India wins the 3rd ODI

So India win the 3rd ODI in Kotla by 6 wkts and now have a noose tightened across the Aussies. In last 7 games they have won 4 and lost 2 against the world champions. It also indicates that the Aussies are not the force anymore they were in ODIs.

If Yuvraj and MS were excellent today, then the Delhi kids were off color. May be they were pissed off the slow and low Kotla track, which is a typical Sri Lankan wicket. The more you talk high of MS and Yuvraj, thats less. The maturity of the guys led Indians to a 2-1 win. Sehwag was usually off color and Gambhir was cautious alongside Tendulkar who was looking good to go for a huge score ran out thanks to the fuckass bowler who came in his way.

Nehra another Delhi kid was off color. 0/51 in 9. Ishant Sharma, the other one went off color. So home kids were flop today.

The good thing about MS and Yuvraj is they bat well and bat fast. Quite like what Yuvraj did with Dravid before. Yuvraj and Kaif were one time poster pair of Indian cricket before Chappell finished off Kaif.

This batting line up looks more or less settled with just an occasional replacement for Tendulkar when he wont play.

I am not sure if Jadeja and Praveen Kumar have long role to play in this team. Jadeja doesnt inspire confidence that way.

For Australia Ponting opened just for 2nd time in 327 match career and gave a decent start to the side, but then the slow pitch was too good for their batsmen and they cud just post 229 runs.

Its very difficult to see Australia defending their 3 world cup titles in 2011. Tough.

4-2 or 5-2 prediction now seems very well possible for India. And hell, it would have been 3-0 for India right now.

Sangakara blames India for pitches, weather and food

Bugbear has gone mad. Total mad. He is now talking simple shit. He is characterless man, no doubt. He blarbs more and delivers less. He makes big hundreds in low dead pitches of SL and cannot go beyond winning against minnows. And look at what the Bug Bear says

"He said the players should focus on things within their control rather than complaining about the pitches, weather or food when Sri Lanka travels to India for three Test matches, five ODIs and two Twenty20 games next month."

What the fuck. Weather or food ? Pitches ? In India ? Are you crazy or did you smoke marijuana ? Or did he drug ? Spiked the drink ? Pitches in India are bad ? Fuck off. We dont have run-a-thon pitches in this country where 953 runs are scored or 624 runs are scored for a wkt or even 576 runs for a wkt.

We have fair weather in India, cold and hot. It just doesnt rain always in India like it does in Lanka. Food ? Food is good in India and way better than Sri Lanka.

Focus on cricket lads. Try to win a test match here. Goddamn you havent even won a ODI series in India in years. Forget about test match. A team of bug bears, chucks, blabba kings just dont have character and balls in their ........to win a Test series in India vs India.

Pathetic stuff.

Bhaiya pahle ek session jeeto, fir Test series ki baat karna.

Funny guys. Characterless guys.

Mumbai not fit for hosting World Cup final

Which is better venue to host a World Cup final ? 40000 capacity Wankhede in Mumbai or 1 lac seated Eden Garden in Kolkata ?

Just cos Sharad Pawar is from Mumbai, the world cup final is in Mumbai. Be real, Mumbai has rich cricket tradition, but its facilities in Cricket stadiums are ass.

Stop blaming anything Indian for injuries

If Australia is unable to find 11 men standing to take the field standing in 3rd ODI then call off the ODI and give the victory to India.

Dont crib and dont blame CT. CA is one of the founding partner and it was considered in the scheduling of the champions league.

Its a players' decision to play in a tournament or not. He knows his body best. He knows his injuries and the rehabilitation.

So do not blame the Champions League or IPL or any thing Indian.

Call it a day Jaya

He is 40. He has played 440 ODIs and scored 13300 runs. Latest news is that he has lost his opening slot for Upul Tharanga, whatta loser the captain of that team is.

Before the bug bear Sangakara further humiliates Sanath, he should gracefully retire than playing down the order. He's got all what he wanted.

Time for him to quit gracefully. And yes any day Sanath is trillion times better than character man of Lankan team, the fake IPL player Mahela Loserwardhene.

MS hits a ton

MS Dhoni's ton makes India a strong contender to level the series.

And his hundred at 5 will make his critics go silent.

Way to go MS.

2nd ODI : Australia favorites

It should be a cakewalk today for Australia to win against the pathetic flat tracked bully batsmen of India. Doesnt matter the core bowling duo of Australian team are injured or worn out, the likes of Tendulkar and Sehwag added by Yuvraj and Dhoni will be falling even to Ponting's bowling.

Lol.

Pathetic Indians. Cant win at home too.

Kaise kaise log nee kaise kaise team.

Vadodara ODI : Indian perspective

The Indian perspective on the Vadodara ODI is here :

India was below their best yet they ran close to the Aussies, that shows the character in the team. Lol. It shows that they are going with the motive to win every game they play and evolve a process to get stronger to the World Cup 11. And in the process they ensure that they dont turn to a bug bear.

