Tendulkar failed.

That was the masterstroke from the man who has played cricket in 4 decades.In the late 80′s and in the 90′s.And again in new decade and the new century and in the new millenium,that is 2000′s.And yet again in 2010′s.Days after days and year after year,he is playing and he is playing.Playing like a champion.

The match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore was won by Mumbai Indians.Apart from the toe crushers from Malinga and an all round show by Mumbai Indians, Sachin Tendulkar played a masterstroke.After the brisk start provided by Davy Jacobs,it was the Mumbai captain and the young lad Rayadu finished the job which eventually helped Mumbai Indians to win by 9 wickets with as many balls left.

While chasing, Tendulkar was way ahead of young Rayadu. But,Sachin gave more strike to Rayadu and allowed him to overhaul his score. It was calculated plan by the master.Tendulkar tried his best so that the Man of the Match should be given to the young man which can do a whirl of good to his confidence and help the team cause in the long run.After the match ended, Rayadu scored 8 more runs than his captain.Captain thought he has done his job by anchoring his team to the win and helped Rayadu to get the Man of the Match award.But he failed.Panel had a different point of view and they judged Sachin as Man of the Match.He was little puzzled when his name was called for the award.Instead going alone,he dragged Ambati Rayadu to the podium and said that his team mate deserves the award.Nice gesture from Tendulkar.

The idea to boost the confidence of young man by letting him take more strikes and giving opportunity to score more runs and eventually the Man of the Match award  was a master stroke from the Little Master.Better than the gesture.But Tendulkar failed.

Ian Chappell is funny old man.

Ian Chappell is an old man. He earns his bread and butter by commenting and writing. He writes whatever he feels.He thinks he is the best analyst the game has ever seen. Let him think like that. After all, the old man should be kept happy. His favorite hobby is criticizing cricketers. And why would not he? He gets money for it. This job must be giving him immense pleasure and happiness. Not like in his playing days when he ran around in the sunny days. From the nice comfortable cool boxes, he has to criticize.

He is so funny.

Tendulkar should retire, Indian bowlers lack fire,Ponting’s time is up, Oh! Mr. Chappell, will you shut up? Who are you to decide somebody’s future? Back in 2007, when India was out from the World Cup,this old man suggested that Tendulkar should consider retirement. I am sure the article must have given him some money and some publicity  just because it had Tendulkar in it. This old man sees every opportunity to earn money for which he should get an award.He looks for the famous players who are out of form and suggests them to retire.

Yes, he was one of finest captain Australia has seen. But its high time that old man should rest and enjoy cricket on his television rather than in the broadcasting box and the stupid columns which he writes. In May 2007 he wrote,”‘ If he(Tendulkar) asked that same mirror right now; ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?’ The answer would be; ‘Yes.’

If Chappell asked the same mirror right now;’Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?’ The answer would be; ‘No.’ After all, Mirror will not make fun of the old man.Offcourse, you all know what the Mirror will say deep inside.

 

Quarter Final births : Who will play with whom?

Sachin acknowledges crowd after reaching century against South Africa

With the few unexpected results in both the groups,the Quarter final births are far from settled.Though Group A teams have almost sealed the place for them,but not the positions which would decide whom they will play with in Group B.

Group A will see Australia,Pakistan,Sri Lanka and New Zealand,not necessarily in the same order.There are 2 key matches which will decide the rankings.First, Sri Lanka versus New Zealand,second Australia versus Pakistan.

Case 1 : Srilanka win and Australia win.

Positions : Australia,SL,NZ,Pak  —> NZ will be ahead on NRR.

Case 2 : Srilanka win and Pakistan win

Positions : Pakistan,SL,Aus,NZ

Case 3 : NZ win and Australia win

Positions : Australia,NZ,Pakistan,SL

Case 4: NZ win and Pakistan win

Positions : NZ,Pakistan,Australia,SL

Group B may see either England or Bangladesh. If England loses to WI in their last match and Bangladesh defeats Netherlands, England will not qualify. Though if England wins,Bangladesh will need to defeat South Africa and Netherlands,both to make a cut.

The likely positions, if there will be no upsets are :

Result 1 :South Africa,India,England,WI (if England wins) or

Result 2:South Africa,India,WI,Bangladesh (if WI wins ag. Eng)

In Group A, case 1 is more likely and in Group B, result 1 is likely.

