Changing face

As I browsed through the channels yesterday, I suddenly found that India were playing cricket in the Windies. My daughter looked at Dhoni on the screen and then asked me why he had changed teams. I did not realize why she asked that question first. Then I got her message. Dhoni was wearing India's blue and she was expecting him to wear CSK's yellow. But isn't that what I was also thinking? While India were tottering at 150 for 8 with just a few overs of the 50 left, I was happy because RP Singh was still batting and pulling India out of the rut. Not because India were still putting up a fight. But because RP was from DC. And I think this will soon become common - just like in the EPL. There will be more glory in the IPL that in test and ODI series. But of course, the World Cups and Champions Trohpies will continue to hold fort - at least at the level of the IPL. These are changing days indeed!

Pakistani roller coaster

Pakistan's path to win at the T20 WC and its aftermath have indeed been of the roller coaster type. First of all, they got hammered in the buildup to the T20 WC. The hammering was even heavier in the first match of the WC. To add to that, super cap YK called T20 a "just for fun" version of cricket. It was then a wild turn around and to cap it all Shahid Afridi finally played an innings for Pakistan in the final and remained unbeaten when the match was over - a surprise indeed. Second - contrary to the day long bus top ride that the Indians had in 2007 the Pakistani players were whisked away through another terminal at the Lahore airport while fans awaited with drums and songs. Third - the clever captain that he is, YK promptly announced his decision to quit T20 cricket - give up on the fun version. Now that is exiting in glory! So many ups and downs - perfect script for another Shimit Amin movie!
All of a sudden, the cricketing world is turning its head towards the subcontinent again. With the 2011 F50 WC scheduled to be held in India, SL and Ban and with India and Pak winning the only ICC events that have been held since the 2007 F50 WC they cannot continue to ignore the subcontinent on the pretext of safety. Must be a nice predicament for the ICC to be in. How they must be cursing the Aussies for being so dumb ever since they won in 2007!

3Ws - Windies, Wimbledon, Work...

Today is a very busy day..
Starting with the first ODI in the Windies... At the same time, need to tune into the already-patchy-but-still-green lawns of Wimbledon.
In between all this, there is Work to do. But what will be the priority for the 3Ws...
No prizes for guessing which is coming in last ;) ;)

SriLanka choked or Pakistan soared??

What hapnd on Sunday? Was it the case of Srilanka choking or did Pakistan soar above all?
But didnt Pakistan play truly inspired cricket? It was good to see the team enjoying the success 'as a team', rather than busy fighting the internal team wars. Its going to back to almost a decade, when Shahid Afridi burst upon the international scene. Its back to the stage when Afridi clicks, Pakistan wins. And Welcome back Razzaq!! What a comeback!

I saw an interesting placard during the match. 'Be Afridi, very Afridi!' Very interesting! Please dont get me wrong. I am no Afridi fan!! :)

Regarding strategy and the likes, I liked the way they bounced out Dilshan. That demoralized / derailed Srilanka terribly. My heart went out to Sangakkara who was fighting a lone battle. But talking about lone battles, nothing can beat Gayle's lonely fight till the finish in the semi.

For someone who stopped watching matches after India's exit, the semis and finals were too much of a magnet to stay away ;)

Now that T20 is over.. Full attention to the lush green lawns of Wimbledon.

Hail Federer!! What a way to start reclaiming your personal trophy!! Did you know that Federer has a trophy room in his house!! I would love to see that room once :) :)
Anyways, wishing and hoping that one more gets added to that trophy room by the end of this fortnight. Fingers crossed :) :) Yes, I am an unabashed Federer fan ;)

4M Vs 4A @ the LORDS

Poor Gayle...Those who closely watched the match should have really felt it.It was a batting without (cricketing) brain from the fellow windies making the score board look like a international phone number.

Wickets fell on at regular intervals cornering Gayle left, right and center not allowing him to play his shots. Result - Gayle joined the privilege club of watching all 10 wickets falling at the other end. Formers being McCullum, Smith and Gibbs.

They made Gayle appear like a 'Circus' lion, with pressure being the ring master for him. He managed to keep the match winning hopes ON for the spectatos. Not sure what really went in the minds of other batsmen and at many instances they scored a single at the last ball blocking Gayle a chance for a strike.

