Gentleman's Game No More

Ireland Vs Sri Lanka, Super Eights

2007-04-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

Was anybody surprised with the result of this game? We were so sure this result was in the offing that we did not see a single delivery of this game. We don't have anything to say about this game. Can we get the other useless games done and over with and move on to the business end of the tournament? Please?

Wait, NZ plays Australia this Friday. If NZ beats Australia, we will most probably die of shock. Other than that, all the other games are crap. Wait, how could we forget? the very important game between West Indies and England is coming up. That will be an entertaining game. If we were a betting man, we would put some money on Michael Vaughan scoring some runs in this game. How many runs, you ask? Let's not talk about unimportant things like that instead let's talk about:
"...shoes, and ships, and sealing wax-
Of cabbages and Kings,
And why the sea is boiling hot,
And whether pigs have wings."

As Akira Kurosawa once said (talking about his movies in general and RAN in particular): "If I wanted to deliver a message, I'd write a letter" and then he promptly spoiled this great response by saying: "What I wanted to say in the last scene was that humanity must face life without relying on God or Buddha.."

Why are we talking about Kurosawa in a cricket blog? That is a good question. We are going to watch a movie now. Our favorite movie of all time. Great movies are like that - timeless and good for the soul. Great games are also like that. Unfortunately, there haven't been that many great games in this world cup.

England Vs South Africa, Super Eights

2007-04-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

South Africa ignored our dire warnings and went ahead and included Andre Nel in the team. They will pay for this. Soon. Maybe as soon as the semi-final. Despite the presence of Andre Nel in the bowling line-up, England, taking a leaf out of India's playbook, imploded spectacularly. They made a mind boggling score of 154 and South Africa knocked it off without breaking a sweat.

England's first wicket fell when the score was 9 runs in the 8th over. That's right, 8th over. Whatever one might say about the English performance on the cricket field, one has to admire their stubbornness with sticking to their "plan". What was the "plan"? To bat sedately for 20 overs without losing wickets ("back to the basics" approach) and then accelerate like hell in the last 15 overs.

They got the "bat sedately" part right but the "not losing wickets" and "accelerate in the last 15 overs" parts - not so much. It was a disgrace that Ravi Bopara, who has looked much better then at least 5 of their star players, batted at number 7. Mind you, that was a promotion. He batted at number 8 in the earlier matches. Stupid and highly moronic.

England was one of the dark horses of this tournament back when the world cup started last century. They were coming to the Windies after beating Australia and having won the VB Championship. The team has a good bowling attack, some in-form batsmen (Bell, KP, and Colly), Monty, and Flintoff. It's sad that they couldn't all play well in the same match. Forget about the 'all' part, even if three of their players played well, they would have done well.

Today's performance was truly depressing. We were pumped up for a great tussle between England and SA. What with this game being a virtual quarter-final and on top of that there was this whole sideshow of KP and Smith. This could have been a great match. Unfortunately, only one team showed up for this match and that team was not England.

On the bright side(?), England will play more matches in this world cup than India and Pakistan combined. Furthermore, all cricket lovers have a great cricket match with nothing at stake to look forward to:

England Vs West Indies.

That game is going to rock! Everybody will score centuries and then all the bowlers will take hat-tricks. Mark your calenders. It's the must see match of the tournament. You heard it here first.

Australia Vs Sri Lanka, Super Eights

2007-04-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

SL did the unexpected by "resting" Murali, Vaas, and Malinga. This decision tells us that they realistically did not expect to win this match. Then, SL's game plan boiled down to how they planned on losing the match.

It is true that SL could have had a chance of winning the match if Jayasuriya played one of his patented explosive knocks followed by the top order consolidating and ending up with a HUGE total (around 300-325). That did not happen. Mainly due to Nathan Bracken's brilliant bowling. We haven't talked much about Bracken because we were hoping that he would just go away if we ignored him long enough. Now that is not going to happen, we might as well heap praise on Bracken.

Nathan Bracken is the kind of bowler all cricket sides drool over - left arm fast-medium. The last great left arm fast-medium bowler Australia had was Bruce Reid ( A brilliant bowler with injury problems). Left arm fast bowlers are prized because their natural delivery veers away from the right-handers and if the said left arm bowler has the ability to bring the ball in or to straighten the ball after it pitches, so much better.

Bracken can do all of the above and on top of it, he is very accurate and has McGrath like ability in keeping to his line and length. Bracken not being in the Australian test side is a joke. Anyway, Bracken bowled phenomenally well and had SL reeling at 29/3.

Mahela Jayawardene and Chamara Silva did the rebuilding work for SL but after they were gone, the Aussies quickly rolled over the other batsmen and SL ended up with 226 runs. Jayawardene looked very good out in the middle. He batted very fluently and seems to be in really good form. Mahela's batting form must please the Lankans a lot. His short-arm pull off Tait for a 6 was the best shot he played all tournament.

SL's total was never going to trouble the Aussies and sure enough, it did not. They cantered to victory in the 43rd over losing just 3 wickets and on top of that they were able to give Symonds some quality time in the middle.

So, What did this game prove? Aussies are the best team in the world and SL don't have to feel depressed because they left out their best bowlers from the team. It is a win-win situation for both teams. But, here's the catch: SL batting line-up was their A-team and they did not cover themselves with glory today. If SL play Australia again and post a similar score, they are going to lose even if they have Vaas, Malinga, and Murali in the line-up.

A lot will depend on SL's batting if they are to win the world cup. That means, a lot will depend on how well Jayasuriya bats. Since we are talking about Sanath, what is the deal with Tharanga? He has been plodding at the other end and puts undue pressure on Jayasuriya. If SL want Jayasuriya to bat freely they need Tharanga to bat a little bit more aggressively at the other end.

The Aussie Juggernaut rolls on.

Bangladesh Vs Ireland, Super Eights

2007-04-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

ICC had a grand vision. On a sunny April Sunday, India and Pakistan would play in front of packed houses and bring the world cup to life. If ICC was lucky, this game would be a crucial game with the loser getting thrown out of the world cup. Unfortunately for ICC, this scenario did not come to pass. Instead, Bangladesh was playing Ireland in a match which would determine who among them would occupy the last spot.

Bangladesh for all the giant-killing it has done in this world cup, has a very sub-continent trait of being inconsistent. This inconsistency led them to a defeat in a game where they were, for once, the favorites. Ireland won the toss, elected to bat and went to post a very competitive total after a sedate start. KJ O'Brien and Trent Johnston provided the much needed impetus with some lusty hitting. Chasing 243 would not have been a problem for Bangladesh if they had gotten off to a good start.

Bangladesh lost wickets regularly and were never in the chase. The bane of bad batting (lack of partnerships) was their biggest problem. It did not help Bd that Habitual Basher...er...Habibul Bashar is in a batting slump. We would have liked to see Bashar play well. He has a reputation of being a fierce puller and is very well known for his addiction to the hook shot. Sadly, he was nowhere near his best.

Despite doing a lot of commendable things in this world cup, this loss must be a real downer for Bangladesh. On the other hand, Ireland played exceedingly well and were captained brilliantly. Trent Johnston did a great job captaining the side and played very good cricket too. For our money, Trent Johnston was the man of the match.

Ireland has done a commendable job in this world cup. We really hope that they don't go the way Kenya did after the last world cup. Ireland needs a lot of love. Money will help too. But the most important thing Ireland needs is: matches with other test playing countries. ICC should not drop the ball with Ireland. They can be a test playing country pretty soon if they are given the needed encouragement.

New Zealand Vs South Africa, Super Eights

2007-04-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

We predicted this. Well...not in so many words but we did say this:

"...Andre Nel was not dropped despite our recommendation. South Africa is going to pay for that. Soon."

SA did not drop Andre Nel for this match and paid the price. Serves them right. They really should have dropped Nel for Langeveldt. Langeveldt is a much better swing bowler and would have liked to bowl on the green top in Grenada.

The thing about NZ is that they use the limited resources they have very efficiently. Shane Bond is the best fast bowler on the planet right now. This guy is awesome. BCCI should use the money it has to make Shane Bond a citizen of India. India can use him. What we like about Bond is not that he is a great fast bowler but the fact that he is such a nice guy. After beating Kallis every ball in an over, he stood and smiled at Kallis after each ball. The best part was that it was not a mocking smile. It was a smile of a man who felt the batsman's pain. It was a very sympathetic smile. How can one dislike a guy like that?

Anyway, after Bond smiled for 10 overs, he finished with figures of 10 overs 1 maiden, 26 runs and 2 wickets. Great bowling from Bond. NZ bowled very well and contained SA to 193 runs. This total would never trouble the Kiwis. All they had to do was stay at the wicket and they would get the required runs.

Fleming and Styris did just that for the most part and then McMillan took them home. With this win, NZ is in the semi-finals. Not a big deal since they have been in a lot of semi-finals. This world cup, they have a very good chance of making it to the finals. We are rooting for them.

SA on the other hand, now have to play a 'quarter-final' match against England to get to the semi-finals. England have a pretty good chance at winning that game. That would be fantastic. Bad Karma is a bitch.

Australia Vs Ireland, Super Eights

2007-04-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

WOW!

Australia completely demolished Ireland. Talk about kicking arse. Australia kicked some serious arse. The match was over before lunch. Brilliant.

Can anybody beat Australia? They are playing brilliant cricket.

New Zealand Vs Sri Lanka, Super Eights

2007-04-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

The question is: How will SL play when their freak of nature (who has truly come of age) is not available to perform his miracles?

Answer: The other freak of nature (Muralitharan) and the old war horses (Vaas and Jayasuriya) will lift their game as needed.

Great win for SL. They deserve the semi-final spot. Next stop for SL: Australia. Go SL.

Bangladesh Vs England, Super Eights

2007-04-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

West Indies and England were two teams that Bangladesh could fancy their chances against. That's what we thought before the Super Eights started. One can now scratch England off that list. England put in a impressive bowling performance and skittled out Bangladesh for 143. Panesar (who was not very impressive against Australia) did a great job and picked up 3 wickets for 25 runs in his 7 overs. Surprisingly, Sajid Mahmood was pretty good too. We get the feeling that Mahmood is a rich man's Ajit Agarkar. He will bowl well when everything is going swimmingly well but will wilt under pressure.

Chasing a meager score of 143, England decided that the match needed a little fizz and started losing wickets. Eventually, England scored the required runs but crawled instead of sprinting towards the total. They took 45 overs to score the runs. Bangladesh scored 143 in 37 overs. That is just ridiculous. England made real heavy weather of the chase. It was not entertaining cricket but England got the two points they desperately needed.

England's next match will be against South Africa. The winner of that match will go to the semi-final. England will need to pick up their game to have a chance of beating SA.

West Indies Vs South Africa, Super Eights

2007-04-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

South Africa kicked West Indies out of the world cup. We have one question for Brian Lara after this defeat: What was the deal with the last powerplay? Why didn't Lara take the third powerplay? Did he forget? was it intentional? or was he hoping that the umpires would forget? Whatever the case might be, the way WI played, they did not deserve to get ahead in this tournament. Their game, barring the game against Pakistan, has been very insipid. The team has been playing very bad cricket. They knew going into this game that this was a make or break game for them. If that doesn't inspire a team to pick it up a notch then the team doesn't deserve to win.

However insipid WI played, AB DeVilliers played an inspired knock and in the process hit his first ODI century. More importantly, from S. African point of view, batted himself into form. In a space of 14 balls, AB scored about 50 runs (when he went from somewhere in his nineties to 144). It was a brilliant batting display and he knocked the stuffing out the West Indian bowling attack. The knock against SA is that they play a very formulaic brand of cricket and that their cricket lacks flairs. But this in this match, SA's batting display was all about flair. It had a very unkallisque like batting from Kallis who hit another half century (81 runs in 86 balls). Seems like all the criticism seems to have gotten under the big man's skin.

There is not much to say about West Indian batting. Chris Gayle flattered to deceive, Lara failed, Chanderpaul failed, Sarwan played the 'Captain on the sinking ship's deck' even though he is not the Captain, and that was that.

The match was over by the time SA's innings ended. A very one-sided match and a boring one too. Andre Nel was not dropped despite our recommendation. South Africa is going to pay for that. Soon.

Rahul Bhattacharya

2007-04-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

Regular readers of this blog know that we are a big fan of RB's writing. He has been pretty busy lately and has been writing quite a few articles. Listed below are some of his columns/articles/profiles we really liked in no particular order:

Fantastic profile of Shane Bond.

A great feature on VVS Laxman. Really worth your while if you are a fan of Laxman.

Another really good feature on Anil Kumble-the man who couldn't spin the ball to save his life.

RB interviews John Wright.

Zoo TV, indeed.

Feature on Dravid after his elevation to Captaincy.

Ireland Vs New Zealand, Super Eights

2007-04-09T17:22:00.000-07:00

For a little while, another upset was in the air with New Zealand struggling at 118-4. But it is important to remember that cream always rises to the top. NZ did the needed repair work and then went on a little rampage in the last 7 overs. They were plodding along at 189-4 in the 43rd over but the last 7 overs proved very eventful and they ended their innings at 263-8 from their allotted 50 overs.

That's the thing about good teams. Not that they never get into trouble but that they invariably find a way to did themselves out of the hole. In this particular instance Peter Fulton held the innings together while Brendon McCullum and James Franklin applied the finishing touch. The thing we like about this Kiwi side is that they do everything very matter-of-factly. There is no drama in their play. This is how seasoned cricket teams are supposed to win their matches. With this win, they are a shoo in for the semi-final berth. We are still backing NZ to be one of the two sides that can beat Australia.

The Irish have nothing to be ashamed with their effort. They did the best they could and only lost their way in the last 7 overs while they were bowling. Once NZ made 263, the game was out of Ireland's reach. All they could hope to do was compete. The fact that the Irish could not compete was because NZ has too much firepower at their disposal. Shane Bond did what he has been doing throughout this world cup by bowling magnificently.

Bond has cut down on his pace a little bit but, if anything, he has become more dangerous. He is able to bowl an excellent line and length and produces some beauties every once in a while. The fact that Kiwi's field brilliantly means that these beauties that Bond produces almost always get him wickets. Another hero for NZ today was Daniel Vettori. Daniel Vettori is a spinner in the Anil Kumble mould. Vettori preys on the tailenders and is very difficult to get away with. He was extremely effective today and ended up with 4 wickets for 23 runs in his 8.4 overs. It was a very clinical and effective bowling performance from NZ today.

Overall, NZ should be very pleased with this win and by scuttling Ireland out for 134 runs, their NRR is also healthy. They just need to hold it all together for a few more weeks and they have a very good chance of taking the world cup with them.

Australia Vs England, Super Eights

2007-04-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

As we write this, England are 61-2 in the 14th over. Ian Bell just hit 3 fours off McGrath's bowling. McGrath is shaking his head and swearing. What a beautiful sight. The second powerplay is on and Clarke is already on with his spin. Clarke is proving very hard to get away with. KP just made us a liar by advancing down the pitch and hitting a spanking straight drive for 4 and then he goes again and hit a huge 6. Brilliant shot. England 74-2 after 15 overs.

Once again, the English openers fell cheaply. Both (Vaughan and Strauss) fell to Tait. Oooh Brad Hogg into the attack. This will be interesting. Chinaman into the attack. KP uses his feet really well. Interestingly, Ponting has not taken the third powerplay. Three runs from the over. England 77-2 after 16 overs.

Update 1:
England is now 99-2 after 19 overs. KP is going great guns. Like the commentators keep reminding us, he is very tall. Okay. Got it. Shut up already. Bard Hogg is in his 3rd over. He is getting a little bit of spin. KP lucky that his leading edge did not carry to a fielder. Hogg is bowling well. England 101-2 after 20 overs.

Both Bell and KP are playing spin pretty well. Maybe Ponting wants to get the fifth bowler in quickly. Clarke and Symonds are doing the fifth bowler' job so far today. Nicely pulled by Bell for a couple. Bell seems like a very sensible player but his running between the wickets is a bit shambolic. England is doing a good job of milking the fifth bowler. 107-2 after 21 overs. This is good sized ground. England taking a lot of easy singles. Beautiful late cut from Bell. It didn't get him the four the shot deserved. 115-2 after 22 overs.

Both batsmen on 49. Good innings from both of them. KP is playing the dashing innings while Bell is playing the steadying hand. Symonds into the attack and it is KP's 50. Nice innings. Go on play some more and get the 100. Bell's 50 now. Very nice innings. Brilliant attempt by Ponting to take a very hard catch. KP gets a life. Will he make it count? We will find out.

Update 2:
Another nice over for England. 7 runs from the over. England 126-2 after 24 overs. Hogg is getting through his overs pretty quick. Symonds starts his over and Bell says 'hello' with two sweet boundaries. Nasir Hussain can't stop himself. He is going ga-ga. We are happy for Nasir. Another nice over for England. 12 runs off the over. 138-2 after 25 overs. Brad Hogg is bowling well but KP and Bell are settled and are taking the easy singles. Lucky! KP is very lucky. Everybody missed it and England gets 4 byes. Nasir just said: "Shouldn't give Australia any kind of chance." He is very angry with KP for getting beaten. 146-2 after 26 overs.

Australia takes its thrid powerplay. Very important 5 overs coming up. Tait into the attack. Great shot from Bell. 4runs. Ah! McGrath into the attack-again. McGrath Vs KP. As everyone knows, McGrath broke KP's ribs in Australia. Great shot from Bell. Bell is on fire. Uppishly driven on the off-side (McGrath says "catch" but there was no chance) for a four. Very nice shot from Bell. 161-2 after 28 overs.

There is a conspiracy. KP hits the ball up in the air and Haydos drops an easy catch! what joy! Haydos dropped a very easy catch. Will it be enough for Australia to drop Haydos from the team? KP now has two lives. He better make it count now. Tait is working up pace. The last ball was about 94 mph. Good over from Tait. Very unlucky. McGrath back into the attack. KP looks a little unsettled now. It is funny that KP starts off with a lot of confidence and after he score about 50 or so, his confidence level starts dropping and his strokeplay becomes a little shaky.

McGrath gets Bell. Caught by Hussey. Bell couldn't keep his drive down and it flew directly into Hussey's hands. Great innings from Bell. Out for 77. This brings Collingwood into the middle. Another man in form. Good over for Australia. 166-3 after 30 overs.

Update 3:
Wow! Tait gets another wicket! thin outside edge to Gilchrist. Colly gone for 2 runs. England again in a spot of bother. Flintoff comes in to bat. He has been in horrendous form recently. Can he play a big innings when his side needs it? Great bowling from Tait. He is working up a lot of pace. 168-4 after 31 overs. Good captaincy from Ponting. Brad Hogg into the attack. Flintoff struggles against spinners. Scratch that, Flintoff is struggling against everyone. Drinks. 169-4 after 32 overs.

Couple of tidy overs from Australia. 175-4 after 34 overs. England need to keep wickets till about the 43rd over. A good score for England will be about 300 runs. Bracken into the attack now. Another tidy over. 178-3 after 35 overs. Great bowling from Brad Hogg. Flintoff was all at sea. Flintoff stumped by Gilly and England is 179-5. Great bowling from Hogg. This chinaman is good. Funnily enough, McGrath is talking to Hogg about his bowling.

Flintoff's wicket brings Ravi Bopara in and he is off the mark right away. England 181-5 after 36 overs. Hogg is bowling brilliantly. England needs another "big partnership". Hogg again. "Hoggie" says Gillie. Excellent spell from Hogg. Bopara can't seem to read Hogg's spin. Good bowling. Very good bowling. 10 overs for 36 runs and 1 wicket. 190-5 after 38 overs.

Symonds back into the attack. Beefy is going on about something or the other. England 195-5 after 40 overs. Beefy says "10 overs to go then". Brilliant. Somebody please give Beefy a Fields Medal. He is a mathematical genius. McGrath back into the attack.

Update 4:
England get to their 200 in the 42nd over. Well, England will be very happy if they score about 280. Tait into the attack now. The man with 3 wickets. KP is losing his timing. He is struggling. Not getting enough strike is what the commentators are saying. Good bowling from Tait. 207-5 after 43 overs. We will have to revise the target some more. England will now be happy with about 265 runs. The time to hit out is coming. McGrath is coming on and England will have to go after him.

Nice shot from KP. Short and wide, KP puts it away easily.
Nice shot from Bopara. Lovely cover drive. 4 runs. 223-5 after 45 overs. 229-5 after 46 overs. Bracken is back on. A full tos and KP can't put it away. Gets a single. Bopara needs to pick up his strike rate now. Gone! Bopara gone. Flicked beautifully but picked Hussey out near the square boundary. Gone for 21 runs. England 230-6 in the 47th over. England is losing its way here. KP batting on 96. One gets the feeling he is going to wait till he gets his hundred.

Time is running out for England. They need to start hitting. 232-6 after 47 overs. KP on 99. There. 100 for KP. He looks happy. He should be. Good batting from KP. A little tame by his standards but England was losing wickets at regular intervals and he really couldn't break free. What is he going to do now?

Nice over from McGrath. 236-6 after 48 overs. England, for some mysterious reason, has decided to just putter around instead of hitting out. They should have been slogging about 4 overs ago. Maybe the side has decided that 250 is a good enough score to defend. They need some boundaries. KP looks like he has forgotten how to hit boundaries. KP is gone. Out. Tried to make room and hit on the off-side. Didn't connect properly and holes out to Clarke in the outfield. Out for 102. Nice innings but one gets the feeling that it could have been better.

Too fast. Too much happening. First, Mahmood got out for a duck then Nixon hit a 6. The very next ball, he hold out to Hodge and got out. So, England are 246-9 in the last over. Will they reach 250? Apparently not. England all out for 247.

In the end, England will feel that they fell short by about 30 runs. The partnership between Bell and KP was great but other than that, England played pretty badly. Excellent bowling from the Aussies. Bracken, Tait, and Hogg were the stand-out bowlers.

On the face of it, the Aussies should not have any problem chasing this score down.

Update 5:
Hayden is very lucky to be still there. Shout for LBW turned down by the umpire. It looked plumb and Haweye cofirms it. Very lucky. Australia 1-0 after 1 over. Mahmood into the attack and Gilly takes up his offer and spanks a loose ball to the boundary. Australia on its way. Another boundary from Gilly. 9-0 after 2 overs.

Gilly is motoring along. 3 fours for his 12 so far and the Aussies move to 18-0 after 4 overs. Hadyen advancing down the wicket ala KP but the bowler doesn't bite and gives him a wide. Great shot by Hayden. Lofted on-drive over a wide mid-on's head. 4 runs. 24-0 after 5 overs. Finally, a good over from Mahmood. Maiden over. Three slower balls in that over. How long before Gilly starts depositing those slower balls outside the stadium?

England has to know that the only way they can win this match is by bowling out Australia. No slips but a short cover and a wide fine leg as the close-in catchers. Anderson strays and Hayden dispatches it to the boundary. 4 runs. Another beautiful cover drive from Hayden. 4 runs. Anderson is not bowling well. Time to bring in Flintoff. 34-0 after 7 overs.

Anderson still continuing and Gilly is still scoring freely in his bowling. England were unlucky early on not to get LBW's but its all Australia now. Good comeback from Anderson in the last 3 balls of the over. 45-0 after 9 overs. Great shot from Gilly. He picked up the slower ball from Mahmood and sent it to the boundary. 4 runs. 52-0 after 10 overs.

Update 6:
Flintoff into the attack. Hayden walks down the pitch and pulls powerfully. 4 runs. Somebody please get this man out. Somebody didn't hear us properly because instead of Hayden, Gilly gives Collingwood an easy catch. Gilly gone for 27. Australia 57-1. Panesar into the attack now and Ponting walks in too. Hayden and Ponting - two players we dislike the most. It would be funny if Hayden gets Ponting run out and then gets out the very next ball. This will lead to an Australian collapse and people will be so pissed that Hayden will be dropped from the team and Ponting will be made to carry the drinks for the rest of his life. We can dream, can't we? 58-1 after 12 overs.

Flintoff over the wicket to Hayden. Hayden is advancing down the pitch. What is wrong with this guy. Coward. Stay in the crease and play. Haydos takes a big swing and misses. All the England players are chatting with Hayden. Hayden takes up the bait and swings Flintoff to the boundary. 4 runs. This man is very powerful. 62-1 after 13 overs.

Panesar to Ponting and he gets off the mark with a nice lofted shot for four. The English commentators are whining about the "ugly aussies" sledging KP. Okay, lets call off the match and award it to England. Australia 68-1 after 14 overs. 71-1 after 15 overs. Australia motoring along on cruise control now. 83-1 after 17 overs. 89-1 after 19 overs. Paul Collingwood comes into the attack. Hayden is already on 41. Please get this guy out. GONE!!!!! First ball. Colly clean bowls Hayden!!! Brilliant! Australia now 89-2 in the 20th over. Clarke joins Ponting at the crease. The top four of Australia have been fantastic. If England gets the top four, Australia will be definitely under pressure since the other batsmen have not had all that much batting the last few games. Australia 91-2 after 20 overs.

Update 7:
Flintoff is doing a terrific job. Very tidy. But it has to be worrying Vaughan that he has already bowled 5 overs. 94-2 after 21 overs. 96-2 after 22 overs. Another tidy over from Colly. James Anderson into the bowling attack. Can he continue applying the pressure? He gave away a lot of runs in his first spell. 5 balls and 2 runs so far. Good over. 98-2 after 23 overs.

Australia doing its "hitting to the fielder" for singles. A lot of runs to the Mid-on. Commentators want a faster fielder than Strauss at mid-on. Have to agree with them. 5 runs off Colly. 103-2 after 24 overs. Another good over from Anderson. Colly to continue. Monty misfields and it is 3 runs. 111-2 after 26 overs. England doing a good job but they need wickets to keep this game from going Australia's way.

Ravi Bopara is loosening up. Will Vaughan give the ball to him? 5 runs from the Anderson over and the Aussies are 116-2 after 27 overs. Collingwood to continue. Nice shot from Ponting. Used his wrists to turn the ball towards deep-square leg. 4 runs. Things are easing up a bit for the Aussies. England needs another wicket. Now. 124-2 after 28 overs. Sajid Mahmood with his slower deliveries comes into the attack. Great shot! 4 runs for Ponting. Hit past mid-off and was very sweetly timed. 132-2 after 29 overs. Monty into the attack now. He is pushing the ball through too fast. He ought to slow down his deliveries a little bit. Tidy over. 134-2 after 30 overs. Drinks.

