It's In TeH GaMe !!!

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.

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My first post after a long time!

It couldn't have gone any worse for the Indian team. They really seem to be out of colors ever since the IPL. Oh well...in a way ever since I wrote my last post. They seem to be lacking the self-confidence and form that they carried with them coming into the year 2009.

The 3rd day was totally dominated by the Lankans thanks to some over-defensive tactics by MSD. This is one kind of a situation where Aussie captain, Ricky Ponting found himself when his team came to India for a four match test series last year. All strange tactics, flat fielding and bowling resulted in zero-pressure on the Lankan batsmen. But you can't really steal the credit from their batsmen as well. They seemed to have batted India out of this game totally. The current lead is around 165 runs. Expect the lead to increase to at least 250 runs, and then the SL bowlers would have enough time to test the so-called experience batting order of Indians.

What really annoyed me was the fact that the singles kept coming on quite easily. I wouldn't have set such a field even in shorter formats of the game. MSD seems to be lacking his out-of-the-box thinking. Or if you would like...his stars are not shining, therefore his gambles not paying off well. But why blame him alone? Some non-sensical and lousy bowling also resulted in Jayawardene duo getting away. Mishra just kept bowling from around the wicket, outside the leg to both the batsmen expecting the ball to turn miles(which of course even Warnie would have been able to do). Bhajji still seamed to be confused and a bit insecure. And part time bowling of Yuvi was at its worse. Either he bowled short, or bowled non-turning half volleys with 5-6 fielders outside the 30 yard circle. Ishant and Zaheer too looked decent enough.

Indian Batting in the 1st Innings -

The first half or so of the game sent shockwaves throughout the dressing room. Right after the 6th ODI against Australia played earlier this November, this was another top-order collapse. I remember Viru once said how fatherhood has made him more responsible even in his game. It seemed true for quite a while. Sehwag injured...he came back and with him came back the showdows of his gameplay during his early days when he used to get out trying to hit every ball out of the park. As one senior batsman, one does not expect this out of him. And the collapse continued to follow...Sigh. But again, the SL have stolen the credit for utilizing the early conditions well, especially Welegedara. Yuvraj,Dhoni and Dravid played extremely well to help India reach a total which looked completely out of India's reach.

What Can really Happen Now?

For India, it's near to nothing. They failed to attack Lankans the way a top team is expected to do. As an Indian supporter, I do hope to see India coming back well and at least saving their skin by drawing the game.

On the other hand, Sri Lanka have got an excellent chance to register their first win on Indian soil. Tomorrow's day is going to be very interesting and important one!



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Road to IPL Season II has had so many hurdles and finally this latest one of shifting it out from India has probably deflated one of the wheels of the IPL vehicle. Now should I still call it Indian Premier League,English Premier League or probably South African Premier League?

You know why ? Just look at the points following below to understand my frustration and disappointment like many other Indians -

1. Player Values

Kevin Pietersen - $1.55 million - England

Andrew Flintoff - $1.55 million - England

Mahendera S Dhoni - $1 million - India

Even the icon players like Sachin, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj are receiving just about Rs 4.50 crores which are around $800000-900000 which of course is no comparison
to that of the new Bengaluru Team captain ,Kevin Pietersen.

2.Captaincy

Thanks to the above mentioned point about K.P.'s new role that made me stretch this topic of captaincy further. Does our Indian players have no knowledge of how to lead a side whatsoever? Or are the foreigners more brainy when it comes to this job ? Doesn't seem to be true, isn't it? At least not after looking at the current healthy situation of the Indian Cricket team.If this is not enough then here's another good example that would reprimand this thought that Indians are not capable of leading a side - Sourav Ganguly. Both of them have had the midas touch to lead India to victory. Recently, Mallya and Co. replaced Rahul Dravid with K.P. as the captain and they also made a remark that once K.P. is gone back to England...oops, I mean for his national duty(since IPL is likely going to be held in England), Kallis would become the leader of the pack. And the recent speculation of removing Ganguly from his job as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders is nearly true. And it does seem that the former Australian, John Buchanan who is now the coach of Kolkata Knight Riders would replace Dada with the Australian captain who also used to lead under his realm, Ricky Ponting. Soon we might Mukesh Ambani replacing Tendulkar with someone else. Though again, you just can't forget that if a team does remarkably well and gets into a habit of winning, it makes the job easier for the captain whosoever he is.

3.Foreign Coaches
Do we have any other team other than Mumbai Indians without a foreign coach? Let alone the franchises in IPL, do we presently have any international team(exceptions : South Africa and Australia) that doesn't have a single foreigner in their support staff?

We have seen over a decade or so and in fact we still are seeing teams like Saffas and Australia making merry with their local coaches and staff. So why can't have our local coaches in IPL as well ?

