England Crushes Australia To Win The Ashes!!

Wow! I can make a living out of being an astrologer. In my last post I had predicted that Australia will capitulate and yes they did capitulate to England and how?
Ponting with his bloodied mouth was a real sore sight to watch at the match presentation.
Trott's the Man. wow what an debut. Make all those who wanted Ramprakash to save England eat their shit. Stuart Broad have not only his cricketer pop proud but entire English pop's proud. His spell is sure to become Ashes folklore. Andew Strauss, leading from the front deserved every ounce of the Man of the series award. Hope K.P too shines under him after his Achilles is healed.
I prayed for a Freddie innings or spell and he produced a stunner of a throw that derailed not only Ponting but Australia also.
Poor Aussies they need to wait till 2013 to avenge defeat. They are now ranked 4th in ICC test rankings... A first in history of the rankings.
So what now? nothing much Australia will climb back after beating West Indies and Pakistan at home and England will again continue in their inconsistent ways.
That's the future but England deserves all the accolades.
Congratulations!!! to the Brave Hearts Of England.

Eng Vs Aus- The Final Test!!

I have been waiting a long time to write this piece. I have waited long enough. I have waited since Ramprakash thought he had last chance to glory to Lee being left out to maintain the winning combination.
Well after the 1st days play of the last test of this Ashes series all I can say is England did well to stick with the team and not panic and get in some one like Mark Ramprakash..poor Mark...
Australia also did well by sticking to their winning combo.
After the 1st session I thought England did well but to end day at 307/8 was bad. Australia needs to be happy after today's play.I don't know why but I am getting an inkling that 300+ will be a tough total for the Aussies to over haul. My instincts say England might just edge out Australia in this match and win the Ashes. I have a feel that Australia might get over confident and spoil their own party. I am praying for a Freddie Show- A swan song that will become Ashes and cricketing folklore.
Nothing doing..but wait and watch..!!! Lets have some fantastic Test cricket.
Ha lastly some pun on the England line up...
A. Cook- spoilt his dish
A. Strauss- The straw could have been longer if he could have gotten a hundred
I.Bell- The Bell did ring for some time but alas not long enough
P. Wood- Lost in the Woods..
I. Trott- Trotted along well until Hussey had him
M.Prior- Has got his Priorities all mixed up
A.Flintoff- Lost his Off(-Stump)
S. Broad- Has shown the broad side of his bat
G. Swann-Drowned in the last ball
S.Harmison-lets hope he does some harm to the ozzies
J.Anderson- Lets hope he is the True Son of Great Britain

Sachin eyes 15000 Test Runs!!

Sachin have donned the whites for over 2 decades now..don't the man get tired.

It's just his passion for the game that drives him. There is hardly any thing that won't motivate sachin to play for India.

An injury other than that I don't see any thing stopping Sachin from playing his heart out for India.Over the years his tempo may have changed but Sachin style batting still no one can do.Its a mix of intelligence, timing and superior foot work. Every Sachin shot is a jewel to be beholded by our eyes.

May you play on Sachin and plunder not 15000 but 50000 test runs.All the best!!

