World Cup Cricket 2015 - INDIA's journey

So finally, world cup ended, at least for India, so ek post toh banti hai.

I would not call India’s journey in it as an interesting or boring, but definitely would call it weird.

Let me try to explain why I’m calling it a weird journey –

1. After pathetic performance in the preceding test series and ODI tri-series who would have imagined them to reach the semi-finals and how.
2. Ask yourself, how confident were you when India played Pakistan in the opener;
3. And confess it, despite win against Pakistan, we totally made peace with the fact that we’ll be thrashed left, right and center by South Africa in next one.
4. Beating South Africa at their own game, i.e. making good use of large MCG by rotating strike, by converting ones into twos, and running out two of their key players, was not less than a miracle; and in their next game while watching ABVD thrashing WI we truly believed Mohit Sharma should have been given MoM just for his throw which ran out ABVD.
5. Then came WI, we lost 6 wickets in chasing 180+ runs, we won mostly because of some sensible batting by Dhoni n Ashwin, and some senseless captaincy by Holder.
6. UAE game does not count at all.
7. Zimbabwe, Ireland gave some serious scare, especially Taylor’s hitting and Irish opener’s stand. Our bowling looked pedestrian and clueless.
8. Then came, QF against B’desh – again it was a serious affair; B’desh was riding high on Mahmudullah’s  back to back 100’s and Soumya Sarkar’s Ganguly like flair; they did exceedingly well against England and New Zealand. In QF, we were not 100% sure of the win, it was a pretty even game till one point, India barely managed to win some crucial periods of play (or B’desh lost due to their inexperience and enormity of the situation) and hence the game.

So with all that 70/70, 7-0, and 11 consecutive WC wins hype, we faced the not-so-formidable hosts Australia; though it warrants a post on itself, but I’ll not go in detail, will not bore myself with my own over analysis.

So what went wrong after ‘such-a-strong-showing’?

In reality, nothing new happened, we failed because we failed to acknowledge our problems, or address our problems; in simple straight forward terms we lost because –

1. Even after spending 4/5 months in Australia, we still don’t know what to do with STEVE SMITH.
2. We still don’t know how to blow away the tail-enders.
3. Our tail-enders still don’t know how to hold their ground against a quality opposition.

At one point, when Smith n Maxwell were pummeling everything out of park, score of 370+ seems inevitable, then sudden 3 wicket collapse (Smith/Maxwell/Finch) brought India back in game but we lost the plot thereon, we allowed shoddy and out of form Watson to survive, we allowed Clark to free is arms now and then, even till then score looked manageable, but we committed biggest folly by allowing Faulkner some free runs and finally letting Johnson score 27 off just 9 balls. Such complacency is inexcusable. All the late flourish shifted the whole momentum.

We started the chase well, Rohit and Dhawan had their share of luck early which was again a good omen, but when you’re chasing 325+ you tend to overdo things; with 70+ runs onboard with healthy 6+ RR, again casualness in approach creeped in;

Dhawan’s dismissal is a prime example of that, may be got bored or what, he tried something stupid out of curiosity and picked the only man parked in the deep. Boredom.

Kohli weighed himself down with expectation of whole team and country, he started with out-of-character extremely cautious approach and played a maiden over.

And in very next over, he suddenly realized he is 'THE KOHLI' and he needs to exude that and try to dominate Johnson. As a result he played an expensive shot which was not there. Overconfidence.

Rohit was best at being Rohit, scored an effortless 6 and got bowled effortlessly next ball. Casualness.

Let’s not get more into it, but before I stop, one last thing, Dhoni is not a magician; he cannot think for every guy; he needs a stronger supporting cast during ‘strategizing’ he alone cannot do it all. He needs better support from guys like Raina/Ashwin/Kohli/Jadeja. 

And guys like Jadeja need to rise themselves, they have talent, they should NOT be content with their current situation; Steve Smith and Maxwell are prime example, how these guys raised their games season after season and became best batsman after starting their career at no. 7/8.

Anyways, finally the weirdness has ended; started with low expectations, and reached unreasonably higher expectations, and crashed down expectedly but crashed down in a manner that made it look unacceptable.

Hopefully, guys will learn from this roller coaster experience and will become better in the times to come.

