Cricket Blog - THE COMMENTARY BOX

Gotta Love the Australians

2010-05-15T06:45:00.003+05:30

What a game they have played! Is any total good enough against them? Lots of the respect for the Aussies and Mike Hussey.

I only wish the Indian team had the sheer tenacity and determination these guys have.

I'm pretty convinced the Aussies are going to go on and win the Twenty20 World Cup 2010. Wanna bet anyone?

The 100 percent cricketer

2008-11-02T19:44:00.007+05:30

Another great bows out and it is time for another grand farewell and more fond memories. I don't think anyone will ever forget Anil Kumble bowling with indomitable spirit and passion with a fractured jaw or his extremely transparent determination and sheer pride in the Kotla test that ended today.

Well, here's a real neat article written by who else but Rahul Dravid who has probably played the most games alongside Kumble both in first-class and international games combined. And I suppose this little paragraph embedded in an article that clearly reflects the admiration that Dravid has for the man, says it all:

His attitude makes him a dream to captain. When I led against New Zealand in 2003 at Mohali and we lost the toss and had to bowl first on a flat wicket, not once did Anil complain. Occasionally a bowler, faced with an unresponsive wicket, might give up mentally, but not Anil; never did he say, "Rahul, give me a break." He just bowled on and on. He does not know what giving up means.

You can say that again, Dravid.

The Symonds Story

2008-09-06T12:53:00.010+05:30

You've got to feel sorry for Andrew Symonds. For all the talent he has, the imposing Australian is one player who can and will rewrite record books with ease and grand flourish, if only he can put everything behind and continue playing the game and entertaining the audience. There are talks already of how he will be missed in the upcoming Australia's tour of India and I can't help but agree.

The Symonds fishing story reminds me of what happened with a co-worker of mine who wanted a week's leave from work in order to be able to attend his brother's wedding (a wedding is a long-drawn affair in India). He was denied the permission by his manager and ended up loosing his cool, yelled at his superior and took the drastic step of walking away from his job. Anyway, when he later saw the stupidity of what he had done, he waked right in again, apologized and was forgiven. He got his week's leave too!

Goes to show what happened to Symonds can happen to anyone, doesn't it? The employer holds the money purse and as long as that's true, it is also true that you are required to bow down to the demands of the job. Hope Symonds too can clear all his cobwebs away and come back to cricket just to play and enjoy the game.

All said, this pic interested me.

Mean? Probably. Funny? Well, in a crooked sense, yes! :D

Has India done well?

2008-09-05T14:05:00.000+05:30

India won the CB series beating Australia 2-0 in the 3 match final in Australia. India have again won the ODI series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka which is a great feat considering how strong the Lankans are at home and what an absolutely outstanding record they have there. They are also the World Twenty20 champions and that is no mean feat too. However, the question still remains as to whether India are still a world beating side. Why is that? Aren't those earlier wins proof enough?

Well, not exactly. Infact I believe this team is not even close. The problem seems to be too much dependence on one or too batsmen throughout an entire series. This, I think, seemed to have been all the more pronounced during the recently concluded India-Sri Lanka series. I hated the way only two batsmen really clicked throughout the series. If not for Raina and Dhoni, I don't think we would have even gotten close to winning the series. And even if we did win this time round, I think a lot of credit should go to the bowlers.

Take a look at the stats and you will know what I mean. We really need more batsmen performing well or you could say goodbye to any hopes of the Indian ODI being and staying even in the top 3.

As I see it, there will and should be a lot of changes in the selection and the batting order. Badrinath looks neat to me. But such a compact batsman coming so low in the batting order hardly makes any sense. And I think we need Yusuf Pathan back. I'm all for big hitters at the bottom of the batting order. India has always struggled for big runs in the final overs. Yusuf Pathan in place of Sharma and pushing Yuvraj further down the order might work wonders for India in the final overs. Besides, Badrinath anyway looks to be a batsman who can easily hold one end up calmly and coolly in a Dravidish fashion. So getting him to replace Yuvraj at one down or two down should make a lot of sense. Thats just a small list of things. I think (I hope, rather) the India think tank is chewing on similar things too. Let's hope they come out with something good and more logical next time.

And all that said, I think the bowlers were excellent. Zaheer should never again be dropped. He's just a gem!

888 cricket

2008-08-22T14:33:00.000+05:30

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What the hell was Dhoni thinking?

2008-02-24T18:15:00.005+05:30

I think by the time Dhoni played his knock of 36 off 66(?!!) balls and then got out, the damage was done. Australia were well and truly on their way to victory.

I mean, 36 off 66 precious deliveries? Alright, they needed to ensure they didn't lose any more wickets. But then, a strike rate of just over 50 in a one-day match while chasing a huge total of 317 runs?

By the time he got out, India was left needing 169 runs off 117 deliveries at a rate of about 8.5 an over with 5 wickets in hand - an almost impossible task that was only made to look possible by Uthappa's brilliant cameo.

The Indian skipper should have done better than what he came up with today. I hope all those recently played matches where he has had to graft an innings picking up ones and twos, have not robbed him off his shot-making abilities.

Sachin deserves that knighthood even more now

2008-01-24T15:39:00.000+05:30

I had written about that knighthood that could possibly come Sachin Tendulkar's way. Now, after this sterling, still unbeaten, performance from Sachin at Adelaide, I guess the officials concerned need to rush with the honouring formalities!

He has really proved his class by the manner in which he totally dominated the bowlers. Man, you've got to respect him for the way he has carried on and on doing his stuff inspite of all that has happened around him. So much pressure, so many expectations. Anyone else will have definitey crumbled.

Anyway, that's just about one innings in one day of one test match. Still a long way to go in the game. I guess we'll get upto about 400 in the first innings. Then it's upto the bowlers to rework the magic that hapened at Perth.

Knighthood for Sachin?

2008-01-23T22:59:00.000+05:30

I hadn't thought about this earlier. But I guess the English should be enjoying every moment of the ongoing test series against India where the Australians have surprisingly found themselves at the receiving end. Atleast, the British Prime Minister seems to be happy.

Just a little something that I came across on the Internet:

Can Sachin Tendulkar join the honoured ranks of Sir Don Bradman or Sir Gary Sobers? Well, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown certainly seems to think so. If he had his way, he would recommend the little master for a knighthood.

"I would like to see some of the great players of the modern era — like Sachin Tendulkar — proposed for honorary awards so the British nation can salute their achievements in these sports."

If Brown's remarks come true, we could be looking at the first Indian sports knight. In between courting trade and investment from India and China visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown showed where his heart really lay — at the WACA stadium in Perth.

"I believe it was a good tradition to celebrate the achievements of the great Commonwealth cricketers. Obviously these are issues for the independent honours committee, but - hope they will consider it."

Well, looking at the way Sachin Tendulkar has made a silent yet thumping comeback inspite of all the criticisms, he does deserve any honour, I suppose.

On dropping Ganguly and Dravid

2008-01-23T11:00:00.000+05:30

Now, there has already been so much said on the selectors' decision to leave out Ganguly and Dravid from India's ODI team for Australian series. So I will spare you the pain of reading all that stuff again.

All I'll say is that my take on the issue is that it is surely better for the team. After all, ODI cricket is almost totally about slambang stuff and yougsters can do the job better. Plus, there are so many talented(and powerful!) young guys waiting to get into the team too.

So lets hope this young team does well in Australia and we get to see some awesome cricket.

And by the way, Sreesanth has already gotten into aggressive mode. This is going to be fun!

We've won...and how!!!

2008-01-20T17:25:00.000+05:30

No joy like the joy of victory. No joy like the joy of defeating a World Champion team in their own backyard. No joy like the joy of watching rookie pacemen rendering doyens of the game in the opposition clueless. No wonder these guys have gone mad with joy!! So have I...

Uncork the champagne bottle everyone..

A beautiful day of cricket ahead

2008-01-17T23:30:00.000+05:30

What an awesome contest this India-Australia match at pacy Perth is turning out to be! No Zaheer, no Sresanth and no Munaf and yet there were three Indian fast bowlers who could skittle out the Australian batsmen for a mere 212 runs. Booming hurrays for RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ishant Sharma who have done what I, atleast, had thought to be unthinkable. If bowlers win test matches, then India must and should win this one.

Also, looking at the way the Australian batsmen themselves struggled against the subtle movement and extra bounce, I am full of awe for the way Dravid and Sachin played yesterday. Truly fine batsmen, they are.

The lead for India is now a good 170 runs. Sehwag is still there and looking very very good. The Indians are surely in the driver's seat and if they can give the Australians a target of above 400 to chase then we should be in with a very good chance of winning the game.

But then as Ponting had said before the match commenced, the Australians are desperate for victory. A win here will enable them to create history, which means they will make it as tough as possible for India, which in turn means there is a riveting third day's play ahead!

Anil Kumble's 600

2008-01-17T23:25:00.000+05:30

Congrats, Anil! What a feat!

Eveything was fine, but the collapse

2008-01-16T14:56:00.000+05:30

The Indian team has again fallen down from a situation that they could easily have capitalised upon. I can't help thinking what the score would have been at the end of first day's play if only Sachin had not gotten out(to a poor umpiring decision, again!) or if only Dravid had kept his cool and not played that shocking un-Dravid like shot that resulted in his dismissal or if only Ganguly had not chased that wide delivery or if only Laxman had been a little more watchful.

I mean, all four of Ganguly, Tendulkar, Laxman and Dravid seem to be in such awesome touch and they have got to make it count. Instead, just as they seemed to be on the verge of frustrating the fierce Aussie pacemen, all they did is to just gift their wicket away, thereby frustrating us expectant fans. And the fact that this has happened so many times in the past, makes the pill all the more harder to swallow.

Anyway, the fact remains that the Australians have gotten 6 Indian wickets and I can only hope that Irfan Pathan makes his selection count. If the Dhoni-Pathan pair can add another 50-80 runs atleast and India can reaches a score of 400+, we will have a good match going!!

No end to "monkey" and umpiring jokes

2008-01-13T12:01:00.000+05:30

My Inbox is flooded these days with jokes on Steve Bucknor, Andrew Symonds and some others.

So I thought of posting some of them on this blog...and here they are.

Now, some of these jokes might seem racist or something...but then, it is all in good humour and they are quite funny too!! Laugh away.....

Why Bhajji was banned....

Procter: Did you call Symonds a Monkey?

Bhajji: No, I called a monkey, Symonds.

Procter: You did what?!!

Bhajji: (Silence)

Procter: How dare you insult a monkey. You are banned for 3 matches!!

Bhajji: (Sad)

Ponting& Co:!!! ?

Ponting: Hey, Symonds.What did he say?

Symonds: Whatever, he is banned. You can bat well next game.

Ponting: No, Anil is there too, ask Mike if he too can be banned too.

Symonds: We'll see in the next match. If he takes your wicket, we'll complain.

Ponting: Fine then. Come.

Spot the monkey contest!!

Rare pic of Steve Bucknor

Some jokes on the Australian cheaters and the horrible umpiring

2008-01-08T10:41:00.000+05:30

There is no better way to vent your frustration and anger over an incident than crack a few sarcastic jokes about it.

And so, after having watched the controversial India-Australia test match at the SCG, someone has written down some rules about cricket in Australia so that any other team touring the place could benefit from the knowledge of these undocumented rules:

(1) Ricky Ponting , THE TRULY GENUINE CRICKETER OF THE MODERN ERA AND WHOSE INTEGRITY SHOULD NOT BE DOUBTED, should be considered as the FOURTH UMPIRE. As per the new rules, the FOURTH UMPIRE's decision is final and will over ride any decisions taken by any other umpire on or off the field. ON-FIELD umpires can seek the assistance of RICKY PONTING even if he is not on the field.

(2) While the AUSTRALIAN TEAM is bowling, if the ball flies anywhere close to an AUSTRALIAN FIELDER(WITHIN a distance of 5 metres), the batsman is to be considered OUT irrelevant of whether the catch was taken cleanly or grassed. Any further clarification for making a decision should be seeked from the FOURTH UMPIRE. This rule is made so as to ensure that all teams play within the SPIRIT OF THE GAME.

(3) When batting, the AUSTRALIAN players will always necessarily wait for the ON-FIELD UMPIRE's decision (even if the catch goes to the FIFTH SLIP as the ball might not have touched the bat, you see!!). Each AUSTRALIAN batsman has to be out for a MINIMUM of FOUR TIMES before he can be told to return to the pavilion. In case of THE CRICKETER WITH a high degree of INTEGRITY, this can be higher.

(4) UMPIRES will be awarded a huge bonus if an AUSTRALIAN player scores a century. Any wrong decisions made in the course of the innings will result in an additional bonus being rewarded to the umpire and all such decisions will receive the full backing of the AUSTRALIAN team and board.

(5) All AUSTRALIAN players are allowed to make any comments about all players on the field. However the OPPONENT TEAM should never make any comment as they will be spoiling the spirit of the game. Any comments made by an opposition team is to be considered as RACISM only.

(6) The MATCH REFEREE's decisions will be taken purely based on the AUSTRALIAN TEAM's advice only. Player views from the other teams will not be considered for hearing. MATCH REFREES are to be given huge bonus whenever this rule is implemented.

(7) NO VISITING TEAM should plan to win in AUSTRALIA. This is to ensure that the sportive spirit of the game is maintained.

(8) THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: If any bowler gets RICKY PONTING - "THE MOST GENTLEMANLY CRICKETER OF ALL TIMES" - out more than twice in a series, he will be banned for the REST OF THE SERIES. This is to ensure that the best batsman/captain will be able to play and break all records and create history in the game of CRICKET.

Any team visiting Australia is requested to go though these guidelines and strictly follow them. Any appeals made against these rules will be considered as EXERTING PRESSURE on the ICC.

Thank you everyone for your time and hope you have a nice time Down Under!

Champion Cheaters

2008-01-07T11:25:00.000+05:30

Apart from being champion sledgers and champion players, the Aussies have added a new dimension to their game and their image: that of Champion Cheaters. Regardless of how well they play their cricket or how many games they win, this pack of ruthless, unsporting cricketers will never ever deserve the same respect that they enjoyed before the Sydney game.

Ponting's and Clarke's shameless feigning of having taken clean catches was disgusting and lowly.

As for the umpiring, even if Mark Benson's and Steve Bucknor's erronous decisions maybe condoned, at best, as "human mistakes", Benson's 'bright idea' of asking Ponting whether Clarke had caught the catch cleanly was utterly stupid and even suggested a degree of favoritism towards the Australian side.

Anyway, let's not let the umpires take the limelight away from the dirty Aussie doings.

At the end of it all, nothing could describe whatever happened in the cricket field beter than Kumble's little quip about only one team having played within the spirit of the game....and we all know which one did not...

