Australia back on Top

It was great to see Australians back to their best with resounding win over the depleted NewZeland. Ponting and his team once again proved they are champs and deliver when it matters most. This victory means a lot and must be sweet for Ponting and Australia after the bitter Ashes loss and test series loss against South Africa at home. Even Team India was compared with Australian's almost all the time when ever India won a single outing against them and was written that India will replace the Aussies in the top, which till now is only on papers.

I am a great fan of the few modern day batsmen like Steve Waugh,Ponting,Lara and my favorite of all Sachin. I think Ponting has performed exceptionally well when it comes to the big stage and the finals, even though he had a strong team when he came into the side and his success was attributed to mostly because, he was playing for Australia. Now with all the big guys out and shouldering the young team and most importantly carrying the team with him and scoring big in the big game shows that he has been more successful than any one in this era, even more than our own great Sachin.

On Team India's performance in the championship, it was ordinary and i feel it will stay like this in the future for various obvious reasons. I can kind of relate English football with our cricket team, england used to be a big force in football until the cash rich EPL took the center stage and after that you all know that England has not been able to even reach the semi-finals of the WorldCup even though they had great players in the side. I can see the same happening to Indian cricket, lot of quick money is in the table through IPL and sponsorships and the pride for playing for India is there only till you play the first few seasons and after that its like you consolidate and get yourself picked for one of the IPL franchise. Its really good to see that our players are paid well and secured for the future and with great infrastructure in place we should see the team raise their level of professionalism and perform consistently at the top level and not settle with IPL. Australia benefited most from IPL re-discovering players like Shane Watson,Marsh etc but we have lost more players than discovered.

BCCI and selectors need to look into team building from now on and save the players from injury by opting out from useless tours like the one we had in WestIndies and Srilanka to keep the team in good shape for the WorldCup. BCCI should look into the roles of the various coaches and support staff in the team to make sure they deliver and not travel like baggage. Paddy Upton's recommendations on performance improvement stimulants are the worst suggestions i have ever heard / read from any coach or support staff in any sporting field.

Will Pakistan get lucky twice ??

Cricket is best described as "game of luck" will Pakistan get lucky twice in a year ........ I know many people in this part of the world would not even like to imagine Pakistan winning the Champions Trophy-2009. Keeping in mind that Pakistan is the most unpredictable team in the draw and can win any team on a given day with some brilliant individual performance and at the same time lose games meekly. One big advantage Pakistan has is the limited number of games they have played this year and have not played many games after the T-20 world cup win, the fatigue factor is ruled out and the players are fit.


As always the cricket crazy Indian public is already in full expectation to see Dhoni and team to win the Trophy as a consolation for the T-20 lose. Team India's strength is in the batting and the bowlers can string some surprise if the wickets in South Africa . There is also lot of pressure on the top order batsmen to fire all the time as the bowling is considered as weak link. The opener for India will be a great match to watch with India locking horns with Pakistan. Pakistan would have played against the depleted West Indies team and would have won the match and should be in good frame of mind for the high voltage game. India on the other hand will be under immense pressure to start the tournament with a win specially against Pakistan.

I have a feeling, its going to be real tough for India to finish on top. We lack a bit in bowling and we have rarely chased to victory in the recent past. Our fielding is the most inconsistent. If our bowlers come good and the top 5 batsmen fires then we have very fair chance. Having said that the majority of the boys should have very fond memories of winning T-20 WorldCup here in SA and that should motivate them and make them believe that they can win the trophy.

My Teams for Semi-Finals

1. South Africa
2. India / Pakistan
3. Australia
4. SriLanka


Find the fixes for Champions Trophy -2009 here http://www.cricinfo.com/iccct2009/content/series/374074.html?template=fixtures

Aussies pushed to the wall .........

England made history beating Australia in the 2nd test in Lords breaking the long standing loosing streak.The England victory came at the right time of the series with 3 more tests the Ashes 2009 is wide open now. All credit to captain Strauss for keeping the team together and playing a wonderful captains knock in the 1st innings.

Man of the Match Flintoff bowled his heart out on the last session of the 4th day and the first session of the 5th day which changed the course of the match. Having said that i would have given Strauss the Man of the Match for his splendid 150 in the 1st innings. I would say J.Anderson bowled truly well in the 1st innings to stop the Aussies from getting the upper hand.Finally England has pulled their socks and played as a team go 1 up in the series to make the already hyped Ashes interesting and absorbing.Collingwood and Peiterson played their part well to make sure that they have enough runs on the board and the final spell from Flintoff was so fierce fast bowling which proved too much for Clark and Haddin.

Very little went right for Ponting here. He was given out caught when he did not hit it, he remains 25 runs short of passing Allan Border's Australian Test record. He was forced to juggle an attack in which the spearhead went over 5 runs a over and the spinner dislocated a finger on his bowling hand.

Its very tough to make a come back in a test where you receive 4-5 dubious decisions and that too 3 in the 4th innings of the match.I am not sure why this so called media kept silent when it comes to a english cricketer when it comes to some controversy. If Strauss decision to claim for Hughes catch, ponting confirming a catch against India is no different. I don't understand why the umpires resist from using technology when it is available on doubtful decisions.

The biggest problem with the current Australian team is the self-belief that they can win the series. There has been lot of doubting themself on various aspects and which shows on the field. I don't think that it will improve dramatically once Brett is back. Over the years it has been proved time and again that the team should belief they have it with in them to win. I am sure Ponting & the senior pros like Hussey will not let go easily and try to pull back things in Aussies way. I feel one good win here will make the total out look of the team totally positive.

Hoping to see a fighting display from the Aussies in the 3rd test, with Peiterson ruled out for the rest of the series its not going to be easy for England.

Ashes 2009

1st test in cardiff has proved that ICC should never think of tinkering with the Test cricket format. The match was a treat to watch with some superb exhibition of skills with the bat and ball. The life time innings from Collingwood and the tail playing for time to save the match should make the ICC officials think hard before embarking on any kind of change in the format.

Aussies were on top right from the go and never gave the english men a chance to dominate the proceedings. The only session England can take heart of was the lower order batting well to get runs on the board in the 1st innings and the last session of the last day.

