IPL Review - 1

The IPL has reached a midway stage now or almost close to it and there are few teams who can claim to dominate it so far. Most of the teams have had a start stop kinda run so far and they haven’t been consistent altogether.  Deccan and Punjab franchisees have lost more than they won. Actually Deccan has won nothing. And the schedule is such that they don’t play another game this weekend.  Few players have emerged and few old warhorses have continued to charm the whatever audience that returns to see every game (including me).

Mumbai Indians are without their best batsman and they have looked shaky at the top. They are on the top of the tally for now, but they cannot be said to be the dominant team of the tournament so far. They won easily against Chennai Fooper Kinks, but lost to Warriors and then won the next 2 against Rajasthan and Deccan Chargers who can be renamed to Dhakkan Dischargers!! Sachin Tendulkar is still injured and his critics are either silent given they don’t have anything to harp to or they are scared what if he comes back strong or he doesn’t play at all.   Rohit Sharma has lived his reputation of being a classic one day and a zilch the next. His match winning assault against Dhakkans was breath taking, but he returned back to what he does the best in the next game. Harbhajan Singh isn’t getting wickets. Pollard is having best times in IPL as he always does and so is Lasith Malinga.  Boss DK doesn’t know how to bat now and he is actually missing his home town franchisee. But he is not going to go to CSK any more as long as MSD is keeping wickets.  Mumbai have to impose themselves to live up to their dollar value in the business and for that they need to have a stable opening pair in absence of the GOD of Indian cricket.  Munaf Patel in wickets is a good sign given the horror show put up by Indian “fast” bowlers recently.

Kolkata Knight Riders are inconsistent and again as they started their campaign with 2 losses and then bounced back to deflate RCB in their 3rd game.   The captain isn’t among the runs except a 50 and he was run out in the ongoing match too for 11.  Either he is opening or he is at 3.  He has batted successfully at 3 for Indian ODI team whenever Sachin and Sehwag have opened together in past few years. The most notable innings of course was 97 in that memorable World Cup final.  The owner of the franchisee continues to be in the news for wrong reasons and latest stuff is that he was detained @ Yale airport for some unknown reasons.  Most of the players are inconsistent till date and for them to start winning, they need to be consistent and identify core players who’d come good always.  Their big signings Pathan Y, Kallis and Baaz are still to explode and the bowling depends a lot on the slower bowlers like Shakib and Balaji (4-for in one game won him a MoM).

Dhakkan Dischargers are nothing to write about and they are just hopeless after they mysteriously transferred their best players to other franchisees during the trading window – P Ojha and Kevin Pietersen the examples.  Sangakarra himself is coming off a worst test series of his career, so its futile to hope much from the beleaguered team.

Chennai Blooper Kinks are inconsistent and they almost lost their 3rd game on Thursday until Morkel had a miracle with his 28 off 7 aided by some lame decisions by Vettori, the RCB captain.  Jadeja fired in game 2, but flopped in game 3 and then came good with winning runs in game 4.  CSK are the most hated and most applauded team given they manage to attract a lot of strong emotions from the fans.  They also come around as a stubborn team who refuse to change the personnel. They have gone in all 4 games unchanged and the players like Vijay, Ashvin, Badri have played all games despite failing in every game. Sad part is that culture seems to emanate into Indian team as well when there was no change in the lineup or the batting order or bowling in Australia’s disastrous tour.  Would be very happy to see the team lose and not make even the semis or playoffs whatever they call it.

Punjab are other weakest teams going around, though they manage to beat Pune on Thursday, they don’t have a big impact player who can rise above and deliver the goods consistently.  Last season’s find Paul Valthaty is a failure this season and Gilchrist isn’t the batsman he used to be. Another contender to finish as wooden spoon winners!!

Irfan Pathan wins it through his batting!!

SRK doesn’t seem to be stopping sometime soon to be the epicenter of jokes and being ridiculed over social media for his constant endings on the wrong end.  Ra.One and Don2 were disasters on the box-office and he got bashed up quite a bit for it. Plus the slapgate with one of the failed directors and now the disastrous start to the campaign in 5th season of IPL.  He for sure won’t be in the mood to dance and hug everyone for the next win, whenever it comes.

Today was a game which KKR should have won, but Delhi had some other plans. And KKR folks had no answer to Morne Morkel’s magic. Even the resolute captain Gautam Gambhir couldn’t help the matters for the beleaguered franchisee.   4 for 31 and then 7 for 55 was a poor reading even if it was a 12 over game.  Yet they managed to reach decent 97 runs in 12 overs, which was never going to be enough with Sehwag in the other team.

