WTF – The Pressure is always on India !

Before India – England group match, Strauss said, “The Pressure is on India. They are playing at home”. England tied a match they should have lost first and then won easily. Both teams choked and out-choked each other for a tie.
Smith was quoted, “It is a big match. The Pressure is on Indians. We are coming from a series win against them. They are playing at home and that can act against them”. South Africa came back strongly from a lashing and restricted India. But then choked in the middle and would have lost but for some luck towards end.

Smith said during the series prior played on South African grounds, “The Pressure is on India. They are known to be susceptible on fast and bouncy pitches. We will go all out at them”. India tied the Test series 1-1. Won the T-20 and lost the ODI series 3-2 with a depleted team.

Sammy said, “We will target the chinks in the Indian batting. We will go all out for a win. The Pressure is on Indians”. Chasing 269 for a win, West Indies collapsed from 153 / 2 and lost by 80 runs.

Even minnows love to have a go at India. Shakib al Hassan said, “We won against them the last time. So the Pressure is on the Indians”. Viru and Virat plastered Bangladesh bowlers and India cantered home in spite of an off color bowling.

We have seen almost all Captains playing against India coming up with almost same pre-match / pre-series quotes. So much so, Saurav Ganguly once said, “Yes, the Pressure is always on us. When we play at home, the Pressure is on us because we are playing in front of huge huge crowds with huge expectations. When we play away from home, the Pressure is on us because we are playing on fast tracks and in alien conditions. I would like to know when the Pressure is on others !”

If India lose, everyone can say, “We said so. Didn’t we ?”

When India manage to win at home in spite of all this unbearable Pressure; they say, “Well, they always play well at home and are a formidable team in these conditions”.

And when India manage to win abroad against all odds and in spite of all the Pressure; what do we get to hear… ?
“Well, they did play well. We could have done with a little bit of luck here and there”
“We didn’t play up to our potential”
“Well, it is tough, we let ourselves down”
“A few decisions too went against us”
“We just had one bad session and lost the match”
“We had a bad day in the office. We will come back hard”
“Well, nothing went according to our plans. But we will work out strategies to hit back”

Why is it that ‘The Pressure” is always on India ? WTF ?

And today, Australia believed the ‘Pressure‘ was on India. Because there are a lot of expectations and they are playing at home…

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans

It’s nothing personal…just business…

Howzaat!!!
The World Cup archives are once again updated with 42 new entries (games). Some will be dusted off in years to come…in appreciation for the drama, excitement & joy they’ve elicited. While others will be tossed aside for all the wrong reasons…kinda like Asoka de Silva 

Over the past +/- 5 weeks, we’ve been privy to spinners opening the bowling, sensational batting collapses, a broken TV set, Kamran Akmal’s “what not to do on a cricket field” guide, a “stoned” West Indies and of course…England – the blokes who made ODI’s exciting again.

At the same time, quite a few of the 42 games involved the “minnows” and even though they provided us with some juicy upsets, for the most part they just delayed the inevitable. The final 8 was always just going to be that 8…hell I’m sure even Hansie would’ve placed a bet on it 

So now that we’re at the “business end” of the tournament, let’s look at the match ups ahead…

Q1 – Pakistan vs. West Indies

Both teams have given us what we’ve expected. Pakistan…unpredictable as ever, while West Indies are progressively undoing all the great work done by Sobers, Richards, Holding, Lara, Walsh etc. Both teams possess match winners (Afridi & Gayle), but in the end…fielding is going to be the deciding factor. However, this is a discipline which seems to be more of an afterthought for both; hence on the day…the best of the worst (in terms of fielding) will be victorious.

Q2 – India vs. Australia

This is going to be a cracker – India with the home advantage and Australia with the experience and guile to go all the way. Out of all the games…this is really a tough one to call. India’s world class batting line-up against Australia‘s bowling firepower. These 2 teams had contrasting group games – India were constantly under the microscope, while Australia performed well below their usual (ruthless) standards. Many say they have yet to peak and no one’s sure (including themselves) whether this is indeed possible. All I know is…only a fool will write off Australia!

Q3 – South Africa vs. New Zealand

If this was a rugby World Cup, then this match up would’ve been every fan’s dream. However, the Black Caps don’t instil the same fear as the All Blacks and as a result, I’m sure the Proteas are chuffed at their quarterfinal opponents. Any team that includes Daniel Vetorri, Ross Taylor and the McCullum brothers is a worthy opponent, but it’s as a collective unit that they always seem to fall short. The slow wickets might suit their style of play, but purely on merit and patriotism aside…I do believe the Proteas have enough strike power in all departments to humble the Kiwis.

