Return of "That sinking feeling " !! Srilanka trounces India !!

India ended their world cup campaign exactly at the place where they began - hopeless and clueless. Their last slim hope of survival required them to beat a good SriLankan side but as I had predicted, they were no where in this match or rather mis-match.
The team selection was again wrong and Dravid's continued trust in Agarkar to open the bowling was a disaster. Add the umpiring erros, India was starring at the gun barrel but fortunately Jayasurya got out early and Jayawardene did not click but a new, emerging, confident cricketer (who had earlier got my praise during the last series) emerged - Chamara Silva and he played a steller innings. Indian batsmen, typically stiffen up when they loose early wickets and play as if they are playing fire balls and run in hot coals but Chamara Silva knew no fear and batted freely. His partnerships with Tharanga and Dilshan ensured that the loss of Sangakara did not prove costly. Arnold and Vaas ensured that a 225 score became 255 score but the main culprit for that - Dravid and of course, the highly unimpressive, Bhajji. Harbhajan never looked like taking a wicket in the middle phase and India went to neutral, instead of creating wickets. Dravid was a complete, colossal failure in the manner he placed fielders and in the manner in which he made bowling changes but in the end, 255 was still gettable by any International side but India is not one of them. They are shortly heading to the minnow status and by next cup, I won't be surprised if they go to the qualifying tournament to play along with the likes of Malaysia, Canada, Haiti etc.
When India batted, there was still hope but one could easily observe the Ganguly of the old vintage, He has this uncanny ability to play an innings for himself - he was unable to pierce the field, rotate singles and most important converted certain 3s to a close 1 run. People who normally view proceedings with jaundiced eye, might draw comfort from all the half centuries of his - but believe me, the more I see players playing without a concern for the team, the more I will say that Indian team will go to new unheard of pits. When Uthappa fell to a reflex catch and Ganguly got out (thankfully), it was the turn of Sachin to show the world that he still counts - but Sachin has not played one important innings for several years now (If my memory is right perhaps the last world cup innings against Pak was the last time around), when it matters really - so, it was no surprise that he got out for a zero and the manner in which he got out - bowled neck and crop to Dilhara Fernando of all people- was the last straw. Tendulkar has been a non contributor in anything worthwhile for a long time and now to reward him for the ZERO he got, there are reports that he will be the next captain. Goodness me !!
The real turning point in the match was the wicket of Sehwag, who was foxed by a doosra from a revitalized Murali (It was once again great captaincy by Mahela. When Murali went for a few in the 1st over he bowled, he took him off and introduced him later at an opportune moment. Murali's enthusiastic fielding was appealing and almost infectious, when he took that catch of Saurav). When Yuvaraj got run out, it was all but over and as I had said, Dravid is not capable of playing a Miandad or a Steve Waugh kind of innings, to score this many runs, by himself. In the end, Sri Lanka exposed all the Indian weaknesses - bowling trash in the middle overs, poor fielding and running between the wickets, batsmen with bloated records against minnows and scored in useless circumstances (& patta wickets) and finally a clueless captain, bereft of strategy and execution. The Indian team's body language said it all and they looked as if they were about to be trampled.
So, what lies ahead- I hear that the lobby is out at work to make Sachin as the next captain. I do not think that it is the right step but I am willing to change my stand, if he comes back victorious from Bangladesh (I mean Bangladesh,..the very team, which was considered worst than some of the plate group sides in our Ranji teams, just a few years ago). The victory margin in each victory should be so impressive as the thrashing which West Indies gave back to India, when they toured here after the loss at 1983 WC finals. I will not be satisfied with anything less than sound thrashing but mark my words, the paper tigers, will find a way to survive and cling on to their crores. Indian cricket (and of course the poor Indian millions) will be the loosers.

Indian team at Crosshair !!

The score line screamed Tigers 1- Sheep 0, after defeat of India by Bangladesh. The men in blue have to play another must win game and prove that they are the tigers esp against the Sri Lankan Lions in full form. Rahul Dravid's team will be at Crosshair, when they take the Sri Lankan team tomorrow; they will watched for every move by the media; team selection, batting order, field placement and of course the sub par fielding will all be analyzed threadbare in chat rooms and talk shows. It is time for to prove and be counted for the men in blue but the question - are they ready ?
After seeing the pummeling handed over to Bangladesh by Lanka, I will say that the odds are not in favor of India. Lankan team will fight tooth and nail for the Super 8 points and hence will be ready with their weapons against India.
A word about y'day match. Jayasurya and Tharanga ensured that the revitalized Bangladesh does not forget its minnow status - at least not yet. They tore apart the Bangla new ball attack (the very same Morteza and Rasal, who were treated as if Imran and Wasim Akram were bowling at their peaks, by India). The left arm spinners, esp Razzak was slaughtered and here is the most impressive part- when it came to bowling - Sri Lanka summarily finished off Bangla team, Lanka has been able to dismiss both Bangla and Bermuda teams for paltry scores and here is where India will loose out. They appear too timid to counter the Lankan bowling. A mere few weeks ago, things looked the other way but that was back at home and as Moody rightly pointed out, every one knows how India plays, outside India.