Update 8:
England needs wickets. Mahmood continues and Ponting greets the first ball and drives it past Point for a 4. Another 4. This time on the leg side. This takes Ponting to his 50. Another good innings when his team needs it. Mahmood is falling apart. Somebody please get Ponting out or this match will be over pretty soon. 13 runs from the over. 147-2 after 31 overs. Bad bowling from Mahmood. Time to bring Bopara into the attack. The Aussie running between the wickets is fantastic. Panesar is not looking threatening in the least. 152-2 after 32 overs. Flintoff into the attack. He just has 4 overs left. Freddie couldn't do much and Australia is cruising along at 159-2 after 33 overs. England needs a wicket.

Panesar to continue. He is not troubling the batsmen at all. Nice shot from Ponting. 4 runs over mid-wicket. Ponting is a great batsman. This game is over folks. 165-2 after 34 overs. Collingwood into the attack now. Where is Bopara? Can Colly do it again? No. 171-2 after 35 overs. Ponting and Clarke are making it look easy. Clarke just hit a great shot for 4. 185-2 after 37 overs. England NEEDS WICKETS. No one to take them though. Bring in Bopara, I say. Panesar to continue his unthreatening bowling. 2 fours from the over and some singles takes Australia to 196-2 after 38 overs. Flintoff back into the attack. 199-2 after 39 overs. 201-2 after 40 overs.

This game is over. Australia will win this game easily.

Update 9:
Ponting gone. Run out! Brilliant piece of fielding from Colly. Great batting from Ponting. Nobody deserved to get his wicket. His batting was superb and he did the job for his team with a very well made 86. Australia should be able to easily win the game from here on. Suddenly, England seemed to have gotten a second win. Too little too late, unfortunately. Good over from Flintoff. 202-3 after 41 overs. Symonds bludgeons the slower ball from Colly to the boundary. 4 runs. Symonds goes again. KP takes a brilliant catch very close to the boundary rope but can't control his step. Treads very close to the rope and finally steps inside rope but lets the ball go. Meanwhile, the batsmen run two runs. After a lot of discussion, the batsmen get two runs. The very next ball, Symonds hits a huge six. A very good over for Australia. 215-3 after 42 overs.

Flintoff bowling his last over. Brilliant shot from Symonds. Symonds is on fire. Great cameo so far. Good comeback from Flintoff. 219-3 after 43 overs. Mahmood back into the attack. Nasir is a very bitter man. He reminds us of the long suffering Indian cricket fan. Meanwhile, Clarke goes hard at Mahmood and gets a boundary. 226-3 after 44 overs. Australia should win this very comfortably. James Anderson into the attack. When the final analysis is said and done, England will realize that it lost the match because they batted like twits at the end and because they did not let Ravi Bopara bowl. 5o for Clarke. Good batting from him. Time for the Pup to take the old lady home.

Symonds pounds another 4 over extra cover. 240-3 after 46 overs. We like Nasir Hussain. He has a very self-deprecating sense of humor which is very endearing. Clarke picks up another 2 and the Aussies now need 6 more runs. Please finish it off this over. No such luck. 4 to win. Next over perhaps.

Mahmood to bowl the 48th over. Bouncer to Symonds. Good bowling. Another bouncer and Symonds is ready. Pulls it to the boundary for another 4. Good win for Australia. Symonds played a great cameo of 28 runs in 28 balls. The man of the match for our money is Ricky Ponting.

Promises

2007-04-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

BCCI released a statement after Working Committee meeting. We will post the statement here in full and keep this post in a prominent location on this blog. We can then go back to the statement in a year's time (if we are still blogging) to see how BCCI followed up on their promises.

1. With a view to strengthening domestic cricket, efforts will be made to ensure that all Test / ODI Cricketers play Irani, Duleep, Challenger and some Ranji Trophy Matches.

If followed upon, this is a very good idea. For the Test/ODI players to participate in domestic cricket, the domestic cricket schedule will have to revised. Will it happen? It will be easy to monitor this.

2. Every Association will be directed to prepare fast and lively wickets for domestic tournaments.

Good idea but we have heard this several times in the past. Let's see what happens this time around.

3. The BCCI will do away with home and away rotation and allot venues for Irani Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, Ranji Trophy semi-finals and finals and one-day all-India knockout.

Moving along.

4. It was decided that all affiliated units should start their own state academies by April 2009. These academies would be linked to the National Cricket Academy for the purpose of uniformity in coaching.

A very good idea but why 2009? Why not a little bit sooner? It probably takes some time to set up a cricket academy. But if things go to form, this idea will be forgotten very soon.

5. It was decided to scrap the present zonal representation in the senior and junior selection committees. BCCI will appoint selectors on a full time basis based upon the eligibility criteria which would include stature as a player, selection experience etc. They will be remunerated suitably and appointed for a two-year term. The BCCI will take steps to propose necessary amendments to the Constitution to give effect to the above decision.

An excellent idea but if one reads the statement, nothing will come to pass till about a year. Will take steps? When? We really hope this comes to pass but if the past record is anything to go by, this too will be forgotten. For, if the zonal selectors are removed from the picture how will Mr. Pawar's coterie get the votes it needs to stay in power?

6. Regular and frequent Under-19 and India A tours to Australia / England / New Zealand / South Africa / West Indies will be undertaken.

Another excellent idea. Should be easy to monitor.

7. The Working Committee has directed the Selection Committee to send a young team to Bangladesh under an experienced captain. The selection committee, after discussions has appointed Rahul Dravid as captain for India's tour to Bangladesh, Ireland and England.

Young team to Bangladesh is a very good idea. If we had to guess, Ganguly, Agarkar, and Bhajji at a minimum will be "rested" for this tour.

8. BCCI will appoint a permanent manager for the Indian team for a two-year term. The Board will also appoint a permanent Media Manager for a two- year term.

Well...BCCI will have to appoint a permanent manager and will do so but the Media Manager is another matter altogether. The lethargy of BCCI is world famous (BCCI doesn't even have a website) so how soon they will hire a Media Manager is something to watch for.

9. Notice will be issued to Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh under Rule 38 of the Memorandum and the Rules and Regulations of the Board asking for an explanation for their comments made to the media.

Well. What can one say? Should one read into this? Has Sachin Tendulkar now become mortal or is it all just eyewash to appease the crowds?

10. Working Committee approved the Performance-based Payment to the players and decided to do away with the present gradation for Retainership. Apart from the payment, the following points would form a part of the contract.

A player will endorse not more than 3 sponsors / products
No Sponsor can contract more than 2 players.
The players will not be allowed to do any sponsor-related events 15 days before the tour and also during the tour.
Before every tour, all the contracted players have to undergo a fitness test and only those who fulfill the benchmarks will be considered for selection.
No player shall have exclusive contracts with electronic or print media. Only the captain can write a column or talk to the media but not exclusively.
The players shall take prior approval of the Board before signing any endorsement contract and will submit a copy of the agreement to the Board. All the players shall submit a copy of the existing contracts with sponsors to the Board.
All the players will have to play a stipulated number of domestic matches when not playing for India.
In the event of injury to the player, the Board will compensate him the match fees that he would have earned for a maximum period of six months.

A lot of people we know are happy that the BCCI decided to cut down on the endorsements of the players and also negated the contracts. We are not so sure that endorsements and contracts are the reason for the loss in the world cup. We were surprised to hear that this was one of the things the former captains suggested to the Board. Maybe it is a good idea but this looks a lot like an employer, seeing that the public opinion is against their employees, is trying to affirm their superiority over the employees. As a principle, we are against this. Nothing to do but wait and see how this pans out.

11. The Working Committee decided to form a Cricket Advisory committee consisting of the following ex - captains: Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, MAK Pataudi, Chandu Borde, Ravi Shastri, Krish Srikkanth and S Venkataraghavan under the Chairmanship of President [Sharad Pawar] and will include all the Office Bearers.

What is the purpose of this committee?

12. The working committee appointed Ravi Shastri as Cricket Manager for the India's tour to Bangladesh. It was further decided that Venkatesh Prasad will be the bowling coach and Robin Singh, the fielding coach for the tour.

Excellent. Finally! India has a bowling coach.

Bangladesh Vs South Africa, Super Eights

2007-04-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

This was great win for Bangladesh. Much greater than the one against India. We are most happy that Andre Nel, despite a fiver fer, did not win the match for SA. Thank God for small mercies. It was excruciating watching the Bangladesh innings as Nel took wickets at regular intervals. All our pain vanished when Ashraful started to open up. There were three cheeky boundaries where Ashraful, trusting his hand eye coordination, moved across the off stump and glided the fast bowlers past fine leg.

If those boundaries were cheeky, his square drive off Langeveldt was the shot of the match. That was a glorius hit. We envy the high Ashraful must have got when he hit that shot. That was a shot of a man in full control of his batting. He squared up to a fullish ball on the off-stump, opened up the face of the bat and drove the ball beautifully past Point. What a shot. Mortaza pitched in with a great cameo and contributed 25 very useful runs. Ashraful's masterly 87 took Bangladesh to a very respectable total of 251 in 50 overs.

South Africa were completely outplayed. They lost wickets regularly and at no stage looked like they were going to win the match. Rafique and Razzak were brilliant and consistently troubled the batsmen. These guys can teach the dart thrower (Harbhajan) a trick or two.

SA should have won the match. Like the brilliant L.Sivaramakrishnan said: "They need a big partnership". Actually, L. Siva is a very bad commentator and is very irritating (not as much as Ranjit Fernando though) and if he figured it out that to win a cricket match, a big partnership is needed, South Africa must have figured it out too. Or maybe we are giving the Saffies too much credit.

SA didn't get the big partnership they needed to win the match because Andre Nel failed. Andre Nel should take complete responsibility for this loss and retire from cricket. SA was well on its way to victory and were cruising along at 132 for 7 when Nel joined Gibbs at the crease. What was needed was a big partnership to see SA home. What they got was Nel getting out for 1 run. Instead of a "big partnership" SA got a "very small partnership" between Nel and Gibbs (5 runs). That is not acceptable.

Andre Nel can't help himself. He is a bully and will not retire from cricket. Therefore, SA must do the right thing and drop him from the team. Andrew Hall would have given SA the "big partnership" they needed.

We are happy that Bangladesh beat SA. SA is much bigger scalp than India. Now everyone can stop talking about Bd beating India and instead, focus on Bd beating SA.

We are pumped for tomorrow's match between Ravi Bopara and Australia. Should be fun.

News Round-Up

2007-04-05T17:56:00.000-07:00

Harsha's father used to give "tuition" for free. 6:00 AM sharp. Good to know. Okay then, see you in the morning Mr. Bhogle. Frivolity aside, he raises some good points about BCCI but we are not all that sure about "benevolent" dictators. As the old saying goes: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We don't trust one person running the show without any checks and balances. As another old saying goes: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Mukul Kesavan's take on GC's resignation. Good post. Might be worth your while if you are not too busy. This bit makes complete sense to us:

"It can be plausibly argued that the problem with Chappell wasn't his candour, it was his propensity to intrigue. Several cricket journalists I've read or spoken to (and this includes Chappell's protagonists) testify to his habit of sending sms messages to journalists leaking his views on players, selection and policy. The players who disliked him complain about how manipulative he was. They might be wrong and self-interested but it's odd that Indian journalists and commentators should find the stereotype of the straight-talking Australian and the truth-denying Indian easier to credit than the chorus of allegations that Chappell's preferred mode for communicating with the media was the modern equivalent of harem whispers.
Just as odd is the 'balanced' view that equates criticism of Chappell and his methods with a willful blindness to the structural problems of Indian cricket. I find no difficulty in holding in my head (at the same time) two related but distinct ideas: 1) that the BCCI presides over a mess and 2) that Chappell is a terrible coach. The need for structural reform and the necessity of making the best of what you currently have aren't contradictory goals..."

Brett Lee is planning to terrorize everybody. Not with his bowling but with his singing.

"The move into music and films hasn't just dropped into his lap; it's been in the making for the past six years. The first song was just scratching the surface. It wasn't a huge revenue-raiser in itself . . . (but) it was part of a broader plan to focus a lot of our energies on the music and movie business on the subcontinent. It's not just about cutting a record. It's far broader and longer term than that."

Just kill us now.

BCCI's schedule for the next two days:

Day One
10.30 am: Captain, coach, manager, selection committee chairman Dilip Vengsarkar to meet BCCI officials to discuss on the World Cup debacle. Coach and manager to submit reports.
3.30 pm: Board officials meet other Team India players, including Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.
Day Two
Working Committee meeting:
To discuss on improvement of the domestic structure, make it on the lines of Australia’s Sheffield Shield, improve playing conditions.
Discussion on players’ contracts, revising them specifically to be performance-based.
To discuss with former captains of India on complete revision of the country’s cricketing profile and appoint an interim coach.
To discuss on Zee’s bid to launch the Indian Cricket League.

Another interesting quote from the article:

“Don’t expect a lot of decisions to be taken. But do expect a lot of talking to be done. It is a two-day meeting and not just a two-day affair.”

Okay. No decisions and lot of talking. Have to remember that. What does the third sentence mean? "Two-day meeting and not just a two-day affair." We have no idea. Please let us know if you know what it means, my dear readers.

England Vs Sri Lanka, Super Eights

2007-04-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

In retrospect, this was always going to be a fantastic match. It had all the ingredients: two captains marshaling the resources they have brilliantly, two good bowling line-ups, and two great batsmen in Jayasuriya and KP. If there were any doubts, it was about which England side would show up. The English side we saw in Australia showed up and played hard. In Ravi Bopara, England have found something special - a cool customer who remains unfazed under pressure. Though England lost, they have learnt something about themselves. They were in a pressure cooker situation with SL applying the screws (just shush, we know we mixed up our metaphors. okay?) and they came out of it without disgracing themselves.

However, we have to say that if England had realized that the world cup had started some time back instead of today, they might have acquired the hard edge needed to win close matches by now. That was the major difference between the two teams. SL were like battle hardened troops who were led by an astute and respected captain who knew the side's strengths and weaknesses while the English were like gifted rookies who needed some hard earned experience under their belt before they could consistently beat the better sides.

Sri Lankan batting lives and dies with Jayasuriya. If Jayasuriya clicks, they put up a good score and when he fails, they don't. However, the Sri Lankan bowling is a different matter altogether. Despite what anyone says, the strength of both teams is their bowling. This is especially true of SL, who have in the recent times acquired the knack of defending low/medium totals. Their belief in their bowling prowess is such that they don't count themselves out of any match. Added to that, the massive improvement in their fielding means that they have mental superiority over the batting team while defending totals.

Today was a very good example of how they win their matches while defending totals: get a couple of quick wickets in the beginning, slowly start exerting pressure by not allowing boundaries, have Jayasuriya bowl at one end to get through the overs quickly and economically, cut of easy runs with their electric fielding, bring in a fast bowler (Malinga/Fernando/Maharoof) or Murali (Oh, by the way, KP cannot be considered the best ODI batsman in the world till he wins some games for his side. The tussle between KP and Murali was fantastic with Murali coming out on top today) for shock treatment and to get another wicket or two, rinse, and repeat.

The only reason England even got close to winning the match was due to a superb partnership between Paul Nixon and Ravi Bopara. They scampered their singles and kept the asking rate in control so that they could blitz at the end. They nearly carried it off too. It was a brilliant effort. We don't know anything about Ravi Bopara but based on just this match, he deserves to bat higher up. Maybe even in Flintoff's spot. Will England do it? Based on the whole Ashley Giles episode (that of not dropping him for Panesar), they won't. Too bad for them.

SL now looks set for the semi-final. They already have 6 points and a win over Ireland will see them in the semi-finals via net run rate. England still have a chance, assuming they will beat Bangladesh, they have to win 2 out of 3 more matches against WI, Australia, and South Africa. If they beat Australia this weekend, they will get into the semi-finals. Since the world cup just started for them, maybe the England side which showed up today will show up again against Australia.

Ireland Vs South Africa, Super Eights

2007-04-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

Well, that was not unexpected. In a rain delayed (again) match, Ireland made 152 in 35 overs but thanks to Messers Duckworth and Lewis, SA had to make 160 in 35 overs to win the match. In the end, SA won easily.

Ireland were outplayed but were not outclassed. They are showing a lot of commitment in all their matches and if they continue to play like they did today, they will not be going home without a win in the Super Eights. In the very important match between Bangladesh and Ireland, the Irish have the edge and have a very good chance of winning. We are very glad that this match is one of the few matches that has been sold out (Pakistan and India were 'supposed' to be playing this match).

Jacques Kallis reminds us of Ravi Shastri in his heyday. He plays the very important role of being the anchor for the team. This angers a lot of fans but is ultimately very important to win matches. Ravi Shastri used to be booed all the time in India for his slow knocks but he used to stick around and do the necessary dirty work to see India home.

Enough about this boring match. We are looking forward to tomorrow's match between England and SL. This is a very important match for both sides. If SL wins this match, they will have 6 points and assuming they win their match against Ireland, will have a total of 8 points. That will book them a semi-final berth.

England have 2 points from beating Ireland. Assuming they beat Bangladesh, they will have 4 points. They need another 4 points to book their semi-final berth and will be playing SL, WI, SA, and Australia for the 4 points. That makes this game an almost must win for the English side.

Hopefully, rain won't play spoilsport tomorrow and we will get to see the whole match.

Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark

2007-04-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

No, not 'the State of Denmark' but 'Indian Cricket'. We just didn't want to mess with the Bard's words. Moreover, what is good for the bard is good for us and more importantly, we don't let facts get in the way of good titles.

Vijay Lokapally's article is a must read. We are convinced that Greg Chappell has to go just because there doesn't seem to be any trust between the players and the coach. We found this paragraph bizarre:

The support staff, especially Ian Fraser, has made matters worse. He earned the ire of the players to such an extent that he was asked to leave the dressing room for his attempts to ridicule them during a tense situation on the last tour of South Africa.

If support staff are ridiculing players then something is seriously wrong.

The seniors in Chappell's firing line are Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, V.V.S. Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Ajit Agarkar...

That's 8 players! Who does he get along with? don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question.

Before we lynch Chappell, a word to the wise: If these rifts between the coach and the players was so severe, why didn't we hear anything about it after the South African tour and before the world cup? All everybody talked about before the world cup was how tight the team was and how they were all working together towards a common goal. So what happened?

We will just have to wait for the 'leaked' reports after April 6th and 7th. It will make for very entertaining reading.

Bangladesh Vs New Zealand, Super Eights

2007-04-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

His name is Bond, Shane Bond and he had bowling figures of 10 overs, 4 maidens, 15 runs, and 2 wickets. He "took care" of Bangladesh and went back to the dressing room to drink his vodka martinis. It was a great bowling performance but...

Was Bond really the man of the match? Scott Styris took 4 wickets for 43 runs in his 10 overs and Fleming scored an unbeaten century to see NZ home. Weren't they more worthy of the 'mom' award?

Bond getting the 'mom' award reminded us of Al Pacino not getting an Oscar nod for 'Godfather II' and finally getting the award for the eminently forgettable 'Scent of a Woman'. It was more of a reward for past performances and less of actually being the 'mom' on the day. Anyway, we won't begrudge Bond his 'mom' award just like we didn't begrudge Al Pacino his Oscar award. Both deserved their Oscar/'mom' award.

We are a little worried about the health of NZ'ers. They are dropping like flies. On this day, they lost Michael Mason and James Franklin. Other injuries to the side include Darryl Tuffey, Lou Vincent, and Gillespie. We were aghast and impressed when we heard that Lou Vincent broke his wrist in practise while facing Bond. These NZ'ers take their practice seriously.

The Black Caps can take a leaf out of the Indian book and avoid injuries during practice. Indian cricketers know practice is inherently dangerous and hence avoid it at all costs (Sehwag) or if they are forced to practice they ask bowlers not to bowl bouncers while they are batting (Ganguly). If there was a world cup for the least number of injuries to a side during practice, India would win hands down. No question about it.

We are really hoping that they can somehow field their best team for the important matches up ahead. On a brighter note, as long as Bond is around, NZ will remain a potent force (hope we didn't jinx Bond).

Tomorrow's match between South Africa and Ireland is going to be pretty boring. In fact, we will go out on a limb and predict that South Africa (in a very boring way) will beat Ireland. All is not lost for Ireland though, based on Bangladesh's past two performances, the match between Ireland and Bangladesh will be close and Ireland have a pretty good chance of winning that match.

West Indies Vs Sri Lanka, Super Eights

2007-04-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

Ah, so that's what a player with a lot of experience brings to the table. Batting sensibly when the conditions are unfavorable and then picking an opportune time to have a go at the bowlers. Sanath Jayasuriya did all this and much more in Sri Lanka's drubbing of West Indies.

Jayasuriya's knock was fantastic. Under helpful conditions, the WI bowlers did a good job of not giving him any room to play his shots. Jayasuriya had to bide his time patiently - that he did admirably and it wasn't till the 17th over that he finally started going after the bowlers. It was a great batting display which we hope the Indian cricket stars caught on TV. They could learn a thing or two.

We've said this before and will probably say it again: SL and NZ are the only teams that are capable of beating Australia. This match further confirms our belief. SL, after a very slow start, went on to make 303 in their 50 overs. For WI to stand a chance, Gayle and Lara had to fire. They didn't and the match was lost.

We never thought that the WI team had any chance of winning the world cup but we are amazed at how they are unravelling. They can't even claim that pressure is playing a part because it seems like no one in the WI really cares about how Lara and his boys fare. It is sad that all is not well with team. They didn't look all that happy out in the field. To be fair, it very well could be because Jayasuriya was kicking their collective arses.

WI and England remind us of the Indian team. They have the same uncertainty about them. In terms of drama, the match between WI and England will be a classic. This match will see-saw several times with each team trying to lose and finally the undeserving side will win. We are marking our calendar for that match: April 21. By that time, both teams will probably not stand of chance of making it to the semi-final. That should add to the drama.

As of today, our picks for the semifinal are: Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka. Tomorrow, its the black caps turn to teach Bangladesh a cricket lesson. We will go out on a limb and say NZ will beat Bangladesh. Any takers?

Australia Vs Bangladesh, Super Eights

2007-03-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

This match turned out to be a mismatch of gigantic proportions. Rain delays turned the match into a 22 over side game. Bangladesh lost the toss and were asked to bat by Ponting. McGrath took 3 wickets and overtook Wasim Akram as the leading wicket taker in the world cup. For what it is worth, we still think Akram was a better bowler than McGrath.

We don't want to talk about Hayen anymore. He is boring us with his consistency. We like a little bit of uncertainty. Indian cricketers are past masters of this great ancient art. One never knows how they will perform on any given day. That keeps the fans on their toes, keeps them sharp and imbues them with "now what new catastrophe" attitude. These qualities are very useful in the 'real' world*.

What is the big deal about scoring a lot of runs every time one goes out to bat? That is so, NOT COOL. That's why Hayden is a bore and that's why Aussies don't like cricket anymore**. Because the Australian team is very consistent, their fans don't have avenues for letting off steam. Evil things happen when fans don't have avenues to let off steam: a 'fan' might suddenly decide to enslave the world by controlling all the newspapers and the TV stations in the world or another 'fan' might suddenly think that hitting another human being's face with a telephone is a good idea.

The Australian cricket team has some tough decisions to make. Let's hope they make the right decision***.

* Not really.
** We don't exactly know that. In our defense, we watched FOX News last night and we are not responsible for what we say for the next 24 hours.
*** Since the collective IQ of the team is 11, we will spell it out for their benefit: Right decision = Play badly.

England Vs Ireland, Super Eights

2007-03-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

Ve vill write thees match report like thees because eet vas a most boring match. England somehow managed to beat Ireland. Heartache for eeenglees fans has been postponed. That's feene, ve 'ave all the teeme een the world. Kant yu teel?

Ve kant think of anything elsie to say. Oh yeah, Collingwood is gud and so is gud 'ol Flinty. Oh yeah again, Pie San ees not the beeeeeest batsman een the world. 'E ees not even klose. He ees nuthin compared to Dhoni. No one but Dhoni in thees world cup 'as scored two ducks. As ve kan teel from personal experience, scoring 2 ducks in 3 matches EES 'ARD WORK, MKAY.

Talking Heads

2007-03-29T19:34:00.000-07:00

Harsha's remedy for the ills plaguing the Indian cricket team is to reduce the number of first class teams in India and thus increase the cricketing standards. Fair enough.

Mukul Kesavan says it's Greg's fault (not in so many words...but...you know what, you should read the whole thing and decide for yourself). His theory:

I think we lost because Chappell, with the best possible intentions, tried to shake the team out of its settled routines by recruiting new players and rotating their roles. He bet on youth and fitness, on developing the all round skills of players like Dhoni and Pathan, and on undermining notions of seniority and hierarchy. He made an example of Ganguly to this end, made his indifference to slow-moving specialists like Laxman obvious and built up players like Raina on the strength of their fielding skills.
All of these policies are theoretically defensible: the problem is, they didn't work. Raina wasn't ready for prime time as a batsman, Pathan's bowling fell away, the experiments at the top of the order failed and by the time the World Cup came round, the Indian team looked remarkably like the one John Wright had handed over. Ganguly was back and he rejoined a team that had been stirred and shaken so hard that it was an anxious bunch of individuals with no esprit de corps

Ajit Wadekar, the senile old man of Indian cricket, decides to sound statesman like and for once eschews his garbage about "gora" coaches. One can peek into his psyche in this column. The column says: 'First find the cat you want to bell'. Right. Instead of talking about the causes/reasons of the bad show put on by India and how to go about correcting them, Wadekar, wants to pin the blame of this bad show on somebody. If that's the mentality 'esteemed' former captains have, there is no hope for Indian cricket.

Javagal Srinath says that Chappell's approach contradicted Indian way. We respect Srinath so we won't editorialize his column. Read it for what it is worth.