In that case, Quarter finals will be as such:

1.Aus vs WI

2.SL vs England

3.NZ vs India

4. Pakistan vs South Africa

Though if case 1 in Group A and result 2 occurs(if WI defeats Eng),then QFs will be as such:

1.Aus vs Bangladesh

2.SL vs WI

3.NZ vs India

4.Pakistan vs South Africa

Still few matches to go for the final conclusion.

Edited on 19-03-2011.

Finally,from Group A, Case 2 result has occurred, So Pak,SL,Aus,NZ are placed in the following order.

If India wins tomorrow, they will play Australia and if they loose, they will play Srilanka

-comments welcomed.

India to chase 190 to pass Orange test

March 9,Delhi : The clash is between the teams of which one is yet to loose a match and the one which is yet to win a match.The team which is yet to win a match has posted just 189 runs on a track which was termed as national highway by Sunil Gavaskar in pitch report.

The Netherlands captain elected to bat on the batting friendly wicket. India made just a change by playing local boy Ashish Nehra instead of Munaf Patel.The dutch openers started cautiously. Szwarczynski and Baressi posted 56 before Szwarczynski was cleaned by the leggie Chawla. 3 overs later,in 19th over Baressi joined the hut with his fellow opener to add happiness for Yuvraj who took his 100th wicket.The responsibility to keep the innings on the right way was on the dutch centurian Ryan tenDoeschate and Tom Cooper,both of them has the top 2 highest average in ODIs ( min 500 runs).They added 35 runs before tenDoeschate was dismissed for just 11 runs.As soon as Ryan tenDoeschate left, the wickets kept tumbling.Captain Peter Borren top scored with 38 of 36balls.Netherlands ended their innings at 189 in the 47th over.

All Indian bowlers bowled well.Zaheer claimed 3 wickets,Yuvraj and Chawla had 2 a piece while Nehra had Cooper.India’s strong batting line up looks good chase down the low score.

India’s Castrol Index was at 90 and Netherlands was at 65 at the innings break.

V for Viru, V for Virat, V for Victory

19 February,Mirpur : One question crossed everybody’s mind. One instance made that happen. Instance : 4 years ago,Bangladesh danced.Danced happily. Danced when they defeated the star-studded Indian team in the last World Cup and made the Indians to take early flight way back home from the caribbean. Question : Will Bangladesh dance again? The question was answered by the Delhi duo. 87 was magic number which left Bangladesh way behind India’s virat score. Virat means mammoth.

The much anticipated roar came when Shakibul Hasan won the toss. The stadium roared and the captain elected to bowl first. Bowling first on the track where bowling becomes difficult in the evening due to the dew factor.Lossing the toss is nothing new for Dhoni. If he wins it, it is an added advantage.

Nawab of Najafgarh and Maharaja of Mumbai came to open the innings.Safiul Islam got the chance to bowl the first ball of the mega event. As soon as the ball was released for the first time, the Sultan of Multan belted the ball to the cover boundry. The first over read 4 2 0 0 2 4. Same from both the side. That’s how the World Cup started.Both the openers got to flying start and reached to 36/0 in the first 4 overs. The captain Shakib introduced Razzak,the left arm spinner.He slowed down the Indian innings.India reached 60/0 in the Quick Start Overs. When all was looking good for India, the duo had a terrible mix up.Sachin stroked the ball to wide mid-on and kept on running. Sehwag was looking at the ball and stayed there.The fielder Shakib returned the ball and keeper removed the bails. The crowd erupted. Erupted for the second time.First when they won the toss.India were 69/1 in 11th over.Gautam Gambhir replaced Tendulkar.The Bowling Powerplay yielded 44/1. Gambhir played sensibly to score 39 out of the same number of balls.They added 83 before Gambhir was undone by Mahmudullah.He missed the ball while working on the leg side.The ball sneaked to dislodge the bails. Mirpur errupted again.In came delhi boy to replace the other delhi boy and to join another delhi boy. Both of them then played brilliantly and added 203 runs.Sehwag hit 5 sixes to score 175 before getting out when he played a tired shot. Virat also completed the century on the penultimate ball of 50th over.India ended their innings at 370/4.Sehwag ended with his innings with batting momentum of 289 and Virat with 160.

