Australia going West Indies Way????

This topic was chosen by me because of the way the Australians started to play their Cricket after the Indian Tour Last Summer..It's been a downhill for them ever since India visited and dumped them in their backyard..And this has been vindicated in the ongoing series against the South Africans,who lead the series 3 to 1 in a Five match Bi-Lateral Series...The slide started for Australia when bowlers like McGrath and Warne retired from the International scene..But the Australians didn't show any signs of dipping in their standards as the batsmen started to contribute more on a regular phase...But,The Aussies were tested by the young attack of India.And sooner the pressure started to mount on the Australian Batsmen...The Australians started to feel the plunge after last summer..Though they were able to win and even whitewash the series against West Indies,more vulnerable after retirement of Lara,it was not convincing that they had regained their touch..After the series it was against the NZ and it was a cake walk for the Australians..After winning a couple of series in succession,Aussies went on to play The Proteas with a lot of Confidence and everyone thought that ,even me,Australia will win the series for sure without any difficulty..But The South Africans,led by The Brave Greame Smith,sprung a surprise as they won the first test chasing 414 runs and this set up the series...And The Proteas found a prodigy in JP Duminy,who shattered the dreams of an Australian comeback in the second encounter...And the Aussies lost the series 2 to 1...Thereby,in bother of losing their number one spot to SA...Everyone started to feel the Aussies are no more number one and it must be either India nor SA...After the test series,Hayden bid good bye and this made the situation even more worse...Will the Australians be able to find a man of his calibre???Then came the ODI series and they lost the series even before the series got finished,which shows that the Aussies are plunging..After I witness the last match,it made me feel that the Australians were following the West Indian way of 1990,going into a slump...About a decade or a couple ago,this situation would have suited the West Indian side and how they struggled to comeback,still they didn't, after the retirement of Greats like Greenidge,Richards,Richardson,Lloyd,Haynes and many more...The West Indies were not able to fight even today in an International Arena...THis is because of the lack of bench strength...I get a feeling that The Australians doesn't have the bench strength either to replace the Retired ones...Don't know how the Australians go about coping after the retirement of Gilchrist,Hayden,the drunkard Symonds and Ponting...It would be a uphill task for the Australians to regain the top spot in ODI's,if they happen to lose against South Africa in the final ODI...I reckon that they can regain it only by playing against Bangladesh,Kenya and even NZ and WI...

ICC's Jest...

Last week,there was a great joke made by the ICC when it released a list of All Time Great Players...It was not a mistake to release the list but it happened to be a crime when Sachin Tendulkar's name was excluded from the Top Ten...In fact,he was placed at 26 in Tests Rankings and 14 in ODI Rankings..Sachin was the one who brought Indian Cricket to this level and it was because of him the game is popular and to say it was because of him the BCCI is Cash Rich...And ICC runs the game mainly because of BCCI and they afford to rate a player of Sachin's calibre below the rank of 20...What is intolerable is that Hayden,Hussey,Chanderpaul and Mohammed Yousuf are above Sachin...Hussey has not even played 50 matches in his career and is rated above Sachin,who has played more than 150 matches with a healthy average...And coming to the ICC ODI Rankings Sachin is at No.14 after Sangakkara and other Ordinary Players...To me,he is even better than Don Bradman,taking competition and media pressure into consideration...Ponting is at No.4,What a crap!!!He was such an ordinary player till the Ashes series in 2005...This rating is entirely in favour of the Australians...Ponting,Hussey and Hayden breaking into top 20...The criteria for selecting the Top 20 should be same...When Sachin was at its peak,no one was close to him...And i still remember that in those days it was Ceat Ratings,which can be easily calculated...Then,came the Reliance Ratings and everything changed...Who knows how it is calculated and on what basis..It's like the D/L Method of the ICC...Even Dravid is placed at No.30...Coming to the Bowling Department Steyn is placed above Donald...I think the ICC have gone Nuts...Whatever the rankings says,its just a like a bull shit,no one can take the laurels away from the Little Master...In the hearts of Indians,he always stays as the No.1...ICC,International Cricket Council should change its name to Idiotic Cricket Council after such a stupid Chart...

Villu...Ore Lollu....