Confirming the fact that it is the best newspaper in India, The Hindu mentions that Polly Umrigar was inducted into the Legend's Club.

West Indies Vs New Zealand, Super Eights

2007-03-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Despite the loss of Lou Vincent, New Zealand looked formidable beating West Indies easily in their Super Eight match. We are penciling in NZ for a semi-final berth. They already have 4 points (2 from the preliminary round and 2 for beating WI) and are assured of 4 more when they play Bangladesh and Ireland. That’s 8 points and it will be enough for a semi-final berth.

Despite Shane Bond, Jacob Oram, and the steady Vettori, NZ’s strength lies in their batting depth. With Styris and McMillan in the form of their life and Jacob Oram and McCullum behind them, they have one of the strongest batting line-ups in the tournament.

Like we mentioned before, we see Sri Lanka and New Zealand as the only two teams which can beat Australia hence we are rooting for them wholeheartedly. On the other hand, West Indian batting needs to regroup. Their bowlers are doing an okay job but their batting has been below average.

Lara is not exactly setting stadiums on fire. He needs to cut out the cute shots and play like Lara we all know. Gayle is doing a Sehwag and Chanderpaul can’t seem to get out of his rut. If the big three don’t play well, West Indies ends up losing. Wait, we could have said the same thing of the Indian team. If anyone is wondering, that was not a compliment to the Windies.

We were astonished to see West Indies fall into the trap India does all the time: pack a side with batsmen and pray while bowling. How many times must we shout this: A TEAM NEEDS BOWLERS TO WIN MATCHES. The surprising thing was they dropped Jerome Taylor and picked up a very inexperienced batsman in L Simmons. Who was the genius behind that selection?

Good to know that though India is out of the tournament, its spirit lives on in the West Indian side. If they continue to play this way, Bangladesh will win two of their Super Eight matches. That will make us very happy.

News Round-Up (Kind of)

2007-03-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

This is ridiculous: Guru Ram Dev wants to ban cricketers from featuring in soft drink commercials after the Indians were ousted from the world cup. An excerpt:

Ramdev, who arrived in Dhanbad to take part in a 6-day yoga camp, told a press conference: "India's ouster from the World Cup may have shattered the dream of sports lovers in the country but it benefited crores of children as far as their health is concerned."
The children see cricketers as idols and try to follow in their footsteps, he said while urging the BCCI to bar cricketers from advertising ‘harmful’ soft drinks.
"Such advertisements will have a bad effect on the health of crores of children in the country," Ramdev claimed. He also advocated the introduction of yoga in schools rather than sex education

Some very obvious questions: Is it okay for children to drink colas if the Indian cricket team wins matches? and more importantly, why is yoga and sex education mutually exclusive? Why can't kids have both yoga and sex education in school?

Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar AKA The Colonel, has suddenly realised the virtues of keeping his mouth shut.

Cricket going Hockey way? Hopefully not. We believe that there is still room for artistry in cricket. The day Matthew Hayden becomes the poster boy of cricket is when we should start worrying. Wait...

Akash Chopra: solid cricketer and an even better writer.

Mumbai beats Rajasthan to lift the Ranji ODI trophy.

South Africa Vs Sri Lanka, Super Eights

2007-03-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

What a match! Unfortunately, we didn't watch a single ball and we weren't even close to a computer to follow the score. From all the reports we have read this was a cracker of a match. Malinga is a freak of nature and would have felt right at home in 19th century when round-arm bowling was all the rage and W.G. Grace was hitting round-arm bowling all over the ground. Malinga would have given the great man a stiff challenge...we think.

Anyway, if you are reading this blog you probably know more about this match then we do. To redress that situation we are watching the match now and might (or might not) have more pithy comments after our viewing.

If you were like us and do not know what you missed, Langeveldt took the first 5 for in this world cup, Malinga took 4 wickets in 4 balls and South Africa won the match by a hair's breadth. Here is the match report and here is the scoreboard.

Having grown up watching batsmen trash bowlers without regard, we love it when bowlers dominate a match. The best match of the world cup so far? we will answer that question after we watch the match.

Update:
It was an engrossing match. The last 5 overs were fantastic. Graeme Smith said that SA were on top for 95 overs of the match. We disagree. SA was on top for about 75 overs of the match.

News Round-Up (Sort Of)

2007-03-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

Greg Chappell sends SMS messages to journalists. No wonder nobody likes GC. A coach's primary job is to build trust with his players. Looks like GC failed to do that miserably. Here's the offending paragraph for all you lazy people:

On February 16, after an article of mine appeared in this paper Greg sent me a SMS, which I am reproducing for the sake of the public. "Excellent article. Almost spot on. Even to the last selection meeting. I fought for youth. The senior players fought against it and the chairman went with them out of fear of media, if youth didn’t perform. Kartik will be a very good batsman and by the way is a potential leader. You are very right about Yuvi. Regards, Greg."
It was the morning of the ODI against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatnam. The time the SMS was received — 08.16.31. For those who did not read the article, it would be helpful for their comprehension of the situation in a context.

As far as Dinesh Kartik is concerned, I had hinted he should not be taken as a second wicketkeeper, implying he be should taken as a batsman and called as such. Hence Greg’s explanation. About Yuvraj Singh I had written, "For heaven’s sake, let nobody consider Yuvraj Singh as a future captain."

Another theory as to why Bob Woolmer was killed (hat tip: Prem Panicker) - Here.

Fascinating reading about the inner workings in the BCCI (hat tip: Prem Panicker): Here.

The Colonel speaks again. Wants 'both young and experienced' captain. Okay then. Bye.

Meanwhile in Pakistan, "fans" went to the airport to "greet" Younis Khan.

Apparently, the Indian team was "most indisciplined” and “on an enjoyment spree” (they were up till 1 AM in the morning and were *gasp* smoking) when they toured WI in 2006. So, we should fire the coach says GCA board official. Duly noted. Thank you Mr GCA board official.

West Indies Vs Australia, Super Eights

2007-03-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

The village idiot has struck a rich vein of form and is in danger of becoming an idiot-savant. Who is to blame for this travesty? Daniel Vettori, that's who. Why? Because Hayden was out of form and was one match away from being dropped when Vettori dropped Hayden (score: 0) in the CB Series. Hayden then went on to make a century which got him into the world cup squad and the rest, as they say, is history. Daniel Vettori is a moron.

Hayden's batting will never be considered beautiful but it is extremely effective. Hayden is so dumb that he doesn't know it's better to be beautiful than to be effective. Hayden is not one of the sweet timers of the ball but he glosses over his timing deficiencies with the power he brings to the crease.

Hayden after a very slow start went to hit another century (158 in 143 balls) and powered Australia to yet another 300 plus score (322 in 50 overs). He was helped with nice cameos from Ponting, Clarke and Watson.

The rest of the match got rained out so West Indies will begin their chase tomorrow. Luckily they still have the full 50 overs but unluckily their target is a whopping 322. West Indies desperately needs a Lara special to chase this total down.

We will update this post after the West Indian innings tomorrow.

Update:03/28/2007
For West Indies to win this game, Lara needed to play one of his very special knocks. He did to a certain extent but it was not long enough and it was not special enough. Gayle is in awful form. Whatever happened to the destroyer of bowlers? He seems shrouded in doubt and not batting well.

Long story short, West Indies lost to Australia. Will someone please beat Australia? Once again, Australia is looking like a Juggernaut.

Where Does India Go From Here?

2007-03-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

India's ouster from the world cup is heartbreaking but it is also an opportunity. Will BCCI do the right thing this time around? Based on their past track record, we doubt it. There will be a lot of bloodletting and heads will roll but if these are cosmetic to assuage the rage of "fans" it would be a travesty. April 6th and 7th are the dates to watch as BCCI is convening a meeting with ex-captains to decide the future of Indian cricket. In the meantime, it gives us an opportunity to pontificate about the kind of cricket team India should be aiming for.

What kind of a cricket team do we want?
A cricket team which can play well outside India has to be the top priority. For far too long, Indian teams have been flat track bullies. A tinge of green on the pitch should not make our batsmen yellow with fear. India should be able to win away tours, be aggressive in the field, play hard, not wilt under pressure, field as well as the Australians, and run the singles well. In short, the much clichéd term: "Total Cricket".

Coach:
Greg Chappell will most probably be sacked. One can argue that his “process” was never given the chance it deserved but it can also be said that a coach who rolled over without a fight when his scheme was being systematically dismantled does not deserve to be the coach. If, as reports seem to suggest, GC has lost the trust of his players; then he should be fired. No coach, however great, can succeed when his players don’t buy into the scheme. Getting players to believe in what the coach has to offer is a major part of the coach’s job.

His sacking might be symbolic: getting rid of the ‘foreign’ element from the team might be therapeutic for the loonies out there. Whatever the rationale behind GC’s firing, it is most likely that he will be gone.

Operating on the belief that GC will be sacked. Who should replace him? Will BCCI be wary about hiring a foreign coach after this fiasco? Will the Wadekars and Kapil Devs succeed with their vociferous racist remarks? Time will tell. Some of the names doing the rounds:
John Wright
Bob Simpson
Sandeep Patil
Anybody else? Any interesting names out there? Please let us know.

If by some miracle, he retains his job, it has to be considered a win for Indian cricket. Not because he is a good coach but because, for once, an administration took a stand of not pointing fingers at the easiest target and stuck by their employee in the face of immense pressure.

If BCCI decides to give GC another chance then a lot has to be done. BCCI has to empower GC and give him the team he wants, giving GC a core group of younger, fitter players and letting him mould them into a cohesive unit, having a pool of players to pick and choose from, not second guessing GC after every defeat and selecting a team based on performance rather than reputations. This will invariably lead to axing of star players like Ganguly, Sehwag, Bhajji, Tendulkar and Kumble. This option will be traumatic for a lot of fans. Will the BCCI do it? We doubt it.

Whatever we do, we should not fall back on hiring great Indian ex-captains (Kapil Dev, Wadekar, etc) as the Indian team’s coach. It will be a step backward if we do it. These great ex-players don’t have the coaching pedigree. Hire a coach who has a proven track record and technical know how.

Whether BCCI keeps GC or fires him and hires another coach, one thing they have to do is hire a bowling coach. Why India doesn’t have a bowling coach is beyond our understanding.

Captaincy:
This is a knotty problem. Overall, Rahul Dravid’s captaincy has not been bad. He had a poor run as a captain in the world cup. Is that enough to sack him? Dravid has shown himself to be thoughtful and tactical as captain. Can he emerge a stronger person and a stronger leader from this ordeal? We think so.

If there is a knock against Dravid, it is that, after buying into GC’s “process” he capitulated after a string of defeats and opted for ‘captaincy by committee’ approach. His captaincy took a step back by preferring experience over younger and fitter players. He should have known better than to underestimate the importance of fielding.

There is talk about bringing back Sachin Tendulkar as the captain. That would be a bad idea. Even worse would be making Ganguly the captain. Realistically, India doesn’t have many choices when it comes to captaincy. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, and Saurav Ganguly are the only candidates unless BCCI opts for ‘out of the box thinking’.

Dravid is reaching his peak as a batsman while Tendulkar and Ganguly are sliding down. We also believe that Dravid will come out of this debacle as a better captain. If there is anyone in the Indian team who does not wilt at the first sign of pressure, it is Dravid. Dravid has also shown that captaincy does not have an adverse effect on his batting. Dravid has always done well when his back is to the wall. We believe that Dravid still has a lot to offer Indian cricket. If the choices for captaincy are Ganguly, Tendulkar, and Dravid, we prefer Dravid.

Md. Kaif is another player we are very fond of. He was the captain of the U-19’s and is the captain of UP. From everything we have heard, he has the tactical nous and people skills to be a good captain. Bring back Md. Kaif into the team and make him the vice-captain. True, he is not the most prolific batsman in the country but his fielding alone should guarantee his spot in the ODI team and if he were given as many opportunities as, say, Sehwag, he would have probably cemented his spot. Kaif’s batting style (anchoring one end and rotating the strike) makes him ideal to be sent up the order.

The idea of Sehwag as the captain or vice-captain did enter our mind but we quickly discarded it because his spot is in jeopardy now. Sehwag has to go back the drawing board to sort out his fitness and technique.

Does anybody know if Yuvraj can be considered captaincy material? Again, Yuvraj’s test spot has not been cemented so he and Kaif are in similar boats. If given a choice, we prefer Kaif over Yuvraj because we believe Kaif has the common touch to get the best out of his team-mates. Maybe Yuvraj can be India’s Graeme Smith. We doubt it.

Another option could be VVS Laxman. Laxman is well liked and might not make a bad captain. By making Laxman the captain, BCCI could neatly side step several problems. He is senior enough to command respect from the younger players and is well liked by the senior players. One great thing about Laxman being the captain is that he would be in the ODI team. Dropping Laxman from the ODI team because he was considered to be a bad fielder was a gigantic joke.

We did consider having 2 different teams: one for the ODi’s and one for the Tests. Australia is pointed out as an example of this system. The reason this worked for Australia is because the captain of the test team was not part of the ODI team. One could argue that Dravid could remain the captain of the Test team while someone else could captain the ODI team. This will only work if Dravid is not part of the ODI team. That is a bad idea. Not having Dravid in the ODI team will hurt India. Again, we believe Dravid has a lot to offer Indian cricket. Talent like Dravid’s comes along rarely and we should value it.

Our preference is to stick with Dravid as the captain (for both ODI’s and Tests) and make a younger player (Kaif) the vice-captain. If Kaif succeeds, he could take over after Dravid retires and if he doesn’t, India will have time to identify another candidate while Dravid is steering the ship. Our second preference is to make VVS Laxman the captain (for both ODI’s and Tests) and again, make a younger player the vice-captain.

Team:
Tendulkar, Ganguly, and Kumble should retire from ODI’s. Sehwag, Agarkar, and Bhajji should be dropped from ODI’s. That gives us 6 spots for youngsters to fill. Agarkar can be replaced with Sreesanth, Bhajji can be replaced with Powar, and 3 batsmen can take the place of Tendulkar, Ganguly, and Sehwag.

Ganguly, Kumble, Agarkar, Sehwag, and Bhajji should be dropped from the test team. We believe Tendulkar still has something to offer in the Test arena so he should be allowed to keep his spot. Actually, we will be depressed if Tendulkar is dropped for Tests but will get over it very quickly.

The emphasis on future players has to be paramount. Jaffer, Kaif, Raina, Kaarthick, Gambhir, Pathan, and Sreesanth should be nurtured and given enough chances. The emphasis on star players has to decrease. Indians have to realize that the team comes first. It was a pleasure watching the Aussies, Clarke and Ponting, disregard their personal milestones in their match against SA. That would have never happened in an Indian team.

Indians have to realize that to reach Australian and South African level of play, their fielding has to improve drastically. A good idea would be to hire a fielding coach like the South Africans have. It’s not enough to bat well or bowl well, one has to field well. The star players cannot be excused from fielding drills. Fielding has to be an important criterion for selection (not a fake criterion like it was with Laxman’s non-selection). Running between the wickets is also something that needs to be improved. Influx of younger players will improve that to a certain extent but it can be improved further.

Cricket, especially ODI’s, has become an athlete’s game. Emphasis has to be paid to fitness, stamina, and endurance. It is a disgrace that young professional cricket players like Sehwag turn up at fitness camps overweight and out of shape. Players have to follow their off-season regimens. Heavy fines should be levied if a player does not follow their off-season regimen.

Miscellaneous:
BCCI should invest its millions in infrastructure. Our stadiums are falling apart and the conditions inside are horrible. Our one and only visit to see an ODI was traumatic. The stench of urine in the stands was gut-wrenching.

India needs better pitches and outfields. Let’s not kid ourselves about our batting prowess by belting out hundreds on flat tracks. These flat tracks have been the graveyard of many an Indian fast bowler. Why would anybody want to be a bowler when there is no glory in being one? It is not like we don’t know how to build bowler friendly pitches. Mohali is a prime example. We need more Mohali’s in other states.

India should also invest in the massive talent pool it has. We need more ‘A’ matches. A good performance in the U-19’s should not equate to a spot in the national team. The U-19’s need time to hone their skills and BCCI can provide it and should provide it.

For too long domestic cricket has suffered. Plans to reinvigorate and improve domestic cricket are many and varied. Domestic cricket deserves its own post and will be tackled at a later date.

Are we missing anything from our long discourse? Does anyone disagree with us? If so, convince us we are wrong and we will edit the post accordingly.

Bangladesh Vs Bermuda, Group B

2007-03-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

For a moment, our heart fluttered when Bangladesh was reeling at 37-3 chasing a target of 95. Luckily, better sense prevailed and we reasoned that the Bangladeshi young guns would not fold up under pressure like the Indians. They would not squander the chance they have been given. Batting on a sticky wicket, Ashraful and Saqibal Hasan saw Bangladesh home.

Bangladesh went on to beat Bermuda in rain curtailed match. They are into the Super 8's where they will get several more opportunities to bring down the other big teams. Whether this happens or not, Bangladesh should be very happy with their performance so far. Well done and good luck.

Did The "Process" Fail?

2007-03-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

We came across this article from Rahul Bhattacharya while surfing a cricket message board. If the premise is true (that of distrust) then the article carries some weight.

The Process and why it failed so miserably
Rahul Bhattacharya

Four years ago to the day India crashed out of a World Cup. Then it was then the final. Now, bar a fresh face here and there, those same men, pale shadows of their former selves, hang their hopes on the cuddly amateurs of Bermuda, otherwise growing accustomed to the greatest embarrassment of their cricketing lives. ‘You ain’t going back home,’ a drunk hollered jauntily, almost as if to console them, ‘they gon kill yuh’.

Insofar as this can be analysed as a match of cricket it may be said, as the captain and coach said on loop while facing the press, that India “did not play well”. The seam bowlers were sharp upfront but they were unlucky, the fielding was mediocre and the batting hopeless.

Pitifully it all unravelled finally, the feebleness of despairing men unable to face the heat, and the campaign that had blazed across televisions, hoardings, powerpoint presentations and a million dreams came to a virtual halt. The world will turn, but try telling that to the Indian fan.

The cricketers will take a roasting, and there is little really to commend their efforts for the past year. The batting has been frail and the bowling medium and the fielding almost superfluous. Of course it has. And let us not even start on the system that produces and manages these cricketers. Yet, if we must be current, it is too convenient to ignore the point that this was a side without a chemistry. The only hope for it galvanising lay in the bonding that comes from special triumphs. It was not to be.

The team that is not united will find it hard to win. Rahul Dravid is an admirable cricketer in every respect, a setter of examples, but his fatal deficiency as captain was the inability to bring together people in a manner that makes them bigger than they are, a task made almost impossible by the politician employed as the coach.

When responding to one of the few questions he deigned to answer at the press conference, Greg Chappell pointed to the lack of partnerships. It could well be the motif for his tenure.

Numerous players earned the coach’s greatest censure and time after time he found friends in the media, in awe of his stature, thrilled by the access he provided, to spread the message. They were flamed privately to the press men. Word would get back to players, many of them could not relate to his methods anyway. Bonds were broken, and ultimately there hardly remained one. It is not there was not a shred of validity in the observations. But when there is such a breakdown of trust in a team its very spirit dies. India needed a leader, a builder; they got a wrecking ball.

From a tactical point of view, a shake-up was very much required when Dravid and Chappell came together. But experimentation was taken a step too far. It is one thing to make a flexible line-up, another to bend it till it breaks. It was going to be all or nothing. You could have an answer for every situation and equally to none. When it came down to it, the team was without a single bankable position.

The analysis has only just begun. It will continue with numbing force for months to come in what, for fans and media alike over the past two years, has been the most polarised period in recent Indian cricket history.

But take some time out to look the other way. As the world-weary Indians watched impassive from the dressing room, the jubilant Sri Lankans bounced joyously off the field, and the eager teenagers of the Bangladesh cricket team beamed in the audience. “The beauty and the cruelty of sport”, Dravid would philosophise later. Till better times, the supporters of the biggest, most decadent cricket playing nation in the world must have to come to terms with that.

Any thoughts?

England Vs Kenya, Group C

2007-03-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

England beat Kenya and are through to the super 8's. We didn't see this match because we were busy watching the Australia-SA match. We are happy that England got through - somebody has to give Ireland and Bangladesh hope for a win in the Super 8's. England team has a very subcontinental trait of being able to lose to anyone on any given day and beating anyone on any given day.

Happy days are ahead for cricket fans rooting for the weaker teams.

Australia Vs South Africa, Group A

2007-03-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

As we write this, Australia is cruising along at 78-0 after 10 overs. South Africa won the toss and put Australia in to bat. Australia is off to the races. Will they hit 500 today? and more importantly, can they defend whatever runs they make.

Nice calling and running between the wickets. Great shot from Gilchrist, but Langeveldt gets his boot on it and saves 4 runs. Gilchrist is pissed with Langy's temerity, so the next ball is deposited over the ground for a huge 6. What a shot. Score now 84-0, 11 overs.

Andrew Hall into the attack now. What a shot!!! Great shot! came down the pitch and blasted the ball through extra covers. Great timing. What a way to get to his fifty. The village idiot playing really well. Nice comeback from Hall.

The Australian running between the wickets is top notch. We have an idea, they should hire Ganguly, who is the BEST runner between the wickets, to help their running get to the next level. Meanwhile, Haydos is going berserk. He just hit a flat six over mid-off. The trick to getting Hayden out is simple: The wicket-keeper needs to ask him math questions. Due to his double digit IQ, math questions are hard for Hayden. He gets confused easily. If the wicket-keeper can irritate Hayden enough, Hayden will get out.

Gilly is gone! Nice catch by Gibbs - easy catch at backward point. Gilly was surprised by the bounce of the slower ball and was not able to keep it down. Australia now 106 for 1 after 15 overs. Monkey boy will walk in. Oh Joy. Monkey boy and the Idiot batting together.

Update 1:
What a shot! 4. Nice shot between cover and mid-off. Hayden is middling everything and when he is not hitting boundaries, he is running sharp singles. Australia don't know what they are missing - they need Ganguly as their running coach. As an act of kindness, maybe we can send Ganguly over - free of cost. We just heard a very important tidbit: Gibbs doesn't like throwing up the ball after he takes a catch. He gets rid of it quickly.

Will South Africa save itself a little bit by getting rid of Ponting quickly? We will see, meanwhile, Hayden hits a boundary over cover. Hayden is batting beautifully. Another nice shot over mid-on. He is in great form. He is on 81 and Australia crusing along at 123-1 after 17 overs.

Update 2:
Holy cow! Hayden could be making the fasest 100 of the world cup. This is terrible news. Where is Ganguly when you need him? We are, of course, rooting against Hayden getting to that hundred. It's bad enough that another aussie form Canada has the record. One dot ball.

Meanwhile, Ponting is rotating the strike. Coward. If you are brave, show us by batting instead of rotating the strike to your in-form partner. Indian batsmen are brave. Spanking shot by Hayden for 4 and then he takes a single. He is on 90 of 59 balls. Australia now 140-1 after 19 overs.

Update 3:
Hayden 91 off 60 balls. 9 runs from 6 deliveries to get to the fastest hundred. WOW!!! Ponting just hit a massive six. What a batsman! what a shot! Now a straight drive over the bowlers head for a 4. Oh boy. He is looking dangerous. Thank God the power plays are over. It's time to stanch the flow of runs.

Hayden 92 of 62 balls. 93 of 63 balls. 94 of 64 balls. This should be interesting: the greatest spinner in the entire galaxy (GSEG) Graeme Smith is on. Can Hayden get to his 100 against the GSEG? Yes, he can! Hayden now 100 of 66 balls. What a shot! great six. Well done Haydos. Nice 100. Fastest 100 in the world cup. So, we lose this small battle too. Never mind. We will prevail in the end. Australia now 166-1 after 23 overs.

Update 4:
Kallis is on now. OUT!!! Hayden gone for 101, great batting. Easy catch to Gibbs. Clarke is in to bat. Fastest 100 in the world cup history. Good batting Hayden, Now keep your mouth shut and we will be fine.

There, we couldn't have said it better. Alec Stewart just gave a 5 minute discourse on why singles are important and why Australians are so good at taking singles. Wish Ganguly could have heard Alec Stewart. Great running between the wickets. Australia now 177-2 after 26 overs.

Update 5:
Nice shot from Ponting. Easy 4. Just chipped it over mid-wicket.
What an effort by the third man. The ball was racing away and Pollock dived to make a great stop.

Not much happening except for a run-out chance, a hard catch, and a inside edge to the boundary. Australia now 203-2 after 31 overs.

Update 6:
Clarke is cutting loose. A boundary followed by a six. The six was very well hit. Hit over between the bowler and mid-off. Nice shot. Australia at 214-2 after 32 overs.

Ntini into the attack. Ponting is scared of him. Coward. Just takes off for a quick single. Clarke is terrified of Ntini. He doesn't want to face him either. He wants a quick single which wasn't on.

AB de Villiers (AB from now on) is a great fielder. Trust us. Clarke going for everything now. Australians have obviously decided to go after Kallis. 2 balls-2 fours. Kallis is very angry and this ofcourse terrifies Clarke who gets off strike by taking a single. Coward. Face him if you have the courage.

Ponting got lucky. Andrew Hall just couldn't reach that ball. Four.
Great shot by Ponting. jumped down the pitch and smacked it for a 4. This brings up his 50. Nice innings. It would have been perfect if he hadn't taken all those singles and still made the 50. Australia 239-2 after 35 overs. Australia on their way to 400 here.

Update 7:
Clarke plunders 10 runs from Langy including 2 fours. Pollock back in to the attack. Clarke is looking to take on Pollock. This will be fun. This is a batsman's paradise. SIX. Clarke gets to his 50 in style. Another six. This time Ponting. Beautiful shot. This man can time the cricket ball. These batsman are making Pollock look like a Nets bowler. Maybe it's time for GSEG to come back into the attack. Change of pace and all that.

Everything going Australia's way so far. 284-2 after 39 overs. What else can go wrong for the Saffies? Gibbs can drop a catch. Get out of here! Gibbs never drops a catch.
Well, he does just that. It's an easy catch too. Clarke lucky to be still batting. 288-2 after 40 overs. 400 is on. If the Saffies can put up a fight, this will be a good match.

