SA choke

Going going going gone. At 3/121 to 172 all out.

SA lose by 49 runs to go crashing out of the semi final race and Kiwis make yet another appearence in the semis. For the first time India and Kiwis go to the semis together. And if tomorrow its England who come up trumps its going to be India vs England final.

Mouth watering stuff.

But SA. What are they made of ? After restricting NZ to 221 and just needing 3 222s to win, they lose yet again. 121 is a dreaded # for them. They collapsed at 121 itself against England and today again they went down.

Generations have gone by but the South African dream has nt materialized.

1992 : Semi final crash, they were not to be blamed for that 21 off 1.

1996: First signs of choking with loss in QF. Thanks to Brian Lara

1999 : Epic choke to Australia 2 times.

2003 : Their own world cup, they need 1 run to go through instead they tie and go out.

2007 : Lose their way in semis to Australia

2011 : Kiwsi blast them out.

Many termed SA as fav team to win the world cup. Not to be. They choked. They had a super team this time.  Amla, Kallis, Smith, ABD and Duminy. None fired when it mattered. Amla got good starts but except 1 100 never went on to make a hundred.

Imran Tahir, their new playtoy couldnt fire against big teams.

And biggest of them all, they choked in their minds. They chased 297 successfuly against India but could not  chase 172 and 222.  There are plenty of South African coaches around, none as best as Gary Kirsten for India. And now they shall desparately want him to coach them.

No decision reviewed this game. Good

What a game Kiwis had. Both captains are going to step down post this campaign, but its Vettori who’z  got better of Smith on a venue where they lost 0-4 to Deshis. Oram, Ryder, Nathan McCullum had a super game today.

And now they travel to Colombo for their semi final against SL or England (England my favorite).

SA need some time off and may be a reconditioning program for empowering mental strenghts. This is a World Cup and it doesnt get bigger than this. They had 4 spinners, but that didnt matter in the end cos their batsmen lacked the steel resolve to conquer something which India, England and Australia have.

Its a glorious upset and what a turnaround for Kiwis.

All attributed to one man, who started it all for Indian turnaround, good 11 years back. Take a bow for John Wright.

Saffers seem to be choking again

3/121 to 7/147.

Only Saffers can do that. They have to accept that they are eternal chokers and they shall always do it. Though they are yet to lose this or win this, but a big ? is set up on their worthiness of winning this tournament, which they desparately want to.

And 8tgh gone.

South Africa cannot win the bigger games, no matter waht conditions, no matter which countries. Pity India lost to them and they couldnt get Saffa choke.

And whoz the hero of chokers? N McCullum and J Oram.

Cant stop laughing.

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.

Looking back at the moral sapping defeat to SA

So India lost the first game of the tournament and in an insipid style.  In a way it was good they didnt deserve to win after spineless performance from the lower middle order and the middle order.

Yuvraj Singh attempted what he does the best — hit successfully, but Saturday wasnt his day. MSD has forgot to hit fours and sixes and like dogs he scratches around and then stands infurirated and gives some spectacularly inefficient statements in the press. Yusuf Pathan is a mug and he shines occasionally to seal his spot for next few games. He has never delivered when needed the most. The best he can do now is to focus on IPL career. No more needed in the world cup.

He is useless in all departments. Cant bat, cant bowl, cant field.

Same goes for Virat Kohli. After that opening 100, he has faltered away. He has been bowled, caught & bowled, run out in last 4 games. What was he attempting on Saturday is best answered by him.

Coming to the fielding, it was the best display in the tournament unforunately didnt come good. Munaf Patel continued to be lax and listless with ball and field. Do we really need him? He is too passive and Sreesanth is too charged up. Extreme characters in the team.

He leaked runs in 48th over in England game too and here again. Both times he got the opposition in the game again after Zaheer Khan and Harbjhajan respectively had got India back into the game.

Foolish stuff.

Ashish Nehra, I guess his India career is almost good as over. No imagination, no yorkers like Zak and no wickets. Giving last over to him was a big mistake. Well if he did manage to get RP out and somehow stop 13 runs from being leaked, India could have hailed him as hero. But he did a good favor to the side by leaking 18 runs to a tail ender.

