ODI At Its Quickest:2nd Match
Fast Bowling returns to haunt Ponting
For the first in his career, Ricky Ponting was forced to retire hurt.First Ishant and now a budding express speedster Kemar Roach from West Indies...a place better known for tall legendary fast bowlers like Ambrose, Walsh, and many more against whom almost every batsman in this world feared to face them. Last two years while facing the fast bowlers have been horrid for the Punter. Coming from amidst all the hype just like Sharma, Roach was expected to do what he has done to Ponting in WACA...rip the batsman's body parts apart.
While Ishant during his long battle against Ricky fired the ball at a torrid pace and bounce mostly towards the chest and the ass, Roach nearly broke Punter's arm. But during both the encounters, Ponting was left hoping and sometimes in pain at the crease. One must appreciate though for the way he was determined to continue playing despite in pain. BRAVO the blunted Punter!
T20 at its very, very best: Ind V/s SL 2nd T20
What a match we have had, last time I thought the match displayed a wonderful game of T20 cricket, but today the game was much better. Fortunately, this time India won the match, and that too successfully chasing down such a high total. Just like the last match, this match also witnessed bad fielding, but this time from both the sides. Surprisingly, the good fielders seem to be dropping easy catches. The Indian bowlers failed to save themselves from the rude batting of the Srilankans, and I could not do anything except to praise the batsmen and criticize the bowlers. The Srilankans maintained a good, healthy run rate throughout their innings, and I would like to give the credit to the sloppy Indian fielding. Looks like the new fielding coach doesn't bring in good fielding spirits. Sangakara looked to continue from where he had left in the earlier game, and believe me whichever side you might support, he was a pleasure to watch. Birthday boy Yuvraj played a match winning innings along with the Srilankan bowlers and fielders, who did their best to lose the match. Whatever you may call this game, a batting paradise, fielding nightmare, or whatever, those who witnessed the match live in the stadium had their money worth. One would have surely seen the classic T20 action even in this game and plenty of excitement.
A Poem on Sachin
Who said
AnIdle Mind is A Devil's Workshop
A statement which I can prove false. I was sitting idle, so I decided to compose a poem on cricket, wasn't able to do so and wrote one on one of my favourite players- Sachin Tendulkar. Th e poem is not too good, but I believe it is fine as my literature and poetry isn't too good. You might find some useless things, but I had to write something. So please excuse me.
He is also a good wicket- taker.
He runs behind the ball to get his prey,
He seems to get famous day by day.
He is a person whose qualities can't be possessed by anyone,
Out of thousands, he is the only one.
Sachin, casts over everyone a magic spell,
Without him our lives would surely have been hell.
It is hard to believe how easily he sets records for himself,
His opponents are afraid of playing against him, which I've seen myself.
He runs hard and hard to get the 'catch',
The game doesn't get over unless he becomes the "man of the match".
New Delhi
New Blog, New Story
Hello friends, I've got a new blog, but this one is only for people who have interest in social and political issues. My new blog, The Inside Story has a lot to offer and most likely our partner Satya Mathur is going to join me. Unfortunately, Rishabh can't join us because he doesn't take interest in fields other than cricket. I will continue to write cricket articles on Crick-o. So if you do take interest in political and social issues, do visit my blog.
T20 at its very best: SL V/s ind 1st T20
As I close the television set in frustration, I can watch the Srilankans celebrating their victory, in the 1st T20 at Nagpur. Irrespective of the result, we surely had a wonderful game of cricket, infact I believe it was among the best T20 matches played by India, the best was surely the 2007 World T20 finals at Johannesburg. Those of you who have been lucky enough to watch the action live on television would have seen how the game managed to put on perfect T20 excitement.
All cricketers gave their 100 percents, the fielder hitting the stumps on more than one occasion, the bowler coming back to the stumps as quick as he can to collect the ball and the batsman diving to save his vital wicket. Though the wicket gave a bit of extra joy to the batsman, the game lost its excitement only in the last few overs.
Some standout performances included those of Kumar Sangakara, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Angelo Mathews, Kapugedara and this time for his bowling, Sanath Jayasuria.
Kumar Sangakara displayed if what class is he made of. His spectacular innings of 78 runs saw 2 sixes and some splendid strokes. His fifty coming of only 21 balls.
And the batting star for India was its latest wall- Gautam Gambhir, whose fifty came even faster-19 balls.His half century was studded with 11 boundaries and those too on consistent basis.
Mathews proved his value for the team once again, while the old man did it again, but this time for his bowling and he snatched the match of India's hands.
At the end of the day, Srilanaka were a better team, infact India was the worse team, dropping catches and losing quick wickets. The butter-fingered fielders dropped many catches and committed many misfields. At a time when Gambhir seemed to be unstoppable, he himself made a mistake and had to part away with his wicket. After his wicket, India completely made a mess of it. I was shocked to see the wickets fall at such a healthy rate. Bowling wasn't a big problem, it was just too good batting by the Srilankans.