Nothing in the pitch for the bowlers. Bowlers like Ntini and Pollock are being treated with contempt and disdain. Sucks.

Update 8:
300 up for Australia in 40.2 overs. Beautiful shot. Square driven for a lovely 4 by Clarke. Monkey boy just lost his bat. He came down the pitch to hit Kallis out of the ground and the bat slipped from his hands. Looked like an idiot running to the non-strikers end. Nearly killed Clarke too.

Clarke is swishing at everything now and so is Ponting. The difference is Ponting's slogs are placed into the gap giving him a boundary while Clarke is smashing balls directly to the fielders. 318-2 after 44 overs.

Clarke hit a great sixer and then Ponting tries to do the same and he is gone. Out! Out for a very well made 91. Great effort. That's what captains are supposed to do. Lead from the front and play great innings. Great batting by Ponting. Australia 341-3 for 46 overs.

Update 9:
Clarke is gone for 92. Runout. All that running finally caught up with him. If he had followed Ganguly's tenet of not running singles he would not be gone without his century. Serves him right! Hussey now in.

While we were talking to a friend, a lot happened (couple of boundaries and some manic running) and then Hussey holed out to deep cover. Australia 357-5 after 48 overs. Saffies have done a decent job in the last few overs.

We shouldn' have said that since Symonds smashed a four. Now, it's Shane Watson's turn. He moves to the off stump and places the ball to deep fine leg for a four. Nice shot. Watson does it again! moves to the off stump and hits the ball this time over mid-wicket. Another 4. Australia 373-5 after 49 overs.

Last over coming up. Nice ball from Andrew Hall. Dot ball. Barry Richards says: Dot ball is like gold. Another dot ball. 3 balls left. Can Shane Watson finish things off in style? no. 2 runs off 4 balls. Last two balls coming up. Symo gets 2. Great running between the wickets. Symo is great. Got him the last ball of the game. Nice ball. Just 4 runs of the last over. Australia 377-6 in 50 overs.

Can the Saffies do it? They have the batting line-up. The question is if anyone can do a Hayden for the Saffies.

Update 10:
Great start from SA. A four and a six in the first over. 10 of the first over. Great shot by AB. Rocked back on the back foot and hit the short ball over mid wicket for a 6.

Tait (of the"I am not at full pace" fame) on now. Fast-around 91 mph. AB on fire. Great on drive. 4 runs. SA now 18-0 after 2 overs.

Things have slowed down a little. But SA taking a lot of singles. Looks like they need Ganguly's help too. When will these teams learn that taking singles is not the answer. Tait is all over the place. He still isn't at full pace though, that might be the problem. SA 30-0 after 4 overs.

What a shot! Smith charges down the wicket and strikes a mighty blow. 4 runs. Tait will be out of the attack soon. He is proving ineffective. My spider sense is tingling that can mean only one thing - we will see McGrath soon. Nice shot again. Smith straight drives Bracken down the ground for another 4. SA 40-0 after 5 overs.

Update 11:
My spider sense was right. McGrath into the attack and is being given a warm welcome by AB. 2 fours from 2 balls. Nice shots. Make that 3 fours in 3 balls. WOW! This is very soothing after India's loss yesterday. 12 runs from the over. SA 52-0 after 6 overs. What a great sight - McGrath is already shaking his head.

Amid the mayhem, Bracken bowls a good, tight over. Just 2 runs of the over. Great come back from McGrath. Just one run from his over. SA 55-0 after 8 overs.

Shane Watson into the attack now. Ponting is moving his bowlers around. Great fielding. Hayden stopped a sure 4. That really pisses off Smith. He swings his bat and gets a 4. 63-0 after 9 overs. Sweet shot. Smith punches McGraths ball straight down. Nothing wrong with the ball just good batting. Another four, this time it is AB who pulls McGrath over square-leg. SA 73-0 after 10 overs.

Ponting takes the second power play. Maybe Ponting shouldn't have. Huge shout for catch behind. Bucknor says no. AB still there. AB hits a 4 to celebrate Bucknor's decision. 79-0 after 11 overs. Ponting misses a run out chance. Did he just drop the world cup? Smith mis hits a pull shot but it still goes to the boundary. Super shot!!! Smith dances down the pitch and smacks it over Watson's head. Watson is getting hammered. AB gets to his 50. Good innings. SA 96-0 after 13 overs.

Update 12:
AB hits another 4. This is a battng paradise. Great commitment from the Australians. They are throwing themselves at everything and great running from the Saffies. Ponting is trying to think. We can spot Ponting trying to think from a mile away - the hand starts pulling on his chin. McGrath is shaking his head. This is lovely. SA 106-0 after 14 overs.

Tait is back into the attack. Even McGrath is thowing himself at the ball. Why can't the Indian team do the same? Hogg is into the attack now. What can he do? Smith sweeps Hogg for a four. Smith's 50 is up with that. Good innings. SA 118-0 after 16 overs.

SA is doing a good job of getting a boundary every over. Great running between the wickets from AB and Smith. They get 2 runs where India would not have attempted a single. SA doesn't get a boundary this over because AB hit a big six. 134-0 after 18 overs.

Symonds into the attack and bowls three good balls. This angers AB who then smacks three fours from the next three balls. AB is on fire. Hogg continuing at the other end. Another pull shot for 4 and then great running between the wickets get SA a brace. Ponting looks worried.
SA 154-0 after 20 overs.

Update 13:
Direct throw from the boundary and AB is run out for a brilliant 92. What a throw!! Shane Watson threw down the stumps from the boundary. Great fielding. Will this change the match? Kallis in. This is a very entertaining match. Ponting takes his third power play in over 23.
Good over from Tait. Just 5 runs from that over. SA 171-1 after 23 overs. Watson bowled a bizzare over: 5 wides and then Gilchrist moved up to the stumps, the next ball hit the cap behing Gilchrist (5 runs). It was good over but it still cost Australia 11 runs. Smith has a case of cramps and AB comes back into the field as Smith's runner. SA 184-1 after 25 overs. Smith walks off the field. SA is in a spot of bother now. Gibbs is in. If he fires, this match is over.

With Smith out of the field this game is slowly meandering. Two new batsmen at the crease. Kallis needs to start opening his shoulders. Good bowling from Tait and an unlucky over from Hogg. SA get to their 200 in the 29th over. Asking rate is climbing up and it's around 8.3. SA needs some boundaries. 203-1 after 29 overs.

Update 14:
Great shot by Kallis. Late cut Hogg to the boundary. Beautiful shot. The game is moving slowly right now. One of the batsmen needs to get going. SA 213-1 after 31 overs. Australia's game to lose at this point.

Gibbs is six and out. Brilliant bowling from Hogg. The wrong 'un does Gibbs in. Hogg on fire. Australia is on top here. Great entertaining match. McGrath, the coward, is bowling to the newly arrived batsman and gets Ashwell Prince. Bowls a slow bouncer and Prince hits straight into Hayden at backward square leg. SA 223-3. SA is missing Smith. They lost momentum after he left the field. Boucher is in.

Australians have really tightened up their bowling. It also doesn't hurt when the best fielders in the world are backing up the bowling. Hope the Indians are watching this game. Not that they would take away anything from this because fielding well is an alien concept for the Indian team. 231-3 after 35 overs. Kallis needs to start hitting. NOW.

Tait cleans up Boucher. Fast in-swinging yorker cleans up Boucher. SA in trouble. Justin Kemp is the new man in and SA is 256-4 after 39 overs.

Update 15:
Great shot from Kallis. In the slot and Kallis does no mistake in putting it away. SA needs 12 runs an over from now on. Tait strikes again. Kemp is gone LBW. Great bowling. Fast and straight. Smith comes back to bat. Australia will be really disappointed if they lose now. Smith is gone. Hogg gets him. Great bowling from Hogg and Tait. SA 267-6 in 41.3 overs.

The SA batting shows no urgency. Kallis is batting like he has all the time in the world. What is going on? Tait is bowling with venom and fire. Has he reached his top speed? Nice bowling. Great yorker. Kallis does well to keep his wicket intact. Another yorker. Great bowling from Tait. Finally, Pollock get Tait away for a boundary. SA 277-6 after 43 overs.

Out!! Kallis gone. Tried to hit Hogg out of the ground and Clarke holds on to an easy catch. This game is over but since it's not India playing we will hang around for the final rites.

Update 16:
Andrew Hall comes in for Kallis. Hogg and Tait have been a revelation. Brilliant bowling from them in the last 8 overs or so.
Watson comes on and cleans up Shaun Pollock. SA is collapsing under the weight of the required run rate. Maiden wicket for Watson. He doesn't deserve that. Hogg or Tait do. SA 279-8 after 45 overs. Another wicket falls. Langeveldt is cleaned up by Bracken. Nice bowling.

Australia wins by 83 runs. SA all out for 294. Great effort. Nathan Bracken cleans up Ntini with another yorker.

Final Thoughts:

The delight on Ponting's face as SA's last wicket fell made him seem almost human. Australia won emphatically over SA. Australia was the better team in this match and outclassed SA.

SA started well in response to the target set by Australia. Hayden set up the total with the fastest century ever made in a world cup. Hayden was fantastic but this was not the greatest ODI knock ever, like the commentators seemed to suggest. South Africa's reply stuttered with the loss of AB de Villiers (run out to some fantastic fielding and throwing). Smith was great too but had to leave the field at a critical phase (cramps) of the game.

Australia availed themselves of the opportunity given by SA and applied pressure with some tight bowling and fantastic fielding. Hogg and Tait bowled brilliantly. Australia is looking good for a third championship.

SA's lack of bowling options hurt them. They don't have a quality spin bowler to bother anyone and their bowling attack has no variation. SA can beat any team except Australia.

At this point in time, SL and New Zealand are the only teams that can beat Australia and we will be rooting for them actively.

A very entertaining match with some great batting. No help for the bowlers though even though the Australian bowlers did a lot better than the South African bowlers.

West Indies Vs Ireland, Group D

2007-03-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

We didn't see this match. We were too wrapped up in the India-Sri Lanka match. The scorecard shows that the Windies didn't have too many problems going into the Super 8's with 2 bonus points. Ireland is through too - thanks to their upset win against Pakistan. Good for them.

Either Bangladesh or Ireland will take the 8th spot in the Super 8's. No, that's not true. England can lose to anybody on their off day. Now that India and Pakistan are not in, it is England's responsibility to play tension filled matches against the underdogs.

India Vs Sri Lanka, Group B

2007-03-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

Match Summary:
India is out of the world cup. They were soundly beaten by Sri Lanka. We were not surprised that India lost. Saddened, yes; surprised, no. Sri Lanka was the better team today and they outplayed India in all departments.

India won the toss and opted to field. The first half of the first innings went India's way with Sri Lanka struggling at 96 for 3 after 25 overs. The rest of the match went Sri Lanka's way. India's much vaunted batting line-up failed yet again and it was doubly disconcerting since India sidestepped the problems of not having 5 specialist bowlers with both Ganguly and Tendulkar doing a tidy job for their 10 overs (45 runs and 2 wickets).

Dravid's captaincy left much to be desired. Instead of bringing on the specialist bowlers as soon as the 5th bowler's quota was completed, Dravid tossed the ball to Tendulkar again. Tendulkar erred in line and gave away valuable runs (2 overs and 17 runs). The runs he gave away might not seem like a big deal after looking at the margin of our defeat but they did make a difference in the amount of pressure the batsmen felt. If India could have kept SL to about 220, batting would have been much easier. To rub salt into the wounds, as soon as Munaf and Zaheer were brought in, they took wickets. Part time bowlers bowl part time for a reason - they are not very consistent.

There was a marked improvement in the fielding - for a while. Indians fielded well for the first 25 overs and then their fitness (or lack of it) affected their fielding. Where the Lankans threw themselves at the ball to create catches, we saw Indian fielders pull up short. The Captain led the way in this and misfielded a shot as he was overcome by cramps and a few deliveries later pulled up short of a skier instead of trying to catch it.

Before the world cup, Dravid had said that fielding was India's weakness but that they would make up for that by scoring 30 to 40 runs more. We now know that this strategy is flawed. Not that we didn't know it before but now we KNOW. Fielding wins matches. Everyone knows that. Indians know that too. But, we always pay lip service to it and never give it the respect it deserves. This lesson - that fielding is important - has been struck home several times in the past. However, we somehow manage to forget it or at least, pretend to forget it.

We have said before and will say it again: why does a "great" batting side which includes Ganguly, Sehwag, Tendulkar, and Dravid need 7 batsmen in the side? We will never understand this. Bowlers win close matches. Strike that. Bowlers and good fielders win close matches. Our fascination and insistence on packing a side with batsmen almost always comes a cropper in important games.

There is strength in numbers. When a good bowling side backed up with good fielding is in the field, they feed of off each other. They gang up on the 2 lonely batsmen out on the field. The pressure is almost always on the batsmen and Indian batsman do not perform well under pressure. That happended today. Except for Sehwag, no one looked good. Do not be deceived by Dravid's score. His last 5 boundaries came when everything was almost lost. It was desperation and it was never going to work.

In marked contrast, Sri Lanka looked awesome. We loved how they turned the singles to 2 runs and 2 runs to 3 runs. They had contempt for Indian fielding and almost always ran an extra run during the throw. Indian fielding is not sharp enough. If India's fielding continues to be at this level, India will never win any important matches against the good teams. Too many super stars and not enough hard working journey men - that is "Team India's" problem. When it was Sri Lanka's turn to bowl, they did not allow easy singles (not that the Indians were trying hard). The bowlers bowled to their field and Dilshan at backward point was electric.

We now believe that Jayawardene is the best captain out there. He knows his bowlers and fielders and is not afraid to back them up. His bowling changes are fantastic and he uses the wisdom of Jayasuriya and Murali really well. Rahul Dravid is not even half the captain Jayawardene is.

How badly did India lose? Here.

Danger, Will Robinson, Danger (Read at your own peril):

As we write this, Sri Lanka is at 78 runs for 2 wickets after 20 overs. India won the toss and opted to field. Powerplays are done and over with. The bowling has been tidy so far. However, the lack of 5th bowler is going to come and bite India in the rear soon.

India made just one change to the team that played against Bermuda: Anil Kumble making way for Harbhajan Singh. India have decided that they are going to play to their strength - batting. Bad idea, in our opinion. Let's see what happens from overs 20 to 40. If Sri Lanka makes around 250, they will be happy.

Update 1:
Ganguly into the attack in the 22nd over. First ball, cut for 4. Oh boy. This could get ugly. Not too bad: 6 runs of the over. SL putting together a decent partnership. Things are a little slow out there and SL will be pretty happy about it. They will be looking to focus on India's 5th bowler/s.

Holy crap!!! Ganguly picks up a wicket!!! Sangakkara tries to hit Ganguly out of the ground and holes out to long-on and miracle of miracles, Munaf Patel holds on to the catch. SL is now 92 for 3 in the 24th over.

Update 2:
If looks could kill, Sangakkara would have killed whoever he was staring at while walking back to the pavilion. Sangakkara's loss brings in the real danger man - Chamara Silva - who has been great form recently. Not only that, he is very fond of the Indian bowling attack. Got to get him out cheaply. Bhajji into his 4th over. Tidy without looking threatening. We take that back. Bhajji's 4th over was fantastic. Lots of turn and lots of bounce. This is scaring us. If Bhajji can do this, what about Murali?

Tharanga gets his 50 with a nice cut shot. Who else, Ganguly the bowler. Bowl fuller, Saurav. You don't have the pace to bounce a batsman. Not so good over from Ganguly. He did his job. He should be removed from the attack. But knowing India, that won't happen anytime soon.

Brilliant! We remove Bhajji from the attack just when he is making things happen and bring in Munaf Patel. Why? maybe Indians think that Munaf can get Silva out. We are guessing that Ganguly will be taken off from the other end and a second part-timer will come in. SL is 111 for 3 in 27 overs. 'Nelson's' says the commentators.

Update 3:
Ganguly is still on. Mis-field by Zaheer: 4 runs. Silva flashes hard and the ball took the edge and ran to the third man. Zaheer does his best and lets it go for a boundary. Dravid and Ganguly not happy. Got to get Silva out. He is dangerous. SL: 116 for 3 in 28 overs.

Munaf still on. SL is picking up singles easily. Silva is one busy batsman, always running. He should emulate Ganguly. It will improve his batting. Silva: listen to us, go for the boundaries that way you don't have to run these pesky singles. Meanwhile, Tharanga is batting on 58.

Ganguly out of the attack and Bhajji comes back in and immediately bowls at wide. Yuvraj will be up next or Sehwag or Tendulkar. One of those three, for sure. SL is 124 for 3 in 30 overs.
India needs a wicket.

Update 4:
Tendulkar into the attack. What is he going to bowl today? Seamers. Hmmm. The game is drifting along nicely for SL. India needs a wicket. Did we say that already?
WICKET!!! Tendulkar gets Tharanga. Tharanga gone for 64. Good solid innings. Nothing spectacular. John Wright says: 'Sachin not only knows how to bowl but knows how to think'. Wow. Thinking? We are very impressed. SL 137 for 4 in 33 overs.

Update 5:
Dilshan the new man in. Got to get Chamara Silva out. Bhajji is bowling a lot of doosras. Maybe we should start calling Bhajji a legspinner from now on and when he occasionally bowls a5 off-spinner, we can call it a googly. Sachin is bowling awfully well. SL is 147 for 4 after 35 overs.

Zaheer back into the attack and bowls a wide. L. Siva says: 'Sehwag still looking for wickets in the 36 over'. Brilliant. Meanwhile, Dilshan hits a nice boundary and then an inside edge to the boundary. Crap. SL is 157 for 4 after 36 overs.

Another inside edge for 4. SL's running between the wickets has been brilliant. 173 for 4 after 39 overs. Things moving along for SL. India needs a wicket desperately. Bhajji back into the attack. Indian bowling has been tidy but slowly the pendulam is swinging SL's way. Big shout for LBW. Hawkeye says out. India very unlucky with LBW appeals today. Boy, SL's running is really good. SL is 179 for 4 after 40 overs. SL well on their way to 250. A very good score.

Update 6:
India's 5th bowler combination of 10 overs cost them 45 runs for 2 wickets. Not bad. Will Dravid continue to use Tendulkar? SL is cruising along nicely. They are running well and are now opening their shoulders. A good over from Bhajji. Dravid continues to use Tendulkar. We don't know what to think of that. Tendulkar has looked pretty good so far but why not use the specialist bowlers? Silva and Dilshan are getting 6 runs an over easily. India needs a wicket.

Silva makes a very good 50. Very good batting. Bhajji bowling his 10th over. Why? Especially since Tendulkar and Ganguly combined to bowl 11 overs. SL's 200 is up. 201 for 4 after 44 overs. Bhajji finishes his 10 overs for 53 runs and no wickets. Not good.

Update 7:
Tendulkar is still bowling. Why??? Get the specialist bowlers in there. A very expensive over from Tendulkar - 2 fours so far. The over cost 11 runs. Need some wickets. India is losing its way here.

Munaf is back into the attack. Wicket!!!!! couple of balls after Dilshan hit a spanking cover drive for a 4. Dilshan takes a big swipe and gets an edge to the wicket-keeper. He walks. Good man. Good batting from Dilshan. SL now 216 for 5 after 46 overs. Good over.

Update 8:
OUT!!!!!! Zaheer gets rid of Silva. Brilliant. What the hell was Tendulkar doing bowling 2 extra overs? Chamara Silva out for 69. A very good innings. Great running between the wickets. SL now 216 for 6. Then, Vaas comes in and edges one to the boundary. What a let down. SL is 222 for 6 after 47 overs.

Bad fielding by Dravid. Lets one go to the boundary and Dravid is down - with cramps? says David Lloyd.

Update 9:
Huge 6! Vaas clobbers one over Munaf's head. Vaas on fire. 16 runs in this over. SL now 238 for 6 after 48 overs. SL must now be aiming for 260. India losing the plot a little bit here. Good over from Zaheer. SL now 244 for 6 in 49 overs. Last over coming up.

Agarkar bowling the last over. First ball strays down the legside and the batsman helps it along to the boundary. Moron. Agarkar's last over cost 10 runs. SL makes 254 for 6 in 50 overs. A good score and enough for SL to defend.

India, as usual, lost the plot in the middle overs. Some very sensible batting from Dilshan and Chamara set up a very nice platform for them. Vaas came in at the end and finished things off in style. SL ran extremely well. A very solid performance from SL. Now their bowling has enough runs on the board to defend. Are they up to the task? We will find out soon.

Update 10:
Ganguly and Uthappa are the Indian openers. Will Ganguly run singles? That is a mystery no one know except Ganguly knows the answer to that question. Vaas to Uthappa and we are off. It's a maiden over.

Uthappa looks very nervous and finally got off the mark. Ranjit fernando and Athar Ali Khan have to be the most boring commentators we've heard. Vaas has been very good so far bowling his 2 overs for 1 run.

Great shot by Uthappa. Four. Timed very well through cover. Much needed boundary. India is 10 for no loss after 4 overs. Slow start. Ganguly just tried his best to get out.

Update 11:
Uthappa very lucky to be still there. Tried to hit Vaas over midwicket and was lucky that the ball fell short of Murali. Vaas is bowling brilliantly. Great Shot. Four. Uthappa hits a cracking cover drive. Boy, this guy can hit the cricket ball. Another great shot. Straight drive for 4. India are at 18 for no wicket after 5 overs.

Uthappa is looking streaky. Tried to hit over the top and luckily for him, it was out f rech for Murali. These commentators are sucking the life out of us. Ranjit Fernando is talking like he wants to get on the field and play for SL. GONE! Robin Uthappa is out c&b Vaas. Brilliant catch. Great reflex catch. Sehwag coming onto the field. India in familiar territory after losing their first wicket. India 25 for 1 after 7 overs. Robin out for 18. Looked streaky right from the start and got a mouthful from Vaas as he left the field. He deserves that. Bugger.

Update 12:
Sri Lankan fielding has been top notch. SHOT! Sehwag drives on the up for a nice boundary. Another nice shot! hit over the bowlers head for another great four. Huge shot for LBW. Vaas finally brings the balls into Sehwag and right away Sehwag was in trouble. India 36 for 1 after 9 overs.

Fernando into the attack and bowls a wide. He is in to bring the ball into Sehwag. This will be interesting. Streaky edge for 4 for Sehwag. Thick outside edge. Settle down bud. There, deep breaths, deep breaths. Much better. Sehwag ducked nicely under a fast bouncer. India 42 for 1 after 10 overs.

Update 13:
OUT! Ganguly is gone. Tried to hit Vaas over the top and this time Murali takes a brilliant catch. India in trouble. 43 for 2 after 11 overs. India have to not lose any wickets and keep the scoreboard ticking. Can they avoid getting bogged down like they did against Bangladesh? Sachin Tendulkar walks in.

Update 14:
GONE! Sachin out for a duck. India in deep trouble. Sachin gets an inside edge and the ball crashes into his stumps. Deep deep trouble. India 44 for 3. Rahul Dravid walks in. We will state the very obvious because the commentators are not: India needs a BIG partnership.

Update 15:
Nice shot by Sehwag. Four. Sangakkara is chatting to Sehwag. Lot of chatter. 'Let him go for the big shot' says Sangakkara. Sehwag obliges. Sweetly cover driven.

Nasty shot. Sehwag is going back to his cross-batted shots. Lucky that the ball did not crash into the stumps from the inside edge. Fernando is bowling fast - around 92 mph. Nice on-drive from Dravid. 4. Can't bowl on the legs to Dravid. Even if you are bowling at 90 mph. India 56 for 3 after 14 overs.

Update 16:
SIX! Nice shot. Sehwag hits Vaas out of the ground. Brilliant shot. 9 runs of the over. India 65 for 3 after 15 overs.

ooh, Murali into the attack. It was quiet for a while and in Murali's 5th ball, Sehwag reads the doosra and cuts it handsomely for a 4. India 75 for 3 after 1 overs. WOW!! Sehwag edged a really fast ball and Sangakkara makes a brilliant effort. Would have been an easy catch for a slip. Lucky. Sehwag, buddy, deep breaths deep breaths. Calm down. Fernando pitches one on the legs for Dravid and Dravid says thank you. Nice 4. Fernando is bowling really well. India 80 for 3 after 18 overs. Malinga replaces Murali. Nice running between the wickets by Dravid and Sehwag. Power plays are done and over with and India is 89 for 3 after 20 overs.

Update 17:
Murali is bowling around the wicket. Nice bowling. Sehwag lucky not be given out LBW. 1 run from the over. Beautiful bowling. India 90 for 3 after 21 overs. Jayasuriya into the attack now.

Murali strikes! Great bowling! Sehwag OUT for 48. India is well on its way to losing this match. One more wicket and it's all over. India now 99 for 4 after 23 overs. Advantage Sri Lanka.

Update 18:
It is all over, folks! Yuvraj runout. India is 112 for 5 after 28 overs. We are going out for a walk and will be back after this is all over. Well, Dhoni is gone too. Brilliant bowling by Murali. Great match played by Sri Lanka. We are closing shop for now and will be back later to wrap things up. India 112 for 6. Done like a dinner.

Probable Team Against Sri Lanka

2007-03-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

We don't think India can beat Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka looks a lot better, field better than the Indians and have too many play makers. They are a cohesive unit working towards a common goal. India on the other hand does not look cohesive in the field, have been sloppy while fielding and don't seem a like a cohesive unit.

In a way, we are rooting against India. The Indian team has a lot of shortcomings to make an impact in this tournament. The only way India can surmount their problems is by playing out their skins. We don't think they can do it for more than 2 or 3 matches. So, better to lose now, get knocked out of the tournament and start afresh for the busy cricket season ahead.

Anyway, the following is the team we think India will pick for tomorrow's game:
1. Saurav Ganguly
2. Virender Sehwag
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Yuvraj Singh
6. M.S.Dhoni
7. Irfan Pathan
8. Zaheer Khan
9. Sreesanth
10. Harbhajan Singh
11. Munaf Patel

Bob Woolmer

2007-03-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

The circumstances surrounding Bob Woolmer's death have been becoming stranger by the day. Today, we finally found out what we were all dreading from the start: Bob Woolmer was murdered. This world cup is now being played under a cloud of suspicion and mistrust. As Donald Rumsfeld, the world's greatest cricketing expert, said:

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

We are well and truly in the "unknown unknowns" part of this saga and there seems to be no end in sight. This saga will have a profound effect on cricket in general and Pakistan cricket in particular.

