India make it to the final.

So India lump into the final, actually they limp to the final. Riding on the back of a superb Sehwag ton and seamers performance, the Indians would fancy to take on Lankans and avenge the 209 ball defeat to them in the 2nd league game.

It was story as usual for Indians — the batting collapsed except the skipper and the Sehwag factor. He was on a different pitch altogether. While wickets crumbled around him, he played his natural game and was the sole factor behind 223 on the board that gave something to bowl to the 4 prone Indian seam attack. Never in recent history I remember 4 pacers playing together and none of them was named Zaheer Khan and one of them was named Munaf Patel.

He took 3 wickets and got himself to into a slight contention for the world cup berth. Too early for to say anything for Munafa as he always deceives. Ishant Sharma bowled awesome and touched 140 mark consistently. He should get the confidence back which would be very vital for India’s campaign to the World Cup.

There was no spinner on the squad. Specialist one though. There was JadduKha, but he leaked runs as he always does. So he met the expectations. He made 17 with the bat and gave 21 off the ball including 3 sixes. So is he worth calling an allrounder ?

Its like “Kasam BCCI ki khate hain, allrounder Jaddu ko hi banayenge”.

His India career lives up to one more day. Nehra took 2, Ishant and Jaddu Kha 1 alongside Munaf and Praveen’s 3. Praveen has been the bowler of the tournament. Forget all others, this man from Meerut has got quick breakthroughs in almost every game he has played. 2nd ball today, 1st ball in two games. Wish he could play Tests too though he’s got a superb first class record. Only if Srikanth would go up north a little bit over Karnataka.

The batting was worrisome and the Rainas, Kohlis and Yuvis did themselves no favor. They need runs, they may either wait till the home series against Australia or try getting some runs in the final against Cheaters. Raina, UV would be part of the XI playing in World Cup and it would be only good for themselves and team if they are in runs. May be the seaming pitch of Dambulla has not helped them, but they would need to correct their run making spree soon.

Karthik made a duck, Jaddukha made a 17. Period. They wont be needed further this tournament end.

Few words for Sehwag. Actually i have no words for him. He is peerless, awesome and add up all adjectives you can, they’d still fall short of what Sehwag actually means to India. He has not been playing in the World T20s now and India has been crashing out too early than they should.

He has been peerless in Tests and doing the same in ODIs. Given the form Tendulkar is in this year, he and Sehwag should make an explosive opening pair in the world cup.

A pity that DBV kept him out of the team for full 2007-08 until he made a comeback in the Adelaide test in Australia. Since then he has been a different player altogether. In the same league of 4 Indian modern greats in batting.

Whaddaplaya.

So tis going to be another India SL final and the emotions would be high. I would love to see India roll back SL inside 100 and then have a look at Sangakara’s reaction.

Indian ODI team

The usual suspects who got in the team are none but Munaf Patel and Ravinder Jadeja. They dont exhibit much confidence.

Munaf has a attitude issue. If Free for all Santh has a fiery attitude, then Numma has a laidback attitude. You’d never know if he is switched on or if he is dreaming of a hug by Shilpa Shetty, his IPL team co-owner.

He had a huge pace 3 years back, now he has 120. Ding Dong you would bark on this, I know this. He would be a fake McGrath and would no longer be the bowler he was just for once he was in that tour game in 2006 vs England when he broke timber with his pace.

Sudeep Tyagi is a good choice, but not sure if he would be able to play more than a or 2 ODIs. If he makes his debut and gets a decent success against Australia, he would be a major find for the country.

And then we can say “Sreesanth gaya tel lene”.

Batting order more or less is settled with the only questions on # 7 ?

Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina, Ravinder Jadeja ?, Harbhajan, Ishant, Neehra and Mishra / Tyagi.

First 6 is settled combination that looks good for the world cup at home.

The number 7 is now a fresh hunt for a bowling allrounder in the mould of Firaan Pathan. Either he or naybody half as good as him would do. Preferably fast Gill bowler.

Question for Rohit Sharma

Kudos to Rohit Sharma. The lad from Borivali(W) did it once more almost. Hit clean shots, won 2 games on trot almost single handedly. Great stuff and all those adjectives — young, special, talented, super and blah blah.

But million dollar question to ask here is will he repeat the same performance for India in T20s and ODIs ? What is that stops him from playing the similar way for indian colors ? Whats in IPL thats not in Indian colors ?