India needed this defeat at this stage and hopefully after the 8 day break they shall come out all guns blazing. The quarters scnario would be clear by then. They shall know what they’d need to do to go through should there be some upsets in this next few days.

Hopefully they will learn something from the games so far and make some changes in the personnel :

Suresh Raina for Virat Kohli in his IPL home ground

R Ashvin for Munaf Patel in his home and IPL home ground

May be Sreesanth for Nehra

Sreesanth is drama queen / king, is erractic and all the negative things, but only one thing he’s got what others in the pace department dont have — PACE. And if he is ready to play in the team cause and not let his emotions get better of him, he can very well turn out to be surprise package for West Indies.  But dont know predictions dont always come true in Indian team combination.

There is a very little chance India might not make it to the final 8.

The remaining games are:

SA vs Ireland : SA expected to win and get 8 points

WI vs England : England need to win this to stay afloat. if they do they shall end up with 7 points.  If they lose, they are out and BD go in. India also go in.

SA vs Bangladesh :  SA should win this and top the group with 10.  If BD win they go through and if SA lose this one they should still make it provided they dont lose to Ireland.

India vs WI : If India lose to WI and BD win their other game vs SA and WI lose to England they could go out depending on how bad they lose. If India win they end up 2nd in the group and go through.

I guess the turning point in Saturday’s game were:

1. 9 for 29 in 9

2. One additional over for Zaheer in batting power play where he leaked 17 runs and if he was saved for last over, he could have got India 2 points.

3. Nehra over Harbhajan

Hopefully this was the bottom India saw and hereon they shall rise to the occasion and not squander the 100s from Tendulkar and starts from Delhi dashers.

SA mind games

What pressure and heat are Lance Clusener and Hashim Amla talking about ? This just seems to be another loose talk from their camp. South Africa are now in a precarious position and should they lose tomorrow, every thing would come down to their last game vs Bangladesh.

Saffers choked to 165 from 3/124. Their batsmen failed to conquer a decent target of 172. Their frontline spinner is injured, their best bowler in Tests is no force in ODIs. So what kind of pressure or heat is on India?

India is unbeaten in the group and if they win tomorrow SA would be in a real tight position. Let Saffers look at their own problems rather than looking on in Indian camp.

What if SA choke once again tomorrow ? Bwhahahahaha.

Friday is going to be key in deciding Group B stndings

Friday is going to be a big day in deciding the potential QFs of the Group B. England take on Deshis and Windies take on Ireland.

England win and they are through to the next round and Deshis are out.

Windies win and they almost go through. Ireland win they would be in for key chance. Should Deshis win in the other game, they would then need to beat Netherlands in their final league game.

India would probably want to win the remaining both league games. WI should not pose a problem and SA are too familiar with India now having played 8 ODIs over year and won 4 games each.  Get in Amla, DeVilliers and SA are captured.

I believe India, South Africa, England and Windies / Ireland would make it to the next round.

West Indies vs South Africa

West Indies and South Africa played out the first game in Northern India of the world cup and it was being played in the capital city of India and the home ground of Delhi trio — Sehwag, Gambhir and Kohli. The same ground which had itself banned from hosting international games in Dec 2009 hosted a match today and did so well. The Ferozshah Kotla, the ground which has its own legacy and has 2 record milestones achieved on this ground : Kumble’s 10 and Sachin’s 35th Test 100 in 1999 and 2005 respectively.

Back to this match, the Windies started off well to race to 1/114 and then losing wickets in “clusters” as Darren Sammy later said and Nasser Hussein said on the air.  Barring Darren Bravo’s 73 and his brother’s 40 none could go onto make a big score as AB did later and that was the difference between 222 and 272.  The likes of Gayle, Sarwan and Chandu failed and there went the Windies chance to stamp the authority over the Saffers.

The Windies were also done in by debutant spinner Imran Tahir’s 4/41 figures in his debut game. He bowled with subtle control and variation, turned the ball square and along side Johan Botha controlled the Windies run making spree. South Africa are taking the spin bowling a bit too seriously when they opened the bowling with Botha and played 3 spinners.

