A new era in Cricket ?

IPL has started in a big way a couple of days back. The first match was a totally one sided affair with Kolkata hammering Bangalore to register an emphatic win. As it was disappointing to see Bangalore lose, I was also somewhat happy that the much touted tournament was off to a damp start. If the tournament is a failure it will be a good lesson to the arrogant bosses of the BCCI. They have left no stone unturned in using their power and influence to crush the rebel ICL. ICL meanwhile has been producing some good if not great cricket to provide entertainment.
And thats the USP of IPL too. Entertainment. Not superstars performing or cheergirls but the players dishing out an exciting fare. I have a feeling IPL will fail on that count.

As of now my ideas are turning a bit true. In two more matches played yesterday, only one provided some semblance of a fight. The other one was also one sided.

A sedate start

The WC 2007 got off to a sedate start yesterday with not much fireworks. The match between WI and Pak did not set the thrill meters jumping. But it was not a farce too as the match was contested nicely.
Coming to the match, Pak lost but not much should be needed to it. It is possible in the early stages of the tournaments to have a few hiccups and it might not cause any major upsets.

-Winz

World Cup 2007

As I am writing this, the Cricket World Cup 2007 has begun in the West Indies. I intended to write about this, but never found the time. Hopefully I will find some time in the next eight weeks to write something. I would really like India to win this one, though I do not see that we have enough players to play in crunch matches.

-Winz

Going down.... down... down

So India suffered another defeat in the One day format. This time to South Africa. Though I had no illusions about our chances given that we have won only 3 matches against SA in SA, the margin of defeat was not expected. The way the most famous batting line-up in the world collapsed like a pack of cards does not inspire much confidence for the World Cup in 2007.
Of course, the coach Greg Chappell will come out with excuses like new conditions, not enough preparations etc etc. But the fact is that the Indian team has been screwed up big time. No Iam not asking to bring Ganguly back. But you should handle well what you have, anyway. Too many changes in the side, too many experiments in the batting order has hit the team hard.
The same team which blew away opposition last year and created a record, now is not confident of chasing a moderate total. Who is responsible for this? The coach and the captain of course. So let them, along with the selectors handle it. They have to make sure that the team selected performs well.
Click here for a picture depiction of India's misery in the 2nd one dayer.

-VP

Well done India

India again won chasing. Well whats new in that you may ask given that (If I am right) they have consecutively won 17 matches chasing. This for a team that was labelled "Chokers" and was driven by the mantra " Put a score on the boards and then dive to protect every run ". I may not be accurate, but I am pretty close.
Most of the times we batted first if we won the toss. And especially in important matches. If we chose to field, the results were often disastrous. Rememeber India vs SriLanka in the '96 semifinal or India vs Aus in the super sixes in '99? We won the toss, fielded first and then did a poor job of chasing.
So Iam really glad that India have turned the tide (at least for now) . We have a decent batting line up. I will not say strongest or anything coz they have not been really tested on bouncy tracks. WI tour will really provide us a better idea.
Coming to the match, it was good to see the youngsters perform well, again. Sreesanth picked up 6 wickets. Debutant Robin Utthappa scored in the 80s, Yuvi and Raina then took the game beyond doubt by posting half centuries of their own. Utthappa played well and then got run out to some really poor cricket. But he has a lot of time to learn from such mistakes.

So well done team India, hope you continue the same form in other tours too.

-Vinayak

India on Song

India on song in the second ODI at Vizag. Dhoni is the dark horse as he scores a century.
Add Sehwag's blistering 74 and Dravid's fast 40 , we have India 253/3 in 35.4 ovrs.

Ganguly fails again (nothing new, if he scores beyond 10 that will merit some attention)

They did it!! :-((

I am referring to a previous post where I had apprehensions that India will live to their pathetic record of losing the very next match after having won the previous one.

I also hoped that I would be proven wrong in the match at Bangalore. But alas! I was proved wrong as we lost to Pak by 168 runs. What is more disappointing is that barring Virender Sehwag, no batsman (including the great wall Rahul Dravid) showed any inclination to bat throughout the day.

The team has a bad habit of losing a game after being in a position of strength. Having lost just one wicket at lunch, the strongest batting line up in the world collapsed like a pack of cards to leave the Indian supporters disappointed.

Unless we have an attitude of not losing the advantage gained (this happened in the first test too) we cannot claim to be among the top test playing nations like Australia who come back from the dead to win.

I was proven right this time, but I wish that I was wrong.

Sachin Vs Rahul

There has been a debate about who is the best Indian batsman today. Is it Sachin or Rahul?
This has been debated so many times that I dont think I will be able to add anything to it. Rather I wish to state which side of the fence I am on and justify my decison.

• Well, I am of the firm opinion that "The Wall" is the best Indian batsman today on the basis of the sheer number of runs that he has scored in the past couple of years. There are some who feel that the little master is still the best.
  
• Well, I concede that it is more entertaining to watch Sachin that Rahul, but certainly you do not want "entertainment" when you desperately want to save a match or want to win one.
• One sign of the best batsman in your team is the one whom the opp bowlers fear the most. There was a time when teams feared India due to Sachin, but that time is gone. Of course they still value his wicket, but they are more likely to heave a sigh of relief when they see Dravid's back.
• Consistency: Dravid has been the most consistent batsman in the past couple of years. This is something that we do not see in Sachin. He also became the man to have the highest average after the Don. This itself is a great achievement.
  
• I also feel that Dravid has been in the shadows for a long time. In fact whenever he played a stellar knock, some one else would do a very good job (either with the bat/ball) and walk away with the honours. So to deprive him of the honour when he truly deserves it would be unfair to him.

Sachin, of course is the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket for a loooonggg time. He has fulfilled the expectations of a cricket crazy country for a decade and a half, but it is time we give credit where it is due and do not glorify an individual for his past deeds.

Will they?

I am a big lover of cricket. Well, you can say that if you are an Indian, you are a cricket fan.
And I love to watch my team win, especially against our neighbours.
Yesterday, our team beat our neighbours by a huge margin and needless to say we all enjoyed it.

But I need to say that India has a bad habit of losing the very next match after they have won the previous one in great way. Some one (I cannot remember his name) once said " Indians always win or lose in style!!) . We have lost in Australia, England, SA and even Zimbabwe after having won test matches handsomely oh! and yes last year against the same opponents this time of the year ( I am not considering the B'desh tour ) .

So the big question in my mind is " Will they repeat their dubious record?" or will they break the jinx like they did while they won in Kolkata?

Only time will tell. I am keeping my fingers crossed for that. Good Luck India..