A surprise on the first day itself

Well hardly anyone would have expected the team that finished last in the previous years' edition of the Indian Premier League to beat the team that won the championship the same year. Things started the same way as expected for the Kolkata Knight Riders when they lost 2 wickets even before the scoreboard had something to read. It was fascinating to see the first two wickets falling when the score was zero and the next two wickets falling when the score was 31. And, what happened following that is well aware from the scoreboard itself which is needless to be said I suppose.

The Kolkata Knight Riders did exceptionally well to see their team go past 150 runs when at one stage even a 100 on the board would have made the players of the Kolkata Knight Riders feel satisfied for the fact that atleast they can bowl 10 overs to the Deccan Chargers who had the likes of Gilchrist and Symonds in their ranks. The run rate when the fourth wicket fell was just above 6 an over which eventually happened to be over 8.0 an over. All thanks to the two men out there namely- Owais Shah and Angelo Mathews who put up an unbeaten 131 run partnership.

Angelo Mathews was found to be a failure in the bilateral series between Sri Lanka and India which was played a couple of months back. But, this time he was the man who ensured a turnaround to his team which not only won the game but also Mathews was awarded the man of the match. It is nonetheless another case of underestimating the opposition from the Deccan Chargers who had anticipated a win against the Kolkata Knight Riders even before the match had begun. And, finally they had to pay the price for the same. A close look at the KKR squad doesn't reveal any strong batting names.

The only batsmen who can be thought of to have a huge fan following them were Sourav Ganguly and Brad Hodge, both of whom departed at early stages of their innings. Following them were Pujara who did what was expected off him when he went back runless. On the other hand, the Deccan Chargers had the likes of Gilchrist, Rohith Sharma, Symonds and Gibbs, all of whom were thought to be big hitters. Likewise, only Gilchrist & Symonds would have been enough for any opposition which didn't happen in the 1st match. So was the case with the KKR's bowling which had no decent names if not for Ishanth and Langeveldt and that too compared to the other bowlers of KKR.

And, the Deccan Chargers had Symonds, Vass and Ojha who have played international matches before but could not bail their team out yesterday. THis is the magic of T20 cricket and more so in the IPL.

A Reason For Pakistan To Smile

In the recently concluded one day series between Pakistan and Australia, if our memories are long, Australia won the series by a margin 3-2 Pakistan won the first one day match only to lose the second and third followed by a consolation win in the fifth one day when at one time in the match they gave a hint that the result would be 4-1 favoring Australia. Anyway, Pakistan finally ended up victorious after beating the Aussies by 7 wickets despite losing three quick wickets. And in the only T20 match that was a part of the series, Pakistan had almost everything theirs for, on one side they were champions of the game compared to Australia and on the other side, Australia were not playing T20 the way they play either ODI or test cricket.

As expected, Australia crumbled for a partly total of just 108 which is as good as a 3.0 per over run rate in an ODI match. It was fascinating to see Australia have just three players who could manage to score a double digit score. The top scorer in the Australian side was opener Shane Watson who scored 33 runs. This was good only in comparison with the rest of the batsmen and not as far as the game of T20 cricket is concerned. I wonder as to how come Australia could sink so low in T20 cricket that players like Andrew Symonds, Hopes and Hussey could not lead the Aussie batting despite having made names for big hitting in international arena.

On the other hand, Pakistan could win the match without the services of the big hitting Shahid Afridi and captain Younus Khan who opted out of the match and Misbah takes over the captaincy for yet another time. For a change, Shahid Afridi was found striking with the ball bowling his regular leg spin when he is known for his big hitting that can rather be called a slog instead. Shahid Afridi is always found hitting the ball blindly irrespective of the position at which he is batting and the position his team is in. Sometimes, the ball that gets hit covers the distance and during other times, just finds the fielder.

However, off late, Shahid Afridi is found to bowl his leg spin with a wide variety that often makes the batsmen think twice before selecting a shot. Perhaps! Shahid Afridi can now think about a role as a bowler in cricket for, his blind slogging of the ball often disappoints his team rather than be of some service to the same. Until now, Afridi's varying spin bowling was limited only to minnow like Kenya and Zimbabwe. Now, he has got even the decent opposition like Australia under control with his varying leg brakes. For the first time, I can see two bowlers belonging to the same team being given the man of the match award. Probably, this has happened for the first time I guess. I remember Gibbs (RSA) & Ponting (Aus) being awarded the man of the match in the historical match where RSA chased down 434 imposed by Australia.