Lord's test

My team for upcoming historic test match at Lord's

1) Gautam Gambhir
2) Rahul Dravid
3) VVS Laxman
4) Sachin Tendulkar
5) Suresh Raina
6) Yuvraj Singh
7) MS Dhoni
8) Harbhajan
9) Zaheer Khan
10) Ishant Sharma
11) Munaf Patel

I know, this won't be final playing XI and definitely not in this order.
Team management won't fiddle with VVS's position as he has done extremely well at his 5 position, and similarly someone with Dravid's credentials won't be handed the opener's role just like that; and There is going to be a toss up between Munaf and Praveen, both are similar bowlers but Praveen is slightly better fielder and can also wield his bat better than Munaf, so he might a get nod ahead of him.
So in most probability, team management will stick to more traditional approach for the first test, i.e. to open with specialist openers and not fiddle with already settled batting order.
So Mukund will open with Gambhir, and Dravid & Laxman will play at their usual positions.

Also Praveen will be opted over Munaf.

But in heart of my heart, I still feel India should take a pro-active stand rather than a reactive one. Opening with one brand new opener and other coming back from long lay off doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I'm pretty sure Dravid will be called out for duty within first 5 overs, so why not open with him?

Similarly, I will prefer Munaf over Praveen coz I feel Munaf is more disciplined among the two, and in test-match batting prowess of bowlers should not be considered at all.


Lets see, how it begins, I think later in the series management might agree with my views :-)
P.S - someone share this post with Fletcher/Dhoni ;-)

Team for first test match -

Abhinav Mukund

Murali Vijay

Rahul Dravid

Kohli

VVS Laxman

Raina

MS Dhoni

Bhajji

Zaheer

Munaf

Mishra

Afridi is NO hero

I don’t understand why everyone is hell-bent to declare Afridi as a hero or a gracious loser.

Afridi has a history of all sorts of buffoonery that can be committed on cricketing field.

From abusing opposition players as well as his own team mates, to fighting on field, or in dressing room, to tampering ball, creating factions within team, he has done it all.

One fine day, suddenly he has been made a hero, just because he was smiling on the field, and was shaking hands with an even bigger smile after the loss?

I think we guys are so much drank in our victory that we’re conveniently ignoring the manner Pakistani team played.

This Pakistani team looked so uninterested in the field, there was no intensity, and not all looked hungry for win on the field (though there were superficial team huddles and all), that passion which is usually associated with them was clearly missing. They all were looking at different directions while fielding.

Something was clearly not well in their dressing room, and that was evident from the way the chased the modest score of 260 on a slow batting track. They made Munaf/Nehra look like McGrath.

Agreed, ball was not coming to bat as expected, but how can one justify the way Younis Khan ex-captain and a usually a better performer against India, paced his innings, he was playing like a nervous debutant, was struggling against likes of buffet bowler Yuvi.

His 13 runs of 32 balls, and Misbah’s 17 runs of his first 42 laid the foundation for their team’s burial.

How can Misbah (another ex-captain and a better performer against India) start his inning like that, what was he waiting for? Why the hell Razzaq came before Afridi, agreed Afridi is not in good form these days, but still any day he should be placed above Razzaq in batting order.

And if intention of sending Razzaq up was to step-up the pace but again the way he played his 9 balls, he hardly looked in any kind of hurry, there wasn’t a single Razzaq like ‘clear front leg and smash the ball over covers or bowlers head’ swing at the ball.

He too was content in blocking the ball.

Then came so newly crowned hero Afridi, when Pakis were some 70-80 runs short of target and difference between balls n runs was 20-22 only, and with batting power play still to be taken , and with last recognized pair on the crease, still he DID NOT take the power play.

Though power-plays are designed to suit players like Afridi who try to hit every ball they face in air and still he decided against taking power play. What was he waiting for?

What kind of captaincy was that? Why there was no sense of responsibility from his actions with bat?

Probably, he already knew the outcome of the match before hand, probably he knew that seniors like Younis/Misbah/Razzaq ( and non-playing Akhtar) would be leading a non-cooperation movement on the field.

Hence, his so-Manmohan-Singh-like smiles and laughter in defeat (which is so unlike Afridi).

He was smiling at his own helplessness rather being a gracious loser.

