Motivation for Australia

Even if Australia are seeming out of spirits and loose on character they would be joyed to see that their Test opponents are Pakistan, who have won just 1 Test in last 3 and half years. And who are led by certain Shahid Afridi who last played in the forfeited test series 4 years back, somebody who does not have penchant for patience. 

And a team which has consigned its 3 best batsmen into retirement — Inzamam retired, Younis banned and Yusuf withdrawn.

Australia once they take field on test series would forget ODI drubbing they’ve got from England who are surprisingly on a high.

2-0 to Australia. No doubt. 

Shahid Afridi meanwhile is reluctant to carry on playing Tests after this England tour.  Before he retires, Ijaz Butt would have banned him for few months for losing all the Tests and ODIs.

England are not Ashes favorites. YET!!

Aussies have lost 3 ODIs on the trot to England side without Jonathan Trott and the English media are gung-ho about the Ashes rematch later this year. I am not sure how an ODI series win would impact Ashes result when the players on both teams change and the conditions of play change (Australia host this year Ashes).

I should say I m not sure how winning an ODI series would make England favorites for Ashes. They have not displayed anything spectacular in Tests this year to be called favorites. They have won T20 tournament and surprisingly have won 8 or 9 ODIs on the trot without Jonathan Trot, so that wont have any bearing over Tests. They have won 4 Tests against Bangladesh and there is no novelty in there. Everybody except West Indies wins against them home and away. So whats so special about England winning 4 Tests against them?

Australia are 3^rd and England are 5^th (or 4^th) in the Test rankings. And Aussies have had a lossless summer last year thanks to the quality of teams touring last summer (WI and minnow Pakistan).

Here is an excerpt from Graham Thorpe on England’s Ashes chances:

England have a real opportunity to whitewash the tourists and continue the kind of winning mentality that should hold them in very good stead in the lead up to the Ashes. You can run through almost every department and find that England have the upper hand, which tells you a lot about the dominance the side currently have.

Strauss is leading the side from the top of the order with authority and conviction; Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan are class acts in the middle order; James Anderson and Stuart Broad look by far the most threatening pacemen; and Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy have the upper hand in the spin department.

Eoin Morgan wont be a sure starter in the Test team when Trott, Collingwood and Cook return (may be one of this 3 could fail against Pakistan and Morgan could hold his place), Yardy does not play Tests (or he is not a Test standard). 

Anything England wins for a while makes its writers believe they are the best in the world. They said the same thing for football despite having club stars who failed as a team in the World Cup Football. They suffered 1-4 defeat to Germans despite all fire and flame on the disallowed Lampard goal.

Predicting an Ashes result is too early right now. England and Australia both would play 4 Tests minimum and the end of English summer and Indian summer (Australia play 2 Tests in India) would give a picture on starting XI of both teams to take field on GABA.

India’s XVI for Sri Lanka

India has declared 16 players for the yet another Test series vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.  Its going to be the 3rd series in 3 years between the two teams and hopefully for next 3 years there wont be any series between the 2 teams. 

The usual culprits (no pun) return to the test team making it the usual colored look. Dravid, Laxman, Ishant etc etc return for the Test series. 

Also returns is Wriddhiman Saha. Shocking. He was a dead as a dodo in the Nagpur Test vs South Africa and just after a Test, he returns. 

Dinesh Karthik was ignored. Good for this blog, not so for others. 

Also returns is M Vijay. Srikanth makes sure he keeps one Tamil Nadu player in every team he selects. Last series he had 2, Dabri missed out this time. 

If M Vijay was not present, Dinesh Karthik would have been. Guess the reserve slot (Wicket keeper or opener) is fixed for a Tamil Nadu quota. 

There are many tweets where people have questioned Srikanth’s agenda for Chennai (Read Tamil Nadu).  I believe Srikanth has not chosen anybody outside Chennai too. I am not sure from where one Ganpathy hails, but Dabri, Vijay and Dinesh Kartik are sure Chennai duds. 

Dilip Vengsarkar was from Mumbai, but for Jaffer he did not push anybody from Mumbai who did not deserve a place in final XI. Srikanth is different. He needs his states players to serve a hidden agenda.  Guess he is in post for another 3 months and by September he would be out. I just hope he does not stick around to select World Cup team. Else it would be half Chennai Super Kinks team playing in Indian blue.

Yuvraj also returns. That means he was dropped on basis of fitness and not form. He did not play a single game to prove he was back in form. So as his latest tweet read “This elephant is back in fitness and raring to go” proves he assumes he is back in fitness. 

If thats true we wont know till he plays the 3 day game or the first Test.

If he fails, Suresh Raina is down there to pressurise him. If he keeps going he would benefit the national team. He is yet to hit a test 100 since Bangalore 100 against Pakistan. And a hundred or a big innings would be due for him to prove his worth in the # 6 slot. If not there are several other contenders — Pujara, Raina, Sharma and Kohli to grab the place. Yes Aniruddha Srikanth is in there too. 

