Ashes 09 final test

Wow! What a match this is truning out to be. Before this test match England had all but been written off. But on the 3rd day they are now in the drivers seat. 436 runs lead (at the time of writing this) and growing with 3 wickets in hand. Australia is all but out of this test match now with the wicket crumbling during every delivery England’s spinner Graham Swann should have some fun on this pitch when he bowls.

The short of it is though, if Australia looses this test match and hence the Ashes they will DROP to 4th in the ICC Rankings. Yes 4th.

Come on England!!!!!!

Sri Lanka send Australia home

Awesome!!! Sri Lanka bought their A game to the field and beat Australia with one over to spare. Australia have never been comfortable with this format nor have they willing to learn this game either. Their best batsman failed to get past the 20s when every other side throws up one batsman if not two who push 50. The world champion tag in Tests and ODIs may (sort off) still rest with Ricky Pontings men but in this format even Bangladesh would give them a run for their money. I suspect that this form will actually flow over into the ODI game sooner rather then later and we have already seen their test match form slip rather rapidly in the last 12 – 18 months.

Sri Lanka now qualify for the super 8s and given the group they are in most likely are already in the Semi Finals and deserving too.

ps : Those idiots at the ICC who came up with this draw definitely need to be tought a thing or two about reality. A super 8s group consisting of Sri Lanka, Netherlands/Pakistan, Ireland, New Zeland. What sort of a grouping is this!!!!!

India beat Bangladesh

India squared off against Bangladesh yesterday and it was the first game in this tournament which matched pre-tournament predictions and the supposed form guide.

India batted first, sans Sehwag missing due to a shoulder injury, and opened with Rohit Sharma and Gambhir. The openers provided a great start but the side got bogged down against the Bangladesh spinners who are very canny. The impetus, without which Bangladesh would have won, came from Yuvraj who scored 41 in 20 odd balls. This was definitely the turning point of the match as India ended up winning by 25 runs.

Bangladesh were going well at the start of the innings but kept loosing wickets at regular intervals and could not string a partnership together. In some part due to their own nerves but in a large part due to India’s bowling and fielding which was excellent. Yuvraj was the highlight, and also the lowlight, running in and diving full length forward to take a catch inches from the ground at short fine leg. Almost an exact replay of the final from the last T20 World Cup. In the very next over he ran across to be behind Dhoni and dropped an absolute sitter!!!

In the bowling departent Ojha and Ishant were the highlights for me. They both belied their young age, and in Ojha’s case a debut match for India, to produce match winning performances. Ojha in particular read the pitch perfectly and turned in a bowling performance which showed how much imapact a spinner can have in this format of the game.

All in all it India did about as much as was required to win this match. Their next game is against Ireland, which poses as a banana skin, which they should win and qualify into the super 8s in first position. This will see them face off against either of WI or Sri Lanka or Aus in the first super 8s game at Lords on the 12th of June.

WI thrash Aus

There was a Gayle Storm that hit Australia today at the Oval in London. Australian bowlers had absolutely no answers to the fierce hitting of Gayle who got great support from Fletcher at the other end. Australia now must beat Sri Lanka and hope that WI do the same for them to qualify to the super 8s.

It is a distinct possibility that Australia will now go home at the end of the end of the group stage of this tournament. If they do, they will only have themselves to blame. Ricky Ponting showed a distinct lack of instinct, flair and dynamism required to lead a side in this format. The bowling changes seemed pre-meditated and the pace of Lee and Johnson were the perfect foil for Gayle’s hitting.

Earlier Australia had scored a healthy 169 in their 20 overs despite loosing early wickets of Watson, Ponting and Clarke. They were helped in healthy doses by bad WI fielding. Many dropped catches, boundaries via mis fields were gifted to Aus.

Yet, thanks to Gayle, WI won. It is always fun to watch Australia loose.

England vs Dutch

The twenty20 world cup kicked off yesterday with the Netherlands pulling off an almighty upset, well considering it was England maybe it’s not really an upset, over England in the opening match. Now let’s face it the cricketing world has really evovled the game in the different directions but England is stuck in the old ways. Even though they invented the game and also 20-20 format of the game they SUCK at it. Yesterday was a classic exhibition of why they suck.