For any sports tickets

2007-12-23T10:11:00.000+05:30

The biggest roadblock to watching and enjoying a game live at the stadium, is getting tickets to the game. Atleast, that is how it is when it comes to watching cricket matches in India. And often the tickets that can be booked through the Internet are the more expensive ones.

However, here is a website that connects ticket sellers and buyers by providing a platform where people with tickets can sell them and those who need those tickets can buy them online. So if you are looking for tickets for a cricket match that you very very badly want to watch just head over to viagogo and check if tickets are available for that match. The site is neatly made and you will have no problems is searching for what you want. And of course they also provide you with a guarantee that the tickets you have bought through their website will be sent over to you in time for the match.

You could also check out viagogo out of you are in need of some Golf Tickets, Formula 1 Tickets or Tennis Tickets or many other sports. Plus, they also provide tickets for concerts and theatre too. I think you need to bookmark this site now!

BCCI's disgusting double standards

2007-12-17T22:53:00.000+05:30

The folks at the Board of Control for Cricket in India have done it again. Once again, for the hundredth time, they have shown us exactly why the whole nation loathes the establishment, its members and the way it functions.

The board had ruled against the selectors making overseas trips with the Indian team. They said it was just a needless exercise(and rightly so) and that the selectors would be making better use of their time if they followed domestic matches at home and spotted some fresh talent.

That's fine. But take a look at the other side.

What is inexplicable, though, is the Board's decision to send one member of every one of its 27 member-associations on an all expenses paid junket to Australia during the Indian team's tour of Australia just begun.
"They will be going there as delegates," Board secretary Niranjan Shah said, when asked why; he did not however clarify what they would be "delegates" to, or since when cricket matches included "delegates".
"We will send a group of around 7 or 8 officials every week by rotation so that everyone will get a chance to visit Australia," Shah said.
So that apparently is the point -- keep selectors, who by some stretch of the imagination could be said to have some useful role to play, at home, but send officials, who have nothing whatsoever to do, no official duty to perform, on what is essentially a joy ride.

So typical of the BCCI, ain't it? The above piece goes on to suggest a possible reason for such double standards:

The only logical explanation is that selectors do not vote in Board elections, but associations do; therefore, anything to keep associations happy, no matter how much money is spent in the process, is a good thing as far as the Board is concerned.

Haha :-). So damn true! What a shameless bunch of power hungry, bird-brained politicians!

Kumble, the sledger!!

2007-12-15T10:06:00.000+05:30

Been quite a while since I have blogged. Apologies for that. Work is keeping me pretty busy. But this incident got me blogging!

Who would imagine sledging from Kumble! Yes, he is a really aggressive cicketer and expects everyone to be at their best. And he gets totally annoyed when someone makes a half-hearted effort in the field off his bowling. But sledging?!!

Hes the last person I expected something like that from. And it was done well too..for it worked.

Way ta go, Anil!!

By the way, Dravid looked like he is getting among some runs in the last India-Pakistan test match at Bangalore. And even Kaarthick is doing pretty well. It is going to be an intriguing India-Australia battle down under. Can't wait for the test series to begin!

Looks like Pakistan just wants to finish off the tour and get back home

2007-11-30T23:00:00.000+05:30

Every Indian batsman is in form and every Pakistan bowler is bowling horribly. No wonder India has 352 runs at a really good rate of 4.16 runs per over for the loss of only three wickets at the end of the first day of the second test match. I would say this is the perfect situation to press for an innings victory.

Infact, the Pakistanis are looking so bad and so unmotivated that I am already convinced this match is going to result in a big and easy victory for India. I also have a feeling that this series is going to finish with a 3-0 scoreline to show in favour of India.

At the moment, India is just having it too easy which makes the games one-sided and pretty boring to watch. Luckily, Jaffer's awesomely stylish batting made watching the game's progress tolerable. What a delightful batsman he is!

I only hope the Pakistan players(those of them who are not injured, that is!) stand up and show some teeth.

Life being a Railwayman

2007-11-21T10:24:00.001+05:30

Just came across this nice write-up at Cricinfo from Sanjay Bangar(remember the guy?; the picture might refresh your memory).

He talks about how it is being a domestic cricketer playing for the railways, some memorable lessons and enjoyable moments during travel and the camaraderie he enjoyed with his mates.

Gives some nice perspective into how different life as a domestic cricketer is from the lives of international cricketers. Go read it if you haven't already.

Atapattu bows out of International cricket

2007-11-21T01:30:00.000+05:30

There, another fine "aging cricketer" bids adieu to international cricket. Nice that he signed off in style by scoring a fighting 80 in his last test match while trying to save his side from utter humiliation against the Aussies (they lost the game and the series though). At least some consolation for him that he is leaving on his own terms after having had to have a bitter tiff with the selectors.

So, here's bidding TaTa and Goodbye to Marvan Atapattu. Guess he is heading towards India now. Rumours are that he will play for the Indian Cricket League. I wouldn't mind watching him play here. Quite a neat and stylish batsman he is; or should I say was?

Whay wasn't Yuvraj made the Indian ODI team captain?

2007-11-21T00:56:00.000+05:30

This is why:

Yuvraj Singh has been fined 20% of his match fee for "showing dissent at an umpire's decision" during the final ODI between India and Pakistan in Jaipur.
Yuvraj was given out by umpire Suresh Shastri during India's chase, after he miscued a pull off Umar Gul to the keeper. However, instead of walking, an upset Yuvraj stood his ground, and indicated the ball had hit his shoulder and not his bat or glove. Replays suggested that the ball had hit his shoulder.

Agreed, Yuvraj was not actually out and it was some very incompetent umpiring by Suresh Shastri that brought his stay to an end. I also agree that he is an awesome player for India, probably our best ODI and Twenty20 cricketer right now.

But in situations like these, he does tend to go overboard with his reactions, doesn't he? I mean, that was serious dissent he showed towards the umpire! He just stood there staring coldly at the umpire for about 2 full minutes! And then he made this really cocky looking gesture indicating that the ball went off his shoulder and not the bat. Obviously, very unbecoming of a senior player, let alone the captain of a team.

And, I suppose, that is the reason why the top spot went to Dhoni who is by far more calm and calculating among the two; qualities that are absolutely crucial for a successful captain.

Couldn't agree more with Ian Chappell

2007-11-10T23:30:00.000+05:30

The Sri Lankans sure don't seem to be enjoying the Australian tour very much. Actually, not many teams do.

Brett Lee is on fire and the Lankans are already following on in the first of two test matches in the series. They are in deep deep trouble and the Australians are on top.

I only hope India don't fare so badly in the test series Down Under. By the signs of things, whoever is handed the job of captaining the Indian team (I think it should be Kumble) for the series has his job cut-out.

Now I know what Ian Chappell meant when he said, had Sachin accepted the captaincy job, he would have put the future of his international career in jeopardy.

In his words:

Tendulkar has saved the selectors from what could've been not only an embarrassing decision but also a costly mistake. If he had accepted the captaincy and India went on to lose the series badly to Australia, it could have hastened his retirement.

Chappell might not have been very correct in advising Tendulkar to retire a few months ago, but this time around, I suppose his views are spot on.

Surprise surprise!

2007-11-09T23:04:00.000+05:30

Congratulations to Anil Kumble!!!

The Indian selectors have sprung up many surprises in the past. But this one beats them all. And it is a pleasant surprise this time, which is something very rare. Though Anil Kumble was always in the race for test captaincy, I, frankly, never expected him to be made captain. Dhoni was the clear favourite, especially considering the selectors' rather funny habit of unconditionally preferring youth to experience when it comes to new selections or appointments. Besides, every rumour that was coming out from the BCCI camp was pointing towards Dhoni's appointment as captain.

Anyway, this is great news. Kumble does deserve the honour. He is one of the players who has been toiling for the team for many years with not much recognition. Plus, his vast experience and extremely sensible way of dealing with situations will come of use now. He has always been a self motivated player and this development will motivate him even more to perform well for the team.

So one Karnataka player stepped down from the mantle and another has taken his place. There have been talks of Dravid having stepped down owing to internal pressures. How long can Kumble survive? Lets see. The Australia series will be the perfect touchstone.

Lets hope the warrior with a big heart will lead India to a memorable series victory Down Under!

Dravid's omission might not be that bad a decision

2007-11-03T20:41:00.000+05:30

Almost as soon as news spread that Rahul Dravid was 'rested' for the final India-Australia one-dayer, almost every cricket follower started reeling out his opinion about the decision. Endless reams of paper have been devoted to discussing the issue and the majority verdict is that the omission was unfair and undeserving of Dravid.

Now, here are my two cents.

Dravid is undoubtedly a great batsman and has been a determined soldier for the team for a long time now. He also, probably, has many more jaw-dropping performances in store to offer to Indian cricket. But then there is also the irrefutable fact that his average from his last ten ODI innings is a paltry 9 runs. Plus, it is also a fact that a whole lot of talented players are waiting at the sidelines.

Ofcourse, it is only a temporary loss of form that Dravid is suffering from and as the selectors themselves say, the odds of Dravid making a comeback are very high. But surely, the process of regaining form does not need only international cricket. Domestic cricket can do the job just as well.

Also, it surely is not necessary to carry an out-of-form batsman in the team while many other capable players, if included, could do a better job.

Additionally, the decision will also send out a strong message to the players that Vengsarkar's recent threats about nobody's place in the team being permanent is not just a toothless remark.

Who knows, Rahul Dravid could come back to international cricket as a more stronger batsman and that could only be good news for India. So all things considered, Rahul Dravid's 'resting' may only be for the greater good.

By the way, on a side note, there is also the lingering question of why Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly were spared by the selectors even when they went through even longer stretches of even poorer form. But lets push that question aside for now!!

Don't miss this match for anything

2007-10-26T22:29:00.000+05:30

Pakistan can't afford to lose the ongoing ODI series against South Africa since it is a home series and they have already lost the test series 0-1. Losing the one-day series too can be too embarrassing for them.

On the other hand, South Africa would love to finish off the tour on a high and stamp their authority. They'll be especially eager to prove a point to the cricket world since a few questions have been raised about their vulnerability against spin bowling.

And to top it all, the series is in the balance at 2-2 with one match to go which means the 5th match scheduled to take place at Lahore on the 29th of October is going to be the decider.

Then there is Afridi on one side, who is in smashing form, and there is Gibbs on the other who really gave the Pakistan bowlers some spanking in the 4th ODI.

So take my advice and make sure you catch the match live. If you love cricket, this one is going to be a treat! Atleast, it has all the potential to be one.

Gavaskar has a point

2007-10-22T22:30:00.000+05:30

I don't agree with all that Gavaskar says. Infact, I really dislike his brand of cricket commentary and normally mute the television set when his commentary is on. But I think he has made a pretty pertinent point when he criticised the match referee and match umpires for not having taken any action against the concerned players for the ugly scenes that were on display throughout the just concluded India-Australia ODI series.

Gavaskar's views on the matter:

"One is not privy to the report the match referee may have sent to ICC but the fact that not even one player from both sides has been reported and reprimanded shows the referee and the umpires did not do the job assigned to them and that was to see that the game was not brought into disrepute and the spirit of cricket maintained.
"He [match referee] is there not just to protect the umpires from the players but to see that the game goes on without any untoward incidents and what happened between the two players was definitely not cricket. By abdicating their responsibility, match officials let the game down big time and have raised a big question mark on their ability to control the game and players.

"It would be sad if the ICC turns a blind eye to what happened during the series, for even while accepting that the game has changed and become far more aggressive than yesteryears, what was seen on the cricket field did not do any good to the image of the game nor enhance the quality by any stretch of imagination."

When you come to think of it, it is really strange that in a series that has been more in the media eye for poor on-field behaviour, not one player was actually reprimanded by the powers that be.

Players have been openly critical about the opposition's unhealthy tactics and there have even been obvious cases of dissent against the umpire's decicions. Yet, somehow, no one is found guilty.

Whatever the reasons, such apathy on the officials' part towards on-field events will only work towards taking healthy aggression towards vulgarity, which should not happen.

Hope someone takes note of what Gavaskar is trying to say.

Australia would be itching to get back

2007-10-21T22:19:00.000+05:30

The Aussie captain had this to say after his team tasted an uncharacteristically comprehensive defeat at the hands of India:

"We fell short by 15 runs. We gave away too many extras - 23 extras means four extra overs. We did it the other night also and we need to buck up. Harbhajan and Kartik bowled well. Gambhir batted well. We would like to play more matches against the new generation Indian players."

Two Twenty20 defeats in a row and I think that last line (in bold letters) can mean only one thing: Punter badly wants another Twenty20 game against the "new generation" Indians to try and get back at them.

I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of a healthy rivalry that is going to get started between the Indian and Australian teams in Twenty20 cricket.

Ponting and all of us will have to wait till the 1st of February when India and Australia will meet at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for another Twenty20 international game. That's a long wait but let me tell you, the action on that day is going to be well worth the wait!

India keep the winning streak going

2007-10-21T15:16:00.000+05:30

The Indian team has just proved why they are World Champions in the shortest format of the game. Inspite of some not-terribly-impressive fielding, sharp and clever bowling and extremely sensible batting saw them through the one-off Twenty20 match against the Australians with 7 wickets in hand and 11 balls to spare.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that it was important for India to win this Twenty20 match to prove it too critics around the World that the World Cup win was not a mere fluke. Well, they have done more than just win the match. They have sailed through to victory with some ease.

There were some good individual performances in the game coming from the Indian side. Harbhajan & Gambhir once again played a pivotal role in India's win. Infact, I have a feeling it is going to be either Gambhir or Yuvraj who will score the first century for India in Twenty20 cricket.

But it was made amply evident that team effort is what will eventually win matches for you in Twenty20 cricket. There are only four overs per bowler and each of them have to do well in order to keep the opposition under pressure. Likewise, lightning quick cameos from each batsman will do more damage than, say, a 70 off 60 balls from one or two batsman like it happens so often in ODI cricket.

Ponting made a good 76, but other batsman didn't have much to show and I guess that is where the Australians lost the match. In contrast, the Indians have a 63, a 35 and a 31* from the top four batsmen and that is where they proved superior.

Looking forward to the Twenty20 match

2007-10-20T09:40:00.000+05:30

The lackluster performance of the Indian team in the just concluded India-Australia ODI series not withstanding, I find myself looking forward to the India-Australia Twenty20 game that is to be played today with total anticipation.

For one thing, this is the first time I will watch India go into a match as World Champions. And the other reason is simply because Twenty20 cricket is so damn exciting, especially when it is Australia we are playing against!

