Arbit Stats #60: Lower Order Muscle

Test Match #2238: India vs England

India suddenly find themselves in a spot of bother with half the team gone and trailing by 130 odd runs in the first innings. England start seeing a sliver of light for a Test win.

Enter the Indian bowling attack. But with the bat.

Ravichandran Ashwin (72), Ravindra Jadeja (90 and Jayant Yadav (55) pack in a lot of punch to take India to a a lead of 130 odd in the first innings.

And in the process becoming the first ever Indian batting (or maybe bowling trio) trio to score a fifty from positions 7, 8 and 9 in the same innings.

Certainly deserve a bonus with them doing all the bowling and batting.

Image from ESPNCricinfo

Ranji Trophy 15-16: Jharkhand vs Saurashtra

Match Summary: Jharkhand (168 & 122) lost to Saurashtra (205 & 86/2) by 8 wickets

Points: Jharkhand 0, Saurashtra 6

A second consecutive loss and the season goes from bad to worse. This time the game barely lasted 2 days. The pitch was a minefield with both batting sides unable to do much about it. The home team though had the inspirational figure of Ravindra Jadeja who picked 13 wickets and top scored in his team's first innings. And that made all the difference in the result.  This was the Sir Jadeja performance which the Indian team expects but rarely gets.

Game Notes

• Varun Aaron is leading the Jharkhand squad.
• Quite a few changes made from the first game by the Jharkhand team with seamers Ajay Yadav, Rahul Shukla & Jaskaran Singh dropped and their places taken by Aaron, Kaushal Singh and Vinayak Vikram
• Vinayak Vikram made his first class debut

Highlights

Young Ishan Kishan's blistering 87 off 69 balls in the 1st innings. An innings which got a whole cricinfo article for itself (Link)

Season Stats

Top Scorer: Ishan Kishan 118 @ 29.59

Most Wickets: Shahbaz Nadeem 6 @ 17.67

Points Tally - 0 after 2 games. Lying at the bottom of the table. Still there is some time and we need to get in a few wins now.

Coming Up Next - Another away game against Kerala.

World Cup 2015: Short Notes - 15th Feb

Today was the big one. The clash of the neighboring continental giants and fierce rivals. After a spirited show, Zimbabwe came up short against their more fancied rivals. 

• Zimbabwe have already surpassed expectations. And are now looking a strong contender for a knock-out berth.
• South Africa stuttered initially but their depth in batting rescued them from a precarious situation into an unbeatable one.
• David Miller & Jean Paul Duminy are now the proud owners of the record for the highest 5th wicket partnership in ODI history. A record which went by almost unnoticed because all eyes were on the other game going on in Adelaide.

Which brings me to the real game of the day.

• It was supposed to be the biggest game of the World Cup, yet inspite of the few nervous moments, India walked away with their biggest ever World Cup victory against Pakistan. 
• 6-Nil. इस बार भी नहीं आया मौका।
• India still not managing to make full utilization of the end overs. This was something of a bugbear for India last time around as well.
• DRS controversy made another appearance. Again its not the system, its the people handling it and their awareness/ignorance of the rules regarding its usage which is creating all the trouble.
• Sohail Khan appealed for LBW on his very first delivery to Shikhar Dhawan. The umpire signalled not out and Sohail immediately called for DRS while Misbah rushed to recall the DRS review. Fortunately the umpire listened to Misbah as the replay showed the ball hitting Dhawan bang in the middle of his bat. 
• Yasir Shah can easily pass off as Lionel Messi.
• This Indian habit off slowing down when approaching a century (e.g. Kohli today) could land us in major trouble in the future. 
• Sir Jadeja's legend got enhanced further when he strolled for run and Pakistan had ample time to run him out, not once but twice and both times they missed.
• Misbah left last man standing. A scene oft-repeated in the past few years, specially against India.
• A for Akmal, B for Ball, C for Catch, D for Drop, An Akmal putting down a catch, another recurring theme for Pakistan
• And finally a joke to sum up Pakistan's misery

What does Feb 16 have in store for us?