Q4 – Sri Lanka vs. England

Like India…the Sri Lankan cricket team and supporters can’t be too happy at their opponents for the knockout stage. On paper Sri Lanka are the heavy favourites, but it’s the unpredictability of England that gives them the psychological edge. Throughout the group stages England surprised even themselves…their results were as diverse as Brad & Angelina’s kids. Even if they confuse themselves and everyone else, one thing you can be sure of is that it’ll be an epic game. Sri Lanks should take it, but then again…Strauss & Co. are running on fumes and with a silver lining to the loooooooong English season in sight, they’re definitely in with a chance (just as long as they don’t drop any).

So that’s my quarterfinal analysis folks…and if you agree or disagree with me, then please feel free to leave a comment. I’m not an expert, nor a professional cricketer…I only call it as I see it and would be very interested to hear your thoughts too!

Sharief ‘Sheriff’ Allie for DieHard Cricket Fans

Pricky Apologies and other World Cup Trivia, Part-3

After a lot of those Trivia, we have finally entered the Knockout stage of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. There was some Cricket, a lot of action, minnows, reverse swing, collapses, drama, choking and then Shoaib Akhtar. So here is a little ruminating on the action so far.

Lost and Found [Theme] Team: A Gayle-less and KRoach-less West Indies ‘Lost’ to India and ‘Found’ an allegedly easier Quarterfinal match with Pakistan.
Moral of the story: Some teams still fear Australia !

A shitting Farewell: Steve Tikolo, arguably the Greatest African batsman outside South Africa was given a typical farewell by his team. They showed him how they have depended on him all these years and how he will be missed. He looked like ‘Budhdha’ and always had a saintly calm about him. His records never did justice to his talent.

Budhdha Smiling !

Astralialogers Day: An eminent Astrologer in India predicted an India – Australia Final. Well, he probably meant “A Final before Final” ! 5 people predicted 5 different things without a single winner. Ass-trology sucks big time.

Clutching at the last Strauss: England did a Houdini to enter the Quarterfinals with the distinction of being the team that beat teams above them in Test Rankings and lost to teams below them and then tied with the No. 1 ranked team. West Indies as usual bucked the trend.

PRicky Apologies: Australian Captain has ‘apologized’ in advance to no one in particular. He will give the reasons for his apology during the press conference after the India – Australia Quarterfinal. The honored recipient of his apology too will be declared on that day.

Birds of the same leather: Steven Smith and Munaf Patel have more than some things in common. Both are supposed to be bowlers, but have not completed their quota of 10 overs in living memory. Both are forgotten by their Captains when the white leather cherry has to be used for some effect. And both are in their respective teams with no specific roles.

Survival of the un-fittest: Munaf Patel also is the ‘Greatest survivor’. He twice went for too many at death. A number 10 batsman hit Patel over the top facing his first ball in the world cup. He neither has a yorker nor a bouncer. Reverse swing is Latin. He is an opening bowler who seldom opens. Took a catch to avoid getting smashed in his face by the ball. Fitness at best can be compared to that of Ranatunga [No Idea how fit he is today]. And he continues to play for India !

MOM Player of the First Round: From being dropped for Raina, Yuvi has come a long way to rain runs and wickets. Though fitness still appears to be below par, Yuvi is throwing his weight around and in the right places. He has more MOMs than anyone else [Man Of the Match awards I mean] this time.

Most Exciting World Cup Debut: Kohli Viratified himself as a Class act with a century on debut. Devendra Bishoo has definitely impressed. Rampaul took a five for. But the most exciting Debutant is Tahir Imran. No explanations deemed necessary.

Most Under-rated Player: Umar Gul has bowled probably the best except for one match. He has swung the new ball and the old ball in almost all conditions. Take him out and Pakistan would struggle. But so far we have heard noise about Afridi, Sehwag, Sachin, Taylor, Roach, Malinga and even Ashwin.

One Man Army: Ever since the days of Kumble, India have remained a ‘One Man Bowling Army’. Thanks to Ashwin, now they have two and a half bowlers in a ‘One Man Army’ that is Zaheer Khan.

Most Improved Player: Kakmal hasn’t dropped anything since that fateful match against the Kiwis. That is an improvement unlikely to be improved upon.

