India through to the finals

What a feeling it is. To be in the world cup finals beating Pakistan for the 5th time in the world cup. Its just difficult to digest. Goosebumps in the  tummy. Butterflies flew all around, screaming and abusing was a bit low key thanks to being in the foren country.

The tension to see in the finals after 8 long years and this time go one step further to lift the cup of glory in homeland was unpalpable. All superstitions were followed. Unmoved at times when things went right for India and when runs were leaked, when wickets didnt fall. Reeling Munna and Bhajji when they leaked runs. Blowing off Kamran Akamal when he showed his stupid poker face on screen during keeping and batting was all done.

Facebooking and watching cricket has been the trend this world cup. Update the status message on FB, update stats on FB, update number crunching there and put on some superstitions like Cmonnnnnnnnnnnnnn and to see a wicket tumble moments after that was all fun. Dont have the luxury to watch on TV on any channel, so have to rely on  the ISP and host of live streaming sites to watch the action LIVE.

It all happened on a day remarkable for Indian cricket, what a day it has been. Reaching 3rd world cup final, 2nd in 8 years and almost with the same group as it was in 2003.  Sachin, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Nehra are the survivors of that match India lost in Wanderers to rampaging Ponting and co. This time its a step to go further. Win the world cup in Mumbai, the hometown of Sachin Tendulkar, country’s greatest sports icon and perhaps the best ever batsmen to play cricket in all times.

Thanks to Pakistan to turn up in India despite the hot and cold diplomatic relations, thanks to them for making the match living all the hype it had before this game even began. Thanks for them to provide us yet another opportunity to savior this victory. Beating Australia, Pakistan in the route to finals is amazing. The contests with this 2 countries have always been intense, thrilling and top quality. And Pakistan did go out in a proud fashion, forget what Misbah did in final overs, they have done their nation proud with almost flawless and mostly controversy less performance in the world cup. None expected them to come this far given what happened in past year in their build up to the world cup, so Afridi must be a proud man given how his men have delivered.

Sachin Tendulkar has played all 5 victorious games against Pakistan in World cups and he has been man of the match in 3 of them. He has scored 54, 31, 45, 98 and 85 in this 5 games. He has played with great Kapil Dev to Azhar to Jadeja, Mongia, Venkatesh Prasad and the great trio of Dravid, Ganguly and Kumble. Not to forget Javagal Srinath.

India won its first semi final at home. Previously it had lost its 2 semi finals, both chasing in 1987 to England and pretty controversially in 1996 to SL. This time India defended a 260 and won. 

The biggest turning point of the game was the dismissal of Gambhir in the 20th over which led to a mini-collapse in the 25th – 30 th over and a score of 350 became 260. Sehwag in his super assault on Umar Gul had set India on another huge total, but once he was out and the rest just went in the shell. Gambhir has been erractic this tournament. he has thrown away his wicket in almost every game. Something not expected from man of his stature.

Tendulkar was cratchy, scratchy and whatever, but his 85 set India to cross 250 and that proved to be the difference in the end.  MSD is excelling in captaincy, but his batting is concern.

What was too heartening to see was only 5 bowlers were used and everybody took 2 wkts each. Zahee was little bit off color, but he was made up by super Nehra and surprisingly Munaf.  Ashvin;s dropping was a debatable issue, but I still feel he will be a key man in the final and he should replace Munaf in the XI. Nehra got his rythm back in the 2nd spell and at helped him in the super final spell when he just gave few and got Riaz.

It was a day when the bowling and fielding excelled yet again and the batting was iffy.

In the end Younis and Misbah combined together to stall the stanis chase and its likely that this guys wont be part of the LoI set up in the future.  Misbah is test captain, but then who knows what happen in Pak cricket. The others — Shafiq, Hafeez and UKumal didnt quite turnup to play long innings that could have won their team this game. Yet they came this far and thats applaudable.

For a change there was no sledging this time and there was no “war cry” on the ground at least.  Expecting Pak to react to this loss graciously back their home and not call for the people’s head who featured in this tournament. They’ve got some very good positives in form of Riaz, Shafiq etc and once they are given chances they could come up as well finished product.

