The Pakis have done it again! Battered, buthchered and bruised after the tormenting time during the home series against Srilanka their confidence was all time low. There was no motivation and things were shaping up so bad that young cricketers were felleing threatned that they might not aftger all be able to make thier home series debut as ICC came down sharply on PCB.

If the blasts were bad, things were getting worse on the pitch. Pakistan lost the one day series against Australia (3-2) in Dubai. The only bright spot though during the entire tour was a convincing victory in the only t20 match againt the aussie (Bt these days everyone beats the Aussies in T20, so i am not sure how much confidence boaster was that ?) Nevertheless, they came to England with no hopes and were truly labelled as the Underdogs!(I stil dont know the origin of the term underdogs?? my guess could be these r a special species of dogs who dnt bark, dnt shout and r incapable of doing anything)

India on the other hand had a poor series and there performance to put it in one word would be "listless". Whether it was injuries, IPL or mental exaustion. India performed below par and yes the customs/Indian Govt did allow them back home but without the elusive Throphy..".Aane Dho shouted one man at the airport but inlike the pepsi campaign they came empty handed". But, lose or win, one thing is sure, when India plays the whole country stops..literally...so when you see mad rush at the roadside TV shops, at first you wonder that free TVs are being distributed to people below poverty line under so called Rajiv Gandhi Scheme, but then suddenly you ponder to realise..oh today the match is on!! You might be getting late for home ..bt then wht the F*** it`s just an over..lets have a peak! And that`s how the crowd builds on...!!!

Can anybody guess who would be most disappointed to see Indian`s knocked out of the cup?? Hmmh nopes..not the players, not BCCCI at all, not the zillions of fans, come on no not the wives and family of the players(they shld be happy on the contrary).....They are the few any only (thanks to the exorbitant license fee. Delhi it is 28 lakhs and so in AP) the BAR OWNERS. There is a direct proportionality between booze consumption (beer here, bias is ok) and cricket esp when India is playing. The bar owners r alwayz prasing lalit modi for IPL (56 mathches in a row phew!) and their smile even got bigger with the advent of T20 world cup in England. Besides cricket the other best thing was that these matches were played in evenings (unlike australia or newzealand) the best time for the bars. India`s lost meant the good days are over, byt as they say the show must go on..here comes the west indies series starting 26th june and then the champions throphy in South Africa..I see the effervescent smile coming back on these bar owners. But for now they have to abide by the empty seats and low sales.

Coming back to pakistan, if we examine why pakistan are in the finals (that to twice in a row) is that they have no pressure of expectations. Casestudy INDIA in 2007 - Nobody in their wildest dreams would have even contemplated that India would witn the 2007 World cup. With a new team and inexperienced players( Sachin, Dravid, Kumble, Ganguly all were voluntarily axed .. a new oxymoron..) India suprised everyone with sintilating performance from players like Sehwag, Ghambir, Dhoni, Harbhajan and the sixes man..Yuvi (Infact he even leads, this year( so far) with max no of sixes in 2009 WC). On the other hand younsters like RP Singh, Rohit Sharma, Irafan, Yusuf pathan (debue in final) perfomed very well under the guidance of Dhoni..infact they had no pressure and no expectations. And as a reuslt they pulled off a great victory, albiet in the last over...(How can anybody forget the ball on which Misbah played a silly shot (wht was he thinking..was he dilshan.!!) and made 1 billion Indians jump, hug, cry, shout, scream, run, dance, drink, throw up, have sex (aftr the match) and sleep with a effervescent smile on their faces (which was last seen 24 years ago when Kapil`s men shocked the world by beating the Windies..I was three then..hmmh i think i too smiled..)

It wont be wrong to say the pakis are the Indis of 2007. The have no expectations, they have a mix of youth and experience and they have Shahid Afridi. I dont know where Afridi fits as per his experience quotient is concerned. He still looks so young, no body can believe he made is debue some 12 years ago and he sill has 10 years left in him. But when it comes to displaying is so kld experience in crunch matches, he leaves everyone speechlees. Remember the final in 2007 and the first ball dismisal againt SL in the recent WC. But then he is a match winner , as we all saw against South Africa, plus he has somehow improved his bowling incredibily ..you should see the loop in his googlies and leg ones. So I can say that Afridi is still a mystery to me and will always remain ( he could even win the man of series twice in a row..now that is so weird!)

The pakis have dhoni duplicate as captian cool..ie Younis Khan. He too like Dhoni does not believes in flowing with the tide and comes up with decisions which are least expected. Rem the decision to give allam the 18 over against SA inwhich he went for 18 runs. Wuff..!

Pakis have loads of youngsters who are capable of unleashing their unknow powers, with the opponent oblivious of what to expect from them. Players like Shahziab Hasan, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Aamer,Saeed Allam all are names unheard of and have few of them are raw handpicked players who have less than 10 first class matches to flaunt about. Imagine they have 4-5 david warners in their team. Wow! Quite Dynamo power! Pakis are renowned to nurture young players but the problem is they dont sustain them..i have lost count of how many players have made debut for pakistan at the age of 15,16,17,18 and then have suddenly disappeared (hasan raza, imran nazir to name few). I doubt if anybody can tell me how many different opening combinations they must have had during the last 2 years to so..?