Viilu,a Vijay starer directed by Prabhu Deva...This movie was largely expected because of this pair's success earlier...But,it disappoints...A usual Vijay film with lots of commercial elements and shot partly in abroad..The film kicks off with a song from an M.G.R. movie and the intro scene of Vijay is an Hair Raising one...Vijay does his own style of acting,Nayanthara comes and goes...At Times,Vadivelu evokes some laughter..But to say,that his comics are disappointing..Vadivelu is in the danger of his stereo typed acting...Kushboo does an item number...Almost the entire crew of Pokkiri acted in this movie...Prakash Raj as villain does his role neatly...Personally,I don't want him to do these kind of roles...Only the director should answer what was Anandhraj doing in the movie... Vijay flies from one place to an other and comes in a boat from nowhere...All these makes us feel that they have tried a Bond...On many occasions Vijay is being compared to Rajini and M.G.R...This film has a lot of identical scenes when compared to this combo's earlier movie,Pokkiri...This shows the lack of creative skills...This film also shows how amateurish the director is...The music of this film is way below par...BGM also is not up to the mark...Now,Coming to the story..I think this must be the 50,000th film in the history of cinema coming with such a story line...The story is Vijay's father being killed by a group and Vijay avenges them...This forms the story...A surprise to all when Vijay comes in a military dress..And to many,it evokes laughter than a Vadivelu comedy...If u are to go for this movie keep your brains inside the house as this movie doesn't have logic in it..On a whole,A disappointing one...


Verdict : STAY AWAY...

The Trio Of Indian Cricket..

This time it is up for me to write a blog about the Well Renowned Trio of Indian Cricket...They were the ones,who got India to fight at the bigger stage...After the retirement of the likes of Kapil and Gavaskar,these people were responsible for the fame of Indian Cricket...They are Sachin Tendulkar,Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid...But if u want me to write in the order,here goes it...Sachin,Dravid and Ganguly....This order is cause of the following Criteria:

• Most Number of Runs in Test and ODI,when aggregated...
• Most Number of matches won cause of them
  
• Most Number of Hundreds,when Combined
• Sacrifices made...

Since Ganguly and Dravid have same number of Hundreds in Both the formats,I will take average into consideration...Dravid leads in average...

Sachin Tendulkar was the man who changed the face of Indian Cricket,when Indians were going nowhere after the retirement of the yesteryear greats..He was responsible for the richness of BCCI...There was a period when everyone stops watching the match,when he gets out..There are still many who switch off the Telivision,the moment he gets out...The most celebrated individual and a great crowd puller...To my knowledge,he was the only batsman who dominated the bowlers all over the world,at least for once...He is,now,the highest scorer in both ODI and Test matches..To read more about Tendulkar,read my other blogs...

The next man in my order is Rahul Dravid...I still remember the first match he played...He scored 95 at Lords against the Poms in1996...He was considered as the replacement of Sanjay Manjerekar cause of his technique....Dravid has grown well as a batsman if u compare him in earlier years with today...At the beginning of his career,Dravid was a batsman with immense skills without aggressiveness...Hence,he was dropped from the team especially in ODI's..He was not a regular feature in ODI's...But,he improved himself as a batsman with good Technique and aggression..His comeback into the ODI's was against New Zealand in their own Backyard...Thereafter,there is no turning back for this man..He went from strength to strength and made sure that he cemented his place in both the formats of the game...Dravid was nicknamed "THE WALL" after his brilliant knock against the Australians in 2001 at Kolkata...His tenure with V.V.S.Laxman was the turning point of that series...He was considered the wall because he would never give away his wicket easily to the opponents...He was one of the batsman who was responsible for a victory against Australia in Australia in 2004...After Tendulkar,this guy was the one who has done a lot of sacrifice for Indian Cricket..Though Tendulkar's sacrifices were off the field and also sometimes on the field,this man's sacrifice is fully on the field..Whenever he was asked to keep wickets,he did it...Opening or number three or number five,he batted according to his team's desire...We don't see many changing their batting place but this man does it with utmost ease,just for his team...To me,he is the best batsman in Test Cricket after Sachin because of his Endurance,Solid Technique,Commitment and also for his Never-say-die attitude...Though he is out of sorts these days,I believe firmly that he would comeback strongly in the next series...

Coming to Sourav Ganguly..He also made his debut against England in the same match that of his mate Rahul Dravid...Ganguly made a century against The English at Lords...It is always an special moment to score a century at The Lords...He was the most elegant off-side Player and is also,till now,considered as the God Of Off-Side...This guy made a bright start to his international career...It was in 1998 that he teamed up with Sachin for the opening slot and proved his worth...Both were considered deadly because of Right-Left Combination and these two happened to be the best opening pair ever produced by India in ODI's...Ganguly also has many aliases like The Prince of Calcutta,Dada etc...Ganguly,right from his debut,was depending on his timing...His sixes would be huge cause of the timing at which it is produced...On song,Ganguly would caress any bowler...But,right from the young age ,he was vulnerable towards short length deliveries...He really doesn't know to face those stuffs from the quickies...More than his batting,Ganguly was known for his captaincy...He was the one who salvaged India from going into a slump after the Match Fixing Scandal...He was the one who instilled youth blood into the team and Captained India to 2003 World Cup Final...He also made a roaring comeback into the side after he was dropped because of continuous failure...He was also hailed as the comeback man,when he received four MoM awards continuously...But,only disappointing feature of Ganguly's batting is that he would Play for Himself(Selfish Cricketer)...This could be witnessed by seeing his batting...He also would have head above his shoulders because of continuous victories in his tenure as the captain...And not to take credit away from him,he is the best captain India has ever produced,when taking Number of Victories and Percentage of Winning into Consideration...