I suppose this is the only format where India could be termed as atleast ' slight favourites' against the ODI World Champion side and I hope it remains so even after this match.

It will mean a lot of good things if India win this match. There are people out there who think India's triumph in the Twenty20 World Cup was a mere fluke. I honestly think that is not the case and that India played some pretty consistent good cricket to clinch the World Cup against all odds. A win here will work towards proving that.

Besides, Australia will very obviously be hurting from having to taste defeat at the hands of India in the semi-final of the World Cup; a defeat that prevented them from adding the Twenty20 cup to their cupboard of trophies. And if India win here too, it might just trigger off an India-Pakistan-ish rivalry between Dhoni's and Ponting's men in this format of the game, just like India's test series victory in the 2001 home series set off an Indo-Australia rivalry of sorts in test cricket. If that can happen then it can only be too good for cricket!

I am all for this Twenty20 format of the game and I am all for an Indian win today!

A victory inspite of the batsmen

2007-10-19T13:50:00.000+05:30

India's batsmen did all they could possibly do to try and ensure India lost even the final match of the India-Australia series but fortunately the tail-enders snatched an unlikely victory for India and saved the team from utter embarrassment. Anyway, inspite of the continuing display of incompetence by the Indian batsmen, it was a good match to watch for two reasons.

The first reason is that India won against Australia, which does not happen very often and therefore deserves celebration.

The other reason was Murali Kartik's beautiful spin bowling. Watching him bowl was like watching an artist at work. I can't believe he was out of the team for so long. Just take a look at the way he took his wickets. Every single one of them (except that of Symonds, maybe) was a result of totally tactful spin bowling. The fact that he was on a hat-trick two times in the match is, I feel, ample proof of what a thorn he was in the Australian flesh.

19.5 Kartik to Hodge, OUT, and thats that, as Hodge, with limited footwork, pushes at a shorter and quicker delivery outside off stump and gives the wide slip catching practice, ending a scratchy innings in which he couldnt force it against the spinners

19.6 Kartik to Symonds, OUT, and the big man goes first ball! The ball's pretty ordinary, short and wide outside off stump and Kartik's extremely lucky to get Symonds, cutting at it and looking on as Tendulkar, in the covers, dives forward and takes a good catch!

31.1 Kartik to Haddin, OUT, Kartik gets him with the arm ball! Haddin gets a half-stride forward to a delivery pitched on middle and straightening. The ball strikes him low on the front pad and that was an easy decision for Umpire Saheba

31.4 Kartik to Hogg, OUT, bat-pad! flighted on off stump, Hogg gets a stride forward and appeared to get an inside edge onto the pads. Uthappa at forward short-leg takes the catch and the rest are certain they've got the wicket. Hogg looks rather unhappy with Saheba's decision though

31.5 Kartik to Lee, OUT, Kartik takes five! flighted on off stump, draws Lee onto the forward drive and succeeds in getting an outside edge to RP Singh at gully. Kartik's on a hat-trick here...again!

35.5 Kartik to Hopes, OUT, Hopes misreads the turn! flighted around the middle stump. Hopes goes back and the ball spins from middle, goes through and clips the off stump. Big daylight between bat and pad on that one. That's six for Kartik... what a comeback!

Yeah, what a comeback to international cricket! Coming in to bowl against the Australians when they are on top at 108/2 off 17 overs and going on to take 6 wickets to reduce them to 193 all out is a great feat indeed. And I feel this is the only comeback he'll need to make for a long time to come.

Proof that Sreesanth is overdoing it

2007-10-17T23:03:00.000+05:30

The recent comments Sreesanth has been making in the press are, I think, obvious proof that Sreesanth is over-thinking and overdoing the aggression part instead of just trying to play good cricket. This is what he has reportedly said(from cricinfo):

"It's not a new Sreesanth. I am trying to find that exact limit between really bad and really good. See how far I can go."
Sreesanth has been flicking through a book on temperament during the series and said the game was "almost 90% mind". "How you manage yourself on the field is important and even if they are playing mind games on it or off it, cricket is very funny, it always wins," he said in the Australian. "That's what happened in the lead-up to the Twenty20, everybody was questioning our ability but we still won the World Cup.

Well, what can you say to that "almost 90% mind" quip?! And the "managing yourself is important" quip?!

He is very much a fresher to cricket and I have no idea why he wants to complicate things for himself. I really feel he should be thinking: "good bowling is almost 90% about putting the ball in the right areas".

Why care about mind games at all? Just go out there and bowl well. Should be simple for an international bowler. And he can do that. We all know that. Just why do these people complicate things unnecessarily?

Sreesanth, shut up and just bowl. You are selected into the Indian team for that. Not to ponder over mind games and such crap.

India deserving losers

2007-10-15T22:14:00.001+05:30

Ponting had said before the Nagpur match that the match was like a final and I thought India would have a go at the Australians with all their might. Instead they really proved how unprofessional they are. In such an important match, if an international bowler bowls as bad as he did then there is no surprise in the fact that India lost. Yeah, I'm talking about Sreesanth, There really is no use of carrying him around only for the odd spark of brilliance. If he is not consistent, then there really is no use for him in the team.

And then the batsmen. It is very rarely nowadays that Sachin bats the way he did yesterday. In a must-win match and from a pretty comfortable situation the batsmen showed total lack of professionalism and the way they wilted from a very winnable situation with so many wickets in hand is shocking to say the least.

Surely, India deserved to lose the series.

Take a look at this stat

2007-10-15T22:05:00.000+05:30

As usual I was browsing through cricinfo and I came across this stat that should be shocking but is not actually that shocking since it involves India and Australia.

The last time India successfully chased a target against Australia was way back in 1998, in Sharjah, in what came to be known as Sachin Tendulkar's 'Desert Storm' series. Since then, India have attempted the task, either willingly or otherwise, 18 times, and failed on 15 occasions, with three matches, including the first game of this series in Bangalore, having no result.

Speaks volumes, doesn't it?

Pakistan lose the series. Inzamam retires.

2007-10-12T22:55:00.000+05:30

Cricket has a way of not allowing its players the privilege of a happy ending. Inzamam, a big man, both literally and figuratively, bid adieu to cricket after a truly amazing and glittering career. But his retirement had to coincide with a drubbing for Pakistan.

These scenes,

had to be accompanied by these,

I thought the Indian cricket team was improving.....

2007-10-12T22:43:00.000+05:30

Looking at the trend in the India-Australia series so far, I thought India was improving with every game. The first match of the India-Australia series got rained out. But consider the 2nd, 3rd and 4th games. The 2nd match at Kochi, India lost by a rather huge margin of 84 runs. We again lost for the second time in the third match at Hyderabad. But this time the margin was slightly better at 47 runs. Then came the Hyderabad match where the Indian team won the match by a small margin of 8 runs.

And just when I thought another win could be around the corner this happens(from cricinfo):

A nine-wicket win for the visitors, as comprehensive as they come. The pace bowlers, lead by Brett Lee and five-wicket hero Mitchell Johnson, suffocated the trigger-happy top order and with only two partnerships to speak of, one worth 41 from the last two batsmen, India limped to a total of 148. They failed to even bat out 40 overs. Only four men reached double figures.

Australia then cantered to a nine-wicket win. Adam Gilchrist had a great day, pocketing six catches, being part of a run out, and then getting into some form with an unbeaten 79 from 77 deliveries.

I would not have minded much had it been a loss in a well fought match. But this is just atrocious, not to mention extremely frustrating.

I just don't know for how long Dhoni can stand straight and look the Australians in the eyes when congratulating them after yet another loss.

A win!

2007-10-09T22:28:00.000+05:30

Yeah, India won! I know that is unbelievable but that is what happened! I never thought much about India's chances(my bet was on 6-0) but they have yet again proved how unbelievable they are.

At last the batsmen came together and rocked the party. Dhoni found his timing. So did Uthappa. And everything went right. I still feel Tendulkar is not doing enough to justify his place in the team though.

Anyway, now this win means India is still in the hunt for a series win. Which in turn means Australia will come at us even harder in the coming matches.

This is when the real challenge begins.

Does Vengsarkar mean what he says?

2007-10-07T18:09:00.000+05:30

Here is what Vengsarkar, India's chairman of selectors, has said:

"There are many players like S Badrinath and Suresh Raina who are performing with the India A side. These guys are waiting for their chance and you cannot ignore them. It's a professional set-up and nobody can take their place for granted."

Clearly, Vengsarkar had some people in mind when he said that. A warning for the seniors' ears? Could be. It really is time to think about Tendulkar's, Ganguly's and Dravid's role in the team. These men have been invaluable for Indian cricket in the past. But then, that is the past and people have a tendency of softening up with time

In a match where India needed 290 runs off quality Australian bowling, Tendulkar managed 43. But these 43 runs came off 71 invaluable balls in the powerplay overs. Compare and contrast that with Yuvraj's score of 121 off 115 balls or Dhoni's 33 off 37.

It is an obvious and un-ignorable case for promoting Yuvraj and Dhoni up the order. It is also an obvious case for the demotion of Sachin Tendulkar. But would he fit in the middle-order? As Vengsarkar says, there are good middle-order players such as Suresh Raina waiting at the sidelines for some time now.

So where would Tendulkar fit in, or would he? That is the million dollar question that everybody has been avoiding for a long time. I guess it is now too long.

Come on Vengsarkar. It is time for some bold decisions. Let's cut the talk. Show us what you can really do.

Hair's case

2007-10-03T19:58:00.000+05:30

Hair has always been a hard umpire. He has made decisions that other umpires would never dare to make. One such decision cost him his job.

But knowing his particular style of dealing with issues, this recent lawsuit against the ICC, protesting against his sacking, shouldn't come as any surprise. Hair is surely going to give this all he has and he clearly intends to drag the ICC, and thereby the game, through as much mire as possible.

His particularly sharp remarks on the alleged 'racial discrimination' issue provide ample indications as to how scandalous this could be.

"If I had been from West Indies or Pakistan or India, I might have been treated differently, like Doctrove.
"At the time we told Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, that we believed the marks we found on the ball were deliberately put there. After the match I was continually pilloried in the media by Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and Inzamam, which was clearly in breach of ICC conduct ... and yet it did nothing to prevent this.
"I asked Speed if it could possibly be performance related but he agreed that my performances since joining the elite panel had been generally very good and I had been continually ranked in the top three umpires. I was at a loss to understand how my career could possibly be effectively ended unless it was by a racially motivated and racially-discriminated process."

Whatever the outcome of the case, this lawsuit is easily one of the biggest cricket has seen so far.
And if Hair wins it, the ICC could probably have to shell out millions as compensation. Surely, that is motivation enough for ICC and Speed to defend with all their heart!!

Aussies stamp their class

2007-10-02T21:00:00.000+05:30

You might have read a zillion articles with the same title as this one. The reason is simply that you just cannot think of a more apt title when you sit down to write about a match after having been witness to as clinical a performance as the Australians came up with against the Indians today. And since it concerns the Australians, that happens pretty often too.

I had mentioned about a lot of talking having happened between the players even before the series began. The first match at Bangalore was when we were to find out which team could back up the talking with a solid performance. That match got washed out (luckily for India, perhaps). But, nevertheless, the Aussies did give us enough evidence, at Kochi, as to which is the better team. Their bench strength in unbelievable and the way someone always puts his hand up when the other has failed, is fast becoming a hallmark of the team.

That said, the Indian team obviously has a lot to do if they are to see any success in the ODI format in the near future. The problem of not being able to seize the initiative even when we have been able to get one foot through the door, is an old one. Add to that the other worry of giving away too many runs in the death and the problem becomes massive.

The need for a genuinely quick bowler is, once again, quite apparent. Dhoni's boys migh have won the Twenty20 cup, but the sooner they (and us) realize how less the win means when it comes to ODI cricket, the better.

No one could put it better than Gilchrist did:

"The quicker we move on from this Twenty20, the better. Everything keeps getting drawn back to that. Congratulations to India, they had a wonderful victory, beautiful celebrations ... we all enjoyed it, we've never seen anything like it. But I'm more interested in the fact that we're 1-0 up in this one."

Very hard to disagree.

Lots of talking going on

2007-09-29T14:58:00.000+05:30

Where the Australians are involved, you can be sure of one thing. There will be a lot of verbal play and mental games before the start of the actual game. And this time is no different.

Symonds tries to taunt the Indian players:

"Something has been sparked inside of me, watching them carry on over the last few days. We have had a very successful side and I think watching how we celebrate and how they celebrate, I think we have been pretty humble in the way we have gone about it. And personally, I think they have got far too carried away with their celebrations. It has definitely sparked passion inside of us. It has certainly spiced it up as well."

Ponting makes the age-old "Pressure is on them" quip.

Uthappa retorts:

"We are looking forward to carry on our winning momentum when we meet Australia in the first match on Saturday and there will not be any pressure on us. We are just looking forward to take on Australia"

Knowing that Sreesanth can get overly excited pretty easily the Aussies seem to have singled him out saying "he does not scare us" and that they have "seen how he plays and will not be surprised this time".

Sreesanth, typically, seems to have taken some of the banter to heart:

"Now I hear that Ponting and his team have singled me out, this is in fact a boost to my confidence. This means that I have the stuff in me. I think if I am aggressive, only then can I perform better and I would be back to my normal self."

Now, that is a lot of talking, isn't it?

In about 8 hours time we will get to know who comes out on top on the field.

The Australians are here

2007-09-28T21:33:00.004+05:30

Whoever said ODI cricket would lose its appeal with the advent of the Twenty20 format. India's Twenty20 triumph seems to have only added to the excitement behind the India-Australia ODI series set to begin at Bangalore tomorrow. The series is billed as a battle between two World Champions and I have to say that when put that way, it does make the 'battle' one to look forward to.

Its been a long long time since international cricket was played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. That is, if you don't count the Afro-Asia Cup matches. Naturally, the whole of Bangalore is looking forward to this match. Infact, I was passing by the Chinnaswamy Stadium the day when the ticket counters opened and you wouldn't believe how long the queue for the tickets was. Almost about a couple of kilometers is my guess. Many people received a cash advance from their employer and immediately went to the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The tickets were, not surprisingly, sold out the same day.

Some 50,000 spectators are expected to turn up and, while it will be a headache for the security personnel, the atmosphere at the stadium is going to be absolutely electric!

