World Twenty20 Champions

An early exit from the World Cup 2007 cannot be less motivational for a team to prove grounds at an international level. That’s exactly what India did on 24^th Sep, 2007 to beat Pakistan and become the world champions of Twenty20 cricket. From the days of agony to the days of rejoice, the journey has been a tough one for the game of Indian cricket, bearing the criticisms and abuses. The age factor of the trinity, the inability of playing all-round consistent cricket, the loop-holes in the fielding, the question of fair selection, choking under pressure, has been pondering in and around the media, the public and the team over the past few months. Finally, coming out victorious from the roots of nowhere has been warmly accepted and heartly appreciated.

Having done it once back in 1983, it was a time to showcase the repeat telecast; if not in the similar format, but definitely in a format much more demanding in terms of accuracy, focus and consistency. If not, this victory is seen above par from the previous, it shall not be treated anywhere lower; but definitely at the same level within its own domain and nature. Last one was big, ODI champs, but this one nothing lesser, T20 champs. It’s the sense of similar victory, with a change of format, but who cares - We are the world champions.

A day for Gambhir to cherish and remember… I cannot recollect when an Indian, played such an outstanding innings on big occasions, when normally we were called as chokers. A tribute to this boy from Delhi, who has been in and out of the team, but that sensational 75, almost half the team score, boosted up the chances of remaining in the contest. A quick firry 30 by the Mumbai lad, R Sharma, cannot be left unnoticed, a useful contribution to get the team past 150, an addition to the teams’ psychological advantage of crossing the 150 mark. A mighty six by the debutant Yousuf Pathan in the very first over, will be seen as the way to make positive starts in big games, irrespective of whoever is the opposition. All the runs summing to a total, being not very comfortable to think of for defenders, but yes, definitely a formidable one.

A perfect start to the chase for Pakistan with the support of Sreeshanth, sees India losing the hope of making it again in a final. His first over going for over 20 runs, put the team on the back foot right away. But the kind of form RP was in, it was very tough for the opposition to get going. To add to that, a blitzkrieg performance in the field by Uthappa, sees their in-form batsman back in the pavilion. The Pathan dish was still awaiting and, once he sent the opposition backbone and firework back to the dug-out; it was almost over for Pakistan. A set of triplet by him, gained him the man of the match award as well. However, as its said "All is well that ends well" and the end was not yet over. Some heart breaking contribution from Bhajji towards the end and sitters from the "mallu hot boy" kept the opposition in the contest; the only positive for India was that wickets were falling. A bold and confident Misbah converting 3 sixes of the turbanator and Sohail firing two off speedster “Shanth”kumar resulted in 13 required of the last over.

Now the drama of who’ll bowl it? Bhajji had no guts; finally it boiled down to the new face, Jogi. A wide to start with, succeeding with a dot ball, it felt like Jogi will do it again! Alas… the next delivery being a full toss, was bravely hit down the ground for a six. What an effort Misbah! 6 required from 4. Which part of the ground will the next ball go to? Has India once again done it… to steal defeat from the jaws of victory! There comes the decider, Jogi is running with heart in his mouth, this ball can make him a hero or zero. He bowls a length ball outside off stump, and Misbah gets out of his mind and tries a scoop shot behind, trying to send it over fine leg. The ball is in the air and straight comes down into the hands of the mallu. India has won. What a terrific victory! A final cannot get better than this and excellent finish to get the trophy home.

A high degree of rejoicing within the team. Everyone went mad like never before, celebrations went like there was no bigger occasion. Excellent extravaganza was set up in Mumbai for the players’ felicitation; the whole of the country came into the song of a single religion, the religion of cricket.

Being Provoked

From the land of jelly beans to the storm of sixes, England has realized one of the most important aspects about the Indians; Never Provoke Them. They come twice as hard as ever and hit back strongly. This was proved back in England and in the land of Proteas the Indian showed it once again.

