Silly M(a)id-on

A new post is up with my POV on whether it is ok for Brit-Asians to support an Asian team or should they be required to support England.

And if this isn’t something that interests you, there is plenty of other stuff to debate on as listed by SP.

Go on and have your say

Perhaps deservingly.

India lost this match on all counts IMO…bowling, fielding and batting.

First up, bowling. A team at 100/3 at the end of 15 overs should not have been allowed to get to 153 in the first place. Let’s see who gave how many runs in the last 5 overs -

16th over -Ishant – 13 runs
17th over – Jadeja – 8 runs
18th over – Bhajji – 10 runs including 5 wides
19th over – Zak – 12 runs
20th over – Bhajji – 10 runs including 5 wides again!

I had a very bad feeling about those free runs given away as wides, as I am sure did a lot of other people. It helped England cross the psychological 150 run mark and ultimately proved decisive in the narrow margin of victory they got.

Fielding now. Was it just me or did England seem to score 1s and 2s with a lot of ease? Again, there seemed no urgency in India’s fielding. It looked like they were just going through the motions.

The batting. Oh, the batting. Perhaps there was a grand plan in sending Jadeja in at 4. That did not work out all that well. He was looking so lost out there. His mom should give him with lots of milk and almonds to build up his strength ‘coz his shots seemed to go nowhere. He undid all his good bowling effort with that innings. And got a lot of abuse from me in the process. I have never wanted an Indian wicket to fall so badly. By the time Yuvi, and then Pathan came to the crease, perhaps there was just too much to do.

One thing England need to be commended on is their bowling effort. They picked up on Indian batsmen’s weakness with the short ball and exploited it to their full advantage. They were the better team out there today and they won. It is indeed a shame that India did not work on this aspect after their last game.

One thing that kept coming back to me was how everyone seemed to agree that the reason why India won the cup in ’07 was because they were fearless. They were extremely confident in themselves and backed each other up to win from improbable situations. That quality seemed missing in this tournament.

Life as an Indian cricket fan is never easy. For me it is more difficult ‘coz my next favourite are the eternally choking South Africans. Sigh. It’s not looking so good for me….

Oh, this is depressing!

India have themselves to blame for this. Aweful batting effort. Just aweful! Dhoni’s gem(!) of an innings has already been called. But for some late gutsy hitting by YP, Yuvi and, well, Bhajji, the scorecard would have been a bigger eyesore.

One did get the feeling that 150 would be a competitive score. And when Simmons’ wicket fell, I still thought we had a great chance of winning. But Bravo and Chanderpaul took it away in style! Credit where it is due, I would have enjoyed their batting if they weren’t playing against India. The main problem areas for India remain bowling at death and fielding. If a couple of easy run out chances would not have been missed, WI could have been pushed a little bit more.

Anyhoo, it’s Mission England next. Perhaps they will just fall apart and save us some trouble? They have played their part in this competition by qualifying for the Super8′s. Don’t they need some extra practice for the Ashes or something?

P.S. Was Chanderpaul’s stance, when on strike, a little wierd or have I just not seen him bat for a while?

Looking at Viru and Gauti makes me realise how much we were missing out on in the past few years with no settled openers. Even with a rock solid middle order there was always a piece missing from the puzzle. That seems complete now. Oh, except for Dravid. As for him, he either needs to fire in the next match(with a convincing innings, not a scratchy, coma-inducing half century) or he needs to be fired!

Onto England. They definitely are a better Test team than an ODI one. They can take back a lot of positives from the performances of Strauss, Collingwood, Flintoff and Swann. They were ahead of India till the end of Day 3 but erred badly when they needed to set India a target. Their batting lost the plot. But Sehwag was the one who actually took the game away from them. 387 should have been good enough. But he had other plans! And he executed them in such a manner that his innings overshadowed every other performance of the match.

Thanks you guys, for winning this game in such incredible style.

I write this piece with mixed feelings. I am still not very sure if going ahead with the test series is a good idea. First of all the sheer amount of security provided to cover just the players and the stadium(5000 is the number I am told) is mind boggling. Would that have an effect on the players’ psyche? A lot has been said about the English players and their mental state in the aftermath of the terror attacks but surprisingly little has been written about the Indian players. After all the terror attack took place in their country, and in the case of Sachin Tendulkar, in his city. Like us, the Indian players too would be hurt, confused, angry, scared and cricket might not be high on their list. Also, would the extra security discourage people from coming out to watch the game, given that Ind vs Aus did not attract many people as it is. Or would they come out in huge numbers to show their solidarity(the new buzzword). I guess we will know tomorrow.

Secondly, the BCCI has done it again. It has picked out a venue where the weather could end up playing an important part. The track at Chennai is flat as it is. Losing a few hours to rain would not be ideal, to put it mildly.

On to the cricketing stuff now. India are clear favourites to win the series, weather permitting. The opening pair is looking solid. The middle order looks good. Yuvraj and Rahul have a point to prove and I bet they will come good. Anil will be missed very much but Bhajji, Mishra and Ojha will be quiet a handful for England. And the pace attack has never looked better. The English test team is definitely better than their ODI team, but they still have a lot to sort out before they lay claim to the series.

Ah, who knows! Maybe a couple of fantastic games is what is needed to lift the gloom of the past few days. Now that the game is on, let’s get on with it people!

After the triumph in BG Trophy, India now looks ahead at a new challenge. Expectations are very high from Dhoni’s men and no less than a thumping win would do. England’s recent outings have not brought much joy to them which, inspite of what KP says, would have had an effect on the team morale for sure. Compared to that, the Indian team is in a much happy place. They will most definitely miss SRT and Ishant but there are good players in the squad to take their places and hopefully they will step up.

I expect a couple of close contests, but India should be able to sail through easily with a 5-2 win at the very least. The only way England can win the series is if India mess it up either by being complacent or conversely by trying too hard and over-attacking.