The Simplicity of the Defeat.

I have no time to analyse this now- but India lost.

Wait actually, there isn't anything to analyse. I've already said it all before. The underrated bowling line up did well. The overrated batting line up failed so miserably, it doesn't even deserve mention. They didn't get to even 200 in either innings. And therein lies the crux of the matter.

About Dravid opening- as much as I admire Rahul Dravid, he is evidently not in form, and should probably be playing down the order. I would absolutely LOVE to see him get his confidence back and make some good runs. He needs to relax. And he will be fine.
About the Sehwag-or-Yuvraj dilemma, maybe, JUST maybe, in the next match, Sehwag should play. After all, even if he scores 30 runs and gets out, it would be more than what Yuvi scored in this match. Yuvi is a great player, but I think we should try Sehwag since Yuvi failed in the first match. I am not a fan of Sehwag (pretty obvious, from my very critical entry of him), but since he's in the squad, what's the harm in trying him out? It's not like our batsmen did well in this match anyway. My point is- I suppose we don't have much to lose by trying him out.

At this rate, the Perth test wouldn't even be worth watching. Maybe I should just make plans on how I could get to meet the players instead! :P :P :P

India-Aus Test 1 Day 2 Final Session

As I predicted yesterday, I am here to promptly write about India's miserable collapse. Jaffer and Dravid started badly- Jaffer got out for 4 from 27 balls and Dravid got 5 from 66 balls. Laxman got 26, but when he tried to avoid a bouncer he stuck his golve up and the ball went off glove to Ricky Ponting at slip. Tendulkar played extremely well for his 62, but promptly chopped onto his own stumps when India needed him to stay on. Yuvraj was wrongly given out- he never nicked the ball. And Dhoni went and got himself lbwed on 0. Such is the state of our batting. Funny- it was our bowlers who were underrated, but they did fine. And our overrated batting line up has crumbled. Like I said, when you least expect them to perform, they outdo themselves and when you most expect them to perform, they let you down.

Ganguly and Kumble in the middle. One is our newest captain- courageous, competitive, quietly confident, but probably now worried, the other a former captain out of favour and the team till about 10 months ago but now going through a purple patch, having fought his way back into the team. I see a worried Indian dressing room. What will happen now? Let us, as Indian supporters, keep up the tradition of believing in the impossible and improbable. As we always do.

50th Post (!) and India-Aus Test 1 Day 1

My 50th post! That plus the fact that India ruled Boxing Day on the field against Australia is definitely cause for celebration.

I and probably every other India fan thought the match was a goner when Australia were 135 for 0 at lunch. I mean, seriously, how many good Indian fightbacks have we been fotunate enough to see over the last few years against Australia? Barring that wonderful Adelaide test in 2003/2004 of course. It was a tough one and as Cricinfo had rightly pointed out yesterday, India needed to pull bunnies and many other things (or the proverbial blue whale that I like to talk about) out of that hat if they wanted to challenge Australia. That too while bowling- because it was our bowling attack that was supposed to be inexperienced and weak.

But Lo And Behold, by the end of the day, Australia had been reduced to a 300+ for 9. When everybody least expects India to deliver, they will stand up and decide to be heroes. If you want proof- just look at the T20 World Cup. At the start of the series, who in the world would have predicted that India would even get to the semi finals, let alone win the cup? And that too by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan? If anyone had said that, he'd probably have been labelled loony and everyone would have moved on with their lives. Even Indian fans didn't have much hope. But then suddenly- India were lifting the T20 cup! When did THAT happen? :O

Today, Anil Kumble was magnificient. Absolutely brilliant. He varied his deliveries amazingly and got a five for in the first day. Captain Courageous, Captain Respected, Captain Competitive, Captain Thoughtful- he was all of it. Zaks got 3, RP 1 and Bhajji none but all of them bowled their hearts out- especially after lunch.

I know that India are perfectly likely to have a major collapse tomorrow when they bat- because the Aussie pace attack is incredibly good. But nobody expected them to do well so soon- so tonight merits a celebration. As for tomorrow, we'll deal with that when it comes.

And to get a good idea of what was expected of India- go read this article.
Click Me

I'll just quote some funny/ pleasing bits:

So jet-lagged were a few Indian players on arrival that some spent the first few days in Melbourne sleeping. It helped that the warm-up match against Victoria was rained off, allowing them a longer rest. And if they were still struggling, there was always Boxing Day, a bank holiday. India normally spend the first day of an away series sleeping and by lunch today they were sleepwalking. What followed was pleasantly shocking and not Indian cricket as we've come to know it.

By lunch, they were indeed sleepwalking. It was such an unremarkable session that I didn't even realise when they went for lunch- maybe I was asleep on the sofa because India was being about as useful as I am being right now. :P

In the tenth over of the day, RP Singh, just crunched past point for four, was asking for another slip. But he seemed the only one awake at the time; Phil Jaques promptly edged the next one through the vacant fourth-slip region.

No prizes for guessing why that bit makes me happy and sad at the same time.

India returned from lunch revived - fittingly, given that their countrymen were waking up back home.

Well said.

Till next time then- hopefully I will not be writing about India's miserable collapse.

The Weather Gods Persist In Their Anti-Neeti Schemes

I. DESPISE. RAIN. DURING. CRICKET. MATCHES.

Yes, that is all.

The Indian Squad for Aus.

The squad for the Australian tour has been chosen at long last. I can't say I'm overly pleased with one selection.

Virender Sehwag. He hasn't been performing, be it at the international stage or the domestic stage. So exactly what did he do to deserve a recall to the squad against the world no. 1, Australia? After reading an article on Cricinfo, one reason has dawned on me.

Statistics.

Yes, that's the only thing I can think of. He was extremely good, and he dominated the Australian bowlers during India's last tour there- in 2003/2004. And APPARENTLY, the Australians still are afraid of him.

The few problems with that?

1. 2003/2004 was 4 years ago. An entire world cup cycle has taken place since then and honestly, what has Sehwag done in the last four years to prove himself worthy of the Indian cap? Almost nothing. He lost his form a couple of years ago and ever since then, he's been given opportunity after opportunity to prove his mettle and he's failed, over and over again, to show that he can be reliable in the time of need. And YET the selectors continue to give him opportunities. Rahul Dravid on the other hand, was dropped because he had one bad series. It never fails to amaze me, the way the Indian selectors work.

2. The Australians are STILL afraid of him? I think THAT is the most laughable claim I've ever heard. Australia, afraid? Do they fear ANYONE? Even if they did, once, since then they would have kept close tabs on the player and would, undoubtedly, by now know what his recent form has been and where exactly his weaknesses lie and how exactly to exploit them. Of course, the claim came from a former Australian player, he could be trying to throw the Indians off the right trail so Aus would win- but that's a bit far-fetched don't you think? And anyway, the Indian selectors have more brains than that- they wouldn't let random claims like that sway their selection (I sincerely hope I'm not overestimating them).

3. Statistics- load of tosh. As Navjote Sidhu once famously said (of course the original quote was from Aaron Levenstein, but Sindhu saying it with his hearty flourish is the most prominent memory in my mind), "Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital."
If the selectors have truly picked Sehwag because he ONCE played well against the Aussies... well, have they lived in 2007 recently? Because as far as I have seen, he hasn't performed very much for over a year now. How can they pick him on the basis of performances well before his form spiralled lower than low?
In that case, why not pick Javagal Srinath to bowl? Or Sunil Gavaskar to bat?

Fine fine, I know they are retired and and probably not fit enough to play, while Sehwag is still playing... but come on, surely we have other batting options? Gautam Gambhir is injured, fine. But what about Robin Uthappa? Rohit Sharma? They've performed better than Sehwag has, at least in ODIs in the RECENT past. Their fielding is also much better than Sehwag's and we could do with some good fielders against the Aussies. Because the Aussies don't run in the field, they fly.

About Pankaj Singh's selection- I can't say because I can't remember having watched him play. Otherwise, I suppose I'm fine with the team.

Of course, Sehwag may yet prove me wrong. :) And I'll only be too happy if he can clinch a victory for us there. And I'll take back everything I said about him. We'll wait and see, what is in store for us.

(On a sidenote- RP Singh is in YAY! I hope he gets to play!)

Otherwise, India drew the last test match, but only very closely! They almost won it, and would have if bad light hadn't stopped play. :) So the series is ours again. And Ganguly, as he deserved, got MoM and MoS. :D Good going Dada!

A True Fighter.

There have been many firsts in this test match (the 3rd one between India and Pakistan), but there was no doubt that Sourav Ganguly's first double hundred has been the most scintillating, the most memorable and the sweetest of the lot.

A very long time ago, I had written a post on this blog about Ganguly's ousting and his comeback.

The most surprising thing about all this is Ganguly's innings. ANY cricket lover in the world could probably tell you about the entire controversy with Greg Chappell and Ganguly and how he was ousted from the team etc etc because the Indian Media, being the India media, covered it to the last detail. Well, as much as the whole issue was rather damaging for Indian cricket, the truth was that Ganguly was not performing and in that sense, the ousting was justified. Now I was a huge fan of Ganguly, but I can say that he let me down, just like he let down all his other fans. So naturally, when I heard that he was back in the Test side, I was skeptical. Ok let me be more honest. I was BRUTALLY critical. It wasn't a very fair move on my part, but there you go. I had become faithless when it came to Ganguly.

And then, in the test against the Rest of South Africa team, he pulls off a miraculous innings along with Irfan! And in this first test, I find out that he's the one who's saved the Indian team's dignity. Well well. What can I say? Honestly. Because you simply can never tell with India.

Keep going Dada. If this is really your comeback, I'm not one to complain. :)

I wrote that when he made his come back and scored a half century. And today, I stand corrected yet again. I'm not just not complaining, I'm apologising for having been bewafaa (faithless) and I'm saluting him.
For truly he has shown, without any doubt, that he is one of the strongest-willed cricketers the world has seen. An article on cricinfo mentioned about how the reason for his wildly successful comeback shows in his eyes. It is true, even I have noticed it.

Anyone who has watched Ganguly as the captain of India and as a player before he lost his form would easily be able to tell that the Ganguly of then and the Ganguly of now are very different and yet very much the same. Then, he was ferocious, aggressive, expressive, almost arrogant in his stance, in the way he held himself. He was a man who was sure of himself, sometimes almost too much so. And yet, I was a big fan of his, because these characteristics of his, when he was on the field, translated into very entertaining cricket. And clearly, he has been one of India's most successful captains.

But his gradual loss of form did not amuse me in the least and I was a much much bigger fan of Dravid, so Ganguly's loss, when translated to Dravid's gain, made me only too happy. I did not rue Ganguly's axing from the team. After all, he wasn't performing, was he? I even scoffed at the ad he did, where he said "Hi, mera naam Sourav Ganguly hai. Bhoole to nahin?"

