Australia & South Africa Exchange Gifts At Melbourne

Well if one can give a detailed look at the first one day match between Australia and South Africa, it would be just an exchange of gifts between each other at Melbourne. The match can just be called as the opposite of a tug of war, where at both ends, immense efforts are made to end up as the winner. Whereas here, both the teams do equal mistakes, and finally at the end of the game, as per the rule, there has to be one winner, which in this case turns out to be South Africa. Neither was Australia weak and South Africa strong and not even otherwise for that matter.

Both Australia and South Africa were equally benefited by the mistakes that were performed by their opponents. Starting with Australia, they had entered into the competition with an inexperienced squad, with only the skipper Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke being exceptions. For, they were the only two players who had played well over 100 one day matches in the Australian squad. With such a squad, this Australian team could manage a decent score of 271 at the end of the game. OK..Mike Hussey could be well exempted from this lot, given his temperament with the bat. The rest of them were just there to fill the vacancies.

Imagine how? Not because the Australian team inspite of young players in the squad were hard working or something. This was solely possible because on an average, each Australian was given a life by the South African bowlers that the Australian batsmen made much use of. First of this comes the way Ricky Ponting and David Hussey's run outs were missed by debutant Vaughn van Jaarsveld. Another mis match is the one where the same Vaughn van Jaarsveld dropped two chances off one delivery, wherein he dropped a catch of Ricky Ponting and then misses out on a run out the same delivery.

Other chances for the Australians include Marsh's run out. Then in the South African side, it was nice to see the fall of wickets in their innings, when the score board that at one time read 213/3 at the end of 41st over was found to read 219/6 at the end of 23rd over. A match that South Africa should have won even more convincingly had been won with much hiccups. The South Africans are themselves to blame for this debacle whatsoever. Finally, neither could South Africa make hay out of an inexperienced Australian squad nor could Australia prove to be problems of any sort to the Proteas after a series of missed run outs and drop catches.

A Positive Move By The Australian Selectors

Finally, the frontier falls. A news broke out that Australian opener Matthew Hayden has been dropped from the one day squad that will be facing South Africa on 11th of January for a T20 game to begin with. A decision that the Australian selectors' panel should have taken some six months ago has been taken now. Good that the selectors have put their foot forward regarding the regaining the lost glory of Australian cricket by dropping a player who has been out of form since a year or so. This is what each and every selection panel would be found doing, in case a team's performance is not satisfactory. And Australia is no different. Instead, for a decade or so, the world has been doing what the ACB does.

Even the Pakistan team, way back in 2003, had dropped 8 of its players after they failed to make it to the second stage of the same. And Pakistan bounced back, beating teams like Sri Lanka and New Zealand the same year. And team India, which now stands tall in all three forms of the game couldn't even make it to the super eights of the world cup in 2007. A strict action of their respective cricket boards saw one team lift the inaugural T20 world cup, while the other team ended as the runners up. So, such harsh actions by the cricket boards at times are welcome.

Else, each team would be a replica of the present West Indies or an England team. It is a fact that the selectors did a Ganguly on Matthew Hayden, but, as all of us aware of, team interests overcome personal ones. Forget it! And even now if the Australian selectors do not take chances, they will be responsible for Australia in becoming another West Indies. No doubt that the decision on Hayden was harsh, but, Hayden did deserve it. Not only Hayden, but, even Ricky Ponting should be stripped of his captaincy for a certain period of time. Making Clarke the skipper would be a good option. And so should be Brett Lee from the bowling department.

Probably. like Shaun Tait, even Matthew Hayden should have taken off from the squad, without giving the selectors a tough time. This would have even inspired a lot of youngsters to accept their weaknesses and move ahead, hoping with a better come back. Unfortunately, Hayden's thinking was otherwise. And reminding you guys, Australia is no short of any decent bench strength. There are likes of James Hopes, Shaun Marsh, Hussey brothers-David & Mike and Warner-who is considered to be a replacement for Hayden. Now, all eyes would be on hayden, when he makes a good comeback, for, the game of cricket cannot afford to miss someone like Matthew Hayden whatsoever.

30+ Players Bowl Out kolkata Knight Riders For a Mere 60+

If people's memories are short,here is once again a reminder for the team that was selected for the Common Wealth Bank series in which senior players of the likes of Sourav Ganguly,Rahul Dravid and V V S Laxman were left out owing to the false illusion of the fact that the team needs young legs (god knows why) and finally even stood by their selection when the team won the Common Wealth bank series 2008 in the first two of the three finals.Adding to that there was even the World Cup winning T20 side.And no credits to Sachin Tendulkar.

But,people,just take a look at yesterday's match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians.There was Sachin Tendulkar who took 4 catches to become the highest catch taker in a match,and then there was Shaun Pollock who took match winning figures of 3/12 and last but not th least Sanath Jayasuriya who had to sadly miss out on scoring the fastest 50 of the tournament.For he scored 48 of just 17 balls.But,some relief as he became the highest six hitter in the tournament by hitting 18 sixes to surpass David Hussey's tally of 17.

All of whom are aged 30+.Well on the other hand we even have players like Rahul Dravid,V V S Laxman,Ricky Ponting,Sunil Joshi etc who are found to prove these above written articles wrong.But,what about people like Robin Uttappa,Graeme Smith,A B Devilliars and few others who despite having young legs are yet to fire.Some firing young legs that I can show is Rohith Sharma & Goutam Gambhir.And there are even players like Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthick who can score a six only if the ball is extremely fast and hits the top edge.Congrats "Parthiv" on that(match against Delhi Daredevils in the first round).

Another Icon Player Comes out With a Wonder

Well until now it was only Virender Sehwag who was found to prove his icon status by having two match winning knocks against his mane,there was one more to join when Sourav Ganguly was found to do what he was supposed to so as to prove his icon status.For he was found belting the ball to not only score a 57 ball 91 but also lead his team to four victories from 8 games till date.

It all didn't happen overnight as words go out.The man had to wait patiently until he got his rhythm right which took as many as ten overs during which the scoreboard read 73/1.And a miracle was awaiting as he along with David Hussey put on 115 runs off the last 7 overs.And a rare feat happened when the Kolkata Knight Riders when they were found to cross the 200 run mark.

Even the Deccan Chargers-unlike the Royal Challengers Bangalore were found to put in some sort of resistance when they came close to chasing the mammoth total but ended 23 short when their innings stopped at 181/7 after the end of the 20th over.Courtesy a 42-ball 71 by Venugopal Rao,whose splendid efforts have so far resulted in only his team's loss.