The schedule for the series of seven one-dayers and one Twenty20 international:

September 2007 Sat 29 (D/N)	14:30 local, 09:00 GMT 1st ODI - India v Australia M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
October 2007 Tue 2	09:00 local, 03:30 GMT 2nd ODI - India v Australia Nehru Stadium, Kochi
October 2007 Fri 5	09:00 local, 03:30 GMT 3rd ODI - India v Australia Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
October 2007 Mon 8	09:00 local, 03:30 GMT 4th ODI - India v Australia Sector 16 Stadium, Chandigarh
October 2007 Thu 11	09:00 local, 03:30 GMT 5th ODI - India v Australia I.P.C.L. Sports Complex Ground, Vadodara
October 2007 Sun 14	09:00 local, 03:30 GMT 6th ODI - India v Australia Vidarbha C.A. Ground, Nagpur
October 2007 Wed 17 (D/N)	14:30 local, 09:00 GMT 7th ODI - India v Australia Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
October 2007 Sat 20 (D/N)	19:00 local, 13:30 GMT Only Twenty20 International - India v Australia Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

Here's hoping for a well fought, high intensity series!

Who won the Twenty20 cup...the players or the BCCI?

2007-09-27T23:18:00.000+05:30

When a jubilant Indian team was enjoying the sweet results of all their hard-work, when the players were celebrating victory, when the men-in-blue were posing for the team photograph; on all these occasions Sharad Pawar and all his BCCI chums somehow got their faces complete with broad grins in the way too, didn't they?

Alright, forget that. But what can you say about this:

One would have thought that the 15 cricketers who brought India the glory at the Twenty20 World Cup were the heroes being felicitated at the Wankhede Stadium, but a look at the dias would have suggested otherwise.

The front row was filled with BCCI top brass and Maharashtra state ministers with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni the only Team India member finding a place among the 'elite'.
In fact, the whole spectacle seemed like a carefully organised political rally with Board President Sharad Pawar, who is the Union Agriculture Minister and a political heavyweight of the state, playing to the galleries in his short speech as if it was an election rally. He was clearly trying to take full mileage out of the unexpected victory that Dhoni and his bravehearts achieved at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.

And to think that is same 'BCCI top brass' had actually voted against the Twenty20 format at an ICC meeting!!

Useless bunch of opportunists! Get your hands off that cup Mr.Pawar!

ICL is obviously slipping

2007-09-27T20:33:00.000+05:30

Mohammad Yousuf, along with Abdur Razzaq and Imran Farhat, had signed the contract agreeing to participate in the Indian Cricket League just a few months earlier. Apparently he was miffed over not having been selected into Pakistan's Twenty20 team for the World Cup. He then went missing for over a month and could not be reached. And now he comes out and says this:

"Whatever I have achieved is because of my country and I am willing to do anything for Pakistan. I didn't know this clause in the ICL contract that priority had to be given to the league instead of Pakistan when international matches are happening simultaneously."

Now that looks a bit shady to me. With all the controversy surrounding the Indian Cricket League, I think it was only too obvious that the National Cricket Boards were not particularly happy with the ICL luring their players away. It was common knowledge that the boards wouldn't think twice before banning players who chose to shore up with the ICL from representing their respective countries in international cricket matches.

The point I am trying to make is that whether Yousuf knew of that little clause in the ICL contract or not, he should surely have been aware that he was putting his international career in jeopardy when he signed that contract.

I suspect Yousuf's change of heart has more to do with the ICL-BCCI tussle and the public launch of the BCCI's own 'Indian Premier League' rivaling the ICL. These developments might have dented his confidence in the ICL's success. I had suggested in an earlier post that the cricket boards were losing the battle with the ICL and they might have to swallow their egos. But things seem to be turning around. Yousuf's withdrawal might only be the first of many to come. If not, it will atleast make other players think twice before considering shaking hands with the ICL.

The ICL is obviously slipping. But it still has one advantage on it's side. Money.

The unsung hero

2007-09-27T09:25:00.000+05:30

I think it is almost unfair that Yuvraj performed so well for India that the other real hero in India's triumph really did not make it big in all the news stories going around about the new 'n' young team. Dhoni was praised for his captaincy and Rohit Sharma for a fearless debut and the bowlers for containing the batsman.

But another deserving person that has really not recieved as much attention is Gautam Gambhir. Just take a look at his stats and you will see what I mean. He scored 227 invaluable runs for India in the World Cup at a very impressive average of 37.83 runs per match. What's more is that he was the second most prolific run getter in the tournament after Matthew Hayden and I suspect he would have bettered Hayden had the Scotland match not been rained out.

Maybe the cause for his not really being in the media eye was his strike rate. 129.71 is obviously lower than the strike-rates of some of the other players but the steady starts that he gave certainly proved very useful for those coming lower down enabling them to chance their arms around.

Infact I really think Gambhir deserved to have been awarded the Man of the Match award ahead of Irfan Pathan for his extremely sensible innings in the finals when the 'big stars' couldn't come up with the stuff. He scored almost half of the team's total in that game and his delightfully risk-free and clean, yet run-fetching, strokes were truly of the finest class. If not for him, I doubt if we would have been able to reach that score of 157.

Anyway, I am pretty sure the unsung hero's consistently good performances have not escaped the notice of the selectors and he should be opening the innings with Sehwag in the home series against Australia which leaves an unanswered question: Where in the batting line-up will the selectors find a place for Ganguly and Tendulkar? Only time will tell.

Perfect!

2007-09-24T23:35:00.000+05:30

The perfect finale! An India-Pak cricket match can never disappoint. Never ever. And this was the first time India were meeting Pakistan in a World Championship final since 1985 and it just couldn't be dull. It being dull would mean going against the laws of nature.

And accordingly, even as India was cruising away for a disappointingly unexciting and easy victory, the Gods sent in Misbah-Ul-Haq and Sohail Tanvir to re-arrange things as they are meant to be. Man, quite a shock they both gave!

From a hopeless 77-6 when they lost Afridi to getting as close as one boundary away from victory, it was nerve wrangling to watch Pakistan's sudden revival. Pakistan suddenly needed just 6 runs of 4 balls.

And then came the ball from Joginder that Misbah-ul-haq scooped up to send it over and above short fine leg. The camera panned to show the ball in the air. Every Indian was only too aware of fine-leg being inside the 30 yard circle and for a few moments I felt unparalleled despair. But the fairy tale story had to have a fair-tale ending. The ball came down. It had not gone beyond short fine-leg and Sreesanth had the ball in his hands. Victory!

Wow! What a moment! Only the second time India have been crowned world-champions and that too so much drama preceding the moment. It's 1983 all over again. Maybe even better.

Some great moments captured in pictures:

India wins. Pakistan wins. We all win.

2007-09-23T15:00:00.000+05:30

What a dream run this is proving to be. The Australians came up against the opening batsmen with their tails up. The plan was obviously to intimidate the Indian batsmen with extremely aggressively tactics. But none of that ancient ploy worked. The start was steady and the middle and end were truly booming. Yuvraj is the man of the moment and you will hardly see a cleaner striker of the ball. Dhoni's shrewd captaincy, Sreesanth's accurate bowling and Harbhajan's clever guiles did the rest.

Earlier Pakistan had already won their semi-final match against New Zealand with ease and thus were through to the final clash of the Twenty20 World Cup. And when India won against Australia at Durban, the crowd went berserk. I suspect the excitement was only half because India have reached the final, the other half being in anticipation of a mouth-watering India-Pak battle for the cup.

Really, Twenty20 couldn't have asked for a better brand ambassador than such a final encounter. And to think that these two teams couldn't even get through among the top 8 teams about 6 months ago. It certainly makes this final look like pre-ordained destiny. Just hope another Indian victory and another gem from Yuvraj is part of that pre-ordained destiny.

And by the way, do we really need a coach?

Yuvraj's six sixes

2007-09-22T13:33:00.000+05:30

Easily the most exciting six balls of the Twenty20 World Cup so far. Who wouldn't enjoy such clean hitting?

India take on Australia today in the semi-finals of the Twenty20 World Cup and I only hope, along with a few billions of other Indians that we win. I also hope Pakistan win the other semi-final so that the final would then be an India-Pakistan showdown. What a cracker of a match that would be!

On another note, it is sad and almost unfair that the South Africans couldn't get through. There really is something about the South Africans and the World Cups. It happened in the 1999 World Cup when South Afirca fell short of a solitary run in order to enter the finals. It happened in the 2003 World Cup too when they were done in by the Duckworth-Lewis system, again falling short of a mere run. And now it has happened in the first Twenty20 World Cup too when they needed just 126 tuns from 20 overs; an easy task that looked certain to be completed until they made a real mess of it. It does look like someone has cursed the team to never taste World Cup glory.

Anyway, all that is yesterday's business. Today is the day when the teams that play the finals will be decided and it is going to be one hell of a day.

This Twenty20 World Cup is proving to be far more entertaining and well-organized than its 50-over counterpart.

Twenty20 is good!

2007-09-18T14:45:00.000+05:30

Well, I was away from home for a long time and had to do some catching up with some pending work when I was back and hence the long period of inactivity on this blog. So now, here I am. Back to blogging on my favourite sport after the hiatus.

But whether I have been blogging or not, I have, needless to say, been very keenly following the cricket action. As Harsha Bhogle said on ESPN said when the Twenty20 World Cup began, cricket now 'has a new baby'. And as it turns out, the new baby is awesome!

There were people complaining, and rightly so, about how the on-day game sometimes becomes too predictabile. The first 15-20 overs and the last 8-10 are always meant for thrashing the ball around and the period in between for knocking the ball around when everyone relaxes and the game is almost in a dormant phase. The new powerplay rules could do nothing to better the situation as fielding captains almost always opt to have the powerplays back-to-back and get finished off with them.

But now what the Twenty20 format does is to remove the period of 'knocking the ball around' from one-day cricket. So all you have now is 'thrashing the ball around'. All that the batsmen care for is to amass more and more runs. And which means the bowling team is always thinking about plugging the leaks.

Everyone is on his feet. There are no let-ups. The game is fast paced. A match ends quickly leaving you hungry for more. Moreover, after the long drawn and boring World Cup this is the perfect antidote we all wanted.

Purists, stay aside. Here is undiluted action and we want more of it!

India's spinning strength

2007-08-26T12:00:00.000+05:30

It was after a pretty long time that we got to watch two Indian spinners bowling in tandem in a one-day match playing outside the subcontinent. And as it turned out, the selection was a masterstroke. Infact it almost seemed to be the sanest thing to do. Maybe it did not happen much in recent times due to the lack of some good spinners. But now, I am pretty sure Romesh Powar and Piyush Chawla are going to feature in the Indian team for a long time to come.

Piyush Chawla was very successful in outwitting the batsman on more than a few occasions and Romesh Powar's control was absolutely awesome to watch. Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble have finally got competition. Whatever happens in the next match, one thing is for sure: India will once again go in with two spinners whatever the pitch report might be like.

So the India-England series is now level at 1-1. Still, though India got 329(and that is huge) and won the match by 9 runs, there is still that feeling of inadequacy.

For starters, the fact that we allowed England to get so close to the target of 330 even after having gotten them on the mat at 240-7 is a shame. Then there is the pathetic fielding and catching which still remains to be the haunting ghost for India. Wonder what Robin Singh, the fielding coach, is upto. As far as I can see there is no obvious improvement in the fielding at all. No diving stops in the outfield and no extra efforts to stop the extra run. And ofcourse catches continue to go down by the dozen.

There are 5 more matches to go and to beat this England team(as unpredictable as their Indian counterparts) and take the series is surely going to take a lot more than what the cricketers did in this match.

And surely Dhoni needs to be coming before Yuvraj Singh. He takes a lot more time to settle down than any other player and it would in India's best interests if he can get some balls to play off quietly, for, after that, he can be very explosive. He should be coming in at No.4 with Dravid at 3 and Yuvraj at 5. Some food for thought there for the think-tank.

Bizarre moments

2007-08-24T23:31:00.000+05:30

Something very strange and uncharacteristic happens every now and then in cricket that makes us sit up and take notice. One such incident happened during the first one-dayer in the India-England series that is in progress right now.

Sachin Tendulkar was batting and I don't remember who was bowling but the bizarre part happened when the ball neatly hit his stumps yet the bails remained rooted to their spot. They did not budge an inch!

And since the cricketing rules say that the bails need to be dislodged for a batsman to be declared out, Sachin was not out. Damn lucky and damn bizarre!

Here's the video. You can clearly see the ball hitting the batsman's stumps. Thanks to Amit for having uploaded the video.

And while you are at it here is another video I managed to rummage from Youtube showing various previous instances where the bails fail to come off inspite of the ball actually hitting the wickets (look from the 30 seconds position to 1 minute 30 seconds of the video). On one occasion the bails even jump up in the air but manage to settle back onto the stumps. The batsman was declared not-out. But you can clearly hear the commentator asking 'Isn't that out?' since the bails were actually dislodged before they settled back.

Truly bizarre. There is just so much that can happen in cricket. It is a beautifully complicated game.

Couldn't agree more with Javed Miandad

2007-08-24T10:23:00.000+05:30

Javed Miandad was a great player in his times. He can also talk some crazy stuff at times, but this time I think his observations on the 'ICL - National Cricket boards' rift are spot on when he says:

"I don't think this policy of banning players is going to work practically. Since the ICL is not something which the governments have objected to, I think any player can go to court and challenge any ban on him to play in and for his country.
The International Cricket Council and its member boards need to take the ICL seriously. Because it has the potential like the Kerry Packer series to snowball into something big.
Every player has to look to his future and security. In Pakistan there is no financial security for your retirement days."

The ICL does pay big money which the cricket boards cannot match and so it is only logical that most players will consider themselves fortunate to be even approached by the league.

Inzamam-ul Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdur Razzaq and Imran Farhat are players who have already given the nod to the ICL and more are sure to follow. Banning all of them would not be too practical, would it?

So, it should only be a matter of time before the boards should start considering shedding their confrontational attitude towards the ICL.

I am sure the boards realize it too. They are defeated. Only a matter of how long their ego will hold up now.

Just one of those days, hopefully

2007-08-23T20:28:00.000+05:30

Everybody was pretty sure England would be no good in the one-day series and that India would run away with the trophy by a fat margin. While praise was being showered everywhere about the Indian team effort in the test series and the intense desire to win that India displayed these traits seemed to have gone on a sudden holiday in the first one-dayer of the series of seven.

Rahul Dravid's decision to bowl first against England will be subjected to much discussion and debate just like what happened when he decided not to impose the follow-on in the Oval Test. The wisdom of hindsight tells us there was absolutely no swing or any kind of assistance available to the bowlers from the pitch and hence the debate. However, the fact remains that England were just too good for India and India just too bad to merit a victory.

Really, the only two batsmen who look capable of delivering very consistently are Dravid and Kaarthick. Though every other batsman in the Indian team too is worth his weight in gold, the haunting unpredictability is still a worrying factor.