We still don't know who killed him, we don't know why they killed him and till today we didn't even know he was murdered. Needless to say, speculation in the last few days had been rife about the cause of death and who, if any, was responsible for it. Media blamed the crazy fans and then media blamed the media. That done, people suddenly realized that cricket was just a game and that there are a lot of fans who don't/can't appreciate the intricacies of the game. All correct to a certain extent.

Too much bloviating and very little insight has been achieved to date. Unfortunately, we don't have any insight to provide you, my dear readers. We are just the court jester pointing out the absurdities. A better person will come along to explain this. Trust us. We know things. Any time now. She/He is right around the corner.

And while you are waiting, you might as well watch Inzi's last walk back to the pavilion.

Canada Vs New Zealand, Group C

2007-03-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

Was there ever a doubt about what would happen in this match? Agreed that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties but some games are just lopsided. This was one of them. Davison struck some form and while he was his destructive self, there was never any doubt about the result. Anyway, click here for the scorecard.

Netherlands Vs Scotland, Group A

2007-03-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

Netherlands upset Scotland in their last match of this world cup. Scotland was considered the favorite by no less personage than Graeme Smith. On an aside, if South Africa loses to Australia it will be Graeme Smith's fault. Why? Because he was predicting winners in a match he shouldn't have been concerned with instead of focusing on straightening out Andre Nel.

Thanks to Graeme Smith, Netherlands was motivated and played with an intent to prove the greatest spinner in the world, Graeme Smith, wrong. Couple of noteworthy things:
1. The captain of the Netherlands, Luuk van Troost, dropped himself. We kid you not. He dropped himself because he was not performing well. What a guy! The force is strong with Luuk. His midichlorian count must be off the charts. On an another aside, where the hell did Lucas come up with this "midichlorian" crap? The "Force" was so much cooler till Lucas started explaining it.
2. South Africa beat Scotland by 7 wickets while Netherlands beat Scotland by 8 wickets. Eat that, Andre Nel.

Bangladesh Vs Sri Lanka, Group B

2007-03-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

Sri Lanka comprehensively beat Bangladesh and in doing so put up their hand as one of the tournament's premier teams. They join Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand up at the top. Sri Lanka had the benefit of watching India flounder against Bangladesh and made sure not to meet India's fate.

Sri Lanka safeguarded their wickets, ran their singles hard, converted singles to twos, and generally outplayed Bangladesh in all departments. Bangladesh were not as tidy as they were against India and missed some easy run outs. When it came time for Bangladesh to chase 318 runs, they ran into Malinga, Vaas, and Murali. And that, as they say, was that.

Sri Lanka resoundingly beating Bangladesh makes it an easy equation for India: Beating Sri Lanka will see them through to the next round. That clarity brings with it another set of problems. Beating Sri Lanka will be hard. We don't think India has it in them to beat Sri Lanka at full strength. Sri Lanka looks very balanced and seem to have players for every situation whereas India is totally dependant on their batting for doing the heavy lifting and don't have the fire power to bowl out Sri Lanka.

That line of reasoning leads us to believe that India needs to pick 5 bowlers to stand a chance. Since, Rahul Dravid is not going to weaken his strong suit (batting), the only reasonable choice is to pick an "all rounder". Who gets dropped? Robin Uthappa.

Anyway, a good win for Sri Lanka and a bad day at work for Bangladesh.

Pakistan Vs Zimbabwe, Group D

2007-03-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

Inzaman Ul Haq walked onto the beautiful Sabina Park for the last time as the captain of the Pakistan team and lost the toss. Zimbabwe put Pakistan in and rued the decision. The hit or miss Imran Nazir finally started hitting and his century powered Pakistan to 349 in 50 overs. Amid rain delays, Pakistan bowled out Zimbabwe for 99 runs and won handsomely.

This win, whether the team played for Bob Woolmer or Inzi or for their own pride, will bring the team a modicum of joy. And this win will both ameliorate and infuriate Pakistan cricket fans. They must be wondering why this particular Pakistan team could not have shown up earlier.

It would not be unfair to say that this match was all about Inzi. Inzi was playing his last ODI and probably his last international match. He strode the stage well these last 15 years and it has been a pleasure watching him play. Inzi was the first Pakistani player we liked. We have a lot of respect for Imran, Javed, Abbas, Akram, etc., but Inzi - we genuinely liked. We wanted him to do well but wanted Pakistan to lose. Things usually did not go as we wished; for whenever Inzi did well, Pakistan almost always won. Our dream came true one magical day when Inzi made an exquisite 122 in Karachi while chasing an Indian total of 349. Pakistan lost that match. To be honest, we were more thrilled with the innings we saw than the close victory.

Our first memory of Inzi goes back to 1992 world cup semi-final. We don't remember much of that innings but we do remember that somewhere in the middle of this innings, Tony Grieg realizes he is watching a great batsman bat. This realization dawns slowly on Tony, suddenly, he shouts: "Inzamam Ul Haq, you little beauty" and then he realizes his enthusiasm is a bit over the top and ends tamely with: "that's what Javed (Miandad) must be saying to him".

We never forgot this because it was incongruous to call Inzi "a little beauty". For Inzi was not beautiful and he definitely was not little. We will miss you, Inzi: Your numerous comedic run outs, your ugly slouching over the bat, your calm at the crease, your sublime timing of the cricket ball, your seemingly immovable frame in the field which seemed weightless when coming down the pitch to hit a cricket ball and your divine stroke play.

Inzaman Ul Haq, you little beauty. Er...That's what Javed must be saying to him.

Quasi News Round-up

2007-03-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

This article is titled innocuously enough: The most dramatic first week
You might be even tempted to click on the link. Before you click on the link here's the first sentence of that feature:

"Men curse foreplay, especially when it is expected to be long."

As one would expect, we did not read further. That, my dear readers, is what the Times of India has become. There was a time when Times of India was known for its quality. Now, it is nothing but a tabloid. We hold real journalists in very high regard. They do a very thankless job that is very much needed. Their job, be it a lowly sportswriter covering the local cricket match or a superstar journalist covering world wars, is to uncover the truth and report what they find out to the people. It bears repeating, they do a very thankless job that needs doing.

Having gotten that off our chest, we want to say that Manu Joseph (the writer of the above feature) is a disgrace to his honored profession. He should find another job, preferably as an unemployed male gigolo.

Update 1: Please click here to read a much better rant on Times Of India. Hat-tip: Sanjay.

For all the people who are wondering about how the net run rates are calculated: Here

From Prem Panicker's blog:

I've just been sitting here, watching Mandira Bedi talk her way through the following 'moments':
HP Power Master Blaster of the day
Videocon Classic Catch of the Day
LG Time Machine Appeal of the Day (No, seriously -- today, it was Zaheer appealing his lungs out against someone or other; the appeal was not given)
Solid Sixes brought to you by Peter England.
Sunfeast Sachin FitKit Biscuits All Rounder of the Day
King of Good Times of the Day brought to you by KingFisher Bottled Water
LG Time Machine Celebration of the Day
TVS Solid Performer of the Day
Maruti Suzuki Alto Turning Point of the Day
Fall of Wickets brought to you by Hyundai Verna
Fantastic Fours brought to you by Monster.com
And a few more moments of the day that I lost count of

Bob Woolmer's autopsy proved inconclusive. Further tests would be needed for pinpointing the cause of death. However, everybody's favorite moron, Sarfraz Nawaz, knows what happened. Amid a lot of nonsense he spouted, this stood out:

"I surely feel that he has been bumped off. It was the betting mafia which eliminated Hansie Cronje. It was the same betting mafia which killed "Cadbury" the well-known bookie from Pakistan who later settled in South Africa. "Cadbury" body was cut into pieces. Now that has been the fate of Woolmer."

Can somebody please shut this lunatic up? Every once in a while he comes out of the cupboard to spew insane shit and then leaves without cleaning up after himself. Just for once, how about making him accountable?

Shaun Tait is "warning" opponents that he is not at top speed yet. The implication being that opponents are worried about him bowling at "not so top speed" and when he finally reaches his "top speed" they better watch out. Yawn.

Kenya Vs New Zealand, Group C

2007-03-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

To no one's surprise, New Zealand were able to beat Kenya easily. New Zealand made 331 batting first and the match was out of Kenya's reach. Kenya were all out for 183. New Zealand has to be feeling good about themselves. They have good depth and are well balanced. The only negative from their point of view are the injuries.

Styris and McMillan are in great form, Oram is destructive in the middle order, in Shane Bond, they have a genuine wicket taker, Vettori is a good spinner, and Fleming and Taylor at the top give them solidity. Coming off from 3 great victories against Australia, they are legitimate contenders for the world cup.

Scotland Vs South Africa, Group A

2007-03-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

South Africa beat Scotland in its Group A match. It has to rankle the South Africans that they could not bowl out Scotland. We think that there is something to all that talk about "uni dimensional" bowling. When Graeme Smith is the main spin option for a team, they have to be worried.

The main thing for the South Africans is that AB de Villiers had a good stint at the batting crease. Now, all their main batsmen have spent some time in the middle and are among the runs. Good for them. We don't want to root for South Africa mainly because we can't stand Andre Nel. In case somebody is wondering why we don't like Andre Nel it's because he is a drama queen.

For the greater good of humanity we are putting aside our personal dislikes. We will be rooting for the South Africans to kick the stuffing out of the Evil Empire and bring peace to the cricketing fraternity. Er...just win the damn match against Australia, okay?

West Indies Vs Zimbabwe, Group D

2007-03-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

We didn't see this match so we won't have any pithy comments or astute observations to make. That not true, we do have one very astute observation to make - West Indies is through to the Super 8's. Are you blinded by our brilliance? Do not be afraid, you are not alone. It happens all the time.

Here is the match report and the scorecard if you want to know mundane and self evident things.

Bermuda Vs India, Group B

2007-03-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

India needed to beat Bermuda by a huge margin to increase their net run rate and they managed to do just that. They came into this game knowing exactly what to do. That probably saved Sehwag from getting axed. We boldly predicted that Sehwag would be out of them team. Well, we were wrong about that but we were right about Anil Kumble replacing Harbhajan.

After the loss to Bangladesh, Indian team decided that Uthappa and Ganguly would open and the batting line-up showed Sehwag coming in the middle-order. Uthappa did not do himself any favors by fishing outside the off stump and was gone to a spectacular catch by everybody's favorite cricketer, Dwayne Leverock. We are fully expecting Uthappa to be dropped for the next match and be replaced by Irfan Pathan. Lo and behold, Sehwag comes in at one-down to join Ganguly.

It might not be an overstatement to say that this was the most important ODI for Sehwag 's career. A failure here would have seen him in the woodshed for a long time to come. He started off looking very wobbly. There were the usual wafting and swishing to the balls on the off-side. He managed to survive that and then slowly found his range. His head was still and he hit straight. A sure sign of finding his touch. He is still not quite there yet. Bermuda did not test him enough. There were no fast in-cutters that Sehwag has so much trouble with. He can rest assure that he is going to see some of those dreaded deliveries from Malinga and Vaas.

Now, fast in-cutters are difficult to play for any batsman but Sehwag is a special case. All the bowlers have to do is pitch it approximately on the off-side and cut it back in slightly. Sehwag will do the rest. He might give the third man catching practise, or he might give the slip catching practise and just to mix it up a little, he might play it on to his wickets.

So, What we are saying in a roundabout way is: we are not convinced that Sehwag's troubles are over. We still have doubts. Can he keep his head still? Can he avoid the flat batted ugly swat and try to bat straight? Those will be the questions that will be answered against Sri Lanka.

The main thing is that Sehwag spent some time in the middle and his century might give him a much needed boost to his confidence. He needs to build on this innings and string together some good scores.

We did not like Ganguly's batting. He needs to run harder. Ganguly's running between the wickets is regressing every match. It might be okay with Bermuda but will not be enough with other teams.

After Sehwag's dismissal, Dhoni walked in to do some big hitting. He didn't stay all that long and was gone before he made a big impact. Dhoni's reputation as the "best finisher" in the world might have to be put on hold. He needs to do a lot more than play the rare cameos to deserve that title.

Yuvraj and Tendulkar finished things in style. Both ran hard, played very smart cricket and hit some massive sixes. Yuvraj's batting was especially good. Yuvraj seems to have struck a rich vein of form. At no time did he look like he was going to get out. He cut, pulled, and drove with arrogance. Brilliant batting. This match saw vintage Tendulkar (how we detest that phrase). His batting was a lesson on doing the minimum to reap the maximum benefits. He reverse swept, turned the ball past the fine leg and to finish of things, hit some great inside-out shots.

Indian bowling was patchy. Zaheer was great but Agarkar was not. Agarkar is one of those bowlers who cannot handle pressure. So we thought that today, when India had hit 413, he would take a 5 wicket haul. He sucked anyway. His final tally might show 3 wickets but he was bad. The biggest problem with Agarkar is that if he doesn't find his line and length right away, he won't find it for that entire match. This becomes frightening because India typically goes in with 4 bowlers.

At the very least, the new ball should be given to Munaf Patel. Actually, if it were up to us, we would replace Agarkar with Sreesanth and give him the new ball. We are sure that Sreesanth can use the seam much better than Agarkar can. Kumble was his usual clinical self and put in a tidy effort. Again, we are concerned with Kumble. Kumble had a good match today so the team will go ahead and pick him against Sri Lanka. It might be better if Harbhajan is picked against Sri Lanka since Sri Lankans have a lot of left handers.

The most worrying thing is the bowling's inability to bowl out Bermuda earlier. Somewhere in the middle overs, the urgency seeped out of the side and the Indians let the game drift. The captain needs to step up in these situations. This is as much the Captains fault as it is the bowlers fault.

This win was good for the Indian side but it needs to be stressed that the real battle lies ahead. We are very worried that this win's euphoria will spread and all the faults and weaknesses, which were so obvious in the match against Bangladesh, will be swept underneath the rug.

The bottom line is that India still have to win their match against Sri Lanka and we don't think India can do it.

In conclusion, we want to say a few words to the loser who held the sign "Last warning to Team India: Reach Barbados or stay forever in Trinidad": Get a life, you fucking moron.

Probable Team Against Bermuda

2007-03-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

The chances of the Indian team making it to the Super 8's are bleak. After the loss to Bangladesh, India has an uphill battle to fight. Sehwag will probably be left out of the team and in his place Irfan Pathan will make an entrance. The match against Bangladesh is probably the last time we will see Sehwag (unless freak injuries happen) for a long time to come. He has wore out his welcome with Rahul Dravid and now it is Irfan Pathan's turn to take the center stage.

Having said that, this will be the team India will play against Bermuda:
1. Saurav Ganguly
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Robin Uthappa
4. Rahul Dravid
5. Yuvraj Singh
6. M.S. Dhoni
7. Irfan Pathan
8. Anil Kumble
9. Zaheer Khan
10. Munaf patel
11. Sreesanth

If India bats first, they have to beat Bermuda by at least 243 runs (runs SL beat Bermuda). If Rahul Dravid wins the toss, he is going to field.

Lets see what happens.

The death of Bob Woolmer has really dampened our spirits. We don't think we care who wins this world cup. Cricket is the greatest game on earth but its nothing compared to a human life.

Australia Vs Netherlands, Group A

2007-03-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

South Africa beat Netherlands by 221 runs. Australia had to beat that victory margin for bragging rights. They did. Australia beat Netherlands by 229 runs.

Can't wait for the clash between Australia and South Africa.

Canada Vs England, Group C

2007-03-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

Freddie Flintoff was sacked as the vice-captain due to his frequent infractions or some thing like that. Frankly, we don't care. It's okay to show up drunk everywhere if you win the ashes but not okay to go out on a drinking binge if you lose. Anyway, It didn't matter though, England beat Canada quite easily and showed India and Pakistan how it is done.

News Round-Up

2007-03-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Trawling the murky waters of a vast ocean (okay, we were surfing the internet) after yesterday's double feature upsets, we came across several stories (and back stories) by the simply clicking on a lot of random links. Among a lot of junk we found several interesting nuggets:

A delightful rant by Mukul Kesavan about the so called "processes" which are currently in fashion. This article might be a little dated but it is a soothing balm for that unreachable itch especially after India's loss yesterday.

Interesting (hat tip to My Two Cents and Prem Panicker):

"...Yet, every now and again his thoughts get the better of him, and he lets something slip. Like this line that slipped out, and has gone unnoticed, when in course of my interview with him for Rediff I asked him what he thought of the Indian team for the Cup. 'India has the team it wanted. It has all the brands..."

If by brands, he means Pepsi, Adidas, etc...then Hmmm...

Again, old news but very interesting. We love 'fly on the wall' stuff.

Osman Samiuddin's patience cracks and he lets loose a rant about the Pakistani cricket team. Fantastic stuff. And then it is Kamran Abbasi's turn.

Dhoni's house was stoned after India's defeat to Bangladesh. Is this ridiculous or what? What the hell is wrong with people? How is stoning someone's house going to help? You know what, we want India to be knocked out of the tournament. That will serve the lunatics right. Fucking morons. Bastards. It's just a game.

Finally, Pakistan's coach Bob Woolmer passed away in Jamaica after Pakistan's exit from the world cup. Details are sketchy. This is very sad. Tributes from people who knew him well. What a terrible day for Bob Woolmer's family and Pakistan.

When will people realize that however popular and however much money there is in cricket, it is at the end of the day, just a game. The best game on earth, but still a game. In all the hysteria that usually follows when a team from the sub-continent loses, the fact that cricket is just a game should not be forgotten. Bob Woolmer, RIP.

Ireland Vs Pakistan, Group D

2007-03-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

While India was being taught a cricket lesson by Bangladesh, another underdog was pulling down a listless giant. Bangladesh and Ireland should not be compared. Bangladesh is a much better team and has more international experience. What Ireland did today was amazing. They pulled off an upset win over Pakistan. Pakistan's batting was abysmal and their bowling except for Sami was not very good either. When a team has to defend a total of 132 they can't afford to bowl 11 wides. That is just unacceptable.

This has happened time and again. Pakistan and India have a terrible time batting on seamer friendly wickets. Whether this is due to an inherent weakness in batting technique or a mental stumbling block is not relevant. To be eligible for being called the best team in the world, any cricket team has to succeed in all sorts of conditions. Pakistan and India cannot.

On a seamer friendly wicket, Pakistan gifted its wickets hand over fist. Having seen the dismissals, there were very few balls which warranted wickets. Most of the wickets that fell were due to loose shots and brilliant fielding/catching. The Pakistani batsmen have no one but themselves to blame.

A lot of changes are imminent for the Pakistani team. It was unfortunate to see a great batsman like Inzi slink off the field in such a way. Bob Woolmer has been under as much (probably more) fire as his sub-continent counterpart, Greg Chappell, mostly because it is easier to shift blame onto a foreign coach for a team's failings. Whatever the case might be, Bob Woolmer will be gone (especially since his contract expires soon). We are looking forward to the book Bob Woolmer will write in the near future. Rana Naved and Imran Nazir are two other players who might have to start looking at other opportunities.

The Irish fielding was fantastic as was the Bangladeshi fielding. If we may digress, Cricket has become an athletes game (yes, we figured it out by ourselves). It is not enough if one is a talented batsman or a talented bowler. One has to be a good fielder too. Like everything else there are exceptions to that rule. If one is as talented as Glen McGrath, they can be given a pass but even Glen McGrath is a very safe catcher and an adequate fielder. There can be no room for a Munaf Patel. Players from Pakistan and India (this is not a subcontinent trait because both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are excellent fielding sides) have to improve their fielding to have any hope of being the best team in the world.

Couple of things before we sign off:
The much advertised April 8th Super 8 match between India and Pakistan might be played by Bangladesh and Ireland.
We feel very bad that Inzi had to exit the world cup stage this way.

Bangladesh Vs India, Group B

2007-03-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

Summary:
We thought we'd summarize the stream of consciousness below into a coherent paragraph or two for our readers.

Bangladesh kicked India's arse. If you read this post and think that we are not giving Bangladesh enough credit you would be wrong. This was a brilliant win for them. They outplayed India in all departments. However, we are mostly concerned about Indian cricket and hence end up focusing on them. We are not taking anything away from Bangladesh. They had a great coming-of-age party today.

Bangladesh bowled beautifully and more importantly backed it up with some inspired fielding. Ganguly, who is famous all over the world for taking sharp singles and for keeping the scoreboard ticking, could do nothing. Ganguly was so enamored with the Bangladeshi fielding that he totally avoided taking singles. While Ganguly was admiring the fielding, wickets fell at the other end. Sehwag, Uthappa, Tendulkar, and Dravid, all gone in quick succession. Yuvraj and Ganguly got a tidy partnership going and slowly limped to 157 for 4 in the 42nd over. It was time for the big sixeers, sublime boundaries and generally helter-skelter running. None of that came to pass because India went from 157 from 4 to 159 for 9. Utter and total collapse. There was no recovering from that. India went on make 191.

Bangladesh batted extraordinarily well. Especially Tamim Iqbal who reminded us of a younger Ganguly in his attitude and brashness. His innings was chancy but Indian fielding was abysmal. The half chances that came their way were not taken. The bowling was pretty pedestrian. So, all in all, a pathetic performance from India. We take back everything good we said about Agarkar. When India needs him most, he invariably fails them. Harbhajan was equally ineffective. Thanks to Rahim and Hasan who batted sensibly in the middle overs, the Bangladeshi team cruised to victory.

The situation now looks dire for India. They played badly and were completely outplayed by Bangladesh. India can now lift their game up or completely give up and sink (yeah, we know you are shocked by our perspicacity). Either way, there is a big shit storm brewing in the media. The next few days will be rough for Dravid, Chappell, Sehwag, and et al.

Start of Stream of Consciousness: Read at your own peril...

As we write this, India is staggering at 42 for 3 wickets in the 16th over. Ganguly is still batting at 13 runs (49 balls) and Dravid just walked in. Bangladesh is doing a terrific job with their bowling. The pitch has lots of grass and bounce on it and the ball is seaming off the pitch.

Dravid won the toss and elected to bat. Why? When common sense says one should bowl on this pitch, why did Dravid choose to bat? We would love to hear his reasons. Sehwag fell early and so did Robin. Tendulkar hung around for a while before falling to some really good spin bowling.

India could very well lose this match.

Update 1:
David Llyod and L. Sivaramakrishnan are beginning to grate on our nerves. We hate them. Actually, we hate everything right now. India are 67 for 3 in 23 overs. The dynamic duo (Llyod and Siva) just said for the umpteemth time that India needs a BIG partnership. Really? Dravid is looking awful against the spin bowling tandem of Razzak and Hasan. It's now 72 for 3 after 24 overs. The wicket seems to be easing up. India is in deep trouble. We shouldn't have said that. Dravid has been given out LBW. India now at 72 for 4.

You know what, We just realized that we don't like cricket all that much. 22 fools playing the game and 220 million people watching them play.

Update 2:
We just had an irate caller calling for firing Greg Chappell, Sehwag, Uthappa and basically the whole team. If it were up to us, we do it in an instant. Anyway, India are at 90 for 4 after 30 overs. Right about now, 210 looks like a great score. It might not be enough since the wicket seems to be easing up.

Update 3:
India at 98 for 4 in 33 overs. Drinks on the field. As per 'plan' India put its best foot forward - 7 batsmen and 4 bowlers. Readers of this blog might be familiar with our lament of not playing 5 specialist bowlers. Today, we might rue not having 5 specialist bowlers. Did we mention that this match is looking dire for India?

Update 4:
India at 116 for 4 after 35 overs. Right after the drinks break, Yuvraj broke free and hit a couple of boundaries. The sweep shot particularly good. Ganguly then did his usual walk-down-the-pitch and whacked a 4 to the long-off. Ganguly's 50 is up. Well Played. The running between the wickets has been pretty bad. Batsmen are not looking to put pressure on the fielders. The 50-run partnership between Yuvraj and Ganguly is up now. India desperately needed it. 122 for 4 after 36 overs.

Update 5:
40 overs up and India are 136 for 4. India needs a score of 240 to feel good about this game. That means scoring at a rate of 10 runs per over from now on. Tough to do. Yuvraj is looking good though. Ganguly needs to move his arse and run. Ganguly just waltzed down the pitch and belted a straight 4. That's what is needed. Good shot. Yuvraj just missed out on a dolly but then pulled the next ball to the boundary. 10 runs from this over. 146 for 4, 41 overs.

Update 6:
Massive 6! Slog swept over mid-wicket. Fantastic. 4 runs needed in this over to meet our totally arbitrary 10 runs an over asking rate. 9 runs this over. They need to make 11 in the next over. 155 for 4, 42 overs.

Update 7:
Yuvraj out for 47 well-made runs. A good innings comes to an end. Popped up a tame catch to fine leg trying to sweep. Dhoni is in. Forget about the 10 runs an over. Main thing now is to play out the 50 overs. India at 158 for 5, 43 overs.

Ganguly out for 66 runs. Got out trying to hit a nothing ball to the boundary. Mis-hit the ball and an easy catch to mid-wicket. This really sucks. Harbhajan in. We will be really happy if India makes 200. Oh Shit! Dhoni is gone for a big fat duck. 159 for 7. Forget 200, just bat the 50 overs. Please.

Update 8:
Harbhajan is gone. 159 for 8. The wheels are coming off. This is becoming a joke. Sreesanth looks like he might cry any moment now. We don't blame him. We are feeling like that too. John Wright says "India in all sorts of trouble". GENIUS. Did we mention we hate this game. We don't like it at all. The ball is turning quite a bit. We could have used an extra spinner instead of an extra batsman.

Update 9:
Holy shit!!!! Agarkar is gone. India is 159 for 9. So, the question now is: can India bowl out Bangladesh under 159? Nope. That would be our guess. India is going to lose this game. They will win the game against Bermuda and lose the game against Sri Lanka. They will be out of the tournament soon. That will put an end to our misery.