But the guy is running short of confidence and is finding new ways to get out. And today it was a slower ball, he got out.  Sehwag is key man to DD’s fortunes and also in the upcoming home summer against Kiwis, Australia and of course England.

The star of the show was Irfan Pathan who came in at # 3 and took the game away from Kolkata at one stage when it seemed 35 from 20 balls and the overs were easing out pretty quickly.  3 sixes and 2 fours meant Irfan Pathan took DD to victorious line riding on his batting prowess rather than bowling. He just bowled one over and was hit for 2 boundaries in the same over.

Shahrukh Khan now needs to get back to a huddle with the team and find ways to win more games than losing and that would be the best way to remain in limelight rather than jumping like a mad in the dugout and been seen with mavericks like Didi Banerjee and ending up as  target of more Ra.One jokes.

Lose Chennai!!

I was absolutely delighted to see Chennai Blooper Kinks lose the opening game for they are ruining the Indian cricket and I'd be even more delighted to see their campaign biting the dust this season. Though I feel a bit for their skipper who is also unfortunately India skipper and Suresh Raina, the other folks who have been holding their places in Indian team just cos they play for this fucktard franchisee. 

And the most delightful scenes were those 6 balls when Sir Jadeja was hit for 16 runs. How pitiful that the idiot never learns from his mistakes and ball after ball, he gives away enough room and length to the batsman to hit him for 6s. 

What a shame CSK paid 2 million bucks for a man whose value is not even 2 paise or 2 cents....

Go Lose Chennai!!!

Nostalgia on Friday's clash!!

Friday’s game of Mumbai vs Pune would be epical in the sense:

•       World’s best ODI opening pair would confront each other – Tendulkar for Mumbai and Ganguly for Pune.
•       Mentor and disciple would walk out for toss together – Ganguly for Pune and Harbhajan for Mumbai.

And I’d so desperately want the lads who partnered at the top the BEST than any other pair in ODIs to come good to silent the critics. And this is a delightful moment to see the GOD of offside in action again, in whatever form, for whatever duration.  Doesn’t matter if the format doesn’t suit Ganguly as much as ODIs or Tests, but its still a delight to see   him in the action after being in the awe of him for 12 years starting 1996 till 2008.

IPL is back!!!

The IPL monster is back and so is the time to forget the Indian team blues off late. 8 overseas defeats and first round exits in CB series and Asia cup sound distant things. Though one thing was common with those debacles. Non-existent bowling attacks.  The bowling attack that reads 5 spinners, 3 faster ones, 2 traditional ones. All trying to spin the ball. Poor stuff. But that talk now gets pushed out for at least 55 days, we can get back to those talks in June when we gear up for another neverland trip for Test team – SL.

But for now, its IPL time. And this time with 9 teams and 76 games, 2 less than last year or more than last year, I don’t care. But a lot of things have changed since last IPL.

       Shane Warne has retired for good from cricket on the ground.
       Kochi has been terminated, the players have been scattered to different franchisees.
       MS Dhoni is no longer the midas,  this days whatever he touches, he loses. Last time this year or vice-versa he was in captaincy form of his life.  World cup win, 2 IPL titles and a bald head.  This time lets not talk about it.
       Sachin Tendulkar is no longer MI captain and he has scored 100 tons. He has refused to retire thus sending his critics to a very busy time ripping him apart.
       Symonds is gone.  No Yuvraj Singh this IPL for health reasons. God willing, he should be back soon to the field. Most urgent thing India needs this time for its cricket.
       Ganguly has been back as a captain and this time for PWI, all those drama from Sahara not withstanding.
       Dravid has retired from international cricket. And Laxman has found no takers.
       Of course the Chennai Super Kinks has grown thicker in its bunch of useless players who are just eating up Indian places and resulting in the debacle after debacle. Latest one – Jadeja. He is a 2 million dollar player and his skills are not even worth 2 cents.  What an irony!!

And of course all of that razzmatazz from the filmy pepool and the ill brigade of after parties are existent in this season too.

So we are being told this year that this is going to be the most definitive IPL season, which would decide how worth IPL is, or lets say how good the IPL has remained to be.  IPL is the punching bag that takes the hit for every Indian defeat be it in any format or for any useless debate on country vs club in any country. So it has to be seen if the TRP rating continues to be high as first 3 seasons or it takes a continuity from the 4th one last year.