Australian batting line is back to its own with all the top order batsmen except M.Hussey getting runs and its only matter of time that Hussey gets into form. The big plus for australia is the find of the youngster North playing some important knocks, he did very well in South Africa and continues the good work here. I like the way he bats, in the sense he knows when to attack and when to defend and his technique is solid. The big relief for Australia is Ponting getting back to his own, i enjoyed every movement of his 150 and the flow of strokes and what not, if he continues to perform like this i am sure it will reflect in his captaincy. Katich is the most under-rated player in the Australian team and i remember the way he played in India in his early days and has come a long way to seal his place in the team, even though he is not the great player to watch (chanderpaul style) but very effective. Haddin has taken the big burden of filling the great legacy left by Gilli and has been pretty successful till now, even though its early days to compare with Gilli.

As for as the England batting, its a side that rarely perform as a team. England i would say is the most over-rated team in world cricket today. All the players are good individual players and perform to keep their place in the team and rarely play as a team to win. Kevin Peiterson and Strauss are the two solid batsmen who can make a difference to the side and i would say Cook is fine player but lacks confidence now with string of medicare performances. We have not seen much from Boppara in the test arena and all others Collingwood,Flintoff,Prior are all absolutely over rated players as batsmen. Even though Collingwood played the innings of his life, i would say he will fail often than perform. Flinoff is the utterly over-rated player i have ever come accross in cricket history. I do not remember his batting winning a Test match in the recent past, a player with so many injury problem and uncertainty is not worth the kind of backing he gets from the ECB.

Australia missed the fire power in the bowling department and were a bit too defensive in the field. May be the 2005 ashes loss is still rankling hard in Ponting that he was a bit defensive and let the tail to score runs and play time in both the innings. Ponting back to form should help his confidence and show in his captaincy. There is only one strike bowler in Johnson who can run through the opponents and that is hurting the chances of taking 20 wickets. All the other bowlers can support and take wickets but not take wickets in quick time which is very important in test cricket. I feel this is what had cost the 1st Test for Australia.

I see england is a better bowling side compared to the batting even though they gave away 650+ in the 1st test. If the conditions and wickets are going to favour seam bowling they can prove very difficult to tackle with. Anderson & Flintoff with Harmison can prove to be a solid seam attack in helping conditions. S.Broad is listless if the wickets are not helping, i would prefer harmison or Sidebottom for him. Paniser has been out of form for too long and may be needs a tour to India to get back to form with helpful wickets. Swann is yet another ordinary spinner who will be carted even in our TNCA First div league but he is ratted so high.

Overall Australia as a team is a better side compared to England and its going to be Aussies yet again.

Tough times for True Cricket

The next cricket calender is going to be the toughest year for true cricket .. Test Match Cricket. The ICC move to make modifications to the current format makes me worried that the best format of the game will have to undergo changes.

The proposed 4 days for tests can make the game more spectator friendly but not the true test of character of the game. I know people will argue that the format was changed even in the past like having a rest day after the 3rd day and so on but for purists the 5 day format of Test Cricket is true cricket even though there are few phases where the game can get boring.If test cricket is restricted to 4 days initially there will be few no result matches. Over a period of time things will settle down and we will see results but we will see the end of players who painstakingly spend hours and hours in the middle to fight to save the match and show character and technique (Just imagine Artherton's match saving 5th day innings against SouthAfrica and many such innings from Dravid).

I would blame the various cricket boards to have dragged the best format of cricket to this stage with poor planning and unmindful push to the slam bang version to fill their coffers. It was a pity to see empty stand in WI when Aussies toured and the same was seen even in cricket crazy country like Srilanka and India. Many factors like pricing of tickets,lack of initiative to market the format has brought down the most important format of the game down to this stage.

Finally it will be sad if the format is changed in any way and the talk of playing with color dress & day-night just hits the last nail in the coffin.I can not even think of seeing the players in color dress in the true cricket "TEST CRICKET".


On Indian Tour to West Indies

Rohit,R.Jadeja & Y.Pathan all wasted the god sent chances they got to play in this series. I am disappointed with this pathetic display purticullarly by Rohit. Rohit was so promising when he entered the international scene and some how he is yet to cement his place in the team.Good to see D.Karthick get some runs but this is not good enough for him to assure himself of a place when the big guys come back. Dhoni is back among runs and after a long time his batting has won a game for India. Not much to write about our bowling it just suffers and need a lot of discipline to put up some decent performance.

On Selection Matters

I know Cheeka as a selector is doing his bit to make sure that TN players are part of the team and Dhoni does his bit to keep them out of the playing XI. Unfortunately for Dhoni this time the youngsters he backs has failed more often than perform. I expected Badri to get a chance after dismal show from R.Sharma & Y.Pathan but yet to get his chance. On all merits M.Vijay should have got the openers slot at the first place but some how dhoni preferred karthick for reasons best known to him. Saving grace is karthick has performed well. I think at least now the people who back dhoni for all his decisions will agree with me on his prejudice against TN cricketers.

I would also feel that I.Sharma needs to be handled carefully, we have lost some good young talent in the past due to some poor handling of players. I see that I.Sharma is shot of confidence and needs a lot of hand holding so that he gets back to his prime.

Overall i would say this tour to WI is played just because of some obligation between the two boards and there is no real interest or intensity. The cricket administrators should put an end to these sort of meaningless series in the future, more so because the players are already overworked.

Early Exit for Team India

Team India's campaign to retain the T20 world cup came to an end with the second consecutive loss in the Super 8 stage. There has been lot of expectation from the Indian fans and the stadium looked grim at times even though the match is played in England and the host nation is progressing to win. Indian fans out numbered the English fans on Sunday and the match moving from one side to the other like our sensex, the cricket mad Indian fans were backing Team India like anything but in the end it was the team which held their nerves and the experience won the match for England. The Semi-final line up is already done, so the remaining matches in the Super 8 is just for the sake of playing.


I pity Dhoni.

I have mentioned quite a few times in my previous posts during the IPL that Dhoni is a bit confused with his batting position and desperately wants to prove as a batsmen. This confused state of mind has reflected in the not so aggressive moves that he took in the 2 super 8 games. To me dhoni is kind of likes to dominate the proceedings and likes to be in the thick of action all the time but once his batting style changed he was not able to do this with big success and this was very much apparent in the IPL & WorldCup.