Back to the test series victory in England, the frivolous trick of irritating Zaheer Khan at the crease by the party of Kevin Peterson and others in the slip, was followed by one of the destructive spells bowled by a fellow Indian. Jelly beans are better in the mouth, than on ground. This time, when Zaheer took his crease for the second time, he couldn’t tolerate. He went straight dashing at the EGO of England pointing his bat strongly. ‘This is not expected of you at this level, mate!’ Never mind, we got the best results possible, with Zaheer destroying England, to provide India with a lead in the series. May be, England didn’t learn a lesson then, to face the similar casualties in the T20 world cup currently.

What did Freddie have to do with Yuvraj, when he was peacefully batting at the crease in the middle? Yuvraj wasn’t in the best of nicks and when Flintoff completed his over, which went for a few runs only, he had some words to say. Showing his aggression to the opposition has always been his way of playing the game, if not by bat and bowl, by mouth and actions. The series level in India by England cannot be forgotten as well, where Flintoff removed his shirt only to get it back in England by the then captain of our country, Ganguly after the Natwest series victory. Forget the past, what do you think happened after those exchanges between the world’s best all rounder and the world’s best stroke player! Yuvraj was not happy with him, going harsh on him as well with words and advancing, until the umpire made the block.

This doesn’t stop him from playing his shots. Next over bowled by Broad, saw the ball flying all over the ground for sixes. Six sixes in a row, what a splendid performance! The record for the fastest 50 as well, consuming only 12 balls; It couldn’t have come on a better occasion for India. India into a do or die match and Yuvy pays his tribute to the team. But all thanks to Freddie to provoke him to do what almost became a nightmare for Broad. Not that without that, it wouldn’t have come; it would have come similar but definitely not this big!

Adding to the flavour, yuvraj, who had become the victims to 5 sixes from Mascarehenes, paid the respects back to the same team, if not to the same person. As told in hindi “Sir se bhoj hat gaya! Jho Karza maine Dimitri se le rakha tha, use sooth sameth uske dost Broad ko lauta diya. Kya hai na, main kabhi kisi ka karz rakhtha nahi!” Yuvy must be giggling!

Will India miss "THE TRILOGY"

With an exciting finish of the first match of the twenty20 world cup, what is the whole expectations out of the different cricketing nations? Are they going to be run scoring encounters? Do bowlers have any chance of survival? Never mind... this is a tournament to sit back and relax. Watch some good exciting cricket, having no expectations whatsoever. Exactly 12 teams participating, who will be the triumphant? For me, can India do it? More importantly, will the services of the trios be missed?

My honest opinion
Who makes the trilogy - sachin, dravid and ganguly. Honestly, dravid should have played, i felt. All know what start he gave to his career. There was a time when people used to wait for him to get out, he put brakes on the run rate. He was neither entertained in the middle by the viewers nor did he entertain in the middle. Gone away are those days. Currently, he is one of those finest batsmen of world cricket with cool head on shoulders and a pool of innovative and technically sound shots in his array. Though India likes the taste of Dhoni for the end overs, dravid has never been far behind. What makes him above the rest is the ability to get singles, in addition to hitting those big shots. He would have easily fit in the twenty20 squad, easily replacing one of those young guns.

Carrying on to ganguly, an exciting cricketer; sometimes demolishing the opposition, when he gets going at the top. Can really hit some big shots over covers and long on during the initial stage, setting up the platform for the team. Spinners have nightmares bowling to him, cause he translates easily the best of spin deliveries to stands. Not very comfortable against shot bowling and poor runner between wickets. I would give him a 'yes' for the kind of stroke play he makes but would think twice for his running and fielding. Doesn't easily fit into the squad but if guys like Karthik or Gambhir are out of form, should definitely take him.

Finally to the man, the suspense, opinions about whom have been variant of late, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. The kind of start he made to his career, he was easily the favourites of most of the Indians. The degree of attacking cricket he played, was easily seeing him among the Bradmans and Sobers. What a fantastic career he has made! A dream for any human, a masterpiece for a cricketer! His selection for the squad takes a 'No' from my side. Controversial? Let me reason out.