Conclusion

90% about IPL is foreign now including the crowd and all the points mentioned above. It's just those franchise owners and BCCI that make the remaining proportion.
Now tell me, is there any Desi Tadka which makes Indian Premier League Indian?

Think about it and do share with us anything Desi about IPL.

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Yet again, India is showing their true domination and is near to tear all those records which suggests the smashing that previous Indian teams have received before in New Zealand. The bowling department has probably found a fitting bowling attack and especially the 3rd seamer in Munaf Patel. Tendulkar has probably blunted all those fingers pointing his retirement and form.

While on the other hand, the only bright rays of light for the Black Caps has been the all rounder, Jesse Ryder and Chris Martin's superb bowling. New Zealand nearly looks out of the game and they would now have to play the catch-up game in order to save the match.

Here's an extract from the day's play by cricinfo.com

Walk on
When Mahendra Singh Dhoni cut a wide delivery from Iain O'Brien, Ryder pulled off another athletic effort at gully, diving to his right this time, and claimed a low one-handed catch. Dhoni refused to walk, and was told by the crowd to "walk mate". Replays showed the ball might have touched the ground before reaching Ryder's hand. Dhoni was booed when the not-out decision was finally made. Three balls later, he went for a hook, gloved it, and walked right away. This time he was cheered.

This is hilarious. I do remember the Australian crowd doing the same to Indians during their tour late in 2007-08. In my opinion this is ridiculous, though of course, you do want to see your team win. But you can call it almost unfair. After all, Dhoni himself walks out so many times even when the umpires are doubtful whether it is out or not. He(or in fact any Indian batsman) has never ever refused to walk when they know they are out(a rare case if it is false).

Well anyway, here's another rare case -

Four for all
When Munaf Patel went down on his knee, and swept Daniel Vettori with one hand to the square-leg boundary to get off the mark, he became the ninth Indian batsman in the innings to start scoring with a boundary. Tendulkar and VVS Laxman started with one and two respectively.

Can anyone tell me if it has ever happened before?

The star of the day, Sachin has got another post in his name, this time from Naked Cricket - Sachin Tendulkar Exposed!

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Seems tough! Their main in-form bowler Ian Butler is on the bed and will be there for the whole series. Anyway, there's still one ray of light that has the power to spark and turn the game for the Kiwis - Daniel Vettori. And one more advantage for them is Tendulkar's injury. I guess that should be at least average to save the series. Other thing is that they have to work hard for victory. If they still can't, then all is lost for sure.

I wonder who would be in for Tendulkar ? Is it going to be Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Dinesh Karthik or maybe Ravindra Jadeja. My choice would be clearly Irfan Pathan as he would clearly add a bowling option as well as batting. This would create a balance as well. Also, it's time to get back Ishant back in side. And give some rest to Munaf.

I don't exactly know about the Black Caps when it comes to replacements and their squad as I am not a keen follower of them. Please suggest it yourself.

I would like to end this post with this quote by Rudyard Kipling from his poem 'If' which goes for both the teams :

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

Then and only then would you achieve your golden aim - The Game!

This last line was added by me myself though I know it won't do any justice to those real words of Kipling.

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Tendulkar, Smith, Kallis, Ian Butler, and the latest one to join was the West Indian Chris Gayle. Sigh....with the level of fitness increasing I do hope to see these guys back in action(Ian Butler is back I guess).

Get Well Soon guys !

By the way, is there anyone else I missed out ? Please remind me by posting in the comments section.

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On the back foot after twin Twenty20 losses to New Zealand, Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Monday said Sachin Tendulkar's return to the side has boosted the team's morale ahead of the one-day series.

"He is a great player. Not only from a batting or bowling point of view, if you see the amount of contribution he can make to the side from his experience is amazing. He changes the dressing room atmosphere completely," said Dhoni ahead of the day-night ODI series opener.

Dhoni said he cannot quantify Tendulkar's influence on the team and the opponents.[LINK]

Okay...agreed, Mr.Dhoni that he brings a lot of experience to this side. In fact it's very true,but, this set's a question on Tendulkar's retirement again. Though of course it's up to him to decide the time to set the curtains on his remarkable career! But give it a thought. Can't he be in the team as a mentor(or say a coach) rather than a plaayer. After all he isn't the previous Tendulkar of even 2003. He looks a bit loose nowadays.

I found him very shaky and he was living dangerously ever since when England came to India last year and series that followed. Clearly, I would say that it's time to retire from the shorter versions of the game. Although he is likely the most important member in the team during the test matches. India is going through a transaction period in test cricket - a format which is perhaps the toughest and requires a lot of patience(which of course, many young cricketers loose very early). So maybe one more year in the tests for Tendu.

But again...who are we to decide his retirement ?

Have your own thoughts about his retirement ? Feel free to share it in the comments section.

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Well..well. I was in 7th grade when I wrote this poem. The topic ? Again cricket ! Here it goes :

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