That said, the English batting was simply superb. Cook and especially Ian Bell scripted truly beautiful innings. Totally, as Collingwood later said England played a 'perfect kind of game'. But then it is very rare that a day is 'perfect' in cricket. And so, I hope India can bounce back in this series in the second game. Atleast that will provide temporary relief if not for the more permanent alternative namely consistency.

The one-day series is here. Match on!

2007-08-21T16:13:00.000+05:30

India tasted sweet victory in the test series which means that England will be looking for blood in the one-dayers. Meanwhile India have a lot to prove on the one-day front after that humiliating exit from the World-Cup. Freddie Flintoff, the all-powerful all rounder, is back into the England team and Yuvraj Singh, having proven his destructive abilities with the bat in past games, is back for India. All in all, one thing is clear. Both teams are desperate for victory and that, to me, seems like the perfect setting for a fiercely fought series of seven one-day games.

But surprisingly there are many out there who think England's chances are much too bleak. Infact I was shocked to read this article that says:

"India will expect to win the series by match five and perhaps as early as match four. Anything closer than a scoreline of 2-5 could be considered progress for the home side.
England remain moderate in limited-overs, and equally both their philosophy and strategy remain mysteries to many observers. It is a long way to the 2011 World Cup, and England will need every match and every minute. India, similarly hopeless in the recent World Cup, are no great shakes either, but an ageing team contains enough flair and nous to win comfortably."

I never realized England are so bad in limited overs cricket! Any team with names such as Flintoff, Pietersen and Vaughan can' t be that bad. As the article itself points out, India were no good at the World Cup. And if the Indian cricketers can shrug that debacle away and claim the series then why can't England do that too?

Remember, this is cricket. Every game is anybody's game till the last ball is bowled. So lets tune in to the action and find out what happens.

Indian Cricket League moves into overdrive

2007-08-20T05:43:00.000+05:30

While the people at the BCCI continue to vigorously try and thwart the progress of the Indian Cricket League, the ICL chiefs themselves seem to be pretty busy going about gathering new recruits into their constantly increasing fold.

Hitherto, the recruits had mainly been retired players from around the world which made Sharad Pawar point out the 'futility' of the exercise because according to him people would not want to watch old players battling on a cricket field and would rather prefer watching some fresh blood doing the job. Well, Sharad Pawar better think up some other excuse to term the ICL as futile because the ICL has now shifted gears and seems to be going on an expansive recruitment drive covering not just young domestic cricket players in India but also players from Sri Lanka and Pakistan as well. As expected, this has caused quite a flutter among the respective cricket boards.

While the BCCI had already served a ban from playing any Ranji or International cricket matches on any player who chose to team up with the ICL, the Pakistan and Sri Lankan boards too have done the same with their players. Infact I am mildly surprised that so many from the Ranji arena have shown interest in the Indian Cricket League inspite of the ban. Clearly, that points to two things: there is big money on the cards and the pull of the Twenty20 format and just the thrill of being involved in something radically different is too much to resist.

To say more about the enforced ban, it doesn't seem very practical to me in the long term. Say, someone like Ambati Rayudu, who became the first Ranji player to sign up for the Indian Cricket League, blossoms impressively in the ICL games. Now, given that these games will involve high profile and high quality players a good performance will undoubtedly point towards some talent in Rayudu. In that case, can the selectors still resist selecting such a promising player into the International squad? After all the ultimate goal for the Indian team is victory, ban or not.

Infact, according to Subhash Chandra, the man behind the League, the main purpose of the ICL itself is to serve as a 'laboratory for innovation' wherein players can be tried and tested before throwing them into the international scene. So, will the BCCI ever start seeing the League as a laboratory rather than as mere competition? Only time should tell.

In any case, it will be very exciting to find out what the Indian Cricket League could offer to Indian Cricket. Go ICL!

Matt Prior's lesson

2007-08-16T22:46:00.000+05:30

Matthew James Prior came into the India-England series as a shining prospect for England. What with him being the first English wicketkeeper to have scored a test century on debut and all that. Before Prior, England were desperate to find a proper wicketkeeper-batsman, a role which both Paul Nixon and Chris Read couldn't perform to the selectors' satisfaction. After the West Indies tour, where Prior prospered, England had found their answer.

And now, after a month of playing India, Prior is left looking like the dumbest of wicketkeepers. His batting in which the selectors placed so much faith was horrible throughout the series. Scores of 1, 42, 11, 7, 0, 12 is hardly what you expect from a wicketkeeper-batsman.

But his biggest sins were obviously those innumerable catches he managed to drop throughout the series. Dropping players like Tendulkar and Laxman can be very painful for the opposition. I doubt if he would have been able to make up for those dropped catches even if he had gotten a century with the bat.

Prior's story is one which would normally deserve some sympathy. Still young in international cricket, he could be easily pitied citing cliches such as 'burden of expectations on young shoulders' or 'he has time on his side and will improve with experience' and so on.

But then he has lost any claim to sympathy too, given his antics on the field. If he chooses not to realize that he is still a youngling when he resorts to hassling the batsmen from behind the stumps and if he chooses to put his own incompetence in the background while picking on the opposition players then the same excuses of being young and inexperienced cannot be brought up in his defence.

That lesson of giving respect in order to deserve any and of concentrating on one's own job rather than that of others might be the biggest lessons that Prior could take from this test series.

Something he could learn from Dhoni maybe. Dhoni was not exactly spectacular behind the stumps, but in contrast to Prior, he was atleast sensible enough to remain quiet there.

A forgettable match but a very memorable and famous series win

2007-08-14T09:32:00.000+05:30

Victory! Sweet Victory! This is medicine for an Indian cricket fan after the totally disastrous and painful campaign at the World Cup(yeah, its difficult to put that out of your mind). The English will be cross that India have fouled their near perfect Test record at home by winning this series 1-0. A record that they have proudly held close to their hearts for a long time has been stealthily snatched away. But surely India deserved the series victory. This is what Rahul Dravid & co. set out to achieve and three cheers to the team for having completed the mission successfully!

Naturally, there will be talk of India having escaped defeat in the first match of the series at Lord's courtesy the rains which helped India procure this series win. And that is why I badly wanted India to win the third match so that the question of such talk could never come up.

But then Pietersen batted beautifully. So did Ian Bell. Infact England were so much better in the second innings that Dravid's decision to give them a target of 500 was almost justified. Some dropped catches helped too.

Still, it is disappointing that India could not secure a victory. I mean, when you have a first innings lead of 320 runs with almost two full days to go in the match anyone would expect victory, follow-on or not, late declaration or not.

The drawn match, however, should not be stopping us Indian fans from celebrating this historic series win. One that will be remembered for a long time and one that will take India that much further towards shedding that rather embarrassing tag of 'poor travellers'.

Sharad Pawar's claim

2007-08-13T20:17:00.000+05:30

The Indian Cricket League is an "out and out commercial venture" says Pawar in a letter to Digvijay Singh, a member of the Congress party, who had earlier written to Pawar seeking to goad him into dropping the arms he has taken up against the ICL.

But with all due respect Mr.Pawar, just how, may we ask, non-commercial is the BCCI? You would only be fooling yourselves by proclaiming the BCCI to be a non-profit organization. We all know you are in it for the money. Could you please cut the nonsense and tell us the truth? Anyway, we already know it. Here it is.

The BCCI is disapproving of the ICL not because it is a commercial venture and surely not because it is only Twenty20 cricket they are promoting as Pawar wants us to believe. They see the ICL as a parallel organization that could prove a threat to BCCI's monopoly over the game. Simple.

Abdur Razzaq is unhappy...and why not?

2007-08-12T09:30:00.000+05:30

Abdur Razzaq is easily one of the names in my list of favourite one-day international cricketers of all time and it is sad that he will not feature in the Twenty20 World Cup. He has so many times won matches for Pakistan coming in to bat in impossible situations and watching him smother the ball in Twenty20 cricket can only be a treat.

Now, the reason behind Razzaq's exclusion seems beyond logic to me and it does not help that the Pakistan selectors too have chosen not to divulge their reasons, if at all they do have any. Razzaq is, as expected, angry:

"If this is the way I am going to be treated after serving the country honestly and diligently, I should be the one now to decide when to make myself available for national selection. I don't know what the logic was. I am a senior player and deserve a phone call. When I was injured no one in the board bothered to call me up and find out how I was doing."

I think it would be correct to say that Razzaq has in no way over-reacted and his disappointment and anger is justified. The selectors and the PCB are caught on the wrong foot and I can only hope that they patch things up with the explosive batsman.

If things fail to calm down, Pakistan's loss might become the Indian Cricket Leagues's gain as Razzaq is apparently one of the players approached by the ICL and he is reportedly giving the offer some serious thought.

We'll have to wait and watch how this drama unfolds.

Anil Kumble steals the show!

2007-08-11T01:05:00.000+05:30

As the 2nd day of the 3rd test drew to a close there would not have been one Indian player disappointed with his performance during the match. Infact, the day was such that it seemed like the Gods had decided that any Indian who decided to walk on the Oval ground would suddenly turn into a near faultless man. The English players must be very staunch Christians as they generously helped God's cause by doing their bit on the field by spilling catches, missing stumping chances, conceding an astonishingly high number of byes and generally being poor fielders.

The poor fielding only served to further frustrate the already hassled English bowlers on an unresponsive pitch against in-form batsmen. And all the Indian batsmen cashed in. Kaarthick did well yesterday. Laxman was pure finesse in human form and played some absolutely delectable shots before nicking Tremlett to Prior who shocked everyone by holding on to the offering. Tendulkar too got runs, though at a very slow rate compared to the others. And then there was Dhoni who came in, looked jittery in the beginning, tried to play some orthodox cricket before deciding enough was enough and lashing out murderously at Panesar & co. 92 runs was his contribution to the Indian total in lightning quick time.

But all those who thought Dhoni would be the top scorer for the Indians and there was another record that would be set with no century involved in a high scoring innings, were proved wrong. For, the star of the day, Anil Kumble, walked in inconspicuously and conquered the English bowling with some superbly crafted shots endlessly coming one after the other from his willow and effectively stunned the Oval crowd with his century making effort. Almost a flawless innings enhanced in stature by the unexpectedness. And when the fine, lion-hearted man with an eternally child-like enthusiasm for the game celebrated his century everybody who was a witness couldn't help joining him in earnest joy. What a moment!

Thanks to that effort the Indian total is now at 664. I was hoping for atleast 550 and this total goes beyond all expectations.

With Zaheer Khan removing Strauss early when the English 1st innings began, it is obviously advantage India. But a wary eye is still necessary. England do have some hard hitting quality batsmen and once the ball gets older, the going will get tough for India.

The 3rd day is bound to be a hard day for the bowlers and it will be interesting to find out how they respond. Will Kumble strike gold again?

Making the bowlers sweat

2007-08-10T07:03:00.000+05:30

I must say Rahul Dravid won a great toss at The Oval just like he did at Trent Bridge. And now, just like the Indian bowlers responded impressively in the previous match it is upto the batsmen to come up with the goods and make an imposing first innings score. So far so good. You can't complain too much against the batsmen when the score reads 316/4 at the end of first day's play. But while its is nice to see all the batsmen batting with comfort, the lack of really outstanding individual performances is still a worrying factor.

It happened at Trent Bridge too where India scored 481 without a century. But that was in difficult conditions where 481 was huge. Here a first innings score atleast 550 is necessary to be able to exert any pressure on the English batting (the English line up of Strauss, Cook, Vaughan, Pietersen, Collingwood, Bell and Prior seem formidable enough to me on this pitch). And that means either of Sachin, Laxman or Dhoni need to stay put at the crease and get a big one.

Meanwhile, Kaarthick continues to inspire awe and hope in equal measures. The world seems to have forgotten his original profession as a specialist wicket-keeper and his flowing transformation into the opener India were looking for is baffling and at the same time a tribute to his dedication and unquestionable talent. He seems bent on fulfilling Greg Chappel's prophecy stating him to be a captain of the Indian side in the making. Good for him and for the Indian side. Whatever Javed Miandad might opine and however well Gautam Gambhir might perform in the tour games, this opening pair of Jaffer-Kaarthick should be kept intact.

And as Kaarthick's dream run continues, poor umpiring decisions continue to haunt Ganguly.
From cricinfo commentary:

79.5 Collingwood to Ganguly, OUT, well, the part-time bowler has made the breakthrough. The ball again nips back at Ganguly who is taken on the pad and a loud appeal is upheld by Ian Howell...but, oh dear, the replays show a big inside edge and Ganguly is unlucky. Collingwood gets his second scalp of the series, and both have owed plenty to the umpires.

That umpiring blunder not only cost India a wicket but probably a few runs too as Ganguly and Tendulkar were building up a nice partnership at the time. It is a shame that such incidents should occur that take the spotlight away from the action on the field. Maybe it is time the ICC started making some changes. Like tennis, we could have the batsmen appealing against umpiring decisions with a maximum quota of appeals per team in a match. Because, Ganguly was, I am sure, pretty aware of the edge and in such cases where the batsman has seen more than the umpire an appeal system could greatly help.

Preparations on for the Twenty20 Cup

2007-08-09T23:38:00.000+05:30

The first ever Twenty20 World Cup is fast approaching. Not knowing what to expect at an international level from this radically new format of the game, I guess the players should be as excited as us fans.

Especially in the Asian countries where Twenty20 has not really caught on as it has elsewhere, the selectors are having a tough time stitching together a team that they feel would be optimal for the shortened version. Former players and cricket columnists are freely voicing their disappointment with the selections. Kamran Abbasi wonders here why Mohammad Yousuf and Abdur Razzaq have been left out of Pakistan's Twenty20 squad.

Pakistan's squad for the Twenty20 World Cup: Shoaib Malik(capt), Salman Butt, Imran Nazir, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Yasir Arafat, Abdul Rehman.

As far as the Indian team is concerned, though drenched and dripping in unwanted media-cooked controversy, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly could not have made a better decision than opting out of the Twenty20 World Cup. Twenty20 is obviously as much about aggression and some unorthodox badgering as about 'getting the basics right'. While Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar seem to have mellowed down with time, Rahul Dravid has never been of the explosive variety. And as such it would only be wise to have some exciting young blood in the Twenty20 squad. However, given the way the Indian selectors have always backed players by reputation than playing form, I doubt if they would have left out the trio had they not pulled out voluntarily.

Anyway, with the big three gone, Dhoni, not very unexpectedly, is the captain of the Twenty20 squad. Dilip Vengsarkar, the Chairman of selectors, thinks Dhoni is good 'captaincy material'. Captaincy material or not, it is going to be a tough job for him.

The Indian squad for the Twenty20 World Cup: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Yuvraj Singh (VC), Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Joginder Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, S. Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Rohit Sharma.

Sri Lanka meanwhile have their team ready too.

