Catches Win Matches

What a match! Come the morning of the fifth day, and all the three results seemed possible. Curator's dream come true.

All the Indian dreams were shattered by an impressive England performance. After dominating the first two days of the match and holding on ever so slightly in the next two days, England produced a killer performance on the last day. Something that they missed so much in the earlier two games. Well played Colts.

I would say that India lost the match (And could not win the series) more because of their poor top order batting & catching than because of England's good bowling. In my opinion, the decision to go in with 5 bowlers was correct. Howeer, the decision to bowl first was not. If you are gonna play five bowlers then you must believe that the 5 batsmen will be good enough. If you don't believe that, they you pick 6 batsmen. Its as simple as that.

Anyway, it was a good cricketing series I feel, with almost all matches getting decided on the last day and that speaks tons about the quality of pitches. Andrew Flintoff was the star performer and he really relished the captaincy. India found two exceptionally good talents in Munaf Patel and S. Sreesant, both of whom bowled brilliantly. The Indian (mis)fielders dropped more than ten chances in a match, and no team should expect to win after that. There should be no excuse for missed chances. Add to that, the top order failures meant that we were expecting just too much out of our bowlers and so the end was inevitable.

Another impossible thing happened in Mumbai. Sachin Tendulkar was booed. The man tipped by many as the best to play the game was hooted on his home ground. What a surprise! It just goes on to show that Cricket is a game of consistent performances and not just past track records. [Feel free to think about Saurav Ganguly if you wish to :-) ] Tendulkar is probably at one of his worst patches in his career and he has only two options. Score or Go. It will be interesting to see how the champion reacts to the pressure.

In the meanwhile, kudos to the Indian sportsmen who are winning so many medals in the Commonwealth Games.

Cheers,
- Tosh

Current Music...

1. Rang De Basanti -> Rehman rocks as usual!
2. Taxi No. 9211 -> My Ishtyle. Ajama Le is my favourite!

Cheers,

- Tosh

Ind 1 - Eng 0

India beat England convincingly in the end in the second test match. Even after playing with only 5 batsmen. England scored 300 in the first innings and then India were reeling at 150 for 5. That was when the game changed. Indian lower order scored more runs than the higher order and got the invaluable lead of 30-40 runs.

These tailenders are so frustrating, aren't they? I have a theory about lower and tail end batting. It goes as follows: The team which performs better in lower order batting than the opponent, has generally a higher chance of winning a game. Sounds weird, ain't it? Look at the India Pakistan test series. Look at this test match between India and England. Look at the thrilling one day match between Australia and South Africa. Look at the previous test match between West Indies and New Zealand. The team that batted better in their lower order went on to win the games. Which undelines the fact that cricketers must have a high utility nowadays. Bowlers and keepers have to be good batsmen.

The most promising thing from India in this match was their positive attitude. They went in with 5 bowlers, which I think was a splendid decision. Hats off to the people made this decision.

About the new comer Munaf Patel. When I first saw his bowling, I had the impression that he uses his shoulder a bit too much. Which is how he generates the high pace. This is not very good in the long term because he might suffer shoulder injuries which can be career threatening for the fast bowlers. He should instead work on quickening his run-up just a bit to get the rhythm. All said and done, he moved the ball considerably. Especially the reverse swing in the second innings.

Reverse swing is a miraculous act. It depends a lot on the conditions and the ball. You will find so many times that one ball reverses, and as soon as its changed, it stops reversing. Something similar happened in the just concluded test between West Indies and New Zealand. Shane Bond himself admitted that there was something in the ball which made it reverse more than the one used earlier. If Munaf keeps reverse swinging all balls the way he did yesterday, then it will be awesome. But that consistency will be hard to achieve and we need to wish him best for that.

Dravid in the meanwhile has been the under-rated champion of this match. He was instrumental in India putting up a decent total so he should get the due credit. He is one of those captains whose performance has improved with the captaincy. Well done Rahul, you have led by example.

Off to Mumbai...

The Best Cricket Match Ever?

Wake up in the morning, check out any news channel, any newspaper, any news site. The top news is the match report of a cricket encounter. Surprisingly, India did not play that game. Still its the top news story. How'z that?

The game had a hot build-up to it. Two teams playing for pride. The grand finale of an evenly matched series hanging imperiously at 2-2. Conditions were perfect on the most beautiful ground in the world - The Wanderers. The bloody cocktail produced an extra-ordinary game of cricket, in which a near-impossible task was made possible - not once, but Twice! Australia scored 434/4 in 50 Overs. The first time any team crossed 400. In reply, South Africa, back to their walls, chased and chased successfully! Can you believe it? NO. No one believed that this was possible. The only men who believed it were the 11 members of the SA team. And it is because of this belief that they were able to pull up a miracle. It was something that could happen only a few times in a century. It was a match to remember. A celebration of a sport. Two thoughts come to my mind here:
"Whether you believe you can do it or not, you are correct". And
"When the going gets tough, the tough gets going".