Finally it was Mathews who joined the party promoting the 3M bowling squad to 4. As predicted the Grand Finale should be a match for spinners and middle order playing a big role. Literally a contest between 4M's and 4A's(Akmal, Afridi, Ajmal & Abdul razzaq)

Going by law of averages will Dilshan's honeymoon with bat get over? Coming to the Middle order - Mahila Jayawardene / Misbah ul haq could become very critical.

Smart stumpings and run outs are also going to be a key. Both the teams have the calibre to make it from no where. It should be just the team that sticks to the cricketing basics.

A sensational mind game with lots of twists and turns just await @ LORDS

T20 Cup likely to arrive to Subcontinent

Usually luck doesn't favor SA in big and crucial matches, and so was the case from 1999 in England when they tied with Australia in the World Cup semi-final after panicking in the final over. Yesterday it was much better, but they missed the stiff to just cross over the line.

Chasing a target of 150 appeared comfortable for SA by the way they reacted and bowled in the last 5 over’s, containing PAK. But boom boom Afridi and Gul completely spoiled their party.

In spite of a straining head collision in the field, the way Gul came back was awesome.With the reverse swings and consistent Yorkers in place, SA couldn’t really do much with the bat. Having a mighty row of batting order they could do nothing except to rotate the strike and get the odd boundaries.

As a team PAK were quite upright with the spirit in their play rising to the occasion, much needed aspect for this format.

With Fidel Edwards likely to miss the match today for fitness, if pinch hitting doesn't come fluent from Gayle's, Bravo's or Sarwan's it should be a tight final between SL and PAK at the Lords. Apparently it is high on cards for the cup to come to the Subcontinent.

For Women’s T20 it was a dream run for NZ and the way Watkins played was quite amazing. 89 in 58 with 10 fours and 2 sixes...they scored 17 runs in the last over which is quite rare now even in the men’s T20...Neither channels showcase these matches nor there is a live streaming web link...this is very much biased and too bad

Nothing much to write.. Only some scattered thoughts..

Its a clean slate.. not watching matches, not reading about them..
Consequentially, nothing to write about the non-Indian matches.

But one point about India's last match - I wonder what was Dhoni trying to prove by making Ravindra Jadeja come into bat AFTER Harbhajan!!! Come on, Dhoni!!! Jadeja is a batsman.. Maybe pressure got to him in the England match. One failure does not mean that you drop him waaaay down the batting order like this.. He is your team mate. No matter what the media writes about Jadeja, you protect him, you be there for him.. Thats why you are the captain. You assign a role and give him a free hand for a specific number of matches - the same that you have done for Sehwag and Yuvraj at the start of your career as captain. You enjoyed their success.
One big failure should not mean that Dhoni has forgotten his man-management skills.

Before this note turns out to be like an open letter to Dhoni, I will move on...

Disappointing that India finished the T20 worldcup with NO wins in the Super8!! The only team in the same boat is Ireland! Frank, as you said, what an absolute leveller!!!

Looking ahead.. Need to see what the team will do in Windies, now that WI have figured out that this Indian team does not like to dance to chin music.. But Nayar, Nehra getting a much delayed call into the team - Yes, thats good. Bhadrinath & Vijay - hmm.. I will reserve my comments for now.

The fallout

The debacle in England has taken its toll already. The squad for the ridiculous 4 ODI tour of West Indies (can you think of anything else but money as motive for this series?) does not have Raina and Zaheer. Zaheer must not have been at the T20 WC also being not 100% fit - tell you what Zak? Please retire from the short versions and concentrate on becoming a frontline test bowler. For Raina, this is a great opportunity. Sourav Ganguly proved that it would not take more than a few weeks of practice to overcome the short ball syndrome. Raina should take this setback as the inspiration. Hope he does that.
The selectors have decided to rope in Abhishek Nayar and Asish Nehra in the squad - a move that was warranted for the T20 WC. I hope they will be in the team for the next T20 WC.

Where do we Stand?