A Super Cool Symonds

The second one day international between Australia and Pakistan at Dubai reminded me of the world cup encounter between the same two countries way back in 2003 where Andrew Symonds bought Australia from nowhere to end up victorious at the end of the day despite being at 94 for the loss of 5 crucial wickets at one stage, with the then Pakistan side equipped with Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. Australia finally ended their batting innings at 308/8 and winning the match by 82 runs. All this being possible because of Andrew Symonds who scored an unbeaten 143 off just 125 balls.

And this time in Dubai too, it was the same Andrew Symonds who with his all round contribution helped Australia win the second one day international against Pakistan. Otherwise also, the Australians were in a rather comfortable position first by restricting Pakistan to a modest total of just 207 and then by surpassing the total in 45 overs losing just 4 wickets in the process. Especially after the loss of Australia in the first one day match at the same venue a couple of days back and Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal threatening to take the game away from the Aussies, Symonds' feat is indeed worth the praise.

That is the reason why someone like Andrew Symonds is there in the Australian team despite a number of controversies that surround him off late. If one would ask me, I can tell you guys that Andrew Symonds is no better when compared to either Sreesanth or Shoaib Akthar when it comes to off the field controversies. And Andrew Symonds was also kept aside for the test tournament against India in India last year owing to some fishing controversy which was fishy as well. And Australia paid the heavy price which it had to, by losing the test series 2-0 st the hands of India.

Coming to the match, the second ODI was a face saving one for Australia who are on the receiving end of many fingers which are found pointing towards them after the end of the Warne -McGrath era. Adding to these were the retirement of fellow players like Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist and then injuries striking Brett Lee. Such victories are always welcome for any team who are facing such a drought in cricket when it comes to winning matches. May be that was the reason as to why all the six players who made it to the crease did their little bit that contribute to Australia's success after defeat.

Bangladesh Is No Australia!

Hmm..Australia banned Andrew Symonds from the tour of India and Bangladesh earlier,for opting to fish rather than attend the meeting with the board officials. Though the Australian team misses this lad,they have not got anything to repent with the decision taken by the committee members,for there are remaining eleven players in the squad ready to put in an extra effort in order to fill the void created by Andrew Symonds. The decision of leaving Symonds out of the Australian squad is equivalent to drawing a bucket of water from a sea.And Australia need not pay a heavy price for ommitting Symonds from the squad.With star batsmen like Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Ricky ponting,the Australian batting line up is quite safe I suppose.

On the other hand,Bangladesh Cricket Board bans players who join the rebel Indian Cricket League for 10 yrs.Joking!When the Bangladesh Cricket Board is not sure about the present scenario in the team,I wonder as to how it managed to take a decision for ten years altogether?The team which I wrote about previously is the strongest team in the world,but,the team which is now under consideration is placed at the bottom of the ICC points table.Isn't the Bangladesh Cricket Board unaware of this?Can Bangladesh afford to do such a blunder?Well..if the Bangladesh thinks it won the first game against New Zealand at Dhaka,it is mistaken!It was New Zealand who lost rather than Bangladesh winning.

When cricket is just rising in Bangladesh,giving the players some liberty would have been much more sensible rather than taking drastic steps and imposing harsh rules upon its national players. Is Bangladesh ready for a mass boycott of its players from the national squad,given the money that the ICL offers?If this happens,what about the status of cricket in Bangladesh and test cricket in particular?The number of question marks in this post is equal to those being faced by the cricket board of Bangladesh.I feel it is the players delight that they have been recognized by the ICL and offered big bucks.

Finally the Bangladesh Cricket authorities know their limits and then take such steps, steps,for,it is not Indioa who can boast of big money in its cricketing board,nor Australia who have a sea of talent in cricket.

Trains Are Always Late In India....

Well with all of us cricket fans and bloggers in particular having a bad day infact a bad minth to be precise,finally there is some cheer for all of us cricket bloggers as the first test between India and Australia of the Border-Gavaskar trophy has already started and day 1 has left us with a lot of issues to move our hands on the keyboard.The recent test match in the Irany trophy was all but boring.However,its not justice for there was a month and a half without any test,one day or a T20 game.So bad?A little bit of concern and thinking would have brought smiles on the faces of cricket fans that even the ICC Champions Trophy wouldn't have.