England batted first and scored a healthy 169 in their twenty overs. Now in the normal course of a 20-20 match this is a healthy total, but England proceeded to bowl in the wrong areas, use the wrong bowlers at the wrong time and miss every, I mean EVERY, run out opportunity that presented itself. And very quickly found themselves under an onslaught between 10th over and 15th over. By the time they got the 4 wicket it was all over red-rover.

England now have it all to do against Pakistan and could still end up being out of the world cup by the end of this round. All in a game they invented, in a format they pioneered and are now seeing all in sundry play it better then do.

When will they learn??

Netherlands, on the other hand need only to play as well as they did last night and that should be enough on run-rate to take them through, assuming Pakistan beat England.

blog revival

This blog has been dormant thru the IPL, ironic considering we started with the intention to talk lots about twenty 2o cricket. As the IPL progress I realised I really do not like that tournament at all. I barely watched any of the games, courtesy lack of coverage on Sky TV in London and also my lack on interest in the tournament. I will post more on this topic later, but for now I want to revive this blog.

The Twenty20 World Cup kicked off yesterday and I have realised that I do not dislike the format just the IPL. As soon the cricket nations have stepped onto the field I am all excited again. So here goes another attempt on blogging about Twenty20 Cricket.

Watch this space….

IPL Mumbai Wins

I never did watch any of the first IPL and I doubt I will see any of the second one either thanks to Sky Sports not showing IPL matches. They would rather show the county games and as a result Setanta sports is showing IPL in the UK. I am Sky subsrciber and hence have no coverage. Great!!!

Watching my favourite players play against each other is hard!!!

Dhoni leading the Chennai Kings, not donning the gloves and playing as a batsman and captain would have been nice to see. Patel got the gloves, who I think is a much better keeper then Kaarthik and should Dhoni’s backup on all Tours.

Sachin leading the Mumbai Indians, playing a format which should be strange to him. Given his greatness (wait no godliness) he must find even this format easy. He eased himself to another half century at better than run a ball, ensured his side batted around him and got a stiff target.

As it turned out Mumbai was able to defend the target with some ease. Kudos to Mumbai Indians.

[Still don't know abt this IPL business ]

McCullum over Ganguly??

I’m shocked. Sure, Ganguly is on the older side of the ideal cricketing age, but seems like politics is taking over the Kolkata Knightriders. GANGULY is the face of Bengali cricket, and to replace him with McCullum is just…..puzzling!!! I’m sure there will be many KK fans upset and bemused by this decision….I sure am!!! But hey, guess this is IPL – new and unpredictable!

Ganguly said he was “okay” with the decision. “I’ll play as an ordinary player and support McCullum in whatever way I can,” he told the Kolkata-based Telegraph. “Shah Rukh has spoken to me and he’s given Buchanan everything he wanted, including the captain, and stated that there could now be no excuse for not performing.”  [Source: Cricinfo]

Not good enough

This post has been swirling in my mind ever since 3 AM (London Time) of the 5th day of the final test match.

Pre-cursor : Indian team wants to be number one. They keep claiming to have that as their goal for the next 12 months. They were playing against a side ranked 8th and clearly far inferior compared to India. Hence, the result of the test series should have been 3-0 to India.Actual result 1-0

Not Good Enough

The final test should have been won. It should have been won convincingly, but it wasn’t. There were dropped catches, missed chances (aka: Lazy Munaf Patel at midoff), misfiring Ishant Sharma, weird field placements, late declaration of the Indian second innings. It all added up to only one thing : India was not going for the win and hence did not win.

This is not good enough. Just because the test series is already yours you can’t take your foot off the pedal. Stick the boot in when the opposition is down. Aim to win every game. etc etc etc….

As an Indian fan I was very disappointed with the approach by Dhoni and his men that day…

BCCI buys the ICC

Emerging news today out of India is that the BCCI has come to an agreement with all other countries to buy out the ICC and become the dictator/ruler of world cricket.

The transaction has been completed in ultimate secrecy until now. A press release will soon follow, it will state that the world boards have come to an agreement that the BCCI’s wealth can no longer be ignored and that handing over governing of the game to the BCCI can only be for the good of the game. But the secret here is that the BCCI is paying each member nation astronomic amount of money to toe this party line.

[Update] : That was my (sad) attempt at a April Fools….