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.

Indian squad for World T20 in West Indies

No it hasn't happened yet but, we look into the gloomy future ahead of the jokers running the selection panel. So, we can say "I knew that would happen...". Injuries have been the toast of IPL this season. Either it is Yuvi, Bhajji, Zak coming out of injuries or MSD, Gauti, Bhajji getting injured. So unless the BCCI share confidential fitness reports with us it will be difficult to strike the exact squad they are likely to pick. But we'll have a go at it anyway.

LIKELY SQUAD STUDY:

Certainties: MSD©, Viru, Gauti(subject to fitness), Yuvi, Raina, Bhajji, Zak, PK, Yusuf.

Hopefulls: Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Irfan Pathan & Saurabh Tiwary (both not in the announced 30 probables list)

CASE I: It seems like a choice between a specialist spinner a part time spinner and a genuine batsman from the looks of it. Gambhir's fitness will play crucial. Pandey has done well as an opener for RCB so he may benefit from the body blow to Gauti.
Ojha, Mishra have lots at stake in the their next games. One spot or maybe no spot available if selectors go with Jadu and Yusuf. Or we must pray Bhajji can pick another injury soon.

CASE II: Be-sharam Sharma(s):
Rohit Sharma probably the only notable name we are bold enough to drop courtesy Robin's innings last night against CSK. He just won the lottery! Could not have come at a better time Robin! But the tournament is a long one, Rohit is one the leading performers for DC in IPL he should just let his performance do the talking. And he can bowl better than Virat and Robin so, hopes are alive. Ishant Sharma will have to do some magic à la Robin to get back his mojo.

CASE III: The plot thickens with Irfy and Tiwary who have impressed all with their show in the IPL so far. But, whether BCCI can pick outside the 30 probables is still not clear to us.

So, under these circumstances the squad is most likely to be --> MSD©, Viru, Gauti, Yuvi, Raina, Bhajji, Zak, PK, Yusuf, Jadu/Ojha, Pandey, Kohli, Robin/Rohit, Karthik*, Tyagi, Vinay Kumar (if Irfy can't make it)

FINAL CALL: Kathik's wicket keeping ability should get him the ticket. Pandey has been a revelation, would be sorry if they left him behind. Virat has not had time in the middle thanks to the RCB top-order stealing the show but, his ODI form was good and hope selectors show faith in him. Vinay Kumar is a doubtful pick but, (with Nayar injured) playing in West Indies and as a back up seamer he has shown promise!

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.

Quick Updates : India Vs South Africa ODI#2

It was an important match for the Proteas as they had to win it to stay alive in the series. SAF had 3 changes .. Amla , JP and ROFL were in. Indians went with the winning combo (hilarious). MSD ,surprisingly, WON the toss.. Phew finally! and decided to bat and then on it was .. SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN
SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHINSACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN
SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN
SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN

SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN SACHIN . Well, was there anything else happening??? I don think so ! I may be biased , but I don't care. As Shaz said, only man on the planet to score a double ton in ODIs and its none other than the SUPERMAN of INDIA. KKD scored 79, Yusuf scored 36 and MSD scored a quick-fire 68
. India amassed 401. South Africa, as expected lost. They can't keep boasting of the 434 every time. DeVil scored a well complied century and I feel its time out for Doom-iny, falling prey to an off spinner again. India won by a huge 153 runs margin and undoubtedly the Man Of the Match went to GOD! *AMEN*

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

Quick Updates: Kiwis Vs Tigers T20

The wounded tigers fly all the way to the Kiwiland and start their tour in the most forgettable way . This should have been like rubbing salt in the wounds after being pounded by the Indians in the Tests and ODIs. The entire match itself is like a summary . Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat . It was all going well until Aftab Ahmed fell with the score at 41/2. Then they fell like 9 pins managing to score a mere 78 runs.Vettori and McCullum Jr. ran through the middle order getting 3 wickets each.It was just a question of how many overs will NZ take to wrap up the match and they finished it off in style in jus 8.2 overs losing no wickets. McCullum Sr. blazed his way to an unbeaten 56(27) while the debutant,P.Ingram was happy to watch it from the non - strikers end . Dan 'The Man' Vettori was the MOM for his 3/6.

Interestingly , NZ hold the distinction of winning a T20 with a large margin( balls remaining),twice . Previously against Kenya and now Bangladesh! Good Going Kiwis!



P.S - As I am writing this post Saffers are sailing smooth(read getting batting practise) at 283/3 and West Zone crumbling at 215/8. Yusuf Pathan hit 108(76) after brother Irfan took 5 with the ball. Ahem..