Pakistan vs Kenya

Today’s game was yet another anticlimax and another testimony to the ICC’s decision to kick minnows out of the 2015 world cup. The Pakistani batsmen got in runs except opening pair. 4 middle order 50s, captain getting 5-for, best for a captain in world cup, Shoaib Akhtar lasting 5 overs in spell and fielding being rarely good and electric. What else Pakistan wanted. Rarely they have kickstarted a world cup with a win. Going back with the facts and figures this was just their 4th opening match victory in last 24 years (1987, 1996,1999). They lost in 1992, 2003 and 2007.

What was an anticlimax was the approach Kenyans took. They openly showed that they had no intent to go for the chase and they were just going through the motions, that is doing a formality of turning up in the field and batting. They conceeded 37 wides amidst 50 extras and thus fuelled the debate that minnows who dont show intent to perform better, dont show the zeal to learn and step up their performance should be kicked out.

Kenya is going to provide an easy fodder for all teams and mainly Sri Lanka would look forward to a  gigantic demolition when they play this team.

Netherlands and Ireland are two minnows who look good to scare the top teams in respective groups. Netherlands have already scarred England to deepest and I would count Ireland favorite against Bangladesh on Friday.

The bigger test for Pakistan comes this Saturday when they take on Sri Lanka in one of their most important games of the tourney (another would be vs Australia).

Pakistan beat West Indies in a mess up

It was a good scoreline. Pakistan won by 5 wkts. They messed up. 134 was not a huge score. Not at all. Yet the big guns made a mess. In the end the kid Akamal and the Boomer chewing gum saw it in the end that their team gets through the upset.

Misbah, Yusuf, Malik failed and thats just going to raise more brows in their country. Beating West Indies could have been a walk in the park for the Greens, but they are Pakistan. Lest they mess, they wont be the team they are. Mavericks…Their next game is against the Indians. And its not a Friday. Its a Saturday. 2003 / 3/ 1 was also a Saturday. It was Centurion then, its centurion now.

Tendulkar, Dravid, Nehra, Harbhajan were then in blue. Younis, Yusuf, Afridi were in green.

Got to see an agression in Pakistan team, the agression they showed under Wasim Akram, not under Imran Khan. Under Imran Khan, the players were more like soldiers who have taken to whites to fight the “war” against India.

Under Inzy, the Pak team mellowed and that basically gave the likes of Asif and Akhtar a chance to go wild, my view. Dare somebody do that under Akram or Imran, the player would have ended his career. Today serial offenders like Yusuf, Asif, Akhtar continue to play and get away.

Chuck out a few losers from Pakistan team and they should be a good team back to the glory of 90s. And yes PCB too.

Preview to CT — 1.

The CT is back. The days of 2000, 2002 are back too. The instances when the Blues reached the finals. No wonder this time around too they are one of the most strong contenders for the elite title.

I predict a India – South Africa final .

Not to forget historically Indians have done too good in ODI tournaments in SA and also their greatest win in T20 came in 2007 in SA itself.

If acclimatising to the conditions go, then nobody better than Indians do it after of course the home team. They just played IPL – 2 here 5 months back 🙂

Everybody in the Indian team played the IPL and one of them reached the finals. Didnt they. Sachin, Yuvraj, Dravid, Harbhajan and Nehra would cherish the 2003 memories. Especially Nehra when he rocked England in Durban.

India plays Pakistan in Centurion on 26th Sep, the same ground where they royally thumped Pak in 2003 and sent Waqar, Wasim and Anwar out of the cricket career.

The magical 6s to Shoaib from Sachin and Sehwag. The 6s to Wasim Akram. Who can forget that. So who is this time ? Gul ? Or Aamer ?

Let the CT begin. !!

Akram on Akhtar

Wasim Akram says correct on Shoaib Akhtar that his career is over. No later this statement came and also the news broke out that he is in further trouble with Butt and he s been issued notice…

Well we never know few appeals and cases later Akhtar could still be in the team and competing with Amer for a slot. When MoYo can come in and along with Misbah who is now off for long time can keep youths like Alam and Akamal junior out of the ODIs, then why not Akhtar.

Wonder if somebody in Pakistan listens to Wasim ? He is one of those sane ex-cricketer in the subcontinent who speaks some sense.

Look beyond Shoaib and Asif

Rightly so Shoaib Akhtar has been ignored for the probables of CT squad. Its time he is forgotten for good and the new talented eager bowlers are given a chance to play for Pakistan. I would suggest dump Asif too.

Mumbai Indians vs Deccan Dischargers LIVE!!

