When a "DREAM COMES TRUE"

A night to Remember- 2nd April...2011

The last time I pened down my thoughts about the ICC World Cup was on the eve of India Vs England at Chinaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. On day day, I had vouched that I would be writing regularly when India plays, but the kind tension each match created (Esp the tie), my zeal to write somehow broke down.(May be it was also superstition)

But now all tensions have evaporated, the cup has returened after 28 looooongg years and we are well deserved CHAMPS (yehhhh fists go in air). I have been following the game of cricket since 1992 (At least that`s what my memory states) and never did I witness the kind of emotions on a day which will go down in the books of History - 2nd April, 2011. The day INDIA got together, cried out of emotions, smiled out of sheer joy, shouted out of pride and sang,danced, and drank on streets at Midnight oblivious of travesties of life. I too was part of the crowd and celebrations just went on and on and on................and ON.

Exaclty 10 days before the Final (India was about to play their quaterfinal against Aussies) I had a dream and quite a strange one (All dreams are strange though, "smile"). I dreamt that ,"What will I get if India wins the Match against Australia, then the semi-final and finally then the final". Imagine I was dreaming and I did not have any answers, except that I will be a tad happy, but then whats next, life moves on and proberly IPL would take over.

For the next few days I was quite disturbed and kept on looking for a answer~ Never did I realise that on 2nd April, 2011, 11.30 PM all my doubts would be answered when a cherubic muscular and tenacious lad from small town Ranchi with a sobriquet Mahi and MSD would smash the cricket ball over long on and send the entire country into dizziness and madness never witnessed before (may be during independence, not sure though..any takers??).

My dream after all did come true and I was able to see the after affects too. (hey it rhymes too,"smile"). The victory scenes are now deeply etched and entrenched in my memory and I am proud to say that our generation would be able to tell their Children and Grandchildren that "They saw, They celebrated and They remembered" 2nd April 2011, like our grand pa use to remind us of Kapil`s heriocs at Lords 1983, the only similarity though being 2 April..ableit 1983...

What a game, what a team, what player (sachin) , what a captain (MSD) what a Nation.

Proud to be Indian...

Until next time....Cheers!!!

Nanchahal.....AK...

Sammy another Lee Germon in making- Preview SF Vs WI - Kotla

Leaving aside the first match between India and Bangladesh on 19th Feb, the 9th Edition of the ICC world cup literally started with the clash of big titans- South Africa and West Indies, today. To be honest even India and Bangladesh wasnt bad, considering Banglas inflicted the mysery on India in the last edition. Infact the match lived up to the expections too, thanks toViru and Tamin.

Now coming to SF and WI two factors had put a question mark on the match- Weather and the Kotla picth. Thankfully both of them did not play a mojor role in the final result. The pitch was flat and the rain stayed away for the major part. But factor 3rd cropped in- A lackadaisical performance by WI. Both Gayle and Pollard, one of the biggest hitters in ODIs failed without leaving any impression . Infact the match which was being built as a major clash turned out to be a damp squid and the Proteas coasted to a comfortable win.

During the match i noticed a very important remark by Mike Atherton ," what role does sammy plays as a captain in the team; He bats at no 9 and bowls dibly doblies". What is he doing in India in the first place?

I emphatise with Sammy who had the courage to take the role of captaincy when no one else raised their hands. The person who comes to mind who was in similar position was New Zealand captain in 96 world cup which incidently also too took place in India.

Lee Gormon was a name never heard before & guess what, he not only landed in the team but was announced to be the captain. The only reason i could fanthom for such a move by the NZ selectors was that he was a total suprise to the opposition (NZ are good in producing suprises..rem deepak patel , the spinner opening the innings and being successful at it too)

But personally I felt the suprise was not worth experimenting as LG not a great batsman neither a phenomenal keeper and never deserved to be the captain. It was no wonder that NZ feared badly in the World Cup, had an early exit and no one heard of LG later. (Infact he was never seen too; i cant even find him on google)

Sammy too could face the same problem and WI are in grave danger of finishing even below Bangladesh unless Pollard and Gayle produce match winning knocks and Bravos injury recovers. India will surley beat them and so would England. So if I was Sammy I would resign at the earliest as that would surely prolong his career. In return i guess Chanderpaul should take the captaincy as it would be easier to fire him or he would finally retire from Intl cricket (Gosh he has been playing for ages)

That`s my take on today`s match, I will be back soon for the biggest clash of this cup- India vs England at Bengaluru.

Till then...take care!

Amit..a cricket fanatic !!

PS: Anybody who needs tickets for Sunday......do call....GOD...for help:-)

Eden suprises us once again!

Toss alaways plays a kep role in India. The reason quite simple; No touring side would want to bat last against the strength of India- Spinners.

So when the South Africans won the toss (once again) Millions of India fans were a tag disappointed for two reasons. The first that India would once agian would bat last and our spinners would be ineffective on day 1 track & second being a Sunday everyone was looking forward to seeing India batsman thrash South African bowlers to all corners of Eden.