Harbhajan, the bowler continues to baffle as does Ravinder Jadeja.

Jadeja should know he is not in the team to stick to the wicket at 7. His role is to play shots as soon as he can and get quick runs.

And Praveen Kumar is not a good option to go with in domestic batting conditions.

A thriller where in Harbhajan, the batsman lost his cool and India lost the game.

Runs are now expected out of Sehwag and Tendulkar at the top. And when Yuvraj comes back a lot of shabby efforts on the field would be cured.

A request to Ding Dong Bell : if you have fresh perspectives to add other than your normal "pathetic", "Lolol' and other India bashing words, please add them here. If you do not, then dont bother to waste your time.

All set for ODI 1.

All set for the first ODI in 4 and half hours.

Bat first and score big. Get Ponting and Watson early. The match is all ours then.

India vs Australia : Fact 1

India vs Australia have some intense rivalries over the 2000s. Most of them have been in the Tests and the ODIs have been surprisingly cakewalks for the Aussies till the 2007 series when India lost its second consecutive ODI series (England) and first under (only loss so far) MSD.

It may be harsh to digest but India go to the first ODI on Sunday with unbeaten against Aussies in 3 games now. 2 on the trot wins in CB series followed by the rained out game in the just concluded CT.

Last time it happened was in 1998 when India won 2 games back to back in the epic series when Tendulkar first dominated the Aussies.

1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007 have been the years when Indians have lost to Australia heavily in the ODIs.

That however stands changed now. Last time India lost to Australia was when they scored 317 and India came close to 299.

Last 5 games completed in between the 2 sides India have won 3 and Australia 2.

Perhaps last series when Tendulkar and Ponting play against each other. Of course World Cup would be there when India would lift the trophy at Wankhede :P

Stats and form point to India. Rankings point to Australia.

Presence of 2 men just make it in favor of India : Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.

Dream run of T&T

T&T have shown they are on a fairy tale in Champions League. When the hearts have no fear and mind knows no boundary, the outcome happens what T&T are seeing right now.

Who would have imagined T&T would even reach semis ?

Thats the game of cricket above all, the game of glorious uncertanities. And nobody can change it. No Bollywood or Hollywood or Lollywood script (read match fixing) :)

Get the T&T planted in the real WI side and let the fake players of WI go and cool their heels off Florida beaches.

Amazing stuff.

India vs Australia : Prediction 2

My prediction for the India Australia series :

India 5-2 or 4-3.

India vs Australia : Prediction 1

Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni 's combination would be too good for Australia's inexperienced bowling attack sans Lee to handle.

Bowling is a pain area for both the sides. And sans Ponting and Mrs Cricket they dont have anybody to take the might of Indian batting.

First prediction : Indians have the upper hand. And I wont need to rename my blog to the fake player in SL side. Hopefully.

Viru's best

Viru's best innings in his 67 Test career :

1. 195 vs Australia, MCG, 2003
2. 201 vs SL, Galle, 2008
3. 180 vs Aus, Chennai, 2004 (or 200 not sure)
4. 309 vs Pak, Multan 2004
5. 153 vs Aus, Adelaide 2008

He is an asset to the Test team and his starts would chalk the future of India in Tests ahead. He should easily finish with 10000 test runs provided he remains fit.

He is close to 6000 runs in 67 tests and had he not missed those 9 tests in 2006-07 when Dilip Vengsarkar shamelessly promoted his state mate Wasim Jaffer on his expense, Sehwag would have got even more big scores.

A big score in Tests is due since long now. Better

Happy bday veeru

So our dear veeru turns 31 today. He is Ageing n getting to wot they say is a batsman s prime. But all this terms are useless for veeru s batting. He is my next fav player after Sachin n sourav. I wish he scores big in upcoming tests against lankans n saffers. A double n a triple. Hopefully a triple against lankans. Geeeee.

Usual Drama

Resign....

Drama............

Retract..............

Story of Pakistan cricket forever.

Nothing new. Nothing unexpected.

One more series loss and this drama would repeat. As early as April 10. Or may be Australia series where they would lose Tests 0-3 and ODIs 1-4 or 0-5.

BTW, they havent beaten Australia in Tests for 15 years now.....

T&T a fairy tale

Trinidad and Tobago's progression to the semis is fairy tale.

Why not replace the entire crap WI team with this superb warriors of T&T team.

Happy Diwali.

Its a festival of lights, festival of happiness and festival of prosperity.

Wishing all my readers, critics, Gill, Pakistani friends, Lankan friends, Raj, Prabhu and all those anonymous folks who drop by Arm Ball a very happy and prosperous Diwali and a successful year ahead.


Wishing all my Indian blogger friends and readers a Shubh Deepawali. Stay safe and may Goddess Lakshmi shower all blessings on you folks and lots of dollars on me :)


Stay safe and be blessed. My first diwali outside India and the best Diwali I remember cricketwise is of October 1987 when India had defeated Australia in Reliance World Cup in the last league game.


I wish we get lot of opportunities this coming year to burn crackers (patakhe in Hindi) owing to the continued success of our team in every Test series and WT20 and ODI series plays.

Once again guys, happy Diwali :D. Mithaiyaa bhijwa do ji......Connecticut me kitthe mithai milani haaa....

Indian ODI team

The usual suspects who got in the team are none but Munaf Patel and Ravinder Jadeja. They dont exhibit much confidence.

Munaf has a attitude issue. If Free for all Santh has a fiery attitude, then Numma has a laidback attitude. You'd never know if he is switched on or if he is dreaming of a hug by Shilpa Shetty, his IPL team co-owner.

He had a huge pace 3 years back, now he has 120. Ding Dong you would bark on this, I know this. He would be a fake McGrath and would no longer be the bowler he was just for once he was in that tour game in 2006 vs England when he broke timber with his pace.

Sudeep Tyagi is a good choice, but not sure if he would be able to play more than a or 2 ODIs. If he makes his debut and gets a decent success against Australia, he would be a major find for the country.

And then we can say "Sreesanth gaya tel lene".

Batting order more or less is settled with the only questions on # 7 ?

Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina, Ravinder Jadeja ?, Harbhajan, Ishant, Neehra and Mishra / Tyagi.

First 6 is settled combination that looks good for the world cup at home.

The number 7 is now a fresh hunt for a bowling allrounder in the mould of Firaan Pathan. Either he or naybody half as good as him would do. Preferably fast Gill bowler.

Indian selectors prove they are jokers

He got the raw deal in 1993. He gave a raw deal to India's 3rd greatest batsman and 2nd highest international run scorer just after Tendulkar. The man in contention is Kris Srikanth. Thought to be better than the likes of Kiran More and his predecessors he is seeming to be even more crazier than Dilip Vengsarkar, his 80s team mate and other supposed to be level minded cricketer. Both are proven to be ridiculous selectors.

Everyone had forgotten about Dravid, the ODI player for 2 years. And suddenly you find him in the probables for CT. He did a fair job in scoring 180 runs in 5 games. And then he is dropped. Why? What are the benchmarks ? What are the reasons ? When the likes of Yousuf Pathan and Rohit Sharma can be given a long run for being young, the likes of Dravid and Ganguly are dropped albeit just for being old. Dravid didnt do a wrong thing in this 5 ODIs he played. 5 ODis is not enough to judge a player.

And that too with a man of Dravid's stature. Even a fake player like Jayawardhene plays on long in ODIs when he scores 3 ducks back to back. This isnt a way to deal a senior player like Dravid. If this was to be done, then he should not have been included in the ODi scheme as well. Called on the ground of so called weakness of short pitched stuff where the IPL beauties cant play Dravid laid the fears of short ball to rest. Not a single batsman went out to a short ball in the Lankan tri series.

Selectors have shown that they are jokers just like Mohinder Amarnath had famously said 20 years back. That still holds true to this date. Its a sick irony that the likes of Srikanth and Vengsarkar have proved to be same category selectors as the wise fool men as in their times. Who is next ? Tendulkar ? Likes of Hirwani and Raju would decide on the likes of Tendulkar and Dravid ? Cheap way to handle complex affairs. The selectors lack maturity.

Thanks to the quality of players we have (most of the XI) we are way above the mess of Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Else the Srikanths and Dilips are no different than Qasims , Sohails and the Baris of Pakistan and those unpronounciable names from Sri Lanka. Unfortunately the likes of Srikanth and his touts would stay on for long for now. And thats a disgrace to the Indian cricket.

Fake IPL Player returns!!

http://armball.blogspot.com/2009/10/fake-ipl-player-returns.html

Fake IPL player ki wapsi.

Dubbay Boys : Delhi Daredevils openers and Whistle man of Pakistan

Happy Dubbay to Daredevils skipper and India opener Gautam Gambhir.

Happy Dubbay to Dilscoop Dilshan Tilakratne Daredevils Delhi wale.

And happy dubbay to Rashid Latif, the cheapest Pakistan ex-player and the fallback guy to keep wickets for them whenever the team was swept following some defeat.

He was the whistle blower for match fixing. Surprisingly this time he is backing up Younis Resign Khan.

6 days later Beeru celebrates his 31st dubbay.

Hold on Younis

If for this catch drop a career ends nothing would be more disgrace for their cricket. They dont have anybody who could lead them in Tests. And temparamental players like Afridi cannot go for long to be successful as a captain. A man who loses patience after 10 dot balls or without a long hit cannot be expected to cope up with the madness that grips Pak cricket off the field thanks to the likes of Dastis, Shahs and the other elite ex players.



For Pakistan, Younis Khan is the man of the hour to sail them to their glory of 90s.

Sreesanth

........finally is warned and rightly so. Its time his antics are clipped and for his benefit it has come at right time.

When you scoff at a batsman who has taken a single off an ordinary ball, then there is some trouble on the top floor.

And its just getting frenzier and crazier.

Even then he doesnt understand and doesnt mend, then kiss him goodbye.

Resignation

So the madness in Pakistan cricket goes even messy.

Just one word for this. Fucking idiotic behavior from the Dasti (Gloveman).

And even so from the Butt who met Afridi for whatever reasons. If he has to take the account of the performance of the team, the best men to do so are the coach and captain.

Its like Shashank Manohar meeting Rohit Sharma and asking about the poor performance in World T20.

Lol.

The blame for this would be coming to the poor TOI reporter who so called planted the story of match fixing.

He was jerk, but before going off the boil Mr Dasti should have enquired or kept quiet. Its ICC's job to find out. Not his.

Meanwhile Afridi would / could lead the ODI team too.

What about Tests ? If YK doesnt retract his resignation, Yusuf could well be t he captain, precisely for which he did the U turn.

I just hope that this gets resolved soon, Butt bhai is kicked out and sanity restores.

Fake IPL Player returns!!

................returns this time in form of a cross over from Kings XI Punjab to Wayamba. He was pissed off of not getting any hug or a warm look from Preity in Kings XI. And plus he was not to be playing in CT as KXIP were knocked out in 1st round itself.

So he decided to change his loyalties to Wayamba and come to India. He also got his good friend and skipper to comment in the T20 league. And what they usually wrote in the newspaper columns or post match presentations is now being uttered in commentary.

FIP is now a Wayamba player and he is Mahela Loserwardhene.

RCB through to Eights.

Alrighty. The Challengers are through to the next round. The so called pathetic Indian iPL teams went through. The flat track bullies of Uthappa and Kohli along with super Kallis and peerless Bumjo (AK) powered RCB to 2nd round albeit with no points.

2 Indian IPL teams now in Super 8. One Aussie.

Tomorrow one more Aussie team would be in the Super 8s. SL and NZ would end their campaign soon.

Character kings would have got some experience in India, so lets see how they play in their upcoming tour to this country.

Uthappa should find his way back to the team in Blue to play his original scoop shot which was hijacked by Dilly Billy.

Great stuff. Robin should play now in place of Yusuf Pathan in the ODIs and prolly in T20s too. Its just 6 months for the T20 WC and for India to regain their title. :P

India and Pakistan cricket are same except............

Indian borad have had crap administrators.

They have it too.

Sharad Pawar's group is no saint.

Ijaz Butt hardly speaks sense.

Ex players make noise here too.

Ex players have license to rant shit there too.

Indian media makes a mole out of a mosquito like for T20 or CT exit.

Pak media does the same too.

Indian bloggers reel their team too. With Tendulkar too being no exception.

Their bloggers reel their own team too. Some keep hope, most question the integrity of few playyers they dont wanna disclose.

Indian umpires are no more worthy enough to be in ICC elite.

They have 2. One of them won the umpire of the year.

Indians were knocked out in the Super 8 of WT20 and in first round of CT.

They won WT20 n knocked out in the semis.

Indians wished that Pakistan win their game against Australia.

They thought that Indians could influence umpires to give wrong decisions. How ridiculous. Can that be plotted before and stage managed ?

One difference negates all the bullcrap this side of the border has. The Indians never take up the topic of match fixing when their team loses. 2 losses in ICC tournaments and even India TV or Aaj Tak or Bishen Singh Bedi didnt speak that.

They did and they became the matter of laughters and Butt jokes. My question is that doesnt their players and true fans get pissed on non stop crap of match fixing allegations?

Devils get in to Super Eights

Indian batting coupled with Australian - Dutch bowling makes it an unbeatable combo. Finger spinners, mysteries demystified and the legend of the Pidge is established. What the world is missing.

He didnt bowl or train in 8 months. Didnt bowl in a game for close to 17 months, yet when he picks a bowl he is back to his self, we all know.

Pidge has just been a fantastic bowler over the ages. What do I say about him. He is just awesome.

And Sehwag has now cleared the fear about his injury. His absence was the prime reason India bowed out in the first rounds of back to back ICC tournaments.

Dinesh Karthik, the dancing babe, today slog sweeped Mendis to 3 sixes in 3 before evoking Yuvraj comparisons and putting Sangakara on mute who had just praised tough character of Mendis.

Oodi baba. Sangakara mention. And mention of character. Japanese would be pissed off.