Another episode of the IPL would not have been a bad idea with all of the world's players on a halt.Had this been the case,the series would have been even more thrilling compared to the first edition,wherein,players like Symonds,Hayden, McCullum etc were forced to opt out owing to their national commitments.This time had it been,there would have not been any such problems as most of them were just putting on some weight. But,thanks to Lalith Modi and BCCI for lack of thinking.

This reminds me of the trains in India,which are late on most occasions.But,this train was so late that the journey had to be absolutely cancelled.Though the ICC Champions Trophy was cancelled on 24th August 2008,there was all possibilities to conduct another mega event.But...?Alas!Almost a month and a half was just wasted for nothing which would have been made a lot spectacular.Is the BCCI listning?

Same two Teams,Same Result,Same Man

Well the last time when the Deccan Chargers met the Royal Challengers,they were outplayed by the latter despite the then fastest hundred from the blades of Andrew Symonds.The match was outplayed by another man from Rajasthan Royals who notched up the fastest fifty of the tournament.And the same story repeated once again when the same two teams met each other at Jaipur.

This time there was no Andrew Symonds,but off course there was Yousuf Pathan who was once again found to trouble the Deccan Chargers' bowlers with his power shots.Off course the main culprit being the hopeless batting display by the Deccan Chargers-which also included Adam Gilchrist's 49 ball 61 for that he could not result in the momentum going.If it was at the top of the batting order that saw some stroke play from the blades of Adam Gilchrist,the next such show came towards the end when Venugopal Rao blasted a 11-ball 23.The team whose score was 74/1 at the end of 10 overs,were found to pile up just 66 runs in the next slot losing 7 wickets.

And this was in no way found to trouble the Rajasthan Royals.And how would it ever do-when a target of over 200 didn't fount to in the first encounter,how come a target that was some 60 runs short compared to the first?That too without the power of Andrew Symonds?With Smith and Pathan almost getting the job done,the next who came in (Kaif and Watson) had nothing much to do but to give a perfect finish to their team.

God knows as to when will there be a BOOM BOOM AFRIDI?

Vow Even The Royal Challengers Can Win!!!

After most of humiliating defeats in most part of the tournament,finally,the Royal Challengers could afford to snatch a victory.Though not fully deserving,atleast there was some relief for the crowd and the cheer leaders who had come over there to cheer the Royal Challengers.For a change,even the unlikey to fire batsmen of the caliber of V V S Laxman,Wassim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid were found to do some sort of contribution with the bat.However,even the Deccan Chargers are no way less when it comes to losing games.But,the difference being the big hitting names like Andrew Symonds,Adam Gilchrist,Rohith Sharma...unlike the Royal Challengers who are duped by the selection of Rahul Dravid.Jaques Kallis and Mark Boucher being the only positives when it comes to the batting involving power hitting.And on the other side with the likes of only Zaheer Khan to provide some sort of relief when given the ball in hand.

The only interesting ones that I can suggest is that between two weak teams and the other is that involving two strong teams.Unluckily,the match between Royal Challengers Banaglore and the Deccan Chargers falls into the first category.

A Rcord Overtaken In Just Two Days

Well the very first match of the Indian Premier League saw some blistering sixes from the blades of the New Zealand dasher Brendon McCullum,who score the fastest hundred of the tournament in just 53 balls,only three days later to be seen losing to Australian effortless hitter Andrew Symonds,but even this feat didn't seem to last long as well,as the feat was once again overtaken by his Australian team mate-Adam Gilchrist,who made the fastest hundred in just 42 balls,overtaking Andrew Symonds' 47 ball feat.

It was nice to see the stroke play of Andrew Symonds,for he was found plundering the ball all over,unlike Brendon McCullum-who just blasted a weak bowling line up in Royal Challengers,who were babies when it came to the T20 format of cricket.And taking Adam Gilchrist's knock,almost all of them were targeted towards the mid wicket.This could rather be referred to his day.At the end,it was a treat to watch as the Aussie was back to his firing ways.But,god knows as to how long this will go on?