• The crucial West Indies - Ireland encounter
• IPL Player Auctions

The Line-up from Twenty13

Like most other things, the cricketing year 2013 is also coming to an end. So here is an year-end list. Just giving it some cricketing context by making an eleven to remember for (or not) from Twenty13.

1. The final one

Sachin Tendulkar c Darren Sammy b Narsingh Deonarine 74

Thats how a 200 test career ended on the scorebooks. There was a little more to come when he gave a touching farewell speech calling it his "life between 22 yards for 24 years" Millions of fans also promptly announced their retirement from watching the game. (How many kept this promise during the Johannesburg Test is a matter of conjecture). (Click here and here for Slipstream Cricket's coverage of the last match)

2. Fairy tale beginnings

Australia are in major trouble. 9 down facing up to a huge deficit in the opening game of the Ashes. A 19 year old, who wasn't even originally picked in the squad, comes into bat on debut. And then proceeds to score 98, the highest ever by a number 11. Its the stuff fairytales are made of. However Ashton Agar's career did not really take off. There is still plenty of time for it though.

3. The Power of the Moustache

Shikhar Dhawan had played for India before,but he only exploded on the scene, twirling his moustache, this year. Ravindra Jadeja transformed from the being the most abused one to to now being a  revered one. David Warner returns from Zimbabawe and starts scoring Test centuries. Mitchell Johnson from a Barmy Army punching bag becomes the sledgehammer  who destroys England. The only thing in common between all these characters is the Moustache. 

4. To Walk or Not to Walk - That is the Question

Stuart Broad edges Ashton Agar (he of the fairy-tale start from 2 above) into the waiting first slip. Umpire Dar does not raise his finger. Australia have used up all their reviews, Broad does not walk. The social media erupts declaring that this is as big an incident as Bodyline. The Spirit of Cricket (whatever that is) is called into question. Everyone jumps into the debate. Meanwhile the most common sense solution (empowering the TV umpire to initiate decision making) is not even breathed about. 

5. The Irony

We are living in an era where the health of the game is being questioned. Test cricket is supposed to be dying due the arrival of ODI cricket, which in turn is dying to the arrival of T20 cricket and the non-death of Test cricket. Then we had the Champions Trophy's last edition (as of now) this year. The tournament was keenly contested raising ratings. But being held in England rain also joined the party redcuing the final (of all games) to a 20 over contest. The Irony...

6. The Fixing Saga

Sreesanth, Chandila, Chavan arrested during IPL, Ashraful banned, 3 former Kiwi internationals facing Anti-corruption inquiries, Umpire Rauf getting dropped from the international panel, Team owners facing illegal betting charges, bookies attempting to buy franchisee in Sri Lankan Premier League (which failed to take-off). The fixing saga continues but the corrupt are being weeded out. Can it be completely eradicated? Well human greed has no limitations but "constant vigilance" is what is needed to keep the game as clean as possible.

7. Homework Gate

4 Australian cricketers are dropped from the squad ... for not completing a presentation on how to improve the team. No wonder they were absolute rubbish at that time. Not too much after the coach was the one who got dropped and slowly the team also rediscovered its mojo.

8. Karma bites back

England were all gung ho after winning the 3rd consecutive Ashes. They celebrations ended with some of the team members taking a leak on the Oval pitch displaying no sense of respect for the hallowed turf. Well karma came back  to bite them and since then England have been humiliated by the same opponents in the next 4 matches.

9. Pakistani Enigma

The Pakistan team performs like a sine curve. Hitting rock bottom and then immediately scaling new heights. The same set of players can lose a Test to Zimbabwe (who are struggling to arrange a match) and then a couple of weeks later beat up the top ranked South Africa. And to ensure that the sine curve is complete they lost to South Africa in the very next Test.

10. The Associates battle on

The likes of Ireland and Afghanistan continue to keep the Associate flag fluttering. Although they face severe resistance from the big 10. England keep stealing Irish players and using them (Morgan & Rankin) to beat them. A 16 nation qualifying tournament is held to find 6 Associates who get to play in the qualifying rounds for the next T20 World Cup. Yet the likes of Irealnd, Afghanistan, Nepal et al keep on playing. Guess they are the truly passionate cricketing countries.Hats off to the Associates.