Contenders, nay Pretenders: Bangladesh punched above their might to beat England. But their bowling was exposed by Sehwag and Kohli and batting by KRoach and Tsotsobe. They would do well to be realistic about their chances. One series win against a reluctant New Zealand doesn’t make them contenders. They still remain what they are; Pretenders.

Giant Minnows of the Cup: Ireland stood tall throughout. They chased down 300 twice [Only team so far to do so]. Different people have stood up on different occasions. Stirling, O’Brien brothers, Dockrell, Porterfield, Cusack, Johnston and Wilson made it a memorable world cup. Hats off. They should break into Test league soon.

Fodder of all Collapses: India collapsed twice. Pakistan collapsed against New Zealand. England Collapsed against anyone they liked. Australia collapsed against Pakistan. New Zealand collapsed against Sri Lanka. Collapses were collapsing all over. But the fodder of all collapses was when South Africa collapsed against England chasing 172. They collapsed twice in the same innings !

Tell-Tail signs of the World Cup: Ravichandran Ashwin has scored more runs in one innings than all the runs scored by Bhajji, Zaheer, Nehra, Munaf and Chawla in all the matches put together. Indian tail appears to be ever ready to ‘Curtail’ !

Walk for the Heart: After watching the inevitable collapses following his fall, Tendulkar is a ‘Heart-broken’ man. Hence he ‘walked’ against the West Indies, because the Doctors say walking is good for the heart. Dr. Hayden should advise a certain Mr. Ponting to walk once in a while. He badly needs to walk, at least after the Umpire has ruled him out.

A-shock-ing Decision: There was Bucknor, there was Hair and there still is Bowden. But the most shockingly incompetent Umpire on the ‘Elite’ panel must be Ashock De Silva. It doesn’t get any worse. We hope not to see any ‘Silva’ line in the cloud during knockouts.

Gesture to Cherish: Pakistan’s continued support of KAkmal. Like it or not, once you are in a team, the team has to stand behind the player facing a rough patch. Dhoni would do well to learn a lesson regarding Sreesanth. Kakmal has already lost more matches for Pakistan than any player ever could manage in a lifetime.

This story again has grown like India’s power play woes. So, let me curtail this here like Steyn did to Indian tail. Hope to be back with more Trivia. Cricket will never run out of Trivia like Murali with his tricks !

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans

Kakmal, Super Moon and other World Cup Trivia, Part 2

If there is a Part-1, there has to be sequel. So I had to come with Part-2 to “Yuckmal and other World Cup Trivia“. Who else could have inspired this post other than the Akmals ? So here we go again…

Kakmal randomly decides which random catch will not be dropped. Erasmus couldn’t believe it and ruled Ponting not out. Then everyone made a song and dance about it and Ponting is ruled ‘out’ by the Third Umpire.

Ricky Ponting: c Kamran Akmal b Mohammad Hafiz : 19 runs – 33 balls – 2 fours

Age: 36. Right Handed
18.4 OUT! That’s a big wicket for Pakistan as Ponting departs! Pakistan get the decision reversed ! Shortish outside off, Ponting tries to cut and almost guides it into the gloves of the keeper. Kamran Akmal does pretty well to hold on to that one. They appeal but the Umpire turns it down. Pakistan take the DRS and the Third Umpire needs only one replay to reverse the on-field decision. The Punter is gone ! Meanwhile, there was even a bit of tussle on between Haddin and the rest of the Pakistani fielders. Afridi led them even there ! And actually Kakmal saved the day.

The Shove Must Go On !!

Kakmal didn’t drop anything this afternoon. This has been attributed to the Super Moon. The gravitational tug of the Gigantic Moon kept the ball that split second longer in the sky and the white cherry landed in Kakmal’s gloves against nature.

Doctoring the Balls applauds a fellow Doctor: Uakmal has a finger injury that prevents him from donning the wicket-keeping gloves. But he can field without a pair of gloves. This injury also doesn’t hamper his ability to win matches wearing the batting gloves. Dr. Mathew Hayden who earlier had diagnosed Ganguly and Bhajji with the dreaded ‘Greentrackitis‘ has now diagnosed this strange injury as “Brotherophilia Glovefingeritis Selectiva“.

The English team must have watched the movie “Lagaan”. They perhaps want to extract revenge over Indians. They have kept everyone on the edge of the seats ever since their arrival. So much so, swollen butts are aching all over. No, this isn’t about the Pakistani Butts.