But it hasn't been that long since, and today I will hang my head rather shamefully and say that Ganguly has proved me, and all his critics and fans-turned-critics wrong over and over again since his comeback. Today if you look carefully, you will be able to see a much much more serene, calm individual. Just listen to his interviews. He barely raises his voice, even when he's saying something happy. And he goes through the entire interview with a smile that exudes serenity and a quiet confidence. Yes, the old Ganguly is still there, inside him- that confident, self-assured Ganguly. But he is no more overconfident, no more arrogant, no more overly self-assured. Yes, of course he's improved his footwork and his stroke making, but most importantly, he's improved his mentality. He knows his place and his role down to a T and he accepts it with pride. He can hasten or slow his scoring rate according to the situation and he can keep the calmest of heads when India is in turmoil. Gone are the days when he comes in and plays his shots even when he's struggling. Now, if the pitch is proving difficult to play on, he stays, battles through the tough times, reads the pitch and then massacres the bowling.

Another clear indication of the change: Watch Ganguly's reaction when Yuvraj got his hundred in this test match. It was clearly a significant hundred for Yuvraj because it was his first test match in more than a year and Yuvi celebrated it with gusto. But if you'd only started watching his celebration from the time he hugged Ganguly, you could be forgiven for having thought for two seconds that it was Ganguly's hundred. Because Ganguly grabbed hold of Yuvraj, hugged him tight and for quite a while and was shouting in glee with a big smile on his face. It was so heartening to watch him celebrate his team mate's success with such sincere joy and it made me really feel the change in him since his comeback.

And during this double century of his, he was calm, collected, aggressive all at one go. And then he bowled well today too, getting Salman Butt's wicket when none of the regular bowlers could do it. He was economical and when he finally got the wicket, he celebrated it with child-like enthusiasm. It is a wonderful sight- seeing him comeback not just as a much better batsman and person, but also a better bowler and fielder.

He is a clear contender for Man of the Series now. If and when he gets it, I think I'll stand up and clap. Because he deserves it. Hats off to you Dada, for everything you've accomplished, and I hope for you and for India that you have much cricket left in you yet. Because I'm definitely not ready to see the back of you yet. :)

India-Pak 2nd Test Day 1

The 2nd test finally started today (the break felt incredibly long).
And what a performance by India. Wow. Truly. They batted superbly, dominating the bowling and putting an already ailing Pakistan under tremendous pressure. So much so that one couldn't help but feel sorry for Pakistan, despite being an Indian supporter.

The highlight of the day was clearly Wasim Jaffer. 192 not out on the first day. What more could any supporter ask for? He flicked, drove, cut, pulled, and just generally made the Paki bowling attack look like amateurs. He did everything right. It was wonderful to watch. We were all hoping he would reach his double century today, but bad light forced them to end the day. Hence, we'll have to wait for tomorrow. Hopefully he doesn't get out first thing tomorrow morning, because you know, Indian batsmen have a tendency to do that.

Wasim Jaffer's wife was in the stands. She must have been overjoyed with the way he performed. Was he inspired by her presence perhaps?

In other news, Dravid was playing wonderfully and had just reached his half century when Billy Doctrove decided that he had had enough of Dravid and gave him caught behind, when all the replays and the Snicko indicated as clear as day that the ball did not hit the bat and the bat did not hit anything else. So there was no sound heard and there was no nick but Dravid was out anyway. A pretty poor decision and an absolute disappointment for us Dravid fans. It is a sad sad thing, because we've been waiting quite a while to see him play. And ever since this test series started, he's been getting awesome starts, but has gotten out to brilliant bowling. And today, when he finally converted a start to a half-century, the umpire didn't like it (or so it seemed). Oh woe.

Anyway, I think Pakistan's selectors are even more confused than India's. Honestly, Shoaib Akhtar was sick. Fullstop. There was nothing to suggest he was even well enough to be sitting up, let alone playing cricket, and that too a test match. I am absolutely CLUELESS as to why he was selected to play this match. I'm sure Yasir Arafat would have done far better as a replacement. At least he would have been able to bowl in full fitness. Shoaib was almost collapsing on the field and every ball he bowled seemed to take a herculean effort. I felt incredibly sorry for him, and I honestly think he should have been taken off the field, force fed medicine and asked to rest. But he persisted! I have no idea how he managed it or whether he managed it at all. It was a terrible sight. And Sami had a fever until yesterday, but he too is playing today.

I'm sure that there isn't SUCH a huge lack of bowlers in pakistan. There must be SOMEONE who can replace them. It's so curious. The whole thing is just so utterly curious. As much as I support India, I would enjoy a good contest more than a pushover. Like the first test match. That was a good contest. But this one... well it could prove me wrong yet, but today has just been India all the way. And while I want India to win this, one would like to see the opposition put up a semblence of a fight at least.

Well Ganguly and Jaffer seem well set. Tomorrow is another day (that's what Pakistan will be thinking too) and anything can happen.
So we'll wait and see.

[edit @ 20 59 hrs]

"Four in one go
The only fully fit fast bowler in the Pakistan attack was Tanvir, but curiously he was the most expensive as well, for the best part. Unsure of exactly what line to bowl, based on the field he was given, Tanvir was smacked for fours off the first, second, third and fifth deliveries of the 23rd over. A back-foot punch through cover, a drive back down the ground, a forcing shot through point and a flick through midwicket and aside from the pull Jaffer had shown pretty much his whole repertoire in one over.

Billy strikes
On a pitch that was a nightmare for bowlers - normally the strip at the Eden Gardens at least provides some juice early on - and once a batsman got in it was hard to work out how a bowler would dislodge him. Jaffer and Rahul Dravid bedded down with such ease that it seemed a run-out would be the most likely to break the partnership. That was till Billy Doctrove intervened. On exactly 50, and looking good for a whole lot more, Dravid drove inside out at a ball that was tossed up, bat struck ground, ball turned well past bat and lodged between Kamran Akmal's arm and body, and the loud shout was upheld. Once again Dravid's innings had been curtailed when he looked untroubled at the crease.

Can't catch a ...
It's no wonder Kamran Akmal is fully fit despite all the flu and chest infections and sore throats going round the Pakistan team. At the moment, he's just living out that cruel descriptor, where he can't catch even a cold. Statisticians have given up counting his dropped catches, and on a pitch that was so unresponsive that it forced Tanvir to turn to left-arm spin, Akmal dropped a clanger. Mohammad Sami bent his back and managed to get one to hurry onto Tendulkar, who half-heartedly attempted an upper cut. The ball just lobbed up towards Akmal, who put his right hand out and palmed the ball past the slip fielder.

Two Kanerias
With the ball in hand, even arms flailing and legs pumping in several different directions, Kaneria appears to be in control of what he is doing. And he certainly was when he landed a perfectly pitched googly that fooled Tendulkar into playing an expansive drive and turned in to bowl the batsman through the gate. But there's another Kaneria, the one who fields, who looks like he's going to injure himself at any moment. And he did, in the dying moments of the day, chasing after a straight drive from Sourav Ganguly, half-sliding, half-diving and generally getting stuck in the ground. He limped off the field, and fortunately for Pakistan this hadn't happened earlier in the day, though Kaneria consistently threatened to do just this with one of the most unacrobatic dives you're likely to see on a cricket field."

That's quoted from Cricinfo and just about sums up the day really.

[/edit]

1st Test 2nd Day

I apologise for the lack of updates about the India Pakistan ODI series. But the exams are over and I will update.

1st India-Pak test match. Well it's been a right roller coaster so far. Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat, and we all thought India were goners. But then they had Pakistan at 142 for 8! Which was a magnificient feat, but Misbah and Sami put up a strong resistance and took Pakistan to a decent score. Finally Misbah got himself run out in the silliest fashion and then India bowled Pakistan out for 231. Naturally everyone thought India would cleansweep the match. But India's top order was taken apart by Shoaib Akhtar and Sohail Tanvir and we wobbled with 5 wickets down and just 88 on the board. At that stage we looked doomed. But Laxman and Dhoni have put up a brilliant partnership to take us to 186 for 5. Up and down and up and down and up...

...here comes Sohail Tanvir. Will be survive this spell? Oh it's Dhoni's 50! Great stuff there. He's justifying his ODI and T20 captaincy and possibly even a Test captaincy sometime soon.

Otherwise I would like to say that it was wonderful watching Dravid playing again. Yes, he only scored 39, but he scored it well. Watching him hit boundaries was just so wonderful. It was a treat for any Dravid fan. Unfortunately he did not go on to get a 50.

But more on that at the end of the match I guess. In the meantime, Dhoni has gotten himself out for 57, Laxman's gone on to get a 50 and Kumble looks to be batting well.

About Kumble's captaincy- I think he's quite wonderful as a bowler and even batsmen and he thoroughly deserves the captaincy because he's a thinking cricketer. He was good when India bowled- he attacked and defended, he bowled himself as an attacking option, he wasn't afraid to take on the responsibility... I like his attitude.

While Dhoni is quite openly no-fear, Kumble is quietly no-fear. He doesn't look like he can be intimidated. He bowled well, got 4 wickets. And now he's batting well. So it's stumps now, and we'll see what happens tomorrow.

The Reason Behind the Wall's Axing?

What is this I now read about Vengsarkar and Dravid not being able to build a bond?
So is this the truth behind why he stepped down from his captaincy? Is this the truth behind why he was dropped? Or is this all pure media hype, simply being blown up by the Indian media- as it often does?

Will Vengsarkar leave him out of the Test squad as well? I will spontaneously combust if that happens, I swear.

Fall of the Wall?

I can't believe this. I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT BELIEVE THIS.
Two shocks in a day are too much. First it was Dhoni's hair. And now, they're dropping DRAVID from the 1st two ODIs against Pakistan? (Geez, that sentence doesn't even SOUND acceptable- drop and Dravid in the same sentence? Since when?)

Does anybody even REALISE the implication of that? RAHUL DRAVID, Mr Reliable himself, The Great Wall of India (who's evolved into much more than just a wall), DROPPED? Just because he had ONE bad series?
And his replacement?

Virender Sehwag.

No I'm not joking. Virender Sehwag, who was dropped unglamorously from the team for his inconsistency and his lousy form. Virender Sehwag whom they gave chance after chance for almost 3 series, despite his low scores. Virender Sehwag, who is now (sadly) the captain of the India Blues and happened to have a couple of good knocks.
I ask, so what? He was given chances for eons, despite the fact that he wasn't performing. And after all the talk from the selectors about how Dravid was just "rested" for the last ODI against Australia, and how he is a great player who he will pick up his form in the next series, they drop him? How's he supposed to "pick up his form" if he's not even playing, hmmm?

