For all those who are tired of my cricket blogs, go no further.
Simply cannot resist penning a couple of lines on the IND-AUS match.
Contrary to what Gilly said during the post match speech, I strongly believe that we outwitted the Aussies on that day. The Aussies seemed to play intelligent cricket but Dhoni's boys came back with a scintillating win thanks to Sreesanth, Pathan, R.P.Singh and Bhaji.
Bhaji's second last over turned the tables in our favor. R.P. Singh complimented very well in the penultimate one. But when I saw Joginder Sharma with the ball during the last over, i gave up hopes of an India win as he had been butchered by the Aussies in his previous 2 overs. But what a comeback and what nerves. Jogi actually sported a smile after bowling 2 dot balls and the Aussies broke into cold sweat what with a 22 required in 4 balls. A desperate Hussey picked on the 3rd ball only to mistime the ball and give a catch to Yuvraj's safe hands. Bret Lee scores 2 runs in the next ball and then our man Joginder surprises all with a perfect Yorker to uproot the leg stump & Bret Lee is sent off packing. 1 ball 20 runs. Indians already celebrating in the crowd. Last ball, Johnson hits a four, but who cares. No one is really interested in picking the ball as much they are interested in picking the stumps and the bails. Desis in Kingsmead erupt with Joy and its a unanimous 'Chak De'...
Yuvraj, the man of the moment, picks the man of the match for his superlative 70 off 30 balls.
What more can a World cup offer, than a thriller of a match with traditional rivals India & Pakistan, fighting for the coveted cup on Monday.
Showing posts with label Cricket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cricket. Show all posts
Monday, 24 September 2007
Thursday, 20 September 2007
Flavor of the Season - Cricket
I simply cannot get over cricket especially when Dhoni's eleven seems to be doing so well :)
India-England match was another cracker of a Twenty20. Sehwag and Gambhir gave a great start & it was a pleasure to watch them plunder the English attack. But the game belonged to Yuvraj who came back in his inimitable style of the fastest 50 (12 balls!!) in any match. Not difficult to guess how the runs came about.. 6 sixes in one over (matching the record of Sir Gary Sobers, Gibbs & Shastri). A perplexed Stuart Broad did not know what went wrong & could not make sense of what Collingwood was trying to convey after the 5th six. The unique thing about Yuvraj's savage assault was than no two sixes were similar & that he virtually covered the whole spectrum of the ground.
Unbelievable stuff....Now one more big match today with SA. Waiting to see what happens.
India-England match was another cracker of a Twenty20. Sehwag and Gambhir gave a great start & it was a pleasure to watch them plunder the English attack. But the game belonged to Yuvraj who came back in his inimitable style of the fastest 50 (12 balls!!) in any match. Not difficult to guess how the runs came about.. 6 sixes in one over (matching the record of Sir Gary Sobers, Gibbs & Shastri). A perplexed Stuart Broad did not know what went wrong & could not make sense of what Collingwood was trying to convey after the 5th six. The unique thing about Yuvraj's savage assault was than no two sixes were similar & that he virtually covered the whole spectrum of the ground.
Unbelievable stuff....Now one more big match today with SA. Waiting to see what happens.
Sunday, 16 September 2007
Some Stars Shone Bright
A phoenix rises above the Ashes.... And Irfan Pathan returned with aplomb.
A blistering 20 in 15 balls, classy fielding saving a lot of crucial runs & a beauty of a 4 overs.
1 maiden, 20 runs and 2 linchpin wickets (Younis & Malik).
All his detractors are silenced...
Mohammed Asif deserved the Player of the Match with his superb figures of 4 overs, 18 runs and 4 wickets (except Uthappa, none of the Indian openers could survive his attack).
Misbah - What a knock and what an undying spirit. 53 of 35 balls. Just plain unlucky, otherwise the Pakistanis would have been celebrating their victory now.
Uthappa - 50 of 39 balls, despite seeing his partners succumbing one after the other, to the Pakistani bowling attack. And a classy Bowl Out Performance with a few bows to crowd celebrating his accuracy at the stumps.