Update 10:
After revising the target several times, we settled on 169. India succeeded in meeting our very high expectations. Kudos to them. They never disappoint. Joys of being an Indian cricket fan are many.

Update 11:
On a brighter note, India is doing better than Pakistan (for now). Pakistan are 106 for 8 in 31 overs whereas India is at 186 for 9 in 49 overs. What a shot!!!! Why couldn't the 'specialist' batsmen play like Zaheer Khan? 4 runs - smacked through cover/extra cover. Oh well. That was too good to last. India all out for 191. 32 run partnership between Munaf and Zaheer. Well played.

Can this total be defended? We will find out.

Mid-Innings Break:
Another irate caller called in. He wanted Sehwag out of the team, pronto. Since we have been an ardent Sehwag supporter-did we just use the past tense in describing our support for Sehwag?- he wanted to know our opinion. What can we say? we still think he should be in the team but it is getting hard to think of a rationale. Maybe it is time to let go.

We really want to know why Dravid chose to bat. It doesn't matter. This was a really bad batting performance. The Bangladeshis bowled well and backed it up with some excellent fielding. The vaunted Indian batting line-up failed. As simple as that.

Bangladesh has the upper hand and this is their game to lose now.

Update 12:
It is not looking good for India. Bangladesh is off to a good start. Some loose bowling by Agarkar and Zaheer. Bangladesh is at 24 for no loss at the end of 4 overs. India needs wickets and so far Agarkar and Zaheer have not looked threatening.

The first wicket falls. Zaheer traps Nafees LBW. A bit iffy. Zaheer lucky to get the wicket. Bangladesh 24 for 1 in 5 overs. Will it be Agarkar's turn next?

Update 13:
Tamim Iqbal is a fire cracker. He is taking the attack to India and Bangladesh are cruising along. He just hit a six over extra cover. He is chancy but he is going through with his shots. Got to get Iqbal out if India has to have a chance. If India lets him continue like this, he is going to take the match away from India very quickly. Bangladesh is 45 for one in 10 overs.

Update 14:
Tamim Iqbal played one heck of an innings. He finally got out fishing outside his off-stump. Nevertheless, Bangladesh is well placed at 74 for 2 runs in 15 overs. India needs wickets. We are getting desperate. Oh! Dhoni misses a catch. crap. Munaf is bowling really well and deserves better support from the fielders.
Another call from a friend: "Sehwag should go". Well...
After Dhoni puts down a catch, Aftab Ahmed hits a cracking four. Super shot.
What do we have here? Aftab Ahmed gone LBW Munaf Patel. Bangladesh 79 for 3, in 16 overs. It's all happening.

Update 15:
Bangladesh now are 94 runs for 3 wickets. 21 overs up. Well, the fat lady is getting dressed to sing a bengali song. India needs wickets. Have we said that before? Steady stuff from the Bangladeshi batsmen. Need atleast two more wickets before Bangladesh score 110. Huge 6. Mushfiqur just hammered Harbhajan out of the ground. It's all going Bangladesh's way. 100 for 3, 22 overs up.

Update 16:
Nice partnership for Bangladesh. They are motoring along at 125 runs for 3 wickets. 31 overs up. Indians don't look like taking any wickets. The Bangladeshis are batting very sensibly. Why, oh why did India bat first? The pitch has totally eased off and the Bangladeshis are making batting look easy. Munaf into the attack and is immediately smashed for a boundary. Another boundary. Oh boy. Folks, this match is over. Indian shoulders are drooping and it will take a big miracle for India to pull this off. Mr. Ramakrishnan, it is time to start praying to Cricket Ganesha.

Update 17:
Bangladesh just lost two quick wickets are at 175 for 5 wickets. Too little too late. Bangladesh will win the game easily. A second question to be asked is: Why was Sehwag not tried a little earlier? Well...hindsight and all that. Seven overs to go and 22 runs to win. Easy.

Update 18:
A great win for Bangladesh. They have come of age. Congratulations.

Now that is out of the way, India played very badly. India's chance of reaching the Super 8 looks bleak. If we can't beat Bangladesh what are the chances of beating Sri Lanka. Zero.
We will beat Bermuda, lose to Sri Lanka and will make the long trip home. Sad end but that's cricket. Where does India go from here? A lot will be written. Rest of the world, get ready for the shit storm that's about to come.

News Round-Up

2007-03-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

Harsha says that Irfan and Sehwag will play in the game against Bangladesh. He probably knows more than we do. However, we will go out on a limb and say that dropping Robin Uthappa for Pathan would be a disservice. This is what we think will happen:

1. Saurav Ganguly
2. Virender Sehwag
3. Robin Uthappa
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Rahul Dravid
6. Yuvraj Singh
7. M.S.Dhoni
8. Zaheer Khan
9. Ajit Agarkar
10. Harbhajan Singh
11. Munaf Patel

Apparently, all is not well in the Pakistani team. The story is full of unnamed sources, so take it with a pinch of salt. If, and that's a big if, the story is true, our guess is that the unnamed source is Mr. Talat Ali (Manager). Goes to show that the Pakistani team does not need Shoaib Akhtar to bicker among themselves.

England Vs New Zealand, Group C

2007-03-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

We can empathize with the English fans. They are on a roller coaster ride from hell. One instant, their team looks like they can beat anybody in the world and then lunacy sets in and their team has the capacity to lose to any team in the world. Their team is so fickle that they make the Indian team look consistent.

One instant they are cruising along at 133/4 and in a blink of an eye, they are tottering at 138 for 7. Somebody should tell Michael Vaughan that just because he is playing an ODI doesn't mean he has to try and hit every delivery out of the ground.

English fans - we feel your pain. We have been on that road before and it is not pleasant. Just hang in there and hope that the bad times are behind you. The English team can only get better from here.

We loved how Stephen Fleming used Shane Bond. Apparently, Shane Bond has the license to take wickets. Corny, we know. In our defense, we heard that on TV and if it is on TV, it has to be true, right?

Despite all the injury troubles plaguing New Zealand, they are looking good. They will go far in the tournament. Maybe even till the semi-finals. New Zealand has played a lot more ODIs than England and that experience shows. They lost 3 quick wickets but showed no signs of panic. They calmly and coolly went about collecting their runs and chased down England's total quite easily.

England don't have a choice now; they have to play 7 batsmen and hope that the part time wares of Collingwood and Pietersen will suffice. Their batting is too unpredictable as it is right now.

Netherlands Vs South Africa, Group A

2007-03-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

Six sixers in an over. We were planning on spending a lot of time on that but somehow we don't feel the urge to say anything about it. It is a great achievement, but...

This world cup, in its early days, has already served up several delights: The tied ODI, six sixers, fastest 50 in the world cup and who knows what else might happen before we are all done with the minnows. Any guesses?

Anyway, the South Africans destroyed Netherlands. After the carnage was over, Netherlands had to come out to bat. They probably would have liked to curl up and rock themselves to sleep. How is this good for Netherlands? What have they learned from this game other than to stay out of Herschelle Gibbs way? Now these poor sods have to play Australia.

The End Is Coming Soon

2007-03-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

This is just RIDICULOUS. Cricket Ganesha? Are you kidding me? for people who don't understand Hindi - you people are blessed. Trust us. The chanting during the morning puja goes thus:

Om Boundary marne wala-ya namah
Om Sixer marne wala-ya namah
Om All rounder-aayah namah
Om Wicket lene waal-ya namah
Om Wicket keep karne wala-ya namah

The genius who invented this new deity (like we needed more) is Mr. Ramakrishnan. This is how Cricket Ganesha came into being:

"It was March 11, 2001. The second Test match between India and Australia was going on at Kolkata. India was in a very bad situation. It so happened that Ramakrishnan had installed a statue of Lord Ganesha in an obscure corner of his apartment complex. He went down and prayed to Ganesha, 'If you are really powerful, let India win the match.' Soon after that, Harbhajan Singh took a hat-trick. Though India was asked to follow on, it made a huge total of more than 600 runs. Laxman made 281, and Rahul Dravid scored 180. Harbhajan took 13 wickets in the match and India won the Test match!"

What conceit to think that God has nothing better to do other than to see your favorite team win. What about the other team? Did those poor sods not pray enough? or did they just pray to the wrong God?

Mr. Ramakrishnan, since your prayers are being answered, how about praying for world peace instead of a stupid cricket match? Fucking moron.

Sachin Tendulkar is becoming a comic superhero called 'Sachin the Master Blaster'. All superheroes need a kick ass weapon. That much is canon. What is Sachin's weapon? Any guesses? The press release was silent about that part. It can't be a cricket bat, can it? Nobody is that stupid, right? In this series, 'Sachin the Master Blaster' will run around hitting the baddies with a cricket bat whilst chanting the Cricket Ganesha mantras.

Just Kill Us Now.

Ireland Vs Zimbabwe, Group D

2007-03-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

What a match. Unfortunately, we didn't watch any of it. Luckily, one of our friends told us about the match and we followed it on Cricinfo. We were rooting for Ireland and were very happy with the outcome. Zimbabwe should have won this game easily. Based on this performance, how can Zimbabwe be a test-playing country? We should not go down that road. We have strong feelings about Zimbabwe and will save that rant for after the world cup.

Here's the scoreboard and here's the match report. Enjoy.

Bermuda Vs Sri Lanka, Group B

2007-03-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

First things first, Sri Lanka demolished Bermuda in their group match. We did not think Bermuda could beat Sri Lanka but we were interested in seeing how Bermuda would lose. They lost pretty badly. Sri Lanka piled on 321 runs and then scuttled Bermuda for 78.

We were very interested in this match since India belongs to this group. Some observations:

1. Bermuda allowed Mahela Jayawardene to bat himself into some form. Now, when India plays Sri Lanka, we have to worry about the top 5 Lankan batsman. All of them are in good form and that sucks.

2. Dwyane Leverock got manhandled today. He dropped 2 catches, made 1 run, and generally got hammered all around the ground for 67 runs. We feel bad for him. Hope he shrugs it off and bowls well in the next match (Yes, we know Bermuda plays India in their next match)

3. Muralitharan got hammered around the ground too. Relatively speaking. Does that mean that the ground (Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad) is not helping the spinners? Or that Murali just bowled badly? Are we clutching at straws here? Yes, we are.

4. We are convinced that even if India has a bad day, they can beat Bermuda. Bangladesh should have no problem beating Bermuda.

Canada Vs Kenya, Group C

2007-03-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Kenya beats Canada. Easily. Without breaking a sweat. Handily. Do you want to know how, my dear readers? Because you read our blog, we will tell you what you might have discovered for yourself if you had happened to glance at the scorecard.

The Kenyans have the awesome power of "O" with them and hence they are untouchable when they play other minnows. What is this magnificent power of "O", you ask? Why, it's: Odoyo, Ongondo, Odhiambo, Obuya (two of them!), Ouma, and Ogonji Tikolo.

That's a lot of O's in a team. The other vowels must be very jealous.

Bangladesh and now Kenya, have the best chance of pulling off an upset. England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and India are very capable of playing shambolic cricket. If any of those 4 teams have a bad day, Kenya and Bangladesh can beat them. Easily. Without breaking a sweat. Handily. For our sanity's sake we hope it's Kenya that does all the upsetting.

Australia Vs Scotland, Group A

2007-03-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, we dream that we are King Henry II and we make proclamations like:

"Who will rid me of this meddlesome batsman?"

And then we wake up and realize that we are not King Henry and Ricky Ponting is still batting.

Readers of this blog might be under the impression that we are not very fond of Ricky Ponting. They would not be wrong. We are not fond of Ricky Ponting the person and Ricky Martin the singer but we are in total awe of Ricky Ponting the batsman. We can readily see why Australians are very fond of him. He is brash, plays hard, says really stupid things (Aussies love that), and for the most part, walks the talk. Non-Australians don't like him for the very same reasons.

We have no doubt that if we were Australian, we would have built a couple of shrines for him by now and would be unable to express ourselves without grunting. Thankfully, we are not. For, who would take care of the shrines we already built for Tendulkar and Sehwag?

In this great Australian team consisting of many match winners, Ponting is the biggest, meanest and the greatest match winner. Like Bob Willis said (yes, the old bore really said this), no other batsman in the Australian side is worthy enough to tie Ponting's shoe laces. Hyperbole? Yes, but it has some truth in it. The secret of Ponting's success according to Nasser Hussain is that:

"He (Ponting) looks to hit every ball he faces. His first instinct is to hit the ball and then, if it's a good ball, he defends. That way, he doesn't lose out on any of the bad balls and even manages to hit a few good ones over the ropes."

Easier said than done but Ponting's talent is such that he can do just that. Ponting's attitude to batting is also his Achilles heel. Because he is always trying to play his shots, he can be vulnerable in the beginning of his innings. Once he gets his eye in, watch out.

Ponting on song is a treat to watch even when he is killing your favorite team (2003 world cup finals. We were traumatised by that match and swore a mighty oath to make fun of Ponting whenever we can). His shot selection and shot making ability is of the highest class and comparable to any of the greatest batsmen of all time.

Ponting and Australia came into this match to show the world that, despite losing some luster in the last few matches by playing uncharacteristically, they are the defending champions of the world cup. Ponting led the way with 113 and Australia powered it's way to a score of 334. Besides the typical heroics from Ponting, Brad Hogg played a brilliant cameo and scored 40 runs in 15 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes.

Then it was the bowlers turn. Glen McGrath showed that he still had life in his ancient bones and turned in a vintage McGrath display. Pigeon bowled 6 overs for 14 runs and 3 wickets. The Aussies bundled out the Scots for 131 and won by 203 runs.

West Indies Vs Pakistan, Group D

2007-03-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

The world cup is of to a rollicking start with the West Indies beating Pakistan by 54 runs. Both teams have mercurial temperament and are consistently inconsistent. Both teams can beat anybody on their good days and could lose to any team on their bad days.

On this particular day, Pakistan won the toss and asked the Windies to bat. The Windies then proceeded to make heavy weather of it. The Pakistani bowling was pretty good for the most part. Samuels has been in pretty good form and once again he played a solid innings in the middle overs to stabilize the West Indian innings with Lara. Though at the innings break everyone was talking about how the Windies needed about 30 more runs, the fact that they got to 241 in the first place was due to a fantastic cameo from Dwayne Smith. Smith hit a rapid fire 32 from 15 balls and saw the Windies to a defensible total. The West Indians scored about 58 runs in the last 5 overs.

Pakistan's innings started off with a bang (a huge six by Imran Nazir) and ended in a whimper. Nazir, Hafeez and Younis Khan (who played a terrible shot) fell in quick order. Though Inzi and Yousuf built a partnership, it wasn't enough and they didn't get a chance to free their arms after getting all set. Their fall hastened Pakistan's demise. Shoaib Malik played a good innings but the result was not in any doubt by that time. Windies bowled really well. They stuck to their line and length and were electric in the field. Bravo's caught and bowled wicket of Umar Gul was just fantastic. In contrast to this Pakistan's fielding was bad. Younis Khan dropped a catch of Sarwan of the very first ball. Sarwan went on to make 49 runs.

The West Indians exposed every chink in Pakistan's armour. Pakistan's weakest link - Rana Naved -was targeted for 49 runs. The Pakistani opening pair wickets were captured quickly and that put a lot of pressure on the middle order. Pakistan did not do itself any favors either. Pakistan's best bowler in the match, Umar Gul, did not complete his 10 over quota. Asked about Pakistan's opening pair problems, we were flabbergasted to hear Inzi say that they were mixing and matching to see what their best pair would be. No Inzi. You don't "mix and match" openers in the world cup to see who your best opening pair is. You do that before the world cup starts.

The presence of all-rounders in the one-day team serves Pakistan well. So, it was strange to see that they left out Azhar Mahmood but included Rana Naved. Rana Naved then proceeded to have a horrendous day in the field. It was also very surprising to see that Sami was not in the team. Inzi and Yousuf eschewed pushing for singles. Inzi is not known for his running between the wickets but there were several instances where they missed out on easy runs because they refused to run hard. Because they missed out on easy runs, they (Inzi and Yousuf) had to go for the big hits. This cost Yousuf his wicket after he was well set.

However, all is not lost for Pakistan. Afridi will be back in the team soon and that should bolster their batting and bowling a little bit. They could drop Danish Kaneria (who had a disappointing day) since Hafeez, Malik, and Afridi would serve as the spin option and play a batsman or a bowler. They should also drop Rana Naved for Azhar Mahmood or Sami. Pakistan will make the super 8 and though this loss hurts, they still remain in contention.

This win should give the West Indies confidence and that might be a problem. West Indies does not deal with confidence well. Their 'confidence' almost always becomes 'over confidence' and they implode spectacularly. Lara's job as the captain is to see that they don't lapse into over confidence for the coming matches.

News Round-Up

2007-03-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

Scary thought: Brett Lee to continue his abominable singing career.

Must read: Another one of Rahul Bhattacharya's great articles. We are hoping he will write a book about this world cup.

Another article about the decline of cricket in the West Windies. Meh...

Simon Barnes takes his shot at talking about cricket in the Windies:

"Where West Indies cricket goes from here, Lord knows. All I can say for certain is that I’ve seen more sporting wonders from those scattered islands than I have from anywhere else in the world."

Amen to that, brother.

Graeme Smith says that they are not 'chokers'. Okay...

Mukul Kesavan carries his allegorical metaphors too far. Did not like this post at all. Very hackneyed.

World Cup starts in earnest tomorrow. We are stoked!

Sunny Boy Vs. Monkey Boy

2007-03-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

Matthew Hayden's pain medication is keeping him sane so Icky Ponting is taking up the slack. As most of you know by now, Sunny has spoken out against the tyranny of the Aussies calling for a massive uprising all around the world to put an end to their oppressive and cruel ways (sorry, we got a little carried away). Let's try this again: Sunil Gavaskar recently said that though Australia is a great team, they are not liked nor loved because they are such boors. He contrasted them with the Windies of the 70's and the 80's who, he said, were very well liked even as they were kicking everyone's arse.

Well, monkey boy got all hot and bothered about it. He said: "you suck"; "we good"; "we not perfect"; "you not perfect"; "me hungry"; "Australian for beer"; "need bananas, now!".

He also said: "We all know the way he (Gavaskar) played his cricket, don't we?" That's interesting because we actually do know how Sunny played his cricket: With a very straight bat and a lot of class.

Another thing that struck us was his comment about how badly India was doing in recent times. To beat you on the head with a very obvious observation: India doing badly and the Australian cricket team being boors has nothing to do with each other. So, where did that come from?

Sunny, right or wrong, has always been very consistent about his views on sledging. He is on record saying that : "Banter is alright, it makes the game interesting and fun but abuse is not". Not many people know this but we will let you in on a secret: banter is not Ponting's strong suit. He is not smart enough to banter.

We could dissect each of Icky's statements but will instead offer up the floor to others. Since Sanjay felt strongly enough to leave us a comment on an completely unrelated post about this issue, we will let him be the contributing editor of this post:

(ed. talking about Gavaskar's attempted walk-off incident at the MCG in 1980-81) Perhaps Monkey Boy is not, but I am old enough to remember that series. In those days of "not-impartial" umpiring, Australia played with 13 people on the field, including the umpires of course. Sunny Gavaskar got bum decisions practically every other match by an umpire called Whitehead. In the first match, both innings he was given out caught behind twice controversially. Monkey boy is not old enough to remember that Gavaskar was a guy who throughout his career walked when he was out. It was a rare occasion when he awaited an umpire's decision (for LBW typically). That series was also terrible for sledging.
Oh...and by the way, we kicked Oz's ass at MCG in 1980-81. Got them out under 90 runs, if I correctly recall.
Monkey boy should leave the likes of Gavaskar alone. They were people with class. He isn't.

We await with bated breath for the next Ponting's press conference.

Cardus On Cricket - Neville Cardus

2007-03-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

This book was initially published in 1949 and was called "The Essential Neville Cardus". The 1949 book contained not only cricket essays but also 4 music essays. This book (Cardus on Cricket) focuses solely on cricket and the 4 music essays have been removed.

For people who haven't read anything written by Cardus, this book will serve as an excellent primer. It contains Cardus' cricket writings from the following books:
A Cricketer's Book (1922)
Days in the Sun (1924)
The Summer Game (1929)
Cricket (1930)
Good Days (1934) and
Australian Summer (1937)

It goes without saying that this book is AWESOME. We especially loved the essays on W.G. Grace, A.C. MacLaren, Bradman, and Larwood. Instead of using cliche's to describe how good some of Cardus' writing is, we will let Cardus speak for himself:

"So much for the season and the setting, the time and the place. The game itself is a capricious blend of elements, static and dynamic, sensational and somnolent. You can never take your eyes from a cricket match for fear of missing a crisis. For hours, it will proceed to a rhythm as lazy as the rhythm of an airless day. Then we stretch ourselves on deck chairs and smoke our pipes and talk of a number of things-the old 'uns insisting that in their time batsmen used to hit the ball. A sudden bad stroke, a good ball, a marvellous catch, and the crowd is awake; a bolt has been hurled into our midst from a clear sky. When cricket burns a dull slow fire it only needs a single swift wind of circumstance to set everything into a blaze that consumes nerves and senses. In no other game do events of import hang so bodefully on a single act. In no other game does one little mistake lead to mischief so irreparable. You get another chance at football if you foozle a kick; but Hobbs in all his majesty must pass out of the scene for hours if for a second he should fall into the error that hedges all mortal activity. Many a great match has been lost by a missed catch; terrible are the emotions of long-on when the ball is driven high towards him and when he waits for it - alone in the world - and the crowd roars and somebody cries out, 'He'll miss it-He'll miss it!' Years ago, in a match for the rubber in Australia, Clem Hill and Victor Trumper were making a mighty stand, turning the wheel of the game against England. Here were two of the greatest batsmen of all time thoroughly set, scourging the English attack with unsparing weapons. Hour after hour they cut and drove right and left. Wilfred Rhodes, who seems always to have been playing cricket, tossed up over after over, angling for the catch in the deep. At the very moment when the fortunes of the battle were on the turn, moving definitely Australia's way - at this moment of fate, Clem Hill let his bat swing at a ball for all he worth in valour and strength. Up into the sky the ball went, and it began to drop where A. E. Knight was standing. All eyes were resting on Knight; the vast Sydney multitude were dead still as the ball fell like a stone. Knight held his catch, but as he did so, he was seen to go down on one knee, and bow his head. Some of the English players, thinking Knight was ill, moved towards him. But as they approached, Knight raised himself, made an explanatory gesture, swallowed emotion in a gulp, and said to his anxious colleagues, 'It's all right, it's all right; I was only thanking my maker.' Cricket can mean much to a man: responsibility can weigh down the strongest."

Cardus' idea of a great batsman:

"Often have I been told by my readers that my praises of modern batsmanship are doled out parsimoniously. Sometimes, indeed, I have thought so myself. In imagination I see myself walking about our cricket fields like a Diogenes looking with a sceptical lamp for a really great batsman. Frankly, I cannot get enthusiastic about the cricket of a Sandham, a Hearne, a Sutcliffe. I was not brought up amongst cricketers who got their run by waiting for a very bad ball, then hitting it to the boundary-after lunch. Here is my idea of a great batsman: he must obviously enjoy his own play; he must be courageous and skillful in the face of a fine attack and in a bad hour for his side. He must not bow to circumstances, but must take them in his own hands and bend a situation to his will. Above all, his cricket must delight us by its own beauty, power, resource, individuality..."

We could go on and on...read the book. It's very good.

Pressure?

2007-03-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

It is that time of the year when all reporters are intent on finding out how much pressure the players are in. The players take this question seriously and try to answer them:

"Being a professional cricket player is being under pressure"

"There is a lot of pressure obviously, but a good team performs well under pressure"

"Can you please spell that for me?" - Ponting's answer

Stop with these nonsense answers, please.

On the eve of the world cup, we want to remind everyone of the words spoken by the magnificent Australian all-rounder Keith Miller, who had served as an air-bomber during the Second World War:

"Pressure? I'll tell you what pressure is. Pressure is a Messerschmitt up your arse. Playing cricket is not."

Hear, Hear.

Let's stop the grandiose posturing and play some cricket.

Miscellaneous News

2007-03-10T18:11:00.000-08:00

Harsha's new column is out. Not much in it. Same old stuff: It's important to peak at the right time since it's a long tournament.

Interesting write-up of Lara's and Dravid's press conference.
Lara's response when asked about their collapse:

"...And if you want such a performance to take place, you would want it to happen before the tournament starts."

Dravid still has faith in Sehwag:

"I am not supporting a Joe Blogs or Ramadin or something. This is a kid who’s scored 300 runs, who has done something in international cricket. I get asked these questions, and I keep wondering, is it Joe Blogs or something? I think you guys need to hang back a little and look at the situation"

We liked both responses. However, we are all for Sehwag and disavow any links with 'Joe Blogs'.

Meanwhile, Sehwag is finding solace in yoga. All fine and dandy, but spending a few overs in the middle might do him a lot more good.

Peter Roebuck talks about the chances of the teams from the sub-continent:
We totally agree with his analysis of India and Sri Lanka's chances:

"Sri Lanka are playing well enough to reach the latter stages of the tournament, but might lack the power needed to take the spoils. India are the opposite. Rahul Dravid's side could easily come a cropper in the opening rounds, but after that anything is possible."

However, we don't agree with his analysis of Pakistan:

"Nothing much can be said about the Pakistanis, except that they don't resemble a team on the verge of mighty deeds."

We think Pakistan is going to make him eat his words. As we are fond of saying, when Pakistan's backs are to the wall, they are at their most dangerous. The team is not half as bad as people are making it out to be. They are well balanced and will cause an upset or two before everything is said and done.

Finally, monkey boy conducts one-on-one interviews with all his players. What people won't say in polite society (that old 'you have to be kind to people with double digit IQ' syndrome) is that Ponting is incapable of holding a group conversations (his attention span is not all that good, poor chap).