Rajasthan Royals:Deserving Winners

If one could take a look into the Thursday's match between Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers,one comment that I could see was that "it was really disappointing to see the Deccan Chargers end as losers despite the fastest century by Andrew Symonds",also not to mention the maximum number of sixes hit by the same Andrew Symonds.Now,I wonder as to weather it was only Andrew Symonds who was supposed to do all the hitting work,while the rest of the Deccan Chargers' men just feeling charged rather than proving themselves to the name-Chargers?

With Andrew Symonds scoring at a rate of about 12 per over,the rest of the Chargers's team score was believe it or not just above 8 per over compared to the overall run rate of 10+.After Symonds' score of 117,the second best score of the Royals' team being 36 off 30 balls by Rohith Sharma.And with only 5 out of 7 batsmen playing,what better result does the Deccan Chargers' team deserve?

On the other hand,taking into account the performance of the Rajasthan Royals',first of all I would go in for all praise for Shane Warne,who is lesser known as batsmen,but could still see his team through by blasting 19 runs off the last over.This is what a responsible captain is supposed to do.And not only that..the team saw atleast 5 batsmen contributing to their side.The man who proved a point being off course Yousuf Pathan.Some positives that I could also witness is that for Shahid Afridi-who known for his batting poweress,but was found to dominate with the ball.

And one more thing that needs to be highlighted is that the match witnessed both the fastest hundred (by Andrew Symonds) and the fastest fifty by Yousuf Pathan(in 24 balls).

Sreeaanth:Only Agression and Lack of bowling Form

Even after so many episodes of bad blood between oppositions for India in the recent tour of Australia down under,it seems like there is no end to the sledging episode after the first two days of the ongoing test match between India and South Africa.On the first day,it was between Sreesanth and South African captain Greame Smith,followed by the same Sreesanth with A B DeVilliars on day 2.

Well all these is OK.But,is the same thing being done when his bowling is taken into consideration?This is probably the million dollar question of the moment.Even the selectors seem to be duped by this Kerala lad with all his onfield aggresion,making news for all other reasons other than his devastating bowling that is the most required by him,which is also the reason for his inclusion in the team.

As far as statistics go,taking into consideration the matches (Test,ODI & T20)played after the T20 triumph,is as follows:0/47 in 4 overs in the T20 game against Australia,9 wickets from 4 out of 7 games against Australia at home(fitness to be noticed) at an average of 27.11;missing the test series against Australia shows his lack of fitness;and in the series against his 3 wickets in the only unconsequential 4th ODI game,where he was once again forced to miss the first 4 ODIs as well as the test series;and in the lone T20 game against Australia down under,he was the pick of the Aussie batsmen who belted him for 25 runs off 3overs;and offlate in the recently concluded C B series,some decent record of 9 wickets from 7 games,not to forget him missing 5 games altogether,which includes Sanath Jayasuriya belting him in the 2nd one dayer as though it was a T20 game.

But,this dude is found to make news only for his onfield conflict with someone like Symonds,for his dancing in South Africa after hitting a six off Andre Nel.The lone highlightes about his bowling would be the 9 wicket match haul in the first test against South Africa,which India won only to lose the next two.Some unnoticed thing that came to my mind when watching Sreesanth was the beamer he bowled at Peiterson.

Well..rather than taking the other routes to win the selectors confidence in him,it would be better for him to show his aggresion with the ball,before the BCCI becomes aware about his real attitude.Beware Sreesanth->"A short cut cut shorts your career"

"Racism"

Well since the beginning of the year,most of the news that was being made in the recently concluded commonwealth bank series(probably even more than world cricket) is the "RACISM".With Harbhajan Singh calling Symonds the "M-Word",Hayden calling Harbhajan "an obnoxious weed",Hogg reffering Kumble & co as "B!@#$%^s"....

The most funny thing of them all being "the M-word" supposed to have been called by Harbhajan by Symonds.Some things have to be noticed by cricket fans over the word that has something to do with racism & the names of Englishmen.Some of which that I can highlight over here are:

1)The former Australian captain "Mark Taylor"->pronounced as "Mark Tailor"...so does he stitches clothes?or is he a scar?

2)Ian Bell->What about him?Does he have a habit of ringing at regular intervals?

3)Umpire "Billy Bowden"->Ask some hindi speaking person as to what does "Billy" stands for in hindi?

4)Zimbabwean "Flower" brothers->Do they show cast themselves in gardens?

5)West Indian fast bowler "Franklyn Rose"->Does he appear in six different colours?

