Silly M(a)id-on

The usually prolific blogger, JRod of cricketwithballs had “nothing to say”. Which is saying a lot, to Sachin’s credit.

Straight Points paid homage at BCC!, 3 Idiots style.

Paddlesweep didn’t like it when people said “No one deserved it more than Sachin”

There are loads of people claiming that if anyone deserved it, it was Sachin. I disagree. Not because he did not deserve it, just because saying such a thing oozes empathy towards the person in question. Sachin Tendulkar needs, nor wants any empathy, sympathy or any other relevant pathy.

GreatBong -

The old Sachin radiated heat. The new Sachin gives light.

But he still remains the sun.

Ayaz Memon @ Cricinfo Magazine -

If Tendulkar were to retire tomorrow, a long queue of the game’s greatest batsmen would await him near the dressing room: Hammond, Hobbs, Hutton, the three Ws, Richards, Gavaskar, Dravid, Sehwag, Ponting, Lara, Chappell, Miandad, et al. And at the head of this queue would be Bradman, first to shake his hand and say, “Gosh, you little bonzer, I would have loved to play an innings like that!”

Meanwhile, somewhere in London, I raised my glass in Sachin’s honour. And not knowing what else to add when so many have done such a wonderful job… in true BCC! style, I simply said “Thank You Sachin“.

(You may…nay…you must join the Facebook group here)

A repeat of what is on most people’s minds…but, could there be someone more deserving than Sachin to be the first across the finish line for this record??

I was at the Nehru Stadium on 31/03/2001 when Sachin became the first batsman to cross 10000 runs in ODIs. How I wish I was in Gwalior today.

Congratulations Sachin. Congrats Team India. Congrats India!!

There is work to be done yet. A match to be won to make this innings truly memorable. But this is going to be one record to cherish all life long

Let’s get The Preview bit out of the way first.

Sri Lanka arrive in India after a gap of four years with thoughts of opening their test account there. On the other hand, Indians probably have revenge on their mind, after Ajantha Mendis messed with the heads of their world class batsmen last year, and sent them to a 2-1 defeat. The other issue that keeps coming up of course is the number 1 spot on ICC rankings…which is a bit much because regardless of who wins this series, South Africa will surely pound England later in December and reclaim their #1 spot. But that’s ok. There is test cricket on the menu finally, and India is playing..after what seems like an overkill of T20s and ODIs, what more could I ask for?

A few things have changed since these 2 countries played each other last. Ganguly and Kumble no longer represent India at the International level. Vaas doesn’t play for Sri Lanka anymore. Bowling well and taking wickets has become incidental to Harbhajan Singh..his primary role is that of a batsman now. Sangakkara is showing a lot of “aggression” on the field these days, so unlike the “gentle, mild-mannered Sri Lankans”. And Mendis seems to have lost his mysterious aura, so much so that he doesn’t find himself in the team every now and then.

It should be an interesting series. As Sangakkara said, there are reputations to be made. The bits that interest me are all related to India (yeah, I’m pretty one-dimensional like that)

Will Dhoni show the courage to give Harbhajan the boot finally?

Will Yuvraj cement his place in the test side?

Will Tendulkar enter the 21st year of his career with a good series?

Will Sehwag and Gambhir shrug off their indifferent ODI form and shine?

Will Dravid do well?

Will India’s pacers find their bearings?

Will M&M be mauled? (Yes please!!)

We’ll know pretty soon.

Onto Match 1, Day 1 then..aka The Review.

From 32/4 to 385/6, Dhoni must be a relieved man. By the time I got up today, India’s score was around 120/4. Not the greatest of starts, but I was quite pleased to see Dravid’s half century then. Didn’t realise until much later just how big a hole India had dug for itself earlier in the day, courtesy them being generous to another debutant some newbie with like the longest name ever….honestly guys..you have got to stop doing that!!

(Update – Just got to know that W’s debut match was in 2007, against England..Thanks NC)

(And dear Mr. and Mrs. Welegedara. I know it is probably none of my business, but…Uda Walawwe Mahim Bandaralage Chanaka Asanga Welegedara…seriously??)

Dhoni and Yuvi must be pleased with their effort. They both needed that. I was surprised to learn that this was only Dhoni’s second Test century, and that too after a gap of almost 4 years. Hmmm..chalo, der aaye, durust aaye. (Better late than never)

With Bhajji’s ability to hold the bat (5 of his 7 50s have come since 2008), I suppose 450 should be gettable at the very least. That should be a decent enough 1st innings score. I don’t know how helpful the pitch will be for bowlers tomorrow and the day after so let’s see how the Indians fare on the field.

So then, are you ready for the Yahoooo yet??

Saving India the blushes today, and in some style, was THE MAN..with a very confident innings, a SR of more than 70 and hitting a 6 too! Could my Monday GET any better?

Days like these make me want to go back to school/college days when it was so much easier to just take a day off and sit glued in front of the telly on match days. I can probably see highlights after I get back from work, but it is not the same as watching it live. Sigh…I’ll soothe my soul with this stuff in the meantime…

SP @ Bored

Cricinfo

Trevor Chesterfield @ Cricketnext

Trying hard not to get carried away, but please RD, could we have some more?