Well, I don't know what to say anymore. All I can say now is that I want Dravid back in the side for the last 3 ODIs, and I hope he comes back and justifies his place in the side. I know he's going to retire soon, but I'm not going to sit quietly if they drop him unglamorously for having ONE bad series. Jammy deserves a grand exit if and when he decides to retire. And I sincerely hope he's not going to get anything less.

Why must we consistently have selectors who make the WEIRDEST and most depressing selection decisions in the world?

P.S.: I promise I'll try not to be so emotionally motivated next time. Just give me leeway when it comes to Rahul Dravid- he's been my idol for 8.5 years and I can't bear to see him on the receiving end of injustice.

Anhoni Ho Gayi Honi, Aur Main Ban Gaya... Kaun?

I am extremely disappointed with Dhoni.
No it's not because he captained badly. No, he didn't keep wickets dismally either. And nope, he did not get consecutive ducks.
...

He cut his hair.
HE CUT HIS HAIR. No it's not a trim. It's a crewcut ala John Abraham. I'm not sure the ground beneath me is firm enough anymore because this has shaken my foundations. Come on, Dhoni= LongFlowingTresses + Classic EarToEarGrin. How can he mess up that equation?

And is the media overhyping the influence of a certain Miss Padukone in this issue or could it possibly be... fact? Interesting, this.
But it doesn't do anything to alleviate my disappointment. Please grow your hair back Dhoni. I miss it already (and he hasn't even played a match with his short hair yet).

Here is a *cringe* picture.



P.S.: If you don't get the title, it means "The impossible became possible, and I became... who?". It is in reference to a 7UP ad that Dhoni does, where he says "Anhoni ho gayi honi, aur main ban gaya Dhoni". Which means, "The impossible became possible, and I became Dhoni".

No Flash In The Pan.

A marvelous win once again, agaist Australia, this time in the Twenty20 format! But then again, we ARE the world champions...
Although with India that could effectively mean nothing, this time that wasn't the case. They truly showed Australia WHY they are the Twenty20 Champions, and they did so in style. The batsmen looked utterly at ease in this format of the game and they way Dhoni finished the game- with a big six- truly said everything.
Hats off to you India, for the way you played yesterday. :)

The funniest, cutest and silliest part, of course, came at the post-match presentation. Gambhir won the MoM award for his brilliant half-century and he won a car. The minute Gambhir was announced as MoM, he got COMPLETELY drenched in Coca Cola by the team. He went up to collect his award and give his interview looking like he climbed out of a pool filled with coke. It was hilarious. And the minute the ceremony ended, everyone forced him into the new car (cola dripping and all) and the rest of the team climbed on top of the car, a few on the bonnet, a few on the roof and the rest leaning against it, and posed for a photo. Hilarious. The commentators were distressing about how they were going to dent the car, but not a single Indian player looked bothered in the least, Gambhir included.
Off the field, they are like five year olds. Truly. For all the maturity that some of them display during the match, off the field, they are the total opposite. I think they leave their maturity on the pitch. But I love precisely for this utterly adorable trait.

For example, Robin Uthappa played brilliant, attacking cricket yesterday, but then he got out and soon after, the camera focussed on him sitting at the dugout in his sleeveless tee and training pants and chappals. The minute he saw the camera, he waved and winked (which in itself was adorable to the max) and at that point, Irfan, who was sitting in front of him, fell back on him on purpose and Uthappa hugged him and they both started laughing. It was so cute. After a while, the camera focussed on Uthappa again and this time he waved and mouthed "Hi Mama. I love you!" and blew a kiss. Such a sweet mummy's boy. :D
See what I mean by five year olds?

In other news, gossip (and some very interesting guests at yesterday's match) seem to hint that our dearest captain has been clean bowled- no not by one of Brett Lee's yorkers, but by a lovely young maiden.
To be more specific, Deepika Padukone. Yes, that pretty new actress in Om Shanti Om. She invited him to the OSO premier and he invited her to yesterday's match. And she supposedly cancelled another engagement to "watch Dhoni in action". Now now now, isn't that sweet? :) Deepika and Dhoni. Has a pretty nice ring to it!

To quote an article I read, "Bat, ball and Bollywood" indeed. Well, time will tell how true it is!

The Consolatory Win and the Dhoni.

It is time for me to once again inadequately analyse India's superb victory over Australia in yesterday's match.
Once again, we lost the series. But no matter, we won the final match and since it was against Australia, it was a HUGE morale boost.

Now the highlight of yesterday's match was another unsung hero (you'll find that TeamIndia generally has either unsung heroes or overhyped heroes. There's rarely an inbetween... but I'm not complaining). Murali Karthik. He had made a small name for himself with sudden shows of brilliance and then a long retreat into oblivion. In fact, this time round, he had already joined the commentary team of Neo Sports, when halfway through the series, he was called to join the playing 11. He went on to play 3 matches, in all of which he played very well, but yesterday's performance was the showstopper, without a doubt. 6 wickets for 27 runs in 10 over. A couple of maiden overs, one 2 wicket maiden and one 3 wicket maiden. He was on a hat-trick twice. The best performance by a left arm spinner in the history of ODI cricket, and the best performance by any Indian bowler against Australia.

And to top it all off, he batted like a hero at the end, supporting Zaheer Khan, playing and missing many times, but never losing courage and in the end, seeing India through to a memorable victory. Could we Indian supporters ask for more?

I think all our batsmen need to stand up and applaud our bowlers and humbly accept that they were one-upped by the bowlers yesterday. Let's face it, our bowlers bowled Australia out for a paltry 193 and then went on to bat bravely at the end to see India home. This game was won by our bowlers' gutsiness, Dhoni's captaincy and Uthappa's knock of 47. So everyone else really needs to graciously step away and let these heroes take the attention for this game. The way they were celebrating, honestly anyone could have been forgiven for assuming they won the series. But that is the joy that comes from giving it back to the World Champions in the 50 over format.

I loved watching the interview with Zaks and Karthik at the end of the game. The way the two of them were laughing and poking fun at each other was heartnening to watch. Their attitude towards the victory was also nice to see, the enthusiasm was clearly there, though neither is a youngster.

But beyond all the celebratory scenes, what I loved MOST was Dhoni's reaction. He was evidently pleased (which captain wouldn't be, what with the way the bowlers stood up to the task at hand?), but the calmness with which he accepted the victory, the grace with which he immediately went out to shake the Australian players' hands was very nice to watch. I suppose you could say that was because they lost the series here. But go back and look at his reactions after they won the T20 World Cup. He NEVER got carried away. The minute they won, he gathered his team into a huddle and apparently, uttered a surprising but rather admirable one-liner advice: "Sab kuch normal rakhne ka." Meaning, keep everything normal. He knew how they would be elevated to holy status by their fans, but he also knew how fickle these fans were and how they wouldn't hesitate to stab them in the back if they were to lose in the next series. And he had had first hand taste of this when fans stoned his under construction house in Ranchi when he scored a duck in the WC match against SL earlier this year.

It was very heartening to know that we have at the helm of the Indian team ship, a captain whose feet are firmly planted in the ground, whose heart lies with the team first and whose head thinks sensibly and rationally. His honesty is refreshing, his diplomacy always has a twist to it, his dry wit is chuckle-worthy and his confidence, enthusiasm and spirit has obviously seeped through to the rest of the team. Even when they are losing, his attitude never seems defeated, his comments at the post match presentation and press conferences are to the point and he doesn't avoid the blame or try to shift the blame to any one player. His positive, smiling attitude and his agressive, biker dude image, oxymoronic as they may be, truly emphasize the little twist of character that he has brought to TeamIndia. All in all, I find him a thoroughly likeable captain.

I hope he stays that way, and I hope his popularity continues to build. :)

A World Cup in Indian Possession.

[This is going to be no analysis and it's definitely not sufficient, but I have Alevels, and this will have to do. Already, it's been sitting in my drafts for ages. Thought I better post it.]

There is so much to say about India's last four matches in the T20 tournament, but I simply have no time. All I can say is that TeamIndia played much more like Australia, as they convincingly trounced England, South Africa and Australia to reach the finals, where they won a nailbitingly, heartstoppingly close match against an evidently greatly improved Pakistan team. A World Cup, at last, after twenty-four long, long years.

So much analysis, so many opinions, so many emotions, but one thing stands- this was no fluke victory, neither was it an insignificant one. It was a BIG BIG victory, a huge achievement for Indian cricket, and I don't just mean on the international stage. It was a huge victory for the national stage too, because it was the championing of the one thing the BCCI seems to be so overly apprehensive about- youth- over what the BCCI (sometimes mistakenly) turns to- experience. Furthermore, the limelight was clearly stolen by cricketers from small towns, towns with big dreams which are being realised for the first time. Joginder Sharma, who bowled the epic final overs against Australia as well as against Pakistan in the finals, is the son of a paan waala (one who sells paan, which is the equivalent of an after-meal mint, made of betelnut leaves and several funny tasting fillings). He lived in a shanty slum area in his youth, and today he plays for TeamIndia and has been granted over 1 crore by the BCCI and his state for playing his part in the victory. Dhoni was the son of a pump operator in the small town of Ranchi. Today he is captaining the victorious Indian team.

This is truly the championing of those who dare to dream big, regardless of what background they come from, and the championing of those wonderful scouts who spotted the talent hiding behind these dreams and gave the dreamers an international platform to live their dreams.
Chhote match, bade sapne. :)

[edit 131007]
And even though TeamIndia is currently getting trashed by Australia in the ODI series at home, we still love them. And Dhoni is, I think, my favourite India captain to date. Even though Jammy as a captain was a dream come true for me and he is still numero UNO in my heart.
But for all practical reasons, Dhoni is probably more suited to captain the young side that India will have once Jammy, Dada and Sachin retire.

Even The Best Fall Down Sometimes.

The ongoing Twenty20 (T20) World Cup has been nothing short of exciting and thoroughly entertaining. From the very first match, with Chris Gayle's superb record setting century and massive sixes, to Bangladesh's defeat of the Windies to send them packing, to Australia's humiliating defeat at the hand of the Zimbabweans, to yesterday's thrilling India-Pakistan match, it has been a feast for the senses and has produced several vivid memories- the kind that every cricket lover would store away in a safe, temperate place, away from any damaging conditions so that they would be able to view it as vividly as they do now even many years later.

I will start with the Aussies' completely shocking defeat. I have to be brief, so I shall say that Zimbabwe deserved to savour every bit of that delicious victory. They were accurate and destructive with their bowling, superbly energetic with their fielding and efficient with their batting. Australia on the other hand, were wayward, sloppy and very careless. They bowled bad lines and lengths, dropped catches and threw away their wickets. Truly, on that one day, the usually shoddy and out-of-sorts Zimbabwe looked like a top-notch side and one felt that perhaps, some sort of odd miracle had descended, causing the two sides to switch souls.
Of course, Zimbabwe's triumph was short lived, as they lost to England the next day (although not badly, they retained their dignity very well). And naturally, as we all expected, Australia's poor run was short lived as well, as they went on to trounce England, securing their berth in the Super 8s and kicking Zimbabwe out of the tournament. But even though the final outcome was none the different from what anybody had expected at the start of this tournament, that slight stumble of the Kings of Cricket was celebrated by all except the Aussies and is definitely one for the history books.