Good to see Pidge playing and Veeru demolishing bowlers after 6 months. And yes Delhi Daredevils were 2nd team to be in the Super Eights. Ding dong :)

Challengers

He was impressive in IPL this year. He did it in the finals of the not noticed Challengers in the hype and hoopala of the ongoing CT20. He could be the answer to the falling and fading what was once an impressive limited overs attack for the team.

He took 5 wkts in the Challenegrs but he did it for 18 runs an over and just 4.5 runs an over. Took wkt every 24 balls. The culprits of the CT exit did excel too. The offspinner took 8 wkts, the lanky KKRed bowler took 6 wkts in 3 games. But lets not get fooled by this occasional success. And so with the batters too. Jaffer and Vijay aint ODI players. And wont be. At least not Jaffer. I doubt why was he even playing Challengers.

Now with the ongoing youth wave in everywhere here are few who could be tried on the basis of the showing in Challengers given the fact the next 12 ODIs India play are at home :

Shikhar Dhawan

Tanmay Srivastav

Abhinav Mukund

Out go this players :

Ishant Sharma (not sure really)

Yusuf Pathan (he didnt excel in home conditions too).

The first player in contention was Sudip Tyagi.

I dont know how good this Challengers were cos the usual players either failed or missed it or were busy elsewhere.

Raina, Nayar, Jadeja flopped.

Dhoni didnt get much chance. He played just 3 balls in CT.

Yuvaj, Tendulkar are injured. Zaheer too.

Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid are in CLT20.

So cant really know how Challengers would help selectors in forming a pool of new players with the fact that the original set of young players have failed. And yes Sangakara mentioned (or some other SL commentator) in the CL20 game today that Manoj Tiwary evoked Sourav's memories. Hold back guys. He is just in the contention. Hasnt got the chances. Dont put the pressure on him.

Badrinath lifted the trophy. 40 runs in 3 games with 34 in one game making his average look high. I know there would now be talks to get him in the team in ODIs and Tests too. And I would be branded anti-TN to have written this. Lol. I wonder how emotions rule large in subcontinent. Writing about one or two players of a region or an idiot administrator of a cricket board or a couple of players who have fixation with huge words make me anti--<>.Emotional crap.

Delhi Daredevils

Opening with Dilshan isnt a good idea for Viru. Just on the basis of few Dilscoops and a few ODI innings here and there, very successful Viru - Gambhir partnership at the top was broken.

Well for whatever reasons.

And dancing baby runs out Sehwag. What the fuck.

A brilliant innings cut short. 61 off 40.

BCCI scheduling

Ahmedabad would host one of the 3 tests against SL and Rajkot would host one of the ODIs against SL.

Vadodara is hosting one ODI against Australia.

Mumbai is hosting a test. :O

Which ground ? Under renovation Wankhede or DY or old Brabourne ?

Why cant BCCI go beyond 3 venues of Gujrat to host ODIs / Tests ? Every tour this cities have to host a ODI or a tour game.

Ahmedabad got a Test in 2008. It gets a test again in 2009.

Calcutta last hosts an ODI in 2007, last Test in 2007.

Niranjan Shah is from Gujrat and Dalmiya is from Kolkata.

Get the whiff ? Politics. Mr Sharad Pawar. Thank God, no ODI in pathetic Pune's Nehru stadium or Jodhpur (Mr Modi).

I believe Jaipur and Nagpur must be hosting ODIs vs Australia. Guwahati is hosting one ODI too. Sorry no Jaipur. May be one ODI during Saffa series.

No game in Gwalior in 10 years. Till Mr Scindia was alive (as chief of MPCA) Gwalior got the games and Indore didnt. Indore had pathetic stadium then, but now it has got one very good stadium which can beat the likes of Wankhede in ambience, facilities and the capacity. Now his son Mr J Scindia, who is also a minister heads the MPCA.

Kanpur hosts a Test too. The last time a Test was played there, the game ended in 3 days with a face saving Indian win. Kanpur, lol. Guess it would be the last test there, as the CM would then destroy the ground to host a memorial of hers and her mentor. Such a pity that the ground which has some glorious history and has seen some rare Indian wins in 50s and 60s is in such a pathetic Test.

We all know how good the pitch was.

So why not (raising again) fix few good grounds (they are plenty) and host matches up there ?

Just noticed that Chennai missed out. Perhaps it would get a test for SA.

BCCI would hardly rise over its rotation policy cum politics. Vote politics.

An honest Feedback

Allan Donald, the former South African fast bowler, has said that if Sreesanth wants to play for India again he needs to change his habits. Donald, 42, who recently ended his term as coach at Warwickshire, the county where Sreesanth played earlier this English summer, was blunt in his appraisal of the fast bowler, saying it was high time he backed up his showmanship with bowling form.

"Just in terms of his desire, and if he has got any ambitions of playing for India for a long, long time, he should his change his habits," Donald told Cricinfo. Donald arrived in India on Thursday and will shuttle between Delhi and Hyderabad as part of the commentary team for the Champions League Twenty20.

Perhaps no more honest and blunt feedback could have come from than any other but the White Lightning for the derailed Kerala Express.

This is a time when Sreesanth can either decide to play to the gallery and get involved in the realities shows and the dance shows, the movies with Mohanlal or Preity Zinta kicking up villians. Or else he decides to mellow down and let his bowling do the talking in terms of the figures and wickets than the emotions and the frill abuses to the opposition batsmen or a scoff at his own team mates, who unfortunately would have a big role in deciding if he returns to the team or not.

Remember sending off MS in the IPL-2 or approaching Tendulkar in the Challengers in 2005 which led him earn a place in India team or blasting off Dravid and Sehwag in domestic games. I am not even mentioning the slap gate.

He has last played for India good a year and half back. With a threat of the pace attack falling apart, this could be a remarkable time for Freesanth to make a comeback, albeit with a changed attitude.

What will Santh do ?

Harmison hammered!!

Steve Harmison has his career almost over after he was ignored for the SA tour. To me there are 3 memories of him :

• Forgotten debut against a team which had just started to see its best opener in years. First test as opener for that man and first test for Harmi as a England player. Harmi got hammered and that player scored 110 odd runs.
• 7/12 against West Indies.
• Cheek breaker delivery that set the tone for epic 2005 Ashes win. The batsman on receiving end was Ricky Ponting.

He was one good bowler who was let down by his own inconsistencies and his own homesickness.

England have now lost all 5 of the bowling attack that won them Ashes 2005. Hoggard , Giles, Jones, Freddie and now Harmison. Add Vaughan and Tresco to that.

Last time England toured SA, they won tests 2-1 and a new star was born in the ODI series loss. KP.

The coming 3 months are key for 4 teams. The number 1 team plays number 5 in the rankings. And no 2 (they should not be) play the no 3 (they should be 2) in no 3 country where no 2 country have not won even a single Test.

And then no 1 would then play no 3 in no 3. Before that no 3 would tour no 9 for 2 Tests.

Figure out the numbers................

Bangalore take on Cobras

Anil Kumble swings back into action today in CLT20. I fancy him to win the title which he could not in the IPL.

And he plays in his own home town, own home ground. One more time after 2008 when he last played Test against Australia and went wicketless.

Get in Anil, would be a pleasure watchin ya again. After all habits of 19 years dont go away in a year or so.

member of the Pakistan Cricket Board governing council, suspected India's role in the sub-standard umpiring, leading to Pakistan's defeat against NZ

Laugh out loud on following piece of news from Pakistan. If hanky panky between Butt and Khan was not enough, then this one is baap of all anti - India mindset of the cross border fellas.

"Karachi: A senior Sindh minister Tuesday accused India of influencing umpires to get Pakistan ousted from the Champions Trophy semifinal in South Africa.

Muhammad Ali Shah, the minister for Sports and a member of the Pakistan Cricket Board governing council, suspected India's role in the sub-standard umpiring, leading to Pakistan's defeat against New Zealand.

Champions Trophy 2009

"Definitely, it is clear that India were miffed at not qualifying for the semi-finals after Pakistan lost to Australia and they took their revenge in their own way. They influenced the umpires to favour New Zealand," Shah told reporters.

Australian umpire Simon Taufel had wrongly adjudged Umar Akmal leg-before-wicket at a crucial stage of the match and even admitted to the mistake and apologised later.

Shah said he would not refrain from pressing the PCB to see that the International Cricket Council impose at least a one-year ban on Taufel."

Butt pressed for ban on Broad, now this lad wants Taufel banned. There should be some sanity at least. If you guys lost, accept it with grace.

Laugh it out. It made my day. Had a horrible day in the office.

Something brewing on.......

Is Younis Khan hitting on Ijaz Butt ?

Jamshed bhai thinks so.

"We have been told by some respected and senior people and we are also trying to collect evidence that there might have been some hanky panky"........

Lol.

Aiwai

Match fixing is back. Alleges Jamshed Bhai.

I am a bit stung by the anon attack from Saitama, Japan. Do Japanese understand cricket ?

But Ambani does. And fielding coach of India is now Mumbai Indians coach. Paras Mhambrey is the bowling coach.

What does Polly do then ?

Btw Mumbai Indians skipper would skip the Challengers trophy.

First time in 12 months of this blog I am stuck for the words. Ki bhai log kya kahenge blog padh kar. Lankan, Pakistani, Prabhus and Rajs along with now Japanese would laugh at me.

Really. I am scared of criticism. Comments hardly bothered, but criticism bothers me. Everybody I know who blogs has a pasandeeda item of target. For most its Ponting, for few its Dhoni, for few its Younis and for me its Mahela, Butt (lol, he evokes laughter) and Rohit Sharma. So me being targetted.

