It's In TeH GaMe !!!

First of all, congrats to Team India for their 100^th great win against still a weak team in tests - Sri Lanka. Now you might think I am mad for calling a World No.2 team weak. Apologies to all SL fans out there. But hey, beating a side that did not even tour with the dangerous slinger and the Matara Marauder is still weak. Moreover, if you see, all the recent sucess that Sri Lanka has tasted has been against lower ranked test nations - New Zealand and Pakistan. To me this win doesn't mean much. There is still a long way to go. Let's hope India doesn't be for what it is best known to be - Complacent. They win 1-2 games, become complacent and this is it. The series is gone out of their hands. And one fine example is the thumping received against a depleted Australian lineup in the ODI series.

Sreesanth looked good, so did Ojha. Bhajji seems to have secured his place in the playing XI at least till the tour against Bangladesh. I pity Ishant and Mishra. Seems like they too had a dose of complacency. And now they are found warming up the bench and having some doses of painkillers.

Now the question comes...can this so-called potential World Champions guard against complacency and go on to win the whole series against the hurt lions still searching for a win in India?

Coming back to this game though, as I had hoped before, the pitch did start to deteriorate once Dilshan and Paranavitana came out on Day 2. And well...you all know the story there on. Ojha took a nervous catch on the first ball, Sreesanth probably bowled the best spell of his career so far(I hope there are more to come), Zak looked average though. Bhajji as said before, bowled in right areas.

Certainly, I have been gifted my birthday present this year by team India!

Back to the business, play on India.

Rate this Delivery

Finally after a long time we have experienced a solid opening partnership by Gauti-Viru. In ODIs one might blame Sachin for blocking the next Ganguly-Sachin like opening partners. But hey, even he is doing his job well.



Never mind, back to the present game. After already witnessing two great tons, I do hope as an Indian supporter to see Dravid and Tendulkar cementing their positions on-field and score a ton tomorrow. But who knows, the pitch might just get better for the bowlers later. In fact if you see, even in the last game played at Kanpur where both Gambhir and Sehwag featured in an opening partnership was against South Africa in 2004 where they took the toll to 218 runs.
That game resulted in a draw. Let's hope it doesn't happen this time around. I won't say the pitch will continue to be a batting paradise for whole 5 days like the one in Ahmedabad. I just think the Sri Lankans weren't up to the mark, especially Mendis. It could have been much better for them...really better had Mahela not dropped Sehwag when he wasn't even off the mark. Sehwag really did punish all the bowlers after that cautious little period early during the morning session.

India look good enough to take the team total to at least 600 runs if they don't collapse. Tomorrow's first hour could be an important one especially for Dravid if he wants to capitalize his innings and score about 150 runs. The Indians have a strong line-up to come. But on a day even the line-up loaded with the likes of Laxman, Yuvraj and Dhoni can falter. And as I said before, if the pitch starts cracking up...expect Murali and Mendis to take revenge. In fact only these two, all the bowlers could come very handy.

Some Shocking Decisions

I turned my Television on at around 8:30 AM waiting for toss only to here the changes made in the lineups of both the teams.

First up was India - Sreesanth comes in for Ishant, Ojha for Mishra. The former one in my opinion was totally atrocious. How can Dhoni and Co. loose confidence in him. Did Dhoni forgot how he used to show confidence in players like Yuvraj(during his early reign as captain) who were once going through bad form? Ishant has to be considered a bit unlucky. If you see, he did well in the first two games against Australia during the ODI series. Yet when he got a little expensive figures to show in the 3rd ODI, he was dropped for the rest of the series. And yet again, Dhoni expected him to bring in some wickets for the team on a dead flat batting track.

Mishra's exclusion was no less than atrocious too. Again, Dhoni seems to have lost confidence in a young talented spinner bringing in another young turner. I anyways won't say much about it...after all it is Ojha's birthday today!

Then came the Sri Lankan captain. At once I thought Sangakkara might have made a good decision to bring back Mendis for injured Damika Prasad. But later, when he was taken apart by all the Indian batsmen, Sanga might himself be ruing this decision. Well...he has at least shown some faith in Mendis.

By the tomorrow is my 15th birthday. And so as a birthday gift, I do hope to see the Indians end this match as well as the whole series on a winning note.

Rate this Delivery

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!