For the sake,even the players from the sub continent are also not spared when it comes to funny names.We had players like "Contractor" and "Farook Engineer".Do they take part in constructing buildings?

With this page length being limited,some more examples that I can give is "Woods", "Dominic Cork","Craig White","Brian Lara","Ian Bishop","Malcom Speed","Nick knight","Guy Whittal",Umpire "David Shepherd"and much more...

Looks like none of the match referee so far had got a note on their names.Like the dress code being made compulsory for players,after strict laws being enforced for players making rasist comments,I think that even players with funny names will be banned from playing cricket in the near future.Ha Ha Ha....

Commonwealth Bank Series 2008-The Ugliest in History?

Last Tuesday saw the commonwealth Bank series coming to an end,with India clinching the trophy after winning the first two of the three finals.This was the end of the most ugliest series ever seen in international cricket.Even the games played between arch rivals for example Australia vs England,India vs Pakistan hadn't seen as much bad blood as seen in this series.

First of them being the bad umpiring decisions from fellow umpires-Mark Benson & Steve Bucknor,followed by some unnecessary appealing from the Australians-especially from Ricky Ponting for the catch of Sourav Ganguly.Next comes the uttering of the "M-word" from Harbhajan Singh to Andrew Symonds in the very same Sydney test.The episode posed a threat of India withdrawing from the tour,untill Harbhajan's punishment was reduced to a petty fine.

Finally there was some relief for the Indians after they won the Perth Test.Once again in the fourth test at Adelaide,the Indians showed that they are no less compared to the Aussies when it comes to make an issue,for they were found to settle with a draw by batting the entire fifth day and not allowing the Australian batsmen to take to the crease.

Then came the Commonwealth bank series which also feature Sri Lanka.Even the Sri Lankans were not spared.An incident of throwing eggs at Muttiah Muralitharan just showed that the Aussies are just untolerable!

Then comes the situation where Symonds appeals for a grounded catch of Chamara Silva in the third ODI.Then the Ishanth sharma showing Symonds the way to the pevilion.Shortly there was Matthew Hayden who called Harbhajan Singh "An Obnoxious weed" in a radio interview.

All these episodes could be forgiven,but for this ugly one.A man getting naked and entering into the ground in not one,but in both the final games between India and Australia-wherein the security men had to get a towel.

Even is this also a trick by the Australian fans to get the attention off from the onfield action?Hmm..it can never get worse than this I believe...With Australia looking anxious about their security concerns during their tour of Pakistan shortly,the entire world has seen the security given to sub continent teams-India & Sri lanka.

Putting the past behind us,lets all hope that these ugly incidents never occur in future cricket tournaments.Else,the cricket stadium can rather be called a kindergarten- where little children quarrel over petty issues.

Andrew Symonds:Shame On You

February 22nd 2004:The second ODI between Sri Lanka and Australia.

The match witnessed some heroics from the Sri Lankan cricket team.Andrew Symonds was given out leg before by umpire Billy Bowden off the bowling of Chaminda Vass to a delivery which Symonds had snikked.But,there was something from the Sri Lankan cricket team that deserved a pat on their back.Once the team was aware that Symonds had a slight inside edge on the ball,Sri Lankans showed their sportive spirit by calling Symonds back to the crease.

February 15th 2008:The 6th ODI between Sl and Aus

The same Symonds who was given life by the Sri Lankan team four years ago was found to forget the lessons he was supposed to have learnt from the Sri Lankan team.With Sri lanka in a dominating position,it seemed as though Symonds had found no other way of getting back to the game other fouling.A superb dive to grab a catch.But,the ball was found to have touched the ground before Symonds started appealing.

Full marks for Symonds for going by the lessons taught by his captain Ricky Ponting in the Sydney test against India on January 3rd 2008."Everything is fair in love and war"...So.."Is cricket equivalent to love or war?"

After much criticisms from all over the world by cricket lovers,Australian cricket team members should have learnt their lessons by not repeating the Sydney test episode once more.But,the way Symonds reacted the other day was just rediculous.These thick skinned Aussies are never bound to improve I beleive..

Well Aussies...i have a suggesion for you...after retiring you better cast your eyes on coaching teams with a difference by coaching them not only in techniques,but also on cheating and fouling.Once again "SHAME ON YOU GUYS"