Payback Series: Game 3 - Thoughts

The Payback Series moved on to Mohali after a crushing win in Delhi. And though the margin was much closer, the end result was still the same. here are the thoughts  for the day.

• Team selections. I am bored of saying it. Bell should be playing. Given Kieswetter's Kamran Akmalese  performance today behind the stumps, it would be wise to give the gloves to Bairstow and bring Bell in as the opener.
• Team wins toss. Bats first. Bats well. Posts a big total. Total gets chased down easily due to some unimaginative bowling and shoddy fielding. This was the basic template for India's ODI losses in England (except for the toss part). Today it was just the other way round.
• The Indian bowling lineup with Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar & Virat Kohli looks straight out of the Kiwi dibbly-dobbly-wibbly-wobbly template
• The game was close. But somehow the result wasn't ever in doubt. Maybe its the T20 effect. Any total seems chaseable with 2 decent batsman in the crease.
• The fist pump by Ravindra Jadeja after edging a boundary as a gesture must be unparalleled.
• Dhoni's lost luck seems to have been found (:D) as he provides the finishing touch to an almost perfect team chase. 
• Rahane & Trott missed out on well deserved 100s, as Mr. Gavaskar would have said. maybe it was this obsession with centuries that made Sunil Gavaskar one of the greatest run accumulators of all time.

The series has been won. But the Payback is not done yet. 

World Cup Thoughts - March 17th

Straight into the bullet points today

• England are at it again. How do they manage to make every game exciting regardless of the opposition?
• After 6 games, all of which they could have won or lost, England are somewhere in the middle of the table. Not yet qualified but not yet out though.
• Most of the England players seem to have hair issues. Going by the number of nerve sapping games that they are having, no wonder.
• Moment of the Day - Trott's catch off Russel. England's Hope seemingly depended on if Trott's shirt was on the rope. I thought it was not. Simon Taufel seeing the same replays thought it was and gave it a six. He umpires in top level cricket, I do not. 
• Andre Russel did everything with the ball, on the field and with the bat, yet could not win it for West Indies.
• For sheer entertainment, England deserve some award not the cup itself.
• And for tomorrow, a battle for honor between Ireland & Netherlands and a placing match between Sri Lanka & New Zealand.
• Wondering why Sri Lanka is playing a game in Mumbai when they are co-hosting the Cup?