These were the three who took India to a Greater height...

Abhiyum Naanum..WOW!!!!!

This movie happens to be one of the best movies I've watched in recent times...The story revolves around a Father and a Daughter played by Prakash Raj and Trisha respectively....The Story begins with Prakash Raj walking in a cold winter at Ooty and happens to meet a father playing with his Daughter..This father role is well enacted by Prithviraj,a leading actor in Malayalam and an upcoming in Tamil Cinema...It is such a small role but a vital one..I bet with anyone that such role would have never been considered by the contemporary Tamil Heroes...Kudos to Prithvi....Prakash Raj meets Prithvi and starts telling his father-daughter relationship and how one has to bear all the pains caused by daughters...The way the movie moves is Fantastic..This movie had a right mix of Emotion,Sentiment,Comedy and most importantly,after a long time,it had a story...And Father of all surprises is that this movie doesn't have a single fight..Good feeling to see a Tamil movie not having Dishum-Dishum....Trisha does her role neatly...Prakash Raj,most of the times,with his facial expressions and way of delivering dialogues evokes laughter and plays a role of a responsible father...The roles played by Manobala as a hunched man,the beggar,could not find his name, Ganesh Ram as a Sardar and Thalaivasal Vijay do justice to their roles...This is the kind of movie that Tamil Cinema needs...And finally,Kudos to the director,Radha Mohan,for coming with such an excellent movie...

Verdict:Must Watch...

Best Moments of Indian Cricket

There are certain big and great moments in Indian Cricket which we cherish for...There seems to be a lot of happy moments on and off the fields which we can't afford to forget so easily..I thought of some and here it is...

• The First moment that comes into mind when we think of great moment is the 1983 World cup...Indians were underdogs going into the final against the mighty West Indies...I learnt from various sources that On the eve of the match,News Papers carried the headlines as A match between David and Goliath...But,Indians awestruck the West Indians by their gritty nature and won the World Cup for the First Time....
  

• The incident which happened in the 1996 world cup at Bangalore against Pakistan between Prasad and Sohail happens to be the best moment to have seen by me...And even if i think of it today,there will be goose bumps...I still remember it happened in the 14th over of the match when Sohail struck an excellent four on the off side and shows a gesture with his bat to Prasad that he would strike him again,if he bowls the same delivery and the very next delivery was a striking reply from the bowler by ripping his stump off and this made each and every Indian proud...And Prasad was known for this incident than his bowling...

• In the same match stated above,None can forget Jadeja's brilliance with the bat...He made every bowler felt that he was just another bowler...Waqar's yorker were famous those days and to hit a six off the yorker needs more brilliance...Jadeja had it and scored massively in the final overs against Waqar and seemed unstoppable...The Indians were already celebrating the victory even when the first ball being bowled in the second innings,thanks to Jadeja...
  

• First time 300 runs scored by India against the Pakistanis is yet another one...Indians were 280 odd runs in the 48th over and Azhar was out of form in that series and he was persuaded and pushed by Sachin to bat during that circumstance...And Azhar was at his aggressive best and he smashed a bowler named Atta-ur-Rahman for 24 runs in the final over and helped India go past the 300 Run mark for the first time...
  

• None can forget the onslaught of Sachin on Warne in 1996 and then in 1998...I still remember that in 1996 Warne said that he would rip off Tendulkar by his spin and get him cheaply...But,what happened at chepauk in 1996 was a rip off for Warne...He was smashed all round the parts by Sachin and Warne couldn't just control him...So,he started to bowl negative line for Sachin but couldn't contain the Genius...Those who witnessed this blitzkrieg will never ever forget in their life time...

• The next unforgettable moment again is the incident involving the Bombay Bomber Sahin Tendulkar...It was again the Australians who were on the other side...It was the Sharjah cup in 1998...India need some 250 runs off 40 overs to get into the finals and Sachin played a blinder and made us to the Final...He scored 143 runs in 120 deliveries...Next comes the final,Sachin did not stop,he continued from where he had left the other night...Bowlers couldn't stop him scoring,though there were great bowlers like Warne,Fleming,Kasprowicz..He was lethal on them that day...And as a Sachin Fan and a Indian Fan,none can forget this...

• 1999 World Cup in England was not well known for India's March but for a partnership between Ganguly and Dravid,where they amassed 300 runs for the second wicket against Sri Lanka...It was the first time ever in the history of ODI a Partnership has accumulated such huge runs...

