India Pak Semi-final 2011

Congratulations team India, You did a brilliant work you made us proud. The way team India played against Australia I was sure India has all the capability to beat any team in the world.

I was bit nervous to see Ashish Nehra in the playing eleven!, But he proved why he was in the team. Full credit to Verendra Sehwag again. If he fires no one can stop India in any format of cricket. It was dream the way he batted again. I would love to see a match in which he play at least 30overs! Thanks to Pakistan for giving chance to Tendulkar bit disappointment he could not reach 3figures.

According to me Bjji’s 2wickets of Umar Akmal and Afridi was the turning point with out that there was all the possibilities Pakistan would have turned the match in their favour. It is very important Bajji bowls his 10overs with good economy with out getting frustrated because of no wicket.

As Dhoni said Indian team has given chance to all its player to show their talent! this is the advantage for the bats men to play the final against Sri Lanka. Every match only Sri Lankan top order played. Their middle order not played enough in this world cup they had very less exposure! India need to penetrate through the top order of Sri Lanka by initial 10overs then the match is India’s !!!

India need to play the Malinga’s 10overs with bit of caution (definitely not Veru!!! let him play his own game!!) If it is Veeru’s day Malinga may not have a place to hide in the first spell. If team India penetrate through the top order (Dhilshan, Tharanga, Sangakara) in 10overs and stop untested Jayawardana Sri Lanka will not be able to host or chase a big score.

One of the Indian top order bats men need to play a long innings (If it is happen to Veeru it will be a one sided match only India will win the match).

Bowling, I am not sure what kind of pitch Mubai will have but worth to take the 3rd spinner if it is a spin track rather than taking a gamble like against Pakistan. May be Dhoni need to do a lot of bowling changes if he fail to take the wickets. Zaheer need to get his tally more than 21 wicket. Munaf need to support Zaheer and keep his cool and be a integral part of team India. 

Gambir need to realise how important for him to play his role with more responsibility, Kohili need to understand what he need to learn from the senior players to be a reliable part of team India, Yuvi and Raina convinced me to feel that they know what they are doing and what team expected of him.  

A billion prayers, a billon wishes and a billion dreams are with you team India. When you get out on the 2nd of April to the field each and every Indian will be ready to follow all their superstitious believes and take their posture on which you won the match the Pakistan match. It may be sitting in the left hand side of the sofa or lighting the ghee lamp to the god!! You may be 11 out their but it is the dream of a billion dreamers. All the people criticised you it was just because we love a game so much we cant see you helpless. Get out their and make a history we will witness that moment we all can cherish that moment for rest of our life. All the best Team India we love you.    

Why don’t India learn the lessons ?

Good question to ask. Indian players might say that Indian fans are mad and they are there when India win and they blame the team when they loose. But why does the fans do that , because they do believe that this team could win the match by looking at the initial performance but when team India decide to suicide then the fans go wild.

Match against the South Africa is a good example for the above reason. As They had been shown how poor they are on the batting power play, they need not have to prove that again and again they need to show the fans they are living up to the expectations of the fans.

Well played Sewag you did a brilliant job. We the fans could understand your frustration after you played with that pace and distracted one of the best bowling side in the world of cricket, your team let not only you down but also the fans. Well done you my man you are unstoppable on your day. South African attach looked like worse than then a bunch of common boys bowling at a international bats men! I don’t have any comment on Tendulkar’s batting as well I will bow at his mastery in batting. It was a different Tendulkar fans could see in this world cup. I had seen Tendulkar pulling the balls from off side to leg side long ago. But now Tendulkar decided he want to bring the World cup to India. I don’t remember when Tendulkar scored 90 to 100 so quickly. But he do have a question from a sincere Indian fan!     

