Abhaya Sharma Presents IPL 2

Lanka Lost but Cricket at its best..

2009-12-24T12:17:00.000-08:00

The Series that India just won…

The game was never looking like a contest in the second half despite the fact that India had lost its valuable openers in Sehwag and Sachin.. the only time that Sri Lanka probably had some thing to smile about..

These days with so much of improvement in the batting skills.. so much working out the strategies to garner a win from almost a defeat.. that can not take away any credits from the kind of batting display that the Delhi duo put up in the middle of the cricket Mecca of India.. Eden Gardens has always been special.. Eden Gardens will always remain special.. Eden Gardens tonight witnessed the highest score by the team batting first but only too easily defeatable score..

I would like to put to rest the speculations that the day night cricket brings along with it.. the teams that get to chase have double folded advantage so to say.. first the bowlers especially the slower ones find that grip is missing.. the second factor that goes against the side batting second is the slippery ground conditions which make fielding around a bit uneasy if not outright difficult.. so in cases where two teams are more or less equal in their batting and bowling resources… I would say that team batting second has a distinct advantage..

Not much can be done about to quell such factors that are natural and leave little scope for adjustments.. yet would say that having restricted Lankans to 315 runs was a great battle won in the first half itself.. if one could just leave the third game aside where despite fluent start Lankans failed to cross 250 mark the other three games proved that cricket has far more bend in favour of batters than bowlers.. and what can one really do to avoid that.. batsman have been aided by the technological advancements in video training and finding out better stamina and strategy to extend their stay at the wickets and if one of the batsman has to be of the kind of Sehwag or Dilshan a couple of dropped chances turn the whole complexion of the game..

Of late fielding world wide has come to a stage of stagnation.. the batsman have found it easier with known blocks improvised shot playing and better understanding of bowlers.. the game had never ever been so much so favourable to batsman not even in the days when Bradman or Richards were crafting their innings to perfection.. that batsman like Miandad, Gavaskar and Aravinda or a Border or Gower or even modern times Sachin and Dravid.. all had to build their innings in sensible rather than with the ruthlessness of Sehwag, Afridi or Jayasuriya and not to forget Dilshan in this particular year that was 2009.. they have all collectively changed the way the batsman score runs.. only old timer who played his cricket in this manner successfully could be Adam Gilchrist.. and if it is credit to the game it has to go to Twenty20.. you like it or not the day is not very far when teams would not only make 400 runs but like Lankans almost showed at Rajkot those runs wiould be chased down too..

There is far too little to pick up from which team is best.. I don’t believe in ranking.. especially not in a ranking system that has much less vision to incorporate margin of victory as a criteria.. if a team looses narrowly it can not be same as team loosing by huge margin of wickets, runs or balls to spare.. I know India had been loosing by huge margins in the ld days..but just look at the statistics barring one or two exceptional games they have been doing fairly well.. they did so well against Australia just a few months ago and still lost the series should not go to pull their ranking barometer terribly down.. they might have lost but they were almost there to win two games that they had lost.. Australia of late is not the same force as it used to be a couple of years back.. for whatever reasons yet Australians dominated the first two editions of IPL like none other..

The time has come that if we want all the three formats of the game to survive we have to have parallel cricket taking place.. I mean teams like India, Pakistan and Australia and South Africa for that matter could have parallel teams for Tests and limited over versions..

I being an Indian can easily pick 30 players who could be assigned the jobs of representing my country in international cricket comprising of five days Test cricket and Limited overs cricket.. in fact I can compose three teams if the ICC allows a three way participation of India in cricket at different formats..

Let us first talk of Test team –

1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Manish Pandey
3. Dravid
4. Laxman
5. Rohit Sharma
6. Dinesh Karthik
7. Harbhajan Singh
8. Zaheer Khan
9. Ishant Sharma
10. Munaf Patel
11. Iqbal Abdulla
12. Piyush Chawla
13. Balaji
14. Ajnkya Rahane

I think the team looks quite balance and could possibly be led by either Dravid or Laxman in case Sachin does not want to lead India. It has good batting as well as bowling options that are more suited to Test cricket.

Coming next to Limited Overs team –

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Gautam Gambhir
3. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Suresh Raina
6. Virat Kohli
7. Irfan Pathan
8. Ravindra Jadeja
9. Praveen Kumar
10. R.P. Singh
11. Ashish Nehra
12. Pragyan Ojha
13. Yusuf Pathan
14. Abhishek Nayar
15. Pradeep Sangwan
16. R. Ashwin

If there are people who want to play both the form of the games I would not mind the top four batsman of Limited over games could choose to switch their roles with their equivalent counterparts and some specialist bowlers from Test could also be allowed to play a few games in the limited version.

The players which could shuffle are well known to all.. the experienced batsman in limited version and bowlers with rich Test experience could switch sides to maintain the balance.. In case of people like Sachin, Sehwag, Dhoni and Harbahajan could be allowed the freedom to choose one team from the other.. the other rotations could well depend upon the kind of opposition teams the test and Limited version teams are likely t be playing at the same time.

I can still name few of the reserve players for either team:

Test: Mohammad Kaif, and Parthiv Patel, Vriddhiman Saha
Limited Version: Manoj Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan, Mahesh Rawat and Venugopal Rao

The connoisseur of cricket would say I have been more tilted in favour of Limited version. That is not true. I do foresee a mixing up of players from one team to another from time to time so that Sachin if he plays five Test matches in a year also gets to play atleast 6 to 7 Limited version games as well. Similarily if Sehwag plays 20 Limited version games he also gets to play atleast 3-4 tests in a calendar year. I have just choosen these two senior players as an example.. the numbers here are only exemplary than being exact. I would love that some of the players are always engaged in the playing eleven of one or the other team – i.e Gambhir, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Dhoni, Harbhajan and Praveen Kumar.

I would also love the limited version team to play more number of Twenty20 games. Say one could play equal number of ODIs and T20 games. With so much mileage available for having two teams India could easily take part in 7 to 10 Test matches and as many as 20-20 games each of ODI and Twenty20 in a particular season. This would also allow them to take breaks as an when they want or to apply to play cricket in teams from other countries.

The board could allow 10 days leave to senior cricketers (Five players at a time) to play in some premier leagues of other countries (During the times when they are part of one of the above two teams). The non-member players i.e. the cricketers who have not been considered for playing in one of the teams could simply apply to be allowed to play in International Premier leagues ( something similar to IPL).

The senior players should however also make a commitment to participate in the domestic cricket tournaments where they must play in atleast any of the 5 games, if selected, and not playing for one of the above two teams. However, the 5 games need not compulsorily be of Ranji Level. Playing in national IPL league could be counted as one of the games. I had talked earlier about national and international versions of Premier leagues.

I think the issue of captaincy could rest with only few people and preferably I would love Sehwag, Gambhir or Dhoni to lead the Limited version teams when some of them are not playing in the side. In Test cricket the choices could rest between Dravid or Lakshman if one of the Sehwag, Gambhir or Dhoni are not into the Test side. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina could be their understudies.

I wish India also sends promotional teams ( comprising of the other available talent) into countries which want to participate and progress in cricket in future say the upcoming teams like Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, UAE, Kenya, Bermuda, Scotland et al. and help organize atleast 3 International games in countries which offer to support cricket and host the games featuring the top world teams or even top IPL teams. Developed countries like US, China, Germany, France, Japan may thus be allowed atleast to have a couple of T20 International games.

If the BCCI and ICC pay heed to such suggestions I think cricket could definitely be far more widespread than its presence base of just 9 Test cricket playing countries. Let us hope then that sooner or later the game of T20 finds its way into Olympics. India would have a chance to win Gold with so much of talent available at their disposal.

Abhaya Sharma

Mumbai 25th December 2009 1.50 AM IST

My Preview - Third ODI at Cuttack

2009-12-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

My preview - Third ODI at Cuttack..
Virender Sehwag gets to captain India by default.. Dhoni has been served a two match ban.. it is all right.. team India if they play as a unit should not solely depend overtly on its captain or any player for bringing home the positive results..

I see this as a great opportunity for the team who is likely to have a different look than what we had been used to.. I for one have the opinion that India should use its players judiciously.. no, no, not the way the IPL has imposed a 12-match for India players.. first how do you decide which players come under that definition.. there are some of hem who get to play only in the few games.. there are some who rarely miss a game.. yet again there are some who are playing pivotal role for their IPL teams.. it does not make sense.. probably IPL is not willing to cut down on the total number of games as it directly equates with their earnings in ground as well as broadcast merchandise.. it is unfair to have two games at the league level and have just one game at the closing stages of the tournament.. I don’t like that..

If I were Lalit Modi I would not only add two more Indian teams I might just ask four more teams from other countries one each from Australia, South Africa, England and Pakistan (or even a team each from the other test playing nations i.e. Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies and even Bangladesh) . In that scenario there would be either 14 or 18 teams depending upon whether four foreign teams are allowed or eight foreign teams take part. It would be worthwhile to retain only eight teams and making way for two or four groups in the league stage picking either two teams each or one team each depending on number of groups. These four teams could then be allowed to play a super league where they each play the other twice and the top two teams alone fight it out in a best of three finals. To serve a 12-match restriction on Indian players seems like telling them who is the boss.. the administrator or the players.. I vote against such a scheme of things even if I am ridiculed by the players themselves who may love to play just 12 matches and earn what they deserve as endorsements.. it could mean lack of commitment too..

Coming back to the third one day cricket game Virender Sehwag may not find much options in case Yuvraj fails to clear the fitness test.. though sources say he should be playing in all probabilities.. that would make balance in two sides.. if he does not get to play Viru’s India would decisively start as underdogs.. their bowling and fielding has come under scrutiny even batsmanship will get affected severely if Yuvi too is present as a spectator..

My choice for team may for the first time match exactly with what XI would be doing the service at Cuttack later in the day :Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh (Virat Kohli), Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.

I have preferred to give a chance to Ishant as both Nehra and Khan have been far too expensive I could not drop the in-form Khan so I included Sharma in place of Nehra (though I would have loved if selectors had picked Irfan instead of Sharma.. it is all right).

Abhaya Sharma, Mumbai

Post Script: I wish Sehwag very best in today’s game. I hope India could still strike a balance if they play the above XI.. more so if Yuvraj is fit enough.. a half fit Yuvraj should not be included as it could backfire in the absence of Dhoni as well.. I feel it is time that Sachin and ganbhir come to the rescue of India in the hour of crisis.

Addendum

IPL reformulation- Another way for conducting IPL

India could host a version of national IPL where state teams could all participate in say eight top teams first taking part in a shorter format- like four teams in each group playing out each one in their group just once. The top four teams qualifying for finals and for international IPL league where eight more world teams lock horns making international IPL a total of 12 teams divided into six teams each in a group playing just game each at league level. The top three teams from each group then playing a super league to decide the winner by playing a best of three finals between the top two teams of the super league. That should be in interest of the game globally and in the interest of players.

However, I would not mind if players are allowed to play for whichever team they like to represent in the International IPL. Some Indian players too could be allowed to play or take part for other countries. Say Yuvraj Singh playing for Pakistan and Praveen Kumar for England or Virender Sehwag playing for Australia and Dhoni for South Africa, that is just to enunciate my opinion and plan. It is nearly in the same spirit as Kallis plays for Bangalore or Lee for Kings XI. The decision must be lying with the team owners and willingness of players to switch sides and it must not change during a season of IPL so to say. That could be some great excitement. That alone could pave way for far more teams in the world to make a competent XI by hiring players from other cricket playing countries.

It should also be emphasised here that International IPL matches be then counted at par with Twenty20 Internationals by ICC. I only wish that these suggestions are taken as positive suggestions and not as criticism of IPL administrators.

India posts the highest second innings winning total..

2009-12-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Auro the commentator (Extra Cover)

A good performance from you as well as the team India!

I was bemused to find that you did appear on commentary box along with Murali Kartik.. it was quite some fun.. es[pecially when you said gaya, gaya and I don't like that man in the red shirt..

The best part was the googly that you bowled about your observation about the wides.. I would say what a great observation about assigning the reason for so many wides in such a short format.. very well said sir.. the bowler does try to dislodge the concentrtion of the batsman by conceding a single.. moreover when a batsman is predetermined to hit everything that is hurled at him.. these wides are likely to produce wickets in this format.. no, no, you were perfect in your observation even if both kartik and Attapattu could not read your observations.. they see everything from pure cricketer's angle where as these wides have human angle to it.. chauka maarega.. ab maar..

Well, I am extremely jubiliated for the win.. I did my part well.. at the beginning of the Indian innings I did walk out to get milk and smoke a cigarette.. later I tried to hang the clothes that were lying in the washing machine.. in the meantime India had started off well.. tobe frank with you did not believe ndia had much chance to start with but I remembered what you said to a request hurled at you to say something to Sehwag and Gambhir and you said chhakka maaro, chhakka maaro.. good that the team heard your answer.. ther were as many as ten sixes in the Indian innings and five from the birthday boy Yuvraj Sixing..

When I really found that India was doing not so bad I asked Amrit to put on the Television Inda had just then lost the Gambhir.. I was tempted not to watch the game lest Sehwag gets out.. apane dil ko arra karake maine socha jo higa dekha jaayega.. Dhoni continued to bat at number 3.. no problems.. I crossed my fingers when Viru was nearing his only second fifty in his entire T20 career.. when he did manage that I was satisfied.. I had thought that if he scores 50 off 30 balls India had fair chance of taking the game and he did get it in some 28 balls.. when I started expecting too much from him a century or atleast surpassing the highest score by an Indian (75 by Gambhir) he just disappeared from the scene while playing for another six and was caught at mid-off.. it was a charactteristic Viru knock.. 64 from just 36 balls.. and he laid a good foundation with two fifty run partnerships first with Gautam and then with the skipper.. that Dhoni and Yuvraj nearly won the game with their third wicket partnership of 80 runs.. it was quite evident that partnership matter in every format of the game.. that India could post the highest winning total in the short history of T20 cricekt when they surpassed Lanka's 206 and making 211 for four they had won a T20 game after 4 straight losses..with five balls to spare.. and with six wickets intact..

There were sixes in every top three scores of the Indian innings 64,46 and 60 * while India won the game by six wickets chasing Lanka's 206 for 7..
It was a memorable game.. I would not mind going out every time Sehwag has to bat.. He did play some commendable cricket.. Good team work..

Earlier Three wickets to Yuvraj singh and a wicket during your commentary had made some dent to Lankan innings which appeared to get past 215 that they made last time.. Kumar would always ask himself why he did not toss the ball to Sanath.. probably he answered it too well in the end..

A great contest now seems to be in the offing for One day series soon after..
Love and Thanks to Sehwag, Dhoni and Yuvraj for a memorable Indian win at last after a long time..

Abhaya Sharma

The Question of the Hour! Cricket!! Auro!!!

2009-12-12T03:15:00.000-08:00

Dear Auro

I assume that you are playing Guru Gary and Abhaya Sharma poses these Questions to you which are are not exactly questions but some sort of premonitions about team India and the rise and rise of cricket not in India but in the world as well..

1. Is Sehwag going to make the fastest century in the game's shortest format. He must be determined to make it look possible. He may need to last just 30 balls for that.

2. Would Ganbhir be a better choice for leading the 20 compared to Yuvraj Singh in place of Dhoni. irst Dhoni must admit that he does not mind handing over the reins to another man.

3. Is there some scope for a true all-rounder to emerge in India for T20 games. Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan could both fill the bill. They need to be in the 15 before they can make it to playing XI.

4. Was India's victory in the first edition a gift of Misbah ul Haque. That only Haque could answer best. The man who accounted for him is another all-rounder Joginder Sharma, who is best forgotten by team India despite being a brillaint fielder.

5. Is there an analogy between India's lack of form in T20 Internationals and launching of IPL. The kind of money some individuals have made without proving their worth requires a review of their endorsements.

6. Would IPL open up itself to foreign teams participation in future to promote T20 and cricket on global scale.

7. Would BCCI allow some of the Indian players to play for other teams if they do not get enough opportunities with their present franchisees. Manish Pandey not playing all the games in Champions T20 league!

8. How and when would ICC allow more teams participation into world T20 cup instead of just picking top 2 teams from the non-test playing countries. I would love to see 24 teams participating in the next world cup. I know format and fixtures are already up!

9. How does BCCI take this proposition to have parallel cricket i.e. having Test and Limited overs cricket simultaneously. Say The Test team playing in England and Limited overs (ODI and T20 sides) playing in South Africa. people could choose to play one of it at a time and be allowed to switch roles.

10. Whether BCCI could allow an Inter-city Twenty 20 criceket featuring some top 20 Cities in the country and featuring only players f Indian origin. India could exhibit far more talent and unearth some of that for national duities from that large database of players. See, one does not have to depend upon some 30 to 40 players for national duty all the time though out the tournaments round the whole season and for years together.. Let them face competition from New Kids on the Blok.

Abhaya Sharma

Include Kumar if possible..

2009-12-11T22:36:00.000-08:00

Respected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh

I think India should not mss the opportunity to replace Sreesanth with Praveen Kumar as the former has tested positive for swine flu. India should be allowed with the lasy minute replacement for the strike bowler who missed the first game due to Diarrohea..

If Dhoni, Srikkanth and Guru Gary put up the request I think ICC or Sri Lankans for that matter should not object..

In such an eventuality of inclusion of Praveen Kumar in the T20 team, India would be somewhat reinforced in the bowling department and have a slogger available to them during the batting..

I would then love to play the following eleven later in the day..

Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma (or Praveen Kumar), Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar (or Rohit Sharma), Ashwin, Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi and Ishant Sharma.

I would have loved India to bat second.. the other day they did quite well.. only Lankans played much better cricket and the Indian middle order faltered more than the usual.. India should bat second and try to restrcit the Lankans within 200.. They can win if they are able to get Praeen Kumar.. in case it is not possible.. I would love to keep Yusuf Pathan in the side in his place. Ojha and Pathan need to be rested. I would like Sehwag and Yuvra to bowl a couple of overs each if need arises.. which I know would definitely arise when Lankans get in command..

Play your natural game and I would only say that Sehwag could be little less ruthless in the beginning and take few more balls for his initial 20 runs say 20 in 15 balls and then gear up to fifty.. it is quite surprising that he has only 1 fifty from around 13 games that he has played for India n T20.. he could make a substantial difference to the scheme of any Lankan Plans with his batting powers.. only if he displays them at all.. I would not be happy with 30 from 10 balls from him I wish that he makes 50 from 30 balls.. still a 10 runs per over..

I also pray that Yuvraj is able to keep captaincy issue of Kings Xi Punjab.. I am sure one day he would lead India in T20.. it could be very soon.. but he should apply himself better to the task assigned to him.. foremost is his batting and fielding skills.. he should not drop sitters any more..

Good luck to team India and whatever be the result of the game I would definitely watch the game.. I missed nearly 70 percent of the first T20.. I would not miss even a single ball.. I would not even miss the extra cover for a meeting with Auro.. Is that you brother who is going to go to Chandigarh..

Love
Abhaya Sharma

PS If for some reasons Kumar can not be included there is absolutely no harm in calling the state man Harbhajan to do the services for India.. though I would prefer Kumar to take care of Kumar.. If India has to bat first they should at least register 200 plus runs on the board if they have to really make a fight of it..

