Silly M(a)id-on

These Pakistanis were lying obviously when they said they would like to meet India again in the finals.

Bas upar upar se bolte hain, dil se nahi chahte!

(RANT ALERT)

I have been in hiding for the last 24 hours. I had to…after the hiding India got. So, the last 24 hours were spent in Denial. That was Stage 1.

This is Stage 2.

You wanna know why you lost the game yesterday, India? You wanna know why?? Here’s how it happened-

- Going in with  3 seamers when the pitch is declared to be a graveyard for fast bowlers? Bad idea. Leaving out Mishra in the bargain? Even worse.

- Dhoni said in the after-match interview “I have never seen so many runs scored backward of point.” (Malik scored a LOT of runs in that area) Really Dhoni? So it didn’t occur to you to put a fielder there for that?

- Yusuf Pathan -> 56/1 and 5 runs. ‘nuf said. Try Nayar. How much worse can it be? You might get a pleasant surprise due to his novelty factor.

- Harbhajan Singh -> 71/1 and 13 runs.  Try Mishra. Seriously.

- Gambhir -> Did the groin inury affect your brain too, Gautam? Basics man, basics…

- Kohli/Raina -> Someone forgot to tell you I guess. You are playing in an ODI. That’s right. O-D-I. One Day International. Repeat after me….One…Day….International. There you go. Remember this for tommorow. Try and “construct” an innings. You cannot blast your way out of trouble here always.

-Dravid -> That was your chance to be the hero. The saviour. And you blew it! Repeat after me….One…Day….International. Geddit?

Losing to Pakistan in an ICC event…and now SA is out of the tournament…sheesh!!

Stage 3.

All is forgiven if you beat Australia tommorow. I’ll help you. I’ll stuff my fantasy team with Australians even if that means using up all my transfers.

Didn’t I say that I don’t think India will go far in this tournament in my last post? Well, I take it back. Now I want India to qualify for the finals. And Pakistan too. And I want India to win the Cup. So there.

I have a feeling that India is not going to go far in this Champions Trophy. *ducks for cover*

Don’t write me off an as infidel yet! Like any good Indian I still believe we will beat the crap out of Pakistan tomorrow. But in general, the team is not inspiring much confidence this time. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s wrong (It’s not you…it’s me). Important batsmen are injured. Bowlers are off-colour. Fielding has been meh for quite some time now. The Compaq Cup (touted as “preparation” for CT) didn’t exactly rock my world. And the lesser said about that warm up against NZL the better.

As an aside, I get very uncomfortable at the thought of India playing NZL in multinational tournaments. I think we don’t have a very good record against them in such matches, warmup or regular. Some Champions Trophy final(the 2nd edition?), T20 WC 2007 come to mind. Can anyone confirm this? Do we always/mostly lose to NZL in such tournaments?

Anyway, what I need to see is a confident win over Pakistan. Sachin, Rahul…show us what you are made of. Yusuf Pathan…please justify your place in the squad. The fast bowler brigade…get a grip! Remind us again why you all were being touted as one of the best in business and a balanced attack  not so long ago.

Go India Go!!

With all these discomforting talks going on about ODIs being past their prime, I have been asking myself what exactly is it about ODIs that I don’t want them to die out. Am I just refusing to give up something I have enjoyed so much for as long as I have been following cricket? Or do ODIs still have something to give to the game?

Shane Warne thinks we don’t need them anymore. Harsha Bhogle has a point when he says “If you remove the ODI from the mix, the gulf between T20 and Tests, from a batting point of view, becomes way too vast, and over time you end up with a situation where players are good enough to play either the one or the other.”

Peter Roebuck thinks There Is Life In The ODI Yet. While Dileep Premachandran calls for an overhaul.

There has been a lot of talk about ODIs needing “a context”. Lots of ideas are being thrown about. No more bilateral series, no phony 4-match triangular series, playing ODIs as a build up to Test matches on tours, splitting each innings into 2 etc. Leela made a point about ODIs series being an interesting watch these days only if there is some off-field drama associated with it, and I find myself agreeing with it. But then there wasn’t always some kind of drama associated with ODIs when I used to stay up late and see all those matches, was there? (or was I really fokat those days?)

I mean, all of India’s matches were seen simply because India was playing. All of Australia’s matches were seen because they were the numero uno team and I wanted to see if any of their opponents were giving them a run for their money. Pakistan’s matches were followed cheer the other team because earlier Pakistan losing used to be equal to India winning somehow. All of South Africa’s matches were seen because when they were not busy choking, they used to play good cricket. And for Shaun Pollock.

And now when I find myself trying to write a preview for the Compaq Cup, I don’t know what to say. I mean yeah, I’m happy that India is finally back in action. And I am super excited to see how Dravid will fare and all. But it’s not how it is supposed to be. This series (and the Eng-Aus one) seems so pointless that I am tempted to label it as another Fake ODI Series. As someone commented on someone’s blog (and I paraphrase here because I don’t remember where I read this)

It takes just 4 matches to decide a tri-series, but it takes 7 one-dayers to conclude that England suck at pyjama cricket.

Indeed.

..by Bangladesh that they ain’t gonna be walkovers. They put up a fight against Australia and gave Sri Lanka more than just a scare. Indian team will do well to pay heed.

I am not too bothered about the loss to NZ. What does bother me is the fitness of certain team members and match weariness. On the other hand, Ishant’s bowling was a relief. RP Singh gives me a lot of confidence because of the awesome IPL he had and Ojha looked good in parts too. If only our openers strike gold soon…sigh…

Anyways…tommorow’s match is important for reasons more than it being a warm up game. No two teams playing can capture the magic of an India-Pak match for me . Hope I am able to catch some live non-Cricinfo action.

Yousuf may cut ties with ICL.
Grrr..