India Crushes West Indies

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.

India Vs. Sri Lanka, 4th ODI, Visakhapatnam

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.