Moving on, yesterday's India-Pakistan match. Now that, is truly what a match-worth-the-money-you-pay-and-the-time-you-spend is like. India, put in to bat by Pakistan, were left hanging on to the game by their fingernails at 36 for 4 after a destructive show of seam bowling by Asif, who used the conditions brilliantly. Dhoni and Uthappa put on a handy partnership of 40 odd runs to stabilise the ship then, and they did so with ease, now that Asif was out of the way. However, the Pakistani bowlers were relentless and were rewarded for their efforts with consistent wickets. India managed to scratch their way through and finished with 141 for 9. Naturally, the game felt like it was headed in Pakistan's favour then, and that point was only reinforced when Pakistant got off to a pretty good start. They didn't look like they would win quickly enough to kick India out of the next round, but they certainly looked like they would win easily at one stage. Then suddenly, the first wicket arrived, and after that, almost every Pakistani batsman merely threw his wicket away. When India managed to get Shahid Afridi out (after having dropped him once), Pakistan needed 39 off 14 balls to win. It looked an impossible task.

Misbah ul Haq apparently did not think so. He creamed a six and a four off Bhajji's final over and then Yasir Arafat joined the party by smashing two fours off the first two balls of Agarkar's next over. They managed 17 runs in the penultimate over, needing a mere 12 from the last to win. The first four balls of the last over produced 11 runs. Pakistan levelled the score and all the Pakis started their celebration. After all, they had two balls and 1 run to get, they couldn't possibly lose... or could they?
The second last ball, Sreesanth pitched it short, Misbah ul Haq swung and missed. A dot ball. Now it was one run and one ball. Dhoni consulted half the Indian team and brought the field in. Everyone was inside the circle. Sreesanth bowled, Misbah couldn't really get it away, he hit it to extra cover and they desperately started running the single they needed to win. Yuvraj was at extra cover and Yuvraj is undisputedly one of India's best fielders. He ran in, picked up the ball and threw it to Sreesanth, who whipped off the bails at the non-striker's end, finding Misbah several inches short of his ground. They had TIED THE MATCH. The Indians were celebrating, the Pakis were downright disappointed, there was a lot of commotion and one wondered whether the two sides even remembered that a tied match would lead to a bowl-out, where a result will be forced out.

The umpires, match officials, referees, players, everybody was on the field, trying to sort out the bowl-out. Evidently, none of these people had ever been involved in one! Nobody actually knew what was going on, or at least, that's the way it looked from a spectator's point of view. The officials were instructing the umpires in a flustered manner, the Indians were all on the field with Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh, all of them having a go at bowling at the stumps, enjoying themselves immensely. THe Pakistanis looked tense and worried and were hovering around waiting to be given some instructions. It was a funny sight indeed. Finally, everything got sorted out, there was a rather redundant toss (which Dhoni didn't seem to be taking seriously at all, he was laughing and joking and looked desperate to run away and join his team, who were having a lot of fun amidst the confusion), which Shoaib Malik won and asked India to start first. Sehwag had a go first and he hit. The Indians had started a small celebration. Yasir Arafat bowled next, he ran a shortened run up and bowled at half his speed and he missed- by a long way. The Indians were loving it, the Pakis were tense.

Next up was Bhajji for India and Gul for Pak. Bhajji hit and Gul missed! The Indian were ecstatic, the Pakis looked livid.

Paki needed to win the next three. Uthappa for India... he hit! And Shahid Afridi missed! The Indian players rushed towards one another and jumped all over each other, hugging, laughing, cheering. The Pakis looked disappointed, and rightly so, because they played brilliantly throughout the day and it seemed a little unfair that the match had to have a result, and that too one that went against them. But the bowl-out, I would say, was extremely exciting and while I do not think it should be used in the traditional ODI or Test format, it certainly seems fitting for the T20 format, which is fast paced and quirky and has a carnival atmosphere.

Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to talk about Dravid's resignation as Indian captain. There has been so much talk about it, so much discussion, depression, annoyance, happiness, satisfaction... well the list goes on. A lot of people are feeling very differently about it. While initially the news left me shell-shocked and feeling for my grounding, I have to say that the more I think about it, the more I think that perhaps Dravid made the right decision after all.

From an Indian fan's perspective, and also from an AVID Dravid fan's perspective, naturally, I am upset that I will not be seeing him leading the side any longer. Because, while he wasn't India's best captain, he certainly was one of the most dignified, diplomatic, uncontroversial captains, with a wonderful temperament and amazing pressure absorbing tendencies. He was calm and controlled. Everything he said and did had a certain measured quality to it. While this might not have always worked when he needed to be aggressive with his captaincy, this was his greatest strength when it came to facing reporters and staying cool under pressure. Admittedly, the stress of captaincy had been getting to him lately, and that is understandable. Because captaining the Indian cricket team is probably one of the most pressuring jobs in the world. He is constantly under the obsessively watchful and unforgiving eyes of one billion fickle minded fans who will elevate their heroes to a godly status when they win, but treat them worse than untouchables when they lose. You'd think that to hold the position where you have to be responsible for the victories and defeats would drive anyone crazy.

Luckily, Dravid is still very much sane, and frankly, if the pressure of captaincy has really got to him that bad (and it seems it has), then his decision is perfectly justified. We cannot and should not speculate about whether or not he's reached his breaking point simply because he would obviously know better than any of us whether he's reached his breaking point or not. Also, if he waits until he crosses that point, then he will resign as a fallen hero, or be denounced by the Indian fans, as we saw with Ganguly. As Ian Chappell very nicely put it in his article on Cricinfo, better to have people asking "Why did you?" rather than "Why don't you?". And Dravid has certainly resigned with his dignity very much intact, what with a recent Test series win and a close fight in the ODI series.

It is not fair to say that he is being selfish. Yes, perhaps this decision was taken more due to personal merits, but of what kind? He is not going to be idolised for this. He is not going to be celebrated on a pedestal or receive monetary benefits or anything material. He's just going to get relief for frayed nerves, and more time to do what he does best for the team- bat like the class batsman that he is. Surely, one can't say that wanting relief is selfish? He's human after all. If he thinks that he can't live up to expectations of the job, is it better for him to stay in purely because the BCCI has not considered a new captain yet and fall short of the high quality demanded from the Indian captain? I don't think that's a fair ask. Plus, Dravid has perpetually been a team man, and I'm sure that if he thought India would be adversely affected by his stepping down, he would not have done so. I think (and hope... but I trust Dravid) that he would have considered this very very carefully. He has never been one to make impulsive decisions. So he must have thought about all of this before making the decision. I just hope the fans won't give Dravid a hard time. I was glad to see user comments on Cricinfo in favour of his decision, saying that it was a dignified move and the right one.

Furthermore, he would still be around as a player, and if India picks a youngster as the next captain, then Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar, who have all captained the side before will be around to guide the new captain and groom him well before they end their wonderful careers. This is something India doesn't bother doing and leaves the new captain in a lurch. Look at the successful teams like SL and Australia. The captains step down in time to groom the next one before he leaves. And that's the way to go, in my opinion.

And speaking of picking new captains, I personally feel that India should not fall back on Ganguly or Tendulkar as the next captain. Yes, it will be a risk to throw a youngster in the deep end and watch him try to work his way out. But I think it's time that India took this risk. Appointing Tendulkar or Ganguly as captain now will clearly show panic, and the lack of long term planning. Yes, I know Australia is touring India and we need a strong side led by a strong captain. But think long term. You appoint Tendulkar or Ganguly now. They captain for maybe a year or a year and half, and then they retire. Let's say Dravid too retires in a couple of years. Imagine India's situation then. They will be a year away from the next World Cup, which incidentally is being held in the subcontinent, with a complete freshman in the captaincy post. The new captain will have no time to get a feel of leading the side, no time to settle well into the role, and no previous captains to guide him lest he be unsure. We might face an early exit again in the next World Cup and as hosts, that will be the ultimate humiliation. The new captain will also come under great fire and possibly be forced to resign. Indian cricket will be in turmoil once again. This is clearly not what any Indian wants.

But imagine a new captain now. A youngster, with bolder ideas, with the unending energy of youth can bring a certain freshness to the side, a certain energy in the field and the natural aggressiveness of youthful energy. Dravid, with his calming influence will still be there to watch over the new captain and just calm him down if he goes overboard with the aggression. Ganguly will be there to tell him to be more aggressive if the new captain gets too drawn into his shell. The youngster will be able to learn by experience, which is a better teacher than any textbook or any amount of theoretical lectures. You never know until you're actually out there doing it. And if we lose this series to Australia, so what? It's just a series. It will be a steep learning curve for the new captain, who, in all likelihood, will pick up much faster and be more willing to adapt to change as a youngster. This will be a long-term investment, which hopefully will pay off during the World Cup (which is the ultimate goal) as the captain would have had plenty of time to settle into his groove and the other players too would have gotten used to working with him.

If you have to split the captaincy for Test and ODI for now, then so be it. But don't fall back on the older players. It is the long term that should be the BCCI's focus now. The present is but a stepping stone to the future. I know that we have very few candidates to pick from, but I hope they try someone out anyway. Dhoni or Yuvraj or even Dinesh Karthik. The board has to be brave for a while now. I hope they consider carefully and take the right decision.

As for Dravid, I hope he brightens up his glum fans by scoring well in the next series. We would enjoy nothing more than several good innings by you Jammy, because we know your calibre and we have trusted you and stood by you throughout your highs and lows and we want to see the same, free, high class batsman we saw before you took on the captaincy. And we know you can. :)

So here's to the legacy Dravid leaves behind, and to the new captain, whoever he may be. Let's hope for the best.

A series leveller, a thriller, an absolute ripper.

WHAT.A.MATCH.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was absolutely the most nail-biting finish ever, and definitely the most nail-biting VICTORY TeamIndia has ever had.

India started the match like stars, like victors, like professionals, making England look like they were playing schoolboy cricket. Zaks bowled brilliantly, leading the bowling attack from the front. Piyush Chawla too bowled with a calm head and a lot of maturity, cleaning up Ian Bell. :) Agarkar of course, came in to reverse all the good work that Zaheer did, and Yuvraj did the same to Chawla's bowling at the end. These two were wayward, bowling extras, gifting boundaries, allowing sixes to be hit. Yuvraj gifted Mascarenhas FIVE sixes off the last FIVE balls of the innings. It was miserable. And England, who at one stage looked like they wouldn't hit 250, managed 316. All credit to their batsmen, Agarkar, Yuvi and of course, Peter Hartley, the new umpire who smartly gave Owais Shah not out (even before he had got to FIFTY) when he had so cleanly nicked it to the keeper. Naturally, Shah capitalised and went on to be unbeaten on 107. All in all, a dejected Indian team left the field, and dejected Indian supporters left their hopes locked in a safe and settled in front of their TVs expecting the worst.

