Pune Warriors get a dream debut

The second new team in the IPL this year, the 2nd from Maharashtra, the team which almost had a quiet build up to the IPL since its inception last year had a dream debut in the IPL 4. Having got to play its first game in adjoining Navi Mumbai, the team streamrolled KXIP and its tough luck continued. 

Nothing went right for KXIP since the toss. The new skipper, the old opener, the new  reserve keeper, everybody failed and at one time its score read 4 for 9. (Or 9 for 4).

Dinesh Karthik scored a duck.

Punjab were restricted to 112 though Ryan McLaren did his best to up the ante, but the rest around him just didnt battle enough. 

Graeme Smith's horror form continued and this time it  was not Zak who nailed him, but Praveen Pehelwan who got him first ball of the innings. 

And though Kings XI got 2 quick wickets of Jesse Ryder and Manhas, the pair of Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh took Pune Warriors home without any further hiccup.A dream debut for Pune. 

Surprised to see Chitale Bandhu / Joshi Vadewale / Rohit Wadewale not figuring on the black jerseys of Pune Warriors India.

Why should Australia win

Let Australia take care of Sri Lanka tomorrow so that the latter dont play easy opponents in the quarters and make an exit soon. 

But if they dont, then want to see India hammer them again in the semis to avenge the 2007 and 1996 defeats that rankle to this day. I want to see Sehwag hammer Dilhara Fernando in the stands for infinite runs, let Yuvraj take care of Herath, Sachin tackle Murali and well of course Dhoni take the sting out of Malinga.

Last time when SL lost to Australia in final of 2007 world cup a lot of SL fans cried cheating when Gilchrist had squash ball in his gloves. The media had an excuse of "fixing" when they lost to Pakistan. So what excuse cooks up next is remains to be seen. 

Ireland should have been in Lankan group and Kevin OBrien should have hammered Mendis and Murali to that famous win. 

Expect R Premdasa to be slow, low yet again where you'd see a lot of strangling, a lot of bickering behind the stumps 

Whats even more pathetic is that the Aussies would be playing Lanka in 7 years time. Bangladesh has played 3-4 times in that duration, India has hammered them many times in this 7 years.But the Aussies, they were never invited fearing a whitewash.

Go Aussies!!!!!!!!!!!!!

World XI - part II

The remaining part of the world XI goes here :

7. Adam Gilchrist.

8. Malcomm Marshall

9. Wasim Akram

10. Shane Warne

11. Glenn McGrath.

Chaminda Vaas and Rumesh Rathnayake are in the probables list and so is Murali. That cracks me up.

Waterboy

Yuvraj is now termed as WaterBoy in Sri Lanka after he was dropped from the 3^rd Test for Raina.  The group of rowdy spectators in Sri Lanka were detained and now stand released.  At best this is a pathetic crowd behavior at par with the Mumbai crowd in 2007 when they chanted Monkey for Symonds and 2006 when they booed Sachin Tendulkar when India lost to England in final Test.

I am being at the receiving end from the SL bloggers namely Gill / Robert and some anonymous commenters whose IP suggests they hail from Murali and Sanga land. This bunch of people cannot stand the fact their team is not the best Team in the world and to put across their point, they resort to abusive comments mostly unprintable and not acceptable to publish. That’s the reason most of the times I have had to disable comments on the posts on my blog which most dislike.

When I began cricket blogging in 2007 March just around the time Australia beat SL in that final, the SL fans had gone berserk and in their cricket forums had called Gilly as a cheat as he had squash ball in his gloves.  For quite long the rants continued when they failed to accept that their team was second best in the World Cup final.

There has been another blog called voice of Colombo or something which has been provocative in his comments on my blog and his blog.

For the SL fans it appears Sangakara is the best captain in the world who led KXIP to the bottom place in IPL – 3.  Not to mention this post would be received with equal venom and hatred.

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai rolled over again while defending the tagret of 180 to Deccan Dischargers...And the stars were Chotta Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu.....

In the bowling Zaheer and Bhajan starred and once again the captaincy of the man was awesome though he has shown shades of frustration never seen before on his face for 21 years. But thats how the lesser known players shell it out...Not known to the pressure and suddenly pulled into high profile Bollywood corporate Cricket circus would put them in a spot of bother.