Another list

Here comes another list and another load off my chest....

I think these guys should make to playing XI for the 1st Ashes test.

1) Andrew Strauss (capt),
2) Alastair Cook,
3) Jonathan Trott,
4) Kevin Pietersen,
5) Paul Collingwood,
6) Eoin Morgan,
7) Matt Prior,
8) Stuart Broad,
9) Graeme Swann,
10) James Anderson,
11) Steven Finn.

I know this was kind of no-brainer coz as many as 9 players select themselves. But still it was kind of tough to select between Morgan/Bell , and Finn/Tremlett.

My All Time World Test XI

Here's my all time world test XI, well, I feel something is missing from this team but don't know what it is.
This is selected purely based on the options provided at Cricinfo.

So here it is -

• OPENERS
  • Sir Jack Hobbs
  • Sunil Gavaskar
• MIDDLE ORDER
  • Sachin Tendulkar
  • Sir Donald Bradman
  • Sir Viv Richards
• ALLROUNDERS
  • Sir Garry Sobers
• WICKETKEEPER
  • Adam Gilchrist
• BOWLERS
  • Glenn McGrath
  • Malcolm Marshall
  • Shane Warne
  • Wasim Akram

This is most shameful act Pakis have done this time, and by looking at the videos & articles like this , it is clear that most of Pakistani players have been doing this for years without being caught, and now they’ve become so confident of not being caught that, they and their bookie kind of let their guard down.

Also, it is equally disgusting to read guys like Lawson showing sympathy towards them, isn’t it ridiculous?
And at other hand guys like Ponting and Shane Watson are talking trash by saying it as a ‘sub-continent’ culture thing. They should first look at themselves before passing such stupid blanket statements, they should ask Mark Waugh, Shane Warne first if it is cultural thing or not.

How can PCB tolerate guys like Asif who has a long list of misdoings, from failing drug test in IPL to detention in Dubai with drugs, then dressing –room fight with Akhtar and now after making a comeback, this guy is involved in match/spot-fixing?

In my opinion even lifetime ban is not enough for guys like Asif / Ameer, they should not be even allowed go near a playing field.

I’m angry because nothing will come out of this, Pakistan Cricket Board, will first – deny all allegations, then will form an inquiry committee, and then after impose bans and then will revoke the bans in lieu of some monetary fines.

Damn ‘monetary’ fines?? So that completes the circle, first make money through ‘fixings’ and if caught then pay some small percentage to board and play again to make some more money.

How can they forget a guy named Bob Woolmer lost his life because of this murky side of Pakistan Cricket, how can they still continue to the same again and again?

These days one simply can’t ignore Jerry Brown – Meg Whitman discussions.
And I’m no exception, though I’m not much interested in politics of the world be it India or US but like everyone, I too have my own strong biases, likes and dislikes for different parties and people.

So these days, almost everyone is talking about upcoming California Governor Elections, and since I’m a tax payer here for almost 5 yrs now, so I simply can’t ignore following their campaigns and all.
Earlier I used to favor Whitman, mainly coz of her huge contribution in the growth of eBay, (for records, way back in 1999, I was part of team which started eBay in India, it was called baazi.com then, and later on merged with eBay, and moved it’s operations to Mumbai). Anyway, I really admire the way she utilized all the resources and made eBay what it is today.

But these days, I’m getting my doubts about her, about the way she is spending her money in her race for the post of Governor. So far she has spent 90+ million USD in her political campaign. Agreed she is spending her own hard-earned money, but still 90+ million is a HUGE amount, and this kind of splurging starts to look obscene in context of California State which is already under some 20-30 billions deficit.

So giving reins of already an economically sick state to someone like her doesn’t sound good to me.

Also Jerry Brown is also not a saint himself, so no matter who wins but state of California is going to lose for sure.

**

Lot of cricket is going on these days, but it is not invoking the kind of interest in me as it used to do in past. Of course Sachin and Sangakara are playing magnificent cricket, and Ed Morgan, Stephen Smith, Umar Akmal are emerging to be future stars, but still something is lacking which I don’t know.