I am not disappointed with the first Twenty 20 result..

2009-12-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

I am not disappointed..

The result of the first Twenty20 game is not a cause for disappointment for India. It should not be. Yet we have to learn lesson from every game and there were a few things that immediately come to the mind specially in the team selection and execution of plans.

First team selection – India did not have even one quality all-rounder in the current team. No, no, it is not that we do not have one or two of that kind, it is only that we did not play them for this important version. In the current scenario Twenty20 is more about having one or two all-rounders not necessarily of Kapil Dev’s caliber Praveen Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Irfan Pathan and Virat Kohli can all fill that bill. It was only that not even one of them found a place in the 15 forget in eleven. The second most important point to be observed is about the fielding skills. Sri Lanka won the game more because they fielded like a champion side. They not only held catches they did cut out several boundaries which made a great difference to the outcome. Thirdly, India for some reasons, went for more runs than was expected or anticipated by the captain and he did not have faith on his earlier support to Yuvraj with the ball. I know Yuvraj or Sehwag might not have made too much difference yet if the score was below 200 India could have given it a fighting reply instead of the 29 run defeat.

The middle order crumble was the most authentic reason for the defeat. From 93 for 1 to 105 for 5 to 129 for 7 only batsman could be blamed after such a fluent start provided by the openers. Gambhir now becomes the only batsman in the world to have 6 half centuries against his name. Sehwag should have decided to take it easy after two near chances. I know the catch that was dropped and the run out that Lankans missed did not make much of a difference as Sehwag failed to capitalize on these chances that he was offered. He did not have much choices seeing what the target was on the board. If not 40 extra runs, India did give away atleast twenty runs more than they should have. Sharma for a change bowled his first spell magnificently yet none other could control the flow of runs and India had stiff challenge on the board when they went in to bat second. It is all right, I must also add that India were outplayed by the visitors in every department. It was not only Kumar the skipper who made life miserable for Indian bowlers Kapugedera’s 47 from 20 and 22 runs from one of the Nehra over by Sanath were as instrumental in crafting and drafting of an imposing 215 runs at the end of 20th over.

I know there is no point in crying over spilt milk yet fielding was below par and having a long tail, though it quite wagged to take Indian total to some respectability were the main reason for dismal if not a disgusted show by Indians. The batting order also has some errors. It seems Yuvraj or Raina might have been the optimum choice at the fall of Sehwag’s wicket. Gambhir had to take upon the role of Sehwag was not that good an idea, we all know Gambhir is the best batsman who if he hangs around can accelerate his innings almost at will despite his registering the second fastest fifty in T20 Internationals and by becoming the first India batsman to get past the 500 mark he had done a commendable job to keep India in the hunt. The sudden middle order collapse made life difficult for Indian spectators. That is cricket though at its uncertain best. Who could think that Nehra could hit the leather as hard as he did to hit two huge sixes.
This is not the end of the world, Indians can still make amends and if allowed to make a few changes should try to inculcate atleast Praveen Kumar in place of Sreesanth if not anyone else for his upset stomach.

It would not be possible for the India to play the XI that I am going to talk of here. I shall however say that Guru Gary has done few things right by making people like Nehra learn few traits required for this format of the game. I know what Nehra’s batting skills were for all his career yet he did not appear the same with the bat though he did not appear the same with the ball earlier when he conceded some extra runs to Sanath. It is T20 cricket and I can not say nothing about bowlers. It is a batsman and fielding oriented version. Yet full marks to Ishant for his first three overs yielding only 7 runs. The target otherwise would have been far more than the 215 for 5.

Here I state what Gary Kirsten should expect from his team collectively, first and foremost comes the fielding abilities second comes consistency with the bat and last but not the elast scope for inclusion of as many all-rounders in the side, no, non, not the makeshift all-rounders like Yuvraj, Rohit or Raina, the genuine ones.

If I were to select the team for T20 I would have picked the following eleven –
Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh and RP Singh.
My four reserves would be Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma

If one looks up at XI there are as many as five changes lower down the order but you would immediately realize that I have probably kept the best fielding unit as the topmost priority. Even if one does not allow me to change it so drastically atleast two changes in Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan are a bare minimum. Unfortunately the reserve players with the current team may not be having much desired qualities to make the replacements. I would continue with the same team or include Sreesanth, if he is fit on 12th in place of Dinda and accept the defeat as coolly as cool possibly can be. With this set of 15 players it is not even hypothetically possible to beat this Lankan outfit to be able to equalize the series. Yet, one must not give up the fight.

I sing the Bob Marley song for the team India. Get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight..

India is number one in Test Cricket..

2009-12-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

India is Numero Uno..

India achieved what seemed to have alluded them over last 77 years of ytheir test cricket history.. I am proud of the achievement would be an under-statement.. I am really proud of their feat given the way they started this test series on the brink of a defeat or rather an innings defeat in the very first test at Motera.. that they did commendable job to turn the tables by not only saving the first test but also winning the next two at Kanpur and Mumbai by an innings.. how many times a team would have achieved such level of great performance.. even if India had not been adjudged number one in the test rankings.. this fact alone gives a great satisfaction..

Contrary to popular belief this team has not achieved something as big as India had achieved when it first beat West Indies in West Indies when Sunil Gavaskar arrived on the Indian cricket scene or India under Kapil Dev got better of the then cricketing giants West Indes in the 1983 World cup.. No, No, I am not taking away any credits from these set of palyers who have amongst them some of the best in the Test cricket History that India has played for 77 years.. India has not been at the bottom of the tables for last four or five years in test cricket in fact they have been always enjoyed being number two or three many a times.. so this escalation is not as good as the channels have been trying to tell us..

No doubt.. India under Dhoni has been doing well.. no doubt Indi has Sehwag and Gambhir as probably the best opening pair in the world.. nno dubt that India has had Sacin Tendulkar amongst them for 20 years.. No doubt India has had the services of wall the Dravid and Mr. Dependable in Lalshman.. No doubt India has been having far more medium pace options that Nehra and RP Singh do not even get a look in.. no doubt even after the departure of the Jumbo Kumble we still have the services of Harbhajan Singh.. yet I would suggest that if with the best eleven men available if India did not reach the mark a few years ago under Saurav Ganguly it has to be credited to Dhoni to get the best out of his star players under the circumstances..

Cricket in all its formats in the recent past has become overtly dependent upon batting skills and that is where team India has been bestowed with some big names.. as Kapil dev said India has nearly five batsman with averages above 50 in test cricket so they are definitely the best batting side at present.. the ranking does not appeal too much to me..I would have far loved Virender Sehwag to have achieved his third triple hundred as such opportunities do not knock at your doorstep every other day.. it is all right.. he plays his game the way he plays.. he is not to be blamed but I have right to feel upset about it.. even if he is not.. I have been following cricket more seriously since 1971 as a school boy at Kendriya Vidyalaya Port Blair where we used to play book cricket in the class.. sometimes even during the ongoing lessons.. I had always wanted to bat as Viswanath ahead of Gavaskar.. I know Gavaskar was far more talented than his later to be brother-in-law Gundappa Viswanath yet I had far more respect for the stocky Viswanath for his square cuts and cover-drives.. I know there have been many batsman in India and world who play better than him.. yet I would rate vishy the very best for me.. no, no, it has nothing to do with the meeting with him at Kotla dressing room prior to Australia tour..

I would not mind sharing a few thoughts about the present team.. Sehwag was very nearly not considered amongst even thirty players for an Australian tour.. not in very distant past.. when not because of me but for Ian Chappell and Imran Khan the selectors had included him at the very last minute.. such behaviour hurts me even if Sehwag says it is all right.. how could you not consider someone who had a triple hundred in Test cricket against Pakistan.. form is one thing and class completely another.. especially in test cricket.. There have been many cases of unfair selection policies in past .. who could be a better example of explicitly defining the wrong acts of Indian selection process than the man of series at the 1983 world cup.. Mohinder Amaranth was arguably the best hooker and probably had a strong defence against world’s best pace bowlers yet he had been in and out of the team several times.. Could Vengsarkar and Patil explain away their apathy towards Sehwag who was about to emerge the soul player to score three triple centuries.. and has maximum double centuries by an Indian.. I would like to ask Mr Bishan Singh Bedi taking a dig at his mother when talking of his cricketing abilities.. would they come forward and say in as many words what the feel of the batsman now.. it was quite ironic that Dilip handed him the man of the match or man of the series award.. what must have been going n in his mind thinking of his past assumptions of the mercurial opener.. it is all right.. let bygones be bygones.. but I know let Sehwag fail in couple of games over a year and their swords would again be dangling at his head..

No, no, I am not blaming BCCI for not playing too much of test cricket.. they did play lot of cricket though.. I see no logic in holding an away and home games for the IPL teams in the league stage other than for making money.. otherwise how does one explain that India has only played only 18 T20 Internationals..

And to all the test supporting cricketers who say that they have far too little of Test cricket fo them in the coming days.. they should compare themselves with some of the world’s top teams about the number of test matches each would have played in the last two years.. India would definitely be ahead of many of them if not all..

I would love to see that India does give proper opportunities to the youngsters at the right time otherwise they should not complain about the slump that may arise when Sachin, Dravid and Lakshman disappear from world cricket which is very close on time scale.. I know that there is no dearth of pace bowlers in the country at present a fact that Nehra and to some extent even RP Singh do not find a place in their Test squad.. that is a healthy situation so to say.. every one is out to prove better than the other.. India talks of lack of genuine all-rounders yet Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan are sidelined without any serious consideration.. if you do not provide opportunities and express faith in the ones that are available where is the question of new all-rounders to emerge on the horizon..

I know few would take my writings as faithful and sincere and label me anti-BCCI or whatever better names they may get to.. yet the fact is that India has had good players all along yet because of the unfair selection process India had not been able to achieve the ranking which has come their way after 77 years.. Ask anyone India has been playing just too much of cricket.. if they have achieved it now it is a result of last three four years of commitment that the players have been displaying on the field..

I would rather want the team to do better in Twenty20 and even ODI than in test cricket. I do not agree with either Kapil, Sachin or even Sehwag that Test cricket is the best form of cricket.. with less than 10 countries playing test matches it is nt a big deal.. I know for sure that in 2012 if this earth survives then Twenty20 may have some 20 or 30 strong teams vying for supremacy in the world of cricket.. a format where India failed miserably under their most able and most talented players available in the world championship that was held in England..

If some ranking system is in place for T20 Internationals India would not be in top 3 despite the fact tha they were champions in the first edition of the world championship.. Wake up India and win the two t20 games on 9th and 12th of December and more importantly play the format more often at the international level than at premier level where money is the only criteria and glory of the country comes second.. IPL should definitely have more teams and a new competitive format that is not aimed at making money but promoting the sport at national and international level.. I do not like that IPL teams should represent India in champions league tournament.. where other countries did better than all the three IPL teams as probably they were more united by their nationalistic configuration.. Should we not have a national trophy for T20 where state teams could then go on to take part in world chamion’s T20 league.

I hope no one takes my comments as biased against anyone in the country.. I love India and I shall continue to love India.. take as much pride in the test rankings though I would rather prefer to have the similar feat being achieved in the other two formats of the game which according to me are far more popular amongst the cricket lovers as is evident by the gate money..

I wish Virender Sehwag has heard my plea to achieve something miraculous in ODIs.. there has no one who has scored a double hundred.. being an opener and given his style of batting he is far more capable Indian to achieve that.. if he also happens to be World’s first would be an icing on the cake.. So what are you waiting about Viru.. go ahead and smack those 200 runs in one of the five games and take India to number one position in the one day version as well..

Congratulations to team India.. I felt the money that has been distributed to these test players should have also been awarded to some of those who did contribute to India’s supremacy in the last three years if not last five years.. Important names that should have definitely been considered to be included in the list are Saurav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra if not more..

Abhaya Sharma
December 7 2009 10:30 AM IST

A Message for Sehwag

2009-12-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Sehwag,
I don’t know if I have this right to be so upset and perturbed for you not achieving the milestone.. yet I was visibly upset and I only prayed that I did not behave badly yet did with Amrit.. the poor sould was at the receiving end as he spent time with badminton tournament in school rather than finding time for studies.. God must forgive me for my behaviour.. It is not he who is at fault, it is me.. I need to show more interest i his activiites than in Cricket and cinema.. he got a couple of hard handed drives on his back on his return from the games.. where he offered to saty back for referring even agter his games were over..

There is some deformity in my mind.. my father and mother brought up 11 children and barring my eldest sister everyone is a minimum of a graduate and here it is me.. who is struggling to cope up with him.. finding myself engrossed with this and other blogs and Virotechnics.. I must be ordered sanity by the almighty.. I have to spend more time with him.. graft his innings carefully and nurture his growth naturally.. I should have been not so upset with your failure to register the third triple hundred when I know that the way you play the game you would definitely come up with the third century on another good day like thursday the December 3 of 2009..

I read your interview in DNA and i am a relieved man.. you are not expressing your dismay even if you have just missed the mark by a whisker.. it is all right.. I did get a itchy feeling to travel all the 20 odd Kilometers to Brabourne but did not do so as I know that my watching you playing is superstitiously not to the best for you as a batsman.. I know I should not feel that way.. and I think these are just 6-7 coincidences that you get out the moment I decide to watch your game..could there be a connectivity.. scientifically trained mind wants to discard such theories but the observer in me suggests that next time you are nearing the milestone I shall definitely hide the TV remote or just walk out of home for a cigarette..

I have still not returned to normalcy after what happened to the proceedings of this game’s early third morning.. don;t feel dejected for me.. it is all right I shall come out of it and also learn to behave more rationally with the situations..

I wish that you achieve the milestone in the next time you play the full test innings.. meaning even if you have to bat here second time which I doubt would be required at all.. you should apply yourself well in the next full test match.. did I say I do not like India to play so much of test cricket.. I change my stance.. I take a fresh guard to test cricket and shall not mind if Test cricket survives and survives as the longest form of cricket..

I offer to tell you that there is another opportunity to create history besides this three triple hundreds.. no batsman in the world has made a double hundred in one-day cricket.. I have a feeling that you could target that in the series that follows the two T20s that India plays on 9th and 12th.. I shall feel honoured to be your supporter.. no, no not just for the sake of being a KVIAN or an Indian alone I respect your being a talented natural cricketer..

Love
Abhaya Sharma

Virender Sehwag on the verge of his third triple century

2009-12-03T04:27:00.000-08:00

History may well be rewritten as and when Virender Sehwag scores his third triple Hundred.. I may not go to Brabourne stadium after all, as when I watch him playing on TV he gets nervous and gets out.. today.. the moment I opended the TV a wicket had fallen.. I sincerely thanked God that that it was not him.. he has to do it for me.. I know he is capable of more than just 3 triple hundreds.. so first he should get his third tomorrow.. and create history..

Respected Brother

Sadar Charan Sparsh

Oh! what a scintillating start to the third Test's second day. India with a stupendous effort from an unbeaten 284, the third highest runs in a day behind Bradman's 309 and Hammonds 295 runs in a day, the great batting display by him makes one to believe that Test cricket is going to saty alive and up on its feet if batsman like him are at the crease..

India take a 50 run lead with three days remaining and nine wickets in hand.. More important than anything else would be the 16 more runs needed by Viru to complete his third triple hundrd in Test cricket.. then it will be Jay ho.. He would be alone at the helm of test cricket with three such outings Bishan Singh Bedi should better go and ask his mother as to whether he would get there to score his third triple hundred of test cricket.. jokes apart.. if he did not want to do it today he is serious about it.. and for once I would also like to caution the dashing swashbuckling Sehwag to play cool cricket in the first hour of the morning..

Viru has rose to the challenge well and should get a chance to do so.. he shoul sleep well.. he should not think too much about it.. he can let Dravid do the most of the batting in the first few overs and take his time to settle as if taking a fresh guard..

This test in 9 out of ten cases would not end as a draw.. and in 10 out of ten cases India can not loose it from here.. what does that mean t Test cricket.. it kicks well and moves ahead even if Abhaya Sharma does not like it as much.. things are changing for him as well.. I have been a staunch supporter of Viru.. in fact a couple of day back I wanted him to lead the Test side, err.. I had mentioned Sachin.. yet I know Sachin himself does not want to captain the side..so next best man is Viru..Dhoni the One day team and Yuvraj to be the leader of T20 team..

Somewhere, some of my comments and views are being paid heed to.. the two squads for T20 and ODI are a proof enough.. I feel if there are three captains they can all play under the other in the different formats and gel well like never before.. That could only lead to quality team work and togetherness.. I ain't against Dhoni.. he has been doing good job.. but should he be allowed to walk away with such huge endorsements as being the captain of all the three Indian teams.. I do not like it that way.. let best performers be acknowledged with the chunk of money they rightly deserve..

Whether or not Sehwag wants to lead.. whether or not Yuvraj wishes to be the captain of one of the teams.. I am sure honi bhaiya would be releived if he has to just manage one of the teams.. One day cricket is most important as of now.. Twenty20 may soon become important in future if Test cricket has to survive it has to have good performing leaders..

The teams that have been announced are probably a good job.. only I felt that Kumar could have also been considered for T20 as well.. and Sreesanth despite his wicket taking abilities is not a suitable bowler for T20.. no expensive bowler can be taken in T20 and for that reason I feel that even shant Sharma could have been considered to be rested for some more games.. this appeasement of players like granting them places in either of the ODI or the T20 is not good.. it should have been on merit.. Mishra is one case I feel have been most unfortunate he is a genuine wicket taker and it was just for his performance on a batting paradise that he had been judged and dropped.. one should not be so cruel to youngsters.. it is all right.. there are quite a lot of new faces in the T20 some of whom should make their presence rewarded.. I do think that Tyagi might just be a certainty.. and so also Ojha for both the games on 9th and 12th.. when one can pick only 11 in a team I do find that ODI team is far more balanced than T20.. My only exception to ODI team is Virat Kohli ahead of Rohit Sharma and for T20 there is doubt if Sreesanth and Ashwin deseved to be there ahead of Irfan and Kumar.. In fact Yusuf too has not been in good nick in the games he got.. he could have made way for Abhishek Nayar..

Brother you may be thinking that it is too difficult for BCCI to satisfy Abhaya Sharma.. so be it.. I badly want three captains for team India and a mix of players in these formats as per their talents.. India is capable to emerge supreme in all three forms of the game if they mix their resources well.. I know you have a liking for test cricket as that was the kind of cricket that was being played during your youthful days.. I have seen all three formats of the game and feel there should be far more T20 cricket even at domestic level.. say Inter city between some top 50 cities of the United States of Indian subcontinent remember that concept.. do you.. I think that is the first article I posted on abhayaamitabh.blogspot.com if you do need to refresh your memories..

Well, Well, right now you must be concentrating on premier of PAA.. we are all eager to know how the day went.. what kind of responses did ou get from the fraternity than from media.. I was wearing a media card on Bachchan Sandhya but I am not from th fourth estate at all.. I am an ordinary human being..

