Lanka dahan on Saturday in Mumbai

Its time to face the Lankans in the final of the world cup in our own country. Sri Lanka, the old warhorses who play all their games at home and then come to Mumbai to play the final and claim the trophy as if its  their own without any fight. Just cos Murali is retiring, they want to lift that trophy and touch it. Get off folks.

You are in India, the land where you lost last 2 series 1-5 and 1-3. And in the last ODI you played here against India, you were so shit scared of the rising ball, that your captain got the pitch in Kotla banned for a good year.  2 victories and 8 losses in last 10 completed games is a very proud record isnt it.  I remember Sangakara making a lot of noise when they travelled to Mumbai to play NZ. And now they are saying they know the pitch well, the conditions well just cos they played one game there and Malinga played 2 IPL seasons there.

What a logic.

Sachin Tendulkar grew up playing cricket in Wankhede all his life. Most of them who play for India have played in Wankhede before in either a IPL game or ODI or a Test match.  Zaheer Khan plays his domestic cricket in Wankhede (whenever).  So do they expect on back of just 1 league game in Mumbai and Malinga’s 2 IPL seasons, they have a better idea of the pitch and ground?  Cmon get real.

They have a shaky middle order with guys like Masarweera, Mathews, Chamaras (whom their own fans mock as Sir Kapu or Lord Silva), those who have not yet been tested to full. A team which rides on the top 3 is never going to succeed if they lose the 3 in cheap. Game against Pakistan is a testimony.  Even the game against Kiwis is a testimony. Plus India has played SL too often, so they know the way Lankans play their game. Spin heavy attack isnt going to work against India in India. 

They are pressing Murali beyond a point to play the final cos they know without him they cant win a single game. Test matches are examples of that.

The key to beat SL is get rid of Dilshan, Tharanga and Sangananga and they are exposed, bared in the mid sun, unable to lift their game.  They have also called Randiv back and also Vaas back cos they feel Angelo I  m Not out Always Mathews and Muttiah Murali are unfit. Randiv, the same man who looked poor man’s no – bowler might not play as they have not yet applied for replacements. They are making Murali bowl on half a leg, even if he is not fit. 

SL fans are obsessed with India and they want SL to win against India to shut the f** up the BCCI. The anger and disgust feelings of Indian victory in SF is visible on SLCricket.com. They badly wanted Stanis to win cos they feel they can beat them in India.

Unfortunately they still run into rampant India who would want to win one more game emphatically and crown themselves as world champions. Besides the revenge of 1996 SF is also on cards. I just want to see how would they react to the loss in the finals.  They blamed squash ball for Gilly’s 2007 final 100 and they kept calling for rematch as they felt it was cheating. Cheaters calling the world cheaters cos this time they were on the receiving end.  Think about those 1000s of wickets their bowlers have got who had suspect actions or those who have bent arms beyond 15 degrees and yet got away. Think about those buffoon umpires all this years who’ve given numerous horrendous decisions on fields.

Reflecting back!!!

4 years back in the runup to the world cup 2007 I had started writing cricket blog and most of those posts were related to the cricket watching experience from 1986 till date (2007). I had covered the world cup till the halfway stage and then India had exited in the first round itself. The days to follow were like being in the state of numbness and shock as none of us expected to lose so early. 

Greg Chappell was the most hated man in the country then and entire cricketing fraternity was shocked on Mar 18, 2007 when world learnt that Bob Woolmer died the night Pakistan lost to Ireland. Perhaps that was the start of decline of the Pakistan cricket which is still ongoing till today.

There was still a hope that India could still qualify to go to the super 6 by virtue of beating Lankans but it did not happen and I hated Dilhara Fernando more than I hate Jaywardhene and Sangakara now for dismissing Tendulkar on 0. Many thought that was the end of the Tendulkar saga in the World Cup.

And then one day writing from Kanbay office for that blog,I accidentally ended up deleting that blog which was more of a innocent blog with no digs at anyone, no hatred, no rants and no criticisicm of anybody. I rued that loss as i had already posted 45 posts by then. 

I got started with the other blog and the most memorable experience of blogging came with that when I blogged about the 2007 World T20 win, England series win and of course the victory over Pakistan in the last series played till date.

And then 2008 Sydney happened. It was heartbreaking, it was disgusting to see India lose to Ricky Ponting’s antics. I was so anguished by teh happenings that I quit blogging and did not blog for another 8 months. Even IPL-1 came and gone, I did not blog. 