1. His battle with mind to stop or continue playing attacking cricket still remains his biggest threats.
   
2. Attacking shots that are played down the ground and coming in front, has not seen him in comfortable shape with respect to cramps and fitness.
3. His inability to play long innings without getting cramps or having fitness problems, gives a feeling of not being able to cope up to the stress and hitting level expected at this tournament level.

Given a choice to choose Indian squad for the twenty20 series, I would have picked:

1. V Sehwag
2. R Uthappa
3. R Dravid
4. Y Singh
5. M Dhoni
6. D Karthik (if not in form, the S Ganguly... that would change the batting order. Ganguly would open and Uthappa one down and others as followed)
   
7. R Sharma
   
8. I Pathan
   
9. H singh
10. A Agarkar (not sure)
11. RP Singh

Hope this blog was controversial enough for comments and expecting your squad for the twenty20 series as well. ;)

War of Lords: Thanks to Aleem Dar

Never was an ODI series more interesting than this one between India and England. Having taken the initial advantage of 3-1, the English looked at an outright victory, but Indians had different plans. They make some spectacular performances, not making them look lost and set an exotic platform for the final ODI on Saturday.

Winning the toss, Mr. Wall made the right decision to bat first, that’s our strength. To add to worse of matters, Indian always have the knack of winning the toss on deciders and then taking decision which never goes their way. Not to blame them for that, let’s carry on. With the openers looking in the best of ODI forms, India was definitely looking for a 300, if not more.

First ball could have easily been the last ball for saurav; and the way luck supported him, it seemed saurav didn’t want to stay in the middle; but was forced by the external force of fortune. Finally, saurav won the battle and walked off. Cards had to give up. Seeing his luck, he probably wanted to try hands on some lottery tickets or thambola [ha…ha…]. Gambhir to come in, but I always felt it was now or then Dravid would soon come to the middle. Not long before that happened, and it looked that the best two of the TRILOGY would fire guns this day.

But our man had pledged today to get the two men out. Who? Flintoff? I hoped that was true. But the pledge happened somewhere from the referee room and it was none other than Aleem Dar. It was like ‘England… Get eight of the Indian wickets. Two others will be my responsibility.’ All English men had to do was appeal on close calls, Aleem would make the conversions. Dravid, the first bakra… incoming delivery from Flintoff, missed everything on its way to Prior’s gloves but the umpire heard a nick. One mistake… it happens in big matches. After all, they are also humans, tend to make mistakes. Not far away was the second mistake awaiting, a ball out side off of driving length, Sachin tried on the up to get a nick on his pad, the ball and bat never making contact… he’s gone.

Sachin fell for the third time to the umpiring gimmick in this series; Saurav once and Dravid twice… if I remember right and, Peterson fell once to the umpire trap but he was rescued. Different rules are applied for each country, that’s the first rule in the book of cricket. This looked like, with the holy month of Ramzan closing in, Aleem made offering to Allah, two bakras, in the form of Sachin and Dravid. That was not a Great Spirit from the umpire. Things would have been right, if at least one of the two men were called back, after looking at the big screen play back.

But India is not about these two men alone. Uthappa, the man of the last ODI looked good until he massacred a ball outside off stump, to hit it straight to mid off. Yuvraj, never looked in the best of form and trying to work out a single, made some catching practice to the short and wide slip. Dhoni had to bat with the tail, the tail which cannot stay for long, didn’t on that day as well. Before Dhoni could show some fireworks in the end, the team stumbled down for 187.

Zaheer, leading the attack got Prior leg before in his first over. Aleem wanted England to win, why not, he has pledged already. So that was turned down. But the very next over, RP got both the openers out. This was to happen, they were not the best English batsmen, it was expected that Bell and Kevin would be in the middle soon. Continuing his brilliant form, Bell scored freely before getting run out by Peterson. Though Sachin got the man out, it was KP, whose name should have been there in the bracket against bell. Soon the captain joined and rejoiced the English victory in lesser than 40 overs.