The Lankan squad for the Twenty20 World Cup: Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Farveez Maharoof, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Hasantha Fernando, Gayan Wijekoon, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Jehan Mubarak.

That is a very strong and well balanced looking team. Runners up at the ICC World-Cup, the Lankans seem to be worthy contenders for the Twenty20 cup too.

I hope Australia don't run away with it this time.

The finale is on

2007-08-09T11:30:00.000+05:30

The 3rd and final Test encounter between India and England starts today and I can't wait to savour the intense action in store! Already there has been lots happening in this series with England almost winning the first match and India, amidst some controversial incidents, claiming the second one with some ease. The bowlers have rocked the party for most of the series so far and going by what is being said about the Oval pitch being less assisting to the seamers than Lord's and Trent Bridge, it ought to be time that we started seeing some serious runs being scored.

With confirmation of Kevin Pietersen's fitness, England will field the same side as in the second test and in all probability, inspite of many other options making themselves available, India too will do the same.

Vaughan and Dravid have their tasks cut out. Both have enjoyed some heavy scoring at the Oval in the past and both will be looking forward to repeating their earlier feats at the ground while hoping that the other doesn't. Vaughan looked superb at Trent Bridge and while I wouldn't mind watching him in full flow, I certainly would if it happened in this match.

Dravid's biggest task would be to try and keep his players' feet firmly rooted on the ground. We wouldn't want the players to get carried away by the success at Trent Bridge and end up losing this one as has so often happened in the past. Of course Dravid knows that and his comments in the press make it clear that he has already set his mind on doing just that. This is apparently what he said:

“I have challenged my boys to repeat what they did at Trent Bridge. It takes a lot to win Test matches and a lot more to win a Test series."

True. We know this Indian team has what it takes to win a test match playing against England in England. Lets see if this Indian team has what it takes to go further and bring home a series win. Sure, it will not be easy. The English are playing some good cricket. And that is exactly what makes the battle one to be looked forward to.

All eyes on the Television sets please.

A slew of options

2007-08-07T21:58:00.000+05:30

A practice match is normally seen as an oppurtunity for the selectors to try out new players and do some mixing and matching to come out with the best combination. In other words practice matches are supposed to provide answers to selection issues. But then the irony lies in the fact that almost everytime practice matches end up throwing in more choices and hence causing more dilemma among the selectors. And this time is no different.

For starters, the India-Sri Lanka 'A' match has ensured that the Yuvraj-Laxman tussle will again surface. While Laxman is surely the finer player among the two, his case is not helped by some very ordinary batting (14 & 3) in the match. Add to that Yuvraj's comparatively better performance (15* & 33) and it becomes obvious that Yuvraj's case has gathered more muscle.

The other question that will surely re-present itself is Dhoni's retention. One big argument in favour of persisting with Dhoni, inspite of his poor showing throughout this series, was that it would be taxing on Dinesh Kaarthick to double up as an opening batsman while also doing the job of a wicketkeeper. While it is still unlikely that Dhoni will be left out for the 3rd match, Gautam Gambhir's highly impressive performance (67 retired & a face-saving 53*) in the tour game will work towards bringing down the degree of unlikeliness because Gambhir is now a tempting choice for the slot of opening batsman thereby allowing Kaarthick to be pushed down.

Also, owing to the fiver that he managed to grab, Ranadeb Bose's candidature will also have to be taken seriously. Besides, Bose has now given the selectors the chance to consider leaving Sreesanth behind and giving him some time to think about his misdeeds in the last match and allow him to set his mind right.

The next toss up is between Romesh Powar and Anil Kumble. Kumble is the seasoned warhorse with an unimpressive away record while Powar is the exciting spinner who also happened to do well in the practice match. Tough choice this one. But I will root for Powar.

BCCI vs. The Indian Cricket League

2007-08-05T13:48:00.001+05:30

Sharad Pawar, the BCCI chief is out of his mind. His comments on the Indian Cricket League have, sadly, been in poor taste. Used to performing political antics and provoking his opponents in public during the course of his long tenure in Indian politics seem to have rendered him incapable of refined speech. Kapil Dev is, as usual, blatant with his views and will not mince any words when he is putting a point across. He will also not budge an inch from his stand and vigorously refuses to be intimidated. The final effect is a useless, not to mention dirty, war of words between the two men in responsible positions.

Pawar says: "I can't see any threat from the ICL. Not many people are interested in watching retired players in action. Everyone wants to see official cricket, not the oldies. I see no reason for young players going there. Only those who play official cricket can represent India."

In retort Kapil says: "If the board thinks that only the national XI can attract crowds, then it should stop conducting any domestic tournament".

And all this is happening through the media. So sweet!

Now, first of all Pawar should not have made that statement at all, whatever be the circumstances. Second, 'Oldies' is not a very nice word. Third, why should the BCCI worry about the ICL being a threat at all? Isn't the BCCI an organization that is supposed to ensure the continuous progress of cricketing standards in India, apart from the administrative jobs? Shouldn't the BCCI be basing their opinion of the ICL more on what it can or cannot offer to Indian cricket rather than whether it could or could not be a threat to the BCCI?

My inability to comprehend the logic behind Sharad Pawar's remarks could mean three things: Either I am missing something here or I do not understand the functioning of the BCCI or Sharad Pawar himself has no idea what he is talking about. I take the third option.

A virtual Murali!

2007-08-05T06:00:00.000+05:30

The Australians are seem to be bent on taking the use of technology in cricket to a whole new level. They are coming up with a virtual reality studio where batsmen can pad up and face virtual bowlers bowling at them from a huge life-size screen. From Brisbane Times:

Australia's cricketers may soon be able to go into a virtual reality studio during a Test match and "shadow bat" against the bowlers they are about to face in the middle.

Cameras will be set up to capture as nearly as possible a batsman's-eye view of the opposition bowlers, and relay the feed to a studio near the Australian dressing room.

Players padded up and waiting to bat will be able to rehearse their innings using images gathered from the middle, and projected life-size back into the pavilion.

If the system works as hoped, it will mean that a player like Mike Hussey can go out to face Muttiah Muralitharan having already got his eye in against him in real time, with the ability to replay deliveries he found difficult.

He could, for instance, use the cameras to polish his technique against Murali's deadly "doosra", the apparent off-spinner that turns the other way.

This is either crazy or just genius. The concept does not seem all that bad at all. Every time a batsmen comes in a lot of deliveries go wasted in the period when the batsman is 'getting into the groove'. If this virtual reality batting can work as well as it sounds the oft quoted adage 'the best way of keeping the run rate down is to take wickets' might soon become history.

Jelly beans, beamers and shoulder barging

2007-08-02T20:22:00.000+05:30

Sreesanth went horribly overboard with excitement and ended up shoulder-barging Micheal Vaughan. The jelly-beans incident between Zaheer and Pietersen was silly and ridiculous.

There was a lot of chattering, jeering and provoking going on. And then there was that beamer(unintentional is my guess) that Sreesanth gifted Pietersen with.

Looked at individually, these incidents are in bad taste and totally against the sportman's spirit. But looking at them collectively in the context of the match and the series, these incidents also seem to have electrified the whole match and the series into an exciting, gripping and interesting battle between India and England. I can see the makings of a nice little healthy rivalry here that will only make the quality of cricket all the better. Wasn't it obvious that the quality of Indian bowling went by a notch or two when Kevin Pietersen came in to bat during the second test?

India, the better team

2007-07-31T23:59:00.000+05:30

I guess it boils down to just that. The Indian team played better cricket than England and ended up winning the match. That is the short term gain from the match: a win. But the long-term gains for India from the match is what makes the win so remarkable and crucial.

For one thing, we are now one drawn game away from a famous series win in England. A victory that will serve in lifting the haunting cloud of 'poor travellers' from Indian cricket.

But the most outstanding achievement, I believe, has been that we have won despite some low scores from Rahul Dravid. A look into Indian overseas performances in recent years will show you that in almost every match that India have done well Rahul Dravid's has been a prominent contribution. Many a time he has won matches single-handedly in very hostile and un-subcontinental batting conditions. Not this time though. And a lot of the credit for that should go to the new success of the opening pair of Dinesh Kaarthick and Wasim Jaffer, a find which is another heartening outcome from the match. Of course the other batsmen were up to the task too. That in a score of 481, there was no century involved itself points to an even contribution from all the batsmen: something to feel happy about.

The next best thing was the heroics of the pace bowling department. Except for the first day in the Lords test match when they seemed to have lost their composure a bit, they have been consistently outstanding. The English bowlers were clearly overshadowed by their Indian counterparts. Something that doesn't happen very often.

All in all it was five days of consistently good cricket from the Indian side that ensured a win. A comfortable and dominating win away from home. What more could you ask for? A repeat performance, probably.

The Twenty20 World Cup must be a nightmare for the umpires

2007-07-31T22:21:00.000+05:30

While the anticipation builds, plans are carefully laid and tickets sold by the gallon for the Twenty20 World Cup, nobody spares a thought for the umpires.

Imagine a Twenty20 match between India and Pakistan! A one-dayer is bad enough for the umpires with a lot of excited screaming and slogan shouting happening in the crowds making the umpire's job a very unenviable one. So when the overseers of the game are subjected to the nerve-racking experience of concentrating on even the subtlest happenings on the field with a million frenzied fans driving themselves crazy around them in a twenty20 match, we will have to expect a few fallen hairs and sweaty brows among them. Poor men!

Add to that the International Cricket Council's ruling that the umpire's have to remain calm during the match, and you will see just how how pathetic their situation is. I mean, how can you expect two men to remain calm in the middle of a raging storm? Boy, its going to be tough work!

Nine umpires are chosen for the job during the Twnety20 World cup: Mark Benson, Billy Doctrove, Daryl Harper, Asad Rauf, Simon Taufel, Steve Davis, Ian Howell, Nigel Llong and Tony Hill. And I suppose you could safely bet on atleast nine men badly cursing the guy behind the Twenty20 idea.

And by the way, it is sad that we will not have Billy Bowden(yeah, he's the one who introduced the yellow card in cricket) officiating during the World Cup thanks to that World Cup final fiasco. That man is literally cut out for the Twenty20 format. Take a look at this little cartoon I found on the Internet.

What has Harbhajan Singh been upto?

2007-07-30T14:38:00.000+05:30

Harbhajan Singh did not find a place in the Indian squad to England. But that does not prevent him from taking wickets on English soil and that too in heaps.

The 'Turbanator' is playing county cricket in England for Surrey and seems to be enjoying himself rather well so far. The match against Worcestershire landed a huge haul of 9 wickets for him. 29 - 7 - 6 - 44 & 34 - 12 - 64 - 5 read his figures for the match which is all the more impressive when you consider that only 5 Worcestershire wickets fell in the second innings of the drawn game and all five went to Harbhajan.

Obviously, he has been busy and very effective in English conditions, the same conditions where the Indian team happens to be playing right now. So, do these figures indicate anything about what he could do as part of the Indian team on this tour of England? I know there is no use speculating. Especially so given the huge gap in standards between county cricket and international cricket. But then, I just couldn't help wondering.

Mellowed Ganguly

2007-07-30T14:26:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, the 3rd day of the ongoing test match against England, Simon Taufel gave Sourav Ganguly out when he clearly wasn't. Now, you can't blame me for having expected Sourav to stand rooted to his crease and given Taufel his trademark 'incredulous stare' like he has so many times done in the past. Surprisingly, Ganguly didn't do that and just chose to walk away, flaying his bat in the air.

I tell you, that can mean only one thing. The man has mellowed down a lot in the past year. Is that good or bad? I don't know. But going by how patient he has been with his cricket in this series against England, maybe it is for the good.

Already smelling victory

2007-07-29T14:06:00.002+05:30

What a day of cricket for India! Frankly, as an Indian supporter I very rarely get to see the team play two consecutive days of near perfect test cricket and every time that happens, it is a reason to celebrate.

When the second day started with England at 169/7 after a rain-shortened first day's play, I had numerous memories of occasions when India have allowed themselves to be frustrated by the opposition's tail, playing in my mind. Thankfully, none of that happened as Kumble and Khan made quick work of Tremlett, Panesar and Anderson. And exactly as the doctor ordered, India had England bundled out for less than 200 runs.

Now, this is when I realized what a pessimist recent Indian batting performances have made me into. Soon as Kaarthick and Jaffer came in to bat, I started thinking on the lines of 'what if the batting collapses?', 'what if the batsmen, yet again, succumb to their reputation of being good only on paper?'. Fortunately, though, my fears were misplaced. After a long long time a solid and comforting opening partnership of 147 runs was effected by Kaarthick and Jaffer. Sure, they were lucky at times. They played and missed and survived some pretty 'dead-duck' lbw decisions. But they got those vital 147 runs, the foundation on which the whole batting line-up can now build upon. Infact they better build upon the rock-solid foundation.

India will go into into the 3rd day at 254/3 with old friends Ganguly and Tendulkar taking guard at the crease. With Laxman and Dhoni still to come and lots of time still left in the match, to expect a lead of atleast 250 runs is, I think, reasonable(provided Ryan Sidebottom continues his poor run with the ball!) . Yes, I can smell victory here.

After all, a lead of 250 runs playing on a Trent Bridge pitch is about as good a formula for victory as you can get. And yes, Kaarthick and Jaffer seem to have made an optimist out of me.

Trent Bridge does swing

2007-07-28T05:35:00.000+05:30

So everything that I have been reading and listening to about Trent Bridge has been proved true so far. The ball is swinging and seaming around like a mad cow and inspite of the Indian bowlers not being all that spectacular England are still on the mat. All their top batsmen are gone. It is clearly advantage India now. And it has been so throughout the day since Rahul Dravid win the toss and chose to bowl first.

I think it is obvious that one big reason why England could even get so close to victory before rain came in the way in the first test at Lord's was the first innings lead of 97 runs that they managed to get. And that in turn was more because of some very inept bowling by the Indians, caused by over-excited nerves, on the first day rather than good batting from the Englishmen. They did recover later, but the damage was done. Now, since the same excitement and nervous anticipation of playing at Lord's in the first match of an important series cannot spill into the second match, this match was always going to be a better one for the Indian bowlers. England are on 169/7 at the end of the first day's play and to think that the score could have been even worse is very exciting for India's prospects in this series.

It could have been worse because, I feel, Sreesanth and RP can bowl a lot better than they did. Both were guilty of sending the ball down too wide away from the batsman on more than just a few occasions. But then, the surprising factor was clearly Ganguly. Luckily, he was able to bowl his gentle pace with a lot more precision and sometimes even outshone our leading bowlers, excepiting Zaheer of course. Zaheer was awesome throughout the day. That ball that got Vaughan was a total peach!