Dhoni - For a first time captain, did very well. Except for some tensed moments, seemed relaxed towards the end. Acknowledged humbly in the post match speech that India was plain lucky this time and have to toil much more for the coming matches.
A blistering 20 in 15 balls, classy fielding saving a lot of crucial runs & a beauty of a 4 overs.
1 maiden, 20 runs and 2 linchpin wickets (Younis & Malik).
All his detractors are silenced...
Mohammed Asif deserved the Player of the Match with his superb figures of 4 overs, 18 runs and 4 wickets (except Uthappa, none of the Indian openers could survive his attack).
Misbah - What a knock and what an undying spirit. 53 of 35 balls. Just plain unlucky, otherwise the Pakistanis would have been celebrating their victory now.
Uthappa - 50 of 39 balls, despite seeing his partners succumbing one after the other, to the Pakistani bowling attack. And a classy Bowl Out Performance with a few bows to crowd celebrating his accuracy at the stumps.
Dhoni - For a first time captain, did very well. Except for some tensed moments, seemed relaxed towards the end. Acknowledged humbly in the post match speech that India was plain lucky this time and have to toil much more for the coming matches.
India Vs Pakistan - Can it get any better than this?
Arch rivals India and Pakistan proved once again to the cricketing world that no match can be better in terms of sheer entertainment and "value for money" than the one on Friday.
A nail biting finish (understatement that...as i had almost chewed off my fingers).
India managed to garner a mediocre score of 141 struggling every bit, except for Robin Uthappa who is slowly coming into his element now.
Shoaib's men put a valiant fight in the first half of their innings but lost a few crucial wickets with some reckless batting. The Indian bowlers bowled with a lot of gusto and determination to keep the pakistani batsmen on their toes. An out of form Younis & an edgy Afridi, could not sustain the initial rhythm set by Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal, nothwithstanding a quick 20 by their captain. But a struggling Misbah improvised over time and came out with crackers in the last two overs. And before we could sigh, Pakistan cruised to a tie @141, with India. Can it get any better than 1 ball in 1 run, well, it can... 'Bowl out' can you believe it.... Well, the last ball, saw Misbah running haplessly towards the danger end, and an agile Sreesanth stumping him (with a fabulous throw from Robin) comfortably.
The Indian crowd went berserk and so did the Indian team.
A new concept of Bowl Out in the Twenty20 tournaments was to be showcased after a breath-taking display of 40 overs.
Pakistan had world class bowlers known for their speed, determination, perfection et al. And the Indian bowlers simply paled in comparison. Interestingly Dhoni handpicked the 5 bowlers most of who were not his regular strike bowlers (except for Pathan & Sreesanth) and decided to go for the kill starting with an experienced Sehwag followed by Bhaji & Uthappa. We got it right 3 in a row and all the practice seemed to show.
Pakistan on the other hand, chose Arafat, Umar Gul and an experienced Afridi, and failed at every attempt. India won the match by 3-0 (a la Penalty shootout).
Its not difficult to guess why the Pakistan bowlers failed to knock the bails, if one had witnessed this bowl out.
All the Pakistani bowlers (except Afridi) ran a shorter run-up (which they were not used to), messing up their rhythm and the line & length. And if we were to believe Malik, he claims that Pakistan did not know the concept of 'Bowl Out' till it had to participate in one. Difficult to digest, that. Even regular net-practice includes bowling straight at the stumps, so what is our man talking about.
Nevertheless, these little quirks aside, the camaraderie between the two teams & captains was palpable & heart warming. The teams looked very relaxed before the bowl-out & it seemed more like a friendly match. The umpires and the coaches of the respective teams, seemed more nervous about the Bowl-out, and reminded me of the NASA crew before a typical space-shuttle launch.
All in all, it was a day to remember ... A day when India fought against its arch-rivals, its own insecurities, differences (among the players) & criticism & came good with a smile.
History... India still continued retaining its record of never losing to Pakistan in a World Cup..
A nail biting finish (understatement that...as i had almost chewed off my fingers).
India managed to garner a mediocre score of 141 struggling every bit, except for Robin Uthappa who is slowly coming into his element now.