Lunchtime came and went, filled with criticisms and mixed opinions. I didn't bother watching. It would only depress me, I knew that. Hence, I tore myself away from Harsha Bhogle's (always-fun-to-listen-to) commentary, to preserve my sanity and keep my frustration in check.

The second innings started and Sachin and Dada got off to a flyer. They were blazing boundaries with ease. I returned to my TV set with that TeamIndia-worshipping-creature in my heart poking its nose out just that slight bit to sniff hopefully at the air. (I borrow and paraphrase from JKR. Thanks JKR.) They continued in this crazy, boundary hitting vein for ages and ages. Both got wonderful half centuries. 150-0 was the score. Indian fans were ecstatic. England was looking beaten, downtrodden. AND THEN. Suddenly. Broad takes Ganguly's wicket. The partnership had been broken. But we still had our (over)hyped and (unnecessarily) famous batting line up! Out came Gambhir. And Tendulkar started cramping.

The momentum was broken by Sachin's inability to run. Finally, he called for a runner, but before the runner could enter the field, he got out- caught. The creature in my heart dived back into its cavern. Yuvraj and Gambhir. Both were struggling to get the boundaries. But they were running well between wickets, so there was SOME tiny ray of hope somewhere. On and on they continued, nudging the singles, running well, hitting the ocassional boundary. AND THEN YUVI GETS OUT. Vidhu and I are messaging furiously at this point, pouring our frustrations and pain into each sms.

Jammy comes in, both of us hold our breaths. Can our hero accomplish what India needs? He bats, nudges a few singles and GETS CAUGHT OUT. Both of us are in great pain, the last glimmer of hope dies away. We trudge mundanely through the darkness with our useless, pathetic (or so we thought) team, the patriot in us somehow still managing to support them, despite their GREAT failings. Dhoni and Gambhir now. Both are apprehensive, neither willing to take the risk. Then they start getting into some sort of shaky rhythm, when Gambhir, like an IDIOT, decides to spoon one to Panesar at the boundary down the ground. Disappointment hits, the smses start getting hopeless. We know now, it is a completely uphill task and we're also almost sure that the two natural slog batsmen at the crease (Dhoni and Uthappa) are not cut out for this chasing-down-totals task. Dhoni is a slogger, who needs his sixers to keep him happy, and Uthappa is normally an opening batsman. They needed to play sensibly and neither of these batsmen had the temperament for that.
...
Or did they?

A partnership started building. Vidhu said she believes in the impossible. I told her that when you support TeamIndia, you need to consistently believe in the impossible and the extraordinary. Did we dare to hope? Could these two take the game for India? Rachu starts messaging me as well. I'm alternating furiously between match and handphone screen.

After 60 solid runs in the partnership and much struggle, Dhoni gets out bowled. The score is 294 for 6. Vidhu, Rachu and I are ready to commit many murders. Including those SMUG INDIANS PLAYING FOR ENGLAND/SUPPORTING ENGLAND ARGH JUST LOOK AT THEIR ANNOYING FACES.

Agarkar in... AND HE GETS RUN OUT! Agarkar out, but Uthappa still facing. Score now 307. Zaheer in. Few runs. Final over, Uthappa facing. Vidhu and I have stomach aches from the excitement. Rachu is still rambling about the Indian blood traitors. India needs 10 to win. TWO runs off the first ball! Yes, just 8 more now!
THEN. THEN Zaks gets caught backing up too far. Run out at the non-striker's end! ARGHHHH. But not all hope is lost! Uthappa STILL FACING. Powar comes out, at the non-striker's end.

Broad bowls the next ball, and Uthappa executes in one smooth motion a wonderful, cheeky step-out-of-the-crease-and-spoon-the-ball-over-fine-leg move. The ball hits the boundary rope and the Indian cheers are deafening. Just ONE BOUNDARY away now. I'm too afraid to look at anything except the TV screen. I'm almost chewing my fingers now, having finished with my finger nails. Broad starts running in for the next delivery. Time seems to drag out forever. He lands, he releases the ball, the ball archs through the air, Uthappa makes contact and time seems to still for that instant.

Suddenly, the ball is flying off the bat... the fielder DIVES... AND MISSES! THE BALL RACES TO THE BOUNDARY. The commentators are shouting that India has clinched the thriller, Uthappa is riding the air, I jump off the couch, almost as high as Uthappa, screaming, Mum awakes in alarm and yells at me to shut up or I-might-wake-the-neighbours (but I know she's frantically reaching for the remote in her room to switch her TV on and watch the replays of the winning runs), Broad covers his mouth, Collingwood closes his eyes and turns towards the heavens, Powar and Uthappa are hugging, Yuvi sprints onto the field along with all the other TeamIndia youngsters, Yuvi is now jumping on Uthappa, the two cant seem to let go, they are jumping like conjoined bunnies, Dravid is wildly hugging (read as: suffocating the hell out of) every Indian player he can reach before composing himself enough to shake hands with the dejected English team, and even then, he cant suppress a small grin of pure joy. Vidhu and Rachu are smsing me simultaneously, Vidhu saying that she was crying, Rachu saying that her Dad was yelling Chak De India, and I'm replying madly, laughing, crying, jumping, saying that this was the most awesome match EVER, tons of commotion, replays being REPLAYED over and over, everything a happy, ecstatic blur.
A historic ground, where India had found heroes who clinched thrillers for them before, and an absolute gem of a match to complement it. And of course, a new hero to top it all off.

It felt like we'd won the World Cup. :P
Now all we need to do is keep our heads for the next match, and win it and show England that we are not to be trifled with.
From 3-1 down, India have won the last two matches WONDERFULLY to level the series. 6 ODIs down, 3 to each side, the final promises to be a solid competition.

Knowing India, they'll probably get overconfident and let England trample all over them in the next match, but never mind. We're used to expecting the worst from our team aren't we? :P

In the meantime, this victory is one for the history books.
"Drinks all around!"- Capt. Jack Sparrow

P.S.: (This is gonna sound like Vidhu but...) I think I used all four tenses. Sorry, I'm too happy to care right now.

Hello, I am Ms. Sore Loser.

INDIA. OMG. THERE goes India's hopes. Yuvi out.
Shucks. They really gave us so much hope when Jammy and Dada were batting like the absolute masters that they are. Now, we have Zaks, Munaf and RP left. It's a goner.

WHY must they play so badly! I mean honestly, Dinesh and Sachin were absolutely DISMAL. That's really all I can say. Dismal. Zaks just hit a 4. Go Zaks. Show people like Sachin how to save India's dignity.

Even if RP and Zaheer somehow manage not to get themselves out, we need 60+ runs from 30+ balls. It's just not possible. Now we just HAVE to win the next match. AND DRAVID, PLEASE BAT FIRST. I think your team has lost the ability to chase down totals. Don't depend on the batting line up. Depend on your bowlers instead. I know they can be disappointing at times (like today) but they are more likely to win you a match anyway.

The positives from today's match?
I saw Jammy bat so beautifully for the first time in YEARS. The boundaries were flowing from his bat and he looked at complete ease hitting them. There's only one way I can describe it, and that would be that he was creating poetry with his bat. It was that fluent, eloquent, natural. Two matches, two half-centuries. He looks to be in splendid form, and I hope he continues that form.

55 from 25 balls. It's gone. RP is managing to hang on though. YIKES. Only just though. He's playing risky. But I suppose they have nothing to lose (only the match, but they've already lost that anyway). Disappointing, disgraceful batting by top order batsmen like Sachin and Dinesh and even Dhoni. Hats off to Dravid, Ganguly and Yuvraj. They were the only ones who really did anything. Dravid captained pretty well, but RAWR we had a couple of decisions against us AND ZAHEER HITS A FOUR. WHOOOO. Ok sorry, I digress. And our bowlers (pace) were disappointing. RP was good towards the end. But that was not enough. He also gave away FIFTEEN runs in the last over.

ZAKS BOWLED. DEAD.

This is almost farcical. MUNAF AND RP. Why bother I ask. Just go home boys. Better you guys get rested and train tomorrow for the next match.
Ah they are so cute, they continue to bat. It's a bit of a laugh to watch RP lofting the ball.

OK BOWLED. There it goes. !#@O$STUPIDENGLAND@*(!^$)($IDIDNOTSAYANYTHING#^$%&*^#*
Ah well, it's not like I didn't see this humiliating defeat coming since the time Dravid got out. India needs miracles for the next match. Think about it, England won the first by 104 runs, India only won the 2nd by 9 runs and England's won this by 42 runs. Who's the dominant team? I don't think I need to give the answer. India SERIOUSLY needs miracles now. Blue whales, how deep in the hat are you hiding this time? How deep will India have to reach into the hat to pull you out this time? Or have we exhausted our supply of miraculous blue whales?
WHY am I asking all these metaphorical questions?

THURSDAY. Thursday. Sigh.

WARNING SORE LOSERNESS COMING UP:

Go away Collingwood. I know you won, I know you guys were good, FINE stop rubbing it in. I sincerely hope STUPID Anderson and Broad twist their ankles for the next game. GRRRRR. AND URGH MIKE ATHERTON THE @$*^!#$)!# he was asking questions that made it seem like India can't play cricket at all. Harsha Bhogle agrees! Yay.

OK I'm back to normal. I love England when they're not playing against India. BUT WHEN THEY START WINNING AGAINST OUR TEAM... *claws pop out and horns and pointy tail emerge*.

*deep breath*
I'm fine.
Gosh ok I'm NOT fine. Harsha Bhogle and co. just interviewed Jammy and he sounded THOROUGHLY PUT OUT. I've never heard him sound so upset. And he's blaming himself! For not going on to get a 100. I mean, sure, yes, he should have done that, but to say that you're taking the defeat hard on yourself? And he was going on about how he is very disappointed etc. Lighten up Jammy, all is not lost :(

TEAMINDIA PLEASE PLAY WELL AT LEAST FOR YOUR CAPTAIN IF NOT FOR ANYTHING/ANYONE ELSE.

Ok this is probably my most incoherently emotional entry here. I promise I will try to be a bit more sensible next time.

Jumbo Jets Past 100.

And the marvelous Anil 'Jumbo' Kumble has done it again. No, not with the ball, but with the bat.
110 NOT OUT. Wowee.