And then at the end of SL ODI series, I came back to the world of cricket blog yet again and this blog took the birth. 28 months of blogging and over 1200 posts. Drilling down Lankans, standing by the fab five of the Indian cricket and of course shredding apart the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Sangakara, Jayawardhena, M Vijay and Srikanth have been the features of this blog. 

I dont receive comments any more. I fretted initially about it, I cribbed and wrote about it, but in the end I adjusted to it not letting it affect me and my writing. I might not be the most popular blogger around, neither do I have penchant for laws of the game, neither do I have the ability to draw humorous cartoons, neither do I have ability to praise anything Sri Lankan. But passion for the game and standing by the team I like the best keep me going and I shall keep going for as long as I can. 

Cricketing World

Pakistan have won the last T20 and avoided a clean sweep in NZ. They also ended the 6 match losing streak in T20s. And this time the Palak Paneer guy came good again with allround effort.

I am bit skeptical of planning PCB had for the team in the run up to the World Cup. 3 T20s and 2 tests in addition to 6 ODIs. Whats the meaning of 3 T20s? What purpose does it serve?

By the way they are the only team who have to give the 30 names for WC provisional squad. And they are hung up as Kakkumal, Shoaib Mirza and Danis Kaneria meet PCB’s “integrity committee to decide over their future in cricket. Now what happens and what would happen is anybody’s guess in Pak cricket.

Zim and BD are done playing their last games before the world cup and they sit idle for the next 43 days in the run up to the World Cup.

And perhaps SL and WI too.

SL are still a “formidable” side going to World Cup. I dont believe this. They are always formidable, they are always romantic side, they are fairy tale and what not. They have not played any serious cricket for over a month since that dubious and fart win over Aus in ODI series in Aus.  Yet they are formidable. For a change you have not heard from Sanga in long time. So have I. And thats good.

The rest of cricketing fraternity is busy playing Tests or ODI cricket.

Australia are moaning about Ashes loss and how useless Ponting is now. England have everything revolving around Ashes and they dont seem to think beyond Ashes. Perhaps they should stop playing cricket in between Ashes series.  Yet they want to be # 1. And Collingwood could be on his way out from Tests at least.

Clarke is the captain for the Sydney test and most probably for long term too. He is having a rut in the batting department and that has invited a lot of doubts over his choice of captaincy.

The Australian batting is no more formidable as it used to over  2 years before.

Katich or Hughes do not inspire confidence. Watson makes 50 but does not convert 100s. Ponting stopped making 100s since long time. Hussey is the only batsman, Clarke is metrofexual and Steven Smith as # 6 is fart.

Compare that to the likes of Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Gilchrist as good as 2007.  More than the batters they are missing Shane Warne, Gillespie and of course Glenn McGraw (Bill Lawry style).

Wont be a surprise if they lose the world cup in India next year.

Possible semi finalists:

1. India.

2. England

3. South Africa

4. Australia / Pakistan if neither of this teams implode or explode.

1 more day of 2010 and I would finish off 4th year of cricket blogging starting 2007.  Pretty good journey from a world cup to world cup.

Sri Lankan Ravans

Sri Lanka have been shoed off by Bangladesh for a Test series due to following reasons:

1. BD cricket is on a new high as I am after Smirnoff, after a 4-0 drubbing of NZ.
2. BD has refused to be part of all cricketing records against their names.
3. BD is tired of shit from Sangakara and the soft spoken Bong Babus do not want to hear the Sinhala tirades of Sangakara on how shit they are and how world class Lankan Ravans are.

So the Lankans are due to play just 5 ODIs before world cup in some locations like Hannumunakonte and some other unpronounciable locations (worse than Tiruvennavalli or Tiruvananthpuram orTircharipally) against disinterested West Indies team.

Sri Lankans play against disinterested teams and they beat them 2-0 or 3-0 and then their pig faced skipper pokes out a verbal diarrohea on how bloody good Lankans are. 

Cricinfo’s Lankan page screams headline on what Mahila, the lady Jayawardhena says on how Malinga is valuable for their world cup campaign. Hell 101 wikats in 30 tests make him their 3rd highest wikat taker.

They dont have Murali and  they would struggle to bowl out Windies without their own help. Since Chuck retired, they have failed to take 20 wikats in a Test and would forever do.

And if Murali follows Younis and Yousuf, he could soon make a comeback in the tests for them.