Making up the mind not to watch the last game was too hard a decision for an ardent cricket fan like me.
It became so mundane and switching on the Televsion set made me watch yet another defeat.
T20 is not only about hard hitting and smart bowling, but is a mind game.It's not so easy to retain the cup in this format and for men in blue it turned out as a nightmare. It was almost the same situation and pitch conditions for Windies against England.When Sarwan and Chanderpaul could do it with such a passion and confidence, why not Men in blue?
If we call it as pressure, it has nothing to do yesterday since we are already out of the tourney and could have managed to beat SA at least for pride chasing 130, being defending champions.
Yelling on Dhoni's strategies,decisions and selection...bla bla bla..are not going to help.For any team performing on the D-day and raising to the occasion is necesscary.
Last match Yuvi came on no.4 and Jadeja was sent at last...did it serve the purpose..?Where could one account the shot played by Yusuf Pathan and earlier from Raina..?We got beaten up in our core strength area...Indian players are the best in taking up spin bowling...ek!
Most worrying factor is the intensity level and contribution of Indian players was very low and the play was not to international standards in key matches. But this was not the case, with IPL.
In all those close IPL matches until the last ball, the commitment and seriousness was very high,and so was the case with all Indian players that represented their club teams. But in the match against ENG when Dhoni/Ypathan was struggling for the 19 in last over,commentators were speaking about a disappointed Indian dugout and turning aside the camera witnessed Rohit sharma and Ojha having a much lighter moment with big laugh.
Why? Feel there should be real honor and pride between a match you play for the country and to a club.Where do we stand really?
Just merely living with IPL victories have proved costly and we lost the series.Hope the individual brillance will come together as a team effort in the forthcoming Caribbean series.
With the fall out of Adam's it's the turn of Eve's and the good news is we are in the semis.
All those IBN's and Headlines...stop thrashing your hard comments on the loss of Mens T20 and focus on the game of Womens T20. Chances are very high on the cards they can clench the cup to make us proud.
With crossed fingers and renewed vigor let us hope we get the cup in Womens T20.
Common ...Chak de India....!!!

Blame it on the IPL

Yeah right. I watched MSD speaking on all news channel today morning and the one bush he kept beating around was the fact that the Indians were tired after the IPL. Well Mr. Dhoni, how intelligent! May be you should rewind your memory back to the IPL and look at who performed well at the IPL - ABD, Dilshan, Sangakara, Fidel Edwards, Bravo, Duminy, Van der Merwe, Jayawardene, Murali... Now does it come as a surprise to you that their teams are in the semifinals? How is it that fatigue affects one team and not the rest? Rather than say "fatigue from the IPL" you could have said "demoralization from the bad stint at the IPL".
How many from your team left an impact on the IPL? You made the best Indian bowler of the IPL - RPS - sit out of the opening matches of the IPL. You demoted India's best batsman from the IPL - Raina - to a slot in which he had no clue. The other success of the IPL - Rohit - was also slotted in at an uncomfortable postion. And finally, you left India's best spinner - Ojha - out of the playing 11 just to add another failure to the batting order! Come on. Be like a man and deny any attempt to blame it on the IPL!
By the way, the Indian eves have compensated a little for the huge dent disappointment created by the men by reaching the semis of the Ladies T20 WC. Unfortunately for women's cricket in India, it would not serve as anything to anyone. The BCCI would not even want to mention a word of praise from any quarters while the media that is quite busy bashing the men's team (who must thank Shiney Ahuja for taking the spotlight off them) probably doesn't even know that the women have done India proud.

Lowering the interest rate

India's exit from the T20 WC seems like a weird experience. Over the past two and a half months I have always been on the greener side of victorious runs. And the sudden change of events over the weekend has left me very frustrated - so much so that I have unsubscribed to Star Cricket on my DTH bouquet. I suppose a lowering of the interest rate in this game would make it better. But anyway, the next T20 WC is just 10 months away. So the wounds are not going to stay long like the wounds of the 2007 F50 WC debacle.
One thing that Dhoni should learn from his Pakistani counterpart would be to play T20 just for fun. Younis Khan's fun mantra has propelled them to their second succesive T20 WC semifinal. From now on, with the miracle still on, I can see only one team holding the WC trophy - Pakistan***.

*** - Sincerely hoping that the curse of my prediction derails Pakistan :-)

Depressed or relieved - Is it a toss up? or Have i decided?

Am I Depressed???
1. Passion with which I was following up on the matches - on the net, on paper, on TV - has vanished.. If I put that in percentage terms, from 120%, its now at around 10%!
2. The constant feeling that 'whoever wins, whats there in it for me'!
3. The pessimistic outlook that 'Its all fixed. Whoever is being offered more money by the bookies, will do according to the bookies' script'.