He truly played a wonderfully crafted innings, driving, pulling, cutting and heaving one mighty sixer. A batsman's innings. True, there were no boundaries on the leg side. But hell, that small detail was more than overshadowed by some of the beautifully hit boundaries which seemed to flow out of his bat. And the way he jumped and cheered at his half century and then century! You would have thought he was 26, not 36. And the dressing room, my goodness, it went WILD. EVERYONE was up on their feet, jumping up and down, cheering, clapping, grinning from ear to ear, the delight written so starkly on their faces. It was wonderful to watch, so very heartening to see the entire team celebrating a senior player's triumph. :) And Kumble, he deserved that sort of celebration. He's perpetually been a fighter for the team, and will truly be a HUGE loss when he retires. I don't know who will be able to fill his all-too-big-shoes.

So take a bow you master magician. And relish the cheers of a billion fans.

Otherwise, I simply LOVE Harsha Bhogle's commentary. He's so interesting to listen to, so full of life, and he makes so much sense. Unlike some of the commentators in some *ahem* other channels, who talk a load of old tosh half the time, Harsha Bhogle makes perfect sense almost all the time. When he commentates, he really injects his excitement into the commentary, such that it makes the listeners feel really caught up in the action, it makes the listeners excited too. Maybe it's because he used to be radio commentator, but his emotions really transmit when he commentates. It makes for far more entertaining commentary. Generally, the STARCricket commentators are just in a league of their own. Harsha Bhogle, Ravi Shastri, Gautam Bhimani (who is witty and informative and funny during the lunchtime and pre-match shows), they're all great. How I would LOVE to be part of the STARCricket team. *wistful*

They keep having this DreamJob ad, auditions to be part of the STARCricket presentation team AND I TRULY WANT TO GO BUT THEY ARE ALL HELD IN INDIA HELLO HOW IS THAT EVEN FAIR ARGH. And well, I've got ALevels this year and everything. What if no opportunity shows up afterwards?

Oh well. I guess I'll just have to continue waiting for this elusive opportunity to show up. Show up somewhere reachable that is, somewhere I can actually put my hand out and grab it. Or even run a little distance to it and grab it. Not in this obscure, unreachable manner.

Ok then, I shall return to my work and India's bowling. (COMEON KUMBLE GET STUPID PIETERSEN OUT. GRRR. IAN HOWELL IS AN IDIOT HE IS BEING COMPLETELY USELESS AND BIASED AGIANST INDIA.)

The Return of the Neeti.

And what, you might think (not that ANYONE actually reads this), seems to have motivated the Neeti to come running back to her beloved cricket blog?

Some wonderful cricket in my system of course!

Ah WHAT a test match that was. India vs. England. Challenging conditions, beautiful weather, classic test match strategies employed, patience being key... none of that flashy, exhuberant batting that people *coughaussiescough* insist is the key to the survival of test cricket, no siree. Save it for the ODIs please. Or better still, the Twenty20s. I'm not saying they should play as slowly as the last generation of cricketers used to. But please don't insist on flatter-than-chappati pitches... it makes the bowling aspect of the game look like a farce.

Oh but this match was absolutely lovely. With Zaheer's superb seam bowling and Vaughan's century in drilling conditions, it was skill that stood up and dominated the match. And of course, after India NARROWLY drew the previous test match, with the rain gods saving them from certain defeat at the 11th hour, the beautiful weather at this match led me (and everyone else) to the conclusion that the weather gods have taken up residence in India. :D

Of course, it was not without its glitches. The Jelly Bean Incident was childish and ridiculous to the point of almost humour. For those who are uninformed, England's slip cordon allegedly threw jelly beans onto the pitch after every ball was bowled when Zaheer was batting- retribution no doubt, for his marvelous bowling. Vaughan of course, insisted that some jelly beans must have fallen out or left on the pitch as a "prank", but that they definitely did not throw them at Zaheer. Well, whatever it was, it failed miserably in distracting Zaheer. Instead, it riled him up and improved his bowling further. Hoorah to you Zaks. :)

And then there was Sreesanth. I really don't want to say much, I don't know what I feel about his unnecessary aggression. I think this quote from cricinfo will sum it up nicely.

"And yet, if England's childishness (or "mental disintegration" as Vaughan would dearly love to be able to call it) was seen to backfire on one of India's players, then it arguably scored a direct hit on another. Sreesanth, the breakdancing bundle of energy from Kerala, had a shocking Test match. Teased for his apparent resemblance to Harry Potter while batting, he bowled like one of Voldemort's stooges - ineffective, erratic and at times downright ugly. He sent Pietersen, the object of India's ire, crashing to the turf with a whistling beamer, and then aimed a vicious bouncer at Collingwood after overstepping by almost a metre."

That's that. Another extremely funny incident involved the commentators. They were discussing how Dravid (JAMMY <3) doesn't like his nickname of "The Wall" as he feels his shot range encompasses being more than just a wall. So they were trying to come up with new nicks for him. Harsha suggested why not just use Jammy, as his team calls him that and jam is apt because it goes with everything, akin to Dravid's versatility. BUT THEN, some other English commentator said, "Jam Rahul... JAM ROLL! Why not jam roll?"

I think that was the point where I fell off the sofa laughing.

Geez. StarCricket commentators are hilarious and crazy in the most wonderful way. Someday I hope to be part of their team.

SOMEDAY. :)

And that concludes my long overdue update. Till next time!

An update...?

The primary reason why this blog has been starved of entries is that my soul has been starved of cricket.

School (read as: Theatre Studies and Drama) has been gnawing away at my free (and otherwise) time, leaving no time for petty (NOT) pastimes like watching cricket.

Oh WHY must life be so cruel, I wail in anguish. :P

Ok cutting the crap, I'm sorry, this blog will remain rather dead until an extraordinary amount of free time shows up. Which I don't foresee in the near future. Well, I don't consider the end of November near future. Sadly.

I go now, to endure further torture to my cricket-deprived soul.

Bad Bad Bad Me.

I admit I haven't had the time or the health to update this on a consistent basis. But the super8s have produced to shockers or upsets yet. So it's not that much of a big deal.

The only excitement has been Lasith Malinga's 4 wickets off 4 consecutive balls to ALMOST win the match against SA for SL and Windies' dismal performance to register 3 losses and almost certainly no semi-final berth. Sad stuff.

Ok the headaches are getting to me. SA-Ireland today. Chance for an upset? Nahh, doubt it.

A Poor Show.

It was a truly pathetic loss to SriLanka on Friday. Let's not use euphemisms. It was terrible. They bowled reasonably well and 254 was a gettable score. A very gettable score. But they collapsed early and didn't keep wickets in hand. The batting line up, which looks awesome on paper, just didn't perform when they had to. That's the long and the short of it. No point blaming the captain or the coach or individual players. It's the whole team which is at fault. The team as a unit, not individuals.

Yeah sure, I’m disappointed, just like any other fan of any other sporting team. But I guess the important thing to keep in mind here is that cricket is a game, like any other. There has to be a winner and a loser. India played badly, they lost. Like Dravid said, they deserved to lose. They would have gotten trashed if they had played like that in the Super8s anyway. There’s no point in throwing stones at their houses like those mad Indian “fans” do. I hope they don’t harm the players or the management in any way, that’s all. I’m more worried than angry or upset.

Let’s take this as a blessing. This will prompt them to rethink their system and their strategies. Maybe there’ll be a new coach. Maybe there’ll be new players. Maybe Indian cricket will take a turn for the better from this trashing. You never know. Staying positive is the key :)

Indian cricket will live through this; it’s been in this situation before. We know how they are, their form seesaws wildly and unpredictably. So we Indian fans should be resilient and stick by the team. Shame on you if you don’t, that’s not being a true Indian fan.

Let's leave them alone for a while, give them their time to reflect upon what went wrong, and what they should have done. Let the Indian cricket board have time to make some selection changes and some adjustments to the system. And let’s hope they come back into action in the next tournament as more mature, thinking cricketers.

For now, I'm keenly following the reports on Bob Woolmer's death. It's a sad, sad event and a great loss to the cricketing world. And the fact that it was murder is just plain vile. How could anyone be so heartless? Nothing justifies taking someone's life. So I'm keenly following the case, hoping daily that they would have nabbed the murderer(s).

I think Woolmer's death is a very timely lesson for all Indian fans. There are bigger things happening out there. A cricket match result is not as important as life. It's not the end of the world if they get kicked out of the World Cup. Let's hope the rioters in India realise that.

And that's really all I'm going to say about that match. All credit to SL for doing well. They deserved the win.

Do or Die situations... literally?

To Divi, my faithful comment-er: I'm glad SOMEONE reads this hahaha. And I have been a bad girl, not updating. Sorry, was all tangled up in exams.

Anyhow, it has been an extremely eventful week of cricket once again.

TeamIndia managed to do the impossible and lose to Bangladesh. Truly amazing, they are. It was a humiliating defeat and a disappointing one after having forgone an entire night of sleep to watch it. We kept believing that they would somehow pull back, somehow, they would clinch the game at the last moment. BUT NO! They just gave up!! It was incredibly frustrating, sitting there and shouting at the tv, but not being able to do ONE thing to influence the outcome of the match. UGH. But all credit to Bangladesh, they bowled, batted and fielded extremely well to show India that they are not a team to be taken lightly. India meanwhile, put on the poorest show allround. Bangladesh deserved to win, let's face it. It was a crappy performance from India and it put them in a desperate situation, where they had to win the next two matches, by good margins to get ahead on the net run rate.

Luckily, they managed to score 413 (highest ever World Cup score) against Bermuda and win by 257 runs, the biggest margin in a World Cup match. It was an AMAZING batting performance by our team and it showed HOW MUCH potential we actually have, and seem to tuck away in a corner whenever its needed. RAH. Sometimes you really want to kill our team. Sehwag scored a brilliant 114, Dada got 89, Yuvi a marvelous, quick fire 83, and Sachin a 57 from 29 balls. Great great batting performances. :) So that was a slight bit of redemption. But they still have to win against SL if they plan to even be in the running for the Super8s. Trust India to make things so tense. SIGH.

Ok enough about India, on to another event that still has the cricket world stunned, shocked and extremely saddened. Yes, Bob Woolmer's death. It was extremely sad as it is, when I got the news the morning of my econs exam. It took me a thorough read of every article about it on Cricinfo to BELIEVE it. Then it took me a few days to digest it. And I'm still very depressed by it all. Inzi retired from captaincy and ODIs after yesterday's Pakistan Zimbabwe match. He announced his retirement right after Woolmer's passing. It was all a huge shock and I'm still recovering.
AND JUST WHEN I DIDN'T NEED IT... I opened today's Sports page in the newspaper and the headlines read "Was it murder in the Caribbean?". It was an article saying that Bob Woolmer may have been murdered by bookies who wanted to silence him about some match-rigging. It sent me into a huge state of denial and shock. All over again. I truly hope it wasn't murder or anything. I think it would stop the tournament if it was. ><

All in all, it has been quite a CRAZY WC so far. It's been quite twisty-turny, so who knows what awaits the cricketing world in the upcoming matches?