11. Comeback of the Year

From who else but the ever-youth comeback kid, the one and only Shahid Afridi. After having retired for the 20th time in the past 20 years, he comes back to the national squad and destroys West Indies with bat and ball. 76 runs (coming in at 47/5) and following it up with a 7 wicket haul . If not the greatest all-round ODI performance, this surely has to be the greatest all-round comeback performance of all time. May he keep retiring and coming back.

12. The 12th Man (a purely cricketing concept)

For the 12th man presenting some off-field action. Here is a video of Brett Lee trying to kill bowling an over at Piers Morgan. 

Well that was the line-up from the year as we bid farewell to the legend Jacques Kallis who retires in the ongoing Durban Test. Wishing for good cricket in the next year.

Wishing all readers a very happy and prosperous new year ahead.

IPL6: The Middle Overs

The IPL madness is well and truly on. Only after some 30 odd game with some 40 plus (or is that 100) still remaining some fatigue has also started creeping in. So like any ODI its time for the boring middle overs. A phase which is not interesting by itself to watch but has quite a big impact going forward. The mind maybe getting a bit IPL-numb but there are still moments thrown up which will be remembered for, if not years, at least one week going forward.

Sir Jadeja - When the Indian captain knights you, you do have to live up to the reputation by coming up with something which mere mortals cant even think of. And thats what happened when Sir Jadeja was on strike with the team needing 2 runs off the last ball. Yet in dramatic circumstances (some would say very fishy), the bowler RP Singh bowls a (big) no ball which "Sir" top edges to third man who catches it while "Sir" crosses over to other end. Result - both teams found celebrating till they realise the real consequence, that Sir Jadeja ensured his team's victory off the last ball with one ball to spare (Go figure). And he turns up next match to create a (then) record for fantasy league points from a single game. And follows it up the very next game by creating a fantasy league record for the maximum negative points from a single game. Not for nothing is he Sir Jadeja.

The Gayle Storm - How the hell does somebody score 175 runs all by himself in a T20 match. I find scoring at such a rate difficult in Stick Cricket.also. Records tumbled in the Gayle storm - Highest individual & team T20 scores, fastest senior level century in any form of the game, most sixes in a T20 innings and what not. Whichever side you support the Gayle storm would have left you stunned and you would have been left applauding at the brutality of it all. Special mention for Bhuvaneswar Kumar who went at an economy rate of under 6 in the face of Gayle storm.

Kohli Gambhir faceoff - Some things should not happen on a cricket pitch. Even though cricket is no longer a Gentleman's game, the Kohli-Gambhir faceoff was ugly. And such things SHOULD NOT happen.

Sunrisers bowling attack - A team with the weakest batting lineup is sitting pretty near the top of the table just because of its sheer bowling prowess. Steyn, Ishant, Mishra & Perera have combined together to successfully defend even the undefendable

Missing Million Dollar Baby - Still no sign of Glenn Maxwell. The team should be getting some return on investment.

The Foreign Captain Conundrum - The teams need Indian captains. A non-performing foreign captain is the biggest liability for any team, given the restriction on number of foreign players (and a very justified one also as it is an "Indian Premier League". Hence we have seen a number of captaining casualties already - Sangakkara, Ponting, Angelo Matthews, Ross Taylor are all sitting out of games. Even Cameron White is not a certainty while Adam Gilchrist is the biggest liability in Kings XI side. Only Jayawardene is justifying his own place in the playing eleven. While RCB had rightly replace Daniel Vettori with Virat Kohli prior to the start of the season

The Jumping Jepang Award for the Biggest Riser -  Aaron Finch - not picked in the original auction, then a late substitute for the injured Michael Clarke, now finds himself leading the Pune Warriors.

Team Tidbits

• The perennial underdogs Rajasthan Royals have made another impressive start to their campaign. Hoping  that unlike last year they don't fizzle out by the end of the season.
• Delhi Daredevils will play a key role in knocking out one of the play-off contestants during mid-May.