I am eagerly waiting for the next T20 and hope India will bounce back in that match.
The brainchild of BCCI that has led to India's shaky No.1 position
Now, most of you must have got the idea from the title itself. Of course, it is the IPL and Mr.Lalit Modi who have struck again. And they along with the whole BCCI individual giants are encouraging a format, where India doesn't even rank in top 5. Come on BCCI...why do you always have to something atrocious and harmful for the team in your control? Bring in some more tests please :s ...before we, the fans of Indian Cricket break your luxurious, exquisite office made from the money-through-IPL into bits and pieces.
For MSD and Co. somehow provided the icing on the cake by first marking Indian Cricket's 100th test win, and then of course, taking India to numero uno. Now that playing against minnows like Bangladesh is going to give India not even one single point in the table, and with the NZ test series still not confirmed, I doubt if India might even slip to as low as 3 or 4 in the rankings. Possible enough? Isn't it? Here is where, MSD's golden luck will come into play. Don't forget how SL players were left licking their wounds due to the lacking of UDRS. Had it been there, at least the 3rd test could have resulted in a draw. And now in the present and the future, if by god's grace, the Aussies and the Saffas could fail to make amends of the opportunities coming at them, it is going to be Dhoni's luck again.
Still though, credit has to be given to the whole Indian team, not only the one in the present but right from the 90s when our legendary heroes were cementing their place in the side right to youngsters coming in the side and doing well of late. Needless to say, it has been a long journey, and the whole of Indian Cricket deserves to cherish these precious moments. Who knows..kal India No.1 ho ya na ho?
Mohammads have done it for Pak at last!
Last time they did their best, yet they could not save their team from the clutches of defeat. This time, they'd overpowered their performance from their previous game along with another Mohammad, who is leading their team in a strange manner. In blogging circles, he's better known as MoYo.
In all, a fantastic game played by Pakistan. They pretty much outplayed NZ especially with MoAa(Aamer) and MoAs(Asif) blowing the Kiwi batsmen like 10 skittles(of course 1 remains unbeaten in the end).
Now there is a lot to ponder about for Dan and his boys before they take the field in Napier on Dec 11. How are they going to fight complacency as predicted by Vettori. Oh and how are they going to counter the Pakistani duo of MoAa and MoAs?
Meanwhile there is some more disappointing news for NZ as Ian O'Brien is retiring from international cricket only to make a living in UK. Sigh...the beard goes :(
Sehwag-Bowler's Enemy...Viewers Friend
India Sights Top Rank
Yes you've heard it right, India might have lost a chance to grab the first place in the ODI's but they don't want to lose their chance to the first place in the highest version- Tests. If Sehwag's blow was not enough, Sri Lanka lost their way in the afternoon session fourth day of the third test at Mumbai. A win here and the Indian side will deservedly go to the top. Though Sangakara is still standing firm at the crease and Sri Lanka trailing only by 60 odd runs, India seem to have complete control of the match. This Indian side is daring and energetic as compared to others. India do deserve the top spot because of their recent performances. This third test will surely make it to the record books, even if India lose, simply because of the various records set in this wonderful test. Test matches are taking place all over the world(India, Australia, New Zealand) and all of them telling us that Test is not dead for sure. Those who have been fortunate enough to see Sehwag's innings would have wondered thet why was Twenty-20 made when we can have much better in the tests. Well going back to our main focus- India V/s Sri Lanka where India have a wonderful chance to clinch the top spot in ICC Test Rankings, India can show the world what is their test team made of. :)
Till then lets hope for the best and India win the match and with that the first spot.
God, Save Sri Lanka from this Aggressive Assault!
And the one who assaulted them had this to say in the post-day chat:
I just wanted to hit the bad balls.
Lmao! So did the Sri Lankan bowlers bowled only bad deliveries throughout the day? What in your opinion is a good ball Mr.Sehwag? :brow
Once SL was bowled out for near about 400 runs, they must have felt some security within their minds. They might have not thought of Sehwag showing them nightmares in broad daylight.
He is very close to achieve a feat where noone has stepped up yet - 3 triple hundreds. And what more, a chance to break Lara's record individual score. I won't go much into the details of his whammy-jammy innings for it might jinx him again. Oh did I say Jammy? How could I forget him ? For the first time India's run rate didn't go below 5 per over even when he came and batted for at least 130 balls. Is he trying to prove that he can play the ODIs?
One must applaud Vijay's effort as well. He made sure that Gambhir can have a memorable wedding party of his sister.
Yet again, like the last game, this match depends totally on how SL will bat tomorrow(they should, if Viru is there till at least the morning session.)
For now, let's just hail the blaster(yet not the master)!
