41 and still counting…….

Yesterday when Kevin Pietersen set India a target of 386 runs with less than four full sessions of play, the chips were definitely in favour of England.

Sehwag and Gambhir began the chase in contrasting manners. Viru played as if there were no tomorrow and it was raining boundaries. At end of play on day four India had scored 131 runs for the loss of Viru’s wicket. Viru laid the foundation for a possible Indian victory with a defiant 83 of 63 balls.

On day five Dravid’s misery continued as he was out for 4 runs. Sachin and Gambhir consolidated the Indian chase before Gambhir was out for 66 runs. Yuvraj came out with immense pressure on him to deliver and under Sachin’s patronage he produced a wonderful knock of 85 runs of 131 balls. As the afternoon progressed and the crowd continued its support with chants of “East or west Sachin is the Best,” England lost all hope of winning the match.

Sachin in an extremely sedate manner reminding me of Dravid’s double ton against Australia in 2003 scored the winning runs. He hit a boundary to score 103 and complete his 41st test century. His innings holds special significance as there were no sixes at all in it. Nine boundaries but we still love him for his passion and dedication. The victory is significant as this is the fourth highest successful run chase in tests.

Dhoni’s winning run continues and Sehwag won the man of the match award for his blitzkrieg-like 83. One should feel sorry for Strauss who scored centuries in both innings but still ended up on the losing side.

The second test at Mohali is evenly poised. Let us see what happens.

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INDIA vs ENGLAND TEST SERIES

There was a lot of uncertainty if England would return to India after the Mumbai blasts. Now things are OK and cricket once again binds broken souls. The first test at Chepauk has so far gone the way of the English. They scored 316 in their first innings and bowled out India for 241. Barring Dhoni and Harbhajan and to some extent Sachin and Laxman all the batsmen failed. In fact it was Dhoni and Harbhajan’s crucial partnership that brought some respectability to India’s first innings total.
Dhoni scored 53 and Bhajji scored 40. Flintoff, Swann, and Monty bowled well with Freddy and Monty picking three wickets each.

The English started their second inings disastrously losing three quick wickets. Strauss on 73 and Collingwood on 60 are playing well. At close of play today England
lead by 247 runs. A target of 375 plus and India might lose the plot.

Let us see what happens.
I really hope Dravid gets a good score, even a fifty will do his confidence a world of good.
Or perhaps it is time for him to retire gracefully.

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INDIA vs ENGLAND TEST SERIES

There was a lot of uncertainty if England would return to India after the Mumbai blasts. Now things are OK and cricket once again binds broken souls. The first test at Chepauk has so far gone the way of the English. They scored 316 in their first innings and bowled out India for 241. Barring Dhoni and Harbhajan and to some extent Sachin and Laxman all the batsmen failed. In fact it was Dhoni and Harbhajan’s crucial partnership that brought some respectability to India’s first innings total.
Dhoni scored 53 and Bhajji scored 40. Flintoff, Swann, and Monty bowled well with Freddy and Monty picking three wickets each.

The English started their second inings disastrously losing three quick wickets. Strauss on 73 and Collingwood on 60 are playing well. At close of play today England
lead by 247 runs. A target of 375 plus and India might lose the plot.

Let us see what happens.
I really hope Dravid gets a good score, even a fifty will do his confidence a world of good.
Or perhaps it is time for him to retire gracefully.

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The Finals-A Preview

So here we are on the eve of the finals of the most lacklustre Cricket World Cups of all time.

Australia meet Sri Lanka in the finals tomorrow at Barbados. Australia have clinically demolished all the teams they have met and they have proved that they are the best in the business.

Sri Lanka, the proverbial underdogs want to relive their 1996 dream. It is going to be an interesting contest tomorrow.

Vass bowling to Hayden, and Murali foxing Ponting, Glen Mc Grath to Sanath and Sangakarra. I wish it will be a fight to the finish and not a match where one team(read Australia) overpower the other in all departments of the game.

I strongly support Sri Lanka and want them to win. They have really worked a lot and improved their game under the able leadership of Jayawardene.

If Australia complete a hattrick, then the game will lose its charm and unpredictability.

Wishing the Lankans -ALL THE BEST.

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Greg Chappell Resigns..

Greg Chappell, has been following the old British policy of Divide and Rule, by segregating the team into groups and creating a rift among them. Right since India’s World Cup debacle, Greg has been hogging the media limelight by sending smses and conferences saying how the seniors have hampered the progress of the younger players, and the reluctance of some of the players to accept Dravid’s role as a captain.

The biggest blow, was when he said Sachin lacked commitment and had an attitude problem. Sachin spoke his heart out to a leading newspaper, saying-“I have been playing for seventeen years for my country, and no coach or selector has questioned my commitment and attitude.”
He continued by saying that Greg was a bad influence, as he tried to impose his ideas on the players, and he never spoke to them during the World Cup. He lacks motivational skill….
So what does the future hold in store for the Master Blaster. Personally I feel Sachin has still a couple of years of cricket left in him, but certainly not four years, ie. he should not play the next World Cup. He should retire gracefully from ODIs in 2008, after the 20/20 World Cup and concentrate on tests.

He should retire from both forms of the game by the end of 2008. He has played for India for seventeen years, won some matches, and lost quite some matches, but he shall be the best cricketer, as he inspired an entire generation to take up cricket.
Lets hope he retires on a high.

The latest development in the quagmire of Indian cricket, is the resignation of Greg Chappell, as the Indian cricket coach. Did Greg develop cold feet? A crucial meeting of all the members of the BCCI and former cricketers was scheduled to be held on April 6, and a decision on the future of Indian cricket was to be taken.

