The Good Bad and the Ugly

Finally ,the so claimed next BIG thing after GOD(not read as sachin here), THE IPL is back and so are we . After all the hullabaloo,player retention controversies, team owner controversies,the IPL auction took place at Bengalooru without the ex-Kingpin-Lalit K Modi. There were a few good bids and a few shocking bids . Here listed are a few bids classified as the GOOD(total value for money),Bad( a little waste of money) and Ugly ( total waste of money ).

THE GOOD


1) Davy Jacobs - One of the best buy of the auction. It was one bloody hell of a steal for $190k. High stakes were expected of him considering his form in the Champs League . He is an opening bat as well as a keeper and an outstanding captain. Chennai almost bought him before MI raised the stakes and bought him. Well done MI!

2) Kumar Sangakkara- A steal for $700k, considering the way money was thrown around. He can double up as a keeper as well as a number 3 bat. Not to forget his captaincy skills . He is a major utility player . Well done Deccan!

3) Dan'The Man'Vettori- $550k! Can u beleive it . You cant get cheaper than that even in Clearance sale . World Class All rounder. Considering the fact that the matches are gonna be played in India,SPIN is the KING!. With his late order hitting and good captaincy skills , he is surely a match winner :).Well Done RCB!

4) Shakib-Al Hasan- Yet another steal! Bangladesh Captain, who has literally revolutionized the team was picked for $425k.Yes,agreed that he is a Bangladesh cricketer , but he is the No.1 in the ICC All rounder ratings . KKR!

5) Scotty Styris and Dwayne Bravo - Two match winners , having a tough time presently , but to get them $200k, who would say NO.Good job CSK !

6)Charles Langeveldt- At $140k , he was a terrific buy . He is one of the best bowlers at death presently , though , very underrated.

THE BAD


1) Umesh Yadav - $750,000. Who the hell is he ?? Seriously . Delhi Daredevils!

2) Subramaniam Badrinath-$800,000. Kochi sensed CSK's desparation after their strategy became an open book and started chasing Badri which finally ended up at 800,000.Happy New Year Badri.

3) The Pathan Bros. - $4million. Do they even know the number of 0s in it . Let them be good players , but 4mn is almost like half the total budget . A bad buy for sure . 2.1 for Yusuf and 1.9 for Irfy , who haven't shown much promise after the first IPL season.But thanks Irfy , you made sure CSK lifted the trophy :)

THE UGLY

1) Joginder Sharma and Sudeep Tyagi- What a waste of $390,000. Period .

2) Ravindra Jadeja - What were the numbskulls even thinking ? Do they even watch T20s? For $950,000, even his parents wont buy him.

3) Saurabh Tiwary- !!SHOCKER!! . Agreed he's a young talent and all other crap,but,$1.6million for a guy who bats  at 6 . The Owners must be crazy.

4) Gautham Gambhir - Maybe the KKR team weren't off the hangover while bidding for Gambhir. A record buy of 2.4million for a single dimensional,injury prone player . Even Viru would be cursing him now .

5) Mahela Jayawardene- Again a front line batsman, overpriced at $1.5million.

6) Dan Christian - Who ???? Wonder what made them bid so much for him . His stats aren't impressive . Waste of $900,000.

And few more players add up to each of the categories . But the thing which we have to look forward is , Does any team buy Saurav ' Dada' Ganguly off the auction. Overall,the teams looks good . Kochi were mindfucked and were on lookout bolwers,forgetting T20( esp. in India) is a batsman's game.Chennai went on go for the same players, which was the smartest thing to do . Keeping their faith in their players(even Jogi and Tyagi). KKR and RCB opted for a totally new look team. Mumbai Indians look like a Juggernaut on the paper. Time will tell, which owner succeeded and which owner sucked.

Sri Lanka Vs West Indies 1st Test Galle - SL Report Card

Mendis caused few problems to the Windies
© Associated Press

   The Islanders returning from a successful tour down-under undoubtedly go into a home series with high expectations. Rangana Herath misses out, Mendis making yet another come back which meant  Suraj Randiv continues as Sri Lanka's spin based attack now looking a lot humane. Batting nevertheless, full strength with home conditions to boost their level of confidence. A look at the Windies report card for the match over here.

Tharanga Paranavitana - 7
Played poorly in the first innings. Out after playing 53 balls for 10, second innnigs though he missed out on a well deserved century.

Tillakaratne Dilshan - 6
Out for a duck in the first innings to debutant Russell, looked lot better in the second innings with a hundred run stand for the opening wicket with Paranavitana.

Kumar Sangakkara - 6©
King Kumar had a quite game. Mainly due to watching Gayle take the game away in the first two days of play. His batting however, looked solid in the first innings. In the second innings  Roach did him in. Playing just two seamers in Thushara and Prasad, should have used more of Mathews as the third seamer and perhaps Dilshan to test of Gayle.

Mahela Jayawardene - 7
Twin fifties in the match. Made sure the game dint go out of hand at any point. Definitely needed to score big and bail out the team when it needed the most. But, the rain helped them out.