I wanted to list the negatives, which are plaguing Indian batting at the moment -

• Sourav has gone back to his old ways and is unable to rotate the strike. His innings are more of a bane than boon because of the dot balls (he gave a maiden to Bermuda !!)
  
• Viru has been out of form for long and neither he nor Uthappa are known for big match innings, esp when it counts most.
  
• Yuvaraj is in good touch but by the time he appears at number 6, things will be too late and in any case, his achilles heel will be Murali. He is not a good player of top class spinner like Murali.
• Sachin will have his trouble against Jayasurya and can not produce the kind of magic required to play 'once a life innings'. Dravid is non entity and can not do anything spectacular, other than playing around someone else.

As far as the bowling is concerned :

• Agarkar has rediscovered his old form (of bowling trash at all times) and the fact that he opens the bowling is going to give some spine chilling moments - not for the Lankan bats but for Indian fans. His deliveries are expected to be dispatched to both sides of the square boundaries. It is obvious that Agarkar serves the cause of opposition than that of India but alas, that is evident to every one in planet earth except Dravid.
  

• Kumble and Bhajji are looking extremely unimpressive. They are neither able to turn the ball nor pressurize the batsmen. Powar would have been handy here rather than the excess baggage - Pathan in the team.
  

Finally, a word about the fielding and running between the wickets. India starts at a deficit of 40 runs in any match against the Lankan team in this area.

So, all in all in all - what the percentage chances for India to defeat SL and make it to Super 8. Until yesterday, I thought that it is 25% but after seeing the SL-BD match, I have brought it down to 2%. Only a miracle can save India and I will be extremely glad to be wrong in everything which I had written above.

Slaughter of Innocents !!

Dravid had at last something to smile about when the Indian team went to amaze a new record high score against of a bunch of amateur cricketers from Bermuda. I will start with the positives (for once) - The margin of victory was not bad and almost every batsmen, except Uthappa had some good net practice. Does this mean that, Viru had redeemed himself - I doubt it; at the minimum, he did not embarrass himself & Dravid any further. To be fair, the bowling was quite friendly, laced with a liberal doze of wides and in general, the match had an air of club level cricket.
India would not have reached the 413 score, if the 3rd umpire had not got into a benevolent mood by declaring Yuvaraj not out, when he his foot was clearly on the line, in a stumping attempt. Yuvi's 6s over midwicket ensured that the amount of dot balls wasted by Ganguly (what is the matter with him - in the last 2 matches, he is scoring way too slowly and simply unable to rotate the strike) did not prove costly. Sachin played a decent innings and the 413 score looked daunting enough for everyone Dravid to go out and do an all out attack.
But alas, Dravid somehow had this notion that Bermuda will copy South Africa and chase this 413. He employed conservative field and asked listless Agarkar to open the bowling (whereas Munaf should have opened and knocked the stuffing out of Bermuda or Sreesanth should have played instead of unimpressive Agarkar. Against minnows, all you need is a fast delivery on the stumps, rather than the wasted outside the stumps deliveries of Agarkar at medium pace). Dravid also failed to attack through field placement and at times did not even have a slip. He left the game to linger around, whereas with a bit of proactive captaincy, Bermuda should have got folded for a sub 100 score.
All this may not matter in the end, since India still have got to beat Srilanka and if they have to do that, here are my tips :

• Contain Jayasurya. Give him no width at all outside the offstump.
• Be wary of a fightback from the likes of Sangakara/Chamara Silva and lower order bats like Arnold. Dilshan and even Maharoof.
• Knock the stuffing out of Malinga in the 1st spell. His 2nd spell can be lethal since he has got the ability to bowl toe crushing yorkers and lower order can not handle it at all. He is a genuine wicket taker, especially against Indian tail, which has had no practice at all and has not contributed to anything worthwhile for a long long time.
• Vass has to be hit for runs and Ganguly should target him without getting bogged down, the way he has been in the last 2 matches. It is worth pursuing Uthappa and he has to take care of Malinga's short ball offerings and keep out the yorkers.
  
• Finally, keep Murali out but at the same time, milk him for a safe 5 an over.
• If India gets to bat first, they must score nothing less than 275+ and if they have to bowl first, they should see that, they do not chase anything beyond 215.
  

