Cricket: Mumbai lose way to Hyderabad.

1. Some basic rules of cricket should aply to T20 as well, key factors being, opening partnership, performance of top order batsmen and bowlers, fielding, supreme quality of cricket.
2. The matches in this IPL has four session divide by 2 unStrategic time outs and an innings change.
3. It was the match of the slingers, Edwards takes two. Malinga, takes three.
4. Deccan Chargers Hyderabad are the team to beat.
5. I am not convinced about batting line of most teams, Nayar has to bat in top four.
6. Dhaval Kulkarni didn’t bat much didn’t bowl well, why was he played?
7. Is Bhajji watching the speeds of other bowlers especially finger spinners?
8. Will the law of averages catch up with Gilchrist? He batted brilliantly.
9. Dwayne Bravo is magnificient, so is slinga Malinga, some breath taking stuff.
10. Mumbai India onus pretty much on Tendulkar.
11. Bhajji should have done better with the ball, but he did make amends with the bat.
12. Those who said T20 is for young shouldn’t watch IPL-2.
13. Some of the field placements were amusing, no mid wicket for Gibbs and no third man for Gilchrist were a few of them.
14. The first couple of overs after unStrategic time out key to most matches.
15. Win toss, bat first and defend, is that the key to IPL-2.
16. Pragyan Ojha is looking ominous, Ojha vs Ganguly is what I am looking forward too Slinga Malinga and Yusuf Pathan at the death would be joy to watch.
17. It was raining sixes, I think boundaries should be there, atleast it doesn’t have any bearing on the match.
18. Gibbs and Gilchrist made a huge hole by commanding awe.
19. There are several dilemma facing captains but no one seems to go traditional, conserve wickets and look to explode around last five overs.
20. Mumbai Indians will find hard to cement place in semis on current form.

Blog: When it is the summer time

Second edit (hopefully) soon.

Cricket: Riders feel the Charge

As I said Cricket and T20 are like two subjects too be prepared from the text book, but the maxims of the two games remains the same. I think even the punters know this fact. I didn’t see the curtailed match as I opted for the siesta instead. But yeah Sehwag did fire, he has had one of the most interesting last 18 months and his opening partner too seem to have a run full time. I think Delhi and Chennai have the most potent bowling attack hence favourites to win. Others are good but remain untest.

I saw the Knight Riders vs Decaan Chargers match. So here are 20 point blog from the match Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers.

1. Fidel Edwards 6 in four overs, brilliant, gearing up to see Edwards vs Malinga.
2. All hype of Gayle, McCullum and Ganguly was settled in first 20 minutes of the game, all three in the hut and KKR reeling soon.
3. The variety of reasons may have taken IPL away from India but lots many things in terms of must-do-basics-of-cricket have between bought closer.
4. Did I see turn on SAf pitches? Ojha and Karthik would be still rubbing there eyes in some disbelief.
5. Scott Styris was saved from the blushes by two brilliant catches by Gibbs and Sharma.
6. Gibbs the swash-buckler he is tuned it on big time, scored a meaty 53 not out, made sure the driver advantage is bought all the way to deliver point.
7. The onus is on Rohit Sharma tough, he need to prove both fitness and form and temperament and technique, there is no doubt over the quality of talent.
8. RP rips apart Kolkatta Knight Riders with four wickets.
9. Ganguly missing Eden gardens and tailor made pitches there.
10. There is a case of going back to the basics and have specialist openers for this IPL-2.
11. Agarkar, the question his can he bowl without embarrassing his captain?
12. Laxmi Ratan Shukla, well, he smacked a couple but was deceived by stupid and turning orthodox left arm spin.
13. Laxman should read “For Dummies - How to run between the wickets?”
14. But he need no master class in batting, the six off Ishant was very very special.
15. Deccan Chargers are really in some different colour altogether.
16. It is matter of time before Dada comes good atleast once, though he needs some soul searching to do, something he looked to be doing when facing Fidel.
17. I think almost all team needs to fine tune their batting order, almost all have screwed up, but it is just one match.
18. I think Harmeet Singh bowled well and impressed, look sgood but would do good to add pace.
19. Where was Mushraffe Mortaza for Kolkatta Knight Riders?
20. I think all of us viewers should enjoy what is happening rather than reminiscence on what has happened last year, this IPL is on, with a difference.

Cricket: IPL T20.

T-20 Mania is On.

Cricket is different from T-20. Cricket is cricket; T-20 is T-20. It is something like studying two different subjects for examinations to be prepared from the same text book. I had done the previous a few years ago.
So it is 20 point blog, not quiet a “twitter”.