I dont remember barring 66 in CB series 1st final any innings of note from the lad. High time he does for his country too. He wont be remembered that much for IPL as he would be for India. Ditto for Munaf Patel. He grinned, he dived, he caught, he exulted, he ran hard. All for IPL. Contrast that with Munaf for India. Does Warne get the performance out of him which Dravid, Kumble and MS couldnt?

Mumbai Chokers.

Another close contest, another classic, the same result. Mumbai Indians choked. The South Africans of IPL in South Africa. 4 needed off 6 balls with 3 wkts. And who is the bowler down the other end? Warne? Kumble? Malinga? RP ? Heck who? Its Munaf Patel, the least likely to take 3 wkts in a over, although he did take just 1, but had 2 more runouts in his over with little role to play in them. He yorked Nayar man. Yorked. Amazing, reminded me of his heroics in Baroda game against England in 2006 which saw him earn a place in the national team. But then that was a fast Munaf, this one is a slow Munaf.(Edited later, thanks Q for pointing the factual error)

Mumbai Indians didnt deserve to win after the start they made and the game they made out of it when their captain got them in the limelight with another classic. Its been his bad luck that Tendulkar has been surrounded by mediocre players for most part of his career (leave out 2001-2009 India period), once he is out the entire team collapses.

If you look at the culprits of the game : Nayar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Yogesh Takle, Rahane, barring Tak(aw)le all are part of Mumbai Ranji team and they are choker gang. Much to the disgrace of the past tradition of this Ranji team. Fuck you guys. Disgrace!!

And it was another Sachin vs Warne moment. What a shame that Tendulkar for first time had to end up on losing side whenever he had better of Warne in the past. All credit to the so called Mumbai’s youth brigade. Cheap and waste!!

I am pissed to see Sachin’s team losing, but in a way happy that such a team doesnt deserve to win the trophy when we have worthier teams than this choking team sans Tendulkar. He must be mad at his “young lads”. This team is now famous to loose close encounters — look at the results over 2 seasons and you would confirm me.

2-0 would have been better

1-0 is good. 2-0 would have been better. Down the years the scoreline of 1-0 wont be reflecting on how India dominated the hapless Kiwis and only rain preceeded by delayed declaration prevented them to go 2-0 up. I didnt watch the day 4 start and entire day 5, so wont be able to tell how much delayed declaration affected the bid to win the Test.

This was a Test when effective 3rd and 4th bowler could have got the result in Indian favor. Ishant was off color and Munaf was as usual ridiculous. I mean what is the use of getting him in the team? When captain doesnt trust him to bowl more than 10 overs in an innings followed by his attitude followed by irritating habit to run to the bowler 100 times better than him and offer him free advice after every delivery ?

No attempt to bowl bouncers, no attempt to bowl different length. Much said about him in this blog and other blogs. he is not the kind of bowler you would turn to maintain the pressure after 2 bowlers have done the hard work to put pressure.

And one more thing comes in here to ask. Why was no Sachin Tendulkar given bowling before?

No doubt that Indians are now a different Test team altogether. Better than South africans and Australians, but to be like Aussies of yore, the Indians would need to go for the kill in every Test match and remove the weak links like Munfa Patel.

Dancer steps in on the 22 Yards!!

What is the reality show dancer doing in the team ? He is just in cos the captain and the skipper is injured. But how ? Did he step in over the stray ball ? For sure dancer must have been caught napping when said he is to play a Test. His practise for the next dance show would have been hampered. And thats pretty evident in his keeping. Fumbles, drops and dancing steps while passing on the ball. Imagine, when the dancer keeps to the grinning Munafa. Total ghata hi ghata…….

Munaafa ya Ghata ?

There is just no variation. Just 3 kinda balls:

1. Sliding down the leg side
2. Just outside off stump
3. Too far outside off stump

The first one is milked for runs down the leg side giving easy singles. Second one either is left on and or just left away. When it swings a bit inside, the lbw appeal is turned off. The third one is hit for fours..

He has got wkts. 5 of them so far. So he stays. In Napier he would be the 11th man on the team sheet. No bouncers, no slower uns, no aggressive looks, same lax attitude, sheepish grin.

