Cheater — the Mathews.

Excerpt from SL vs Eng match in Champions Trophy :

39.6

Onions to Mathews, 1 run, drama, plenty of drama! Too straight from Onions, Mathews gets up and works the ball into the gap at square leg, runs the first hard, turns back for the second and runs into Onions, then stumbles, and in the meantime Prior collects the ball and effects the run out … Mathews stands mid-pitch and protests that Onions was blocking him but he is ruled out walks off, shaking his head … England celebrate but then look on in frustration as Mathews is called back …. in fact it is Strauss who called Mathews back … unlike Collingwood against New Zealand last summer when a similar incident happened at The Oval …just an accident, or too generous a decision from Strauss?

Right, that was tense. It was not Onions fault as he was just going back to the stumps to see if he needed to collect the ball. Mathews turned and was ball watching and ran into Onions. To me it looked like Onions was not trying to obstruct Mathews. It should be the batsman’s job to try and get out of the way. No malice there. Strauss did what he saw as best at the moment. This may turn into headlines later Today the same batsman collided to Gambhir and ran him out.  No calling back or no drama. Gambhir was not happy but who cares. Not even the captain who had complained of umpiring mistakes or the team which got “spirits of cricket award”. Double standards and hypocrisy.  This is called cheating.  The same batsman in England game throws tantrum and gets called back. Few deliveries later he is eventually dismissed. Asshole.

Dhoni for 5000

Great to see Dhoni break the shaklec and show us what he showed years back with his power hitting.

Actually with me anything works, nudge and run or hit and run. Whatever works for a win is good.

The lad has 5000 runs in 145 games with an average of 50. Not bad for somebody bracketed with Shahid Afridi.

Dhoni in same bracket with Afridi. Lol.

0/88

Zaheer was the best bowler in the firsht ODI.  Bowling yorkers didnt get him the wickets but it made Matthews and Ranatunga Kandamby choke for runs and finally run themselves out.

0.88 doesnt always reflect the efforts you put in.

All yorkers and praise aside, 0/88 is most expensive by an Indian bowler in ODIs, one more than his guru Jaggu in the 2003 WC final :-O.

Who said numbers did the besht jushtice to a player. Many times numbers appear like Geofrey’s hypothetical cricket playing mum.

Runathon sets the series on fire

So one more Sehwag century and one more SL loss. Doesnt matter they came  close as good as 3 runs. A defeat is a defeat and unlike Sangakara there is no place for what ifs, could have beens and should have beens. He led the reply to a certain extent, fine. But he was unable to win it for the team.

So the result says India beat SL by 3 runs. Its amazing to see India have nose up the SL’s ass in last 2 years. Out of last 13 games India has won 9 and lost just 4. Out of this 9, 8 wins have come in SL. So its a good comeback after the humiliating defeat in WC’07.

The figures of 0/88 in 10 for Zaks Khan doesnt reflect the super yorkers he bowled in the last overs which saw Kandamby, the modern day Ranatunga in every aspect — running, laziness and getting run out 🙂 and Mathews choke and get run out.

SL have got their batting order wrong. Jayasuriya has no business coming at 4 ahead of Jayawardhena. He should be batting at the top. Period.

Ok enough of SL bashing. Good for this post.

India has to sort out its middle order woes in absence of Yuvraj Singh.  309-1 to 352-6 in 5 overs is not something India would always prefer to have.

Rainas and Kohlis have to understand one thing that their IPL heroics aint going to give them the leeway for much longer in the international games.  Raina heads close to 2000 runs, but then he has been playing for more than 4 years now and hasnt attained the maturity he is supposed to.

Dhoni and himself made debut in space of 8 months in ODIs and the place where they stand today are poles apart.  Raina got 2 hundreds against weaker teams and besides that he has a bare cupboard. The 81 he made in England ODI series in 2006 is the only bright spot for him. Either side of that wretched period when Chappell ruined Raina’s career, he has been unable to lift himself.

Gambhir at 4 isnt a suitable option for him. He has to be at 3 or opening. But with Ten playing he has to play one down. Dhoni did a good job but did that affect Gambhir’s confidence ?

All in all 825 runs have set the bar a bit high from what it was before. 650 runs was considered huge in 90s and now with the end of 2000’s first decade, the 800 runs isnt even safe benchmark.

T20s seem to spur the run rate for ODIs which had spurred the Tests run rates last decade with mighty Australians setting the trend. One format fuels the other and they say one format is dangerous for other.

Good start to the ODIs, but spare a thought for bowlers and of course Sangakars who seems to be coming with syllables and jargons with every game.

“Most of the time you can roll over and die chasing over 400, but we almost made”.

Bachaooooooooooooooooo.

A mismatch in ODIs

Indians are 2 and Sri Lankans are 7th.

Past 2 ODI series have been 3-2 and 4-1 for Indians. Both away from home. Last time Indians played SL at home was 2-1 out of 4 just prior to the WC’07.

Hardly an even match.

Sanath

would bat at 6 or lower order in ODIs. Ridiculous. The way he has played in both T20s shows that he has firepower left in him.

And he is playing against his favorite opposition — Indians. 6 hundreds against them in ODIs. Something which cannot be discounted even if he is 40 and hasn’t been in prime form last few games or more.

Sangakara cannot get more dumb than this. He is losing out on the only chance that could see his team win the ODI series. What does he think that the new opening pair of (i don know who) will give his team good starts and then likes of Kapu or Kandamby besides the loser duo of himself and Blabba would do the job for his team ahead of Sanath?

Freak. Brain freeze for Sangakara.  Brain-checkup needed.

Who handled the pressure best

“We have to wait and see how India comes out of this loss (against Australia), especially at home. We are under no pressure. We have not won a Test here before and we are here to change things here. The pressure is on India to keep their home series record intact,”

Sangakara said before landing here for Tests.

And how well did India come out of the ODI loss to Australia.

Win now!!

I hope India arrests the slide in the T20 form and wins something substantial in the Mohali game. Time now to arrest the slump.  The country thats accused to devalue the game is struggling in the format and is number 1 in the format its supposed  to be skeptical to.

Weird.  English authors and Geoff Boycott just cannot digest  that India is # 1.

Hajmola needs to be packed and shipped to this pack of werewolves.

India loses to SL for one just reason

Usual suspects are back and the usual results — losses are back.

Why even Yusuf Pathan, the duck king is playing. Dhoni is bit too fascinated over this guy’s IPL 1 pyrotechniques.

Long gone. Time to think beyond him and of course Rohit Sharma.

Fresh blood and fresh youngsters in T20 and then sneak them to ODIs.

Twenty Twagon begins

today in a schedule which would see India playing just 2 tests in next 6 months thus fuelling its critics that it doesnt take Tests serious any more.

Thats not true.  India has  toured every test playing nation in last 3 years. Windies in 2006, England in 2007, SA in 2006, Australia in 2007-08, Pakistan in 2006, SL in 2008 and NZ in 2009.  The cycle starts soon next year when India tours Saffa.

Back to the Twenty 20, the campaign today would be the beginning of the mission to get the crown back in 2010.

SL may be the finalists of the last campaign, but today they stand bruised and battered.

Good thing for them is that Slinga Linga returns.

Bad thing for them is Murali doesnt play T20.

Good thing for India is Gambhir returns.  Bad thing is that Rohit Sharma returns along side Suresh Raina, the 2 lads that live the life T20 way.

SL are bruised team right now. Sangakara is a tired man. He has spoke enough on how his team lost. I promise that after the 2nd T20, he would not have any thing more to speak and by the end of the ODIs (1-4) he would go with tape on his mouth.