There are 3 spinners in the team. Mishraji, Ojhaji would be one of the spinners that would play alongside Bhajji. And its going to be one of Sreesanth and Ishant accompanying Zaheer in the new ball attack. Selection of Sreesanth is again questionable. What worthy he has done all this while is not known to us (at least). He seems to be another quota selection (making for loss of R Ashvin).

16 players for a 3 Test series is a bit too much. Usually teams name 14 players for a Test series and usually one or 2 players are released to play for their respective domestic teams.  We have not seen that happen for India and wont happen till the likes of Srikanth are around as egoistical regional headed selectors chefs.

Big day for England

England takes on its  2 oldest foes in the cricket and football.

Australia in the NatWest cricket series where its on the brink of an unexpected series win — first in 13 years.  And in Football it takes on Germany.

Will they win ?

They are running high on luck and may be one of the games could see some luck, England could go on to achieve something unparalleled in their history of games.

They havent been to World cup football semis since 1990 when they lost to Germany on penalties. And since 1997 they have not beat Australia in a bilateral ODI series.

MicroMax conquered

India won a final and Asia MicroMax cup. Wow. Good one. Both are rarity. Asia Cup after 15 years when none of this players debuted for India and when Azharuddin was still the biggest name in Indian cricket.  India won despite making a mess of final 10 overs scoring just 49 runs and losing 1 wkt.  Scarier part of it is to have hit just one boundary. And who hit it ? Our hero Ravinder Jadeja. 

Everybody got starts, none of them made big except Dinesh Bhai.  The 66 he made were at right time. Today the Test selection is due and he would know that one innings of substance means his place for next series is secured. So wont be surprised if he makes the cut into the Test side as well as backup keeper.  Not only Chennai-ites are fan of Dinesh Bhai, but also Chinese and Anon readers who don’t forget to shower their piece of praise in the comments section.

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina got starts, none made big. 2 of this 3 would go out when Yuvraj and Sachin return.  Amazing to see Jadeja being given chances after chances despite failing with the bat. He was a batsman who could bowl, now he is a bowler who never bats.   He would continue to play and in all probability would be part of World Cup 15. 

Bowling was good. Nehra, Praveen and Zaheer were among wickets. Fielding was decent too.   Nehra showed glimpses of that memorable Durban night of World Cup 2003.

All in all good win for MSD who grabbed 3^rd multinational trophy in as many years (CB in 2008, Compaq in 2009 and Asia Cup in 2010).

Hopefully World Cup in 2011.

Gearing up for another drubbing

It’s the final day and yet another ODI against Sri Lanka. Yawn.  Limited overs watching in India seeing India play is a painful experience this days.  Half of the side is incompetent and incapable. Most of the lot of that half are either in the team due to regional affiliation to the selectors or due to the over confidence in their limited ability from the coach and the captain.  The remaining lot are just putting in formal efforts to bowl 10 overs just cos they got to.

A lot has been said on few players like Jadeja and Karthik who continue to play every tournament India plays despite their failures and chances provided to them.  No other players in recent memory have got chances as many as this 2 players. Yet they continue to baffle us all with their failures.

Dinesh Karthik fails most of the time he plays and when he succeeds never goes past 50.  Are we getting him in the team to make 20s and 30s. There was a time in Indian Test cricket history in 2000s when one of the Fab 5 – VVS Laxman continued to make 20s, 30s and 40s. He was dropped. This was after he had made miraculous 281 vs Australia in the greatest Test series India ever played.  If Laxman can be dropped, then who the heck is Karthik? Well he is a Chennai-ite hailing from same locality of Srikanth (some unpronounceable locality).

Jadeja is another player hyped and low on substance.  MSD feels he is one player who can be turned to an all-rounder.  A player with a bowling average of 44 and batting average of 33.08 is an all-rounder, that’s baffling. Contrast that to Irfan Pathan who has bowling average of 30s and batting average of 25+ in ODIs. Yet he has not played any game since Feb 2009.  Any day Irfan would be a better all-rounder than what Jadeja could turn out to be( I am damn sure he would never graduate as an all-rounder). His innings in Asia Cup against Pakistan and Sri Lanka depict his limitations as player and moreso his mental approach to the game. Against Pakistan he was not sure what he was trying to do to Ajmal and against SL he began the collapse which turned out to be a hat trick for Maharoof – a player not even regular of SL side.  He bowls and bowls economically, but does not take wickets. What’s the use ? Do we need a restrictive bowler or do we need a bowler who can take wickets ? If Pragyan Ojha could bat a bit, he would be better “all-rounder” than Jadeja.

Fast bowling is another worry for India. Zaheer Khan, Pravin Kumar and Ashish Nehra do not sound fearsome. That’s an ordinary attack. Any one can hit them for runs. Ashok Dinda, high on fire, zero on wickets. He would glare everybody who hits him for fours, but he won’t try to give them a reply a fast bowler typically does – get him out. Dinda sees eye to eye and when it comes to bowling chickens out. Another Sreesanth, just that a little less hyped up and less on theatrics.