223 was not going to be a score that would have scared SA, but they did for a while when they lost Amla and Kallis early with just 20 on the board, WI sensed some victory but AB jolted them with a fine 100. He knows the ground in and out as he has played 2 IPLs here for Delhi Daredevils in 2008 and 2010.  Smith was scratchy given he was ill and Duminy played a perfect partner to the 4th wicket partnership that saw SA home.

SA remain 2nd on the group behind India on NRR and they now wait another week to play their next game against Netherlands.

Positives for SA :

• Spin bowling especially Johan Botha opening
• Imran Tahir’s promising debut
• Dale Steyn’s late overs burst
• AB Devilliers form

Positivies for WI :

• Darren Bravo’s batting
• Suleiman Benn opening the attack and getting the turn
• Kemar Roach

Besides they have a man called Chandu Paul in their team who doesnt make runs when needed, doesnt pace his innings, yet finds himself in top 10 of every ICC ranking. Weird!!!

Team Preview : South Africa

In the ongoing series of team preview, this is the turn of South Africa today. South Africa, the perennial chokers and unlucky ones in the World Cup and similar tournaments. They threaten to walk away with the title every time they begin their campaign, but they fizz out when it matters or as they say they peak out too soon.  This time its going to be no different. The preview of the things to come was very much visible when they lost 2 games to India from winning positions and the fact that they have not won any ODI series convincingly against strong teams since Australia 2009.

Current Form

They started 2009 with a bang by defeating Australia 4-1 away and 3-2 home after losing the test series. They won against Zimbabwe and West Indies in this duration 5-0 and 5-0 and that inflates their winning score of 26-13. Take this 10 wins and that reads 16-13.  They lost in the CT in their own backyard and lost to England 1-2 followed by a 1-2 defeat in India in 2010.

After that they won against India and Pakistan 3-2 but not before stuttering and fumbling till the final game of the series.

World Cup record

1992 : Semi final exit owing to the disastrous rain rule which left them to chase 21 off 1 ball when the rain stuck.

1996 : Quarter final exit to a master class from Brian Lara after having won all 5 league games convincingly. First signs of choking.

1999: Semi final exit thanks to the epic defeats to Australia in Super 6 and then the tied semi – final. Thanks to the master class from Lance Clusener, they came close witin a run to go the finals, but Donald panicked and the rest is history, Herchelle Gibbs dropped that sitter from Steve Waugh in the super 6 clash and since then SA lost its steam in the world cups till date.

2003 : Again choked in the must win game against Sri Lanka. Mark Boucher wrongly interpreted the D/L rule and when they needed 1 run to go through the next round, he defended the last ball only to find that they are out of the world cup. Earlier, they had lost to NZ in a high scoring game and the tied game with Lanka meant they crashed out in the first round itself in their own world cup. Shaun Pollock lost his captaincy and Graeme Smith, 22  was elevated to the captaincy which he shall quit post 2011 world cup.

2007 : Peaked too early and when it mattered lost to Australia in the semi-final by bundling out to a sub 150 score. They scored big in the league and the super 8 stage, but when it mattered they choked and exited in the semis.

Team

Smith, Amla, Kallis, AB Devilliers, Duminy, Faf Du, Ingram, Morne Van Vyk, Steyn, Morkel Morne, Tahir, Tsotsobe, Parnell, Botha, Robbie Pieterson

Opening:

Smith and Amla form a terrific opening partnership given the form Amla is in over last couple of years. This pair ranks one of the best opening pairs in the world cup after the most prolific pair of Tendulkar – Sehwag.

Middle Order:

With Kallis not around in the ODI series against India in SA, the middle order looked shaky, brittle and the tail was a bit long. Kallis would do well to regain his # spot and also play up as a bowler who could bowl close to his quota of overs.  AB and Duminy would be dangerous at 4 and 5 with 2 of Ingram, Morne Van Vyk and Faf Du occupying 6 and 7. Faf Du impressed in the only game he played before the squad was announced. AB has been in prolific ODI form over last few seasons, so the team would look forth for some runs in the tournament which matters the most.