Am I relieved??
1. I can sleep more!!!!! (WOW!! I think I know the answer to the title question already! ;))
2. I have more time on my hands now that I dont need to read up all the articles written on cricinfo, espnstar, rediff (all online) and the Times of India newspaper.
3. This is better for my life as a wife and mother. My husband and kid get shouted-at less now as I am more relaxed, i am sleeping well and there is no tensed feeling as if an elephant is standing on my stomach during the match days!
4. Its good for my vocal cords as I am not screaming at anyone anymore.. Until 3 days back, even if the channel was getting changed for one second during the irritably long commercial breaks, the window panes in my house used to rattle with the resonance effect!!
5. Realisation has dawned that this team who cannot hit sixes cannot be the world champions in a format where hitting-sixes matters the most (Proof - There is a counter of tournament sixes during the match and nothing on fours or wickets or number of cheerleaders or anything else!!)

By the look of this analysis, its proven beyond doubt that I am more relaxed than anything else.
Thanks Team India.. for letting the normal-me come back to life!! :) :)

The great leveller

My prophecy has come true. Even though I still feel the team should not be criticized on the back of one blip, the pathetic performances force me to do so. The Indians had indeed peaked too early. Too many false signals gave the Indians too much hope. Such were the expectations that even when they lost to the West Indies on Friday they were still considered favorites!! Rohit Sharma at best in a decent middle order batsman. But just 2 innings in practice matches and a 50 against Ireland made the think tank believe he was India's best opener. Bowlers at the IPL had forgotten that Suresh Raina was too short and would certainly have problems with the short stuff. Gambhir is best only when playing second foil - not as the lead opener. Yuvraj had to fail at least once. In the matter of 40 overs, two teams that didnt seem to stand a chance against the Indias blew the Indian mirage away - what a leveller for the Indians. As Nasser Insane put it, India were caught out technically.
It's got to come as an eye opener for the Indians though. The board needs to deal with players who cover up injury with an iron hand. How on earth could India dare to come to a tournament with their opening batsman and their opening bowler carrying serious injuries? Ridiculous. And it does seem like the Dhoni-BCCI honeymoon is over. Now the hypocrites from the board will start looking (and in most cases lobbying) for a new skipper.
Hope that when this is all over the Indians are prepared enough for the longer version. No, not the very long one - I mean the longer version of the shorter version - the F50 Champions trophy tournament that's coming up in September.
As for the rest of the tournament - I am happy to be the neutral observer. Now I feel Pakistan are the team to look out for. The miracle that I mentioned previously has indeed happened - India have gone out.
BTW. Did anyone notice something fishy at the toss on Sunday? MSD won the toss and did not even tell Colly what he was going to do. Colly had to find out from the commentator that they were going to bat. But here is the highlight. MSD had a strange explanation why he picked Ravi Jadeja in the team. He said because they were going to chase he picked Jadeja in the team. Now what was that supposed to mean? Was he stupid and did he give it away?
It's obvious what "it" means here.

What a sinking feeling!

After the high of the first blog, came the down of the Indian defeat!!! What a downer it was!!
The less said of the Indian batting the better.. Why do so many of them get out by playing the pull shot?? Are we really suspect against some good short bowling?? Whats Dhoni doing - nudging, scratching, fishing, doing everything possible which is not there in any cricket book to get runs?? Has he forgotten how to score runs??
Hmm.. many questions.. no answers.. Hoping that Dhoni and his men will come up with some nice answers by the time they play the next match..

What a heady feeling!!!

Thanks Frank.. Its really a heady feeling to be invited by you to take part in this blog.. Simger, Projects fan ;) - pls join in the party....