Deccan are fast fading into shell and unless their big batting stars -- Gilly, Symmo and Gibbs do not fire they have feeble chance to reach semis to defend their title. Rohit Sharma is an useless guy and now he does not play even in IPL. Yet say it a DBV effect -- he finds a place in T20 squad .

Mumbai are there and with 14 points they are secure in the semis. I care for Mumbai just a bit cos the man is there. Remove him and the team is no different than Rajasthan Royals. If Shane Warne was a batsman then Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians would have been twins that carved different paths at the birth just like Amitabh Bachchan's classic Deewar in 1975.

Once the man is out the match loses interest and lest there is no Indian legend on the other side, the match is not watched. Its good that the local imperfect stars of Mumbai -- Shahane, Raje Gaje Baje, Takawale, Rahane and Nayar are chucked out.....Perhaps they would be best suited for Pune IPL team with Rohit Sharma as iconic player....Lol.

This lads were given more than necessary chances in first 2 editions and they were a liability. This season Rayudu and Chotta Dhoni have excelled in chances they;ve got. The Mumbai Indians is all about Sachin Tendulkar and the trio of Zaheer , Harbhajan and Malinga make a fair distant attraction at second place...

Kumble fetches his man

No world cup final, no Gilchrist fire. Anil Kumble nails his man. Whadda start. Whaada player, Anil Kumble.

Mr Final

2003 World Cup Final

Opponents : India

Gilchrist fires Australia to a great start. A quickfire 66.  Australia scores 2/359. Indian dream crashed.

2007 World Cup Final

Opponents : Sri Lanka

Gilchrist with squash ball in his gloves fires the highest score(140 odd) in a world cup final. Australia win the world cup. Lankan dream crashed.

1999 World Cup final 

Opponents : Pakistan

Gilchrist gets off to a quick start in pursuit of 133 to win the world cup. Pakistani dream crashed. Australia win the world cup.

2009 IPL - 2 Final

Opponents : royal challengers bangalore

Though the importance and scope of this tournament final isnt as grand and wide as  the 3 world cup finals, the man remains same.  Whats he going to do today? Mr Final.

Why didnt Viru open?

Why the fuck in the world didnt Viru Sehwag didnt open? Why why ? He is no middle order player. He likes the smell of new ball and smacks that hard. Missing the classic vintage Viru. Fire up mate. You due for one. 174 the target. Roy and Gilly the key. Go Delhi.

Plane Bias!!

I hate to say it on this space about any other fellow blogger, but then there has to be some sanity. Plane bias and cynicism should not work and never works. You got to owe it when it deserves. Give the credit when it deserves. A simple act of stupidity by a batsman ignorant of the rules of cricket and being run out by keeper is a natural process. Whats wrong in it? People saw the dismissal on TV and nobody complained except this one.

Everybody was of the view and the premise that the ball wasnt dead. The keeper was just appealing for a caught behind, batsman unaware of where the ball is ran for a run and was promptly run out / stumped. Ball wasnt dead. RR's hopes were dead albeit.

Batsman leaving his wicket under a misapprehension

An umpire shall intervene if satisfied that a batsman, not having been given out, has left his wicket under a misapprehension that he is out. The umpire intervening shall call and signal Dead ball to prevent any further action by the fielding side and shall recall the batsman."

Ball had just reached Gilly's hand and Carlesdine began running. Immediately Gilchrist stumps him or runs him out. Where is the element of doubt? Some biases never go. Hell what? Well and they say I am biased and lack analysis. Enough of it. You wish to come here, then do drop in. No forcing. Two individuals have different thinking, different thought patterns and analysis. If you dont agree with the other individual and then conclude he lacks the analysis is worst way to shy away from any discussion or arguments.

Mumbai Indians vs Deccan Dischargers LIVE!!

Whatta start to the Mumbai Indians. Opening partnerships have been the key for DC in their first 4 games. No strong opening partnership, they lose. So today is one of those days? May be, i wont complaint. I want Sachin Tendulkar to lift the IPL. No Zaheer today. He is out injured. Bad signs for India's crown defence. Poor fielding. Suman hits a four to bowler whom I suspect is Dhawal Kulkarni. Kallu Siva is out in the dug out. He is crap. Dhawal Kulkarni, a fast bowler. LORTFL. 130 max is his speed. He would be bludgoned by attacking batsmen. Interesting to see how he takes on Adam, the baap of all wktkeeper batsmen.