Love to all

Abhaya Sharma

Post Script: If Sehwag does get to a triple hundred for the third time.. we could all rejoice in a great way.. I would not mind going to Brabourne stadium tomorrow if it is feasible for me.. despite my pronounced lack of interest in Test cricket.. I shall just give it a try.. For it is going to be a historric moment of Test cricket and for a fellow KVIAN..

Post Lunch of Day 3 ( Second Test at Kanpur)

2009-11-25T22:54:00.000-08:00

Cricket Update:

When 6 wickets fell for India on day 2, I knew India would comfortably win this test match.. and Sreesanth was a surprise package.. I know he may be expensive but he does get wickets and he has proved that again with his three wickets in the first session of day 3 leaving Lankans trotting at 138 for 5..

I am sure India would make them follow on and possibly win by an innings later tomorrow or latest by the fifth day morning.. this test would be far more difficult for Lanmkans to save themselves compared to India in the first test.. where wicket had nothing for bowlers at Ahmedabad..

Kanpur is known to be a vicious turner.. the last test here was over in three days when South Africa got a drubbing.. ICC had then criticised Kanpur track a great deal.. it is all right to make wickets more suitable to our bowlers.. every country does that I remember India had got out for 42 runs in one of the England test match at Lords in early 70s.. Did any council came to support team India then..

Test Cricket is a different ball game. I had wanted them to concentrate on T20 so that many more countries could come and compete in the game.. they thought it is not cricket yet let me tell here that T20 would bring glory and globalisation to cricket like never before..

I am convinced in my mind that five years from now the number of teams in world T20 would double if not go beyond that.. I hope India does get to play more T20 Internationals.. IPL is OK but playing for one’s country has much more at stake.. I would be waiting eagerly for the two T20s that India plays after the Test series.. We should also plan T20 Asia Cup as all the four subcontinent teams have good cricketing talent.. I hope BCCI is reading what I have to say here on future of cricket..

The raising of the endorsement contract fee is understandable but only for India seniors.. To rope the women and the other India teams is not so gullible an idea.. One can rather have different kind of amount fr three Indian teams the Test, the One Day and the Twenty 20..

I also wish tha atleast 20 to thirty players represent the country in the three different formats depending on the nature of their game.. I would go still further to suggest three different captains for the three teams..

I know Dhoni is doing a great job presently yet I would rather love to have Sehwag (if not Sachin) as captain for Test cricket, Dhoni to lead in One dayers and Yuvraj Singh to skipper the Twenty 20 side.. I have nothing against Dhoni as I have nothing in favour of the other two yet it may give a good balance to the three teams.. good luck team India for the 9th and 12th December.. the twin T20 cricket games.. even number is not appropriate.. it is all right.. if India could level 1-1 would be good enough..

More later

Abhaya Sharma

First Test loss to Sri Lanka is imminent..

2009-11-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

India on the verge of conceding the edge to Sri Lanka..

Indian players would be subjected to a humiliation of different kind after succumbing to B team of Australia recently.

If the ongoing display of cricket at Motera is any indication of events to come India may well be handed over its first loss to Sri Lanka at home. There could be much more than just the loss. It could well turn out to be an innings defeat if Sri Lanka decide to amass 300 run lead before calling in for declaring their first innings of the first Test at Ahmedabad.

Mahela Jayawardene in the company of Prasanna Jayawardene has ensured one that ri Lanka can not loose from here. The duo with double hundred partnership for the sixth wicket would want to consolidate their teams propects of winning.

What India can do is to restrict the flow of runs to minimum in the first session of the fourth day and if possible contain the Lankan’s without achieving a margin in excess of 300 runs which could only delay the inevitable.

India if they have to play for five sessions and manage a draw would have reaffirmed the faith of people like Abhaya Sharma to back them up in Test cricket. Needless to say that India has been playing far too much cricket and its showing its negative impact already.

India has not used the services of Virender Sehwag with the ball despite the fact that he has provided breakthrough on many occasions in past. If Harbhajan and Mishra have failed collectively to buy wickets Viru may not be necessarily a success story yet is there any harm in throwing the ball to him and expect a miracle to happen. If I were Dhoni I would have done so long long back much before asking Yuvi or Sachin to try their arm.

I had almost decided to not write on Test cricket but this is an odd occasion when I want to tell my teammates to perform collectively and somehow mange to save the first test. Not just to deny the Lankans a well deserved first win in the country but also to define the mood of the game in future contests of the series. The team that draws first blood might just as well go on to not just win the Test series but also turn the tables on more fierce fight for honours in ODI and a couple of T20 Internationals, only the 19th and 20th that India is going to play.

Dhoni Bhaiya if you wish that team and country supports you well please do something to ensure that Lankans do not take an unassailable or albeit a winning lead of 300 plus runs with more than five sessions to get 10 more Indian wickets.

Indian batsman would be put to a difficult task at their hand as they would probably be first trying to avert an innings defeat and slowly create a situation where Lankans either do not get to bat or have an unachievable target when they come to bat for second time.
That would mean that India decides as to who among its batsman would go on to preserve their wickets and who would go for scoring at brisk rate to have substantial runs that seem to be necessary.

If I were Kumar I would have declared my first innings closed at 591 for 5, the overnight score just to expect a couple of early wickets in the early hours of the game and then make sure that India do not get to a total that is not achievable in whatever time remains in the second innings. I know Kumar and Lankans would not dare to do that. They would rather have 300 plus runs on the board and understandably believe that India is not able to bat for five sessions to save the tests. The psychological advantage that comes with the 300 runs is too big to be lured into an early declaration.

I would expect Virender Sehwag to not contain himself when he comes to bat. I would also not want Yuvraj Singh to restrict his shot playing. The two would be my best chances of putting some decent score if Sri Lanka has to come to bat second time. Dravid, Gambhir have to play the stay at the wicket with Sachin and Dhoni doing the dual role of keeping the wickets intact and also scoring some valuable runs. Do not just play to while away the time. Some of you have to score some runs as well and tha is really important. I only wish that wicket does not start to turn as is expected on the fourth and final days of a test match. India is depending too heavily on factors other than performance to save the first test match.

- Abhaya Sharma

Beware of the Lankan Tigers!

2009-11-14T07:03:00.001-08:00

I know cricket is a game of uncertainties.. yet not as much as a flip of a coin.. it is not simple to beat a good cricketing tam.. and Sri Lanka have proved that over last two decades they have been a great force.. They have amongst their ranks some of the finest batsman and bowlers in the world today.. Dilshan has been in the peak of form.. Kumar is elegant in any form of the game and Jayawardene stabilises their batting.. Samarweera proves to be the man on a mission.. With Murali not so effective these days he is still far better than Harbhajan or even all three spinners of India combined.. India can not afford to make spinning wickets.. their best bet would be to provide batting wickets and tha may lead to superfluos drawn games.. which have actually become rarity these days.. some teams and players have taken the onus on them to get the results at any cost to keep the faith of public in the oldest and arguably the toughest form of cricket. toughest may not necessarily have to be the best..

I have been watching cricket for nearly 35 years.. Earlier India was so bad at winning that we Indians used to take pride if or team could draw a test match against some of the ebst teams of the world.. the first great overseas victory in 1971 against West Indies was something like beating the best in the world.. Now the teams like Sri Lanka and New Zealand also find them to be beaten at their home grounds..

India should paly Test cricket if they really wish to do so.. yet I would say if the team looses to Sri Lanka (they have never won a test in India) one should not get surprised.. Indians have been playing awful lot of cricket.. they are human beings and not money making machines that BCCI has been encashing.. Otherwise how can one explain two games for each team in IPL and so few T20 Intl that India has played..

India has been doing much better in cricket after that World cup victory in 1983.. yet we have to win the cup for second time where as some lesser teams have won it more than once.. it is time to think ad act.. We have great talented players but they are not nurtured as well as they should have been.. I am not an enemy of BCCI but then they have to be acting responsibly with heir available strength..

Good Luck team India.. it is going to be far tougher tournament than the ODI series.. Lankans are far more balanced side than injury marred Australians.. beware of the Lankan Tigers

India Needs to change...

2009-11-11T22:20:00.000-08:00

India needs to change its captain.. with such a loss against the depleted Australian side that is the first reaction that I have to offer..

MSD has to take a back seat.. someone else.. somone senior should hold that mantle of captaining the Indian side in ODI.. Test matches and even T20 cricket (Dhoni was a failure as a captain in the world T20 championship as well..)

To my mind comes only one name capable of leading the side and still command respect from all the players.. and that name friends is that of Schin Tendulkar.. the living legend in the cricketing arenas..

I know he has not had best of times as a captain.. probably those were different times.. cricket was different then.. the team was different and above all cricket too was different.. it has changed a great deal after the advent of T20..

I feel Sacin Tendulkar deserves to be given one more chance to lead India in Test matches as well as in one day internationals.. and if one has to have a one cpatain theory.. I would not mind leading him in the Twenty20 as well.. though I would rather love to have someone different in that format.. even Dhoni would do for that as a contender amongst Viru and Yuvraj.. but for Test cricket and ODI I think we should put our best foot forward.. Sachin understands the game as well as few others in the world of cricket.. why not give him the responsibility to lead India..

Oh there could be this bias against Test cricket in my mind.. it is my opinion that it is not important anymore.. and if the ODI cricket could bring in some changes as ICC is thinking about doing away with limitatons of a bowler to be allowed only 10 overs.. it would be a very welcome move.. Test cricket needs far more attention to be changed to suit to the needs of the modern times.. I vaguely remember Hundred Overs Test cricket that was once suggested by me.. it could really be one innings affair.. it could well be finished in two or maximum three days.. as such in ODI cricket we do see 100 overs being bowled in a day.. so two day test cricket does not make much of an irony..

Coming back to the captaincy issue I feel Sachin Tendulkar captains the side when he is playing.. that also eans that he should not be playing every series on the earth that India is playing.. yeap.. I do want him to come forward to play against only top five cricket countries in Australia, South Africa, Pakistan (if we choose to play them), Sri Lanka and England..

India should also rotate its players appropriately.. I see no point in playing Gautam, Sehwag, Yuvraj and Dhoni playing in each and every game.. three of them should be played at a time and thus introduce our newer players to prove their mettle..

I also feel that despite India having a large number of medium pacers three bowlers should be rotated from the available pool of Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, R.P. Singh, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth and even Sudeep Tyagi..

For spinners slot I feel that we hae not been considering two regular spinners in ODI asking our part-time bowlers to do the job.. I was myself of such an opinion earlier yet wish that India does play two spinners from the following in Test and ODI - Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Shadab Jakati and even Piyush Chawla..

We also have to look for wicket keepers slot for the games where Dhoni is being rested and there are two names that come to my mind Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel though I feel Naman Ojha is no less in class.. atleast with the bat..

I would rather love to have 30 to 40 players playing for India in a season some may get as many games as 7 out of 10 some with 5 out of 10 games and some just playing in two to three games from a pool of 10 games.. that way our players would fnd themselves with less fitness and fatigue problem than has been witnessed during current times..

Most importantly India should play more bi-or tri-lateral T20 Intls and cut down the IPL drastically.. I see no reason why each team should play the other twice.. one game should be enough.. a best you could have more games among top four teams and may be a best of three final..

Players of India who should get a ODI chance besides the prsent team

Batsman who could serve on rotational basis - Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Shikhar Dhawan, S. Badrinath, M. Vijay and Manoj Tiwary

Medium pace bowlers who should get some of the games - R.P. Singh, Dhaval Kulkarni, Sreesanth, Balaji

Spinners - Pragyan Ojha, Shadab Jakati, Piyush Chawla, Iqbal Abdulla and Anil Kumble ( if he continues to play at IPL why not for India too!)

All-rounders - Abhishek Nayar, Joginder Sharma, Venugopal Rao and Rajat Bhatia
Wicket Keepers- Dinesh Karthik, Parthiv Patel and Naman Ojha.

My list may not be as comprehensive as BCCI could work out with more statistics and form of the players.. yet this could be viewed as a possible way of explaining my opinion..

I hope India does not allow the Sri Lankans their first test win in India but going by the amount of cricket that Indian cricketers have been playing there is every likelihood of such an event to take place.. I would not be surprised if India looses the Test series.. I can not be wishing that being Indian but that is my worst fear.. there is a limit of each individual to play continuous cricket and still excel all the time..

I would not be watching Test cricket yet I would be following it up.. I have a felling that India played better cricket in the recent ODI series despite the fact that they lost the series 4-2 it could have easily been the other way round had India won those two close games at Vadodara and Hyderabad..

I think I should wish the team best of chances to not allow Sri Lankans to walk away with some glorious memories.. I know Kumar, Dilshan and Mendis would be thinking that it is the best opportunity to knock down Indians.. they are not entirely wrong if they think that way.. though I have a feeling the Test series would end up as a drawn series..

Shocking Defeat at Guwahati

2009-11-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

Respected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh

I was not here yesterday for I thought we should keep an off day- a Sunday for retrospection for recollection of the fact that there should be some time that should exclusively be for the family - a small family at that comprising of wife Savita and 11 year (completing that on 16th this month)- yet there is more to family.. to the house that we call as home.. to the other matter of fact acts that deserve attention..

There is a newer post from London from you yet decided to write here as well.. more so for I find that it is after some time that you have again been generous with some photographs.. there is no dearth of pictures, songs and photographs that are available here on the net.. bigbgroup excelling in compilation of each and every event concerning you.. yet the significance of these pictures has that added attraction as it has been directly shared by you with us.. shared by the head of the family with the rest of its members.. I find that interesting.. as much interesting as we get our daily posts from you.. thanks for it all the same..

I say that yesterday was not one of the best days in Indian cricket.. a team that had been having clear advantage over the opponents did not put up a good show or should I correct myself and say put up a miserable show.. my dejection can not be hidden though I do not consider that winning is everything.. I do not believe in winning as much as playing good sound cricket.. it was this aspect that took a suffering in Guwahati.. first and foremost my wrath has to be worn by Viru.. he has let me down.. I had put off Television.. I did not put On the FM gold.. and I did not even came to Internet till I found that India had not only lost Viru.. even Sachin and Gambhir had disappeared from the crease.. oh what a sad display of batting to be reduced to 27 for 5 and was it 75 for 7 or 81 would not matter.. if it were not for Praveen Kumar and Jadeja India would not have had even three figure score on board.. but I knew 170 was not enough..

India gave up the fight.. they did not rely on Kumar or Nehra to be bowled enough overs.. what a sad and bad captaincy on part of MSD.. Is it some forces are working against him.. that he hogs the limelight ( by getting priceless Ad money..) when the team actually wins or looses.. that is not something new.. Kapil Dev was shown the doors by none other than someone whom he gifted his first Pads, bats and the other important cricketing gear.. that people in India have for far too long been having players selected for zone representation than merit alone.. that Arun Lal (Sorry friend! for such a mention) could not find a role in the Delhi team but went on to play for India and Sunil Valson probably the best seamer after Kapil Dev did not get to play even a single game for the country.. it not only hurts it saddens the mind and body refuses to accept.. that reputations are craved for far too much than the display of form.. otherwise how could Manish Pandey who has a century in the T20 format in IPL2 did not get to play all the games for CLT20.. and far worse.. why does he not even find a mention in the 15 players for India.. Why does an Amit Mishra or a Rohit Sharma fail to be considered for few games.. it seems that team India does not want to red such kind of comments from someone who did not even represent his school.. college was out of question (Hindu and Stephens had greatest talent at display in university level cricket).. moreover.. if playing and knowing the game alone could be important for commenting do you hear what our top players really have to say.. instead you choose to diminutize someone as great as Kapil Dev..

It is all right.. if the team India thinks that Abhaya Sharma should not write such articles.. it will definitely be followed up but not before the case is heard and necessary actions implemented. I wish that India does rotate its players including Sachin Tendulkar.. that India should provide caps to alteast 5 new players in a year.. that India should play as a unit when they are playing with the psyche of the millions who throng to the field to cheer them up.. nowhere in the world would you find such crowds for ODI cricket anymore after the advent of T20.. yet India chooses not to play the format at International level.. but does not mind minting money playing only at league level, yes IPL maybe good but not same as playing for your country.. this was shown in the champions league of T20 where all the 3 IPL teams were dusted as there was no national feeling.. India too should have their own T20 league and instead of IPL teams the top two Indian T20 teams alone should qualify to play in the champions league of T20.. I am not against the IPL.. it s probably a good way of integrating international players for a display of extremely entertaining and fighting cricket..

More later

Love to you but if you get a feeling that I am not really happy with MSD after yesterdays games it would be 100 percent true feeling.. I think it is time for Sehwag and Harbhajan to take a back seat and let some others try to win the last game at Mumbai..

Introducing Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

2009-11-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

Introducing Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar..

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on April 24 in the year 1973 made his debut in Test cricket on November 15 1989 against Pakistan at National stadium Karachi where he just made a humble beginning scoring 15 runs in 24 balls with the help of 2 fours coming four down in a drawn encounter under the captaincy of Krishnamchari Srikkanth.

It was on December 18 the same year i.e. 1989 that Sachin got to play in his first one day international game that was the second game of the Pakistan tour. Sachin came in to bat at number 5 faced two balls for a duck in the rain curtailed 16 over game which Pakistan won by 7 runs.

It was on first December 2006 that he played his first Twenty20 International game against South Africa when he scored 10 runs off 12 deliveries in the game which India won by 6 wickets.

Such humble beginnings despite the fact that he was a great potential and was likened to be the next Tendulkar by those who had seen him playing his cricket for Mumbai just a year back.

Did his sedate beginnings reveal anything of what was to follow in the next 20 years. Probably not much. Here are some facts of the little master blasters 20 cricketing years. He celebrates his 20th cricketing birthday on November 15 a few days from now Sachin Tendulkar has exhibited some great cricketing genius.

1. Test Cricket – 159 matches – 12773 Runs - 42 Hundreds and 53 Fifties and 248 not out as his highest test score with an average of 54.58 make him the biggest Test player of the world. He has 44 Test wickets against his name wit 3 for 10 as the best bowling efforts. He has held 102 catches and has hit 51 sixes in his Test career

2. One Day Cricket - 435 matches – 17168 Runs – 45 Hundreds and 91 Fifties and 186 not out as his highest one day score with an average of 44.59 make him the ideal one day player. He has taken 154 One day wickets with 5 for 32 as his best bowling efforts. He has held 132 catches and has hit 181 sixes in his one da career.

3. Twenty20 International - Has represented India in only one Twenty20 game the first that India played and won with 10 runs against his name and took 1 wicket for 12 runs and took a catch in that game.

These statistics do not reveal much of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar despite being very-very impressive and probably one of the best in the two formats of the game. He was likened to be the Asian Bradman of cricket..

It was only yesterday that we discovered that Sachin Tendulkar in spite of his 36 years and 196 days and such a huge cricketing career behind him still has a great appetite for scoring majestic runs for his country.

In the hindsight I shall inform the readers that Sachin was named thus by his grandfather after Legendary Music Director Sachin Dev Burman.. whom I had just covered on 31st October here on brother’s blog and also posted it to http://abhayafriends.blogspot.com.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulakar – Tendaliya- Tendua, Master Blaster & Tendy is actually mesmerizing the whole country with his music composed on the cricket field as he weaves magic with his bat..