And hoping for more intense and proper contests as the race for the play-offs hots up.

IPL6: Opening Shots

The IPL madness has begun. All the teams have played their opening encounters and some initial trends have begun to emerge (Now I am sounding like those election time psephologists :P). Presenting the opening shots after the first week of matches.

One of the joys of IPL is watching the recently and soon-to-be-retired stars in action. The highest wicket taker bowling to the two highest run-scorers provided one such instance. As were opening over blitz by Gilchrist and Dravid's opening game performance.

Have seriously begun to wonder about the Mumbai Indians' strategy. Now that they have got Ponting and have appointed him captain, they have to play him in every game thus also occupying a foreign player slot.  There are other questions as well.Why are they wasting Pollard by playing him so low? Why only one game for Jasprit Bumrah after a good opening performance? Why no Maxwell thus far? And is the Tendulkar-Ponting opening partnership worth any more than nostalgia value? In fact the earlier these two get out the better it seems for the teams' prospects.

Some of the Million dollar babies have seemingly gone into hiding. There has been no sign thus far of this year's big purchases - Glen Maxwell (MI), Chris Morris (CSK), Sachitra Senanayake (KKR), Kane Richardson (PWI)? Where is the 1.6 million dollar retention Saurabh Tiwary? Why do the teams make such big purchases and do not even play them?

Pune & Delhi have had bad starts while Rajasthan have been to their usual good start. But its a long tournament. And many, many more games still to be played. So not much needs to be read into this.

It was interesting to see Rajasthan Royals play 5 seamers in their home encounter. And the strategy worked to perfection. Although there was a minor issue of Dravid getting fined for the slow over rate.

There was one Super Over played. It may add to the drama but otherwise is it of no real use. Whats wrong with having a tied game in the League stage? Teams do split points when some games are abandoned due to rains so why not in case of tied games as well.

Every IPL has a tendency of throwing up an unknown name as a star for a day. Kamran Khan, Paul Valthaty, Manish Pandey immediately come to mind. And continuing this trend is Jasprit Bumrah. 3 wickets in the opening game followed by getting dropped for the next two games.

And off-the-field Dhoni has been trolling Sir Jadeja on twitter. Far better than the other non-cricketing controversies which had been going on thus far.

Now to sit back and enjoy the further episodes of the best show on prime-time TV.

Arbit Statistics - 19: Shikhar Dhawan Debut Edition

India register their 3rd victory in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy this time managing to beat Time along with the Aussies. And along the way, help Arbit Statistics to get another post.

• Shikhar Dhawan scores the "fastest century by a debutant" off 85 balls.
• Shikhar Dhawan becomes the highest scoring Indian on Test debut.
• Shikhar Dhawan currently has the highest Test batting average of all time (185)
• Murali Vijay is the now the Tamil Nadu batsman with the most Test centuries (3).
• Mitchell Starc 1st no. 9 to score 99.
• Australia have now lost 6 consecutive Tests in India.

Totally useless statistics. But then this is what cricket is best known for. The last one is the most telling about the state of Aussie cricket.

P.S. Slipstream Cricket salutes SIR RAVINDRA JADEJA. May your Legend Rise Higher and Higher.

Arbit Statistics - 16

This headline caught the eye after the IPL final.

IPL1 Final - 2008 - Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kings 

IPL5 Final - 2012 - Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings 

Only common player in both winning elevens - Yusuf Pathan (Lots of common losers though in the CSK sides)

So Yusuf Pathan becomes the 1st player to be in the winning XI in the final for 2 different teams.

Laxmipathy Balaji is the only other 2 team winner but wasn't in the playing XI.

Ravindra Jadeja in the mean time becomes a winner for RR (2008) & runner-up for CSK (2012). Achievement shared with Dwayne Bravo (runner-up (2010, MI) & winner (2011, CSK).

Headline worth an arbit stat.

Ranji Trophy 11-12: Jharkhand Update

The first 2 rounds of the 2011-12 season of the  Ranji Trophy are over. There have been big scores (including a triple century) some close draws, some boring draws, rare outright wins, a few weather interventions. There were 2 highly interesting games. Maharashtra beating Hyderabad by an innings in a low scoring crazy shootout to rival the one in Newlands. And the absolutely rivetting draw between Tamil Nadu & Haryana where all 4 results were possible till the end.

It seems to me that the domestic season is attracting quite a bit of attention this time around. I can think of a couple of reasons for this increased awareness. The first is the presence of big names in the tournament. The performance of recent India rejects & hopefuls like Harbhajan Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, the Pathan brothers and others are being keenly watched. Long retired Saurav Ganguly is stil motivated enough to play for Bengal. Also thanks to the IPL, the domestic players are not all anonymous entities. Players like Rajat Bhatia, Mithun Manhas are no longer unfamiliar names. There is better coverage of the games. Cricinfo keeps updating scores on a regular basis. The twitter handle @Ranjiscores is also doing a great job of providing regular updates on the games happening all over the country.

Now a performance review of my team Jharkhand playing in the Plate League Group B. So far has played 2 games against Hyderabad and Jammu & Kashmir, both away. 

In the first game against Hyderabad, Jharkhand conceded a big first innings lead after bowling first, which more or less sealed the game result. Game ended in a draw with Hyderabad getting 3 points and Jharkhand 1. The first day was affected by weather. The standout performers for the team were Ishank Jaggi (81 in the first innings) and Amir Hashmi (68) with the bat while SS Rao picked 6 and Shahbaz Nadeem picked 3 wickets. 

The 2nd game against Jammu & Kashmir in Srinagar was badly hit by the weather with no play at all on the 2nd and 3rd days. As neither team could complete the 1st innings also, both were given 2 points each. Samar Quadri & Shahbaz Nadeem picked 2 wickets apiece while Manish Vardhan got a quickfire half century.

Nothing much can be read from these results though the team is lying bottom of the table with 3 points fom 2 games. Ishank Jaggi & Shabaz Nadeem seem in decent form while captain Saurabh Tiwary's indifferent run across all formats continues. Team certainly seems to be missing the pace of Varun Aaron in the bowling department, while chances of Dhoni playing a Ranji game in the near future appear very remote. 

Coming up next in the league stage are

17-20 Nov: Maharashtra

29 Nov - 2 Dec : Assam

6-9 Dec: Goa

Payback Series: Whiteawashed

It had been built up as a revenge series by the broadcasters. And Team India certainly have paid back with interest (only for the ODI leg so far). Here are the thoughts for today's game at Eden Gardens and the series as a whole.

• Dhoni enhanced his finisher reputation. The big sixes were back and he stayed not out as well. His average may have been boosted by the large number of not outs but isn't not getting out one of the criterion for a good batsman. (A post by The Old Batsman on the subject is here).
• Rahane is looking impressive without having got that BIG one as yet. Also he is unlucky that Kieswetter keeps taking stunning catches to dismiss him when normally his keeping has been of the Kamran Akmalesque quality.
• Manoj Tiwary has been having a pretty weird international career. Injured during practice on the eve of his debut series and since then has played 5 matches across 4 series spread over a 4 year period.
• England had an awesome opening partnership followed by one of the most stunning collapses. 128 for none followed by 47 for 10. 
• Varun Aaron takes his 4th international wicket. Interestingly all 4 bowled which starts the slide for the Poms.
• Ian Bell finally played and scared the rest of the English lineup by failing to read Jadeja's spin.
• Some apologies for the years of abuse heaped on Ravindra Jadeja.
• In short England caught in a spin web and spun out. England in India have been worse than India's in England (only comparing the ODI parts so far)
• India still missing most of the big guns and their first choice replacements as well. On the other hand England did not have Broad & Anderson, though they wouldn't have made too much of a difference.

Payback still remains. This is only the appetizer. It won't be satisfied till the Tests thrashing is also avenged.

P.S. Malcolm Waller missed out on a well deserved century as he finished on 99* to take Zimbabwe to a thrilling one wicket victory over the Kiwis.

P.P.S. Wishing all readers a very Happy Diwali.

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. 

Payback Series: Game 1 - Thoughts

It was time for revenge and payback, proclaimed our TV channels promoting the current India - England series in India. But 5 ODIs and a T20 do not give enough opportunity to give payback for the happenings over the summer in England. Yet it was nice to start with a win in the 1st ODI in Hyderabad. I could only watch the England innings. Followed the Indian innings via online text commentary at work. Here are my thoughts for the match.

• Why did England not play the "Sledgehammer of Eternal Justice"? Cook as captain and having to fit in Trott, KP, Bopara, Bell in one lineup. Thats an interesting conundrum. Still feel that Bell should have been the first one to be picked in this lot.
• No debut for Varun Aaron as yet. When will I get to see a school alumnus play for India. (Aside - his Facebook fan page is here)
• On paper, the bowling looked weaker than in England except the conditions had been reversed. This game showed how big the difference can be. (I know it is only one game. Still)
• Do English batsman in general have a difficulty against left arm spin? Ravindra Jadeja's success here and the successful county stints enjoyed by Pragyan Ojha this season & Murali Kartik over the years certainly does point to that conclusion.
• Random Factoid - Almost 3 years since India beat England in an international match in any format. Last victory was in the Chennai Test, 2008 post the 26/11 incidents
• In summary, England's opening performance in India reminded of India's performance in England.
• 126 runs - a comprehensive win

P.S. Piyush Chawla's 92 in the Challenger Trophy final the day before must definitely rank as one of the best List A innings ever.

IPL Thoughts - April 21, 2011

First up, the larger effects of the IPLon the cricketing world. West Indies cricket is suffering, Pollard, Gayle & Dwayne Bravo have more or less decided that IPL is far more important than playing for West Indies. And with the West Indies season always in a partial clash with the IPL, the situation is likely to go worse. In a sad sort of way, it a good that there are not many West Indians who actually are saleable to the IPL franchisees. So most of the team will still be playing for West Indies rather than IPL.

Cricket Sri Lanka, the Lankan players and the BCCI are involved in another tangle. The board wants the team to prepare for England and leave the IPL early, which the players certainly won't like. The issue here seems more to with politics than anyhting else. Otherwise why would everyone associated with a World Cup runner-up team resign immediately after the tournament. On last count, the captain, vice-captain, coach and the selectors have all resigned. And it will all end with the BCCI named as the bad boy and accused of destroying world cricket.

Now some thoughts on the matches

• The trend in the IPL seems to be that the team with the higher points going into a game is likelier to lose. Hence the closed points table. Everyone almost bunched together. A rained off game here and there just adds to the fun.
• The fan loyalties would have been under severe test when Rahul Dravid would have played against RCB in Bangalore. That would have been interesting to watch but the rains played spoilsport.
• Some of the matches are needlessly close. Others just swing around one way or the other. Predictions are becoming more and more difficult here.
• Ravindra Jadeja is the comeback hero for all to see. Probably the most abused cricketer in the country today, he has come back strongly in the IPL after being banned the last season. Taking wickets, scoring runs, hitting big sixes, he is doing it all.
• Manoj Tiwary is another Indian to have impressed so far. One of the unluckiest cricketers, got injured before his likely international debut against Bangladesh in 2007 (place went to Rohit Sharma), he might not make a come back to national contention but is certainly playing well.
• Similar is the case on Venugopal Rao, played a few ODIs for India then slipped out. Now making big runs.
• Ishant Sharma bowling at 150+ was a good sight. Hopefully the company of Dale Steyn might bring his speed back on track.
• With quite a few players likely to be rested for the West Indies ODIs, performances in the IPL could quite likely bring immediate rewards to some. The IPL could act like an extended selection tournament for the Indian team.

P.S. The ICC has finally decided to review its decision on the 2015 World  Cup. A good first step. Lets see what happens next. My views 10 team world cup with evryone playing everyone else is not a bad idea, but there should be a qualification process and everyone has a chance to play there.

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