Interesting statistics from the match that was missing:

Sachin c Prior b Flintoff (helped Aleem) 30

Dravid c Prior b Flintoff (helped Aleem) 0

Though Mascarenes got three Indian wickets, it was Aleem Dar whose one man show deserved him the Man of the Match. Nobody can give a better match winning performance than the kind of talent shown here.

Paul should have thanked Him whole heartedly. I would have done that if I was in his place. You never get the best ones so effortlessly ever.

Chak De, Chak De India!!!

Based on Ind Vs Eng, 6th ODI played on 5th Sept, 2007

Wow...What a terrific performance! India has shown some great nerve to keep them alive. Or else who would have thought after a 3-1 lead by Eng that India would bounce back. The thought was difficult if not impossible because of the kind of team combination which was picked. We couldn't do it with 5 bowlers for sure and Karthik, who's out of form in ODIs, was being picked, even when the dazzling Uthappa was back on bench.

Mr. Wall had to return to the winning combination of 7+4 and not 6+5, the latter one was his cry always. But then today being an important day, I don't know how the thought came to him that we are going with only 4 bowlers, hence an extra batsman. Knowing Dravid lead the team for so long, it was not difficult to think that they would go with Karthik and Gambhir as the extra two in addition to the usual 5. But then, am I dreaming? Karthik's not playing and of all, Dravid has picked Uthappa, on whom he never had any belief. I thought, this cannot be his choice. May be there was a suggestion from team mates and then Dravid probably lost it because of the majority support funda to get Uthappa in. Just joking... but this is the impression I have about him.

The game was all set to rock. English men would bat first, matlab India has to chase. Oh! Lord, Let the target be easy one. We lost the initial advantage. Never mind, the bowlers and fielders did a splendid job to get Eng rolled on mat at 137/5 with only youngsters and inexperience to come in. Can u believe... Ganguly made a run out, actually he was the sweeper and after hitting the ball in the covers in his direction, KP decided to go for a two where there was only one and thanks to Shah for denying the 2nd run and KP was out. Our enthu fielder Karthik, who I thought only showed excitement, got Colly run out after the drama of Umpire's refusal and then when it looked obvious on the big screen, he had to show the square (refer to 3rd umpire). It was a shame! Keep putting people in and out, they'll give the maximum commitment, that's seen here from Karthik. But who knew the debutant Wright and Shah will rescue the English. Towards the end, thanks to Mascarrenes, 30 run of the last five balls. England was in a commanding position, 316-6.

Chasing 300+ in a must win game is a challenge and that's when Indian big guns never fired as well. Take the world cup or whatever, we choke to death in big games. That was my impression. Kevin had different ideas. He thought we would win. That's the thought he has every time Indians play a match, ha..ha.. that's nothing new. Hamish came home to watch the match, there was a power failure at his place. Sachin gets out early during chases, we were all waiting for that to happen.

The chase began and the class of Sachin and Saurav was seen again. What tremendous timing! Never did a feeling creep in that they were trying hard. Just get behind the ball and putting it past the fence. The run chase became possible with a current rate of over 6 and required rate going under 6.A 150 run opening wicket stand, this was the exact start needed. Ganguly is gone and in no time Sachin is gone. They say when big partnerships are broken, it’s not long before the other partner also gets out. It happened true. Gambhir and Yuvy in the middle, but it were no longer looking easy. The fall of wickets and arrival of the new men, took some time and hence the required rate was now above 6. But soon the lefties got the momentum going and it all looked Indians are set for a victory, until yuvy got out. He got out to Mascarrenes, the man who had hit him for 5 sixes. Yuvy would have wanted to take the revenge, but he fell for him. That was worse. Captain walks in, and walks out. Indians looked in trouble, a match in the pocket was now being thrown away. I thought One should learn from India how to lose winning situation matches. Gambhir looked in good touch and with Dhoni and uthappa to follow, it was not impossible but as Kevin says 'It's very very tough'.Had to get over 8 an over, Gambhir decided to cut lose, not before giving away his wicket. With around 90 runs to be made and the only last recognized partnership in the middle, the match was all set for a blinder. Dhoni takes time to settle and so did he then as well.