Abhaya Sharma
Mumbai, India November 6 2009

Post Script: I have been far too critical of his playing for so long.. I take each and every word spoken against the genius.. such players are not born every day such players are not born in every country.. such players are hard to find who play cricket for 20 years with the same zeal and determination.. Hats off to you Tendaliya..I would love to see that you continue to play cricket as long as you wish.. It is indeed a treat to watch you bat when you are on a song.. I personally had been rating Kapil Dev as the best Indian cricketer ever.. but today I can say that you are the best cricketer in the world.. Cricketing Pundits would not take exceptions to my statement about you..

This article would also be available at my cricketing blog tha was initiated for IPL2
http://abhayaipl2.blogspot.com/

( Of course with a picture of Sachin that has just been downloaded from cricket.org)

The result does not matter..Hyderabad

2009-11-05T11:33:00.001-08:00

The game tha just concluded a few hours from now at Rajiv Gandhi Interntaional stadium Uppal, Hyderabad was an absolute thriller..
Australia - 350 for 4
India - 347 all out.

The Australians fielded so well and despite some early chances to Sehwag thay were as sharp on the field as sharp could be..

Yet the day would cleatly belong to the grand old man of Indian cricket.. who is all but 36 years of age but is already playing in his 20th year.. friends please join me to congratulate Sachin Tendulkar.. for his 175 chanceless innings..

In the end one can just say that this game would be remembered as the third game India played and the third game India lost at this venue..and it is ironical that Deccan Chargers who have it as their home ground have played as many as 9 games on this venue and lost all the nine.. some strange coincidence that science and statistics can not explain..

In the light of a mere 3 run defeat I choose not to find any fault with anyone in the Indian camp.. I would only say that MSD only half heard me when he played Munaf but not also Mishra.. it is all right.. it is a game after all and not the battle field..

Love and better lick next time..

Sehwag.. You definitely do get out as and when I watch your innings.. In the next game I shall not watch the game when you are on the crease..

Sachin Tendulkar - Congratulations on completion of 17000 runs in one day cricket and scoring 45th century and registering your second highest score in the format.

Praveen Kumar.. If you had enough experience of International cricket you would have dived full length while completing the second run.. it is all right.. You are doing well and living upto my expectations..

Raina.. The way things were going between you and Sachin there was no need to show such agression at that point of time.. Such a valuable partnership ended a couple of overs earlier.. it is all right.. jo beet gai so baat gai..

Munaf Patel - I know there was nothing in wicket for you.. no problems.. I do not think MSD could give you another game.. not in this series for sure..

Watson, Marsh and Ponting made sure that India is set the toughest target of the series.. they would have never thought that India could come so close to winning this one.. They have to be careful with these bunch of Indians in the next two games as well..

In the hindsight.. after loosing the first game at adodara by 4 runs India had won the next two games.. after loosing by three runs we expect that India wins the next two deciding games as well..

Love and regards
Abhaya Sharma
For scorecard click the link given below:
http://www.cricinfo.com/indvaus2009/engine/current/match/416240.html

The Team India at Hyderabad ..

2009-11-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

MSD include Mishra and Munaf..

If I were Mahendra Singh Dhoni I would make scope for inclusion of Amit Mishra and even Munaf Patel. What would be more difficult would be to find out who would be the two players whose place these two take up. Given the kind of overconfidence that has been shown in Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh it would be a monumental decision to find place for two bowlers.

India had done well in the series yet the winning combination minus Gambhir did the trick for Australia for leveling the series at Mohali. The seven match series is now reduced to a new 3 game series if we exclude the four games that leave the two sides leveled at 2-2.

I would rather be little strong in inclusion of Munaf Patel for Ishant Sharma. One can not take his place for granted. Some people may argue that even Johnson went for far too many runs in the last game could he be replaced. The situation for Australia is different they are laden with far too many injuries. It is highly commendable that injury depleted Australians have managed to level the series at Mohali. Ishant Sharma has to be rested, no, dropping is not the right word. And one of Jadeja or Raina has to be rotated for making scope and space for Mishra to be reined in. Gambhir anyway walsk in for Virat Kohli.

My team for Hyderbad might look something like this –

Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Sachin, Dhoni, Raina, Harbhajan, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra & Munaf Patel.

Yes I also wonder if I could rest Jadeja from my scheme of things.. yet that is what I propose for I know that Mishra would be a far too improved bowler and Raina too can bowl if the need arises. Rainas fielding capabilities and his far too better batting skills made my decision making somewhat simpler.

I know Mahendra Singh does not give any heed to whatever I have to say about team composition yet I must add here hurriedly that whichever team wins at Hyderbad is going to be winning the series. I may be too premature in saying so yet it is an important game in no uncertain terms.

May we then have for the firs time an Indian XI that has been listed by one Abhaya Sharma. I know Dhoni would disagree.. I would rate his decision superior to my line of thinking.. after all he has led the country admirably.. he has far too greater knowledge of the game and conditions that the team has to face. He alone can be the best judge of the situation. I did have something up against him when he did not show confidence in Kumar and with four games already been played his contribution has been exemplary except in the first game where he went for 77 runs. He assured of his place with a scintillating 40 runs in that game to scare the Australians along with Harbhajan Singh. He should play all the seven games if does not suffer injury. Harbhajan too despite his poor show in his own craft is doing well with the bat so I can not touch him or rather I should not touch him. I however have great sympathy for excluded Jadeja.. his bowling efforts does not warrant for me to drop him yet I know that he is primarily taken as a batsman and that is the reason that I have chosen Raina over him in the final XI. I must add without any hesitation that Jadeja the bowler is quite a find of the series.

Australians have always been adding up to the list of their injury woes.. even if Moises is not as dangerous yet the inability to include him as a regular bowler today would not be in the interest of the Australians. They are far too depleted side and if India does not register a series win against them now it would not be as simpler in the years to come.

Abhaya Sharma
Novmber 5 2009 9:10 AM IST

Match report Nagpur ODI Hindi

2009-10-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

आदरणीय भाईसाहब
सादर प्रणाम

आपके रोचक लेख को पढ कर मन सदा ही प्रसन्न हो जाता है एकाध फोटो जोड़ने से उत्साह और भी बढ जाता है ।

मिले सुर मेरा तुम्हारा
तो सुर बने हमारा ..

यह पंक्तियां सदा ही हमारे एक होने के संकेत देती है, सुरेन्द्रनाथ जी अवश्य ही धन्यवाद के पात्र है - अगर किसी को इस मधुर रचना की नैट पर कोई लिंक ज्ञात है तो यहा लिख भेजें ।

कल नागपुर में भारत की जीत से कुछ एक बातें उभर कर समने आती हैं -

1. आस्ट्रेलिया जैसी सशक्त टीम भी चोटिल खिलाड़ियों की परेशानी से बाधित हो सकती है ।
2. महेन्द्र सिंह धोनी उर्ह माही उर्फ़ धोनी भैया उर्फ़ कप्तान साहब .. (यह आखिरी मेरा अपना जोड़ा हुआ है ) ने एक बार फिर सिद्ध कर दिया है कि वे वस्तव में मात्र भाग्यशाली कप्तान ही नही एक प्रभावशाली कप्तान भी है ।
3. भारत ने सात विकेट पर 354 रन बनाकर, 350 रन से अधिक का लक्ष्य आस्ट्रेलिया जैसी टीम के विरुद्ध पहली बार यह अजूबा कर दिखाया है ।
4. प्रवीण कुमार को तेज गेंदबाज न कहें तो न कहें पर आस्ट्रेलिया के बल्लेबाजों को जिस तरह उन्होने बांधें रखा अपने आप में काबिले तारीफ है । धोनी भैया कम से कम अब तो मान जाओ कि वह एक अच्छा क्रिकेटर है ।
5. हरभजन सिंह की गेंदबाजी उस दौर से गुजर चुकी है जब वे बल्लेबाजों को छकाने में कामयाब हो सकें ।
6. अच्छी से अच्छी टीम के 350 से उपर का लक्ष्य देखकर हाथ पांव फूल जाते है ।
7. अगर टीम को अच्छी शुरुआत मिले तो भारत आसानी से 350 रन से अधिक बनाने में सक्षम है, अगर मै गलत नही हूं तो हमारी टीम इस मामले में आस्ट्रेलिया से भी आगे है ।

चलिये आज का पत्र यहीं समप्त करता हूं, सहवाग, गंभीर, धोनी, रैना, प्रवीण कुमार तथा रविंद्र जडेजा सब के सब ही मैन आफ दी मैच थे । टीम को एकजुट देखकर अत्यंत प्रसन्नता हुई ।

मेरा भी योगदान रहा, मैने कल भारतीय पारी 10.1ओवर के बाद इसलिये देखना छोड़ दी कि खिलाड़ियों को मेरी नज़र न लग जाये ।

आपका अपना अनुज
अभय शर्मा
29 अक्टूबर 2009

Match Report, Nagpur ODI - October 28 2009

2009-10-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

Respected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh

India has crossed the 350 or more runs on the board for the twelfth time (most by any team) and only team to score that batting first against Australia..

This is the third time in this calendar year that team India has crossed the mark.. they earlier scored 363 and 392 against Srilanka and New Zealand in February

India has done it thrice against each of the Sri Lanka and Newzealand

India has a highest total of 413 for 5 against Bernuda in the 2007 world cup.. it was a different matter that they were eliminated at the group stage in that tournament

India does not have a score of 350 plus only against South Africa of the top eight world teams

Out of the 12 occasions only thrice did team score 350 plus runs against minnows i.e. on nine occasions they achieved the feat against top cricket playing countries

India has achieved this feat five times under Mahendra Singh Dhoni's leadership

Congratulations team India.. I would not mind considering lifting a ban on myself to not to watch ODI cricket.. but don't ask me to watch Test cricket as well.. ungli thama raha hoon kalaai hi mat thaam lena or else I would be forced to sing..

dheere dheere kalai lage thaamane
inko ungli thamana gazab ho gaya ...

Love you all
Abhaya Sharma

Dhoni to Surprise Ponting

2009-10-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Respected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh
Now that you are beating most of us in sending post after post… eh in some competition with Angel or likes of her.. anyway.. this is not a complaint, it never can be a complain..
The more I think.. the more I realsie that it is not easy to come up with creative bust on the blog.. the more I read.. the more I find that people are here for more than just fun.. some try to propagate their own languages too.. that is noting wrong.. it might be of some help for those qho really wish to learn German.. I hope I have thanked the contributor without breaching my self-imposed restriction of naming individulas.. yet my German experience has to wait.. I may prefer to first get my hands on to Bangla.. oh no, not for the living but for some of the immortals that Bengal produced.. How fortunate I would consider myself if I could someday read Gitanjali in Bangla or even Sharat Literature in the language it originally emanated from. wishes.. Well, Genie can you make me a Bangala Aladin.. I shall feel indebted to you even if do not pay or offer any alms..lol
Good to see that some Sanjib Guha on DNA expressed my own sentiments regarding the ODI tourney in progress or should we say that has barely begun.. I have had a change of heart.. I shall not mind ODI if it could replace the Test cricket.. if they say test cricket is the real test of nerves.. ODI is just proving out to be reflecting that same feeling.. the bowlers and batters both have to apply themselves to tasks at hand.. what I know now is that Dhoni may after all be reading me and needing some help.. oh no, not my help as a bowler but as a strategist.. surprise.. that is the word I would like to whisper into his ears.. even if the Ponting too reads this he would just know that some surprises are coming.. what surprises.. I can not elaborate.. he has to do that himself in consultation with his senior players like Sehwag and Yuvraj.. no. no if he does wants to incorporate as naive as a Virat or Ravindra into his think tank there is absolutely no harm.. The think tank could be deciding on what composition they paly.. on what batting order they evolve.. more importantly plan for each players fielding abilities and expectations from him.. there is no stopping to work out on such issues as who bowls when and who bats where besides who chooses to be i or out of the circle during power plays.. these Dhoni bhaiya are some of the questions tha should concern team India..
Go ahead and play your best cricket.. I am not miffed at the loss at Vadodara.. now, if Bombay has to be categorically Mumbai why Baroda can’t be also only Vadodara.. it is all right.. What new name have they suggested for Nagpur.. Oh they haven’t done it as yet.. I am sorry.. snaketown would be the literal translation.. santara nagar could specify some of its innate attributes.. what else.. does it really matter.. if Nagpur were to be aprt of an IPL team they could also come up with Nagpur Netters.. oh it does not mean well.. do names have always supposed to reveal some significance.. I did not know.. hardly live upto the name that has been given to me.. many Sukhrams provide lots of dukh and some of the nainsukhs hardly able to see.. aankh ke andhe naam nainsukh.. where am I going.. stop..
Love and hopefully India does well tomorrow.. as i would not be watching the first half for sure.. I am from a working class Yaar.. I say this as many of the games which I see India does quite badly.. in the opener Harbhajan and Praveen could do well only after I went to sleep.. if they want me to sleep to win.. I shall do that for Nagpur game too.. I sorely need some good sleep too..
Crieckt fanatic
Abhaya Sharma
PS Dhoni bhaiya don’t lead the team that I said after the loss of the first game.. Ponting has probabbly seen that surprise him with some bold changes from that.. Good luck at Nagpur..

त्रिकोणीय श्रंखला में विजय

2009-09-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Brother!
For team India won an important game ahead of some more tough tournaments coming up later..
It was nearly a total India participation - lookNorth - Harbhajan, Yuvraj & RainaEast - Mahendra Singh DhoniWest - Sachin TendulakrSouth - Rahul Dravid
As many as six players gave away some of the stellar performance in the win.. and for the first time I saw that Dhoni did listen to my plan maybe you told him it was your wish (moderator of the blog) that he wshould experiment with theslow bowlers.. I had sensed the way Malinga had been taken for runs that the wicket was a batsman’s paradise only slow bowlers could do something to contain or buy wickets.. Raina was a good contributor.. even in the Compaq cup winning my question to MSD.. what does Pravee Kumar do more to find a place in the playing XI..Congratulations to Padmshree Harbhajan Singh for coming up trumps at the crucial times.. if the wickets which he took were not taken India could have lost despite having 320 plus on the board.. he was ably supported by Yuvraj and Raina in the spin bowling department..
Yet the special salutation goes to the master blaster the Black (Oriental) Bradman - the one and only one Sachin Tendulakr.. I would not deny that he has proved me wrong.. I had been advocating that he has played enough of cricket he should take some rest.. not any more.. he could give good competition to Viru and Gauti of the Delhi for the openers slot.. it is very heartening to see him perform like a champion even at this age.. the physical makeup does get a faster wear and tear in sports with age than in Cinema.. that he has no chance of a retake to improve his shot.. he is a great performer by any standards.. best of luck for champions trophy and the champions league..
हिंदी दिवस होने के नाते मै भारतीय टीम को विजय के इस अवसर पर अपनी बधाई हिदी में भी देना चाहूंगा, आज जिस प्रकार के खेल का प्रदर्शन सभी खिलाड़ियों ने किया वह अत्यंत ही सराहनीय था, आप सब प्रशंसा के पात्र है आशा है आने वाले दिनों में भी आप सब एकजुट होकर खेलेंगे तथा कुछ रोमांचक मैच हमें देखने को मिल सकेंगें । यहां यह बताना यथोचित होगा कि खेल में एक की जीत तथा दूसरे की हार तो लगभग सुनिश्चित होती है तथापि सही खेल भावना के साथ किया गया प्रदर्शन हार-जीत के फैसले से बढ़कर है । आज टीम ने कुल मिलाकर अच्छा प्रदर्शन किया अगर संयोगवश हार भी जाते तो अभय शर्मा का दिल दुखी नही होता जैसा कि विश्व कप 2007 में या हाल ही में टी20 चैम्पियन्शिप में कभी हुआ था । धोनी भैया तुमसे मुझे कोई बैर थोड़े ही है, पर हां, सहवाग तथा प्रवीण कुमार प्रतिभाशाली खिलाड़ी है अकारण उन्हे अवसर नही देना कुछ ठीक नही लगता, वैसे अब मै कह सकता हूं कि तुम्हारी रणनीति कारगर है , टीम का चयन अपने हिसाब से ही करो, मै क्या जानूं कि किस में कितना है दम । सभी लड़कों को एक बार फिर हमारी तरफ़ से अनेकों बधाई ।अभय शर्मा

AAR-PAAR Cricket

2009-05-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

( I envy Shanouk.. arrey bhaunkata kyun hai bhaai.. main teri jagah nahi le sakata.. )

Respected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh

Today morning I gave some more thoughts to the team Allahabad All-Rounders and can disclose only the minimum players over here lest some of the owners and players themselves may get into making life difficult for idea to get into reality..

The parts which I can discuss without much impact -

Owner - Amitabh Bachchan/ Abhishek Bachchan
Partner - Aditya Birla ( Anil Ambani was the initial choice yet I avoided him as then buying back some of the players from Mumbai Indians might become a controversy)
Cricket Coach - Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri if they are available - Mohinder Amarnath could be a beautiful choice as well!
Captain - Michael Clarke

Besides some of the top UP players the team could start off with buying 10 Indian players and 10 foreign players preferably from one from each of the cricket playing country..

My list of players may not necessarily be identical with what might surface with you, cricket coach and captain designate but I am definitely of the opinion to include Mohammad Kaif in the ten from India.. Is he not born somewhere in Allahabad as well.. I also wish Suresh Raina and Praveen Kumar could be bought back from their respective franchisees..Oh! am I discloseing more than I should.. I must curtail my thought process before I spill too much of the beans..

I have a feeling that the last week at IPL was arguably the best week the cricketing tournament had so far.. I only wish that the remaining five games and semi-finals and the finals match in the intensity.. unlike last year where the semi-finals and finals appeared as more lull games than some of the league phase in 2008...

With two games each for Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challenge Bangalore the others have only one more game left before the league gets over.. they too would have only one game each after the game in the evening.. I thought I could be impartial.. it is inhuman to be impartial.. man ny nature has to have strong likings and disliking .. How can I be an exception.. till Allahabad All-Rounders takes shape I would continue my support to one Virender Sehwag.. only I know it would nearly be impossible to buy him into the side as he is the icon player for DD..

Let me summarize the tournaments 51 games.. The last one turned out to be the best than all its competing games most of which took place during the last seven days or so..

Most Likely team to lift the IPL trophy - Delhi Daredevils

Most likely player of the tournament (India)- Rohit Sharma/Suresh Raina/Yuvraj Singh

Most likely player of the tournament (Overseas) - Matthew Hayden/Adam Gilchrist/AB de Villiers

Most runs in the tournament - Matthew Hayden/AB de Villiers

Most wickets in the tournament - Ashish Nehra/Rudra Pratap Singh

Most catches in the tournament - AB de Villiers

Most dismissals (Wicket Keeper) - Adam Gilchrist/Dinesh Karthik

The most impressive new player (India) - Shadab Jakati/Naman Ojha

The most impressive new player (Overseas) - Jean Paul Duminy

The most impressive spinner of the tournament - Pragyan Ojha/ Anil Kumble/ Muralitharan

The most impressive all rounder of the tournament - Suresh Raina/Jean Paul Duminy/Rohit Sharma

I know that I have this bad habit of dragging too deep into every issue yet this should help you in making some of your decisions.. if at all you do get motivated enough to float Allahabad All-rounders in the first place.. it would definitely be a good idea sir ji !