Of bunglers and broken records.

And that's what the first 7 matches of the Cricket World Cup 2007 have been about.
While matches like Aussie vs Scots, Lanka vs Bermuda and even Kenya vs Canada have been pretty boring, because everybody just KNEW which team will win, matches like Windies vs Pak, Ireland vs Zimbabwe and Eng vs NZ have been close matches.

Pak threw away what could have been easily won by collapsing like dominoes. England too, started badly but then consolidated with Collingwood and Pietersen to get to about 130 for 3. Then they did their trademark collapse and were 134 for 6. It was pretty apalling to watch, and we took that as the cue to switch the TV off and hit the sack. They were subsequently all out for 209. NZ naturally, had no difficulty in getting to a simple target like 210. It's amazing, how my two top favourite teams are so susceptible to insane collapses like this. I sincerely hope India doesn't do that today, especially not with everyone coming over to my house to watch. I want it to be a good match (which India wins, DUH).

The IRELAND-ZIM match, however, was one hell of a thriller. It came all the way down to the last over, with Zim needing 9 runs to win, with 1 wicket in hand. Wow, it was a nailbiting finish, right down to the last ball. Zim scored 8 runs in the first 5 balls, and tied the scores. AND THEN. AND THEN IRELAND gets the final wicket in the last ball!! OMG it was tie. I was watching the highlights AFTER knowing the results of the match, and I still chewed my nails down to stubs. It was incredibly exciting. The Irish erupted in celebrations when they managed to tie the match, dancing and doing a lap of honour around the ground.

But honestly, the Irish dropped 5 or 6 catches and missed at least 2 run outs. They were terrible in their fielding. AND YET Zim couldn't win!! How badly did they play man? But Ireland really did bowl well, even though they didn't back it up with their fielding. I tell you, if they had caught even two of those missed catches, they would have cleansweeped the match from Zimbabwe. Now THAT would have been seriously interesting. So much for minnows.

As for the SA-Netherlands match, OMG. It was a run feast from SA. Bats were flung around, boundaries ablaze in every direction, burning record books. 18 sixes in the innings, 354 runs from just 40 overs, and 6 sixes in an over by Herschelle Gibbs, the first time EVER in a ODI. Truly truly amazing batting. As the cricinfo article says, "Don't call one-sided matches boring". I mean, how often do you get to see such CARNAGE on the cricket pitch? The SA-ans practically devoured the Netherlands bowlers. Amazing.

So that is how it's been progressing. Today is India vs Bangladesh. Bangladesh can't be underestimated, they are good. So how will this one turn out? Only time will tell. :)

Opening Match.

First match of the 51 matches over. Finito.
It was a match between two extremely unpredictable teams, two of the most unpredictable of the current test playing nations- Windies and Pakistan. Windies were trashed by India in the practice match and didn’t have the psychological edge that Pakistan did (having won both of their practice matches, especially the final one against SA), and it seemed that this would lead to their downfall in the first match. Because truly, they had the slowest of starts. Even at the 24th over or so, their run rate was barely above 3, they were feeling for the ball, playing and missing ever so often. Pakistan’s bowling was getting the better of them, as wickets started falling.

But suddenly, they consolidated, with Marlon Samuels making a wonderful 63 off 70 balls and Smith abandoning orthodox batting to smash 32 off 15 balls. It was a treat for the eyes, but I wasn’t too pleased with Pakistan’s suddenly dismal bowling (because we had predicted that Paki would win in our G12 prediction thing… yes vested interests, evidently). WestIndies ended off with 241 for 9, with Collymore smashing a spectacular six off the last ball of the innings.

I didn’t watch Paki’s run chase, but from what I heard/ read, they lost a wicket in the 3rd ball. Pathetic. They had the psychological edge, they had the skill, and YET they got all out for 187. All I can say is, they didn’t apply themselves, and they probably gave in to a bout of nerves.
I mean, yeah sure, it can be nerve wrecking playing the opening match, but hey, aren’t they supposed to just concentrate on the game? I mean, Windies had just got hit badly by India and they came back to bag a wonderful win.

Here’s a nice summary of yesterday’s match:
Fine Legs and Dying Swans

On to today’s matches, it’s Aussie- Scotland and Kenya-Canada. No need to say anything about who’s gonna win the first one. But Kenya-Canada will probably be interesting. Aussie is smashing away as usual, from what I can see in the live scorecard on cricinfo, because I am currently away from the TV, where my parents are switching between matches on the two World Cup channels.

And oh wow, from what I can see, Scotland’s opening fast bowler is 37 years old! *waggles eyebrows* He’s good! (:

On Extraaa Innings (hereby referred to as EI), they were discussing whether the “minnows” deserve to be playing in the World Cup or not. I don’t feel it’s fair to call them the minnows. Ok, FINE, they are weaker teams, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get a chance to play in the WC. I mean, it’s only by playing these big tournaments with all the high-flying teams will they get exposure. They’ll only improve their game and they’ll be able to work towards being a test playing nation in future. And you know, all these people talk about promoting cricket to the world and encouraging the interest for the game in more countries… accepting these less prominent teams into the World Cup is a great way to do so, don’t you think? It’s like, even though I don’t like football, if Singapore were to play in the World Cup, I would definitely watch with interest, because my country is playing. Similarly, more people in places like Canada, Holland, Scotland and Ireland would watch cricket, because their country is playing the World Cup. It’s a great way to spread the love for the game, and I don’t see why they consider it a waste of time letting weaker nations play in the WC. If they want the Cricket World Cup to be a big scale event, even ½ the scale of the Football World Cup many years down the road, they have to start SOMEWHERE don’t they?

My pet peeve for the day.
I think I should return to alternating between matches and studying at the same time.

(I am secretly wishing Aussie will lose today, even though there’s absolutely NO chance of that. Sighh)

No turning back.

THIS IS IT.
ANOTHER THREE HOURS to the opening match.
HALF AN HOUR to the pre-match discussions/ highlights of the opening ceremony (Extraaa Innings).

Once it starts, there's no going back. It's gonna be a blur of excitement for 47 days and then it will all be over, for another four years. On my part, I promise that I will try to blog as detailed analyses as I can, time permitting.

Even MUM has been seriously excited about the match since morning. She's even planned which sofa she's gonna sit on. And now she's out buying snacks to eat while watching the match. Now THAT is called World Cup fever. And I think we've all caught it bad. :D

*bounce*

JUST.ONE.MORE.DAY. :D

Operation Abandon-Sanity gets underway from this point.

Tri-coloured nails, here I come.

World Cup anticipation

OK, loooooong time since I posted. Sorry, it's been crazy, the last 3 weeks or so. ><

BUT in other news, THE WORLD CUP IS ALMOST UNDERWAY (!!!!!!!!).
Practice matches were in full swing, they ended yesterday, with India winning both their prac matches against Netherlands and West Indies. They TRASHED Windies yesterday, got them all out for 85 (!!) and then proceeded to score 86 for 1. :) Australia won both their matches (wow, finally), their second one being against England. Bangladesh defeated New Zealand, much to the shock of the cricketing world. Pakistan trashed South Africa yesterday, and SA also got bowled out for 192 by IRELAND (even though they proceeded to win that match). Well, yes, it has been interesting, and these are just the practice matches. WC opening ceremony tomorrow and then opening match on Tuesday between Pak and Windies.

G12 (our wonderful get togther group) is having our World Cup predictions thing (where we predict who will win every match, and accumulate points) again, and it's incredibly exciting, because my family is the reigning champion predictor from the last World Cup :D

So here's to a BRILLIANT World Cup, and may the best team (well, ok, the best team besides Aussie) win!

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Hold your breath, cricketing world.
New Zealand has just won the 2nd Chappell-Hadlee ODI, sealing the series and handing Australia their second consecutive series defeat in the lead-up to the World Cup.

Australia scored 336 for 4 off their 50 overs. And NZ WON, with 337 for 5 off 48.4 overs. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. Mind-blowing victory.

And with that defeat, Australia has effectively given up their long-time No.1 place in the world rankings to South Africa. A momentuous day in cricketing history indeed.

I am still in far too much shock/awe to analyse this. Maybe next time. After I've chewed on this a bit and digested it.

The Series is Ours! Again!

YES YES YES YES :D :D :D :D

Yes, India has once again snatched victory from under the opposition's noses in the final match of the series. The Lankan series concluded today, with the previous match being on wednesday. And yup, India won both! :)

Wednesday's match I missed almost fully, being in school. But once again, they dragged it to the VERY VERY end with Dravid and Dhoni's brilliant partnership of 130+ clinching India the precious victory.

Today's match however, was nothing short of brilliant. Yes, our bowling did lose its way in the middle because after having SL for 56 or so for 4, they let them score 259. All credit to Chamara Silva who played a fine knock of 107 not out. But then, our batsmen... oh.my.goodness.
Ganguly gave everyone a scare by retiring hurt halfway into the first over. But after that, Sehwag and Robin Uthappa practically tore the SL bowling attack into little tiny shreds. They blasted fours and sixes off every bowler, leaving the Lankans looking extremely lacklustre and incompetent. They also looked disgruntled and resigned. It was terrible bowling on their part and perfect timing + placement on our batsmen's part combined to take us to 100 off just 14 overs. Uthappa got his 50 but got out soon afterwards. Dinesh Karthik walked our and got out for 1 run. Disappointment. Nervousness.

Then Ganguly walked out, looking a little shaky, but fit enough to play. The entire stadium erupted in cheers to see Mr. Recently-Reliable out in the middle once again. I too cheered silently, hoping that he won't get himself injured seriously. He did not disappoint. A slight nick of his to the keeper went unnoticed by the Lankans as well as the umpire, and Ganguly capitalised on the mistake. He smacked 3 gorgeous sixes, creamed several fours and constantly ran between the wickets. His efforts led to him picking up another wonderful half-century. :)

In the midst of all this, Sehwag got himself run out in the most ridiculous fashion. He hit to ball down to third man, and ran a run. BUT BEFORE HE REACHED THE DAMN CREASE, he decided to just stop running and turn around and ball watch. Sangakkara picked up the return throw and slowly threw it back to the bowler. Note that nobody had actually realised that Sehwag could be run out. BUT BY SOME CRAZY BAD LUCK, the ball hit Sehwag's stumps, running him out, and Sehwag was caught-in-the-act being extremely lazy and careless and irresponsible about his game. Think about it. He was playing a tremendous knock, with the boundaries just flowing out of his bat. He was seeing and timing the ball to perfection, his feet were moving, he was getting into a good position to play the ball... all in all, he was in great form in the game. AND THEN, he decides to commit suicide. GEEZ, should he really be in the WC squad? I do wonder sometimes. Sigh.

