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Monday, September 27, 2010
Champions League - CSK bring the trophy to home country
SuperKings captain MS Dhoni finished a troika of T20 titles - World Cup, IPL(3) and Champions League now - underlining his skills as a captain. He took a relatively new team with no hopes to victory in the first ICC T20 World Cup whereas this year, he has taken a team that was the favorites in both IPL as well as the Champions League.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Champions League - CSK lose in the Super Over
Chennai SuperKings lost to the Victorian team in the Super Over. This in a match that oscillated like a fast pendulum on both sides. Both teams were making mistakes every ball, it looked like. Raina had done well to bring back the IPL team after being down in dumps.
The selection of Ashwin as the bowler of SuperOver from CSK was probably the last mistake made and that gave clear advantage to the Oz team. David Hussey was desperate to finish his work this time around - his massive sixes tilted the match clearly.
Earlier, the Chennai team had not capitalized on the good start given by the top 3 batsmen. The total seemed to be 10-15 runs less than what looked at the center-stage.
The selection of Ashwin as the bowler of SuperOver from CSK was probably the last mistake made and that gave clear advantage to the Oz team. David Hussey was desperate to finish his work this time around - his massive sixes tilted the match clearly.
Earlier, the Chennai team had not capitalized on the good start given by the top 3 batsmen. The total seemed to be 10-15 runs less than what looked at the center-stage.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Champions League - Mumbai lose second match too
Mumbai Indians lost their second match of the CLT20 as well. Even though their batsmen posted a challenging total, the fielders dropped catches and the bowlers could not restrict South Australia from running away with the match. Now, only a miracle can take MI to the semi-finals.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Champions League - South Australia start strong
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeSouth Australia have risen to the occasion by posting their first win in the tournament thanks to some solid bowling by Shaun Tait
Champions League - RCB and CSK show their strengths
CSK started their tournament with a convincing win, setup by Badrinath, Srikkanth and the bowlers. They look a good strong all-round team that is capable of meeting any team. Even in this match, the batsmen overcame a weak start to post a total that was equal to the average score on this ground. The opposition team's inexperience against high-class bowling was exposed very quickly. Only complaint was that MS Dhoni did not come up the order in place of Aniruddha but flu was supposed to be the reason (as per Fleming). There will be tougher matches to come but CSK has the firepower to go all the way.
Similarly, RCB started yesterday with a crushing win against the Carribean Unit led by Ramnaresh Sarwan. Kumble's team was too powerful while bowling with the attack of Steyn, Kallis and the spinners. Similarly, while batting, there was too much power at the start for any Guyanese bowler to make a impact. The only differences between RCB and CSK is the larger tail of RCB. There is not much batting to come after Cameron White - Akhil and Praveen Kumar are the batsmen penciled there - a little too dicey for their comfort. Manish Pandey's inclusion will be definitely on the cards for the next match.
Similarly, RCB started yesterday with a crushing win against the Carribean Unit led by Ramnaresh Sarwan. Kumble's team was too powerful while bowling with the attack of Steyn, Kallis and the spinners. Similarly, while batting, there was too much power at the start for any Guyanese bowler to make a impact. The only differences between RCB and CSK is the larger tail of RCB. There is not much batting to come after Cameron White - Akhil and Praveen Kumar are the batsmen penciled there - a little too dicey for their comfort. Manish Pandey's inclusion will be definitely on the cards for the next match.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Champions League - Wayamba lose first match
Wayamba started their Champions League T20 campaign with a loss.
IPL4 - who will be retained
The IPL Governing Council met recently and announced that only 4 players from the existing squad can be retained for IPL4. Who will these players be? The senior players like Ganguly, Dravid, Kumble might not make it back. Shane Warne, without Lalit Modi, will be a big doubt. Similarly, Adam Gilchrist, Hayden and other senior players are unlikely to continue having money being poured by the franchisees.
Crystal-gazing into it, this is my list.
What do you think?