One performance stands up and away from the rest. On a belter where batsmen murdered all bowlers, Nathen Bracken produced a magical display of bowling. With 5-60 odd, he almost took the game away from the hosts. Ponting, Katich, Hussey, Smith, Gibbs, Boucher played well. They are big names - champions, really. But the guy, who in my opinion turned the game decisively in SA's favour was Van Der Wath. An unlikely hero who came in when the high hopes seemed dashed. And played a gem of an innings, a cameo that took SA so much close, that even a flurry of wickets in the end could not deter them from reaching there.

The margin of victory was the smallest possible: One wicket, One Ball. What a match! Cheers to the (Ex :-) ) chokers. And Cheers to the game of cricket. And while we congratulate South Africa, we must not forget the entertainment provided by the Aussies.

Cricket rocks. Bigtime.
- Tosh

A Cool Dilbert

Quite a good one.
Source = http://www.dilbert.com

Cheers,
- Tosh

Blog Rolling...

Came to know about this cool tool from Mahesh's Blog.

Currently, I am using it to store a list of Links. The tool then powers the 'Other Blogs I Read' section on the Right Hand Side of this page.

Check it out, it's too good => http://www.blogrolling.com/

Cheers,
- Tosh

India Rising -> An American View...

Long but interesting, thought provoking and makes you feel proud :-)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11571348/site/newsweek/

Cheers,
- Tosh

Bharat Uday Mission

Take a look.

http://bharatudaymission.org/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bharatudaymission/

"Society doesn't go down by the activities of the bad people, but the inactivities of good people" - Swami Vivekanand
"You have to be the change you want to see in the world" - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

We have only one mission. The rise of a great nation.

Team Selection...

Surprisingly, after a long time, I am really happy with the team that the selectors have chosen. The overall Indian team setup seems to be very promising today with some seniors at the peak of their careers and at the same time some juniors being developed alongside the legends.

First and foremost, the most controversial decision. Saurav Ganguly, The Prince of Kolkatta. The man who brought steel into the fading Indian team of the late nineties. The captain who galvanised the unit into a winning combination during the time of 2003 world cup. The man who made Yuvraj, Irfan (probably Dhoni) and Harbhajan. The batsman who stood near the top of one day &/or test batting charts for consecutive years in 2002 and 2003. All his achievements are kind of getting forgotten with his recent outbursts against the coach. However, all said and done, I think his omission is justified, although it should not be used to erase all the good things that he has done in the past. All good things come to an end and end might be near for Saurav Da. In Pakistan, he played not spectacularly, but good enough in the only chance that he was given. His exclusion is based on his previous performances and the theory of developing some youngsters to replace the ageing middle order. I think this was a good decision.

Gambhir Agarkar and Zaheer were dropped. Ajith and Gautam were given a lot of chances and they couldn't grab many. Hence that decision is also justified. Kiran More said that he wants a backup of 8-9 fast bowlers in the country ready to play at the highest level and this vision is commendable. It will also create a healthy competition, as is visible from the present of VRVSingh and SreeSanth. I will really look forward to VRV. Sreesanth is an exciting prospect since he is not a left arm swing bowler and hence adds a vital veriety to the pace attack. I would love to see him bowl the second over at Nagpur.

Kaif and Raina were also automatic selections. Raina seems to me to be the most promising of the lot in this team. He must be nurtured and developed. But the most stunningly good decision was to get in Piyush Chawla. India is in dire need of more good spinners once Anil Kumble hangs his boots. Chawla could be an answer. Added advantage with him is his batting, something he has proven in the U19 World Cup.

Now comes the difficult part. Which 11 to play? Given that Dhoni + Pathan make up more than one batsman, should India go on the attack and play five bowlers? I suggest Yes. There is nothing better that being positive especially in the first game of the series and I would love to see the following team in the playing 11: Veeru, Jaffer, Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Dhoni, Pathan, Chawla, Bhajji, Kumble & Sreesanth.

Till then, Cheers and All The Best in the City Of Oranges :-)

C r i c k e t

India-4, Pakistan-1. That was completely unexpected. Expecially after the consecutive losses in the last Test and first ODI. However, Pakistan went in Over Confidence, just the same day as India did on the opening day of the last test. For four consecutive matches, India chased successfully and now have done so more than 13 times at a stretch now. That's a great achievement given that their record earlier was very very poor while chasing.

A couple of interesting things came out during the series. Pakistan writers wrote off Sachin with comic columns alleging that he feared Shoiab and all... Sachin answered them with two superlative knocks that setup the successful chases. Yuvraj and Dhoni finished off two hard chases easily and that looks very promosing for the future. It will be very interesting though, to see how they perform on pitches outside the subcontinent, now that these two have ruled on all the flat tracks.

One matter of concern. Because Dhoni was promoted, Raina and Kaif did not get enough match practice and this is little risky. If they come in early after a collapse some day, then they will be short of experience, something that the team should think about pretty soon enough.

Agarkar (My Favourite) was promising but not very effective while Zaheer looked out of sorts. Most likely, both of them are on their way out of this team based on their current form. Pathan RP and Sreesanth will make up a good trio, though we do need another FAST bowler. Romesh Powar bowled very well and should be in contention for selection against England, along with Kumble and Piyush Chawla.

The team against England will be chosen today and I am very keen to see Raina in there. Ganguly is still the center of attraction and controversies and it remains to be seen what the selectors do to him now.

More after the selection meeting...