Deshis crashing out is good for

What a insipid display by Deshis in a game they had to win to go through. They just folded out for 78 and lost by 206 Goddamn runs. 

Good they are out, they didnt deserve to be in the quarter finals with such a pathetic performance.

Good job BD

The World Cup has got a tremendous start in the capital city of Bangladesh and thus the subcontinent has washed off the blot of disastrous opening ceremony in Calcutta in 1996. This is the first world cup of the new millenium in the subcontinent (precisely focused on India and Bangladesh). And the onus would be on the fans and the adminstrators to ensure the disaster of 2007 is not repeated this time.

Bryan Adams singing for a world cup cricket in Bangladesh is itself a testimony to the fact that how seriously BD has taken the organization of this world cup. Something England would not fancy as its media has been continously skeptical of the world cup in subcontinent.

Indian government has to learn a lot from the Bangaladesh counterpart on how to organize a mega event opening ceremony winning hearts, not just earning money with the OC.

Good job Bangaladesh!!!

Team Preview : Bangladesh

Team Preview this time for Bangladesh.

They are the joint giant killers the world cup. They busted India’s campaign last year, so this time the Indians would be beware of them, as the world cup kicks off with the encounter between this 2 teams in BD. Well that pends off the BD’s first game in India to a more futuristic time.

The BD are young team and noone expects them to be the  champions. Actually, if they could make it to the Quarters at the expense of one big team(England possibly), then the entire Bangla babus would pour out in the open and dance, celebr.

They have defeated Pakistan, South Africa and of course India in their last 3 world cups (1999, 2007) and they would want an encore of that.

They have an exciting opener in Tamim Iqbal who debuted against India in 2007 disaster and went after Zaheer that set the tone of the world cup. I doubt if Zaheer has forgotten that. Tamim before the injury was in superb form and would be the batsmen the opposition would look to dismiss early.

Shakib Al Hasan is the skipper, allrounder and the most valuable player. He is good with bat, good with ball and decent in leadership.

The others would be expected to play a supporting role should they aim to go as long as they can.

Expectations:

They could make it to the QF it they would topple one or two of the top teams of the group, but that looks tough untll they play out of their skin. A 5th position finish in their group would be the most expected result Bangladesh are likely to produce.

Thank You BD

Bangladesh has done a great favor for India.

They have deflated Kiwis in the ODI series much to the dismay of Kiwis. They have lost all 3 ODIs and would arrive in India demoralized. They are next Test opponents for India. They arrive to India after 7 years for a full Test series and there should be no doubts that a 3-0 result beckons for India, even though they have lost the ODIs, the Kiwis are not a  formidable Test side anymore.

2-0 and now a 3-0 against Oceanic opponents.

India has just began its era of dominance. Wow.

Bangladesh show some resolve

England, as expectedly won against Bangladesh with session and half to spare on final day of Lord’s test, but the credit must go to Bangladesh for the spirited fightback in the second innings. They set up the score of 160 to win for England, had they batted sensibly on the end of day 4 and a bit today morning, who knows they could have inserted some pressure in England camp.

Credit must go to Junaid Siddiquie and Tamim Iqbal for the way they batted. Only if the other batsmen could have shown some resolve, the result would have been a draw and that would have done a world of good to BD cricket.

Pakistan test team must learn something from BD. They are as good as minnows of Test cricket. Have not won a Test since JAn 2007.

Only if the shaky middle order of BD could have some patience, learn to build partnerships and buy time even though runs did not come for a while, the BD could actually justify their Test status. Lest they dont do this, the question marks would always be put on the Test status, whether it was provided a bit too soon.

Yet another Lanka tour to Bangladesh

At the time when I sign it was free, now it is a problem because Sri Lanka has put a tour to Bangladesh…

Yet another tour to Bangladesh. So Murali is going to skip Australian T20 domestic tourney.

Yeh log nahi sudharenge.

Koi na deshis, dikha do inko u have character and can beat them.

Yeh log bechare garib cricketing nations ki maarte hai and NZ, England ke samne bheegi billi.

Inflated Averages

Is Mahela Jaywardhena really a great batsman ?

v Australia 2004-2007 4 274 104 34.25 1 – – – – 3 0 v

Bangladesh 2006-2009 4 304 166 50.66 1 – – – – 6 0 v

England 1998-2006 7 511 119 42.58 2 0 – – 0 11 0

v India 2005-2005 3 255 71 51.00 0 – – – – 1 0 v

New Zealand 2005-2006 4 194 141 27.71 1 0 – – 0 4 0

Pakistan 1999-2009 9 684 240 42.75 1 2 1/7 24.00 0 15 0

South Africa 2000-2002 5 314 98 31.40 0 0 – – 0 2 0

West Indies 2003-2008 4 294 136 42.00 1 – – – – 3 0

Zimbabwe 1999-2004 5 253 100* 63.25 1 0 – – 0 13 0

Away record of the man. 3090 runs in 41 Tests and an avg of 41……

The averages read 50+ for Sanga and Mahila because they play most against weak Test teams. Sanga has played just 6 tests against Australia.

He averages 54 vs SA, thanks mostly to that ridiculous 624 run partnership with Mahila.

Very soon Mahila would be in 9000 run club and soon Sanga Singh would overcome GC Chappell and Saurav Ganguly in runs. Will that make him great than this players. Jai ho BD and Zim.

Change of guard in BD

Asharful gives way to Mashrafe Mourtza to concentrate on his batting. Mourtaza is their best bowler. So would he also give in captaincy to concentrate on bowling. Best bet for BD is to have a non playing captain.

Ireland favorites

The way Ireland are going by, i fancy Ireland thump Deshis who like their former brothers in Pakistan have no plans and no objective, just mindless slogging.