I think I’ll also retire from watching cricket the day Sachin hangs his boots.
Ideally he should retire only after scoring 50 hundreds in both forms but sometimes I get a feeling that he’ll retire from all forms of cricket after 2011 World Cup, which is just 6-7 months. And I dread that day, that’s going to be a very sad day for me and for millions like me.

**
Alright, I’ll stop now with the lines which are playing in a loop in my head may be after writing them here they’ll stop.

‘har ek haseen cheez ko choone ki umang hai….
Main aag kehta hoon, kahe sheyhad ha rang hai….

..continued from last post!

How come everything amazing is happening to you?

How come you are doing best-ever project ever possible at… world’s place of work?
Mujhe to parking spot bhi dhang ka nahi milta.

How come you’ve you got amazing colleagues, and a fantastic boss?

And I’m deleting the next guy who updates his/her status about Inception.

**
Interesting things are happening in cricket, like Murli taking 800 wickets, I mean EXACT 800, kam na zyaada but exact. Kuch to gadbad hai boss, otherwise Ojha would have ran himself out or fell on the wicket (on some other bowler’s delivery) or handled the ball, or obstructed the field to get out. . Kuch to gadbad hai boss.

Now my gut feeling says, India is going to win next one, that too very easily ;-)

Also, I think now Yuvraj must be the happiest person after SL’s win ;-)

Another interesting fact, now after Murli’s retirement, Harbhajan is the next highest wicket-taker in test-matches among the current active ones. I’m not counting Ntini or Vaas as active anymore.

**
So Afridi retired ( again)..But didn’t he say he will retire after Headingly Test, but PCB immediately declared Butt as new captain and even dropped from Afridi from team for Headingly Test.
Strange are the ways of PCB.

Same story....

I guess, it's time to shake the squad, and pull certain guys out of their comfort zone; make them realize that they do not select themselves anymore

First in line is Yuvraj Singh -
It's high time to drop Yuvraj; He has been playing International cricket for 10 years now, and still he behaves like a baby, like a newcomer; He hasn't learned to be a responsible player. Imagine you're around for 10 yrs and still not considered for captaincy. He is nothing but pampered poster boy of Indian Cricket whose focus is clearly somewhere else.


Second one is Harbhajan Singh; yes you heard it right, agreed he was the most economical bowler in just concluded WC but keep in mind in all 5 matches he didn't pick a SINGLE wicket.
Being economical is good only if bowler at the other end utilizes the opportunity to do some damage, but bowler at other end used to be either Nehra or out of form Zaheer who were contented by their mediocre performance, & didn't go for the kill.
20-20 is out and out batsman's game, so bowling a tight spell (which is like run-a-ball in this case) doesn't help much, coz in the end cushion of having wickets in hands helps a lot.


Moving to Murli Vijay, I seriously question his selection? One good IPL season and you're in.
C'mon deciding team on IPL performance is a joke, the biggest mistakes BCCI has made. Whole IPL format is flawed, one team can have only 4 foreign players and most teams prefer out and out batsman like Hayden/Smith/Taylor or bits n pieces players like Symonds/Mathews, and that leaves bowling department very very weak.
So in most of the matches bowling is done by local players like Harmeet Singh etc etc and making tons of runs against weak bowling attack on lifeless pitches in smaller grounds doesn't reflect correct picture.


Most importantly, hiding the in-form batsman Rohit Sharma at no. 7 in the most crucial match is mind boggling. Agreed he is a shaky starter (just like everyone) but once settled he can do some serious damage.

Game after game selection of Ravinder Jadeja was most comical, and will hurt him for a long time. It looked like this boy was seriously pissed off by BCCI for banning him from playing in IPL this season.


Then we have a curious case of Yusuf Pathan, this Pathan can hit longgggg distance but mostly vertical instead of horizontal; Agreed he comes way down the order but still that's the position he is supposed pull out something magical other than his usual run a ball or 12 from 9 balls knocks, which are only good for his SR.


Selection of Piyush Chawla over Pragyan Ojha is another great mystery, just like selection of Murli Vijay over Virat Kohli/Robin Uthapa.

Khair, ab bas karta hoon, I'm tired of all this nonsense.

In continuation of previous post....

Here's my semis line up -

South Africa Vs India
Australia Vs England.