IPL is going to be one of the most important tournaments for a few players in Indian mainland especially for folks like Harbhajan Singh who has to come back to the Indian team.  A good outing in this IPL would make it strong claim for the # 1 off spinner in the country.   R Ashvin isn’t the # 1, that’s proved. He comes  good against selective countries and is almost a liability on the field given his athletic skills and running.   Besides the tournament would also matter a lot for folks like Pragyan Ojha,  Rohit Sharma, Rahul Sharma and it needs to be seen if any new fast (literary meaning) bowlers emerge. And yes count Umesh Yadav too in that list please.

I sincerely wish and pray that folks like

        R Ashvin
       M Vijay
       R Jadeja
       S Badrinath
       Anniruddha Srikanth
       And of course Boss DK.

Fail miserably so that they don’t force a way back to the Indian team on the name of youth or transition or injury replacements.

IPL would do a good to the Indian cricket if it unearths some serious talent especially in fast bowling department, where we seriously need a fast bowler who can bowl pace and take wickets.  We don’t need another Vinay Kumar or Praveen Kumar or Munaf Patel or Ifran Pathan in terms of pace or Sreesanth in terms of attitude. We need somebody who is skillfull as Zaheer Khan, a 10 % capacity at this stage would suffice.

By the time I write this, the Vijay guy has been dismissed and that’s a good news for start.  And Boss DK has just fluffed something.   Harbhajan Singh hasn’t got any wickets in his 3 overs till now.

Let the tamasha begin, or that has already begun.

My support : Mumbai Indians for Sachin Tendulkar and Sahara Warriors sentimentally for Sourav Ganguly, though I dislike anything related to PUNE.

India's weak bowling attack

2nd ODI tournament in row a Virat Kohli special in a record chase ensured India were kicked out of the tourney and had to return home empty handed. One of those tournaments India hoped for a SL defeat and in the other they hoped for SL win, the Lankans obliged in neither thus earning the ire of Indian fans.  And of course BCCI who might now decide not to help SLC with financial commitments.  GOD had a backlog of prayers for a SL defeat during the CB tournament days and he obliged during the Asia cup and thus India went out.

World Champions and unable to win multi- team tournaments is a kind of blot in Indian resume and certainly not the kind of start they would have hoped for 2012.

Lot of controversies – rotation policy, place of Sachin Tendulkar in ODI team, resting of Sehwag and of course the most important issue of a weak bowling attack.

If you look at the defeats of CB series and Asia cup – there are 2 main things:

1.      Batting failed in Australia owing much of it to the silly rotation policy which was adopted and dumped for no satisfactory reason. Bowling was decent in the first half of that tournament, but later went hopeless.
2.      Not able to defend 290 against a Bangladesh team is a shame. And the kind of bowling attack we had in that game and worse, the kind of length the bowlers bowled was shameful.

Irfan Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda and Praveen Kumar by no means read a very formidable attack. Not even decent.  Vinay Kumar succeeded in Australia as he got some bounce in those pitches, he failed in BD as his pace was easily read by the Deshi batsmen and he went for runs. Oh wait, he didn’t even play the game vs BD.  Irfan Pathan had no swing, no reverse swing in that game against BD. And his 120 kph deliveries were hammered for six ruthlessly by Deshi kids.  Still he had no clue on how to bowl in those conditions. He was the most experienced Indian bowler of the tournament with over 114 games and close to 167 wickets. 9 years of international cricket behind him and he came up with that kind of stuff.

This bowlers don’t have pace and when they don’t have pace, they become predictable. And that’s what happened. PK, Pathan and Dinda went for runs in that game. And not even talking of the Pak game where the bowling effort was saved by that Virat Kohli special.

So what’s the cure / prognosis for this problem? India doesn’t produce fast bowlers in the quantity it produces batsmen.  Dravid is gone and I am sure in few months or years, we’d have 3 or 4 batsmen who would be good enough to take his slot of # 3 in tests (they wont emulate Dravid). But if a Zaheer Khan is gone, then we are empty handed. We are still missing Anil Kumble from the spin department. He was the last aggressive spinner India had in ODIs  and that too spans good 10 years back till he had that shoulder injury in 2000.

Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav are the only bowlers besides Zaheer Khan who have some pace (140s). But they are kids and there are enough Venkatesh Prasads floating around in the system to advice them on how to bowl in 120s and 130s.  Munaf Patel is one best example.  Sreesanth, Patel, Nehra have been tried and tested. And failed. Ishant Sharma remains a safe bet, but will he be tried in ODIs ? His bowling in Tests have been termed as unlucky, but he doesn’t look to be taking wickets (England and Australia tours are examples).