Other Warm-Up Matches

2007-03-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

Australia spanked England

New Zealand beat Sri Lanka

Pakistan beat South Africa

Some Observations:

We don't think that Australia solved its bowling problems. Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson went for a lot of runs. Hogg did manage to bowl well but we don't think he is going to be this consistent in all the games. Stuart Clark bowled himself into the playing eleven and McGrath was steady. The best bowler in the side seems to be Shaun Tait. It will be interesting to see what the Australians will do with Shane Watson.

Panesar bowled exceedingly well but we don't think he is going to see much action in the world cup. Jamie Dalrymple, though a mediocre spinner, will be in the playing eleven because of his batting. England needs some help in the lower order. They have the same problem as Australia - being too top-heavy.

Though Sri Lanka lost, they shouldn't be worrying too much. Their only concern should be Mahela Jayawardene's batting form. With Malinga, Vaas, and Murali, they have a well-rounded bowling attack and can hope to do well in all conditions?

Pakistan looked very good. We are very afraid of Pakistan - especially when everyone discounts it. The way pitches have been playing, spin is going to be a major factor and Pakistan has good spin bowling options. Revamping their batting order might be the best thing they did for the world cup. Younis, Yousuf, and Inzi get the most time in the middle and they still have Shoab Malik and Afridi to shepherd the tail.

South Africa did not look good. Looks like they are struggling on slow and low pitches. Their lack of a good spinner might haunt them throughout the tournament. Their bowling attack is good enough to win against most teams but not Australia.

India Crushes West Indies

2007-03-09T17:24:00.000-08:00

We want to point out that we could have said "India Decimates West Indies" but that would have been wrong. For, 'decimating' means to select by lot and kill every 10th person. Used in the cricketing sense, that would mean getting only one out of ten players out. Which was not the case in today's match.

India bowled out West Indies. All ten of them. For only 85 runs. So, that was good.

What was not good? Sehwag getting out for a duck was not good and Pathan's bowling rhythm was not good.

Pathan's bowling figures (6 overs, 25 runs and 3 wickets) are deceiving. When a team is all out for 85 runs and a bowler gives away 25 of those runs at 4 an over, it is not a good sign. One might say 'who cares? he got 3 wickets!'. That's true but it is important to know how he got those wickets. For example, the scorecard will show that Lara was c&b Pathan. Do you know what happened, my dear readers?

Pathan got Lara's wicket by his pace - or rather, lack of it - here is how Cricinfo describes that ball:

"Pathan, who struggled getting the ball across in the first over, pitched his final delivery almost in the middle of the track. Lara shaped to pull and was surprised by the lack of pace as the ball stopped on him. Unable to react, he merely swatted it back at the equally surprised bowler"

Not only that, Pathan's bowling speed was abysmal. Most of his balls were around 70 mph. Just imagine his slower ball at this pace. He is in the danger of becoming India's Chris Harris. Not that there is anything wrong with it. No, really.

So, of the three questions India needed answers for, two remain unanswered. One question has been answered, in our opinion.

If we may digress: of course it is our opinion. Why have a blog otherwise? Then, why do we feel the need to justify statements by tagging 'in our opinion' at the end? Maybe we are not confident about what we said and hence the need for qualification. Anyway, the good news is that, from now on you won't see the phrase 'in our opinion' in our blog. If you disagree with what we have to say, you will realize much later (because, we are ahead of our times) that you were wrong.

Where were we?...yes...One question has been answered. Robin Uthappa proved that he has some 'little gray matter' in his head. Maybe not as much as the little Belgian but enough to play sensible cricket. His batting was good. He deserves to be in the playing eleven and it is hard to see how he can be kept out.

Though Karthick played well, it is very hard to see him playing in the world cup barring injuries to other players. Munaf Patel booked his spot in the playing eleven and again, it is very hard to see Sreesanth in the playing eleven barring injuries.

Greg Chappell Speaks

2007-03-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

One of the better interviews we have read. The folks from Rediff just asked one question and let Greg Chappell preach for 4o or so minutes. The question was:

"21-odd months previously, he (Greg Chappell) had taken over as coach of the national cricket team, with the stated mission of preparing Team India for World Cup 2007.
How much of that initial vision has been realized and how much not? What has worked, what has not? And, with just hours to go before the team leaves on its Caribbean campaign, how ready is the team for its assault on glory?"

We enjoyed Chappell's insight in answer to this question. Go read it now.

Minnows Beat Each Other Up

2007-03-08T18:56:00.000-08:00

Bangladesh beats Scotland

Zimbabwe beats Bermuda

Ireland beats Canada

Kenya beats Netherlands

Some Observations:

Bangladesh is running high on confidence. They trashed Zimbabwe prior to the world cup and had a great time beating New Zealand two days ago. India and Sri Lanka better watch out. An off day in the field from either of these teams might be enough for an upset win for Bangladesh.

Dwayne Leverock bowled his 10 overs for 54 runs but took 2 wickets.

Jon Davison, the Canadian team captain, is in horrendous form. He lit up the last world cup with his big hitting and hopefully, he will find his batting form soon.

In the ground (Jamaica, Greenfields) where India made 300/9, Kenya, batting first, made 274/8 and Netherlands, chasing 274, made 265/9. Suddenly, 300 runs doesn't sound that impressive.

West Indies

2007-03-07T21:29:00.000-08:00

One of our good friends recently regaled us with stories of their trip to the Caribbean (Dr. S: Salute) and then we came across this story and this article. It is quite amazing that so many great cricketers have come from such a small landmass. Wonder how many Richards', Lara's, and Holding's have been lost to other sports.

This is a sad state of affairs. WICB, plase get your house in order before all your young men stop playing cricket.

This is a great website to learn more about the cricket politics in the Islands. As always, use caution and don't take everything in these "series of tubes" for granted.

What Next For Pakistan?

2007-03-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

Two best bowlers getting busted for drug use – check

The bowlers getting their bans overturned – check

Rest of the world crying foul at this – check

Rest of the world watching this drama unfold - check

The two bowlers then getting injured and missing the world cup – check

Former players refusing to give a pep-talk before the World Cup - check

Great Pakistani players trashing the team – check

Fire scare in the hotel they are staying – check

What bizarre thing next?

Inzi going to the gym – Impossible? Think again. How do we know? His T-shirt says so. Inzi is done with eating but his sleep was disturbed due to the fire scare. Once he catches up with his sleep, he is on his way to the gym.

It could happen, you know.

Australia Beats Zimbabwe

2007-03-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

Australia beat Zimbabwe handily. However, they could not bowl out Zimbabwe. That has to worry the Captain, right? Wrong. Ponting was not concerned. In fact, he said that he was very happy about Australia getting to bowl their full 50 overs.

We know that a little bit of posturing is involved in everything Australia does but it is telling that Ponting chose to contrast their supposedly wonderful 50 over workout with England's not so wonderful 23 over workout. One might wonder why England did not avail themselves of a full 50 over workout. Because, England's bowling was good enough to bowl Bermuda out for 45 runs. The three defeats at the hands of England in the CB series hurt, eh monkey boy?

Our belief is that if England failed to bowl out Bermuda, their already tenuous self confidence might have totally collapsed. Seriously, if this is an instance of Australian "mind games" then there is trouble in paradise and the Australians are very concerned with their inability to bowl out Zimbabwe. The 6 losses in the recent past have affected Australia more than we thought.

India Beats Holland

2007-03-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

Quite comfortably, we might add. However, Prem Panicker's headline says that Doeschate's fiver restricts India to 300.
No, Prem. When a team allows another team to score 300, it is not "restricting" anything.

None of the questions India wanted answers for were answered. Namely:
1. Is Virender Sehwag in good nick? No.
2. Did Robin Uthappa make the most of the opportunity given to him? No.
3. Did Irfan Pathan find his bowling rhythm? Not even close.

Well, India have another match to sort out their problems. Sehwag and Uthappa might but it is very unlikely that Pathan is going to find his bowling rhythm in one match.

Anil McGrath? Glenn Kumble?

2007-03-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

Are you kidding me? The person who came up with that title should be fired. That article is, by far, the worst thing we read today. How can anyone write an article like this with a straight face? Nihal Koshie, that's who. We don't know the first thing about Koshie. For all we know, he might be the world's best son (doubt it; since we have it on good authority that we are, in fact, the best son in the world), a great husband and a loving father but he is an utter failure as a reporter.

Please do yourself a favour and read the article, so that you will know a bad article when you see one. On the other hand, maybe you should start the day reading an article like this. After reading this, everything else you read will seem insightful, informative, and generally top notch.

Since we troubled you with an asinine article, here is something to warm the cockles of your heart. We like Rahul Bhattacharya. He is one of the best cricket writers around. This article was something the other was not: informative, insightful, and generally top notch.

The Proud, The Few

2007-03-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

1-2 cha cha cha...

This is an opportune time to meet the other contestants taking part in the World Cup. But before we do that, we want to introduce you to Dwayne Leverock (pictured above) from Bermuda.

Dwayne Leverock weighs between 19 stone to 21 stone. Must be the 'before and after' weight. Before and after, what? Lunch, of course. Did we ever mention our intense dislike for the word 'stone', my dear readers? It reminds us uncomfortably of 'millstone' and we hate the word 'millstone'. Weights should always be in kilograms or pounds. That's the way God intended people to measure weights.

As a sign of our extensive research capability, ability to google, and expertise in using a calculator, Dwayne Leverock weighs anywhere between 121 kilograms (266 lbs) and 133 kilograms (293 lbs).

We instinctively liked Dwayne when we first set our eyes on his photograph. We liked him even more when we learned that he is a prison van driver. He is apparently an excellent spinner (bonus points for likeability). If his bowling against England today is any indication, he will be pretty good throughout the tournament. He bowled 10 overs of his slow left-arm orthodox spin for 32 runs and 2 wickets. If only he could bat, he would make an excellent all-rounder.

We are rooting for you Dwayne Leverock.

What about the other contestants? If you insist, here and here are some good primers. If you don't have the time to commit this information to memory, do not worry. They will be out of the tournament soon.

Power Players and Run Chasers

2007-03-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

Two interesting articles from Simon Wilde and Derek Pringle. Though both articles are anglocentric, their conclusions can be applied to all cricket teams.

Simon Wilde's article talks about the fact that 57% of all ODIs are won by the team batting second and that the win percentage is higher in the Windies. How much higher? He didn't say. Anybody out there willing to expend the energy to figure it out? We will help.

Derek Pringle on the other hand convincingly argues that power players (with strong bottom hand-like Sehwag and Tendulkar) will thrive in the Windies.

So, the trick to winning the world cup is simple: stack the team with power players and chase down targets.

That is not a bad strategy at all.

Storm In A Tea Cup

2007-03-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

We were a little afraid that the run up to the World Cup would consist of puff pieces and be devoid of drama. We should have known better. Let no one say that the Indian media are slouches. If they don't have "news" to report, by God, they will make some "news". We should have known they would not let us down. Forgive us 'O Indian Media' for not having faith in you.

The latest earth shattering news is that in an interview with Karan Thapar, Dilip Vengsarkar (chief selector) disclosed that Virender Sehwag was included in the team due at Rahul Dravid's behest.

We don't know much about Karan Thapar but 5 minutes of research on the "internets" shows that he is very well regarded. Based on this particular interview, we are not impressed. The question was (we are paraphrasing): By picking Sehwag, you (Vengsarkar) are taking experience into account rather than form. To which, Vengsarkar replied "Definitely". Vengsarkar went on to say that Sehwag had won many matches for India in the past and that Rahul Dravid wanted Sehwag in the team and that he (Vengsarkar) would always support the Captain.

Karan followed this up by asking that if Dravid had not insisted on having Sehwag in the team there was a possibility that Sehwag would not have been picked (a leading question, if there was one). Vengsarkar replied to that question with another "Definitely". We would like take a minute here and point out that there is a possibility that our good looks could propel us to superstardom in Bollywood. However, it is not likely.

What is the controversy here? Sehwag is a brilliant batsman who is out of form (remember kids: form is temporary, class is permanent) but he was selected because Dravid wanted him and because he has won many matches for India in the past. Did anybody think differently? If so, please let us know, we have a bridge we want to sell you.

Now, the news anchor (follow the linky above) adds her two bits to the "growing controversy" and tags another ace "reporter" (Sanjeev Mukherji) who is standing bravely in the middle of nowhere. If we may digress, why the hell is that moron standing where he is standing? All his interviews were with people who were on the phone. Why couldn't he be in the studio? or in the comfort of his own home? Was he in the middle of another less important story when this "growing controversy" came along? Perhaps he was about to find out that ancient Indians had travelled to other planets but had to leave that minor story behind for this one. We will never know. Such are life's mysteries.

Anyway, Sanjeev Mukherji, reporter par excellence, begins to milk this with leading questions and unnecessary innuendo. Where do they find hacks like him? He finds an able helper in Yashpal Sharma who goes on to lambast Dilip Vengsarkar for his disruptive comments.

Sanjeev Mukherji, we have this to say to you: We have read what reporters have written. We have heard reporters talking. You are not a reporter. You are just a hack trying to make your mark with a manufactured controversy.

It is probably too much to expect a Cardus or a Fingleton in this era of sensationalism and hysteria but is it too much to expect balance and sobriety in a story?

Kabuki Theater

2007-03-02T18:36:00.000-08:00

In November 2006, just before the Champions Trophy, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif submitted themselves for a voluntary drug test and promptly got busted for using Nandrolone. Akhtar was banned for 2 years while Asif was banned for 1 year. They appealed to the PCB and PCB overturned the ban citing that they had taken Nandrolone unknowingly.

Fast forward to the time when World Cup team selections are being announced. After the fiasco with overturning Akhtar's and Asif's ban, the ICC states that they would "randomly" test players for steroids in the World Cup. This leads to a trip to London for Asif and Akhtar ostensibly to recover from their injuries but allegedly for a private drug test (to see if Nandrolone is still in their system).

Meanwhile, Pakistan includes Akhtar and Asif in the 15 man squad to the World Cup but states that all 15 players would be tested for drugs and failure to pass to the drug test would result in their DEATH...no, we jest...expulsion from the team.

In the meantime, every Haydos, Symo, and Border shoot their mouth off about how cheats are ruining the game. All the other 13 players in the Pakistan squad are tested for drugs and they pass with flying colors. Spontaneous celebrations erupt all over Pakistan but Inzi's heart is heavy with sorrow. Inzi decides that prompt action is required and issues a statement saying that Akhtar and Asif would be fit to play in the World Cup. The very next day, PCB realizing that there is strength in unity promptly undermines Inzi by stating that Akhtar and Asif are out of the World Cup because of their injuries.

PCB also says that the two players did not seek a private drug test and that the real reason for their opting out of the tournament was their injury. Furthermore, PCB asks for ICC technical committee's permission to substitute Akhtar and Asif with Mohammed Sami and Yasir Arafat.

The ICC technical committee asks for Akhtar's and Asif's medical injury reports to determine if Sami and Arafat could be substituted. That's the situation for now.

Who are we kidding here? The technical committee will allow Pakistan to include Sami and Arafat. Otherwise, Pakistan will be in the Windies with a squad of 13. That's not going to happen. After a little of chest beating, all concerned parties will back down and it will be business as usual.

Akhtar and Asif Out Of The World Cup

2007-03-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

Asif, this time you be Thelma and I'll be Louise

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif are out of the World Cup. They are still "injured". We want to bring the quotation marks to everyone's attention. That is meant to illustrate our savvy and skepticism about the duo's injury. We stole that from "real" journalists who are going beserk with quote marks and are using it in most newspaper reports.

Just yesterday, Inzi said that Akhtar and Asif were fit to play in the World Cup and this morning Nasim Ashraf, the PCB Chairman, indicated that the dynamic duo was still injured and that it might take them several months to recover.

We totally get it. Sometime between yesterday and this morning, they must have aggravated their injuries. Considering that Asif has elbow injury and Akhtar has knee injury our guess is that Asif was trying to hit Akhtar with a cricket ball while Akhtar was running around trying to evade Asif's accurate throws. You don't think so? Let's see if you can do better.

Javed Miandad, the legendary batsman, in-law of Dawood Ibrahim, erstwhile Pakistan coach, and world expert in imitating wicket keepers had a unique solution to the problem: Let's take two spinners to replace two of the fastest bowlers on this planet. Brilliant.

Thus Spake Haydos

2007-02-28T19:31:00.000-08:00

We were initially very happy when we saw that Hayden had something to say about Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif. We were sure that he was going to put his big foot in his big mouth. Unfortunately, he still seems to be taking his pain medication for his broken toe because he sounded surprisingly sane.

It's probably unfair to say that Hayden and Symonds lashed out because Shane Warne had to sit out after getting busted for illegal drug use while Shoaib and Aisf got away scot free. So we will just go ahead and say it.

Leaving aside the aussie habit of whining when somebody other than them escapes punishment, Hayden has a point. We are all for due legal process. But when the PCB decides to lift the ban from Shoaib and Asif on a technicality after they were tested positive for illegal drugs, what is the guarantee that due legal process will be followed after the latest drug tests?

The latest news is that Shoaib and Asif will be in the team if they are medically fit. What about the dope test? They have to go through that too, so says the PCB. If others are sceptical about PCB cleaning it's own house, who can blame them? The real question here is: What will the ICC do if Shoaib and Asif are tested positive again?

Australia Can Win The World Cup, No They Can't

2007-02-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

Ponting says that Australia is still the favorite to win the World Cup while Barry Richards says that they aren't. We are confused. Is Australia the team to beat or not? Let's ask Vic Marks. What? India is the favorite to win the World Cup?

This has to stop. These conflicting news reports are hurting our poor brain. Instead of these pissing contests, why don't we do something radical? Like what, you ask? Why, play a tournament in which all cricket playing (and some non-cricket playing too) countries can play against each other and then let's crown the best team the World Champion.

There is no need to thank us. We consider this our duty as a cricket fan. We have several other brilliant ideas if anyone is interested.

India Can Win The World Cup

2007-02-27T19:54:00.000-08:00

That's what Vic Marks says. To be honest, when we read the column headline "India can rise above the rest", we were very excited and quickly read the column leaving other fascinating columns titled "Charles voices distaste for McDonald's food" and "How to have your meat with your veg" behind.

Much to our dismay, the only thing about India we found in the column is this:

"India are currently a creaking, inconsistent, gifted side, sometimes sloppy in the field, yet vastly experienced. Meanwhile, if West Indies reach the final, there will be some party going on throughout the Caribbean, so it won't matter too much if there are not enough hotel beds in Barbados at the end of April. I would back India."

That's it? What are your reasons for backing India again? Whatever happened to old fashioned journalistic analysis. Maybe we are old fashioned for expecting analysis. The latest fad seems to be all about making sweeping statements without any justification. To be fair to Vic Marks, maybe he ran out of time to elucidate his reasons. We won't hold our breath for his analysis.

Next time Vic Marks has a column out titled "Stadium venues will be ready for the World Cup" we will know the reasons why he thinks India will win the World Cup.

Taming of Sehwag

2007-02-26T18:07:00.000-08:00

Look Ma, no hands!

This news is depressing. When he first blazed his way into the Indian team, Indians loved Virender Sehwag for his entertaining batting, casual demolition of bowling attacks, and carefree attitude. Here was an batsman who would, irrespective of the situation, go for his shots. He took on any and every challenge bowlers issued him. Sometimes he won that challenge and sometimes he lost miserably. Indian cricket fans didn't care. They loved his successes and sighed when he failed. His strength was to bat without any self doubts. He backed himself every single time and came out on top more often than not.

Sehwag broke all moulds for an opening batsman. If technique is god for your typical opening batsman, Sehwag eschewed technique. For, technique is for lesser mortals who don't have the kind of hand eye coordination and shot selection Sehwag has. Sehwag captured imagination because he had no fear of failure. He would walk onto the cricket field and play his shots come what may. Like all brilliant batsmen, his was an uncomplicated approach to the game. The ball was there to be hit and hit the ball resoundingly well Sehwag could.

Now, after a drought of poor scores and incessant harping on his attitude (the same attitude people initially loved him for), Indian cricket fans, media, and team management have succeeded where the opposing bowlers could not. They have successfully planted the fear of failure into his psyche. Looks like this thoroughbred has been successfully saddled.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

2007-02-25T20:20:00.000-08:00

I am mad as hell and I am not going to take this anymore!

Er...It's Irfan Pathan not Mr. Smith and he is actually going to the West Indies not Washington. We never let these pesky little "facts" get in the way of a good title.

How do we know Pathan is going to the Windies? Because the chairman of the national selection committee, Dilip Vengsarkar (pictured above in his secret selector attire), said so. Based on Pathan's performance (8.4 overs for 48 runs and 2 wickets), we can be rest assured that it wasn't his bowling performance that re-affirmed his spot in the side. Lest one think it was his batting (2 runs), it wasn't his batting either.

Obviously, Vengsarkar just wanted to make sure that Pathan was match fit. Pathan showed his match fitness by bowling a whopping 8.4 overs and his fastest delivery was clocked at an eye blinding speed of 124 kph. On the other hand, Ramesh Powar had an excellent game.

The newspaper report here insinuates that all is not well between the team management and the selectors. Maybe, maybe not. We don't care. If this whole farce was a pissing contest at the expense of someone who might be hurt and needs time to recuperate, then shame on both the parties.

What is the truth here? Was Pathan's shoulder injury severe enough for him to sit out the 3rd and the 4th ODI? If that was the case, why was Dilip Vengsarkar in such a rush to check on his match fitness? As Harsha rightly pointed out, some fractures heal in three weeks and there was no logic in the selectors demand.

Charge Of The Gilly Brigade

2007-02-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

We already have a wicket keeper. Can you bowl, Kiddo?

Adam Gilchrist has made himself available for the *gasp* entire World Cup. We agree that at some level, his return is helpful to the team and will probably raise the team's morale. But, batting has not been the problem with Australia and unless Gilly has learnt to bowl wicked leg spin in the last three weeks, we don't see how this is going to help solve Australia's bowling problems.

Wait...we figured it out. Australia has decided that they can do nothing about their bowling and are bolstering their batting strength. Like Hussey said here, if scores above 300 are not enough to win, they will just have to score 400. The only problem is that scoring more than 400 runs in that match didn't help either.

Harsha The Sage

2007-02-23T09:40:00.000-08:00

Harsha Bhogle has a new column out. An Excellent read. Some interesting snippets:

"Australia’s biggest strength over the years has been the aura around it. The awe they have generated in the opposition ranks that wins more matches than any bowler or batsman can. But when a team says “hey, hang on, maybe we can” - it takes the first step towards winning and now the world has taken that step. Their biggest weapon lies on the floor, disabled. It’s a long time since an Australian captain has said he was “demoralised”. That is music to the opposition because they now know that a new, hitherto unknown, word has been added to the Aussie vocabulary."

"...Surely they must now ask Adam Gilchrist whether he is a family man first or an Australian cricketer. It is a cruel question to ask but in times of strife the general must be with the troops..."

As a purely academic exercise, what is Gilchrist supposed to do? Play for country or be the good family man? What is the right thing to do here?

"...But teams become champions because they learn faster than anybody else. And that is why, in spite of the evidence above, I am willing to take a contrarian stance. If Australia had to stumble, this was the best time. If this had happened to them midway through the World Cup, they might have found it difficult to rally back, as they discovered during the World Cup of 1992 where they were tired and jaded."

Exactly.

"In India, meanwhile, far too many people are agonising over Irfan Pathan and I do not see why. Maybe there is too much space to fill or too much time to consume unless there is something we do not know. The only thing at stake is whether or not Pathan is fit, not whether or not he is good enough. That decision has already been taken. Now he has to be fit, and indeed match fit, before India’s first game which is still three weeks away. Some fractures heal in that much time. And so I do not know why three selectors have to come to see him play. One of the reasons Pathan is in this side is that we do not have anyone that offers the package he can. If we did, that man would be in the side already."

Spot On.

Brett Lee: Can You Tell A Girl? Can You?

2007-02-23T09:19:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, bad things happen to good people who do bad things. Brett Lee ruled himself out for the World Cup. His replacement will be Stuart Clark.

Lee's loss is a huge blow for Australia, which has been unable to defend humungous totals without Lee. The silver lining is that Stuart Clark, Lee's replacement, is an awesome bowler. He should have been selected in the 15 man squad but lost his place to Shaun Tait. Australia will miss Lee, their best ODI bowler, but Clark should be an adequate replacement.

In case you are wondering what Brett Lee's crime was, we have proof. Watch the video or better still don't watch it. It is an excruciatingly bad song.

The Indian Fast Bowler Syndrome

2007-02-22T18:08:00.000-08:00

Maybe, If I always have a bat in my hands nobody will ask me to bowl

In a recent interview, Irfan Pathan said:

"I have been answering these queries about the loss of in-swing and drop in pace for a long time now. I am focusing on maintaining a tight line and length in my bowling before looking for swing or pace..."

We don't agree with Pathan's premise. Aren't bowlers supposed to sort out their troubles with line, length, swing, and pace in the nets? Is it too much to expect good pace coupled with a good line and length in match situations?

We have heard this excuse from all Indian "fast" bowlers from the mid nineties. We have a simple question: Why can't the bowlers focus on swing, pace, line and length at the same time in the nets? Is that not a better way of doing things? Is that one too many variables in the equation? Even if the bowler focusing on line and length gets it right, what then? As soon as he strives for extra pace, his line and length go awry.

This seems to be an unique problem for the Indian fast bowlers. Is that statement even true? If so, why do you think that is the case?

Since we don't have any international match playing experience, our analysis has to be accurate, right?

...right?

Pundits From Pakistan - Rahul Bhattacharya

2007-02-21T14:56:00.000-08:00

This is by far one of the best cricket books we have read in a long time. The book chronicles the historic 2004 Indian tour of Pakistan. This book is as much about the test series as it is about discovering Pakistan through an Indian's eyes. The result is engrossing, funny, and poignant. Bhattacharya has done a brilliant job.

We loved this book because it ends up being more than a tour dairy. It is a story of the author's trip to Pakistan to cover the series. The book covers everything from the mundane task of getting a visa to Pakistan, the sights and sounds of Karachi, the affection of the people everywhere in Pakistan (especially to the visiting Indians), the sights and sounds of Lahore, and the cricket matches.