If the toss was disappointing, what was to follow was even worse. Excepct for Zaheers early dismisal (a delight for TV audiences, its so fun to see the wicket go cart walking) of this buddy Graham Smith, the entire morning session belonged to a debutant and Amla. For an optimistic India fan the early dismisal would have meant that India would be dominating the proceedings, esp when the wicket was of the oposition captain. The probabilities were in India`s favour- After all how may times would you see a debutant scoring runs and that Amla was bound to fail.

But the Indian fans were let down, as both Amla and Peterson flayed with the bowling attack which looked mediocre to say the least. By tea the frustation levels starting mounting. The India fans were fealing despondent, Sunday was no more a fun day.Some pondered off to watch MNIK and other`s just dabbled with other tv channels, oblivious what was in store for them.

If first two sessions belonged to South Africa then surely the last session went to India. Eden gardens erupted and India`s were back with a bang, by not just capturing one or two wickets but by anhiliating the South African batting. Harbhajan was once again on a hat-trick and his post wicket taking dramatics displaying joy and celebrations brought back the memories of 2001- India vs Australia.


Eden garden suprised us once again; when all hope was lost and depondency was creaping in, Indians fought backm truly displaying the quality of being the No 1 team in the world. Before tea one of my friend remarked "We need a miracle to come back into the match, I said to him miracle do happen, never did i knew it would happen so soon! w

well done India.

If`s and But`s- Nagpur Test

No 46- Another one in a loosing cause!





Cricket is indeed an amazing game. I had thought I would start a new blog in which my penchant for cricket would not be talked about for a change. But India`s recent performance against South Africa made me change my mind. I am back, doing what i do best- Talk about the game we all love.CRICKET

Now lets analysis and dissect the test match. Cricket is not a game of If`s and Buts as reiterated by Mr Navjot Sidhu zillions of times in his short stint as a commentary or I might say as a quotator (term discovered by me- As most of the time he was reciting quotes). But today lets us introspect and see how things could have been different.

India on the eve of the first test match were the favourites, not because they had world class players (which obviously they have and so do the South Africans) but because they were ranked No 1 in Test Cricket. But things started on a bad note when India not only lost VVS Laxman to injury but also his replacement Rohit Sharma just minutes before the start of the test match. It was touted to be a match between two of the best test playing teams (reiterated by their test ranking) but eventually it turned out to be damp squid (esp. for the ardent India fans).

The irony of playing for India is that, you might earn a spot in the team and even go to the extent of playing for the nation, but the timing of the match and the opponents are vey important . As proved for Mr Saha, who was picked up in place of Dinesh Kartik, who after numerous attempts could not cement his place in the team. But today he finds himself out of the team, pondering as to what went wrong.

Post the defeat all the fans are desperate to have Dravid, Laxi and to some extent Yuvraj back in the team. They even feel India lost due to their absence. It could even be possible that tomorrow`s headlines read as - Depleted India team capitulates in front of mighty springboks. Now coming to the "IF"- Had Murali vijay, Badrinath or Saha scored a match saving hundered the situation would have been quite different. The headlines would be been - India`s youth comes to rescue- Saves Nagpur test. In the days to come, news would have been making circles that India no more needs Dravid and Laxman. The new talent has to be given a chance, the youth should come forward, the oldies need to retire et al.

But nothing of that sort happened and Dravid (has just missed two test matches since his debut) and laxman would count them lucky. Dinesh Kartik would also be on cloud nine since his 2 tons in the Duleep Trophy final meant that he is back in the team in place of Mr Saha, who would be repenting of the fact that why did he got selected in the first place as Nagpur test did more harm than good to him.

In no ways during the entire test did it seemed that the world`s best two teams were playing. In fact the passion and zeal displayed by the World No 1 team in any sport, let alone cricket, was totally missing from the Indian squad. This was vindicated the way they gave in to the pace of styen and guile of Harris. I personally think that the rankings at times are very misleading and does not reflects the true picture of the current form of the team. India has been doing well, but against whom?? Minnows like Bangladesh, a team like Sri Lanka which has one of the most boring (if i can use that word) pace attacks.

India did bounce back last time when South Africa toured India, to level the series 1-1. To repeat the same feat, the India team would need to go back to the drawing board, forget about the rankings and just come out all cylinders blazing on a deck which supports the spinners (Mr Groundsmen- R u listening?)

Spinners are the only way India could stage a comeback as our pacers DO NOT (barring zaheer) have the speed to bother the South Africans. Unless this happens we would just be content on watching Sachin Tendulkar reach yet another milestones and watch him score yet another hundred in a loosing cause (happened 10 times till now)

Let’s hope for a better performance!

Shocking bowling performance lets India down!

All good things come to an end, and it finally did happen. After a long hiatus, India did finally manage to loose to Pakistan at a major international tournament. Pakistan started tremendously with Imran Nazir and Kamran Aklam, thrashing the bowlers to all the corners of Wanderers. At that time it looked that Pakistan had a huge advantage by winning the toss and that batting under light would be tough as the pitch would get low and slow. But, as things turned out, as the match progressed, the playing conditions did become good . For Dhoni loosing the toss , would have been a blessing in disguise, provided they bowled well, which unfortunatley they did not !