For a change, no upsets this time please --

Group E -- Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa, England

Group F -- Sri Lanka, Australia, India, West Indies

My playing 'XI' for Saturday's match -

1) Sachin
2) Gambhir
3) Dravid
4) Raina
5) Dhoni
6) Pathan
7) Nayyar
8) Harbhajan
9) Mishra
10) Ishant
11) Nehra

Yeah, no place for RP/Kohli/Praveen/Karthik.

As expected it turned out to be best match in recent history. But unexpectedly climax script went wrong for die-hard Federer fans like me; He was supposed to win the title though not easily but in not more than 4 sets.

He was little scratchy in first 3 games of first set, in second set for first 6 games he was back in rhythm but in 7^th game some ‘noisy audience’ disturbed his concentration and he handed a easy volley into net and also ended up losing that game and next 3 games to lose the set.

It was hard to choose a winner in 3^rd set, and in 4^th set again his first serve started to trouble him and at the same time rescued him in 4^th set tie-break (also Nadal’s double fault at 5-2 helped), and in final set his first serve TOTALLY deserted him, he also looked little tired n jaded after splitting 12 games, and ended up losing.

In my opinion, he played at least 1 gear below his potential, whereas Nadal is in form of his life and played exceptional tennis.

In all, it turned out to be heartbreaking especially after his French open beating; here he was expected to win, and in spite of not being in his best form he still took it to last set and lost from there.

And on the same day, India lost another final, this time to SL, and again same story; from past so many years either Jayasuriya or Murli or Vaas do something special and this time along with Jayasuriya this Mendis fellow destroyed them.

**
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, turned out to be routine college-romance kind of GOOD movie, with a very very silly ending, though people say there can’t be better end. Huh.

Names in it are really bad or dumb e.g. Rats/Meow/Bombs…..very irritating, and also who calls their parents peachy or pumpkin??

Songs are misplaced, but they are good enough to make you sit through out.

I P L

Right from day one, I’ve never been a fan of Twenty-20, and I still believe that’s not cricket.

As I write this, I realize that I’m actually writing after a long time, not because I was too busy to write but truth is that there is too much to write. But again I’m no writer :-) hahaha use of word ‘write’ five times in 2 lines :-)

Hah…in between a lot happened from long 4 days weekend to a short two days trip to Tahoe, but heck I cannot write two coherent sentences about it, forget a travelogue-ish type entries altogether. So we started at 8pm in a rental Nissan Armada…hahahaha now I hate writing like this :-)

Wait, I think I started this post with my favorite topic CRICKET, lets not deviate from there, it (thought process, what did ya think?) all started with that crazy auction of players. Well, well nothing against players or money they are making, but yes I’m plain jealous and amused. Now just imagine what you were doing when you were 19. Hmm….I was playing cricket with tennis ball on a basketball court, and you? (Last line has nothing to do with Ishant Sharma.)

As I said in first line, I’ve never been a fan of Twenty-20, and I still think that this will not work in long term. Well, even this IPL sounds more tamasha than actual test of skills.

First of all it is not cricket, it is some freaking lottery where guys like Afridi or Utthapa will flourish.

To me, problem starts with naming of teams, why the hell they want to associate major cities with Teams, I cannot fathom the fact McGrath playing for Delhi, or Shoaib Akhtar for Kolkatta.

May be these names like Delhi Daredevils, Chennai Super kings or Bangalore Royal Challengers, and ensemble of stars will sound and look good in short advertisements but its hard to imagine individual cities actually backing up the players.

Imagine Afridi and Symonds of Hyderabad blasting Ishant Sharma of Kolkatta. How many Hyderabadis will support them?

Or Imagine Mumbai’s Malinga bowling bouncers to Bangalore’s Dravid, how many Mumbaites will back him?

Can these matches ignite the passion among people? Can people of cities actually feel elated when their team wins, or go in mourning when they lose? Can these matches create that ‘crazy’ excitement? Can these matches bring whole country to standstill?
Can these matches make students forget their next-day exams?
I’ve my strong doubts about it.

Other than that, composition of teams is ill-balanced; I know second round of auction is still remaining. Chennai and Delhi teams have 2 wicketkeepers, whereas Mumbai has none. Moreover only 4 overseas players can make it to final eleven, so that again defies the logic of buying foreign players in bulk.

