Lankan Lions had Indian Lamb Curry - ICC World Cup 2007

Sri Lankans clinically annihilated India and there was no secret formula, they did their job for which they were paid for in a professional manner. And what was the job, to go out and bat, bowl and field well. And still their players get a much lesser remuneration than our so called superstars.

Yes this is a game after all, and I would not have been upset had Indians shown a semblance of a fight, but to surrender meekly was simply unacceptable. The Lankans had nothing to lose, but the way they played it was as though everything depended on this match and it was the opposite with the Indians. At the end of this game the biggest smile was not on the Sri Lankan players face, but the Bangladeshi players who had come to see the decimation of the Indians.

I am sure a lot of journalists and news channel would have already written their obituaries about this Indian cricket team. But I can only say is that people should remember that this was a collective failure of team India and not any individuals. We simply did not look like any world beaters.

Theoritically we still have a chance, provided the Bermudians defeat the Bangladeshis. But that is a very very remote possibility, but if Ireland can defeat Pakistan and Bangladeshi can defeat India, we can assume that there is a flicker of a chance, as they say cricket is a game of glorious uncertainities, and this world cup proved exactly that.

Even if we do not make it to the next round, this is not the end of the road for Indian cricket. Indian cricket will always survive, but hopefully the Indian fans learn a lesson out of this and stop hero worshipping our cricket players. Remember they are paid to do a job and they have failed miserably in that job so far and the team and the board should be held accountable for this. I hope the fans do not start burning effigies and vandalising the cricketers house for losing, instead the worst possible punishment that can be given to them is ignoring them or in a way ostracizing them.

Congratulations Team Sri Lanka, you did your job as expected and you were worth every penny your board paid you.

Slaying of the Bermudians by Team India - ICC World Cup 2007

After the loss to Bangladesh earlier, finally our Indian batting line up showed why we are counted amongst the best with an imperious batting display against the unfortunate Bermudians. I say unfortunate Bermudians, because I do not think our Indian batsmen would have played in a similar fashion had we not lost to Bangladesh earlier. Congratulations TEAM INDIA, super effort. It was an amazing match to watch, especially while India was batting and the way the sixers and fours were being struck.

Now it is time for some introspection, lets look at the positives and negatives in the game against Bermuda.

First the positives,

• Virender Sehwag back amongst runs (I would still not say back to form), but the runs scored (albeit against Bermuda) will definitely give him some confidence.
• Sachin Tendulkars execution at the end, he showed that big shots can be played with proper cricketing strokes and he can score runs when the ball is old as well.
• Yuvraj Singhs imperious innings towards the end, which shows we dont have to overtly depend on Dhoni to up the rate with big shots during the latter stages.

Now for the negatives,

• Saurav played very well given the context, but he has to learn to avoid playing too many dot balls. Even in his innings yesterday, there were 70 dot balls. It is fine against Bermuda, but it is going to hurt against better teams.
• Agarkar the bowler, even though he took 3 wickets he was not bowling in the right areas at all, and he could get clobbered if he does that against Sri Lanka.
• Our bowling in general, does not appear to be potent as we struggled to bowl out the Bermuda team, the winning margin looks huge, but we had good chance of being the first team to win by a margin of over 300, an opportunity which we did not grab.
• Fielding in general has left a lot to be desired, of course it cannot be changed over night but we need to have a better body language while fielding.

Of course most of the negatives has been a long standing problem. But I do not think we should be tampering with our team now, because I believe many people would be expecting Irfan Pathan to replace Agarkar. But I think Irfan the bowler could become a liability against Sri Lanka. If at all they wanted to try him out, they should have done it against the Bermuda team and given him a chance to regain his bowling confidence. But my gut feeling is India would play Pathan against Sri Lanka instead of Agarkar.
As regarding the batting, I guess it should be Uthappa opening against the Sri Lankans, because recently he had a ball against them in the series in India, so he will be confident while playing against them.

The next game between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is going to be crucial, with all due respect to Bangladesh, let us hope that the Sri Lankans score a resounding victory over Bangladesh. This will help us a lot, provided we defeat the Lankans when we face them.

Lastly I would like people to stop criticizing Dravid and his captaincy, he has been such a selfless servant of the game for our country. He does not care even if he does not bat as long as the team wins. Of course there are many more things that he has done, which I will save for a later blog.

Come on TEAM INDIA, we believe in you, defeat the Lankans and get to the stage two of the world cup.

Sammy

Saurav the Dada or Saurav the batsman...

All of a sudden there is a media frenzy about Saurav and how the tiger is back, which makes up for very good reading. But the same Saurav was taunted and there was a frantic call for his head to roll when he was being a burden on the team. Chappell was commended and appreciated by the same media and fans for calling a spade a spade and dropping Saurav from the team. That was the best thing to happen to Indian cricket, and it was a master stroke by Chappell and Dravid, because that move stirred the dying tiger and revived his hunger.

Let us compare the Saurav of today and the Saurav of couple of months back (I am going to purely stick to his test performance).

Let us analyse his test performance in 2005 and 2006 against two of his best years say 1997 and 1998 (as he has played many tests during those 2 years). This comparison is purely going to be of Saurav the batsman.

Saurav's Test Stats

In 2007, he has played 7 matches, scored four 50's, and averaged 69.40

The stats above clearly shows the huge difference in what Saurav was when he started and then his form later on wained. Even the century he made was against a lowly Zimbabwe team. But earlier he was the worlds best left handed batsman (offside play = God).

It was not that he lost his talent, but that was the phase were he was taking his place for granted, he was in the team when proven performers like Lakshman and Kumble were being dropped or rested (whichever way you prefer to call it). This added to the pressure on Ganguly and his place in the team was questioned. We can accept that he was a good captain, but how long could he have survived just on that, the team looks up for a leader to perform and he was found wanting when it came down to performace. There were many more articles on paper and news channels asking for the axing of Ganguly. In stepped Greg Chappell and Saurav was dropped. The decision was commended by many at that time.

A few months away from cricket was what Saurav needed. A fitter and hungrier Saurav, the Saurav of the 90's is back. His innings in South Africa and his last ODI innings against the Windies has shown that Saurav is back.

Welcome back Saurav, India needs the Saurav of 90's and not the Dada of early 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Thank you Chappell and Dravid, dropping Saurav was a master stroke from both of you. The Bengal tiger has started roaring again.

Just go get the world cup for us Saurav

Sammy