1. Mumbai Indians draw first blood, score in excess of 160.
2. I saw a reluctant Tendulkar, score a fifty and Jayasuriya started but faded.
3. Dropped chances almost even the match, but Chennai flattered to deceive.
4. Dumminy walk out of limelight, better luck next time.
5. Nayyar, challenege from him is to emulate and better Yuvraj, Dhoni, Yusuf Pathan.
6. Nayyar would be proud to smack 3 sixes in an over on Flintoff.
7. Tendulkar shepherd the flock, but team lost too many wickets.
8. IPL = Inadvertent Promotion League, give us a break from Ads Mr. Modi.
9. Cheerleaders, :P
10. Parthiv Patel come on kid, do something.
11. Lasith Slinger Malinga fastest underarm bowler?
12. Zaheer as cool as you like, he can bowl with blindfold and walking towards the bastmen with his back facing the bowler. 
13. Bravo … what panache of the man
14. Dhoni shows a sneak peek on how to construct a T20 innings.
15. Bhajji, almost got his man, and then got Freddie Flintstome Flintoff.
16. Hayden the big oak looked threatening.
17. The Big Oak, caught brilliantly by Zak off eternal young, old guard Jayasuriya.
18. Oram almost won them the watch by tryng to get more than maximum.
19. Lasith Malinga and Nayyar to take Mumbai Indians forward.
20. Team with a flexible potent and explosive middle order is the key.

That was for the first edit, second edit after the second Match.

Second Edit:

1. Always bet on the underdog.
2. The bookmakers would definetly give a thumbs up to T20.
3. Rahul Darvid is in a class of his one, so is Kumble.
4. Mascrenhas, screams two in two, RCB have their backs to the Wall.
5. Pitersen, remains half as good as pie.
6. Dravid smacked a six, Kumble take 5 for 5, RCB defend a meagre 130 odd.
7. Warne shall remain Sheikh of tweak, man has control over the ball.
8. Virat Kohli, seems, acts, behaves like a brat, he is oversmart for himself.
9. Praveen Kumar, perhaps got under Smiths skin, Smith edged Praveen to Dravid.
10. Jesse the big barrel rolled one on to Tyron’s stumps.
11. Dravid want to be Warne bunny, but he did catch him.
12. Munaf Patel looks like one from India’s most wanted.
13. For once Ms Shetty want beaming/flashing her teeth.
14. Those who said T20 if for young would have seen today’s match with lots of interest.
15. Warne, Kumble have retired Dravid is in Twilight but managed to set tone of thigns to come.
16. Yusuf Pathan should think with his brains and then use his brawns instead of experimenting on the opposite tread.
17. You cannot keep Jesse Ryder out of the game.
18. The number three five and six in batting order are crucial for T20.Was it Pietersen for Banglore and Warne for Rajasthan, Royal Rajasthan lost by a very big Margrin.
    
19. T20 teams got to have a Talisman cricketer to pull the rabbit out of the hat.
20. Will the huge deficit for Royals prove to be there undoing in the even of run rate?

Cricket: Day light saves test

Two days, two drop catches, two reasons, two wickets, mades sure India weren’t two nil up in the series. The weather, unfanciful declaration can be deemed as possible reasons for the draw and Indians notching just the series 1-0 which could have been so easily 2-0. The fact remains that Kiwis, just faced 94 overs or so when they could have made to play more than 105 overs. 10 more overs, you could have betted for Indian bowling to take last two Kiwi wickets.

Yes the weather does did us in, but the most annoying reason was DST. I mean if clocks were shifted an hour back, why wasn’t the match timings shifted an hour back. How insane was that. I mean India in tropic light fades really quickly. I confess that I haven’t been too Kiwi land but I assume that light is good enough to start play at 10 A.M. local time. The play should have started early, considering light will fade in the evening. The second reason was Kiwis played 20 overs or so less on the fourth day. These were the two reason which caved in India’s march. Rain just placed the juggernaut on the wrong side of slippery slope.

It was a good victory though. Kiwis like many cricketing countries all of a sudden experiencing formation of a new core of players. Aussies have certainly go through this phenomenon, English tend to go through this as well. SAfs experienced it following the exit in 2003 world cup. Sri Lanka too is looking through to get a settled side as well. But they have some exciting prospect especially for the shorter version of the game namely ODI and T20 with talks of Mr. Bond likely to make a come back in a near distant future, thing will start to get really good. Kiwis have a good batting line up, Taylor, Ponting a class batsmen, perhaps a little more stupid. I am not equating him to Ponting, I just have a feeling that he seems to play like Ponting, off course Ponting is in his own league when it comes to piling runs on a green top. Jesse Ryder, is power personified. Guptill looks good and impressed. A settled opening partnership would do good for Kiwis. The there are the all rounders, McCullum, I am sure he is one of the finest finisher playing the game today along with Albie Morkel, Yuraj, Dhoni, Flintoff, Hussey. I think he should be down the order in ODIs as well. Vetorri is arguably the best slow bowler in limited overs cricket, both ODI and T20. The fact that he has had much success against the Indians especially in T20 just underlines the presumption of mine.

The wall is still rock solid but isn’t expanding much.