I feel it has become a habit now for the general public and the media to take a player to the cloud on success and dump him to the ground from there on failure. This is very much evident in Dhoni's case, what ever he did made news and every other move was talked as a strategy and so on and when he and the team failed its the opposite. I feel pity for dhoni, he could have done a lot of things much better but i strongly feel that holding one person for the team's debacle is crap talk. I just do not understand how the past Indian cricketers sitting in the news channel's just talk what ever they feel like and get so personnel on their comments, its very disgusting and disturbing trend.

I would say Team India was a bit off color in this tournament. Bowling was very ordinary, Zaheer did not deliver what was expected from him (early breakthrough) Ishant Sharma was listless and Harbhajan was not able to produce a maginc spell in the middle overs which normally puts india well positioned on chasing or defending. On batting it was even more disappointing that other than Yuvraj & Y.Pathan none of the other guys looked comfortable, Gambhir is the key player for the team's success and when he was not getting the runs the top order failed badly. Rohit & Raina were shot of experience to handle some fine swing and seam bowling and failed miserably. I dont have to write on the fielding, we fielded below par through out the tournament and gifted 10-15 runs in all the matches.

Overall i would say that a combination of too-much pressure to retain the trophy, over-worked body and fatigue factors contributed to the early exit of Team India.

Team India starts with a Win

Team India started their campaign to retain the T20 WorldCup in style with a reasonable victory over the talented Bangladesh.

Yuvi played a gem of an innings to save the day for India with power packed 41 of just 18 balls to pep up the score and India finally finished with a reasonable score of 180. Rohit and Gambhir started the innings in typical style with some well timed hits to the fence.Gambhir back to form is good sign for India and Rohit performing well in the openers slot gives us the flexibility of including an extra bowler. I feel Rohit is bit too ambitious in his strokes, he seems to be going after the bowling all the time.

We are a bit slow in the middle overs between 7 & 14 overs where we struggled to score runs but Yuvi was in great touch that he clobbered the bangladesh bowlers all over the park with towering sixes. Yuvi ensured India gets to a respectable total and I.pathan finishing off with a 6 & 4 in the final few deliveries. Sadly Raina did not get enough overs to set his eye in and explode and it was the same for Y.Pathan. We should also give credit to the bangladeshi spinners, they bowled brilliantly in the middle overs to restrict the explosive Dhonia and Gowtham.

Bangladesh started their chase in good stead with some hard hitting from both the openers and exposed our new ball bowlers. Zaheer was not spared and as usual I.Pathan gave away his quota of runs with the new ball (god know how he is picked time and again and given the new ball) Dhoni brought in Y.Pathan and he responded well to remove the inexperienced Tamim. After this point it was all the way Ohja show with some great seam bowling from I.sharma from the other end, Ohja picked wickets in all the overs and gave very few runs and sealed the victory for India. Harbajan played the role of restricting the run flow to perfection. I feel we gave away too many runs in the initial overs and need to find some way to restrict the run flow to 6 an over in the first 6 overs.

Over all it was a good day and may not be a great opener for India but this should have provided the team management to think through the combination for the future matches.


Sad to see that Aussies are struggling to make it to the knock out stage from the group of death. Aussies need to win against Srilanka by a big margin and WestIndies should also win Srilanka for Australia to make it to the knock out stage. On the other group its a battle between England and Pakistan to make it to the knock out stage. Netherland seems to be determined to make it to the next stage.

Time to cheer Team India :-)

T20 WorldCup is fast approaching and its time for us to cheer and support Team India. It will be great fun to see the same people backing their foes couple of weeks back in the IPL.

One thing is sure that its going to be exciting than the 1st edition. Australia and SouthAfrica have already made their intentions clear that they are not going to take it easy. The success of 2007 worldcup and the mega success of IPL has proved that the format is here to stay and the top teams are going to fight for the top spot.With the success of IPL, victory here means a lot in terms of domestic T20 championships and replicate IPL like formats in their respective nation. so its going to be keenly contested WorldCup.

I feel there is no clear favorites for the 2009 WorldCup and there's going to be a lot of upsets and surprise winners. There are lot of new names in most of the teams but for Team India and the success of these new talents will be the defining factor.

India has distinct advantage of having many match winners in this T20 format. Sehwag,Yuvraj,Dhoni,Raina & Y.Pathan can win matches single handedly and Gambhirs form will decide the fate our campaign. Ishant,R.P.Sighn,Praveen & Zaheer should be doing well in helpful conditions. I will never pick an inconsistent performer like Irfan but i am sure he will play a few games and can spring a few surprise in helpful conditions. Harbhajan & Ohja form a good spinning options for Dhoni.Overall we have a very well balanced team and it all depends on how well we cope with the conditions and potential is transformed to performance and most importantly how well Dhoni uses his talented side.


For cricket fanatics like us, its going to be yet another 2-3 weeks of sleepless nights after the month long IPL carnival. Most of the matches will start at 5.30 UK time which is 11 in the night for us and true cricket fans will try their best to keep them awake till the end of the match. For general public this years event will not be a discussion item as they might not watch the matches live. The Newspapers will carry only partial scores and detailed scores will be available only on the next day which will be too late as our TV News channels will break the news.

Dhoni digs CSK's graveyard ........

It has been very hard to see that CSK went down without a real fight, as a CSK fanatic it was very tough to digest the fact that csk did not make it to the finals.

I am not going to write about the way they performed but the strategic failure in picking the XI for the big semi-finals based on commonsense and the facts which sent CSK packing out of the tournament.

I attribute this defeat is the reflection of Mr Cool Dhoni putting himself ahead of the team in many instances in this tournament. This was a open fact through out the tournament, it was purely some over-smart captaincy,unimaginable team selection and no intervention from the think tanks of CSK cricket management to set thing right at least at some point of the tournament.

Specially on the semi-finals, why would some one pick Goni ahead of a spinner in spite of his very poor performance with the ball and pathetic fielding. Dhoni yet again proved he backs few guys and goes with the instinct and not by one's performance. The whole cricket world knows that it has been spinners all through the tournament but he preferred Goni ahead of Ashwin who bowled brilliantly in the low scoring match against KXIP. Why to pick Oram again and again when he is not going to get his time to settle down in batting with the strong top order and he has been listless with his bowling. We could have picked Thusara or Ntini (sad that we did not use the leading SA bowler in even a single match) as a pure bowler and if this is not acceptable he could have used him as a new ball bowler and picked Ashwin in place of Goni, we would have had many options in the middle overs. If dhoni plans to bat up at No3 & No 4 there is no use in having both Badri and Oram in the side just for fielding.

