Deja-vu

Another game for KXIP, another defeat and another utterance of word “character” from the world’s richest man in character.  Its amazing that despite having oodles of character and showing it aplenty on the field, the lad chose to pick an Englishman over an Indian selected in World T20 and an express just retired from Tests but selected in T20 Australian to bowl 17^th and 19^th over to virtually seal a defeat for the side.

Showing of character elsewhere leads to victories, but supposedly for this men it leads to defeats.  First to their countries and now their franchisees.

Change of captain in both franchisees (2009 and 2010) led them to be the wooden spoon holders, both were southpaws who were replaced and those who replaced were wicketkeepers. And one of those who was replaced this year is natural successor for the man who was replaced in 2009 in his national Test team.  The coaches who replaced the respective men were Aussies.  One of the replaced men in 2009 led the charge for his team to be # 1 in Tests and when he quit the international game, the 2010 replacement took over his place.

The 2009 replaced man was a mentor to the man replaced in 2010.

Prediction

Actually it’s waste of time to write on kings Punjab yet blabba king forces me to. He admits they ve been irresponsible and rightly so. Yet another defeat for them and yet another win for god of world cricket .

An indian captain should win ipl and right now god and jumbo look good to

 do so.

Weekend tidbits

Here are a few tidbits on the IPL games over last 2 days :

KXIP vs. KKR

·         Sangakara is not only finding leading a team difficult but he is also finding new ways on how not to lead a team. He was dismissed in a very bizarre way in the game against KKR on Friday and that also earned him a one match ban. All high talks snuffed out.  All plans and minutest details asked by Sangakara as mentioned by Irfan Pathan are now leading to defeats. Plus his handling of Indian players is looking absurd.  He has mishandled Yuvraj Singh, may be with an eye to earn an advantage for his national team in the upcoming World T20.

·         His ex captain was yorked by Angelo Matthews.  Heavens, even he is quiet now. And makes sense. What would he speak?

KKR vs. DD

·         KKR now come back in fray with a victory and now one win over Daredevils should make them in top 4 or 5. Next 6 games at Eden’s would make them hopeful for a strong 2^nd half of the ongoing IPL.

·         Joke to see Dinesh Karthik taking on Sourav Ganguly in today’s IPL game.  The dancing guy takes on India’s greatest captain. Antics? Dance steps?  His batting form is back to what he does the best. One big innings and then string of 10s and 20s.

CSK vs. RR

·         Suresh Raina was out bowled to Shane Warne while going for a wild slog. What was Raina thinking? Is Warne just another Indian spinner ? In the end classics got the better act and Shane Warne showed the class he has so famously shown us for last 19 years.  The attempt to catch a ball off M Vijay was awesome.

·         Y Pathan is proving to be a more hyped affair of IPL – 3. He is shining with the ball and heck even opening the bowling for RR. If that’s not all he is even running out the players. To add more hoopla he is the vice captain of the RR. Wonder if he would do the same magic for Indian team?

·         Badrinath should now be rechristened to Collapsinath. He ran out Dhoni once more by colliding against him and in a older game also he had ran out somebody by colliding. Not remembering the instance, but he should know and learn the art to run singles. Defense or slogging is not the only way to play cricket.

·         M Vijay surprisingly hit 24 runs of Nerwal’s over. 6 6 4 and 4. Wow man, never seen a test batsman hit cleanly like this.

·         The run of CSK here shows that it’s not just captain who makes a team win, but the 10 other players also play a big role in the fortunes. And if India is getting accolades under Dhoni, then it has to be attributed to the players of the ODI and Test teams.

DC vs MI

·         A match that lived up to the expectations. Was one of the best games of the tournament.  MI had just won one of the 4 games vs DC in last 2 editions. Today they won their 2^nd and this was attributed to the roommates – Sachin and Harbhajan.

·         Harbhajan the batsman was on the anvil and he played one of the breathtaking innings in the tournament. And he hit every one who bowled to him. Clean hits. Did we miss seeing that Harbhajan hit Symonds too brutally.  May be he remembered the scenes of Sydney 2008 before him in a flashback.

·         Sachin Tendulkar celebrated the wicket of Adam Gilchrist in first over like he never did before. I never saw him celebrate a wicket like he did in 21 years of watching him. Pure vintage moment.

·         Zaheer Khan yorked Rohit Sharma to end DC innings.  Experience ruling over raw crude force.

·         This match was supposed to be a home game for Deccan, but the crowd at DYP supported Sachin led team. This is something that nullifies the concept of city based loyalties. The crowd throughout India would savior innings by Sehwag, Ganguly, Dravid, Tendulkar, Gambhir and bowling efforts from Kumble, Harbhajan, Zaheer. Blame it on the Indian team performance in the decade. This stars are pan Indian stars, not just city based.

·         The IPL is an Indian venture that’s supposed to be killing the Test cricket and the country is Test Cricket’s best ranked team. Irony could not get more stronger than it is.

Pathan…..

Yusuf hit 73 off 34 balls. Alright that would matter if he would play the same inns for India and consistently….

Why is Woodanga underperforming ?