Love AAR it could also be called AAR-PAAR The second part is only for rhyming and quite a useful Indian phrase in terms of sporting including cricket...

I do not buy any theories that came forward in support of test cricket.. by international players in DNA today.. It is a dead cricket for me much before.. In fact I would not mind writing the story Death of Test Cricket.. but then I am not a pessimist I would rather choose to write the book .. The Birth of New Cricket - Twenty20 .. ( I know my dear friend Tumpa is all smiles today.. so must be Kashmir di.. and lots and lots of Bengal cricket lovers.. KKR turns the tables on CSK in the most thrilling encounter that was played less than 24 hours back.. I am happy for them all..)

Abhaya India May 20 2009 10:30 AM IST

Post Script: I have decided the most impressive twenty players for your T20 team, and my young son Amrit (10) took part in it.. He did support some players yet wanted some very strong players who may not be available for different reasons.. You could call me at 9869258653.. ( Agar aap iski jaroorat samajhe tabhi.. I know you would do a fine job of owning the new team all on your own..)

Crack of a match - the 43rd game

2009-05-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Delhi or no tream could have ever won it this one in its dream.. not from the situations like 149 for 3 .. it will always haunt Gilchrist what his team went through in those last three overs.. to finish as 161 all out and loose the game by 12 runs..

We know that Delhi has won it by 12 runs and sort of created a history by winning the games away when niether Viru nor gambhir have really made big contributions.. here is what I wrote to Amitabh Bachchan at the end of the game..

Oh! My Dearest Brother!
Sadar Charan Sparsh,
Are you in competition with me.. for writing such long posts.. there is a difference.. your posts are extremely valuable and contain ricj substance and information for most of us unlike the ones I just keep dragging for I do not know where to stop..
It was very heartening to see the post.. I shall read it in its entirety later in the day.. I did get to read about Sir Khwaja Ahmed Abbas.. and oh I too read a lot of Blitz and Screen mostly at the Barber's shop while waiting for a hair-cut.. Indeed what you speak of the times and terms of Khwaja Ahmed Abbas must be quite true.. His saat Hindustani was a great reflection of his vision.. It is sad that some 40 years later we have no one to take Hindi where it needs to be .. It is all right I do not want you to spoil your sleep over it.. main Hindi se itna pyaar karta hoon phir bhi aaj tak maine hi kabhi is baat ki taraf itana dhyaan nahi diya jitana jarrori hai.. chalo khair hindustan ek mahaan desh hai.. mujhe aur un sabko maaf kar dega jo use khud ki ek rashtrabhasha nahi de paaye..

The match was quite an anti-climax.. I expected Viru to hit the leather to all parts.. yet it was Gilly and Symo who tore it apart to different parts.. and what an unbelievable turn around in the match 149 for three to 161 all out in a space of 17 balls.. yes it was no less than an attempt to harakiri by trhe Deccan men.. They did not deserve to loose the game after such powerful reply by the two aussie known for changing the scenario when chips are down.. today their efforts were let down collectively by the Deccan batsmen. yet I must also add here that it was no ordinary effort from Bhatia, Sangwan and to some extent the fielders in the deep.. de Villiers was quite outstanding.. and of course Dinesh Karthiks last minute fireworks brought some life into the Delhi camp at the end of their innings.. A score taht was quite defendable was about to be torn apart with 2 to three overs to spare.. the way Gilchrist and later Symonds took charge upon themselves.. I am ashamed to say that i did not witness the great knock by Gilchrist as I lost interest in the game.. I was quite sure that 174 was some 30 runs short.. the way Gilchrist batted.. Sangwan according to me had bowled more superbly and I would have picked him my man of the match.. imagine someone sending down a maiden when other bowlers were bleeding terribly from the Gilchristeria and later Symondosis but it was the bhatiaphoid that Deccan could not recover from and lost the game by 12 runs..

Hopefully, in the next game Sehwag would open up and pay some heed to my today's earlier request.. a blitkreig from his bat is long overdue..

Love and yes the pictures are quite nice.. thanks for sharing them..

Abhaya India May 13/14 2009 1:08 AM IST

Let us have some Viro-Technics tonight..

2009-05-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

Respected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh

I take the privilege of addressing Virender sehwag here on this platform.. I know some of the boys might just be reading the blog here than the well documented writings on my blogs and website.. so here I go..

Dear Viru,
This is Ahaya Sharma, a KVIAN like you who requests you to come into your best elements tonight as quickly as you can.. why.. The tournament has been hijacked by some scintillating performances from Hayden, Gilchrist, Symonds and even Duminy's though in his diminutive style.. even Bravo and Smith have done far better than some of the Indians and day before yesterday we saw New Zealand stars coming into their elements.. AB de Villiers has a century against his name and some of the others from India who have made their presence felt in the form of Suresh Raina ( who missed the century for none of his faults) and to a lesser extent Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma (though more with the ball than the bat..) it s time that someone of your stature take a note of these disturbing facts.. whose tournament this IPL is.. does it belong to India or to Australia and the rest of the world and not so much to India.. true some of the Indians have bowled quite well in RP, Jakati and lately even Bhajji and surprisingly Rohit Dharma and Suresh Raina.

I assume your stitches have healed well.. you did take quite long to get into action.. don't sit out and watch Symonds Gilchrist or even Gibbs hoisting the limited yet effective bowling attack that DD possesses give them back something in return.. come send the leather for some hunting.. just tear apart any attack that Gilly stews in his backyard.. let him also know that when it comes to big hitting there can not be a better answer than Virender Shwag in the world of cricket.. a long strong and great knock is what is least expected from you tonight.. it is upto you if you choose to set the stadium ablaze with your kind of firebrand cricket.. Don't let your great admirers in the lurch and feel otherwise that with the IPL gone to South Africa.. Indians forgot the art of stroke-making and scoring brisk runs against their names..

Don't yopu allow the RP or Vaas to settle down or give some breathing space to even a Suman a Sharma or a Rao.. just give them a feeling of that helplessness of how to bowl a good line or a length to you.. just show them what kind of guts it takes for them to bowl to someone like Sehwag at his best..

If not now then when.. take this from me that Deccans are going to be the opponent in the semi-finals.. so let them have a rehearsal of what Delhi's daredevilry is all about.. and yes I do feel that it is not wise to dislodge the opening pair that has been forged in your absence.. You could come one or two down wherever you feel you could do the maximum damage.. let Deccans be surprised with the highest score of the tournament if they dare to put Delhi into bat.. yet if you do win the toss opt to field first.. Delhi has been doing quite well batting second..

Finally, My team for today's game.. You have the full rights to change it to your likings and understanding.. as I told you I have only been an ovserver where as you guys are doing the job in the middle.. yet here is my choice..

Gambhir, Warner, Sehwag, AB de Villiers, Tiwary, Karthik, Maharoof, Mishra, Sangwan, Nehra, McGrath ( or Nannes or Vettori if McGrath feels it better that way.. do seek his opinion..)

The presence of McGrath could come a bit handy while planning a coup against the batting powers of Symonds and Gilchrist.. so if you do think it appropriate give the old man hs first game.. he deserves it a great deal..

Best of luck dear.. though I do not feel very good of the chances of Delhi pulling ths one from the Deccans who just might play Gibbs ahead of Vaas or Smith.. and yes Rohit is bowling quite well.. preserve against him.. yet Suman can be hoisted to whichever part of the ground you feel like to send him.. the two should be not allowed to bowl more than five overs between them.. Have a great day.. I wish to see Delhi at the top of best performances in the table of best/worst performances beating the 211 mark set by Royals..

Bye for now.. go get into the act of fearless stroke making and do not get bogged down by the praise that has been heaped upon you.. you deserve every chance to score the fast runs to take Delhi further ahead.. non-stoppable status in the IPL 2009. For me a half-century or a century has no meaning, I want that you make quick runs.. say a quickfire 60 or 70 in some 30 odd balls..

Abhaya India May 13 2009 5:55 PM IST
PS brother if you have his mobile, you could ask him to read the message here.. if not today in the next game.. we want to see the Sehwag putting his best foot forward to hail India in the IPL 2009..

My Views here have been meagre..

2009-05-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/abhayasharma/top_ipl_2009.htm
and
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/abhayasharma/results_ipl.htm
and also
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/abhayasharma/IPL_format_team_bonus.pdf
are some of the most recent updates on my website whic hav much more to offer than my posts here. n fact I could not write or post here even whatever I did write to brother Amitabh on his blog.. even that has seen more of my IPL views than this blog!

I shall write after three fourth of the games get over tomorrow.. when 42 of the possible 56 games of the league phase do get over..

The article in the pdf form is better for reading than what I hae copy pasted here yesterday..

Delhi and Chennai are difficult to be disloodged from top four Deccan are almost there.. and I would want Kinhs XI of Poonjab to be there too.. if wishes could really be horses too.. I know the fourth slot is gong t be fiercely fought between them and the Rajasthan Royals to a greater extent yet Mumbai Indians are not completely out of it and even RCB does have theoretical possibilities of making it to the end..

Let us see.. I only wish Delhi when they meet Deccans tomorrow should not play loose cricket.. they haveperformed well as one unit as is evident from their victories even in the absence of swashbuckling Sehwag.. Sehawg must play to counteract the prsence of Symonds.. otherwise Deccan appear stronger to win a sweet revenge over Delhi..
Abhaya India May 12 2009 12:45 IST

Implementing Improvements in IPL

2009-05-11T00:52:00.000-07:00

Implementing Improvements in IPL ( I cube of Twenty20 Cricket)
Abhaya Sharma, India, May 11 2009 11:12 AM IST

The following suggestions are voiced here for a possible implementation in the next stage of the IPL in the year 2010. Organisers could experiment with some of the improvements such as team bonus points at the end of the league phase of the tournament. Yet before that IO would like to incorporate the major changes in the format: The numbers of the conditions can be seen as having different numbers. They could probably be thought of as amendment notes. For example, amendment 2 specifies the restrictions on number of overseas players.

A. Team Compositions

A team of 14 must be announced in such a way that no foreign team has more than 2 players on the list. A team however could have as many overseas players within that rule, however the playing XI – the ones who can bat and bowl should not have more than one player from a country other than India or the host country e.g. South Africa in present case, A team could have a maximum of 2 players from the host country. ( I assume IPL would be hosted more than once in a year and in several different countries!)
A team if having players from five or more different countries (in 14 players for the game) could use one from each country making away with the present restriction of the four overseas players in its playing eleven . I see this as an opportunity for not only players from lesser cricketing countries like Bangladesh, Ireland, Kenya, etc. and a boost to some upcoming countries like Holland, Bermuda, Canada, UAE, Scotland etc.
A team should not have more than 20 players on its roll at any given time i.e. for a particular IPL tournament. It can however buy additional players that would not be allowed to play as a list of 20 players should be announced one week before the start of the tournament. There can not be more than two players from any country in the list of 20.
Injured players would not be replaced unless the injury qualifies for a replacement in strict medical sense.. a hamstring pull would not qualify as a reason for seeking replacement where as a shoulder dislocation or a fracture should qualify for the same.

B. Playing Conditions

1. A team should announce 14 players before a match starts. The 14 should all field in either first or the second half of the game. One half of a game ideally being construed as comprising of 10 overs. Ideally 3 substitute fielders should come on to the field at the end of first half i.e. 10 overs, if one of them has already substituted for an injured player earlier he could only be replaced after 10 overs from the point of his induction i.e. by the replaced player. The injured player thus can not make an entry before he has been rested for 10 overs.
2. The teams should be forced to have two proper power plays one each of three consecutive overs on either halves of the play (One half should be understood as comprising of 10 overs). Ideally the first three overs of each half. There could also be one additional over that the batting team could ask at any point of the innings for similar field restriction by captain informing the umpires over headphones of the time. The third special Power play can not be immediately after either of the proper power plays as also it can not be the last over of the innings.
The strategic break should be reduced to just 5 minutes with possible reduction of each minute for an injury time reduction in the first half. The teams should induct three fresh fielding substitutes at this stage.
Two bowlers in a team should be allowed a maximum of five overs for two of its best bowlers in each half. If one of the 5 over bowler has not been used in the first half the team could then use only one bowler for a five over spell. The bowler who might bowl the first five over spell must be specified by the captain at the start of the game. The second bowler could be chosen from any of its bowlers as the captain might feel more confident and comfortable with.
There should not be a provision for a runner in a game, a player who is not able to continue to bat should retire hurt and return only if required by his team in the later stages of the innings. I suggest this for players to maintain higher fitness standard.
The runs conceded by ways of extras (like wide, bye, legbyes, freehit scores) should not be added to the bowlers or batsman’s account (the freehit runs should be added to extras!). Yes a no ball should be counted as one run conceded by the bowler and the over with a no ball would not qualify for a maiden over.

C. Bonus Points in a Match
There has been a voice of concern that teams performing extraordinarily in a match should be awarded bonus points.. A win should earn a team 2 points from a game and bonus points may be added for one or more conditions being achieved by a team. Here a team can earn more than one bonus point and even a losing team might just earn a bonus point for some great performance.. this is important as it would nullify the impact on their standings on simply loosing a game which they might have lost very narrowly. Here are my suggestions for one bonus point each for the teams satisfying any one or more criteria below: (adequately speaking these should apply only to the games which have seen a minimum of 15 overs by each team!)

A team batting first that wins a game by a margin of 50 or more runs (inclusive, 49 run win does not qualify your team for bonus. i.e is cruel yet it has to be like that bonus should not come easily)
A team batting second that wins by 9 or more wickets
A team that wins with 30 or more balls to spare (the rule applies to either team whether batting first or batting second)
A batsman who scores 90 or more runs for his team earns a bonus ( available even in rain or light- shortened matches as well)
A Bowler takes 5 or more wickets for his team earns a bonus for his team ( available even in rain or light- shortened matches as well)
A team posting a score of 200 or more runs earns a bonus for its team ( both teams could each score this bonus thus nullifying the impact of a close defeat)
A team having used 7 or more bowlers in an innings, it could be counterproductive if the seventh bower goes for more runs that could cost the team a game.
A bowler sending down a maiden over earns a bonus for each maiden. This should have seldom been possible and it should deter the batsman to being overcautious against the bowlers.
A team earns a bonus for scoring 30 or more runs in an over (inclusive of extras)
A team earns a bonus if it gets three batsman out in three consecutive balls, wickets could be spread between two bowlers and also include run-out.

D. Super Bonus Points at the end of League Phase: To be counted in decidng the four semi-finalists. The teams qualify for further 2 point bonus if they satisfy any one of the conditions. Multiple bonus points are available
Two bonus points are to be given to a team who uses the maximum of its 20 players in the final XI of one or the other league match.
Two points to be awarded to the team that has maximum runs per over in the tournament
Two bonus points to the team that has conceded the least runs per over in the tournament.
Two bonus points to a team that has five or more consecutive wins in the tournament. To be awarded only once.
Two bonus points for a team that has captured maximum opposition wickets.

Here comes a surprising negative bonus. I don’t know if it could lead to better team planning and management and curb the betting syndicates. These negative bonus points could come harsh on non-performing teams. I suggest a negative bonus of 3 points for each of the following conditions.

A team fails to win even one fifth of the games in the league phase
A team that has lost five continuous games
A team that has never been able to bowl any opposition out in a game. That is little harsh, yet I retain this to encourage bowlers and fielders
A team that fails to register even a single total of 160 plus runs in the tournament (in a 20 over game)
If a team fails to take more than 3 wickets per match in the tournament.

Game 35 could be a virtual final..

2009-05-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Viru (The swashbuckling Sehwag) - This poem was written for you quite a few months back when Bedi and Sandeep Patil were highly critical of him on Star News.. It may not fit well yet for the last stanza I wanted to iclude it here.. Viru people in India have short memories.. Wisden cricketer of the year may nt mean anything to them if you could not take Delhi Daredevils to win the second edition of IPL.. and your chances would become very strong if Mumba fails to make it to semi-finals.. Am I reading too much too early.. Read on

A Huge Game is on the cards …

Delhi need to put every trick to work in order to really seal Mumbai’s chances of making it to semi-finals..

The first encounter between the Delhi and Mumbai lads is going to be a virtual final of the sorts..

Mumbai according to me are one of the very best side in terms of the available potential only difference has been that they have not been able to realize that potential on the ground. His game is almost a do or die situation for the Reliance owned team. The team would in all possibilities emerge a winner if somehow they get to chase a score below 170. To be considered among the giants like Chennai, Deccan and Delhi they will have to pip Rajasthan out of contention, could it be that simple or straight forward as I write it here.. I doubt. None of the teams is going to allow Mumbai an easy go at them in the forthcoming matches just for the reason that they are one of the tough sides to beat if they makeit to semi-finals.

Delhi feel if they win the toss.. they have won on most occasions.. should immediately put Mumbai in to bat and hope to restrict them in the region of 160 to 170. Any score beyond that has proved a little too difficult for the opponents yet ask Dhoni and Sehwag even 189 and 186 were not seemingly enough during this tournament.. yet Kings XI had successfully defended a modest 119.

This game Mumbai must also consider to look for some formidable combination of players.. unfortunately for them their strike spinner has let them down terribly.. If I were in place of Sachin I would not have thought twice to ask the turbanator to take a forced break.. especially against the likes of Sehwag, Gambhir and Dilshan some of the best exponents of playing spin well in the world.. He will need to strengthen his batting from whatever is available.. the only trouble is that Jaysuriya, Malinga and Duminy pick themselves with no arguments whatsoever.. that leaves Bravo.. some people in the commentary box were very critical of Bravo letting himself got out the other day when the game was very much within their hold.. I doubt if I could agree with that.. I do not know what other options does Mumbai have if they choose to drop him and even Harbhajan Singh..

The selection of foreign players is almost as difficult for their opponents into today’s very important game.. it is a bit of an irony that Delhi could not give a game to McGrath so far with half of the tournament over.. If McGrath is sitting out Delhi would probably some day rue their chances of winning the tournament.. I feel there must be space made to accommodate the greatest bowler of our times.. his experience alone on the filed could make a subtle difference to Delhi’s chances.. He is sure to walk in place of Nannes who despite his good bowling potentials and a good line and length besides his speed still counts among the worst three spells of the tournament, alongside Kallis and Flintoff.. Warner has done well enough in his two games but I think today he would be required to make room for Vettori to return. It really hurts to ask someone as successful as Warner to take a place in the dugout..

Though I know it is a tough game Delhi should win this under two conditions.. one that they field first and chase a score of less than 170 and second that they are able to post a score in excess of 180.. With Sachin, Sanath, Duminy, Nayar a score less than that may not be appropriately defendable..

My team for Delhi Daredevils the correct batting order in case they are forced to bat first:
Gautam Gambhir, de Villiers, Dilshan, Sehwag, Karthik, Tiwary, Vettori, Mishra, Sangwan, Nehra, McGrath. There are no other options available for making a perfect winning combination. If prevailing conditions suggest that spin may not seem to work as well as it worked so far in the tournament, it may also be the right time for Maharoof to make an entry as well, in place of Vettori.. He was quite heroic in some of the games in the first edition of IPL in 2008.