Dravid, played damn well. I consider Dravid scoring runs, is the single most important criterion of India wining matches abroad. The first test which we won was perhaps the only one, in which he didn’t contribute by the way of century. He has won us matches all over. But perhaps to mentally adjust his game to the emergence of Viru and Gambhir as stable openers in all form of the game, especially in Test. I mean all Dravid had done until couple of seasons back was to follow openers, virtually to the crease. Now consistently coming out to bat with a solid opening partnership would certainly be a case to rejoice, but I wonder if that hasn’t affected his game. His quality of stroke play has no question mark. He is one of the few with more than10K runs in both form of the game. No mean achievement that.
I would love to see him back in first slip and get back to making delightful centuries. He has contributed not by the way of runs alone. He has to his name most number of catches as well. He is in his twilight, and would perhaps want to leave the game on top of his game.
Gambhir and Zaheer two reasons of this series win.

Batsmen tend to be valued more. It is some thing of a downside of this game. Although Zaheer bowled his heart out. The bowler will win you test matches and Test series. Bhajji was always to be tough to handle for Kiwis, but interesting to note hear, that it was guile and spin rather then turn and bounce for Bhajji that got him the wickets. On other hand Zak tend to bowl well within himself, and seems to have this amazing control of letting the ball do the talk. Ishant meanwhile was found napping, I expected him to steam roll Kiwis in the fourth inning with is pace and bounce, but Ishant continued to remain under bowled and didn’t respond in kind in terms of wickets.

All and all, the greedy Indian cricket fan wanted Indian team to win 2-0 but we will have to settle now for 1-0. Next on the menu is IPL, T20 world cup. I have no idea about Champions trophy or India’s next Test assignment.

Also I am looking forward to dance of elephants, the general elections I meant. The people who are fed up of people switching sides must wait till mid way, when the real politics will come to fore.

Cricket: Victory on the doors.

Will we or will we not? Will India make it 2-0 or is there another twist in the tail. I mean imagine India asking to Kiwis to make 600 or so and the start the last session of the last day with some 140-150 runs more with five wickets in hand. There is no logic behind this; just something came to my mind. I was wondering if this is to happen, would you blame the Indians for the scenario or else, would you praise the Kiwis for the fight they put up. I think the later would be more just. The point is weird things have happened, we were facing the barrel in the last test but somehow, Gambhir played a serious innings and put to rest some serious concerns. More on that in coming following posts.

Seriously, it is Gambhir.

What has Gambhir learnt from Sehwag? Getting to century with a boundary only different thing being, Sehwag smacks a six, Gambhir creams it for a boundary. I think roles have just changed in this series, Sehwag would strings big meaty hundreds and Gambhir would just provide the start. Gambhir now looks very consistent, with more than 300 runs in each of the last four series, he has been consistent. However, you won’t bet against Sehwag in coming back in form with a dynamite performance. I wonder if he would have broken Mohd Yusuf’s record of most runs in a calendar year. I rate third and fourth innings highly centuries highly. He has done both in last two test matches. Meanwhile Sehwag and Gambhir play for the same company, state, zone, franchise, country in all form of the game. This has insured that test opening especially away from home, isn’t a lucky draw, done after the toss. These two guys are doing a good job. I know Kiwi bowling isn’t the most threatening, I think wickets in South Africa and England should pose more threat to them and test him thoroughly. But since Sehwag goes out to bat with him, he can breathe easy while Sehwag breathes fire the opposition bowlers for cover to extra cover.

Writing is pretty much on the Wall.

Dravid, the lone factor who would design the winning fortunes of Test away from home. He has done well in the series, although hasn’t score centuries. Why I consider him the lone factor, coz he shields Tendulkar which enable Tendulkar to play his stroke without worrying about wickets tumbling like pack of cards. Although why Dravid gets stuck is something I haven’t ever understood. His batting fortunes have dictated how India would fair, so not finding a meaningful contribution by Dravid in away matches is a little improbable. I personally can remember such incidence. He was by the way snapped by McCullum striding down leg side, before he actually played the stroke. I wonder if it is ok, to more around before the batsmen have played the stroke. Poor him though, he isn’t struggling with form but with bad luck. I firmly believe that he should be in slips, a great milestone awaits his, that of most number of catches in test match. Mark Waugh would be ready to try voodoo on Dravid and ensuring that he doesn’t get what he richly deserves. I would love to see, the openers edging one to Dravid if and when India declare and Kiwis come to bat.

India high on MSD.

If someone doesn’t understand why leadership is required or what it can do, one must look at Indian team with Dhoni and without Dhoni. Some may say he is lucky some say he is shrewd. I think of him as the Gambler. He comes across as someone with a big heart and his ability to plan and execute something unique. He made Ponting look stupid in Nagpur test. India struggle without him being at the helm of affairs. I love his pan-faced comments. I love see him hit these huge success.

Review of the series at the end of the series. Am I not happy blogging cricket ?… :D