Showing Castrol Index via www.castrolcricket.com

Bagladesh started their innings at brisk rate and scored 51 in just 5 overs. Imrul Kayes scored 24 runs of one over of Sreesanth.The crowd was behind their heroes.On the other hand Tamim Iqbal played along with him.But in the 7th over,Munaf angled the ball and Kayes tried for the  cut.The ball was a touch slower and Kayes was a little early.He played on to stumps.The crowd again lost its voice.He made 34. Junaid Siddique joined Tamim. Bangladesh scored 68/1 in the Quick Start overs.They added another 25 in the Bowling Powerplay to reach to 93/1 at the end of 15 overs.Both of them added 73 before Siddique was dismissed by Harbhajan.The Bangladeshi captain Shakib joined Tamim. They added another 59 runs before Tamim was dismissed by Munaf.Yuvraj took a good low catch. But the run rate kept increasing.Shakib made useful contribution of 55.The wickets kept on falling and Bangladesh ended their innings on 283/9 in 50 overs.Munaf took 4 wickets for 48.India registered win in the World Cup opener by 87 runs.They will play England on 27th and Bangladesh will play Ireland on 25th.

India’s Castrol Index was 235 while Bangladesh’s was 120 after the end of match which confirmed India’s dominance on Bangladesh

Sehwag congratulated by Kohli on reaching his century

Captain Cool stars in warm up victory

Chennai,16 Feb 2011 :February, the month of love is already bringing joy  to the Indians as they march into the World Cup with a thumping victory over the Kiwis in the 2nd warm-up match.

Up she went and the gravity pulled her down.The coin  landed MS Dhoni’s way. 2 in a row and it seems that the toss momentum is with Dhoni.He elected to bat first on Chennai’s batting wicket.

Dhoni scores a quick fire century

The Mumbai Master and the Delhi Dasher walked to open the innings and the Chennai crowd cheered with joy and spirit.The crowd roared as they walked in.Both of them started solidly in the Quick Start overs but the maestro was undone by Tim Southee by slower one which castled the stumps.Tendulkar scored 17 before going to the hut.Sehwag soon joined him who was bowled by Jacob Oram.He scored 23.India were 42/2 at the end of Quick Start Overs.Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli added 22 runs in the Bowling Powerplay and India were 74/2 at the end of 15 overs.Virat got out when he chased a wide one from Oram to edge it to the keeper.He added 108 with Gambhir before getting out on 59. MSD joined in.Both again started cautiously before attacking in Batting Powerplay which was taken from 35th over.India added 49 as they lost Gautam Gambhir.He made a well deserved 89 off just 85 balls.Raina walked in to join MSD. The Chennai Champions of Super Kings made the city dance to the music of sixes and fours.MSD struck 7 consecutive fours, 5 of which came in the over of Jacob Oram,another CSK player.Raina hit 3 sixes of the same bowler in 45th over.Dhoni scored undefeated 108 of 64 balls where as Raina scored 50 of just 26 balls.Jacob Oram got 2 wickets while Tim Southee got 1.India registered 360/5

Showing Castrol Index



New Zealand started the chase in charismatic fashion. Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptil opened the innings.The Kiwis scored 72 runs in Quick Start Overs without losing a wicket.Brendon McCullum blazed to all parts of the ground but Guptil played along.Dhoni delayed the Bowling Powerplay as the kiwis were going at a brisk rate.Finally Ashvin got Guptil where the ball spun and bounced.They added 94.Jesse Ryder joined B McCullum.Bowling Powerplay was taken in 19th over.McCullum got run out in the Bowling Powerplay when Ryder called him for a unnecessary run.Kiwis added 29 runs in Bowling Powerplay. Once McCullum departed, Kiwis started losing regular wickets as spinners bundled them for 243 in 44th over.Last 8 wickets added just 125 runs.Yuvraj,Chawla,Harbhajan and Nehra picked up 2 wickets each while Ashvin got 1.They did not called for the Batting Powerplay.India won the match by 117 runs.

India’s thumping win was also indicated by Castrol Index as they got 209 as compared to 137 of Kiwis.Winning both the warm up matches,India will take the confidence into the first match against Bangladesh on 19th, where they would like take the revenge of the last World Cup.

The 200 moment