Australia - the march continues!

Guys, its time! The time has come for us to sit back and enjoy cricket as a game and chuck the emotions/patriotism that might hinder us in enjoying the best!!
Please come to terms of the fact that Aussies are by far a superior team compared to other mortal teams in the competition.They beat the proteas and for sure the WI are not going to reach 323 in the reserve day or in any other day!

I know people would say "they would have been raped by the proteas if not for Watsons run out and Smiths dismissal owing to cramps"..Guys, do u say the same thing if India were in this situation?Doesnt it say that we are being stupid instead of being fans of the game!I am sure that people would say / feel that Proteas could have beaten them blue and black if Kallis played more aggressively and if Watson's throw had'nt hit the stump?WTF??

How can you come up with If's and buts in a game?That clearly shows that there is a mental block in the mind of those "rationalists" who fail to accept that a team can be as dominating as the Aussies.. Please break the shackles and come out just a bit from your mind and imagine the way these guys have played their cricket..They might have sledged, stared at you, given your family a beating thro their words but then hey, isnt there a way each team play their game?We as Indians burn peoples effigies but have u heard about this anywhere?So we def have our own charecteristics right?Thats the way we need to accept people and the way they play the game!!

Its a losers statement to say that "Aussies are useless"..How can one make such sweeping statements?Havent they taken the game to a new plane totally?Are'nt the other teams playing the catching game? Doesn't Ponting and co have a completely altar of game compared to a India or a England.A one off Ashes defeat doesnt make the team a bunch of losers/chokers right?When we celebrate a one off defeat by the Indian team and celebrate it as the best thing to happen, its time we become rational and wash our emotions attached to the game.

Its the Aussies !! The rulers of the game!!The rulers might fall in a battle but never will a war be done without them sucking some other team blood!!No team has ever dominated the game so much-not even the great WI of the early70's.I say this as the times have changed, cricket is getting more universal by the match and its not right to compare between different times!But still based on the sheer records , the domination and the way with which they have done their job without toil speaks of sheer charecter of the team. There has been no blip in the performances of the team even when there was a change in leadership from Waugh to Ponting. Infact the Aussies have been so damn good that they dropped Bevan..Yea thats right ,its the great Micheal Bevan!!!

Again, this team is the best just due to the deligent work by the Australian Cricket Board!!There is no politics, the captain and coach have an equal say and there is no distinction between a senior/junior.Infact although pple say its the "Dads army"with an ave age of 31, who cares as long as they keep whacking the asses of the opponents!! Hail Aussie cricket!!Hail them as long as you appreciate the game..Its sheer brilliance to just watch them play!!!

India - chokers

I know its been long since I blogged - exactly 1 week and i have missed loads of matches inbetween..I have no intention of writing about each one of them but when I managed to catch up with Indian cricket, I was met with the usual frustration and the headache that happens after every pathetic display by the team (which btw is getting very very frequent)

India got into the SL match with a do or die situation. With a listless display against Bangladesh, it was a must win agst the SL lions. The match against Bermuda could have been substituted/written off as nets practise but unfortunately ICC decided to count this nets practise as an offical ODI game. So the D-Day arrived and millions of Indian fans got up and prayed for Dravid and co for the team to do well and make us all happy and proud by getting into the second round.The result just happened to break the heart of millions of Indians and with that ended an era of hope.

Winning the toss was one of the major advantage that we had and the bowlers put up a decent show in the opening spell ,keeping it tight throughout except for a brief period during the Silva and Dilshan partnership. The lankans scored 255 and it seemed gettable in a track that got better with every ball bowled and every ball played. Out come Uthappa and Ganguly. In my opinion there was already a miscalculation with Uthappa opening.. Ideally SRT could have come out, taken the strike as he did against Pakistan in the 2003 WC and get us to off a decent start.

Its been more than 8 months, since the opening pair gave us more than 100 and that is one of the concerns that this team needs to address..When SRT didnt walk out in number 1, there was a back shift and once the wickets started to tumble it was the familiar Indian story - the story thats as old as the bollywood hero's running behind the heroin's around a tree in a never seen garden. Yuvi's run out sealed the fate of the team and with that the hopes of a billion people and the sponsors were into the ditch.

Sachin needs a special mention.. The ball wasnt anything special,the pitch didnt hold any demons, the bowler was not settled, the target was not 500,the team had not lost wickets around him, he could have taken his time to settle, proved that he can play in big matches (apart from the sharjah one some 10 years back and WC 2003 agst Pak). But then our man, poked, jabbed, tried something and ended up getting his timber rattled. The familiar nod of the head, the MRF bat edge check(a habit that players have when they get out due to an inside edge), a look into the skye and you know it is over!He is the man who sums up the condition of the present Indian line up. The team whose ave age is 32, is as old as SRT and has been given a long enough rope thats the time has come fotr the inevitable. I am a big big fan of Mr.Sachin but then its time he re-thinks about his odi career. Its totally upto him and India is proud to have him.. But may be, he might not get the fairytale farewell that he might deserve.

So what does the future hold for the nation that has definetly due to her performance in the WC earned the title of minnows. Dravid I feel might continue as the captain but then frankly, I ll have a youngster getting into the helm of the side.. May be a Yuvraj could do it for starters.. Dravid doesnt bring in the aggression element that Ganguly had so succesfully exuded.. He has been a gentleman but then all gentleman cannot be great leaders.. You need some aggression, some jeering that brings the game alive .. When Ganguly was the captain, you could always sopt where he would be, his superb moves, his emotion when a wicket falls.. I think Dravid is right the opposite.. A person who watches Ganguly on field will immediately recognize him to be the captain of the team while with Dravid you need some effort to get it right.. I am not saying he is a horrible captain.. I am just trying to say that its the Ganguly way that works and not the Dravid way ..

Greg Chappel in all possiblities will be sacked and the board might have a re-wamp in its selction panel. Vengsarkar could run for the coach and India would for sure go in for a local coach and not an Intl coach. Kumble might hang up his boots once the WC formalities are done and Agarkar might be the person who might be the guy to look out for.. He has not had a great series.
The super eight has been reduced to a super 6 with the minnows Bangladesh and Ireland getting in. The World Cup still holds some meat only due to Australia, South Africa and the Lankans. Just hope the super eight stage is crossed off in a jiffy and the semi's start soon. Thats when the cup comes alive!

(No) MATCH two!

There was absolutely no contest and yeah - you guessed it right .. Aussies were involved in the annihilation of the opponents. Australia vs Scotland turned into a dead rubber unlike an "English friend" of mine who felt Scotts had the fire in them to upset the World Champs. Oh, this English friend of mine needs a special mention. He definetly keeps me going with his "tantrums" of England being the team to beat in the competition. Only time can silence him!!

Aussies were put into bat and ofcourse Haydos and Gilli went about their job to near perfection until Gilchrist played one too many. The pair added 91 runs at a brisk scoring rate and the platform was set for the "man of the year" to come and demonstrate his ability to put the opposition to the fence. His strokes were all around the wicket and no bowler was spared.. All were treated with disdain and the Scotts were soon all over the park . Punter demolished each and every bowler on his way to a brilliant 4 th WC century. Two in a row (the first one in 2003 when he tore apart the Indian bowling - Zaheer and Srinath would have definetly felt better to bat than to bowl on that "fateful" day) and the Aussie captain seems to be on a roll again. He gets better and better doesn't he? A celebration to the game.. He could go down as the only captain after Clive Lloyd to be the captain to defend and win the WC title.. The prospect seems to be well in reach for Punter and co.


The bowling complemented the batting in every way and the Scotts were skitted out for 130 odd and the match was done .. It was victory to the greatest team and the margin of 203 runs was the second highest in history. The domination was stamped and the World leaders were back to what they do best - torment teams. Mighty Glen is just 6 away from going ahead of the great Wasim Akram in terms of WC wicket tally. He is at 48 while Akram is at 54. Akram's record looks weak with Mcgrath's each and every ball and indeed this great fast bowler deserves all that that comes his way. He has far ahead of the pack as the leading International Wicket taker among the faster men.

All in all, a match where the Aussies got back to their winning ways and kickstarted their WC campaign in style. With Symonds all set to return soon, the selectors surely have a task of leaving out someone like Hodge or Clarke and that surely indicates the bench strength of the team. Punter is making sure that he goes all out in adding on to the tally of the WC titles. Since the possiblity of this being his last WC cannot be ruled out, he would want to finish it off in

style - the Punter way !

The second match of the day was between 2 "minnows" - Kenya and Canada. The Canadians put up a score close to 200 and the Kenyans chased it down in style. This kenyan team was indeed a revelation in the 2003 edition weren't they? They went into the semi's and if they managed to get Ganguly or Yuvaraj early on they would have in the process completed the biggest upset in the tournament by going into the finals. Oh, unimaginable right?And worst would have been if they had defeated Aussies !!! Oh, that could have been a killer for the game and the competition. It would have raised issues like how cricket is a game that depends on just one day and how even minnows who were considered unnecessary in the competition won the title.Papers would have flashed "We have a new "minnow' champion.. Salute the Indian behind".

Oh, we humans just wait for a chance to debate don't we? hmmm , I think i am being a bit too skeptical about ourselves. To be frank, I think its these debates that keep the game alive and its matches like these that might spark off few issues here and there .. Lets see how todays match shapes out .. Will be interesting to see the margin of the defeat by the Lankans.. On the whole, one day lesser en-route to the finals..

Highlights (good quality):

part 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ezGPHlvML60

part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HzO3Hta2SMs

part 3: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CL5UXsPxra4

part 4: http://youtube.com/watch?v=KRADrYsvbsI

Match one - March on!!!

So the carribean calypso is truly on its way. Crickets biggest event has started and the excitement and the energy that comes along is simply unmatched. The time has come for all people - cricket lovers, not so much followers of the game to watch this truly exciting part of the game. This carribean episode sure promises to be one thats going to be long in our memories.

The first match was an exciting one to watch. One of the reasons that I found it exiting is purely because of Lara.His presence in the team makes me all the more follow West Indies and their progress in the WC could be really exciting. Secondly due to the energy that these people exude during their wicket celebrations or in general the way they play and enjoy the game is something that makes me crave for an opposistion wicket to fall. Correy Collomore and Gayle are really awesome to watch when they pick a wicket. Infact the people of the carribean are truly great fans of the game and the way that they enjoy irrespective of whether their team loses or wins surely tells us that the game is a winner more than the team in this country.This is something that we Indians need to garner as we regard cricket as a religion and the players as Gods. Thats for sure wonderful but then we need to think that the game is a sport after all and the game and the sportsmanship that comes along should be regarded more important than a win or loss.

The West Indies done and dusted by the Indians in the warm up game, picked up their spirit along with their game and truly it was fascinating to watch them take the Pakistani's by their neck and chop their wickets one by one. Put into bat first, Lara and co made a respectable 241 in 50 overs, thanx to the all wonderful hitting of Smith, Samuels and Bravo. These guys who promised loads from their debut but only faded away, have started to peek of late and its a real nice sign for the carribean team. Lara has gone through a lot of turmoil with managing the team. He made his debut, when the team was a toast for the game but then the following years saw them fall in the manner so un-befitting to their rise.

But their bowling and fielding surely have made us reminiscent of the past and this team has the potential to go all the way to the end only if they maintain this streak and consistency in all departments of the game. 241 was well defended, thanks to the "wonder"-boy Smith's two telling blows of Inzi and Md.Yousuf when both threatened to take the match away from the hosts. Shoaib Malik stood apart in an otherwise forgetful performance by the Pakistani's. Inzi and co, need to pick their game or else they might as well take the flight back home sooner than expected.


Highlights : (Not good quality)

WI innings :
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cUB_QGi4Mm4&mode=related&search=

Pak Innings:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XHfL92NqMyc&mode=related&search=