What let India down?- Three major factors! - After having Pakistan 70-3 in 15 odd overs, we just relented the pressure. I have never seen such a klutzy performance from India, after being in a strong position. May be the absence of Yuvi and Veru not only played dearly and affected our batting order. but had a huge influence on how Dhoni used his limited bowling attack. What mistake he did (albeit it is easy to say now) was that he thought of doing away with the 5th bowler`s quota of over`s at the earliest, which to some extent he was able to do (This technique works well in sub-continet, but in SA i think Bhajji should have be introduced and efforts should have been to take wickets). But, in the process he gave away Yosuf and Malik, easy singles and time to settle. A cardinal sin in Cricketing Parlance!

Second- Harbhajan was brought in too late and too add salt to injury he bowled shockingly. I hate the way he bowls too many bowls on the leg side which ends up going for 5 wides. After the batsmen got set, whatever India did, Pakistan came with up with something better. The ball was just kissing the boundaries to often. Shoulders were down! It was as if a t20 t20 match was on. No wonder Pakistan scored 165 runs in the last 20 overs. Wew! Indeed a challenging t20 score.

Third- India started well. In spite of absence of yuvi, veru and early fall of sachin, their was still a chance for India to pull of a a thriller, courtesy of flamboyance of Ghambir (which he gave away through a silly run out) and determination of dravid( he was left alone, too much for the wall) and a quick fire by Raina (star for future). But in the end, India fell way short and the sad part being was that they even could not complete its quota of 50 overs (a point which they would surely be ruing in next two matches). Pakistan was the better on the day, India did play well, but the poor bowling let them down. A score of 270-280 could have easily chaseble.

Time to regroup- Pakistan is almost certain to reach the semi-final courtesy their high run rate. So India needs to re-group and come out all guns blazing against Australia. They need to beat them and West Indies and that too handsomely, otherwise they would be home early, joining the country and their families in the festive season, minus any cricket!

All the best!

Yuvi`s Injuiry- India could have done without that!

If the omission of Virender Sehwag was a big blow to the zillions of Indian cricket fans (incld me) then the unexpected injury to Yuvraj Singh is even a bigger blow which has further escalated their pain and is huge disappointment for all the cricket fanatics. Viru and Yuvi, have, over the past one year, taken the game of cricket to a different level and brought back crowds, due to their dazzling style of batting. Both Viru and Yuvi have shown utter disdain towards the world best bowling attacks. Be it Australia, England, South Africa, Newzealand..they have sent their bowling attack to the cleaners!

The blow of Yuvi in particular (Since shewag was expected) is a sad news not only for the Indians but cricket enthusiasts world over. Who would not want to see a 12 ball 50 or six sixes in an over (expect if you are Chris broad; but i am sure even he would have been happy to see the last ball sail over midwicket since it meant his name would go down in record books). Yuvi would also be missed esp in South Africa, since the bouncy pitches suits his style of batting.

I am sure now that Yuvi is out, it would be tough for India to beat the in-form teams i.e. Australia after their 6-1 thrashing for England and Pakistan who have hit some form after victories in warm up games. But, I am a born optimistic (esp after India`s recent performance Chennai, Australia, T20) and have full faith in Dhoni`s Men.

But the absence of Veeru and Yuvi, would mean the pressure would once again fall on the strong shoulders of World Best Batsman (I hpe Aussies r listening) Sachin Tendulkar. Well there has been a huge debate over Sachin and Pointing, as to who is the best among them. I think for a person who has studied the game of cricket it should be a cake walk in deciding who is the best. Pointing no doubt has scored big hundreds and was a part and lead the invincible Aussie team. (Until warne, gili, Mcgrath, Hayden departed and they were dethroned of their No 1 crown both the one days and tests )

But even during that time Pointing was never under as much pressure as our Hero.ala Sachin da has been. I have forgotten on how many occasions the fate of the match depended on how sachin performed. Even after playing for 18 years, India`s dependence on Sachin has not dwindled , albeit it has reduced a bit due to players like yuvi, veru, dhoni et al. In fact i think you all would agree to say that Dravid might be the wall but sachin is the foundation of that wall, who time and again has been handling the relentless pressure and not even once has crumbled or budged . Sachin, indeed he is a pure genius and sheer delight to watch. I am afraid, the day he retires the game would not be be the same! So if you take all things in fairness there is no iota of doubt that who is the greatest batsman ever....

Well come Saturday, India once again would be stop to watch the rivalry rekindle between two teams who have given the world of cricket some glorious (& nt soo glorious) moments to cherish. Whether it is in India, Pakistan, Sharjah, Duabi, Singapore, Canada or South Africa, it is indeed a unsubstitutable feeling to watch them play. Due to the absence of Sehwag and Yuvi ( both have scored heavily against arch rivals Pakistan) the match would be well balanced. But if u ask any Indian, my money is on men in blue....

Let the game begin!

Cheers

अ गेनुइने फेन!

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