50 for MJ

He may be scratchy like a dog in the ODI, but he is aplomb and supreme as a Teddy Bear without hair in the Tests…..4 more runs and he would leave Sir Gary Sobers behind. That would be great ? Will he be greater batsman than Gary Sobers ? Better somebody doesn’t come up with a claim like that. The SL blogger I know is a MJ freak hater like me, but how about other fellas ? Boy he has 24 hundreds and Dravid has 26. Azhar has 22. Ganguly had 16. Does that all mean MJ is better than Azhar and Ganguly and would get better than Dravid soon ? Ah man……Heck no. 5 Hundreds against BD and Zim. Easy hundreds, easy runs. Mostly at home. I wonder if he would some day over come likes of Sunny and Steve Waugh. Then would still those greats be better than him or MJ would claim to be better than them ?

Test cricket returns to….

………Pakistan and guess against whom ? The dashers and the bashers and then the dampners…….Dashers against Pakistan in Pakistan, bashers against the minnows and the dampners against stronger teams. Test of how Younis (only Y now) takes on his new role of skipper clubbed with the best batsman of the team. Test of how M&M group again after disaster against India. Test of how Mahela Jaywardhena shapes up in his final test series (as captain). And test of how Pakistan fare in the form of game they have not played in 14 months. The last test they played, was almost a miraculous escape thanks to fading Bangalore daylight. Good for them, good for us. Good for world cricket that Pakistan returns to the Test cricket albeit with the weakest team in years. No Inzy, No Yusuf, No Akhtar, no Tanveer (shocking to drop him)…New team, new skipper, new age, let them go and take a bus back to the past when Ws rocked the world and batsmen like Inzy ruled the laziness….

Lets see how SL fare against a favorite team. Amazingly they have got good record against Pakistan in Pakistan, which not many teams boast of. But then that’s SL for you. Jo baki teams nahi kar pati, Wo SL karti he. Good luck to the skippers. One who starts his journey, one who ends his journey (giving us respite)…..

BTW here is a quick look at the captains of the teams and a classification if they are the best batsmen or bowlers of their team:

Australia : Ricky Ponting : Only good batsman in the team (for bloggers who hate him). For me the best batsman in the team.

India : MS Dhoni (not the best batsman in tests, but yes best finisher in the ODI in the team and perhaps the world)

SL : Mahela Jaywardhena : Best batsman of the team.

Eng: Andrew Strauss : He is the compromise man. An underrated batsman and a “miya kaptani karoge” types.

WI : Chris Gayle : Almost the best batsman

Pak : Younis Khan : Best batsman

SA : Graeme Smith : Best batsman

NZ : Dan Vettori : Best bowler

So you see except India and England, most teams are lead by the best batsman in the team in Tests and ODIs. For NZ their best bowler does the job. May be cos they aint sure who their best batsman is amongst the rookies and transitioning team.

One more salvo….

Have you failed to notice that Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik would always be present in a party or a ramp walkdown for a product launch or even a jersey launch. Only place you wont find them laughing and enjoying themselves is the middle. That is the field. 22 Yards. All they gotta do is clubbing, laughing aloud with babes around and of course fame and glitz. Reality shows, dance shows, product launches, calendar launches…Name them and this guys would be there. Oh man, who said cricketers this age lived a monotonous life. Few more additions to the group of Salim Durrani, Farookh Engineer etc….I wonder nobody from the golden generation of cricket (1990-2009) got so much distractions. Alright endorsements were always there, but I could never see the greats lining up on the ramp for a fashion show.

And I am not anti TN or anti Mumbai person. (else DMK or MNS would sue me)

Much ado about everything!!

Whats so much hue and cry about the new Indian team jersey. So what if we emulate Australians in 2 separate jerseys for ODis and 20Ts ? is that a problem or is the colors and shades a problem ?

India Vs NZ : facts and predictions

Some facts about India and New Zealand rivalry:

· India is touring NZ after 6 years. That’s the longest margin in 2000 that India is touring any decent cricket playing country.

· India would play a Test against NZ after 5 years. Last it was in Mohali – 03 prior to tour of Australia.

