Maybe having the IPL2 in South Africa was a blessing in disguise for us in the US? The games are at 3.30am and 7.30am Pacific time and I am able to watch a bit of it every day just before leaving for work and then just after reaching the office.

The games have been mostly good, and Rajasthan Royals have struggled a bit as defending champs. I was not happy to see Mumbai Indians' game getting rained out.

Still don’t know who the favorite is because T20 is so unpredictable. Delhi seems ok, but I do hope this is Mumbai’s year.

Australia won the World Cup convincingly, and they deserve all the praise for doing a marvelous job, going unbeaten now for two entire World Cups! What an achievement that is! Granted, the team is almost the same, but to do it and that too without a key bowler, is fantastic.

It was always going to be an uphill climb for Sri Lanka after Australia, riding on Gilly’s masterful knock, got to 280+ in 38 overs. Speaking of a masterful knock, how amazing is it that Australia always finds a way to have one or two such brilliant performances in the big games? They are just too good.

Jayasuriya and Sangakarra gave me some hope of a Sri Lankan fightback, which there was a hint of. But I also knew that once one of them got out, the momentum would be stopped and it would be the end of the chase.

And that is exactly what happened. Sri Lanka ultimately could not keep up with the required run rate and Australia had another final wrapped up.

The question now is, who can challenge Australia? My thought is Australia A. I think Australia’s A team would be better than most, if not all, international teams. Australia/Australia A would be boring to watch for people who follow stars, but would be very exciting to watch for the true cricket lovers.

Just my thought.

Recently I have started playing some cricket at work with some of the guys who try to play every week. I have played for 3 weeks now. Last Friday, the team who we play against (a neighboring company), chickened out at the last moment and so we decided to play an internal friendly.

We split the 11 of us into two teams of 5 each and the 11th person being the “jack” who bats and fields for both the teams. Everyone fields all the time except for the two batsmen.

We were able to play two matches - the first one was 8 overs each and the second one was 6 overs each.

In the second one, I opened the batting needing 32 to win from 6 overs. It came down to 7 off the last over and I was on strike.

I got 2 off the first ball to make it 5 in 5.

The next ball, I gave it a mighty heave and got the ball on my leg and because of that, I missed a wide ball. 5 in 4.

The next ball I got another 2. 3 in 3.

The next ball was sadly a dot ball, with me trying to do something unnecessary. 3 in 2.

The next ball was another dot ball, and now I could not forgive myself for the missed opportunity in the previous ball. 3 needed off the last ball.

I had made up my mind to go for it no matter what. Luckily for me, it was a Chetan Sharma-style full toss on the leg stump which I swung over mid wicket for a four.

A FOUR OFF THE LAST BALL! To win the match!! Yay!

Granted, the game was rank amateur level, and the seriousness was half of what we show when we play a true “match”, but still. A game is a game and I was playing the captain of our team in that final over.

Felt good to end the Friday on that note.

Finally, after what seems like ages, the round robin crap is over and the semi finals are set in the Cricket World Cup 2007.

I pick South Africa upsetting Australia (have to stick to my earlier prediction of South Africa winning and Australia not even making it to the finals!) and Sri Lanka beating New Zealand.

I know I am going against the tide by picking SA over Australia. But it is a matter of one day’s play. And I think SA will play to win whereas Australia will play with their minds set on the finals and lifting the cup again.

New Zealand will lose to Sri Lanka on the mental front. Once again, I have to stick to my perception of the New Zealand team - that it is great one day team on its day, but it has very few days on big game days.

So, Sri Lanka-SA will set up a repeat of the exciting game that happened earlier, with Malinga creating a riot!

SA will win …

Yes, he has been expensive, but because of the aggressive nature of the Sri Lankan batsmen, Zaheer has got a wicket now! :-)

I noticed that they chose to go with 2 pace bowlers and 2 spinners. That’s fine. But why Zaheer? Why not Nehra?