Coming to the final ..its tough to predict who will win ..bt it proves one thing..the dominance of Asia countires in the world cricket is as solid as the rock of gibraltor. India Vs Pak last year, Pak vs SL this time. 92 WC..Pak won..96 WC SL won, 99 WC..Pak in fina..2003 WC..India in Final..2007 WC..SL in final..With the Aussie performance matching the India Stock Market...soo "Volatile" , the day is not too far away that asians team will dominate one day and test cricket too..,

Tomorrow we will have a new World Champ. If i had to bet ( i have oflate won few bets but then sometimes poeple dnt keep their words) i would bet on the unreliable,underdogs, inconsistent, inexpereinced but yet capable of SUPRISING anybody on their day..!PAKIS!(Bt that should not be taken a reason that i would want them to win)

For india the only bright spot was that they held their record ntact of never loosing to pakistan in the world cup by beating them this time too..albeit in a warm up match..!!

Cheers

Nanchahal`s.....

no one expected them to be there , they have emerged from the dark, like the Spiderman

Boxing Day Test Match - what an occassion

Year 2004..Melbourne..The memory of the day is still as fresh as the morning daffodils. After gulping my christmas cake and singing my not soo sonorous christmas carrols i slept early in anticipation of what everyone expected to be a walk over series for Austrlia. Indian was touring Australia and according to all pandits would do well if they came back losing 2-0 which would be better than the white wash the last time they toured under the captaincy of the master baster saching tendulkar.

I specifically remember Ravi Shastri who had the record (which eventually dravid broke) of scoring a double century against Australia in Australia in Sdyney. Ironically after scoring his double century he became the first victim of the King of spin..Shane Warne. People at that time remarked that shane warne wont last much , he is ordinary..but he sooo proved all wrong, similarly Ravi was the opinion that Indians are going to the butchered by the dominant Aussie and predicted the score of 2-0 in favour of the Kangarooos...but later as we all would come to know..he was sooo wrong..

Well my alarm clock ticked exactly at 5.30 and i was awake and eager to see the Indian`s perform and repeat the hereics of the Brisbane and Adelaide , where dada had come to rescue with an superb 144 and Dravid had given an opportunity for the first time for India to lead the 4 match series 1-0

Well i some how managed to get myself a cup of tea(ie had asked my dad to make me one..he is too as fanatic as i am) and in the warmth of my quilt anxiously awaited the toss. Well India had won and had elected to bat first.

I still dnt know why boxing day test matches world over are soo interesting. Might be because of the crowds or because of fun filled atmosphere all around. Well if the concept was to work in india..we would be having more than one boxing day test match..going by the number of festivals we have...anywaz whatever the occassion the atmosphere was indeed spectacular and i was totally engrossed in the match ..cheering for the men in blue..albiet they had donned their whites..

6 hrs later..the day belonged to just one man....the prince of najafgarg..Verender Sehwag..he spanked, buchered and hit the aussie bowlers to every corner of MCG. So attacking was his style of batting that he amassed a total of 195 runs in just over two sessions..which if i recollect has just been achived once or twice. Infact he had almost scored his century by the time it was lunch.

He cut, drive, pulled and played immaculatley and was a shining star in what turned out to be a match which India eventually lost ..(dnt knw how). The best part about the game of test cricket is that...it is not only imporant that how many runs do you score but also at what pace you scored. It was because sehwag scored his runs at such a pace that when the Indian team although amased a reasonable score but gave the aussie ample time to take a small lead and then to bowl them out cheaply in the second innings to take a lead.

The biggest irony was that sehwag got out to a long hop , a full toss which he hit straight into the hands of the filder at long off. It was a huge disappointment not only for himself but for the millions of fans back home who were praying for him to go on and on and on..and i am pretty sure that if he would have stayed their still the end of the day things would have been different.

At the post match session...i still remember that Harsha Boghle asked Veru that why did he play the ball in the air...when he was nearing his double ton..he tersely replied that ...if he gets full toss he would alwayz try to hit it out of the ground whether he is on 1,195,299...that shows the aggression of the man..


Four years later...here we r...once again..India takes on Australia on a boxing day test match...This time around under the leadership of Anil Kumble(every time india has toured australia with a new captian). It would arguably the last time the veterans would be touring down under..(sachin, dravid,ganguly, laxman and kumble) and would be giving their best.

Unfortunately although virender sehwag is in the 16 ,but want be playing tomorrow..hence history is not going to repeat..but then he have the T20 heroes ..yuvraj and Dhoni...so the aussie you better watch out...

I wish team India all the best...Chak de India...

I have set my alarm..have you...

cheers!