I would rather wish a very good luck to Sehwag and Delhi teammates as this is going to be their biggest ordeal on the field.. and yes in case Viru has not yet recoverd from his stitched up finger Delhi can entirely forget to win this one..

In the end I must add that the game is tilted in favour of Mumbai Indians as it is much more important outing for them if they wish to remain a force in the tournament.. a loss here might make their task of making to semis a semi-dream..

Abhaya India May 9 2009 11:33 AM IST

PS Do not become bind to any of my decision.. the fact remains that you are a far bigger cricketing brain than an Abhaya Sharma could ever be.. but do ponder over points I mentioned here.. before you decide the XI for an important game like today's..

The report of First half of the IPL 2009

2009-05-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

Half –Way Covered at IPL 2009

28 Matches have been played at the IPL 2 underway at South Africa. Not all the teams have played equal number of games some have played seven, some others just six and a couple have played eight games. The standings show the Deccan Chargers ahead of the rest followed by Kings XI of Punjab, Delhi Daredevils and Royal challenge Bangalore. The other three teams Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are not far too behind. Only Kolkata Knight Rider’s are staggering at a position where only a miracle can lift their chances of making it to be counted amongst Semi-Finalists.

There have been some tremendous competitions amongst the sides.. some have been one sided affairs and a few have been washed by rains.. two hames completely abandoned and two others affected before they could be completed for the desired 20 over levels.

Matthew Hayden, Suresh Raina, and surprisingly Brad Hodge of the Kolkata Knight Riders are among the top three run getters. Their teams do not find place in top four. Of course Gilchrist, Gibbs, Dilshan, Rohit Sharma, Duminy, Kallis, Dravid, Tendulkar, and even Yusuf Pathan are among good runs with their bat. Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj and Dhoni are not counted too much, atleast not at this stage of the tournament. Pietersen and Flintoff did not match the amount of money their teams spent on them.

The bowling department belonged to Spinners, that too quite surprisingly, the game was actually considered a death bed for spinners when the first edition of IPL was about to start earlier last year. Yet the kind of success that has been enjoyed by Pragyan Ojha, Apanna, Jakati and Yusuf Pathan speaks more in favour of novices than the stalwarts like Harbhajan Singh, Muralitharan or even Kumble (his five for 5 spell standing). Among paceman too it was generally the young breed that did earn more recognition. Abdulla being the leading wicket taker followed by RP Singh and Malinga. Praveen Kumar and Munaf patel did better than most other known contributors to the game of pace attack. Kamran Khan might have been notified for his suspect action but he was too good for most of the opposition. Only Laxmipati balaji and Nehra counted greater deal from the experienced bowlers.

In a nutshell, the underdogs performed much more strikingly than the established names. Virat Kohli held maxiomum catches alongside de Villiers in the tournament. The two or four major contributors who counted on the higher side of the age were Hayden, Gilchrist and Dravid and Tendulkar. The south African factors of the team also helped the cause of teams doing well, de Villiers has the lone century, Duminy and Kallis have been among runs, Boucher and van Wyk behind the stumps and van Merwe counted with his spin attack.

The team that was picked by India on the basis of their performances in the current IPL season for the world Twenty20 World championship is quite acceptable or should I say the best picked team in the recent times. Though I thought one could make room for Virat Kohli and maybe also Munaf Patel. But then given the limitations of the number of players that could be selected and additional wicket keeper required for a long tournament, the slectors have done a splendid job. The omission of one of Sachin or Dravid does make one feel soar but then the game is supposedly to be played by young pair of legs in the field and it is quite understandable despite such a hoopla of oldies playing goldies by our news channels especially Aaj Tak. I give the selectors a 9 out of 10 marks.. 9 as they could not muster strength to leave out Harbhajan Singh and Gautam Gambhir, the latter has a tremendous batting record and his inclusion is seconded by me.. but probably I would have picked Virat Kohli as one of the true all-rounders in the team. Dinesh Karthik has been lucky with striking the form lately.. he is the only fortunate inclusion.. if Harbhajan is a somewhat dubious inclusion, it appears his huge hitting came to the rescue of non-performing spinner.

The second half promises to be as exciting as the first half or maybe much more exciting as some of the Australians might finally join the competition some of the West Indies players may also be leaving soon. Their young players did make quite a mark of their own especially Edward Fidel, Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo. Gayle was out of colors as was McCullum and that could have been the reason for such a bad ranking of Kolkata..

Special mention must be made of the coveted hat-trick performed by Yuvraj Singh of Kings XI Punjab against Royal Challenge Bangalore and the lone century by AB de Villiers of Delhi Daredvils against Chennai Super Kings.

The two pages I am sporting at my angelfire website:

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/abhayasharma/top_ipl_2009.htm
and
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/abhayasharma/results_ipl.htm

Have a nice and great time with IPL 2 may only the best team win the second edition.

Abhaya India May 4 2009 7:39 PM IST

Team India for Twenty20 world cup

2009-05-01T05:58:00.000-07:00

Batsman - Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni
Batting All rounder- Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh
Bowling All rounder- Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar
Bowler- RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra

Given the performances in the first half of the IPL 2 in South Africa, I would rather love the above players to be selected for the Twenty20 world cup team for India. There are certain slots that do have some competitors for example there is a fight between Ojha and Mishra and also Munaf Patel and Kamaran Khan or even Laxmipati Balaji. Maybe Abhishek Nayar might just not fit the bill too well as of now but given his fielding capabilities I would still love to include him, he could face the challenge from Zaheer Khan for his experience. The other major change could be if Sachin does not want to be part of the team as he sometime back suggested that could make way for Ravindra Jadeja or even someone like Sreevats Goswamy. Even These are only speculations- the replacements – the sixteen that have been in the table deserve more than their probable counterparts. Let us see how does BCCI selectors think of my suggestions. They generally are known to think different to my suggestions. It is all right, they are the better informed people than me.
I do not know when they pick the final team for the next month's big event on the cricket's international calendar.
Abhaya India May 1 2009 6:39 PM IST

Suresh Raina Deserved a Hundred ...

2009-04-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

Heartbreaking !
The news of Raina missing the century..
What a great knock from Suresh Raina.. and it had to do with the mistake on the scoreboard which wrongly showed him to have completed his century with that four.. and poor fellow.. he did look confused.. yet he raised his bat and also went for that shot which any sensible man on 98 would not play.. after all century is not scored every other day in Twenty20 cricket.. I am sure the keepers of scoreboard need to be penalised for their mistakes too.. if a captain does for slow over rate.. why not the scoreboard erring and devoiding a well deserved century to the young Suresh Raina.. my heart cries for him.. it still becomes the highest score by an Indian in the IPL beating 94* by Sehwag.. yet a century is a century and he deserved it every bit..

The game is far from over.. some may feel that 165 is a big asking I for one do not rule out a great fight being on the cards.. only there should be some support provided to Yusuf Pathan..
Smith has to fire and I expect Mascarenhas could lend the extra bit of support.. A good game is on cards..

Congratulations Raina.. you have been deceived by some conspiracy and denied a well deserved 100... I feel you would get there in this season in one of the games of IPL 2 itself..Well played..

Abhaya India April 30 2009 10:03 PM IST

I shall now address you with some peace of mind returned.. Delhi have registered a comfortable win.. as I noted a little while.. no, they are still not on top of the charts yet they have regained their second slot the net run rate is far too much in favour of Deccan and it will take some time to dislodge them from the top.. Yes.. They did paly well despite the loss with more than an over and two balls to spare.. or had it to be three.. I remember Ravi Shastri mentioning that one of the over from Deccans was called off aonly after five balls were bowled.. if it is true it could have had serious implications.. if not.. it should be important for the commentators to keep a good track of the balls as they are bowled.. and yes Edwards was wrongly charged with tqwo of the wides.. it does mean a lot every single extra that comes to be added to the score.. I had prayed around that the net ryun rate for DD should not climb above 10, somewhere between or after the 15th over.. and Dilshan and Dinesh Karthik probably heard me well.. and in the end did wonderful job by winning the game by 6 wickets and eight balls to spare.. good job.. a tough opponent has been defeated..

I look forward to another thriller between Chennai and Rajasthan.. Warne is good but Dhoni is the best when it comes to captaincy.. even if the points table depict a different story.. Chennai should in all probability have a comfortable win.. yet to predict in cricket and to predict in T20 game could be somethink akin to commit a blunder if not harakiri.. the game is bound to be good in any eventuality..

have a nice time in front of idiot box..

And the story of Lucknow's two Nawabs.. The nawabs of Lucknow are known for their extreme courtesy and providing the other man a first chance.. The pahle aap (you first syndrome ) tehzeeb has come to stick with them..
So the two nawabs were to board a train.. they reached the station.. the two of them were about to put their foot on board.. the other realised his Lucknow tradition.. and reminded of it he offered to the other nawab- pahale aap ( you get in first..) the other nawab was no less a nawab either he too retorted back- nahi nahi Pahle aap (no, no, it should be you first).. The tow of the nawabs were caught in the pahle aap and the other also insisting nahi nahi pahle aap.. in the meantime the train had left the station and two Nawabs of Lucknow were caught unaware.. It is often referred when people insist on pahle aap syndrome.. that pahle aap pahle aap ke chakkar mein kahin Gaadi na chhoot jaye ( in this first you argument.. should not miss the train..)

More later, Rajasthan has won the toss and decided to field first.. and yes.. Is Shane warne reading my writeups here or http://abhayaipl2.blogspot.com .. guess what the successful Siddharth Trivedi finds a place.. and yes Dirk Nannes picked up the man of the match for his cavalier 2 wickets for 16 runs.. A hard worker.. A very very hard worker..

Pathan has removed the danger man Hayden.. that is interesting I must now catch up with the match.. Warne always has something up his sleeve to surprise the opponents..

Abhaya India April 30 2009 8:16 PM IST
Another wicket for Pathan.. Is Warne going to pull off a surprise win over Dhoni..
....
Dilshan-Dinesh duo of Delhi Daredevils deliver a defeat for Deccans...

Earlier I thought I would remain neutral to teams.. that is not possible when one of the teams in an PL 2 game happens to be Delhi.. It is all right.. I think it is perfectly all right.. to back one of the two teams in a game..

What a game.. what a great game of cricket.. I was convinced earlier that if someone could dislodhe Deccans from top it could only be Delhi.. atleast in the first part of the IPL 2.. and have they not done it.. or the net run rate still leaves Deccans on top.. I will need to check that later..

More Later I should catch up with you more often later in the day as the second interesting game is also to begin in a few minutes time.. and I have to be there for presentation ceremony.. no, no, not at the SuperSport park at Centurion.. but at the Television set.. here at D-30 Indraprastha of Anushakti Nagar..

Abhaya April 30 2009 7:23 PM ISTRespected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh

yes, I did see you cast the vote.. where.. on the tube.. on the same idiot that you mentioned in such great spirit.. yes.. we do tend to depend a bit too much n the tube that has been with us in good bad and every moment.. India is such a large democracy that world definitely has to take a note of it..

I was just removed from the idiot box by virtue of the loss of Sehwag.. his kind of btasman not knowing how to tackle the T20.. is sad.. it was a good call on part of AB to put the Deccans in and yes Delhi had done well enough to restrict them to less than 150.. yet with two wickets gone.. my mobement away from the tube fot not watching wikcets tumbling did not stop by my absence.. so it may not be after all related to my being present to watch the boys doing well..

Yesterday a small total of 119 was ablt defended by the Kings and that too agaionst mighty Mumbaikars.. they are truly the best side in the tournament.. yes better than even Chargers.. who are currently on top of the table.. it will take lot of good work to be able to do so yet the minimised window tells me a third wicket has fallen too.. have they sealed the fate of Delhi.. let me see who has gone.. oh it is outr of form Gambhir.. it is all right.. a game after all is a game and I must return to the tube.. my side need me to watch as they do far worse when I am off it.. with 7 overs gone and Delhi struggling at 50 for 3 needing 99 runs more for the important win.. I take a leave of all of you.. good luck Viru..

Bye

Dramatic Win for Kings XI Punjab

2009-04-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

Dearest Brother
and Dear Priety Zinta

Congratulations for Kings XI Punjab bringing up the most dramatic or should I say miraculous and most unexpected kind of victory over Mumbai Indians..

There is strength in unity.. that is what a lesson we learned especially the old father calling his son to break the bundle of woods tied together and their failure at doing so.. and yet each could break the woods once separated.. I think it may seem awkward for some of you to find me teeling this story when brother wanted to tell about Nawabs..

The win was highly improbable as much as improbable as Rajasthan Royals pulled up against Delhi Daredevils or may be slightly more.. the kind of win that has just been crafted a few minutes ago was a great team effort unlike Rajasthan's win that came about from thunderbolt of an inning from Yusuf Pathan.. Punjab used all their resources.. I would say even an over by Mota was important to their scheme of things.. and that master mind move of giving the penultimate over to Chawla by the standing captain Sangkara or were they captains (Sangkara and Mahela) who first decided to go with Abdulla yet as a second thought Kumar called up Chawla to bowl the 19th over.. and he accounted for dangerous Harbhajan.. The catch that Goel took was the defining moment of Kings win.. earlier too Powar and Pathan and the rest of the bowlers did extremely well knowing that their backs were to the wall.. this win would be remembered for long long time in a T20 tournaments.. and everyone on the field was so electrifying.. They all deserve some special treatment from their franchisees.. One would understand the beating of Mumbai Indians on 16th May when they would in all likelihood be contesting for top honours in the Finals.. yes.. this Mumbai side is so well packed with stars and performers.. Duminy was outstanding even in the loosing cause.. His was the best knock from either side.. though Kumar too played an important role earlier for Punjab to be in a position to save their faces crossing the hundred runs mark while batting first..

My man of the match for this game could easily be the whole team.. such wins can not be achieved by a single contribution.. and indeed outstanding amongst those who count a lot would be Kumar, Pathan, Abdulla and Chawla (despite his first over went for 13 runs.. he not only kept his cool he readily came forward to bowl the 19th over of the innings and changed the course of the game.. completely in the favour of Punjab..)

More later.. It indeed is next day the 30th April.. my posts woukld definitely be on such hours.. and would be mostly related to IPL 2.. like it or leave it..

This is the first hand report and I would use it for my blog on IPL 2 a little later.. I have to now update the IPL 2 records page.. for my angelfire website..

पठान की उड़ान

2009-04-28T20:11:00.000-07:00

Day XI – Yusuf Pathan Proves his Potential

Pathan’s Six Cross Six finds Sehwag in the Fix..

Amidst a day of many swings Delhi found themselves at the losing end of the battle.. not so much for yet another failure of Sehwag and Gambhir.. not really for the brains of Warne.. but for the sheer brawns of a Pathan..

Yusuf Pathan found in him the true devastating potential to register a fine and convincing win for his team Rajasthan Royals.. They make a first time entry to the top four slots in the tournament.. thanks to some incapacitated thinking on part of Virennder Sehwag.. Now you can not tell me that he had no idea of the skills the senior Pathan possesses when it comes to brutal hitting.. the former chose to err yet again.. not only in terms of his winning combination theory but also in the deployment of his bowlers.. Vettori had to bowl a bit earlier if he was to be ptoductive.. atleast in tandem with Mishra if not still earlier.. yet it is too easy for Abhaya Sharma and paper tigers to say things aftr the end of the game..

I must say that Delhi bowlers did a commendable job till the wicket of Warne fell.. it was the turn of Rajsthan to have the last laugh.. their errors got hidden once they won the game comfortably if not exactly as easily as it might have appeared when the Delhi innings came to a stop with only a meager 143 on the board..

Yes.. this game had two or maybe three gross umpiring errors that could have changed the course of the game even if not change the winner.. first AB de Villiiers found himself unfortunate in being given out to warne.. it could have easily culminated into additional 10 runs that could have proved decisive and yet again a reprieve to Smith when he was plumb lbw to Dilshan.. it saved the Rajathan the blues it could have faced.. Smith anchored one end admirably from there on.. leaving the art of clean hitting to his more illustrious partner Pathan..

All said and done.. Pathan was in no mood of applying any brakes and wait for the slog towards end.. I am sure that was what on the minds of Warne and Smith.. even if they deny my theory now.. yet Pathan took the first over of Vettori for the kind of punishment that would have seldom come his way in his career.. There was no way he could have been stopped and additional 15 or 20 runs had they come probably could not have deterred a determined Pathan.. who failed to deliver the other day in a similar situation against Punjab.. where his own younger brother had known how to keep the elder one from picking up his bowling to be hit over the ropes..

Pathan, Pathan and more of Pathan.. this tournament could well signal that daring does not stop with daredevils.. If I have to add any other name for a positive contribution to the winning Royals.. it has to be the bowling efforts of Munaf Patel.. the other day he had proved me wrong with his catching abilities taking a fine diving catch in the game against Punjab XI.. and today he provided the real stuff with his uncanny bowling abilities.. yes Patel.. I did not rate you very high for whatever reasons.. yet I am forced to change my opinion of you..

Suddenly.. the Shane Warne’s magic has returned to the field at the most appropriate time.. this should also enthuse more interest in the game for other low lying teams.. every one could learn a lesson or two from the gains of Pathan and the follies of Sehwag..

Sehwag.. I do not want to be too critical of you.. yet probably I would hard find a reason for late induction of Vettori into the bowling and also his early induction into batting.. would anyone agree with your move of sending Vettori ahead of Manhas.. even with his 29 runs and holding the wickets from falling like nine pins the cry of the hour was to have someone explosive at the end.. and Delhi miss that option entirely.. it is time to do some thinking.. probably he could himself bat lower down the order.. a theory I had put forth even during last year.. and at the time when he was struggling in the India XI a couple of years ago.. It is upto you Sehwag to decide but to have the same XI against all the opponents not only are you doing any analytical thinking you are also exposing your team with little of the surprise element for them.. a team that could not surprise can not win.. can not win every game.. to be more correct..

I think Kings XI would have seen the game yesterday and learned a lesson or two.. Mumbai have too many stars to pick from and that they would in the end find themselves in the last four is undoubted.. atleast that makes the competition tough for the last slot.. there are now Kings XI, Chennai and TRajasthan vying for that spot.. ( I have assumed that Delhi despite their loss today would maintain themselves in the top four.. for that matter Deccan and Delhi may be difficult to be pushed out of contention (the top four teams) at any stage of the tournament..

Mumbai Indians should start as favourites aginst Kings XI of Punjab. The other game is a battle of minnows they would have to decide which of them would not want to be a the rock bottom in this tournament.. I find it difficult for the two sides to fight out for such a cause as that.. that is what it appears at the time of the first leg as the tournament is almost halfway in the first round of the first games.. I would not be surprised if Pietersen pulls out this one as he has more stars in his armoury than the struggling McCullum.. SRK has not been right in triggering the most controversial decision to silence Sourav the way he did in the captaincy counterplots.. Yet How did Pietersen leave out Praveen Kumar during the last game.. This Abhaya scanner is far too magnified in finding and pointing the mistakes the teams are making..