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!!

The Wall Resurrected….
A Dream Comeback….
Rebuilding The Wall ….

No…I haven’t not written a post on the greatest news of the month yet b’coz I was busy thinking up titles…

For those interested, I have been waging a lonely battle against crashing servers, helpdesks that have been sneaked off offshore without anyone having a clue and other such things for the last 3 weeks. And then recuperating. (And well, I haven’t really been MIA either. You can find some great works ala Megha here and here.)

IMHO RD should not have been dropped from the ODI team in the first place, but that is perhaps a discussion for another day. I can see a role for Dravid in the team. He can provide the stability that is required when the team loses early wickets. Or he can hold one end while the others have a license to hit away as and when needed. Dhoni can then revert back to his earlier batting days, come in at 6/7 and hit away with abandon. And it’s not as if Dravid cannot hit a few boundaries himself . Plus you get a good slip fielder, a part time wicketkeeper and all the wealth of his experience on the field. Not a bad bargain, is it?

Those worried about how Rohit Sharma’s and possibly Suresh Raina’s career would be ruined by this decision, and how this move is not keeping in mind the WC….well, the WC is barely 2 years away. I believe that both Sachin and Rahul can play in the WC. I assume they will hang up their boots after that. SR and RS are in their early 20s right now. So age is definitely on their side. Abhi nahi to 2 saal ke baad team me aa jayenge yaar…tab tak T20 khelo na…kisne mana kiya

When Sehwag comes back, the batting order could look like this –

Sehwag

Tendulkar

Gambhir

Dravid

Yuvi

Dhoni

Yusuf/Irfan (yeah..i still live in hope!!)

4 bowlers

See? It’s not that bad, is it?

And for those of you suggesting that the selectors have given Dravid an opportunity to retire with grace, and he will do so after the Champions Trophy, well…don’t say that! That’s not gonna happen..

No…that’s not gonna happen…right?

Alert – This post might contain a LOT of cheesy lines, “duh” moments and stuff you might’ve heard and even written yourself already. Blame it on the break…

So, the Great Battle of the IPL is over. To be honest, I wasn’t too keen on following the whole thing. The kind of phase 1 BRC had did not help matters at all. Couple of weeks into the league and I had almost stopped the occasional score check, it was getting that boring. And then, this guy happened, there were a few awesome matches, teams’ fortunes started fluctuating with every match(except KKR’s i.e.), BRC revived under Kumble and what not. What is a girl to do! I had to follow the last few games

A few random facts and thoughts -
- Tendulkar is not a good captain.
- I saw the finals live on TV. You would think that having read enough about the atrocious commentary, the fugly trophy, all the Modi fawning etc. I would be prepared. But no sir! I died a little inside every time I saw the trophy or heard Pommie Mbangwa or heard a spectator/commentator singing praises of His Highness Modi. I had a funny vision (at least it made me laugh). People who have seen the movie Mr. India might be able to relate to this. I saw Lalit Modi on a throne, with a shiny black and gold uniform, his loyal soldiers and servants around him telling him just how great and awesome he is and how he will definitely rule the world pretty soon. And Modi is pink with barely controlled glee, muchlike Mogambo…”Lalit Khush Hua!!”. (Ya, I know it would be difficult to see the pink, but you know what I mean) Mercifully, I turned off the telly as soon as the match got over, and escaped the Closing Ceremony.
- Robin Uthappa has discovered new high levels of uselessness. Does that need explaining? FOAD Robin!! I never thought it would come to this with this guy.
- Rahul…oh dear Rahul…WTF?! How…I mean just how did you manage to drop that catch off Symonds?? And what about that godawful shot you got out to? What were you thinking? You remember that “not too many dot balls n taking singles” thing we talked about here? That works in T20 too…I swear….
- Some things never change. Hey Symonds, what’s with all the chattering on the field?
- Great turnaround for the Deccan Chargers! They did look like a completely different outfit under Adam Gilchrist. And, was AG on song or what..I could literally see the havoc he wrecked on Delhi in the Semi final even though I merely “read” it on Cricinfo.
- And finally, Anusha has dicovered the IPL algorithm. It is called LIFO. So worry not KKR fans. IPL 3 is yours
- 430 words on IPL. Wow! Didn’t know I cared that much….

Coming up shortly…T20 World Cup.

Update 1-
The move to South Africa was good IMO. I think there was a more even contest between bat and ball. SRK found a legitimate reason to run off to India and not be with his team. But most importantly, in accordance with Murphy’s Law, there were a few spots of rain in SA, but the weather in England was fabulous. Lots of sunshine.

Now I know it can be a very subjective issue. But I was just wondering if there was any way to know how many times a batsman has been given out when he wasn’t. Cuz I was thinking that Sachin might be holding the record for this one.

P.S. this is not meant to start a white skin vs brown skin or any other kind of flame war. I am really curious.