Some of us dont like Australia, some of us dont like India, some of us dont like Poms, some of us dont like Kiwis. But when I dont like SL (for their brand of cricket to be specific), I am criticised. Unfair. Bad taste ?

Whats bad taste ? Butt being ridiculed or 11/26 being laughed at ?

I feel laughing when anonymous users have no guts to show their names or tell it all to comment on a post which you dont agree on.

As they say in Hindi

"Bhaiya blog padhna koi majboori nahi hai. Nahi pasand to nahi aao. Koi jabardasti nahi hai. "

It reads

"No forcing reading my blog. If not likes, then dont reads. Eggzactly".

Get well soon Sach!!

Wish Sach a speedy recovery so that he scores 2 more ODI hundreds in upcoming Australia series and another 2 hundreds in the test series against Sri Lanka to help a 3-0 clean sweep.

Australia win the CT

Australia won. Great stuff.

Lack of competition.

Good teams lost before they could challenge Australia.

They defended their title with pretty ease.

Shane Watson scored back to back hundreds. Good for him that he has went uninjured for long time now.

They next go to India. Yes in India to lose the series 2-4 or 2-5.

If they win the series, I would rename my blog "Arm Ball : Greatest fan of Mahelakara Sangawardhene"

Lol. Self inflicted bet. Ache. Good it sounds ?

My money for CLT20...

Champions League...

4 days to go.

My money on :

1) Delhi Daredevils : Good platform for VS to get back to the form before the Aussie series. And then further demolition of Mendis and Murali in the series.

2) Royal Challengers, Bangalore : For historical reasons : Seeing Anil lead once more, if he plays. He fell short last time in IPL-2, perhaps playing in home crowd would motivate him to win the T20 award too.

Besides I dont have much info on the foren teams, but I have learnt that one of the teams has 11 international players and many players are from other IPL teams in that foren team. Notably one from KKR, one from Kings XI Punjab. Most prolly he was pissed off on not to have received Preity's hugs.

Another player supposed to play for that foren team is playing now for Delhi Daredevils, the same man who invented the ice cream Dilscoop shot. By the way he winning the T20 award of the ICC has sent angry signs in Boom Boom's country.

Dilli would be expected to repeat the heroics of World T20 for Gambhir;s team too. And if he does that the top 3 of DD would read a dangerous look. VS, GG and TD.

Freelancing and BCCI

Few days back in the Tony Greig show on cricinfo I read that he had blamed India for the freelance concept in cricket.

It was quite amusing for me to find India being blamed for this concept. He conviniently forgot that he was one of those who began the exodus to the Packer circus in 70s and then was the board member in the ICL which began in 2007 and which gave rise to the "lucrative" options available to modern day cricketers today.

Andrew Flintoff rejected ECB's central contract to be able to play in T20 tournaments world wide. For all the injuries and form concerns aside, he along with his friend KP remains IPL's highest paid cricketers. And its ironical that the concerns on the freelance concept getting popular come from this 2 cricketers.

KP was quoted to have said that the English setup needs a change as players may find the county cricket a bit too exuastive.

The bottom line is that the English cricket season coincides with the start of IPL every year.

English cricket writers and admins easily forget that they began the T20 concept in 2003 and now they are the ones who are suddenly bothered about the life of Test cricket. Perhaps their vision is limited to the Ashes and perhaps for them life begins at the Ashes and ends at Ashes.

Its their own players now who have concerns over their own schedule and the domestic setup. Its very easy for them to go blame BCCI for all the ills in the cricket, but they forget one thing no big player from BCCI's custody has slipped to go play in ICL or has embraced the concept of freelance cricket.

Its very easy for everybody in the world to blame BCCI for the ills in the world. Be it in the sports minister in India who suggests BCCI to accept WADA proposals or the lesser sportsmen in the country who at many times are benefitted by the grant provided by the BCCI for their expenses. Be it the ex-players who jump the gun to ICL and when the shop is closed they come back asking for favors.

Likes of PCB, Arjuna Ranatunga, Tony Greig, WICB blame BCCI for the ills in their own countries respectively. But little do they forget that the ICC is being funded by the star players and the money from India.

Before pointing out a finger to India for every ill, the respective board or individual should review their own position in the context and then point a finger to anybody else. That is take responsibility for your own actions.

BCCI is no saint, but its certainly not the evil its made out to be. After all it has shown the world that in a country like ours where everything is a creamy job for politicians, the game can still rule the headlines 9 out of 10 times for its performance on the field and has given the country some real valued sportsmen who have kept performing despite every road block and stumbling blocks.

But are we ready to accept this achievement of BCCI or is it going to be always eggs and pichkaris thrown at BCCI's face...

NZ into finals

700....

Great stuff Danny Boy....