· India would play a ODI against NZ after 3 years. Last one it played was in the disturbing tour of Zimbabwe in 2005.

· India’s first loss in T20 came against NZ in 2007. Since that India has not played any international game against NZ.

· This tour was supposed to happen in 2006 or 2007 end, but then it was postponed to the current dates.

· Veeru Sehwag was the only successful batsman in Indian team that toured NZ in 2002 ODIs. He had 2 hundreds.

· Only 5 Indians have played an ODI before in NZ in the current team. They are Tendulkar, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Zaheer and Yuvraj

· Only 6 Indians have played a Test before in NZ in the current team. They are Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman, Zaheer and Harbhajan.

· This is first full tour as skipper for MS.

· Last time India won a Test in NZ was in 1976.

· This is 5^th tour of Sachin Tendulkar in NZ. 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2009. He almost missed a hundred in 1^st Test (Wellington) in 1990. Overnite not out on 80, he was dismissed on 88 the next morning.

My predictions for the series:

Tests: India 2-0

ODIs : India 4-1

T20s : India 2-0

StanFord falls!

“Kahe paise pe itna guurroor kare he..Yehi Paisa to apno se door kare he……”

I just wished Alan Stanford listened to this song along with Ramalinga Raju — Desi Stanford!! Greed leads to doom, later or sooner. Satyam proved it, now Stanford proves it.

Keep going guys.

“Paise se kya kya khareedoge”

Sachin : Reserved opener in ODIs?

I really laugh aloud when somebody says that Sachin Tendulkar is reserved opener for ODIs.

Curious case of KKD Karthik

The irony. Kartik is one of those very few players for the NZ tour who is in all forms of the game. Amazing fact right.

His career stats:

T20: 67 runs in 8 games with highest of 31* (1^st ever T20 India played in 2006)

ODIs : 330 runs in 26 games with highest of 63 and average of 22.

Tests: 967 runs in 21 games with highest of 129 at avg of 29

He also figured in the dance reality show in one of the channels. So cricket team in India is going to have clubbers, dancers too in the ranks.

So if one of the openers injure and suppose MS doesn’t play, then this lad is going to be an opener in Tests. And not only then he would disrupt the opening combo of Veeru and Gauti( may be he plays when MS is injured) but also ensure that RD walks in quickly again with virtual opening position. The reason he might open the innings is most of his runs in Tests came in the SA, Eng, Pak series when he was an opener with Wasim Jaffer (Sehwag was dropped to middle order in 2006 SA tour 3^rd Test).

And 330 runs in 26 ODIs means he is one of the front runners to come in for injured and rested players. Wow, he along with Rohit Sharma are nice replacement players with an average of 20s. Why ? Just cos they are young. (22 and 21 resp). Contrast that with poor RD. Just cos he is 36 now and wont be playing in 2011 world cup and had a poor Australia ODI series in 2007, he was dropped. People forget that he scored 3 50s in the 3-4 loss to England in England. And on basis of one poor series and of course age, he was dropped. Lads like Karthik, Sharma keep coming into the side even though they aint decent performers just cos they are young. But then is that the ticket for them to be in the team and not performing ? Is that our bench strength which we boast of to be front runners for # 1 ? Faulty selections, quota system, regional attitude of selectors and favoritism of skipper would be major factor if India falls short of the goals it has set for itself in the year.

Australia SA series predictions

My predictions for Aus vs SA Test series beginning 26/2 are :

South Africa : 1

Australia : 2

Series 2-1 to Australia.

Ways Pujara can get into reckoning!

May be Pujara now should switch Ranji side and play from Tamil Nadu or Mumbai. Perhaps only then he would be considered for selection, let go of being selected. And may be dance in a reality show. Play a T20 and have an affair with a Bollywood starlet. Only thing he should not do is score 3 consecutive triple hundreds and then 3 consecutive failures. Bloody fuck, just nobody bothers to see him score runs…Cos he is a Pujara and not Pujhara. And not a “kar” or a Kulkarni in his last name…Or may be he doesnt have anythin to get the Jokers notice him!!