The reason why Sanga is underperforming as a captain and as a batsman is to get a dimple beer hug from his co-owner Preity Zinta of Bollywood. And then he would go up to her and ask her the same famous Dil Se dialogue which she asked to KKR owner SRK……

Innards of a KXIP game

They are going to be knocked out today with the 5th defeat in 6th game. And boy Yuvraj Singh is going to be even more disinterested in the proceedings. Instead he should use the remaining games as platform to regain some form and show that chopping him off as captain was ill planned move.

Piyush Chawla will have extra motivation to bowl good if he plays next month in the world T20. But will Woodanga play him ? Woodanga as in Sanga as he is inline to make KXIP wooden spoon holders.

Blabba and Woodanga have not fired. They have looked pedestal. So will they own up and not play the game or being the friends and in bad form they would continue to play ?

Prediction : Another KXIP defeat.

Poor team selection

The team has been announced for world t20 and to say in one word it’s a disappointing selection.  There are many players who are in with a questionable form, there are many who are injured and there are many who are dropped and many more who are not even considered despite strong performance in ongoing IPL bandwagon.  

The culprits:

Praveen Kumar : Except a IPL hattrick, he has nothing to show against his name and he finds a place in the team. The pitches in Windies wont offer swing, so this pehelwan from Meerut is not going to have any impression in the opening spell. And if he is going to be an one change bowler, then he is wasted. Irfan Pathan would have been a better choice given his form with the bat in the ongoing IPL.

Rohit Sharma: What has he done ? He has not played a ODI in long time and has not fired in IPL for Deccan too. Why is he in the team ?

Ashish Nehra : Injured his ribcage. Would he be fit ? And if he would be, then would he be match fit? When he would return to play ?

Piyush Chawla : Out of blue selection?  How come this lad came in ? And from where ? Mishra and Ojha forgotten!!!

Dinesh Karthik : Has not set IPL on fire and in his captaincy DD have lost 3 and won 1. (lost 2).  Cant bat, cant keep and cant stand straight without a dance. In the team thanks to Kris Srikanth.

Missing Links:

Irfan Pathan: He should have been in the team as batting allrounder. He is more consistent than his maverick brother and offers variety than the dibbly dobblies of Yusuf.

Robin Uthappa: Man in the form and the architect of the superb run for RCB in IPL 3

Manish Pandey : First Indian to score an IPL 100 and Ranji top run getter. Solid opening partner for Kallis in IPL 3 for RCB.

Saurabh Tiwary : Chota Dhoni not needed as long as Bada and original Dhoni is around

When this performances are not to be counted what is the use of the chief selector sitting around in every Chennai game? Is he just as a brand ambassador for a franchisee or also a part time job to have a look at other impressive performers in whatever game he sits in yellow color jump suit?  We are once more carrying too many injured players and flop players in the squad no different from 2009. The core – Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Dhoni, Raina  would be omnipresent but then wont other slots be given to players in form and with some consistency on the display ?

Another poor team selection and perhaps time for Kris Srikanth to quit his job and take over a role in upcoming Kochi franchisee of IPL.

Suicide

They committed suicide on the field , yet they are alive. He wants passion but he does not want to play n score runs. He is a cracked Jack. He fools around to get a hug from zinta instead gets a bug beer.

IPL Performance Meter

19 games on the IPL has been set to blaze and there have been some awesome displays of batting, bowling and captaincy. The notion that the age plays a big factor in T20 is led to rest and buried deep somewhere in the trenches of Mahim creek in Mumbai. 

The likes of Raina, Sharma, Sharma I, Pathan Y,  Harbhajan Singh have flopped and the likes of Kallis, Tendulkar,  Kumble have prospered.  Rahul hasn’t got chance to spend time in the middle.  MSD, Gambhir are out to injuries. Yuvraj is still finding his feet in the return to the international cricket (IPL is a domestic event).  And the discards like Pathan I, Robin Uthappa have showed enough flair and “character” to be in the fray for the selection to the T20 WC next month.

The TN imports in the national squad – Vijay and Dabri have flopped.  ICL imports Rayadu and Chota Dhoni have prospered.

Will this performance be good enough in the eyes of Cheeka to make some out of the box selections for World T20 so that the crown is snatched back ?

Sachin classy

It was Sachin Tendulkar all the way again on Brabourne Stadium in the game against KKR last night. His super 71 ensured MI went back on the top of the table. Today if RCB wins against  Dhoni less CSK, they should be back on top.

KKR now seems to have lost the momentum and were defeated 3^rd time in as many matches. Perhaps their failures have to do with their captain’s inability to scale up to the rigors of the format. Sourav does not seem to be loving the format and his form is a cause of worry for KKR. However he has come back infinite times and he would do so too this time.  It was not just Ganguly who struggled to score runs, but also Chris Gayle playing his first game. He just could not find boundaries. 100 in 15 overs is very much ODIsqueue batting.

Zaheer Khan was the pick of the bowlers alongside Malinga and add Bhajji to the lot, the MI attack seems formidable.

Sachin later ripped apart Ishant Sharma and showed him a very poor reflection of his indifferent limited overs format form.   There were few eye gazes between Zaheer and Sourav. The mentor and the student. And another student of Ganguly, Harbhajan finally scalped him and was joyed.

MI looks to be a different team and provided they select right XI they should be strong contenders to reach the semis.

My predictions for 4 semi finalists given current form :

Mumbai Indians

RCB

Deccan Chargers

Chennai Kings

Kings XI would finish last. And Sangakara would then be sacked as a captain.