From Revenge to Revenge – The End of Tigers’ Campaign: Bangladesh’s 2011 World Cup Campaign began with one revenge match and ended with another. People failed to realize what they achieved in 2007 were essentially upsets. But the inflated expectations of a still budding Cricketing nation lay decimated as Indian batting juggernaut rolled them over on day-1 and the bowling army of Saffers hit the last nail in the coffin today.

South Africa choked again; at the thought of leaving the stadium after the demolition of Bangladesh. They decided to play it safe by resting Steyn and Morkel. But Tsotsobe and Peterson ensured a stressful journey back to team hotel.

Bangladesh Captain apologized before the crowd could gather enough stones. The local administration had filtered out all articles larger than 5mm within 5km periphery of Sher-E-Bangla stadium. And the South African Team was airlifted to their hotel room without prior information.

Afridi has a short attention span. To know what went wrong, he watched his own innings of 2 runs of 4 balls in fast forward mode. He lost patience halfway through the video !

Pakistan were the last team to beat Australia in a World Cup match. That was in 1999. It perhaps was ordained the same team had to break the streak and hand Aussies their first World Cup defeat in the new Millennium. Pakistan being Pakistan but did everything within their capabilities to stretch the match ! It still was great to watch a team winning with 9 overs to spare against Australia !

Ashish Nehra doesn’t like ‘THIS” song now. It says “Tera [Thirteen] hone laga hoon”. That is what Saffers needed when he started his ill-fated last over and he ended up conceding not so sweet sixteen !

Uakmal looks like the best batsman to arrive from Pakistan since Inzy Bhai. That is till he decides to play like his elder brother more often than he decides to play himself.

Dhoni has finally decided to rope in Ashwin. If India win, that will be RAshwin. If not, it could be CRAshwin !

Raina to play against West Indies. The Caribbeans had an intensive Slip Catching session. KRoach has shortened his length.

Dhoni doesn’t want his team to repeat the mistakes. He actually meant, “Well of course, we will not repeat those mistakes which we have already repeated. We will repeat only those mistakes which we haven’t hitherto repeated”. Piyush Chawla disappointed.

Ponting stood his ground after guiding the ball to Kakmal’s gloves. The edge was heard even in Tasmania. But the desperate Ponting waited for the Umpire’s wrong decision and then the Third Umpire’s right decision. No damage reported to any structure at the Premadasa. The canny Lankans, they haven’t installed any LCD Television in the Aussie dressing room.

West Indies have their plans for Sachin, says Sammy. They have demanded to send immediately a debutant bowler to play India. They wouldn’t mind anyone as long as he is making his debut.

Tendulkar never scared me: Shoaib Akhtar: What he failed to mention: The one who scared him the most was, is and will always be: Kakmal !

I have to call it quits here. Else I might come across as someone who over-stayed like Ponting. I shall come back with more random trivia as the trivial have a knack to repeat themselves; like the mistakes by Team India !

Like Haddin would have said…
The Shove must go on !

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans

MASTER-PLAN !!

WC is about to reach the knock-out stages and as expected, there’s hue-and-cry everywhere about the weaknesses of Indian team, ineffective bowling attack, slacky fielding etc etc. Lots of cricket experts are stressing on the implementation of basics and other traditional methods in the training sessions. But the thing is other teams are also following the same strategy and methods to improve the concerned departments, thus in spite of doing all this we will be at most as good as others, not better than them. To have the edge we should try something different, something extraordinary, out of the box. Here are few things which we can try out-

Fielding is our major area of concern. Except for a few descent ones (yuvi, kohli, raina), rest of the team is quite hopeless. What they can do is- whenever the ball goes to any fielder, people around the stump should start shouting ‘yuvi or kohli’ to give batsmen the feel that the fielder is a quick one. Changing the look of the Munafs and Zaheers (hairstyle etc) to match those of quicker fielders can further help in deception.

We also lack bowlers who are good at breaking partnerships. We cant generate those bowlers overnight, so we have to work something else out. One way is to make 3-4 players bald and position them such that the light reflects from their shinny skull directly in the batsmen eyes. Some kind of oil or glow lotions can be used to improve the effect. To further distract the batsman’s concentration, Dhoni should deliver some deadly PJs regularly shortening their temper.

With a top order consisting of Sachin and Sehwag, often we get a blistering start. The problem is to maintain the momentum after a great start. Here we can use a bit of Physics to handle the situation. We all know that ‘Momentum = Mass * Velocity (run-rate in this case)’. As a wicket falls down, the run-rate is bound to slow up a bit. So to keep the momentum going (constant), we should increase the mass (send the batsmen with max weight). Thus Gambhir and Kohli shouldn’t be sent after a fast start.