Finally if Dhoni is going to shuffle his batting order very often in any form of the game in favor of himself, not only CSK but even Indian Team will suffer in time. We saw this happen in Kitply and AsiaCup finals with some dour batting from Dhoni but there was some justification for that but the kind of moves he made in the IPL is debatable. The sad side of all this is neither CSK nor India has a good backup for captaincy .

CSK strikes the right combination :-)

Great to see Dhoni re-inventing himself to play one of the most aggressive knocks against Punjab Kings XI and keeping his cool in the death overs as captain. Dhoni was not at his element all through the first phase of the tournament with most of the experiments going against him and CSK lost 3 games in a row. Finally Dhoni & CSK has come out strongly to perform like champs and looks like they can not go wrong from here but for the very ordinary fielding performance.

I still feel there is some confusion in the batting line up even though they have sort of sorted out things and seems to have hit the best combination. My pri match batting order will be like Haydos,Vijay,Raina,Badri,Dhoni,Morkel,Oram and may be based on the match situation badri can be pushed back in the order but i feel they have to stick to this line up. If CSK is pushed to think of an extra bowler, i would prefer dropping Oram and play Ntini rather than disturb Haydos and Vijay pair. In my view Oram has not been able to adapt to the T20 format yet, i think he has bowled very few overs and has got few opportunity to score big with the bat. I have a feeling Ntini might give his best, if given a chance now and may also get ready for the super semi-finals.

Morkel and Thyagi have been good in the last couple of matches with some great seam bowling and most importantly not giving away any extra runs in the initial overs. Murali,Jataki and Balaji have come good in the last 3 matches with some tight spells in the middle overs and Raina has been proving to be the trusted bowler in the death overs. Morkel and Balaji are little bit unpredictable in the end overs, invariably both of them provide a big (12-18 runs) over in the end, need to improve on this and restrict to a 10 run over in the end, Ntini in place of Oram might strike the required balance.

Its all open and dhoni has been pleading in the pre-match and post-match comments that CSK need to field better and hold on to all the chances that come their way. Is this because we don't have a fielding coach :-) may not be, see how many coach's KKR got and also look at their performance, i feel its all in the mind and if one or two come up with some special effort (like the one Raina took in the last game ) all others will follow suit. Today there is a lot of doubt if they will hold on to the chance so they let them go. Hope the confidence is back soon and does not cost them any more.

CSK has a good 4 day break and i am sure will help the old boys of the team (Haydos & Murali) to cool of their heels. Having said that we have another 4 matches and if we win the next 2 matches we are sure of making it to the semi-finals. Need to give some rest for Haydos,Murali,Morkel (has been playing non stop for the past 8 months) & Balaji. Baily has not been tried out till now and has been in the bench for too long and the only match he played he did not bat or bowl so i would expect dhoni to try his bench strength so that they will be useful for 2010 :-). Its the same with Ashwin, he got a game to play but did not bowl or bat so if it will help if they have to replace someone due to injury or some unexpected events.

CSK back on Track !!!!!!!!!!

Great Double for CSK and chennai is again bustling with the hope as we are back on track and will put up some exiting stuff going forward.It was nice to see the two rookie bowlers perform exceptionally well and i see Thyagi is the future for Indian Cricket and high quality material and needs lot of hand holding to be successful in the international arena.

Finally all the comments and bashing to send Badri at No 4 has been heard and Badri has just performed like a champ, even though there is lot of room for improvement. I would have expected a Raina like innings (98) from Badri in the game against DD but again the effort was just fantastic.M.Vijay started of well and needs a couple of games to settle down and i am sure he is far far better batsman than Parthiv so please stick with him.

Jakati bowled superbly to pick 4 wickets and kept the run flow under check and sure to help CSK in the upcoming matches. We chennai folks would have loved to see Ashwin in his place, why did Dhoni prefer Jakati over Ashwin ? he just got only one match and he did not bowl or bat then how is that Jakati is picked ? I know you will say we already have Murali & Raina bowling off spin and we need a left arm spinner. Including Thyagi & Jataki over Amarnath (who did very well last season) and Ashwin has only proved that Dhoni is not confident on TN players for some reason or other. At least now we have 3 players from TN and wish that they perform well and give confidence to Dhoni in picking more from the state.

Coming back to the match against DC, i hope and wish that the top guns in the middle order get some runs to boost the total and help the bowlers. Dhoni,Albie & Oram are total failures with the bat and expect them to raise to the occasion and peak their form at the right time.CSK has slight edge over the DC as Fidel leaving the team and DC losing the last 2 matches and CSK winning the last 2 games

Good Luck Guys.

Bad run continues for CSK :-(

Chennai's bad run continues with just 1 win of 5 matches and currently stands at 5th position in the table. CSK team management needs to do something and changes in the team is imperative. Some how i feel the team is not gelling well and it shows in the field, i doubt if dhoni is as aggressive as he was earlier and when scoring runs. It was hard to see the match against Deccan Chargers with each individual standing at their position with somber faces even before the match was lost.

The main problem for CSK is none of the big names are performing to their reputation except for Haydos & Murali. Dhoni in particular needs to re-discover himself and play to his strength (aggression) and not for his reputation. Its been too long now he has played an attacking knock for India or CSK, he has been trying to occupy the crease and graft runs and that is not expected from him, he is expected to score quick and fast. The only way he can do that is re-discover himself and play his natural game. Albee Morkel the biggest success for SouthAfrica in the last ODI series against Australia and lot was expected from him in this IPL-2 but has been disappointing till now. Raina has been good in patches and has not converted the good starts into big scores and has thrown the wicket at very important stages of the game. Balaji & Badri has been pretty inconsistent as ever. Balaji has been gifting runs at will and has not been reliable and badri has not scored any runs and he is in the playing 11 just b'cas there is no alternative Indian batsmen in the bench.

Now moving back to the team selection, i wonder how and why they are playing Joginder and giving him only 1/2 overs when spinners are so successful in South African wickets. Its time we do some change to the lineup by playing Vijay in place of Parthiv and Ashwin in place of Joginder and may be after couple of matches we can also try Bailey so that we know how good he is and how we plan to use him. I am sure there will be some change in the line up and i will not be surprised if dhoni picks Vijay in place of Badri and play Parthiv as a keeper and ask him to bat down the order. I think at least now VBC as top guy for cricketing affairs for CSK speaks his mind to the people concerned and not stop with writing blogs.

CSK is left with no other option but win the next 3 or 4 matches to make sure that they are not left far behind the chase to find a place in the semi-finals. Already DC & DD are comfortably placed and MI has made strong claims to be in the semi-finals and the last spot will be a fight between CSK and primarily RR and to an extent Kings XI Punjab.

Bad start for CSK & RR

MI & RCB performed like real champions to beat CSK and RR respectively. Sachin leading from the front for MI and Dravid & Kumble performing for RCB to start IPL-2 on a winning note.

I am not going to write on what happened in the match for CSK but on what went wrong for CSK and the mistakes that cost the match for CSK.

1.Hayden dropping a sitter from sachin early on the game.
2.When CSK had restricted MI well Flintoff gifting 25 runs in the 18th over.
3.Flintoff & Hayden throwing their wickets after showing signs of recovery.
4.Playing 11 and batting order.

I feel dropping catches,gifting runs and throwing wickets are normal and sometimes depends on many factors like weather,first game,batsmen just hitting out and taking all the risks etc but what baffles me is the team selection and the order in which the batsmen were sent in for the chase.

CSK were playing with 10 players and the 11th man was playing as a fielder, no bowling and no batting, how can you play Ashwin and not give him even a single over it is ridiculous to play him at the first place when you are playing 3 specialist bowlers and 2 bowling all rounders and having picked him in the team not trying him even for a single over shows how confident the captain is on Ashwin.

I don't understand how you can not pick A.morkel, what ever the reason be (kits not arrived on time !!) it is very silly to think that he can not play with the available kit from the other players in the team. How on earth you can pick Joginder ahead of balaji (even though joginder did well) i doubt if Dhoni has any confidence in the chennai players. It is really hurting when you see only 2 players picked from chennai for the CSK team and 1 of them did not bowl or bat and the other specialist batsmen walking in at the end overs when the asking rate has gone up to 11 a over.Its a shame for TNCA and Chennai players that they are treated so badly in spite of owning the team. All the other teams (except RR) play minimum of 3-4 players from the state and they are key performers also.Some how i get a feeling that dhoni is not confident about players from TN.

How is that all the big hitting batsmen were sent in one after the other early in the innings and send the inexperienced players in the end overs and expect them to perform. May be he is experimenting in the initial phase of the tournament but it is always good to start winning so that the team's morale and confidence gets momentum going forward. I am not blaming Dhoni alone here its a total failure of the team management which includes Fleming. I strongly feel that its time that dhoni starts to keep wickets and create an option to include one more batsmen/bowler in the team. I would want to see Flintoff at number 6 and Morkel at 7 and may earlier depending on the match scenario and not at no 4 / 5 pre-planned.

I am sure the team management on cricketing affairs get together and plan for the next game and come out with the best possible lineup which should include Hayden,Morkel,Flintoff and Murali and make sure they start winning.

Will Rajasthan Royals make it again ??

Rajasthan Royals (RR) is already in South Africa (SA) and have started playing matches with strong sides in SA.Will Shane Warne and team be able to win the second edition for their new owner (read Shilpa :-)) is the most asked question in the media today.

RR is not my favorites this time around to win the tournament.The basic reason for this observation is, last year the players who helped the team win matches were Yusuf,Watson,R.Jadeja,Asnodkar & importantly S.Tanvir under the great leadership of Shane. All the above players except Shane and Watson will not find it easy playing in SA. S.Tanvir is ruled out of the tournament and Watson should be rusty back into the side after a 2 month rest after injury. Yusuf,R.Jadeja,Asnodkar & Kaif are players who relish the ball to come below the knee roll and don't like the ball coming quick and bouncing above the knee roll and i strongly feel that these players performance in this tournament will be limited. Shane even though playing/coaching competitive cricket through out the year, he is not getting younger by the day and it was showing in the way he was bowling and ground fielding in the first practice game.

Am i sounding little too against RR :-) ok lets see the strengths of RR now

Smith the captain of SA is the biggest strength for RR, he know the wickets,conditions,reads the players better than anyone in today's cricket and should be playing a very important role in the teams preparation and should be behind each every decision on the planning. Basically he is the key think tank of the team along with Shane.Mascarenhas,M.Morkel,S.Trivedi and Munaf Patel should do well in helping conditions. Mascarenhas has been in and out of the England team and has not played much for RR last season should be raring to go here and prove a point to the england selectors. Morkel and Munaf should be too much for any team to handle in the first 6-8 overs, S.Trivedi played the supporting role so well last time and should be hoping to do well this time also.

Yusuf and Asnodkar are just unpredictable players and if they click in bouncy tracks its a bonus and they will just be un-stopable and prove to be match winners. I am eager to see how Jadeja performs in SA, he is a very strong willed player and does not get cowed down by the reputation of the bowler or the batsmen playing against him and wish he does well and makes a strong claim into the Indian T20 side.

Bottom Line:

Shane and Smith are the key people to get this in-experienced side to get united and make them believe that they can win in SA.

Its no fluke !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MS Dhoni & team has yet again proved that its no fluke,luck or blip but true professionalism that has made winning a habit. It was really nice to see that the whole team contributing to the series win. One has to give full credit to Dhoni for making each and every member of the team believe that we can win any opponents, any where and under any conditions. The most fabulous thing about Dhoni is that he has been able to manage this with two different set of players, for T20 & ODI half the team is different and very young, on the other side he has been successful in making even the experienced players to believe that they can win any team and win consistently.

The brilliance of Gambhir,care free Sehwag,flamboyant Yuvraj,aggressive bhaji,Ishant,crafty Zaheer and cool dhoni has made the seniors Sachin,Dravid & Laxman to give that extra bit and made sure that they contribute and contribute when it matters most. Gambhir has been just too good over the last couple of seasons, the biggest strength i see in him is the fearlessness on facing any opponent. He gives respect only to the delivery and not to the bowler who bowls and his past record or reputation etc, if the delivery needs to be hit it will be hit. The hundred he made in the 2nd test just proves that he has arrived in style and he can play out time if the circumstances requires. I wish that he continues this fearless attitude in the coming seasons also without fearing for his reputation.