60 balls, 85 runs needed. Some good bowling display and next 9 balls saw only 4 runs. A 51b 81 required and there goes a 4,4 and a single. 72 to get from 48, 9 per over. The match went till the last over with no clean hope that India will win or eng will win. It was evenly balanced.A 10 of the last over and by then Dhoni and Agarkar are also gone. The positive for India was Uthappa on strike. Broad for England. Zaheer, the non-striker. First ball, hit hard to long on and amazing running. Zaheer returns for a 2 and Uthappa still on strike. 8 of 5. A delivery in the block hole, hit back to Broad but Khan out of crease. Gone, not for the wicket, but because it became a dot. 4 to go and 8 to get. Next ball Broad bowls a full toss on off stump. By nature, it such crunch situations, one tends to hit it hard, hard out of the ground. But Uthappa had different ideas. He moves across and chips it behind fine leg for a four. What a cool headed shot! Impressive and tremendous. It all about another boundary from last three deliveries. Colly put the fine leg back and pulled in the long off. Next delivery, Uthappa walks 2 steps forward, converts a Yorker length ball to full toss and hits it straight to the right of mid off. Desperate dive from Cook but ball wins the battle, so does India.The man who would have carried the curse, otherwise, yuvraj comes into the ground and runs into Uthappa hard, really hard. But I can imagine, what a relief it had been to him. With the platform set by the openers and some cool headed batting down the order by Dhoni and Uthappa sees us a chance on the last encounter at Lords on Saturday, 8th Sept.

Hoping to see a wonderful game, never mind, who wins. After making the entire series worth watching. But yeh dil maange more, Chak De, Chak De India!

Indians, The Unstoppables!

Looks like this will be the decider. Whether there is any hope left for India or will England finish the drama. The India-England series has been a breathe taking one, since the day, rain washed out play on the last day of the first test to keep the Indians hope alive. Ever since, Indians have made the best use of the opportunity to beat them in the test series. But will they be able to keep the nerve for the ODIs as well, now that they have to win both the last two games?

Indian rely heavily on their batting, definitely... thats their strength. Bowling also looks petty decent with Zaheer and Agarkar and not to forget the spinners as well. Par ab is team ke fielding ka kya karein? Is there a solution?

Fielding looks worse, if not bad. Thats how I will quote it. Indians were never known for their diving or sliding skills, but then fielding was considered bad. Now its worse.

The best fielders on the current tour:
Yuvraj (you cant have him everywhere),
Karthik (Pretends to be enthusiastic but definitely makes some good stops, if not all),
Agarkar (Covers good ground on the outfield, Can he make it one full revolution every ball. That could help.),
Tendulkar (Looks good in slips and outfield with a piercing throw) and
Robin Singh (Ooops! he cant come out on field).
That makes it plus four on the field.

The next set comes:
Gambhir (A youngster, should be able to throw himself around. Naa... Thats not his cup of tea. I'll field, if the ball comes straight to me and get it back if it crosses boundary),
Uthappa (Didnt get to see much, so I classify him here),
Dhoni (He's learning with experience, thats what people say. I have no complaints, as long as he bats to destroy the opposition!)
Dravid (His running is funny. He can make some good stops but not the best)
Chawla (Young blood.. should be good)
These five make it to only plus three on field.

The worst side:
Ganguly (100% record on drop in 2nd slip since the India Eng tour started. Will never trouble the ball on its way to boundary.)
Powar (My friend says, He should roll than run. He'll travel faster. What best he does in bowling is all given away in fielding. A little on the negative side)
Both these players account for not positive but negative side. They make to a minus 1.