I think the team India need to realise the Sewag can not bat till the 50th over till he was in the crease team India had a plan and they were on the track to score a big score. Gambir came around, it was a good day for him to find some form he did it well. Once he did his fifty it was his time to go for some slogging because to win a big match team need to play the innings around a experienced  player. Gambir had a massage from the dressing room and he shown some sign that he received that message that he is the man going for it and not Suchin, by hitting couple of consecutive boundaries. With all the respect for Tendulkar my question is why he had to go for a foolish shot by knowing that his responsible to finish the match? If it was the massage from the dressing room was both the batsmen are going for big hits blame goes to Mr.captain. Some one need to answer these question because this performance is the repetition of Match against England.

Next came was the Mr.Patan. Does Mr.Patan knows that only 3fielders will be out side the 30yard circle when batting power play is on? If so does he know that it doesn’t take much effort of him to lift the ball above the 30 yard circle or find a gap as a responsible player and does he know that he hasn’t been thankful enough for being in the playing eleven with out much contribution in any win? And also I got a good suggestion for him if he want to be a integral part of India for long time, he need to sit and watch the South African innings of the second batting power play. He need to understand when 2 new batsmen are in the crease how to build the innings.

I may ask the question to Yuvi as well that why he didn’t realise what had happened against England but he had just been build 2 beautiful innings and also he warned after the last match that batsmen need to take some responsibilities but Yuvi no one cares you!

Mr. Kholi do you know that one century is not enough to cement your place in the world cup for ever? do you know that there is another person called Suresh Raina is in the boundary lines looking at your place? Do you know that he can be a more consistent performer than you with bat and he can challenge you fielding? Mr. Raina can also handy with bowling which provide Mr. Captain with another option?

Mr. Dhoni goes a step forward and comes back couple! If he had given the instruction for both Tendulkar and Gambir to go for hit then he is the culprit. If not I got a question he had seen his side dropped like flies against England after a amazing performance with batting so why Mr.Dhoni thought that he will increase the run rate by sending Mr.Patan ahead for a innings stabilizer like Kohli? I know he need to be aggressive if so why didn’t he send Yusuf Patan as one down!. Why do we need Kohli in the team? Did he ask Yuvi to go for hit after he hit a six why didn’t he asked him to stay and build the innings like last two?

Bowlers we don’t have complaints. One don’t expect them to score, when our middle order failed repeatedly. We can not blame them they bowled well other than last one over!!! Mr.Dhoni can some one speak to Harbajan Singh and ask him to keep his mouth shut and improve his bowling performance, rather than pissing the batsmen in the middle he need to concentrate on how he can help Tendulkar to make his dream true.

There were lots of lessons to learn after the England match first and far most is the importance of singles! Yes scoring singles I can show the 2 pieces of clips one from Indian innings, one from South African innings, a ball played to the same place with same pace Indian batsmen rested South African batsmen scored a single. Indian scored a single South African scored tow runs!! If team India had taken a page from the English team of the tied match they would have learnt a lesson. Fitness needs to be maintained except Kholi and Nehra every body looks like they are pregnant. I feel shamed to see the shape of some of the Indian players. Why don’t they realise they represent a country in a sports which needs a lots of fitness or are we watching the matches in extra wide screen Televisions!!!!!!!    

South African innings was a good example of how to chase a big score. Simth was not inform but he knew this was not a match for him to do that. They built their innings around Amla. Once he was out they looked at Kallis, he stood there and played through. At the fall of Kallis one could see that De Villers was the centre of batting. Once he gone innings started building around Duminy, then it was Plesses who finished the match. There was no confusion seen. When was the last time India did that?

Oh my dear team India you need to learn from the defeat. You cant act like fools. You are representing a billion fools! We thought you 11 are not as fools as we are so try to live up to our expectations.

As last thought some one wrote on face book ‘ a bunch of jokers representing a billion population!’ and some other  felt ‘even Dhoni thought Indian doesn’t deserve to win so he opted Ashish Nehra fro the last over to Bajji !!!!!!’ 

