T20 – A game of Upsets

Barely after 2 weeks of IPL; we are greeted with another T20 extravaganza – T20 World Cup where Men in Blue are the defending champs; not every year it happens when we are defending an ICC trophy. Here we would not have city’s battling but the countries and the loyalties would change seats as we supported once Andrew Symonds for Deccan chargers…..oops did I take the wrong name here…

IPL this season did give us both pleasant & rude surprises…..the first one being Deccan Chargers lifting up the trophy and rude one being KKR being leaving the tournament with humiliation…of course they retained some pride by making it sure that Shane Warne’s team wasn’t in the finals….maybe that’s the way to return them the favor to what happened in Super over 3 weeks back from that match. Another pleasant surprise was to see jumbo going full blow and doing the things he does the best; that’s to bowl straight and hit the target.

2 weeks from their and we are here again for another battle in the same format this time it would countries battling out to win the ICC trophy. This is the event where everyone has their own favorites of winning the title. Of course Defending champs are again the favorites as well. The first week of the ICC World T20 was a humbling experience for some, a scary one for others and a frustrating one for a couple of teams hoping to break into the big league. Reputations have counted for little, as happens in the younger, more irreverent world of youth, and happily we are discovering that there is a learning curve to this new version as well. But to my mind no body is a favorite here every team has equal opportunity to create an upset which we all saw when determined Dutch took on overconfident England and gave them worst beating of their history. The most intimidating teams like Australia was shown door by lesser confident West Indies who had abysmal series against England early this summer.

Talking about the Aussies I don’t know if Symonds was shown door due to ethics and misbehavior or may be was he pray to Team politics after all drinking a bear with team mates isn’t any sin. Yeah Symmo does have series of unforgettable events both on and off field. But was this event as serious as they have been in the past. But I am sure is that Aussies would miss him dearly in all the forms of the game and not just T20 as we all saw how they did and Ponting accepting the fact. I think Cricket Australia is a hypocrite for the simple reason that their sponsors are Alcohol manufacturers and they don’t mind taking money from them but they do if any of the team members has a drink or so. Darren Lehmann would with the agree with the fact that How big an asset is Symonds to the team.

During the IPL & 1 week into the big extravaganza we have all learned that Spin is the factor which could make or break the day for any particular team; we have seen Pragyan Ojha & Bhaaji doing their bit while Mendis & Murli are their scaring best with Australia packing bags to Leicester after their match with South Asian lions. Perhaps Spin being the most effective factor was not understood by Ponting & Neilson as Nathan Hauritz didn’t scare anybody or so did Bret Lee. Wasn’t he the bowler who was so effective in the later part of the IPL but looked a bit lost when ball started being caught outside the stadium by the tress passer instead the guys in Yellow within the stadium.

I must confess I find Pakistan’s cricket bewildering too. You would have thought that the T20 format was tailor-made for their style of play and into the second week we might well discover that to be the case. But they need a strong batsman at the top of the order and they need to dust Sohail Tanvir to rediscover the gem in their midst. If a side can keep Tanvir on the bench it must be, by some distance, the best bowling side in the tournament. Pakistan isn’t! And unless Afridi rediscovers the real reason batsmen take a bat out with them, they might find their balance affected rather badly.

Newzealand has their own problems with long list injured players on the trip and they have 11 legs fit out of the whole squad who is either hospitalized or nursing a shoulder or hamstring injury. But you can never discount Black caps as they love the tag of under dogs and who knows they might just sneak in with couple of good match performance and we may very well find our next champs for this year.

And unfortunately - Bangladesh are confirming an increasingly popular view that they are making absolutely no progress at all. There is indisputable ability in that side but they have made a habit of playing below potential to the extent that one can question the assumptions which were made before giving them the test status. They need someone like Shane Warne who can make people believe in their ability, sometimes convinces them of ability where its existence may be in doubt!

I still believe India is the batting side of the tournament, with South Africa just there, but there is still a dependence on a good start. But this does not change my view of marking favorite tag on one particular team; on their day a motivated Ireland can be handful for team like South Africa. That’s why we call T20 game of upset for the cricketer with right identity on your chest.

Knight Mare ends finally!!!!

Here I am back for this post and don’t know how to start but still any ways I am back – Lets start from the match against Deccan chargers; How in the world could you loose that match where 21 required of last 6 and out of nowhere KKR found a way to loose this one as well. We were all waiting for the Bangla Tiger to roar and come out with some inspirational performance but that wasn’t his night and he got hammered all over the park making Rohit Sharma the Hero of the match.