Awesome stuff!!

Champions League : 5 days to go

The soon to start Champions League in India is going to be a landmark event.

A) Its first cricket international fixture in India after IPL was thrown out by PC earlier this year.

B) Its just the second tournament after the Mumbai seige. Since then its just the England series that was played precisely in Chennai and Mohali.

So security could be an issue with the touring players. For now the whispers and murmurs havent become noise.

Thats the first edition of the Champions League that gets going.

If its successful and a box office hit, would there be a talk on future of ODIs again now that we have had a reasonable successful Champions Trophy?

Playing against each other

So England did win their battle against the Aussies by 9 wkts.

Wait. They did not. They lost.

Ponting and Watson scored hundreds to end the English fairy tale.  So Aussies will now defend their title successfully.

Bad omens as now they would be confident coming to the Indian land and my predictions would now drop from 5-2 India to 4-3 India.

And then Ausssies take on weak teams of WI and then Pakistan in the home series and India then take on Sri Lanka. Lol.

Tough task for them to win even a single Test all this years in the country.  How many ? 27 years. 6 tours and no win. 6 Test tours.

3 tests and 5 ODIs and then India take on the Africans. Till then its no exciting series scheduled.

Australia have not lost to Pakistan in a Test match in 15 years. Can you believe ? Even with 2 Ws, the genuine fast bowlers Pakistan couldnt win a single Test against them after 1994, so now imagine if they could win with the help of an Aamer, Gul and Asif. 

3-0 losses in 2002 and 2005 series. Not to forget 1999.

Can Pakistanis break the jinx down under ? Well, only 2 teams have played well down under in the last 15 years. Its India in 2004 and 2007 and then South Africa in 2008-09.

Amongst 5 or 6 good test teams - -Australia, India, SA, Pak, England hardly any team has had a horrible mismatch like this.

Sri Lanka are yet to beat Australia in Australia, India in India and South Africa in South Africa in a single Test.  Germain. That, the f is your team. Lol.  Till then lets forget to bother them being a decent test side.

For now its Pakistan Vs New Zealand in the 2nd semi final .

The irony is that whenever in a ICC event after 1992 Pak have played NZ and won , they have lost to Australia in the final.

They beat NZ in 1992 thanks to their last great batsman  Inzy, and won against England in the final.  England there after could never reach the final, let go of a super 6 or 8 untill 2007.

Lot of stats.  Pak would be back to their extremes tomorrow and the luck is now to be in their favor, so they would play good.  Bad (WI), Good (Ind), Bad (Aus) and now good (NZ) and then bad (Aus).

I open the forum for the brickbats, some new commentors from Sri Lanka and most prolly  ............

Wishing an England win

England suffer from Australia nausea in ODIs.

Come anybody else they would thump, but bring on the Aussies. English go in a shell.

2/16 in 4 says it all.

I still wish if England could pull over...That would be a win for romantics as they had originally coiined for a team from South Asia.....

ICC Awards.

ICC awards.

Whoa man.

Indian idiots all the way.

Dhoni as the captain of ODI and Test teams.....

And we called for firing him....

No T20 team so no Younis Khan. Just an award for lone sane Lankan Dilly for his Dilscoop ice cream shot.

Gambhir as Test player.

Dhoni as ODI player. Criticism awaited. Gill babu, get started. I am awaiting for your comment on some XXXk trundler and flat track bullies.

Lol. He is stuck at that point. Get ahead, go further.

Thats the apt recognition for the Delhi kid who has set the world on fire with his explosive batting, with his patience not his natural virtue (NZ) and of course barging the shoulders to the DuckMan Watso....

ODI player MS who led his team to all bilateral wins all over and scored runs @ 61 at an impressive SR of 86, well 10 below his initial one. Criticism awaited and invited. Get started.

Test team :

Strauss and Gambhir as openers with AB as # 3 ??????? Tendulkar at 4. Thilan Samarweera at 5. Wtf. Flat track king in the Test team of year. What substanced innings did he play ?

Clarke and Dhoni at 6 and 7. Apt.

Shakib Al Hasan at 8. Mitch at 9, Broad and Steyn as rest. Debatable.

Why Samarweera. No Mahela thank god. Oodi baba. Character not heard.

ODI team :

Sehwag and Gayle as openers. Gayle ? Not quite. Gambhir would be in. KP and Dilshan. Dilshan in ODI team ? Somebody tell the selectors ODI is 50 overs, not 20. Yuvraj, Dhoni and Freddie apt. Umar Gul fine.

Mendis and Kulasekhra ? Why ? Besides 6 for 13 what did Mendis do ? He was well negated by Indians and former Indians. Still!!!

All in all a very good selection and good awards. Yes one reason cos Indians rule the roost. Unfortunately no Sri Lankan. A lesson : play on lively pitches and win abroad not only BD.