June 25th

June 25th: Marks the most anniversary of the most significant event in Indian cricketing history. It was on this day 27 years ago at Lords that India defended a paltry 183 to pull off a surprising win over the (then) mighty West Indies. I was too young to remember anything about that match. And actually learnt about this great happening only in 1992 at the time of the Benson & Hedges Cup (the 5th World Cup). 

This post is to remember the players who won it for India on that day. Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Srikanth, Mohinder Amarnath, Yashpal Sharma, Kirti Azad, Sandeep Patil, Syed Kirmani, Madan Lal, Roger Binny, Balwinder Sandhu. A couple of all time greats of the game, some good & some just average players in this list but everyone will be remembered for what they achieved on that historic day.

P.S. Hoping for another victory in my lifetime soon

Cricket Fatigue

I guess its official now. I am fatigued from the overdose of cricket. And have lost track of the games. There was India-Zimbabwe T20 international going on and I had no idea about its timings. BCCI lean fast or your loyal fans will start deserting you if you overdose them with this mediocre stuff.

The Horror in Zimbabwe

It may not have been in the news much but there was a tri-series being played in Zimbabwe. (Actually it still is going on, but India are out). A severely "rested" India, the unknown Zimbabwe & the too-familiar Sri Lanka. India's bunch of youngsters were no match for the other two teams, losing both games to Zimbabwe & one to Sri Lanka.

This was one series which showed that there is too much cricket being played. If there was an international series planned to put Indians off cricket, this was it. The Indian fan is truly fatigued off excessive cricket now. But the players shouldn't have been. Most of them are new and had a great chance to consolidate their future but none really grabbed the opportunity.

First a look at the positives.

Rohit Sharma got his first 2 international centuries. Virat Kohli consolidated his team position with a couple of good knocks Amongst the bowlers, Pragyan Ojha was good and Ashok Dinda was ok. Ravindra Jadeja did a decent job as an all rounder, scored some runs & bowled much better after the T20 World Cup Horror Show.

Now for the negatives
Too many people made their début. Did so many really deserve to play for the country so soon?

Suresh Raina became the first player to captain India without playing a Test match. But his captaincy wasn't up-to scratch. Forgetting to tell the umpires about the bowling powerplay was a real embarrasment. Not taking the batting powerplay when India had a chance to get a bonus point was just poor thinking. And more was expected of his batting.
Fast bowling options are pretty thin. Dinda, Vinay Kumar, Pankaj Singh, Umesh Yadav all made their ODI debuts though none really looked like taking any wickets.
Murali Vijay was found wanting as an opener.
And running between the wickets & fielding were pathetic as usual in spite of a pretty young team.

And the worse part of it is this horror show is not over. There are still 2 T20s to go against an increasingly confident looking Zimbabwe.

P.S. - Asia Cup team has been announced with Yuvraj Singh being dropped. Hope he doesn't end up the Vinod Kambli way. Good chance for Saurabh Tiwary though.
Elsewhere, South Africa whitewashed West Indies 5-0 in the ODIs.
England thrashed Bangladesh 2-0 in the test series. Tamim Iqbal, at the age of 21, can now be safely called the best Bangladeshi batsman ever.

P.P.S. - World Cup Football fever is now fully on. Don't know who will follow the Asia Cup during that.

The Post T20 World Cup Post

Its been a week since England won the T20 World Cup. Should have posted this sooner but got tied up with work. 

England's performance was thoroughly professional throughout the tournament and the only hiccups caused were  due to Duckworth-Lewis rather than any of their opponents. They won all their completed games with ease. In fact as someone rightly said we didn't really know how good England were until they outplayed the Australians in the finals. It was a comprehensive win to say the least. Paul Collingwood and company were truly deserving winners of the tournament. And finally after 9 World Cups, 6 Knockouts/Champions Trophy & 3 T20 World Cups, England finally managed to win a global cricketing event.

Some random comments

Ricky Ponting's calls for having Best of 3 finals smacked off being bad losers. And was roundly smashed across all reader forums.