• It was in 2001 at Kolkata against the Australians,where India won a match from nowhere...Indians were asked to follow on by the Aussies and they paid the money for it...It was only the third occasion a team asked to follow on won a match...This sounds impossible but it did happen...The Protagonists being V.V.S.Laxman and Rahul Dravid..They played an entire day and made sure that Indians crossed the follow on mark and had a lead more than 300 runs...Laxman scored a flawless 281 and Dravid played a brilliant knock of 180...Harbhajan made sure that the knocks of the two doesn't go in vain by his Brilliant Bowling...
  

• The other incident which comes across my mind is the Natwest Final in 2002 in England..Indians were chasing a target of more than 300 runs..To be Precise,327 runs...As Indians were known as the Chokers in Finals,none thought they would chase this mammoth total...As their Tag Line"CHOKERS" suggested,Indians were 100 runs for the loss of 4 wickets losing all Big Guns and it was up to the youngsters Kaif and Yuvraj to help them make a respectable total..But the youngsters jelled well and made the Victory possible by their talent,endurance and confidence..

• 2003 World cup was also a memorable for the Indians where they went up to finals but couldn't seal it off..But,it was an entertaining WC...

• Sehwag scored a massive 300 runs against the Pakistanis at Multan in 2004 and this was the first time an Indian crossing such a mark...He did it again in 2008 against SA at Chennai...Thereby being the only Batsman after Don and Lara to have scored 2 300's..
  

• Ganguly's comeback in the team could also never been forget by anyone...He was dropped from the team following the spat between Chappel Greg..He made a roaring come back into the side and cemented his place with great ease...He,too,won four man of the match in row after his comeback...

• The year 2007 began as a bad year for Indian Cricket as they had a early exit in the World Cup but the latter part of the year proved to be fruitful...Indians won the inaugural T20 World Cup under the captaincy of Dhoni at South Africa...This was totally unexpected from the young guys,who made it to the squad...The euphoria after the team won the world cup was inexplicable...IT was a great moment for Indian Cricket after the 198 World Cup...Both the winning sides possessed identical similarities...Both were treated as Underdogs in the beginning but ended on a high note...It was the moment to cherish for by each and every Indian...

• The other big thing that happened in T20 World Cup was the Six massive 6's struck by Yuvraj in an over off Stuart Broad...This blast comes as an anger towards Flintoff,who had a chat with him in the middle of the overs,but Broad Paid for Flintoff...
  

• The next big thing that happened in Indian Cricket was the triumph in Australia...The squad for this series had a bunch of youngsters by dropping Ganguly and Dravid...Everyone thought that this team would struggle against the Australians and would be packed before reaching the finals...But,the fortunes turned on the side of Youngsters accompanied by Sachin and won the series for the first time in Australia...
  

These are some of the moments that came to my mind....

Worst moments of Indian Cricket...

The Indian Cricket has faced with a lot of criticism in the past few years,but there are really worst moments which do happen in Indian Cricket...This blog of worst moments encompasses in and off the field moments of Indian Cricket and also the worst moments which are never regrettable and unforgettable by the People of India...

Some of the worst moments are elaborated under:

• The First Moment which comes to my mind when blogging about the worst moments is The 1996 World Cup Semi Final against SriLanka in Kolkata,formerly called Calcutta...Indians were having the match in hands till the departure of Sachin...At that point,Indians were 90 odd for the loss of a Wicket and was collapsed to 120 for the loss of 9 wickets..This screwed up the Calcutta crowd and they started throwing stones,bottles,fired Papers which led to the abandonment of match and India exited from the World Cup with a knock out punch from the Lankans...I still remember a player named Kambli Cried over this outing...This also happens to be the first match seen by me...

• The other incident which comes across my mind was the one which happened in England in 1996...There was a feud between Sidhu and Azhar,Captain,then...Azhar won the toss and elected to bat...Sidhu padded up for one down and was waiting for his turn to play...After the openers got into the middle Azhar asks to Sidhu,"Why u are padded up???you are not playing this match" and this was irritating for Sidhu to hear...And in anger he threw up his pads and packed his clothes and flows back to India without obtaining any approval neither from the Management nor the BCCI..This was a shame for Indian Cricket...
  

• The next moment which the People of India couldn't digest even today is the test match against the Pakistanis at Chennai in 1999...Indians were chasing a target of 271 Runs and they almost made it with the help of Sachin,who scored 136 invaluable runs with a cramp on his bag...On various occasions he had Pain Killers between the overs...And because of cramp,he could not play any longer and started to call on for the shots...He was going well with the shots until the one which he mishit a Saqlain's delivery,when India needed another 15 runs and three wickets in hand... The Other players failed to capitalise the start given by him and Indians lost the match by 12 runs...This match still haunts the memories of millions,if they think of it...