Bowling:

SA has got the best bowler of the world in Tests in their ranks, but he has not played that many games to qualify as threatening in the ODIs as well. But given any day he can still extract the pace out of placid flat tracks, he would be dangerous.  Morne Morkel is the support cast to the hero Dale Steyn and the conditions in the subcontinent would be as such that one of Parnell and Tsotsobe would play at most of the times. ALso its possible that neither could play as Kallis can be the 3rd seamer and the next 2 bowling spots would be occupied by the spinners.

Tahir, Pietersen and Botha are the spinners in the team. Tahir is unknown commodity and the other 2 are at their best, restrictive bowlers. Neither of them would be expected to play an attacking spinner role. Smith and Duminy would roll over their arms when and if required.

Expectations:

On paper, SA look balanced team and Ponting has classified SA as one of the team to look for, but in the given reality South Africa could do well only if they gave up choking and raised their game when required.

A quarter final entry looks easy but after that its going to be how they play on the given day.

Match days:

 2/24 vs WI, 

 3/3 vs Netherlands at Mohali (SA fast bowlers would love this), 

 3/6 vs England, 

 3/12 vs India (Nagpur, Dale Steyn would have fond memories of this ground), 

 3/15 vs Ireland

 and 3/19 vs BD (SA would look for revenge against BD as would India)

ODI series preview

The IPL auction has hogged the limelight away from the upcoming ODI series with South Africa. This ODI series is last series before the world cup and how India fares in it would give a fair idea how the team would perform in the world cup.

The injuries are looming around the corner and the team management has done a fair job in resting/ sending Gambhir, Sehwag and now Praveen Kumar back to India to recuperate in time. That leaves Murali Vijay or Rohit Sharma as contenders to partner Tendulkar on the top.

The bowling attack looks good with Zaheer and Nehra as new ball openers. They would remind us of the epic 2003 campaign in the same country in which India raced back to the world cup finals. Srinath was the leader then, its Zaheer who is the leader here.

It should be a fairly fought contest with a possible scoreline of 3-2 for either team. It wont be horrible as 0-4 last time, but it wont be easy either to conquer them.

Let the game begin in the prologue to the upcoming grand event back home, even bigger than the IPL. The Cricket 50 over world cup.

World Cup 2011 contenders

South Africa and India are to play 5 ODIs each before the World Cup.

Australia and England 7 each, Pakistan and NZ — 5 each. West Indies depend on the mercy of the SL board if they are to play any more games before he world cup.

BD and Zim would play their last game before the world cup. And who cares about the other teams. 

What about SL ? Well they would play mind games and their fat arse ex captain Arjun Ranatunga would go all over the talk shows saying that his country is favorites for the world cup cos they have Sanga, Mahila and Malinga.

Bhaat the Fuck!!!!

Before the world cup begins, the focus would be on 3 key Test series:

1. India vs South Africa.

2. Ashes

3. Pakistan vs New Zealand.

England wont win the world cup cos for them Ashes is the world, if they would win the Ashes they would be content. Australia is in the disarray. If they lose the Ashes, they are going to blank England 7-0 in the ODIs. India is on the winning streak of 6 ODIs in row in completed games. But they are back in the country where they last won an ODI good 7 years back — the semifinal win against Kenya.  They last played a series in 2006 when they lost 0-4.

Sorry, they last won a ODI in 2009 beating the West Indies in ill fated CT. Saffers have played few ODIs this year and they won against Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe and lost to India 1-2. They hold the record now for conceeding max runs in ODIs in an individual innings. 

IMO there would be tough competition between 5 teams for the 4 semi final slots. 

1. Australia

2. South Africa

3. India

4. England / Pakistan

Pakistan cos they are unpredictable lads and its ages we last heard of joker called Ijaz Butt speak or do anything lampoonic…So if they play well and steer clear of any unwanted controversy, they can reach semis and they would then have to give a walkover to the other semifinalist as they wont like to play in India in the finals. They wont be allowed to play due to the ongoing freeze in the bilateral relations.