Zaheer & Harbajan has been brilliant through out the series with some brilliant spells. Even though the strike rate can be improved , both of them made sure that they bowl to the plan. Lot was expected from Ishant in the helpful conditions but he bowled well in patches but was not able to repeat the magic he did in Australia, i am sure he will come back strongly in the upcoming series.Munaf played his part to perfection, supporting Zaheer & Ishanth sharma, Yovraj,sehwag & sachin did their bit as bowlers.

Few disappointments as for as the Test Series was Sehwag, he did play few quick fire knocks but failed to convert them into big scores. I feel Yuvraj was also very tentative and most of times cramped to some good quick bowling from CrisMartin and feel that its time we have to try RohithSharma/Raina/Kholi/M.Vijay in test matches and leave Yuvraj to concentrate on ODI and T20. Dhinesh Karthick got a golden chance and missed to capitalize on that and again failed to perform with the bat and i think he has hit the last nail in his international carrier. Its very unfortunate that Misra & Vijay dod not get even a single game in the tour, lets hope that these youngsters get their chances before they give up.

Sorry folks will post on Rajasthan Royals next up.

Chennai Super Kings

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) goes to South Africa with couple of current SA front line players in A.Morkel and Ntini. A.Morkel is in brilliant form and Ntini doing reasonably well in tandem with Steyn should do lot of good to the CSK team. 1st season coach K.Wessels should be helping the team in providing inputs on the nature of wickets and conditions in various venues across SA.

Even though i am a CSK supporter, i feel that its not going to be as easy as last time around with the tournament moving to SouthAfrica. Having said that CSK is the most balanced team on paper with Hayden available for the full season,addition of Flintoff, In form Morkel & Raina, Dhoni the most successful captain in recent times is backed by some good local talent in S.Badrinath,Vidyuth,Anirudh makes a very good line up. Flintoff,Morkel in the line up provide great balance, they can bowl minimum of 7-8 overs and SA wickets should help seamer's better. Murali/Ntini along with L.Balaji,Goni should provide a solid bowling line up if not great bowling line up.

My 11 for the first phase of the tournament with all the players available.

Hayden
Anirudha Srikkanth // Vidyuth
Suresh Raina
MS Dhoni
Albie Morkel
Andrew Flintoff / Jacob Oram
Subramaniam Badrinath
Lakshmipathy Balaji
Manpreet Gony / Amarnath
Muttiah Muralitharan / Ntini
JoginderSharma / Ashwin

(There are few new names in Bailey and other local talent, we may have to take note of these talents in the 2nd phase. We will be pushed to think on Hussey availability for the latest stages of the tournament)

Hayden will be given the free hand to attack and play his natural game and score as many runs as possible in the initial 10 overs. Raina,Dhoni,Morkel,Badri and Flintoff just make a great top order which i am sure any bowling attack will worry to restrict.

I feel CSK has the best batting line up and if the bowling does reasonably well CSK should win comfortably. CSK should be chasing scores around 180-190 easily and the bowlers will be comfortable to restrict score around 200-210 not less than that at least in the initial phase of the tournament. To reach the semi-finals, Hayden,Raina,Morkel, Flintoff (to an extent )Murali and L.Balaji should perform consistently well. It goes without saying that Dhoni will have to lead side with more imagination and use the local boys well.


Having done the above analysis based on the past performance, cricket has never gone the way one would like to or no amount of analysis works. The DC (Deccan Chargers) were the best side on paper last year with all the big hitters (Gilcrist,Gibbs, Symonds etc) in the side they finished last in the table.

As a true CSK fan, lets support (watching set Max :(), pray and wish CSK does well to reach the last four, may be after that we will cry,pray and do what ever to see that CSK wins the trophy.

Next Post on Rajasthan Royals !!!!

IPL - International Premier League

Finally Indians can be proud of having a International sporting event IPL and more happy in conducting the event overseas making it a truly international.Great that LalithModi commissioner of IPL is helping South African economy staging the IPL in SA. India in all probability will transport some 1000+ people including players for various teams and take care of them for the 45 day long tournament meant for Indian Domestic Cricketers.

One should really appreciate BCCI and IPL for somehow making sure that the IPL season-2 is stagged and Modi has pointed out that he wants this event to go on as he does not want to disappoint the Indian public and feels that the core audience are the TV viewers, hence season-2 will also be a big hit and he also feels that IPL will become popular in SA and improve the viewership for the season-3.

Two issues gets solved by stagging the IPL in SA
1)Govt need not worry about security
2)BCCI will not disappoint the Indian public even though the stadiums are empty as its primarily for TV viewers.

There were some great comments from few Modi critics that if the objective is provide entertainment to the Indian TV Viewers we could hold the tournament here in india with closed stadiums, we will provide security only for the players so the government is also happy and there is no need for extra security personnel.In this case both the issues will get solved and the game will also be played in India and the thousands of dollars would not go out of the country.

Now as a true CSK fan, i am disappointed that we may not get to watch cricket from MAC stadium but like all the other fans we will at least be able to watch in TV. CSK has the best balance and has a captain with AC and this time around we should be able to win the cup. I think CSK management has a very good problem to have, they have all the great guys from around the world and they can pick only 4 a game. With Hayden,Hussey,AlbieMorkel,Freddie,Murali,Ntini its a challenge to pick the right combination for a given match.

Lets hope Dhoni brings the DLF IPL trophy to Chennai as he did for India in the T20 World Cup.

Modi & PC rob IPL from India

Indian cricket fans are taken for a ride by the two most powerful men in the country P.Chidambaram (PC) and Lalit Modi (Modi). Both have their own case to fight but finally the most successful event ever conducted in Indian Cricket history IPL has been robbed from India.

It all started on the events that happened in Pakistan last month and the subsequent media intervention and imaginative journalism to its best raising questions on what if the same happens in India. Its fair from the Home Minister to be concerned with the big tournament scheduled at the same time when the country goes to polls and rightly asked for support and confirmation from the state governments on the availability of security personnel to handle both the big events. Modi is also correct in scheduling IPL between April 10th and End of May as this is the only time window where all the international players are available.

Given the scenario, i would fault the way Modi & team took PC head on with unwarranted statements like "World will not stop if India goes to Poll" and "IPL will organize its own security for the event" and so on which i am sure would have made things worse. Given that PC is a very strong personality and does not given in easily on confrontations like these and like true politician he took the issue to the state government and you all know the out come. PC is now points to the state governments disability to provide security as a reason and has washed his hands.