Today's first match is already underway.. At the start of the innings, SL seems to be giving Pakistan a lesson on how the T20 match should be played.. Waiting to see who will teach who, what by the end of the game :)

India's match is sooo late in the day.. Working mother like me find it difficult to keep the eyelids from shutting down till 1.30 a.m... :( :(

The real test

Even as I write this, India are hours away from their first real test in the T20 WC. Even though they beat Bangladesh and Ireland in the league games (dare I say) comfortably, nobody was stretched at any point. All the stretching only happened off the field. But even in these not so tough days, MSD has somehow tried to rope himself into some controversy or other starting with the "feud with Sehwag" drama. That was followed by the "show of unity" press conference. And as if that was not enough we had the "what is going on with Sehwag's injury" press meet couple of days later. The latest bullet to join the list is the No. 3 spot in the batting order. After having been captain of CSK team in the IPL where he watched Suresh Raina take control of the spot, MSD has suddenly hada bout of amnesia. He has pushed himself into the No. 3 spot for no obvious reason and has been ambigous about why he chose to play himself. Let us hope that, as he mentions, the decision is only temporary. It will be an important day for Zak - whether or not Chris Gayle can be contained depends completely on him.
Pakistan put NL out of the tournament and entered the Super 8 at the cost of the only team in their pool that deserved to be in the Super 8 - NL. But then that seems to have made one less tought team in Group D. Seeing what transpired in the game between SA and England that point became obvious. What were the Englishmen even thinking? I could imagine a few Dutchmen saying "Come on, We would have done a lot better than that".
NZ and SL seem determined to progress. Pak and Ireland need miracles.

The strange case of the second game

It's quite a strange phenomenon. Even though England lost the first game to Netherlands, by beating Pakistan they booked a spot in the Super 8. And guess who they might end up throwing out of the tournament - Netherlands!! Pakistan have the not so tough task of beating Netherlands today by about 25 runs (if they set the target) or with about 3 or 4 overs to spare (if they chase) to knock them out of the tournament. It would be an undeserving spot in the Super 8 for both England and Pakistan then.
That led me to a thought about the other groups too. Except for Pool B, all other pools have had the team playing their second successive match lose their second successive match and thereby getting eliminated. So, by the time teams go on the field to play the third game of the pool, we already know who has qualified. That makes the format of the game very less interesting. May be they should have thought of having two league games for every team against each other. That would have made it absorbing.
Theories aside, like every other WC this one also has its share of surprises. Australia have not been able to do what Ireland and Netherlands have done and that is to win a match at the WC. Chris Gayle, Brendon Macullum, Ishant Sharma, Ajanta Mendis - they were down in the drains a month back and suddenly in just in the matter of one match have become one of the major factors for their team's progress in the tournament.
Headlines Today threw up a huge load of shit by "breaking" the story of the rift in the Indian team just before the WC began. And they were taken aback by the response of MSD and tried to delve further into mocking the Indian team. Unfortunately for them, nobody seemed to notice them after that fracas. HT, I have a suggestion for you - stop your sensationalism with bollywood. Venturing out of that small circle is a big risk considering the potential of your anchors and producers.
ESPN Star must soon realize that this is T20 cricket. It is not enough if they cover the T20 tournament. They should change their outlook also to suit the format. Alan Wilkins and Harasha Bhogle are still in the test mode - time to switch please!!

Deja vu..

Everything about the T20 WC seems kind of deja vu to me. Back in the 2003 WC, when world cups used to be played only as 50 over games, the Indians almost reached the pinnacle. But the fall in 2007 was so huge that it left the entire team in disarray. And the fall was weird because, even before the 2007 WC began the Indians were shining in the practice games and in the build up tours. The same is the case now. The build up tours, IPL and the warm ups are giving such a positive feeling. And that is the scary part - even so when their first opponent is Bangladesh. I sincerely hope that the Indians prove me wrong.

I am expanding the coverage

Now that the IPL gold dust is settling and the T20 fervor is still on I have decided to go beyond the boundaries of IPL. That means I am crossing over to Star Cricket from SET Max. The T20 WC is upon us already and I am going to broadcast a TView of the T20 WC also. Hope my favorite team wins for the second month running!!
But it looks like the hope might be dashed even before the tournament begins. Zaheer Khan has carried the IPL injury into the WC and is scheduled to sit out of the warm up games. India would have been well served with another bowler instead of having to carry this extra baggage all over England - Sudeep Tyagi for example.
NZ and Pak are scheduled for India before they begin their T20 WC campaign against T50 WC 2007 tormentors Ban - time for revenge eh? Many fancy it would be a Ind-Aus final this time round. But I smell a dark horse somewhere. Let's wait and see.
From a TV perspective one thing is for sure. In between overs and during the breaks, I will only have sports promos and not Akshay Kumar swinging to "Singh is King" promos or watch "Bhaskar" being curse-transformed to "Bharti". I still would love to see the zoo-zoos though.