The team has a tally: +4+3-1 = 6. On a scale of 11, we are 6. Thats not even 60% and we expect to win games. Good fielding is 'Basics of Cricket'. Its bound to be there in ever cricketer else he is not an eligible candidate. Hence, the Indian team becomes 'The Unstoppables', people who cant stop balls.

Kapthaanon ka Kapthaan...Dravid hai sabse mahaan!

4thODI India Vs England, Natwest Series played on Aug 30th, 2007

Chasing a modest target of 213, the English looked weaker than India in batting. Not to forget the massive scores they piled up in the previous encounters, this was a target to be achieved in may be 40 overs...with the kind of Indian attack, the form of English batsmen and not to forget the vital contributions from Indian fielders. The fielders would give 30 runs assured, so England needed to put just 180 of the bat. Oh...that’s easy. As they say 'Once in a blue moon things happen' so was the day for bowlers. Zaheer looked charged up with the aggressive stares and balls with ultimate pace, he had England look to tremble. But all was set by our very own economical bowler, Ajit Agarkar. Taking 4 handsome wickets, England looked struggling in the middle. To add up to the fuel, RP Singh gets a run out. All this cannot happen in a day for India. They never complimented each other so well. Couldn’t have expected more from them. England, 114/7 needed another 99 runs. Overs never mattered. 3 wickets were easy to get with only the tail to follow. All of a sudden, Indian settle down with some simple spin stuff, giving away 3 runs per over. Dravid thought probably, 'Though we didn’t bat well, we have the victory in site. Its all about reaching it sooner or later'. Who knew it would never be reached. With the likes of Bopara and Broad at the crease, no Indian, not even the Englishmen imagined there was a chance for England. May be if at all there was, it was a 10-90% chance. So India will win. Bopara has played some good innings, but Broad is young and new to international scenario. He can’t play long. All went it vain when the partnership started growing and building very strong. Dravid was rotating his spinners all the while trying to get some wickets but that never happened. With around 30 more runs to win for them, we had RP having 5 overs left. He bowled beautifully to Broad, got him past edges. Zaheer had 4 to go and agarkar had 1... it was evident that one of them had to come back. Zaheer came but looked uncomfortable due to some groin injury. This made Dravid put on the thinking cap.RP bowled well, 5 overs for just 18. All felt he'll come in. But NO... Dravid had something else in mind. He tossed the ball to Tendulkars and Yuvrajs. What can they do? They help you get breakthroughs in middle overs, not in crunches. It’s putting too much pressure on them. Dravid never thought his speedsters, when he always thinks about playing 5 bowlers, then why to Ten or Yuv? Finally, when 13 runs had to go, Agarkar came but did nothing much. At last in the last few runs, Dravid had no other choice but to go for RP and he bowled beauties. He got 2 past the outside edge and one which came in almost got us a wicket. But it was too late, as the pressure was already released. Had he come a little while ago we had a chance to make it. All because of the intelligent captaincy of Mr. Wall. Then Mr. Wall in the presentation '.... Credits to England. From 114/7...yes we should have got them but then it was only 3 and a half runs needed per over so it was always possible. We had to bring it up to 4 or 5 to put more pressure and get wickets. We should have added 25-30 more runs (same old Dravid story)...blah...blah...blah'Everytime u cant say the same thing man...we were 30-40 runs short..... U got to give credit to bowlers to put us in such terrific situation, in spite of such a low target to defend. They did a splendid job... it was only the master class lacking in Dravid to make few obvious changes and get them rolled on. The sole person responsible for the defeat, I should say 'Dravid'.

Here goes the song for Dravid...
Ninyanve runs ka yeh safar,
theen wicketon ka saath.
Aapne haske de diya,
Tendulkar ke haath mein ball.
Runnon ki ho gayi phir dekho, bin baadal barsaat..... oye
Hudh kardhi aapne....Hudh kardhi aapne...