Lets have a look at team compositions –

Jaipur (3 Indian , 5 Overseas)
Mumbai (3 Indian , 5 Overseas)
Delhi (4 Indian , 7 Overseas)
Chennai (4 Indian , 7 Overseas)
Kolkatta (4 Indian , 6 Overseas)
Bangalore (4 Indian , 6 Overseas)
Hyderabad (3 Indian , 8 Overseas)
Mohali (5 Indian , 5 Overseas)

This initial formation of teams clearly suggests that many big money-making overseas players will sit out.

This Modi’s brainchild is nothing but a pure business proposition with no intention of developing cricket or nurturing upcoming cricketers, and sole idea is based on exploiting our huge ‘idle’ population.

Strange are the ways of BCCI, I wonder what pleasure they derive by announcing the team in middle of a series?

Though I don’t have any issues with dropping Ganguly (I know he performed well last year, only second to Sachin in terms of runs, though I always doubt if his runs really helped, lets not get into that now) , but now if one believes the reports that Dhoni was keen to have most of Twenty-20 victorious team, that in other words , he is kind-of instrumental in dropping of Ganguly, Dravid, and master of Aussie turfs Laxman.

Now what if these three score big hundreds in last test? What if Sehwag fails errr….again?

I’ve already started to imagine the chit-chat among slip cordon (comprising Laxman/Dravid and Ganguly) and wicketkeeper in next test.

So much fun, I say :-)

Repeating Mistake….Doubling misery!!

First mistake was to drop him from test-team, and second mistake was to include him again in 20-20 and subsequent ODI series, and now they’ve committed the BIGGEST mistake of all by again including him Australia tour.

They say, it is a risk and everyone is a risk.

Agreed role of an opener is evolving, sometime he needs to play fast, but his primary role remains same..to see the shine off new ball, build a platform from where middle order can further build the inning.

In case of Sehwag, he cannot play role of sheet-anchor, he cannot play defensively, and when he scores run he scores at a good pace, say he scores a quick fifty gets out, and that means still exposing middle order batsmen to new ball.

Agreed his century is different from other batsman’s century but how many time has he done that?

Once or twice??

Personal Vendetta

Despite being best ‘one-stop-know-all’ place cricinfo still manages to publish article laced with personal vendetta.

More I read Sanjay Manjrekar’s or Rameez Raja’s articles more I get convinced about their narrow-mindedness and their deep-root hatred and bitterness against Sachin Tendulkar and Yousuf Youhana.

In case of Manjrekar, in his all articles, discussions, he always manages to bring up issues against Tendulkar, and always goes out of the way to speak ill against him.

Same applies for Rameez Raja, no matter how good Yousuf Youhana performs, Raja always find a fault in him.

C’mon guys get over this, and accept how great these players are, and how lousy losers you both are. :-)

Something Fishy

Despite his numerous outbursts against the board, he was included in the side for one last time, and all he needed were just 20 runs to become Pakistan's highest run scorer ever.

And what he did, in first inning scored just 14, and in second he lasted just two balls, got out in most careless (sic) manner...and in end fell 3 runs short of breaking the record.

How can he be so careless, when he knew that he was recalled just for record's sake....still he played that way......may be current-record holder's son's father-in-law has something to do with all this tamasha :-)

Some rough calculations in support of above mentioned thought.

1) SA set a target of 456 runs to win.

2) At end of 4th day's play Pak was 108/1 in 31 overs

3) On 5th day Pak needed 348 runs from 90 overs at 3.86

4) Inzy comes to bat in 59th over of final day, score was 265 and Pak needed another 192 in 31 over at 6.12 runs per over.

5) Inzy needed just 6 runs to become highest run scorer, and he got out on second ball that too in a very very careless manner.

And excuse he gave for that shot was sillier, he said he wanted to play aggressively and win the game one last time.
For a moment agreed he wanted to win, but he could have easily made 3 more runs before playing 'aggressively' (read stupidly).

No sane person/team will try to score 6.12 runs per over on final day of play.

Watch this clip, and judge yourself, how he got out, and reacted in dressing room afterwards.

Good b(ye)hai - "Inzy"-Bhai ;-)

BCCI's inbox

Just got this as mail forward, and can't help putting it here :-)