BCCI has taken the bold step of going abroad (England / SA) to conduct this years IPL and not give up and skip 2009 edition. Lot of things are yet to be finalized and given that we are hardly a month away from the IPL to start its going to be a Himalayan task for the organizers. I also feel that there might be some lobbying to stop taking this event abroad and coming up with some kind of a workable solution between the IPL and Home Ministry to avoid embarrassment as it might have some effect in BJP ruled states. Already Narendra Modi has offered to stage all the games in Gujarat and is ready to provide security, may be this has come a little late but sure it will send some signals to the Congress high command. If IPL manages to conduct this event in India and the tournament goes without any incident, that will be a great boost to the government to claim that the country is safe and also confirm that India will conduct the 2010 CWG.

As a cricket fan, if this years event happens in a foreign land we are left with very little to cheer as we will be robbed of the chance to view the games live in the stadium. All said and done, I think after the initial rounds of matches the interest will go up and we will somehow make sure that we reach home before the start for all the 8.00PM game to get glued to the TV sets.

Wish and pray that IPL is held in India and both the polls and IPL finish without any bad incident.

Aussies strong comeback

Australia has comeback with a strong message that they are a strong and determined unit to fight it out to remain in the top. Australia's big win in the 1st test only proves that they are not letting things go out of their control. The batting line up is coming good with Hughes and North coming good and Johnson proving to be a allrounder in the making. The only worry for them now is Hussey and Ponting not being consistent as they used to be as for as the batting is concerned and lack atleast one genuine quick and spinner in the side to back Johnson. Brett Lee's comeback for the Ashes should greatly help their bowling. Not sure why Australia is not trying to nurture a spinner, Kreza did well in india and also has a very good domestic season but for some reason he is being sidelined.

Over all its good to see the champion side making a good come back. It will be great to see a three pronged fight to get to the top with SouthAfrica and India fighting to get to the top in quick time.


Indian campaign in NewZeland has been mixed with the loss in both T20 games and a strong comeback in the ODI its going to be a good contest ahead. Dhoni after the T20 debacle has come good with both captaincy and the bat. His experiments with promoting himself to No 3 has so for provided good results, having said that i strongly believe that he belongs to No 5 / 6 and thats where he can really help the team under all circumstances. Again i would like to stress that Sachin should be playing only on important ODI's, we have youngster in Gambhir doing well and should be opening with Sehwag in the ODI. Moving him down order is not going to help his form or confidence. Dhoni might come out and say,all the players should know how it is to taste others positions or expect players should perform on any position, this might help the team for a short period, if we are building the team for the future there must be some regular order and the players should be confident and mentally prepared for the game.

My preference would be in the below mentioned order,

1)Sehwag
2)Gambhir / Sachin (only if required)
3)RohithSharma / Raina
4)Yuvraj
5)Raina / RohithSharma
6)Dhoni
7)Yusuf Pathan / (any batting all rounder " not Irfan pathan ")
8)Harbhajan
9)Zaheer
10)Praveen kumar
11)Munaf Patel /Shreeshanth / Balaji / Ishant Sharma (only if required)


On the bowling front, i am sure that we are not handling Ishant Sharma well. He is the future of Indian bowling and he needs to play only Tests and important ODI tournaments. A simple injury in the T20 has created problems for his fitness and imagine if he had injured himself in the ODI series and not available for the test series.

Its going to be interesting to see how the test series goes with both the teams getting tough to prove that they are good in their own way.

Will write a post latter on the black day in Pakistan for world cricket (sport).

Cricket March - 2009

Great month ahead for cricket lovers all around the globe. Australia is desperate to demonstrate that they are NO 1 in the business and South Africa will fight to win the series and in the process take the No 1 spot in the ICC Test Rankings. India starts the ODI in NewZeland this month end and goes on to play the 3 test series in march.

Current Team India is the best balanced side ever toured NewZeland and with ODI series victory's against Australia,South Africa and recently SriLanka should do well to the "Yes we can" attitude of the young players lead by the cool M.S.Dhoni. NewZeland also has been playing some superb cricket over the last few months with some close matches against the Aussies. NewZeland might have come home beating Australia if they had a full game in the decider.

Indian team for the ODI look very balanced and strong in all the departments. To win matches in NewZeland one needs to have good starts and i wish Gambhir and Sehwag open the innings for the first 2 ODI and make changes in the top if they don't get good starts. I think Sachin can play down the order or wait for the youngsters to fail or get in only if and must play a ODI (we need to preserve him for the test series ), his presence in the dressing room can just provide that great feeling among the youngsters. The grounds are small in NewZeland and should help our young brigade of stroke players like Raina,Yuvi,Dhoni and off course Sehwag and Gambhir to get quick runs and post big totals.

Bowling looks a bit week, Ishant is one real quick bowler who can make things happen for India. All the other bowlers including Zaheer is vulnerable in small grounds, hope the team management plans well to tackle the big hitting kiwi batsmen. Bajji and company should do the trick for India, i don't believe that Irfan Pathan is going to play any important role as bowling all rounder.

Kiwis should be full of confidence with the great show in Australia and the top order has been getting runs. McCullum,Guptill,Redmond,Elliot are all in good nick and their bowling also looks decent with Southe and Vetori performing well is a plus. Above all this the conditions in NewZeland is the big advantage for them with the home crowd support, they must be hoping to put up good fight in all the ODI matches.

The ODI series outcome will have a strong bearing in the TestSeries.

Ten on the Trot ??

Its 8 continuous ODI win for Dhoni & Team now and will they end up the series in SriLanka with 10 on the trot is the big question with the cricket mad people of India. Given that India won the series without much fuss, we can hope that the team might go for the kill to make sure that the winning streak continues.

There were some hype and expectation when India decided to take the short tour to SriLanka that the Lankans will avenge for the defeat in the last series. The hype was backed by some stupendous performances in Pakistan with big wins but nothing really happened and there was no challenge from the Lankan side to match the all round performance of the Indian side and lost the 3 games. Dhoni and team is just having the best period in Indian Cricket History with some great win at home and abroad. It has been a complete team effort with all the players coming good over the last 12-18 months.