Munaf

I have been a critic of Munaf Patel since my old cricket blog days (Taking Strike). I just baffle to see him grin when he is being hit for four or a six or when he misfields or throws a wild throw down the boundary. He had pace then, he has none now. He was exciting then, he is ridiculous now. He gets injured at drop of hat. He lacks intent, he lacks positive attitude. He hasn’t performed in ages. He is a medium slow bowler like Mohinder Amarnath or a Dion Nash. Even Jesse Ryder would bowl faster than Patel or for that matter our own Tendulkar and Yuvraj. He hasn’t taken wickets. He hasn’t lasted a full tour. What’s that he has it in him that he finds himself in the playing XI every time ? Ishant Sharma is being milked for runs in ODIs but yet he takes wickets.

What bad has Ajit Agarkar done ? Get him back. He is still 3^rd highest wicket taker for India in ODIs. 12 short of 300. He has attitude, he goes for runs, but is game for bending the back. Or get Balaji. If you need a bowler who bowls at 130 then whats wrong with him ? Or for that matter get Sreesanth back. He should have got his punishment for his activities. Get him. But dump Munaf. I second you SP.

3rd pacer and best Indian lineup

If Ishant Sharma is not fit then 3rd pacer is a problem for India. So its better to go pick better batsman out of the 2 lesser bowlers. And thats where Irfan Pathan scores over inept sedate Munaf Patel. He is a bit of mole who doesnt get in his mind that he is got to bowl some pace or some variation and not just off stump line with 120 kmph which would be whacked to the boundary.

And guess what Rohit Sharma would make a comeback. Bloody ridiculous. And Sachin felt this was the best batting line up he ever had ? Did he forget Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid ? Replace Raina with Saurav and Pathan with Rahul, there you go the best batting line up India ever had. 2003 World cup. Yes Saurav gets it right. Mentioning fact is one thing and motivating the team is other thing.

Good opportunity for India to win the series tomorrow. But thats possible when the replacement for 163 works.

Irani Trophy Review Day 1,2, 3

The RoI has set a target of 378 to win for Delhi. And that’s a formidable total, which didn’t quite look possible at the end of day 1 when the team was shot out for 252. Despite Sehwag heroics in Delhi’s first innings, RoI bowlers did a good job to take a 75 run lead which came in handy in the second innings. And after Dravid saw off the threat from Ishant Sharma, the 75 runs were always going to hurt Delhi in long interest of the game.

People might have different ideas about Dravid’s contribution to the RoI, but he was the difference between a target of below 300 and the current one of 378. Rest of the batting around him except MSD collapsed around him, so in a way RD stands vindicated and that gives a message that he is not finished and he ‘s got lot to offer to the India’s test fortunes. For Delhi Ishant Sharma in both the innings and Nanda in 2^nd innings were the exceptional performances. And that sounds alarm bells for Australia as Sharma managed to get lot of bounce and pace on a benign wicket. Bangalore, Mohali would for sure offer more bounce and help to seamers than this Vadodara pitch.

Dravid made valuable contributions of 46 and 69 to the RoI batting and was instrumental in forging partnerships with Jaffer, Badrinath who disappointed, Laxman (will he be under scrutiny?) and Dhoni of course. He saw off the threat of Sharma who troubled him in 1^st innings. And that’s the difference between a good batsman and great batsman. You wont fall for the same bowler again in the same style.

For RoI Munaf Patel was the standout performer along with Zaheer Khan who got Gambhir early and now critics have started baying for Gambhir’s blood after an indifferent SL ODI series and the first innings failure out here. Proves that how fragile are the critics who need top performance, but forget to note that they come across as a headless chickens. 4 wkts for Munaf in my opinion complete the resurrection of the bowler who promised much but fell out ultimately to the demands of international cricket more to his laidback attitude than the talent. I feel he s got back his pace and also the zip and fire is back in his belly.

And if there were any slim chances for Delhi to win the IT, they are gone with Zaheer Khan nailing Virender Sehwag. Does that also mean that Virender Sehwag should be kicked out of the Test team (0,37 , 43, 3) ? Tough task , somebody got to stand up and perform.

Standout performers :

Delhi :

Ishant Sharma

C Nanda

RoI

Rahul Dravid

Munaf Patel

Zaheer Khan

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

While writing this post Delhi need 369 more runs to win with 9 wkts in hand and little over 2 days of play remaining. I am sorry to say but the critics , journalists, Rakhi Sawant’s cousins and bloggers baying for Rahul Dravid’s blood have got to shut their mouth. A possible RoI win in the store 🙂