Nehra has not done anything wrong this series. Zaheer has been injured and even when he played, he has been pedestrian. Why choose him?

He has already proved to be expensive. Wides and boundaries. Quite pathetic.

Unless of course, the team has yet another injury - Nehra :-(

And that means we have to just beat Sri Lanka. Not necessarily with a bonus point.

But the way the Indians played today, it does not seem like they are going to be able to win against SL.

A lot has been said about this team of late. The consistency being the main point of conversation. But in this tournament, they are hardly consistent. Hopefully this is the first tournament and hopefully they will only improve.

Fingers crossed.

If I have to use one word to describe ARY Digital’s coverage of the Asia Cup, I would use the word ‘sucks’.
 
It seems like they are re-telecasting someone else’s coverage. So the commentators seem to be in a studio (or maybe an apartment in New York ;-) ), and there is hardly any stadium noise. It feels quite dead.
 
And of course, the camera work, which I don’t suppose is ARY’s, is pathetic. It took me back to those old Doordarshan days where the camera and the ball would hardly ever be in the same place!
 
Pathetic may be another word I could use.

So many things to say.

India won its game, as predicted. Sehwag scored a 0 instead of a double hundred, as I expected.

Sachin was comfortable and confident and got out to a soft dismissal. As usual.

Ganguly was clueless and he should have gone on 0 (easy slip catch dropped) and 4 (a tough catch in the gully dropped). But in the end, what he puts up on the board is more important. And in the end, time spent in the middle has not substitute. Good for him.

I slept off after the first 45 minutes or so. Later found out that Dravid scored a century.

This guy, I am telling you. Don’t know what he eats and what he does, but he is redefining consistency. No wonder he is The Wall or Mr. Dependable.

Hats off to you, sir.

I saw some of the initial bowling and man, Irfan Pathan is awesome. The way he is able to swing the ball is amazing to watch. He is a good prospect for India in the long term and hopefully he keeps fit and keeps bowling for India for a long time.

Of course, the rest of the innings was nothing much to shout about, except the fact that Sachin pocketed 3 wickets. Did not see how he took them (but I have the innings taped, so I will watch it later today ;-) ), but 3 wickets is quite a handful.

India has started the season 1-0. Let’s hope for more in the win column.

I did not want to have to subscribe to this channel - ARY Digitial. Apparently, based in Dubai and having predominantly Middle Eastern content. But they are the only ones televising it in North America, as far as I know.

So I did what I was resisting for so long. Signed up for that channel, just to see the boys play some cricket for the first time this season.

Let’s hope the rain Gods don’t dance around the time India plays :-)

Read this! Amazing. How can they come up with such a gimmick?

Well, on second thoughts, it seems like it is a nice one. People will watch the game, and see who is the winner of the USD 1000 :-)

And of course, be happy that Sachin is dismissed ;-)

Poor guy. Seems to be disappointed a lot. Let’s hope he gets back into the test team at least.

It’s going to be a long season behind the wickets

According to Cricinfo, Agarkar is all set to play for Middlesex for one month. Lord’s. The Mecca of cricket. Ajit’s only test century.

And Glenn McGrath as the bowler from the opposite end.

Only next to playing for India in the Asia Cup :-)

They were able to survive the last day and somehow manage a draw. To get a draw against these rampaging Aussies is a big deal. Especially after they put up such a huge score in the first innings. And especially after a collapse in the final innings from Sri Lanka.

Their lower middle order and the tail somehow survived some tough times at the end of a dark final session. Warne has equaled the world record for wickets, but Murali is going to win that race for sure.

Congratulations, Lanka. Now, please stay in that test match mode, because you are in India’s group for the Asia Cup :-)

Can’t wait. Though I must say I am not so excited about India facing the likes of UAE, Bangladesh and HK.

But looking ahead to the major series - Australia at home and South Africa at home, for tests, it is important to talk about the openers.