Sanga baba is due for a press conference on how good his team would be when he would beat WI 3-0 and 5-0 and then celebrate as if they have beaten a # 1 team in the world . But hey that team are us and the Lankans can never beat us in a full series. Bwahahahahaa.

Predictions

Sri Lanka and Pakistan play today but not against each other.

I bet Pakistan would play exciting cricket while Lankans would suck upto their negative brand of krikat by bowling negative line down the wikat.

I’d pick Australia and Pakistan as today’s winners. 

And hope Nanga gets out on 0.

Equanimity, Bugbear, Roll Over n die chasing. Nanga is back!!!

Sangakara is back with his daily dose of shit and rants. 

Today he explains how to tackle captaincy pressure in Australia.

“We come from a slightly different cricket-playing scene [than in Australia] where we get to see that almost every day,” he said before laughing loudly. “If it does happen it’s not the end of the world. It’s an opinion expressed and if you’re playing at this level you are able to handle it with equanimity

So guys the new word for the day is equanimity. Wow. Sangakara is now a part time English teacher. 

Roll over and die. This was his first word  to teach us. 

Bugbear, this was 2nd. 

Equanimity is 3rd 

It seems that Sangakara failed in the GRE test and he still carries those chits with him. And randomly he picks those to teach us new words. 

Ah so much for the humility Mr Yehali Sangakara. 

““We’re trying a few new guys, but we’re settled to a great extent,” Sangakkara said. “There are still a few places up for grabs and we need to have guys ready and able to take up that spot. We have a lot of younger players who have come in, and a lot of experienced players who do not feature in our squad. It’s an interesting time for us.”

Who are the new guys? Jeevan Mendis. Dinesh Chandumal, Muralitharan,Machinda Vaas.. Figure out the above sentence.  He always says huge stuff about his players yet his team never wins outside those flat Samwarweera chap wickets of SL. He has character stocks and all that crap, yet his team never wins in India or never tours South Africa. Chickened out? Gandu player totally.

He’s gonna lose 0-3 in the ODIs. I bet Sanga’s ass. He is just pissing Australians off and they would bounce back by making Lankans run chase the leather as bugbears with equanimity and then roll over to die chasing. 

Sangakara!!!!!!!!!!

A monumentous Test match

What a test match it was.  Ful too paisa vasool. As a superstition I wrote on the blog that Australia would win the game while I knew that someone would do something magical cos it was Australia and India can fight back from worst of the situation against this team. Woke up at 2 AM in the night and glued to the webcast till the presentation was made. Every moment of the final session of final day is a picture to cherish for long time to come.

Its the quality of cricket India and AUstralia are capable to produce every time they take the field. Intense, gigantic and great cricket. Even the lesser mortals of Australian team gave a tough fight to Indians. And in the end even though India won, it was Australia too who showed a lot of improved behavior on the field. Especialy Ricky Ponting who did not go overboard to push for the victory.  The scenes of Sydey 2008 are still afresh, but this was a sea change.

Australia did not have the penetration on the final day when it was most required. Bollinger, the to go man on final day was out injured (thanks to CSK campaign) and Hauritz was a no brainer against India.

Johnson struggles on pitches with little bounce and Hilfy did his bit, but in the end Ponting’s men ended on the losing side. No disgrace though. Defeats against Australia except 2008 Sydney never hurt as much against Sri Lanka and Pakistan do. But then SL and Pak are no contesters against India.

Everybody contributed in the win right from Sehwag to Ojha except Gambhir who’s suddenly developed a lean patch. He is out 2nd time to injury in consecutive Test series. That gives an opening to Mukund and though he wont play, Vijay would partner Sehwag again in Bangalore.

Dravid had his moments in first innings, Tendulkar missed a 100, Raina made a well deserved 86 and Dhoni, though regressed in batting, captained well. Ishant Sharma sprayed balls all over in first innings and had injury to his ankle / knee, he returned back to bowl with heart out and star in that monumental partnership for 9th wicket. Ojha did his bit in 2nd innings with ball and Zaheer Khan, as usual was excellent with old SG ball.

Harbhajan did disappoint with bat and ball in both innings, but the man who would be remembered whenever this great Test match would be mentioned is VVS Laxman.

What a player he is. Underrrated and under praised(whatever). He has now got victories in back to back chases with back to back back injuries. Crisis and adversities make Laxman thrive and excel, that very few players do. But that has been the hallmark of this great Indian middle order. Batting with a runner, with a bad back and scoring runs at almost S/R of 95 is excellent stuff.