Having won the series comfortably the team management should be resting the key players for the remaining matches to make sure that the players are fully fit and available for the more important NewZeland series. I would have expected Dhoni to rest Ishant Sharma,Zaheer Khan, Sehwag and Sachin, but he chose to play all the players other than Sachin which i feel is not the correct thing to do at this stage. Sachin should have played this match and spend sometime in the middle to get his confidence going after 3 consecutive decisions going against him. I am not sure why Ishant Sharma and Sehwag is playing this game, its not only about form its also about fitness, it will be very costly for team India if any of these guys get injured in these games. When i write this post i see that Dhoni has come in at No 3 ahead of R.G Sharma,Raina,Yuvraj, i am little worried that the team management takes a very short term view on things. I strongly feel that this is the time to groom the youngsters for the future and if success gets to the head i am not sure if we can win consistently and for a sustained period of time.

On TamilNadu Players

Its really good to see Balaji back into the team and wish that he has a good run in his come back. It would have been perfect for him to have gone directly to NewZeland where conditions will help seam bowling and there is very little chance for a fast bowler to fail. Good that he is not in the playing XI in the 4th ODI in the slow srilankan wicket.

I am also very happy to see Badrinath coming good when it matters most, 200 in duleep trophy semi-finals will help his confidence and should be hoping to do well in the finals and find a spot in the test squad. Its also nice to see D.Karthick coming good with the bat and there has never been any issues with his ability behind the wickets and i am sure he will be in the squad as the second wicket keeper.

I think Srikkanth has done his best to make sure that TN cricketers are recognized for their performances and its now for the players to perform at the highest level and prove cheeks decisions are correct.

Why ODI Series Now in SriLanka

I am just wondering why Team India should tour SriLanka now, the team has got the wonderful chance to take a break and re-group for the tough NewZeland tour. BCCI did the right thing by requesting for an additional test in NewZeland and that is justified but i don't understand why we should be touring SriLanka after we have played a full 5 ODI series just a few months back.

SriLankan board is bankrupt and hence would want their team to play all through the year to make ends meet. Srilankan Cricket administrators proved that some how they need to make money, they have sent their full team to Zimbabwae and Bangladesh just to make sure that they get some money to run cricket. Their fill up for India in Pakistan is also to help them and Pakistan board to make some money. BCCI is one of the richest sports body and why would India need to tour SriLanka now.

This break would have been great if the probables and the team management grouped for a camp and prepared well for the NewZeland tour. Team India has not done well in NewZeland in the past and we need some special performances to make sure that we do well, if not great. We must basically get used to the icy whether in the island and batsmen in purticular should get used to the natural big swing in the island. It would have been ideal for the team to practice in chilly conditions like Dharmashala (the facility in the stadium is just too good to conduct a camp).I think playing this short 5 ODI series is not going to help our fight to get to the top of the test rating, event though these rating business is a scrap (hope you read the joke of top 20 all time greats rated by the ICC). Team India is the best balanced team now in all formats of the game and hope BCCI shows some respect to the players and help the team to reach the top.

Agreed that BCCI has done a lot to its players in terms of monitory stuff but when it comes to planning the schedule it has always been behind big money and not friendly towards the players. Its a long season ahead for Indian players, after NewZeland all the players have to play the cash rich IPL in the hot summer and get ready for the ICC 20-20, then get ready for the series against WestIndies. I am sure none of the senior players would have been willing to travel to SriLanka now. The other reason for their reluctance will also be the war in SriLanka.

On the team to Srilanka, its a good move to bring in the young R.Jadeja he has been wonderful ever since we got to see him the Under-19 worldcup,IPL and in now in the Ranji Trophy. I would have liked to rest Sachin,Ishant and ZaheerKhan for this ODI series, these players full fitness is critical for TeamIndia's success in NewZeland. I was praying that L.Balaji should not be rushed into the international side for ODI series and should be picked for NewZeland, as he is a natural swing bowler. I am sure Cheeka should have played his part in making sure he gets the right chance. I am not sure how Irfan pathan is being picked for the series with such poor performances, cheeka must be pleasing a few other selectors and may be even Dhoni who is very particular in making sure the players part of that historic T20 world cup team should some how be in his team.


Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Pragyan Ojha

Welcome 2009 - TamilNadu Cricket

Wishing all the readers a very happy,successful and prosperous 2009.

Back to cricket, its the same old story from the TamilNadu Ranji Team, but i should say this young team did well as a team and i hope this team if stays together can scale great highs.

It was a spirited run for the young and talented TamilNadu team to have reached the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy and my congratulations to W.V.Raman and Team.

On way to the semi-finals there were lot of good performances from TamilNadu. Abhinav Mukund, ArunKarthick, M.Vijay, Balaji and Ashwin and a brilliant run with the bat from the captain Dhinesh Karthick. In spite of their brilliant performances in the league phase and some good knocks in the knock out stage TN was not able to beat the UP side in the exciting finish for the first innings lead in the semi-finals.

After such a great opening stand of over 150+ and at one stage 280+ for 2 to being bowled out for 445 is very unfortunate and the middle order just did not click to put a big score on the board to take advantage of batting first. Badrinath and Karthick the senior most players in the squad with over 50+ on end of day 1 and starting a fresh day should have gone further to come up with big hundreds and raise a big total but the quick dismissal did not go well with the other middle order batsmen. Vidyuth has not been in good form through out the season and failed again but for Dhandapany breezy 67 it would have been very difficult to have posted the respectable 445.

It was even more disappointing to have let the game to the opponents after taking the crucial wickets of T.Srivastav,Raina,Kaif early and let the totally out of form middle order to score big to chase the score only reflects that the young team was not confident and did not believe in them. I am not taking the credit from Shukla and Parvinder for such brilliant performance in the middle but only trying to put things in perspective. Karthick has been pathetic behind the stumps and his lapses in the crucial junctures of the game in the semi-finals made things easy for the UP batsmen.

UP batsmen also exposed TN bowling and Ashwin was not effective in the batsmen friendly wicket and TN had to press the seamers for more overs and that did not go well in the context of the game. Balaji has been great through out the season with some brilliant performance and should been looking back to be in the big league. I feel he will make it to the Indian Squad for the seamer friendly NewZeland tour.


In summary its the same old sad story that TN fights to reach the semi-finals but fails to move ahead and win the coveted Ranji Trophy.