Whatta start to the Mumbai Indians. Opening partnerships have been the key for DC in their first 4 games. No strong opening partnership, they lose. So today is one of those days? May be, i wont complaint. I want Sachin Tendulkar to lift the IPL. No Zaheer today. He is out injured. Bad signs for India’s crown defence. Poor fielding. Suman hits a four to bowler whom I suspect is Dhawal Kulkarni. Kallu Siva is out in the dug out. He is crap. Dhawal Kulkarni, a fast bowler. LORTFL. 130 max is his speed. He would be bludgoned by attacking batsmen. Interesting to see how he takes on Adam, the baap of all wktkeeper batsmen.

Meanwhile Fidel Edwards is rocking England after his super show in IPL for DC. England tottering at 4/182 at Tea, day 1. Bhajji is on. To Gilly. Back to Lord’s Test, KP got his golden duck, may be first in his career. Prior, the jelly bean king and Bopara, the latest Preity’s huggie baby are resisting Edwards show. Lage raho. Preity would send in more pappiya and jhappiya from SA for Bopara.

By the way back to IPL, Suman hits Bhajji for a six. Faster ball. One more. 30/1 in 5th over. I dont care how Mumbai local lads perform or even Surya or Bravo or Nayar perform. One more six. Round the wicket and off goes Suman. Kid is having fun at the expense of a bowler who has got 330 Test wkts and 8 IPL wkts, and hit one idiot a tight slap. Bravo is in. Well this game is at Centurion. The same venue where Tendulkar murdered Pakistan in the WC’03 game that shut Pakistan out of the world cup forever. That six to Younis, that six to Shoaib Akhtar, boy orgasmic pleasure. Can Ten hit few more tonight ?

Back to the game, Bravo almost got SUman. and now he gets him. Huge wicket. 2/37 in 6. Fashion guy Rohit Sharma comes in. He is a Mumbai man. A suburb man. Borivali(W) resident. He is touted to be next Tendulkar. hahahaha. Bravo has got good start. Sach is shuffling his bowlers well.

DC 2/37 in 6. Bhajji back to Gilly. Interesting to see how Sharma plays Bhajji. I would fancy Bhajji get Sharma. Shiba is saying Gibbs and Suman have not taken out their pads. Cos they are disappointed on score so far. But Dhakkan Shiva, how come Gibbs and Suman would increase the scorecard? They are dismissed. So they wont be coming out to bat again. No batsman on crease is injured, so no runners. Huge six by Gilly and then a lbw appeal. Doosra. Not illegal one. 2/46 in 7.

Rohan Raje the joker is on. Another dibbly bodly wobly bowler. Doesnt Mumbai have any genuine pacer? Is it short of bowling resources? Are this tweakers like Rohan Raje or Dhawal Kulkarni the future of Mumbai cricket? Ass. Six. 100 kmph, Sharma hits Raje to a six. Why the hell is Raje playing? BTW Rameez Raja is back commenting. Welcome to the INDIAN premier league sir. Raje dives after the ball passes him. 2/56 in 8 overs. Gilly is in for big score. He is playing anchor. Would be fun to see him go aafter bowling in later overs. Dharmsena is the umpire. ROTFL. Great fielding by Harbhajan pappe.

Deccan are losing the plot. 2/59 in 9. Rameez gets age of Surya wrong. 37 in place of 39. Appeal for runout, not headed. Freaking hell. Raje gets Gilly. Ah man. Shameful to see Raje getting Gilly. Ahh SRK ad. Go off dude.

3/63 at TACTICAL AD TIMEOUT. Chances of rain in 2nd innings. 4/118 in 17th over. 150 should be the target. Pity that Sharma didnt hit Kulkarni out of the attack. Jaya bowling still good at his age. Deccan have no specialist spinner as Ojha is injured (3rd one of Team India). Lankan slinga is back. And whatta catch…….Dwayne Bravooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Orgasmiccccccccccccc…..Sharma gone. Chuck gets a wicket. Not Murali, but Slinga Malinga. You beauty!!!! 6/145. Not bad given the start Deccans got. Tendulkar needs to fire and i m waiting with holded breath!!! Go Sachin go!!!

Mumbai Indians are back to batting. Rameez Raja is commenting as if its a debut game for Tendulkar in the world cricket. Boy in this age too, he runs like a heir or hare. Off goes Jayasurya. 4 off 5th ball. 6/0 in 1. 140 to win in 19 overs. Tendulkar to face RP now. Jayasuriya gone. Damn!!!!!! RP strikes. Good catch by Harris. Pinal Shah comes in and Sachin is gone. RP bowls him. Biggest wicket of his goddamn career. Off goes the live post. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn…………

Turnaround for Roy and Chance for Australia to get back to winning ways.