cricinfo story link: http://www.cricinfo.com/india/content/story/418098.html

T20 Vs Test Cricket

Ever since the advent of T2o cricket a raging debate is going on that the T20 David will slowly smother the Goliaths of cricket ODI's and Tests to sleep. People are wary of the fact that more and more crowd is enjoying the shortest format of the game. T20 in itself is considered as "tamasha" cricket by most of the pundits of the game. Its all wham bham and gone in just over 3 hours. While some said its no the game for the veterans, they were considered too slow and too technical for this fast paced version of the game. But they were proven wrong it's the Gilly's the warne's the Kumble's who have delivered breath taking knocks or spells that have helped their respective teams to post impressive wins...add Haydos to the list of veterans who have knocked the winds out of the youngsters.
Coming back to the point of T20 vs the other traditional forms of the game, I say all the three forms will exist peacefully alongside the others. When ODi's came into the picture the same fears were expressed for the longest form of the game, Test match cricket. Well its going to be four decades now that the two forms have existed. When it comes to the spectators losing interest in the longer versions, there are two classes of the game audience the Purist and the Pretenders. The Purist are those who love the game, the battle between ball and bat, they love the boring first day of test cricket to the exciting final session of play of a test.They love a low scoring ODI they cheer for a high scoring game. They love the fast pace of the newest version too. They love the game in totality It doesn't matter which format it is. I watch English county cricket, Australian Sheffield cup, and I watch the Ranji's too besides the regular internationals.
So I may not go to the ground to watch the match but I will be watching on TV and as long as TV audience is there The game is bound to grow and make profit too.
Well the pretenders are those who watch the T20's for fun for the cheer leaders to the music to the flowing spirit in the grounds. They watch it for fun and they are not serious about the game. The pretenders are good for the game because they are adding to the Purist population of cricket lovers.They may switch on to the longer versions too once they realise how interesting each format can be. Each format has its charm once the newbies See's it , we will have a whole lot of new cricket lovers, lovers of the beautiful game not of formats of the game. T20 is the nectar that will entice a whole lot of people to the game.
All you people losing sleep over T20's taking over cricket ... relax and enjoy the Ashes, see how the Aussies were supposed to win but they are not winning, its all because of the beauty of swing bowling which rarely makes an impact in a T20 game.
pic courtesy www.itsonlycricket.com/entry/938/

What times for Cricket!

Last few weeks in cricket have been really interesting both on the filed as well as off it. Its great that without the Indian playing still lots happening in cricket.

Great test match times for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. With Sri Lanka winning their first home series against Pakistan under a New Skipper Sanga. The series was made very interesting by the Pakistani's with their great collapses, thrice in one series is just great. Sri Lanka had just one over 100 run partnership in the entire series and they win comfortably.

WIPA helped Bangladesh cricket to register their first away test series win . New captain Mosrafe out with injury Stand in Captain Rehman wins the series with a man of the series performance.Hope they carry the experience from this tourney and do well in the future against stronger teams too.

Great start to the much coveted Ashes, AHhhm ! its The English who are 1-0 ahead after 2 matches who would have thought. I for sure did thought so. Hats Off to Monty and Jimmy for the last wicket stand at Cardiff. And to think Monty was thanked by being axed from the squad for the Lord's test.After Cardiff Freddie decided to hang up his boots for good in Tests. And was he fired up ... with the crowd behind him what a stellar show he put up to set Australia back by test in the Ashes. Bravo Freddie!!

Looking ahead to interesting times in Cricket!! adios!

Lanka smothers the Aussie dream!!

Played 2 lost 2 , knocked out of the tournament, Oz pride has been reduced to the dusts. It began with the Symonds saga ended with their ouster from the world cup. May be T20 is not their cup of tea. Where the English redeemed themselves the aussies failed abysmally. 160 is a very risky target and the oz struggled even to set that target up. My take Ponting take a bow from the shortest format get your performing youngsters in test cricket to play this format too. Its really sad when Ireland and Netherlands have cruised to the next level a team like Australia out of contention so early in to the tournament.

Super 8 awaits some great contest ...

Blasting 2nd day ofT20WC

The 2nd day was quite an intriguing one. India as expected swept past bangladesh. NZ scored over the scots. The only interesting game was in the group of death and close to death are the Oz after the killing blows by Chris Gayle and Andre Fletcher. Gayle needs to be consistent for WI to be a force to reckon with in the tournament. Apart from the blaze of Gayle's blade the day also belonged to Yuvraj Singh who raised expectations of another 6's over when he hammered Naem for 2 consecutive sixes. His innings was what that destroyed the Bangla courage. zunaed did bat well for the Bangla team but he alone cannot win them a game. Other notable player was the debutant Pragyan Ojha what a spell,4/21 in his debut match was excellent returns for him. Bhajji needs to pull up his socks or he may find himself out of the team.

England will be playing their match of the tournament. The host needs to play out of their so that they are not turned in to spectators for the rest of the tourney. Good luck to them!!