Meanwhile Fidel Edwards is rocking England after his super show in IPL for DC. England tottering at 4/182 at Tea, day 1. Bhajji is on. To Gilly. Back to Lord's Test, KP got his golden duck, may be first in his career. Prior, the jelly bean king and Bopara, the latest Preity's huggie baby are resisting Edwards show. Lage raho. Preity would send in more pappiya and jhappiya from SA for Bopara.

By the way back to IPL, Suman hits Bhajji for a six. Faster ball. One more. 30/1 in 5th over. I dont care how Mumbai local lads perform or even Surya or Bravo or Nayar perform. One more six. Round the wicket and off goes Suman. Kid is having fun at the expense of a bowler who has got 330 Test wkts and 8 IPL wkts, and hit one idiot a tight slap. Bravo is in. Well this game is at Centurion. The same venue where Tendulkar murdered Pakistan in the WC'03 game that shut Pakistan out of the world cup forever. That six to Younis, that six to Shoaib Akhtar, boy orgasmic pleasure. Can Ten hit few more tonight ?

Back to the game, Bravo almost got SUman. and now he gets him. Huge wicket. 2/37 in 6. Fashion guy Rohit Sharma comes in. He is a Mumbai man. A suburb man. Borivali(W) resident. He is touted to be next Tendulkar. hahahaha. Bravo has got good start. Sach is shuffling his bowlers well.

DC 2/37 in 6. Bhajji back to Gilly. Interesting to see how Sharma plays Bhajji. I would fancy Bhajji get Sharma. Shiba is saying Gibbs and Suman have not taken out their pads. Cos they are disappointed on score so far. But Dhakkan Shiva, how come Gibbs and Suman would increase the scorecard? They are dismissed. So they wont be coming out to bat again. No batsman on crease is injured, so no runners. Huge six by Gilly and then a lbw appeal. Doosra. Not illegal one. 2/46 in 7.

Rohan Raje the joker is on. Another dibbly bodly wobly bowler. Doesnt Mumbai have any genuine pacer? Is it short of bowling resources? Are this tweakers like Rohan Raje or Dhawal Kulkarni the future of Mumbai cricket? Ass. Six. 100 kmph, Sharma hits Raje to a six. Why the hell is Raje playing? BTW Rameez Raja is back commenting. Welcome to the INDIAN premier league sir. Raje dives after the ball passes him. 2/56 in 8 overs. Gilly is in for big score. He is playing anchor. Would be fun to see him go aafter bowling in later overs. Dharmsena is the umpire. ROTFL. Great fielding by Harbhajan pappe.

Deccan are losing the plot. 2/59 in 9. Rameez gets age of Surya wrong. 37 in place of 39. Appeal for runout, not headed. Freaking hell. Raje gets Gilly. Ah man. Shameful to see Raje getting Gilly. Ahh SRK ad. Go off dude.

3/63 at TACTICAL AD TIMEOUT. Chances of rain in 2nd innings. 4/118 in 17th over. 150 should be the target. Pity that Sharma didnt hit Kulkarni out of the attack. Jaya bowling still good at his age. Deccan have no specialist spinner as Ojha is injured (3rd one of Team India). Lankan slinga is back. And whatta catch.......Dwayne Bravooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Orgasmiccccccccccccc.....Sharma gone. Chuck gets a wicket. Not Murali, but Slinga Malinga. You beauty!!!! 6/145. Not bad given the start Deccans got. Tendulkar needs to fire and i m waiting with holded breath!!! Go Sachin go!!!

Mumbai Indians are back to batting. Rameez Raja is commenting as if its a debut game for Tendulkar in the world cricket. Boy in this age too, he runs like a heir or hare. Off goes Jayasurya. 4 off 5th ball. 6/0 in 1. 140 to win in 19 overs. Tendulkar to face RP now. Jayasuriya gone. Damn!!!!!! RP strikes. Good catch by Harris. Pinal Shah comes in and Sachin is gone. RP bowls him. Biggest wicket of his goddamn career. Off goes the live post. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn............