Now that Greg has packed his bags and left because “of personal reasons,” where shall Indian cricket head from this juncture. Greg started on a good note, coaching India’s record breaking seventeen consecutive successful run chases in ODI history, but he lost the plot in the West Indian tour, as iNdia became a weak ODI team, but a slightly better test playing nation.
So the floor is open, and the million dollar question is who is going to be appointed as the new Indian coach?

Wait and watch.

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Subash Chandra-The Saviour of Indian Cricket

Zee TV boss, Subash Chandra, had his name plastered across all TV channels, when he emulated Kerry Packer’s World Series gimmick, and announced the formation of the Indian Cricket League.

He announced that Rs 100 crores, had been set aside as funds for creating cricket academies, talent pools and this tournament. The highlights of the league are as follows:

There will be six teams.
Each team will be composed of four foreign players, two players from the current Indian team and eight budding cricketers.
Each team will be coached by a former Indian cricketer.
Prize money amounting to US $ 1 million will be on offer.
Initially the tournament will have 20/20 matches.

The concept is good, but will BCCI permit this, no private party can start its own league(Lalit Modi, informs that no information has been given to the BCCI by Zee)

So will this ambitious project materialise. Wait and watch.

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Bangladesh-A Flash in the Pan

When Bangladesh defeated India on March 17, I thought the Tigers might spring a surprise. But their performance has been poor. They beat Bermuda to dash all Indian hopes, their show in the Super Eights has been disappointing and have lost their matches against Australia and New Zealand so far.

So it means that India fielded the worst team in the entire cup.

I hope the Bangla Tigers put a decent fight in their remaining matches.

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West Indies falter at the start

West Indies had a poor start to their Super Eight round as they lost both their matches. In the first match they were comprehensively beaten by Australia by a margin of 103 runs.

Batting first in their next match against New Zealand West Indies were boled out for 177. New Zealand won by 7 wickets, with Styris hitting a gusty knock of 80 runs.

South Africa won a thriller and defeated Sri Lanka by 1 wicket. Lasith Malinga created history by taking four wickets of as many balls.

So the Australians are clear favourites. Let us see what happens.

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Indian Cricket-The Controversies Continue

Some of the leading news channels carried a feature on a sms this morning, what is so special about a sms? Well when it relates to the shattered dreams of a billion people, the sms is of great importance.

Chappell sent a sms to the renowned sports journalist Rajan Bala. Bala read out the sms to the media. The summary of the sms is as follows:
Chappell was not happy with the team selection.
He wanted Raina to be a part of the team but his choice was refuted.
Dravid demanded the inclusion of seniors instead of some young players and the selectors did not want to take a gamble by fielding a young side for the fear of failure.
Kaarthick is a good lad, and has leadership potential.
Yuvraj is putting on airs and behaving like a big star, although is just a rising talent.

My point is that I agree with Chappell, the million dollar question is why did Chappell not protest earlier, before the team left for the World Cup? Does a coach have no say in the selection of a team?

So who will be the new captain? Sharad Pawar hints that the burden will once again go to Sachin. Will Chappell be sacked, the backlash of the public suggests it. Already Sandeep Patil has been named by some influential people to be the next coach. Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar have been called for a brainstorming session to give new ideas.

Ideas look very good on paper and on TV news. The challenge lies in recognising genuine talent and implementing ideas to make those talents work fruitfully.

We have about another 45 months to have a proper team in place before the next World Cup starts. I hope by then things will fall into place and India will once again be a force to reckon with in the cricketing world.

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Team India after the World Cup

When the warmup matches started before the main event, the Indian fans breathed a sigh of relief when India dismissed the hosts for a total of less than a hundred runs. Little did we realize that it was just flattery. The Indian team once again flattered to deceive. They were beaten by Bangladesh on March 17, the same day when Ireland thrashed Pakistan. India came back strongly and posted a record total of 413 against Bermuda, but all that went in vain when India lost to Sri lanka and were eliminated from the world cup.

So where do things stand now. Chappell came with a dream promising a lot, but the team faltered and with one controversy after the other Team India has landed in a mess like a dream gone horribly wrong they have landed themselves in a pile of shit(sorry to use the profanity). First things first, why were Sreesanth, Pathan and Dinesh Karthik not played. Did they go to the Wst Indies for sight-seeing? When Sehwag and Uthappa were repeatedly failing with the bat why was Karthik not given a chance? Dhoni has been a dismal failure, a lot was expected from him, but he managed two ducks and a 29 in three innings. When we had both Sachin and Ganguly, why did Chappell not go back to the glorious opening combination of Sachin and Sourav or maybe Sachin and Sehwag. Or Dhoni should have been moved up the order to give him some confidence. Agarkar dissappointed again with his expensive bowling. The big selection blunder was not to have included Romesh Powar. He is an excellent bowler and batsman and the slow tracks in the West Indies would have helped him.

So whose head will roll first? Guru Greg will get a return ticket maybe economy class to Australia. Sachin who failed once again when he needed to hit some runs should retire gracefully. Drop Sehwag, Agarkar and Harbhajan, Make Yuvaraj the captain. Let Dhoni play as a batsman and make Dinesh Karthik the full time wicket-keeper batsman that he is. If Anil Kumble is retained in the team, which should happen, let Kumble captain India and make Yuvraj Singh his deputy. Our next tour is to Bangladesh and it would be an excellent opportunity to avenge the Worl Cup humiliation, but the way the Tigers played they deserved to win that match on March 17. Let the team be moulded afresh. The team needs the support of its fans. ANother issue is the cricketers should not endorse any products or star in advertisements, or a there should be a limit to the number of products that a player can endorse.

Let this be the fire in which the Phoenix of Indian cricket burns and arises again as a winner.

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