IPL 2 : A mixed bag for English Cricketers

IPL Season 2 has been so far a mixed bag for the English Cricketers. A few of them performed well, while others disappointed the fans.

Andrew Flintoff (Freddy): A total failure. He was picked for a huge price by the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He brought lot of promise but ended with disappointing figures. Picked for $1.55m, he will be paid around $300K for playing three matches. The fact that he picked only 2 wickets and scored just 63 runs, indicates how costly he was to the CSK. But judging a great player like him in 3 matches, and that too in a 20 overs match is unfair. But may he is just not right for the shortest format of the game.

Kevin Peterson (KP) : A lot was expected from him after the poor performance of the test-like squad of Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB). Mallya even made him captain ahead of stalwarts like Dravid, Kumble, Kallis and Boucher. He delivered little, and so did the team. With only 2 wins of the first 6 matches, KP has little to show. And now he has to leave for his home series against the Windies.

Ravi Bopara : After a couple of good performances for his IPL team Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), he was selected for the no 3 batting position against the upcoming Windies series. This series has comes as a positive for him, Though he will be sad to leave his good T20 form in between, he should be happy to be recalled for his national side ahead of Vaughan and Bell.

Paul Collingwood : He has been kept in the sidelines for the Delhi Daredevils (DD) team, and has been the 12 th man as of now.The other 4 foreign players playing in DD are Daniel Vettori, Derk Nennes, Dilshan and AB DeVilliers. With all of them in great form, there is hardly any chance that he will get a game in a star studded squad in coming few days, before he leaves to join his team in England.

Dimitris Mascarenhas : He has been playing well for the Rajasthan Royals (RR), and wont be leaving anywhere. Good for RR.

McCullum says he will quit if KKR cant make to semis

"I'll quit if we don't make semis " - McCullum

A bold statement from a captain whose side has already lost 4 out of 5 matches, and also lost lot of faith from the fans because of the controversies. (Multiple captain formula, sending back players in the mid of the series et al.)

What he does not understand is, its not his fault. Just make Saurav 'dada', the captain and see the difference. If not win, at least the faith of the fans will be regained.

Also he needs to understand that no matter what happens in this season, he will lose his captaincy anyway. SRK will not stick to him for long.

Its final : India to host 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup Finals

Its good news for all cricket fans in India. India is going to host the final and one semi-final of the 2011 World Cup along with 29 other league matches across eight venues.
Also, Sri Lanka will stage the other semi-final along with other 12 league matches in three venues, while Bangladesh will stage eight matches at two grounds.

Its really a good news for India and Indian Cricket. There is no better place than India to hold any cricket match.

Another Pakistan Australia match goes down to the wire

This is the third one dayer, and with series levelled at 1-1, this is a must win for both sides. And as it has been, this too is a low scoring match.

At the time of this post being written, Pak require another 30 runs from 4 overs with 3 wickets remaining. Shoaib Malik and Tanvir are playing well, but its still a tough ask.

And again spin is king, here in Anu Dhabi. Today the Aussie spinners have dominated. And the way they are beating the bat, looks like they are world beaters.

Watching the match on Ten Sports was fabulous and value for money. Because there were no ads. Watched the last 10-15 overs straight, and there were no ads being shown at all. Even in between wickets. They were showing the batsmen leaving the field, the new batsman coming, the fielding changes, everything. It was just amazing. I wonder how will the channel retrieve its money.

Whats with Tony Gregs Voice ? Looks like he has lot of cough up his throat, or is it just the old age turning him in.

De-Mystifying code names from Fake IPL PLayers Blog

If you have not seen it yet, then here it is. The fake IPL Payer blog.

The blogger claims to be a KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) player of the current Squad, and does not use any ones names. Here I have tried to solve the mystery. :)

Do correct me if i am wrong.

Bhooka Naan : J Buchanan , the coach
Dildo : SRK
Lordie : Saurav 'dada' Ganguly
Calypso : Chris Gayle
Ganji Hanger : Sanjay Bangar
Shakespeare : Akash Chopra
Kaan Moolo : Ajit Agarkar
Little John : Ishant Sharma
Junta Tormentor: Ajantha Mendis
Bangla Tiger : Mortaza
Appam Chu*** : Sreesanth from the Kings XI Punjab team (The Bubblies, because of the owner Preity Zinta)
Bevdaas : The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team. "Bevda" is a hindi term.
Peter Ka Beta : Kevin Peterson, captain of RCB
Prince : Yuvraj Singh
RVR Singh : VRV Singh, [who has done the implants it seems ;)]
Sheikh : Shane Warne
Sheeghra-Patan : Yusuf pathan
Meera Bhai : Harbhajan Singh

Another bowler held for suspect action...

