IPL 3.0 The Ree(a)l Indians

One of the most expensive teams in IPL and so far they haven't done much justice to that . In the first edition, they almost rose from the ashes, after being down and out for the first few matches , they almost reached the semis.In the second, they were thoroughly outplayed, though they did have their share of chances, the other team got the better of it . They finished 7th. Sachin 'God' Tendulkar's captaincy jinx I guess.

This time they have bought some really valuable players and are looking favorites to clinch the title. They have bought the Hot Shot player at the moment, i.e Keiron Pollard who can be handy with bat as well as ball. They also have the ICL star , Rajagopalan Satish, who can hit the ball many a mile . So their team looks pretty even with a perfect mixture of stroke makers, hitters, all rounders and attacking bowlers. If the unit can gel well, they can steamroll over the other teams. Fans just have to pray that Sachin's captaincy jinx doesn't screw it up again.

SQUAD: Sachin Tendulkar (c), Shikhar Dhawan ,Jean-Paul Duminy, Saurabh Tiwary, Ajinkya Rahane, Chandan Madan, Luke Ronchi, Pinal Shah, Yogesh Takawale, Sanath Jayasuriya, Dwayne Bravo, Abhishek Nayar, Stuart Binny, Ryan McLaren, Graham Napier, Jude Singh,Syed Sahabuddin, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Rahil Sheikh,Dhawal Kulkarni, Rohan Raje, Chetanya Nanda.

Strenghts : A perfect mixture of experienced and young players. A perfect combo of stroke makers, powerhitters, all rounders and bowlers.

Weakness: I don't know if the team coordination is good . If it can overcome that , it should make their owners proud.

Watch out for : The man of the season , Keiron Pollard who can send the ball screeeeeeeaming to the boundaries and can bowl 4 overs . R. Sathish ain't less either. He can come handy with his part - timers and is an excellent fielder. Dwayne Bravo. Period!

Wah's XI:

1)Sachin Tendulkar©

2)Sanath Jayasuriya

3)Rahane/Shikar Dhawan

4)Dwayne Bravo

5)Keiron Pollard/JP Dumminy ( considering the present form form of JP, I think Pollard would make it )

6) R. Sathish/ Binny/ Nayar

7)Chandan Madan*

8) Bhajji

9)Zaks

10) Dhawal Kulkarni

11) Lasith Malinga

Wah's Say : The team looks in perfect shape. Jayasurya should be tried a few games, then decided to be played only on merit. Its a weak side in terms of fitness, Malinga, Zaks, Bravo etc are injury prone. If not for the fitness, they are a champion side this time .No wonder if they clinch the title too. :)

Sachin, Sehwag and other guys

After clinching the 3 match ODI series at Gwalior and safe-keeping the #2 position in ODI's India will now tease the Saffers in the 3rd ODI at Ahmedabad. They are going in well prepared to lose at the looks of it. Remember Yuvi, Gauti, Zak are injured now Sachin & Sehwag have been rested quite expectedly. But, look at their replacements.. Rohit the no-hit Sharma is back! and an opening in the team means "Tamilian" festivals yes, you guessed it Murali Vijay is also in the squad Abhishek Nayar ruined his chances by fielding well and making his presence felt 'cos he's been axed mercilessly. Mithun my boy has come in for P.K. that was the only relief. so, whether Saffers play well or not get prepared to lose either ways..

30 Probables announced for the T20 WC

Squad: M.S. Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, S. Sreesanth, Sudeep Tyagi, Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha, Piyush Chawla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Manish Pandey, R.P. Singh, Munaf Patel, Murali Vijay, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Virat Kohli and R. Ashwin

The Jokers at B.C.C.I. are at it again.. News comes in with the 30-man probables list announced for the T20 World Cup in West Indies. I'm not aware what the cut-off dates are to announce the 30 probables but, as always the selectors have left us unsatisfied. Good to see Pandey and Mithun get their neck in. Nayar too has made it, very positive indeed. Saha and Naman Ojha spell disaster in every scale of measurement. Clearly someone was caught napping. The other Ojha is back and Mishra-ji dint have to pay for it. In fact, Piyush "Fuze" Chawla, R Ashwin, add Jadeja to that list.. how many spinners do we need? Durby is the 1st choice in any case!!

P.K., Sree, Munaf, Nehra birds of the same feather... and Ishant is not far behind. Pradeep Sangwan might have been unlucky. But, where is Irfan? Pujara still not finding space in the selector's radar surprises me. Goswami is a talent over-looked as well. Rahane missed the bus. Perhaps the IPL 3.0 will raise more eyebrows in this 30 member squad. Hopefully, the final squad is not a mockery.

Indian Squad for 1st two ODI's

Just when no one seemed to be bothered the national selectors have announced the ODI squad for the 1st two ODI's against South Africa. Yuvi remains injured and is ruled out but joining him is Gauti in that injury list. Bhajji wants to share some brother love so he's missing the ODI series as well to attend his sister's marriage. So, lots of seats up for grabs one might think. Here's how they faired.

• IN

Sachin(yes, as he missed the ODI tri-series in B'desh)
Yusuf P (some mad monkey hitting gets him a berth)
Abhishek Nayar (Finally!)
R Ashwin (spinner & Tamil)
PK (Praveen Kumar)




• OUT

Yuvraj (waiting for IPL)
Gambhir (new delicate dolly of the team)
Bhajji (family comes first, country goto H***)
Ishant (picked, dropped, picked again, dropped again...)
Sree (manages to puzzle everyone)
Ojha (ahem.. who? why?)