India-England WC

It was not a convincing win against Bangladesh. I don’t know why India is favourite. I expected Robin Uttappa to be in the team for South Africa tour itself. Unfortunate that he could not qualify for the world cup as well. Should we thank or curse Srikanth?

Virat Kholi came up well against Bangladesh no question about explosive Verendra Sehawag. I always knew that if Veru explode and play 30 overs nobody can stop India. I was expecting as a favourite India would not have let Bangladesh to score more than 200. Whatever it may be India won the match. The bowling capacity of India was naked according to me!

Second match with England. According to British media there is a bright chance for England to win this cup this is the better than any near past English team. Michel Vaughan (ex-captain)  said England has the talent exposition because one or the other bowlers are performing every match but India don’t have any bowlers like that. These were his words just when England won the 4th ODI against Australia after loosing the first 3 matches and he predicted England is going to bounce back and going to win the series. Final result was 6-1 series win by Australia.

I expected a better bowling performance but ultimately Sachin is a master of this game and he stuck to one side but was pity that such a great player at time forgotten that singles win the matches. I have watched India for a long time there never been a point they understood that singles are very important in ODI’s they always chased 4s and 6s. It was only the time of Kaif and Robin Singh Indian team had the importance for singles.

In a flat pitch like Bangaluru 2overs were maiden! That too when the best players of the game on the crease. It was a brilliant idea of sending Yuvraj Singh early because we needed him to come it to form before the crucial matches. As expected he was very slow but he needed a game and it was a suitable situation and he did exactly what he needed.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni need to stay there as a finisher and would have taken the team till the end but he try to show off? or expected English team has come to see his power? It is his biggest mistake of playing a foolish shot.

Virat Kohli need the experience to finish the match. He should have realised that he is the last recognised batsman. 

All credit goes to Strauss he really played a captains play. Indian captain need to see the way English team played that match. When they came out to play they really had a game plan. They played the match over by over according the plan. They never missed any opportunity of scoring, it may be single or it may be boundaries. At the end as a proud Indian I felt India need to win the match but they way English team played I do feel that India was lucky to tie, it was a deserve victory for England.

It was like they drew the plan on a piece of paper and they followed it exactly till Strauss got out. They always stayed ahead of India in scoring the run. Because they always scored singles and hit a boundaries of loose balls. They made the equation look so simple. Dhoni was lost his hope when Strauss got his 100. Defeat was clearly written in his face.

Thanks to Zaheer Khan for striking right time and bringing the match to nail biting finish.

I am searching for the reasons to praise the Indian team in that match but nothing comes to mind other than Sachin’s 100 and Zaheers last moment wickets.

It was such a horrible statement by Dhoni that ‘there is nothing to improve because we scored 338 runs but England played well, we cant score 400 in every match’

Mr Dhoni need to understand he is playing World cup as a leader he need to accept the mistakes on the ground. As a spectator and as a well wisher of the team I could tell some of the horrible sights I had seen in that match. Strauss shown really a far better leadership qualities than Dhoni. If it was India chasing I don’t thing match would have been such a close finish. If India need to win the matches they need to discipline their bowling and they desperately need to realise the importance of singles in the flat pitches of subcontinent.

Wishing Sehwag bats at least 25 overs in all the matches, hoping Yuvraj Singh came back to form, Tendulkar wont get injured, Kohli retains his enthusiasm to score, Gambhir realises his sticking capacity to the ground, Yusuf Patan hit all the ball he faces, Zaheer remains the back bone of Indian bowling attack with Harbhajan there is a light of India winning the world cup. But some times to be honest it looks too many things to fall in place. I feel that’s what it is there need too many thing fall in place to achieve big things.      

As last thought, Just imagine if India was not made 2 maidens and scored couple of singles in those overs. Or just imagine one of the batsmen realised that they need to finish the match and bated 50 overs.

Now all ifs and buts, Indian team has lots of things to learn from this match, lots of issues to address before going for the next match and next round. I am sure if they ready to accept this and learn they will come out with flying colours. All the best India