• 1999 world cup in England was also the worst moment of Indian Cricket as they were packed in the second round..

• Indians have a worst record held by any team in the finals..Indians were considered to be chokers in the finals as they won only a handful of matches in Finals...

• Indians also have a record of having two individual highest score against them of the First Three..The players being Anwar and Jayasuriya,both Southpaws,who onslaught the Indian bowling attack and were easing through the bowlers...I still remember the match in which Jayasuriya scored 189,Indians were all out for a meagre 54 runs,which was a lowest score by any team batting second,then...Though Indians had their full team they were bundled out..
  

• The match scandal in 2000 shown the ugly face of Indian Cricket...Players like Azhar,Jadeja,Prabhakar were caught in this scandal..The first two mentioned were vital players for India and everyone were dumbstruck by this saga..Even many stopped watching Cricket after this episode and made their mind that Cricket revolves only around bribery...
  

• The Indians were also facing bad times during the period of 1996-99 against the Pakistanis...India use to lose almost every match against Pakistan...Not only a ordinary loss but also big ones...

• Indians went into 2003 World Cup with a lot of hopes...Won the first match against Holland with difficulty and lost a match to Australians convincingly...This loss made the Public angry towards the players and they broke the house of players and burnt their effigies on the way to their protest...This was seen by the world for the first time..It was such a barbaric incident ever to have happened...

• After the tenure of John Wright,it was Greg Chappel...This is where all the confusion began in Indian Cricket...Until the intro of Chappel,everything was going well for Indian Cricket...It was cause of Chappel,there was a difference between the players like Seniors and Juniors and he was sole responsible for terminating Ganguly's Captaincy and was the the worst coach India have ever had..He was such a non-sense to the Players...

• None can forget the spat between Ganguly and Dravid..It was a sign of the intro of Chappel...Ganguly was dropped from the side cause of Chappel and he was helped to an extent by Dravid to retain his post of Captaincy...

• The worse moment for Indian Cricket came in 2007 World Cup in West Indies with their first round exit..They lost against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and made their way back to India, where they were given a hostile reception from the Public...And this exit made every Indian ashamed and were haunted like anything before...

These were some of the moments which came across my mind and their might be many before 1996 and also more after 1996,which I might have forgotten and any worst incident which comes across my mind Iwould add it to this blog...

Team India in 2008...

The year 2008 was the most successful year for Team India..This year has seen the dawn of a new era..Two Respected men of Indian Cricket bid adieu from Cricket...One man crossing 12k runs...It's all happening for Indian Cricket...Dhoni gets promoted to captaincy in Tests,too..Sehwag leading in the most runs scored in this particular year...

Team India had a bad beginning this year at the Sydney losing the match from nowhere...But,the Protagonist of this match is the Monkey gate saga between Symonds and H.Singh...The Australians were struggling to get the wickets of Sachin and Singh and as usual they started to provoke the opponents with an idea of getting wicket...But,Fortunately for India that didn't happen...Frustrated Symonds and Hayden started to sledge bhajji from the behind and after a point of time Symmo says to Bhajji that "U have made a Racial Remark,calling me a monkey,and have to face the consequence,mate"and Bhajji was left clueless as to what was happening...And this was made even made bigger by the Media..Adding to this was the Umpiring Blunder,which paved way for an Australian victory...After the match was over the Newspapers carried a headline like,"Australians played with 13 players and India with 11"...Other newspaper had a headline that,"Australia had 3 umpires in the middle(Bucknor,Benson and Ponting,who judged Ganguly 's Wicket)...Harbhajan was banned for three tests following the Racial vilification but the Team Management threatened to pull off from the tour unless the ban is revoked...Finally,The ban was removed and the Indians Carried on the tour...Next match was at Perth and Indians proved their mettle by winning the match hands down...Though Indians lost the series,they won the hearts of Millions by showing their fighting spirit...

Next comes the Tri Nation Series in Australia...Adjoining the two were The Lankans...This series was the turning point of India's dream run,this year...Intervened by Dhoni,Selectors dropped the Southpaw Ganguly and The Wall,Dravid but retained The Master,Tendulkar...The dropping saga raised criticisms all round India....But,Dhoni,wasn't perturbed...First few matches,Team India didn't increase the level of confidence of the people but the victory against Australia in the second ODI made them to look at...And,Not with much difficulty Indians reached the finishing stage...And,It was at this point of time Dhoni made an implied remark on Sachin that the openers should play good cricket for us to win the match...The first final was played at SCG and India won the match convincingly,thanks to a brilliant century by The MASTER...The words by Dhoni might have egged him up...Dhoni was pronto on to his remarks about Sachin that,"He scored more than 16K runs,don't know whether I played 16K balls"....The next match too was won convincingly by the Indians and the Euphoria was great in the ground...After the series Dhoni's bold decision to hang on with the Youngsters was justified and was appreciated for his efforts..