Shoaib's men put a valiant fight in the first half of their innings but lost a few crucial wickets with some reckless batting. The Indian bowlers bowled with a lot of gusto and determination to keep the pakistani batsmen on their toes. An out of form Younis & an edgy Afridi, could not sustain the initial rhythm set by Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal, nothwithstanding a quick 20 by their captain. But a struggling Misbah improvised over time and came out with crackers in the last two overs. And before we could sigh, Pakistan cruised to a tie @141, with India. Can it get any better than 1 ball in 1 run, well, it can... 'Bowl out' can you believe it.... Well, the last ball, saw Misbah running haplessly towards the danger end, and an agile Sreesanth stumping him (with a fabulous throw from Robin) comfortably.
The Indian crowd went berserk and so did the Indian team.
A new concept of Bowl Out in the Twenty20 tournaments was to be showcased after a breath-taking display of 40 overs.
Pakistan had world class bowlers known for their speed, determination, perfection et al. And the Indian bowlers simply paled in comparison. Interestingly Dhoni handpicked the 5 bowlers most of who were not his regular strike bowlers (except for Pathan & Sreesanth) and decided to go for the kill starting with an experienced Sehwag followed by Bhaji & Uthappa. We got it right 3 in a row and all the practice seemed to show.
Pakistan on the other hand, chose Arafat, Umar Gul and an experienced Afridi, and failed at every attempt. India won the match by 3-0 (a la Penalty shootout).
Its not difficult to guess why the Pakistan bowlers failed to knock the bails, if one had witnessed this bowl out.
All the Pakistani bowlers (except Afridi) ran a shorter run-up (which they were not used to), messing up their rhythm and the line & length. And if we were to believe Malik, he claims that Pakistan did not know the concept of 'Bowl Out' till it had to participate in one. Difficult to digest, that. Even regular net-practice includes bowling straight at the stumps, so what is our man talking about.
Nevertheless, these little quirks aside, the camaraderie between the two teams & captains was palpable & heart warming. The teams looked very relaxed before the bowl-out & it seemed more like a friendly match. The umpires and the coaches of the respective teams, seemed more nervous about the Bowl-out, and reminded me of the NASA crew before a typical space-shuttle launch.
All in all, it was a day to remember ... A day when India fought against its arch-rivals, its own insecurities, differences (among the players) & criticism & came good with a smile.
History... India still continued retaining its record of never losing to Pakistan in a World Cup..
Thursday, 13 September 2007
When the Minnows Rule
For those of you, who saw the Twenty20 last nite which had the Audacious Aussies against the 'nothing to lose' Zimbabweans, it must have been a historical moment. A night to remember for all cricketing fans except the Aussies. The Minnows ruled and how. They contained a normally belligerent Aussie batting line-up to a minuscule 138 (well, Twenty20 is going to rewrite history in one day cricket for overall & individual scores) & went on to win the match with great skill & panache.
Unfortunately I retired to bed, rather mournfully, when Zimbabwe was 74/4 and rain had played a spoil sport. Duckworth-Lewis and rain, seemed to be in favor of Aussies at that moment. But the rain gods were with the Minnows yesterday and play resumed. And what happened thereafter is history.
I wish i can catch up on the last two overs (Brett Lee & Bracken) sometime. It would be a treat to watch two of the world's great bowlers epitomizing Speed & Perfection, having to fight a determined duo in Taylor & Chigumbara besides the Gods of course.
Waiting for tomorrow to see Dhoni's eleven against Malik's boys.
Unfortunately I retired to bed, rather mournfully, when Zimbabwe was 74/4 and rain had played a spoil sport. Duckworth-Lewis and rain, seemed to be in favor of Aussies at that moment. But the rain gods were with the Minnows yesterday and play resumed. And what happened thereafter is history.
I wish i can catch up on the last two overs (Brett Lee & Bracken) sometime. It would be a treat to watch two of the world's great bowlers epitomizing Speed & Perfection, having to fight a determined duo in Taylor & Chigumbara besides the Gods of course.
Waiting for tomorrow to see Dhoni's eleven against Malik's boys.
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