Bangalore vs Deccan Live..

Gilchrist has won the toss and elected to bat. Tis Gilly and Gibbsie opening the batting. Laxman at 3. Its Praveen Kumar opening the bowling. Overhyped, overhyped. Steyn should be the one doing that. I hope PK doesnt open the batting too. Gilly on fire. 3 on 3. Rant on pehelwan from Meerut. I guess if it was a kushti akhada, Pehelwan Kumar would have dared Gilly to have a go at him..Boy he has a gun too.

Super shot from Gilly he is on fire. May be Australia would recall him in Dubai against new minnows Pakistan. And again. 2 in this over. 3 in first. KP surely needs to think something more. Mark Nicholas and Ravi Shastri, 2 of the best 3 on fire as well. Laxman vs Kumble would be a great contest to watch. Six, but say it six Markie. Not DLF maximum. Gibbs takes over. Orgasmic start. Kallis on. 4 skippers in the BRC team. 2 Indians and 2 Saffers. Kallis and Uthappa think that they have got Gibbs, but umpire unmoved. 0/33 in 3.3. Poor keeping by Uthappa. Boy PK was sweeped for a 6 by Gibbs. Shows how paceful Kumar is. And he is gone. 1st wkt.

Pehelwan ko gussa aa gaya. Sala Bewda Pehelwan ko jhadu marta hai. Le tu out. LOL..Lacchu pehelwan in. Praveen Pehelwan to Lacchu pehelwan. Now the PP would know what batting means and artistery means. Gibbs looked not out. Laxman plays one down to Kumble at gully. How ironic. In Tests Laxman used to watch Kumble from 2/3rd slip standing in gully. And today he is playing one to his ex-captain. Kallis back in attack. DD 1/49 in 5 overs.

GIlly on fire. 1 six and 1 four. Vintage Gilly. Kumble in. Laxman faces. Almost foxed. Vintage Indians on the opposite side. Jesse boy in and gets Laxman out 1st ball. Laxman was never a hitter of the ball in air. And now bikini man ROhit Sharma would be in. Mostly would have got lotsa kisses and hugs from cheerleaders. So an extra motivaation to score runs and hit sixes, pass on flying kisses to the babes around...He is a mumbaikar playing for hyderabad. Saying anything against him is saying it against Mumbai. Anil bowling well. Uthappa propping him up. Almost had Gilly. Vintage Kumble. Get in the bikini man too.

KP has a golden arm....2 wkts now. Just that he shud bat good too.KP now has 2wickets and a catch. Bikini man was out. 52 runs made. Consideration for t20 world cup done. Dhoni and coach happpy. Cheerleaders happy. Dude got stuff worth 2-3 days to live with. 185 to win for Royal Challengers. I dont think they can do it.

Whoa whatta start for Bengaluru? 3rd in row a duck. ROTFL. Jesse Ryder must be feeling huge to go back home. He had lot of success against India in Test and ODI series, but IPl has been nightmare. 2 games and 2 ducks.

Kallis is next skipper for BRC. He is gone too. Hopelessness continues. KP is in. I doubt Dravid on his own would be able to do anything. But he is doing. Oye Pappe. Kise ghoor riya he ? Crease pe jo khada he wo sabka baap hai. Haha. Harmeet singh giving a stare to Dravid after being taken for runs. Now RD hits back in style to the men who kicked him off the captaincy. He has been the sole run getter for BRC this year and last year. The so called valuable pickings and most payed cricketers from foreign land have turned dud. Its all around Rahul Dravid. Pieterson falling for 11, Kallis the next skipper for 15 n the young gun Uthappa for 12. Dravid is making runs at strike rate of 195 runs per 100 balls. Its insane to term Rahul guilty of low fortunes for BRC team. Mallaya owns answers. He owes a public apology to Rahul. And all those bloggers and assholes who have termed Rahul as a test player. Do they forget that he possess record of fastest 50 by an Indian in ODIs. And amongst famed Indian batsmen in iPL he owns one of the highest strike rates. Less than Veeru but higher than MS, Sharma lalla and others. And with him gone, the hopes of a victory are gone.