Next came the IPL,a cash rich league,organised by BCCI..It went on to become a huge success...The next series for the Indians was the Asia Cup held at Pakistan..Tendulkar was rested and it was a new and energetic team which got selected... Indians cruised to the finals without any hindrance but their real test was awaited in the finals,where they have to face a unique bowler in Mendis...The Indians choked against this man in the finals and squandered a rare opportunity of lifting the trophy...At this instance,the media sparkled at the team and went on to say that the seniors might have helped them at this cause...

Indians next assignment was against Sri Lankans abroad...Dhoni opted himself out of the squad for the tests...Everyone thought that the seniors would play Mendis better...But,it didn't happen...Dravid and Laxman choked against this man,whenever he bowled...It was only Tendulkar and Ganguly who played him better but neither were aggressive against him...They lost their wicket to him only once in the three match series...Tendulkar needed 170 odd runs to go past Lara but unfortunately it didn't happen in this series...And he was not having a good series averaging below 20...Got starts,but never converted it into big ones...And,India lost the series 2 to 1...The ODI squad was picked without Tendulkar,owing to injury....Yuvraj was the only one who was seen out of touch,especially against Mendis...Every time Mendis bowled,Yuvraj would be gone within an over...He couldn't read his bowling...Such was Yuvi's touch against this prodigy,Mendis...But,this time around the youngsters,barring Yuvi, played better cricket against Mendis and SL and won the Series 3 to 2...Public was awestruck by their performance....

In October,it was Border-Gavaskar Trophy against the Aussies...Full strength was picked to counter and regain the cup from the Aussies...Tendulkar needed 70-90 runs to go past Lara...Prior to the series,Ganguly announced that this will be his last series...The first match ended in a draw thanks to the effort of Zaheer and Bhajji with the bat in the first innings,otherwise would have been an inevitable defeat for the Indians...Going to the next match at Mohali,Tendulkar needed another 20 odd runs...Many started talking that it was over for the Master and his Charm has lost and he can no longer be a great batsman as he used to be...But,as usual the Master speaks with the bat and shuts them up with a well made 88 runs and goes past 12K runs and Lara's record...This knock went on to become a match winning knock and India leads the series with a couple of games up their sleeves..The Third match of the series went on to become a tame draw...This match saw the departure of a Legend named KUMBLE..He was given a hero's departure and his farewell was awesome...Dhoni carried Kumble on his shoulders around the ground and made everyone feel elated...The final test was held at Nagpur with India leading the series 1-0...Dhoni led the test team for the first time as a full time captain... Aussies had nothing to lose...Everyone realised that Aussies would go for a kill...This match had a lot of landmarks...This test marked the 40th century for Master...First man to be at this landmark..This test also marked the farewell test for Ganguly and a debut for M.Vijay...100th Test Match for V.V.S.Laxman...The match was won by the Indians on the last day and lifted the trophy..Before the fall of last wicket,Dhoni made a gesture to Ganguly by handing over the post of captaincy for a couple of overs...This made every one feel that there was no displeasure between the two...

Indians played their next home series against England...It was a 7 match ODI series...Tendulkar was not selected for the first four matches in order to give him rest,as the hectic schedule follows after this outing...This time it was Yuvraj's time..He played a couple of brilliant innings scoring hundreds on each occasion and made his presence felt,whenever he walked in...The first four matches were won by the Indians easily and for the next three ODi's Sachin was selectes and got a fifty in his second match of the series... On the night of fifth one dayer,there was a bomb attack in Mumbai and The English were flown back to their own backyards...The other two one dayers were cancelled and England survived a White wash...However,the two test matches took place as per schedule but the venues were changed,cause of attacks...

The first test was held at Chennai,Originally to be held in Mumbai,saw one of the successful run chases...The only man who was not among the runs against the Australians was Dravid...And Straightaway,he was under scrutiny as many were waiting in the wings...Again,Dravid failed in the first test... Sachin scored a century on the fifth day of the test and made sure that Sehwag's blitzkrieg on the penultimate day was not wasted...Yuvraj,too,played a vital role...Dravid was given another opportunity to prove his credentials and he made use of it by scoring a long awaiting century and the match ended in a draw...India lifting the trophy 1-0...At the end of the year,it was Sehwag who topped the batsmen list in terms of runs and his partner Gambhir scoring ample of runs and they both form a formidable pair...


So,Indians finish the year on a high with a series win...Hope that Indians have a even better 2009...Overall,a great year for Indian Cricket...

Hayden Dropped,Pietersen Quits???