I understand that Sehwag turned into a decent opener despite being a middle order batsman. I am feeling bad for Chopra who has been conveniently pushed out of the squad with all the talk about Yuvi opening with Sehwag.

First of all, I have no problem with ‘middle order’ batsmen becoming openers. But talking about Yuvi as a test opener for the Indian national team without truly testing him in that position is unfair to him as well as Chopra. He is kinda set up for failure and Chopra is unnecessarily thrown out of the playing XI.

Of course, time will tell what the real deal is, but on paper, it does not make sense to shake the existing XI, except tweaking the bowling combination based on fitness as well as pitch conditions.

But Ganguly’s talk of Yuvraj being a ‘class act’ and one that ‘cannot be ignored’ is again a pointer to what I think is favoritism. ;-)

But their choice for World XI’s to face Australia had poor Dravid as wicketkeeper.

Also, VVS ended up being 12th man in the test team because Kallis is an all rounder. But Sehwag as a test opener? Wow!

Wonder what those guys were thinking??

Ganguly’s comment that it was a tough call between Agarkar and Nehra makes me think about what I said earlier.

I think he still has his favorites, and does back them more than the others (ex Powar and Karthik vs Bhajji), but he is man enough to come and justify most of his decisions.

I have never doubted him. I just have a stinky feeling that if you are not in his good books, he may not support you as much as he could.

Comments posted on my earlier post were all good, but don’t you guys think that there may be some truth in what I am trying to say?

BBC SPORT - Cricket makes Asian Games

Maybe this could wake up IOC and maybe we’ll see cricket in the Olympics soon???

They have not come up with a plan of showing the first cricketing action in the Indian cricket season. I hope they do, because I don’t want to sign up for computer-based cricket action.

And I do want to see this one. Though I am pissed at the selected team. I do believe that Agarkar needs to be in the team ahead of Nehra. Ah well. C’est la vie.

I like Ganguly as a captain. He has always backed his players and formed this team. In fact, he has, over time, earned the respect of his teammates. Especially the youngsters.

But he does play favorites. Well known examples are, he loves Nehra and Bhajji. And he does not like Agarkar and Powar.

Granted that Powar is not a certain inclusion, he was still dropped from the side after decent performances in Pakistan.

But dropping Agarkar is even more shocking. Is Nehra a better bowler than Agarkar? Who knows? Both are on-and-off bowlers and both need their ‘days’ to shine. On their off days, both are quite pedestrian. So what made Gangs choose Nehra?

Because Nehra probably brings him his morning tea with biscuits and newspapers. And Bhajji probably irons his clothes for him before he goes into the shower.

This attitude just sucks.

So the big bosses have decided to snub the US and make all the matches of the 2007 Cricket World Cup local to the West Indies.

I am not sure where I’ll be at the time, so I am making no plans. But if I am in the US I would love to go see some matches there…maybe follow the team package and watch India?

That would be wonderful. Who’s signing up?

SL 43/3 in reply to Aus 207 all out

At the end of day 1, after being all out for 207, Australia fought back by taking 3 quick wickets. McGrath got both the openers, one bowled and one lbw.

Tells me something scary. Could be that McGrath is back! :-(

He is now made the Asian Cricket Council president. Is this guy the best diplomat in cricket today? Ever??

I am not a big soccer fan. Sorry, football. But I noticed how everyone was talking about England and how they were shocked when they lost.

Granted that it was a great match, but didn’t they have a self-goal? Didn’t the highest paid player David “Posh Spice’s husband” Beckham miss a penalty kick? Didn’t he miss one earlier?

The English media elevates their teams and players to the highest levels. Case in point - Tim Henman. Any time he reaches the quarters of a Grand Slam, the talk starts. There is in fact a Henmania at Wimbledon every year.

Another case in point - the cricket team. Teams like Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka have won the World Cup, but England has not. In fact, I can’t remember the last time England won a significant tournament. This is after the fact that their domestic cricket structure is probably the most well-developed.

Is all the hype and hoopla around the English teams and players worth it?