6 years back in world cup match against Pakistan, Australia were tottering. It was the opening game for the world champions and it was against a team they had thumped in their last world cup game : 1999 WC final. One man turned it on for Australia in the game and his life on the highest stage changed. He hit a career turning century against a team that had Akhtar, Akram and Younis. He was Roy, Andrew Symonds. Pakiatan never recovered from that onslaught. They were kicked out in 1st round of the world cup and Australia won the world cup.

Tomorrow Pakistan takes on Australia in the series of 5 ODIs and 1/2 T20Is in Dubai sports city. Pakistan is coming out of a rare cricketing season and Australia is coming from a wrecthed ODI form where they have lost 2 series to SA and a drawn series against NZ. Aus have rested Ponting, Mitch and Siddle. No Lee as well. The bowling attack looks thin. Bracken is no longer a force he was. And now the onus for batting would depend on Clarke along with David Hussey. Return of Shaun Marsh would be morale booster for Australia..

But Pakistan isnt the team it was in 2005 and 2006. Lot of rookies plus menace called Shoaib Akhtar. Another series, another set of tantrums (fitness and attitude) from Akhtar. Cant they just get rid of this guy ?

This would be the last chance for this 2 teams to choose players for T20 world cup in England and since this teams dont play in IPL, the players who get a headstart here would stand a good chance to play in World T20.

Scoreline expected: 4-1 Australia. Somehow my predictions on Australia do come true, so this time would be no different. At least Achettup thinks so.

Are the Aussies only cheaters ? Look around, you wud find many

Every body speaks of Punter and Haddin as cheats and against the spirits of the game. Hardly except this blogger, anybody speaks of :

1. A bowler with suspect bowling action continues to ball for 16 yrs raking up 1270 wkts in international cricket with ICC bending rules in his favor thanks to the lobbying his board does.
2. A batsman from India given out 2 times in row when he was not. Consecutive appealing by this specific bowler earns him suspicious wickets. Not once but twice in a same game. Many times across multiple games.

Is that fair ?

Aint the bloggers who term Aussies cheat being guilty of biased view ? If Aussies are cheats then the players listed above in the numbered points are cheats too. Raise your horizon. You would find many cheaters.

Even Shoaib Akhtar and Wasim Akram were guilty of one such act in Kolkata Test of 1999 when they appealed for run out dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar even when latter was in the crease. Weren’t they cheaters ?

Tale of 2 captains

Shoaib Malik comes of age….

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/pakvsl/content/current/story/387334.html

by making a frank and in your face comment on Shoaib Akhtar s commitment and fitness. Somebody got to do that to MJ blabberer too 🙂

Morning bunch of cricket developments round the globe!!

Hayden bungled up in the Tests this season and he was persisted with entire season.

He was axed from ODI squad and the T20 squad……….

Now he wants to go back to his family, ease off and decide what to do next. Cling on or exit.

Similar to what Virender Sehwag had in 2007 when he suffered loss of form in ODIs and was sacked from Tests and in effective lost the chance of being the skipper for good.

Pieterson and Moores were shown the door in English cricket after the rift came out in open……

Guess this is the time to wash out the dirty linen in public…………

KP – Moores rift in England and Fraudlingam Raju in India…………

England go a step back in appointing Strauss the skipper for WI tour…..They don’t have anybody else who is sure to play all 3 forms of game except Pieterson…

3 yrs back we had a rift in skipper and coach, coach prevailed to screw us further and skipper was fired. Later on coach was fired and skipper returned back for a fairytale return and even fairytaler farewell.

And then we almost had a Pieterson style rift between MS and selectors over RP Singh!!

Graeme Smith is the man of moment and SAFs are the team of moment……Romantics’ favorite……Showered with accolades for beating world champs in their own den. But then was that domination ? Did they dominate right through ? Did they send fear and shiver amongst the opposition ?

Frankly speaking the lineup of McKenzie, Amla, Kallis, Prince / Duminy and DeVillers doesn’t sound scary as this one :

Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, TENDULKAR, Laxman and Yuvraj………

Put Smith in and yet this doesn’t sound scary J

Nope not convincing……

SAFs cant be long term Test champs even if they uproot the Aussies……

Fingers crossed for more surprising developments………

And yes across the border, Akhtar won the contract, but not sure how long he would be up there and even bigger question is how many matches he would play ? Injury, fights, ego battles and conflicts might create a roadblock for him!!!

Malik remains captain for another year when they play SL home and away, tour Australia later in the year and go to England to play T20 world championship!!! Let them get good amount of cricket!!! Yeah they should get…..