During the same match; Dada tried to hit the ball very hard and guess what; his having a torrid time out in the center. But we should give a thought to the platform he created after McCullum departed early. But some of the commentators who have not achieved even 10% of what Dada did - criticized him for slow run rate; I mean it’s so easy to make a someone look foolish when you’re in a commentators box; isn’t it.

After this match we believed that this never ending loosing streak wouldn’t end and they would go down with 12 looses while creating a unique record which would have been tough to beat all hands down. Perhaps Baadshah khan was hoping them to do the impossible and they did; loosing a matches out of winning situations and winning a match out of Impossible situation; I hope next time he gives them clear instruction which wouldn’t create ambiguity.

Throughout the match against CSK this is the McCullum we were dying to see all throughout the season; and it all came good in the 13th match; guess too early I must say - of course for the next season; what did you thought…. It was only the batting which made them cross the finish line; or else they had tried all their tested tricks to loose a match with Murli Kartik dropping a sitter and not even trying to attempt on which came to him at short 3rd man. Anupreet, Kartik & Agarkar tried their level best to give them loads of runs with extras embedded with them. God knows what happened to Hussey when he was going good and out of nowhere he found a way to get himself run out thus opening the match again; and never the less he tried again to do the same with Hodgy when he ran for Saha. And the best part is yet to come; haven’t Murali got Ganguly early he would have wasted another 4 overs in reaching double figures and pressurizing McCullum to throw his wicket. Dada looks as if he wants to win it for KKR in 1 over itself by playing every shot closing his eyes and assuming that it would reach the boundary. He is restless, wants to prove a point but he too needs to calm down and please do not rush. After it was confirmed that KKR wouldn’t reach the Semis’ a lot of KKR loyalist (of course like me) want KKR to loose but Ganguly to score and prove a point a shut lot of mouths. But he ain’t got anything to prove; he’s had a Royal career and has been there and destroyed all. Dada your still the captain we think is still best that this country has ever produced.

Even laptop couldn’t believe what it had witnessed; we hear after yesterday’s win; Buchanan’s laptop crashed as that wasn’t it had calculated and predicted a yet another loss (of course it might have got crashed due to over usage pirated software as FIP says….) and all the strategies and plans were destroyed; now we even don’t know who would captain KKR in their last match against the Royals who too are eyeing a spot in Semis. The perfect way to end a tournament would be to make sure that Royals to catch the same flight back to India with KKR team and take the revenge of the Super over from where it all started.

No matter what one would say about KKR; but they lost 6 close matches which would have sure shot got them the Semis berth; But no matter all those 6 matches were close finishes and made every one sit on the edge of their seats; We need to give them the credit for that making out time spent worthy enough for a good cricket match. All those 6 matches gave good return on Investments to all the sponsors and all the companies who were in Line for ads during those matches. Kind khan should be happy about that at least. King Khan should understand that Shaping a Cricket team and selling a product are two different things; Owners need to take lot of care and make sure they spent a lot of time with the team to develop them( it’s just a new born baby; it completely depends on the parents how they grow the baby and what kind of values they want to instinct in their kids – trust me this would not happen overnight) You need to develop a culture around the team to instinct those values; But here the Owners are completely relying on their baby sitters (the Foreign coaches and their support staff) to nurture and grow their team; which would help till certain extent; but the team needs owner in the time of need when they are down and out. Just SMSes from India would not help their cause. I hope these views are passed on to them by some means; I wish I could own one of this cricket team one day (of course that’s my dream to do it)…..

Enough of Philosophy of course people who have bought these teams know what they gonna do….Next match against the Royals and we cannot even guess the teams I guess as the laptop have just crashed; lets see if we are in for a rude shocker in terms of team selection. I hope KKR would make sure that they do something unbelievable and would spoil not few but at least 1 or 2 parties….Game on Knights !!!!!!!

More like the Knight Riders :D

This is what we are waiting for ain’t we….the final nail in the coffin – “Racism”. I hope “Bokanan” would again have appropriate strategic answer to this as well. Till date I was wondering if at all something is lacking in my life and achievements till date look so amazingly normal compared to anyone who is running on the same path as I am. But now its crystal clear from last 4 weeks (of course things got visibly more clear after watching great IPL ..) what I need is a vision; A vision which Mr. Bokanan has…where he saw Sanjay banger & MR Aakash Chopra as one of the pioneers of 20-20; Only to be packing them back after 1 game each. I would want to fall down on his holy legs and beg for this kind of vision; no matter how much I have to be innovative and presenting him some kind of strategy in terms of having 12th man as a captain and giving them messages during the drink break; oops I forgot the strategy breaks as well.

I forgot we started with “Racism” and then ventured to great vision of Mr. Bokanan. Distractions apart but let’s get on with this first. The dug out looks so divided where you can see all the “Phoran Babas” (As rightly called by Fake IPL player) on one side and our Indian Kids on other side of the dugouts and there are visibly 4-5 seats separating them; the moral is - there is a class divide. These Phoran Babas think they are God’s gift to Cricket playing nations and anything and everything proposed by them can’t be debated even if they believe in flying pigs.

Andy Bichel was no doubt a hard working block and did well to get into Australian Side for some period of time. During his international career Bichel spent a lot of time coming in and going out of the squad. A prolific 12th man (Although he got his chances when one of McGrath, Fleming & Gillespie was injured). He might have been highest wicket taker for Queens land for some period of time but certainly he is no Glen McGrath or Wasim Akram. I even doubt the bowling strategy in death overs especially - I am always left with the question - Where are the Yorkers? The best armory in any bowlers’ kitty.

Today Knights have Bevdas (Royal Challenger as called by FIP) to play with and they are nursing a dream of Semi –Final as they would want to cash in the low confidence of KKR. They surely understand that Mr. Mallya would go all out in showering booze over them if by mistake they made a cut to the Semis. Hopefully McCullum would realize and would want to drop himself from the playing 11 and hand over the captaincy to Prince of Kolkata (Though Lordie doesn’t seem to be in any mood of taking over) and learn a trick or two from him on how to give your best shot. Lordie has a point or two prove as he is seen solely concentrating on his batting and making a mark for himself as he has completely isolated himself from the team and is more bothered about his performance; Rightly so after being the way he was treated by KKR management. Hopefully either Hussey or Mortaza should get a chance in today’s game (On seniority basis of who has sat more on the bench; it should be Mortaza who should get the nod ahead) But who knows what Phoran Babas and Bokanan are thinking about.

Let’s Hope for the best for today’s match and hope that Dada would get to lead the side in today’s match and who knows KKR might just pull off a shocker and Bevdas are left with a Drunken Master… Hopefully my next post would be more positive one on KKR.

Will the real - Knight Rider Please stand up !!!!!

Is this the Knight Riders we know; The Korbo Lodbo team has done it again and we fans are licking our wounds. Matches after matches the luck just refuses to bless the team not even by mistake. The team is really missing Ricky Ponting who would have been a cool breeze for the team; that would have injected a fresh motivation in the team; he would have made sure that lads do not have easy going during practice & team meets while the coach does not impose his ideas on the team (while none of his ideas have worked till date...)

Buchanan thinks what he has done with Australia can be easily replicable with Knight Riders; but make no mistake Wridhiman saha is no Gilchrist; Ashok Dinda is no Glen McGrath; McCullum is no Steve Waugh and Saurav Ganguly has lost the Midas touch. But Dada as we all fondly call him is god damn fighter and brilliant leader; but he alone cannot win it for Shahrukh; given no body supports him. He would not mind giving tips to Brandon; but we all know that those gonna be trashed any way.

The Fake IPL player was right there are lots of ego issues within the team specially with Dada. Brandon and Buchanan; Coach is never seen sitting in the dugouts and never ever looks as if he wants to get involved; He was right that he would require a time like Sir Alex Ferguson to develop a team like Manchester United out of Knight Riders but the only difference is Sir Alex never used laptops and Buchanan uses it even to pee as well; I am sure even that would have also been strategized as a mark for perfection.

Buchanan is seen sitting without any hassles during these losses; pretty much signaling that he is ready to blame some one for these and make sure that player would watch IPL on TV next year; he has already sent 2 home now it might be the time for Dada to pack the bags. I hope the Baadshah is wary of more public fury before he stamps his authority on this brainless visionary decision.

I hope some common sense prevails and Skipper starts running the team and not the laptop; They can take a leaf out of MSD and can revive the KKR at least for the next season. It’s pretty much clear that either it would Ricky & Dada taking over captaincy or hopefully the laptop is no more around. KKR badly needs leaders and not multiple captains; who can inspire them to achieve for what they have been paid for.

Its time for them to play for pride and prove that IPL points table is not the exact way to measure the performance of this team. Hope this time the Korbo Lodbo prevails and finally can we sing about Jeetbo as well.