The new fast bowlers aint coming.  And until there is a fast bowler in the team who can bowl with some pace and rattle the stumps, such kind of defeats to BD would keep happening.

Spin bowling even looks horrible.

Harbhajan Singh is out of favor. His replacement R Ashvin has guts to accept that his main job is to contain, not take wickets. End of story.  If he gives 40 runs and takes 0 wickets, he is a happy man.  We’d have been happy if he went for 55 runs and grabbed 3 wickets. Something likes Saeed Ajmal does.  So  the old good Ajit Agarkar was a good prospect. He went for runs but he took wickets. He still stands at 3rd # in the list of most ODI wickets after Kumble and Srinath.

Rahul Sharma isn’t being tried much in ODIs. Pragyan Ojha is viewed as test bowler and despite being better in the home series vs WI than Ashvin, he warmed the benches down under and Ashvin had a horrible run in the test series. In the ODIs he was successful only against SL, Australia handled him with ease. Same story continued in Asia Cup. He got 2 crucial wickets in game against SL, but leaked out runs against Deshis and the game was lost.

Ashok Dinda was looked upon as best fast bowler in the country by Ganguly, but he was wrong. He didn’t suggest anything in the Asia cup that vindicated DADA’s faith in him. He jumps a lot more in air than he has the pace. 130-137 kph, that’s it. That’s what he has got. No wickets. Decent slower balls.  Fire in his eyes when hit for a 4, but no fire in the balls. 

On the ending note, its an impression that’s being felt by the team selection  that the Chennai brigade is out to implant all Tamil Nadu and CSK players in the national team and those players are immovable. They just don’t get dropped.  Jadeja played all games in Australia and 2 in Asia cup. That was more than what Tendulkar, Gambhir and Sehwag played.  Ashvin played almost all games and didn’t get dropped except in a game when India went for 4 quicks and lost.  Raina returned to form from the Hobart game, before that he played all games.  His contribution is certainly more than Jadeja or Ashvin, but at one stage in Australia he was just occupying one slot.

Manoj Tiwary, the guy who made a 100 in his last ODI is not being played even when the batting failed in Australia.   He is just not been in good books of MSD for unknown reasons. Same goes for Yusuf Pathan and Saurabh Tiwary.

Jadeja, cannot hit, cannot bowl, but he is still a crucial part of the team and he plays at 7. Whenever he improvises he gets out.  Only asset – decent fielding.  Yusuf Pathan might be similar bowler like Jadeja but his batting is lot more matured and useful than Jadeja’s.

But the problem is Tiwarys and Pathans don’t play for CSK and Indian cricket is being run by Chennai brigade that has a strong say in CSK affairs – captain, BCCI chief and of course the chief selector hail from CSK camp. And now since Dravid has left, its been suggested that Dabrinath would be brought in the test team to replace the WALL and how insane that would be.

Enjoy watching Tendulkar as long as you can

The World cricket has already been poorer by expected retirement of the Indian WALL -- Rahul Sharad Dravid, so it would be inept and unjust for those media experts and ex-players cooling off their heels in air conditioned rooms to ask Sachin Tendulkar to quit the game.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid have been once in a generation, or perhaps once in a century phenonmenon and we've been lucky to have them play together for India in similar era. And what a partnership they've had for the 3rd wicket in 100s of Test matches over last 15 and half years. And thats a sad fact that this partnership wont take guard any more in the Test cricket for India in future and we've been blessed enough to have witnessed those innumerable rearguards launched by this stalwarts of Indian cricket.

No words on any of the cricketing sites, blogs or forums are enough to describe the legacy of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. People this days love to trash the greats, question their commitment for the country and even ridicule them or joke about them on social networking sites and news channels.

Little do they forget that this players scored 1000s of runs for a country which was deprived of the milestones or winning habit. Though for some time, that winning habit seems to have been forgotten, yet their legacy and contribution to the Indian cricket is unparalleled and would be untouched in the history of the game.

In a country woefully short of sports role models, the players like Tendulkar and Dravid are idles of success, humbleness and modesty. Never has anybody seen this two icons lose their cool in the middle or seen crossing the acceptable on field behavior like Mahela Jayawardhena does so often under the guile of passion. Dedication, concentration and work ethics are emanating out of this 2 proud cricketing sons of the country and it would be just unfair to trash their contribution for past 8 defeats in 8 overseas Tests.