Praveen Kumar is run out after making no efforts to reach to the crease. And he did have to say a lot to Kohli. Pehelwan ko fir gussa aaya. Thank God utha ke patak nahi diya. Kohli coming of age here, he is keeping BRC alive. Future prospects look bright for Kohli. Way better than Rohit Sharma. No slogs, no slangs, pure cricketing shots. Jeeyo Kohli bhiya Jeeyo.

Deccan chargers beat KKR convincingly

Deccan chargers got off to a walloping start in their first game. Thanks to the renewed spirits under Gilly. Though he didnt fire with the bat, he still showed his leadership skills. For most part he had been deputy to Ponting for Australia and had he been the skipper, Aussies would have better record than now.

RP Singh was a reveleation. He just loves this format. He should be in for the World T20. Ganguly, Laxman failed. Knight Riders have no strength in their ranks. Whatever they had SRK and Buch robbed them in the pre match runup. Imagine likes of Chopra batting in T20. He never played in any 50 over game. Ridiculous.

And Rohit Sharma played another "cameo". He comes good when he plays in IPL. He doesnt when he plays for country. May be IPL has more motivation for him as there are lots of Shettys, Zintas and others, while international cricket doesnt.

So after the end of 1st round, the teams that had won their first games last season, have lost their 1st games this season except Delhi Daredevils. This season Deccan would be one of the favorites for semi-final spot.

IPL Auctions : Update 1.

As auction reports set in, the new Jeanie has been roped in by Mumbai Indians. Chennai Super Kings have bagged Andy Flintoff for $1.55 million eclipsing MS. And the test side have got Kevin Pietersen for same amount again eclipsing MS. So the 2 maverick players become the costliest pick. One who would never know when he would be unfit and the other who would never know when his king size ego would blow off.

Bret Lee’s pace cousin Shaun Tait goes to his Aussie legend’s team Rajasthan Royals, the defending champions. And Fidel Edwards, the West Indian bowler goes to Gilly’s Deccan Chargers.

Jean Paul Duminy, the new Aussie flesh in the thorn has been bagged by Mumbai Indians. He would flex his muscles with the likes of Bravo, Zaheer, Jayasuriya and of course The legend Tendulkar.

And Owais Shah goes to Delhi Daredevils, my numero uno favorite.

Gilly gets it right finally on Murali

I don’t disagree with Gilchrist’s assessment of Muralidaran. He has been a controversial bowler and yes he chucks. ICC has bent few many rules to accommodate his chucking bowling action. Otherwise why do you need to change the rule from 4 degrees to 15 degrees. Just to accommodate this looser from Sri Lanka who will end up with close to 900 wkts. Thanks to playing more against minnows and hardly against top teams. What has been his record in Australia and India ? He took 4 wkts in 2 Tests last year down under. 200 wkts against minnows and compare that to Warney or Anil. Anil has taken wkts everywhere except Lanka. Warney has wkts everywhere except India….And not many wkts against the minnows….

For having a chucker in action still we got to blame the fat skinny racist fool Arjuna Ranatunga who took the racist angle in every cricketing decision against Muralidaran. Whenever Murali was in any controversy, the fat man would come in and twist it to racial angle and then gather sympathies for the chucker. Every time Ranatunga accused ICC of racial abuse whereby he himself got this theory going and unfortunately BCCI supported SLC in this. Votebank politics.

Bret Lee, Rajesh Chauhan, Shabbir Ahmed , Johan Botha, Harbhajan Singh were found guilty of chucking too, but they or their captains never cried foul on racism or being singled out. Then why Murali ? And when the controversy over Murali potboiled, he threatened to take the team out of the ground (1999 CU Series vs Eng)..Muralitharan is against the spirits of the game and its very unfortunate that this team gets the spirits of cricket award every year. F***k.

And why does SL have a history of producing illegal bowlers ? Murali, Bandara, Malinga and one more bowler who debuted in Post WC series in 2007. SL are the worst team to watch and play against. They want India to bail them out of the financial troubles, but then they also plead ignorance about IPL being single seasoned and then start horse crap against it.

Gilly is right at least on Murali’s point. I second him….But then can anything be done ? 756 wkts cant be neutralized…Heck he would even become highest wkt taker in ODIs….Is he worthier than Akram or even Younis ?