Aftermath of the 3 Mobile Test series loss against the South Africans,Aussies are almost down and gone..The pressure was on the selectors to pick a team for the ODI series against the Proteas...They had no other go other than to drop Hayden,37,for some other youngster as he was not in the best of form since he came back from an injury against the West Indies..How long they can sustain with an Old Bullock???They just trashed him away like they did for Symmo...Hayden was given ample opportunities but it was squandered away by him..And the Australians would have nearly lost the final test match against The Proteas as he dropped a sitter at slips...So,CA have discarded him from the squad for the upcoming series...Now the Ausralians without Symmo and Haydos are touch a bit vulnerable,as they lose their experience...And a brand new Australian Team has been picked for the series...Causing to the wound would be that Lee and Johnson are also rested for the upcoming series owing to injury concerns,which makes a completely inexperienced bowling attack..Leading the bowling attack would be Siddle,who played nearly 2 to 3 test matches...But,We can never under estimate any Australian side...They always come with a surprise...And lets see how Ponting goes about it...

Another important happening which took place in the World of Cricket is The Resignation of the South African Born English Captain Kevin Pietersen..It's a great loss for the Poms as he was doing a great job in building the team...One bad series cannot make him a bad captain...It seems that there was a rift between the coach and KP, and this came into picture publicly,which persuaded KP to resign from the post...The rift was because of the reason that certain players were selected cause of Moores and KP was against it ...Moores was also sacked from the Coach Post right after KP resigned...The Next Skipper was announced by the ECB as Andrew Strauss..I think he would be a Stop-Gap captain for the series against West Indies...I don't know where his name surfaced from...He was in and out of the squad until the arrival of Pietersen's tenure...It should have gone to Freddy or given it back to Collingwood...Who would the Board name the skipper in ODI's,as Strauss doesn't play One Day Cricket regularly...I think Flintoff would have been a better choice...

Right before the Ashes,some great changes take place between the teams which would make the contest more interesting...

05/01/09:My Experience of watching Sachin Bat at Chepauk against Saurashtra

It was always one of my dream to watch Sachin Bat in front of my eyes...A couple of weeks ago I missed his batting at chepauk against The Poms,in which he scored a match winning Ton,because of unforeseen circumstance....And i regretted for not making it to Chepauk that day...I was worried that I would never witness his batting again at M.A.C....But after a week i came to know that Sachin was in Chennai to play a match against Saurashtra for his side(Mumbai, Ranji Trophy Match)...It was crucial encounter,A semi final match....I marked it that day that I shouldn't miss this opportunity....

The day came...It was on the 4th of January,a Sunday,and I thought that I should make it count for....Unfortunately,I woke up at 9A.M and the match starts Half past Nine...I was worried that I couldn't make it once again...When I switched on the T.V.,Jaffer,Captain of Mumbai,won the toss and decided to bat...Don't know what cajoled me,I set off for the match at 10A.M. with my friend,another Sachin Fan....

We entered the ground at 11A.M and the openers were still batting and our stand was almost full...Got a feeling that Everyone were aware of Sachin's presence at Chepauk...We were just encouraging for every boundary scored and also for good fielding...We made sure that players in the arena got confused...And the first blood was drawn by the Saurashtra bowlers and we were going gaga over it,knowing that Sachin would come after the fall of Second Wicket...But,unfortunately,that never happened the whole day and most of them in the ground felt disappointed...After the day got over,We chanted Sachin's name in chorus and after a few minutes Sachin came into the ground with his pads on....He was accompanied by a chucker with some three to five balls...He started to bat in the nets and made us happy...One of my happy moments came when he waved his bat towards us...It was then I realised that there is no need for him to come and bat but only to make the spectators happy...Great man!!!That's why he is celebrated all round India...He played some 20 to 25 deliveries and went into the dressing room..Not a single face seen by me was disappointed...But,I thought that I should go next day to see him bat in the middle...

Next Day was also the same old story,I woke up at 9 but this time I reached the ground at 10...I wasn't cared about whether he would score runs or not...It was important for me to see him come into the ground with his bat and face at least a delivery...It was the time when the second wicket fell and the Maestro walks into the middle...It was a great feeling for me to be in the ground..I cherish this moment...When he made his first run there was a big roar in the ground,though only a small amount was there...Finally,One of my dream was fulfilled when he faced his first delivery...After 4 to 5 deliveries,the Maestro got set and whacked a six over deep midwicket...He made it look very easy...He was going all guns blazing and boosted the team's Run Rate...Within no time,50 runs Partnership came between Sachin and Jaffer..Of which 38 runs came from the willow of Sachin...Jaffer was only a sleeping partner,then...Soon,Sachin brought up his fifty in style with a chip over extra cover...And,at that moment I felt that he was all set for a big Century....He was just milking the bowlers and seemed to be unstoppable...He played different strokes at times which was viewed by me for the first time...

