Farewell Zaheer Khan

"The toughest call in a cricketing career is when one has to walk away from the game itself. You almost 'will' yourself and want to push that few, extra miles but then the body, after nearly two decades, decides not to respond."

These were the opening words of the farewell statement by Zaheer Khan, without doubt one of India's greatest fast bowlers and cetainly the best left-hand pacer the country has produced.

The numbers first - 610 wickets in 92 Tests, 200 ODIs, 17 T20Is in a career spanning 14 years. These are numbers to be proud of. And to this add being a member of a World Cup winning XI. But sheer numbers cannot define his contribution. He was the leader of India's pace attack and its de facto bowling captain over a large part of his career. And he left quite a few memories to cherish for the Indian fan. Here are my favorite ones.

1. The yorker to knock out Steve Waugh's stumps in the ICC Knockout event in Kenya in 2000. What a wonderful sight it was to see a yorker delivered by an Indian fast bowler.
2. 4 consecutive sixes off Henry Olonga to end the innings against Zimbabwe. Yet India contrived to lose that game.
3. The jellybean incident against England which riled him up so much that he proceeded to destroy the English batting and take India to a rare away series victory.
4. World Cup 2011 - where he finished as the highest wicket-taker and came up with this memorable quote - "As a bowling unit I think I am doing quite well". Probably a slip of tongue but truer words have seldom been spoken.
5. The atrocious opening over in the 2003 World Cup final, where he was bowling wides and sledging Gilchrist. But this was more than compensated in the 2011 final where Zaheer started with 3 maidens on the trot.
6. And the sometimes comical, sometimes exasperating but always entertaining batting.
7. And finally for this - from a game in which he was not even playing

Thank you for all the wonderful memories Zaheer Khan!

As he himself closes out his statement.

'Zak is Back' is perhaps a headline that may come my way again, as I have every intention of giving back to this game and our wonderful country which gave this kid from Shrirampur the opportunity to chase and live his dream!

Full Text of the statement

The World Cup Memories - 2011

Remembering the World Cups gone by is a nice way to fill in the waiting time for the World Cup action to commence. Prior to the previous edition of the World Cup, I had jotted down the memories I had of the earlier World Cups (Click for 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007). And now for the memories of the 2011 edition.

The 2011 World Cup was the first one closely followed via social media as well as conventional media. So it was quite common to have the game live on televsion as well as following ball-by-ball commentary on cricinfo while tracking twitter constantly. It was also the first world cup which was followed comprehensively by this blog. Regular match notes and thoughts were posted. Hence I have quite a big bank of memories from this edition.

First up is obviously the winning moment. Dhoni blasting a six as the whole of India erupted. The Cup had been won back after 28 years. Also lots of memories of the celebrations which followed. The whole team jumping up and down, many in tears, the players doing a victory lap with the support staff walking behind them arm in arm. 

It was also a World Cup of quotes, especially from the Indians. Sehwag started it with wanting to bat for 50 overs, a mission he wasn't able to fulfill, he also declared that everyone except Sreesanth had a good game, Zaheer Khan asserting that as a bowling unit , he was doing well and finally Virat Kohli after the final stating that Tendulkar had carried them for years and now it was the team's turn.

Then there was Entertaining England. Every single game of theirs was a close one. In the group stages they lost to Ireland and Bangladesh while tying with India and beating South Africa and West Indies. There scripts were written elsewhere as they lit up an otherwise drab group stage.

The biggest game wasn't the final, it was the semi-final when India took on Pakistan. Our then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh invited his Pakistani counterpart and they watched the game together. The Sri Lankan President also jumped into cricket diplomacy mode and invited his Kiwi counterpart for the other semi-final. But the long distances curtailed this cricketing diplomacy.

And on the cricketing front, there was Yuvraj Singh's all-round show, Ross Taylor's slog overs blast against Pakistan, Kevin O'Brien's stunning six after six against England (which was later transformed into a a book), Zaheer Khan's knuckle balls which swung many a match India's way, Bangladesh self-imploding while West Indies team bus got stoned being mistaken for the Bangladeshi bus. Australia's winning streak coming to an end and finally South Africa choking again.

And finally the Bleed Blue campaign. We were the World Champions. And it was a sense of collective and pure joy which hasn't been felt since.

Now over to the 2015 edition and lets see what memories it will have in store for us.

IPL7: Notes #2

The UAE leg of the IPL is over. Every team has now played 5 games each and some paaterns are beginning to emerge. Yet its still a long way to go and as it is said in sports - "It ain't over till its over". Here are a few random thoughts & memories form the games so far.