Thilan Samraweera - 6
Yet another fifty for Samaraweera in Sri Lanka. The man relishes playing under home conditions. That run-out seemed to be the only way he could have been dismissed. Unfortunately, dint help his team avoid the follow-on.

Angelo Mathews - 5
Did not get much to bowl watching the Gayle was going. Batting cant say much either. Was merely playing a waiting game, trying to get Sri Lanka out of the woods. Got out and the tail was left to fight out to avoid the follow-on.

Prasanna Jayawardene - 6
Sri Lanka's man for the job behind the wickets in test matches. He did well with the bat in the first innings helping the team reach 378 miserly close to avoiding the follow-on.

Suraj Randiv - 4.5
3 wickets to his name. Dismissed Chanderpaul when he was looking to settle in his game. Got the stick treatment from Gayle. With Mendis faring better, and Herath round the corner he will need to improve his performance given he plays.

Dammika Prasad - 3
The seamers lacked soul in their performance. Without Malinga, the seam attack looked spineless. However, Sri Lanka does have some names in Kulasekara and Fernando who will be in the running for the next test. Hopefully, perform better for the team in the absence of Malinga.

Ajantha Mendis - 7
At one point when all seemed to be one-way traffic. Mendis picked up wickets and brought Sri Lanka back into the game. Picked up 6 wickets in the Windies innings at an average of 28.17 perhaps light at the end of the tunnel for the islanders.

Thilan Thushara - 3
Nothing new to be said about his match performance. Went wicketless, could reap results for the team and his captain with the new ball or the old one.

   So, thanks to a merciless innings from Gayle, contributions from the rest of the Windies batting helped them post a huge first innings score of 580. In reply, Lankans missed the fact that none of their set batsmen were able to score big and bail them out. Missing the follow-on mark by 2 runs meant, Sammy asking them to bat again. With rain eating up some playing time the home team made sure the test had no ultimate winner.

   First test clearly heavy on the bowlers with 1199 runs being scored for the loss of 24 wickets in 340 overs bowled. Should be interesting to see how things move from Galle test to the Premadasa in Colombo for the second test.

Sri Lanka Vs West Indies 1st Test Galle - WI Report Card

All hail King Gayle!
© AFP

   Sun, Sand, Sri Lanka.  The Calypso Kings playing the Emrald Islanders at home, some sparks sure to fly! Windies are perhaps one of the few teams that have performed well in Sri Lanka and that is mainly due to "Brian Charles Lara". Lara single-handedly dented the hopes of Murali few years back when most considered Murali to be in his prime.
   Pre-match the home team were expected to dominate play after a really good series down-under and lack of results for the Windies recently. Sri Lanka resting Slinga-Malinga ahead of the world cup'11 and the hectic cricket schedule. Murali has retired from test cricket, which meant the absence of these two would find an all new spine in the Lankan bowling attack. Windies under the captaincy of Sammy, ready to play for pride.

Chris Gayle - 9
Played 653 mins thats almost 11 hours of cricket in his knock of 333(half of 666 not a surprise). And not one minute in that the home crowd could complain. Runs were leaking from all corners. Played a perfect knock, in the series opener. He's not the captain but still a leader, the senior player the team looks up to. And he blasted his way, dominating the Lankan attack from ball 1. He deserved a  10 for his performance but, a minus 1 for he could have easily shattered Lara's 400 without breaking a  sweat.

Adrian Barath - 6
Gave a good start to the innings. 110 runs opening stand with Gayle. Played cool with Gayle going bezerk at the other end until he was done by Randiv.

Darren Bravo - 6
Signs of BCL, sadly only signs. Has the same style and bat lift like Lara but, needs to work a lot more to improve his game. Played well with Gayle, 196 runs stand. Windies taking the game away from the islanders.

Shiv Chanderpaul - 5
5 is as good as fail for the likes of Chandepaul. Had a start, spent lot of time at the crease and then threw it away. Will be looking to redeem himself in the next test.

Brendan Nash - 6
167 runs added for the 4th wicket. Nash provided further pain to the Lankans. Who had given up all hopes of dismissing Gayle.When Nash was finally out the Windies score was 559/4.

Dwayne Bravo - 4
Failed with the bat and ball. Gayle looking for 400 needed Bravo to stay at the other end. Unfortunately Mendis was just beginning to finish things.

Carlton Baugh - 4
Cant be blamed for Gayle missing his quadrple cos, Mendis removed him soon after Bravo was dismissed. Baugh replace Ramdin behind the stumps. Nothing really impressed.

Darren Sammy - 3©
First ball duck with the bat and wicketless with the ball. Let Sri Lanka easy from 295/7 to 367/8.

Andre Russell - 4
Started brilliantly, his maiden test wicket of just his second ball that to of Dilshan! And from there on went wicketless. Enough said.

Shane Shillingford - 6
Question marks against his action already, picked 4 wickets in the first innings but, mainly the tail-end of the Lankan innings. Helped enforce the follow-on they were looking for. Struggled against the top-order batsmen who can play spin very well. Left us asking for a lot more.

Kemar Roach - 6
Bowled with pace and lots of heart. Picked up 5 wickets in the match even in conditions not favouring pace and swing. Looked the best of the seamers, throughout the match.