A lot can go wrong but at the minimum, India has lived to fight for another day.

Shameful, Shambolic, Shambles, Cowardly !!

It looks like the whole cricketing world has almost turned upside down in a space of 48 hours...Bob Woolmer is dead, Pakistan is the 1st one to crash out of WC, Flintoff stripped off Vice captaincy - thanks to a drunken boat trip and of course India had their rear end kicked by B'desh. Let me stick to the last part for now.
To many an average India follower, the defeat at the hands of B'desh was a shock but to me it was not. I had followed Indian cricket for long and I could see through the holes very easily. Readers of the blog have to simply go through the previous post and you will see Notstradamus like clairvoyant calls.
I had said that Morteza will be too much to deal with and I also predicted that Indian batsmen, esp Sachin will struggle against the left arm spinners Raffique and Razzak and I was spot on. Frankly, I did not want any of my prediction to become true but it happened, as it has often in the past. You could visualize a struggle for India since they have always been slow to start in any 'away' series and also when there is a bit of juice on the track, they struggle against club class outfits. I don't want to go too much into the '2 runs for 5 wicket' act or the umpteenth failure of Viru or the struggles of Sachin and Dravid, enough is to say, that it was a terrible let down.
When India bowled, I still had a fond hope that they will somehow rediscover their magic but at the most opportune moment, Agarkar choose to have an off day and when Tamim started whacking, I could see the shoulders sag. Dravid's field placement, captaincy, fielder placement (what the heck was Munaf doing at Covers ? - he conceded minimum of 15+ runs) was all wrong and the shambolic display in every sphere continued and B'desh coasted to an easy win. The body language of Indian players looked like that of a line of sheep that is waiting to get slaughtered. The kind of performance with extra sharpness that was needed, when defending small totals was missing and Dravid looked as if he had swallowed castor oil and looked to be completely bereft of anything useful in terms of an idea. In hindsight, knowing how Indian batting struggles in such unknown conditions, he should have fielded first but I guess, they could repeated the same shameless display during the chase too.
So, what is ahead - In theory, India can still make it to Super 8 but the odds are not in their favor since Srilanka has a huge run rate difference and India has let things drift to a stage where they can't control destiny anymore. India has to beat Bermuda, black and blue today (best bet - India has to bowl first and dismiss the Bermudans for a paltry score and hit back in as few overs as possible. If India gets to bat first, they must score something like 375+ and hope to crash the Bermudans for something like 75-100 ). Based on my experience, India does not deliver such violent backlashes. They will win but it will be so colorless and listless, as the press conferences of Rahul Dravid.

Rotten eggs, broomsticks, broken compound walls, more burning of effigies await the Indian team and as usual, they will be escorted through the back doors through the middle of the night. They will then lick their wounds, get ready for the next ad shoot before some tamasha matches are staged to fool the average Indian on the street. Public memory is short and the common man , weighed by every day issues of rising prices, poor rupee purchasing power and inefficient, corrupt leaders will move on.

Underestimate Bangladesh at your own peril !!

It has been a long wait and at last we are close to the 2007 edition of the ICC world cup. The spectacular opening ceremony not withstanding, WestIndies grounds are not going be that much in ship-shape, when it comes to preparation for hosting a tournament of this scale. The precision, the passion, infrastructure, money and of course centralized decision making are all economical in this region and hence we will have a lot of criticism about pitches, conditions and facilities.

India's preparation in warm up games was nothing spectacular (the fact that they dismissed WI for 85 was more due to self destruction than due to any special bowling spell). I saw the Netherland trundlers were able to pin down Indian batsmen for some time and even Dravid and Sachin, who did the repair act, were struggling before breaking loose later. The bowling was too amateurish to read too much into a 300+ total. Pathan was extremely unimpressive and looks to be a solid case for maintaining the 5.5 or 6.5 economy rate per over. As far as Sehwag, the less said the better - after promising big things, he stumbled out with scores of 28 and 0. It looked almost pathetic that India is so dependent on such an out of form player but you never know with Viru. The very reason he is pursued is because, he might suddenly play a blinder and that is what Dravid and Chappel are counting on (or dreaming !!).

India, a traditional slow starter in any away series, should better watch out for Bangladesh. I wish India's opening game is against Bermuda since an upset from Bangla might as well spell doom for India. Bangladesh had provided the first upset in the warm up matches by beating New Zealand; Mortaza is no flash in the pan and has been doing things well for Bangladesh for quite some time. Then there is the good old Raffique and of course the other 'Razak' and I was the Bangla captain, I will summon both these lefties, the moment Sachin walks up to bat. India batsmen should better watch out and any sub par performance or getting used to talk will spell unwanted trouble for Dravid.