Saeed Ajmal, the Pakistan offspinner, who has baffled the Aussies in the ongoing 5 match ODI series in UAE has been reported for suspect action. No wonder, the suspect action is because of the numerous 'doosra's he bowled to the Australian batsmen in the first 2 one dayers.

Its not the first time any bowler's action is being reported, especially for the doosra delivery.Murali, Harbhajan and the recent SA bowler Johan Botha have been reported in the past as well. While Murali , and Bhajji have been cleared, Botha's case is still under investigation by the ICC.

It is not clear whether this has happened because of the tip-off by Shane Watson during the second one dayer in Dubai, but its clear the Umpires have found enough evidence.

Whats with these doosras anyway ? I think, with players all over the world starting to learn to negotiate spin , ever other spinner now a days is turning to doosras to baffle the batsmen. Look at how successful Murali has been with it, and not to mention Bhajji's doosras which Ponting and co failed to read many a times in recent times.

IPL 2 : the story so far...

The IPL 2 started, and with a bang. In SA this year, because of elections in India.

Indian Premier League, but why the heck in SA ?
The IPL shifted to SA, and the reason, indian government, mainly the states unable to promise security for the tournament because of the on going general elections. And would you believe the irony, there are elections in SA as well, and that too during the IPL. Well, it does not matter for them i think, as they have better neighbors than ours.

Pathan smacking Mendis
As an Indian cricket fan, I got immense pleasure seeing Mendis whacked out of the ground. Especially after the much hulla created around him. So much so , that he was called the next big bowler, and was been compared among the ranks of Murali, Kumble et al. And if you ask me, he got the much needed beating. Along with this, what pleased me was that the team coached by Buchanan, lost. He probably will call for another captain just for the super overs. SRK, what about having another coach altogether to do impart some coaching to John Buchanan.

Gavaskar's Love for the Carribeans
Every time Sunny is in the commentary and any of the players come to bat from the West Indies, he breaks into his Caribbean accent. He can not help it. He just has this love-hate relationship with the West Indies. Love , because he loves the place, in fact calls Trinidad and Tobago his second home. Hate because he has been troubled by the West Indian pacemen and the spectators so much during his playing days.

Whats with all this "thanks to the sponsors"
If you have noticed, the commentators , in IPL 2 keep on thanking the sponsors every now and then. As if this was the first tournament being sponsored ever. As if the "Citi moment of success", and "DLF maximum" were not enough to do the advertisement.

Whats with this sudden spin attack from Pakistan ?

Pakistan is playing a 5 match ODI series with the Aussies in Dubai. And when everyone (including me) was thinking that the Aussies who are in better form than the Pakistani team, would win it easily. But the Pak team who have hardly played any cricket in last 6-8 months, came out all guns blazing, and drew first blood by winning the first match. And guess what, it was not the pace attack of Shoaib Akhtar, but a deadly spin attack, mainly from Shahid Afridi which did the Oz in. And if anyone has watched how these oz players played the spinners, you would think they are the minnows. Even Bangladesh or an Ireland would have negotiated spin better than the OZ team who are playing without the experienced Ponting and Mike Hussey.

So whats with this sudden spin attack from Pakistan ? Agreed, the track in Abu Dhabi was spinning, and the spinners made good use of it, but a target of 168 was too low to defend and the Paki batsmen chased it comfortably. With this win, suddenly the Pak team have gained the much needed momentum, and great deal of confidence for the rest of the series. And if the Ozs keep on playing like the way they did, they would lose it on next 2-3 games. They looked like under 19s in the game that day. No use of the feet, nothing.

Though the Ozs have won the next game, the series is still on. If you look at Afridis statistics, and by stats i mean the bowling stats for a change, they are staggering. 10-0-38-6, in the first match and 10-0-38-2 in the second match. You would say the Aussies , mainly "big-mouth" Symonds, played him well. But he has been good. Also Michael Clarke has to get back into form as soon as possible. In the second match, he was completely in disarray.

With this sudden surge of the Paki team, with its spin attack, i wonder what might have happened in that team all of a sudden. Or is it just the un-skillfull Aussie team, especially against the spin. Bring on the Indians, and you might see the difference. With Sehwag, Gambhir as the openers, and never looking to get out, i wonder if they would ever bring on Afridi. ;)