• Catches Win Matches - The old adage still holds true. If you need proof, just check Chris Lynn's effort which changed the course of the KKR-RCB game. Also a high number of catches have been dropped which have enabled some batsmen to simply blaze away.
• Steve Smith's cool-headedness in calmly tapping away Sunil Narine for two, instead of going for glory in the Super Over [Aside - if you have a system of counting 6s & 4s, why have the Super Over business at all?]
• Indian fast bowling is suddenly looking in good health with the likes of Zaheer, Bhuvneshwar and Aaron leading the charge. Then we have Sandeep Sharma, Vinay Kumar & Balaji also putting in good performances. Either the pitches have all seamed around or the bowling has been exceptionally good.
• India's batsmen somehow have not fired with the exception of Rahane and Manish Pandey.
• The Mumbai Indians advisory board has a better chance of success than their playing XI. Just why have they managed to let so many of their existing players go off to other franchisees is confusing to say the least. The likes of Maxwell, Dwayne Smith, Chahal, Dhawal Kulkarni, Suryakumar Yadav are some of the names who should have been in the Mumbai team
• Chennai Super Kings seem to have shrugged off their off-field distractions and are back into their sail-into-the-knockouts-form
• The RCB squad looked a batting powerhouse but is looking more like a powermouse (to quote the interim BCCI head Sunil Gavaskar). 70 all out against Rajasthan Royals being a a case in point.
• Keeping the uncapped players into the auction has actually limited the number of potential backup players.
• The schedule is a little lopsided. Now some of the franchisees have 5 "home" games while others have 4 remaining. For all practical purposes the UAE leg was neutral to all all concerned. Although the defintion of "home: and "away" is getting quite blurred in some cases..e.g. With Dhoni captaining CSK, who will dare to term KKR as the home team in tonight's encounter in Ranchi?

Till next time...

The Eternal Optimists

Sometimes I hate VVS Laxman & Rahul Dravid. 

Their partnership on 15th March, 2001 at Eden Gardens are part of cricketing folklore. A partnership which turned around a hopeless situation into a winning one. And scripted the most dramatic turnarounds in the history of the game. India went on to win the match and took the momentum generated from the game to win the next match and the series as well.

But in addition to all this, what the duo also did was to convert Indian fans into eternal optimists. The situation can be as hopeless as it can be, but the Indian fan will remember that glorious day in Eden Gardens when Laxman & Dravid stopped the all-conquering Australians from taking over the "Final Frontier".

They made us believe in miracles. And I guess that enhances the pain of losing a little more.

Also in this list of believing-it-ain't-over-till-its-over was the Kumble-Srinath match-winning 9th wicket partnership against the Aussies in Titan Cup (1996). That single game is responsible for keeping me awake till the game is actually won or lost ever since. I might have ignored it as a-once-in-a-lifetime but something similar happened again when Zaheer Khan & Murali Kartik repeated the dose to the another bunch of Aussies in another ODI a few years later.

As I write this the 9th Indian wicket has fallen in the 2nd innings and an innings defeat looks likely but in some little corner of the heart there is a still a flicker of hope as I keep following the match.

P.S. Come to think of it, the miracles only seem to be happening against the Aussies.

Positives from Another 4-nil

I would describe myself as a firm believer in my Indian cricket team. But this Australian tour coming on the back of the hammering received in England has shaken up the Indian cricket supporter in me as well. As the tour went by I had absolutely no enthusiasm in switching on the TV to watch the match. Similarly often forgot about checking the net for the scores while at work. Tried to avoid opening cricinfo on coming back from work. None of the players may have retired so far but after this Australian tour I am certainly thinking of taking retirement from from active cricket following. But within hours of the end in Adelaide came the Pakistani victory in UAE and the enthusiasm got a bit restored.

Everyone I read is going hammer and tongs at the team. Calling for drastic action, yet no one knowing what the action should be. Calls have been made for the seniors to be dropped (me also did the same), some have asked for a ban on IPL (too drastic, too much money), restructuring of the Ranji Trophy (my suggestion 3 levels of 9 teams each, no Duleep trophy or Deodhar Trophy), firing Duncan Fletcher (probably the easiest job and most likely to happen), overhaul of BCCI (how?). 

Oh I digress...

This post was meant to be finding positives from this disaster. And surprisingly I could think of a few. And they are

• The fast bowlers (Zaheer, Ishant, Umesh) stayed fit throughout the 4 tests. And they did have loads of bowling to do in the series. At least someone looks to be doing the job properly.
• We have bowlers who can bowl above 150 Kmph. Ishant & Umesh both crossed the barrier.
• Virat Kohli shows that he has the fight in him. The century in Adelaide should do him some good.
• Zaheer out-sledged Haddin. 
• Shaun Marsh may have been reduced to playing in IPL only or he like a phoenix he may rise from these Ashes and score 30 Test centuries for Australia.
• Ricky Ponting has become more vulnerable and somehow more likeable.
• Sachin Tendulkar not getting the 100th 100. I might be the only Indian supporter who was happy  that SRT did not reach the so called landmark Too much useless hype on a meaningless stat. 
• And...Rahul Dravid gave a good speech to start the tour. CertainlyTHE highlight for India.

Well thats it, no more positives from the series.

P.S. Dear Indian team, please always remember, the Indian fan will always support you. Thanks for all the good memories.

Ten From 2011

Another year goes by. And leaves behind some memories. Here are the 10 cricketing "events" to remember 2011 by.