But for now lets savior the superb Indian victory and rally behind them to trounce the cheats of the world to avenge the painful defeats of 2007 and 1996. Lets burn the Lanka this time in Mumbai 8 months before the Dusshera festival.

Dear Shahid Afridi

Shahid Afridi, welcome to Mohali. The super ground in Indian Punjab. You shall be playing semi final against India on 30th March, 2011 in that ground. 

We heard that you’ve said that you wont be short of support in Mohali? Are you banking on few Pakistanis who shall travel to India on visas and then disappear and never return? Or are you talking of few fools who cheered for Pakistan in those dark Sharjah days? Or do you feel India is still under pressure when it comes to play Pakistan ? 

I am not sure if you have arrived in Punjab or are yet to arrive or will not arrive. You are arriving in a country which has blown hot and cold over the diplomatic relations for different reasons. So given that backdrop, shall you arrive? Shall your board let you arrive without the drama and idiotic statements? Shall you keep quiet and let your play do the talk? 

I am curious to know when you say you would not be lacking support. Who shall support your team? Thats troubling me. India has gone past those days when there were few, very few who blew crackers on a Pakistani win in Sharjah. Gone are those days, that mindset and moreover  those set of players from your country. Now the players you’ve got are mad, idiots, clowns and jokers. Lunatic as Ian Chappell and Intikhan Alam calls them.

Do you think you are gonna stop Indians with the bowlers like Abdul Razzaq, Abdul Rehman and Wahab Riaz ? And yes Hafeez too? Do you think K Akamal would be able to pouch anything in his butery gloves  that day? You are most welcome in India after 2007. But come and play. Dont give mad statements. There is no pressure on India. Pressure is on Pakistan. They shall play before a crowd who shall want the men in blue to steamroll them and go through to the finals.

Are you ready to handle it ?

Shabash Shabash Kakku Bhai Shabah Shabash

Kamran Akamal is one peculiar creature. He fluffs the nicks and edges that are off the batsman’s bat. Almost everything that comes his way. And then he makes a pig face or a poker face as if nothing has happened. Its a mystery that how far he has come along carrying this inadequacy of capturing anything that comes his way. Thats the basic skill every keeper must possess. He is dropped, he is back. He is in a cloud, he is cleared.

Pakistan has changed captains like Rakhi Sawant’s clothes or Veena Malik’s statements, but Kamran Akamal is a permanent fixture in the team. Right from Inzamam to Younis to Yosuf to Misbah to Butt S to Afridi, this lad has remained in the team. Razzaq came in, gone and again came in. MoYo ICL’ed, retired, came back, dropped and forgotten. Yet Kakku is in the team.

Asif, Shoaib, Amir spearheaded the bowling attacks and they were / are gone. Zulfi Haider came and fled. Kakku is still around. Afridi says this lad does the hard work in nets but in the real games his luck runs out. For 4 years in row ? Every time?  Everything changes in Pakistan cricket except Ijaz Butt and Kamran Akamal.  May be this 2 have had some secret pact.

Waqar is not yet ready to kick him out from the team. But the fans have given up. There was a very interesting video on this lad on You tube yesterday with the song ‘Teri G***d me danda re” which was good enough to crack anybody up.  The community in neigbhour country that follows cricket wants this man out. Who knows Kamran might stay in Lanka and seek a political asylum citing fear to his life. Or he might flee to Libya or Timbaktu.

He seems to be one creepy creature who has got weird smile, weird voice and you immediately feel urge to put on the tape on his mouth or mute the volume of your laptop / TV to avoid his torturous “Shahid Bhai Shahid Bhai”.

The next games Pakistan play would decide the future of this “Kaali Bakri” (as refered on cricinfo page 2) in the world cup. Yet as everyone believes he might cling on his place and even if he is dropped against Zim, he might return against Australia or in knock out stages.

Rosco on fire in Pallekele….

In walked Ross Taylor, on his 27th birthday, and he received two generous gifts from Pakistan. Before he had scored, Taylor edged the second ball of Shoaib’s second spell. Akmal moved to towards his right to take a catch that was his for the taking, and then stopped and looked expectantly at first slip, where Younis Khan looked on in shock as the ball sped to the third-man boundary. A ball later Taylor edged again, this time the easiest of chances straight to Akmal, who dropped it again.