Crystal-gazing into it, this is my list.
| Player-1 | Player-2 | Player-3 | Player-4 | |
| Chennai | MS Dhoni | Albie Morkel | Muralitharan | Suresh Raina |
| Bangalore | Virat Kohli | Jacques Kallis | Ross Taylor | Robin Uthappa |
| Mumbai | Sachin Tendulkar | Harbhajan Singh | Kieron Pollard | Zaheer Khan |
| Delhi | Virender Sehwag | Gautam Gambhir | T Dilshan | David Warner |
| Kolkata | Shane Bond | Chris Gayle | Brendon McCullum | Angelo Matthews |
| Hyderabad | Andrew Symonds | Rohit Sharma | Ryan Harris | Pragyan Ojha |
| Rajasthan | Johan Botha | Yusuf Pathan | Morne Morkel | Shaun Tait |
| Punjab | Mahela Jayawardane | Kumar Sangakkara | Yuvraj Singh | Brett Lee |
| Pune | ||||
| Kochi |
What do you think?
Champions League - Mumbai lose first match
Mumbai started their campaign in the Champions League 2010 with a loss against the Lions, who were much more comfortable with the conditions and played like a team. The chase was on, especially with the openers playing their shots freely. Once wickets fell, the Indians fell behind. First match out of their way, the Indians would do well to get back with their top game for the rest of the matches.
Sachin was brilliant with the bat - especially when he was giving the left-arm spinner a master-class by scoring runs all around the ground. He was determined to win but his team-mates left him down
Sachin was brilliant with the bat - especially when he was giving the left-arm spinner a master-class by scoring runs all around the ground. He was determined to win but his team-mates left him down
Friday, September 03, 2010
Capital Politics - will Sehwag rise again?
Team-Man SehwagRead the great article by Prem Panicker on the match-fixing and his discussion with a cricketer-friend. In this article, Prem has mentioned about the fiasco that happened last year between the Delhi players and the Board but there is more to it. Aakash Chopra, the erstwhile Indian opener, has moved on to Rajasthan cricket team this year and in fact, played for them in the recent Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai.
As was the case last year, Aakash (on twitter) seems to be once again upset – Some things don't change...sadly!!! – with the situation.
The BCCI could have stepped in and restored order to the situation but has, as is their wont, remained silent. Again, to quote Aakash - Well...they r the parent body and can do everything...only if they want to!!!
The incident has not gained much publicity nation-wide this year.
Is it because Sehwag and Gambhir have not taken up the swords to cross with Mr. Jaitley? It might be partially the reason but very soon, knowing the person that Sehwag is, the war will be out in the open.
Aakash, meanwhile, is not so confident - Trust me...nothing will change even then!!!
Will the team-man Sehwag rise again?
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
3 formats - India's player pool
After my previous post of the Top-30 players for the Indian team (World Cup), I received an email from hemnath janakiraman on his teams for all the 3 versions - tests, ODIs and T20. I have represented the same below in a tabular fashion.
Hemnath also commented on his selection - have copied it below:
Test matches - This team, as everyone knows, is a great one. But, if players get injured, the correct persons are not being selected for their place. True but where are the alternates? Badri is definitely one option to consider, looking at his good start in test matches.
According to him, Y Pathan is a great player but not getting enough time in ground to show his talents. One must not forget his 200+ in domestic test match. Agreed, but again, his technique is in question. Only after he sorts out his weakness against the short ball, he can make a comeback into any format, forget test cricket.
Rahul Dravid is a good player but now his performance in test matches is not so good as before. Last 10 test matches, he has scored only one hundred. Now his batting technique is not good. Against South Africa, India lost one test match in the series when Dravid's runs were low (that hurt the team). Same against Srilanka. I would prefer Dravid to play the next two series before making any decision on him. He is too classy a player to be tampered with.
ODI matches - When Yusuf Pathan comes to play at 5 or 6, he is under pressure when the team has lost 6 wickets and less number of balls remaining. Hence, he must be come at One down. If M Dhoni did get opportunity coming at No.3, he wouldnt have scored against Srilanka(183) and Pakistan(143). His talent would not have been noticed. As I said before, he should sort out his weakness first.