Some experts also feel that there is lack of team-spirit in the Indian team. Some players drink pepsi, some coke, some boost, some milk etc. If the team is not united on a small thing such as drink…how can they be united on bigger things. Imagine the team goes to a shop in which only Pepsi is there. Sehwag would be drinking it and teasing Sachin “Hey sachin…wheres the secret of your energy!”. The solution is that BCCI should manufacture a new drink consisting of each of these mixed in equal proportion. Now nobody will feel left-out and the bonding between the players will grow stronger.

Often Indian team is accused of not having the ‘killer instinct’. To remedy this players should be having regular sessions on computer games full of violence such as Counter Strike, Quake etc. After having multiple headshots and knifing the enemies can awaken the ‘killer instinct’ inside them. To extend their killer-instinct concept to the living world,killing cockroaches and rats left in their rooms can also be tried.

Another area in which we are constantly faltering is when to use the UDRS. One solution is to have a team staff watch the match on TATA SKY ( HD highlights on demand from different angles). Then he can give some signal to the captain whether to take the review or not.

Come up with your own deadly ideas and put them up in the comments section.

Amit Ranjan for DieHard Cricket Fans

No Pace = No Peace !

My last post was my most serious ever. That emanated from the fact that I am depressed with the way Team India have struggled during this cup. But looking back, I gave India no chances of winning at all.
From the day Munaf got that Man of the Match award in South Africa, I knew India were doomed. Why do I believe so ? Just look at our opponents from that series. South Africa are playing this cup without the man who got more wickets and bowled much better than Munaf during the same match and the same series.

Why do I dislike Munaf Patel ? As much as the Team members, Captain and Selectors repose faith in him, I strongly believe Munaf is not the guy we need in our campaign if we want to win. And why do I ‘believe’ so ? Let us look at Munaf’s repertory.

What He is: Decent line and length bowler. Can keep it in the corridor with the new ball.
What He ain’t: At best a trundler. No Pace. No Yorker. No Bouncer. Not much Reverse Swing. Regularly bowls length balls at death. Can’t run to save his own life or that of his wife. Batting is a single digit lottery; you win once in one million chances.

How can India depend on a bowler who depends upon the pressure created at the other end or by huge scores to survive ? He has got 9 wickets to his credit so far. But at what cost ? Except the Bangladesh match, he has consistently gone for runs when it mattered the most. People remember Nehra went for 13 runs in the last over. But they have forgotten Munaf went for 14 in the 48th over against Saffers. He also bowled a pathetic last over against England.

Unfortunately the wise men in the garbs of Selectors left Team India with no other options. Dhoni’s zeal for Piyush Chawla is tough to understand. That boy hasn’t played any meaningful ODI Cricket for ages. The selectors should have known with the “Handle with Care” tag that both Ashish and Zaheer come, we should have had one more Pacer in the 15 member army.

Piyush Chawla will go down in the history as the costliest blunder ever by a bunch of Selectors. I am not being wise in retrospection. I have from the beginning believed Nehra, Munaf and Piyush were misfits and said so.

We are now facing a possibility of a second successive first round exit at the World Cup. Many people believe India have already qualified for the Quarters. But that is far from true. There are so many possibilities.

Imagine England beat West Indies by a big margin tonight. West Indies then rout India on Sunday, again with a big margin. And Bangladesh upset Saffers, India will probably be pipped to the post by England. How do we like that ? Though there are a lot of ifs, it isn’t impossible.

And if that happens, we needn’t worry about our combination for the next round. Our highest paid players can straightaway start preparations for IPL-4. There is some relief. Only an Indian Team will win IPL, come what may !

What is the Carry Home message ?

Australia have Lee, Johnson and Tait; all doing well.
Saffers have Steyn and Morkel, the best pair in the business today.
England have a ready Pace replacement for every Pace bowler that gets injured.
Pakistan have Aqthar, Gul and Riaz and a factory of Fast bowlers.
Sri Lanka have Malinga and a bunch of disciplined medium pacers.
West Indies have Roach, Russel and a number of support bowlers.
New Zealand have Southee, Mills, Franklin and many slow medium pacers.

What do India have ?

Zaheer Khan !

Don’t even mention Nehra and Munaf. We already have seen them, discussed them and done with. Sreesanth ? He doesn’t have the confidence of his own Captain.

So the situation is simple…

No Pace = No Peace !

That is “The End” !

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans