Cricket: High octane performance.

T20 is fast it is so fast that before I decided I would blog of it and India were reeling at that time and in couple of days times, Aussies have been tamed as India beat Aussies in a close encounter. It was a high octane performance. Indians started cautiously before

Sehwag’s principle of batting/ Law of (Sehwag’s) Marginal Return.

Virender Sehwag who has now convinced everybody that run must be scored only behind point. He plays on the principle of higher risk-quicker returns but sadly it is just high risk cricketing shots and Sehwag’s quick return to the dug out. It is atrocious, it is sad to know that he “can” play in the straight direction but moving away and losing balance of or not shift/getting in the position for optimum of balance, necessary to play a jumping ball is perhaps he is missing the plot. Sehwag may not play I think coz of a pulled muscle in the thigh/groin, there is a small asterisk labeled “conditions apply”. He is deadly coz is he starts firing Pakistan/any team will go on an extensive leather chase of Dhoni will pull his flocks out of his head. The only positive coming out is perhaps rotating the strike and taking sharp singles.
All said and done just coz India has had a decent opening partnership, makes middle order really potent. Yuvraj has lambasted the attacks by getting big runs in double quick time. I just have one inhibition of big hitting, the player must be good enough to carry it through to the end over or else if one wicket may cause a slump which may be tough to recover.
I would love to see Utahappa opening along with Gambhir.

Princely Yuvraj.

Well this is format tailor cut for people like Yuvraj. The ball wont do much coz pitched will be flat, white ball losses shine early and there aren’t many spinners bowling to him. Anyways his six sixes were an absolute delight. Stuart Broad looking to heavens every time he bowled. Flintoff antics of jeering Yuvraj proved too good for Broad. Gibbs has done that in WC this year and Yuvraj himself gulped the insult when h was stuck for five sixes. He is the best finished in limited over cricket. If he hits a fit India invariable (9 out of 10 times) goes on to win the match. Yuvraj, Dhoni, Razzaq, McCullum, Symonds, Hussey, Boucher, these names come to mind when you talk of finish. The hit it and they remain a hit. They all are good runner and hitters so even if they are not hitting it they can clearly getting close to eight an over playing what I call “Percentage Cricket”.

Well fielded.

The Indians have picked themselves up in the field. It has definitely improved. It is less patchy with coming in of youngsters. It is good to see them saving singles and pulling of some neat catches. The catch that came to Kart hick of Smith’s edge off RP Singh was a smack down and triggered a collapse for Safes who not only lost the match but also failed to get into Semis. Poor chaps. Ravi Shastri said on air,” Indians have caught Safes pants down in their own den.” ROFL.

Success hides a few blotches.

I am not convinced that Pakistan and India are matched man to man and it is all evens. Pakistan top order looks fragile, they may not always fire. But when they play India it is not another match, it is “the” match. They don’t have bowlers of Agarkar’s class who gifts boundaries at will and makes a decent captain look naive. Pakistan is a mind of fast bowling. They have enough of them to cause any team a trouble. Let me cite an example Kiwis whacked Indians in ending over when they played, I mean the conditions were so bad that being stuck for just 3 fours in an over was considered economical. If u shifts focus towards Pak bowlers they gave nothing away to Kiwis and Aussies it was amazing to watch nothing came by for either team and scoring 6 an over in last five over bowled by Pak bowlers could be considered good.
We lack good bowlers who can bowl to take wickets. There aren’t many and they don’t have that quality too. I don’t see any bowler in the present line up coming onto bowl and not being carted for boundaries. There is enough testimony; Aussies almost blasted us out couple of over more of Symonds and Hayden and who knows. Agarkar is always a burden coz if nothing he will come into is own by bowling short and wider and following it wait way outside middle stop line of attack. He did not impress much in England. Either. Zaheer is being missed. A good team always has an exceptional bowling attack. It is about getting right combinations of fast bowlers who are willing to toil luckless and wait till they woo success over. I don’t exactly see em coming. There have to be at least two bowlers who can bowl tight and carry on the good work that the opening bowlers or control the damage that the opposing batsmen would have caused. I think our bowling has been exposed, Pakis almost won the last time, NZ took us to cleaners, Aussies left no stoned unturned and England also canned the India bowling only to loose out too much too soon.

Kara Bhajan, Harbhajan.

Well he is doing a very good controlling job. A better field setup and may be he attacking for couple of balls may not be anything Dhoni would look into. If Turbunator keep things in check, wickets may follow. it is the only way to knock the wind of the sails. He has to be little for miser one believes for him to be more effective.

Dream final

India vs. Pakistan can it get any bigger? It will be a fight of the big hearted, Pakistan hold the upper hand coz they have better bowlers. India would do well to score anything over 150 batting first and may be if they have a top order bowing out then there may be a chance, but Pakis start famous to win.