1. India win the World Cup

A long 28 year wait for cricketing glory ended and a nation celebrated when MS Dhoni hit the World Cup winning shot. Just curious - Where is that ball now?

2. The Wall Rises Again

As comebacks come nothing can beat the year Rahul Dravid had. Had to announce his retirement from limited overs international cricket because the selectors had panicked and picked him up. And as if there weren't enough cliched headlines about the Wall, he gave an altogether new dimesion - Creaking Terminators

3. The Quest of the Year - Like Godot we waited for HIS 100th 100.

Would it come at his favorite ground Chepauk? No. Against his favorite opponent Aussies? No. Arch-rivals Pakistan? No. World Cup final at home? No. Lords - the home of cricket? No. Trent Bridge? Headingley? Oval? No. Home tests - Kotla? No. Eden Gardens? No. Has to be Wankhede. Almost there. No, out for 94... 

The Indian fan awaits... It has to come at the MCG in the Boxing Day test (:D) 

4. KO'd by Kevin

The Irish beat the collection of nationalities playing for England. The chief architect of the victory Kevin O'Brien certainly got a story to tell, which he did as well with his book "Six after Six".

5. 47 all out - Madness at Newlands

How do you describe a situation in which Australia are at 9 down for 21 and still rated as the favorites to win the match? Quite a few unwanted records (from the batting perspective) were shattered while more were seriously threatened as a crazy match ended with Smith & Amla calmly guiding the hosts to victory. (Special mention for the spectacular implosion by the Lankans against England)

6. Zimbabwe re-enter Test fold and actually play Test cricket
Zimbabwe played a series of one-off Tests to mark their return to the Test arena. Beat Bangladesh, a losing fight with Pakistan and finally a close finish in a loss to the Kiwis, Zimbabwe certainly showed lots of spark and fight.

7. A run of close tests to end the year
Zimbabwe vs New Zealand, Australia vs South Africa, Australia vs New Zealand were all pretty tight. But none came as close as the seemingly dead India vs West Indies test at Wankhede. A final day which began with a draw as the only likely result ended in a photofinish. Just when you were about to say all 4 results were possible, the teams managed the 5th one - "We flippin' murdered 'em.



8. Spot-fixing verdict - Arrested for literally crossing the line

If you play with the feelings of the games lovers, you end up losing your freedom. Period.

9.  The Speakers

Sangakkara spoke. Dravid spoke. But the speech of the year was made by Virender Sehwag. At the post-match presentation after the World Cup opening game against Bangladesh. "This was a revenge match. Bangladesh can't play test cricket. Everyone except Sreesanth had a good game".
Special mention - Zaheer Khan's Quote - "As a bowling unit, I think I am doing well"

10. The debut Michelles
A clutch of bowlers got 5-fors on Test debuts. Bracewell, Ashwin, Philander, Elias, Cummins, Pattinson - best time to make your bowling debut.

A bonus 11th one - Norman Gordon of South Africa became the 1st cricketer to hit a century against Father Time. Well played Sir. 

The Post England Tour Post

'Twas the summer of 2011. Test No. 1 and ODI World Champions India went on a tour of England, a team which had just smashed the Aussies 3-1 in an away Ashes and had been fast becoming the most entertaining ODI team in the world. There were reams of newsprint, millions of blog posts (including quite a few by yours truly) written on the prospect of the contest which was set to unfold over the summer.

Alas the result turned out to be totally something else. Here is a short summary of the results.

• England win the 4 Test series 4-0.
• England win the one-off T20.
• England win the 5 ODI series 3-0 with one game abandoned and other tied on Duckworth -Lewis scores.

And there, I have been through the painful part. Whatever happened to our champion team and Dhoni's legendary luck? In the 2 decades of my cricket watching/following career there have been a few debacles, Australian tour of 1991-92 followed by the 1992 World Cup, South African Tour in 1996-97, Australia in 1999-2000. But at no time have we returned winless in international matches (Here we did beat Kent, Surrey & Leicestershire). Here is my attempt to analyse the disaster that the tour was. So here goes  the final post of this tour.

• England were much better than India. Period. They out-batted, out-bowled and out-fielded us. When I had done the preview for the Pataudi Trophy, I had not given too much weightage to one essential bit that the games were being played in England. Also the English unit performed like a machine, the batsman got runs, a few "daddy hundreds" were scored, the bowlers took wickets. Replacements were readily available and fitted in seamlessly. And if the team somehow found itself in trouble, there was always someone to bail them out whether it was Broad in 2nd Test at Trent Bridge or the debutante John Bairstow in Cardiff.
• Zaheer Khan hamstrung at Lords. That was the single biggest factor contributing to this result. During the World Cup, he had remarked that "as a bowling unit I think I am doing well". Might have been a slip of tongue but he couldn't have put it any better. Given the current Indian bowling context, he is irreplaceable. Lots of talk takes place on who replaces our batting stalwarts, but that would be a simpler task as compared to replacing Zaheer.
• Injuries. Lots of injuries. Pujara, Sehwag, Gambhir, Zaheer, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Ishant, Sachin, Rohit, Praveen, Munaf, Nehra. All injured at some point or the other. Not a match passed without one or two injuries in the team. Its not that the Indians were the only ones who got injured, the English team also had a few but they had far better and ready replacements. And ours had the more impact. Entire bowling lineup decimated by injuries, half the batting lineup, even the replacements getting injured. Some were accidental on-field injuries like Gambhir (twice!!), Yuvraj, Rohit Sharma etc, some could only be due to poor "injury management", Zaheer, Sehwag, Tendulkar. The tour began with Zaheer limping off hamstrung on the opening day of the Lords Test and ended with Munaf being carried away in Cardiff.
• Poor scheduling. One 3-day game to acclimatise before the Test series. 3 side games before the ODIs. I do not understand who came up with this great schedule. My suggestion always have the ODI part before the Test series, gives more time to acclimatise. And there was a 4-day gap between the 4th & 5th ODIs for some unknown reason. We managed to get Praveen Kumar injured in this period.
• Some plain bad luck. This was true in the One-dayers. Dhoni loses all 5 tosses to start with. And there was rain to interfere in case we somehow get into a, lets not say winning, but an advantageous position.

Now the analysis over. Now for the positives from the tour. It might be shocking to discover that there were a few bright spots (albeit on an individual basis) on this dismal tour. But can't be getting all negative here.

• Indian cricket and its fans learnt to appreciate Rahul "The Wall" Dravid again (I think I made him sound like a WWE entertainer here :P ). 3 centuries in losing causes in the Tests. Was forced to open the batting, where he carried his bat through the innings. Fell afoul of the DRS (henceforth to be known as the Dravid Removal System). Out of the blue was also picked up for the ODI leg of the tour. Shocked, he announced his retirement, but signed off in style. A hattrick of sixes in his T20 debut-cum-farewell and a typical hardworking and understated 69 in the 5th ODI at Cardiff. For a long time fan, it was great to see the Legend getting his due. And now the BCCI has named him in an enquiry committee to find out what went wrong in the tour. Now thats going to be an interesting report.
• Praveen Kumar was the other hero for India. No one considered him test material. But a couple of tests down the line, PK was leading the bowling attack, and doing a good job of it. There was an entertaining cameo as well.
• Suresh Raina in the white shirt looked lost. A 42 ball pair at the Oval was the low point. Suresh Raina in the blue shirt was awesome. How can the same person become so different just by changing the format of the game. Also one player who is seen in the game throughout the play.
• Ajinkya Rahane with an awesome First Class average made his India debut in an T20 game. And performed quite well there as well as in the ODIs. Won't be commenting too much as the chances might be few given our batting resources.
• Parthiv Patel swivelling around to take care of the short ball provided a welcome relief in the ODIs after Raina's test struggles.

In short, England were much better than us and they got a little help for our bad luck. But that was thoroughly deserved. The injuries, rains, DRS contoversies, Ian Bell's run-out and Anna Hazare combined to ensure that the Indian team did not get a roasting that it could have got from our media.

P.S. After writing out the post remembered that Sachin Tendulkar did not get to his hyped up landmark of  100 international 100s. Mind you, even getting to 99 is beyond anyone could have imagined though.

P.P.S Dear Team India, I know it was a very tough tour. And you were not able to perform to our expectations. But don't worry, I will be there to follow and support you when you play next. Lets hammer the English at home.

The Pataudi Trophy - Review

I remember with how much eagerness and anticipation I had written this preview. And how wrong was I? There was a section with a man-for-man comparison stating how equally matched the 2 teams were on paper (Alas as it turned out, it was only on paper). In fact we got hammered man-for-man.

In the end it turned out to be a contest between England against Rahul Dravid & Praveen Kumar. England were an efficient machine, with even the replacements also slotting in seamlessly. India on the other hand hand key components falling apart, getting damaged and replaced by Chinese made imitations. Rahul Dravid did build his Wall, but the other batsmen built tunnels under it. Praveen Kumar ran in all the time, holding one end as a stock bowler while there was no one at the other end to strike through. India just fell apart. There have been debacles in the past, England getting whitewashed in Ashes of 2006-07. But never before has such a long-anticipated top of the table clash turned so one-sided.

For England, there was someone or the other to keep knocking down the Indians if they even thought off getting up. It was simple, Excellent no-nonsense batting, sustained bowling and some decent all-round fielding. They executed it beautifully and ran India ragged.

For India, there were patches of brilliance like Dravid's batting, Ishant's spell at Lords, opening 2 days at Trent Bridge. Otherwise it was an abject surrender. There were cries heard that the team was under-prepared and needed more warm-up games. This may have been true but the way the English victory margins kept increasing through the series, it would have seemed England were the ones under-prepared at Lords.

Key moments for the series. Zaheer pulling his hamstring on Day 1 at Lords, Prior & Broad's counterattack when they were in trouble in the 2nd innings at Lords again. In Trent Bridge, India had England down for the count at Tea on the first 2 days and they managed to recover ground through Broad with both bat and ball. After that it was just a one-way road. Gautam Gambhir's on-field injuries meant a random batting order every time.

Other aspect highlighted has been the failings of the Hotspot. Technology certainly isn't fool-proof. But in trying to make technology fool-proof, the governing bodies have lost sight of the original idea of DRS, which was to remove umpiring howlers like Harbhajan given out lbw of a inside edge at Trent Bridge and not the marginal too-close-to-call situations like Dravid's at The Oval. Here due to some sheer pigheadedness of BCCI, ICC and other governing bodies, we have got such farcial scenario of different rules applicable in different places for the same game.

In the end, all I can say is England were bloody good, like they were in Australia earlier this year. I was cheering for them during the Ashes but couldn't watch them pummel my Indian team like this. Michael Vaughan's jokes which I enjoyed with relish during the Ashes were now too painful to even read.

India were under-prepared, exhausted, injured unit. Players were hopeless in the English conditions against an efficient English cricketing machine. And simply outmatched and outclassed.

Only good thing which came out was that the Indian fan learned to appreciate Rahul Dravid once again.

Also spare a thought for Duncan Fletcher, England coach for seven years and current Indian coach. His long term aim of making England the world's best test side has finally come true but at his own expense.

P.S. At least we did something about the Cricket Spirit while recalling Ian Bell, the Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice.

Pataudi Trophy - Test 2 - Preview

After the big defeat at Lords an injury depleted India now move on to Trent Bridge, the scene of a series winning victory after the jelly beans incident.

First the injury count. Sehwag wont be here again. No Zaheer as well (the central figure in jellygate last time around). Word coming in that Gambhir yet to recover from the elbow injury. Don't know if Sachin has fully recovered from his illness. Add Harbhajan's bowling form. So a pretty grim scenario. England on the other hand have lost Tremlett but he is far easier to replace given their fast bowling options (Finn, Bresnan, Shazad, Onions... the list can go on and on).

Injury depleted India against a more or less full strength England. Situation appears grim. Given this is the 2nd in a 4 Test series Indian approach at Trent Bridge is likely to be "Survive today to Fight Another Day"

The 2000th Test - Day 2 Thoughts

Some weird scenes, quite a bit of struggle and some pretty good cricket. These are the thoughts which come into mind after the second day's play at Lords.

• First up the man who scored a double hundred. Kevin Pietersen just about survived thorugh his first few runs on Day 1, then struggled through to his hundred, may or may not have been out caught by Dravid at leg slip but in the end not just stayed on but hammered his way through to an unbeaten double hundred.
• Praveen Kumar was not even considered as Test material till lots of injuries and rests got him selected against the West Indies. And today with Zaheer injured, Ishant and Harbhajan totally clueless about how to take a wicket he led the attack, took a five-for and got his name put on the Lord's honours board. And more importantly bowled almost throughout the dayl.
• Dhoni and Dravid. Given the way his attack was performing, Dhoni himself came onto bowl and didnt do a bad job either. While in his place Dravid came up behind the stumps after many years and again didn't do too bad a job there. Kapil Dev has called this act a mockery of Test cricket. With all due respect to him I dont see how this is the case. Its not as if they started the day with Dhoni bowling. He came only after one full session had been played. A team is struggling and is going about with different options about taking a wicket. In fact to me it showed that like true champion sides, the current Indian team is willing to adjust and adapt to difficult situations.
• Ishant & Harbhajan. Totally ineffective. Combined figures of none for 280 from 67 overs is certainly not a good sign.
• Eoin Morgan's dismissal. On first glance everybody says its out. Morgan himself walks off. Then the Hotspot pictures come in and say the ball brushed the pad but no mark on the bat. If the decision had been challenged it would certainly had been reversed. Only issue Morgan walked off and did not review it because he thought he had edged it. So the incident pretty much opens up the DRS debate again. Technology is certainly not perfect.
• Zaheer's injury just showed how much off a difference he makes to the attack. England can call up Bresnana, Finn, Shahzad if any of their fast bowlers get injured. Whom do we call up Sreesanth, Munaf, Mithun? Hoping he gets fit soon enough. Otherwise its Advantage England for winning the series.
• In the slipstream of Pieteresen's knock, the sledgehammer of eternal justice and this blog's mascot Ian Bell scored an elegant 46 laced with 6 hits to the fence (more on that in a later post).
• Indian openers survived the day. Lets see what they can achieve today.

A Fast Bowling Tale

An India Test tour of the West Indies.

And a tall, fast bowler is battering the batsman with pace and bounce and some swing in

Pretty familiar scene except that this time around its the West Indies batsmen who are at the receiving end. The sight must have definetely gladdened the hearts of the former Indian players who had been at the receing end from the West Indian fast bowling greats all these years.

The sight of Ishant Sharma running through the lineup did make for very good watching from an Indian fan's perspective too. A fast pitch is certainly no more a threat to the Indian teams. Our fast bowlers have begun returning in kind, and in fact performed better than the home ones. Examples like Perth (2007) and Durban (2010) immediately come to mind.

The reurgence of Ishant, the likely return of Zaheer, the newly disocevered test bowling of Praveen and well the craziness of Sreesanth and English conditions. Already anticipating a great series in England.

P.S. Ishant's performance brought back thoughts of "that" ball from Sreesanth.

World Cup Thoughts - March 24th

Its been a couple of hours since the match ended but the sense of euphoria is still preventing any sleep. Was a nervous day but I successfully stayed in front of the TV throughout the Indian chase, thus proving that I can handle some pressure (:P). At work, it was a tense few hours waiting for the match itself to begin. And office itself was caught up in cricket fever. Even the daily "Thought for the Day" mail carried SRT's picture. Now on to the game itself.

• Ricky Ponting has been facing some tough times as a player. Today he played the perfect innings to build the Aussie innings almost single handedly. The perfect World  Cup swansong for Ricky Ponting, the batsman. Didn't like seeing him booed by the crowd though.
• Yuvraj Singh has had his place questioned in the team before the Cup began. Now after his 4th man of the Match winning performance, can anybody raise such a question? Seems to have already booked the Player of the Tournament award for his all round display (no pun intended).
• Watching Raina play the pull shot to Tait & Lee felt real  good. An inspired selection to say the least. Played his part in a calm finish after the madness of Gambhir's runout and Kohli's dismissal.
• Is there anything that Zaheer can't do with the ball now? Mike Hussey is the  latest victim of a Zaheer return spell special.
• We are still one bowler short. And well of course, what has happened to Dhoni's batting?
• And finally to Brett Lee for all the commitment on the field. Can't even imgaine our bowlers dive around in the field like that. Was this the las time we have seen Lee in action on the international stage?

Now, awaiting the semi-final clash in Mohali against Pakistan. Wondering (and hoping) if the government will just declare a national holiday on Wednesday. 

P.S. The first 2 games turned out as per my predictions.

World Cup Quarter-final Predictions

Its Prediction Time

The quarter-final line-up has been finally settled. The matches in the league did not exactly fit into any pattern. But they did show that the unpredictable can happen in a matter of overs. New Zealand's 92 run blast in 4 overs against Pakistan, India's 29/9 collapse against South Africa or West Indies fading away against England. All showed that games can turn around in a matter of few balls. There are enough players who can take the game away from any opposition at any time. Someone like Zaheer Khan can turn it in just one magical ball (Andrew Strauss & Devon Smith will certainly vouch for this). All this just shows that predicting the winners on a given day isn't an easy task. So here are my predictions for the 4 Quarter-Finals.

QF1 - Pakistan vs West Indies

Predicting a Pakistan game is like predicting the unpredictable. On the plus side, they have a well rounded bowling attack with all kinds of bowlers available to them and a deep batting lineup with Razzaq coming in at No. 8. On the minus, they have Kamran Akmal behind the stumps (enough said). Add general pathetic fielding and a top order which does not provide any confidence. Against them are the West Indies, who have collapsed from eminently winnable positions against England & India. Roach and Gayle can change the game on their own though.

Prediction - Pakistan should win. (or Kamran Akmal drops a catch of Gayle who the unleashes mayhem,  then any result can happen)

QF2 - India vs Australia

Australia are the enemy No. 1 in the eyes of the Indian cricket fan. They have a real FAST bowling attack and Shane Watson. Apart from that they have Ponting's tantrums and a hopeless spin attack. India on the other hand have a much vaunted batting lineup, which tends to collapse after the 40th over, and Zaheer Khan.  India have done every thing they could to make sure that they are not considered as favorites by anyone. But they are still the bookies favored ones to win the Cup. 

Prediction - India to win. (I am an Indian, what else would I say?)

QF3 - New Zealand vs South Africa

Seemingly the easiest of the lot to predict. South Africa to stroll to a win. They have better batsman, better fast bowlers, and surprisingly even better spinners than New Zealand. But this is a knock out stage and they have a tendency to, umm... choke (:P) (On the other hand they might have taken care of that choke against England). And if something like 92 runs in 4 overs happens, then who knows.

Prediction - South Africa

QF4 - Sri Lanka vs England

Sri Lanka playing in Sri Lanka. They should win.  But they are up against England who have proved to be the real jokers of the tournament. Had 6 close games when quite a few others barely had 1. The teams they lost to did not qualify for the knock-out while having an unbeaten record against those which did. And they have provided 6 entertaining games on the trot. 

Prediction - Sri Lanka (though want England to win for the sheer entertainment they have provided)

Disclaimer: I am no octopus, just a mere mortal human being. So I could be wrong :)

World Cup Thoughts - March 20th

Finally the league matches come to an end. But in the end it can be said that they were not as bad as had been expected. Coming to today's matches.

• Wondering if this is the last time we are seeing Kenya on the big stage. They certainly look on the decline. And the worst of all the Associates which have turned up. Not a single performance can be said to be memorable. Sad state of affairs really.
• Goodbye to Steve Tikolo. One of the greatest batsman from an Associate country. This was a World cup too many for him. But he had a long and good innings.
• Unlike Kenya, Zimbabwe seem to be back on track. They are returning to Tests later this year. Won comfortably against Canada & Kenya and lost easily to the big boys.
• A Test series between Zimbabwe and Ireland would be an interesting idea. Would give Ireland test status and help Zimbabwe ease back into playing Test cricket. But I am sure ICC would have none of such "progressive thinking".
• Zaheer Khan after the West Indies game said: "As a bowling unit, I think I am doing well". Was probably unintentional but said the truth about the state of the Indian bowling. A one man bowling attack, with support in the form of Yuvraj Singh. And this team might go on to win the World Cup.
• India collapsed again at the end (though as Dhoni said 51/7 is certainly an improvement from 29/9). But West Indies out-collapsed them.
• Darren Bravo definitely reminds of a certain Brian Charles Lara. Should achieve great things.
• Sachin Tendulkar walked off today though the umpire had signaled not out (Aside, Should that be considered as dissent?). Ricky Ponting yesterday did not walk off though he knew he had nicked it and waited for the review. Both right in their own regard. But nothing can stop us Indians gloating and taking the moral high ground.
• West Indies have a selection headache in picking between in-form Roach and Rampaul. On the other hand, India have to pick between out-of-form Nehra and Munaf. Unfair.
• All Quater-finals lined up. Now over to the business end of the tournament. 

World Cup Thoughts - March 9th

It was an India match day, so a post has to come. Missed most of the game due to being at work. Only saw the end bits. Here are the thoughts for the day.

• First, Piyush Chawla - From the reactions on the internet, he is fast replacing Ravindra Jadeja as the most abused Indian cricketer.
• It seems to be a new strategy. Zaheer opens the innings, the other pacer opens from the other and after one over Yusuf starts over. Not a bad move given that except Praveen Kumar (and he is not playing), the other Indian pacers seem to prefer bowling with the older ball.
• 4 in 4 for Sehwag. 4th innings in the World Cup and he starts with a boundary of the first ball. Thats a nice little habit to have. Had read somewhere that Sir Jack Hobbs (the greatest run accumulator in 1st Class cricket) liked to take a single off the first ball he faced. So Sehwag should be doing well.
• Yuvraj Singh had another good day in the office. But the rest of the team seemed to be taking it easy. Still the Seven Samurai managed to get the job done in the end.
• I thought India had made it to the Quarters by now. But it seems I was wrong. There is an odd chance that we have not. If WI beat Eng, Eng beat Ban, WI beat Ind, Ire beat WI, SA beat Ind, Ire beat SA, SA beat Ban & Ire beat Neth, Ind could still miss out. (Source - @espncricinfo)
• And to end with some new titles for Kamran Akmal - Here is what he has been described as by the master of Awesome cricket writing Andy Zaltzman -  the Maharajah of Missed Chances, the Don Corleone of Dropped Catches, the Earl of Err, the Pharaoh of Fumble, Lance Corporal Granite Hands

World Cup Thoughts - Feb 27

After watching a CRAZY tied match between India & England, well, there is lots and lots to say. If I was commentating like Ravi Shastri, I would have said "In the end, cricket was a winner". 

• Virender Sehwag's edgy start. Should have been out 3 times in the 1st over. Wasn't and helped the team get off to a flier.
• Sachin Tendulkar's brilliant century. And seeing him hit those big sixes off Swann was special. The best one though was the first one off Collingwood and here is what Cricinfo had to say about it, 

  17.4	Collingwood to Tendulkar, SIX, the ball was straight, but the bat much straighter. Tendulkar with one, simple movement has lifted this over the bowler's head and straight into the advertising boards. First six of the match, made to look indecently easy

• Tim Bresnan was brilliant in the end. And he was in my Fantasy League team along with SRT.
• Munaf Patel ran out Zaheer trying to take an impossible second run, after having run the first one short. A little thing but in the proved decisive. 
• Forget Sehwag, this time around even the entire team could not bat out the 50 overs.
• At the halfway stage, it seemed India would romp home but our bowling attack (sorry, wrong word) just wasn't there for most of the England innings.
• Strauss played an innings hardly expected from him or in general any English batsman for that matter. But Zaheer's yorker took him out.
• Ian Bell (the hero of this blog) was playing fine till he got a cramp. Also involved in a bizarre decision review. Started walking off on seeing the replay but umpire stood by his original decision and gave him Not Out on a technicality.
• The Batting Powerplay seriously scares the Batting side. India lost their way a bit, while the English almost lost the match.
• And when the Indians seemed to have the match under control, a flurry of sixes from Swann, Bresnan & Shahzad sealed a tie.
• England nearly choked. Well, with so many South Africa born players in their ranks, what else could we expect.
• India & England both have a good batting and pathetic bowling lineups. Not sure how longer they can go on with this.India's in particular starts and ends with Zaheer, the rest are just kind of running through the motions.
• The "Movies Now" channel was showing all 6 Rocky movies. Manged to catch quite a bit of action in between overs. Just wondering how awesome it would have been to watch the match with the Rocky theme on rather than the cliched commentary. 

In the end I can say this was probably the best match of the past 3 world cups. The best since Edgbaston 1999, another tied match.

And a day earlier, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in another close game further strengthening my belief of Pakistan as a dark horse for winning the Cup. Still a long way to go.

Now over to some boring matches from tomorrow. Predictions Zimbabwe & West Indies to win.

The World Cup Memories - 2003

The 8th edition of the World Cup was held in South Africa in 2003. This time around I was living in a hostel for my engineering course. Saw almost all the matches in the hostel common room, which was filled to capacity throughout the duration of the cup. Have to say watching in a room stuffed with almost 100 people was pretty near to the stadium experience. Most of the matches started in the afternoon. Quite a few second half classes were missed. Bunking classes had to be done with extreme care to ensure that the attendance did not fall short in any of the papers. This was also the cup where the pre-match shows went on for hours and hours and Mandira Bedi became a cricket presenter (?)

The Indian team was now being referred to as the Men in Blue. They had come off a disastrous tour off New Zealand where 100 runs per innings seemed to be the par score for the entire team. The after effects of this series continued with the first 2 games. But after the bad start the Men in Blue picked up and went from strength to strength to reach the finals, where they lost to the Australia. This has been the most successful Indian campaign in the World Cups that I have watched. The team also provided quite a few moments to remember for their fans. The victory against Pakistan which included the upper cut sixes by Tendulkar of Sohaib Akhtar; Tendulkar's pulled six off Caddick, Ashish Nehra swinging out 6 English wickets and then puking on the ground, Ganguly's minnow bashing with 3 centuries against Kenya & Namibia, Zaheer Khan's misplaced sledging in the finals. But above all this would be the memory of the Indian team huddle (which has since been copied by every other team).

The Australians continued their dominance in the World Cup winning all their matches to win the cup inspite of losing Warne in a drugs scandal. South Africa choked again. In 1992 it was the rain rule, 1996 it was Lara, 1999 there was a tied match. In 2003 all the factors jumped in together. Lara smashed another 100 against the Proteas, Duckworth Lewis jumped in to help New Zealand beat them while the game against Sri Lanka was tied because of rains & wrong reading of the Duckworth Lewis chart. The sight of a dejected looking Shaun Pollock after the Sri Lankan game summed up another great South African choke.

With the tournament expanded to 14 teams the established ones indulged in lots of minnows bashing. However sometimes the so called minnows dished back the same medicine. Top of the list would be Kenya reaching the seni-finals. And there was John Davison of Canada hammering the West Indies but the rest of the team could not sustain the momentum provided by him.
For all the on field action there was none which could compare with the black armband protest by Andy Flower and Henry Olonga. Their actions to protest against the "death of democracy" in Zimbabwe effectively ended their playing careers but was definitely amongst the bravest messages ever sent out by a cricketer through his actions. 

In all, this was one memorable world cup. The good performance by the Indian team combined with the viewing atmosphere in the hostel was an experience which I do not think will come again.

Next Stop - West Indies 2007

The Battle for No. 2

India finally managed to escape undefeated from South Africa. The 3rd day was a nervy one. India did not try to score the 341 runs (not likely on a 5th day pitch against Steyn, Morkel & Harris) while South Africa could only take out 3 wickets. The end might have been quite anti-climatic given the build up but in the end a 1-1 result was an apt one. There are quite a few people angry at India not trying for the chase but I am sure they would have been the first ones to call our batsmen irresponsible, useless etc if they had perished while going for shots.

The series did provide some great cricket from the masters. Jacques Kallis got his 1st double century, then scored 2 in the 3rd while suffering from a side strain. Sachin Tendulkar's 50th & 51st centuries. Steyn's sustained hostile bowling. VVS Laxman's 96 at Durban. Sreesanth's extra-ordinary deliveries to Kallis, de Villiers & Prince. Dravid's 200th catch. Gambhir's 5th day 50 in Newlands. Quite a memoried packed into a 3 Test series.

India retained their No. 1 ranking by a huge margin. Hopefully there will be less questioning of this status now. However India does have to find a back up for Zaheer. His sheer presence changes the team's bowling outlook. And when he is not there then we see what happened in Centurion.

In the end all I can say is that this wasn't a battle for No.1. After all India had a chance to take it when South Africa were 130/6. And South Africa then blew it by not declaring on the 4th day itself. As both teams opted for safety first in the end, it truly was a Battle for the No. 2 spot.
I can't help but feel that India blew a great chance for victory. Firstly no warm-up match (Contrast this with the Ashes where England played 3 first class matches before the Tests began). Then some muddled selection. Jaidev Unadkat was preferred over Abhimanyu Mithun. Unadkat looks too raw to be playing Test cricket. He hasn't even played a full season of Ranji Trophy as yet. While Mithun must be wondering what wrong he had done in the 3 tests in Sri Lanka to be dropped from the squad.

Now time to switch over to some mindless limited over action to occupy the time till the world cup.