England successfully followed the IPL model by having 4 foreign players in their line-up (Lumb, Kieswetter, Pietersen, Morgan)

Post T20 World Cup

The cricketing action has resumed. South Africa have beaten West Indies in 2 T20s and an ODI in the week after the World Cup. International cricket has reached the USA with New Zealand beating Sri Lanka in the first T20 match.

Coming up is the Bangladesh-England Test Series and the India-Sri Lanka-Zimbabwe tri-series in Zimbabwe.

Australianism

Australianism means single minded determination to win - to win within the laws but, if necessary, to the last limits within them. It means where the "impossible" is within the realm of what the human body can do, there are Australians who believe that they can do it - and who have succeeded often enough to make us wonder if anything is impossible to them. It means they have never lost a match - particularly a Test match - until the last run is scored or their last wicket is down.

John Arlott, 1948 (Description of the Invincibles).

Michael Hussey's performance in the 2nd semi-final showed that 62 years down the line these words still ring true. In recent times it has been on display in the Sydney test against Pakistan (Hussey was the lead player there too) & the Hyderabad ODI against India (Sachin's 175 in a lost cause), where the Australians have won from seemingly lost situations.

Salute to the Australianism

World T20 - India Review

This post is related only to the performance of the Men in Blue. The Women in Blue have performed along expected lines. Tonight they take on Australia in the semi-finals. Australia would seem to be the favourites here but it won't be very surprising if India wins tonight.

Now for the Men's team.

One week back everyone was going ga-ga over the team. They had demolished Afghanistan and beaten South Africa in a clinical manner to top the group. India was indeed touted as amongst the favourite for the tournament. However once the Super 8s started, everything went horribly wrong and India lost all 3 games. The same experts are now out baying for the players' and BCCI's blood. And everyone has found their favorite whipping boy in the IPL, blaming the debacle on the parties, the travelling, Lalit Modi etc for the fiasco in the Caribbean. Being an armchair critic I can also blame the IPL. But I don't really think that is the main reason for the poor performance. Everyone should remember that India performed fairly well at the start of the tournament. And the bad performances began only after the team had had a 5 day gap between the matches.

We should simply admit that Indian team was simply just not good enough. And the others were better on the day. Here are some reasons for the poor performance

Poor Fielding : The dropped catches hurt. We dropped Gayle a couple of times early and he nearly hit a hundred which turned out to be the key difference against the West Indies.

Inability to play Short Pitched Bowling: Too much has been written about it and unfortunately its true. Our batsmen can't handle the short pitched stuff. This was exposed very early in the IPL also (specially by RCB). And given that the fast bowlers bowl only 4 overs, they can come in and hit the deck real hard. And here all batsmen are to blame.

Fast Bowling: India just does not have any decent pace bowlers. The best ones were taken to West Indies. And Praveen & Zaheer picked injuries there. But do we have any real options here. During the IPL, everyone got hit and badly. Ishant, Irfan, Balaji, Sreesanth, Munaf, Tyagi. Only Umesh Yadav was fast. Apart from that our fast bowling stocks are pretty weak.

Team Selection: Going by the performances in the IPL, Uthappa, Ojha, Mishra, Kohli should have been in the team. (Sachin & Kumble ideally should also have been there, but their case is different). The highest run-getter, the person with the most sixes (who also can be back-up keeper), the top 2 wicket takers in the IPL, all were missing. And we played only 2 seam bowlers in fast bouncy Barbados.

Ravindra Jadeja: Poor Guy. Banned from IPL, so cant blame fatigue. Did'nt want to go on about this guy. But if one person's performance is being blamed for losing in 2 consecutive World Cups, something is wrong. He was termed as an example of an all-round failure (very harsh, but unfortunately true).

So that was the World T20 from the Indian perspective. There were some good performances. Raina showed willingness to stick there and fight it out. Vinay Kumar impressed on debut. Nehra was good in patches as was Rohit. But again nothing much to really talk about in positive light.

And all this after we Indian fans were still hoping for miracles. And working out ways and means to somehow reach the semi-finals. The loss hurts. And everyone will blame something or the other, starting with the players. But don't worry Team India. You have people like me who will definetely watch next time you play.

Looking Forward to

Indian Women's Team semi-final match. You have already performed much better than the men for the 2nd time in a a row. Take it a few steps ahead this time around.

As for the men, India's tour of Zimbabwe under Raina's captaincy.

T20 World Cup - Super 8s Review

The Super 8s is over and we have our semi-finals lineup ready

England vs Sri Lanka

Australia vs Pakistan

So only 2 of my predicted semi-finalists made it through (one from each group). And as for my ultimate final lineup, it failed on the first hurdle itself.

Here are the highlights of the Super 8s (although I watched only one match a day)

• England's awesome performances (something which is hardly expected from the Brits). Kevin Pietersen was their star.
• Australia getting a hang of the T20. Superb displays from the entire batting order. Highlight was the six blitz against India.
• India's meek surrender in bouncy Barbados.
• Pakistan sneaking in to the semis, with help from England.
• South Africa somehowing losing the plot. AGAIN.

Ok form now on no more predictions. I hope England win the tournament though.

In the women'd section, the lineup is

New Zealand vs West Indies & India vs Australia.

England's early exit was shocking.

Hope the Indian women do better.

Other Sports

Vishwanathan Anand is the World Champion (clap, clap, clap)

Indian teams have reached the quarter-finals in both the Thomas & Uber Cups

The Potentially Ultimate Final Line-Up

Lets consider the following scenario for the remaining 4 games before the T20 World Cup Final.

Game 1: India beats Sri Lanka by more than 20 runs (or in less than 17 overs)

Game 2: Australia beats West Indies

Semi-finals lineup: India vs England; Pakistan vs Australia

Pakistan beats Australia

India beats England

And there we have it. The ultimate final showdown.

INDIA vs PAKISTAN in the T20 World Cup final.

Ok, I know for this scenario to come true, the Inverse of Murphy's Law has to happen. Everything that can go right should go right. But why not be an optimist. And T20 is an unpredictable format.

Given the form India has displayed in the Super 8s, they don't deserve to be qualify ahead. But then neither did Pakistan who have managed to sneak into the semis.

P.S. Indian Women's Team has made it into the semi-finals for the second year in a row.

T20 World Cup - Mid-Review 2

The first round of the T20 World Cup is over. Surprisingly this time there has not been a single upset of any kind. In fact the only excitements have been caused more because of the rain & Duckworth-Lewis than anything during the actual game. All the big teams are though to the Super 8s, while Afghanistan, Ireland, Bangladesh & Zimbabwe pack their bags.  Here are the highlights of the last 6 games.

• Mahela Jayawardene's century. Probably the most elegant T20 knocks ever.
• Eoin Morgan's batting.
• Duckworth-Lewis troubling England.

So now we move to the busines end of the tournament. Here are my semi-final predictions - India, Sri Lanka, England, South Africa.

P.S. The Women's T20 has also started and West Indies's Deandra Dottin became the first women to score a T20I century. England, New Zealand, Australia & India to make the semi-finals in this edition.

T20 World Cup - Mid-Review 1

We are now exactly halfway through the first round stage of the T20 World Cup. 6 matches gone, 6 to go. India have confirmed their C2 berth in the Super 8 stage, while England & Zimbabwe are yet to start their campaign. So far all banana-skins negotiated safely (West Indies against Ireland, India against Afghanistan & Pakistan against Bangladesh). Only one close match (Sri Lanka vs New Zealand) so far. Others have been fairly one-sided. Highlights of the first six games.

• Nathan McCullum's winning six vs Sri Lanka.
• Afghanistan playing on the big stage.
• Suresh Raina's century.
• Mohammed Aamer's 5-wicket maiden over (included 2 run-outs)

Slow outfield, long boundaries & pitches on the slower side have tended to even out the contest between bat and ball. Batsman are being made to work for their runs. Somehow though the games are not getting the proper atmosphere. Maybe its because of the absence of floodlights, to take care of the time zone differences. And the commentary is ad-free and telecast doesn't get interrupted by ads.

Technically no team has been knocked out of the tournamnet as yet. Though Sri Lanka are in a spot of bother. Zimbabwe & Bangladesh can still hope to steal the berths in the Super 8s. Lets just wait and watch.