• Lucky

DK (still there.. backup wk??)
Jadeja (In the news lately for all the wrong reasons, very very lucky indeed)
Tyagi (dint play much, doubtful that will change anytime soon)
Mishra-ji (now the spin leader, No Bhajji, no Ojha PARTY!! :D)




• Unlucky

Pandey (With 2 batting slots open he should have made it purely on merit)
Mithun (If he was chosen in the Test squad, he deserved a chance here.)

So, the team: M S Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Abhishek Nayar, Yusuf Pathan and Amit Mishra.

• 1st ODI - 21.Feb - Jaipur
• 2nd ODI - 24.Feb - Gwalior

W.W.W.S. - SAF's tour of India Begins

• The Proteas started the Indian tour on a bold note against the Board President’s xi crucial warm-up match. Captain Smith had his intentions clear giving all his bowlers and his batsmen good bowling practice ahead of the most awaited (read retarded) 2 match test series yet. His frontline pace attack made mince meat of the top order. The day was severe on high reputations, as Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhinav Mukund all failed miserably. Pandey disappointed as well but, since he outscored all named previously and he attacked the bowlers he is pardoned. Biff gave his spinners a dozen overs each and this allowed Abhishek Nayar and Shikhar Dhawan who came 6-down (can you believe that) to build a partnership. Nayar scored a ton exactly and Dhawan was dismissed at 70 and thus the BPxi bundled out for 318 on day 1 of the warm up game. Saffers looked happy, Biff satisfied.. nice lunch I suppose.



• The Duleep trophy final also started with very less attention as both teams looked depleted due to players unavailability. South Zone led by Dinesh-butter-fingers-Karthik won the toss and decided to bat first. West zone ran through the top order and then entered captain Dinesh-I-can-fukin-bat-Karthik. He took the responsibility once again and restored some respect at the end of day one. Karthik unbeaten on 161 with the help of Gautam and Sathish have taken the SZ’s score to 356/6 at stumps.



• Meanwhile, the bite-gate controversy only involved more cheers. Shahid BoOm bOom Afridi claimed he was only trying to smell the ball and feel it. You can do that Shahid but please, avoid doing that with your teeth next time. Since he is banned for 2 T20 internationals and they are playing just one against Australia and he is the captain of Pakistan in T20’s PCB have announced Shoaib Malik will lead the team for the game against the Aussies.



• Ottis Gibson will now take over as the new coach of the West Indies confirmed WICB. Only, he won’t take over immediately but, from the home series against Zimbabwe.

W.W.W.S. – AGAIN

• Once again Pakistan respectfully turned up at the Adelaide Oval and let Australia resume business as usual. This time Shaun Marsh got the opportunity to hit 83, Pup Clarke also fired 80 off 90 and later Mike Huss blasted a quick-fire 49 off just 28 resulting in Aus posting 286 in their 50 overs. Ryan Harris who got a chance in this game, dint miss the opportunity to send a note to the selectors with luv. In just his
  2nd ODI he took a 5fer. Pakistan’s top order faired miserably again. But, a lot of middle order batters got starts. None of them though continued to make an impact. This resulted in Pak getting all out for 246 in 47.4 overs. So, the series is now over at 3-0 Aussies looking for another clean sweep. But, you and I both know how they fair in dead rubbers!!



• The Aussie colts too meant business in the semi-final match of the u-19 WC against islanders Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka batting 1st were bundled out for 205. Josh Hazlewood taking 4 wickets, Alister McDermott, Luke Doran and Nick Buchanan picked up 2 each. Australia too started very tentatively losing early wickets. But, skipper Mitchell Marsh and keeper Tom Triffitt took the game away from the islanders. Marsh got out on 97(110) and Triffitt scored 50(70). Australia now faces Pakistan in the finals of the u-19 world cup. But, this time Pakistan seemed to be having the upper hand.



• Brad Hodge’s 139(136), David Hussey’s 93(85), Andrew McDonald’s 41(30) helped Victoria put up 326 in 50 ovrs in the Ford Ranger Cup. Victoria Bushrangers beat Tasmanian Tigers by just 20 runs. Travis Birt scored 97(77) for the Tigers. Nice Bryce gave away just 45 in his 10 overs. Most economical bowler of the day.
  
  
• Elsewhere, New South Wales Blues put up 294 in their 50 overs courtesy David Warner, Thornely and Smith’s efforts. It wasn’t enough as South Australia chased it down with Klinger scoring a superb 124(133) and helped by Christian for his 90(73).



• In Duleep trophy semi-finals West zone help their strong grip pver North zone. West zone ended the 1st innings on 769. Abhishek Nayar with a brilliant 259. Romesh Powar scored 109. Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan left North zone struggling at 36/3 at stumps.



• The other semi-finals saw Central zone take on South zone. Central zone’s 1st innings ended on 333 with fine contributions from Kaif and Piyush Chawla scoring 112 and 90 respectively. Vinay Kumar taking 5 wickets for the South zone. The South zone batsmen struggled throughout despite getting starts now at 254/8. Praveen Kumar earning 5 scalps.