How are Pakistani selectors, coach and captain persisting with this lunatic dickhead is beyond logical comprehension. He uttered “Shahid Bhai” 15 times in Afridi’s last over and what his reprieve costed Pakistan in last 6 overs is mind blowing. 

Excellent hitting Rosco. That would  shit hell scare the next opponent captain reluctant to play in Mumbai.

Shahid Afridi

Shahid Afridi is the leading wicket taker in the tournament. 14 in 3 games. 2 5-fors and whoa he is the man to bowl. Now he is the man to be feared from the ball. Whats the reason behind this turnaround.

And today he overturned yet another looming large upset on the horizon.

After the batting folded for 186, he turned around the game when the Canadians looked set to win with 80 to win in 17 overs.

Pakistan have not yet faced a strong opposition yet (Australia) and they are into the quarters after 12 years.  They top the group and they look good at this point of time. Who knows the future though.

Cricketers are childish to Shahid Afridi

In eyes of Shahid Afridi, except himself, every one is childish.

MoYo
YoKha
Julfi
Yaseer Hameed
Amir
Butt
Butt
Asif Malik

All.

Randomness in Fixistan continues

Madness continues.

Randomness continues.

A day before the selectors name squad for ODIs. They chose Afridi and Misbah. And 14 others. None of them are ending in Asif, Amir or Butt. They dont name anybody as captain. So Ukkumal expects he could be the captain. And yes Mr Dhadhi (beard) MoYo is selected too.

A day later Afridi is named captain for ODIs and Misbah is named for Tests.

Phew. Reasons behind not naming Afridi captain on day 1 is “not so good reviews on captaincy by management in England” and “public comments” which did not go down well with board. Who in the board? The face of the board. Mr Butt.

On day 2 everything goes well and Afridi’s sins are washed away. He is back as captain.

More drama.

Test squad is named. No Younis, no Kakkumal, no 3 fixers.

Misbah is captain. A man who has not played a test in almost 11 months is  captain now.  Here is the list of captains:

1. SL : Younis Khan

2. NZ : Dhadhi Man

3. Aus : Dhadhi Man

4. Aus : Afridi

5. Aus : Butt

6. Eng: Butt

7. SA : Misbah

8. NZ : ?

No one knows who would be next captain next series. Who knows Butt Ijazie would declare himself fit to play and take over the captaincy against NZ.

All the talks and calls for culling of Ijazie have gone down and he continues to operate in his own way.  Thats in our favor. We get more laughters and more fun.

Pakistan middle order fails again sans Umar Akamal

Pakistan play to lose. When they are off the field they fight and plot each other’s downfall. They secretly meet at former captain’s place and take oath on name of GOD to dislodge Younis Khan. On the field they have a brain freeze.

No matter Shahid Afridi is captain or no captain, he is bufoon just like Ijaz Butt. A duck.  Responsibility is never a strong point or atttribute for this forever 17 lad.

Mindless batting followed by some sensible batting by junior bugger is good enough for Pakistan to hand the game to their nemesis, the yellow fugly Ausssies.

Shahazib made 0, Afridi made golden duck, Kamran Akamal made 21, Shoania made 21 and Umar Akamal fought a lone battle to keep Pakistan in game.

I pity Pakistan fans who must be feeling disgusted for every inept performance the seniors and juniors dish out on every outing in the middle.

PS : Mohd Yousuf is planning a comeback to international cricket after Wasim Akram brainwashed the disgraced former captain.

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.

Collapsistan back in business

At 4/46 Pakistan are back to do what they do best….

Collapse…when the calypsos are on in the stands of Dambulla in Dambulla cup.

Move away Windies, Pakistan are new Collapssos.

They should be rechristened to Collapsistan. Or may be UTurnistan or BanButtistan…..

Whatever they are stubborn. They have decided they wont play to win. Who knows now some of their kids would swear on name of Ijaz Butt to edge out Afridi as captain.

Who knows Kamran Akamal is behind this with secret backing of YoYos and open backing of Shoaib Mirza.

Pakistan is a funny cricket team besides being butt of all jokes.