That makes him count above the flat track bullies of Lanka. Sangakara and Jaywardhena have scored more runs and hundreds than Laxman, but hardly their innings are counted as in the same breath as in for Laxman.

Bangalore should make another exciting contest and if India wins, then it would be a whitewash of mini sorts for India. But do not under estimate Australians for they would give one more intense shot to the indians to save their pride and gain some confidence for their next Test in Brisbane on Nov 23.

Cheating returns

Best way to win when you cant win on basis of fair play and within the spirits of cricket is to have the umpire on your side and give wrong decisions against the whistle blower of cheating…Virender Sehwag.

I thought Viru was tough to get out so get Dharmsena  on your side and give a ball outside off stump out.

Perennial cheaters. 

Who cares even if India crashes out before final. No point in playing against cheaters led by worst captain ever in the history of the game.

Sangakara’s character exposed

Kumar Sangakara wants to be in thick of action. He wants to be seen everywhere. In match conferences, match referees rooms, sledging with fellow captains, appealing for catches and lbws that aint existing, saying huge moral stuff and constantly showing character by appearing casual in official team functions.

Question arises is he insecure ? Is he fearing that SL would be back to minnows stature after departure of Jayasuriya, Vaas and Murali? What is his motive? He openly encourages his bowlers to ball negative lengths, enforces fair FTPs and questions India’s motives in open, blasts Virender Sehwag and of course cannot complete any sentence without uttering character. 

Ditto with Mahela. I guess Mahela and Nanga are building character factory for Sri Lankan cricketers. So much so that they often display lack of character. One of them validates boring SSC kinda pitches citing challenge to bat long as long as they can. The other sets negative fields. 

He questioned India’s stature in world cricket when his board wants as much as cricket with BCCI to fill its empty coffers. He questioned Viru’s character after Randigate. Guess the pasting he got from Sehwag in past 2 years is not good enough for him to question Viru’s “character”.

we don’t hide behind the Board and we don’t hide behind the media” when it came to being hauled up for creating unpleasantness. He added: “If we make a mistake we take the responsibility. If it’s serious, we take it on the chin. We take it like men and move on.” 

Really ? Who called up Indian manager to apologize for Randigate ? SLC. 

Who’s pressing for more fixtures with India ? Who’s pressing for aid to build SL stadiums for World Cup ? SLC.

He (Hurst) did ask me whether McCullum did it intentionally,” said Sanga, “I said I don’t want to comment on any other player. Sometimes players are ruled LBW, they show the bat and no action is taken. Yesterday’s incident, it was without seeing whose fault it was and without seeing the footage (that I was summoned),

Clearly he is agitated on being summoned by Alan Hurst over colliding with Nathan McCullum. This after he was cleared of any wrong doing. Hasnt SLC intervened here as well ? It got Murali playing after coaxing ICC to bend 15 degrees rule. And now in accommodating an useless keeper skipper. 

When Gambhir was banned for elbowing Shane Watson in 2008, BCCI did not throw his weight around Gambhir, as a result Srikanth got an opening and he got Murali Vijay in the test squad.  Since then he hasnt left the Indian squad.

When monkeygate happened in Australia in 2008, Harbhajan Singh was let off after Sachin Tendulkar deposed before ICC. And if Bhajji says typical Indian stuff (Boss DK, MaaKey and Dunga, what Yusuf Pathan said to Umar Gul) to Sangakara, I am sure this bugger would cry more. 

He questions BCCI, its clout, its intentions and then goes on to play IPL for KXIP. Ends up as wooden spoon holder and gets a peck from Zinta babes. Hypocrisy ? 

He is not happy with the schedule for the tri-series, he is not happy with the FTP. He is not happy with anything but his wife most prolly. Unfortunately there is Ijaz Butt who takes all the mud and eggs for being diabolical, else that stuff could very well can be served to Sangakara, the perennial loser.

Sangakara is a cheap loser.

So the idiot rat did it. Kumar Sangakara in a cheap act of directing Randiv to bowl a negative line to deprive Sehwag of a well deserved 100 showed his null character. 

He is characterless. Spineless. He has proved it that he can take the spirits of the game to every possible low. And he has the audacity to talk high as he always does whereas the fact is he is a man deep in muck and mud thus showing to the world he is a real ass.

Get off Sanga. Cricket world is better off without you. SL are sore losers. Point proved.