Robin Uttappa is a good striker and fast player. I don’t know why our selectors are not selecting him for ODI side. He is the only one option as an alternate player for V Sehwag. One cannot forget his knock against Pakistan in 1st match of T20 2007 World Cup, when other players did not perform well. He also performed well in IPL 2010. He was injured till now. That is the only reason he was not selected. I am sure if he performs well in the CLT20, he will be selected for the next series.
India team must give a chance to Sourabh Tiwary in the playing 11. Our team gave enough time and matches to R Sharma, Jadeja and Virat Kohli. If Tiwary had chance to play in Micromax Mobile series the results would have changed. Giving Tiwary a chance will really help India in upcoming World cup. He is a player like Yuvraj Singh. Tiwary is definitely a good prospect - he could have been blooded on the Zimbabwe tour. Anyway, there will be a lot more options to play him.
T20 matches - For T20 also Y Pathan must come at One down. Robin Uthappa can play at any position in T20.
What are the thoughts from the others? Do you agree? Please leave your comments.
| Players | Test Team | ODI team | T20 team |
| Virender Sehwag | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gautam Gambhir | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yusuf Pathan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sachin Tendulkar | Yes | Yes | |
| VVS Laxman | Yes | ||
| Suresh Raina | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MS Dhoni | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Harbhajan Singh | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Munaf Patel | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zaheer Khan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sreesanth | Yes | ||
| Dinesh Karthik | Yes | Yes | |
| Ishant Sharma | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Viraat Kohli | Yes | ||
| Amit Mishra | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| M Vijay | Yes | ||
| Yuvraj Singh | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pragyan Ojha | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ashish Nehra | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| RP Singh | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Praveen Kumar | Yes | Yes | |
| Saurabh Tiwary | Yes | Yes | |
| Irfan Pathan | Yes | Yes | |
| Robin Uthappa | Yes | Yes | |
| Rohit Sharma | Yes |
Hemnath also commented on his selection - have copied it below:
Test matches - This team, as everyone knows, is a great one. But, if players get injured, the correct persons are not being selected for their place. True but where are the alternates? Badri is definitely one option to consider, looking at his good start in test matches.
According to him, Y Pathan is a great player but not getting enough time in ground to show his talents. One must not forget his 200+ in domestic test match. Agreed, but again, his technique is in question. Only after he sorts out his weakness against the short ball, he can make a comeback into any format, forget test cricket.
Rahul Dravid is a good player but now his performance in test matches is not so good as before. Last 10 test matches, he has scored only one hundred. Now his batting technique is not good. Against South Africa, India lost one test match in the series when Dravid's runs were low (that hurt the team). Same against Srilanka. I would prefer Dravid to play the next two series before making any decision on him. He is too classy a player to be tampered with.
ODI matches - When Yusuf Pathan comes to play at 5 or 6, he is under pressure when the team has lost 6 wickets and less number of balls remaining. Hence, he must be come at One down. If M Dhoni did get opportunity coming at No.3, he wouldnt have scored against Srilanka(183) and Pakistan(143). His talent would not have been noticed. As I said before, he should sort out his weakness first.
Robin Uttappa is a good striker and fast player. I don’t know why our selectors are not selecting him for ODI side. He is the only one option as an alternate player for V Sehwag. One cannot forget his knock against Pakistan in 1st match of T20 2007 World Cup, when other players did not perform well. He also performed well in IPL 2010. He was injured till now. That is the only reason he was not selected. I am sure if he performs well in the CLT20, he will be selected for the next series.
India team must give a chance to Sourabh Tiwary in the playing 11. Our team gave enough time and matches to R Sharma, Jadeja and Virat Kohli. If Tiwary had chance to play in Micromax Mobile series the results would have changed. Giving Tiwary a chance will really help India in upcoming World cup. He is a player like Yuvraj Singh. Tiwary is definitely a good prospect - he could have been blooded on the Zimbabwe tour. Anyway, there will be a lot more options to play him.
T20 matches - For T20 also Y Pathan must come at One down. Robin Uthappa can play at any position in T20.
What are the thoughts from the others? Do you agree? Please leave your comments.
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