Suresh Raina is yet to achieve the consistency of a finisher. He was damn consistent in IPL. But in ODIs he is far away from it. This scorelines wont get him near to the Test spot which is up for grabs for upcoming SL series.  Ditto for Rohit Sharma.  He continues to be careless and temperamental in batting.  He plays his strokes, he has all shots in the book, but he does not have patience.  This players are high on IPL run lists, but low on ODI runs for India.

I am not sure if this players would be around for long to play for India with the intensity as demonstrated by the seniors and their prodigies – Sehwag, Yuvraj,  Harbhajan etc.

Saurabh Tiwary is another passenger on the tour with no chances provided to him.  Ditto for R Ashvin who is warming the benches.  He is being ignored in attempts to give as many chances to Ravinder Jadeja who is ……………

A Mithun, N Ojha, SST,  R Ashvin are in the company of those players who did not get any chance to be in the middle except carrying drinks or towels. In short they were just passengers. No doubt that next series India plays, this players would be dumped and the culprits would continue to play and India would continue to lose.

MSD says Jadeja is a specialist spinner and most usually as 5^th bowler after 3 pacers and one spinner (or 2 pacers + 2 spinners). IMO there is no need to play Jadeja as an allrounder. Play an extra batsman and have Sehwag, Yuvraj, Raina, Sharma bowl quota of 10 overs.   

Something like this lineup would be good:

Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina, Kohli / Sharma, Harbhajan, Zaheer, POjha / PKumar, I Sharma / A Nehra

The inconsistency just boils down to 2 slots – 6 and 7. With Dhoni being the floater and given the match situations – Dhoni, Raina  and Kohli / Sharma can bat at 5,6 and 7.   Once Uthappa is fixed he could be one good player at 7 too.

Meanwhile for now lets enjoy another drubbing at the hands of character rich Sri Lankan team.

Fuckass Boss DK

I hate to see Dinesh Karthik’s swollen face on the TV and as i said previously I wont watch any game the fuckass plays.

Enough said.

World Cup football updates

World Cup football is getting interesting.

In today’s games Greece beat Nigeria 2-1 and Argentina beat Korea South 4-1. That means Argentina are almost through to Super 16. And Korea South has now got an opening to beat Nigeria in the third game and expect Argentina beat Greece.

Permutations and combinations.

Who said they always happen in cricket.

Tomorrow England would play crucial game to their world cup ambitions.  They are always an overhyped team in finals. They never played a semi-final since 1990 and their star players — David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen play good for clubs and underperform for England. Something similar to IPL.

France play Mexico later tonight to keep alive their hopes in the finals. They have been poor starters. They failed to score a goal in 2002 finals and crashed out in first round as defending champs. In 2006 they drew first 2 games and then had to beat poor Togo to go through the second round.

By the way cricket is far better game than football. Imagine teams slugging out 1 whole day and ending up draw. Cricket has ties and they are far more thrilling and interesting than draws of football. Imagine the thrill of Sehwag, Tendulkar in full flow as compared to occasional brilliance of Kaka, Mama, Chacha, Fufa, Messi, Lampard, Klose, Ballack and Rooney.

Kevin Pieterson would be far better than the Rooneys and even Strauss is a better leader than Rio Ferdinand or Terry.  Strauss has got Ashes, Rio has got nothing.

Ok enough of it.

India score a face saving victory

Main observations in today’s win over Bangladesh in MircoMini Asia Dambulla cup:

1. New ball bowling is a worry for India. The way Zaheer and Praveen bowled was not the prettiest of the sight and certainly not the greatest of signs we are looking forward to win the 2011 world cup. Ok they are coming after a gap of 1 month almost, still they gave away a lot of boundaries to Tamim and Keyes.  Nehra was off color too though he picked up 2 wickets in his 100th ODI.
2. Ravinder Jadeja continues to edge a specialist spinner to play in the final XI.  Much said.
3. Sehwag was unusual hero with the ball instead of bat. I had tweeted him to get a 100, instead he got a  4-for, 2nd cheapest in the history.
4. Gambhir’s return to form or lets say runs is a good sign.
5. Sehwag should fire in the big game vs Pakistan, which we should not lose in any situation.
6. Rohit Sharma is back to his original ways. 2 centuries now seem fluke. The lad just does not seem to learn from the past.  If he does not mend up his ways he should probably kiss goodbye to his India career chances and look forth to Deccan Chargers only.
7. Dhoni was back among the runs.
8. Sehwag would be on hattrick next game. He should come to bowl when Afridi comes to bat and he should be hattrick victim.
9. Great to see DK and MV not opening batting for India.

Ok I stop.

Fevicol jodi of the match

Micromax Cup — triseries in Zim.

Micromax T20 Cup — T20Is

Micromax Asia Cup.

Fevicol Jodi of match….

Characterless bakra of the tournament — Sangakara forever