So now, I suppose it is upto the batsmen not to squander the advantage India have gained. We might get England bowled out for less than 200 and a mighty lead in the first innings could be the first step towards achieving that series win in England that has been eluding the team for a long long time. Tomorrow, the 2nd day, will bring a lot of answers and I am looking forward to a good day's cricket.

And so the ICL grows...

2007-07-26T09:17:00.000+05:30

As the Indian cricket team has been busy touring England and almost losing the first test match of the tour, something quite different has been brewing here in India. Suddenly the Indian Cricket League is full of stars and is seeming to be a reality after all. Till a few weeks ago there was just a lot of talk happening and a lot of controversies adding on to the hype surrounding the breakaway league.

The details are of course still as murky. Subhash Chandra, the architect behind the ICL, is a man who has spent an entire lifetime promoting television channels and programs and what not and knows exactly how excitement and expectations can be created amongst an audience by just keeping them mostly in the dark and every now and then allowing a tiny shaft of light to come through.

And as such the latest news that Brian Lara, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath (all big, big names) have confirmed their interest in joining the League is not just pleasantly surprising but also makes the Indian Cricket League something to look forward to.

Apart from the promise of good twenty20 cricket cricket sometime in October, it is the composition of the teams that would take part in the ICL that makes it all the more acceptable. The teams will apparently consist of four names from international cricket, two Indian cricket stars and the rest would be from Indian domestic arena. Such a formula is bound to ensure a very effective breeding ground for quality cricketers from India, something more than what Ranji cricket been able to achieve.

Of course the reality will only be evident when the matches actually happen. Till then we'll just have to sit and watch and occasionally speculate.

Whitewash!

2007-07-26T06:06:00.000+05:30

Yeah, you know what I am talking about. The Sri Lanka-Bangladesh series. What was imminent has happened. The Bangladesh batsmen have caved in for another low score and that means a meaningless and torturous Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka has mercifully come to an end. One in which Bangladesh has managed to lose all the 3 test matches and all the 3 one-day internationals played.

And that too without ever putting up even an inkling of a fight in any of the games. Which makes me think that maybe the series was not all that meaningless. It serves to show us how difficult it can be for a new team to climb up the ladder in international cricket and how little is done to help them in this task. The odd series every now and then will only result in demoralizing victories. There has been no evidence to the contrary so far in the previous years since Bangladesh embraced test cricket.

The difference between the two sides: Kevin Pietersen

2007-07-25T06:28:00.000+05:30

So the India-England match is drawn and what a close shave it was! One wicket to be taken and around 30 overs left in the day. The only hope of saving the match was the rains and the fading light and save they did. Should be really frustrating for the English camp and surely a huge relief for the Indians. Atleast I am relieved.

But then the feeling of not having fought as-hard-as-we-could-have is still there. The most disappointing part is no doubt the inability of any of Laxman, Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly to make a big score. Had any one of them been able to do that, like Pietersen did, we would have doubtlessly been in a much better situation. Ofcourse the English bowlers were good. But what is most intriguing is that Kaarthick and Dhoni, relative newbies in the Indian side, looked more comfortable against quality swing bowling than the 'senior' players inspite of them being less familiar to English conditions( to be fair, Laxman was looking good and was a little unlucky in the second innings to get a freakish delivery that kept a little low). There is a lot of talk of the 'pressure of expectations' on the senior players in the team and I think a lot of that is true.

Anyway, what is important is that there were some great moments for the Indian camp too. The bowlers, especially RP Singh, were good throughout the match except for the first day. The Kaarthick-Jaffer opening combination seems to be working nicely and I hope it can continue to survive(irrespective of whether Javed Miandad likes it or not, Kaarthick is almost a regular in the team now). And it was good that the Indian batsmen could survive for 92 overs in the last innings of the match, though the tail could have wagged a little more.

Totally, things are still bright. There are two more matches to go and India still have a very good chance of clinching a series win. The only selection decision that would be given great thought for the mext match, I suppose, should be Yuvraj Singh. And thanks to Kaarthick and his exploits with the bat, talks of leaving out Dhoni might again resurface. This England tour is going to be very interesting.

One last hope

2007-07-23T22:25:00.000+05:30

Obviously the Indian top order batsmen have been very ordinary in the ongoing match against England. Our bowlers, especially RP, did a great job since the second day. But really, it wouldn't be too unfair to say that one day of some wayward bowling on the first day messed things up a lot.

Anyway, the 'awesome trio' of Ganguly, Tendulkar and Dravid too failed to contribute substantially all through the match and so now its only rain or bad light that can save the match! Our one last frickin' hope! Come on Mr.Bucknor and Mr.Taufel, give us the good news! Tell us the match is called off!

Australia's new spinning talents

2007-07-23T22:00:00.000+05:30

Shane Warne is no more on the cricket scene and Brad Hogg and Stuart McGill aren't getting any younger. And so the Australians are in the process of unearthing some new spin talent which could prove to be something to ponder about for the Indian think tank(if there does exist any) when the Australian team descends on Indian soil for seven one-dayers by late September and also later when the Indians begin their tour of Australia during the December of this year.

Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey are the 'promising young men' and the Australians are already counting on them to be able to cause trouble to the Indian line-up. Atleast Darren Lehmann thinks so:

Lehmann is confident his South Australian team-mates(Cullen and Bailey) can cope against India's intimidating batting line-up. "It would be a great learning curve for them," he said. "Indian batsmen play spin well, but they don't traditionally play spin that well in Australia. It would be more making sure Bailey and Cullen are ready. They are both ahead of the game and where they want to be."

They are both part of the Austraian 'A' team scheduled to tour Pakistan shortly. Will be interesting to see if the duo are really deserving of all that praise from Lehmann.

Gulliver and the liliputs!

2007-07-21T06:29:00.001+05:30

Bangladesh are skittled out again. This time it is one-day cricket. The only reason why I am keeping track of the Sri-Lanka Bangladesh series is to find out just how low Bangladesh can possibly go. Infact, taken together, this series must achieve some sort of a record. Maybe if you add up the victory margins in all the matches played so far in the series it should come up to a gigantic record-breaking figure.

One-day cricket is always easier for the new teams in cricket as you only require to be consistent for one full day rather than five days. But any hopes of Bangladesh putting up a fight atleast in the one-dayers, after being dismally ripped apart in the tests, proved baseless. The loss was by 70 runs and that after having been able to restrict the Lankans to a low score of 234. And considering that Sri Lanka were without Murali and Vaas, their main bowlers, that paltry score of 164 that they could manage just proves how clueless Bangladesh are in international cricket.

And so they continue to struggle. I wonder for how long.

Awesome bowling!

2007-07-20T21:35:00.000+05:30

It really took some great swing bowling by Zaheer, Sreesanth and RP Singh to reduce England from 257-3 to a mere 298 all out. Its been a great day of cricket so far for India at the Lords.

The first day was marked by some frustratingly wayward bowling, dropped chances and good English batting. There was still Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Matt Prior, all dangerous batsmen, to be taken care of when the second day's play started today and I guess every Indian supporter was entitled to worry about England setting up a huge 1st innings score that could have resulted in a big threat to India's chances.

Luckily the new ball and the new ball bowlers had other ideas. The Fall of Wickets was really rapid: 5-272 (Sidebottom, 82.5 ov), 6-286 (Pietersen, 85.1 ov), 7-287 (Prior, 86.3 ov), 8-287 (Tremlett, 86.6 ov), 9-297 (Panesar, 90.4 ov), 10-298 (Bell, 91.2 ov)

And now it is time for the England bowlers to peg away at the Indian batsmen. While I type Jaffer and Sachin are looking pretty solid. The score is at 89/2 and it certainly looks like the ball has gotten older and batting is getting easier. The early fall of Kaarthick and Dravid doesn't seem to have hurt much. With Ganguly, Laxman and Dhoni still to come I can already see some exciting cricket coming!

Hmmm...Monty is into the attack now and Tendulkar has just paddled swept one to the boundary. Fine shot! 93/2. Monty is not pleased.This is going to be good!

Javed Miandad's crazy ideas

2007-07-20T07:25:00.000+05:30

I get the feeling Javed Miandad sometimes talks just for the heck of it. He has an opinion about anything and everything and sometimes goes on air making the craziest statements on cricket and cricketers. I am hugely aware and respectful of his stature as a former international cricketer but when he comes out with his out-of-the-blue ideas it really does tick me off.

The report in question:

Heaping praise on Yuvraj, Miandad said the Punjab player's abundant talent and electrifying fielding made him an automatic choice."It would be a great folly to ignore a player of Yuvraj's calibre," Miandad said."He is a supreme talent, one of the best in the game today. Besides, he brings the X-factor to the side with his fielding," the former Pakistan captain told Cricketnext.Com.Asked how could be Yuvraj accommodated in the Indian battling line-up, Miandad said Dinesh Kaarthick, despite his modest success, could be left out with flamboyant Mahendra Singh Dhoni continuing behind the stumps.

All the 'praising Yuvraj' stuff is okay. Yuvraj is a very useful batsman and can belt some runs down the order apart from putting in some overs with the ball, not to mention his electrifying presence on the field. But Yuvraj in place of Kaarthick? Now, that could only mean Miandad is not following Indian cricket all that well. After a long time India has been able to put up an opening pair of Kaarthick and Jaffer that is showing atleast a semblance of promise. The most foolish thing that could be done now is to break this budding pair and foolishly resume the hapless search for another opening pair!

Excitement in the air!

2007-07-19T22:23:00.000+05:30

So this is the day when the Indian cricket team begins the quest for that elusive series victory in England. The ground where it all begins is Lords where the atmosphere is always perfect for cricket. Expectations, apprehensions and opinions are hanging thick everywhere. Both teams are coming in from very satisfying series wins after a poor showing in the World Cup. Both teams are well matched and the promise of great cricket to come in the next few weeks has me all pumped up!

As I said there are opinions everywhere. But of special interest is Tendulkar's form and how he will fare through this series especially considering the sudden surge in form he has displayed against South Africa in the one-day series and now in the warm-up games in England as well.

Alec Stewart says:

The stellar batting line-up that India possess will be worth the admission money for those lucky enough to obtain tickets and I am sure that cricket lovers around the world will be hoping that Sachin Tendulkar will eventually get his first long-awaited century at Lord's - and thus get his name up on the honours board in the visitors dressing-room. Not to have two of the greatest players of the modern era in Brian Lara and Tendulkar scoring Test hundreds at the home of cricket would be a travesty. This could well be Tendulkars last opportunity and with England's very inexpeienced bowling attack on show he has a great opportunity.

Tendulkar will be happy to note that, wouldn't he? He averages 19.20 in five innings, with a highest of just 31 at Lords! If he can get a big one here then that could provide a real prop to the Indian chances as well as remove that unfitting Lords record from against his name.

Is two a crowd?

2007-07-19T00:11:00.000+05:30

Whoa! These are the kind of moments when you suddenly realize that time has indeed been ticking past at quite a rapid pace. Remember those times when a good clean wicketkeeper batsman for India was as rare as water in a desert? Rahul Dravid had to handle the job then inspite of being, primarily, a batsman with very limited wicketkeeping abilities. Then came along Mahendra Singh Dhoni and almost immediately became the dream man the whole country was looking for. He came and conquered and within no time cemented a permanent place in the team.

And now suddenly the selectors even seem to have the luxury of pondering over leaving such a marvellous 'find' as Dhoni out in favour of yet another man who can do the job with no less finesse, Dinesh Kaarthick.

Dhoni has been involved in a few fumbles behind the wickets of late during the tour matches and though during other times, with no Kaarthick breathing down his neck, those would have gone unnoticed, it is very much possible that these are counted against him this time round and the selectors may hand over the job to Kaarthick who has been looking more and more reliable with every passing day.

It will be interesting to see what the selectors decide for Kaarthick will also be opeing for the Indian team and handling both jobs of full-time wicketkeeper and opening batsman might prove to be a burden on Kaarthick's shoulders.

All the same, Dhoni will have to be wary about his position in the team. No longer is his place granted. Neither is Kaarthick's. You can never be sure when the selectors will decide that two wicketkeepers in a team is a crowd. And that means continuous improvement should be the mantra for the duo which in turn can only mean better performances from the point of view of Indian cricket.

Cricket News and Matches at Top Samachar

2007-07-18T08:23:00.000+05:30

There is a lot of talk(and rightly so) on the blogosphere about cricinfo's coverage being very England centric. They better do something about it lest other cricket news websites such as Top Samachar take over. Top Samachar neatly aggregates all the cricket news(mainly India-centric) from around many websites into one place and presents it to the user in a very simple navigation-friendly interface. Ofcourse there are also other news sections such as Bollywood news, business news etc. But for me it is the cricket section that is most attractive. After all, the promise of all the news at one place sorted out by topic has to be attractive. Plus you could watch cricket matches live on the website. The ongoing India-England tour will be available for live viewing and I am totally going to be following it.

Congrats Murali!

2007-07-17T06:20:00.000+05:30

I know this is belated, but nonetheless congratulations are totally due to Murali for having achieved that amazing feat of capturing 700 test victims. What an achievement! And that too in the face of all the criticism and bad mouthing that has happened against him and will continue throughout his career. Inspite of all that he has smiled his way to that mark like a real sport.

With just eight more to go to equal Shane Warne's record of 708 wickets, it is very ironical that he will most probably achieve it in the land down under which is Shane Warne's homeland and also happens to be the land where he has been heckled the most. Will the crowd give him a standing ovation or will he be subjected to some extended booing? With the Australian crowd you can never say. Should be real fun to watch!

All eyes on VVS Laxman

2007-07-16T09:39:00.000+05:30

Vengipurappu Venkat Sai Laxman has always been one of my favourite test cricketers. But I, and many others I am sure, have sorely missed watching him in action in many games in the recent past where he was very unfairly sidelined. However this time round Laxman has made sure the selectors cannot turn a blind eye at him by scoring that typical free-flowing Laxman 95 in the first warm-up match leading to the England tour. But then, unbelievably, even that cannot guarantee a place for the flamboyant, free-stroking in the team. What that innings will ensure, as I said before, is only that he will be in contention for a spot.

To qoute Siddhartha Vaidyanathan from Cricinfo:

Early in his international career, he was caught between opening the batting and playing in the middle order; now he often faces the dilemma of whether to flow or graft. Initially he struggled for a place because of the batting riches India possessed; recently he's lost out, twice in the last year, to the five-bowler experiment. For the first few years, everyone waited for the real VVS Laxman to emerge; of late they've longed for the real VVS to re-emerge.

