? What he if he was not angry and in rage? What if he thought over the situation and let it pass before his emotions got better of him? He would be alive today, may be little bit depressed. But then that state would have passed right with the time and he had been still writing columns bashing BCCI and praising everything Australian even though crap.

This to me looks like a sheer waste of life. Peter, you made a stupid mistake in jumping over the hotel only to end up your life.