Anyway, once Sehwag got out, Yuvi came in. Admittedly, he has not been in the greatest of nicks... BUT he got off the mark with a wonderful 6. That gave me hope. And in line with his emphatic start, he continued punching fours and sixes to all sides of the ground, leaving the bowlers rather stranded. Even though Dilshan did a good job pulling the run rate back, none of the other bowlers could back him up. Bandara went for almost 10 runs an over, Maharoof went for 10, many others went for over 6. Yuvraj spared almost no one in his trampling march to victory. And with Ganguly at the other end, running hard and hitting boundaries in tandem, they could do no wrong. Yuvi went on to make 95 in emphatic fashion, hitting 22 runs off the last over and securing a RESOUNDING win for India.

Suddenly, the Indian dressing room was erupting in joy, the Lankans were just plain disappointed, the crowd was going crazy and throwing water bags and bottles onto the ground, the security was rushing out with ropes to gather the players in the middle and lead them back to the dressing rooms... it was all drama.

Soon they returned for the presentation, for which we were eagerly waiting. Arun Lal went through his usual routine of intro-ing the presentation party, which was exceptionally big. Then he went on to talk to Mahela Jayawardane... pretty much the usual. Then came the Man of the Match award. They gave it to Chamara Silva for his brilliant 100. I think he deserved that. He looked pretty shocked to be receiving the award to tell the truth. Haha. But it was nice.

THEN... THEN came the Man of the Series award. Which went to... GANGULY!! :D:D
YES DADA! The team drowned him in champagne as per tradition, which was nice to see because you could tell that he really belonged. He had made the most amazing of comebacks to the Indian side along with Zaheer Khan. But what made his comeback more remarkable was the fact that almost the entire nation had him under its boot, crushing him. The media was pelting him with criticism, the public was varying between all out praise for his past achievements and complete trashing for his lack of recent performances. But he fought through all the rubbish and came back, in a HUGE way.
I admit (rather ashamedly) that I too, had given up hope on Dada, of whom I was once a BIG fan. But to see him come back like this has revived my interest and I now understand why I fell in love with the way he played during the '99 WC. At his prime, he is simply unstoppable. :) Go Dada, you really rock.
Big thumbs up to him and Zaks for having come back SO DANG WELL. <33

Then of course, Jammy came up to speak and collect the trophy :D He then called the whole team up for pictures. They all hugged and shoved each other around and shouted a lot, proving that they're still SUCH KIDS, which is why we love them. Then they finally got tame enough to allow the photographer to click. Hahahaha. I LOVE our team!

In other news, I heard that Aussie got TRASHED in a ten-wicket defeat by NZ in some random ODI. I also heard that it wasn't exactly the FULL Aussie topguns team, but there were still several top players involved. What is happening?! Have the Aussies been sabotaged? Very very strange indeed.

So there it is. Going into the WC, India has two brill series victories under its belt, something not even Australia can claim to have. Will they capitalise on this psychological advantage? Only time will tell.

Here's to an absolutely amazing WC. May the best team win. :)

Bittersweet outcomes.

WHAT THE BLOODY NONSENSE INDIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?!?!?!?!?

I AM SURE YOU HAVE SRILANKA IN A SITUATION WHERE THEY SCORE ONLY 257 AND THEN YOU BAT UNTIL 129 FOR 2 IN 25 OVERS AND THEN PROCEED TO FALL 5 RUNS SHORT OF THE TOTAL BECAUSE YOU JUST COULDN'T MAKE ENOUGH RUNS OMG OMG OMG.

Some I really truly want to KILL our team. They had SL in SUCH a fix with some brilliant bowling. And then Dada and Sachin came out and batted so brilliantly together, coasting along at 7 runs an over and then SUDDENLY, goodness-knows-WHAT happened, India needed 24 runs off 30 balls and then they go on to lose like UTTER idiots. ONLY INDIA, mind you, ONLY INDIA can land themselves in UNBELIEVABLY good situations and then go on to lose the match. TOTAL TOTAL RUBBISH. I want to throw darts at Jammy's poster right now. And at Zaks and Yuvi too, for being injured and missing this match.

I also want to shoot the commentators right now, for talking non-stop when they really should just hang their heads in shame at India's pathetic performance.

But a small bright side is that Sangakkara played extremely well for his 110, and he spoke super nicely at the presentation ceremony :D (Yes, I am quite a fan of Sangakkara), so yeah, I guess that gave me some small amount of joy. (Although why these good innings of his have to come against TeamIndia, I don't know)

In the meantime, all Englishmen should hold their heads up high because England has almost won a BRILLIANT match against Australia and the CB series trophy as well. It is raining and they are just waiting for the announcement to come through. OH CORRECTION!! ENGLAND HAS JUST WON IT BY THE DUCKWORTH LEWIS METHOD! OMG OMG OMG ENGLAND HAS WON THE CB SERIES!!!! Complete underdogs when they started the series after a total whitewash in the Ashes series, England came from behind to claim four consecutive victories (THREE against Aussie) in the matches where it mattered most, to win the series HANDS DOWN and leave Australia gaping in shock. They have given the world no.1 a RUDE jolt back to reality, and maybe... JUST MAYBE, I take back my comment on how Australia is only losing due to pure complacency.

England have decidedly shown their skill as a unit, and don't look like the ruin that they were a month or so ago. This is definitely a huge wake-up call for the, I quote my dad, "Geriatric brigade" that is Australia.

As for me, even though India has played miserably, I am a happy girl, because Australia needed something like this which would get their heads out of the clouds and their feet back on the ground, and it is a bonus that England, my second fav team, was the one to do them the favour. :D
As the Barmy Army rejoices the English victory, I rejoice the Aussies' downfall.

"Drinks all around!"- Captain Jack Sparrow
How apt :)

One-upping the World No.1

I do wonder how it must feel to defeat Australia, as England have so convincingly done on the last two occasions they faced them. Truly remarkable performances from England and truly pathetic ones from Australia, and I don't just mean by their own standards. If you go by Australia's usual standards, their last two performances have been nothing short of abysmal. Catches (sitters and dollies) were dropped by complete butter-fingers, run out chances were missed, throws ended up at the wrong end of the pitch... yeah, it just wasn't clicking for the Aussies.

Has the top team dipped in standard, perhaps age has finally caught up with their (no offence) rather vintage team? It is indeed tempting to say yes. But looking back at this season of theirs, I would say these losses are purely due to undue complacency.

It's amazing isn't it, the way the Aussie team seems so timeless, so incontrovertibly no.1? The number of times they have trounced teams on their way to victory after victory, somehow makes them seem almost God-like, a class above the rest. But when you watch them collapsing with 6 wickets for 33 runs in the last 10 overs, it strikes you very hard that they are only all too human, and as we all know, what goes up, must come down. So I continue to console myself with the laws of gravity, and live in the hope that someday, somebody else (*cough*India*cough*) will replace Australia at the top.

I just pray that I will live to see that day.

Merciless Weather Gods

@(*$^@!($ GIVE ME BACK MY CRICKET MATCHHH :(
Stupid rain, since when does it rain in FEB in India?
PLEASE PLEASE let the match resume, even if it has to be shortened or whatever. *fingers crossed*

Eloquence.

Do read this article. It is eloquence exemplified, as the author waxes lyrical about TeamIndia's top order. :)

Sure to bring a smile to the face of any Indian fan :)

Click here

The India-Windies series.

SERIES WON. YES YES YES :D
Yes, I am a bad girl who updates late, but HEY, school is a killer.

India lost the 3rd ODI rather miserably. After having started so well, with Uthappa scoring quick runs, our last 7 wickets collapsed for a paltry 35 runs. Having bundled India out for 268, Windies had almost no trouble at all making the 269 runs to win. On a brilliant batting wicket, India had lost out. Terrible. It was so pathetic, as if our middle order was non existent. Really sad.

BUT THEN. The 4th ODI came along. I was of course, in school having dance pratice, but we were all getting constant updates and we spent much of dance prac squealing in delight about India's magnifique performance. :) Which is why I am watching the retelecast now, and I must say, India batted superbly. Uthappa and Ganguly started brilliantly, and after Uthappa got out, Jammy came to the centre. Dada and Jammy then made a BEAUTIFULLY stabilising partnership of 101.

Dada got a gorgeous 68, with a six and several boundaries. He hit hard and ran hard, making his innings a balanced one. He turned the strike over nicely, and him and Jammy complemented each other perfectly, one with sheer power and aggression, and the other a solid wall of defence and textbook strokeplay. :) It was a sight indeed.

Dada then got out to a silly sort of stumping. Sachin came in and started a little dodgily, but soon he got into a rhythm which carried him and Jammy to another 100+ partnership. Jammy just rocks :D

But Jammy knew what he had to do, because he just was not India's finishing man. He started trying for big shots and got himself out- so that Dhoni would come in and finish it in style for India. Dhoni did not disappoint. Three GIGANTIC sixes from Dhoni and one HUGGGEEEE one from Sachin. The ball was lost TWICE in the same over. It was an insane and breathtaking performance. Dhoni was playing in his usual flamboyant and powerful style, with huge flourishes of the bat, while Sachin just exhibited the pure class of a master. The final 10 overs brought 107 runs to the Indian total. At one stage, no one would have expected India to go much past 300 at most. But they got to a magnificient 341, which eventually just proved too much for Windies.

I have not watched the Windian reply of course, but I must say that India took wickets at consistent intervals and Windies just never got going. They finally bundled out for 181 after 41.2 overs or so. I must say that the top order really outdid itself today. A quickfire 28 from Uthappa, 68 from Dada, 78 from Jammy, 40 off 20 balls from Dhoni and 100 off 76 balls from the little master himself.

To quote my dad, "It was an Autralian-esque performance." And I think that really says it all. I am SO SO proud of their amazing performance. :)
And once again, Jammy did his usual thanking the opposition thing at the end of the series. Ahhh I love our team at times like this <3

The SL series starts soon. Jayasuriya is their key man, and he's in terrific form. I think we really have to outdo ourselves like today to win against SL. Here's to a great series ahead! :)

In other news, the ads for the Windies series and that for the SL series are simply great. Amusing and inventive :) I <333 Indian ads. They are so creative and different. They reach out to a billion people, they make us laugh, cry, despair and cheer. Especially the cricket ads. I remember one entry in my other blog about how it is because of the ads that Indian fans stay so rooted to their team even when India plays worse than Holland or USA. Well, propaganda or not, the ads make me very happy.

One of the commentators just said, "that's a batting card that would have swung the mood of an entire nation". How true is that? I mean, in India, cricket is simply an everybody thing. Even if you're not a cricket fan, there's probably no way you can be unaware of the score of an Indian match. Everyone knows about it, everyone discusses it, in the streets, in the trains, in the workplaces, in the homes, everyone from the poorest to the richest.

Well. That's about it then. I don't know when I'll next update this blog... probably not until the SL match (8th Feb). Till next time!

<333 to TeamIndia and the MenInBlue!