Anyone who is from the subcontinent and has followed this series may remember the many highlights from this series: The first ODI in Karachi under very heavy security, Inzamam's dulcet stroke play throughout the ODI series, Sehwag's bludgeoning of Saqlain on his way to 309 in the Multan Test, Tendulkar's controversial 194 not out, Dravid's patient 270 in the third Test, Balaji, and last but not least, Shoaib Akhtar.

Bhattacharya does a fantastic job in describing the matches. Inzi, Sehwag, VVS Laxman, and Balaji get special attention and we loved every minute of it. His descriptions are very lucid and were stylishly written. The author shows great felicity in conveying what he observes. The match reports are interspersed with great observations about Pakistan and interviews with Aaquib Javed and Abdul Qadir.

The interview with Aaquib Javed was interesting for the amount of bull shit Aaquib spouts. According to Aaquib, there are four reasons for the dearth of genuine pace bowlers in India: 1. Genetic [bullshit], 2. Diet leading to aggression (eating red meat makes people more aggressive) [bullshit], 3. Playing with taped tennis ball when young makes the tendons and ligaments stronger [hmmm], and 4. heroes to look up to [valid].

Reading about the author's meeting with Abdul Qadir is alone worth the price of the book. We found this part extremely entertaining. Brilliant.

About Saqlain:

"...For only a few days ago the man who added the word 'doosra' to cricket lexicon had announced a 'teesra'. Nobody knew how to play it. Nobody knew how to pick it. Nobody knew what to look for because nobody knew what the hell it was supposed to do....As the afternoon wore on, the answer emerged from a corner of the press box: 'Aur yeh teesra...aur yeh chauka!' (And that's the third...and that's a four)"

About Sehwag:

"...Tendulkar was to smile later at the futility of his efforts. 'I talk to him. He always hears me, but I am not sure if he ever listens to me.'..."

About Inzamam:

"...Asked about Pakistan's dire situation with extras, he replied: 'Improvement toh hai. Karachi mein 38, aaj 37' (But there is an improvement. 38 in Karachi, 37 here)..."

About the history of umpiring in the subcontinent:

"...Karachi, 1955. Lala Amarnath, the Indian team manager, is seated in the room of Abdul Hafeez Kardar, the Pakistan captain. The two gents have, among other things, recently taken the unusual step of slapping each other in a hotel lobby. This is a reconciliatory tea meeting on the eve of the last Test of the series. Lala's back is to the door, and so the man who enters the room with words, 'Any instruction for tomorrow's game, skipper?', has his guard down. The man is umpire Idris Beg.

Bombay, 1960. Pakistan's captain, Fazal Mahmood, clean bowls his counterpart, Nari Contractor, in the opening Test of the series at Brabourne. Contractor is at an unspecified location between the square and the pavilion when the umpire, S.K. Gangulli, sticks out his arm. It is no-ball. Why, inquires Fazal, has not the call come earlier? 'The chewing gum got stuck in my throat'...."

In conclusion, this book is highly recommended. READ IT. Now.

New Zealand Vs Australia, 3rd ODI, Hamilton

2007-02-20T17:23:00.000-08:00

Let's not get too close, boys. Winning is contagious

Australia lost again but we are still standing by what we said here and here. To reiterate what we said earlier, there is no need to panic. Australia will go back to their drawing board and sort out their bowling problems and that will be that.

What a match Craig McMillan played. What has he been eating recently? we want some of that. Unfortunately (not really), Haydos broke his big toe and surprisingly, sounded sane. We are sure the pain helped him keep focus. A sad day, indeed. But worry not, gentle reader. Haydos can't help himself. He will be in the World Cup and we will have more opportunities to hear his inane ramblings.

Saaaaarrrrraaaahhhhh!!!!!!!

Don't worry Haddin, this won't hurt a bit

Australian Cricket On The Wane?

2007-02-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

We wish that was true. We really do. But that is not the case. Though Simon Barnes is eloquent (too eloquent sometimes), we don't buy into this whole "... In every empire’s beginning you find the seeds of its decline and fall..." argument. Australian cricket is alive and well. A player like Hussey has to wait several years to get into the team. That means something, only we are not sure what...

The only person Australia will find it hard to replace is Shane Warne. Everybody else, including Glen McGrath, Justin Langer, and Damien Martyn is replaceable.

As we write this, Hayden is batting on 84 in the 3rd ODI between Australia and New Zealand. We hope that he goes on to make a century so that he can then be at the press conference. That is something we always look forward to - making sense of Haydos speak for the masses.

New Zealand Vs Australia, 2nd ODI, Auckland

2007-02-19T18:21:00.000-08:00

I still Love you, Fulton. But my family, Capulets, will kill me for consorting with a Montague

New Zealand won the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy chasing down a huge score of 336 runs. This is Australia's 5th straight loss and the Aussies are worried that the world might be coming to an end. We still stand by what we said here. There is no need to panic. These results have no bearing on the World Cup. Our worry now is that this will thoroughly wake up the Australians who seem to have been cruising a little bit after the Ashes whitewash. We like a cruising Australia better since they are vulnerable.

What we are happy about is the kernel of doubt planted in the Australian side. We don't think much will come off it, but it still makes us happy to see that the Aussies look mortal now. If not anything, this should teach John Buchanan a valuable lesson. He should have shown a little class by not ridiculing his opponents. Sadly, class and John Buchanan are strangers. Buchanan would not know class even if it came and bit him in the arse.

Ponting's arrival at the World Cup will steady the ship. They will play the warm up matches seriously, crush their opponents and the problems plaguing them will seem to vanish. We believe that Australia is still the team to beat in this World Cup.

On a brighter note, The Australian bowling looks terrible. McGrath is not looking sharp. More often than not, we see McGrath shaking his head, which is his way of saying "I am bowling like crap". The head shaking has reached such proportions that we are seriously worried (not really) that his head might fall off one of these days. Brad Hogg does not look like a wicket taking threat. I think this is where the Australians will miss Andrew Symonds most.

Anyway, no need to worry right now. Time to worry would be when the Australians get knocked out of the Super 8's in the World Cup.

India Vs. Sri Lanka, 4th ODI, Visakhapatnam

2007-02-17T14:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, It's an ageless story. Sehwag wants to dance with Dravid, but Dravid wants to dance with someone else

According to Cricinfo, the ground at Visakhapatnam was:

"Set amid the scenic hills 11 kilometres away from the main city, sporting a revamped look that can put any Indian Test venue in the shade, with a name straight out of Nordic myth, the ACA-VDCA Stadium [Andhra Cricket Association - Visakhapatnam District Cricket Association] is a sight to savour. The grass isn't just lush, it's sparkling; the stands have a sprinkling of freshness about them and the facilities, for players, fans and the media, are in place. In the middle of a forest area, with panthers lurking in the neighboring jungles..."

PANTHERS lurking nearby? Are you kidding me? Am I only one who finds this hilarious?

That should show the critics who say our Cricketers are coddled. These guys are warriors, they play the game while Panthers are lurking nearby.

Unsurprisingly, the grass is sparkling for a reason - Lot's of dew. Dew on the ground delayed the start and the game was shortened to 47 overs. India won the toss and sent in SL to bat. Once again, Zaheer and Agarkar did a great job in their opening spell. Soon, SL was reeling (56/4 at the end of 13 overs). Harbhajan took time to find the right line and was expensive initially. Ganguly and Sehwag did a pretty good job bowling their overs.

As an aside, Ganguly bowled his 6 overs for 29 runs and took one wicket, while Sehwag bowled his 4 overs for 27 runs and 1 wicket. Now, since the game was for 47 overs, 2 bowlers could bowl 10 overs each and the other three would have to bowl 9 overs each. When Sehwag bowled his 3rd over, he had figures of 1 wicket for 12 runs. Great bowling. We thought that our makeshift bowling pair did a great job by bowling 9 overs for 41 runs and taking 2 wickets. Our main bowlers could come on and bowl the last 7 overs. What happened was that Dravid got greedy. Instead of giving the ball to Sreesanth (who is in the team for his bowling), he let Sehwag bowl his 4th over and the team's 41st over. Sehwag gave up 15 runs and SL ended up scoring 76 runs in the last 7 overs. We don't know if what Dravid did was wrong, but considering that there were just 7 overs left, maybe Dravid should have backed his main bowlers.

Based on Dravid's confidence (or lack there of) in Sreesanth, we don't think Sreesanth is going to see any action in the World Cup unless one of the other bowlers gets injured.

Chamara Silva played a great innings and will play for SL for a long time. He reminds us of Aravinda De Silva, maybe because of his batting stance. Though the top order failed yet again, Chamara Silva shepherded the tail well and saw SL to a good total.

The Indian innings started of with Ganguly cramping up and retiring hurt. This brought Robin Uthappa and Virender Sehwag together. Watching them bat together brought on an odd sense of deja vu. It wasn't many years ago that Sehwag joined Sachin Tendulkar at the batting crease and soon after that, Sachin started taking the back seat to Sehwag's mauling of bowlers. The same thing is happening now with Sehwag and Uthappa, Uthappa started mauling the bowlers and Sehwag seemed very content taking the back seat. How times change.

The trademark of Uthappa's batting is the utter contempt he has for bowlers. The epitome of this was a shot where he stood tall at the crease, and with no hint of footwork pulled a short ball bowled by Malinga (who was bowling at the speed of about 146 kph) to the fence. There was another attempted bouncer from Malinga (about 144 kph) which was hooked into the stands for a huge six.

Soon after reaching his fifty, Uthappa got out trying to break the ball into a million pieces. He ballooned a simple catch to Jayasuriya. Uthappa seems to suffer from a very common disease aggressive batsmen have: rushofblooditis. There are no known cures for this disease. Only possible cure to this is if Uthappa somehow manages to make a century and the euphoria of hitting a hundred reminds him of the rewards of being a little patient when he has bowlers at his mercy. Here's hoping that this happens sooner than later.

We are very happy to note that Sehwag has found his touch. A sweet cover drive and a thumping straight drive heralded his form. World Cup bowlers please take note. The way he got out was bizarre. After looking in great touch and scoring 46 runs, Sehwag slashed at a ball, which went to the third man one bounce. Sehwag ambled to the other end for a run. The third man threw the ball to Sangakkara who promptly hit the wickets at the end Sehwag was walking to. Sehwag was found just short of crease and he trudged his way back to the dressing room. This was not good cricket from Sehwag and hopefully, this teaches him a lesson he will never forget.

Having said that, there is no need to get huffy over this. People are pointing to this dismissal as another indication of the attitude problems Sehwag has. People, relax. Ambling for a single after playing a shot to the third man is a time honored institution. This happens many times in many matches. It was unfortunate that while Sehwag was crawling to the other end, the wily Sangakkara saw an opportunity and took it. No need to make a mountain of a mole hill.

At Sehwag's dismissal, it was Yuvraj Singh's turn to find his batting touch. One can safely say that Yuvraj found his form in the very first ball he faced, which was flicked over square leg for a six. But the shot of the match was a classical cover drive which was hit into the stands for a six.

In the end, it was an easy win for India. Yuvraj and Ganguly (who continued his fine batting form) saw India home.

A word about the commentators: For every Richie Benaud there are about 10 Arun Lal's. Richie Benaud being a good commentator and Arun Lal being very very very bad. The whole world knows Ganguly's penchant for using his feet to the spinners. After having used his feet to hit a few boundaries off Bandara's bowling, Jayasuriya comes on to bowl. The commentator says that Ganguly would have great difficulty in using his feet to Jayasuriya because Jayasuriya is a vastly experienced player and is also omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. can you guess what happens next, my gentle reader? Yes, Ganguly sashays down the pitch and hits Jayasuriya out of the ground for a six.

ECB Chairman Demands An Apology

2007-02-16T21:29:00.000-08:00

After England won the CB Series Trophy, David Graveney, ECB Chairman of Selectors, recently asked critics of the England coach to apologize for their harsh words. Simon Barnes does so. Delightful.

New Zealand Vs. Australia, 1st ODI, Wellington

2007-02-16T17:41:00.000-08:00

Well, that was fun. Australia losing 4 straight ODI's is the big news in the world of cricket today. "Bond has the Aussies Shaken not Stirred" says JC (quite witty, we thought). We like JC, we really do. But, JC being an Aussie (not that there is anything wrong with it) lacks perspective. We on the other hand, atop our lofty perch, can look at Australia objectively (except with matters concerning Hayden).

Aussie fans, don't panic just yet. The team sent to NZ did not have monkey boy, gilly boy, bully boy, pretty boy, and young boy. Boy! that's a lot of "boys" missing in action. For the uninitiated, that's Ponting, Gilchrist, Symo, Brett Lee, and Clarke. In relative terms, that's the Indian equivalent of Tendulkar, Dhoni...Fuck it, Indians don't have the equivalent of Symo, Brett Lee, and Clarke...anyway, take our word, that's a lot of talent missing in action.

So, you lost one game badly and before that, you lost 3 straight games to England. Wait a minute! Three straight games to England? That's a lot of games to lose to the "worst team that's ever come to Australia", isn't it?

It's true that McGrath is finally going downhill, the other bowlers don't have enough international experience, Haydos is back in the thick of things, and there is no proven match winner except for Hussey. But, it's not time to panic just yet.

Anyway, considering the injuries suffered, even during the CB series, Australia has lost "just" 4 ODI's. Other teams, like our beloved Indian team, lose 4 ODI's for breakfast and are ready to lose some more for "second breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon snack, tea, and dinner". Australia, known for its penchant for motivating itself for perceived slights, now has a genuine reason to raise their game to another level at the World Cup. And, unfortunately for the other teams, they will do just that.

If and when monkey boy raises the World Cup trophy in triumph and plays the "Nobody believed in us but we triumphed over adversity by digging deep within ourselves to find the winner within" card, we will we be royally pissed.

You hear us, Monkey Boy? WE WILL BE ROYALLY PISSED.

Out of My Comfort Zone - Steve Waugh

2007-02-15T17:10:00.000-08:00

Stephen Rodger Waugh will never be known for his technique or elegance. What he will be known for is the steely determination he brought to the game and for having ice in his veins in a tense situation.

If we had to pick one batsmen to bat for our life, we would without hesitation pick Tugga, with his baggy green cap and red handkerchief, over Sachin, Lara, Mark Waugh, Inzi, or Dravid. The red handkerchief is very important. If that was missing in his pocket, we would pick someone else.

Waugh's book is like one of his mammoth innings, lacking in style and elegance but the end result is somewhat overwhelming and full of substance. He has gone about compiling pages like he collected his runs - slowly and steadily - with an occasional slog sweep to wake up the readers who might be coasting along. We liked the book, not because it had evocative writing but because it was informative and comes with an appendix to die for - scorecard of every single match Waugh has ever played. Waugh must have written down match reports of every one of his matches or he had excellent research staff digging up stuff. Whatever be the case, even his earliest matches are described in great detail.

Tugga says a lot without revealing much of himself. The iceman of International cricket remains an enigma who guards his secrets well. His relationship with his brother Mark has always fascinated people. He talks a little bit about the strained relationship but doesn't really get into the reasons other than saying that macho culture prevalent in Australia prevented heart to heart chats and that everything got sorted out much later than he would have liked. A surprising aspect of this relationship is Steve's claim to know what his brother Mark was thinking at periods of stress (sort of like ESP). Mark, by his own admission, did not have any inkling of Steve's thoughts. As an aside, we would like to learn how much of this mind-reading was due to Steve's people skills coupled with his knowledge of his brother.

Trying to be inscrutable after having written 800-odd pages is nearly impossible and some things do get revealed. His love of exploring new places, his sense of adventure for trying out new things (be it the countries he visited while playing or one of John Buchanan's new tricks to keep the players sharp), his love for his family, his enthusiasm for Udayan (the school he opened in Calcutta), his competitiveness and his ability to constantly stay hungry for success shines through. His recollection of meeting with Mother Teresa is both heart-felt and touching.

Another fascinating aspect of the book for us was the inner wrangling between the selectors and the players. That part of the book was informative without being pedantic. The formation of the players union was also very interesting. It's amazing the amount of money a board makes and the amount of power they have without doing any of the hard work.

Tugga, being a cerebral person, certainly believed in the mental aspects of the game and was supportive of both Bob Simpson's and John Buchanan's attempts to strengthen the team-both mentally and physically. The close-knit Australian team of today is a direct result of this. Steve's confidence in team building and motivational techniques in in direct contrast to his twin brother Mark who did not put much stock in the exercises and could not see how they fit into the cricket field.

The book is at it's best when Waugh is talking about Cricket. The numerous anecdotes of players and places brings this book to life. Even though the heartfelt rendition of "Under the Southern Cross" kind of got on our nerves after the 50th time it was sung in the dressing room. We get it, already! You are proud of the baggy green and you are proud to be an Australian.

We were dismayed to learn that Haydos was Tugga's best friend in the team. Our favorite Australian player's best friend is the player we hate most. Such are life's ironies. The best part of the book, in our opinion, were the matches which involved West Indies (when they were good). Tugga saying "What the fuck you looking at" to Curtly Ambrose after having been beaten all ends up brought a smile to our face. Ambrose's response? "Don't you swear at me, man". After this pleasant little conversation, Ambrose bounced Steve a couple of times and tried to knock his head off.

During an away tour, John Buchanan gave all the players a copy of "Who Moved My Cheese" and wanted them to talk about what appealed to them in the book in front of team mates. Since the test series had ended and the one days were soon starting, a lot of new players joined the team, among them Andrew Symonds. When it was Symo's turn to talk about the book, he said: "Haven't read it. Don't read books".

During one of the matches in New South Wales, Steve and Mark's younger brother is batting and is struggling badly. The chagrined bowler stomps down the pitch, looks at Dean Waugh and yells "Surely, you must have been adopted". These and many other anecdotes like these are some of the best moments in the book.

Tugga's sacking from Captaincy and one-day team are dealt with honesty and forthrightness. Retiring from test Cricket on his own terms obviously meant a lot to him and it shows. As an Indian cricket fan, we were disappointed about the limited amount of ink spent on his attempt to conquer the "Final Frontier". Besides a few platitudes for Laxman's brilliant batting, nothing noteworthy is said.

Tugga will go down as one of the all time greats of the game and rightly so. We will conclude this by saying that if you are a fan of Cricket in general and Steve Waugh in particular, read the book. Otherwise, read this review and we can all go back to bashing Matthew Hayden.

Is Cricket An Overrated Game?

2007-02-14T22:02:00.000-08:00

Does lightning strike twice at the same spot? er...Let's try this again,
Are black holes really black?

Of course not.

Anyway, read this article while we patiently wait for you to come back.

We have issues with what the writer has to say but good writing is good writing is good writing. While we like to wax lyrical about good cricket writing, the writer apparently feels that cricket writing is mostly "painfully jocose and bathetic". While we agree with him that much of cricket writing is bad, the good writing more than makes-up for the bad writing. As an analogy, just because most fiction writing is bad does not mean that all fiction writing can be panned.

The beauty of Cricket does not lie in the hypocrisy surrounding it. Rather, it begins and ends inside the boundary lines. Two batsmen against the other eleven who are trying to get them out. Cricket is a game where there is room for individual brilliance within the framework of team work. The beauty of Cricket is in some of its vignettes. A bowler marking his run-up and the batsmen taking guard. The crowd waiting in anticipation while the bowler starts his run-up and then that anticipation turning to instant boredom as the batsmen shoulders his arms and lets the ball through to the wicket keeper.

Cricket is also a game which is not "fair". A good delivery might not get you a wicket but a bad delivery might. A great shot can be caught and a thin edge could fly between the first slip and the wicket keeper. Some people cannot handle that iniquity. We feel sad for those people.

India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd ODI, Goa

2007-02-14T18:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, Tharanga is a sourpuss for not joining the Bhangra with Zaheer and Dhoni

In case you didn't know (fat chance), India won the match. That made us happy. Since we got that out of the way, let's talk about what made us unhappy.

This match conclusively proves the fact that India needs 5 genuine bowlers. While the four bowlers, in this instance, Zaheer, Agarkar, Munaf and Harbhajan did a good job, the fifth bowler combination of Sehwag and Tendulkar gave away 63 runs in 10 overs and did not take a wicket.

Sri Lanka were 91 for 5 when Tendulkar was introduced. The next wicket fell when the score was 180. What India needed was another bowler who could deliver the knock out punch while SL was tottering. To be fair, Pathan would have been selected if he were fit but at the expense of which player? It would be okay if he were selected instead of Karthick but if his selection meant either Agarkar or Munaf being dropped, India would have been worse off.

If we may digress, why is it that the Indian pace bowlers (I am looking at you, Zaheer, Ashish, Patha, Sreesanth, and Munaf) when they start their careers bowl at speeds in the late 130's to early 140 Kph and then their speed slowly starts decreasing to low 120 Kph? The answer is easy Sherlcok, they sacrifice speed for line and length. Well, at least that's the answer you get when that particular question is raised. In our opinion, that's a buch of bull. Line and length for the Indian pace bowlers is still a dark mystery. On any given day, nobody, including the bowler, knows how they are going to bowl. With a Glen McGrath or a Mohammed Asif, we can be assured of a tidy speed combined with a nagging length. But, all bets are off with the Indian bowlers. It could depend, for all we know, on which side of the bed they wake up on. Digression over.

Anyway, inclusion of Pathan in the playing eleven wouldn't be an issue if he was bowling well. Unfortunately, he is not. Indian world cup fortunes depend a great deal on getting their balance right. We are not sure if India is anywhere close to solving that knotty problem.

Russell Arnold played a good innings, so did Dhoni and Dravid. But the man of the match was truly Zaheer Khan. We love a good bowling display and Zaheer was on top of his game.

As a great bowler once said bowling the right line and length in the first over is very important (Okay, we made that up. But, I am sure one of the great bowlers must have said it at some point in time). Zaheer hit the right length immediately. Zaheer has always been good at bowling to left-handers, he accounted for Tharanga, Jayasuriya, and Sangakkara in this match, because he can bowl his natural delivery (the ball which moves away from the left handers) and also has the ability to move the ball into the left handers. Couple this with the clever use of the bouncer and he was very nearly unplayable in the beginning of his first spell.

Let's hope that Zaheer continues bowling this well in that little tournament called the World Cup.

Beach Cricket?

2007-02-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

This is how a rant should be written: Erudite, scathing, contemptuous, and vitriolic.

For posterity's sake, it is printed below:

"TRADITIONALISTS can relax. A month ago it seemed entirely possible that a form of cricket might soon spread that made the 20-over game seem sensible. A bunch of crocks whose best days were a distant memory signed up to burden an unsuspecting public with a sandy version of the game. Allan Border, Courtney Walsh and Graham Gooch led the way in promoting the activity in numerous advertisements. Viv Richards arrived to take part. Everyone was supposed to be excited about the innovation. Happily, it has been a debacle. Beach cricket has been beached.

It took only one crass exhibition on a blameless part of the Queensland coastline for the new game to be exposed as the most abysmal bilge presented in the name of sport. Seldom have so many supposedly dignified men been paid as much to participate in such nonsense, at least not whilst pursuing an activity asking to be taken seriously. Seldom has any new enterprise been as unanimously condemned. As a rule, reviewers try to give newcomers a little leeway. By general consent, though, five minutes' viewing on the small screen was enough to expose the unshakeable ridiculousness of this doomed sally.

In my case those precious, unrecoverable minutes were spent watching Mark Waugh and Dean Jones bowl with a soft ball and off short runs to padless opponents batting on an artificial surface located in the middle of the sort of white sand that so inconvenienced the Turks in their skirmish with Lawrence of Arabia. Meanwhile, Border was trotting dutifully behind the sticks, a mighty man wearing a red nose. The former captain resigned as a selector to join this embarrassment.

Whenever the ball was hit on the ground it became bogged and someone had to summon the interest to collect it. Otherwise it was dispatched into a bemused and dwindling crowd. All the while some poor fool of a commentator was trying to persuade his audience that they were watching proper cricket and not a group of cavorting pensioners. Beforehand, the responsible television channel had talked anxiously about forthcoming fitness tests. Afterwards, the same mob described the home side's victory in the triangular series as "continuing Australia's summer of success".

Richie Richardson and Curtly Ambrose were spotted "batting". Too many West Indians still expect the system to serve them. Too many want to lead the glamorous life when they could be serving the system. At least Brian Lara rejected the invitation. Not that England and Australia were short of past players eager for a payday. After the obsequious Warne interview and Herschelle Gibbs' recent excess, cricket needs all the dignity it can muster.
Ball sports do not work on sand. Beaches are for sleeping and reading and resting and digging holes and building castles and warming the body after a splash, a swim or a dive. Lots of sports have tried. Volleyball, soccer and footy have all attempted to corner the market. Some of them have become Olympic games, but that is a lady of notoriously easy virtue. None has captured the imagination. Participants invariably look like dills. No one who has watched these games properly played can tolerate these exhibitions. The surface is either too hard or too soft. Often the wind is blowing.

Of course the idea of staging official sports by the sea was tempting. Everyone can recall childhood games of beach cricket. Over the years memory has managed to repair the damage. A few cheerful recollections may intrude upon an otherwise bleak landscape, like the time that fearful brat Benjamin was run out and left in a sulk. Mostly they were horrendous, with most balls ending up as windswept wides and those within reach being missed and then another batsman comes jovially to the crease and all and sundry laugh and hide their boredom. Meanwhile, sand infiltrates the sandwiches, the tide goes out, everyone is burnt and it ends in tears. It is not an activity fit for human consumption.

Apparently this nonsense has been driven along by a grog company suffering a fit of pique after its sponsorship bid for a more legitimate form of the game was rejected. Shareholders must be spitting chips about the expense. Still, beer sales may rise. After watching a match, spectators can be relied upon to dash to the nearest bolthole to seek solace in a drop of the good stuff.

Sand and water have sporting glories of their own. Surf carnivals reflect the range of activities that have been developed over the years to give humans an opportunity to pit themselves against the maddened waters. Boats plunge into waves, lifesavers perform drills, swimmers rush in raging seas, ankle-biters charge for pegs, surfers stand on boards or try to catch the wind, canoes and other small craft race back and forth. And it all works because it is in harmony with the facilities.

Beach cricket is silly. May it suffer a surfeit of sorrows and then rest in peace."