That is the kind of life Laxman has led in international cricket. The once celebrated Hyderabadi hailed as 'Very Very Special' Laxman man has had to go against his natural nature to try and satisfy the unrelenting selectors. Really, it wouldn't be very unfair to say that the selectors policy of 'promoting youth' has pushed him out of the fray so many times that the pressure on him to perform well and prove his natural ability has had a major hand in some of his failures at the international level.

Even this time, I wouldn't be surprised if Ganguly and/or Yuvraj are selected ahead of Laxman for no apparent reason other than that they have done well in recent one-dayers. What the selectors don't understand is that one-day international cricket and test cricket are totally different forms of the game and anyway Laxman never got a chance to play in the one-dayers at all. Irrespective of how much Laxman toils, I fear it will again be the same old story for Laxman: 'I am disappointed at being left out, but I will perform well and hope to make a comeback soon'.

Though I hope the selectors are somehow convinced by Laxman, if his past trysts with them are any indication, he will have a tough time finding a place in the squad inspite of being so deserving of one. Yet I hope.

West Indian cricket

2007-07-12T02:08:00.000+05:30

West Indian cricket is a real enigma. I, for one, just cannot see why a side with such big names as Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul and such awesome talent as Marlon Samuels, Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Bravo, Runako Morton and Daren Powell should perform as badly as they did in the World Cup(that too playing in their own backyards) and then later in test matches on the English tour. Almost weird.

But what a series of ODIs they have had against England! Chris Gayle and his mates truly deserve every bit of the joy and celebration. Frankly, I least expected the West Indians to even give a fight leave alone winning the series 2-1 after what happened in the tests. But as I said, West Indian cricket is truly a total enigma. One neither me nor anyone can ever hope to unravel.

You can always try by first saying West Indian cricket and their players are more suited to the shortened form of the game and hence the sudden improvement in results in the ODIs. But then, they will surprise you and as if to refute your observation they will descend on the field on another day fielding the same team in similar conditions and end up losing. Not just losing but losing pathetically.

Then you will perhaps the say ODI win on English soil was just a flash in the pan and the Carribeans are not all that good after all. But within days of that statement they will surprise you with a performance so fantastic that you can only watch and marvel.

And then you will be at a total loss. You will then, like me, stop analysing and forecasting results of cricket matches involving the Carribeans and learn to live with the extremely unpredictable roller-coaster ride that is West Indian cricket.

Still I cant help hoping this thumping win against England will signal a more successfully consistent future for West Indian cricket.

Cricketing action as an Art

2007-07-09T06:17:00.000+05:30

These pictures are taken from Cricket=Action=Art, a cricket blog maintained by Marty D, bent on portraying cricket in a totally different way than what we all perceive.

Marty takes pictures of cricketers in action and photoshops them to give them a radically new look and feel. These are pictures that we will have come across every day and yet we will have failed to seen them as cool and artful as they are at Cricket=Action=Art.

Some more pictures:

Check out the blog for many more of these.

A laboratory for innovation?

2007-07-08T20:19:00.000+05:30

With all the hype, controversies, speculations and expectations surrounding the Indian Cricket League, it better amount to something. So far there has not been much information about what is going on except for stray rumours and spats with the BCCI.

However, Subhash Chandra, the man behind the plan, does make it all sound very exciting in the letter he apparently wrote to Sharad Pawar explaining what he intends to do with the ICL (apart from making a few quick bucks)

'The idea is also to develop India, a leading cricketing nation, as the laboratory to innovate new models of cricket so that we set the agenda for innovation for others to follow,' Chandra wrote in a three-page letter to Pawar faxed April 3, the day he announced the formation of ICL under the Essel group banner.
'The Essel initiative on cricket involves a 3-D approach that integrates the vision and action on diligence, discovery and display,' Chandra wrote in the letter, a copy of which is with IANS. Chandra said he plans to innovate, unearth talent and transform 'midgets' into mature, mentally strong and confident players.

India as a laboratory to innovate? That sounds interesting. Especially given that Indian cricket has not really been known as 'trendsetting'. If Chandra can actually achieve what he propounds then this might well be the best thing that could happen to Indian cricket. But even if Chandra can put in a downright honest effort into bringing this concept into the realm of reality then that in itself will be a feat worthy of praise.

Maybe the BCCI and the others concerned would do well to shed their rigid stance and consider exending their support to the initiative.

Why no Dravid?

2007-07-06T17:04:00.000+05:30

The ongoing SriLanka-Bangladesh series is no doubt a joke on the face of cricket. Everybody knows what the result will be and yet the two teams put on a facade of 'battling it out' and play out the whole test match as some sort of a routine. But as if to push that joke aside. Here is another joke.

Frankly, I don't understand much about the need for coming up with dream teams at the drop of a hat. But apparently some men have some together to form an all-time great India XI:

To mark 75 years since India played its first cricket match against England in 1932, eight former Indian captains -- G R Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, S Venkataraghavan, K Srikkanth, Ajit Wadekar, Nari Contractor, Syed Kirmani and Abbas Ali Baig -- were requested to pick their all-time India best Test XI.

And the joke is that the list of players left out of the XI also includes, wait for it, Rahul Dravid!

Here is the team:

Sunil Gavaskar (captain), Vinoo Mankad, Vijay Hazare (vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammed Azharuddin, G R Vishwanath, Kapil Dev, Syed Kirmani (wk), Javagal Srinath, EAS Prasanna, Subash Gupte. 12th Man: Vijay Manjrekar.

No doubt these are big names and I don't claim myself to be an authority on Indian cricket. But given the sheer number of away victories Rahul Dravid has won for us alone, I think it should only be logical that Rahul Dravid should figure in the XI. Any list of Indian greats without that name has to be a joke.

A joke of a match

2007-07-05T23:30:00.000+05:30

It is going to take a long time before Bangladesh recover from the sound thrashing they have received at the hands of the marauding Lankans. Scores of 62 all out and 78/5(before Mohammed Ashraful and Mushfiqur Rahim decided to stem the rot, but only for a while) in two innings almost seem like a demeaning joke! The Sri Lankans have so far in the series literally toyed with the Bangladesh batsmen as well as bowlers ending up with embarrasingly one-sided victories, something that is sure to plant a huge spear right at the heart of the Bangladesh players' collective ego.

To Bangladesh's credit they certainly did come up with a relatively better performance in the second innings but that was only courtesy the efforts of two players. And two good players in a team of eleven is just not enough. Of the two, Ashraful has always had us expect good things from him. So it turns out that the only player who has had the cricket world sit up and take notice is Mushfiqur Rahim. When in a young team, there is only one man showing signs of improvement, I am afraid that doesnt augur well at all. Clearly, only further humiliation awaits Bangladesh cricket in the 3rd test and many more tests after that.

When Sri Lanka had made a quick job of their first test victory against Bangladesh, I had made a mention of their amazing regularity with which they have ensured, not just wins, but really big wins against the minnow nations. And this time they have done that again.

This comment probably sums up the miserable Bangladesh performance:

"You can only write an obituary on this scorecard but not a report."
A veteran journalist reacts after Bangladesh were bundled out for 62 on Tuesday.

Funny Yet true.

A proud captain...and why not?

2007-07-05T07:52:00.000+05:30

An impressive array of trophies huh? Thats Ricky Ponting posing with the World Cup, the Champions Trophy, The Ashes, the ICC ODI trophy and the ICC Test trophy. Just more reason for envy.

Wonder when Rahul Dravid will get to pose like that. Wishful thinking? Yeah. Totally wishful thinking.

Such a shame

2007-07-05T05:49:00.000+05:30

Aw! I was totally looking forward to the India-Pakistan one-off clash at Glasgow. The beauty of a one-off game is that all the effort and rivalry is concentrated on winning one single match at any damn cost. Especially when it is a India-Pakistan encounter the voltage was sure to be high. Such a shame that the rain had to spoil it all.

Irrespective of any claims made by the Pakistan side to the contrary, India was always a favourite against a new look Pakistan team with a new captain in Shoaib Malik at the helm. And that makes me all the more disappointed, if not livid, at having been denied the pleasure of witnessing the match. Goddamn rains! Covers on a cricket pitch is such a grim and sorry sight.

RIP Dilip Sardesai

2007-07-05T05:48:00.000+05:30

Vijay Merchant had given him the title of The 'Renaissance Man' of Indian cricket.

He was one of the more outspoken men among the former Indian cricketers. I clearly remember having read an interview of his in which he had blatantly registered his reservations about Shoaib Akhtar's bowling action and had even gone on to call the umpires toothless for having failed to bring the chuckers to justice. He had once even labelled Steve Bucknor's umpiring 'useless'!

Read Dilip Sardesai's profile at Cricinfo.

Enough! Lets look ahead.....

2007-07-04T00:48:00.000+05:30

Its amazing how the table of opinions can turn with just one series win. And it is especially amusing when the series in question, in classic terms, is not a series at all. Just three stray one-day international matches carelessly flung into the calender for no reason whatsoever, for that is what the three-match India-South Africa 'series' at Glasgow was. India manages to win two of them. One of the wins involved an all too familiar middle-order collapse which was thankfully checked by a neat Yuvraj innings accompanied by Kaarthick. The other win involved a failure of the top order leaving the team dangling at 38/3. If not for the calming and steadying presence if Dravid, a role on which a disturbingly significant number of India's wins have rested, God knows what score we would have managed.

And yet talks are afloat on the lines of 'having left behind the ghosts of the World Cup' and the team having revived itself to world-beating standards again. Just how much of all the hype and praise is actually necessary?

When cricket fans in India took out processions and went about burning effigies after India's humiliating exit from the first round of the World Cup, everyone was very quick to suggest over-reaction. Yes, that was over-reaction. I agree. But isn't this unnecessary hype over two stray wins also over-reaction? Why doesnt anyblody want to point that out?

Dravid had said after the win:

"After the World Cup disappointment, we needed to regroup and get our confidence back. We have worked hard as a team and deserve all the success that comes our way"

Maybe that comment has come a little too early, skip. Sterner tests await at England. And if we can get out that contest unhurt, then and only then can you count on your 'hard work' having borne fruits. Lets not get overexcited please.

So..has Sachin finally hit form?

2007-07-01T20:11:00.000+05:30

17.4 Nel to Tendulkar, SIX, awesome! Nel drops short outside off stump, and has to watch the ball sail over deep backward square leg for maximum! A powerful pull shot for six!

That was the shot that sent shivers of elation down my spine. A ferocious pull for a six...none less! And that at a time when Sachin Tendulkar struggles to even make clean contact with the ball. Plus the treatment was meted out to Andre Nel, that big bully whom any opposition would love to hate, which pleased me no end.

Reminded me of that six Sachin had scored off Caddick in the 2003 World Cup. Check out the video.

Of course, I do realize the Caddick shot was way better and classier. But during these troubled times, the Andre Nel six will do. And congrats to the man on reaching the 15000 landmark. Truly a colossal achievement. The fruit of a lifetime of total dedication. It is sad indeed that, inspite of all his achievements, he has had to swallow lowly insults from the unforgiving Indian fans during the course of his career. All in the game, I guess.

What was inevitable has finally happened..just a lot quicker

2007-06-29T07:58:00.000+05:30

It was all very nice to see the top five Bangladesh batsmen hold fort against the likes of Murali, Malinga and Fernando for as many as 80 full overs on the 3rd day of their test match against Sri Lanka. But then we all knew Sri Lanka had the game firmly in their grasp right from day one.

And on the 4th day Malinga's toe-crunching yorkers and Murali's cunning doosra's, quite a handful for any team, unsurprisingly proved a little too hot for the Bangladesh boys.

Malinga and Murali, in the space of just 5 overs between them, managed 5 scalps and sealed the match. Wow! That was quick! I knew the victory was coming..but not that quick!

And let not Malinga's colourful curls fool you. This man can talk a lot of sense. This interview of his where he talks about his unique bowling style, his inspiration and his strategies makes for some especially interesting reading.

Remember Dodda Ganesh? Remember Mohd. Azharuddin?

2007-06-28T20:31:00.000+05:30

It is no secret that Indian cricket is flooded with more political presence than is necessary. And now Indian politics is going to see some cricket presence too. Dodda Ganesh has made an entry into the realm of Indian politics by enrolling into no lesser a party than the JD(S), that of our very own former Prime Minister Mr.H.D.Deve Gowda!

Now, I wouldn't be too surprised if you said Dodda Ganesh who? For his has been only a fleeting presence in International cricket playing for the Indian team, what with just 4 test matches and a single one-day international to his name. But he has been a leading pace bowler for the Karnataka team for over a decade and just recently he decided to announce his retirement from all forms of cricket. And now he is going to experiment with some politics.

This bit of news partly interests me because of the fact that not too many Indian cricketers have tried their hand at politics apart from the odd Kirti Azad of course, which is surprising given the amount of publicity the average Indian cricketer enjoys here. But what makes things even more interesting and, may I say, gossip worthy is that Mohammed Azharuddin, the former Indian skipper, has a hand in this decision of Ganesh! Actually, not just a hand but a while lot more. Apparently Azhar is gifting Ganesh with a whopping Rs.10 crore to help him in his political aspirations! Now, who would have thought Azhar and Ganesh were such chums.

If you are too confused as to how this sudden friendship could have blossomed you could do with this little piece of news:

According to reports the former captain had some business interests in the city(Bangalore) connected to hospitality industry.

So there is the catch! Azhar has a business interest in Bangalore and perhaps he thought gaining some political clout in the city would not be bad.

Muralidharan tormenting Bangladesh

2007-06-28T00:01:00.000+05:30

Sri Lankans have a serious knack in dealing with lesser teams of the cricket World or otherwise the 'minnows'. Every time Sri Lanka is pitted against a minnow, the minnow invariably gets horribly crushed under the Lankan attack. While other teams too generally manage to win against the weaker ones, Sri Lankans almost always run through them like a mighty cyclone. Bangladesh is getting the treatment this time and spearheading the assault is Muralidharan. With 5 wickets in the first innings and two more as of now in the second, he is brutally wounding Bangladesh in the ongoing test match against them at Colombo. And he is currently about 40 odd wickets away from overturning Shane Warne's record of most number of test wickets. Two more test matches against Bangladesh and I think he will achieve that mark with ease!

That said, some credit should be given to the way the Bangladesh batsmen have performed in the second innings. Their first innings was a disaster with them falling for a mere 89 all out and to be honest I didn't expect anything better from them in the second innings too. But surprisingly they have done really well so far sticking to the crease with an almost stubborn resistance. Of course the match is practically in Lankan hands now but this unexpected Bangaldeshi resistance has been a treat to watch. The Fernando-Ashraful duel was especially entertaining to the core. But unfortunately Ashraful fell trying to hoist one over long on. And guess who got the wicket. Yes, the wily Murali again.