Let there be no bias in the minds of viewers of the IPL 2 yet I can always add here that local players of South Africa have been doing well in front of home crowd and one should expect some more of the Proteans tio be in the thick of things.. Ntini, Pollock and Morne (Morkel) probably have not got a game for themselves yet.. I could be wrong on some of these.. yet the way Kallis has performed.. the genuine cricketer may well be asked to take a break..

Oh! That is too much of writing.. and yes I am not supporting any team particularly.. for me even KKR could still pull up some surprises in the days to come.. Rest of the teams are more or less capable of tripping every other team on a given day..

Congratulations Pathan (Yusuf)! I feel your efforts were shade better than AB de Villiers the other day.. scoring the runs is going to be more difficult in the second essay yet determined cricketers like you can still take pride in the fact that the grass is always greener on either side of the innings.. Keep the good work going..

अभय शर्मा 29 अप्रैल 2009 8.51 प्रातः

Day 10- Deccan and Mumbai Coast Home

2009-04-27T23:33:00.001-07:00

The Deccan Chargers made a shortwork of Chennai Spuer Kings beating them by 6 wickets and Mumbai Indians beat the pulp out of already too much beaten down Kolkata Knight Riders. yet the kind of error made by Gilchrist could have proved expensive- the mistake of not giving the ball to highly successful Pragyan Ojha who had 2 wickets for 11 runs from his 2 overs is quite inexplicable.. only that he agreed to his mistake immediately after winning the game.. That they went to the 20th over despite the most blistering opening of the IPL proves me right..

Mumbai Indians has a champion like start 111 runs in the first 10 overs clearly lost the way later .. they had best chance of posting the first 200 plus total on the board yet they missed the golden opportunity.. again inexplicable.. despite the fact tha Mumbai had a comfortable 92 runs with exact number of balls remaining to have the biggest margin by runs still being shared with Chennai Super Kings.. that is all right a handsome win in any case.. yet they had two records for taking the biggest partnership for the first (or any wicket) and maximum number of sixes in an innings by any team (10 sixes in all) .. Mumbai led by Sachin and Sanath left too much to be desired from the beleagured Kolkata attack.. the along with Bangalore might have qualified to be out of contention in the long run of IPL 2.. I would not mind if the two teams could still turn the tables on some of the more solidly placed teams..

Here in the only mach of the day 11 of the IPL 2, If Delhi Daredevils have to match the Deccan Chargers Eye for Eye, they must also register a fourth straight win.. yet they may still be forced to remain second as Deccan has a high positive net run rate compared to them.. one man who could change this could easily be Virender Sehwag yet with two failures against his name from three games.. it is time for him to straighten his record to suit his Wisden Cricketer of the year 2009..

I had earlier written that McGrath and Warner need to be roped in as also Bhatia.. in the hindsight I feel that now it may not seem plausible with the great reputation that even part time spinners have enjoyed so far.. Vettori can not be left out.. and Mishra had only done well enough to continue to be there.. Nannes is such a fine bowler that it appears that Delhi could ill-afford make changes and may be forced to stick to the same set of their foreign component.. maybe even Indian counterparts as well.. yet complacency should notcreep into the mind of Delhites as tournament is still too young to take their places in semi-finals for granted.. work hard and work well with a sure intent to win anything and everything possible.. the points scored now would allow for a possible margin of errors in future games which could necessarily become tougher and tighter as and when Australians join the IPL 2 from once their national duties get over soon..

Sehwag is the key.. he must not make too much bones about the strong middle order.. runs against his and Gambhir's name are the most needed thing of the hour if they have to create some sort of fear psychosis for the day after encounter with their equals Deccan Chargers.. yet to be treated equal they should first win their fourth game today as they play Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals in the day/night encounter..

Again, I have to point out that Warne has been commiting more mstakes in this edition than last year.. disrespect for Siddharth Trivedi is not at all a good sign.. similarly fewer games fro Asnodkar would not have helped the dashing opener.. where was the need for sending back Mohammad kaif.. he is still one of the top fielders that India has produced and mind you only a good fielding eleven can stop the onslaught of runs in this kind of tournament..

I presume Rajasthan in all probabilties would like to bat first simply to deny Delhi daredevils mounting too much pressure on them.. Sehwag in 9 out of 10 cases would like to bat first as well.. Dilshan should possibly try to earn the orange cap soon. In fact even AB de Villliers is also in the race for the same.. Vettori may have to wait for the purple cap yet this match could take him closer to the other leading wicket takers in the tournament.. the final word.. Vettori has to be in the eleven..

I must congratulate Adam Gilchrist for maintaining great strides in the first leg of the tournament.. thay have completely overturned from their bottom rank in the last edition.. and are strong contenders to lift the IPL 2009.. they will have to match the powers of Delhi on 30th April.. that should be a virtual final of the first leg.. too ascertain the supremacy..

Best of Luck Viru and Delhi for taking your winning streak one more step further..

Abhaya India April 28 2009 1:46 PM (IST)

The Day 9 at IPL 2009 - Delhi join Deccans at top..

2009-04-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Day 9 of IPL 2 – Delhi and Mohali Emerge Victorious

The day 9 of the IPl 2 had two ganes which both escaped from rains.. It was the frist game that I watched from ball to ball.. any doubts anyone that I support Delhi Daredevils..yet I ma here to first lambaste my hero – Virender Sehwag. First of all he is not doing any great to his reputation .. his scores in the second and third games are far from what one expects the swashbuckling Sehwag. Second, why on earth can not he find place for Glen McGrath.. he may be old.. yet I can vouch that he could be the most successful bowler in such south African conditions.. thirdly.. David Warner deserved a game after his stupendous efforts in the second game where he actually clicked as a substitute.. I know with only four foreign players being allowed it is difficult enough to pay heed to my second and third requests.. Yet I would not mind if he could make adjustments in the fourth game to accommodate both Warner and McGrath.. in place of Nannes and Vettori.. not contesting the genius of the two men.. it is better for Delhi to experiment a bit to surprise the opposition with its plans.. I would thus not mind having the following combination at work in the game #4 against Rajasthan Royals-

Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Tilkaratne Dilshan, Gautam Gambhir, AB de Villiers, Bhatia, Karthik, Mishra, Sangwan, Glen McGrath and Nehra

I had to include Bhatia to incorporate the extra bowler in the side and he is a useful bat as well.. I am little at pain to leave out Vettori and to some extent even Nannes (for his beautiful first ball dismissal of Kallis yesterday.. yet one can not be sentimental in such matters.. they have plenty of games ten more to be precise to get their chances.. surprise the opposition with new combinations all the time.. by bowling someone who is a batsman.. (guess who!).

Yes, the win yesterday was due to Tilakratne Dilshan and the experiment of playing two regular spin bowlers.. it was heartening to see the way Dilshan paced his innings.. he is having far better tournament than in the previous edition.. if he continues the way he does Delhi would remain a formidable combination for all the teams in the IPL 2. Yes.. Viru don’t have to follow me word for word.. I know you are bigger cricketing genius than an Abhaya Sharma could ever be.. my only cricket credibility comes from being a student of Hindu College who produced Sunil Valson, Hari Gidwani and Tilak Raj and Subir Gupta.. I also had witnessed some of the best palyers from St. Stephens on the other side of the road – including Arun Lal, Kirti Azad and Pravin Oberoi and Piyush Pandey..

Now coming back to Yuvraj Singh’s fine win over Rajasthan.. The younger of the Pathans put all his experience behind him over his more prominent (T20 player) yet less experienced in terms of matches played Yusuf.. The other major factor in their win was provided by Sangkara and penetration powers of Abdulla.. to be frank I had not heard of him before.. ( before the IPL 2).. He has some substance in him.. Yuvraj like Sehwag is having poor time with the bat.. somehow the captains here have been a bit of failure.. are they overburdened with strategizing.. time to think for four or multiple captains theory by Buchanan.. if ganguly had not opposed him.. he could well have replaced McCullum in a couple of games.. barring Gilchrist and Sachin to some extent rest of the captains have yet to deliver truly.. yes the genius of Warne included amongst the list of failures.. though he did manage that fine win in the tenth game with his experiment with Kamran Khan and Yusuf Pathan in the Super over.. he is still to deliver primarily with his bowling abilities..

If I were to suggest alternative captains.. I would not mind picking Sangkara for KXIP, McGrath for Delhi, Dravid and Ganguly for RCB and KKR respectively, Graeme Smith and Harbahjan for Rajasthan and Mumbai respectively.. not as a punitive measure for the present captains but for relieving them off the pressures that has been affecting their utility to the teams.. Though I must say that Warne is by far the smartest captain even in this edition and his team’s position..

Yet I must say that the day 9 was a good cricketing day where spin department proved yet again that not only is T20 having a role for bowlers it probably has bigger role for quality spinners.. Kings XI have replaced Mumbai Indians from top 4 teams.. yet they have to work hard in order not to be replaced by another team including Mumbai.. My observations at the beginning are really getting some footings in the tournament..

The best performers I feel so far have been Tilakratne Dilshan with the bat and RP Singh with the ball.. there has not been any outstanding fielder so far in my view.. even Raina is fielding below par.. though he did involve in couple of important run outs.. have organisers asked to be less alert in the field.. Kohli did took two good catches yet the catching has generally been poor..

IPL 2 is getting into grooves and it is going to be tough for every team to match the every other team in business like manner.. Viru.. I do not believe in winning combinations theory.. either you experiment further or you perish.. that is true for all the teams.. yet I find that RCB, KKR and RR are probably out of contention already.. unless they pull out some big wins against the top five teams..

I know it is suicidal to predict and regret your words.. but speculations besides statistics are the two important factors for which I love cricket as much as I do..

So in all probabilities we can assume that Delhi should be able to beat Deccan Chargers in the finals.. it would be difficult especially when Symonds too returns to their side in a week’s time or so.. Kings too should find the return of Marsh and Hopes as a matter of raising their hopes to pip one of the Mumbai or Chennai for a place in the semi-finalists.. whichis still very far away..

Cricket love of South Africans was on greatest display in some of the last four or five games.. was it the weekend syndrome.. I doubt.. Is the reason for rookies not able to perform is the lack of home crowd support.. I again doubt..

Congratulations Priety Zinta - Winning Game 11

2009-04-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

My Prayers have been heard!

Kings XI Punjab have finally had a win against their name as well.. ab aayega mazaa.. the competition is going to grow from here..

No, this time I am not maintaing the database.. I found it took lot of time to reneter the data that was available elsewhere.. I can instead provide the links to various pages.. if people love it..

Thanks to Ravi Bopara (Not Malhotra.. Your thanks too would be on way some day soon..) for the magnificent and well paced innings of 84 valuable runs.. This then is the highest total that has been defeated.. 168 runs were not less on Durban kind of ground..

Yuvraj, if you are listening.. please don't take the Bose out of this XI.. I did not see him on the field though.. had he injured himself.. a bowler of his calibre should have got chance in the last season itself.. it is all right.. good job at the end.. Though I do find that you interact much less with your players during a game.. the boys need constant inspiration rather than hard looks.. remember some like Salvi he went for 24 runs in one over in the initial stages in the game against Chennai for Delhi.. yet he cam back to bowl a superb last over for himslef.. and I can tell you that it was one of the turning point..good luck for the next game..

Pietersen did not listen to me and continues with Robin Uthappa as the keeper.. and as a result the guy is too tensed up.. not able to concentrate on either his batting or keeping.. Rope in Mark Boucher.. Uthappa's keeping cost you the game.. so many wides went past for boundaries.. it was the most atrocious keeping today..

Anyway.. the tournament is getting stronger and rains too have subsided for the time being.. I wait for the Delhi Daredevils third game the day after ( not quoting the movie featuring nuclear holocaust! referring in the the normal literal sense.. with or with little sense of humor..)

I think I shall atleast try to cut short my lengthy posts atleast once in a while.. and so I take leave of all of you for the day..

TTYL, Das vi Danya

I think my Russian and German friends are not so happy with me.. Zhenya if you so wish that I should have a similar desire to meet brother as you and others on the blog do.. I will generate that willingness.. Did I ever say I am not going to meet him.. I only meant I will go and meet him only when it is essential.. and if it has to be for Carla or one of you.. that I should go and shake hands on your behalf I would not mind doing that.. (haaHaa, impersonation of yet another kind.. ) Take it cool I know you all are much more closer to him than me ..

Again some old habits from blog continue to be creeping up here.. I had said TTYL and I keep talking.. (remember some of the times my post scripts were longer than the posts themselves.. )

Kishore, Rose or Reshmi.. any one of you got in touch with brother during his current trip with Teen Patti.. Cambridge Kishore is also another famous MA city where at MIT I have this Guru I have never met - Dr. Har Gobind Khorana at MIT, Cambridge.. I think Teen Patti is based on an incidence related to the students of MIT cracking some code for winning at Casinos.. I ain't sure..

Lambuji.. take a break.. You stretched far too long..

Love again to all of you.. I am able to hear the youtube song at my home PC..

I Hope Kashmira didi is still enjoying the exceptionally longer posts over here.. I am sorry.. If I am over the top.. forgive me..

Bye

Abhaya India 24/25 April 2009 12:11 AM IST

2009-04-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

Congrats Viru AB de Villiers did an Amitabh Bachchan on the field yesterday. My specail thanks to him and also to yoing Pradeep Sangwan.. (Below is an account that I posted on Facebook).

Hi! all!

yesterday, I wanted to see the match between Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings so I hanged around for a little longer after lunch..

you know what I did not see the opening of the game and when i did open the set.. Gambhir was gone.. so also I decided that I must be gone.. fear psychosis.. if I am watching my team would not do well.. I started and packed up to go.. my work place is seven to eight minutes walking distance.. i still use the car for the kind of temp.. So I reached office..

I could not keep off the game completely.. put on the cricket.org.. you know what to discover that Sehwag was gone too.. then I thought what good of my leaving home.. if it did not make any difference to my team's chances.. my superstition could not do the trick..

Yet.. Yet I had not lost hope and Dilshan and AB (He was Amitabh Bachchan of this game) de Villiers consolidated the innings.. slowly and steadily taking the score to respectability.. at the end of ten overs. they now have a seven and half minute break between the innings.. I decided again to rush home.. in between intuitionally I had a bet with a colleague that Delhi is still winning the game..
What a treat from AB de Villiers bat.. I think knowing South African grounds and conditions could have helped him a bit.. yet could it be so helpful that he went on to score the first century of the tournament.. a 105 runs off the just 54 balls faced.. for a comparison let me tell that in Test cricket most of the batsman take more than 100 balls sometimes someone like Dravid could take even upto 300 balls.. with due respect to him.. he is doing quite well in the shortest version of the game..

Oh! my post is becoming marathonic than cricketing in nature.. Yes the 189 runs I thought were still not quite sufficient and I was in doubts.. my doubts were proved right by Matt who given his form could have matted any score.. fortunately for Delhi Daredevils that he did not last beyond his 57 runs.. yet he with Patel and Raina had provided a base which only needed simple sensible cricket to floor the Delhi out of any daredevilry..

I am particularly happy for Sangwan.. If I were the judge.. I would have given him the man of the match his 3 wickets were the most precious for the win.. Delhi would superb last four overs.. who says T20 is not a bowlers game.. Just 42 runs required off the last 4 overs.. that is no Herculean task.. yet Delhi did manage to win was miraculous..

I did see only first 1o overs of the next game between Rajasthan and Kolkata.. I discovered that it was a thriller too.. being tied they had to go to the super over contest.. a feature that I was not aware.. this was the first time.. and Yusuf Pthan of the Pathan brothers did royal acts to grab first win for his team.. that leaves only Kings XI Punjab out of any wins in the tournament so far.. best of luck Priety.. I would pray for your team to perform well.. a win or loss is secondary..

More later..

I don't know some of you would be thinking that Abhaya of the blog has reincarnated over facebook too.. I can not help without detailed depth of an issue that I cover..

My love to new cricket lovers in Carla and Rochelle I don't think Rose can not be knowing the game living in England..

Reshmi.. I could not have joined the Air Force as I had failed in Pilot aptitude battery test.. more about that later..
kashmira di.. I wa told that I missed the call by four positions.. Had i been four strungs higher I might have been Brigadier Abhay Sharma today.. It si all right even a Colonel would not have been too bad..

I have to be careful of the spiderwoman and spy and who all.. Joker.. he is from my clan (I would nnot be so afraid of him..LOL)

I am extremely sorry for the long post.. it just occurred to me I could use it for my ipl2 blog and also post at brother's blog..hopefully people do not take offence to such privileged conversation being taken out of the four walls of our sphere of friends here on the facebook..

could someone tell me if I could invite more people to this thread.. I somehow misssed Ravi sir from being included at the initiation stage..

More later

Abhaya India April 24 2009 9:14 AM IST

Post script: Today is Sachin Tendulkar's 36th birthday, he is the captain of Mumbai Indians in the IPL, he also has maximum number of records in Test and one day cricket.. he is yet to play in his second T20 game for India. Happy Birthday Dear Sachin..

Game 9 of IPL 2 Delhi vs Chennai

2009-04-23T03:15:00.000-07:00

.. It was minimal, cozy, full of little artifacts of yore and warm. Warm enough to give me the courage to sit and rehearse and learn those lines that were to come in enactment, the following day. Warm enough to overcome the stresses of life by understanding certain basic issues.

Oh My dearest Brother!

yes once in a while I should be allowed to forget that you are the most repected figure and that you could be loved as well..

I love your decription of Du vinu.. and pictures.. they say more than what words could ever seduce one into simply loving.. I did not know that places could look so regale in their attire.. and that it helps to know that OK Mr. Sharma.. I f you can not afford such magnificent places your brother definitely couls.. ( Is there some humor in it.. I ask Rose.. as I was tellinh her my poor sense of humour.. Haha..)

Brother, one thing is for certain.. we do have some relationship of old births or should I say lives.. what would be more appropriate of the past births I do not know.. yet I know there is great similarity in some things somewhere.. I would give anything for staying an antique structure as the ones you described.. though I do not have to get into any enactment of any sort.. I ain't any actor after all.. I am an ordinary man of limited means and restrcitive measures..

Oh you do make us get through to England or should I say cambridge to be more accurate.. How was your day at St. Catherines.. did you also go to see one of the dugs that Dr. Bachchan would have hired during his days.. vo sab ab kahan hoga.. I can only feel the kind of excitement a son would have to visit a place of learning the seat of intelligence where his father once achieved what few Indians could afford in those olden days..

If I could ever be able to speak to you in person.. I may first ask you how was it to be like the son of Dr. Bachchan and then also son of your mother.. I know enough of her now from the beautiful long exposure you gave us of her abilities and creativity.. I also learned a lot form the last two volumes of his autobiography.. it seems to not leave my mind that Dr. Bachchan had to struggle so much for earning that doctorate for non-academic reasons.. for financial and mental troubles - the demons.. aaj bhi bahut kuchh seekhane ki milata hai.. unke baare mein padhakr ya sunkar..

जगती की शीतल हाला सी पथिक, नहीं मेरी हाला,

जगती के ठंडे प्याले सा पथिक, नहीं मेरा प्याला,

ज्वाल सुरा जलते प्याले में दग्ध हृदय की कविता है,

जलने से भयभीत न जो हो, आए मेरी मधुशाला।।१५।

I think I may be holding you from learning those lines or atleast rehearsing what you have to deliver in front of Camera.. I do not want you to be anyway subdued for any reasons when you are face to face with Sir Ben Kingsley.. my regards to him.. Yes.. I will wait eagerly for teen Patti.. I know it is going to be a different movie.. different in the sense of really being different.. How long do we have to wait for that.. any idea..