Captains speak

Captains speak. Here is what the captains of prominent teams got to speak on their chances on the World T20 trophy :

Paul Collingwood, England:

We’ve got to be brave to win a tournament like this,” Collingwood told reporters at Lord’s. “We have to have the belief that we can win as a team, but we also have to have belief in our own ability in the middle. Twenty20 cricket is not an exact science, so you have to think on your feet in the middle. Sometimes it only takes one person, and we’ve got a lot of match winners, so I really do believe we can surprise a few people. I’m not going to say we are going to win it, but we have to believe we can win it.” A lot of our momentum comes from results, because when you’re winning things are very easy,” Playing at home could be an added pressure but we’re not taking it like that,” said Collingwood. “We’ve got an advantage in many ways, we know what the wickets are all about here, and we’re very excited about playing in front of our own crowds. No England cricket team has won an ICC tournament before so we have a three-week period here for us as a team to hopefully put that right.”

My verdict: Long hopes to win the ICC T20 tourney, but that won’t come with half an eye on Ashes and one fourth of the other on T20. I fail to understand the obsession of England with Ashes time and again. They don’t win it too often. They used to win 2 odd tests in an Ashes series in 90s, in 2000s except for 2005, they have never won 2 tests in a single Ashes series and yet they speak so high. Even today they speak of momentum and results after beating a reluctant West Indies in home in 2 Tests and 2 ODIs. Not to forget that the same team had failed to win a single test in tour to West Indies.

Happy to make it to the Super Eights as second team from the group. They have Holland and Pakistan in their group, good for their tendency to self destruct.

Younis Khan, Pakistan

It is special to be back on the world stage. Especially in Twenty20s, and especially in England. We are suffering from not playing regularly, and no-one is coming to Pakistan, but all the time in the last few months I have been talking to the boys, and telling them to do well [in this tournament]. There are a lot of media here, and [if we succeed] we’ll be well on our way to our mission, so to speak. It’s very important for us. If you don’t play regularly, you don’t have that match fitness. But the beauty of international cricket is that it is changing all the time in different conditions, so we feel fresh and will do well in England, ins’hallah. That’s the main reason I’m happy to be in England. Our fans are fantastic back home, they are lovers of T20, and now it’s dependent on us to prove ourselves. If we play good cricket it will be good for our nation. These days the whole nation is depressed, and only cricket [can lift it]. If we play good and win something, they will cheer. To finish in the top four, my nation will come again and start cheering. But it was fantastic to be a part of that team in the final. Some guys were crying at the end, but in T20 everything can change. My confidence is that I’ll take this trophy to Pakistan, but if the plan works ins’hallah it’ll be an achievement for us to finish in the top four.

Yeah, nobody wants to play in Pakistan. But citing that so many times to provide a root cause for the team to play for is weak. It’s just a big tournament and doesn’t matter where the Pak team is coming from. Fans, home, England, situations, prove, play well, all are jargons. Nothing matters when you step on to the field mate. It’s just the bat, ball and mind games that matter in the rub of the green. No emotions, no distraction. Emotional reasons would never help Pakistan win the tournament. Fans back home and across world would anyway cheer for Pakistan for their reputation and not for what happens to them in the tournament. Does Younis want to say that his fans won’t cheer his team in league games and Super 8s ? (Line in red). Downgrading the chances. From being a finalist to a somehow semi-finalist this year in order to cheer up the fans.

My verdict : Not sure how would they perform. Too many distractions for the lads. Rants of JM, IB and coming home of ICL rebels might affect the motivation of lesser and debutants players who have replaced Rana, Razzaq and MoYo. As a result the performance couldn’t be up to the expected levels. Yet they are Pakistan. Can do anything on their day. Score 300 in a game or get dismissed for 30. Watch out their games with a pinch of salt.

Md Asharful, Bangladesh

In this form of the game any side can beat the other,” Asharful told reporters at Lord’s. “We defeated the West Indies in the last World T20 in South Africa and progressed to the Super Eight. Our main goal is to repeat that and if we beat India, who are the world champions, in the first match then we will fancy our chances of doing well against the top sides and making the semi-finals even. We have come here one week early, had three games against New Zealand, Holland and Scotland and the boys have done well,” he said. “We are confident and there are two tough games against Australia tomorrow and Sri Lanka the day after. So that’s a nice build-up to the main tournament. It was only in the last over that MM did badly. Otherwise I thought he was okay. But I know he’ll be back. He is that type of a player. He always does well against India”

My verdict: Play out 20 overs in batting first mate and then hope to beat India. It’s not every day an Indian team has a 16 March 2007 as its match day. So just relax and look out to play for 20 full overs of batting and bowling. Once you do that, we would look to what you want to say. A semi-final berth looks a ginger for monkey like dream. So mate, dream on.

Graeme Smith, South Africa

It would be lovely if we could be successful in this tournament or any ICC tournament that is coming up, “We have had an incredible period in the last 16 months and the team has achieved so much. The confidence is good and we are excited about playing this tournament with the chance to go out and express ourselves. I think there is a lot more talent, flair and confidence among this team than ever before. It would be lovely if we could be successful in this tournament or any ICC tournament that is coming up,”. “We have had an incredible period in the last 16 months and the team has achieved so much. The confidence is good and we are excited about playing this tournament with the chance to go out and express ourselves. I think there is a lot more talent, flair and confidence among this team than ever before.

My verdict: Choking is one issue Saffers have infamously carried on from ICC tournaments across years. 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007 World Cups and 2007 World T20 are prime examples. That’s something which would always lower Saffers reputation as world beaters. They have had an incredible success in Tests and Odis over last 2 years, but their failure to win a World Cup rankles and perhaps this is a chance they can do it. But the form of captain would be a worry which also led to the loss of Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.

Next stage: Australia, India, New Zealand captains.