I concur with Sir Viv that lets enjoy the Sachin phenomenon as much as we can as that day of announcement from the master blaster is not years away, but just few series or months away. And i cant imagine the day when I'd be left to watch an Indian team which would never have Tendulkar play for, something which I have witnessed for most part of my cricket watching time (23 of 27 years).

Mahi madness

MS Dhoni for sure has gone nuts and his press conferences explaining the reasons for the defeats in the games are not amusing anyone.  At the max, they seem to be case of sour grapes.  If he feels having top 3 can be detrimental to the fielding department and being slow they can leak runs, then let him remember the catches taken by Gambhir in the T20I win against Australia, then by Sehwag in that earlier game against Australia (or Sri Lanka) and then the miscues by the so called agile fielders in the latest ODI. Rohit Sharma peeked in between and dropped a sitter for 1st slip, which was none but Tendulkar. It was for Wade very early in the game and later on he went on to play a match turning innings. 

The so called agile 4 fielders haven’t been in their best of batting form and haven’t made contribution of substantial amount in any of the games barring Kohli.  If the top 3 are slow, if you for a moment agree to Dhoni’s assertion, then I am sure if they are given the long run, they would immediately find some form and make far more runs than they leak. And more than the so called agile fielders save on the field. 

Another reason he gave for the defeat was the cramps due to heat. Now Indian team is used to playing in lot more hot conditions than this in India and they are also used to playing in scorching heat of April and May in IPL. Now this kind of excuses don’t come up when this players (read fast bowlers) have to turn up for their franchisees and himself MS Dhoni has to turn up for his elite CSK franchisee.  The players for all kind of money they get in the IPL business don’t even bother to tell the BCCI about their injuries (Yuvraj Singh played through IPL with supposed tumor in his body, Sehwag delayed his shoulder surgery until DD was kicked out of the tourney and that cost India big time in England, WI and Zaheer Khan did play a few games for RCB with the injury he had and as a result missed most of the season post world cup victory).  And during IPL any kind of fatigue or schedule or injuries doesn’t affect this players. Suddenly when it comes to international tours, the injuries, heat cramps, schedule comes into play.

And isn’t MSD being stubborn again in not changing the middle order?  Rohit Sharma is a talented player, we all know, but he hasn’t stomped his authority in the country where he first marked his arrival. Suresh Raina hasn’t made a 50 in long time and his cameos are not worthy his place in the team.   Virat Kohli is inconsistent, but he can be spared for the moment, he is too good a player to go through form slump for long time. And less said about Lord Jadeja, the better.  Not worthy to bowl at Gabba, he proved to be a flopstar with the batting too making 18 off 35.

Not sure if this is the correct times or good times to watch the stupidity going on in the national team.  This doesn’t look like to be the world champion team.  Not even a shadow of it.   Not sure how long will the fans digest this madness.

Fuckindra Jadeja immovable again!!!

Another example of strong backing for Fuckindra Jadeja -- Ashvin dropped but not Fuckindra. Is he  a better batsman or a spinner than Ashvin. Anyone's guess.

Jai ho Fuckindra baba ki!!!

Jadeja is undroppable, immovable, non-performing player

MS Dhoni is incredibly cool and all words, adjectives fall short for him. 

But what word do you find for Ravindra Jadeja who is like an immovable object in the team.  He along with R Ashvin, Vinay Kumar form the core players who are never touched, who are never benched, who are never rested, who are never dropped.

Ravinder Jadeja cant bat, cant bowl, cant hit 6s, yet he is # 7. Irfan Pathan who made a decent comeback today, the swing was visible, he touched 130 occasionally, got a wicket and even hit a 6 before getting run out, would be dropped for Sunday's game when Zaheer / PK return.

Jadeja wont be touched. Tendulkar / Sehwag / Gambhir are rotated to accomodate him. He must have a serious backing to be in the team and not deliver, not perform. Its the sight of this bastard that makes me turn off the laptop / TV and stop watching the game, no matter even if Sehwag or Tendulkar are to bat or MSD is batting. 

I dont remember any such run given to any player in the past who did not perform for such a long time. Any player who played for India for this long (54 and counting) at least performed once or twice or contributed decently in a win. I dont recall any such performance for this lad.  

It's a sad reality that Jadeja would be a permanent fixture in Indian limited overs team irrespective of his performance. Lads around him would continue to be dropped or benched or rested or retired, but he would be an integral part of the team. He just got picked up by the most powerful and of course most corrupt and idiotic man of Indian cricket -- N Srinivasan.