The Stand was almost full after the lunch break..It was again "The Sachin Show"...He was dancing down the pitch to the spinners and treated them like an infant...He smashed 3 sixes in three overs and got to 80 runs swiftly....He didn't stop there..Went on to score yet another century of 120 odd deliveries with a scintillating cover drive bisecting the two fielders...Whenever Sachin turned on the leg side to see the field set up,we waved our hands towards him..But,No Reply..And we all understood that he was concentrating on his batting...

The crowd started to build up on all parts of the ground and importantly there were a lot of women supporters for Sachin and they were making the place alive...It was during the drinks break when Sachin removed his helmet to have a bottle of Juice...we all started to shout "Sachin,Sachin" and on one occasion he waved his hands towards us and was again making us happy...Sachin started to slow down a bit after the century...I think it was on the score of 122,he had a chat with the Umpire and walked into the dressing room...

After he walked into the dressing room,almost entire ground was empty within minutes...I too left the ground as there was no use in seeing the match further...This was my experience of watching Sachin Bat and I would treasure the moment when i saw him facing the first ball...And,Finally one of my dream was fulfilled...

Cricket in 2008:Emergence of New Powers???

There were many things happening around the world of Cricket during the passed by Year...Some notable things are nearly an end of an era for Australian Cricket,A newbie named Mendis,incredible team efforts from India and South Africa,Terror Attacks affecting Cricket,Monkey gate affair,IPL,12000 runs by Sachin,Retirements of Greats etc.,And the most important thing in my Perspective is that my Favourite Batsman Tendulkar scored century in first and final series this year...

Let me summarize these things....The year began with a bad note at Sydney because of the Monkey gate Affair between Harbhajan and Symonds...Symonds complained it to the higher officials and there was a case filed on Bhajji...He was charged on basis of Racial Vilification...Indians lost the match on account of poor Umpiring decisions,especially against India and not a single one against the home side...Indians threatened to pull off from the tour provided the Aussies withdraw the complaint against Harbhajan....This was the turning point of Indian Cricket this year...Series resumed and next encounter was played at Perth and India won the match hands down and triggered the fall of Australia cricket..Series came to an end with a scoreline of 2-1 in favour of Australia,which should have been the other way...

Next comes the Tri nation ODI series involving India,Australia and Lankans...It was the first time Dhoni would be captaining the side abroad....Unbelievable changes took place in the squad dropping Sourav and Dravid....The new look Indian side played good cricket throughout the series and was guided well by Tendulkar..Dhoni's leadership came in for praise across the globe after the Australians were thumped down in the best of three finals..And his option to stick with the youngsters was vindicated....

After the series got over next comes the IPL,which is new to the cricketing world...It had 8 teams participating and spanned over a period of about 2 months....Just about 2 to 3 months past the controversy at the Sydney,we were able to see Symonds back in India playing for the chargers and was even supported by the Indian Public...As all say Cricket is a funny game proved to be right...This event went on to become a huge hit,not even the organizers of this event would have thought of...IPL was introduced on wake of ICL,which is considered as a rebel league,organised and headed by Zee group and Kapil Dev respectively....

The introduction of a newbie named Ajanta Mendis of Sri lanka brought about a revolution in Spin department...His unique way of bowling attracted many and bamboozled the players...The players were not able to pick him,they were perplexed as to which way the ball would spin after pitching...Even the Indians,who are good players of spin bowling struggled against him...He picked nearly 25 wickets in 3 matches...He is also approaching the landmark of fastest 50 wickets in ODI's,which is currently held by Agarkar(unbelievable,but its true)...It would be interesting to see how this guy would fair after a couple of years...

This year has also seen many of the great players retiring from the arena...They are Gilly,Kumble and Ganguly...Of the three,Gilly was the one who retired with a series on a losing note...Kumble and Ganguly had a good farewell winning the series against the Aussies at home...
It was also in this series that Tendulkar scored 12000 runs and it was the first time this landmark being achieved....

At the fag end of the year,there was a terrorist attack which halted Cricket in India for at least a couple of Weeks...On wake of Attacks,Champions league,which was supposed to take place for the first time,was abandoned...Pakistan Tour was cancelled and a tour ban was imposed on Pakistan and a couple of matches against England were cancelled..

The most important happening of all is the Fall of Australian Cricket,who were dominating cricket for about half a decade...It was India who triggered the fall of Australian Cricket at their own backyard...It was a slap on the face of Aussies for its arrogance...Not only India,even the South Africans started to dominate the once mighty Aussies in the ongoing series..SA'ns chased a mammoth total of 414 runs at Perth and also won the series convincingly....

It would be interesting to see how Australia fares in 2009 and whether they would bounce back...And to see whether India and South Africa continue to play good cricket at the top level...It has been a fascinating year of Cricket as no country was dominating this particular year...