It is an important game today at 4:00 PM between Delhi's Daredevils and Chennai's Superkings.. as I noticed earlier.. it could be the defining moment of the tournament.. I only pray to rain gods to allow a complete 20 over game.. anything less or curtailed would take away the excitement and thrill off the pitch..

It is very difficult to say who would win.. and that adds to the greater fun.. the uncertainty or equality in the standard of two teams on a men for men marking is going to make it all the more enjoyable.. I would love Sehwag and company to not to try and set the target for Dhoni and his team.. any total could be few runs less.. so better allow them to bat first and try to restrict them well below 200 mark to make a match out of it.. Good luck Sehwag.. play your natural game but also remember that you have to be among runs in any one way.. Delhi can not win this game without a sizable contribution from you..

My preferred Delhi XI - Sehwag, Gambhir, Devilliers, Dilshan, Tiwary, Vettori, Karthik, Nehra , Sangwan and McGrath.. (possibly I would have loved to incorporate Mishra somehow may be at the cost of Mahesh or Sangwan.. I dunno)

Deccan gets charged up to rout RCB- Game 8

2009-04-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

Respected Brother

Sadar Pranam
As per my expectations the IPL 2’s eighth game did prove to be as wondrous as I expected it to be.. Had the RCB done their home work well and included Mar Boucher it could have been little more fierce competition..

Again Gilchrist proved what does experience brings to any form of the game of cricket.. and Dravid is a quick learner of the requirements of this format of game.. he did have a good tournament even last season.. but this team does not have fair amount of good or rather useful players from the local support.. and somehow the failure of the highest paid Kevin Pietersen suggests that money alone can not provide commitment into the foreign players to perform to their best.. the bonding is still absent in the team and as i suggested earlier they may fail to qualify as Pietersen is to leave in the middle.. also somewhere I get a feeling that Deccan Chargers could give the run to Delhi and Mumbai for all their money..

So far it has been the best game.. I watched it in toto.. and rain gods too held back to good cause..

Rohit Sharma and RP Singh the two players who might have not had much chance of making a comeback to the XI of team India for this format may suddenly find themselves in the reckoning.. Ojha has done well enough to pose challenge to all the others for the second spot of a quality spinner in the days to come.. Oh Boy.. that would amke three of them from Deccan Chargers to make it possible to play for India together..

What remains to be seen is how the first game shapes up tomorrow between my team and the Chennai Super Kings.. it would be as good if not better than what was on display today.. yes if rain gods allow it to be that way..

The battle of supremacy between Dhoni and Sehwag between Raina and Gambhir of Vettori and Muralitharan and even small timers like Joginder and Bhatia and not to forget the battle between Matthew Hayden and De Villiers.. It is going to be a big game.. the team winning the first battle may finally emerge to supersede the other in the final stages of the tournament..

I know Sehwag is the X factor for Delhi.. if he could get to bat for four or five overs Chennai could really be sweating in their pants.. yet what i personally feel is that Dhoni’s CSK has better batting depth than Delhi possesses.. Raina has been an electric wire in the field and there is no such counterpart for Delhi unless they decide to play Tiwari.. who was actually quite brilliant in the field in the last season..
Oh let us see how does the first game shapes up.. it is quite strange that sponsors were not talking about it in their ads instead focusing more on RR and KKR.. it is all right.. yet I know the big game for 23rd April begins at Durban at 4:00 PM IST.. if you are free should not miss the opportunity to enjoy the battle royal between two giant teams of the tournament.. I would wish Delhi to win but then wishes are not horses.. the team that applies well to the task can only win this livewire game..

Love to you from India

Abhaya Crickriter April 22/23 12:38 AM IST
Post Script : What is the news from your end.. are you able to get to see some of the football games.. How were the further meetings with Sir ben Kingsley and David Frost.. I still have to learn of his trade.. I assume he is a director..

A primer on Cricket

2009-04-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

For my Friends - Rochelle, Preeti, Rose, Carla, Reeham and Rasha

Friends cricket is played between two teams comprising of eleven players each. The teams have to make runs when the opposition bowls that is decided by the toss- as to who shold bowl or bat first. The team batting first sends its two batsman to the crease to face the bowling. The team bowling has all its player on the field.

The game has two set of three wickets (stumps) each – the one end is occupied by the batsman and the bowler bowls from the other end. The distance between two pair of wickets is 22 yards.

The batting team has to play the ball with the bat and score runs. One run is equal to the amoun of distance between two wickets, i.e 22 yards. The fielding side has to grab the ball and throw it back to the wicket-keeper ( standing behind the stumps at the batting end), the batsman must each cross and reach within the crease of their repective opposite stumps before the fielder is able to shatter the stumps- in case they fal to do so they are considered as run out. The other ways a batsman gets out is by way of being clean bowled – the batsman fails to play the ball and the ball hits the stump at the batsman’s end. The batsman is also considered out if a fielder holds a catch before the ball touches ground. The other ways of getting the batsman out are leg before wicket and stumping by wicket keeper. So much for that should be enough.

The runs are scored also in boundaries. A Four means the batsman hits a ball and it crosses te boundary line before being fielded. A ball that goes over the boundary line without a bounce inside the boundary qualifies for a Six.

In Twenty20 cricket each side has to play for 20 overs. An over comprises of a bowler sending down six deliveries (that is bowls at batsman) without being a wide or a no ball. The bowling end changes after every over. The batsman at the other end now faces the fresh over. The number of runs a team scores in allotted overs or before getting out becomes the target for the fielding first and they need to make atleast one run ore than the team that batted first.

A game of cricket requires good batting, bowling and fielding skills. Fielding assumes lot more importance in the game of Twenty20 as it is difficult to get the whole team out in the allotted 20 overs. When a batsman gets out the new batsman comes to crease to replace him and when 10 batsman get out the team is declared as all out.

The two umpires are always on the field, one occupies his position at the bowling stumps and the other stands at square leg. He side to the left of batsman is considered as Off-side and the one on right is called On-side. The fielding side has to place its fielders in such a way as to avoid runs being stopped. There ae restriction on intial overs as to how many players can field inside the inner circle- After the restriction is over ( in terms of number of overs) fielders can spread to the boundaries.

There are two types of bowlers – the pace bowlers who bowl at some great speed and try to beat the batsman by their sheer pace – and spinners who though they bowl slow try to generate spin to earn the wicket for their teams.

I hope I was able to keep it non-technical as well as explanatory enough to make you understand the game of cricket in its shortest version.. which as assumed far greater popularity in terms of entertainment and thrill.

Virender Shwag is currently the most dangerous batsman in the IPL, if he stays for longer time at the crease – the opposition are likely to concede more runs to him.. and eventually lose the game.. the best bowler among pacers is Dale Steyn and Harbhajan Singh is the best amongst spinners. A player who can contribute both as a bowler and a batsman is termed an All-rounder Andrew Flintoff is the best all rounder in the tournament.

A team must not allow more than four overs per bowler so they should generally have more than five players who can bowl.

Umpires are also sometimes assisted by third umpires in decisions regarding a run out situation of a batsman or finding whether the ball went for a four or a six( in some cases).

I hope the next time you are watching a cricket game you would understand it slightly better.

Have great time with IPL 2 where eight teams comprising of players from all over the world are playing for their teams rather than for their country. Players from India are larger in proportion and there is restriction on including only four overseas players in a team.

I am supporting Delhi Daredevils for swashbuckling Sehwag and his opening partner Gambhir who are in great form.

We will discuss the other two formats the one day International and test cricket some other day

Abhaya India 22 April 2009 7:25 PM IST

In another half an hour the game beteen Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers is about to begin in Cape Town inSouth Africa - The captain for Deccan Chargers is Adam Gilchrist and for Bangalore Kevin Pietersen is going to ead the side. The captain decides the bowling changes and field placements and the batting order during the game. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the captain of India in Twenty20 as well as the other two formats as well.

The day 4 and 5 of the IPL 2

2009-04-22T06:18:00.000-07:00

Respected Brother
Sadar Charan Sparsh

I know cricket would not be on your focus as you get prepared for your own game. the one that you are best at.. acting in Teen Patti.. I wish you greta times ahead of the shoot..

Yet the news from IPL 2 is still to cheer us Indians as much as we would have expected.. despite all their acts faltering them Kolkata finally could amass a win even if there were no rains.. they would have normally got the required runs to win the game.. it is so sad that Priety's team had to suffer two consecutive losses from as many games.. there are still 12 more to go for them.. yet they must get into the act at the earliest.. the sooner the better..

The other game being completely rainwashed had been some sort of reprieve for RR who were more likely to lose the second game of yesterday.. IPL should have taken weather into consideration before zeroing down on SA as the venue for IPL 2..chalo koi baat nahi.. Had it been in England you might have been available to cheer up the KXIP, I remember Priety had approached you earlier..

Today's game I feel Deccan Chargers have an edge yet as such one should notpredict the result without seeing how the first innings of the game - i.e. the team setting the target has performed say may be in its first ten overs.. now that they have a break of 7 and half minutes at that interval gives the teams and their followers to think and act as per the situation at hand..

If I were the captain of Bangalore I would do few things differently.. I would have preferred Jesse Ryder to one of the Ross Taylor or Jack Kallis and also tried to look for bringing in Sunil Joshi in place of Kumble (his five for five standing..) as I feel that Joshi is no mean a bowler and can be a lusty hitter and comparably a better fielder.. I would also see how I could accommodate Mark Boucher.. he might not have delivered last year.. yet the tournament being played in South Africa.. hs knowledge of conditions should be of some help..

For Deccan chargers I feel there would not be any changes.. unless they decide to play some foreign reserve player ahead of Scott Styris.. I do not know who all are available.. RP Singh and Rohit Sharma had done well in the first game so possibly BRC would have planned some strategies to tackle them differently..

It may be a good game if rains do not again spoil the show.. By the way which team are you supporting or wish to support besides the KXIP, we l\know you did some bites for them at the behest of Priety.. Let us also know your favourite players whom you expect to be heroes in the IPL 2

With more love than before

Abhaya India 22 April 2009 6:43 PM IST

CSK back in their elements..

2009-04-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

Match 5 - CSK Vs BRC

MSD won the toss and elected to bat first and what a fluent start did Matt and Patel provided - a 106 run partnership in less than 10 overs.. that the game was sealed then and there.. was made simple by the fact that Muralitharan made life difficult for Bangalore batsman.. the tournament witnessed the highest total from a team for the second edition.. its going to be beaten for sure by some other teams especially Delhi or Mumai teams..

I expect that this time around the top four teams would more likely be Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and possibly Hyderabad.. Kolkata are entangled in their own debates over captaincy and similar issues.. Rajasthan too have not done a good thing by sending back 7 players.. that is sure t going create rift.. Kings do not seem to be having any problems and might surprise one of my four teams and Bangalore despite beating RR may not find the going too easy for a place in top four teams..

The most feared batsman is not going to be Sachin or Dravid despite their good knocks in their beginning games.. I feel the teams would find Sehwag the most difficult to handle and his teammante and fellow opener is not far too behind in getting much respect from opposition.. the others who might just count a lot would be Graeme Smith, Kevin Pietersen, Sangkara, McCullum, and even Yuvraj, Dhoni and Flintoff.. yes one more name to that list could be Shaun Marsh if he still is part of the outfit of KXIP, and despite his age Jayasuriya might spoil the taste of victory for many teams.. he is definitely the next most dangerous batsman after Sehwag.. if he gets going in this tournament I would not be surprised if Delhi and Mumbai lock horns for supremacy in this second edition.. that of course is stll too far off.. game of cricket is known for its uncertainty.. it could prove me entirely wrong..

More later

Abhaya India April 21 2009 12:05 PM IST

Post Script: I know it is quite dangerous to make predictions in a game of cricket.. more so i the limited overs version.. and highly unsafe for T20 game.. yet I would say that the chances are Kings XI Punjab would have an easy work against Kolkata unless Ganguly does something different with his bat.. and Mumbai should not have much stiff competition from the defending champions Rajasthan Royals.. Only Graeme Smith could revert the result in favor of Rajasthan..

Yes I forgot to mention that the most likely all rounder of the tournament could be either Abhshek Nayar or Andrew Flintoff.. If Kumar had batted at number 4 or 5 he too could have done some wonders but I do not consider Sehwag, Jayasuriya and Yuvraj or Kallis as all rounders for this format.. Joginder and Agarkar may not get enough games and also do not have same potential.. In fact Harbhajan and Zaheer could be considered but their team is less likely to be requiring them for their all round performance.. Albie Morkel and Colingwood skipped my mind.. they are indeed complete al rounders and should make top four all rounders along with Abhishek and Flintoff..

First two days of IPL 2..

2009-04-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

First two days of IPL 2..

I missed much of the action on day one as well as day 2 of the IPL 2 as I was away attending the marriage of my niece Meesha at Pune and was not exactly cut off from the Games yet had more important things to attend..

Well, Do not get bogged down by the old is gold theory.. I agree experience means a lot in any field let alone cricket.. Then there are not such great stories from IPL 1 that we could believe that what we saw on the day 1 from the bats of Sachin, Dravid and Hayden .. We can not overlook the greater performance by Anil Kumble as Banaglore team shone greatly on day one of the IPL2.. There were quite a few other performances or so do I learn from the newspapaer.. Abhishek Nayar the young blood scoring those brilliant runs in the slog overs for Mumbai.. the extra efforts from the left out from 30 in the probables of T20 team for India.. Joginder Sharma might have ended up on the loosing side.. yet his 1 wicket for 25 runs in 4 overs and his 18 runs should remind Dhoni, BCCI selectors of their grave mistake.. They should not forget dropping Sehwag from the 30 probables recently and hesitantly incorporated him at the last minute.. he turned out to be the Wisden’s cricketer of the year.. I do not say Joginder could do such a turn around.. first because there is only Abhaya Sharma to his support ( No Imran Khan.. and no Ian Chappell unlike in the case of Sehwag.. )..

There were also stupendous efforts from Warne, Vettori, Ojha in the spin department in the first four games that does leave the game still in favour of bowlers on a given day..and that too spinners.. I heard even Jaysuriya picked up some wickets..

The efforts of Sachin and Dravid do not surprise me too much.. they have technique temperament and tenacity to do well.. it surprised when they failed last time.. It also brings some gory facts that when the ex-captain and team manager do not see each other with blue eyed vision it could be catstrophic for a team.. In my harsh language by succumbing to a low 101 by Kolkata Knight Riders has more to it than the simple winning strategies of Deccan Chargers.. whose new blue jerseys have proved to be quite a boon for the bottom rankers of IPL 1.

I knew the equations would change in IPL 2 but unlike what I thought that pace would do the trick it was spin on the African pitches that found the most batsman to dance on their feet to their tunes.. Kumble’s 5 for five could well leave many strategist to take the game of T20 far more seriously from the spin bowlers angle.. Would Harbhajan and few others also add to the plight of batsman on not such spin supportive wickets that are likely to be groomed up for the upcoming matches of IPL 2..

The game against KXI Punjab and my favourites Delhi Daredevils must have been reduced to a farce.. I know anyone could write that.. that indeed was not cricket.. it was more of a toss out.. the team who bats second in such limted overs is going to have the big advantage if not necessarily a clear edge.. yet 58 runs with 7 balls remaining speaks too loud for the DD batsman Virender Sehwag.. who if he goes on to bat like the way he been doing in this last one year can not only silence Bedi’s mouthpiece but also take away much of the charm of IPL 2 with his team’s chances of lifting the trophy..

This post has got longer for the reasons that it is the first post after three games and one inning of the fourth having already been completed.. Can you say that 2 for 7 from 3 overs of Pravin Kumar were not important.. could you suggest that RP Singh is all over after hid four wicket haul in the opening games for their respective teams.. yet bothe are not in the reckoning for a sure place in the T20 team for India in the forthcoming world cup.. Dhoni did not want to give the chance to Kumar in T20 games that India got to play despite his such astounding performances in the other limited over version of the game..

These are some of the questions.. some of which may not find answers and some of them some people may not like to answer at all.. Dhoni can always say that he can elect only 11 to form a team.. Selectors can not do that to almost the hero of final of T20 game against Pakistan in the first ever T20 World championship in the same country where IPL 2 is underway.. May Joginder prove his worth in more games that he gets to play.. Dhoni or CSK can ill afford the utilitarian all-rounder from their scheme of things after his first game figures..

Ganguly and his supporters should wake up.. they are not playing here for BCCI or such teams where Sycophancy could help them.. if Sourav wanted to slap Sharukh in face by way of underperforming by him and his men.. SRK definitely is the owner of KKR one of them could be axed from selection from future games.. Yes.. I did fear that KKR would under-perform after the four captaincy theory.. and action culminating from there on.. the coach and captain controversy is not new to Sourav.. he knows he has suffered or rather been bitten by it earlier as well.. He needs to mend his ways.. a good cricketer would always be liked more if he could also respect the views of the men around him.. cricketing or non-cricketing..

I did not want to speak on the captaincy issue of KKR, yet Bangalore and Deccan Chargers have proved that change of captain could also change the fortunes of a team.. If two of the oldies have done well with the bat in the form of Sachin and Dravid.. Laxman and Ganguly have also flopped despite such huge experience behind their names..

It is too early for Aaj Tak or anyone, me included to comment on the role of old is gold or youth has booth.. I think T20 is more of a team game than any other form of cricket which can still be inspired by individual performances though..

I expect that this tournament would also be remembered for Pakistan board denying the extra bucks that their players might have earned.. I do not know if IPL would be able to return to India in future or not.. it is going to be extremely difficult for Pakistani players to be a part of it for quite some time.. I feel sad for Afridis and Tanvirs and many upcoming talents from the neighboring cricket playing country..

I wish I could provide some of the articles that I wrote during the first edition of IPL.. I shall give it a try tomorrow.. may be by way of launching a 20 MB free website on angelfire..

As IPL2 is underway.. one person sure to suffer of getting my attention is going to be brother Amitabh Bachchan.. I love him a lot and shall continue to do so.. yet I know it would be criminal to post such he posts on IPL 2 as I would be writing here.. I shall only provide the link at his blog of these articles on http://abhayaipl2.blogspot.com

Abhaya India April 19/20 2009 12:09 AM IST

With 78 for 2 DC has almost won the game from KKR.. Should they thank SG and his men for it.. or should they give credit to the young brand RP Singh and OJha and Rohit Sharma

First Article on IPL2

2009-04-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

IPL 2 is about to set in another four days time..

IPL when it got underway last year had created some sort of magic for twenty20 cricket.. I hope the spirits continue in the same manner as its second edition gets underway on April 18 2009 in South Africa.

I had earlier been registered as a Delhi Daredevil fan.. I do not have any such followings for this year.. I wish to be far more neutral this time..

Let us hope that a good tournament is still available to us despite the shift of IPL2 from India to South Africa for obvious reasons.. I wish IPL2 a grand success!

Abhaya India April 14 2009 10:23 AM IST